BMTH live in Jakarta 2024

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This time around Ravel gets it right and BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) are headlining the Nexfest festival in Jakarta which also features Babymetal. In this format there is no seating - which makes for a much more intimate experience - although you do have to arrive really early if you want to pick a spot right up close to the stage.  We arrived about six hours before BMTH were scheduled to start their performance and bought plenty of drinks to stay hydrated in the tropical afternoon heat (mind you, some of those were Iceland vodka mix!) This was a gig I had long been looking forward to - especially after the debacle last year. Not everyone likes BMTH of course. For deathcore fans the band sold out. For metal heads the band is not purist enough. And for the wider mainstream audience, the band is too heavy. You can't please everyone of course but there are few bands in the rock world which can match the sheer emotional velocity of BMTH. To bring metal and even aspects of metalcore t
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On long distance bus journeys in Indonesia

For sadomasochist travelers Indonesia has a lot to offer. 

You can fly on vintage airplanes that have done enough miles in their lifetime to get to the moon and back – one of Jupiter’s moons that is – and you can travel on aging, rust-bucket inter-island ferries that seemingly defy all known scientific laws and somehow remain afloat (but not always, unfortunately for those onboard at the time). And you can take a long distance bus ride. And believe me, when I say long distance, I mean long distance. 

I’m not sure what the longest bus journey in Indonesia is (my personal record is the 30 hour torture trip from Medan to Bengkulu in Sumatra) but it is quite possible to go from Jakarta to Banda Aceh for example (1,830 KM), and even from Jakarta to Bima – a grueling three-day trip, including three ferry trips (you’d better pray the seas aren’t rough)! 

To make the journey especially uncomfortable the bus company will astutely take out the seats when they first procure the bus and then refit them – but adding even more seats - so there’s basically no leg room whatsoever (unless you’re about the same height as a 4 foot 2 inch midget!) 

And then there’s the bus driver: a psychotic, chain smoking Michael Schumacher wannabe. Try and tell him you’re on a windy, pot-holed road and not the autobahn and he won’t give a damn. 

So be prepared to have your guts tossed around a bit! Entertainment is provided in the form of gut-thumping dangdut music and - if you’re lucky (or unlucky as the case may be) – low budget skin flicks that certainly wouldn’t get passed by the National Film Censorship Body. 

Cigarette smoke comes free. And for nosh, the bus will stop off at Padang restaurants on the way – but only when the bus driver feels like it. As for doing nature’s business, well, you’ll need a very strong constitution indeed – and preferably a poor sense of smell and bad eyesight as well – if you’re gonna venture into one of the Padang restaurant restrooms (remember that scene from Trainspotting? The worst toilet in Scotland?) 

So, that in a nutshell, is long distance bus travel in Indonesia. And a damn good reason to make lots of shorter trips instead!

Comments

  1. Paddy in BA (Quickroute)7 March 2010 at 14:43

    I did a few torturous train and bus rides in Indonesia last year. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger ...or so they say

    ReplyDelete
  2. Donald17 March 2010 at 13:46

    you can pay the executive one. if you have money that is.

    ReplyDelete

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