Life in Jakarta Part I

It’s an eye opening experience for me to be here. As we left the airport and hit the streets, I was blown away by the development here. 6 lane roads which were jam packed with cars, super high rise building which were well design, people everywhere and it was busy. A very busy city and I have to admit, my perception towards Indonesia was always ‘ulu’ because I’ve been to Medan for a mission trip many years ago. And that memory of Indonesia stayed with me but I was very wrong.

 

Roads here are very different from Malaysia, you can rarely see traffic lights because it’s just one straight road and you can only turn left. The left turn will lead you to the other side of the road or a location around there. But still, this did not reduce the massive jam every morning and evening. And because of the ocean of cars, the air there is very much polluted. You can see people wearing mask to reduce their intake of carbon monoxide.

Drivers honk all the time here but it’s very much different from Malaysia. In Malaysia, you honk and it follows with, “This stupid driver! Aiyo….lady drive, no wonder! Wth! Signal la stupid ass! Don’t know how to signal ar?! Etc” Here it’s a way of signaling, for example, “I’m coming through, Please give way, Be careful, I’m turning out, etc”.  No temper being shown by the drivers here and I tell you, it’s impossible for Malaysians to drive here. No way! They drive as close as 1inch away from another vehicle including the motorist.

One thing I realize about myself is, I don’t really like living in big cities.