Transportation

You knew this post was comming, didn't you?

Getting around in Jakarta means, for me, taking taxi's. Taxi between the hotel and the client is about $2 and takes 15 minutes. But getting a cab from the hotel means waiting for someone to arrive by taxi, can take some time. There are limo's (Mercedes sedans) parked at the hotel ready to go. One day I got tired of waiting for a cab and asked about the limo ... $4 to get to the client. WTF why am I waffling over $2 !?!? So limo it is to the client, and taxi back in the afternoon.

In Yogyakarta we rented a car (really an SUV/Minivan mix) for two days for $60 which included a driver. Turns out the driver gets about $8 of that .. so we tipped generously and tripled his income.

Most of the vehicles on the road are mopeds and scooters. Of the remaining, many are cabs, and then there are busses trucks and private vehicles. Public busses look like death traps and there's ususally someone standing in the open doorway. Near tourist attractions there are bicycle-rickshaws.

Scooters are VERY common here. Most have only the driver, many have a passenger. Frequently the passenger is is just perched on back, texting or reading instead of paying attention. Sometimes they have a child squeezed between them ... the most extreme had FIVE people on board: adult driver and passenger and three children. An infant/toddler sandwiched between the adults, one young school-age children standing between the father's legs (remember, this is a scooter) and another young'un hanging onto the back of the back. I wish I had that one tape!

At least I got an example of an overloaded scooter:

Lane markings are suggestions, even the center stripe. I'm not sure I would call it lanesplitting .. there are no lanes to split! Note how passing mopeds means simply moving partially into the next lane, with the expectation that oncomming traffic (even around corners) will simply move to the other side of the lane:

Traffic moves smoothly - it never seems to just stop. I think this all works because nobody makes any sudden moves - they just slowly drift left and right. I've noticed that drivers tend to leave space for mopeds, and whomever is in front has right of way - I never see anyone do a head-check. On occasion a car will drift within a few inches of our car, and the driver will blip his horn, and that seems to be enough to slow the approaching vehicle.

And then there are pedestrians. Yesterday, after Isreal stopped some aid ships from running a blockade to Gaza and a skirmish left nine activists dead, there was a protest in the water fountain outside of my hotel. I managed to get the following video of the protesters leaving the fountain, walking through traffic. Note how they just walk right out and vehicles sort of slow and flow around them.

While all of this is occurring, it does not appear that anyone is taking any offense. They just go with the flow. I don't see anyone get angry. Their calm demeanor and awareness of their situation is something that Americans can learn from Indonesians. This is just another example of how crappy American drivers are.

Well that's all for this trip - I'll you posted with new MC trips in the future!