Jakarta
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2010
1
21
30
Trip End
May 14, 2010
Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
When I was warned about the traffic in the city, I took it in my stride and thought ' i’m used to the odd traffic jam here or there.’ This is something altogether different. This is where you don’t even go out the house if you can possibly help it. Where you don’t plan to go to the north of the city if you live in the south until Sunday morning which is the only time you stand a chance of actually getting there. Patience is not only a virtue, it's a necessity. And with that many people sharing the streets, it's no surprise that pollutions levels are sky high, rather like the buildings and that sophisticated hotels touch toes with slums. It's a city of harsh contrasts.
So it was a little shock to the system not the have the freedom to travel around as I had become used to. On the first day a political demonstration turning nasty meant it was advisable to stay at home. On the second day it took the whole day to see one monument and one museum. On the third day it rained, and I mean RAINED. These are noisy lumps of polluted water that fall from the heavens and within minutes streams are running down the streets and sadly fatal flooding is a common event. Front page images of a school girl holding her bag above her head as she swam were in the next day's paper.
It should also have been no surprise to me that security would be an issue in Jakarta. Hera had had her car stolen from inside the compound with a locked gate and security guard. Black magic? I’m not joking. I’ve been told numerous stories about burglars coming to the door claiming to know a family member then putting the unfortunate person under hypnosis/’a spell’ before removing all the valuable items from the house or in the worst case, kidnapping a child. Trickery meets crime in a way that we have not seen it in the west.
Perhaps it’s not unrelated that I feel I am at a point in the trip where the novelty of ‘getting away’ has finally worn off. Passing through three different countries in only 10 days is disorientating and I can feel myself withdrawing from the ‘action’ and retreating to a purely observational level. Or perhaps it’s just that I’m in a ‘real’ place with real people and real threats which is not set up for tourists, finally no longer under the illusion that I am anything other than one of the 25 million others carving out an existence here in the city. Whatever it is that I’m feeling, it’s hot, it’s humid, it’s big and i’m feeling insignificant and far from anything I know or understand.
