The Blue Bajaj: Most Bajaj’s in Jakarta are orange, but if you happen to get a blue one, they are like the Cadillac of Bajajs. That means they probably don’t have ripped seats and you are a lot less likely to catch a disease than in the orange ones. Also, unlike the orange bajaj where you usually prefer sticking your head out the side to breathe the still polluted and stinky Jakarta air over the internal orange bajaj air, you can actually breathe regularly inside a blue one. BONUS!
Have I mentioned there are KFC’s EVERYWHERE here…I mean E V E R Y W H E R E. The Indonesians like them some fried chicken.
Most of the locals eat their meals from street stalls like this one. We don’t. Anyone who does usually ends up taking multiple stool samples into the med unit within a few days.
Look at that lovely sidewalk….err road…yeah, there are almost no sidewalks here.
This is what I love about Jakarta. Just when you begin to think there could not be any more of a disorganized, dirty city in the world, you see a scene like this in the middle of all the madness. I love the diamonds in the rough.
Hey look! A sidewalk! We found one…WITH trees! Pay no attention to the main road next to it, but you better pay attention to that grate in the middle of the pavement because there are 4 iron handles literally sticking up above the level of the sidewalk. I have hooked my foot on one of those far too many times. But I should count my blessings. At least it isn’t just a big square hole in the middle of the pavement which also happens quite frequently. As a member of our ward unfortunately discovered: if you step into one of those holes, you will break your arm.
If you even attempt to speak any amount of Indonesian to a random citizen on the street, you will probably get a reaction like we did from this guy above. Indos LOVE it when Americans speak their language.
This is a street that comes off a main road into a small residential neighborhood in the heart of the city. No car could ever fit down that street (maybe a mini?), but no one owns one that lives here. If they own a vehicle, it is a motorcycle.
If I had to pick three pictures that encompass the Jakarta landscape, these are the three.
All in all, Jakarta definitely has some good, bad, and ugly, but we are happy here. If you wanna see the bad and the ugly you will, and it will put you in a bad and ugly mood for sure. We’ve all had those days. But mostly we try to find the humor where we can and try to help where we can, and recognize the good, because it is there.
