Getting Around in Jakarta: Trains, Clueless Cabbies & Door-less Vans
When I first got off the plane and entered the Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta Airport terminal, I couldn’t find the immigration counter. The guards gestured me to keep moving forward and I ended up in a line with Indonesians. Turns out that the immigration counters are at the side of the building instead of towards the exit. Thus begins my maze-like journey in Jakarta!
The Traffic
It’s only 10 miles from the airport to my destination in South Jakarta but because of traffic, it took me THREE hours to get to my friend’s place. When I was on the road, it felt like she lived 100 miles away and I was floored when she told me it was so much closer.
Traffic is notoriously bad in Jakarta, especially so during rush hour. It’s more “stop” than “go” and I’ve never seen so many cars in my life! Locals seem blasé about it. It has become such a part of their lives that they don’t even really notice it much anymore. Some enterprising folks take advantage of the standstill traffic by walking up to drivers to sell bottled water and snacks.
Riding in the angkot
I thought my friend was kidding when she pointed at the door-less van and said “that’s what we’re taking.” These door-less vans are everywhere on the road, stopping to pick up passengers and taking off again. Seats are ripped out of the van and instead, wooden planks are installed around the edges, fitting up to 12 people in there. It can be a scary ride especially if you’re right next to the opening. They drive like maniacs so you have to hang on to the roof of the van for dear life.
The good thing about the angkot is that it’s really cheap (3,000 rupiah, which is around 25 cents per trip). When you’re in a van with a bunch of non-locals, such as four young cute white girls, you will get a street musician popping in with a guitar or banjo to serenade you for a tip. I wouldn’t advise travelers to take them unless you have local or expat friends along for the ride. Unless you live there, you don’t know where each van’s route will take you and it’s not like there’s a map or app for that! Someone should invent it!
Crossing the road? Good luck with that.
Sometimes there are no traffic lights or sidewalks for miles. Even if there is a traffic light, cars and motorcycles still go whenever they please. Imagine five very nervous foreign girls trying to cross the road at a red light with no success whatsoever. Cars were zooming past no matter what the traffic signal showed. One of the street musicians across the road must have felt sorry for us. He actually came all the way to our side of the road to lead us to his side, practically stopping cars with his arms outstretched like a superhero. Before we could thank him, he disappeared into the crowd.
Taxi drivers are the luck of the draw.
You can get drivers who know exactly how to take you to where you need to go. Most of them can’t speak English but if you have something written down in Bahasa Indonesia, they will be able to take you there. That is, unless you want to go to a trendy/hipster bar that’s not well known. Our little old man taxi driver didn’t have a clue how to get to the bar and we ended up going into the city, getting incredibly lost, and then turning around back to the house. Amazing Race should film an episode there if they haven’t already. I’d like to see who gets the clueless cabbie.
Ladies-only train carriages are awesome!
We decided to visit the botanical gardens on a Sunday morning and thankfully it’s accessible by train. My friends showed me the “Wanita” carriage that’s just for women and small children. Brilliant! It was pretty empty and we all got to sit down. One carriage over was the regular one and you can see everyone packed like sardines in there. There were several male guards on our carriage to ensure that men don’t get on and we saw several being chased out. I later learned that it was due to rampant sexual harassment complaints that led to this development.
When we returned to our stop, we saw an “economical” train that with people riding on the roof! It was too dark to take a decent photo but that must be a pretty intense way to travel.
One thing that struck me about Jakarta is how incredibly friendly and sweet the people are. They do go out of the way to help foreigners, whether it is to cross the road or to give directions. Considering how chaotic the traffic situation is, I’m really impressed by everyone’s happy, friendly and relaxed attitudes. Three days were enough to make me all frazzled but I’m thankful for the chance to go on this transportation adventure with my friends!