Jakarta is a city rich for its culture, food and textile. Somewhere you can go and enjoy many kinds of Indonesian food, food that you might not hear of, and indonesian food that has been circulating in many other countries as well, just that its more original here.
I ate alot when I'm here. Definitely the food here is awesome. Full of spice and it taste as original as it can be. For instance, Ayam Lele, or what they call it Ayam Penyet in Singapore and Malaysia, spiced fried chicken served with rice, cucumber, tempe (fermented beans), cabbage and not forgeting the thick awesome super spicy sambal! I fell in love with this dish sold in push carts all around Jakarta and this one I tried it from a push cart near my hotel.
Not forgetting apart from that, push cart sellers selling food such as Es Cendol, Es Cincau, Nasi Goreng Gila, Gudek, Ketoprak, Gado-Gado, Aneka Gorengan and many more.
The food prices here are very cheap and you can get two good meals at merely RP 50000 (SGD$5).
Food aside. The traffic in Jakarta is massive. Everyone is busy rushing here and there with either motorcycles or cars. The roads are adequately divided and the drivers, well most of it, are the impatient bunch, where they will just cut into any vehicles without giving signals and just making additional lanes to the already unclear ones. This makes the road a lot more congested. Sellers, selling stuffs be it food, magazines, newspapers, posters, make use of the bad traffic to make people buy their goods, making purchases through the windows of the car.
What interest me the most is the dedicated 'Busway' where there will be no other vehicles other than buses moves in that lane. Though it might seems simple as that, yet there will always be some disobedient drivers that will make use of the lane to cut across or overtake. Another interesting about the traffic here is that most of the drivers dont obey the traffic rules at all. Well, partially. They stopped at red light, and move when there's noone or no cars crossing the road junction. That is how bad they are. They dont just beat the red light, but they ignore the red light totally.
Crossing the road is another thing that I may find intriguing. You might find it hard to cross since all the cars themself don't give way to each other, neither the human traffic light plays an important role since the cars dont stop at all. Be brave, raise your hand and just cross. Yes they will horn their car (since its a norm) but they will stop for you.
Apart from buses, motorcycles or cars, taxis are a common sight in Jakarta. Not just a normal taxi in a form of a car, but taxi in a form of a motorcycle. Yes. A two-wheeled motorcycle or what they call it here "Ojek". Meant for a single customer as a pillion and the rider will transport you to your said destination. Another form of taxi here is a three-wheeled vehicle, some sort of a motorcycle with a seat at the back, which will transport at a maximum of 2 person. Not sure what it's called. No form of metering system for "Ojek" and three-wheeled vehicle so be careful when riding one.
There are many shopping malls in Jakarta. Old ones, new ones, big ones, small ones, but like Singapore, there isn't much differences between them.
You might wanna ask if there's such thing like a Bugis Junction or Petaling Street here in Jakarta? So far, I haven't see any. Maybe I didn't explore enough.
The weather here is horrendous. It's very very hot. Not a single raindrop since I reached here or any strong wind to cool the overall temperature of the city. So many would prefer to stay indoors as much as possible. You'll get sticky and all sweaty once you step outdoor.
Apart from that, Jakarta is a city full of history. They built lots of museums in Jakarta each with its own category to display its historical artefacts. Such example are the maritime musem, fine arts and ceramic museum, and even Musuem Wayang where they display different kind of wayang kulits and how it transform in time.
The reason I'm here because of a running event "Mandiri Jakarta Run". Participated in then10km run, I'm here to see the differences between the management in Indonesia compared to Singapore.
One for sure is that they use human as barricades. They have their reasons I suppose which I'm not really sure what. But I reckoned, its for easy access to human traffic (non participants) walking around that area. The isotonic drink. Initially after I tasted the ones given out water points, they sure tasted funny because I'm not sure what kind of isotonic drink they provided us with. But at the end, all runners received a bottle of the Isotonic drink. This blue bottled drink with different flavors. Fair enough the one I drank was Apple Guava flavor. After knowing what drink and flavor it was, It actually tasted good.
The run overall was an easy route. Not much turns and corners. Just one simple U-turn at a halfway mark of 5km! I'm pleased.
All in all, Jakarta is a nice place to visit. Maybe not alone for you can share and enjoy food with the company of friends. Because as for me, only the variety and delicious food that attracts me here. :)
With love,
Syed Ridwan Ahmad
