Jakarta - Day 2

The work we are doing is progressing much slower than I would want it to. I'm not the driver, though, so I just need to sit back and let it develop the way it develops. We're getting good things accomplished, just very slowly. We're not doing much outside the hotel and the office right now. We are at the office all day, have dinner at the hotel, and then hang out at the club level having drinks before turning in for the night. Not much going on, so not much to tell.

That said, I made a mental note of some observations today. First, on the way to the office, traffic was much worse than it was yesterday. I kept thinking we were stopping and starting due to traffic lights. Then I realized, I haven't seen a traffic light since I've been here. I don't think they have traffic lights. The cars just budge their way through the city. Traffic only moves at 20MPH, so crashes are rare and seldom injurious.

Second, we returned to the same mall for lunch. The mall is three or four stories tall and is full almost entirely with restaurants. As you walk by the restaurant, they have these "barkers" - like carnival barkers - that try to persuade you to eat at their restaurant. I don't recall ever seeing this in the states, though one of my colleagues says they often do that at the Italian restaurants on Cape Cod.

Finally, we took the back roads - the REAL back roads - back to the hotel. Supposedly, it's faster than using the main roads. When travelling the neighborhoods, the lanes are barely one car wide, and cars travel both directions. Neighborhood kids stand in the middle of the road and direct traffic so there are no collisions. Drivers pay them a "toll" to thank them. It isn't mandatory, but it appeared that most of the drivers paid.

The backroads are a true demonstration of the poverty that most people live with in Jakarta. The average salary is $1,000 a year. This causes all of them to be very frugal. You don't see American cars on the road because they aren't fuel efficient. You do see Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai, though you wouldn't recognize the models. For example, you see Honda City's. The desire to save money on fuel costs is why most Jakartans drive motorcycles. We saw one that had apparently lost its gas tank because there was now an old two-liter of Sprite acting as the gas tank.

I haven't had much chance to take pictures of anything but the actual city and the traffic. Tomorrow, we're anticipating a half-day of work because election day is often treated as a national holiday. Hopefully that will afford me the opportunity to get more pictures.