Monday, June 06, 2011
Things I Learned in Jakarta, Indonesia: Ride, Don't Walk.
Image of Jakarta, Indonesia taxi ? Claudio Vitor Vaz / Creative Commons.
Walking around is frowned upon in Jakarta, Indonesia. With good reason; what looks from Google Maps like a pleasant walk from point A to point B is actually a trip fraught with tension.
A Jakarta pedestrian has to avoid speeding cars, walk through dodgy-looking streets, and navigate unfamiliar landmarks in stifling heat before you get to your destination. I walked from my hotel, Ibis Mangga Dua (compare rates), to Fatahillah Square, so you might say I learned this the hard way. (It looks like this on Google Maps; from this vantage point you can't see the lack of convenient pedestrian crossings, near-absence of a sidewalk, and lack of signage that shows the way.)
Walking is absolutely unnecessary over middling-to-long distances. Jakarta taxis are abundant and relatively cheap, assuming you get the trustworthy taxis like Bluebird and Pusaka (both part of the Bluebird group - www.bluebirdgroup.com). These blue-painted taxis are everywhere, and are not likely to try to cheat you. You can also call them from almost anywhere in Jakarta, and central dispatch will radio a nearby cab to pick you up. (Number is +62 21 7917 1234.) After spending some time shooting Fatahillah Square, I did the smart thing and hailed a taxi to get back to the hotel.
By the way, this is not to knock Jakarta, which is still in the top three of my favorite Southeast Asia cities. But you have to understand that the top things to do in Jakarta are spread far apart, islands of coolness in a city that is still in many ways a work in progress.
View the original article here
Labels: Indonesia, Jakarta, Learned, Things
