I’m nowhere near coherent enough for the professional site yet, so this is where it’s at for now…
We landed in Jakarta about 6 or 7 hours ago now. Only just got on the tubes here in Sanggar so don’t judge me. As I said last time, I’ve never been overseas before so this is an entirely new realm of experience for me, and… well, about all I can say is fookin’ ‘ell! Jakarta is big, and hot, and smelly, and insane. I think I’m in love. Thanks to Garuda Indonesia, I not only had awesome food (snack spicy broad beans FTW!) and a really nice flight BUT also there were a) haaaaawwwt flight crew; and b) The Transporter on the in-flight back-of-seat tellybox.
Jakarta airport (which has an absurdly long name that I can’t remember) is kind of like a combination steam bath and imminent threat of ultraviolence. Anyone with a uniform seems to be armed. And not like Victoria Police ‘oooh, oooh I’ve got a taser’ but like “holy shit motherfucker’s got a machine gun”. And that doesn’t even compare to the traffic. Because Jakarta traffic is a full-body contact sport. I was initially concerned because lanes didn’t seem to matter. Then I realised that carriageways were just as immaterial. Merging is a matter of who’s got bigger balls, and its usually the scooters – two adults, two kids and a FUCKING FRIDGE pinging between our van and a truck approximately the size of the aeroplane we arrived in.
It’s an entrepreneurial city – if you can pick it up and put it in a bag or carry it on your head, there’s a dude in ragged cutoffs selling it by wandering aimlessly through the hurtling traffic. Markets spring up wherever there’s not enough cars through in ten minutes – or in traffic jams. In all, it’s fucking amazing.
More tomorrow. Night, kids.