Jakarta – a city of nice people
I got an invitation to visit Jakarta (JKT), so I booked a ticket for the Chinese New Year holidays and was looking forward to explore one of the most controversial cities of South East Asia (SEA). And I labelled it controversial because the people who I talked with about Jakarta either said that it is the worst city, either said that it is the best place to be in SEA.
After spending there 4 days or so I must say that I love the city and I do it so because of its people. I guess the fact that I had one of my poshest holidays ever also helped to come back with a good impression.
About the posh part: I stayed in the Central Business District in a 5 star hotel, I had a car at my disposal with a driver, hanged around in the coolest clubs, restaurants, spas and bars, and met some VIP category people from JKT while I was playing golf on the same course with the president of the country. Thanks for my lovely hosts for that :)
It was raining quite a lot while I was there so I did not do much of sightseeing, however I interacted with lots of local people and also managed to get a bit of insight of how rich people live in that city and also what makes that city tick. If you have a bit of money in JKT then you are a king and you can have a lifestyle that you can see only in the movies. I must admit I had a hard time to adjust to it though. For example the driver was always jumping out the car in order to open the door. At the beginning I always opened the door myself, however he perceived this as a failure for him for not being too quick to open the door for me, so next time he always tried faster to jump out of the car and open the door before me. Tried to communicate with him, but he was not the best English speaker, so he did not understand that no need for him to open the door and that I can do that myself. After a while I just gave up and let him to open the door and the smile returned to his face when he managed to do so and I did not open the door myself. Very funny experience.
Wherever I went, it was always the same thing, huge smile on everybody’s face and everybody was doing his 120% just to serve you. I guess Singaporeans should learn how to serve people and manage customers. Of course there are flaws in their processes of serving the customers, but the attitude and the willingness of serving you it is just amazing. I have never met such nice people in SEA as in Jakarta in terms of how they treat you as a customer, as a tourist, as a friend, as a person. Haven’t seen so many smiling faces in a long time and that was very refreshing. It felt somehow like being on a Singapore Airlines flight for four days. And this is somehow in so much of a contradiction with the bombings and terrorism and extremism in the country...
People in Jakarta are very friendly and very curious to learn from foreigners. I went to play golf with couple of guys I did not know and we became such good friends. I really felt that these people are very close to me and they were so open to share their lives, their thoughts and they gave so many insights about living in Jakarta, how Indonesia functions, how the economy is, how the society is. They also were concerned to make sure that I go all the right places and try all the good things and they were giving me lots of advises. Great people and very humble in their way!!!
Jakarta is not really a pedestrian friendly city; there are no pavements and boulevards to walk. You have to go with car/bike to everywhere. Public transport is quite bad and therefore if you are a backpacker tourist, then you will have a hard time to visit JKT and have a good time by doing so. The traffic is bad because everybody is driving an SUV, however I still think is not worse then Bangkok, Manila or Bucharest for that matter. Actually the city in a way is similar to Bucharest in a sense that all the good places are all over the town and if you want to explore the real stuff, then you need a local to show you around and take you to all the cool places. Otherwise you won’t get a real picture of the city, you don’t get a real feeling of how it is to live there and be there.
With 14 million of people or more in the city, you see all that it can be seen in terms of living standards. Of course there is poverty and dirt and criminality and all the consequences of being in a developing country with 200 million people. But I also admire the fact that people are still happy and smiling and helpful and try to make a decent living. It is hard, corruption is high, you have to “tip” for everything, most of the things are held by some oligarchs who control everything and are damn rich. There is lots of money in that city and you can see it.
Somehow all the street musicians standing at street corners and at traffic lights playing for couple of bucks add a good feeling to the town. You can see street vendors mixed with these musicians and you just feel good roaming around the city. If you are stuck in a heavy traffic jam, then you just listen to the music of these guys playing for you. In some countries these guys clean windshields, sell newspaper. In JKT they play music for you:)
Speaking of traffic, they introduced a regulation that makes the presence of at least 3 passengers compulsory on certain roads in peak hours. So what is really happening? You have guys called jockeys standing at the entry of these streets and at the gates of the office buildings and you can pick them up for that part of the road for 1 dollar or so. They travel with you for money, so you can use that road. Congestion problem of course has not been sold, but some people earn couple of bucks. This example shows how this country works I guess. There is always a way around to beat the law which is somehow good for everybody to on the very short run.
I have been toured around the clubs and bars as well and I have to say that JKT has a fantastic nightlife!!! These places are must tries: Red Square, X2, Nu China, Dragonfly, Tabac, Eastern Promise and a couple of other bars I can’t remember in Kemang area. The parties are wild, girls are absolutely gorgeous and friendly, drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is phenomenal. It worth going down there just for some good parties.
After spending there 4 days or so I must say that I love the city and I do it so because of its people. I guess the fact that I had one of my poshest holidays ever also helped to come back with a good impression.
About the posh part: I stayed in the Central Business District in a 5 star hotel, I had a car at my disposal with a driver, hanged around in the coolest clubs, restaurants, spas and bars, and met some VIP category people from JKT while I was playing golf on the same course with the president of the country. Thanks for my lovely hosts for that :)
It was raining quite a lot while I was there so I did not do much of sightseeing, however I interacted with lots of local people and also managed to get a bit of insight of how rich people live in that city and also what makes that city tick. If you have a bit of money in JKT then you are a king and you can have a lifestyle that you can see only in the movies. I must admit I had a hard time to adjust to it though. For example the driver was always jumping out the car in order to open the door. At the beginning I always opened the door myself, however he perceived this as a failure for him for not being too quick to open the door for me, so next time he always tried faster to jump out of the car and open the door before me. Tried to communicate with him, but he was not the best English speaker, so he did not understand that no need for him to open the door and that I can do that myself. After a while I just gave up and let him to open the door and the smile returned to his face when he managed to do so and I did not open the door myself. Very funny experience.
Wherever I went, it was always the same thing, huge smile on everybody’s face and everybody was doing his 120% just to serve you. I guess Singaporeans should learn how to serve people and manage customers. Of course there are flaws in their processes of serving the customers, but the attitude and the willingness of serving you it is just amazing. I have never met such nice people in SEA as in Jakarta in terms of how they treat you as a customer, as a tourist, as a friend, as a person. Haven’t seen so many smiling faces in a long time and that was very refreshing. It felt somehow like being on a Singapore Airlines flight for four days. And this is somehow in so much of a contradiction with the bombings and terrorism and extremism in the country...
People in Jakarta are very friendly and very curious to learn from foreigners. I went to play golf with couple of guys I did not know and we became such good friends. I really felt that these people are very close to me and they were so open to share their lives, their thoughts and they gave so many insights about living in Jakarta, how Indonesia functions, how the economy is, how the society is. They also were concerned to make sure that I go all the right places and try all the good things and they were giving me lots of advises. Great people and very humble in their way!!!
Jakarta is not really a pedestrian friendly city; there are no pavements and boulevards to walk. You have to go with car/bike to everywhere. Public transport is quite bad and therefore if you are a backpacker tourist, then you will have a hard time to visit JKT and have a good time by doing so. The traffic is bad because everybody is driving an SUV, however I still think is not worse then Bangkok, Manila or Bucharest for that matter. Actually the city in a way is similar to Bucharest in a sense that all the good places are all over the town and if you want to explore the real stuff, then you need a local to show you around and take you to all the cool places. Otherwise you won’t get a real picture of the city, you don’t get a real feeling of how it is to live there and be there.
With 14 million of people or more in the city, you see all that it can be seen in terms of living standards. Of course there is poverty and dirt and criminality and all the consequences of being in a developing country with 200 million people. But I also admire the fact that people are still happy and smiling and helpful and try to make a decent living. It is hard, corruption is high, you have to “tip” for everything, most of the things are held by some oligarchs who control everything and are damn rich. There is lots of money in that city and you can see it.
Somehow all the street musicians standing at street corners and at traffic lights playing for couple of bucks add a good feeling to the town. You can see street vendors mixed with these musicians and you just feel good roaming around the city. If you are stuck in a heavy traffic jam, then you just listen to the music of these guys playing for you. In some countries these guys clean windshields, sell newspaper. In JKT they play music for you:)
Speaking of traffic, they introduced a regulation that makes the presence of at least 3 passengers compulsory on certain roads in peak hours. So what is really happening? You have guys called jockeys standing at the entry of these streets and at the gates of the office buildings and you can pick them up for that part of the road for 1 dollar or so. They travel with you for money, so you can use that road. Congestion problem of course has not been sold, but some people earn couple of bucks. This example shows how this country works I guess. There is always a way around to beat the law which is somehow good for everybody to on the very short run.
I have been toured around the clubs and bars as well and I have to say that JKT has a fantastic nightlife!!! These places are must tries: Red Square, X2, Nu China, Dragonfly, Tabac, Eastern Promise and a couple of other bars I can’t remember in Kemang area. The parties are wild, girls are absolutely gorgeous and friendly, drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is phenomenal. It worth going down there just for some good parties.
I also managed to havea peak into how people from indonesia treat their women with double standards, even educated and important people (or they do it even more?). I think it is quite hard for being a housewife there and being a women. I guess it is coming from the still very strong religious influence, but don't want to offend anybody with this topic. It made be a bit sad, but it explains a lot in how the society functions.
Food is also great in JKT. A bit too much oil used there as well, but otherwise absolutely delicious. I have been also to couple of malls down there (very posh holiday indeed, hahaha) and they are much better then the ones in Singapore. They are bigger and less crowded, so you can actually walk around and buy stuff without stressing out yourself. But I still did not buy anything, hahahaha
Yah, due to the rain I did not do much of sight seeing and I did not have a camera either so I have no pictures to share. But then again, this can be an excuse to go down again and enjoy the hospitality of the nicest people. I am very happy with this trip and who knows, I might end up living there once.
posted by pixi at
4:28 PM
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