Here are some things witnessed by my daughter 16 y.o daughter on her travels along the highways and byways of Jakarta along with editorial comments. These are in no particular order.
- entire families of 4 or 5 on one scooter including sleeping toddler leaning on handlebars
- three 13 year old boys on one scooter
- ordinary people standing in the street directing traffic for tips. Some of them don’t even direct, they just stand there blowing a whistle. Cars do what they want and still they blow.
- police cars with sirens on going no where because of traffic
- teenage boys in a local school gym class running without shoes. Even 10,000 miles away, there are still groups that run the whole way, groups that run only in view of the teacher and groups that just walk.
- 0 laws of traffic being obeyed
- street numbers that follow no logical order along a street (ex. 92, 4, 22, 24). It is as if people choose their address by lottery.
- no crosswalks.
- people washing their dishes in the gutter of the street.
- snake skin strawberries
- a real reason to wear a mask when outside near busy streets
- a Winnie the Pooh respirator mask worn by a woman on a scooter.
- a restaurant in a mall where you sit and eat on boats,... like legit sized sail boats
- workers who just follow you around the second you enter their shop because they have nothing better to do.
- riots and tear gas
- a Louisiana seafood restaurant.
- pollution haze so bad you can look directly at the noon day sun and not be blinded. It often feels like being on the set of the Truman Show and if you could just get close enough could bang on the sky. The Sun is a dimming orb etching across the ceiling.
- a pond on the roof of a 5 story building
- a scooter with a bagillion car tires on on it
-a gecko leaping from the trash can
- cars with the front windows tinted… Really dark.
- two speed escalators that slow down when no one is standing on them and speed up when you step on them to save energy.
- random gaping holes in the side walk
- two guys at high speeds on separate scooters having a conversation with each other
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