Taxi in Jakarta

You see, driving in Jakarta is hell. This is the city where people who can't drive are allowed to drive. By paying only Rp 400,000 (around 40 US$), without having to follow a specific training and a fair test, one can attain their driving license. So imagine the chaos. 

Lots of people are still brave enough to jump onto the overly crowded streets with their vehicles though, just to hate the traffic and the rule-bending-and-law-breaking drivers right away. It is inevitable to get mad in the traffic mayhem.

Being too scared to hit (or being hit by) other vehicles, I've long decided to count a lot on public transportation. I'm not making this up. My bad physical coordination can generate a utter destructive power. There are thousands of lives (including mine) that have probably been saved with me holding myself back from sitting behind the wheel. I'd jump in my seat whenever another vehicle passed. I can never tell whether or not my foot hit the gas or the brake. When my mind says 'left', my hands turn the steering wheel to the right. It's life threatening. And I could never prevent my mind from traveling to faraway places automatically whenever I got stressed. So by far public transport is my best option.

My experiences with taxi drivers are quite many. I go everywhere by taxi on a daily basis. Well, mostly. Sometimes I'd go by angkot (small cars, painted in various colours and used for public transportation), buses (including the famous Trans Jakarta or busway), bajaj (Jakarta's notorious orange-colored, three-wheeled vehicle famous for its sudden maneuvers and deaf driver), and of course ojek (a sort of taxi bike). Talking about the latter, to take one of them you'd want to consider to have life insurance, especially if you are someone with a family. My experiences involve fatal accidents that almost took my life away. This is obviously the right public transport mode for suicidals.

From all types of transport in Jakarta to choose, taxi is the most expensive. But at least, using it until now I still have my body parts intact. This blog is an expression of my gratitude.

Jakarta street, oh yeah

my hero

my heroes

my hero