Traffic

Unfortunately, this last month I've spent alot of time at the SOS clinic in Kuningan.  My youngest has had one illness or another this last little while.  While I was waiting with her at the clinic this last time, I picked up a newspaper to read.  There was an article about the traffic in Jakarta.  Anyone who lives in Jakarta can relate to how awful the traffic situation is here.  The article talked about the construction of the flyways and whether or not the projects would help the increasing traffic problem. 

In the article, it was reported that on a daily basis, some 230+ cars and almost 900 motorcycles are added to the roads each day!  No wonder I kept thinking that traffic seemed alot worse than when I first moved here almost 1 year ago.  It is!  Major roads and intersections are terrible.  The article said that in one particular area, the road could accomodate 3500 cars per hour.  Well, there are 4500 cars that pass through there each hour.  I'm thinking that by the time the flyways are finished, there will be too many cars and motorcycles on the road to make a real difference.  I think that there needs to be some way to limit the exponential growth of the number of vehicles on the road.  I heard somewhere that traffic in Jakarta will come to a gridlock by 2014.  I hope I'm not around to see that.  I find sitting in current traffic frustrating enough.

I have to say that the traffic is probably the number one thing that I dislike about living here in Jakarta.  My driver makes having to go from one place to another a bit more bearable.  Unfortunately, as fate would have it, he is sick today  Thursdays are my worse days in terms of having places that I need to go. 

Last Thursday, the first taxi I pre-ordered never showed.  The second taxi was running extremely late.  By the time the dispatcher said it would arrive, it would have been over an hour late.  I jumped into the first available taxi I could find, but it didn't help me get to my destination any faster.  The driver took me on a 1/2 hour ride only to end up just across the street from my apartment.  Then it took another hour to get to my destination.  To say that I was frustrated is putting it mildly.

Today I've pre-ordered 2 taxis. I sure hope they come and that I will make it to my destinations in less time than it took me the last time. I'm crossing my fingers that today will be a better day than the last. Traffic in Jakarta is bad.  Sometimes it is worse.  And, once in a blue moon, I am pleasantly surprised. Such is life in the Big Durian.

Taxis

So I remembered another reason why we are glad to have a car and driver.  Yesterday, because my driver was unavailable, I had planned on taking the taxi wherever I needed to go. I thought I would call ahead for a taxi instead of trying to hail one off the streets.  Well, the taxi never showed up the first time. 

My son and I walked to the nearby hotel and got a Silverbird Taxi.  We made it to his Mandarin class in time.  Since the cost of the Silverbird Taxi is rather pricey...at least double the rate of a Bluebird Taxi, I decided I would walk home.  Well, I got caught in the rain so I was soaking wet by the time I arrived home.  That was not too fun.  My son was able to get a ride back with a friend who is in the same class and happens to live in our complex.

The second time I called for a taxi in advance, the taxi was running about 45 minutes late.  I was able to jump in a different taxi when I saw one pull up to the apartment.  This taxi driver took me on some crazy round-about loop to avoid waiting the 15-minutes or so it would have taken to go up the street, make a loop, and go the other direction off of Jalan Sudirman. If I would have known what he was going to do, I would have objected.   About 1/2 an hour later, I found myself in front of my apartment again albeit going the other direction.  I was pretty frustrated. 

So 1.5 hours later, I made it to my destination.  Traffic is always terrible in Jakarta, but yesterday evening was particularly bad.  The total cost of taking taxis yesterday was around US $17. I didn't even go a couple of other places I had originally planned on.  It would have been an even more expensive and frustrating day.

So, my driver is back at work today.  I missed him alot yesterday.  The funny thing is I don't think I'm going anywhere today...lol.  I'm just glad he's here.

Dependency

When we first moved to Jakarta, DH and I had decided that we were just going to "taxi" it everywhere.  DH was supposed to be working at a client location that was not too far from where we live.  He thought he could easily walk or it would be just a short taxi ride in the morning.  The kids would take the bus to and from school.  If we wanted to go anywhere other than to school or work, then we would hail a cab.  It seemed like taxis were everywhere and readily available.

Well, as it turns out, our plan to take taxis everywhere didn't last very long.  We quickly found out that when it's raining or if it's a friday afternoon, then it is very difficult to hail a cab.  If it's raining and a friday, just forget it.  We found ourselves walking home one evening from Plaza Semanggi in the rain with all 3 of our kids because there was a super long line of people waiting for non-existent taxis.

DH found himself on the back of an ojek (motorcycle taxi) a couple of times because he couldn't get a taxi late on a friday afternoon.  A couple of times, I got calls from the school for some emergency or another and it took me awhile to grab my youngest child, walk to the street, hail a cab, and then try and get the cab driver to get me to the school.  I found out that most of them don't speak English and they don't automatically know where the school is.  The cab drivers also will not tell you that they do not know where something is located.  I was proud of myself for learning the phrase for asking do you know where something is (Anda tahu dimana...).  I finally stopped using that phrase because every last taxi driver would say "tahu" or I know even when they didn't know.  That was rather frustrating.

In short, it didn't take us very long to realize that we really needed a car and driver.  We met some friends that were leaving Jakarta and they sold us their Toyota Kijang.  We also hired their driver.  I would have to say that getting our own personal vehicle and driver was the best decision we could have made for our family.

Well, I hate to feel like I am overly dependent on anyone or anything, but I am seriously dependernt on my driver.  On days when he is sick or unavailable, I am seriously in a slump.  Our driver gets us everywhere we need to go, and usually in a very reasonable amount of time.  That is a miracle considering how bad traffic can be in Jakarta. 

Tomorrow my driver has to take care of some personal business so he is unavailable for work.  I am dreading tomorrow.  I have to take my youngest in a taxi to a friend's house for a birthday party.  Then I have to take a taxi home, hopefully in time to meet my daughter when she gets off the bus. Then when my son gets home from school, I will have to take a cab to take him to his bi-weekly Mandarin class.  After I get home from that, I will have to get in another cab to go to a Church function. 

A day like tomorrow is actually pretty normal.  And usually, my driver will take me all those different places.  I just sit back and read or text DH until I arrive at my desination.  No big deal on those days.  On those driverless days, I realize just how dependent I am on my driver.  I am really gonna miss him tomorrow.