Jakarta, reflections

Normally, when I go to a big city as an entry point to a country, I like to get out as fast possible.  Most big cities are just that and aren't very interesting.  They are noisy and polluted and unfriendly.  They are the way into a country and may have some interesting things to see or do, but those things are often difficult to reach and not worth the effort.

Now, Jakarta is a big city.  There are 10 million people (I was told) living there.  It is noisy and polluted.  There are some interesting things to see and do there, but they are far apart and mostly rather small and limited in interest value.  But I found Jakarta to be an incredibly interesting place.  Most of that interest came from the people.  Unfortunately, I didn't photos of the people I met there, so I can only tell about them.  There was Jonev who I met coming out of his university where he is doing an MBA.  I was trying to follow what turned out to be vague directions from the bus station to my chosen area to search for a place to stay.  (I don't why I didn't think they were vague at the time.  It is a city with 10 million people and the guy in the bus station waved in the general direction I wanted to go and said my destination was about 10 minutes walk.)  Jonev was living in the same area and offered to show me the way.  He took me there, helped me find a place to stay and then took me out for dinner.  We were out until 2 in the morning.  He gave me lots of information about where to find things to do in Jakarta and then in Bali as well.

There were the guys in the mall the next day at the information desk.  Jonev's directions had proven to be somewhat vague as well.  (He pointed down the street and told me to take a right at the corner and I would find the center of the city action that way.  Again, Jakarta is a big city and I really didn't know what I was looking for, so I got lost again, predictably.)  I found a mall and a bookstore where I bought a map and then went to the infomation desk in the mall and asked for help.  The guy there got three other guys, maintenance men I think, to come over and together we all poured over the map, finding where we were and where I wanted to go.  Then they told me the best way to get there.  And the whole time they were talking to me and finding out where I came from and that sort of thing.

There were the two young women in the tourism board's office (which was in the very building where I had had breakfast before following Jonev's vague directions) who kept poking at me and laughing at me and telling me I was funny.  They found me very entertaining and kept me there talking with them for nearly an hour after I had the information I needed to enjoy my stay.

There was the man who saw me standing looking through a fence at a mosque.  He offered to take me in and show me around.  He gave me a right good tour, under the watchful eyes of the security-type, who followed us around the mosque on my tour.

There was the police officer when I went walking past the President's residence and toward the Old Town area.  He started talking to me in the middle of a really busy street, telling me his life's story and asking me about mine.  He told me how he had lived in Bali or Java (I forget which), but that he had to come to Jakarta with his family so that he could provide for them properly.  He kept me there talking in the busy thoroughfare for a good half hour, and seemed genuinely interested and happy that I was there talking to him, and shook my hand heartily as I left on my way.

There were the students in the museum at the Old Town who came up and asked me to take photos with them.  We spent a few minutes doing that, with them giggling and laughing and peppering me with questions.

There was the young woman who was also at the museum with her brother who just started talking to me and spilled out her story as she asked to take a photo with me as well.

There were the two gay men who entered the shopping mall as I was leaving and stopped me to ask me about myself.  And to tell me that if I was gay, well, they wanted to know.  Hmmm...

There was the guy as I was going to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, a place I will describe in a little bit.  I was a bit lost again (something of a theme, I know), and had passed him once.  I gave up on the direction I was going and had turned back, and I passed him again.  He called me over and asked where I was headed.  I told him.  He told me I had been on the right path and I would find a bridge nearby leading to the park.  Then he invited me to sit down and offered me tea.  Of course, it wasn't his house.  He was visiting his neighbours, who didn't speak English.  So we sat there in his neighbours "yard," while they peeled little onions and drank tea, and he told me about his life as a consulting geologist in the oil industry.  Then he took me on the back of his bike to the bridge and sent me on his way.

There were the people everywhere in Jakarta, up the sides of buildings doing some repair work, on buses, on bicycles, on the other sides of streets, everywhere, who would shout and wave and say hi.

I am mightily impressed with Jakarta, and all the people who told me it's an unfriendly place, all the websites that say it's a dangerous place, I just don't know.  I'm sure it can be.  I'm sure bad things happen there and not everyone is nice.  And quite possibly, some of the people who seemed friendly would have taken advantage of me if they had a chance.  But not all of them.  I believe that most of those people were genuine.  They were just being kind and nice in a kind and nice big city.