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Friday, October 30, 2009
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Cai is finished, but Tri continues to gulp it down!
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Cai is finished, but Tri continues to gulp it down!
Life in Jakarta
It is really hard to imagine what Jakarta is like, unless you visit....and we hope our friends and family do just that.
What can I say? Jakarta is busy, overpopulated, polluted and the traffic is a nightmare. Really. Unbelievable traffic.
But there is another side to it: the people in Jakarta are warm and wonderful. All you have to do is go for a walk in one of the kampungs (local, poor neighbourhoods) to see the baik-hati spirit of the Indonesian people. They have very little, but if you needed it, they'd give you half.
And to be a bule (pronounced boolay)! A bule is a white person. Although there are many of us here in the capital, Indonesians are still curious. You cannot avoid the inevitable probing questions. "Where are you going?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "Are you married?" "Do you have children?"
They are not being rude - quite the opposite. They want to KNOW you and they love it when you get to know them, too.
Very different from the New York or Toronto subway experience, where merely glancing at a fellow traveller must surely mean you need to be committed!
And so, we put up with the smells and the traffic...give a little to get so much more in return.
But don't get me wrong....we take every chance we can to get away and go to the coast. Sailing, biking, relaxing on our very private white beach is better than traffic, any day! We stay at our house which we now rent out. Check it out at www.tlrentals.com
What can I say? Jakarta is busy, overpopulated, polluted and the traffic is a nightmare. Really. Unbelievable traffic.
But there is another side to it: the people in Jakarta are warm and wonderful. All you have to do is go for a walk in one of the kampungs (local, poor neighbourhoods) to see the baik-hati spirit of the Indonesian people. They have very little, but if you needed it, they'd give you half.
And to be a bule (pronounced boolay)! A bule is a white person. Although there are many of us here in the capital, Indonesians are still curious. You cannot avoid the inevitable probing questions. "Where are you going?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "Are you married?" "Do you have children?"
They are not being rude - quite the opposite. They want to KNOW you and they love it when you get to know them, too.
Very different from the New York or Toronto subway experience, where merely glancing at a fellow traveller must surely mean you need to be committed!
And so, we put up with the smells and the traffic...give a little to get so much more in return.
But don't get me wrong....we take every chance we can to get away and go to the coast. Sailing, biking, relaxing on our very private white beach is better than traffic, any day! We stay at our house which we now rent out. Check it out at www.tlrentals.com