Rule 1: Always listen to Pak Supardi
Pak Supardi is our driver. Aside from being just a fantastic guy in general, he's also one heck of a driver...something rare here in Indonesia. (Ask Kristin, Mark or Kim...Jakarta traffic is indescribably insane.)
He always seems to be able to sense traffic jams (macet) ahead of time and is really good about maneuvering around them if at all possible--and it's possible maybe 50% of the time, the other 50% of the time the entire city is one big, crazy wad of unmoving traffic and the only way to avoid it is to stay home.
He's also good at being able to sense what time we should leave to get a certain place on time, and practically always gets us there on time if not early, which he apologizes profusely for, silly man.
Sunday he agreed to take us in to the Jakarta Convention Center for the travel fair in spite of the insane soccer fanatics also headed toward the neighboring stadium. He did, however, tell us that we absolutely had to leave the Convention Center for home no later than 6 p.m. The game, he said, would be nearly over by then and it would be "tidak bagus" (not good) in that area of the city.
We were out of the parking lot and on the toll road headed toward home by 5:50, and after reading yesterday's Jakarta Post, I know why.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050926191529&irec=1
If you can't get the story to open, it's a news article about how 74 people were arrested in that area after the game for setting fire to 11 police vehicles, damaging 11 civilian vehicles and injuring 23 police officers and 19 civilians. The Jakarta team lost, 2-3, and fans went on a rampage in the Senayan area of the city.
Always listen to Pak Supardi. The worst that could happen is that you arrive at the airport 4 hours early for your flight to Thailand and you have to drink your weight in frappuccinos at Starbucks while waiting to board the plane. That's a lot of frappuccinos.
*Note: here's a fun bit of trivia for you. The police spokesman quoted in the above article's name is Ketut, which is very similar to the Indonesian word "kentut," which means "to fart."
He always seems to be able to sense traffic jams (macet) ahead of time and is really good about maneuvering around them if at all possible--and it's possible maybe 50% of the time, the other 50% of the time the entire city is one big, crazy wad of unmoving traffic and the only way to avoid it is to stay home.
He's also good at being able to sense what time we should leave to get a certain place on time, and practically always gets us there on time if not early, which he apologizes profusely for, silly man.
Sunday he agreed to take us in to the Jakarta Convention Center for the travel fair in spite of the insane soccer fanatics also headed toward the neighboring stadium. He did, however, tell us that we absolutely had to leave the Convention Center for home no later than 6 p.m. The game, he said, would be nearly over by then and it would be "tidak bagus" (not good) in that area of the city.
We were out of the parking lot and on the toll road headed toward home by 5:50, and after reading yesterday's Jakarta Post, I know why.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050926191529&irec=1
If you can't get the story to open, it's a news article about how 74 people were arrested in that area after the game for setting fire to 11 police vehicles, damaging 11 civilian vehicles and injuring 23 police officers and 19 civilians. The Jakarta team lost, 2-3, and fans went on a rampage in the Senayan area of the city.
Always listen to Pak Supardi. The worst that could happen is that you arrive at the airport 4 hours early for your flight to Thailand and you have to drink your weight in frappuccinos at Starbucks while waiting to board the plane. That's a lot of frappuccinos.
*Note: here's a fun bit of trivia for you. The police spokesman quoted in the above article's name is Ketut, which is very similar to the Indonesian word "kentut," which means "to fart."
posted by Erin @ 9:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home