Today we learned how to get around Jakarta. We were given two hours to take as many forms of public transportation that the city of Jakarta had to offer. This proved to be a fun and challenging experience.
We started off on the back of scooters which is how many people who live here in the city choose to get around. The traffic here is unlike anything I have ever seen. Crazy doesn't begin to describe it. If you ride a motorcycle in the United States and you feel restricted by all the traffic laws, you need to take your next vacation in Jakarta.
After the motorcycles we took a variety of buses, taxis, covered flat bed pickups, trains, and a little three wheeled covered motorcycle called a bajai. For those who are used to using public transportation in a foreign country, you already know that personal space is defined a little different than what it might be in the U.S. The smells, the pickpocketing, the backfiring bajais can not be fully expressed in words. In actuality, we had a lot of fun. This might be attributed to the fact that it was only a game today and it hasn't become daily life yet. We have a little adjusting to do and today we got to have a little fun in the process.
