Getting around Jakarta

Here is a list of ways to travel across the city. I have left out Cars for the obvious reason and walking.
Helicopters and Sports cars are also omitted. But its still fairly comprehensive.

You can cycle if you are strong enough.

 Delman are popular in tourist sites but they are often seen slowing traffic even further as they cantor across the city.

These things are called Bemos and can be found despite being banned and being over 40 years old. 

Bajajs are common in Asia. The orange one is disappearing and being replaced with Gas powered Blue ones. They are found in most areas of the city 

Motorbike taxis start with local men riding people around the area for not much money.

Then Go Jek and Grab bikes and Apps came along and so everyone now has a green helmet and you pay a fixed price. Its the quickest way around the city.

Taxis are everywhere. Blue Bird and Express are the most popular and safe. Silver Bird are Blue Birds premium ride but Express and White horse also have premium taxis.

These mini buses serve routes that bigger buses don't and like all buses stop where ever and when ever they like.

I have never been on either type of bus but they are still in vast numbers even though they are  being replaced. The Metro Minis (red and blue) are more dangerous than the Kopaja (green) but only just.

Transjakarta are easy to use and new and clean but rattle like all other buses

These types of bus go through the city dropping people off and I don't like them as they produce black smoke and brake suddenly

Buses like this go across the city and far and wide but I wouldn't really want to go on one. The destination is always on the back and front of the bus

These buses are OK and go from Jakarta to many places, but there are lots of different companies which do the same. 

This Shuttle bus and many like it run to and from Bandung all the time

This bus runs to and from the Airport.

Trains come in 2 main types. The first are commuter trains which go across the whole city and out to the surrounding cities of Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor

This type of train heads further a field heading west Merak and east to Cirebon, Bandung and all stops to the East coast

The only way to get to the thousand islands is by ferry:

Or if it rains.....

* Photos from various sources online and I have borrowed them to help explain how we all get about in the city. If I am needed to removed some, I will. 

Development

Jeremy is entering the so called age of the 'terrible three'.  The age where  toddlers become self aware or more self aware and like Skynet in terminator decide to take over the world wreaking destruction on everything around it.  Or so I am led to believe.

Self Aware..... 

Jeremy is 3. He is tall but being dad, I don't how tall but he is at least 20kg so he is big. He is strong, he is fast, he is ingenious, he is creative, he repeats language, he is learning the alphabet, he is almost ready to be toilet trained, he can tell stories, he can make Lego phones and hold conversations on them, he can build anything you ask with Lego, he knows songs, he can watch TV upside down and he can sleep for 12 hours straight.

He can also run up stairs in silent mode, throw things that break, climb up where I didn't know you could climb, open things that don't need opening and break things and feel sad because of it being broken however, he also makes me smile far more than he makes me annoyed.

Jeremy has a great level of spoken English and awareness of words. He can count to 10 if pushed but cannot always count to 4 correctly. His level of reading is very limited as I have not started him learning the alphabet yet and he likes to scribble a lot. His Indonesian language skills I really don't know as I never hear it but he can speak Indonesian, he certainly knows Indonesian and reacts to it.

Due to my working hours I never get to see him with other children but I am told he interacts well with other children but often in English as he doesn't know or understand that other children speak Indonesian. I hope this will change. I would love him to play with more children but there is no where in the area to play and we don't know anyone personally with children the same age so it is difficult.

Saying that though, he is more than happy at home and we take him places as often as we can and during the day he goes to gran and sometimes goes somewhere with her so he is experiencing many things, people and places all of which will help shape him and develop his understanding.

Happy playing, but how expensive is  Duplo?!

Play is fun but he is still in destructive mode with many things. Lego, Thomas and Hot wheels dominate but he will play happily with anything else and likes to play with the balls and rackets we have, but he has no eye hand coordination yet so its not much use.  His dependency on his tab is waning at the moment and he will happily sit and watch Nickelodean JR for quite some time and that is refreshing and nice to see.

Watching TV

I am teaching him to clean my bike, which currently involves him spraying water everywhere, sitting in the bucket and then adding too much soap and cleaning the same spot on the bike but he likes it and it will in time teach him something useful.

On the hunt for a bus

His current demands are to ride trains, go find buses (happily not Pokemon and long may that last) and he constantly asks 'whats going on' and 'are you happy' which is nice and all I need to do now is have him answer his own questions.

Listen to his speaking, its amazing

Terrible threes? No I don't see that. His tantrums, yelling and being stubborn are part of childhood and with support and kindness and lots of energy expelled by mum and dad and our house keeper and everyone else that looks after him, he is a happy go lucky, super inquisitive little boy who wants and demands fun, attention, time, hugs, love and toys.