A ride to work

Having ridden across the city for the past 6 years, I seldom share images of whats going on and how the journey is, yet I do mention it rather a lot.
So with taking motorbike taxis becoming more frequent I have the opportunity to actually see where I am going and share some of the things with you.

Here are some videos from my camera as I went to work today. They all involve major traffic spots and just after peak morning traffic.

This one is from the start of the chaos past a new flyover to help traffic from the east of the city get into the city if people are not using the main toll way. Before this thing was being built it was not nice to ride through. It's even less nice now.

  

Next thats us getting through the traffic lights and past more traffic. You should understand that my daily journey is pretty much like this everyday although there are times when I can see the road ahead.

Finally this is us getting past the last major tollway exit to the business part of the city and its not that busy to be fair and with the amount of police present there is some behaviour of traffic. All the buses are full.

Here are some other photos

What riding looks like

Then the customary bike crash you see everyday. The amount of commotion around it prevented me from better pictures but it looked like no one was hurt and a taxi driver was either sorting it out or trying to say sorry.

The view to another traffic hot spot (there are over 400 of these through the city) and a close up of a the back of a bus which is a place I try to avoid due to the jet black smoke they produce.

A very busy toll gate with random man walking through it all for effect.

Finally, you know how everyone complains about the Rubbish truck when it does its rounds? Does it look like this? This truck is there everyday and leaves full. It is parked on the road and the rubbish collectors have to throw the waste into it everyday. The traffic around it pays this no attention.

This Orange cart is how household and business waste is collected. Some just collect plastic or paper and cardboard but most collect household waste. The smell is amazing.

The human chain to load the truck.

I might venture out with my camera to take better pictures especially in the rain, that will be fun,

Rain at last

The dry season has well and truly been dry and the dust and soot more visible than normal. Jakarta is its normal lines of wet and dry but there seems to be a bigger change in the weather with some more longer periods of wet weather and storms as we approach December.
Naturally it hasn't seemed to stop raining in the mountains and hills around the city and some of the low lying parts of East Jakarta have began to flood already.
The Jakarta administration is saying that this year won't be as bad as last year or as terrible as 2013 and the city will flood for a day or 2 but to be honest no one knows.

Motorbike taxi in the rain

For the past week there has been a team of workers shoveling the mud out of the drains near the mosque by the house and hopefully all that effort will finally stop the flooding around the mosque and housing. Similarly there has been some local roads raised up through layers of concrete to stop flooding as well so that again should help the locals.

Cleaning Drains looks something like this (http://beritajakarta.com/)

I am currently using motorbike taxis which are becoming quite fast and less stressful even if my hips seem to seize up after sitting in the same position for 45 minutes but I will become worried if it rains and whether they will be available in the rain. If not then the trusty bike will push me through the rain and puddles and I guess that will be OK.

Looks about right (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/)

This is also OK and even more fun in lightning storms....

However, I  must buy some new waterproof trousers and jacket just in case as the ones I have now leak.  Riding in the city is so much more fun in the rain.

But unlike flood water in England, the flood water is warm, filthy but warm and so that makes it less of a hassle.

Surabaya

After 8 years of living on the Island of Java, I  have finally stayed in the second most important city on it and maybe in Indonesia, Surabaya. Surabaya is in the east of Java and like every other city in Indonesia consists of lots of traffic, heat and bad buildings. Apart from that, the only other difference was the lack of very tall buildings.  Hows that for an introduction?

Java with Jakarta in the West and Surabaya in the East.

So, in order to explain how I came to that conclusion here is my story. Last week I attended EF English Firsts annual conference which was held at the JW Marriot hotel in Surabaya. I left Jakarta on Tuesday with my manager and colleagues from other centers and flew Citilink to Juanda airport. Our flight was at 10.00pm and we got there after 11pm.
Citilink are a good airline as their flights are normally on time and the planes are pretty good. Being the low cost carrier belonging to Garuda helps as well with that.

From the airport in Surabaya we took the 34km trip to the city (that's what Google Maps says)  and to the JW Marriot hotel. It being late at night, the traffic was pretty good and so we were there in no time or just around an hour.

A big metal boat on the wall by reception

On arriving at the hotel, we were met with armoured cars, armed police and a tank due to the fact that the president of Indonesia Joko Widodo was staying the night which added to the fun of arriving late.
Walking down the red carpet to check in I was met by the head of the Hotel and wished a pleasant stay; He didn't look stressed at all! My room was on the 7th floor and so I went to drop by bags and then join some friends in the bar to say hello. On entering the room, I discovered it was a smoking room and in one of the single beds in it, was a man fully dressed dozing while the blue haze of cigarette smoke hung over him. I bid him farewell and went back to reception to complain and get another room.
This action got me a new non smoking room and it was all mine for the night which was even better.

I did eventually share the room with a nice chap from Depok (a satelite city outside Jakarta) who would try and feed me every night croissants or whatever he bought downstairs. That was very nice of him.

Views from my room of Surabaya

The conference itself was highly enjoyable and there was lots of sharing and chat and a good party at the end of it. English First is celebrating 30 years being in Indonesia and that's a very good thing. There 74 EF language centers in Indonesia now and that number is growing. Its a big organisation with over 280 attendees and there were people missing due to holidays etc so that number should have been closer to 300.

Party night taking us back to 1986

Got to love group photos. I am at the back somewhere

Friday morning arrived as did a few hangovers and after the last of the meetings and discussions, it was time to checkout and on yer way, but eat first as lunch was provided. We were flying back later in the evening and so we had time to explore the city. I went with some friends to the nearest AC mall, had a coffee and waited for time to pass. Eventually enough had passed to get a taxi back to the airport and fly home.

What did I see in Surabaya? Nothing. Where did I go? Nowhere. Will I go back? Well, maybe. The hotel was nice. That bit was OK but I really never had any time to explore and still don't know where I could explore in Surabaya although I am pretty sure there is lots to see. So perhaps in time I will visit it again. The flight was good and the hotel was very good. There are plenty of taxis around to get you places so I might return.







Please feel free to comment and I will reply as soon as I can. Thank you

GoJek

There is a new thing happening in the city at the moment and it is spreading across Indonesia at quite a rate.

The arrival of paid / uniformed Motorbike taxi riders or Gojeks (Ojeks is the common name for all motorbike taxis) is a new service being offered.

Still an Ojek but in a green coat

Basically, you book a bike to pick you up from your phone (its an app, they love apps here) and then a man arrives on a bike. He gives you a helmet a face mask and a hairnet and then takes you to wear you want to go for a fixed fee. Tip him or don't, its OK he gets paid by the company to take you.

For a distance of up to 25km its 15,000 rupiah fixed fee. So from my house to work its 15,000 in total. If I compare:

A Taxi - 80,000

Ojek, Bus, Taxi - 55,000

Ojek normal - 50,000

My own bike - Free (except, fuel, service and parts, and the chance of being stopped by the police)

So its pretty good value and there is insurance too. 

Map of the route to the destination

I took my first Gojek  recently. However, the GPS on my photo for some reason was not operating properly so the man thought I had cancelled when he called. Then he did not know where I wanted to go so I had to direct him all the way. It was however still 15,000 and with a tip of 10,000 it'd still easier.

On the way back, I could not get a phone signal so a colleague ordered me one. He arrived and took me pretty much straight back home; 15,000 rupiah plus tip and no issues.

We rode through 2 police stops as well which was good as I am sure I would have been stopped had I been riding alone.

However, I can't take them everyday as the cost is still high over the month and the guarantee that there are some Gojeks waiting about is not always there but I will use them more now I understand how to. 

They also offer the following but I cant say if I will use them yet

Go Send - Parcel delivery

Go Ride - Motorbike taxi

Go Food - Man picks up food from selected restaurants

Go Mart - Man goes shopping and brings it to you

Go Busway - Live busway showing where the buses are

Go Box - Large parcels delivered 

Go Clean - Cleaner comes and cleans the house

Go Glam - Hair and Makeup on your doorstep

Go Massage - Someone comes round and gives you a massage but its not a happy ending service

GO - HOE has not been created yet and probably wont be (not legally) but I am sure there is a service out there already, its just I am not aware of it. Although it happens in Kuta, Bali!

So they have a lot of different services and they are expanding. 

There are other players out there now, namely Grab Bike but they are more expensive but maybe I will try them. They also have Grab Taxi which is slightly cheaper than normal taxis and Grab Cars which are private cars for hire and they are far cheaper. And apparently you can hire a Ferrari or something through them as well if you want to show off. I don't.

Jeremy in October

Its been a while since I have written about my son so here is an update. Jeremy is two and a half next month and his recent language acquisition has been staggering as are his motor skills.
We have been teaching him words and sentences and he is able to repeat and use quite successfully what he hears and sees to great almost too good effect.

Reasons to be cheerful

He can give direction (come, sit, go, up, down) and describe things around him using colours (the car is black or the wheels dirty) for example.
He seems to be obsessed with Monster Trucks and to 'crash' the car, subsequently everything that touches is 'crashed' then 'oh no its broken' to 'oh its fixed' in a matter of seconds. He is obsessed with cleaning things and will clean his toys 'toys are dirty' and my bike, the window, me anything he deems not clean. I told him the other day that a taxi we were in was dirty and for the next 35 minutes that all he said 'taxi is dirty' so that was good.

Crane Dada crane!

He likes tower cranes, can't say why but there is one we can see from our house and is gets higher he can watch it grow. He will spend a lot of time pointing at it saying 'crane is moving/broken/fix' to help describe it and if he can go upstairs he will run to the balcony and point at any thing and call it a crane, unless however it is a radio mast and then he thinks it is a mast. We are working on trying to convince him otherwise.

Jeremy enjoys the bus and will sit quite still and quiet until he sees another bus/taxi/truck/tower crane or if he is with Yovita and if I am away from her (Yovita is given a seat in the female only part of the bus because of Jeremy) he will call for me until he sees me.

Through my tab he watches a considerable amount of You tube in the morning before work and then on the weekend. I am careful as to what and he mainly watches Donald Duck, Thomas and Friends, Wheels on the Bus videos and lots and lots of vocabulary videos where he will sit and watch and repeat the words said to him as they are spoken. He will sing Incy Wincy spider and Twinkle Twinkle little star, and whilst its not good. He is 2. So what to expect. Last night he repeated the alphabet until P then he was confused for the right reasons.  I am banning Monster Truck videos now!

You tube with me, not that I can see

He can also switch on my Tab, find You Tube, turn the volume and brightness us, as well as turn on the WiFi and has learnt to scroll and press the button to skip ads.

Some of the recent history from my You Tube account

With Jeremy being Indonesian, he also uses the language and it is mixed with English. 'Duduk' means to sit and so he will tell me that when he needs me to sit. 'Tolong bikin susu' tells me he wants me to make milk and 'mimi' is short for drink or water. He understands Indonesian language and how to use it. There might be however, a gap in his knowledge as he is currently being exposed to far more English than Indonesian which could slow him down a little later. I will need to research more materials for him to see and listen which are in Indonesian to help balance his language because he will need, probably, to speak more Indonesian than English as soon as he starts school.

He is very very active and will run about all day and if we let him run about in a mall then he will just run everywhere. It is hard to find him a safe place to run and play everyday as there really are not any areas for a child to play near us and its also too hot to be out running about for too long. There is a local children play area but its not really very child friendly. Happily we have a car port he can run around in and he does and also the balcony upstairs has enough space for this as well. Jeremy is watched like a hawk so he is safe and he will run and run and jump as much as we let him.

Jeremy is also getting bigger and heavier. We are already on XXL nappy pants with the intention he will be toilet trained before he is 3 and we are putting him in clothing for 3 or 4 year old. He must get the size from me as well as eating like a horse when he can. All of which is good. There are plenty of choices for clothing so that helps him here at the moment.

He also likes to have his teeth cleaned and this is helping him grow and learn routines. We need to be more routine with this but he happily sits while we brush and he knows or is beginning to know why and when we do this. He knows when bed time is now and will almost willingly go bed and lie down and eventually sleep. He still sleeps for around 9 hours a night, dropping off before 9 and awaking before 6 and waking everyone with him.

He will eat anything we give him and drink more or less the same. He does not eat too much sweet stuff as he is full of energy already but he does eat ice cream with his dad now and then and is partial to a milk chocolate digestive! If we are out and about he will eat what we eat and can drink most types of milk and does not refuse now, plain white milk instead of his vanilla flabvoured baby milk. i make him drink fresh cows milk through the week and UHT milk as well but its all white, no chocolate or added sweetener. Yovita makes him drink water and juice and his gran here, feeds him all sorts of Javanese food and stuff. Our housekeeper cooks up soups and food for him, all of which probably explains why he is so bloody heavy!!! But when he is sick he does seem to drop weight quickly and from a recent bout of diarrhoea  he became dehydrated quickly and that was a concern. He was fixed 2 days later but only after a course of anti-biotics.

Pretty good Milk

Vanilla is better than the Honey one

With his language and motorskills developing, we are now encouraging numbers and the alphabet as well as more Indonesian language and we are doing this through play and constant talking. He favourite toys are die cast cars so for some reason he now has over 50 of them (most of which are Matchbox because I like Matchbox) and this number is growning. Thomas is fun for him as any bus but he likes to choose his toy and most of them are trucks or vans. The reason I choose Matchbox over hotwheels is to help him identify quicker with the vehicles around him as they are more realistic. He also likes trains and planes and in time he will be given Duplo lego or Playmobile (do you know how much this stuff costs??) to help grow and develop further but that can wait until he is 3.

Fire Truck and its great

He has just found out about the shopping cars in Carrefour, The little tikes car with a shopping trolley bolted to it so next week will be far more fun for us shopping what with 'car is dirty, beep beep, oh no car has crashed / fixed' or 'the wheel is broken' the shopping time won't increase in time at all.

Getting him out of this will be a challenge

So thats Jeremy today. A handful. He seems to be far more active than a lot of children I see but I dont really know. I know that its fun and everyday I am kept on my toes and thats great.

Jeremy

Things that are happening in Jakarta

Here is a short list of things that are happening in the city which are good bad indifferent all at the same time and some nationwide ones. Its been a while since I have compiled a list of stuff.

• There is a new Terminal being built at at the airport Terminal 4) which is all modern and things
• If you are flying international with Lion Air, you still need to check in at T2 and then they bus you half way around the airport to get on a plane outside T3
• The rail link proposed has been shelved for now or if it is still going to be built is being delayed.
• The rail network is expanding throughout the country and Jakarta with new stations and longer platforms in the city and and railways being built across the country
• There will be a higher speed rail link between Jakarta and Bandung to be built
• Uber Taxis are not really welcome here
• GoJek, Grab Bike and Blu Jek are the latest mobile app for ordering motorbike taxis, good for short distances, expensive for long. But its not rained yet so lets see what happens
• The police are concerned about these groups delivering drugs unawares as its seems to have started
• Bajais (blue ones) with have their own app soon.
• There are new Scania buses on the busway now but not all over the busway
• The police have commented that there are 420 traffic blackspots through the city and it will get worse
• There are currently many major infrastructure developments across the city including the MRT (overground and underground) elevated Bus lanes, Flyovers which are on most of the major routes through the city which are causing huge issues.
• The extra lane on the toll from Tangerang into Grogol has been closed making morning trips into the city from work so much longer.
• The Rupiah is currently struggling against the dollar and once it reaches 15,000 then it will make it even harder for everyone as things are becoming expensive. 
• If you are English, then fly to Indonesia as the rate is a fantastic 1gbp = 22,000 rupiah (at this moment in time) which means I cant afford to fly home for a holiday as I am paid in Rupiah
• The Dollar is currently $1 = 14475
• There will a shift in fuel price downward at some point this week
• Hero Supermarkets are closing stores both Hero and Giant brands
• The Giant at Semanggi has closed for good
• Alcohol sales are being reviewed in the city with the hope that Beer can be sold again in mini markets and stores
• The price of beer has not really moved since it has been banned in nearly all stores
• There was a 150% increase in tax on imported clothing and goods which was helpful
• There is a desire to close clubs and bars here at midnight instead of 2am to help reduce drug useage
• There will be an increase in taxation of cigarettes but its still OK to sell them to anyone who wants them
• Nappies have become more expensive now Jeremy is XXL but milk gets cheaper
• The small shopping plaza thing called Tebet Green closed down as there was an issue with the tax payments
• It has not rained for 3 months now and its just dry and dusty with more of this to come
• The fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan are made worse because of the dry season, El Nino is to blame
• There was no blood moon as the optical effect does not happen here
• Mobile phone manufactures have to make products here. The Galaxy note 5 is made here
• Samsung is not the most popular make of phone here any more due to local or region made phones being more affordable and offer the same Android stuff
• The phone networks are planning 4G through Jakarta. I am waiting for 3G still for my area
• I still cant get Internet cable to my house
• The internet at work is transmitted over the air rather than through cables
• There are now 3 fully functional huge shopping malls 5 minutes from work that I still don't need to visit
• US size 13 trainers here are impossible to find unless they are bright red or something equally abhorrent
• After surveying many students, nearly all said that they would never date in a Cemetery and this was their top or second from top answer, fast food outlets were also a no no
• Car Free Sundays are now almost impossible to walk or enjoy due to the amount of push bikes and sponsored runs along the route so I have to stay in bed now
• If I take Jeremy on the bus I am given a seat by the conductor whether I want one or not (transjakarta)
• Visas to other countries become easier to obtain once an initial visa to somewhere has been approved (not including ASEAN countries)
• There is a big Samsung repair centre at ITC Ambasador with the one at Pacific place being closed
• With all the issues and publicity concerning air pollution there is no actual measurements of the air quality in Jakarta that I am aware of
• Riding your bike on a scalped tarmac road is no fun and you really shouldn't go above 35kph 
• Dog is a popular food in Jakarta but it is unregulated but the rest is too unsettling
• 70% of all public spaces do not follow the no smoking bans in place mainly through fear of telling someone not to smoke because that person is probably a moron who cant read the no smoking signs

All information is from news sources such as the Jakarta Post, Jakarta Globe, Jakarta Coconuts and from my own experience. 

If this stuff is not quite right, well its what I know at the moment.