Another Point of View

Borubudur (Buddhist Temple) & Parambanan (Hindu Temples)

Here we are in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city with a population of 20 million in the greater metropolitan area. There are very few traffic lights, lots of traffic circles and many vehicles, and as a result crossing the street becomes quite a challenge. We often wait for a local to follow across the road which has taught us to hold our hand out with our palm facing the oncoming vehicles to get them to at least slow down. Together with the stifling 30C humid heat (we've heard about the Calgary temperatures so we are not complaining, just saying), and the air pollution caused by the volume of traffic, it makes it very difficult to walk around the city so we have occasionally taken the LRT and some special buses (private lane) to get around. We have also taken advantage of some large air-conditioned shopping malls when we encounter them (lots of high end stores with similar pricing to Canada so no deals at the malls but it is a good opportunity to cool off).

We are staying in a wonderful hostel........a large lounge area to share stories with other travellers while enjoying a Bintang or two, and good showers which come into use once or twice a day. The editorials in the Jakarta newspaper (English version) are also interesting to read, providing a perspective on life over here.........how the U.S. is trying to win favours with SE Asia countries (resuming diplomatic relations with Myanmar, giving used F-16 planes to Indonesia) to offset efforts by the Chinese who have been trying to get cosy with them for years (and whom the local countries are wary of). The recommendation was to tread softly with ties to one or the other since tensions are sure to build between the U.S and China in the coming years. Another article discussed government corruption and whether they were any better off with democratically voted leaders........pointing out that political campaigns require lots of money and are usually funded by big business who expect favourable legislation or contracts in return. And finally lots of letters to the editor in support of their government's plans to eliminate a gas subsidy (they currently pay 50 cents / litre) which will avoid a 2% deficit budget. Since it will apply to private passenger vehicles only, the arguments are that it won't hurt private business (the gov't owns all the gas stations), it won't hurt the poor (who don't own vehicles and use public transit when they can), and it will help to improve the air quality by cutting down on vehicle traffic with higher gas prices.........nice to see common sense prevailing in spite of minor protests from the people who can afford to pay more. The paper doesn't carry my favourite Dilbert comic strip......I suppose it wouldn't make sense to most people over here.

Tomorrow we leave Indonesia and head north (just above the equator) to Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia, our last major city (still much smaller than Jakarta) before hitting beach towns and villages for several weeks which will be a nice relief from the busy cities.