Bangalore to Jakarta - 2

Indonesians are warm people, usually soft spoken. I'm not just getting this notion from the deluxe hotel where I was treated nicely, but in my opinion, everyone whom I met here was nice to me! My experience only strengthened this notion.

Even the newspaper that I read regularly (Jakarta Post) did not use very strong words. Criticisms, if any was also mild. (I could not avoid comparing our country's very aggressive media!)

Despite devoutly following their own religion(s), people do not show up their religion or spirituality. Not just that, they also show curiosity in other religions and cultures and that is a commendable behaviour. (The majority people are Muslims, but Christianity has good presence and so is Hinduism, though restricted to a few places like Bali).

Before coming, I read in many travel websites about the Taxi drivers at the Airport who would chase you to go with them. Of course, so many drivers/people asked me if I need there service. But what surprised me was, when I politely declined, they just gave in and went away.

There are many taxi companies, but the most reliable ones are Blue Bird and Silver Bird both operated by the Blue Bird Group. SilverBird is the executive taxi. BlueBird is the economical and good one. I'm not familiar about the other modes of transport, as I always took a BlueBird.

At the first sight, Jakarta is very attractive, big city and has good roads. But I heard from the locals that frequent traffic jams and pollution are major problem.

Cars and Motorcycles are the most common vehicles found on the street. I found that we can even hire a motorcycle (with a rider, as we would hire a taxi), but I never tried it. I did not see many trains. I heard that they have long distance trains too, but no sleeper coaches.

Food is the only problem I had in this country where vegetarianism is not very well understood. I am "lacto-vegetarian" (that is, can eat vegetables and dairy products). So every time I had to either literally plan my meal or starve (Thanks to my local colleagues/bosses, who took care of me as if I were one among them and made sure that I get good food when I was with them. But the side effect was that they also had to learn what it takes to be an Indian vegetarian).

Also there were some contrasts. In my opinion, the people dress in a conservative way, however they tend to be very modern in their outlook. Before arriving, I also heard that Jakarta and the surrounding regions are densely populated, which I mistook as very crowded. Yes, it is, but not as much as the Indian cities.

I found another thing that is different from India: only one language (Bahasa Indonesia) is used for commercial and official communication, at least in Jakarta. English is used to only with people from other countries. It is very difficult to find boards or even signs in English. While Indonesia also speaks hundreds of languages, I could find that the nation is somehow unified with Bahasa. I obviously had language problem, but most people seem to understand some English (And whenever I had tough time asking/explaining something, I would make some gestures to make them understand and the other person and I thoroughly enjoyed it!).

(To be continued)