Arriving in Indonesia at midnight after a long but surprisingly very smooth 30 hour travel day, we were picked up and taken to the hotel with a 30 minute car ride. We knew how bad the infrastructure and traffic was in Jakarta - a city of 30 million people - but at 1 am the traffic wasn't bad at all and we made it to the hotel quickly.
However, we soon realized the chaos that is traffic in Jakarta. Just walking to the local gym turns out to be the most intense game of Frogger ever, with hundreds of quick small cars squeezing by centimeters from one another while mopeds and motorcylces used every bit of space including the sidewalks and even the opposite side of the road to get through.
But it wasn't until we were returning to the hotel from visiting national monuments downtown (the same distance as it was from the airport) did we realize just how bad the traffic was. It took us 3 hours to go about 10 kilometers in cut throat traffic. Every man for himself. Lane markings seem to be mere suggestions. They can squeeze 5 or 6 wide on a three lane road. And the occasional traffic cop seems to be about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Either that or he is working on his zumba frantically on the side of the street.
Miraculously, not a single accident. Maybe a stubbed toe or two since all the motorcyclists were wearing open toed sandals...
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