Carless in Jakarta

This morning, my driver had to take the car in for service. This meant that I was carless all day. Hmmm. What is a girl to do when she has invited three dinner guests and still has shopping to do?

As I made out my list of remaining items to purchase, I decided that Manisem and I would just walk to the store and bring the items back. Did I mention that it was raining when I got up at 5AM? It was still raining about 9AM when I decided to break out of the house and go to the store.

I gave Manisem an umbrella and I took one and off we trudged. It was quiet on the way to the store. Not a lot of traffic, which was very pleasant, and the rain actually quit just about the time we arrived at Hero, our local grocery store. We split up and I got the items I needed for appetizers and Manisem got the items we needed for soto ayam (mentioned before - just in case you forgot - it is a rockin' Indonesian chicken soup) Some how or the other we manage to fill up a cart with items. Oh brother, now I have to decide if she and I can carry all of this stuff back or use other means to get home.

Standing in the checkout line Manisem decides that she will go get a bajaj for us to take home while ibu finishes paying for the goods, as all good ibus must do. Off she scurries. As the young woman is ringing up my purchase she asks me if I am having soto ayam. Apparently, as a native you know exactly what kind of things should go in this soup. After all, I think it is the National Soup of Indonesia so it wasn't too difficult for her to extrapolate my dinner plans. I told her yes and that I love it, which is no exaggeration.

As I push the cart out the door, there is Manisem and a trusty little bajaj. I have been eye-balling these things since we got here and have wanted to ride in one. Well, sports fans, today was my big day. We gather all the bags up and climb in to the back of the bajaj. The driver shuts the little door, the side flaps are rolled up and we are ready to rock and roll.

Around the Hero parking lot we go. We stop at the gate to pay to get out. Since I had bought more stuff than we could carry home, it means that I have spent enough money to qualify for free parking. Yipeee! Through the gate and putt-putt-putt along we go past the flower stands. OMG, this is really fun. It is kind of like riding in a three wheel go-cart with a bench seat in the back only higher off the ground. Since the traffic is light, we aren't getting a face and a lung full of exhaust. Lucky me. I must have picked the perfect day for this kind of adventure.

We go over the speed bumps they love to place across many of the residential streets. We are being bounced around in the back. Many of these speed bumps (or polici tedure ((sleeping police) as the locals call them) are so well disguised, that you don't see them until you are right on top of them. By then, it is too late and you are almost pitched off the back seat. But I digress. We chug along and turn up the street that goes to our house, which by the way, has a fair amount of incline to it. It is a bajaj full and it sounds like it is having to work hard to get up the hill. Hmmm. There goes that bajaj's tip.

I must say our trip ends way, way too soon. We are in front of the house before I have gotten my fill of bajaj riding. I am grinning like some kind of idiot and want the driver to drive back to the store and then bring me back again. Unfortunately, there is someone waiting for me at the house and I sadly get out. All this pleasure costs me 10,000 rupiah or about $1.00 US (remember the rule of 4 I talked about earlier?). Obviously, I am a cheap date.

I know this may sound like a really silly thing to get excited about. But you haven't see the bajajs in person. They would win you over in a heart beat. I now want to own one so I can drive it around when ever I want to. I somehow doubt seriously that I could make the thing street legal in the US so I will have to get an Indonesian driver's license so I can drive one here. The expectations are pretty low with it so people just go around you and don't really expect you to get out of the way. I am not even sure if they have to really obey traffic laws. Well, that is the norm here, but I think bajajs get even more special dispensation.

My only regret is that there was no one to take my picture. I think my face must have looked like a kid on their very first ride at the fair. My plan is to take one again and make a movie of it with my camera and post it either here or on facebook. It would be just like being here, only without the exhaust smell.