Jakarta is grimy and sort of human.
The ubiquitous crowds and humid climate give it the ambiance of the inside of someone’s uterus.
Everything moves slowly through the mud
There’s shockingly little to do, for a city of 14 million people
Even the wildlife seems bemused by this.
They sell handerchiefs and fireworks on the street
The locals spend a lot of time negotiating traffic crises
or food crises, which are occasionally the same thing.
The constant chaos after awhile becomes soothing
And your internal cavalry surrenders to the gridlock.
Jakarta doesn’t look as bad as I imagined it would be, and is a lot more open. Yeah, it’s shocking how little there is to do in these big cities in Asia. I felt that a bit in Ho Chi Minh City recently too, but I wasn’t surprised. Though having said that, there’s a lot of local culture too, which may be hard to access for foreigners — but most of that revolves around socialising anyway. There’s not a whole heap to do here in Chiang Mai either, but it punches above its weight that’s for sure. Can’t wait to have you here!
Dude, I think you missed all the fun & great stuff in Jakarta. Was born and raised there and moved to the States. You’d never know until you get to know that city..
Not entirely an accurate representation of Jakarta. Jakarta offers more than just that. If you spend enough time in Jakarta to learn about the Indonesian customs, culture, culinary delights and what’s happening in there, you will change your mind. You only touched the surface. For example there are so many performing arts centre and festivals happenings in Jakarta, a good journalist should write about. It’s like when visitors come to Seattle and talk about the rain. Seattle has a lot more to offer as well, no?
hahaha… oh Jakarta, my city 😉 yeah… i agree with you, this city can be better. but no vampire spotted here and that’s not good… lol