Jakarta, INDONESIA - Listen to Nothingale

A friend of mine (indonesian) told me that even he himself find Jakarta is not a safe place to live especially after the economic downturn crisis on 1997. People here are suffering to survive.

Do not walk alone at night at the park or sort of remote area that are not noticeable in downtown. You will get robbed, pick-pocket, bullied and if you against these bunch of ppl, they willing to kill you for just a dollar with you.

The city is dirty and trash all over the places (particularly in small alley). You will see taxi driver throws trash on the middle of the road during traffic congested hours. Sometime, you see and notice some ppl (family) living under the flyover. Many of them standing in the middle of the road to sell bottle of mineral water, newspapers and so forth. For that, they most probably earning about USD$0.05 for a bottle of mineral water sold.

The regular salary of Vice President or President in the established company (IPO) is approximately USD$2,000 (excluded benefits and etc). People here are not aggresive and they are neither a risk taker as they would stay in the company for 10 years with the little increment of salary. As my friend said, to be rich in indonesia, you are either a robber, politician or businessman.

On the street, you see many of the young teenagers sitting around doing nothing. If you are having your's meals at the hawker store particularly in Sambang Road, oftenly you will be disturbed by these group of teenagers that come to entertain you with singing and playing instruments (another way of begging). The local community will not reluctantly to keep feeding (donate) them with 1,000Rp (USD$0.10) to 2,000 (USD$0.20) every 5 to 10 minutes depending on how long you stay for your's meals.

During this time, sunrise will be at 5am while sunset at 6pm. Ppl start working at 7am to 7:30am and off at 5pm to 5:30pm.