Traffic

The roads in Jakarta are fairly much crazy. So far we have been getting around either with an embassy car/mini van or via a bluebird taxi ( 4-5 bucks a trip ). We will get a driver for Mon-Fri so maybe once I have a car and worked up the courage I will drive on a weekend (maybe). Traffic means you are never going fast but there are lots of cars and bikes waving in and out.  There are lots of men on the sides of the roads who walk out  and wave a hand to let cars in. There is lots of horns but somehow everyone cooperates and keeps moving. Indonesians are too polite in general to be rude about driving.

Google maps tells me to walk to the embassy would take 36 minutes, Last night Alison took 1 and 1/2 hours to get home and that's the easy direction. The big road ( like many roads here ) has a bus-way in the middle which means you cant cross through the middle except in limited locations. The road has the bus-way each way then two fast 'lanes' each way then two local 'lanes' each way in both directions. The are usually about three cars and and a extra stream of motorbikes in these two lanes. 

This means to get to the Embassy which is on the right , we turn left go 300 m up the road (15 Min ) do a Uee drive up the road about a Km past the Embassy do another Uee drive back to the Embassy.  My photos do not convey the traffic chaos.