Hello!
In this post, I shall tell you how to survive a traffic jam ('macet' in Indonesian; it literally means 'congested', 'stuck' or 'blocked'), or simply when you are stuck in an immobilised contraption for an average to unacceptable amount of time.
I live in a place where your patience is regularly trained. I myself can't understand how we Jakartans have been able to put up with this ongoing problem that has been haunting us for countless years. I don't drive (yet), but I've been through my fair share of idle road time. Some people may gone through worse, though. Like a whole day getting to Puncak, and sleeping in your car for the night. This may seem like an unforgettable adventure to some, With all the horrible traffic jams happening nowadays, we barely go out of our area! -__-"
Sadly, no matter how much you believe in luck, it's never guaranteed that you won't ever meet with this...
Or this.
Okay, you have witnessed the reality. The truth is rarely beautiful. I feel you. Now...
1. Entertainment. Spending even a minute strapped onto a seat in an idle car is boring. If you have a child travelling along with you, you might want to bring along some toys or a little portable game (in my younger days, my brother always brought his Nintendo DS along). We have a USB loaded with thousands of tracks that goes on every time we turn on the engine. Music saves our souls.
I don't recommend books or magazines for everyone, because some people tend to feel sick after reading or focusing on something on a moving vehicle (me). Of course, one can read them while the whole road is idle. However! Prone to motion sickness or not, it definitely won't hurt to have a source of entertainment on the road.
2. Bring along someone to talk to on the road. If you can travel with a friend, do so! It significantly helps to ease the steam of having to wait on the road. Unless you are a very socially-awkward person, that is. In that case, you may want to bring an inanimate object, such as a doll or an art dummy to let out all your anger too. Best of all, they won't ever disagree with you! Haha, well, I kid :)
Oh, there is an exception. Indonesia has been a hardcore Blackberry nation for a few years now. So people don't really need real-life companions to sit on the passenger's seat for a chat. All they need to do is contact their friends, represented as little display icons in the BBM civilisation. If they can stand the BBM's pending time, that is. That's also a major cause of migraines in Indonesia.
Would you rather have one real person by you or everyone you know at your fingertips, through a virtual world? I genuinely am curious.
3. Make sure your vehicle is in tip top shape before going out. This is common sense, of course, but there are many cases where vehicles betray their owner one day without warning. Broken-down vehicles with their front engines exposed, distressed drivers with their hands on their foreheads, police arguing with sharp-tongued citizens...these are all pretty common sights here. Very often, a single car that breaks down in the middle of the road ends up obstructing a whole motorway. Anybody or anything can become the very cause of a traffic jam D:
4. Bring something to crunch on. It's not rare that people miss meals while waiting for the road to switch back to its intended function after becoming a free parking lot. I believe water is must, under all conditions. Perhaps some coffee in a vacuum tumbler, a bag of or in my case, packs of refreshing sugar-free mint candies! Sceptical that you won't need them? You can never be too careful ;D
5. Keep your driving license and citizen identification (KTP) in reach. If you're foreign, bring your passport along with you. Sometimes police officers like to hang around in twos to 'harvest income' from those who break the rule. If you don't get caught, then it must be your day. But just in case, always bring with you proof of your identity (and a reasonable amount of money for bail if you do become their game) :P
6. Inhale and exhale. It does make a difference. Keeps you from going wild and overly agitated :). Some people get stuck on the road for so long that they start treating their cars as a cabin instead. Engines are not supposed to be turned off on the road, but a traffic jam with the potential to keep you in for hours will force many to do so. Some people even get out of their cars to take a walk or to stretch.
If you happen to forget, fear not. Traffic jams are the main reason why there are many illegal one-man businesses selling beverages and snacks. They walk freely on the road, going from vehicle to vehicle offering their goods. From this, I was able to conclude so...
I guess that is one way to produce a good outcome from a downside.
Please note that I am in no way trying to degrade this city, I was just sharing what ought to be shared. I hope this post could be of help to those who plan to visit Indonesia! If there are tips that I've missed out please do let me know in the comments! My next few posts will most likely be me sharing tips and my knowledge about language study :)
アリシア
Now listening: Defying Gravity - Glee Cast (Lea Michele and Chris Colfer, a.k.a. Rachel and Kurt)
Image sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/indonesia/8081050/Java-Indonesia-the-sleeping-giant.html
http://melovesmiles.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/human-globalization-mixed-blood/
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