Ramadan traffic in Jakarta

I haven't written much about Jakarta in the last few weeks as it is very chaotic at the moment.

And I like happy good news!

But Friday night was so unbelievable chaotic that it became funny...we have a standing joke in the car that we need a water pistol...and every time a kamikaze bus zooms up the wrong side of the road or some one parks in the middle of the wrong side of the road we can open the window and give them a squirt of water.

A friend here has taken the suggestion one step further and wants foul, really FOUL smelling liquid in a water pistol to squirt all of the inconsiderate smokers. Most people smoke here, where ever they like, when ever they like.

Georgia chose Amigos as where she wanted to go for her birthday. Amigos is in Kemang, a suburb nearly always filled to capacity with traffic.

Friday night it was GRIDLOCKED, as in not moving AT ALL.

We must of left home at exactly the right time as it only took us 30 min to get there. If there was no traffic it would take probably 4 minutes LOL. Our friends live 5 minutes from us but on the other side of a main road and it took them an hour and a half.
At one stage once we cleared one major bottle neck we went to move forward but the left lane was full of cars on the wrong side.
We just started to laugh at this stage.
because of this traffic, the kids and I were at the restaurant for a good hour and a half before any one else arrived, so I did what most would do, ordered my self a frozen strawberry margarita and sprite for the kids and relaxed.

I mentioned last week about how the shopping centers and supermarkets were crowded. This week I had to go back to the supermarket......oh no I nearly lost my calm demeanor. It wasn't just the crowds, everything was out of kilter.
I don't mind admitting it because I once had exactly the same reaction in Australia at A.C. Woolworths (at least there I spoke to the manager, got service and felt good about bitching and moaning).

I was stuck in a position of not knowing what impulse to act out on....

• Start slamming my trolley into the display next to the registers.
• Fall to the floor kicking and screaming in a tantrum a two year old would be proud of.
• Burst in to tears and sob, and sob.
• Calmly wait, with a smile on my face and then complain bitterly to the world on my blog.

Guess which one I chose....LOL