Welcome to Jakarta

After such a fabulous Saturday, I spent most of my Sunday sleeping as we flew over Asia.  My final leg was from Singapore to Jakarta.  I was tired and disoriented, and was shocked to discover that our huge plane
was mostly empty for this final leg. It was the shortest leg of my  36-hour trip, but I relished stretching out across an entire row for that hour.  As we approached Indonesia, I was baffled to see things that looked like metal rods poking out of the water—probably related to fishing somehow.  They were so closely packed in some areas as to create channels for ships to safely traverse them.  The rice paddies and shrimp farms quickly transitioned to an urban sprawl that stretched to the horizon.  There were skyscrapers in some parts, but
Jakarta doesn’t really have a downtown so much as several downtowns—lots of things but hardly anything to see.

I was a little anxious about getting my business visa, as I’d heard all sorts of stories of people getting turned away, but I’d made an effort to look decent during the Singapore stopover and flashed the best smile I could muster.   It worked, and I was through customs before my luggage was off the plane.  Next step:  getting cash. Unfortunately, this wasn’t quite as easy as all the ATMs in sight were refusing my card.  I ventured out to the taxi area in hopes of spotting another and was quickly, and predictably, accosted by all sorts of offers for “help.”  One of them was actually helpful by helping me find an ATM that worked (5th time’s the charm) in the arrivals terminal, so by that point I felt obligated to go with him.  I was warned to only take the “Blue Bird” taxi brand, and was more than a little skeptical when they offered “proof” that they were legit
members of this company by taking a business card with that logo out of a stack of cards with other logos, but by this point I was just grateful to be safe and on my way to the hotel.   I later confirmed with my colleagues that I was overcharged, but can you put a price on safety and getting cash to pay that price?  Welcome to Jakarta, I guess.