The Post had this great picture today of a woman being passed into a train through the window, because it was too packed to get in through the door.
Idul Fitri, the end-of-Ramadhan celebration, is early next week, and there's a rising energy in the city. The stores are mobbed with people buying gifts for their relatives, new clothes for themselves, and enough food for an army. The mass exodus from Jakarta to people's home villages has begun. Traffic, need I mention, is crazier than ever.
I recently discovered I'm going to have a four-day weekend over Idul Fitri. It would be great to go somewhere, but every single form of transportation is going to be insanely overbooked. I'm thinking we could probably land a small helicopter on our roof (just a small one ... nothing ostentatious). Anybody have a lead on a rental?
4 comments:
once everyone has left town, why not use the opportunity to experience a more quiet jakarta? you could stroll the empty highways, breathe cleaner air and visit the parts of the city you might usually avoid due to crowds.
will everything be closed? can you go to a movie or music club, or will entertainment venues be shuttered?
everything will be closed on lebaran. but you can visit your friends house to celebrate lebaran with them... open house everywhere.... lots of opor, ketupat and gulai.
I do really like Jakarta when it's quiet. It's just that a four-day weekend is so rare, it's really tempting to go someplace where we can hike or surf. I'm convinced the traveling would cancel out any relaxation benefits, though.
And yes, we do have Lebaran plans to go ride around with a bunch of kids, beating drums and shooting off firecrackers, so that should be fun. I'll write more on that if it happens.
yeah, during lebaran, jakarta will be a very nice, quiet city, with much less traffic, especially on the first day of lebaran. although most of the stores will be closed, tourist attractions such as ancol and dufan will be packed by tourists from outside of jakarta. going out of town would be somewhat hectic and expensive as all mean of transportation will be fully booked way in advance, and all highways going out of jakarta will be jammed by traffic and the same would happen on the days after lebaran when people are coming back from other cities. so it's your choice :)
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