It's Crazy Over The Local Holidays

Picture: Traffic converging onto one road, no where to go

At the best of times the traffic in Jakarta is what I would call crazy. Too many cars, buses and motor bikes and a not a very good road system. Traffic plays a big role in our daily life here, you always have to take into account the travelling time of where you need to get to because otherwise you wont make it on time.

Last week saw the end of Ramadan which is the fasting for Muslims. In the month of Ramadan Muslims are meant to refrain from eating, drinking, smoking , marital relations or getting angry during the day light hours. It is believed that fasting heightens spirituality and develops self control. Being the end of Ramadan there is a celebration call "Idul Fitri". The Arabic meaning of Idul fitri is "becoming holy again". The holiday is just like what we would celebrate Christmas. Indonesians like to spend the holiday with family and so many Jakartans travel back to their family homes.The traffic problems only gets worse during this time and seeing the pictures on the news of the traffic jams going out of the city just amazed me. It seems it may take up to 24 hours to get somewhere only 200 kilometers away and the road toll seems to go up over this time as well. Its hard to understand why each year people put them selves through this process of travelling, the holiday should only last three days but people here leave many days before to avoid the traffic.

For me living here all I can say is I am glad Ramadan and Idul fitri is over. During Ramadan I think most nights I was awake at 2am by the sound of the extra call to prayer that echoed through the large amount of loud speakers in the neighbourhood. I seemed to be waking up my driver up during the day all the time as it seemed the lack of food made him sleepy. There where times I even thought my driver may fall asleep behind the wheel. Just dealing with the locals in the day time seemed to be a lot harder as no one had the energy to function. Not being a Muslim person I find it hard to understand why anyone would not choose to eat.

As the celebrations got underway for Idul Fitri my lack of sleep continued with the sound of fireworks and firecrackers going off during the night at all times, unscheduled. Our staff had time off which meant Isha our house keeper was away for eight days and our driver Herman was away firstly for three days and an then an extra three days due to a death in his family.

I just felt my life was on hold for at least a week being held captive to being home, taxis are not always easy to get because like everyone the drivers are away on holidays.

I think next year if we are still living in Jakarta I will try and go on holidays somewhere so I am somewhere else I can get a good night sleep.

Picture: One the roads of Jakarta