Taking an ojek

Huh? What the heck is an ojek? In Indonesia, it is simply a motorcycle with a rider giving rides to strangers for a fee. Sounds like a taxi? Yep, it's unregulated motorcycle taxi.  They are usually for short trips up to 3 miles or so, though it's possible to go farther, not that you want to risk your life (or knees) for any longer than necessary.  You come up to a street corner where most of them congregate and negotiate a price. There are no meters on this motorcycle taxi.

You then get on the motorcycle as a passenger.  Most of them will give you a helmet to wear since it's the law in Indonesia to wear helmets. Indonesians are known to strictly follow traffic laws. If you don't mind the cooties, sweat and other unsavories from countless other people who have worn the helmet, by all means wear it.  Though the way these guys drive, it's a good insurance.

The motorcycles here are mostly what's called an underbone motorcycles. It doesn't have a backbone and a tank that you straddle like most in the US. It looks a little bit like scooters, but without the flat floor for your feet.  Also, the maximum legal displacement for the engine is 250cc.  Most people get a 125-150cc, rarely do you see anything larger. With them not being allowed on the toll roads (the only kind of freeway they have here), there aren't many places that you can go fast on a motorcycle.

Because the bikes are so small, when I got on, my knees are spread out away from the bike. In a V formation. Quite a bit wider than the motorcycle and the rider.

As we zoomed in between cars and other motorcycles, getting up on the curb and onto the sidewalk, avoiding people, I feel quite safe. Despite not wearing the helmet provided. The reason I feel quite safe is because I'm worried, quite worried about my knees. Either I'm lucky or my rider is one heck of a rider.  My knee would scrape other cars and motorcycles ever so slightly. If he had missed by 1/4", my patella would have been crushed when it hit the back of the car or the motorcycle, or another knee.

More photos in this album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andreosae/Pftt#

My daily trek home

This morning was the beginning of my second week working at Contained Energy. I live in Bogor, and the office is in Jakarta, about 40 miles or so.  My cousin Alfa is kind enough to take me with him in the morning even though it's a slightly longer route for him to take. I get up between 4-5 am and leave with him by 6-6:15am.

I would arrive at the spot where he would drop me off by 7:30-7:45.  If we leave any later, traffic would be so bad that I wouldn't be able to make it to work by 9am.  

From this point on I have an option of taking a mini bus, a medium size bus or hoof it on my own.  So far, I've only taken the medium size bus once and the rest of the time I walk in. 

Even this early in the morning, I am already feeling the heat and would be sweating even if I was just standing there. By the time I get to work, it takes me over an hour in front of the AC at full blast to stop sweating.

In fear of standing out from the rest of the crowd on my walk, I usually wear a tshirt and shorts.  The road I have to walk on passes by the courthouse where they're currently having a high profile trial. This trial already caused one riot resulting in several deaths and dismemberment. Funnily enough, that riot happened during my interview for this job.

The walk is not far, just about 3km (a touch under 2 miles).  But it is more like a trek. Sidewalks are practically non existent and I have to be on the road with the motorcycles and cars. When there are sidewalks, I have to watch where I'm stepping lest I fall into the hole that leads to the open sewer system underneath the sidewalks.  If the sidewalks are still intact, it's not really for pedestrians, but mainly for the motorcycles. But most of the intact sidewalks are neither for pedestrians or motorcyclists. Rather they are for entrepreneurs who set up shop willy nilly where there's space for them.

The road is narrow, barely wide enough for 3 cars abreast, but the lines indicate that it's for one lane each way.  No one follows this convention.  When the traffic is bad, there not even enough room for me, a single pedestrian to walk through it. Despite my willingness to risk getting burnt by the motorcycles' exhaust pipes.

Coming home is slightly different. I still need to walk the slightly under 2 mile walk to the same area where my cousin drops me off.  There, I pick up the bus that go straight to Bogor on the toll road.  If I'm lucky it will take between 40-50 minutes, up to 75 minutes if I'm not lucky.  One the bus is in Bogor, Dina might be able to pick me up or I have to take another bus home and about a 1km trek.  

Check out the road conditions and sidewalks on my picasa page, starting from this picture to the end:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andreosae/Pftt#5529322000144611410

New post on my cooking blog

I have another blog where I put my cooking ideas and recipes. Here's one on how to cook with your rice cooker:
http://andrerecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/and-im-not-just-talking-about-rice.html