Five Things I Miss and Five Things I Don't Miss about Jakarta

Mal Sarinah in Jakarta Pusat

It's been 9 weeks since I left Jakarta and I miss the bitch! This south-east Asian concrete jungle of a city was my home for a year and what an intense experience it was? In the beginning, there was not a day that went by where I got pissed off with it and vented my frustrations to my house mates, colleagues or anyone that listened for that matter. The honest truth was that I did not love Jakarta! However, as  time went on, my attitude towards Jakarta mellowed out and I became tolerant and at some points liked it. As I mentioned before, I did not love Jakarta, but I appreciated her for taking me and not swallowing me whole as she had done to so many other foreigners. In the 9 weeks I've been away from her, I've reflected on my time there and I realised how much I got out of it. Friendship,a career option and the opportunity to travel. So I compiled a list of ten things - i.e. five things I miss and five things I don't miss - about living in Jakarta.

• I don't miss Jakarta traffic - I foreshadowed that this was going to be the bane of my existence in this blog and it continued to irritate the hell out of me the longer I lived there. Indonesians are some of the worst drivers in the world and it is any wonder why there are so many road fatalities in Jakarta alone? The worst was during wet season when people just forgot how to drive and created five lanes of traffic with malicious sounding car horns going on and on. I however dealt with it as well as I could and just rolled with it like every other sucker.
• I miss Indonesian food  -  If I'm being very honest, I did not love Indonesian food. I thought it lacked depth of flavour and was not very diverse. I could probably call it the British of Asian cuisine (very unfair!) Most Indonesian food is served warungs ,street carts, Padang restaurants and regular restaurants that specialise in regional Indonesian cuisine. But I digress, I did love some of the food on offer and ate them with no problems and as often as I could especially if it was SO good. My favourites were Beef Rendang (2nd picture),Sate Ayam (1st picture), Nasi Uduk,Ayam Goreng and Nasi Goreng.

• I don't miss taxi drivers - I can say with confidence that around 60% of the taxi drivers in Jakarta alone have tried to rip me off. The main reason for this is because I'm non-Indonesian and female *smh*. Another pet peeve I had was the drivers' lack of knowledge of the city. Unless you know where you are going,chances are you are going to get lost. The more lost you are, the more expensive cab ride will be.That shit frustrated me to death and I walked out on a few occasions and walked to my destination.
• I miss ojeks - Oh ojeks! (picture below). So much fun and so much frustration at the same time. Let me explain the fun part, an exhilarating and often times dangerous ride on these mad men on bikes gets you where you need to go within reason of course (ojeks don't go from one end of Jakarta to the next). Often, they got me where I needed to go in quick time, weaving in and out of traffic like a boss. The frustration came with bargaining with the occasional a-hole and dealing with their chauvinistic attitudes towards me, which I dealt with by telling them in kind exactly what I thought in English and Bahasa. Regardless, I enjoyed the ojeks and took them rather than taxis.

• I don't miss the pollution - Jakarta is without a doubt one of the dirtiest cities I've ever lived in. The air reeked of car fumes, rubbish was strewn in the streets and rivers.Look at the picture below at the skyline,look at the smog! It's not like I'm not used to pollution but I had not seen it on this level before and I'm sure the more I travel, the more I'll see it.

• I miss Ladies' Nights -  Apart from Facebar, this was my home. Nothing more satisfying than drinking cocktails that were free after a long ass day. Ladies' Nights were in specific bars around the city. However, my favourite and the one in which I was a patron was Thursday night at the Grand Hyatt. It made sense because I did not work the next day lol! Can you imagine Ladies Night in Edinburgh or just anywhere in the UK? The bars would be drunk dry.
• I don't miss being stared at  - I already talked about my feelings of being black in Jakarta in this post. It became quite irritating towards the end that people on my street who I saw day in day out stared at me like I had two heads. Don't get me wrong I am not the only person who has been 'othered', many of my colleagues- majority of whom are white - had experienced being stared at like they had not seen white people before. Bizarre considering you do see many some tourists trekking around Jakarta. Personally, I don't mind if people interact with me to try and get to know me but staring with no action is just plain rude and scary. 
•  I miss being in Indonesia - As much as I did not love Jakarta, I could not help but fall in love with Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and it was an honour living there. I only visited the popular islands of Bali (1st picture), Lombok (3rd picture) and Flores (2nd picture) but there is so much more to see and I would like to return and explore this lovely land. If I were to return to Indonesia, I would visit Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan,Papua and other parts of Java. I forgot to mention that I miss the heat now that I am back in 'sunny' Scotland.

• I don't miss smoking - I have a nasty secret to tell you... I started smoking again when I was in Indonesia!In Indonesia, there isn't a smoking ban like there is in the UK and cigarettes are dirt cheap (£1.00 a pack). Nearly everyone and there mother smoked here and it didn't help that my housemates and co-workers smoked too! It didn't take long for me to start having the odd one when I was drinking at a bar or a club. So one became two and then I started buying my own pack five years after quitting. I then decided to quit a month before Doc visited and I was fag free until October when I was in the middle of my breakdown. I quit them for good in the new year since I was going back home (at £8 pack in the UK, can you blame me?!). But why start again in the first place? I don't know perhaps boredom, peer pressure, lack of vice, whatever; I started and stopped as soon as I could. Do I miss it? Not really in all honesty.
• I miss my friends - A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles is a quote from Tim Cahill. This certainly resonates with me as I met so many interesting and awesome people. I met some wonderful Indonesians who made me feel welcome and at home. They made me feel comfortable and put up with me butchering their language. I will also mostly miss my fellow teachers especially the ones I had the distinct pleasure of working and living with. They had been nothing but my tower of strength and support during my year. I certainly made some friends for life out there with whom I would like to embark on another adventure wherever it may be. As a matter of fact, Little C and I are going to Denmark in May and the Jays (picture below) are coming to Scotland next week with Girl J staying with me for a couple of days. Excited much? Yes I am.

Have you ever missed a place after returning home? How did you cope being back home?