I have always admired foreigners who dare to commute on Indonesia's public transportation unaccompanied by a local. Compared to public transportation in several countries I had traveled through, Indonesia's is to me: complicated. That's not to mention the fact that I'm native to the language.

This is what's called "busway". In Jakarta, it's Transjakarta. Year after year, facilities have been improving a lot. However, there are still times when the audio announcement inside the bus is  totally misleading. The announcement would say that you are about to arrive at, let's say "AAA STOP", whereas you actually have already passed that stop a few minutes ago and are heading to "BBB STOP". Announcements are always given in Indonesian and sort of broken English. Hence, if you understand Indonesian well, you will get off at "BBB STOP" thinking that you are at "AAA STOP". If you don't understand, lucky you.

And those who understand, seemed not to care. So, how could we manage to find our way?? Ask! Tap on the driver's window, ask. Approach the assistant by the door (if present), ask. Turn to the fellow passenger next to you, ask.

This one is called angkot, the short of "angkutan kota", meaning "city transportation". Foreigners have been asking me a couple of times, "Where can you find the fare?" The answer is, "Nowhere can you find it." Just ask.

As I grew up, I understood why in 4th grade primary school we were drilled to memorize Indonesian proverbs. So much have I gotten them into my head that to this day I can still picture the classroom, I remember the teacher's name, and the notebook I used to jot down those proverbs. One of them was: Malu bertanya sesat di jalan. In English, it would be: "Be embarrassed to ask and you'll get lost." We were apparently, being prepared for survival.

 

In my next post, I will share how Indonesians value personal communication.