- Joined
- Jul 18, 2016
- Messages
- 609
Ha, I beat you on that front. We moved out of Jakarta while my wife was still pregnant.
Jakarta is fine if you're at a decent hotel, and don't have to go anywhere. Otherwise, spending 2-3 hours to drive 5-6 km at busy times is madness
I get the sense that Jakarta can be quite a fun place to live if you are a young single bule guy. Certainly that's what my younger male friends have told me. I'm guessing that life in a conservative backwater would not be nearly so much fun, if you like nightlife and, uh ... dating.
I have to agree with you both, especially Puspa who basically hit the nail on the head. When I arrived in Jakarta I was in my mid twenties and had a fantastic paying job and a very active "social life". Jakarta at that time was a different place than it is today, there was also the new and shiny factor as it was the first time I had lived in an Asian city. Because it was all new and different it was exciting and dynamic, a constant revelation. However despite the glamourous lifestyle the novelty of living there soon wore off after a few years for me. Fast forward a few years and with the advent of a wife and two kids, as a family we just couldn't do anything without having to sit in traffic for hours. We'd go to the packed mall and push them around in their pushchairs, we would take them to Ragunan zoo for the open spaces, again more horrific traffic and the place would be packed solid, Ancol would be the same. We went for a picnic at Monas one weekend thinking it would be good to let the kids kick a ball around on the grass, again we were driven crazy by persistent beggars who would stand and gawp at you, oblivious of the fact you're trying to have some QT with your family. I got to the stage where I was beginning to feel sorry for my kids growing up in such a shit hole, what sort of quality of life would they have in 5, 10, 15 years time was a question coming to mind more and more. When the opportunity presented itself out of the blue to move to Bali (Surabaya was the actual plan) we jumped at the chance. Who wouldn't ??