Jason's Jakarta Jottings #2 : Time Difference

    I just learned a few weeks back that Indonesia is so far spread out that they have 3 times zones. Being in Jakarta, the time here is (GMT +7) 1 hour behind Malaysia.  In Bali and nearby islands, its GMT +8, or same time as KL, and finally nearer towards Australia, in Papua, its GMT +9 (1 hour ahead of Malaysia)


The thing is, even though its an hour behind Malaysia here, the sun here rises at 6.15 in the morning and sets about 6-ish in the evening. (thats about same time in Malaysia if you factor in the time difference). So now, usually i will be wide awake at 7-ish or 8 on weekends because the sun is already up, and fools me to think I am oversleeping... And at night, I tend not to go out after work even though its only 7pm cause its already pitch black outside.

Its especially weird when i get off work at 5pm, jam my way back for an hour, and this its all dark. It almost feels like as if I worked till 8pm or something.

Looks like I just gotta get used to the timing here.

Early to bed,
Early to rise,
Makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise!

Jason's Jakarta Jottings #1

Its been more than half a year and many things have come and gone.

Right now I am currently in Jakarta for work till February. And I feel it would be good for me to jot down some of my observations whilst living here. The weekend of my second week has arrived, and the thing I would like to note  first of all has to be the traffic condition here.

Even before I arrived, I have known and been told that Jakarta's traffic jam is the worst in the region. Based on experiences from colleagues who travel here for work often, I would think so too.
But thankfully, my exposure to these jams has been mild.

Thankfully I live in the nearest town to my office (about 20km). So far, on a bad day it would take me more than an hour to reach either home or office. On a good day, as rare as they may come, it would take me slightly over 20 minutes.

With the very heavy traffic here, I feel grateful that traffic in KL isn't that bad after all. In fact, I used to think that the 110kmh speed limit was a bit on the low side for a 3 lane highway, until I arrived in Jakarta.

Right now, i feel privileged to be able to reach speeds of 80kmh on the highways here. There were times when I reached speeds of 90kmh and above, I felt that i was going too fast. And I actually slowed down! And even driving at 60-80kmh, I would arrive at office in good time. RIght now, I feel blessed that our Road conditions in KL are better, but I wouldn't have been grateful have I not driven on the roads here myself.

My first observation, and I will make more as time goes on.


Boodyboy, out!