Lost in Jakarta

The latest news is not Bessie related. Last night Shih Mei asked me take her nephew Melvin back home. He had been hanging out all day with his cousins; Austin, Win Xien and Besandra. Shih Mei had to take Bessie to the doctor and Francis was I-don’t-know where. So Austin, Win Xien and Besandra piled into Francis’ BMW to take Melvin home

Shih Mei lives in Lippo Karawaci. It is a planned community built on the outskirts of Jakarta. This being a modern community the town center is a mall—all traffic is routed around the mal, like a big traffic-circle. To take Melvin home, all I had to do was drive to the other side of Karawaci, take a turn around the mall and come back. I did that all perfectly, except for one turn, which put me on the highway to ?????? Austin shouted, “You’re going the wrong way!” Something I had already figured out.

Highways in Indonesia are not like highways in the US or Malaysia or Brazil or Hungary, all places I have driven. Highways in Indonesia are not well marked and not well lit. Nor is it certain that if you get off at an exit that it will be obvious how to get back on going the other direction. Nevertheless, finding myself on a highway, my first instinct was to get off. We found ourselves on a very dark street with motor cycles wizzing by. After a little bit I made an illegal u-turn and went back under the highway. There was no obvious entrance back on. When Win Xien pointed to the entrance ramp, I didn’t believe him. It was completely unlit and there was no sign. But what do you know, it was an entrance ramp which put us back on the highway going the same direction as before—away from Shih Mei’s house.

Earlier I had noticed no u-turn signs along the median. I had to drive a while farther, but at the next sign I did an illegal u-turn. Now at least we were going the right direction. It took us a while to get back to Karawci. I had called Shih Mei earlier to tell her my predicament. As we exited, I got Shih Mei on the phone. She gave turn by turn instructions how to get from the exit back to the center of Karawaci, something I am not certain I would have been able to do without her on the line.

I’m not eager to drive again.