No, I’ve never been to Jarkata.
Among Asian countries, I’ve been to Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Japan, China, and South Korea. The only place where traffic is terrible, in my opinion, is Vietnam. In Hanoi you will be woke up by honks as early as 4 am. The streets are busy, always. Yet we are told to walk straight ahead when crossing the street and don’t wait for cars to stop. They say the drivers themselves will avoid hitting us. It was hard not to be afraid really, but I’ve seen the locals do this with ease. I actually find Bangkok streets to be peaceful with I came back.
If you’ve ever been to Bangkok, you’d know that the traffic here is notorious. Bangkok became the capitol of Thailand in 1782, so the community has started long before cars. Just so you can get the picture – it is said that all the streets of this city can support 2 million cars, but currently there are about 5 million around. And just like any other old cities, to adjust the city plan right now is almost impossible. Since the last decade, things are only a bit better when sky train (BTS) and metro (MRT) became available. Below is Bangkok on Valentine’s night… that was about 11 pm.
For now let me translate some of mk’s experience in Jarkata, in case I never get to visit the place in this lifetime. You can go see pictures in his blog.
- Jarkata is pretty much just as haphazard: people walking in the traffic selling things on expressway, people cross the street under overpass, motorcycles everywhere.
- They drive on the left, just like us.
- The traffic is even worst than Bangkok and NO other alternatives. Only have to be on the road.
- Express bus (here we call it BRT) works well, has its own special lane (also like in Bangkok).
- There are other types of buses in beat-up condition, like in Bangkok again.
Well, mk goes on about buildings, malls, food and whatnot, but that’s not my point so I’ll stop translating here. I’m just happy Bangkok is not the only one with that kind of traffic. No offence, Indonesians. Oh, and Chiang Mai will follow our path soon enough. I’ll write sometime about other forms of transportation in Bangkok. Tuk-tuk is only for tourist, mind you. It’s much more fun than that for the locals. 😉
nacrelet 