Jakarta Indonesa v. Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Posted: January 2nd, 2017, 2:57 am
I have spent quite a bit of time in Jakarta, and I have also been to Malaysia this year.
Jakarta is extremely crowded. The city is very badly laid out. There is little in the way of side walks in most parts of the city. They have large deep drainage ditches on the sides of the road, and they don't cover them with western-style sidewalks with man-holes and nice neat drains. Rather, they have these cement plate things. The dirt will get in the cracks in the plates and clog up some of the ditches. These cement plates will be removed to keep motorcycles off the sidewalks. And in some places, the sidewalk area is just mud. In other places, there are electrical transformers in the way of pedestrians, or trees, or some sort of cement block thing, and you don't know why it's there. The city hasn't done a good job with side walks at all. Street vendors will block the sidewalk and you'll have to walk in the road to get around.
There are a few decent sidewalks in some areas, and some of the suburb areas benefited from city planning from developers. Usually, if a private company is in charge of something, it turns out okay. If the government is in charge of it, it's a mess. Just look in any of the nice buildings in Jakarta, with marble floors, and well laid out. But go on the street and see the mess the government is responsible for. The current governor, Ahok, a Christian, has been doing a good job at improving development with the mess he's been given, but the Islamicist extremists are having him tried on some pretty weak charges of alleged blasphemy, probably to keep him from being elected.
There is a pretty big intersection in town, and the government put up a barricade so they can build a monorail. But they blocked the intersection so that people have to walk in the street. And that is really dangerous.
What is so dangerous about the street? On a typical street during the day, there is slow moving traffic, with motorcycles going by as fast as they can, either weaving through traffic between lanes, or else along the edge of the road next to what passes for a side walk. There are so many of them.
The air is bad, too, especially right by the road. A number of people wear medical face masks or cloth face masks while walking around.
On the streets, there may be no lanes painted, and space for two lanes, but there are three lanes of traffic. If there is a shoulder, people will drive on the shoulder.
Compare this to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. They have around half the population to deal with. But the city is laid out in a reasonable manner. There are spaces where trees and other greenery grown. There are nice wide sidewalks. Traffic can be busy like any normal city, but it is nothing like Jakarta. People generally stay in lanes. Motorcycles weave between cars, and since there is not another vehicle in front of it, they can be dangerous whizzing by pedestrians out of nowhere, but there aren't many of them compared to Jakarta. What I saw of Kuala Lumpur looks like a developed country. It looks more like Singapore than it does Jakarta. It's like a cross between, but more on the Singapore side of things. Prices were fairly reasonable. I didn't really keep count, but I'm thinking it may have been just a bit more expensive than Jakarta. But I know where to get the cheaper stuff in Jakarta, and I don't know about Malaysia.
Taxis are quite a bit more expensive in Malaysia. I want to say about two or three times Jakarta, where they are quite cheap. UBER is even cheaper in Jakarta.
Kuala Lumpur is much nicer in terms of traffic.
In Jakarta, there are people who speak English, but most don't. It seemed like a lot of people spoke English in Malaysia. I did buy a pizza off a guy who did not understand English or Indonesian (which is close to Malaysian), but I think he may have been a Bengali immigrant. There are more Indians in Malaysia. I did not get a chance to sample the Indian food or the fushion food nasi kandar. But I did have an Indian 7 Eleven clerk not give me enough change, and then hand me the rest when the moment before I confronted him on it after I'd already gotten out of line and came back. It sure seemed intentional to me. I don't remember that sort of thing happening in Jakarta.
Jakarta is extremely crowded. The city is very badly laid out. There is little in the way of side walks in most parts of the city. They have large deep drainage ditches on the sides of the road, and they don't cover them with western-style sidewalks with man-holes and nice neat drains. Rather, they have these cement plate things. The dirt will get in the cracks in the plates and clog up some of the ditches. These cement plates will be removed to keep motorcycles off the sidewalks. And in some places, the sidewalk area is just mud. In other places, there are electrical transformers in the way of pedestrians, or trees, or some sort of cement block thing, and you don't know why it's there. The city hasn't done a good job with side walks at all. Street vendors will block the sidewalk and you'll have to walk in the road to get around.
There are a few decent sidewalks in some areas, and some of the suburb areas benefited from city planning from developers. Usually, if a private company is in charge of something, it turns out okay. If the government is in charge of it, it's a mess. Just look in any of the nice buildings in Jakarta, with marble floors, and well laid out. But go on the street and see the mess the government is responsible for. The current governor, Ahok, a Christian, has been doing a good job at improving development with the mess he's been given, but the Islamicist extremists are having him tried on some pretty weak charges of alleged blasphemy, probably to keep him from being elected.
There is a pretty big intersection in town, and the government put up a barricade so they can build a monorail. But they blocked the intersection so that people have to walk in the street. And that is really dangerous.
What is so dangerous about the street? On a typical street during the day, there is slow moving traffic, with motorcycles going by as fast as they can, either weaving through traffic between lanes, or else along the edge of the road next to what passes for a side walk. There are so many of them.
The air is bad, too, especially right by the road. A number of people wear medical face masks or cloth face masks while walking around.
On the streets, there may be no lanes painted, and space for two lanes, but there are three lanes of traffic. If there is a shoulder, people will drive on the shoulder.
Compare this to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. They have around half the population to deal with. But the city is laid out in a reasonable manner. There are spaces where trees and other greenery grown. There are nice wide sidewalks. Traffic can be busy like any normal city, but it is nothing like Jakarta. People generally stay in lanes. Motorcycles weave between cars, and since there is not another vehicle in front of it, they can be dangerous whizzing by pedestrians out of nowhere, but there aren't many of them compared to Jakarta. What I saw of Kuala Lumpur looks like a developed country. It looks more like Singapore than it does Jakarta. It's like a cross between, but more on the Singapore side of things. Prices were fairly reasonable. I didn't really keep count, but I'm thinking it may have been just a bit more expensive than Jakarta. But I know where to get the cheaper stuff in Jakarta, and I don't know about Malaysia.
Taxis are quite a bit more expensive in Malaysia. I want to say about two or three times Jakarta, where they are quite cheap. UBER is even cheaper in Jakarta.
Kuala Lumpur is much nicer in terms of traffic.
In Jakarta, there are people who speak English, but most don't. It seemed like a lot of people spoke English in Malaysia. I did buy a pizza off a guy who did not understand English or Indonesian (which is close to Malaysian), but I think he may have been a Bengali immigrant. There are more Indians in Malaysia. I did not get a chance to sample the Indian food or the fushion food nasi kandar. But I did have an Indian 7 Eleven clerk not give me enough change, and then hand me the rest when the moment before I confronted him on it after I'd already gotten out of line and came back. It sure seemed intentional to me. I don't remember that sort of thing happening in Jakarta.