Jakarta: Best Place to Learn Patience

Patience is a virtue. Patience is a virtue. Patience is a virtue. Om... or so the mantra went in my mind during one of the worst time ever in my life. I sat hunched in a small car with four other girls, all of us were starving, in serious need for relieving ourselves from the increased pressing down under and was so tired from swearing everyone in charge of this stinking hell hole which was Jakarta. We were trapped in a freeway (freeway! Oh the irony of it!) for almost six hours just because we wanted to celebrate my friend's birthday.

Luckily, I don't live there anymore. I live in an island where you don't have to be trapped for three hours just because you made a spontaneous decision of visiting your boyfriend in his house. Here, I could just do a spontaneous U-turn and reward myself with a lychee martini and peaceful sunset without the need to stuck in traffic for hours (except of course when Homo Jakartanesis decides to have an island getaway and flock to this tiny island and create yet another traffic).

My favorite Time magazine recently created a list of The Best of Asia 2009. Maldives was rewarded as the best place to hear the call to prayer. Philippines was named as the best place to eat suckling pig. China was mentioned as the place to get autumn hike. How about Indonesia, you ask. Well, it certainly received a mention as well. Jakarta to be more precise. Apparently, Jakarta is the best place to learn patience. In a car. For hours. Waiting for your gallbladder to burst open.

In the article written by Jason Tedjasukmana, Jakarta's traffic will grind to a complete halt by 2014. That is five years from now. If the government don't take any immediate action, Jakarta will be an underwater city with traffic. Advice to the hip-trendy-cooler-than-thou-Jakartans: maybe it's time to seek job else where? You know, just in case.