Yesterday, I traveled from Malang, in East Java, to Salatiga, in Central Java. I started my journey by being driven to the train station by my friend Iris on her motorbike:
Then I took the train:
I was so impressed – the chairs could rotate around so you could face a group of 4 or face forward. Brilliant!
Then I took a beck (a bicycle rickshaw):
Then I took a bus:
Then I took an angkot (a city-wide mini-bus):
Then I walked the last three blocks to my house!
In addition to all that, in the last month, I have used the following modes of transportation: airplane, taxi, private car, motorcycle taxi, ferry, speedboat, carpool, bicycle, and horse cart. Indonesia is great because they seem to embrace every new option without losing the previous ones. I regularly see motorcycles zipping around SUVs trying to pass horse carts that are held up by bicycle rickshaws. This apparently necessitates these signs at the highway on-ramp:
1, no walking, 2, no motorcycles…
…3, no rickshaws, 4, no push carts, 5, no pull carts, 6, no bicycles, 7, no bicycle rickshaws…
… 8, no… um… covered wagons?
So it looks like horse carts are totally allowed! Or maybe they need a few more signs…
