Home alone

The man has just left on his 2 week Jakarta-London-New York-Jakarta business trip, leaving me alone with the kiddo. When we first got here, we tried to arrange it so that all his overseas business trips coincided with us going back to KL on holiday. At least then I was back in the bosom of my family and didn't have to worry about being alone in a strange country. Now however, we feel like seasoned expats. Kiddo and I both have our own programs and really, the crime rate in KL makes it such that I reckon it's safer to stay in Jakarta.

Just the other day I was commenting to my driver that KL has had many incidents of snatch thievery, some even leading to death. I wanted his opinion on why he thought it hardly happened in Jakarta (or we never hear of it anyway). According to him, many years ago it was a common thing. However Jakarta is pretty much riddled with kampungs and this holds true even in the expat residential areas. So with the local economy so dependent on the expats ie. maids, drivers, security guards, pool cleaners, gardeners (and on and on, the list is endless), the kampung folk could not risk having the expats driven away through crime. So they took it into their own hands to find and 'discipline' these riff raff. Troublemakers and petty thieves were turning up badly assaulted or worse, disappearing completely! Over time, these crimes stopped happening. Of course, he continued, if you venture out into gang controlled areas in the city then it might happen. So, I now follow a simple rule, before going anywhere new, I ask my driver. If it's iffy, he always tells me not to go or offers to go with me. Not that I've taken him up on that. Shopping with my driver in tow just seems a little weird to me.

The other reason it's so much safer here is that there are no pedestrian pavements to speak of. Short of risking your life playing dodge the motorbike/ bajaj/ car going the opposite direction, it's easier and safer to just be dropped at the doorstep of wherever you want to go. All these places have parking attendants that direct cars into postage stamp sized parking spaces. Thus you're never more than about 10 feet from someone for whom your continued well being is essential to their continued well being... So don't worry about us daddy, we'll stay well away from dodgy areas and crumbling sidewalks. See you again in 2 weeks... mwah!