For many, Jakarta is a city of kampung, and in the kampung, roads quickly become winding, one-lane tracks, with a top speed of ten kmh. The road is effectively a shared footpath.
There are much-loved footpaths in neighbourhoods like Sudirman and Kemang, but over 90 percent of neighbourhoods do not have them.
And outside the kampung, roads are not shared. They are ruled by cars and scooters. There is no place for pedestrians.
Here are 30 things you could do if there were more footpaths in Jakarta:
1. Go for a walk, hand-in-hand
2. Flirt
3. Ride a skateboard
4. Explore a neighbourhood
5. Escape from air-conditioning
6. Read menus, peer in windows and choose a restaurant
7. Escape from your co-workers
8. Go on a pub crawl with your friends
9. Listen to a busker
10. Start a revolution
11. Take your dog for a walk
12. Wander randomly from one shop to another
13. Pick someone’s pocket
14. Eat from a food cart
15. Bump into people you know and have a chat
16. Play hop-scotch
17. Smell good things and bad things
18. Eat a dripping ice-cream cone
19. Get drunk and fall over
20. Look at the sky
21. Sell flowers from a bucket
22. Buy a flower for your lover
23. Go for a walk by yourself
24. Sing out loud
25. Beg from passersby
26. Ride a bike
27. Sleep
28. Find a street café and watch the passing parade
29. Smoke a cigarette
30. Nothing
Of course, if you really want to, you can do many of these things at your local mall.
But that is just saying swimming in a hotel pool is like swimming in the Indian Ocean.
This bule is on a mission to discover Jakarta’s best footpaths: please send your nominations to Instagram @indonesiaexpat or Facebook on Indonesia Expat for the best recommendations!
We all know it is not the same thing at all.