Train from BNI City to Jakarta international airport. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
*Life took over so this post is several months late*
I had major infrastructure envy when I was leaving Jakarta to go back to Manila in July.
Let me start off with this: I technically stayed there for 48 hours since my MNL-JKT-MNL flights were red-eye trips. Getting a taxi during rush hour in Jakarta is a pain when using ride hailing apps. It’s more painful when hailing ordinary taxis off the streets because they don’t speak nor understand English. I was at the mercy of the hotel staff, who also could barely speak English, to get me a taxi to take me to BNI City to take the express train to the airport.
To my pleasant surprise, their terminal looked like a mall
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on @callmecreation on Instagram
Waiting for the train is not a miserable experience too. It’s airconditioned, not crowded, and it’s clean. Although it’s tough to pay for tickets because cash is seldom used.
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
I paid a peso equivalent of P250+ for this:
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
The train is fast (less than an hour to the airport), clean and not crowded. It took only three stops to get to the airport at around 8 pm.
And damn it, their airport has skytrains to connect T1, T2, and T3.
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
I wanted to cry all the way from Jakarta to Manila. I blame the stupid masses for voting for useless politicians who are just looking after their self-interest. I blame the 16m people who voted for a narcissistic president. I blame myself for pinning my hopes on a country that I believed would change. Here we are, Jakarta and Philippines are often compared due to the similarities in demographics, economic growth, geography, and level of corruption. And yet they have better infra than we do. Fuck it. All the Philippine government is doing is tooting its own horn and patting itself on the back.
Why can’t we have nicer things here in the Philippines?
This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
I cry for my country. I am almost giving up.