This was my first time in Jakarta. I cannot pinpoint any reason why it took me a long time to visit Indonesia. Maybe I associate it closely with work. Or maybe because of my experience below (which I half-expected already).

Anyway, because I have no idea how to navigate in Jakarta, a friend told me to just book Blue Bird taxi to bring me to my hotel, Artotel Thamrin, safely. I saw a Blue Bird ad at the airport and learned that it had an app so I quickly downloaded it and proceeded to book my taxi online.

The problem is it could not pinpoint my pickup point since I was under the train tracks or some kind of structure. The GPS was out of whack. So I had to ask a lot of people (airport personnel, guards, airport police) if the pickup point was correct. But they could not understand me. No one speaks English nor understand it. And they kept pointing me to different directions 😭.

All they understood was Blue Bird. Then pointed to me to these queue of taxis.

So I had to call Durian Writer to ask if Blue Bird is a generic name for taxi as well (kinda like Colgate and then there’s colgate). He said no. (Oh btw, I called him up at halfway past midnight for some SOS). He talked to one of the guards via my phone to give him instructions in Bahasa to direct me where a Blue Bird taxi can pick me up.

But the guy kept pointing me to this. He just kept on saying “Blue Bird, Blue Bird.”

I was already going in circles for an hour. I went up because Durian Writer said maybe the pick up point for Blue Bird may be at the 2nd level.

I was really tired. I wanted to cry. No one understood me. I asked Durian Writer if I can just hop on in one of the taxis queuing. But you know, we were both Filipino reporters and know that it was a terrible idea to do that in Manila so we both thought we’d rather err on the side of caution. Stick to Blue Bird. But no one could properly point me or instruct me how to get a Blue Bird taxi.

Then an idea struck Durian Writer: Take a picture of where I was. I did. It was the photo above, showing the monitor for the taxi queue. Then he said look for a kiosk where they issue taxi queue slips.

Then he said look for Blue Bird. I did. I clicked on the touchscreen and ordered a Blue Bird. And took my queue ticket.

And my taxi came a few minutes later.

We took the expressway, traffic was not so bad, about 45 mins to Thamrin. I had Google Map with me to make sure the driver is not taking me anywhere I shouldn’t be (horror stories of rogue Manila airport taxis kept popping in my head). I had to pay for about IDR 17,000 tollway fee and my taxi fare or about IDR 127,000 plus booking fee I think.

Total was between IDR 150,000-IDR 200,000 (PHP 540-PHP 720). I no longer remember the exact amount because my brain was no longer functioning.

I got to check in my hotel at 2:30 am. Slept at 3 am. And I had an appointment at 9 am.

It was a miserable experience. The airport could have had some kind of instructions how to get taxis plastered at the exit for foreigners who are new to Jakarta. Just like what they had in Bangkok.

There was no instruction in English that says Blue Bird can be booked via an app AND via the kiosk outside.

The airport people whom I asked for help should have brought me to the kiosk and pointed out that I could order Blue Bird via the screen. But no, they kept pointing me to the taxi stand.

I should have read blogs on how to fucking get out of the airport especially no one speaks English.

So now, I am writing a blog entry for hapless idiot travelers like me who have arrived in Jakarta for the first time.

*no more train service so I was limited to taxis