Wednesday, October 22, 2008

An Offence In Jakarta

This could not be happening to us twice, I thought to myself when I saw the policeman flagged down our cab. Obviously our cab driver had failed to stop at the red light and had caught the sharp eyes of Pak Polisi, who was just standing around the corner. The last time, when a similar incident as this one happened to us, we were in Bangkok. The Bangkok cabbie was also stopped for not abiding the traffic rules and regulations.

And, now on this very historic day, on these busy streets of Jakarta, en route back from Mangga Dua Mall to our hotel in Central Jakarta, Pak Polisi had raised his hands and instructed our cab driver to pull to the side. All panicky and full of swears, he had no choice but to stop by the busy street.

Pak Polisi then came over and told the driver of the offence he had committed. He argued, saying that the light was still green when he made the turn. Our cabbie was asked to produce his documents. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a single piece of paper, proof of him as the authorized person to be behind the wheels. Boy…talk about living (and driving) dangerously!!

Mangga Dua Mall...where we had shopped earlier, before the cabbie incident


This upset our cabbie even more. As he dug into the glove compartment looking for something which we suspected, was never really there in the first place, nasty words came out from him. “Anjing…Pak Polisi, anjingan.” He even had the cheek to have me be his alibi. He said, “Ibuk nampak tadi yang lampu itu masih hijau? Ibuk silakan kasi tau sama Pak Polisi saya ngak buat salah apa-apa.” I gave him this dirty look which communicated in not so many words this message, "Hey, you screwed up, you get yourself out of this.”

Gotcha.... our driver

The three of us didn’t quite know what to do actually. We wanted to get out of the cab and go get a new one. Upon looking at his pathetic face, we however didn’t have the heart to abandon this cabbie. Hence, we decide to just stay put in the vehicle. It’d be just a while more, I assured both Muni and Jupe who were comfortably seated in the back.

Our cabbie, this small built Javanese man, went out from the car and went to “settle” things with the policeman. It was no secret that he didn’t have enough to get himself out of this rut. With a sad and pitiful face, he turned to me asking if he could borrow IDR20,000, the needed amount to pay off the anjing Pak Polisi. He promised he’d pay me back later. I handed him the money and he went out and came back not long after that.

He then continued to drive us back to our hotel. It was a long ride that was. Fortunately, our cabbie’s mood was back to normal and he was his usual chirpy self, some 3 kilometers away from the place he was stopped. He had now somewhat become our city tour guide. He even took us pass routes where we could view street demos from close vicinity. Ok lah…he was already forgiven for what he had done earlier on.

When we arrived at our hotel, I paid him the fare we owed him. Before I got out, he told me to wait as he wanted to pay me back the IDR20,000 I lent him earlier. Naahh…I shook my head indicating that he need not have to pay me back.

I must say, he was taken aback from my response. Alah tak pe lah….what is IDR20,000?? Equivalent to about RM6.00 our money. Sedekah je lah…

That day was his unlucky day, to be stopped by the angingan Polisi (as how he put it). I have had my fair share of escaping from our own Abang-Abang Polis back home. Thus, I knew how he must be feeling…

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Komen Pak Malim, kucing ray yg alim.

Kadang2 saya ada jugak pi Indonesia, kata Pak Malim sambil memeluk bohsia. Tapi sana banyak pencopet, kata Pak Malim dgn mata yg sepet.

Ummi365 said...

salam kay, can't remember where i came from and landed here in your home. i hope i am welcomed here. i guess you are right, hari ni hari dia.. mungkin esuk lusa hari kitakan..

kay_leeda said...

Pak Malim, kucing ray yang alim.

Ya ampun Pak...gi mana dong, kalu alim bisa peluk bohsia!!

Pencopet, iya Pak..emang nya ada di mana-mana. Tapi yang di Kota Jakarta tu harus hati-hati. Ranking nya 5 bintang!!

kay_leeda said...

Salam Perkenalan Ummi365.

You are so very welcome here, and everyone is. The more the merrier kan, they say.

Itu lah, kesian pada orang-orang di seberang tu. The odd job workers ala-ala kais pagi makan pagi je. That's why many come to our country to cari rezeki.

tireless mom said...

Laaa... I ingat you dah sonyap sonyap libur di Indonesia. Apasal lambat pulak posting ni. Hah, dah nak pergi Jakarta semula and gegar gegar Pak Polisi Anjingan

MHB said...

Salam sis!! Ni buat kunjungan balas ni... :-D

Waduh, enak banget belanja di Jakarta ya?? Ibuk iri dong!! :o)

Waterlily said...

What a sweet thing to do :) Am sure the cabbie berterima kasih banyak2 la to you, and dalam hati dia, bersyukur kat Tuhan and most probably too - mendoakan you sihat walafiat, sukses selalu...

p/s tersenyum simpul I baca your exchanges with Pak Malim si anon tu. Your balas pun superb gitu :)

AuntieYan said...

Salam Kay,

Auntie baru sekali ke Indon, Jakarta & Bandung, memang kehidupan mereka amat susah (yang susah le kan)...sian. Tah apa-apa depa jual di jalanan...Auntie kasi saja ongkosnya tanpa ambil dagangannya. :-)

Anonymous said...

waduh.. waduh.. ibuk Kay.. makin ramai peminat mu di blog ini..

... saya happy jadi salah satu pelakon nya....

ms hart said...

Kay!!! May I repeat what MHB has said up there?!! THAT place is berpu*k*....sentiasa terseru-seru...dan terpanggil-panggil gitu...bestnye.....ooppssss...tak sadar diriku ber'puasa'..hu hu

kay_leeda said...

TM,

Still got juicy stories on libur di Jakarta. As the cerita-cerita Raya & makan-makan come to an end, I shall slowly jadi tukang karut to the travel stories pulak.

Tungguuu......

kay_leeda said...

MHB,

Oh yesss....Jakarta, shoppers heaven and a chance to be Rupiah millionaires. Ahhh...can't never have enough of GarudaLand huh??

I might be heading there again in Nov. Perli Sang Hubby, next trip, go apply for Indon KTP (Kartu Tanda Penduduk)!!

kay_leeda said...

Waterlily,

Amin, amin Ya Rabbil alamin...

The needies are a plenty there, and at times you just can't close your eyes and leave your emotions at bay when seeing their living conditions. Tak pe lah, kita dari rumpun yang sama, dan kiblat yang sama.

Yess...Pak Malim memang nakal, kata Kay ketika menepuk bantal :)

kay_leeda said...

AuntieYan,

Memang ramai yang susah di sana tu. But asyik dok nak menolong je, beli ni, grab itu, terlebih sudah berat nyer luggage ku!!! AA jugak yg seronok collect bayaran for the xtra kilos.

kay_leeda said...

Dear Muni..si pelakun tambahan,

Eh..pelakun tambahan ker?? Bukan main cast meh?? Look out for more of our travel stories yah. You can start promoting our (mis)adventures :)

kay_leeda said...

Ms Hart,

Seru lah banyak-banyak kali...sure jadi untuk melayang ke sana. But then how not to go there, the things are so, so cheap. I came across one baju, the exact one like I bought in Jakarta. The price almost made me rolled down the escalator!! Mark up more than 300%!! I think I'm in the wrong line daaa...

Kak Teh said...

kay, aaah, so everything turned out okay in the end - Alhamdullillah. money talks anywhere and everywhere.