Damri Bus

Soekarno-Hatta Airport Jakarta is not in Jakarta Province. This airport is located in Banten Province. The Government of Indonesia built this airport outside Jakarta to replace Kemayoran airport which located in the center of Jakarta. Kemayoran airport was closed due to safety reason and couldn’t develop with fast city growth around Kemayoran. The runway of Kemayoran airport is use as big road now. The name is Jl Benyamin S., which is the name of most popular Jakarta entertainer.

So, Soekarno-Hatta Airport is far from Jakarta. This airport has good pilot visibility from the sea and enough space for development. The best and special way to airport is Tol Bandara (airport toll-road). Airport toll-road is connected with city toll-road and other Jakarta toll-road. Although toll-road in Indonesia called as jalan bebas hambatan (free obstacle road), airport and city toll-roads often have traffic jam mainly in the morning and the afternoon.

One of public transportation to and from airport is Taxi. There are many taxi companies in airport. If we have enough budgets, we can use Silver Bird that has best service and safety or we can use another taxi companies with cheaper fare. But for the cheapest public transport is by bus. Indonesian people call it bus Damri (Damri Bus).

Damri bus load passenger from arrival terminal 1A, 1B, 1C, and 2F. These buses have many destinations in Jakarta and some point outside Jakarta. Almost of them are bus or angkot terminals (see “Terminal in Jakarta”). Damri bus destinations are:

South Jakarta: Pasar Minggu terminal,

Blok M terminal,

Kampung Rambutan terminal,

Lebak Bulus terminal, and

Bogor terminal.

East Jakarta: Rawa Mangun terminal,

Tanjung Priok harbour,

Bekasi, and

Cikarang.

Center of Jakarta: Gambir train station,

Kemayoran, and

Mangga Dua Square mall.

Damri bus fares are Rp 25.000 (25 thousand rupiahs) for Cikarang and Bogor, Rp 23.000 (23 thousand rupiahs) for Bekasi, and Rp 20.000 (20 thousand rupiahs) for other destinations. With rate of exchange nine thousand rupiahs per US$, the most far destination is less than 3 US$.

Damri Bus is big bus and has about 40 seats capacity. But in the busy time some passengers will be ready to standing due to all seats occupied. The bus equipped with air conditioning and use toll-road. The buses are departed every one hour or less depend on demand. From Jakarta, these buses depart every one hour or every half hour in the morning or in busy time start from 04.00 a.m. (local time).

Terminal in Jakarta

Jakarta as capital city of Indonesia is most crowded city in Indonesia. Millions peoples moving every day in Jakarta for work, business, study, trading, tourism, and government activities. Some of them use private car or motorcycle and the others use public transport. Many kind of public transports available in Jakarta such as big bus with AC, big bus without AC, medium bus, busway, train, taxi, bajay, ojek (motorcycle), and angkot (public transport with 10-15 seat passengers).

How to memorize them?

Is everybody in Jakarta remembers all route of public transports?

The answer is no. More than 100 routes are available for angkot and bus in Jakarta. We couldn’t remember all routes except we use all of them everyday. Most of Jakarta people only remember routes for their own daily activities. So, how about if they want to go to other places or other routes? They use public transport terminal as guidance.

We can go the nearest terminal and find public transport that passing or toward our destination. For example, if we stay in South Jakarta and want to go to Sudirman street, we can go to Blok M terminal and find bus that passing through Monas.

Terminals also could use as direction guidance. Some terminals are end points of Jakarta, so if we ride public transport and stop in terminal, we already at one of Jakarta end points.

Big terminal

In this terminal type, we almost can found any kind public transports to all other Jakarta terminal and also buses to another cities in Java and Sumatera islands. Most of Indonesian peoples moving in to Jakarta and moving out from Jakarta in this terminal type. The examples are Pulogadung, Kampung Rambutan, and Kalideres.

Medium terminal

In this terminal type, not all routes to other cities are available, but all routes to other destination in Jakarta are available. The examples are Pasar Minggu, Lebak Bulus, Blok M, and Pasar Senen.

Angkot terminal

In this small terminal, there are only a few angkot routes as public transports available. Sometimes there is no terminal building. The angkot use some area for stop and rest as end point or starting point. The example is Cililitan.

The terminal position determines traffic of passenger and vehicle. Terminal in strategic or center position will be busy terminal. Almost all roads in front of or behind terminal always get traffic jam. Some crowded terminals have bad security and safety. Copet (pickpocket) hang around inside and outside terminal. So, be careful if you have to go to terminal and its surrounding.

KRL

KRL which means KeReta Listrik is electric train. KRL is one of reliable public transports in Jakarta. KRL usually consist of eight compartments and driven by electric power. KRL moves from some area around Jakarta (Bogor, Bekasi, Tangerang) to downtown Jakarta. Base station of KRL in center Jakarta is at Stasiun Jakarta Kota (Jakarta City Station) or sometimes we call Stasiun Kota.

This station is located near “old city” area and build by Dutch colonial government. From Stasiun Kota we can go to south direction to Depok and Bogor and passing many little stations. In east direction we can go to Bekasi and passing some another little stations. From Stasiun Kota to west direction we can go to Tangerang and Serpong. The stations that passed by KRL for every route shows on map below.

There are three types of KRL. The first one is KRL Express which only stops at big station like Gambir and end station, so this KRL have high speed and equip with Air Conditioning. Of course, the ticket fare is highest than other type. Route for this KRL are Jakarta-Bogor, Jakarta-Bekasi, Jakarta-Depok, Jakarta-Serpong, Bogor-TanahAbang, Depok Tanah Abang, Bojong Gede-Tanah Abang, and Jakarta-Bojong Gede.

The second type is KRL economy class. This KRL isn’t equips with Air Conditioning and stops at almost all station in its route. Ticket price is lowest but speed is slower and sometimes passed by KRL Express. The passenger in economy KRL is many more than KRL Express. In the morning and afternoon this KRL overload and very hard to get into or exit from KRL. The route is same with KRL express but stops in every station. Sometimes when passenger is overload, the train stops due to some reason and the air is hot, situation inside this KRL is same with steam-bath. Big sweat will appears from skin and clothes will completely wet. If a passenger complaint with this condition, another passenger will advises to not ride this KRL tomorrow. Off course both of them will ride this KRL again next day because this KRL type is cheapest transport in Jakarta.

The third type is KRL AC Economy. This KRL is like KRL Economy but equips with Air Conditioning. The ticket fare is between economy and express. Some peoples which need stop at little station but also need comfortable compartment choose this KRL type.

For all of KRL type, passengers have only some seconds to enter or exit from KRL. For economy class, the time available is less than one minutes. For some station which more passengers load and unload, available time is longer. For KRL AC which must open and close doors, available time is longer than economy class. If you will use KRL for first time, please be careful. Don’t insist to enter if time is running out or KRL starts moving. Better if you try not in busy time. Don’t forget to watch your property because sometimes copet (pickpocket) use this opportunity to action.

Busway

Busway is the newest public transport in Jakarta. This type of transport was adopted from Bogota public transport system for reduce and avoid traffic jam in the busy city. Busway in Jakarta is bus with special system. It has two doors in both sides to allow drop and pick passenger from shelter which on left side or right side of the bus. The bus is wide enough so have maximum load by standing passengers.

The bus only stop at shelter and have fix path that free from other vehicle. Busway will free from traffic jam in its path. The busway path has borders that will separates from other vehicles. This special “way” makes name of Busway. Busway are adequate for middle and high class peoples because it have more secure, comfort, fix time and clear destination. Every shelter has name, instruction, and direction. The passenger could prepare when destination will be reach. Just be careful when exit or enter busway because there is a little gap between bus and shelter. So watch your step while exiting or entering.

The local Government plan to build 10 busway routes to accommodate maximum coverage in Jakarta. Until now, 8 routes already operated. Some routes have good service and facility but some routes haven’t good enough facilities. The best route is BlokM-Kota which is the first route open. The bus is more comfort and the path is relatively straight and roads are flawless. This route has red bus. Other route use blue, grey, and orange bus.

Busway is also cheap public transport. We can walk around Jakarta by busway for only 3500 rupiahs as long as not exit from shelter or stop at end shelter. We can change route or bus at connection shelter. If we enter shelter before 07 am, ticket fare is only 2000 rupiahs.

For easy and effective trip by busway, we should read route map first. This map could g

et from some books, brochure, or other sources. If you didn’t have busway map yet, you could see map below.

City Traveling

Some travel and tourism activities in Indonesia are visiting natural attractive place, such as beach, waterfall, valley, mountain and high terrain, island, cave, forest, and sea. The other activity is visit Indonesian heritage which consist of culture, building or temple, and dance.

Indonesia is big country that consist of thousands islands, 33 provinces, and hundreds cities. Some islands like Bali and Borneo are popular, but only a few cities are known by tourists. Indonesia are not only Jakarta and Denpasar, but also Medan, Padang, Surabaya, Makassar, Ambon, and hundreds another cities. Almost all of province capital city have airport, so we can visit easily.

Indonesia are consist of many ethnic, culture, geographic condition, climate and history. These makes one city is different with the others. Every city has their special characteristic. If you want to know Indonesia well, you must visit all cities in Indonesia. So, city traveling is important and interesting. By city traveling you will safer because facilities, transportation, accommodation, entertainment, public information are relatively more complete than in village or natural tourism spot.

If we have short time to visit a city, how to make us feel this city well?

We could try the unique food, walk around by public transport, meet and talk with the people, visiting landmark, and buy some merchandises or souvenirs.

For example, if you go to Yogyakarta, you could eat Gudeg, walk around by becak, visiting Keraton and Prambanan Temple, and buy silver accessories. If you go to Palembang, we could eat empek-empek, visiting Ampera Brigde and great Musi River by traditional boat, watch manufacturing process of traditional clothes Songket Palembang and bring it as souvenir. Of course, in Jakarta we could eat Kerak telur, riding bajay, visiting Old City and many museums.

Maybe little bit difficult to talk to people we meet because not all Indonesian peoples could speak English. But if you look their behavior, you will see the people characteristics in each city. Culture and history really makes every city in Indonesia have their unique characteristic.

City traveling is one of best choice for recreation or tourism activities because we can visit in short time (two days or less), we don’t need to worry because public facilities and accommodation are suitable for visitor, easy to meet people with national and international language capability, and international or standard food available.

So let’s visit cities in Indonesia as we could and discover how rich Indonesian cultures are. If we sort cities from the biggest, the cities in Indonesia that easy enough for city traveling are : Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Bandung, Jogyakarta, Makassar, Balikpapan, Denpasar, Padang, Semarang, Solo, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Menado, Samarinda, Banjarmasin, Pontianak, Jambi, Banda Aceh, Ambon, Mataram, Lampung, Palangkaraya, Malang, Kupang, Bengkulu, Kendari, Palu, Jayapura, Gorontalo. Of course, these cities are only small amount of all Indonesian cities. All of cities above have airport with regular flight.

If we want to visit cities in Java Island, we also can use train or bus as transportation. Off course some cities need more time. For illustration, if we depart from Jakarta to Semarang in Central Java, we need about 6 hours by train. From Jakarta to Bandung in West Java is just two hours by car. From Jakarta to Surabaya in East Java is about 10 hours by train. But if we already at Semarang, we need just two hours to Solo and three hours to Yogya by car which have many traditional heritage and tourism destination.

So, where we could go if we want to exit for a while from stressed Jakarta activities in weekend and limited budget? I suggest Bandung, Bogor, and Cirebon. Bandung and Bogor are just only two hours by car and Cirebon is just only three hours by train. We can go at Friday night or Saturday morning and return at Sunday afternoon. Because many peoples in Jakarta have same idea, its will be better if we reserves (booking) train ticket and hotel room first.

bajay

Bajay is the most popular public transport in Jakarta, Indonesia. Three wheels, red scheme, high vibration, noisy engine, and high pollution exhaust. Bajay came from India as city public transport.

The bajay service system is like as taxi but different vehicle quality. Passenger stops bajay, asks the driver to carry to desire destination and negotiates the cost for this service. If driver and passenger agreed, passenger opens the door and sits down behind the driver. Before Bajay starts to run, passenger must be ready to suffer high vibration and suddenly turn. Bajay could turn left or right suddenly depend on driver desire. It makes bajay very agile and makes one idiom: “Only God and driver that know when bajay will turn”.

Bajay have some advantage than other public transport. High speed, agile to passing traffic jam, efficient, could use narrow street, and cheap. Some bajay drivers allow his vehicle to carry until 5 persons. Of course, the passengers must be slim enough.

Although bajay give some problem like pollution, traffic jam, dirty look, and chaos in traffic, but some people still rely on bajay for support their activity. The speed, easy to use, and cheap cost make bajay still many in Jakarta.

The local government tries to reduce bad impact of Bajay by give limitation to bajay operational area and replace old bajay with new bajay using environment friendly gas engine. The new bajays are cleaner, wider, smoother, and better look than old bajay. The replacement process couldn’t quick enough because need some million rupiah investment per bajay. So, we still found more number of red old bajay than green new bajay. Some people that use bajay daily prefer old bajay because new bajay slower than old one. Actually old bajay more agile than new one because new bajay wider than the old one.

For people lives far outside Jakarta, Bajay is trademark of Jakarta public transport. You couldn’t say ever go to Jakarta if you weren’t feel Bajay vibration yet. So, if you in Jakarta, please tries one of this Jakarta trade mark.

For your info, you must know your destination and the cost first before using Bajay. For reference : minimum payment is 3000 rupiah, until 1 km is about 5000 rupiah, 1-2 km is about 7000 rupiah.

Becak

How many transportation vehicles did you know? Airplane, car, bus, train, boat are most known transportation. In Indonesia you will be meet becak, bajay, and bemo. All of them are three wheels vehicles. Bemo and bajay only in Jakarta. Becak is prohibited in Jakarta but popular in another city.

In Semarang, Central Java, you will feel that becak in this town is wider than becak in Bandung. Becak in Palembang, South Sumatera have unique shape. They use flat roof not circular like in another city.

In Gorontalo, becak not using human power but using motorcycle power. Front wheel of motorcycle replaced by passengers compartment. In this town becak called as Bentor (becak motor).

In Medan, North Sumatera, and Aceh, Becak motor also as popular public transportation but the motorcycle is stick on the right side of passenger compartment.