One of the problems in Jakarta is that if you get in a taxi during the day you likely will travel at about five miles per hour (just beyond walking speed) owing to traffic gridlock. Indeed, on one occasion it took me close to four hours to travel about five miles.

On many of the main roads there is, however, a dedicated busway, with buses more or less zipping by as you are stuck in traffic. From what I have learned, you go to one of the stations where the buses stop, buy a ticket for 3500 rupiah from a manned booth, and you are on your way. I will likely check this out today (although given it is a holiday with diminished traffic, today is probably not going to be the acid test of how much time one can save) but have a couple of questions if anyone out there can help.

The line I will be experimenting on goes from Kota to Blok M. So, if anyone knows, and assuming it won't be obvious once I get to these two places, how do I get to the main P4P areas from the two bus stations? Any help on this would be appreciated and I am sure helpful to others who later visit Jakarta.

Getting ON from chinatown area is easy: There's a station right in front of the Mercure Rekso.

And it is also easy to get off at Blok M, as there's a hugely major station toward the end of the line named "Blok M"?

But you're indeed right, that after getting OFF in Blok M, things are kind of a blur un less you know exactly where you're going (or have a good, handy MONGERING MAP).

ME, I just followed MongerX?

Worse comes to worst, you can take a tuk-tuk thingy for about a dollar to Melawai Hotel... ASK ME HOW I KNOW?

In Bangkok, I avoid tuk-tuks owing to the fact one of the requirements for being a tuk tuk driver there is that you have a certain leech-like quality that makes it impossible to deal honestly with your customers.

How about in Indonesia? I have avoided them given my experiences in Thailand, but realize it is a rather weak analogy. Are the tuk-tuk thingys in Indonesia okay?

I've taken a grand total of ~THREE in my handful of Jakarta trips, so take this for what it's worth.

They are only marginally less effective than ojeks at zipping in and out of traffic. A buck (at worst TWO) gets you a ride when the alternative is sometimes walking around in circles in tropical heat, or stuck in traffic in a regular taxi.

Just for comparison, Ojeks (motorcycle 'taxis') rates start at 40-50K rupiah (40-50 cents). The downside of ojeks is greater risk of life and limbs and LICE from wearing the scuzzy LCD helmet they proffer!

The TJ can be a life saver, but it can also be an utterly miserable experience. A couple of times when trying to board it at the Blok M terminal, I have gotten caught in a sweltering crush of humanity on the platform. They will only let so many people each bus as it departs, so there is room for people toembark further down the line. At rush hour - when you hope to save the most time - this can lead to getting crammed with hundreds of other people on the tiny platform for up to a half an hour. In those conditions 30 minutes can seem like an enternity in hell. I also felt bad for those locals were squeezed against my totally sweat drenched clothing.

I have already experienced both sides of the TJ equation. On my first trip, we were crammed like sardines into the bus, which had all its windows sealed shut so the air conditioning could theoretically work, which in reality it did not.

On three other trips though, I got a seat without a problem (I cheated two times though, by getting on at a terminal station), and on one of those there were only a handful of passengers. And although the air conditioning was not strong, it was adequate.

I haven't yet experienced a long delay in being able to get on the bus, but I have already seen enough to understand how this could easily happen.

So, I guess I'm going to have to figure out (to the extent it is possible to do so) which times are the best to avoid the system, and I'm sure rush hour, as Mongerx relates, is one of them. But all in all, a twenty minute bus ride to Lokasari Plaza or Kota, beats a 55 to 110 minute taxi ride, at least when the buses aren't exceedingly overcrowded.

Porker wrote: Just for comparison, Ojeks (motorcycle 'taxis') rates start at 40-50K rupiah (40-50 cents).

Porker I used to use ojeks a few times a day, everyday since it's the best way to get through traffic. The price used to be 5k but nowadays they let me walk for that much depending on where you catch the ojek at. I've found that todays price is about 5-8k.