Bajaj II

I wrote about Bajaj a couple of weeks ago on my blog. (Pronunciation is bah-j-eye) Back then I hadn’t tried Bajaj yet. This past Sunday, I went to KOI Restaurant and Gallery and on the way home, I decided to take Bajaj. I met two expats last week who take Bajaj, so that triggered my interest to take Bajaj. As a foreigner it is a bit intimidating as it is a small ride basically on the back of a motorcycle and you don’t see many expats ride them. I was more concerned about the safety, but many Indonesians take it, plus I figured if I ride it on the day when there are not many cars on the street and from the place not far from where we live, it should be okay.

That’s why I picked Sunday to try it for the first time. The number of cars you see on the street is significantly smaller because most of the drivers have a day off on Sunday. (In Jakarta, most expats hire drivers for safety reasons.)

I stepped outside KOI, got on the side of the road with my little girls and not even a minute later, a Bajaj stopped in front of us. You have to negotiate the price before you get on. He offered a price and I replied in a broken Bahasa Indonesian “Taxi, same price. I can take taxi.” He lowered the price and I agreed. I probably paid more than most Indonesians pay, but I thought as long as he took us three home, I’d be happy to pay. It’s really a small amount.

The ride was interesting. I actually enjoyed it. You get to appreciate the view of the side street more because Bajaj goes much slower than cars. You hear this engine noise loud in the seat and you’re exposed to the exhaustion of cars, but as you can see in my pictures, there were not many cars, so it didn’t bother me.

My girls had more of nervous or curious expressions on their faces, but they also enjoyed the ride. My family will probably flip when they see these photos. They don’t really worry about me, but they do worry about my girls. Anyways, I would rate the ride 3 stars, pretty comfortable and interesting! If you ever come to Jakarta, you’ve got to try it just so that you can say you rode a Bajaj. No?