Our Last Car Free Day in Jakarta

Since we're moving soon, we wanted to squeeze in one more Car Free Day bike ride here in Jakarta.  Car Free Day has been one of our favorite things to do.  You can't go wrong a little exercise and a lot of amazing people watching.  I just love looking at all of the people on their bikes, the various lima kaki (which means five legs: the nickname for street carts, three legs on the cart, two on the guy pushing it), etc.:

But I also love that Car Free Day never fails to produce someone doing something kooky or interesting, whether for my entertainment or their own. This week was no exception, as we stumbled upon a group of civet cat enthusiasts parading their animals around near Bundaran HI amidst the chaos of hundreds of bikers/rollerbladers/pedestrians as well as an ondel-ondel performance. 

Remember civets?  The raccoon-like creatures that literally shit out the world's most expensive coffee?  Yeah.  (Also, please take note of the guy's civet cat t-shirt.):

And remember ondel-ondel, the big sparkly-haired street-performing puppet guys?  Yup.

I'll miss you, Car Free Day!

Car Free Day: Ondel-Ondel Beauty Contest?

This week's Car Free Day happenings: a couple hundred ondel-ondel puppets lined up along Jalan Thamrin... why?  We're not exactly sure, but they were all numbered and looked like maybe they had been part of a contest of some sort. 

This month is Jakarta's 486th birthday (Dirgahayu Jakarta!), so there have been lots of celebrations across the city over the past few weeks, many of which centered on Betawi culture, from which the ondel-ondel originate. 

Remember the video I took of the ondel-ondel dance performance last year? Incedentally, it's the most popular video on my YouTube channel by a crazy amount for some reason... as of this writing it had over 32,000 views, whereas my next most popular video only had 186 views.  Eh?

Here's me and Tim posing in front of the un-manned ondel-ondel:

I like how each one has a slightly different face:

Finally, after all those ondel-ondel, we stopped at Bundaran HI to listen to this cool sounding band... I don't know what that bamboo instrument is, but I like it:

Car Free Day Parade

Tim and I have done some Car Free Day biking the past couple weekends here in Jakarta.  Car Free Day is always really fun: lots of people cruising on bikes or strolling around, occasionally strange stuff going on...

Two weeks ago we stumbled on this parade, which we think (although could be totally wrong) was celebrating Lombok and Sumbawa heritage (Lombok is the island just east of Bali and then Sumbawa is east of that).  I love all the traditional clothing and the music.  Plus, it was a serious test of how slow Tim and I could ride our bikes without falling over or crashing into a wayward child.  Bonus: you can hear Tim almost lose his temper when a guy stepped directly in front of his moving bike to take a photo!  And, at the end there is a guy dressed up as a chili pepper and one as a bee, which reminds me of the bee guy on the Simpsons.

Here are some other highlights from that ride, including Tim chatting it up with our guard about where we were going, a protest we rode past, biking though the chaos of Bundaran HI (Hotel Indonesia Circle), three girls holding hands while biking (a sight more coming than you would think), a mini parade of guys dressed up as containers of Milo, and Tim biking really fast down the less-crowded home stretch:

Car Free Day, Gangnam Style

Every time Tim and I ride our bikes during Jakarta's weekly Car Free Day we see something different.  A few weeks ago it was bike tricks and ondel-ondel dancers.  This week was a completely different kind of dancers, specifically the type that looked like they were striving to end up on one of those ubiquitous dance shows:

I think they need to work on their synchronization a bit.  But their song choice (skinny jeans on, skinny jeans on) was on point!

A few minutes later we had to stop biking after running into this massive crowd surrounding a group of kids doing ye olde Gangnam Style dance-along... so many people that I couldn't get in close for a good view, but took video nonetheless:

We saw some fun street art:

And some fun bikes, including a strange bike/scooter hybrid propelled by a guy wearing a fez who bounces up and down on it to make it move, as well as a couple triple-decker hipster bikes:

I always wondered how people got onto those tall bikes... a ladder?  Turns out, no, you just get the bike rolling and then carefully climb on (sorry for the blurry photos, I also on my bike, rolling along):

All my friends know the low rider:

Jakarta Car Free Day: Ondel-Ondel and Bike Tricks

Tim and I headed out this past Sunday, yet again, for Jakarta's Car Free Day.  We were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon several fun sights while biking around, including the Jakarta marathon.  We were pretty incredulous that people could run a marathon while breathing Jakarta's thick and polluted dry season air, but they were doing it!

We also biked past this pretty fun sight: super tall, traditional Betawi ondel-ondel puppet performer guys:

Tim and I think the dance was staged for a tv commercial and thus not totally spontaneous, but it was pretty cool anyway.  Tim says he sees ondel-ondel like these wandering around near his office a lot, busking, so the traditional dance is still alive and well, even when the tv cameras are not rolling.

Apparently ondel-ondel are traditionally 2.5 meters tall and made from woven bamboo with a wooden face.  The red-faced puppet is the male version and the white is the female.  Here's a link to a cool photo of ondel-ondel from 1923. 

Their dance is traditionally performed to ward off evil spirits (or these days just to liven up a party or ceremony). 

I'm not 100% sure what type of dance the ladies are doing... perhaps topeng?  Maybe jaipongan?  Check out my video below and maybe you can help me figure it out.

After watching the dance show, we biked around a bit more and then stopped by this cool bike jump contest thing (I'm sure there's an official name for it, but we'll just call it "Guys in grey t-shirts and jeans doing bike tricks.") 

A pretty fun Car Free Day!

Jakarta Car Free Day, Take 2

Tim and I headed out for Jakarta's Car Free Day again this past Sunday (well, we had tried to go the week before, but our plans were foiled by torrential rain and acute laziness).  There were far fewer people biking and walking this time, but it was fun, as usual.  It's just so nice to feel the breeze in your hair and do some people watching...

Car Free Day seems to bring out an array of biking types:

(Please excuse the blurry photos... turns out it's hard to take clear photos while riding a bike.)

Indonesian hipsters on brightly colored fixies and doubly long bikes:

Groups of kids on trick bikes: 

Low... ri..ders:

Vintage bike enthusiasts:

And an assortment of snack serving bikes:

Jakarta's Car Free Day

Jakarta is a notoriously traffic-laden city.  The major streets are total gridlock most of the time, even on weekends.  For example, last night (Saturday) we took a cab to one of the major malls, Grand Indonesia, to grab dinner and catch a viewing of the Muppet movie (which just came out here, so I am a little late to chime in, but it was really cute. Go see it!), and although it's only 6.1 km away from our apartment (3.7ish miles), it took us about an hour to get there due to the horrendous traffic on the major road, Jalan Sudirman.  

Ben and Erin biking out of our neighborhood, past the place where we do yoga.

Tim, cruising down Jalan Sudirman.

However, every Sunday morning Jakarta has a great event: Car Free Day.  Although it doesn't really last the whole day, at least for several hours in the morning, no cars, buses or motorbikes are allowed on Jalan Sudirman, so the huge 6-8 lane road is open for bikers, walkers, joggers and rollerbladers.  It's pretty awesome...  

This Sunday morning we got up early and took our bikes out for a spin, riding all the way from our apartment, past Grand Indonesia Mall to Monas, which is Indonesia's national monument/obligatory phallic symbol (see also, Washington Monument).  

Monas on Car Free Day

Meg and Tim marvel at Monas.

The road was packed, but with thousands of people cruising on all varieties of non-motorized vehicles...  lots of colorful fixies, Cali-style low riders, vintage bikes, a couple double-decker bikes, trick bikes, tricycles...  the whole lot.  There were also large groups of people walking in matching outfits, marching and singing songs.  I think it may have been a fundraiser walk of some sort.

It felt good to be going fast with the less-polluted-than-usual air breezing past me, rather than sitting in a taxi, inching along at a snail's pace.  Car Free Sundays may be my new favorite weekend activity here in Jakarta.