Today, I had my first experience with the infamous floods that have plagued Jakarta in the past. The torrential rain started late the night before, and it did not let up throughout the night. I woke up to the soft sounds of water hitting against the window panes, but had no idea on the extent of the devastation that had ravaged the lands.
Two of my colleagues and myself made our way towards the office by taxi after breakfast. As we hit the main road, there was evidence that this was not to be the usual ride. The traffic was slow and all jammed up, and our taxi driver decided to make a detour as some of the roads were flooded. I think that probably turned out to be a bad decision. We made our way via a longer route but most of the roads were equally packed with almost stationary cars.
There was constant horning, jerking forward in inches and it seemed like we will be stuck for ages. One of my colleague decided to take a nap, while the other got on the phone with his girlfriend, chatting excitedly in Tamil, which of course I could not understand. When we finally made our way to the office, I got out with cramped legs, but was glad that at least we made it. The office was quieter than usual at 10am, which was a rare sight. I suppose many people were still making their way to the office.
In the afternoon at about 3pm, one of the local guys was on the phone, and when he put it down, he exclaimed, “Shit my house is flooded. My maid says the water is up to chest level!”. Luckily for him, they had anticipated the problem and had moved some of the furniture to the second level, but his bathtub was said to be floating in the water.
In the evening, some of the expats who were scheduled to return home that evening, made alternative plans and changed their flights. Others were not so lucky. There was a Thai guy and a Malaysian lady who left office early towards the airport. At about 6pm, they were still stuck in traffic about 10km away from the airport and they got news that the airport was closed. My goodness! I never want to be in that situation and I was thanking my good fortune that I was not scheduled to return to Singapore this evening.
My roomate will be going back to India tomorrow morning, so some of us went out dinner at Penang Bistro with him. My second time there and the Penand-styled food was terrific, but not surprisingly, the restaurant seemed a lot quieter than usual. Throughout the dinner, we heard news that the Thai and Malaysian colleagues were still stuck on the way back from the airport. That must have been more than 7 hours on the road, stuck in the terrible traffic.
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