The Main Hub Of International Transport… But Not Local

These points are ironically funny about Jakarta’s own Soekarno-Hatta International Airport:

• there’s no way to get to it other than by road. No high-speed train access, nothing. Except if you fly in from other cities…
• there’s only 2 ways to get in by road: through the freeway and through a back entrance, and they are very far from each other. So if one passage is blocked you have to take a 2-hour detour to get to the other.
• the main freeway passes a a long swath of swamp. Yes, a swamp. Only recent flooding and global warming has caused the government to think about fixing or rising the road.
• The bus service to and from the airport is irregular at best. What’s the point of riding the bus if you don’t know the schedule?
• City check-in counters don’t get you squat if the roads are jammed all the way to the airport… which they most often are.
• You’re in for the time of your life waiting for checked baggage. I don’t know why, every one tends to try to get the best position at the baggage conveyor belt, as though as they want to get the first bag out.
• Fast food is bas as it is at any given mall, and at the airport it’s even worse at almost double the price.
• For a place where people do a lot of waiting, there’s not an awful lot of seats. And the seats that are available, have nests of cockroaches inside.
• For an international gateway to Indonesia, the lighting is like a beat-up off the track shopping centre. Lot’s of lights but bad illumination. But bright enough so you can see the cracks in the cement.
• You can choose from a multitude of taxi brands, official or non-official, but you never know which one will rip you off or take you on the scenic route.