If Bangkok can, why can’t Jakarta?

My last time visiting Bangkok was in 1980.  I was 13, had broken arm and was not keen to travel anywhere during vacation.  Thanks to my dominant mother she always manage to drag the whole family including my father to fulfill her desire to travel (plus, my Dad was working for Pertamina at that time, of course one should use all the facilities available while you still have power!).  

Anyways, I remember Thailand being cheep.  It was then cheaper than Indonesia.  I don’t quite remember the conversion but I remember my mom taking me to the mall and we bought lots of cute clothes.   I also remember the airport was not outstanding, it was quite standard for the 1980s.   Of course, we stayed at the Oriental Hotel.  The other thing impressive was the traffic.  In the 1980s, Jakarta’s traffic was not as bad as today, but Bangkok traffic was unbearable.  I remember me and my brother was trying to entertain ourselves by making fun of how the people spoke (mom took care of us then).   

Twenty eight years later, here I am, in Bangkok.  I have heard from people how Bangkok has developed.  Not only Bangkok, but Thailand as a nation.  During the monetary crisis in Southeast Asia, Bangkok bounced bank quite fast compared to Indonesia.  First, I looked at the airport.  Huge airport which reminded me of Frankfurt airport: simple, grey, masculine.  But it was nothing that I remembered from the 1980s.  My friend Rudy said that the architect was from the Netherland and it tries to imitate Schipol.  From outside, it looked big.  BIG.  I was impressed.  The design is quite spectacular.  I am not the kind that like concretes and grey pipes and stuff (reminds me of the rig!) but I have to admit that it was anything but ordinary.   

Luckily, my friend’s driver picked us up.  No traffic.  OK, it was early afternoon, but no traffic.  Express high way.  Well, this is quite different than what I expected!  Lots of new buildings and apartments, which means more people.  But where are these people?   Shouldn’t there be more traffic, because the last time I went there, the traffic was awful.   At some streets, it is still congested but still acceptable because it was during rush hour.   And still moving. 

Another thing I found out is that they have BTS (Bangkok Transportation System).  I have to say that it is more pleasant than the MRT in Singapore, let alone the trains in Tokyo and London which can be really packed.  BTS is very convenient and takes us almost everywhere easily.    

Other than that, Bangkok is also cleaner than Jakarta.  I can still walk down the street and jog around my friend’s apartment (well, this is probably biased since she lives in Sukumvit, one of the nicer areas).  But I did go jogging along the small river close to where I stayed, which is very much different than the Ciliwung river.   I passed by some ‘houses’ or probably equivalent to shack houses like I find in Jakarta, so there are poor people around.   I passed through a little street (gang kecil) where kids play around, similar to what I would see in the small kampungs in Jakarta.  But much cleaner.  They also have the river transportation, just like in London.  We used it when we went touring.  Although the guides weren’t helping much with the poor English, at least the trip was pleasant.  I wonder if we can have that on Ciliwung, but I suppose that we will all be narcosed by the smell of it… 

My friend told me that one of the king there at one time was a doctor.  At one period of time, education on medics were highly supported.  Now Bangkok is one of the places where southeast Asians or even other people from other continents come for medical care, besides Singapore.  What amazes me is that there are lots of plastic surgeons (well, it is Bangkok after all), but also orthodontics there.  I know couple of my fellows in my previous gym went to get their boob or nose jobs there.  Then the next emperor seems to be into agriculture, therefore the agriculture went booming.   I tasted the fruits there, one that impressed me was the mango.  It is different than the mangoes here, and I suppose there has already been engineering involved in producing high quality fruits.   Lets leave the rice, the rice is extremely good quality and that is nothing new about it.  

I was impressed by Bangkok and how it turned out to be after almost 30 years.  I guess it is because the government or the people in power think about long term plans.  Compared to Indonesia, where everybody thinks short term and none of the projects comes to reality, Bangkok seems to be doing very well.  I suppose when the economic crisis hit, Thailand probably felt the effect but stood up quickly because they have smart people who are dedicated and have high nationalism in developing the country.   

Within 30 years, Jakarta has also developed lots of things but it still seems like a chaos.  Traffic and flood has never ever resolved and the development of the city is poorly planned.  Trashes everywhere and bad smell all over the river.  No sidewalks for people, sidewalks are used by people selling on stools.   I think I am not overreacting comparing Bangkok and Jakarta, because in 1980s these two cities were pretty much having the same problems.  But look at how Bangkok evolved.   I think the key word is education.  The government probably care about the education very well that the medical and agricultural world became developed there.   That is a great country, and you can just tell that the quality of the people in Bangkok are better than those in Jakarta (except for one thing: difficult to communicate in English because some of them even don’t read latin…they just read the Sanskrit alphabet).  

Bangkok trip was good.  It is good to see how other countries cope within 30 years and maybe we have to learn from them on transportation system, instead of going far away to Bogota to have comparison study on the busway.   Rudy and I talked about our country quite often, and finally we just sang part of the national anthem (changed the Hiduplah to…), “…Itulah Indonesia Raya…”.