1- Indonesia is the most populous Muslim Country in the world (237 million people approximately) and is made up of over 17,000 islands.
2- Jakarta is on the island Java and is a megacity that has been broadly divided into Central Jakarta, North Jakarta, South Jakarta, West Jakarta and East Jakarta. I stayed in South Jakarta or Jakarta Selatan (Selatan meaning South).
3- It has a tropical climate. There are basically two seasons ; wet and dry.
4- It is a very colourful city. Everything is painted brightly, from houses to cars.
5- It has a major problem of traffic. People generally prefer motorbikes. As soon as the signal goes green there is this maddening race, that seems right out of some need for speed type of movie.
6- Yes, there are rickshaws!!!!
7- Public transport consists of vans and buses. Buses are of broadly two types, express or transjakarta and the normal one. Transjakarta runs on this special lane reserved for it. It stops at limited number of places and its stop is smack in the middle of the road. They have literally hanging bus stations which you cross by an overhead bridge. No other form of transport is allowed in the lane reserved for Transjakarta. Taxis are available and they charge you by the meter.
8- Did I mention Jakarta is a MAJOR traffic disaster. I guess I did, but this point needs to repeated

Generally, the traffic is better during the weekends, since people coming from places near jakarta go home for the holidays.
9- They city has some of the most amazing skyscrappers. Has huge huge malls and practically all the fast food you can imagine, they HAVE IT.
10- Trains also run through the city and sometimes over it. If you hear the ting ting sound, it means you have to stop and wait for the train to pass.
11- Fruit trees are everywhere you look. We have a mango tree in our yard.
12- Footpaths are practically non-existent. Big time trouble for pedestrians.
13- They have Nallahs on the sides of the roads and streets, so if you don't watch out you can fall into one and well end up a stinking freak.
14- There is this bizarre bizarre custom that they wear jackets while on motorbikes. So while you are sweating and cursing the humdity, these people are wearing jackets. Have no idea how they can tolerate that.
15- Indonesians are genearlly short people. I'm have to try hard to find people over 5 feet five inches
16- You find girls in shorts and skirts & in pants. Generally, there is no real concept of purdah.
17- Girls motorbike too
18- Ladies run shops and markets.
19- You find a seat in the bus and if it is empty you sit, whether there is a lady or a guy. Sometimes seems odd when you think what would happen in Pakistan if you did that :0
20- Generally, Indonesians only pray the Farz during prayers. They have this custom of shaking hands with people around them after the salam. It is nice. This custom is found in the Arabs as well.
21- The people keep to themselves. If it's none of their business, it's none of their business. They don't come and stare at foriegners or anything. On the bad side, that means it is harder learning about them because they talk so little. Plus barely anybody understands english.
22- The currency is Rupiah. One dollar is approximately equal to 10,000 Rupiah. So basically everything is for thousands. Very hard calculations
23- They also have the trend of foodstalls and they have stalls having stuff from fried chicken to pakooras on them. Also add to the traffic problem.
24- Indonesians love noodles.
25- Lots and lots of mosquitoes and sewer rats....ewww.
Enough for one day of blogging. Next post will be of pictures of the city, InshaAllah.