It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
The old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head and never woke up in the morning.
Monday, October 25th 2010 was probably one of the worst days of my life.
It started out as a normal day. The normal gloomy weather was already looming over Jakarta early in the morning.
At around 2-3 pm it started raining. As in really raining. My office is actually pretty sound proof; even with heavy rain I usually can’t hear anything from outside. But on that day the rain fell really hard on the window and I could hear its constant tap-tap-tapping.
The sky was so dark that you could have mistaken it to be 6 pm. I told everyone to go home because office hours were already over (Looks like its 6 pm. Get it? Can I get a haha for trying?).
My dad called at around 5 pm to tell me that he was stuck in the traffic jam and was still quite far away from Kuningan. I didn’t think much of it because this has happened before. At most, my dad would be arriving at 7 pm.
Boy was I wrong.
My dad called at around 7 pm to tell me that he had just reached BP Migas, which on a normal day would have taken half an hour at most for him to reach my office.
I waited for 2 hours at the café down on the first floor, sipping sugar free chamomile tea. My dad came at 9 pm.
It took my dad 4 HOURS from his office (Jalan Merdeka Selatan) to my office (Kuningan), on what would normally take half an hour to 1 hour!!
My poor dad was hungry, so we had dinner at Gran Melia. Lucky me. :)
It turns out that throughout Jakarta, roads were flooded. Access to many areas was blocked, cars couldn’t move and people were wading through water to reach their homes.
In fact, the highway leading to Bumi Serpong Damai (and my house) was blocked due to flooding. Flooding. On the bloody highway. I heard that a lot of people gave up going home, turned off their cars and went to sleep inside their own cars. And the alternative route was blocked because a truck had crashed and blocked the road.
I asked my dad why we didn’t just book a room at Gran Melia. The answer was very simple: there were no rooms left. So we had no choice but to go home.
My dad and I left Gran Melia at 10.30 pm and started our long journey home. But first, we had to turn back around at pancoran.
It took a bloody ONE AND A HALF HOURS just to turn back! We reached the turning point at 12 am!!
Luckily the road back wasn’t too crowded, although there were a few points of traffic. My dad and our driver Mr. Agus worked their magic and weaved through the streets and through small roads that I never even knew existed. We wounded up at the Kebon Jeruk highway (don’t ask me where that is).
From there on the journey was pretty smooth although there were a lot of cars and trucks on the road. Imagine, around 12 am and the road is still jam packed.
So in the end I reached home sweet home at 1.30 am.
Guess what time I left for work.
6 AM.
Toodles.
It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
The old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head and never woke up in the morning.
Monday, October 25th 2010 was probably one of the worst days of my life.
It started out as a normal day. The normal gloomy weather was already looming over Jakarta early in the morning.
At around 2-3 pm it started raining. As in really raining. My office is actually pretty sound proof; even with heavy rain I usually can’t hear anything from outside. But on that day the rain fell really hard on the window and I could hear its constant tap-tap-tapping.
The sky was so dark that you could have mistaken it to be 6 pm. I told everyone to go home because office hours were already over (Looks like its 6 pm. Get it? Can I get a haha for trying?).
My dad called at around 5 pm to tell me that he was stuck in the traffic jam and was still quite far away from Kuningan. I didn’t think much of it because this has happened before. At most, my dad would be arriving at 7 pm.
Boy was I wrong.
My dad called at around 7 pm to tell me that he had just reached BP Migas, which on a normal day would have taken half an hour at most for him to reach my office.
I waited for 2 hours at the café down on the first floor, sipping sugar free chamomile tea. My dad came at 9 pm.
It took my dad 4 HOURS from his office (Jalan Merdeka Selatan) to my office (Kuningan), on what would normally take half an hour to 1 hour!!
My poor dad was hungry, so we had dinner at Gran Melia. Lucky me. :)
It turns out that throughout Jakarta, roads were flooded. Access to many areas was blocked, cars couldn’t move and people were wading through water to reach their homes.
In fact, the highway leading to Bumi Serpong Damai (and my house) was blocked due to flooding. Flooding. On the bloody highway. I heard that a lot of people gave up going home, turned off their cars and went to sleep inside their own cars. And the alternative route was blocked because a truck had crashed and blocked the road.
I asked my dad why we didn’t just book a room at Gran Melia. The answer was very simple: there were no rooms left. So we had no choice but to go home.
My dad and I left Gran Melia at 10.30 pm and started our long journey home. But first, we had to turn back around at pancoran.
It took a bloody ONE AND A HALF HOURS just to turn back! We reached the turning point at 12 am!!
Luckily the road back wasn’t too crowded, although there were a few points of traffic. My dad and our driver Mr. Agus worked their magic and weaved through the streets and through small roads that I never even knew existed. We wounded up at the Kebon Jeruk highway (don’t ask me where that is).
From there on the journey was pretty smooth although there were a lot of cars and trucks on the road. Imagine, around 12 am and the road is still jam packed.
So in the end I reached home sweet home at 1.30 am.
Guess what time I left for work.
6 AM.
Toodles.
