I was driving through Jakarta yesterday on my way to pick up a friend for dinner when something I have become far to accustomed to occurred... I was pulled over by the police. I was in a group of about 50 cars but when the police saw that I was a bule I was the only one singled out for a "random" check. You know when black people in the south of the United States complain they get pulled over disproportionately and white people say "oh nonsense!" Yeah... they might be onto something. It gets old very fast, you just know that every time a policeman sees you over here he knows he can get a good bribe off of you irregardless if you have done anything wrong or not because you don't know all the local laws. There are all sorts of rules over here which are not clearly marked or explained in any way. Things like you can turn onto this street except from 7-9pm on thursdays (and I'm not kidding) or you can turn onto this street except on Sundays between 2-4pm. If there were signs telling you this it might seem at least somewhat understandable. However, it is just supposed to be general knowledge which leads to arbitrary tickets from underpaid police officers all too ready to glean the bule's of some small cash.
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