Ask not what your country...

Sate and nasi goreng

There we were, in the traffic jam next to the dedicated lane. I started talking with the taksi driver about the purpose of the dedicated lane (as if I didn't know), trying to get his opinion. Right after he told me the lane was only for buses so that the buses could go fast in traffic, we looked over and there was a flood of traffic that was crowding through the dedicated lane, with a bus crawling along like a wounded elephant among the hyenas (taxis, motorcycles, private cars, you name it). I told the driver I thought the dedicated lane was dedicated only for buses, and he laughed and said it is, but when there's heavy traffic other people drive on it too! For me the dedicated lane wasn't the highlight: it was when I told him a story in Indonesian that made him laugh, and later I made a pun (involving the name of the chain store Indo-maret) in Indonesian that also made him laugh.

At one of the places I went today, I was confronted with a quote in Indonesian, and the more I read, the more it seemed familiar. 

Jangan tanyakan apa yang negara.../Ask not what your country...

The batik table cloth pushes things over the edge, toward too much, in a good way.