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Monas Monument Jakarta

“There’s thirty five kilograms of gold on top of the Monas Monument?” I said to Jackie as we were momentarily stuck in traffic. “That’s like, seventy five pounds, or something, right?” Jackie just raised her eyebrows. “Wait, I think I see it,” she said. Just then one of those horse cabs came up, clomped in place beside us, snorting and shaking its big head. “Hey, that horse cab is empty, let’s take it,” said Jackie, and we paid the cabbie from the Jakarta Indonesia Hotel, who looked really mad as we bolted from his cab and hopped on to the carriage. We had not thought ahead to what we would do if the horse driver could not or did not want to take us, but no matter, we jumped in and he gave us the high sign with his eyes and we were off. Actually, we were still in traffic, but we knew we could get to the base of the monument, plus we were using a horse. We really could see so much better up there, the many sky scrapers of the Jakarta sky line, the setting sun cooler now, and by the time we got there there might be a fountain show and we hoped we could take the elevator to the top of the monument, which is said to have the best city views you could ask for. Wherever we go, we seem waiting for traffic to clear, or the weather to clear, or the restaurant to reopen because we forgot about the siesta or to take into account the daily rhythms of wherever it is we are traveling. Unless it is the States, where there seems to be much less of a rhythm to the lives of people, and stores are open twenty four hours and you can get tomatoes in February. But here in the horse carriage we were obliged to wait, and feel the push pull of the horses tether as we wound through traffic.

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