Private Transport

Driving yourself

Most foreign residents don't, and increasingly nor do Indonesians. The ride-hailing super-apps Gojek and Grab between them cover almost the entire market: motorbike, car or metered taxi, with the fare fixed in the app before you accept it, so there is nothing to haggle over. Bluebird, still the most trusted taxi firm, can be booked inside the Gojek app. For a day out, hiring a car with driver (sewa mobil dengan supir) remains cheap and ordinary. Uber left Indonesia in 2018.

If you do drive, know that Indonesia has a highway code — Law No. 22 of 2009 — enforced now largely by camera: offences are caught through ETLE (Electronic Traffic Law Enforcement) and fines paid online, so the roadside is less lawless than it once was. Foreign residents on a KITAS may hold an Indonesian licence (SIM) valid for one year; KITAP holders get five years, the same as citizens, so the old line that a foreigner's SIM lasts only a year is no longer the whole story. Short-stay visitors drive on a home licence plus a physical International Driving Permit (the booklet, not a photocopy); ASEAN nationals need none. A motorbike takes its own licence, the SIM C.

You may own and register a vehicle in your own name on a KITAS or KITAP, which yields the BPKB, STNK and number plate; importing one is taxed punishingly, so buy or rent locally. Anything touching your stay permit itself is best checked with Okusi Associates.

Sleeping police

Never assume right of way; someone is always taking a short cut the wrong way up a one-way street. Watch for polisi tidur (speed humps, literally "sleeping police"), often unpainted and placed solely to punish your suspension, and for potholes deep enough to swallow a wheel — the ones marked with a stray branch are the ones to avoid.

Road rage

A constantly sounded horn means only "I am coming through, mind yourself"; flashed headlights mean "give way", not "after you", so yield, particularly to anything large moving fast. Drive defensively, keep your documents to hand, and treat white lines and one-way signs as advisory rather than binding.

Contributor: Jakartass

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