Vacationers fleeing city despite anniversary events<\/p>\n
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Amid the damp-squib celebrations being held to mark Jakarta's
\n476th anniversary, residents of the capital are welcoming the
\nlong school vacation as a chance to flee the city to pastures
\ngreener and cleaner.<\/p>\n
Tantia, 16, a high school student, is planning to spend her
\nmonth-long holiday at her grandfather in Bandung, West Java. She
\nalso plans to spend her savings on buying clothes in that city,
\nwhich, according to her, provides good quality apparel at
\nconsiderably lower prices than in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
She is planning to travel by train and is willing to face the
\nusual holiday season risk -- sold-out tickets.<\/p>\n
According to an official at the train ticket office in Juanda,
\nCentral Jakarta, tickets for the Argo Lawu, Argo Dwipangga and
\nTaksaka trains are sold out up to Sunday.<\/p>\n
Danu, an official, said that all the trains heading to
\nYogyakarta, Solo and Semarang in Central Java, as well as
\nSurabaya in East Java, were full, and he was expecting the
\nmassive exodus to continue until mid-July.<\/p>\n
Besides using trains, Jakarta residents are flying in large
\nnumbers to main travel destinations across the country, such as
\nBali, Yogyakarta, Solo, Medan in North Sumatra, Makassar in South
\nSulawesi, and Surabaya.<\/p>\n
Travel bureaus are claiming that planes to those destinations
\nare fully booked until mid-July.<\/p>\n
Diah, a ticketing officer with the Anta Express travel bureau,
\ntold The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that almost all seats on all
\nairlines were reserved up until July 14.<\/p>\n
She said that even flights to Singapore were almost fully
\nbooked up.<\/p>\n
Natalia, a mother of two, said she was planning to take her
\nchildren to Singapore on vacation as, according to her, the
\nairfare was cheaper than a flight to Bali.<\/p>\n
Her two children are currently students, the eldest at a
\njunior high school and the youngest at an elementary school, both
\nlocated in Bintaro, South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Asked about why they were not spending the holidays in the
\ncity instead -- enjoying the up-to-70 percent discounts offered
\nduring the Jakarta Great Sale, for instance -- she answered that
\nher family needed a vacation away from the grime and crime of
\nJakarta. In fact, she said she had not even heard of the sale
\nuntil the Post mentioned it.<\/p>\n
School vacations in Jakarta mostly begin on June 28 and end on
\nJuly 14.<\/p>\n
If most families from the middle to upper-income brackets
\nleave the city, this means that it will be mostly the less-well-
\noff who will be left behind to celebrate Jakarta's anniversary.<\/p>\n
However, though the one-month Jakarta Fair being held in
\nKemayoran, Central Jakarta, has been visited by some 488,000
\npeople, it is reported that the event is too expensive for most
\nJakartans.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the Jakarta Great Sale is considered of little
\nbenefit to those who can scarcely afford to eat.<\/p>\n
So, besides the city administration and the governor himself,
\nwho among Jakarta's downtrodden millions are really in the mood
\nfor taking part in the 476-year-old city's anniversary party?<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/vacationers-fleeing-city-despite-anniversary-events-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}