The price of a dream: New town residents cope with commuting

JAKARTA (JP): For many people living in new towns around Jakarta, their homes are more like a rest stop between long commutes to and from work.

Thomas, a resident of Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang, leaves the house at 6 a.m. every morning to get to his office in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta.

The 40-kilometer journey takes a "brief" one hour and 15 minutes. Oddly enough, he usually arrives an hour before the office opens. He said it would be too risky to leave the house any later since traffic would be next to impossible.

"I always stop at a food stall near my office to have a bowl of noodles for breakfast," Thomas said.

But Thomas is lucky. His neighbor, Andy Suyanto, works in Lippo Cikarang, which is about 80 kilometers away, and spends at least four hours on the road. But he does not mind.

"I'm used to it," Andy said, adding that for the time being he did not have any plans to move closer to his workplace because he loves his house.

Adrian Hamadi, a resident of Jonggol, near Bogor, has to leave at 5 a.m. Not only is the distance to his office almost twice as far as Andy's, but he also has to drive his kids to school.

"I originally bought a van because it was cheap. But now I find that it's very practical because we can throw a small mattress in the back and Dian (his 8-year-old son) and his brother can sleep during the drive.

"I always bring sandwiches in the car and a thermos of hot chocolate milk for them."

He considered transferring his son to a nearby school when they first moved to Jonggol two years ago, but was afraid his son would have trouble adjusting to the new environment.

"For his sake I lose a few hours in bed, but it's okay. Besides, it's on the way to work," Adrian said referring to his office in Kebayoran, Central Jakarta. After school the children usually stay at a relative's house until either their father or mother come to pick them up.

Despite having coped for the past two years, the Hamadi family now faces a new dilemma.

"My wife is going to start work soon. However, her job is somewhere in Halim (East Jakarta)," he remarked. "We're still figuring how to work this out."

Another resident, Ira, faces a similar problem. As a personal secretary at a law firm she has been able to save enough for a down payment on a house in Lippo Cikarang where she now lives. Nevertheless, owning a house is not what she expected.

"I thought he reason I never spent much time at home was because I lived with my parents. But now I'm still not spending time at home despite owning my own house. Only the maid is there, it might as well be her house," she complained rather bitterly.

She has to commute about 80 kilometers a day to and from her house. Moving from her parents house in Kemang to Lippo Cikarang has been quite a jolt to her lifestyle.

She has no real complaints about the facilities at the housing estate, but all her activities are in Jakarta.

"My friends, my work, the places I go to are all around town so I stay in Jakarta most of the time. The toll roads are useless for commuting, you pay money just to get into a traffic jam," she remarked.

So how does she manage?

"You should see my car, it's like a walk-in closet. If I have an evening engagement or have to accompany my boss I'm always well prepared," she quipped.

Seno and his wife are lucky. They seem to have solved their commuting problems from their house in Gading Serpong, Tangerang.

"Luckily I know two people on my block who work in the same vicinity so I can catch a ride with them," he said.

Seno's wife, Gita, works part-time at a catering firm and usually doesn't have to come into town until later in the afternoon.

"Gita takes the car and drives the kids to school near our house. Then she goes in town later in the day and picks me up on Jl. Sudirman to go home together in the evening.

"It relieves us from quite a bit of stress because she drives on the way to work and I take over the wheel on the way back," he said.

When these new town residents were asked why they put up with such conditions, most answered that they did not have a choice.

Thomas said he would gladly seek a job closer to his house if he could.

"I would be more than happy. But finding a job is like finding a soul mate, it's not easy," he remarked.

For Adrian Hamadi, the long daily drive is part of the price of realizing a dream.

"When we got married we wanted to raise a family and that meant having our own home. Now we have it and we shouldn't complain. It's better than not having one at all, isn't it?" (mds/sim)