Weekender: What To Do?

So the weekend always comes after a gruelling weekdays and after a heavily packed Friday on the road. Weekend sometimes is spent carelessly, laying down on the couch with a cup of sweetened coffee and some cookies within reach. But that is boring. Overcoming the boredom, I would sometimes then do work on the weekend feeling good because I can kickstart the things that I'm always forgetting among the routines. 

However, recently, weekend has not been utilised to its maximum capacity and then a sense of unsatisfactory arises. There comes the time when staying at home is so boring, going to the mall is so mundane (and you'll only end up spending money recklessly anyway), going out is so frustrating because of the traffic and you're left with no option in Jakarta. There are times that I just want to go to a park, read a book, magazine or whatever with a cup of good latte and a handsome sunnies in my pocket. And I realised, I could never do such thing here. 

Jakarta is probably the busiest, most hectic and especially noisy city that I've ever lived in. To give you some references on how noisy Jakarta is, here are some probable conditions that you can meet easily here:

1. Honking to tell the car in front of you to move will happen anytime.

2. You walk in the mall, there's a show going on in the main atrium and different music is playing at every store you walk pass by.

3. Sitting down and work with full concentration at your favourite cafe is less likely to happen unless you come at 6 in the morning (and if they're already open).

4. The sound of construction work is everywhere. It's an emerging economy. 

I feel that there is an urgent need to create a private public space in Jakarta. Experiencing it myself, I started to realise how this aspect of a city is missing here. When I was in Melbourne, I could go easily to the Botanical Garden having a bar of popsicle while having quality talk with my friend. In Hildesheim, I would go to a secluded park about 15 minutes from my flat on my bike and spent the afternoon reading my references and doing some sketches. Both are high quality experience, which sound very simple, but not doable here. The private public space is just a perfect epitome of a space to me, because you get to spend your time outside without the distraction. 

Simply the question gets back to what to do on a weekend in Jakarta, where the outside is so noisy and the inside is so mundane. Should we make our own entertainment? Make our own space? Create our own activity? Definitely there's a room for improvement.