Daily life of a Pedestrian in Sydney

It’s been over a month since my husband and I moved to the land of Kangaroos, Sydney, Australia. Like other big metropolitan city, Sydney has similarity as Jakarta, my hometown. Sydney had busy and frenetic characteristics of metropolitan cities. It’s super crowded with people, not just locals, but also people from around the world. That’s why Sydney residents is a mixed cultural from Australian, Aborigin, Asian, Italian, Lebanese, and many other nations.

This is not my first time came to this city. First was in 2002, when visiting my brothers who studied in Melbourne and then we traveled to Sydney for 2-3 days. Sydney had changes, more people, more attraction, more great places to visits, and for me, more time to explore this city.

Visit Sydney for vacation in 2 weeks and living here for long periods of time (4-5 years) have a considerable difference. When on vacation, I just visited tourists attraction places, like Opera House, Harbour Bridge, St. Mary’s Cathedral and so on. When I living here, feel excited become Sydney residents or Sydneysiders..

It’s been a month here, but I am getting new experiences, very different from my hometown, Jakarta.

First thing, I noticed, most of Sydney residents (mostly, although there are one or two who do not ..) very disciplined and obey the rules when compared to the citizens of Jakarta. Here are some things I observe on daily life of  a pedestrian..

• Crossing the streets

Crossing the street, big streets or just a small road/alley, they are very patient to wait and obey pedestrian crossing lights. When the lights are green, then they cross the street. Indeed, the difference with Jakarta, major roads in the office area, for example, there are no crossing lights for pedestrians. There’s may a zebra crossing and the bridge crossing, but pedestrians in Jakarta is too lazy to cross over through bridge crossing, and recklessly crossing major roads, that passed by a vehicles. Once when I was on junior high school in Jakarta, I was hit by a motorcycle, that’s why until now I am afraid of crossing streets in Jakarta.

• Giving way and time for pedestrians

This one thing should I compliment about. Car driver or motorcycle rider in Sydney is really appreciate pedestrians who want to cross the street. They always give way for pedestrians to cross the road. Although the pedestrian lights already blinking red, which means that pedestrians must not cross street again, they will patiently wait for us to across the street. It is not just on major streets, minor roads or residential streets also apply the same thing. So the term ‘Pedestrians is king’ or in Bahasa Indonesia ‘Pejalan kaki adalah raja’ is very true and applicable in this city.In Jakarta, pedestrian pathway is used as eat street vendors, tire repairman, or used as ‘special and exclusive lane’ for motorcycle riders *Grrrr…*. So pedestrians have been eliminated and, also threatened their own life when about to cross the street. If you‘re a pedestrians and want to cross the streets, you have to be extra careful because bikers, cars and public buses are very stingy giving way and time for pedestrians to cross. Often, I spent more than 20 minutes just to cross the streets in Jakarta.

In my next writings, I am gonna writes about Queuing.

House moving in Jakarta and Sydney

It’s been 10 day since we’re moved to our studio apartment in Rockdale, suburbs in NSW, about 15 km from Sydney. It’s more private, we don’t have to share the bathroom with 4 other people, and we have our own kitchenette, with bar fridge and microwave! Yaaay! And one thing we really like about our studio is it has large balcony, so we can dry our wet clothes *blah*. For now, the balcony only has that function, but in the future, we *ME* already imagine about making our own home gardening and some lazy space for afternoon tea.. *blah again*

We are very pleased staying here, 2 minutes walking to McD,  5 minutes walking to the plaza (Woolworth, Aldi, Big W, Reject Shop), Target is near, Asian store is near, 10 minutes walking to train station,  and I’m guessing the building is still new. We love it!

But, the house moved was really challenging for us. We have 2 big suitcases, 1 super humongous suitcase, 2 medium bag and 2 backpack. Fiuuuuh.. Just write this made me sweating. We finished delivered all of this in 2 days. In the next day, we went to IKEA Tempe to buy our mattress, dining set, coffee table and other small stuffs. We have back pain, sore and bruises all over our body because we lifted all those super heavy things on our own!!!

So, I just want to share the house moving differences in Jakarta and Sydney, based on my experiences.

• In Sydney, if you want to move out, you have to clean the rooms *no hair and dust*, wash the sheet and blankets, clean the window until there’s no finger print. All of these regulations is written in tenancy contract.  You have to do this, if you want your bond back . In Jakarta, many people is irresponsible, they move out not cleaning the room or house, or many of them stealing the furniture or not paying the bills..
• Based on our experiences when we delivered our suitcases, we walked to the nearest (800 m) bus stop. It’s not near at all! *crying*. FYI, our suitcase weight of 35 kg + 10 kg backpacks. If we want to spend $75 on taxi ride, our life would be easier.  The thing was we didn’t. It is way too expensive. In Jakarta, we just lift the suitcases to our car and drive to new house. The only problems you have to deal is traffic jam. You could spend 2-3 hour stuck in traffic. Or, you can call the taxi and it will show in front of the house, for 15 km, you just have to pay approximately 200.000 – 300.000 rupiahs, equal to $20-$35. Cheap isn’t it compare to $75?
• The leading home furnishing store, not only in Sydney but around the world, the great, the famed, IKEA, was our first choice to buy furniture. I admit it was really fun, and considered it as a treat. IKEA have many impressive and awesomely cool showroom, but it’s still self serviced, meaning, you have to lift the furniture yourself. If it’s cute, small furniture, like small lamps or small coffee table to your car, it’s still okay. Try lifting the king or queen mattress, or big cabinets.. Wuoooh, you’ll feel back pain, sore and bruises all over your body *like us*. In Jakarta, IKEA building is still under construction. There’s one home furnishing store similar to IKEA, it’s Informa, here you just select the item you want to buy, pay, and pick date and time, where and when you want to deliver the furniture, direct to your home. No back pain, sore, nor bruises. Nop!

Courtesy of Enzeline Image

• Oooh, this is the caused of our back pain, sore and bruises. Yep, our IKEA queen mattress, dining set and coffee table. First, our suffering was lift all this things to our GoGet van, on IKEA parking area. Our second misery is our studio apartment is on 2nd floor. No lift. Just stairs and just the two of us. We have to lift all those things ourselves to 2nd floor. You can’t imagine! While in Jakarta, you can ask for help to lift heavy furniture from housing security guy or ‘tukang ojek’ or house maid, or for the simple way, you can hire the moving truck agent for more or less 500.000 – 800.000 rupiahs (equal to $50-$85) including driver, gasoline, toll fee and handyman.
• Last, but i believe it’s not the least, all heavy furniture and other small stuffs already in the studio apartment, the room was real messy. Furniture boxes everywhere, suitcases blocked bathroom door, stuffs all over the place. I want to clean up the rooms, but I’m tired and super sleepy.  Then, we decided just to unwrapped the mattress and cover it with bed sheet, and we just closed our eyes then sleep. Pretending nothing’s wrong the messy room. Here, I can’t call my mom to help me clean up the room or hired the house maid like i did in my house in Jakarta. I just have to clean this unbelievable messy room the next day..

Back in Indonesia, many friends and families think that moving abroad to other countries was awesome. I didn’t say it wasn’t. It is amazing experience, but you have to be independent, on your own feet, and super tough. It wasn’t easy. Never easy, since the day you’re prepared for leaving hometown, until now, almost 2 months here in Sydney. 

There’s one quote about how I feel, the lesson I learnt :

Life begins at the end of your comfort zones – Neale Donald Walsch