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i got into a small car accident today. it was partly my fault, although i put most of the blame to the Jakarta’s road condition… (who doesn’t?).

the car i drove got stuck on a road divider. we’re in so deep that both wheels on the right side didn’t touch the road at all. the car sat on the left wheels and the chasis rested on the divider. what a mess…

to make it worse, it was a borrowed car. yikes.

it was at night, and the road was shiny due to after the rain condition. i wasn’t familiar with the road i was taking. there was no marking on the road at all (no lines, no cat-eye…) when all the sudden there was a concrete divider about a feet high appear two meters in front of the car…

everyone in the car (noush, ditha and naomi) all screamed… WATCH OUT! AAAAaaa…!

but the sudden step on the break didn’t help. the car, which was an SUV, just slid on top of the divider, creating some whacky noise and a lot of smoke.

man, my heart stopped beating for a second there…

you see, in Jakarta, there are a few intersections that are quite famous with their high crime rate. they’re considered as dangerous area, and people try not to pass through there at night. well, this accident happened on one of them (Pejompongan, sebelah kuburan).

within thirty seconds, there were about 8 guys approacing the car and surrounding us. we, of course, started to panic. not beause of the messed up car, but mostly because of those guys…

noush called my uncle and her dad, asking them to pick us up, while i frantically looking for the button to lock the car (hey, i was borrowing the car, so i wasn’t familiar with what-button-do-what thing).

those guys told us that they could move the car for us, as long as we get out of the car. they also told us that this happens a lot… there have been many cars got stuck in this particular road divider prior to us… well, that makes me feel less stupid.

anyways, we declined their offer and told them we’d rather wait for the owner of the car before doing anything further, including moving the car out of the divider. we’re too scared to get out of the car anyway…

so we waited, and the wait seemed to take forever. especially since the guys kept approaching our window reminding us about the offer… over and over again.

once my uncle, noush’s dad and my other cousin (all men) arrived, we were all relieved and left everyhing to my uncle’s hand, including dealing with those local guys. they moved the car out of the way, which include that screeching noise and smoke again. he paid them (cause that’s what they’re after to begin with), and we left the place as soon as possible.

now, i’m left with the horror of fixing the car… poor my bank account…