On Saturday (01/10/2026), I took to the streets of Indonesia to see all the different ways people get around. Can you spot the similarities and differences between the motorcycle, angkot and bus with the modes of transportation that you use in your city?
In New York, most people walk, take the subway or ride the bus. Some people bike and others drive cars. Instead, in Indonesia, most people ride a motorcycle, take an angkot, or ride the bus!
Almost everyone knows how to ride a motorcycle in Indonesia. My students tell me that they learned how to ride a motorcycle at just 12 years old, and some when they were even younger! I don't know how to ride a motorcycle, so I take a motorcycle taxi, or ojek. Usually, in Padang, an ojek costs 9.000 rupiah for a short ride.
What if you have too many groceries to fit on a motorcycle? You can take an angkot! Different color angkots represent different routes: blue angkots go south, and orange angkots go north. You hail an angkot just as you would hail a yellow taxi, by stepping right on board and telling the driver where you'd like to go. You need to make sure to sit tight with the other passengers for the ride because there are no seatbelts on an angkot!
