When I was a boy, we had to learn the Kerb Drill. It went like this:

At the kerb, halt!
Look right.
Look left.
Look right again.
If all clear, quick march!

The Indonesian Kerb Drill is rather more succinct. (Not that there are many kerbs.) It declares:

If you look, it‘s too late.

The pedestrian plunges into the thundering traffic, looking straight ahead or, more usually, away from the oncoming vehicles. The assumption is that they will swerve to avoid you. Most of the time they do. Drivers in Indonesia are so used to encountering becak, food carts, potholes, people sitting or lying in the road, buffaloes, goats, chickens, motorbikes, minibuses, beggars and buskers, they are not surprised to see pedestrians about to be spread-eagled on their windscreens.

If you stop and look, the tiny window of opportunity will be closed and you will be left standing at the roadside for ten minutes like that irritable foreigner. If God has decided that today is the day for you to leave this world, who are you to argue?

Occasionally, those of little faith decide that the juggernaut bearing down on them at high speed might be unable to swerve in time. The procedure in such circumstances is to flap your hand feebly at the vehicle. It must be a limp-wristed gesture of a sort that would make any street-corner transvestite look butch. It is guaranteed to cause the vehicle to brake sharply.

Here and there you may see stripes painted on the road that remind you of pedestrian crossings back home. It is possible there is a government regulation that vehicles must stop to let pedestrians cross there. On the other hand, it is possible there is not. Either way, only a wimp or a Westerner would even think about using them. Likewise the footbridges, which are reputedly the haunts of muggers.

If you are a foreigner, you should not be on foot in the first place. You should be in a large, expensive, air-conditioned car. The sight of you stumbling along what remains of the pavement will cause enough amusement for one day. If you then try to cross the road, there will be hysteria. Your resemblance to a certain Mr Bean will be noted. Small children and elderly ladies will try to assist you. Earnest young men will take the opportunity to practise their English and ask you questions about your marital status.

On balance it is best not to make the attempt on foot at all. My advice, if you want to cross the road in Indonesia, is to take a becak and keep your eyes tightly shut.