Unlike previous weekends, Car Free Day on Sunday was quite special as a sea of people crowding the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta was surprised with the sudden emergence of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama and their guest, London mayor Boris Johnson.

The three figures teamed up to entertain the crowd by riding their bicycles around the traffic circle to the Presidential Palace.

Hundreds of residents exercising near the circle greeted and shook hands with Ahok and Johnson who arrived before Jokowi.

'€œPak, don'€™t go yet. Just wait a second, let'€™s take a selfie,'€ shouted a woman in the crowd.

The crowd'€™s attention turned to Jokowi when he arrived on his own bicycle at the circle. Many took a selfie with the President, ignoring barriers imposed by presidential security guards.

Impressed by the Car Free Day, Johnson said he would love to have such an activity in London.

'€œThe trouble is, I think it would be very difficult to persuade the people of London to get out of bed this early,'€ Johnson told reporters.

Jokowi, flanked by Ahok and Johnson, said he joined the event because he and Johnson had been in correspondence when he was governor of Jakarta and Johnson has been interested in visiting Jakarta.

'€œI was governor then and I promised I would visit London in return. I was interested in learning about managing a large city from them, especially with regards to their subways and public transportation system,'€ he said.

Ahok quickly interrupted and jokingly likened the President to Johnson for their similarly casual dress.

'€œBoth look like rockstars,'€ he said while laughing. The trio then rode their bicycles to the Palace with the crowd following behind.

At the Palace, Ahok and Johnson, who paid a courtesy call to Ahok'€™s official residence on Saturday, held talks with the President on Jakarta'€™s preparations to host the 2018 Asian Games and on other issues to boost ties between the two cities.

'€œWe want the Asian Games to be successful and we want to learn from them [London]. They spent 10 years preparing for the 2012 Olympics and we have much less than that,'€ he said, adding that he wanted Jakarta to host the Olympics one day.

Ahok explained that he and Johnson, while at Ahok'€™s residence, had previously discussed this issue and many others, including infrastructure, housing developments and financial services.

'€œLondon has the best mass transportation system and they have a lot of experience with building underground property,'€ he said.

He said the administration was planning to build sports venues and apartments for athletes at the Jakarta State University (UNJ) and on military-owned land.

Johnson said that London was eager to help the city as London had experience in preparing a city for a global event.

British media reported that 3,300 apartments were built to accommodate more than 17,000 people in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games. After it ended, the village was converted to a residential quarter known as East Village and provided 2,818 new homes.

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