Jakarta Stinks -- Or Does It? (Jakarta)

Member Name: travelnotes

Product:	Jakarta
Date:	04/09/00 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Seek and you shall find; Enjoy it for what it is; You don't have to live here.

Disadvantages: The words of others that put you off.

It's hard to think of something fresh to say about Jakarta, unless you seek it out.

Any attempt at modernity was severely restricted by crumbling roads and pavements, crowded public transport and a stinky, black, open sewage system that gripped the back of my throat.

Too long in the place could prove a severe health hazard to a fragile foreigner, and I would not even contemplate eating at a street-stall here.

But I refrain from continuing my condemnation of the place because it is life to these poor people from the fields of Java; who hope for a better chance in Indonesia's capital city.

Pasar Ikan:
I walked around the squalor near the fish market (Pasar Ikan), opposite the port of Sunda Kelapa. The conditions were appalling, but only smiles and openness greeted me.

"Halo mista!" Children and mothers alike welcomed me to their streets; their environment; their homes; their lives.

"Photo!" The children wanted to be photographed as they were: happy, playing, living.

This was not an open sewer, it was their home and playground. I was treated as a guest, not a voyeur or an intruder, and it saddened me to make comparisons with an easier world of video-recorders and microwaves in the homes of some of our country's poor. Only by visiting places like this can we see how well off we are.

A young girl scrubbed some clothes clean, yet floating in the ditch two feet below her I could see decomposing excrement. Barrow-boys pushed a clearer water to the wooden houses; how clean it really was, I hated to think.

Sunda Kelpa:
After some bargaining, a boatman ferried me across to Sunda Kelpa, where labouring youths unloaded timber, steel, or sacks of rocks on their shoulders.

They had to walk across precarious-looking planks and many of the youths were barefoot or only wore flip-flops; neither safeguarded their toes.

Work was slow and hard, but no
-one complained. They greeted me with good humour, proud that I was showing an interest in them and their work. (Ok, I was there to sell the photo story to a magazine).

The ships were magnificent wooden sailing vessels, that you would associate with a bygone age. Crew members sanded and repainted the hull where necessary, working from a plank of wood and two pieces of rope suspended over the side, or from a smaller craft for refurbishment nearer the water line.

Some strips of weather-beaten wood were even chiseled out and replaced. Women approached the boats with refreshments for sale. Nobody whistled or made sexist remarks, but many smiled and continued with their working rhythm.

Taman Mini Indonesia Indah:
One of the best exhibitions of a country's culture and tradition would have to be the Taman Mini Indonesia in Jakarta. In a large parkland area, the 27 regions of Indonesia are separately represented by large buildings or pavilions constructed in the traditional style of the area, in natural surroundings.

Customary costumes are worn and dances performed to inform and entertain the interested, for a nominal entrance fee to the park. As well as keeping regional traditions alive by these time-honoured displays, some of the regions put modern life into their set by giving youngsters wearing jeans and t-shirts a chance to express themselves with electronic instruments and amplifiers. The words were in Indonesian; probably about life in the regions today.

As well as regional awareness, the great Faiths are given space too. There's a mosque, a Catholic church, a modern Protestant church, an Hindu Dharma temple and a Buddhist wihara.

A lake in the middle has the Indonesian islands set out as a showpiece to be sailed around or viewed from overhead cable-cars.

In the park there's also a newly built mono-rail, a children's playground, an orchid garden, a waterfall, a bird park, a cactus gard
en, a stamp theatre, museums, and art and craft galleries. There's even a swimming pool and a couple of youth hostels on the site.

It was something for the Indonesians to be proud of and I enjoyed it too; even though it rained horrendously in the late afternoon, as it often does at this time of year.

Not once did I see a child play-up, cry or sulk. They were well-behaved and happy, and liked to wave and smile at the foreigner to prove it. And to think that I was warned to avoid Jakarta because there's nothing there.

Who says Jakarta stinks?

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