Cultural shock - Jakarta
The unvarnished city tour
The day started with a basic breakfast, toast with jam and some watermelon. At around 11o’clock we started our city tour. Our tour guide: Hermann the German, a freaky little boy from the jungle of Indonesia. Well, nothing is better than walking the streets with a local, right? Right, but..! It was definitely not the type of tour I expected on my second day in Asia. But well, at least with him we saw the “real” Jakarta, with -probably not all- its UPs and DOWNs.
So, imagine tiny little alleys, vendors on each side, trying to sell you whatsoever (dead or alive), you can barely walk because you feel like you’re too big for the streets, but somehow, the locals still manage to drive in there with their scooters. Every meter we walk, I get a new smell in my nose, and my nose is pretty overwhelmed by that. Mostly, I’m happy that one smell is immediately replaced by another. Somewhere in these alleys we get some really delicious vegetarian tempeh with a small green chili, to spice it up a little. As we turn around another corner, out of nowhere we stand in a beautiful little temple with incense sticks and everything that goes with it.
Well, after that we were about to have a little boat tour on the canal, to have a nice view at the mosque Luar Batang. And this became one of the most shocking experiences for me here in Asia. To get to our boat, we had to cross a slum, that was build on and out of trash. It was filthy and smelled so bad. The huts were made of what ever they could find on the waste disposal site. The kids were running around in torn clothes and playing in the trash. It was heartbreaking to watch!
Finally, we rented a boat at a small canal. The captain took us out to sea for about 15 minutes. We passed wooden ships that are still used as transport ships, although they looked like they will sink any moment. A quick look back at Jakarta, torn down, poorly constructed huts in the front of us. In the Background big skyscraper and the minarets of the mosque. The contrast could not be any bigger. We got back to the dock. Tipped the captain well, as we felt super sorry for the people there, and continued our city tour.
To complete the cultural shock, we ended at the Skybar, where the richer people meet, to have a cocktail in the swimming pool while looking down at the bright city lights.
Tonight I’m going to bed with strongly mixed feelings. WHAT A DAY!