After a long train journey, which in hindsight would have been better to fly instead, I arrived in Jakarta and had to wait ages for the commuter train to get to my hotel.
Since the commuter train didn't run all the way to my hotel, I had to also take a minibus for the remaining journey but I enjoyed the local experience rather than just hopping in a taxi.
If you read up about Jakarta, you read about the horrible traffic, poor people around and that it's dirty. Sure, it's not as clean and nice as Jogja, Malang or Surabaya but it's a big city and big cities are always going to have more problems.
My first impressions however were that, aside from the commuter trains not being on time (reminded me of London), it was actually quite nice. Sure, there were more poor people, more traffic and it was also more dirty but nothing too different compared with other capital cities I visited.
What mattered though was that people were friendly and it was a relaxed atmosphere.
Given the time, I didn't have the chance to wander around too far or see too much but a nearby night market seemed a great opportunity for some photos.
One thing that I find funny about western countries is their paranoia of people (maybe) taking photos of them, here they not only don't mind but even ask you to take photos of them.
Here the challenge is more to take photos of people before they pose for you or with you for a photo.
"...here they not only don't mind but even ask you to take photos of them..."
ReplyDeleteCan't tell for sure, but I assume it's because they know you are tourist. Having said that, I agree that, in general, we are friendly people :-).
BTW, tomorrow is Indonesia presidential election. Are you still in Jakarta?
Thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeletePeople in Indonesia are very friendly indeed and some of the most friendly I have met so far.
Unfortunately I missed the election in Indonesia as I am sure it would have been fun to cover it.
In the Philippines now.