Indo.

I wonder how people feel when they visit the home country of their domestic helper. Probably nothing special.

These constant travels have pulled me ever closer to this region, which was once so close but of which I knew nothing about. The beauty of business travels, sometimes, is that it provides one's perspectives at all levels, including the work culture, the country's market and consumer behavior, and a usual traveler's casual observations during temporary immersion.

Hiring of domestic helpers arise out of necessity, I suppose. We pay them lower wages, grant them a special type pf visa, and they have no hope of becoming permanent resident after satisfying the minimum requirements of conversion required for an "ordinary" expat. And that is supposed to be normal in many's eyes. It is a not so friendly world, one's rights in a foreign country is closely tied to one's class, nation, and line of work one is subject to. But even then, they get paid more than what they would have at home, doing the same things. Perhaps this makes "economic" sense.

Their Sunday hangout place is separated by national/ethnic lines; Filipinas in Central and Indonesians in Causeway Bay. It's a normal scene now, and people have chosen to accept it, possibly not out of will. Somewhat of a compromise of social outlet for being locked domestically six days of a week.

This scene has created, in the long run, a social stigma of a certain people that are dwarfed, deemed destined to be stuck in a certain level of economic development, its people attached to certain undesirable national traits. When people say 賓賓  (bun bun, how Hong Kongers call Filipinas)，it is certainly not a referral on equal terms.

This makes it ever more important to see the same people within a different context. If you see Filipinos workers in a certain fast food chain in KL, you'll see their love for dancing to music to pump up the mood. You hire a warehouse of Filipinos, you know a daily morning dance is a ritual. The country also produces many talented singers and bands, performing in different countries. Certainly, it doesn't mean life conditions are great, or that the perceived problems don't exist, or that they are suddenly a rich nation, but it is signs of a people who know how to enjoy life and be happy, to bypass hardships, if any, during  daily lives. Trait somewhat comparable to Latinos (perhaps lots of generalization here), possibly thanks to their former Spanish colonial masters.

As for Jakarta, while the city might not be the most pleasant place to live in (mostly due to its traffic conditions), I have heard the party scene is great; yet to be experienced.

Jakarta people have to be the some of the most patient people on earth, many enduring a daily four+ hour commute which can realistically be done in one hour had there been no traffic. Half the time driving means stuck on the road at snail pace. Take a cab, take a nap for one hour, you're likely still on the same spot during rush hour. For this Jakarta drivers have developed superpowers, being able to read a book and answer emails while driving. It's not ideal, but you make do with it, and accept it as a way of life. If patience is the main quality for hiring, then people from Jakarta are a top choice.

The obsession with cars is dumbfounding. Living in KL you'd think its bad enough, but there's worse. Only really applies to Jakarta and not to rest of the country. Perhaps its a natural stage of economic development, a symbol of the newly risen middle class or nouveau riche. But with cars comes necessary control and planning, and this is limited. For a city so spread out, it is interesting there is no metro. The only effective form of mass transport is BRT, the Transjakarta. Let me guess, it was cheaper to build? Certainly half as efficient as the one in Bogota, mainly because of lack of buses. It is also making the already narrow lanes even narrower, instead of opting for an elevated option like the recent one in KL. There are plans for a monorail, but if one sees how that turned out in KL, one would seriously question the applicability of such a vehicle in Jakarta.

BRT: Transjakarta

With an abundance of cars, the lack of sufficient parking space is even more dumbfounding. As such, drivers often double park their car with the hand breaks release, so the car can be pushed aside when any car wants to leave. Such is the case even in office parking space, where "most of the cars are driven by drivers anyway." Jakarta can fool people as a rich city.

But it is not solely the obsession of cars that causes the traffic, it's the geography and urban planning of the city. Other than a few main artery roads, Jakarta is composed of a system small alleyways that form multiple dispersed neighborhoods, where cars cannot easily enter, and even if they do at a worse snail pace. This is where many live, pushing food carts around selling sate ayam, bakso, siomay (the word probably Chinese, but Indo version composed of fish served with peanut sauce), soto betawi, nasi goreng.

Love the food stalls behind curtains.

Near Kota early evening.

Kuningan, small alleyway.

Those who live in the alleyways are not necessarily struggling citizens. But only certain people of this city will come in these streets and live here, others will stay out of them most of their lives. In the same company, you'll find some who tell you street food is not safe for health, and some who dine in street stalls every night.

It is certainly a city of two extremes. Walked in to Tanah Abang the other day on the recommendation that "things are cheap," from no other than the lovely guest and worker in my hometown. Tanah Abang was an eye-opener; traffic there was taken to the next level. Cars, trucks, food carts, and horse carriages alike are all stuck in the same bustling roads. Pedestrians are fighting for the way with motorbikes. And if you stop for a moment, the motorbike will take your place. It's like a mash of all beings, alive or not, all participating in the traffic flow, somehow enjoying each other's presence at this given space and time.

It's a popular market sort of place, for both wet and dry markets. Tired butchers were sleeping on butcher tables in the early evening. I turned down to a little creek, where apparently people lived next to. Peeked into houses that were like little huts, not much furniture and whatnot. Clothes were hanging on top of the sidewalk, blocking my main way across. It was the end of work day, retiring food vendors were pushing their food carts down this creek sidewalk, fighting for their ways with motorbikes returning home. The waterway is as usual full of garbage. It is somewhat a pity for this city full of waterways to not clean them up.

Tanah Abang

Food carts by the creek.

Neighborhoods like these will soon be reduced in sight. In the suburbs, government is already building houses, some next to slum areas, hoping to relocate people of the center, occupying land that can, in some's minds, be redeveloped and sold for good money. It is said buying a house there will cost the same as buying a small apartment in city center. Not surprising, but one must be prepared to forego convenient access to city life. Gentrification is a global trend, and it does not escape a city like Jakarta, baby of the next economic boom of Southeast Asia.

Walk away from Tanah Abang for around 30 minutes towards Central Jakarta, you hit Plaza Indonesia, where all the famous designer brands areon display. Typical grandiose shopping mall, armed with security guards with baggage checks. Plaza Thamrin is nearby, but the two malls are separated by class. Certainly,  there is no preventing of anyone from entering a mall, but class of a mall is still a reality, defined by the products that are sold, brands that are present, developers behind the project, and people who frequent it.

The two extremes have taken root long ago, partially causing the ugly pretty episode in 1998. Glodok, the China town today, still has many Chinese faces remaining, but interestingly you won't here the Chinese tongue in many stalls. They are after all the scapegoats for general hatred towards the Chinese perceived as rich. The truly wealthy ones don't live in Glodok, but in their little enclave PIK. Legend has it that, when the riots came targeting rich neighborhoods, guards started ratting out Chinese houses due to their usual mistreatment by them. Those who were not Chinese became busy putting haji in front of their names on the doors, to prevent getting target.

It was scene at the airport during those days. PIK Chinese citizens drove to the international airport at once, selling their cars on the spot, at some measly prices. They had no cash on them, but needed some to get a ticket Singapore-bound. Take the cars, they would say. After all, when your house is looted and your life threatened, a car intact is of no use. So there goes the rich Chinese, but there are some of the same ethnicity who are not as fortunate, not having as many cars at their disposal.

If one ever walks into PIK, one would not be surprised at them being targets. These are some wealthy citizens,  but that is not representative of class. Judgement from their palace-like houses. You'd imagine that after years of being wealthy, one would develop the art of spending money, and not be relegated to the tastes of nouveaux riches in booming China. Such is the disappointment.

Sample PIK palace.

My race/face was my best disguise; allowing me to walk in freely without security issues, despite the camera being a little dubious.

National education has been successful. Chinese blood can only be told by face but not by name or language. Few will actually speak Chinese. It was said that only in Sumatra would you find Chinese tongue spoken freely and openly, like it is in Malaysia.

It is interesting to ponder upon the basis of Indonesian nationhood. The people speak Bahasa, which has its origins from the Melayu peninsula. Its "traditional" language is Javanese, a script based on Sanskrit, which you can still see printed on the street signs in Yogya (don't recall this in Jakarta). Traces of such influences from the Indian subcontinent can still be seen in sites like Borobudur and Prambanan, when Hinduism and Buddhism coexisted relatively peacefully. People still address each other as Pak or Mas, typical Javanese words.

Even Islamization was far from complete, understood to be mixed with certain mysticism when spread on the archipelago. Surely Indo is a Muslim country,  but from casual observations, its Muslims are considered liberal in world standards. At times other than Ramadan, some drink. If one swipes on tinder, one would see girls veiled in one profile pic, and unveiled in another, which somehow strikes me as somewhat bizarre, like juggling on the scale of religious openness from one pic to another. In KL for example you will never see this. On the liberal mindset, Mr. Su has a theory that this liberalism exists because they don't have to proactively defend their identity due to successful unifying national education over time. This is unlike in the neighboring Melayu Peninsula, where other communities have lived in parallel in pretty much their own ways for past hundreds of years, thereby creating a comparative and competing existence of identity traits. One's piousness therefore has to be more pronounced to match the competing ideologies.

Islam might still be the defining nature of Indonesia, but religion in its nature is changing in the consumerist world. Such is pronounced in a rapidly booming economy of the archipelago, where Ramadan is now an occasion for marketing campaigns. I've always thought it rather odd to say "It's Ramadan, let's shop." But then again, when Christmas comes, one would equally say "it's the birth of Christ, let's shop," almost regardless of one's religious faith. It is understood that on Ramadan, all staff get an extra month's pay, which is what fuels further this consumerist spirit. Interestingly, in certain companies, Christians get paid this amount on Christmas and not on Ramadan.

Definitely a much more vivid picture now than mere picnickers in Causeway Bay.

Bogor.