Tethered Monkeys and Shanty Towns

This is written from the luxury of my corner room at the Ritz Carlton Kuninga in Jakarta.

I say luxury, because it is with a feeling of guilt that I recall the shanties with their rusty red corrigated iron roofs that we passed on the way in from the airport.

The disparity between rich and poor is very evident in Indonesia. Jakarta alone has more than 10 million people, or to put it into context, two and a half times the entire popuation of New Zealand.

Every day for many is a story of subsistence and surival. My limousine passed a boy with his pet monky tethered to its owner's wrist, performing acrobatics in the hope of attracting alms from passing motorists.

Further on, a piece of hose snaked from behind a clump of bamboo to the roadside and a motorcyclist was filling up from what I took to be an illicit petrol supply.

The goreng(fried food)hand carts were setting off for late afternoon as my driver took a short cut through the local neighbourhood in East Jakarta. It is a sight that one used to see in old Singapore, but no more, as the hawkers there are largely confined to stalls and the itinerant variety disappeared several years ago.

The pollution haze that I remember from my last visit to the capital over a decade ago remains.