... It's been a while since I visited a slum for the first time in my life. I was on my way to Indonesia for business and it was a weekend on my doorstep! What to do? Sightseeing or something completely different? I decided to visit an old fishing port. The recommendation for 'tourists' was to avoid this environment, too unsafe! My second consideration was whether I should really capture my impressions with the camera or whether I should leave it out of consideration for the privacy of the people living there? I finally decided on the camera and that was a good thing as it turned out later.
With a Tuktuk I lead into the harbour district Muara Angke. Arrived there I was directly attacked by a biting smell of waste water and faecal remains. I took my cam and walked straight into the neighbourhood, without any real destination. My first view into the big halls of a fish factory in which huge amounts of plastic and lattice boxes were stored, partly filled with huge amounts of fish or turtles. Quickly a few children and young people discovered me and presented me the most beautiful and largest specimens.
I went on to the surrounding streets of the fish factory. Here mostly women were busy with drying the fish. For the camera they quickly tried to get into advantageous positions:)
In the quarters opposite the fish halls I was driven to the end. The inhabitants attacked me to get photos of their children. Some of them asked me to wait until the whole family was drumming together and had more or less put themselves in position on the small road.
From the harbour district I again went with a Tuktuk on the way into the city centre, direction railway station. In the centre I noticed again and again the catastrophic conditions concerning garbage, faeces, open sewerage, parks and immediate proximity to living and sleeping places. The stench was unbearable many times! More than 35 million people live here in a very small space and most of them live under conditions that we Europeans cannot even begin to imagine.
In the evening I returned visibly thoughtfully and partly sadly to my accommodation, a 4 star hotel, not 10 km away - to another world - whether better is the question, because I did not meet any unhappy people the whole day!
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