A day-time wander through a mega city offers the advantage of being ignored
Jakarta is up there as one of my favourite cities. You’ll have to excuse the sensationalist title but I wanted to set the scene for anyone who’s never ventured onto Java and explored its massive capital. It is expected to overtake Tokyo as the world’s biggest city by 2030. You’ll often hear people comment on the traffic and the pollution, but the former is normally by people who work there, and latter can be avoided by choosing the right time of year to visit.
Liz and I have found ourselves in Jakarta a few times now, what with it being the hub that connects our flights to the UK from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (I’ll be posting a street photography project from there too). We both insist on staying a few days, rather than skipping through it as many tourists are prone to do.
This little piece covers one afternoon when I escaped the comfort of the AC of the shopping malls and proceeded to walk, quite literally, miles. Normally I do this aimlessly, following my nose and ducking down side streets in a perverted attempt to get lost. I love doing that. I rarely follow the obvious route because it makes for a much more interesting amble and I never know what I’ll see around the next corner.
But on this particular afternoon, I was trying to find a complex of shops in an old mall, all of which repaired and sold second-hand camera gear. Of course! I did eventually find that mall, which is not where it said it was on Google Maps. This is normal for Indonesia. I swear the locals zoom right out to a world-view when adding new shops and restaurants to Google because they are never where they say they are!
Anyway, I digress. The point is that I didn’t find the mall until dusk, so my return walk was at night, which you can see here.
Newcomers to Jakarta would be forgiven for thinking it’s just an industrial sprawl, but it’s steeped in history and populated with many old Dutch colonial buildings. Construction is everywhere, which is ironic when you consider the Indonesian government is planning an exodus to Kalimantan. I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.
Walking in South East Asian cities is always a challenge. The pecking order of traffic puts the pedestrian firmly on the bottom rung, so if it’s not potholes and broken slabs, it’s non-existent pavements and lots of car-dodging.
However, there are massive pedestrianised areas and covered walkways to escape death by scooter.
The great thing about Jakarta, like many busy cities, is that as a tourist with a camera you are generally ignored. For me as a traveler to foreign lands this is a rare treat as normally the local people spot you a mile off and often play up to the camera.
And even when spotted with a camera, no one cares. It’s too hot and sticky to get bothered.
The walk to the camera mall was a few miles, and what with the backstreet turns and stopping for photography it took me a couple of hours to find it. By this time the afternoon was drawing in and the streets getting busy with commuters returning from work.
Liz and I enjoy exploring new places together, but when it comes to photography I much prefer my own company. I get to choose the pace and the places and in a hot climate there’s no one to get irritable with!
When I discovered that elusive mall (I spent half an hour walking backwards and forwards, doing a lot of asking around) I spent quite a bit of time rummaging through the second-hand stalls. Some of the shops were quite established with some beautiful copies of old 35mm film cameras and chunky medium format beasts. Other shops were a bit more ramshackle, with dusty cameras stacked up to the ceiling and little interest from the shop-keepers in selling their gear.
But the most interesting section was the repair shops. Every type of camera with any amount of electronics were stripped back here. Also lenses, so many lenses being serviced.
My return journey in the dark took a while longer. To be continued in the next post…
