Went to Jakarta recently for the weekend. Jakarta was the only major city in South East Asia that I had not yet visited, so I wanted to change that. And secondly, I was interested to see first hand what it would be like to live and work in Indonesia, one of the most exciting economies in the world today.
I enjoyed my time in Jakarta, but time and again it reminded me of Mumbai. For the following reasons:
1) Weather : Hot and humid.
2) Income disparities : Very large and very stark. But Jakarta seemed to have a proportionally smaller middle class than Mumbai/India. Have to check the numbers on this, but the contrast was stark.
3) Chaos that works: Need I say more? Most people fail to understand how both these cities function.
Jakarta is a very interesting place to be. I picked up a book set in Indonesia "Map of the Invisible World" by Tash Aw in a Jakarta Bookshop. Very interesting reading. I'll post a review when I'm done.
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