Jakarta's Urban Jungle

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We explained to the kids at breakfast that our 3 hour train to Bandung arrived after lunch and that they might like to take something with them from the buffet breakfast. Hat took prawn crackers, Ed buttered some toast and we took a large waffle and the omelette that Hat ordered but didn't eat as it tasted of peppers. We're trying to encourage them to think ahead and become more self reliant.
Our train from Gambir Station turned out to quite straightforward and I was very pleased that the tickets I'd bought online yesterday worked a treat. We'd taken the air conditioned carriage option and we were all grateful.
The train went very slowly for the first few miles and we got to see the other side of bright shiny Jakarta. Tarpaulin shacks, sandbag walls, tiny backstreets littered with tiny hovels, washing hanging over the train track fences, roofs patched with every conceivable combination of materials, scattered rubbish piles and teenagers scavenging through them, heaps of rubble, stones and bricks, kids playing in disused building sites and on the railway tracks, streams of grey/black water and loads of banana plants dotted into every available space (they produce hands of nutritious bananas within 9 months). The colours were riotous, the people highly numerous and the mess was signature chaos. And these shanty towns went on for many many miles. Life is clearly incredibly hard for millions and you sense that many just about eek out enough to survive. The saying 'life is cheap' has real meaning here.
Increasingly, the land opened up to padi fields and industrial areas and finally it was lush green jungles. Narrow gorges were filled with complex terraces of padi fields, the water from each terrace drained into the one below and so on.
We asked Ed and Hat to read a couple of paragraphs on the Indonesian cultural do's and dont's which includes: not showing the soles of your feet, not using your left hand. We also had a very quick lesson in saying hello, please, thankyou, yes, no etc. They were very interested.
At Bandung we walked across the railway tracks to get to the exit. Some bartering with a taxi driver and we were on our way to the Sheriton Four Points hotel in full monsoon rains.
Tomorrow we are up early as we're going to a village for a homestay with another family.

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