I took this photograph a couple of weeks ago whilst stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the airport. In daylight this part of the city is pretty ugly. The muddy river is strewn full of sewerage and garbage – the flotsam and jetsam of the shanties and slums that sprawl either side of it’s banks. The physical reminder, lest one forget of the poverty and hardship of the millions that live here without proper housing, adequate sanitation and an income of less than $3.00 a day. In the gloaming one could be forgiven for believing this was some place else.
Lottie Nevin - The Red House Diaries 
I love when a photo can be both beautiful and sad, or even better, beautiful and ugly. This photo shows it all. Excellent shot, Lottie!
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Thank you IK. That is what struck me after I had taken it – how if I had taken that photo during the day, the picture would tell an entirely different story. Not so palatable, not so easy on the eye.
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It would be just as interesting, though. Sorry about my comment below. I read your post “Ratus Vagina” and thought I was commenting on it! Don’t know how I managed to post it here. Argh.
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The title of this post my eye while I was perusing your blog. Holy moly, is my comment about the spa treatment, which I’ve never heard of! To each her own, eh?
Loved this post, Lottie. You have such a wonderful way with words. I was stumbling down the darkened streets with you and your Irishman, and could nearly smell the urine. Lol!
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Ah!! you must be referring to RATUS VAGINA – that’s a treat in store! fancy a go? and yes, the smell in that restaurant was so pungent and SO disgusting that I ended up having to breath through my mouth. All part of lifes rich pageant as they say…..
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love the photo; good view of Jakarta.
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Thanks Sarah – it was a particularly beautiful sunset in the week following the supermoon.
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Yes, it’s the tropical sunset effect.. we are bound to want to believe that beauty resides anywhere the sun sets so beautifully. Thanks for capturing the upside of the.. underside (or is it downside)?
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A great part of my new life here in Indonesia is trying to get my head round what is going on around me. It will never cease to pain me some of the sights that I see but slowly I learn, not to accept it, but to realise that sadly, it is part of life as it is. Today for example I took a 20 minute walk to the shops and on the way home there was a young man with no legs, just his torso strapped to a board. I knelt down beside him (having spotted him a long way off and already got the last of my notes out of my bag) and handed him the money. Those little flippers were so dextrous and his smile so large that it melted my heart and I wished, and I wished and I wished that things were different.
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I forgot to say that he had no arms either – hence the flippers – I’m not sure whether he had, had arms and they had gone, or whether he had been born without them. Either way he stole my heart.
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Gorgeous sunset! I’d love to visit, but not to live. 😉
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Jakarta has many sides to it – it is an extraordinary place. I don’t mind living here but it’s certainly not what could be described as a Bucket list destination for most people.
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