Contrast

I think I've mentioned before how jarring I find the juxtaposition of the super-rich and the super-poor here in Jakarta...the contrast is so stark. It's pretty insane. Massive, extremely high-end malls, mansions and apartment buildings right next to shacks with jury-rigged electricity and the most polluted canals I have ever seen.  

Here are some examples from our neighborhood:  

 A highly-polluted canal/sewer between our apartment building and our neighborhood grocery store... complete with precarious electrical lines hanging over it.

 

Tim, sweaty and holding his breath because the canal smells so bad.

 

Also on the way to the grocery store, right across from the canal.  We think this may be temporary housing for construction workers who are building a big office building nearby, but we're not sure.  Either way, it amounts to little more than a double-decker cardboard box.

 A brand new condo building towering over a mini shanty town and random empty lot.

 

 Closer view of the shanties.