The Indonesian flag flies outside the old Stadhuis (City Hall) of Batavia, the seat of the Governor General during the rule of the Dutch Easy India Company (VOC.)
The Batavia Stadhuis, now the Museum Fatahillah.
Dutch East India Company official meeting a local leader. Detail from a large painting in the old Stadhuis
A plaque in the Batavia Stadhuis noting that the building was constructed in 1710 during the administration of Governor General Abraham van Riebeeck. The Governor was son of the first VOC governor of the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck.
Gravestone of a VOC governor general who died in 1837, at the Stadhuis.
Sunday afternoon in Old Batavia.
Sharing a small patch of shade.
Selling bottled water outside the former Stadhuis.
At the National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta.
A 13th century figure at the National Museum in Jakarta. The museum would be a whole lot more interesting if the exhibits were labeled properly. But after paying an entrance fee of US0.08, it's difficult to feel cheated.
A school group at the Independence Monument in Jakarta
Jakarta traffic. This is not rush hour. It's about 11.30 on a normal Wednesday morning.
Bustling street near my hotel in central Jarkarta.
Street food for sale from the back of a minibus.
Sidewalk fruit seller.
Food for sale near the National Monument.
Mobile phone vendors and repair shops. In every Southeast Asian city I have visited, there are malls like this. Usually on an upper floor dozens of small stores sell a huge variety of phones (new and used, brand name and fake.) This is the kind of place to have your US cell phone unblocked.
Movies, some not yet released on DVD in the US, for sale on a Jakarta sidewalk at very low prices. Intellectual property concerns don't appear to affect the informal economy much here, as in much of East and Southeast Asia.
Religious children's books for sale.
Clothing store, a few floors down from the mobile phone shops.
A vain hope here. The capitalism is clearly thriving in Indonesia, as in most of the rest of Southeast Asia.
Like several East Asian cities, Jakarta seems to be determined to remake itself in the image of Tyson's Corner, only much bigger and with worse traffic.
