Showing remarkable lack of foresight, the Dutch East India Company decided the build Batavia, the capital of their new colony on a marsh. Seemed like a good idea at the time - the early 17th century. There had been a settlement in the same area for several centuries and the site offered a great natural harbour. How was the Company to know that Batavia, which after independence from Holland following WWII changed its name back to Jakarta, something closer to that of pre-Dutch times, would become one of the world’s largest and most crowded megapolis, now home for getting on to 20 million people. The city is now so crowded and polluted that it is literally sinking under its own weight.

The Indonesian government, perhaps demonstrating a little more foresight than the Dutch East India Company has declared its intentions to build a new capital (and relocate a couple of million people) somewhere in northeastern Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo) close to the border with (Malaysian) Sabah. Never mind that the area is now mostly covered by pristine jungle and is home among others to the world’s dwindling population of orang-utans. The Dutch East India Company went broke at the end of the 18th century...hopefully the same fate doesn’t befall the Indonesian government before its able to fulfill its dream!

Jakarta is not exactly a top tourist destination. We spent a little more than 36 hours in the city, almost time to recover from the journey from home which took almost the same time! It was long enough though to get a taste, smell and feel for the city. Traffic clogged it is and so smoggy that there was little point in visiting any of the lookouts atop the city’s tallest structures (as suggested by our guide) as there would be nothing to see other than smog! The city managers are using various tactics to dissuade citizens from using their own vehicles to get around. But there is a woeful lack of public transportation and other than Grab, the local motor scooter equivalent of Uber, there’s not much alternative for getting places. Our hotel is in the Menteng district of central Jakarta, both the main business district and home to Indonesia’s mega-wealthy. Far more interesting though are the Kota and Glodok districts, home to the remnants of Batavia, Jakarta’s Dutch colonial past and teeming Chinatown.