Jakarta slum tourism walks the line between aid and exploitation

- Jun 02, 2012 2:32 pm

Skift Take

Slum tourism is a stark reminder that there is always a vast chasm between the experience of a tourist and that of a local, no matter the destination.

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“I decided to experience the real Jakarta,” said a tourist, stepping gingerly between puddles of putrid water and a scurrying rat in a scene that would never make a postcard.

Rohaizad Abu Bakar, 28, a bank employee from Singapore, said he could not believe his eyes as he wandered around the slum in the Indonesian capital, a jumble of hundreds of shacks, some less than a meter from a railway line.