SeRBa SeRBi

Jakarta 1983: Scooters, scavengers and shoppers


Longtime Jakarta resident William Daniel has always enjoyed the ebb and flow of life in the city.

“I used to ride around town on a motorbike and take photos,” says Daniel, who first arrived in Indonesia in 1982 as an English teacher after stints in Colombia and Morocco.

“I would wander around and marvel at the unfailing friendliness of the people.”

Daniel later taught for the British Council in Yemen and Thailand, and then returned to Southeast Asia in 1988 in his second career as an investment banker until 2004. In 2006, he joined with several investors to open the Wall Street Institute the following year.
So in one way or another I’ve been under Jakarta’s spell since the early 1980s,” says Daniel, who lives in South Jakarta with his wife Dilla Djalil.

He is sharing some of his photos from 1983 with the WEEKENDER. “In fact I have a lot more from that time, but they are in a tin trunk in a Scottish attic.”

He has particular favorites among the subjects he found while riding around the city.

“I like the one of the classic bus (nicely flanked by a President taxi and a scooter) as well as the shot taken at Bunderan Hotel Indonesia, which captures a policeman, the scavenger and the lady who shops. The shot taken at dusk from the pedestrian bridge on Jalan Gadjah Mada is also a favorite.”

He points out that while there has been a lot of development in the past 25 years (the cigarette butt collectors of the 1980s are no longer found on the streets), there are still some familiar sights, including a whole family perched on a motorbike riding around the city.