It takes a special kind of madness to wake up at an unearthly hour, and make your way to one of the potentially stinkiest areas of the city all for the sake of a good experience. We’ve got it in spades.

One Friday, we targeted Pasar Ikan, the fish market at dawn. We were late already, because the auction is done much before that. Still, we got the tail end of the action. After the first step into the ickiness, there was no looking back. And no smell to bother us either. If you’re planning to visit, I strongly recommend your least precious rubber shoes, or even gumboots if you have a pair. 

As the market wound up and we had our fill of the golden light from the sunrise, we moved to the docks for some more action.

We had a taxi going to the market but were too conscious of our body odour on the way back, so we opted for bajaj (auto rickshaw), becak (cycle rickshaw), ojek (motorcycle taxi) and transjakarta (bus) rides instead. Mia the cat was not at all impressed by my efforts to be more appealing to her!