Bandung,point zero

Arriving at the airport, there is just one other Westerner. People are polite apart from the woman who pushed me away from the custom officer. Children on the arm of their mom  are watching us as if having never seen whites. Children are naive and innocent, they behave spontaneously and unreserved - they don't push me away. So, I like Bandung. The taxi driver is friendly and smiles continuously. He is happy to have a client, to be on duty, to show he is real, to demonstrate the art of driving. It's crowded in the streets - as crowded as crows would collect other crows in a tree at dusk. And the smell of this crowded city is everywhere. Noise and exhaust fumes, stench and noise, dirt and decay, rubbish all over the street.  Seven million people where governor Daendels ( about 1810) put a stick in the ground and said: make sure, a town will be built here. This spot is called point zero.