VENDORS from Bogor and Bojong Gede hurriedly lower their baskets of fruit covered with banana leaves as soon as the train comes to a stop at Kota Railway Station. So too, shoe and clothing vendors with their merchandise. No less busy are porters, most of them hailing from kulon, referring to areas in Banten, west of Jakarta, offering their services to arriving passengers to carry their goods out of the station.

The hectic scene at the railway