48 Hours Living in Indonesia’s Train Track Slum

Seal On Tour
January 19, 2025
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The video starts off with Seal in Jakarta, Indonesia, explaining that many people in the city live in illegally built homes along train tracks, canals, and flood-prone areas, even though housing is supposed to be a basic right. With his guide Brandon from Hidden Jakarta, he enters a dark alley beside the railway and meets his host family, including Elsa, who lets him stay in their small home near the tracks. He shows the cramped sleeping area, squat toilet, narrow walkways, small shops, and the reality of trains passing every 10–15 minutes while people live only a few feet away.

Then he visits other poor communities around Jakarta, including a northern area near a dump site where people collect bottles and buy secondhand materials to build makeshift homes. He sees public toilets, polluted canals, sinking neighborhoods, a flooded “sinking mosque” area, and places where homes have been demolished because they were considered illegal. He also spends time with locals, buys food and tea, joins a first-steps baby celebration, goes to the market with Elsa, buys groceries, and eats a home-cooked beef-and-coconut meal that he says is one of the best meals he has had traveling.

The video ends with Brandon taking him to meet people who are even worse off: homeless residents sleeping directly beside the train tracks and surviving by scavenging bottles. Seal gives some money and food, reflects on how little these people have compared with Western life, and says the experience made him grateful while also showing how warm, friendly, and tight-knit the community is despite the poverty. He says goodbye to Elsa and leaves the train-track community after a humbling few days in Jakarta.

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