Many of Jakarta's beautifully trimmed golf courses boast a unique, added virtue: they double as historical sites. This is because they were build on land previously occupied by slums and rural villages, and nobody knows the precise fate of the unfortunate farmers or residents who were forced to make room for the playgrounds of Jakarta's crony class. We do know that some of the country's largest conglomerates moved swiftly and mercilessly to clear land for what in the 1980s was fast becoming Asia's favorite new hobby. Bulldozers literally rolled across vegetable plantations and farmers were ordered to re-settle elsewhere with little or no compensation. That hasn't stopped anyone from teeing off, though, and rateher sadly, the whopping 38 golf courses throughout Greater Jakarta are the closest thing the city has to large public parks.
Golf courses are where Jakarta cronies and politicians conduct business. But they attract many happy foreign visitors too, because by international golf standards they offer great values: Most of Jakarta's courses are world class, and some charge as little as Rp 200,000($20) per round on a weekday. Not surprisingly, caddies come cheap and plentiful too, so that even the most hopeless golfer can enjoy the delusion of being Tiger Woods - in between swings, anyway.
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