Jakarta Undercover

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 9, 2006

Jakarta is a capital of sex entertainment, and in this workmanlike account, Indonesian journalist Emka offers a pleasure tour of some of the rarefied adult venues. He assumes a grating, disingenuous tone as he gains access, via friends and professional contacts, to the naked parties and sex-for-hire clubs that require an inexhaustible supply of beautiful native women and foreign currency to keep afloat. Arriving at one underground party, thanks to the exclusive membership (costing $5,000 for six months) of an acquaintance, Emka pulls back a curtain at the nightclub to behold this sight: "Nobody was wearing anything!" The author indulges in a "Triple-service VIP Sauna Special" (bathed and massaged by two women who vie for his attention while telling him, "We're stupid because we're willing to be used by men") and observes a "Squeals on Wheels" transaction (sex in a moving car). He's seated in the front next to the driver, while his friend enjoys the action in the backseat. There are no surprises, as Emka barely scratches the surface of the sordid Indonesian sex industry fed by the sad legion of bored and desperate mammies (older procuresses), prostitutes, gays, foreign sex workers and wealthy fetishists.