By Sara Webb

MERAK, Indonesia, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Indonesia's rust-bucket ferries are a symbol of the decrepit infrastructure which has plagued Southeast Asia's biggest economy and prevented it from matching China's meteoric growth rate

Delivering a truckload of goods across one of the biggest of the 17,000 islands in Indonesia's archipelago can take a week, when a journey of the same distance might take a day in Europe or the United States.

At Merak, a busy port on the western tip of Java island, lorries loaded with coffee, sugar and fruit from the island of Sumatra drive off a rusty ferry. Trucks carrying brand new motorbikes take their place for the three-hour ferry ride across choppy seas to southern Sumatra.

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Posted by dcjaya at January 13, 2008 9:46 PM