Wang could complete the project with 40 workers in two years in China, but here, he would need at least five years, and costs would continually increase in the interregnum.

Getting raw materials isn’t convenient in Indonesia, but Wang likes the workers. They learn fast, even if they don’t have much practical experience.

He doesn’t understand, however, why Indonesians don’t appreciate China’s “goodwill.” “The high-speed rail is definitely good for the people here, when it’s finished, Indonesians will be thankful, but they never believe us when we say the railway is a good thing. We tell them the train will run more than 300 kilometres an hour, but they don’t believe it. They always say, how could it possibly ever run that fast? Haha!”

There’s an old saying in China that says “polished things are better”, but for Indonesia’s high-speed railway, Chinese workers have been grinding away for years with no return. Wang laughs then mutters when talking about his experience with land acquisition in Indonesia. “If they don't believe you at first, then all you can do is speak slowly until they understand, or get the project department to give them a translation.” As soon as he finishes his sentence, he says “boy, it sure is hard getting them to understand.”

Chen Tianyi (陳添翼) is a colleague of Wang, and he shares the same views. Chen is working on Tunnel Six, near the future Bandung Station. At 4.44 kilometres, it’s the longest tunnel of the high speed rail line. Conditions at the site are poor, and there are many risks during construction.

Unlike Wang, he’s a veteran of China’s overseas infrastructure projects. “I’ve worked for China Railways all over, from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia, and Tanzania to Albania. I worked on all those projects with my bare hands. But who’s ever waited this long to finish a project?”

He’s been in Indonesia for three months, where his salary is similar to what it would be in China: 10,000 Chinese Yuan a month ($1,450 USD), with room and board included. He’s worked for as little as 7,000 to 8,000 Yuan a month ($1,000 to $1,150 USD) at a cement factory in Africa.

I ask him how his old life in Africa compares to his new life in Indonesia. He says life was much more relaxed in Africa. “Indonesians are just too smart, they don’t want anything to do with you.” When asked to clarify what he means, Chen doesn’t give a positive answer. He says Indonesians don’t cooperate on land acquisition and that Chinese workers have to wait for the local government to coordinate with residents.

The project department now estimates construction stretching far into 2019. “If the Indonesians don’t accept the money, then what else can we do? They must have already taken a lot of money from the government, and are happy to get more.”

But is it simply money that Indonesian’s are worried about?

Chen’s co-worker, Dodo Slay, is a 54 years old native of Bandung. He’s worked as a site manager for 35 years, and has supervised construction on everything from the massive Cirata Dam in West Java, to infrastructure projects in Malaysia and Dubai. In 2015, Slay returned to his hometown, and now supervises Indonesian workers at Tunnel Six, where he oversees employee attendance, materials coming in and out, and even what the chef prepares for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“I'm happy because I have job opportunities and money, but at the same time, I’m unhappy that I’m so tired.” The Indonesian workers he manages are on duty more than eight hours a day, and get a one hour lunch break. They don’t get any rest days.

There are ten tunnels planned for the high-speed railway and they all need to be dug with heavy machinery, and the workers need to be extremely careful during excavation. There’s high levels of physical and mental pressure on this job.