We signed up for a night tour around Jakarta to places we would not had visited otherwise, led by our tour guide, a young man named Tio. Tio gave us a history of Indonesia as well as the current political and social climate as we traveled; it is interesting to learn about how a young person sees his country, but, as some of his opinions might be seen as controversial, he asked them to keep them to ourselves. His good nature and enthusiasm at being proud of his country and its history made the trip much more enjoyable.
One of our stops was for a street food snack called martabak. Martabak is a stuffed pancake or pan-fried bread made in many countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and all make it a little differently. It comes in sweet and savory varieties. Tio asked which one we wanted to try, and we asked, why not both? and he was more than amenable to that.
The Martabak was quite filling, and once Tio helped us eat both, we were on to our next stop, the Old Town. Jakarta Old Town had many white, colonial buildings built by the Dutch in their style; now it is a tourist area with cafes and restaurants.
Tio also showed us a statue that was tracking the sinking of Jakarta, especially North Jakarta. Jakarta is being reclaimed by the ocean at an alarming rate; at nearly 8 feet (2.5m) in 10 years, and 20 feet in 30 years in North Jakarta. Other parts are also sinking, albeit at a slower rate. This is due primarily to groundwater extraction, as there are few regulations that govern how much ground water can be taken. There is also a lack of green space in Jakarta (which was very clear to us, as we love to wander parks and botanical gardens, of which Jakarta has almost none) which can assist with water erosion (and pollution control).
Tio next took us to the North Jakarta docks, where boats and ships get supplies from trucks that are driving to them in up to the three feet of water; we watched as the trucks splashed on the roads to restock the ships. We also noted the large apartment buildings with lights on and asked how the people lived there, knowing that in under 10 years their buildings would be flooded and not hospitable; he said, “they were expensive and can’t afford to move.”
Our last stop was completely different than the docks and Old Town; it is a new area in far north Jakarta, near the airport, called the Pik (Pantai Indah Kapuk). It has been completed planned and funded by Taiwanese and Chinese Investors, and includes many new apartment buildings, a world-class hospital, malls, outdoor dining, and mixed use areas. It was the polar opposite of all we had seen of Jakarta thus far; clean, new streets, new buildings and many signs in Chinese were quite the surprise. We walked through one of the new outdoor malls with Tio telling us about the development.
As you can see above, the Pik outdoor market looked a lot like China. There was also multiple stalls selling Bonsai trees, so I was geeking out pretty hard. Tio said the larger ones cost as much as a car!
It was a fun tour and I’m glad we did it. On the flip side, not every day on this trip, or life, as we know, goes as planned, or is exciting or even interesting, to be fair. This blog, and most internet posts, show the best parts of traveling. I don’t focus on the inconveniences too often, but also try not to shy away from them. Our last day in Jakarta was one of these days.
As I mentioned earlier, there aren’t a lot of green spaces in Jakarta. We went looking for one though, and thought we had found it, a place that was called a botanical garden, about an hour outside the city. We figured getting far enough away from the pollution (as I detailed in the last post on my pollution sickness) and some greenery would do us good.
So, we booked a taxi and when we arrived, the driver asked if we wanted a ride back. We said no, we would be here for a couple hours, and he smiled and said ok. We should have known, when the entrance was down an alley, that there wasn’t going to be much here. We entered the “gardens” which was less than acre of grass, some old stone paths, a couple non-de-script buildings, a few pretty flowers, a small area with some plants in pots, and a lot of mosquitos. We saw a couple workers looking quizzically at us wandering and in less than twenty minutes we had seen the whole “garden.”
We left and went to buy water at the convenience store across the street, not recognizing the taxi driver who had dropped us off earlier. He said hello and laughed, and we didn’t realize it was him until we saw him again on the way out. Then we shared a laugh together, and we explained we were looking for some nature. He said he knew a place about an hour away and he could take us if we booked him for the rest of the afternoon. We were desperate to find some fresh air, so we agreed, and were off.
We arrived at a place called Mekarsari (which also has a separate water park) and the driver was talking to the ticket sellers at the entrance gate, but they were not letting us in. He then told us, “oh no, the garden park is only open on the weekends, but the water park is open.” We weren’t prepared for or wanting to visit a water park, and were now two hours from our hotel…so we asked him if he knew any other places…and he did not. He asked if we wanted to go back to the hotel, but I wanted to at least see something on our day out, so looked at the map to see if I had marked anything that was on the way back.
I had marked a local market called Pasar Pramuka, which sold exotic birds, so I asked him to take us there. He again looked at us quizzically, but said ok, and we were off. Again. We arrived at Pasar Pramuka, and it was very busy but didn’t look like a particularly nice place to visit; no matter, we were already here and went inside.
Well, inside Pasar Pramuka they sell medical supplies, and a lot of them, wholesale it appears. We received some more quizzical looks, but mostly it was people shopping, more than likely the local pharmacies stocking up on needing medicines and other goods. We didn’t linger, and went back to the car, a bit dejected.
I told the driver we had wanted to see the birds, and he said that was around back, so we went that way…and it was certainly a bird market. The smell was not good, nor was all the bird poop, sad, caged animals and only men, mainly smoking cigarettes. One guy, wearing a Yankees ball cap, introduced himself with a big smile, and shook my hand, excited we were from the US.
To be quite honest, it was sad and gross and Jessica did not want to linger as she did not want to catch a sickness. The owls looked severely unwell. One thing about Indonesia we did not like was the amount of caged birds; many homes and even some businesses had multiple bird cages, beautiful and exotic birds in small cages. It seemed cruel. The art museum owner we met in Bali, Rudana, had made mention that he did not keep any birds in cages, agreeing it was cruel, and maybe that heightened our awareness of all the caged birds.
We returned to the car and after another thirty minutes, we were back at the hotel, exhausted from not doing much of anything but sit for 3+ hours in a car. The only silver lining is that we are lucky to be able to have enough time in most of the places we have visited to “waste” a day and it not feel so bad about it; on Bali, it allowed us the time to get our Visa situation worked out and for me to recover from food poisoning.
With that, we left Jakarta the next morning. It was definitely an interesting trip, and while I wouldn’t recommend Jakarta as a place for most people to visit, we enjoyed the museums and had fun. That wraps up our two months in Indonesia; there are still many more islands to explore, and we hope and want to return to visit more. Now, on to Vietnam!
Phil's WayPastCool 