Jakarta... its name conjures up many images on people's mind. For millions of Indonesian, coming to Jakarta means opportunities to change their fortunes. While many have found the holy grail, many lost it all in the harsh reality of the fast-paced capital city. As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta is the center of government and the hub of Indonesia's economy. It has many names, Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta, Batavia, then finally, Jakarta. Just like its name, Jakarta have changes it looks many times and personally, I don't think it will ever stop changing and for this reason, many can't help but falls in love with Jakarta. For many years, living in Jakarta for me means being with family and friends. Monday to Saturday will be school time, then on Sunday its all about enjoying free time, eating out or shop in one of the big malls, off course I didn't grow up with as much malls as Jakarta has nowadays.
As a local, Jakarta is an exciting place to live because it has so much to offer. Yes, traffic in Jakarta can be a bit of a nightmare for foreigners but the government made it a lot friendlier with the creation of TransJakarta buses. The TransJakarta bus lines stops at all the important landmarks around Jakarta, by landmarks I mean, monuments, museums and off course the shopping malls. Most of the bus shelters are air-conditioned. The ticket is purchased on the bus shelter before you enter and tickets are affordable, its Rp. 3,500 equals to 35 cents USD. Other method of transportations are taxi, independent bus company and smaller van-like transport called Mikrolet (read: mee-crow-let). If you preferred the more traditional method of transportation, Jakarta has traditional auto-rickshaws called Bajaj (read: bah-jay) and the human-powered cycle-rickshaws we called Becak (read: beh-chuck). Whichever method you prefered, always beware of your belongings, as unfortunately I have to inform about the pick-pockets, generally exists in any big cities of the world.
So what to see around town? Kemang District is my top recommendations for any travelers, situation in the South of Jakarta, it's alive by day and becomes more vibrant as the sun goes down. The district hosts large number of restaurants, both traditional and fusion cuisines. However, my favourite is a unique bookstore called ak'sa.ra. Casa Cafe is located right above the bookstore in case of an appetite kicks from reading. Apart from selling books, every so often ak'sa.ra. hosts variety of book readings and music performance by artists from Indonesia's Indie music scenes.
This is just a short introduction, so many things will be written about Jakarta as we slowly grow the blog. I can say for sure to know all about Jakarta is to write endless pages and pages of posts therefore we'll explore it slowly. So... until next time.
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