Since we spent most of our first day in Jakarta tracking down some of my childhood haunts, we decided to play tourist on day two. Thankfully, since Pak Tohari, our driver, was so kind and wonderful the day before, we were able to easily hire him again for a much more “normal” itinerary. Jakarta only has a few truly “touristy” sites, so we had a fairly clear idea of what to see, starting with Kota Tua or “Batavia”, the old town that was settled by the Dutch way back in the 1600s. Our hotel was also invested in our enjoyment (they went above and beyond once they learned I’d previously lived in Jakarta!), so they added a couple exciting food stops and some shopping (it wouldn’t be SE Asia without a visit to a mall!) to the list.

Our first stop was Glodok (also known as Jakarta’s Chinatown) which is a vibrant neighborhood filled with vendors selling everything you could imagine (from clothing to electronics to fruit to live hamsters). The streets were lined with lanterns and red clothing of all types, as we are in the lead up to Lunar New Year and Chinese communities traditionally value red as an auspicious color for everything from clothing to envelopes filled with gifts. We meandered through, taking in the crowded streets and stopping for a quick coffee (I couldn’t resist trying Starbucks given Indonesia’s coffee reputation – unsurprisingly, the coffee was much better than in the United States!).

One of the things I love about traveling are the random interactions you have with people – in our case, a couple came up to us and started making small talk about where we were from, ultimately sharing that they’d previously lived just outside of Boston. We joked about the weather, how they visited New York City and found it too crowded (this coming from someone living in Jakarta!) and ultimately were left with such a nice impression of Jakarta’s friendliness.

Afterwards, we headed up to Kota Tua (“Old Town” or “Batavia”) the traditionally Dutch neighborhood located just south of the old Portuguese pier in northern Jakarta (the Portuguese colonized the area before the Dutch took over in the mid-1600s). The neighborhood was honestly less touristy than expected; other than the architecture and a couple museums, it appeared to mostly be locals and some domestic tourists enjoying a weekend out on the square.

The architecture of Kota Tua is definitely influenced by the Dutch, with a couple of the buildings (the Jakarta History Museum and Cafe Batavia, among others) being mostly original with some restoration.

The local presence was especially evident as we began to cross the square towards the first museum of the day. Over the course of the ~2.5 hours we spent in Kota Tua, we:

• Participated in no less than 3 interviews for students from 3 different universities; it appeared they all had to complete projects on tourism / English communication and interview foreigners about their thoughts on Indonesia and Jakarta (as well as the food)
• Helped two different English students / translation students practice their English in a pop-quiz type setting (on video!)
• Took photos with a number of folks who just seemed to want photos with us; this would also happen throughout our day – I think we took photos with at least 5 different groups and were surreptitiously photographed by several others
• Conducted an interview with the staff of Cafe Batavia, who were extremely eager to ensure we understood the history of the building (which was great to learn!)

The first museum we visited was the Wayang Museum, which chronicles the history of Indonesia’s puppet theater, including a variety of intricately carved puppets ranging in size from lifesize to miniature shadow puppets. They also included some funerary puppets (top right) which would have been used to ensure that an individual could cross into the afterlife effectively if he had no family to pray for his passage.

These puppets are used for a variety of performances, including shadow puppet theater, and are often showcased in combination with traditional instruments or as part of larger theatrical productions like the Ramayana, a Hindu-based mythological story.

Among the most interesting items were a Garuda-shaped oil lamp that would have been used to light the shadow puppets, as well as shadow puppets made of non-traditional materials (such as woven bamboo), shadow puppets meant to depict key characters from the Christian narrative (bottom left) and shadow puppets meant to depict real people in modern attire (bottom right).The masks and instruments were also very interesting.

After that museum, we headed to the Jakarta History Museum, which is housed in the former governor’s headquarters.

The museum unfortunately has pretty limited English signage, but it does include a variety of original furniture, pottery, and some amazing Dutch artifacts (including some amazing wall-sized windows that took a year to craft and looked like something out of a period movie!). Sadly, the curation is also a bit out of order and there aren’t any restrictions on touching the furniture, but it was a lovely collection.

Given the lack of signage, we didn’t learn a ton of history, but we did see that after the Dutch began importing items like cannons, they were quickly transitioned to reflect the local Indonesian style. We also saw that the Dutch and British committed a heinous amount of atrocities against the local population and Chinese workers who were brought in to work the plantations.

Interestingly, on the way out there is a giant mural depicting the colonial relationships (it looks suspiciously like the Last Supper, but with the Dutch in the place of Jesus!).

Following this museum, we visited Cafe Batavia, a colonial-style property (it used to be the Governor’s home) which serves delicious Indonesian food and has quirky decor (including some cowhides original to the property from the mid-1800s). The Cafe has a storied history and has served as host to folks such as the Presidents of Bangladesh and the Czech Republic during their visits to Jakarta.

We tried the Bebek Bali, a Balinese-style of duck and the mee goreng, fried noodles traditionally served with egg and chicken. The local Bintang beer is also delicious.

After lunch, we headed back towards Central Jakarta and visited the National Monument. Unfortunately we arrived just after the last entry to the monument itself, but we got to walk around the complex grounds for about 20 minutes before making our way to the exit alongside hoards of others (no joke, it took ~30 minutes for us to exit the parking lot, and that was with the help of the designated attendants who appear to get tipped for helping cars back out and enter lanes of traffic).

On the way to our penultimate stop (ice cream!) we passed a couple of Jakarta’s government buildings, which have incredible architecture.

Our goal was to visit the best ice cream in Jakarta (as recommended by our hotel), so we immediately popped into the trendy cafe 21 Factory and gladly accepted cups of their fruity gelato (we got a coconut ice cream and I got a flavor that directly translates to “cough syrup” in Bahasa – not sure why that’s the case, but it actually tasted like a light cream with a hint of real cherry!). Also interestingly, since Indonesia is a majority-Muslim country, a lot of the cafes have an open prayer space so that practitioners can pray throughout the day.

After a frantic call from Pak Tohari (he’s always looking out!) we realized we’d actually gone to the wrong ice cream shop and we needed to head a couple doors over to get the “best” ice cream; not to be deterred by a full stomach, we headed for our original intended destination: Es Ragusa. This shop has been open since the 1940s and has not been updated in probably ~1966; the vibe was completely different, but the ice cream was excellent. You can’t really tell from photos, but inside is essentially a giant room, lowly lit from the street, with old school wicker recliners lining the walls. It was like stepping back in time.

Lastly, we visited Sarinah, which is an upscale shopping mall in Central Jakarta that offers a variety of designer fashions (western, Indonesian and “modest” – the “modest” section clearly caters to the Muslim clientele and included beautiful dresses and skirts).

The mall also includes a small “museum” with an overview of its history, and, of course, a variety of pastry shops. We stopped in for a Lapis Surabaya, a take on the Lapis Legit that I’m a fan of (essentially an egg yolk custard layered with chocolate cake and jam).

After that, it was back to the hotel to relax and grab some dinner (more satay!). Overall, a great couple days in Jakarta and a wonderful reintroduction to Indonesia!

Logistical information: We hired Pak Tohari for both days as our driver in town; he works for Silverbird Taxis, his direct Whatsapp # is +62 812-1204-7265; would highly recommend him to anyone traveling in Jakarta. We stayed at the St. Regis hotel, which was truly among the nicest properties we’ve ever visited; they went above and beyond and the facilities and food are incredible as well, especially given the extremely affordable prices relative to USD.