Jakarta - my doorway into Indonesia

My entry into Indonesia was through Jakarta. I was afraid of the metropolis,to me it was like a gigantic hive beast that one could easily be swallowed by and then mercilessly spit out into some nameless place. How does one even begin to make sense of the place?! Luckily my host graciously came to meet me at the airport and we took the shuttle to south of Jakarta.It was Ramadan month somehow the traffic was lesser, perhaps because it was a weekend and people prefered staying indoors OR some of the population had begun making their way back to their hometowns. Whatever strange reason it was it just made my first foray into solo travel a little easier, a little less intimidating. (yes yes I'm a big baby!)

MONAS - the candle of Jakarta

What I imagined Jakarta would be like, goodbye to your personal space but that's the economy train!

Before arriving in her home we had my first Bakso in Indonesia at a warung by the road. The beefballs were bigger but the noodles almost non-existent! haha so I had to buy some sate as well. All that for $1.50.

I didn't plan on staying in Jakarta long but seeing as I was already in town I thought I'd give it a day to see the capital and luckily it being the weekend I had a whirlwind Jakarta experience from taking angkots, komutar and seeing all off Indonesia represented in the Mini Park to a jaunt in Kota Tua (Old Town). Quite the immersive experience!

A museum outside Taman Mini, and inside Taman Mini are more museums.....wow!

I just love those friendly monster faces,they're for warding off evil spirits .

So Sunday morning,rise and shine,first stop was to Taman Mini. I had envisioned little miniatures of homes and a small park one could easily explore within an hour. We arrived there and I was astounded by how huge the complex was. They had life size replicas of ethnic homes and in every one of them,it was filled with furnishings and decor to depict the daily life of the different ethnic tribes in Indonesia. I only visited one house, the Lampung house and it was a curious thing indeed to see how closely it mirrored kampung life in Malaysia as well.

Snapping pictures of house as we whizzed by in a shuttle, t'was a hot day and I was half dead from bussing through town.

Each statue had it's own Zodiac sign. Confucianism was just recently recognised as the fifth religion in Indonesia.

We went into a Museum Indonesia,one of the museums inside Taman Mini Indah, and get this there are more than hundred sixty museums in Jakarta and if you're thinking the one inside Taman Mini would be lacklustre then get ready to be amazed as this museum with a Balinese architecture was designed to be a one stop learning centre for Indonesian culture

sadly my camera didn't do this relief sculpture any justice

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit inside Museum Indonesia. They also had a small section of Wayang Kulit,so I felt that saved my day as I did not need to rush to Kota Tua to visit the actual Museum Wayang which closed at 3pm.

Music sheet for the instrument below

Papua clothing and on the left, Borneon costumes 

Bataknese writing, a tribe from Sumatra

  We also made it to Kota Tua before sunset. The flea market was still in full swing and some daredevil snake charmers were there to dazzle the crowd. I was enjoying myself with all the different foods to try. We found ourselves behind a hawker's stall hoping to eat our street food in peace but within the space of fifteen minutes, eight different street buskers had strolled by with their awful singing and recycled collection box. I was giving out coins and realised I needed some for later and began to be more discerning in giving my alms to worthy singers instead, that was until little buskers came with ukeleles and I gave away my last coin to the little siblings. So with my coins all gone and the food all in my tummy, I figured it was time to escape before more buskers came.

Spicy sour tofu....wow I bet it would've been a kicker!

We went into the oldest train station and you could see the Dutch touch! So we waited awhile inside the train and if you ever worry about not having walked the extra mile to a convenient store for a drink or some reading material,FEAR NOT! for it comes to you.So I sat amused as I watched peddlars selling their wares.They ran the whole gamut from tofu,drinks,newspapers, facial tissues,mix rice etc!

Finally the train got moving, I was in a ladies only carriage but some husbands sneaked in with their wives, of course some women stared with displeasure but the other carriages was stuffed to the rafters and eventually a conductor came to shoo the men off. The thing that really cheesed me off however was when a boy,after having finished his drink threw it out through the opened carriage doors when it stopped at a station. I stared at the offending plastic bag and straw and wondered HOLY BELLS DID THE MOTHER JUST LET HIM THROW THAT OUT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE AND NO ONE SAID A THING?!?! It's no wonder Indonesia  has trash everywhere because no one does anything about the obvious litterbugs.

Sunglasses at night? 

We ended the night with a marathon session of crime television and cheesy Superhero reality show. Nothing makes my night better :D Life in Indonesia isn't so alien after all. Thank you Endah for taking away my fears!