I arrived in Jakarta on 25th January. I had not intended to visit Jakarta but as I had to pass through to get to Bali, I thought I should check it out. I stayed at a hostel called the Packers Lodge. I had a reasonably priced, ensuite room with no windows.

The hostel was in in Glodok a predominantly Chinese district in the north of the city.  There was a street market just behind the hostel.

There were a few local cafes nearby but they all seemed to specialise in sea cucumbers. I opted to eat elsewhere.

Most of the area was residential with some local temples.

and quite a few bird shops.

Just north of Glodok is the old town of Batavia, now a suburb of Jakarta called Kota. This was the administrative hub for Dutch colonial Indonesia and many of the original buildings still stand. My favourite was Café Batavia in Taman Fatahillah Square. The building is the second oldest in Jakarta (building started in 1805) but it was only converted into a café 1993.

In its short life it has built up quite a reputation with its Winston Churchill Bar being voted the world’s best by Newsweek International for two consecutive years.

Downstairs they have a live jazz band every evening.

I spent most of the Chinese New Year in the café as everywhere else was closed. Outside the square was packed with those celebrating the new year. Many were renting multi coloured bikes, with matching hats, to cycle around the square and have their pictures taken – the selfie (with essential peace sign) is still very much alive in Asia.

Getting around the city differed to many of the places I have visited so far. The most popular form of transport is the scooter.

Public transport comes in several options:
1. The Tuk Tuk – Not really an option for me as none of drivers spoke English and they were not much cheaper than other options.
2. Uber, Go Jek and GRAB scooters – Definitely the most popular. You use an Uber or similar app to call them and they give you a lift on the back of their scooter. Very cheap but not an option for me as I hate motorbikes.
3. Shared Taxis – These blue mini vans follow fixed routes stopping where ever their passengers want. Cheap but you have to know their routes and language is often a problem.
4. Busways – These buses ran in segregated lanes across the city stopping at inter connecting stops. As sort of over ground underground.

The Busways were my preferred way of getting around. You board from an elevated platform and each trip costs about 20p.

Another essential part of every Busway stop was the family of local cats.

I also finally started using Uber cars in Jakarta (having stuck with yellow cabs in New York) as the Busway didn’t go out to the airport. I was impressed, they were very quick, cheap and efficient. Often more than half the cost of the official airport taxis.

The city appeared split into two: the older, poorer suburbs.

And the richer, more formal city centre.

I went out to the old port of Sunda Kelapa which was full of very old schooners that are known as Pinisi, They ship freight to and from the Indonesian islands with some going further in to the south pacific.

They was loading and unloading cargo to equally old lorries with very large air horns and mostly obscured windscreens. All of the glass was covered in reflective material to keep out the heat, except for a small strip in the middle to see out of.

After the Chinese New Year, the museums reopened and I visited the national museum (not very memorable) and two banking museums in Kota – Museum Bank Indonesia and Museum Bank Mandiri. The first was an excellent museum explaining how national banks operate and detailing Indonesia’s financial history which has had several crisis. The most recent of which was in 2008 and resulted in many banks going out of business and those that were left merging to survive.

The second was basically just an empty building but it was very interesting to explore this untouched art deco building.

The museums were pretty quiet after the new year celebrations and the lady collecting the tickets in Museum Bank Mandiri took time the opportunity to catch up on her sleep.

I have mentioned before that I’m not very adventurous with local food and I have to admit that I have found myself quite regularly searching out for western chains. Jakarta was no exception and I took a trip to the new Plaza shopping centre, which opened late last year, to visit an Eric Kayser Patisserie (one of my favourites in New York). I was quite amazed by the excesses inside which included a supermarket that made Whole Foods Market look like and Aldi and a shop selling a half million dollar blinged up piano.

Two doors away was a different kind of café. (They are actually separated by the Japanese embassy. I tried to take a picture showing how close they were but was dissuaded by the security staff outside the embassy.)

This seemed to sum up Jakarta. The city is going through massive changes (they are building a new underground system) but there is still a massive gap between the rich and the poor – possibly bigger than anywhere I have visited before.

Having arrived with no expectations, I quite enjoyed my stay. I’m not sure if I would advise anyone to travel half way around the world to visit but if you are passing definitely check it out. My stay was split around my trip to Bali (see separate blogs). I flew out of Jakarta on 7th February.