One's initial impressions of Jakarta is of a VERY large city (some 16 million inhabitants, thereabouts) with very little intrinsic charm, a city of business and commerce with little to hold the attention of leisure travelers, a city dotted with new skyscrapers but lacking essential amenities (such as sidewalks and decent public transportation). No one walks anywhere; motorcycles are everywhere; all the cars are new and clean and Japanese and predominantly minivans rather than sedans.
We spent our first day "on tour with OAT" adding depth and understanding to those first impressions. The city came alive as a result (although unlikely to stir any significant relocation thoughts among us).
Istiqial Mosque was first on our agenda. Designed by Frederick Silaban in a highly symbolic "internationist" style, "Independence Mosque" was completed in 1978. The largest mosque in Southeast Asia, it can serve 200,000 adherients simultaneously on its five interior worship level and the huge surrounding outdoor terraces. Right across the street is the city's largest Catholic cathedral.
The architecture is stark and regal and striking in its simplicity as illustrated in this Jakarta Mosque 2016 Google Photos album [click on the album title to bring up the images; click an album image to enlarge it, then sweep towards the left to view the others].
Our local guide includes in her mixed heritage a good many Chinese ancestors. For our second adventure of the day we walked through an urban Chinese neighborhood where her family once lived, the site of several days of anti-Chinese rioting in 1998 that left lots of death and destruction in its wake. We visited a market area and then a typical temple complex where we met the local neighborhood government leader with whom we carried on an extended discussion of the riots and their consequences,
We spent our first day "on tour with OAT" adding depth and understanding to those first impressions. The city came alive as a result (although unlikely to stir any significant relocation thoughts among us).
Istiqial Mosque was first on our agenda. Designed by Frederick Silaban in a highly symbolic "internationist" style, "Independence Mosque" was completed in 1978. The largest mosque in Southeast Asia, it can serve 200,000 adherients simultaneously on its five interior worship level and the huge surrounding outdoor terraces. Right across the street is the city's largest Catholic cathedral.
The architecture is stark and regal and striking in its simplicity as illustrated in this Jakarta Mosque 2016 Google Photos album [click on the album title to bring up the images; click an album image to enlarge it, then sweep towards the left to view the others].
Our local guide includes in her mixed heritage a good many Chinese ancestors. For our second adventure of the day we walked through an urban Chinese neighborhood where her family once lived, the site of several days of anti-Chinese rioting in 1998 that left lots of death and destruction in its wake. We visited a market area and then a typical temple complex where we met the local neighborhood government leader with whom we carried on an extended discussion of the riots and their consequences,
We next rode three wheeler jitneys to Fatahillah Square, the center of Dutch Colonial control beginning in the seventeenth century. After lunch at the famed Cafe Batavia and a brief stroll around the square and to the nearby railroad station, we hopped back aboard our bus and drove through the heart of contemporary Jakarta's newest upscale neighborhoods, providing quite a contrast to the run-down sections of town in which we had spent much of the morning.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA 2016
An elegant dinner in an equally elegant restaurant full of exotic Indonesian collectibles rounded out the day, in the end leaving us all with a positive impression of a cosmopolitan, diverse and vibrant city.
Tomorrow we fly off to Yogyakarta in Central Java for more adventures.
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