A Walk to Jakarta Car Free Day Area

The sun was peeping shy behind a building

The sun was just woke up about an hour ago. It was that early in the morning when I decidedto go to Jakarta Car Free Day Area. The sun lazily risen up to the sky, maybe it was due to Sunday that the sun wanted to rest a little more after the long busy week.

Got my feet up the Sudirman Street from Sudirman Railway Station, the sun was welcoming me by peeping from behind a tall building. There were already lots of people doing various activity on the street. It was natural because the clock already pointing number 8.

The Hotel Indonesia (left) circle

Jakarta Car Free Day Area is an area that being used for public with no auto-vehicle allowed around (except the TransJakarta). It is located on the streets around The Hotel Indonesia circle, along Sudirman Street to Monas (Indonesian National Monument). It is always held on Sunday so people living in Jakarta and around have an open place to do exercise and other activities. It is meant so people can enjoy their time in public area where they usually got their strees on that street.

On the street, I saw lots of things. I saw massive yet artistic buildings that amaze me. As a main street of economic ativities in Jakarta, Sudirman Street had lots of those kind of buildings. Beside the buildings, various activities that people held there were also being an entertainment for me. There were people jogging, bike riding, skateboarding, walking their dogs, and showing off their activity as a community. Around the Welcoming Statue that was built in 1961 for the 4th Asian Games the following year, there were communities showing off. There were these people who swing around on a pole like an athlete showing off their ability (and curved body), the unique-bike community showing their bikes and their “got nothing to do”-ness, and also the old people in the onthel (old bike model) community dressed as war veterans celebrating Veteran Day that time. There were also reporters looking for news to report.

All those thousands of people with their activity will actually need som food to eat. Don’t worry, there were lots of street vendors selling various food I saw that day. The foods being sold were gado-gado, siomay, otak-otak, bubur ayam, soto, and maybe many other that I couldn’t see and mention.

The street cleaning team

One more thing to be noted here that there were these people doing theit job in the crowd. These people in orange uniform could be a real active hero in that Veteran Day. They were the street cleaner teams which consist of only five people cleaning the streets from garbages. Something that I got really proud of them were the strenght they had to clean the very wide area (that could make me tired running) in their late age. I think most of them were more than fourty years old, maybe they were even passed their fifty.

If you had no plan on this Sunday, maybe you should go to Jakarta Car Free Day. You can get enough sweat and in the same time there are lots of things you can see there. Don’t forget to walk around the Hotel Indonesia circle to see the communities and events that being held there at times. Every special day, there will be special events being held there. If you are lucky enough, you might also get interviewed by tv reporters and get your face on the tv. Ok, so it is another farewell, bye!

The welcoming statue swaying their goodbye (kinda looks that way)