A Walk to Jakarta Old Town

Higher looking sky that morning

Went out from home early in the morning, the sky looked like that it would be a nice day. I thought it looks higher than usual. There was no sign of rain approaching. I thought that it would be a nice day to take a walk. Yeah, do not ever waste a nice day just sitting in front of your PC all day, enjoy it outside!

Wasn't really sure where to go, I went straight to the train station by angkot. I was goingto go to Jakarta and about to plan the destination on the train. Because it was weekend, the train I was on was not as crowded as usual. There were empty seats here and there. Almost everyone on my car were sitting on the provided seat, I was one of the people who weren't sitting though. I felt ok with standing all the way. It made my blood flows well and I could think better. As the train ran to the last station, Jakarta-Kota Station, I got an idea to walk a bit to Kota Tua (the old town).

From the station, I just had to walk about five minutes to get there. It was so close that you could see the bricky road from the exit. Didn't want to arrive there too quick, I took a detour by crossing the street to Museum Bank Indonesia (Indonesian Bank Museum).

Museum Bank Indonsia

The orange bajai

In front of the museum, I saw lots of bajai/bajaj in a queue. Bajai is a public tranportation that you can find in some parts of Jakarta. It is an old type of public transportation that still in use which looks like a mix of car and motorcycle. It has three wheels-one front wheel and two back wheels- and a vespa-like controller. There are two types of bajai in Jakarta, the orange one using fossil fuel and the blue one using gas. If you want to feel the best one, I think you should try riding the orange one for its noisy and shaky sensation. lol

Nice branch hut for the paintings

The jimbe musicians and a kid mimicking them

From the museum, I just walked straight the bricky road to the main square. On the way to the main square, the buildings were already turned to old Netherlandish style. There were old cafes and artist you could see along the way. I saw some jimbe playing musicians and some paintings displayed on a hut made of tree branches that looks so beautiful.

The pecel selling lady

Felt hungry for not having breakfast back home, I looked for some food seller. Near the jimbe musicians, I saw a lady selling pecel. Pecel is an Indonesian food made of mixed vegetables (spinach, papaya leaf, bean sprouts, and beans) with soy sauce. People often served pecel with some fried snacks like tempe goreng (fried soybean cake), bakwan, and tahu goreng (fried tofu), some of them also add noodles and kerupuk on it. The pecel I ate was the most expensive one I've had, it was 10.000 rupiahs (almost a dollar) for a smaller portion than people outside usually sell. It was such a robbery there. Thanks to her, I learned my lesson to bring my own food the next time I visit.

The scout cleaning force

The odd Chinese vampire statue man (-..-)

After a little more walk I arrived at the square. It was such a wide open area surrounded by old buildings such as Museum Fatahillah, Post Museum, and The Textile Museum. On the square, I saw lots of people riding their rented bikes. There were lots of bikes and the kind of funny hat for rent around the square. There were also some children scouts cleaning the environment. They swept the square and picked every garbages they saw to put them in the trash bag they brought. I was not really sure if the day was Indonesian National Scout Day. In front of Museum Fatahillah, you might also see the statue men. They were artists who you tokk photograph with and got money from it.

Si Jagur cannon back side

Around the square, there were also cannons. It was a real cannon from the old warring period. If I was not mistaken, Museum Fatahillah was formerly an office of the late Netherland Colonial Goverment. Under it, there were cells of prison for Indonesian people trying to do rebellious acts. Among the cannons, there was this one special cannon called Meriam Si Jagur. Si Jagur had a hand on one of the cannon end which thumb was placed between the point and mid finger. There was said to be an inscription on the cannon saying "Ex Me Ipsa Renata Sum" (I was created from my own self).

In general, I saw that Kota Tua was a very nice place to see. The museums around it could give us histirocal knowledge of Indonesia and Jakarta. The old buildings were also looks so artistic that you could get a very nice picture of it. The fame of this photogenic spot was already that great around Jakarta that it was often usd as annual school book or pre wedding photo session spot. If you plan on going to Jakarta, don't forget to go there! See ya'!

This bad ass kid was trying to get on the cab while his father was looking the other way...lol

A bad self portrait of me with most of the picture showing the sky...lol