Jakarta: Day 3

I spent most of the day with my aunt going to different areas in the city. As we drove through different areas of the city, my aunt shared historical information about Jakarta. It is fascinating to me to see everyday life and culture. First we went to the ports they have old ships and my aunt explained that there are still pirates in Jakarta waters that take over ships and other sea vessels. We walked through the area with our driver because some of the sea men that were working on the ports may have been pirates. I did see some men that were eyeing us quite intensely. I’m glad our driver was with us. The boats were made of wood and mostly falling apart. These boats are not allowed to go to international waters, they can only stay within the Indonesian border and travel to other islands. The city is also sinking a bit, so the water level is actually higher than the area where we were waking. There is a wall that high about 3-4 feet high that keeps the water from running over and flooding the area.

We continued the tour of the city through the old Dutch area called Batavia. My aunt told me about how when the Dutch originally settled here, they were horrible to the Indonesian people, killing hundreds of thousands of them. They also took their coffee and transported it all over the world.

Jakarta has a wet and dry market. A wet market (where I went on Wednesday) had fish, and chicken, etc. Water everywhere. A dry market sells things like clothes, shoes, etc. We went to a HUGE dry market. The best way I can explain it: and indoor swap meet many stories high. You can probably spend an entire day there and not see everything. It was fascinating!! My mouth was hanging open the whole time so I forgot to take pictures.

We left that market and went to another outdoor market where they sold antiques. These are not like US antiques. These are old pieces that may have come from the original Sutxhbsettlirs, as well as Indonesian objects used in wedding ceremonies such as silver hair pieces. It was so amazing!

We went to a great restaurant for lunch where I was able to try some great Indonesian food. It was so great!!!

After the late lunch we drove in traffic for about 1.5 hours to get home. Traffic is its own phenomenon here. I’ve never seen anything like it!!

Back home we rested a bit then got ready to go out to dinner. We went to a great place called Mr Fox. It was really fun and delicious!

We finished off the night going to the roof bar at the Fairmknt Hotel. I enjoyed beautiful views of the city. It was beautiful from up there! What a great evening to finish my time here!! I’m so grateful for my aunt and uncle who have shown me so much generosity and love. I’m excited to cook dinner for them when they visit the US next moth!!