Jakarta (Java - Indonesia)

Jakarta

It was a short bus ride to the ferry point and then it takes about three hours to get over the Sunda Straight to Java from Sumatra by boat. Finally a further bus of about three hours and finally i made it to the capital city of Indonesia - Jakarta. While Sumatra is errily quiet, Java and especially Jakarta is packed, cramed full of people. I went straight for the backpackers area of town but still expected to see no tourists as I hadn't seen any for so long. I was wrong. It was like a mini Khoa San Road, with backpackers everywhere.

Jakarta is huge (sprawling 25km), it's noisy, hot, smoggy and like many large Asian cities - is highly chaotic. The short time I was here I ventured mainly around the Merdeka Square region. At the centre of the square is the Monas - the national Monument. It's tall and kind of impressive but very slightly tacky. I took the lift to the top for great views over Jakarta and below the monument is a great museum about Indonesia's troubled past. The square is a quiet spot and a good place to get away from the crazyness, reminding me very much of a Vietnamese city like Hanoi.

I also visited some key landmarks: the Mesjid Istiqlal (largest mosque in SE Asia), the presidential palace and the interesting national museum (costing just 800 Rp to get in - thats about 5p).

It was a bit of a whistle-stop tour, and I didn't really touch the surface of Jakarta. I had heard some worrying stories of the city - it's meant to be the most dangerous in Indonesia and they have had bomb issues. But I only saw it as a fun city with a good, lively atmosphere and actually I wished I had stayed here longer. I didn't though - I was off to more volcanoes......