Indonesia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 176

Dutch city, and the neighbouring
Sunda Kelapa , Jakarta's bustling old port.
Both districts are dotted with historic
buildings, including a few of the
country's finest museums, among them
the Maritime Museum , the Wayang
Museum and the National Museum .

in the city. Although some of its exhibits
are poorly maintained, the museum has
puppets from right across the archipelago,
and there is a free bimonthly wayang
show (second and fourth Sunday of each
month at 10am). While in the area, don't
miss the chance to luxuriate in the stylish
surroundings of the historic Café Batavia ,
on the northwestern corner of Taman
Fatahillah. To the east of the square, the
Balai Seni Rupa (Tues-Sun 9am-3pm;
Rp3000), Jakarta's fine arts museum, and
the Ceramics Museum house works by
Indonesia's most illustrious artists.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
To head from north to south through the
centre of Jakarta is to go forward in time,
from the quaint old Dutch area of Kota in
the north to modern golf courses and
amusement parks in the south. Medan
Merdeka , a giant, threadbare patch of grass,
marks the spiritual centre of Jakarta, if not
exactly its geographical one, bordered to
the west by the city's major north-south
thoroughfare. he main commercial
district and the budget accommodation
enclave of Jalan Jaksa lie just a short
distance to the south of Medan Merdeka.

Sunda Kelapa and around
About 1km north of Kota lies the historic
harbour of Sunda Kelapa (Rp15,000), the
most important foreign port of the entire
Dutch empire. Although the bulk of the
sea tra c docks at Tanjung Priok these
days, a few of the smaller vessels,
particularly some picturesque wooden
schooners, still call in at this eight-
hundred-year-old port. You can either
walk here from Kota (about 20min) or
hail an ojek (Rp10,000).
From Sunda Kelapa, cross over the
bridge to the west (on the right as you
exit the port) and turn right at the
nineteenth-century watchtower, the
Uitkijk , built to direct shipping tra c to
the port. Here, buried in the chaotic
Pasar Ikan (fish market) that occupies
this promontory, is the entrance to the
Museum Bahari , or Maritime Museum
(Tues-Sun 9am-3pm; Rp2000), housed
in a warehouse dating from 1652. All
kinds of sea craft are on display, from the
Buginese pinisi to the kora-kora war boat
from the Moluccas.
Head towards the VOC Galangan
restaurant, keeping the Kali Besar canal
on your left until you come to the ornate
wooden drawbridge, Jembatan Pasar
Ayam , which is in immaculate condition.
he grand Dutch terraced houses on the
streets south of here were once the
smartest addresses in Batavia, the most
famous being the Chinese-style To k o
Merah (Red Shop) at 11 Jalan Kali Besar
Barat - the former home of the Dutch
governor-general, Van Imhoff. he
Batavia bus station lies on the other side

4 Kota (Old Batavia)

Formerly known as Batavia , the quaint
old district of Kota was once the
administrative centre of the Dutch trading
empire. To reach Kota, take the Trans
Jakarta from Sarinah (Rp3500), which
ends up in front of the Art Deco-style
Kota train station , built in 1929. North
of the station along Jalan Lada, past the
Politeknik Swadharma, you enter the
formerly walled city of Batavia, whose
centre, Taman Fatahillah , an attractive
cobbled square hemmed in by museums,
lies 300m to the north of the train station.
On the south side, the Jakarta History
Museum (Tues-Sun 9am-3pm; Rp2000)
traces the region's history back to the
Stone Age; most displays are accompanied
by English descriptions. he finest exhibit
is the ornate Cannon Si Jagur , which
previously stood in the square and was
built by the Portuguese to defend Melaka.
It is emblazoned with sexual imagery, from
the clenched fist (a suggestive gesture in
Southeast Asia) to the barrel itself, a potent
phallic symbol in Indonesia.
To the west of the square is the small
but worthwhile Wayang Museum
(Tues-Sun 9am-3pm; Rp2000),
dedicated to the Javanese art of puppetry
and housed in one of the oldest buildings