8th January 2024 - Jakarta
Our apartment is on the coast overlooking the sea and watercourses, right next to a power station. There are great views of the city and we could watch the flights come into Jakarta Airport. We are on the 35 residential floor with more parking levels underneath. Bizarrely there were no floor numbers ending in 4??
First job of the day was to find breakfast. There are several small coffee and cake outlets in the vicinity of the apartment but we opted to get bread, spread and jam from one of the micro-supermarkets.
Jakarta isn't really a touristy place and we're not into cities much but the guidebook recommended a visit to the old colonial quarter of Kota.
To get there we downloaded the Grab app - a similar product to Uber - and ordered a taxi. The streets seemed even more chaotic than last night. There seems to be few traffic lights and junctions are about the survival of the fittest. We passed through several concrete industrial areas and saw makeshift houses hovering precariously on stilts on the edges of the many drainage channels.
We were dropped by the Indonesian Bank museum and our next challenge was crossing the road. The traffic was relentless and you really have to just go for it. A short walk, we got to the main square, Taman Fatabillah, which is surrounded on all sides by Dutch Imperial buildings. We wandered the streets behind the square. There were makeshift offices and gazebos in the pedestrianised streets with bored looking uniformed staff sat at office desks. The language here is so unlike anything we had ever known, it was impossible to know what these officials did.
The main square
Old tram lines
Tent making shops
Cafe Batavia
Some female election candidates
Super high rise
No floors 4
Breakfast
Main square
Tram lines
Street food carts
Bikes for hire with obligatory hat
Cafe Batavia
The whole place was a labyrynth of roads and alleys, with mad motorcyclists and uneven pavements, scrawny cats and tiny carts selling exotic dishes that we can only guess at. there were garage sized industrial units where every one seemed to be manufacturing gazebos. There were small food trolleys that, come night, would be wheeled out to sell street food, each specialising in one or two dishes. The heat was humid and the sun was high. People seem to work hard here for long hours and little money.
In search of sustenance, we headed to the most touristy place in town Cafe bBtavia for beer, cocktails and real food.
It overlooks the colonial square where the key thing to do is to hire a pink or blue sit-up-and-beg bike with matching hat and ride around.
Joan ordered the house cocktail, a Batavia Flower. Described as a coconut based gin with local botanicals, coco and bubbles, it was tart and refeshing. Kevin had a beer.
Service was excellent and we started a trend by being mad dogs and sitting outside in the afternoon mugginess.
There we had our first taste of Indonesian food. Tahu tempe goreng ( deep fried tofu and tempeh with a hot 🔥 chili sauce), bakwan jagung (sweetcorn fritters) with Siracha dressing and potato wedges.
The cafe indoors was dark with old fashioned style fittings. The toilets had some quite, cough, arty photos in them.
Local relaxing
Uncoordinated hat and bike
Cafe Batavia toilets
Cafe Batavia interior
Suitably refreshed, we booked another taxi. This was at rush hour and the driver was clearly impatient. We passed more small shops and lots of election posters, mainly, men but the occasional female candidate.
Small shops
So we returned to our apartment meaning to eat at a super-local vegan outlet. Around the condo towers of Green Bay, the ground floors have tens of garage size restaurants, each specialising in a handful of dishes. Plenty of small, almost identical supermarkets selling noodles, microwave meals too as well as laundries that do a quick turnaround.
The vegan food outlet we wanted to go to was closed 😮💨 so we used the local Grab app to order in food from a Vietnamese restaurant. I'd recommend Grab. It's like Uber and we used it to get pre-paid taxis as well as food.
This food came from Mama Mai in nearby Pluit village : goi cuon (wet spring roll with tofu and mushrooms), pho tron (hot noodles soup), bun cho gio (vermicelli salad with spring roll) and com chien (fried rice). Washed down with a cold beer, there's enough left for us to take on the train tomorrow.
Cost? 282,000 Rupiah, that's about £14.
#vegantraveller #veganfood #veganindonesia #jakarta #pluit #indonesia #ilovetravel #worldtraveler
The vegan food outlet we wanted to go to was closed 😮💨 so we used the local Grab app to order in food from a Vietnamese restaurant. I'd recommend Grab. It's like Uber and we used it to get pre-paid taxis as well as food.
This food came from Mama Mai in nearby Pluit village : goi cuon (wet spring roll with tofu and mushrooms), pho tron (hot noodles soup), bun cho gio (vermicelli salad with spring roll) and com chien (fried rice). Washed down with a cold beer, there's enough left for us to take on the train tomorrow.
Cost? 282,000 Rupiah, that's about £14.
#vegantraveller #veganfood #veganindonesia #jakarta #pluit #indonesia #ilovetravel #worldtraveler
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