"The Big Durian" has a reputation for not being a great place. I've heard it's an ugly city, there's nothing to do, and it's only purpose should be to transfer from the airport.

But overall, I like Jakarta more than Bali. It has some cool stuff, transportation is easy with Grab, and the people are actually (gasp) friendly.

Which, for everyone who says Jakarta's traffic is bad... please. Go take a drive on Lad Phrao road at rush hour and get back to me. Jakarta's isn't great, but pales in comparison to Bangkok.

So the first day we started at the Jakarta National Museum. I always like starting at National Museums if I can, just to get a feel for what to expect. If a country takes care of their national museum, it's usually a good sign they care about what their city has to do. This one was average, but probably because they had half of it closed for renovation. One thing I did enjoy were the several thousand year old skeletons from the area. That's kind of crazy to think about, how these random folks just died before ever knowing anything about the world their bones, at lease, would eventually be in. They wouldn't have even been able to imagine it. Anyway the museum was alright, lots of stone writing and models. Not the worst national museum, not the best. (BTW, the worst is Laos, the best is China).

Next we took a walk through National Monument Park to well, see that. A giant obelisk-ish thing on top of a base, it's honestly pretty similar to the Washington Monument. The basement has a bunch of dioramas about their independence, and then you can take a lift to the top. But to be honest it's not really worth it, because Jakarta doesn't really have a skyline in that part of town. It's cheap I suppose, only about $1 each, so there's that. But as a tourist you could skip it.

After walking for way too long to find the exit (and seeing a bunch of deer in a fenced off area, for some reason) we were getting pretty hungry. There was a train station nearby, and this was my chance to try the local McDonald's food. Because I like doing that, and I'm a simple guy. The Rendang burger is... complicated. It's sort of like a burger covered with onions and a sweet and spicy curry, but very hard to put into words how it tastes. I kind of liked it though, and if for some reason it ever appears outside the country, I'd order it again.

Anyway we were really over there to see Indonesia's National Gallery. Obligatory, "I don't get art" pic here. But their "art art" section may be the first gallery ever, outside of D.C., to actually impress me. They've got some really talented folks in Indonesia. After a guy hanging out with a bunch of amateur artists asked to sketch Ella and our faces for practice. That was neat. Very nice guy, look for TotoBS on YouTube and Instagram.

At this point, we were near Ragusa, an ice cream place started by an Italian family 100 or so years ago, by a family with probably the most stereotypical names possible - Luigi and Vincenzo. I read online that it was not just good ice cream for Jakarta, it was worldwide good. Ehh. .. It was good, but I wouldn't put it that high. Still great though, so it's worth a stop if not for the shop which hasn't been updated in 100 years, probably. Anyway we pushed on to the Istiqal Mosque, the largest in the country and one of the largest in the world. When we got there, some kids were selling plastic bags for your shoes. They said "up to you" for the price, but showed us a 5000 rupiah note. (~35 cents). I think "up to you" doesn't mean what you think it means. Ella pointed out that it was a weekday afternoon, so maybe if those kids stayed in school they would know. Darn kids. Get off my lawn too. Anyway mosque was big but not much to see. After we crossed the street to the Jakarta Cathedral. It's a cathedral. Pretty.



That was about it for day one. We took a Grab to Grand Indonesia, the largest mall in the country. It was good to be back in familiar "civilization", if you want to call it that, after a few weeks of not seeing much that was clean, air conditioned, or familiar. I ate some stuff at the food court which I think was black pepper chicken, Chinese cabbage, and green beans covered with... something. But we mostly just walked around browsing, so on to day two.

We started by going up to the port, which supposedly has some interesting stuff. Not that you would know it, because it looks like and is an active port. We were walking around, thinking we were definitely in the wrong place when a man ran over to us, and immediately launched into a tour. He was very nice, telling us the whole history of the place, and even taking us across the river in a boat to an old fishing village. It was at this point he had been with us long enough that it was "Hm. This guy is going to want money." He asked for 300k, ($20), but we eventually talked him down to 200k. He also took us through the Maritime Museum (small, not all that interesting), the Dutch Bridge (nice, but only worth a photo), and arranged local transport into the old town square. Along the way he was constantly showing off all these local buildings, and honestly was worth the money for the 2 hours or so we had him. I just wish he wasn't so schemey with the price, because it really soured my opinion of him.

Jakarta Old Town is basically what the entire city should hope to be. Colonial era buildings that were pretty well maintained, and now converted to museums and other public use. The Jakarta History Museum has... Colonial things, I guess? Old furniture and paintings that looked like they were from 100 years ago, but it was in a nice building. Still, worth a quick walk through. After lunch we went to the Ceramics Museum, which was maybe 1/3rd ceramics and 2/3rds art. Both not my thing, but the building was beautiful, the museum was set up nicely, and I surprisingly found it be worth it. Minus the ceramics.

And then I was really in for a shock. The next place was the Bank of Indonesia Museum, which, was unexpectedly one of the coolest museums I've ever been to. Super high tech with interactive exhibits, plus you could go down into their vaults. They had a big pile of gold bars (I think it was fake, but the sign and security implied it was real), and large sliding displays of old currency from all over the world. We spent a surprising amount of time here, not only because there was a lot of super interesting stuff to see, but because the building was beautiful - sort of art deco meets gothic. And on the way out, their canteen has some of the cheapest food I've seen in Jakarta, on par with street prices. Unfortunately we just ate, because otherwise it would be icing on the cake (or durian). Seriously, this was one of the best places in Jakarta for me. Who knew? If you ever find yourself here, definitely check it out. And come hungry.

Apparently Jakarta loves bank museums, because next door is the Mandiri Bank Museum. This is basically an art deco style bank from the 50s that they just locked the doors on and didn't touch, with lots of old beat up safes, typewriters, and ledgers. Odd place, if a bit dusty. It's double the price and not as good as the other banking museum, but we're talking 50 cents a person as opposed to 25 cents. Worth it if you're in the area, but not for a special trip.

And that was mostly it for our day. We cut it a little shorter, but we did stop at Jakarta Station to see the trains. They're actually pretty modern in comparison to Thailand's, but their station is nothing too special.

At this point, we had pretty much done Jakarta, or at least the things we were really interested in. When I made the flight booking out almost a month ago, I really was taking a guess how long it would take us to do five destinations, and I think I nailed it - we had two days left, so we decided to make those "half day" trips just to get out of the hotel. Mostly we just slept a lot, which I know Ella is always appreciative of, especially coming off a month of hard work and fast traveling. But we did see the Taman Prasat Museum, which is basically a Dutch graveyard. I guess because western style cemeteries are unique in Asia, they had some interesting graves, but nothing that would be out of place anywhere in the US. After, we tried to go to the Merdeka Palace, sort of Indonesia's "White House". We had heard you can go inside, but despite circling the whole place we never found an entrance - just a lot of guards and barbed wire. Speaking of, walking around this place caused me to realize Jakarta is a super unfriendly city for pedestrians. There are often no sidewalks, fences preventing you from crossing the road at all, and 6 lane roads with no crosswalk or pedestrian bridge. If they want to solve their traffic problems, maybe they could start there.

Anyway they were setting up for some sort of event, so I guess that they were closed for a that. Giving up, we took a Grab to the Mandarin Oriental, because they have some free art galleries inside. I really liked their collection of old maps, but they also had some other really nice paintings. Point of note for future Weg, Ella likes art. Apparently luxury hotels like to display good art. You're a white dude in Asia, nobody is going to stop you from just walking in and looking around.

For our final day, we kept the art train going by checking out the weekend art market at Pasar Seni. We soon learned that Pasar Seni is located inside Ancol, a sort of Sentosa/Disneyland sort of place walled off from the rest of Jakarta. It was 25,000 rupiah to get in ($1.70), but at least they took that money to make the place somewhat clean and walkable. We checked out the beach while we were there, which I would swim in if I had to, but otherwise it was pretty dirty water. Kinda surprised so many people were actually swimming in it, but at least the sand and boardwalk were pretty nice.

Pasar Seni itself is more like a park with some local stalls of art set up. Overall though I really liked it, and it was filled with cats - a double win for Ella. We had a surprisingly cheap lunch there, and this nice lady talked to me while we were waiting for the food. Her name is Nana, she wants to practice English, is a single mom, and wants an foreign husband. So, single guys, if you want an Indonesian wife, hit me up. She seems nice.

After Pasar Seni, we went to a mall to grab dinner, and that was it for Jakarta. The next day we just woke up and went to the airport. Overall I'd say Jakarta is... so so. I think a dozen times we commented just how difficult it is to walk around. It's pretty much the most pedestrian unfriendly city I've ever been to, almost to the point where it has to be intentional. But what I can say, is that the people were among the friendliest I've ever met in a capital, including Bangkok. Honestly people here are just chill and happy to see you. Maybe this is just my impression after Bali set my bar so, so low, but you could do worse than Jakarta.

That being said, I do not want to move here. I even browsed for jobs here years ago, and I'm glad I didn't find any. It's not a nice looking city, and most importantly, no alcohol to be found outside of fancy hotel bars (or pork, but that's less of a big deal).

But for Indonesia as a whole... It's sort of like Malaysia mixed with The Philippines. The people outside of Bali are really kind, and most can speak a little English. Religion seems to be a more relevant, but not necessarily more important part of their lives. Like, most women wear head scarves, there are mosques all over, and I kind of got used to hearing the call of prayer wake me up at 5:30. But nobody seems to beat you over the head with it, ya know? Sort of a low key, live and let live kind of attitude. It's hard to explain, but I never felt I was "religioused at" here, which I can't say for Malaysia or The Philippines. If nothing else, people could learn from their attitude on that.

Overall I liked Indonesia, although I admit it was more same samey SE Asia than I expected. The only criticism I would have of them is that they seriously need to consider transportation countrywide, as it's a mess. Also, there seems to be a lack of care for public facilities. I'm not saying you need to go to Japan level of care, but even much poorer countries like Laos will at least go to some effort to make the area around their home or business be somewhat clean and look nice. Here, people seem to be comfortable with spray paint on plywood being their shop's sign. But at the end of the day, nice people, interesting things, what more could you ask for?

.

.
.

A beer. A beer is what I could ask for.