We rose early today to go out and explore around Jakarta. Driving north through the centre of the city the traffic was as crazy as ever. Eventually though we cleared the mayhem and were making good time north - passing the impressive National Monument enroute.
Eventually we arrived in Sunda Kelapa where I left the driver and ventured out into the historic port. Sunda Kelapa dates back from the 10th Century and was a strategically important port due to it's position at the mouth of the Ciliwung River which connected the capital of the Pajajaran Kingdom, Pajajaran, with the sea.
I left the car underneath Menara Syahbandar, the lookout tower, but managed to join a couple of locals who were guiding some tourists around the port - thou their tour did not consist of the usual attractions but what they liked to call 'Hidden Jakarta'. It was a fascinating experience as they took us around the villages that had been built upon the port and the poverty that the people living there faced.
We spoke to many locals and the I discussed with our guide the problems they faced. The biggest issue being that the Government's Poverty line is $2, and most of the locals live on just above that meaning they do not get the assistance that they obviously require. However the locals are extremely kind and were gracious enough to show us around their homes, usually dark cramped so aces of just a single room that beds half a dozen people - and usually flood when the tide comes in. The smell in the area is unbearable due to the rubbish that drifts on the stagnant water, rotten fish and other smells drifting from the port.
After buying sweets for the children we continued our tour. The money made from these tours is pumped back into the villages and we could see some of the good work that had been done with doors and windows fitted onto some buildings and renovation to the local mosque.
The tour however was due to move on to the East of Jakarta so I parted company and headed back to the entrance of Sunda Kelapa and scaled the look out tower for views across the Port and city. The tower has been around since the 1600s when the sea came right up to it's walls, but most of the land has now been reclaimed. I met another local gent at the foot of the tower who walked me down to the Museum Bahari, which houses maritime, and he took me through the various artefacts
We drove down to the modern day port where I walked the length of the port and saw the ships that had docked and were loading/unloading goods before jumping back into the car to head south to the historic town of Kota.
Fatahillah Square is the historic town square of the town and named after a Muskim scholar cum warrior. This was the administrative centre of the old city of Batavia and stood on one side of the square is the wonderful City Hall" built by the dutch and resembles it's equivalent in Amsterdam.
I took time to walk around the exhibitions held within it's museums before having a fourth wander around the square.
As the rain began to fall I took shelter within the Museum Wayang - the Puppet Museum. Puppetry has been part of Indonesian culture for hundreds of years and I was shown around the museum by the lead puppeteer, Daniel, whose family has been creating puppets for generations. I was fortunate enough for Daniel to show me how puppets are made (usually taking 40 days for a single puppet) before I was given a private shadow puppet performance which was fantastic.
After battling through the school children all desperate for a photo with a westerner (often white tourists are stopped and asked if a photo can be taken with them, simply due to their skin colour) I hopped back into the car and headed further south, back to the city centre where I would be checking into a hotel for the night. A wander around Menteng was next before dinner and an early night as tomorrow I would have to leave early for the airport to head to Jogakarta.
