Jakarta Travel Guide
Travel guide to Jakarta , Indonesia with comprehensive information about events, shopping, and major Jakarta sporting events to help you enjoy your visit more.
Jakarta Overview
Jakarta is a vast city, swarming with people, suffering with massive problems of overcrowding, constant gridlock, and terrible pollution. It is also a city with that has developed a real image problem that isn't helped by the presence of occasional acts Islamo-Fascist terrorism, and a population who's simmering rage has caused the city to erupt into massive riots many times in the past.
If you let yourself be carried away on its wave of excitement, and peel back the layers of chaos and wander through the maze of crowded streets, you will inevitably find that Jakarta is a city that is unlike any other, in many ways, it resembles Bangkok with a really bad hangover, but the reality is a lot more complicated.
Nine and a half million people call Jakarta home, and swarm like busy ants through the streets of a bustling city that they love deeply, and where for every bad thing there are a million and one good ones.
Jakarta offers a spectacular nightlife, is very cheap to experience, and has more shopping malls, galleries and museums than you can shake a stick at. Jakarta is an ideal place to begin a holiday touring Indonesia, and a place that you could explore all your life and still fail to understand.
Top Jakarta Attractions
The most immediate landmark in Jakarta is the 132m tall marble Monas - the national monument in Merdeka Square. Resembling a large white phallus, Monas has a lift to the top, from where you can occasionally see amazing views over the city when the smog lifts briefly.
Aside from the pleasant old town of Batavia with its Dutch architecture and quaint streets, the most popular tourist attraction in Jakarta is Taman Mini Indonesia Indah - a 250 acre region in the south of the city with amusement parks and themed islands to celebrate the various cultures of the country.
The park includes a world map in a lagoon, which you can see from above on the cable car ride. Avoid visiting the park at the weekend, as it gets very busy.
Shopping in Jakarta
With the comparatively low cost of living coupled with the sheer number of places to spend money in Jakarta, it should come as no surprise that the city is one of the best shopping destinations in South East Asia.
The majority of the more upmarket shopping malls are in the centre of the city close to the main embassies and the business district. In them you can find the latest designer goods on sale for lower prices than you would think possible. The reason for this is that they are mainly fakes. If you want the genuine article, you'll have to shop in the small boutiques and pay the full price.
Jakarta Sporting Events
There are plenty of local sports in Jakarta, and outside the city you can find a number of good quality golf courses, but the biggest topic of conversation in the sports bars of Jakarta is the English Premiership - in particular, Manchester United, which is ludicrously popular in the city.