Jakarta

I live here. It’s terrible. Polluted, congested (I don’t know any other place where the traffic gets this bad), dirty, high crime rate. Apart from that although the locals can be very friendly/tolerant with FOREIGNERS, if you’re a local girl who wont conform and act 100% Indonesian, you’re bound to be bullied. Some people get snarky comments/verbal abuse offline for what they blog online (about pretty innocent topics). It’s dangerous too. If you intend to visit, PLEASE, I recommend reading this: http://www.acicis.murdoch.edu.au/hi/sexharrass1.html & http://www.acicis.murdoch.edu.au/hi/sexharass2.html to avoid being sexually harassed by the men. I don’t want you to get hurt around here!

this place has good and bad sides. the good news, there is everything there. from elite shopping mall, seaside themepark, great dining place with nice price, high quality school, even to chinatown and beautiful historical museums and monuments, yes, you can find them all! you see variety of people there: malayan, chinese, caucasian, arabian, you name it…
the bad sides:
beware of flood. beware of street criminality. bad road condition. baaaad transportation system. traffic jam.

Jakarta has a loooooooot of worth destination to visit! :)

u need someone who really know the city as a guide.. love the taman mini indonesia indah..

If you don’t like crazy traffic, trash, pollution, horney and anything that can take you off the tranquility, get out of Jakarta. If you think that New York, London, Xangai or Tokio are crazy cities, you don’t know Jakarta.

Believe me, in five times there, never I see a place so ugly like this.

Jakarta is now a fairly dangerous place, I think, for Westerners. I last visited in about 1998 to see my brother who was living in Bandung. I had been there three or four times on business, but this was my first leisure visit.

Not a place I’d choose to spend a lot of time in, but I did enjoy myself anyway. We walked around a lot of the city, through Merdeka Square and up to the port where we did a canoe tour of the harbor – not recommended if you have a weak stomach or a sensitive nose.

Jarkarta does have some great eating places – I highly recommend then Yum Cha at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

I was born here, grew up here for a part of my life, before I moved to Singapore.

If you wanna look at the bad points, there are so many:
The traffic is horrendous. You can’t get anywhere without a private transportation (your own car, preferably with a driver!). Even then you’ll still be stuck in endless hours of traffic.

It’s not safe to go out late at night, especially walking along the roads. The risk of being mugged is very high. Moreover, for the females, beware of getting raped.

The city sight is not that nice. The air is so polluted that you can’t even see the clear skies anymore. Some parts like elite areas near the presidential palace or the areas where diplomats live, as well as the central business district are of course nice. However, go just a little further and explore the back of the office buildings, and you’ll find beggars, people living in poverty. It’s not a nice sight.

The government is rather hopeless in tackling various issues like corruption and environmental problems. They have a plan for a second flood canal drawn up TWENTY YEARS AGO and yet still hasn’t built it up till today. The result: massive floods just a couple of weeks ago. Shame!

The last bad thing I wanna mention is the fact that you can smell cigarette smoke almost everywhere! Yuck!

Now on to the good things:

I especially love the food there. Indonesia has such a HUGE variety of food and you can find many of them in the capital city!

This is a city of indulgence. If you have the money, you can get almost anything you wish for. That’s why it’s a city of such extremes. It has the very rich and the very poor.

The creativity. If you understand Indonesian or the culture, you’ll find that sometimes, because of the hardship, people come up with the most ingenious ideas! THEY should be the ones getting those entrepreneurial awards!

The humor! This city is SO full of it. Again you need to understand the language. I can’t find such creativity with language anywhere else! Not in Singapore with English, or with its combination with Mandarin, Malay, etc.

The kindness & friendliness of the people. Of course many are as indifferent as any city dweller could be. However, if you only want to look, and be open-minded, you’ll see that the simplest and poorest are sometimes the most kind and friendly people on earth!

So now, if you come to the city expecting treatment for a snob, the ultimate metropolitan life and privileges, then you most likely will be disappointed!

But if you come to experience life in Jakarta, to immerse yourself in its culture and observe how people live, it will be a very interesting experience, I can assure you!

Go visit the place and form your own opinion!

I had an internship in Jakarta for the summer of 2005 (picture is where I worked – Wisma BNI). Jakarta is not a “tourist-friendly” place. Unless you had a local guide, I would recommend that westerners skip out on Jakarta because of the trouble you might get yourself into.

It’s hard getting around if you don’t have a driver. Public transportation is a joke unless you’re a local and taxis would be your primary choice; even then, you need to make sure you’re picking the right one or you might get taken for a little ride (figuratively and with your wallet). If you are a shopper, Jakarta is the place to be with its countless malls. Those looking to pick up counterfeit products (movies, purses, clothes) are in heaven and can be found on the cheap.

If you’re looking for other points of interest outside of shopping, I would recommend visiting one of Indonesia’s smaller cities to experience more of Indonesia’s cultural aspects. Jakarta is such an exceptionally busy city. The traffic might just ruin your day if you’re trying to go from place to place. Even worse, run into the law and hope they like you or you may be facing false accusations and have to fork over money (to bribe them) in order to stay out of trouble. Come to think of it, the only non-indonesian people I encountered were there for business of some sort. I did not meet any tourist there.

Bottom line: unless you are truly adventurous, stay away from Jakarta and spend your extra time that you will save in Bali relaxing and taking in their culture.

i went to jakarta mid this year with a couple of friends. it was wow. yeah. the traffic is impossible but we had so much fun there. i miss aksara. owh yeah, we even got to go to the rolling stones jakarta! ngeeeeeeeeeee…i miss roti bakar eddy. and em pisang bakar. oowhhhhh!!

Went to Jakarta in 2005. The city is huge, 4 times KL. Shopping was good. Didnt like the food tho’.