old Dutch Jakarta

Old Dutch Jakarta

March 8, 2009

Kota, Jakarta

Kota is the name for the old colonial section of Jakarta, where the Dutch built Batavia in 1620. The picture above is of the old town hall, now converted into the Jakarta History Museum. Some of the larger buildings have been renovated and converted into museums.. while others have been left to crumble. Kota is close to the water and at one time this would have been the city center. The Dutch even had canals dug in an attempt to re-create their own familiar urban landscape. Funny how wherever we go in the world we end up re-creating what we already know.

This area is tiny in comparison with the sprawl of Jakarta:

Kota, Jakarta

I marked in red the area where the Dutch established Batavia. Seen now colonial foundations such as this seem inconsequential, but the experience of colonialism is much larger than the area would make it seem. Merdeka Square, the center of modern independent Jakarta, should be understood as a counter statement to this earlier center. That is the legacy of colonialism: the need to always compare and counter a perceived past. (The best photo tour of Kota is available from The Great Mirror website maintained by cultural geographer Bret Wallach.)

I would spend part of a day seeing the colonial city, but that does not mean Kota would be on every itinerary. Most tourists and visitors will see only a limited amount of Jakarta.. just as most readers will know only one or two of the best known works by any given author. Getting to know Jakarta will mean getting a sense of the Jakarta that most people who visit carry around in their heads. What follows are a couple of resources I have discovered to help with this.

This is a delightful video tour of Jakarta by YouTube user KittyKattyKoo. Kitty has a host of video blogs in which she talks about her life, but this one is most helpful in showing what the city means to her personally. She names seven "wonders":

1. Sunda Kelapa harbor
2. Museum Bahari
3. National Museum
4. Istiqlal
5. Museum Wayang
6. National Monument
7. Dunia Fantasi

Representing Kota are 1, 2, and 5. While 3, 4, and 6 are located at Merdeka Square (see my last Indonesia post). Only the seventh is left, and that is an amusement park. The tour is put together from Kitty's own photos, which often feature her in the standard tourist pose in front of a building or pretending to hold a background monument in her hand.

This YouTube video has gotten about 4500 views since it was posted in August 2008. The comments to the video make it clear that this is functioning as an unofficial guide for some who are coming to Indonesia. Zerobio comments: "Thank you for posting this! I am planning a trip to Jakarta (from Canada) to meet a special indonesian girl and this was very helpful." To which Kitty replies: "Hi zerobio! I hope you will have a great time with your special indonesian girl! ^_^."

A second resource for getting to know Jakarta is a slideshow of a collection of photos posted on Flickr by user der Willy. The slideshow covers more than just Kota. It has the feel of someone who is snapping photos of whatever is encountered. So in effect this is a repository of the visual world that was felt to be remarkable by a foreign tourist. These images range from tall buildings to sunsets to crowded streets to Turkish dancers in a modern mall. Flickr allows this group of photos to be embedded as a slideshow:

If I were to visit Jakarta for 36 hours it is unlikely that I would take photos that are too much different than this. If I were to stay there for part of a year and really get to know the city, that would be something else.. and you could expect more real discrimination to creep into the photos. But with just 36 hours most of us would be struck by about the same things.. which is why imagined travel is as good as a common tourist visit to a site.