Jakarta - Part 1

Thursday, 30 June 2016

Indonesia, with a population of close to 270,000,000 people, is the 3rd most populous country in the world after China and India, and is the most populous Muslim country in the world. Jakarta is the capital, a city of about 10,000,000 people.

I landed in the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at nearly 10 p.m. thanks to a delay in the flight (with no apologies from the airline I note) to a rainy Jakarta town. When the plane was descending I began to see how big the city really is; I couldn’t see the borders or fringes - it looked like a massive city of lights and activity. From my hotel room on the 19th floor, with the rain misting up my windows, it again dawned on me what a huge city Jakarta really is.My hotel is in West Jakarta, in a place called Slipi which is near Grogol. The latter sounds to me like a character from Lord of the Rings. Just saying.

Jakarta was established in the 4th century as an important trading port for the Sundanese kingdom of Tarumanagara, one of the oldest Hindu kingdoms in Indonesia. Following the decline of this kingdom, it then became part of the Kingdom of Sunda. From the 7th to early 13th century, the port of Sunda was within the sphere of influence of the Srivijaya maritime empire, another ancient Hindu empire which was the same that helped build Lembah Bujang all those years ago. My father will be proud to hear all this of course. 

Later Jakarta became the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies (known as Batavia at that time – renamed by the Dutch in 1619). Indonesia was ruled for 350 years by the Dutch, and then 3 and a half years by the Japanese. After World War II, the city of Batavia was renamed "Jakarta" (short form of Jayakarta) by the Indonesian nationalists after achieving independence from the Dutch in 1945. The name “Jakarta” is said to come from the word "Jayakarta", traced to Old Javanese and ultimately the Sanskrit language. "Jayakarta" translates as "victorious deed", "complete act", or "complete victory".

This made me wonder why we took so long to gain independence from the British after the Japanese left. And I also wondered why the Indonesians were driving on the left side of the road (like us and the British) when they were a Dutch colony. So many mysteries in life.

Anyway. Jakarta is one hour behind us. Although Bahasa Indonesia is largely similar to Bahasa Melayu, there are certain words that are completely different and dissimilar to Malay. I learnt a few today:

(i) pidana – criminal (noun)

(ii) perdata – civil (noun)

(iii) satwa / haiwan – animal 

(iiii) amplop – envelope (this sounds really cute to me)

(v) dorong – push

(vi) pria - gents

The jams in Jakarta are world famous. And true. It is horrible. I’ll not complain about the jams in Kuala Lumpur again. For about a week (because it is the Raya week and I’ll be in Kuantan). My no-complain vow will be broken the Monday after Raya.

For lunch I had traditional Indonesian food – chicken, mutton, satay, kangkung and soft shell crab. Similar to Malay cooking and yet different in many subtle ways – taste, texture, spice levels. The food is really hot and spicy -just the way I like it! I also had an interesting drink – young coconut and pineapple juice with cucumber slices. The best thing to drink on a hot sunny day in Jakarta.