The Travel Experiences You Should Get In Jakarta

Travelling around Jakarta is a great experience and the reasons are many.

I’m sitting at Jakarta’s airport waiting to board a flight back to Kuala Lumpur and as I sit here reflecting my journey here, I’m finding that my overall experience in the bustling city has been so great, mainly because the people here are the nicest people. I would put Indonesia second to Thailand for the friendliest country. The people here are very humbling, full of tradition, and smiles.

Like their southeast Asian neighbour, there is poverty and the ultra rich here and it can be seen with all the slums in the northern part of the city and the richer well manicured neighbourhood in the south. Jakarta is geographically large and the population out numbers many other cities in the world, making it also one of the top traffic congested city. It seems like this city is always smoggy with pollution, but as long as you’re wearing a mask, it’s OK and doesn’t bother you too much.

One of the experiences I suggest you doing when you visit is walking through a small part of the slums in the northern area of Jakarta, it’s a real eye opener. The people are very poor, the kids play next to garbage, and most of the homes made out of discarded tin panels or wood planks appear they won’t last in a sudden strong wind gust. But one thing that the people all seem to have are large smile and laughter, despite their living situation. It was refreshing to see that.

Next on the must experience list is the mosque. For people who are uncomfortable with this, there are tour guides available at the mosques that will show you around and teach you things about the Islam. Be sure to dress appropriately by having long sleeve shirts and long pants to cover yourself. Women must not wear low cut or revealing clothing.

Going to the mosque for prayers is what Indonesians do in their daily lives. For those who aren’t able to make it to a mosque can pray in one of the many prayers room set up in stores, gas stations, malls, offices, etc. Prayer rooms are so widely available that there is almost no excuse for a Muslim to miss prayer time. If you run across a prayer session happening somewhere in the middle of the city at an obscure gathering, make sure to stand and watch for a while. It’s a memorable sight to see how men and women pray in synchronization.

An authentic way to travel around the city is through their Angkot mini buses that drive around the city. It operates as a hop on, hop off and they run in a routes around the city. It would be a lot easier to do this with a local who knows how to navigate this or ask the driver which way he is driving. Personally this was too difficult to experience, so I opted to ride around the city on a GrabBike, which is always a blast. Be careful of pickpockets when you’re riding, keep your belongings secure on you.

My last point that made my experience in Jakarta memorable was being able to ride the trains that goes to many parts of the city. They also have very affordable trains going all the way out to East, Central, or West Java. You can book tickets easily in advance with the Traveloka App or their native app “KAI Access”, but a little warning with the latter: You can’t pay with your credit card but instead have to go to collection points in convenience stores or post offices to make cash payments. Out of convenience I use the Traveloka app instead.

When you ride the train out, you get a whole new view of the country as you pass by rice patties, farms, green valleys, and other smaller towns. Be sure to have your camera ready at hand because amazing views come quickly and often.