Jakarta City Guide - overview

Jakarta is not a city for everyone but many find it an inevitable stop on the way to more tranquil Indonesian destinations. What has amassed is a decentralized sprawl of low slung buildings amidst occasional high rise towers. With no central Jakarta area it is difficult to experience the city's highlights which are scattered about the enormous districts. Travelling far in the city is laborious and adding to the difficulty is heavy traffic and haywire street grids throughout dense and stretching sprawl. Yet despite, or possibly because of, Jakarta's reputation as a difficult city, little visited areas and unique attractions feel like personal discoveries. Jakarta has a reputation as a rich person's playground. Grungy streets contrast to modern shopping complexes and examples of ostentatious wealth. Visitors can enjoy a bit of this in garish nightclubs and elegant restaurants. Jakarta is a boiled down representation of everything Indonesian giving visitors a quick introduction or synopsis of the country's various and incredibly diverse cultures, architecture, food, languages, religions, and combined histories.

Getting around: Travel across Jakarta is often a combination of many forms of transport. Commonly used is the Transjakarta, a modern bus system that are allocated special street lanes to circumnavigate traffic in the city centre. These are cheap and plentiful although going long distances can become confusing when transferring. Other bus lines are more crowded and less safe and do not run on a fixed schedule. Taxis are abundant but can be expensive for longer rides. Blue Bird taxis are the most trusted although there are many impostors with questionable reputations. Many narrow street lanes are better suited for ojeks, also known as motorbike taxis. Also popular for shorter trips are three wheeled vehicles known as bajaj. Be sure to bargain with both ojek and bajaj drivers before accepting rides.