I’ll never have a March 4th 2025 in this life. I left SFO on March 3rd, arrived in Singapore, then Jakarta, on March 5th. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean March 4th happened for others while I dozed (and watched three movies) in a window seat that looked into the dark night.
But on March 5th, I took off from Singapore and landed in Jakarta – not enough time to finish one movie…
I enjoy window seats. Especially during the day, on clean airlines, over interesting terrain, on the inside of turns. Lots going on around Singapore and in Indonesia. What do you see…? (Don’t miss the lovely and enormous plant wall in the Jakarta airport!)
Right off the bat I love Indonesia. Instead of hectic touts hustling their taxis, there was a nice desk, pay up front, curbside service, and off I went to my nice hotel (still inexpensive), the Borobudur. Interesting, in addition to a wonderfully large pool, a spa, and tennis courts, there are nice gardens, which include sculptures, fountains, a playground, a bunny petting area, and a butterfly zone. Not to mention the particularly slappin’ breakfast buffet. Of course I had to take a little walk around, but soon succumbed to the jet lag.
The next morning, early due to the heat, I went to Monas, the national monument in the middle of Jakarta, and relatively adjacent to my hotel. It is a small museum and large tower. I had a nice guide, Natalia, who explained the fifty-one dioramas depicting the history of Indonesia. One was being serviced by the resident artist. There’s also a room with a huge door that opens every 20 minutes or so, to show, accompanied by music, a small document – not unlike a receipt for something cheap – that represents the establishment of independence for Indonesia from the Dutch on August 17th, 1945.
Then, I took the elevator to the top. Note the elevator guy who spends his day tucked into the corner not looking at himself in the mirrored walls, going up & down… I got the full view of the city, along with a couple of soldiers, and dutifully took a shot from all four sides, along with some zooms of interesting architecture. Fortunately, there was a lil’ trolley-train to take me to the exit, closer to my next destination: the National Museum of Indonesia…
Municipal sculptures and more architecture on the way to the National Museum of Indonesia. There, I encountered Robbert, a volunteer docent who gave his inaugural tour to about four of us – all guys. Part of the museum suffered a fire recently, and is still returning to full capacity, but there was more to see in the time I had.
Note the mix of Hinduism and Buddhism with the indigenous spirituality – which has had a component of cannibalism in the past. The largest sculpture in the museum, found buried after centuries, had also been used to sharpen knives and for grinding grain. Indonesian art features lots of masks, and is famous for puppetry (as we’ll later see at the Wayang Museum).
Take your time (if you have some)…
One reason why I’m a museum nerd is discovering whole genres, and this one I love. Pita Maha is a school of artists from Bali that formed an association in the 1930s. Their style has continued since with other schools continuing the genre. What I like about it is the intricate narrative of each piece, filling the space with detail, patterns, and action – people in nature – and the sometimes fantastical. It was another epiphany of a whole world to love. I hope I’ll find more in Bali, but it was great to spend time in this room. Spend some time on this batch…
Our little group of museum aficionados took an elevator together and I couldn’t resist. Here’s more of the museum (note the Kris or Keris, another whole thing)
I way overpaid this tuktuk guy ’cause he dropped me off at the back of my fancy hotel (he said they didn’t allow tuktuks) and I had to climb a fence/wall to sneak in. But I made it back in time to take a lovely swim before switching hotels. Here’s a last glimpse of the grounds of Hotel Borobudur (remember that name)…
Time lapses around Jakarta…
I arrived at my new, Intrepid-selected hotel, the Yello Harmoni, with several hours before our first meeting, plenty of time to explore. I knew we were going to part of Old Jakarta on our tour the next day, but sussed it to be a cool, so I went there, in spite of the traffic, for a quick hour. Not a lot of preservation of the old colonial buildings, what with the sordid history and the humid weather, but I found some things to look at…
Found some refreshment, then a taxi back to the hotel. Lots of traffic in an interesting part of town…
I arrived on time for my meeting with my new Intrepid group, and you can meet them too in my next post. Enough for now – but not of Jakarta…
