Indonesia ~ Jakarta

22 August 2026

On top of the National Monument, friendly Indonesians visiting Jakarta from areas without tourists wanted a photo with the novelty Westerner. (I was told the trendy sign means "I like you".)

Jakarta is the largest city I'd never seen — about 11 million residents in the city proper with over 32 million in the metropolitan area!

Jakarta is also the current capital of the world's fourth most populous country behind India, China, and the United States. So it is a big deal!

I'd seen fascinating parts of Indonesia.
Why had I resisted Jakarta? Frankly...

 ❶ I wasn't sure Jakarta had enough worthwhile sights to endure its
 ❷ notorious reputation for traffic chaos and
 ❸ widely publicized, suffocating pollution.

But I had several days between the solar eclipse in Spain and a cruise starting in Bali. So I crossed my fingers and braved the alleged traffic nightmares and polluted skies.
Good news (and maybe I was lucky):
● The pollution was not too terrible during my visit.
● The traffic was not so bad.
I've seen far worse in Lagos, Dhaka, Bengaluru, and elsewhere.
● Plus, welcoming people and some interesting sites.
The city center features the National Monument (aka Monas) built to commemorate Indonesia's struggle for independence from the Dutch.. As you can see, not many people strolling around here this hot morning, but lines were forming to go up to the observation deck.
People were shy but friendly. Lots of people wanted selfies. Here are a few before I was embarrassingly drenched in sweat from the heat.
As you can see from the top of Monas, Jakarta’s skyline is less a solid forest of skyscrapers than a series of high-rise clusters spread across a sprawling urban landscape.
From Monas, I managed to photograph the entire massive Istiqlal Mosque — the largest mosque in Indonesia and all of Southeast Asia. It is sometimes listed as one of the ten largest in the world, depending on how you measure courtyards, etc.
From the balcony, it was impressive to see this vast prayer hall stretching about 100 meters and supported by twelve enormous columns.

Here is the main square of Kota Tua (aka Jakarta Old Town or Old Batavia), established by the Dutch East India Company in 1619 as the center of its colonial power in the archipelago.

One of the historic venues on the square is the updated but evocatively colonial Café Batavia. I'd crossed paths with Lucas and Monica at Monas and here they invited me to join them for great coffee and conversation. They are veteran world travelers. 
Indonesia is famous for its astonishing diversity of wayang — more than 100 distinct forms of traditional puppetry have been identified across the archipelago. So I had to visit the Wayang Museum near Café Batavia.  Among the many colorful styles at the museum, my triptych shows examples of Wayang Golek Purwa, Wayang Golek Menak, and the big Wayang Thengul.

View from the Grand Hyatt (across from my Pullman) with a large landmark fountain surrounding the Selamat Datang (Welcome) Monument. 

We tend to confine "authenticity" to historic cultures (e.g. old village dances and costumes). But I find modern urban cultures to be fascinating (and "real") as well. 

I walked into Plaza Indonesia across from my hotel and was not surprised to see the usual array of overpriced Italian and French fashion stores — Dior, Gucci, Prada, and so forth. What I was surprised to see was the mall customers dressed as if they had just walked a Milan runway. 

I have never seen so much haute couture worn in a mall anywhere! (Pics above are from online but I should have taken photos.)  Even the men were stylishly dressed. The only scruffy-looking people were Euro/US tourists like me.

When I returned to the Pullman, I asked the young women at the hotel's front desk if the mall might have held a special fashion event. They smiled proudly and said, "In Jakarta, we like to dress well when we go to the mall!" Today I just found that the Guardian ran a whole story about the upscale mall phenomenon in Jakarta.

FYI, the large National Museum was nearby, had some nice exhibits, and was worth a stop. 

Bottom line: Jakarta was a surprisingly enjoyable interim between the eclipse and the cruise!