Glimpses of Jakarta

Arrival

The visa-on-arrival section was packed with folks from the Netherlands. "The Dutch have a special place in their hearts for Indonesia...", gushed the youngster standing next to me. Maybe this is the Dutch equivalent of the Raj-nostalgia but over the next few days it was amply clear that this sentiment was a wholly one-sided. The Indonesians certainly did not care much for the colonial period.

Unlike in New Delhi or Mumbai, or even Shanghai, it is not easy to spot colonial era buildings in Jakarta.  The national language does retain a number of Dutch words. I was pleased to know that this includes one word commonly used in Malayalam as well - "kakus" - meaning 'toilet' from the verb "kakken"!

Yet a much larger number of words sound endearingly familiar because they are of Indic origin, including the name of the national language itself - "Bahasa"- which simply means 'language' in Sanskrit.

The airport was a bit of a disappointment though. As soon as we stepped out of the aircraft, long, dark corridors welcomed us. Apparently there was a power outage in this section of the airport that knocked out the lighting but the travellators were working. Having landed up here with more INR than USD it was disapointing to see that there were no money-changers ahead of the visa-on-arrival section.

In this section the first bay is for payments and the only currency they accept in either USD or IDR. To bad if you were not carrying $35 or R500,000! The second bay had long, snaking lines and I was lucky to pick one that was moving fast.

The money-changers stalls appear after this section but none of them accepted INR :( Even in the city the ones that do pay you 10+% less than the actual prevailing rates. INR 20,000 gets you IDR 3 million. Sounds nice until you realise that your should have got a much better rate.

One thing that is strikingly different about Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport are its panel-murals. In  the arrivals area, each fire-extinguisher goes beyond its regular utilitarian function has character - thanks to imaginative paintings. Similarly in the departure zones, the service panel doors take on myriad forms that invariably make you smile :)

In downtown Jakarta, one tall building is named SEMEN. It took me a while to learn that it belongs to a cement company - one of the many that are a part of the Salim Group conglomerate.

The broad roads are packed with two-wheelers - mostly Honda. It is the narrow bye-lanes that offer the widest range of affordable eating options. The western fast-food joints have their place in the malls but it is here that the people come for some real stuff. Interestingly even in an eatery with just two tables you will find a 'live band' - at least a guy strumming an ukulele and belting out local pop-hits :)