The following image was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom.
We docked at Jakarta in the early afternoon. Dancers and a gamelan band performed for us as we entered the harbour. A cool way to approach the dock. The last two images are videos.
The Viking Tour: “Discover Indonesia’s cultural and spiritual diversity during visits to a museum, a mosque, and a cathedral. Depart by motor coach for Museum Gajah, the National Museum of Indonesia. It houses one of the largest collections of artifacts in Southeast Asia and features a range of exhibits focused on ethnography, archaeology, and more. As you explore, you will see displays of traditional crafts, ancient sculptures, and cultural treasures, including a collection of stone statues from the classical Hindu-Buddhist period. After refreshments in the courtyard, continue to the Istiqlal Mosque. Opened to the public in 1978, it is Southeast Asia’s largest mosque and can accommodate congregations of up to 120,000 people. Cap your day with a visit to the nearby Jakarta Cathedral. Consecrated at the beginning of the 20th century, this neo-Gothic cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Jakarta.”
Our charter bus drove around downtown Jakarta, showing us major buildings, parks, hotels, and shopping malls. The area consisted of many high-rise buildings and looked modern. Driving around the city is sensory overload. The metropolitan area population is 42 million compared to 8.4 million in New York City. There are buildings, people, and traffic everywhere. It is a lot to take in, having recently come from more sparsely populated islands.
Our first stop was the National Museum, which is quite impressive and expansive. Our tour guide walked us through several exhibit halls during our hour-long tour. Our onboard enrichment lectures prepared us well for the history of this country.
Some of the statues had been buried for years before being rediscovered. The statue in the next image had been partially buried, and the exposed stone was used for sharpening knives see image 2 and grinding spices the cup indentation in image 3.
The museum has a dedicated display for Java Man. From Wikipedia: “Java Man (Homo erectus erectus, formerly also Anthropopithecus erectus or Pithecanthropus erectus) is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 on the island of Java (Indonesia). Estimated to be between 700,000 and 1,490,000 years old, it was, at the time of its discovery, the oldest hominid fossil ever found, and it remains the type specimen for Homo erectus.” I am not 100% sure if the bone in the case is an actual fossil. A very interesting and important exhibit.
The museum had a unique and fun exhibit that claimed to be able to determine your Indonesian heritage by scanning your face and indicating which area of the country and what ethnic group you descended from. For about $1, several of our shipmates went through this “DNA-type” analysis, and believe it or not, all of them had Indonesian heritage! Their photo was then adapted to show them in their “people’s ancient attire”.
Our second stop was the Istiqlal Mosque, or the National Mosque of Indonesia. We were required to cover our knees and shoulders and remove our shoes before going inside the mosque as a sign of respect for Islam. We walked inside the mosque and up several flights of stairs to a viewing area above the large prayer hall. The building itself was massive, consisting of two rectangular structures and two domes. It has seven entrances, many corridors for women and men, separately, to rest or meet with family members, and it was primarily open-air. The mosque was built in the 1960’s as a symbol of this new country after its independence from the Dutch in 1949. An interesting fact is that the Indonesian government held a design competition and selected Friedrich Silaban, an Indonesian Christian, to lead the design. The building’s architecture and grounds have a modern feel to symbolize the birth of this new country. Every mosque has a drum called a Bedug, which is used to signal mosque prayer times. The drum in this mosque was particularly large, carved out of wood with a leather drumhead.
Our last stop was the Jakarta Catholic Cathedral, a beautiful neo-Gothic structure. It was originally built in 1829, but was destroyed by fires in the early 20th Century and was rebuilt in 1908. Inside the Cathedral, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary, and Indonesians are very proud that this is the only statue of Mary in the world that features her in historic Indonesian clothing. We noticed many stray cats around the city, and several seemed to consider the Cathedral as home. Bob couldn’t resist taking photos of them – see Jakarta Day 2 post.
The top-left photo below is the President’s home, known as Merdeka Palace. It was completed in 1879 by the Dutch and is a stunning building.
The middle-left photo was taken in Downtown Jakarta and shows a large public message board that is counting down the time until the country’s new capital, Nusantara, will be completed. The new capital will be a flight away, being built on the southern part of Borneo Island in an area called Kalimantan. Nusantara is planned to be a government center, with housing and shopping, and Jakarta will continue as the international business and commerce center of the country. Why would they build a new capital, you might be thinking? Simply, they have a major problem in that Jakarta is literally sinking into the Java Sea due to rapid urbanization and excessive groundwater extraction. Given that the political leadership has changed and the cost of construction has skyrocketed, there is speculation that Nusantara will not ultimately become the new national capital but will be more of a regional political center. For us urban planning types, this is a fascinating example of building a brand new, planned city that depicts the country’s values and aspirations for its future. An Indonesian design firm called Urban+ is leading the effort and has dubbed Nusantara a “smart forest city”. Indonesia’s goal is to rebrand the country and its identity/nationalism, be green and sustainable, smart, and future-reaching. The first phase is set to open in 2028, with full build-out in the 2040’s. (Sorry, I don’t have any photos to share because we did not go to Borneo.)
And finally, there are several commemorative fountains in downtown Jakarta, which I thought were interesting to include. The bottom left photo below is the Arjuna Wijaya Statue, a copper statue depicting an epic Hindu poem called “Mahabharata”, and is a symbol of Indonesia’s struggle for independence. The photo on the right below depicts a downtown scene with skyscrapers, electronic billboards, and another fountain with a statue called the Selamat Datang Monument, which means “Welcome”.
Indonesian Tourism is really big on branding and has dubbed Jakarta as “The Big Durian”, similar to NYC’s “The Big Apple”. In a later post, you’ll see photos of durians, aka “stinky fruit”. It is beloved throughout SE Asia. I confess that I tried it, but I did not find it appealing. The taste and texture of the fruit are sweet and dense, but the smell is awful! Once was enough, no matter how many times the tour guides encouraged us to eat it!
We left the afternoon tour at the Jakarta Cathedral. With help from our guides, we negotiated a $22 tuk-tuk ride to Chinatown. Later in the day, we determined that we overpaid by $17 dollars, but now Cheryl can say she rode in a tuk-tuk.
This blog often documents the best parts of our travels, and we do not typically share the less exciting parts of our trip. Anyone who has traveled extensively knows that it is not always rainbows and unicorns. This evening was not the best experience.
After we arrived, we were not sure we were actually in Chinatown. Nothing looked like the photographs we had seen online, and it was not a pleasant environment. We wandered around a bit, trying to determine if we were in the right place. The next day, we confirmed that this was actually Chinatown. Most local businesses close around 5pm, and we had simply arrived too late.
We decided we needed local currency and looked for an ATM. Cheryl has the faster eSIM card, so she mapped locations. Her iPhone often struggles when using international Google Maps, and we really had trouble finding a cash machine. After we did, the first two did not work with our card, so we had to rinse and repeat. All while unsure we were actually in Chinatown, a bit tired, and hot. We finally found an ATM that worked in a multi-story building that looked like it was half finished and occupied by squatters. The four security guards made us feel a little safer!?!
We walked a bit more and found a Chinese restaurant and had a pretty good meal. Not that different than what we would have gotten in Oregon, but at that point, we were happy to eat in air-conditioned comfort.
Time to get back to the ship, but first, Cheryl wanted a haircut and/or pedicure. Given how expensive the tuk-tuk was, we decided to use the local Grab application (similar to Uber). We couldn’t get it to work on Cheryl’s phone, but it worked on mine, albeit with very slow data speeds. Given we did not know exactly where we were, we wanted a really solid pickup spot. After walking around for 15-20 minutes, rejecting two spots (remember, still hot and tired), we settled on the Holiday Inn. We were picked up 10 minutes later and taken to a large shopping mall recommended by a Viking staff member. The ride was about $5 ($17 less than an open-air, bumpy, albeit kitchy cool earlier tuk-tuk ride). After wandering around this modern, albeit huge shopping mall (also air-conditioned, thank goodness), we found the recommended salon, and Cheryl was able to get a haircut for about $10; however, there was a bit of miscommunication about what she wanted done. Mullets are back in style, right? After waking Bob up from napping on a bench in the mall (it was after 10pm at this point), we ordered another Grab ride returning us to the ship, without incident, for about $3. Very happy to be back on board after the last 4-5 hours.
We made plans with another couple from the ship to hire a local tour guide to further explore downtown Jakarta. But that is a story for tomorrow.
Enrichment: History of Indochina. Explore the tangled histories of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos – Bryan Babcock
These three countries are the meeting of Indian and Chinese cultures. Each country has been affected by significant influences from both of these giants.
There were many Empires before the Europeans arrived in the 15th to 17th centuries, the most significant being the Khmer Empire, which built Angkor Wat and the Bayon Temple. The influence of the Khmer continues to affect the current regional culture.
After the fall of the Khmer, there was the typical infighting between all three countries, with the occasional invasion by the Chinese and/or Siam/Thailand.
In 1859, the French colonized Vietnam, allowing some degree of local governance. During WWII, Japan invaded and ruled. After the war, like many other countries in the region, the locals wanted freedom, led by Ho Chi Minh in the north. He worked with the CIA against the French. The French were unsuccessful and left, and the country was officially split into the North and South. This leads to American concerns about northern communism and the subsequent war. Vietnam remains communist with an authoritarian government that has slowly reentered the world economy.
Enrichment: Jakarta: Island of Diversity. Discover why Indonesia is the most culturally complex nation on earth with respect to its languages, tribes, religions, etc. – Susan Braud
The sources of the nation’s cultural complexity and diversity :
- Geography: There are over 17,000 islands with more than 270 ethnic groups.
- Languages: While the national language is officially Bahasa, there are at least five other languages often used, along with many, many local dialects.
- Religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, all of which peacefully coexist. (Note: every citizen has to indicate their religion on the national ID card.)
- Influence of trade: The islands of the archipelago have been at the center of international trade routes for centuries. Any region visited by so many different people for so many years will evolve and take on multicultural characteristics.
Susan shared two great quotes about the cultural importance of language:
- “A different language is a different vision of life.” – Federico Fellini
- “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela
