Beautifully Flawed: Batavia

Wow this post is a long time in coming. Back in September, at least I think that is when it was, I took a trip into Jakarta to tour the old city, Batavia. Through out history Jakarta has been under the control of various colonies and had many names. During the time Jakarta was under the Dutch colonial empire it was known as Batavia. I believe today when someone refers to Batavia they are specifically referring to a portion of Jakarta surrounding the former city hall pictured above. While my friends and I were there with a national friend, a true Indonesian who could tell us the history, we were immediately swept up by a "tour guide."

Right from the get go I could tell this would be no ordinary tour and was I ever right! I mean this was my first tour where I was referred to as "my sister." His name was Jansen. We went from one room to the next. He was a fireball of energy. He sang, he saluted, he squatted, he jumped, he mimicked a mosquito, there was nothing Jansen would not do. His dramatic expression was certainly helpful as his accent was thick. For most of the tour I felt as if we were playing an intense game of charades. Every now and then a word would pop out that I understood like, "Obama," or "superhero," or "Madonna." In fact, I am not even sure how much of the tour was about Batavia . . . anyways, I found myself always staring intently at Jansen trying desperately to make sense of what he was saying. Thats when it happened. He called me a tiger! I know right?!? He said my eyes were intense and I could control others with them. Oh my. I began to feel as if maybe this was not a real tour, especially with all the glances we were getting from other people. Finally, after what seemed like an hour our "tour," or rather game of charades, came to an end. Of course, we paid Jansen, but found out later there are no tours for the city hall. That's Indonesia for you :)

At the end of our tour Jansen took us to where one of his friends was making traditional puppets. If I had written this post sooner I might have remembered something about the puppets, but I don't. I do know that they are quite time consuming to make and the detail on them is amazing. You can shine a light behind them and have a puppet show on the wall. The story that goes with the puppets is some how connected with Hinduism, but I don't remember the details.

In addition to looking through the puppet museum and the former city hall we went to lunch at Cafe Batvia. So now I can say that I have done something that was in a travel book! I tried my first gado-gado which is kind of like an Indonesian salad. It consists of boiled vegetables served with a peanut sauce. Afterwards, we went to see the Monas which is Indonesia's national monument. It was built shortly after Indonesia obtained independence as a symbol their fight for freedom. Unfortunately, it was closed and we were unable to climb to the top.

My day in Batavia was fun. It was so different touring an Indonesian museum. There were ropes, but no one paid heed to them, I mean Jansen even started to take apart one of the bed frames!! There were no camera signs, but everyone was taking pictures. I learned that you pay someone to help you park or to pull out into traffic. Things here just constantly amaze me. I'm certainly having an adventure!