Good morning! And welcome to Jakarta the capital of Indonesia
Oh whoa it is warm today in Jakarta I think it must be always warm in Jakarta
but anyway, I am taking shelter in Merdeka Park the square, one square
kilometer of space right in the heart of Jakarta City that is open lawns grassy
areas and this beautiful wooded area here where you can listen to the birds and
forget the traffic of Jakarta
It's an area where the locals come to escape the
heat as well aaahhhh
and right in the middle of the park is the Monas Monument
so let's have a
quick look around the park and then I'll take you to see the monument
hi guys
Ooooh escaping from the heat now in the corner of Merdeka park
you will find this
little section which is food and drinks
believe me I'm not sure about the food but
you'll need the drinks it is hot at all the time so I'm gonna find me somewhere
get a drink and have a sit down and rest
oh and there's plenty places to choose from as well
Ooooohhhh
Remember to keep drinking
it is hot but it's been great being around Jakarta but
it's definitely time to escape the heat and I've had to stop filming because
well I stopped filming on my other camera
my main camera this is on my GoPro now
because the other camera quit working 'cause it overheated
came up with a
warning and then when pooof,
blew up, kaboom,
eventually said allow camera to cool
that was it, it hasn't worked since
so I hope it's gonna be okay I've never had this
with this camera before I know some of the earlier models of this camera did
have overheating issues but I've never had this and I've had it in some pretty
hot places
but not the heat of Jakarta clearly
because it's doing for me as well I'm
just drinking so much water of course
with occasional other vitamin
supplements
I would say a few things to note about Jakarta one yeh the traffic
is bad and therefore the haze and pollution can be quite bad as well but
those aside you can move around the city quite freely as long as you're patient
walking long distances is really not worth it even with the traffic because
it is hot and sticky and it's just not pleasant and you can get blue bird taxis
grab taxis and grab bikes fairly cheaply and the bikes are quite good because
then go through the traffic but you have to sit on the back of a bike so for one
person and a little bit of nerve is fine
two people obviously you ever get to grab
bikes you might as well get a taxi and enjoy the aircon ride
even though it might take a little longer in the traffic
but there's some
beautiful things to see around Jakarta it is the capital of Indonesia after all
it's, it's not the most exciting city it's got
one or two features to look around I mean I wouldn't say to people rush to
Jakarta to enjoy a holiday there that's not what Jakarta is for but if you're
coming into Jakarta, it's the biggest airport and the biggest city in
Indonesia and you're here for a bit there is a few things to see so we're
gonna see them today and I hope you're gonna enjoy them and I hope I'm gonna
have a camera that can film them for you
because the other ones blown up with the heat, like me
but one thing you will
notice about Jakarta and probably all of Indonesian the people
they are smiley
friendly people even if they don't speak English because even in Jakarta it's
amazing how little English is spoken and how little English is signpost in terms
of like menus and restaurants
Google Translate is great and you soon
learn a little bit of Indonesian because you have to if you want to order
food, Nasi goreng - fried rice
learn the essentials then you won't die of thirst
and hunger
but the people are really friendly super smiling greet them with a
smile be respectful they're respectful, polite people, which is really nice and I
felt comfortable and safe wandering around the city last night I was checking
out some of the Instagram bridges which I'm sure show you a footage of somewhere
and I realized it was midnight and I'm on a railway bridge between two bus
stations in a part of the city that I have no idea where I am and I didn't feel
threatened at all when got it there were security guards around everywhere I was
looking for somewhere to have a drink everywhere was already closed that is
the other thing to remember in Jakarta unlike Thailand and a lot of Asian
cities it's not littered with 7-elevens and convenient shops on every corner
neither do they open 24/7 some of them close at nine o'clock, ten
o'clock eleven o'clock by midnight even by half eleven all those shops are closed
except in some areas but in most of the areas of the city people are packed up
and gone by 11:00 so don't expect all night because I got to eleven o'clock
11:30 ahhh I need a drink there's a convenience store around the corner Indomaret
went round - closed!
I'll go down the bus the underground train was closed as well I
couldn't find one I ended up going home and going thirsty okay I did get some water
but yeah so it's not an all night 24/7 city which i think is nice but there is
plenty to see and there's various ways around the city that make it adventurous
there's a bus line, the Jakarta City Link, blue bus service there's a train line to
some of the areas which we're going to take later on to Batavia, the old
starting point, the Dutch Center of Jakarta and of course the taxis which aren't
that expensive so yeah and for the sweat and heat and dust and sitting in a nice Air-con
taxi for a while
the taxis are a fair bet
me, I'm going to top up my
water, see if my camera's recovered and then I'm heading to the railway station
to get the train to Batavia,
I call it Batvia, Batavia.
- Good afternoon, how much to go to Kota Tua? - Kota Tua....
- seventy?
- sixty thousand?
- it's very expensive, too expensive
- a taxi 20
okay I have
escaped the park heading to the station now I just checked with, whoops, the
little blue tuk-tuks I thought whoa the pavement's not very good here
I just checked with
him I thought well maybe I could get the a tuk-tuk round that'd be quite fun do
some filming but is was 60,000 for three kilometers even in the traffic if I got a
grab taxi or a blue bird taxi I think it would only be less than 30,000 but for
oh, there's the blue bus, the trouble is I haven't worked out how the blue bus works that
the Trans-Jakarta buses, that's these ones here they look really nice
but I haven't worked out where they go, where to go, which bus number to get
everything I'm sure I could find out but not in the middle of my day so I'm going
to the train station because I know the train goes from Gambia which is right
beside the Monas and Merdeka Park straight up to where I'm going next
which is Batavia or Kota Tua, the home of the original
starting point of Jakarta City
I'll just walk down here turn left and there
should be at the station then I've got to work out how the station works when
the train is, get on it going in the right direction, it should be that way?
north? anyway hopefully it'll be fairly simple to find out and as I said before
people here are so kind somebody will help me anyway let's go get a train
and do some more looking around Jakarta
I have made it into the station and there is lots and lots places to eat there's a
entrance to the platform and ticket checking point but I can't find where to
buy a ticket
oh maybe over there that's like kiosks, see if I can find out how to work them
okay I failed I think that is the place to buy tickets
all in Indonesia
lots of queues I put in the place where I wanted to go and it went "blalbleblbl"
said some customer service
no idea where that is so I'm gonna take option two I'm gonna head back out of the
station, not take the train today, try the bus
there's a bus station up there, let's see if I can find
the bus to Kota Tua
okay failed to get the train
here's a bus stop, let's see if I can work out
how the buses
work with no knowledge whatsoever
or which lines, let's have a look
now there's a helpful kiosk there's not many queues
No, ooh a map, a map
so let's see if where I want to go is on the map, so
where on earth do I want to go
And the bus goes without me because this isn't on the same line as
the bus line to Kota Tua so I have to take one bus, change, get another bus
it seems very confusing
so I'm gonna go for option three and get me as a Grab Bike just to take me up there
Welcome to Kota Tua
this is probably the oldest part of Jakarta
it's where the Dutch set up their first trading post here which was then called
Batavia in the sixteen or seventeen hundreds, a long time ago, it actually only got
changed the name Jakarta in about 1945 under the Declaration of Independence a
Botavia, or Kota Tua as is now known is in north Jakarta
the harbor is over there
the main square is down there which has got
some of the old Dutch administrative buildings in
and during
the day it's quite pleasant you can hire these brightly colored bicycles to ride
around and take selfies on
it really comes to life in the evening there's the
old Batavia Cafe,
a bit expensive but exclusive
but there's
so much to do there's this wonderful street market here full of eating
on one side, clothes, some fashion accessories on the other
the square has
got entertainment in there's people playing live music bands and things and entertainers
and it really is like a family day out
I ended up getting here by Grab Taxi but you can get the bus and the train here I've just
because I've just found the train station
but I couldn't work out how to work it anyway let me
show you around this beautiful place it is brilliant in the evening and it's a
little bit cooler, not much though
Whoa! Well what a day we have had exploring Jakarta I know it ended up with some sort of
festival or something going on, it's a holiday, I'm in Batavia square or
Kota Tua competing with a live band stage audience and loads of people it's a really
lovely atmosphere
the people are really friendly and nice, it feels very safe
everybody's around, lots to see here, but it's a nice way to round up the day
if you can hear me.