Jakarta

For the Jakarta Berlin Arts Festival: Five Rules When Visiting Indonesia’s Capital.

The first Jakarta Berlin Arts Festival will be on until 3 July. Approximately 150 Indonesian artists will be presenting an initial impression of Jakarta in Berlin. Perhaps they’ll whet your appetite for a visit to their capital city. If so, you need to know the following: Jakarta likes to consider itself a neat and green city, but in reality there are lots of traffic jams and large concrete wastelands. For many tourists, this can initially be repulsive, but once you follow the five rules below, you can make your stay in the exciting city of 14 million people the perfect start for your tour of Indonesia.

1. Besides driving on the left, there are no rules on Jakarta’s streets.
The cleverest tactic to avoid the all-day rush hour is to get on an “ojek.” These are motorbike taxis that set up hand-painted signs on the street corners. Ojek drivers know their way around, point out sights during the ride and offer both helmets and rain capes. They skilfully weave through the traffic jams and side streets and the head wind helps you forget that you are zipping under a pall of smog. Besides that, you can show off rapid mobile shots on your mobile phone. This leads us to rule 2:

2. Always have a Smartphone with you.
If you have one you won’t get lost (thanks to GPS and inexpensive SIM cards) on the streets, which are usually named after generals. In addition, with a Blackberry, iPhone or similar, it’s far easier to get to know the community: almost everyone in Jakarta is a member of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Friendster and are constantly using these means of communication while on the go, whether they’re walking, in traffic, in a café or on an ojek. So...

3. Be friendly when Indonesians make the first move.
Tourists are approached in particular in front of local sights and in museums with “Pardon me, can I take a picture with you?” The growing middle class in Jakarta speaks excellent English, and Germans are especially popular. Both ex-President Habibie and the present mayor of Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo, studied in Germany, the motorway to the neighbouring city of Bandung was built by Germans, as was the largest mosque in all of Southeast Asia, the impressive “Istiqlal” in the centre of Jakarta. Lastly, it’s also worth getting into conversations with Indonesians because they know best which of the many districts in the fast-moving city are most “in” right now. The most important rule is:

4. Jakarta is a city that is divided up into “islands.”
That suits a nation like Indonesia, which consists of 13,477 islands. The city islands are huge building complexes that can be reached via five-lane roads or broad pedestrian bridges. Only once you understand that will you have the chance to discover Jakarta on your own in a few days. The main “islands” are Kota, Menteng, Blok M, Kemang, the harbour and, finally, the roughly 100 malls where friends meet, listen to music, eat and drink. Hence:

5. Learn to love the mall.
Actually, no day ends in Jakarta without entering a “plaza.” In these architecturally playful complexes (escalators shaped like a lady’s shoe) there are not only excellent restaurants, shops and cafés, but cinemas with double beds instead of rows of seats (“Blitz Megaplex”), dance clubs with heart-shaped LEDs glowing on the walls (“Dragonfly”), and the recently opened “Paulaner Bräuhaus,” where Indonesians serve in lederhosen and dirndls (“Grand Indonesia”).