Indonesia's cultural nerve exists in Jakarta, the country's capital and largest city often called the "Big Durian" as it usually shocks tourists with the sights and smells of its 10 million inhabitants consisting of the Balinese, Madurese, Timorese, the Ambonese of Maluku, and the Bataks from Sumatra. These people from different regions have brought in their traditional foods and customs to Jakarta, making the city a one-stop shop to know all of Indonesia.
Jakarta at first sight is a wide plain of sharp contrasts—skyscrapers and limousines amid slums and street urchins. Tourists here usually cannot wait but leave the city or sleep over its morning dilemmas like poor signage, traffic smog, and constant bomb threats. Nevertheless, from a daytime ugly duckling, Jakarta transforms into one of Asia's prettiest swans when it comes to nightlife. Countless bars, cafés, discotheques, entertainment centers, and red-light districts line up shoulder-to-shoulder from West to South Jakarta.
Travelers who scratch deeper than the surface may find that Jakarta is also a city of surprises from every corner—markets, spas, art galleries, museums, cultural theaters, planetariums, and more destinations too many to name. In addition, Central Jakarta has the Presidential Palace; West Jakarta has Chinatown, the old town (Kuta), and a few temples; and South Jakarta has zoos and water parks. East Jakarta is home to the Cibubur camping ground and the Utan Kayu art community while North Jakarta has the Ancol Dream Park, one of Asia's biggest themed parks. It consists of Fantasy World, Ocean Park, and Seaworld, Southeast Asia's largest aquarium.
Since there are many sights in Jakarta, there are also many vehicles for getting around. From smallest to biggest they are: ojek (motorcycle taxis), bajaj (orange mutant scooters), and busway or Tije (air-conditioned buses). Shopping centers also come in all forms and sizes, offering both wholesale and retail prices for antiques, handicrafts, paintings, batiks (traditional Indonesian cloth), and wayang goleks (Javanese puppets).
Apart from staple foods such as bubur dingin (cold porridge) and soto betawi (beef parts and intestines in coco milk), Jakarta is also known for its street delicacies like kelapa gading (seafood) and tennis-sized meatballs. Indeed, with such a variety of offerings, Jakarta showcases the honest-to-goodness Indonesia—both the good and the bad.
