Today I wanted to go and see Kota Tua (Old City), its a preserved area of buildings from when the Dutch were still in Indonesia. We had to drive through "China Town" (the area where a lot of Jakarta's Chinese population lives), I must say it was noticeably dirty, rundown, unkempt and just not as well maintained as the rest of Jakarta. There were some artists selling their paintings on the streets and I managed to snap this shot:
We arrived in Kota Tua, it was a very hot day. I was amazed to see that the whole place was quite dirty. Every other tourist area we have visited in Jakarta has been so clean and well maintained but Kota Tua was just like a rubbish dump :(
There weren't as many buildings as I expected, we went on a Monday so the museums were closed. If you are thinking of going, don't go on Monday because not much is open.
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| The first building we saw, it faces a big courtyard area that is the centre of the Kota Tua area. |
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| The courtyard I mentioned above. |
You could hire multi person bikes to ride around on, so there were quite a few people zipping around on two or three person bikes with funny hats on. (No helmets).
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| Racks of colourful bikes for hire. |
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| A run down old building. |
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| Standing in the shade trying to get out of the sun, you can see the dirtiness in this picture. Its a shame because its a nice place. |
After we took a walk around the whole place we found a nice restaurant for lunch. Its not what you would expect from the outside, we thought it was closed, but after stepping inside it was like being transported back in time! The interior decorations were beautiful.
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| The upstairs dining area. |
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| A wall of frames above the stairs |
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| The massive bar covered in cow hide. |
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| Our meals; salmon steak and pina colada, burger and coke. |
After Kota Tua we drove out to a town just out of Jakarta to see some friends who just had a little girl, Valerie. She is absolutely adorable, so calm and happy :) I'm so happy for them.
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| Little baby Valerie :) |
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| Us and the proud parents, Mimi and Carlo. |
It was a nice day, almost the end of my trip, I wish I didn't have to go home!!
Em
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