Travel to Jakarta as a Backpacker

Travel to Jakarta as a Backpacker

Jakarta is one of the biggest city in Indonesia, or maybe is the biggest city in Indonesia, because Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia, and all of the big tall building is in Jakarta, living in Jakarta is not that easy cause you must have skill, and money to live in Jakarta.

There are so many people try their luck in Jakarta, but not all of them succeed, only few people are succeed in Jakarta, many of them failed and head back home, fighting and try to survive in Jakarta is not easy, sometimes you have to be so hard on yourself if you want to survive in Jakarta.

You will not become stingy but you will become wise with your money, or the arrogant of Jakarta will crush you, don’t be so dramatic but that is life, if you can’t handle a temptation you will lose all your money.

Living in Jakarta will teach you many lessons of life, or in other word you have to be kind, and wise at the same time, but you will become a little bit individual, because most of the time people in Jakarta, doesn’t really care about other person.

But for me it’s a good thing, mind your business, don’t mind other person business, so stay at your own lane of life, because life is good, if you run your life in the good way, sometimes I just loved live in Jakarta cause people don’t really care about other person, and that is a benefit for me cause I don’t like people mind my own business, cause I never mind someone else business so I hope everybody do the same thing.

I lived in Jakarta for quite some time, and then I go back home to home town, but there was this moment that I travel to Jakarta again, and try to get different perspective about Jakarta, so I travel to Jakarta as a backpacker.

After I arrive in Jakarta I choose to stay at a hostel, like all other backpacker, who travel the world, so I stay at a hostel near Blok M, south Jakarta, it was a good hostel nice and clean, so I stay there for few days, and I try to look around Blok M, it is quite different than the last time I was in Jakarta, but the environment of Jakarta are still the same, and people who lived in Jakarta still have the same attitude.

South Jakarta

So I chose to stay on Panglima Polim Street near Blok A MRT Station, this place is classified as one of the favorite locations for young people in South Jakarta, when night falls this place is crowded with young people from South or other parts of Jakarta visiting either just to hang out, or some are looking for food.

There are lots of street food vendors when night falls, also if you go around the Mahakam Street, all the way down to Block A Radio Dalam, and Blok M, there are lots of food vendors open until the wee hours of the morning.

South Jakarta is one of the favorite places for young people to hang out, especially young people in South Jakarta, maybe it has been a habit since long ago, young people like to hang out at night, and to be honest young people in Jakarta really like to hang out and chat with friends late at night. Actually there are lots of places for young people to hang out in Jakarta, but the south area is indeed a favorite place to hang out, not only for food vendors who hang out until the early hours of the morning but, the Blok M area, is famous for its many cafes that are open until the early hours of the morning.

If you look at it, since the 90s, the blok m area has indeed become a favorite place for young South Jakarta to hang out, it's no wonder that this place is always full of young people when night falls, until early in the morning, not only men but many women who hang out until the early hours of the morning.

And during the day, the Blok M area is busy with mall visitors. The Blok M and Melawai areas are areas in South Jakarta that have lots of malls, and indeed this area is the center of shopping mall the south jakartra.

Don't forget that in blok m, there is the largest bus terminal in Jakarta Selatan, so there are lots of people who might just be passing by and stop by for a while, or indeed those who deliberately come to just hang out or maybe do some shopping, it's no wonder that this area is always crowded with Jakarta residents. Either during the day or at night.

And I travel to another part of Jakarta while I make some video for YouTube channel at the same time, after stay a little while in Blok M, and wondering around Mahakam and bulungan, I decide to move to central Jakarta near kota tua.

Kota Tua ( Old town Jakarta)

Kota tua is one of the famous landmark in Jakarta, many tourist from around the world visit kota tua, and many of them choose to stay at a hostel near kota tua, and when I was stay in kota tua Jakarta I get a change to meet some people from another part of the world.

And during the day and night this place is pack with people, either local tourist or tourist from another part of the world, it’s quite fun to stay and visit kota tua, and there always same band play live music there.

After stay couple of days in kota tua I decide to move to a place name harmoni in central Jakarta near monas, also known as monument nasional, monas are the Jakarta well known landmark, it’s a big and tall monument with gold on the top of that monument, it is located in central Jakarta.

This place that I stay is exactly at sawah besar, there is a capsule hotel I never stay at capsule hotel before in my life so it’s my first time stay at capsule hotel, surprisingly I love this capsule hotel, just like a hostel but inside of that capsule you got everything you need, you got 14 inch television with cable, free internet, air conditioner, free flow coffee, tea and water, they also had a shared kitchen.

The good thing about Jakarta is now all the bus way route are 24 hours, so you don’t have to worried if you go anywhere in Jakarta you still can go home, even in the middle of the night.

So I start my journey to travel around Jakarta, there are so many place to visit in Jakarta, and the good thing about Jakarta is you can travel to all part of Jakarta using one payment system, Jakarta used a smart card system payment gateway, with only one card you can pay any kind of transportation, like train, a bus, a parking ticket, also with that card you can use it to buy something at a convenient store.

And all the transportation had the same price $0,23 per trip, so yeah you can travel all around Jakarta, with a small amount of money, and the food price is not too expensive, it’s around $1 to $2 , most of the street food are $1.

And the cheapest stay is around $6 to $10 per night, it’s quite good, you have a nice hot water shower, air conditioner, free internet, and in some place they have free tea, and coffee and water, and if you wise enough you can live in Jakarta, for $10 per day.

So now I stay at a place at sawah besar, wich is in central Jakarta, so it’s easy for me to get around central Jakarta, first day stay at central Jakarta I decide to visit Monas, so I catch a bus and go to monas,it takes only 10 minutes from sawah besar to monas, from the bus shelter you need to walk about 10 minutes to the main entrance gate, its free entry, to enter the park, and monas park its quite big.

During the day there are a lot of people visit this place, to chill in the park, monas park is well maintenance, lot of tree, green grass, and so clean, because the park is so big if you want to get around the park on a small bus, but you must buy ticket to ride on that bus.