Sunda Kelapa, the Historic Port of Jakarta
As we've traveled throughout Asia, it's always been interesting to see and understand the history of the people. It really does give one a greater appreciation for the culture, food, language, economic and political influences.
In Jakarta, we planned to get our history lesson with a trip to the Jakarta HIstory Museum (Fatahillah) in Kota, the old town. Alas, our timing was not so great as we attempted to go to the museum on May 1, May Day or Labor Day in Asia which historically is a day filled with demonstrations. Since the museum was closed, we resigned ourselves to walking around old Jakarta and soaking up the culture in other ways.
But sometimes when you open yourself up to serendipity, the most amazing things can happen. As we made our way closer to the water and ports, a random guy with a tourist badge around his neck walks up to us and offers to give us an hour and half tour of the ports. What the heck. Since our plans were completely upended, we decided to take him up on his offer.
Our Sunda Kelapa tour guide
He gave us the tour of Sunda Kelapa, the historic port of Jakarta, and the port through which the Dutch East Indies company conducted its incredible trade. The dock is much quieter now, especially since a deep water port, Tanjung Priok, was opened up decades earlier. Many of the traditional Indonesian boats, pinisi, were lined up along the dock. Sunda Kelapa now acts as a port for a number of Indoneisan commodities that come into Java.
A tour of the Sunda Kelapa by boat
Many of the Pinisi boats at the Sunda Kelapa
Our boat captain
Pinisi Indah "Beautiful Boat"
We took a tour of the boats and realized that the conditions are far from comfortable (though, as we've said before, all the Indonesians were friendly and generous with their smiles). Following a quick tour, we hopped on a long motor boat for a brief tour of the port prior to landing on the other side where we took a tour of the a small, but very crowded, kampung (village). Although it reminded us of the many favelas we've visited, there was so much activity and laughter.
Life in the kampung
We ended our tour with the guide at the old Dutch East Indies trading building, built in 1718, where spices were loaded and unloaded. According to our guide, the entire area is under threat as the government wants to claim the lands and build high rises and roads. You can see a number of the high rises going up at the end, paid for by, he claims, the Chinese.
Dutch East Indies Trading Building and the historic lookout tower
Throughout our stay in Jakarta, the thing that stuck us the most was, given how dominant the Dutch were for centuries, very little Dutch influences appeared to remain (at least in the roughly 8-10 mile stretch we walked all that day). This contrasts with a number of places we've visited, including South Africa and Vietnam, where colonial influences are very strong and present in the food, architecture and names. In that way, the Indonesians have certainly forged a new and lasting future that is uniquely their own.
