Today, Jendral Sudirman Street is the heart of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. How about 4 centuries ago? Venus, Jennifer and Angel walked me to the past of Jakarta, to Kota Tua (The Old City).

In the 16^th century, Kota Tua was the center of Batavia (former name of Jakarta during Dutch colonial), under the reign of Jan Pieterzoon Coen (Governer of VOC). It’s located at the North Jakarta. Nowadays, we can reach this spot with Busway ride (Trans Jakarta), which cost you only IDR 3,500 (about US$ 0.4) to reach this place, from any busway terminal in Jakarta *super duper cheap!*

There are a lot of ancient Dutch buildings around Kota Tua. We can have a blast to the past just in one day. Fatahillah square (Taman Fatahillah) is the center attraction of Kota Tua. But on our walk to the square, we pass several building such as Museum Bank Indonesia and Museum Mandiri. European Dutch and Chinese finishing dominates the architecture.

Kota Tua is a little heaven for a photographer like me. There are so many interesting objects. My friend told me that this place is quite common to be used for pre-wedding photo session.

This is an opportunity for some people. They provide antique property for photo session. This old good Mercedez Benz – for example, is available to be rented.

Around this complex, we’ll see a lot of concrete balls. These balls are used to separate some area around the Fatahillah square.But.. Sometimes it is used by the tired visitor to have a sit. Uh please don’t ever think to bring it to your living room!!

Dozens of antique bicycle are available to be rented. It will cost you IDR 30,000 (about US$ 3.5) to have short tour with this bike to 5 tourism places around Kota Tua (including Port of Sunda Kelapa and The Fish Market –Pasar Ikan). Too expensive? Don’t hesitate to bargain.

Around Fatahillah Square, we can see Museum Sejarah Jakarta (Jakarta Historical Museum, commonly named as Museum Fatahillah), Museum Wayang (Puppet Museum, formerly a Dutch Church), Museum Keramik (Porcelain Museum), Kantor Pos (The Post Office) and Café Batavia. Can you imagine? All of those museums side by side in one square.

I know it’s too long (and exhausting) to write down the whole journey in one article. So, on the next part of this Kota Tua series I will jot down my journey inside Museum Fatahillah.

As a summary, Museum Fatahillah was the City Hall in the 16^th century, when Batavia (now Jakarta) was still under the Dutch colonial. Do you wanna see the inside? Don’t miss my next article fellas..

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