It was not a very productive day today, I had stayed up very late drinking and talking on the rooftop bar and was feeling pretty fragile. Most of the day was spent just relaxing and chatting at the hostel, but by evening I was feeling bright enough to venture out and pay a visit to one of the grand old dames of the Asian backpacking scene…..Jalan Jaksa.
Long before cheap flights and the internet, if you wanted to visit both Sumatra and Bali then you had to travel overland, and this meant long bus journeys through Sumatra and a ferry crossing to reach Java, where the Indonesian railway network would take you through Java and on to Banyuwangi for the ferry to Bali. The fact that Jakarta is the starting point for most of the trains heading east, as well as the destination for trains heading from the ferry port at Merak meant that it became a stop on the backpacker trail. Conveniently close to Gambir station a small backpacker strip grew up in Jalan Jaksa, where cheap rooms and bars could be found to accommodate those travelers stopping in Jakarta for a few days before moving on. Unfortunately these days backpacking has changed, cheap local flights mean that it is more now a succession of beaches and party islands with the odd trek here and there, and much less of the long overland journeys and having to stop off at some of the less glamorous places en route….like Jakarta.
I am not going to lie, Jalan Jaksa these days is no Khao San Road, and it does have a bit of a sleazy reputation. With Six degrees and the Packer lodge now open in Jakarta I wouldn’t entertain staying there either, but it does have its purpose…and that is cheap drinking. Jalan Jaksa is one of the few places in Jakarta where you can get a large Bintang for 40000 Rp and there are at least 5 or 6 bars in the street, the most (in)famous being Memories bar.
The bars are not that busy during the week but it is definitely worth a night out if there are a few of you from a hostel. As well as bars there are several warungs and street food vendors, a big Alfamart, a launderette and a couple of travel agencies, pretty much everything you need apart from a decent hostel.
It wasn’t very busy in any of the bars but it was nice to have a few drinks and chat about where people were going next in Java, although I couldn’t help but wonder how Jaksa would have been back in its heyday.
Travellingtim 