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EXPAT
| Indonesia’s Largest Expatriate Readership | 45th Edition | 8 June–21 June 2011 |
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Staying in Town for the Holidays? by Graham Strauss
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et’s face it, Julia Roberts’ “Eat Pray Love” was just way too glib to get the old heart racing. An airbrushed, one-dimensional view of spiritual nirvana that depicts Bali as one huge, menopausal, beauty salon come yoga centre, run under the jackbooted dictatorship of Oprah Winfrey and her shrieking minions. No, that movie would have reached a conclusion far more fitting for these troubled times, in my view, if Italy and India had been followed by a trip to take in Jakarta’s postmodern, urban angst. Feel-good moments may be thin on the ground here, but at least one doesn’t feel as if one is trapped in some vast honeymoon photo album minus the bride and groom. So folks, forget jetting across to Bali the next time you get a short break. Stay here and explore some of Jakarta’s more eye-opening backwaters instead. I dare you. Yes, this is the city that never sleeps folks, so let’s get down to brass tacks with a few leftfield suggestions shall we?
Setu Babakan
One of the city’s lesser-known retreats, Setu Babakan sports a Betawi Cultural Village and a sizeable lake, and can be found around four or five kilometres southeast of Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, on the way to Depok. There are supposedly two and a half million ethnicBetawi residents in the Indonesian capital, and they have a culture, language, music, food and traditions all of their own. The Betawi people are also often viewed as being rather rough and ready in comparison with the supposedly refined Javanese. The most famous son of Betawi, as of now, is probably Jakarta’s current governor and budding amateur moustache enthusiast, Fauzi Bowo. Children playing in the lake at Setu Babakan. Courtesy of Tanti Ruwani.
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