Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine June 2016 | Page 120

118

Travel | Jakarta

© Sendy Aditya Saputra

Fatahillah Square is flanked on
all sides by some of Jakarta's best museums
in beautiful historic old buildings.

Inspired by the Dutch
tourist’s stories,
I decide to explore
the Jakarta History
Museum first-hand.

A middle-aged woman sits
by herself in the corner of a
café enjoying a morning cup
of coffee and light snack.
She has travelled thousands
of kilometres from the
Netherlands in memory of
her father, who once told her
of the glory of this city.

This particular café is a tourist favourite and
the most popular in the area located on the
northwestern corner of Fatahillah Square,
once the centre of Old Jakarta – known as
Batavia in the day – hence the name Café
Batavia. It’s a quaint little café with revolving
ceiling fans, shuttered windows and faded
photographs hanging on the walls – and like
the rest of this historic square, it paints
a vivid picture of colonial Jakarta.
A short walk from the café, there are three
excellent museums flanking Fatahillah Square:
the Jakarta History Museum, the Fine Arts
Museum and the Wayang Museum.
My new café friend says she remembers being
regaled as a child by tales of her father’s life
in the city now displayed in the halls of the
Jakarta History Museum. Her father was
a sailor docked nearby at Sunda Kelapa
Harbour to bring spices back to the
Netherlands. Thinking about those stories,
she says she’s amazed at how Jakarta has
grown into a sprawling mega-metropolis.
Inspired by the Dutch tourist’s stories,
I decide to explore the Jakarta History
Museum first-hand. Indeed, it provides

a great insight into this great city’s rich,
colourful history, with an eclectic
collection of more than 23,000 objects,
from fascinating colonial memorabilia,
along with prehistoric and Portugueseperiod artefacts, to dioramas and permanent
exhibits that retell key points leading up to
Indonesian Independence in 1945.
The building itself is an impressive historic
landmark, first completed in 1710 by the Dutch
East India Company as the former City Hall of
Batavia and modelled after the Royal Palace in
Amsterdam with a strikingly similar façade.
Next is a treat for arts and culture
enthusiasts: the Wayang Museum on the
west side of the square houses thousands of
authentic handmade traditional Indonesian
puppets and masks from all corners of the
archipelago – some are more than a hundred
years old. If you visit, be sure to check the
schedule of puppet performances to see
these beautiful creations come to life.
On the east side of the square is the Fine Arts
Museum, formerly the Court Building, first
built in 1879. Here you can find a large
collection of painted sculptures