Jakarta

The currency is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR) and it comes with a lot of zeros: 100 thousand IDR is about US$6 or R$29 in 2026. For the first few days, count the zeros twice before you pay. Everyday prices: a meal at a warteg or street cart 15 to 30 thousand IDR; a plate at a mid-range restaurant 60 to 150 thousand IDR; chain coffee 25 to 45 thousand IDR; a Bintang beer 40 to 70 thousand IDR at a bar, because alcohol is heavily taxed; TransJakarta 3,500 IDR; a short Grab car ride 25 to 50 thousand IDR; a three-star hotel 500 thousand to 1 million IDR a night. The QRIS QR code is accepted almost everywhere, but it requires an Indonesian digital wallet. Carry cash in small bills for the stalls. International cards work at malls, hotels and chains. Withdraw from ATMs inside malls or bank branches, never from standalone machines on the street. To exchange money, use licensed money changers (Ayu Masagung, Dolarindo, downtown) rather than the airport or your hotel, and bring new, unmarked bills: a crumpled note gets refused with perfect politeness and zero flexibility. Tipping isn't mandatory: sit-down restaurants add “++”, meaning 10% regional tax plus 5 to 10% service; for drivers and porters, rounding up 10 to 20 thousand IDR is enough.

Soekarno-Hatta Airport is 30 km away, but the distance is the easy part

Soekarno–Hatta International Airport (CGK) is 30 km west of the center, and the distance is the easy part. The train is the predictable option: the Soekarno–Hatta line links the terminal to BNI City/Sudirman Baru and Manggarai in about 46 minutes, with departures every 30 minutes between 6:20am and 11:20pm and a fare of around 70 thousand IDR. DAMRI buses go to Gambir, Blok M, Bekasi and Bogor for 40 to 75 thousand IDR. By Blue Bird taxi or through Grab/Gojek, count on 250 to 400 thousand IDR including tolls and anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours, depending on the hour. It's the same road either way; what changes is the time of day. Avoid arriving downtown between 4pm and 8pm. The second airport, Halim Perdanakusuma (HLP), handles domestic flights and is the terminal for the Whoosh bullet train, which has run Jakarta–Bandung in about 46 minutes since October 2023.

The largest BRT network in the world

Inside the city, TransJakarta is the backbone: the world's largest BRT network by length, with about 250 km of corridors plus feeder lines, a single fare of 3,500 IDR and some 24-hour corridors. The MRT runs on the north-south axis between Lebak Bulus and Bundaran HI (16 km, 13 stations, opened March 24, 2019), with a fare of 3,000 to 14,000 IDR; the extension to Monas is expected for 2027 and to Kota Tua for 2029. Completing the network are the LRT Jakarta (Pegangsaan Dua–Velodrome), the LRT Jabodebek to Bekasi and Cibubur (opened August 28, 2023) and the KRL Commuterline metropolitan trains, from 3,000 IDR. Everything is paid by card: the black JakLingko integrates the modes and caps a combined trip at 10,000 IDR, and bank e-money cards (Flazz, e-Money, TapCash, Brizzi) work at the turnstile; it's worth buying one before you need it. For everything else, use the Gojek and Grab apps: the motorbike (ojek) costs 15 to 35 thousand IDR for a short ride, comes with a helmet and gets through where a car can't. Street taxi: only Blue Bird or Silver Bird, and ask for “pakai argo” (with the meter). Walking works on Thamrin, Sudirman, Blok M and Kota Tua; outside that, the sidewalks disappear and the footbridges (JPO) are the only safe crossing.

Jakarta has little violent crime against visitors for a metropolis of 32 million people, counting the whole Jabodetabek sprawl. The real risks are traffic, air, dengue, and water. Motorbikes ride on the sidewalk and against traffic, so cross at a crosswalk, hand raised, watching the flow of traffic rather than the light. Theft happens through carelessness: a phone snatched from your hand on the sidewalk or through the window of a stopped car, pockets picked in the crowds of Tanah Abang, Pasar Senen, and the KRL cars at rush hour. Use the women-only car if that applies to you, and don't leave your phone visible on the car seat. Common scams: taxis without a meter, the “it's closed today, I'll take you somewhere else” line on the way out of Kota Tua and Monas, and card skimming at isolated ATMs. Prefer machines inside banks and malls. Protests concentrate around Merdeka Palace, the DPR/MPR building, and Patung Kuda, sometimes with roads blocked and tear gas; follow the news and steer clear of the area that day. During the January and February rains, avoid underpasses and don't wade into floodwater. Emergencies: 112.

The right hand handles everything

Eat, hand over money, take change and point at a menu with your right hand, because the left is reserved for hygiene. When handing something to an older person, use your right hand and support the elbow with your left.

Shoes stay at the door

Take your shoes off when entering homes, mosques, some shops, and restaurants with a raised platform (lesehan). If there's a row of shoes lined up at the entrance, that's your instruction.

Don't touch heads, point with your thumb

The head is the most respected part of the body, including a child's. To indicate a direction or a person, use the thumb of your right hand with the palm up; pointing with the index finger is rude.

Mosque rules

Cover shoulders and knees; women are given a mukena or lent robe at the entrance. Don't walk in front of someone praying and avoid visiting between 11:30am and 1pm on Friday, the time of collective prayer.

“Belum” is almost never “yes”

Direct conflict is avoided: “belum” (not yet) and a smile usually mean no. Raising your voice in an argument makes both sides lose face and speeds up nothing: insisting quietly works better.

Discretion in public and during Ramadan

Kissing and hugging on the street stand out, and short clothing is accepted in malls and bars in the south but not in residential or religious neighborhoods. During Ramadan, don't eat, drink, or smoke on the street during the day.

Six kilometers can take 50 minutes

Calculating distance from the map. In peak traffic, six kilometers can take as long as 50 minutes, whether between 7am and 10am or between 4pm and 8pm. Always build in extra time and take the app motorbike when the clock is tight.

Walking between two points at noon

Trying to walk between two points at noon. Away from the central quadrilateral, the sidewalk disappears, there's no shade, and the only crossing is a footbridge; a 20-minute route turns into a safety problem.

The MRT axis defines downtown: from HI to Blok M

Looking for a hotel “downtown”. Jakarta doesn't have one; what exists is the MRT axis, between Bundaran HI and Blok M. Staying in Kemang or Kelapa Gading without a car costs hours a day.

A street taxi that isn't Blue Bird

Getting into a street taxi that isn't Blue Bird or Silver Bird. Similar-looking cars use similar names and rigged meters; call one through the app or check the logo and the driver's badge.

Seeing Monas and Kota Tua and skipping the food

Doing Monas and Kota Tua and heading back to the hotel without eating on the street. The lively part of Jakarta is the food and the nightlife: Petak Sembilan's bakmi is a short walk from Fatahillah Square, and Blok M and Senopati deserve at least one night.

Selamat pagi / selamat malam

Good morning / good evening (greetings change by time of day: pagi until 11am, siang until 3pm, sore until sunset, malam after)

Terima kasih: sama-sama

Thank you: you're welcome

Permisi

Excuse me; used to ask someone to make way, to call a waiter, and to enter just about anywhere

Berapa harganya?

How much does it cost?

Tidak pedas, ya

No chili, please (pedas = spicy; “sedikit pedas” is “a little spicy”)

Sebentar

One moment: in practice, an elastic amount of time; Indonesians call this “jam karet”, rubber time

Low ground, thirteen rivers and subsidence

Jakarta is flat and low: the average sits around 7 m above sea level and about 40% of the territory, almost all of it in the north, is already below it. Thirteen rivers cut through the city from south to north (the Ciliwung is the main one), coming down from the Bogor mountains to the bay, which means rain falling 60 km away reaches Jakarta a few hours later. Groundwater extraction, still the main supply source in many neighborhoods, causes subsidence of 5 to 25 cm a year in Muara Baru and Pluit, and the combination of sinking ground with high tide (banjir rob) floods the waterfront several times a year.

Monsoon and a grid with no center

The climate is tropical monsoon, hot and humid year-round. The urban grid has no single center: it grew from the port in the north southward, along the Gajah Mada–Thamrin–Sudirman axis, and then spread into office superblocks and gated compounds separated by dense kampungs.

Few connecting roads, rare sidewalks, mall as plaza

Between the major axes there are few connecting streets, which pushes all the traffic onto the same avenues; sidewalks were rebuilt on Thamrin and Sudirman but vanish almost everywhere else, and the air conditioning of the more than 80 malls ended up becoming the city's public space.

Jakarta's own culture: Betawi

Jakarta's own culture is Betawi, created in the 18th and 19th centuries by a mix of Malays, Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Chinese, Arabs, Indians and descendants of enslaved people and mardijkers of Portuguese origin. From it come the Betawi dialect that colors the Indonesian spoken on the street, the lenong popular theater, gambang kromong music (which uses the tehyan, a Chinese fiddle, alongside the xylophone), the tanjidor brass bands inherited from colonial orchestras and keroncong, a sound of Portuguese roots preserved in Kampung Tugu, in the north. The ondel-ondel, three-meter puppets that used to be village guardians, today show up at weddings, openings and, with a speaker and a collection box, at any traffic light.

The capital makes what the country listens to

As the capital, Jakarta produces almost everything Indonesia listens to and watches: the record labels, the film studios, the TV networks and the dangdut industry are here. Indonesian cinema resurged after 1998 with films shot in the city, from “Ada Apa dengan Cinta?” (2002) to “Gie” (2005), and today the country releases more than a hundred feature films a year. The independent scene came out of Jakarta (Efek Rumah Kaca, White Shoes & the Couples Company, Barasuara) and plays festivals like Joyland and Synchronize. In visual arts, Museum MACAN, the Galeri Nasional, the Taman Ismail Marzuki, reopened in 2022, and the Art Jakarta fair form a circuit that has grown alongside the regional market. Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the country's greatest novelist, lived and was imprisoned in the city.

Five calls punctuate the day

Jakarta is majority Muslim, and the day is marked by five calls to prayer broadcast over loudspeakers; on Fridays, between 11:30am and 1pm, the mosques overflow and traffic changes. Alongside them stand the 1901 cathedral, across the street from Istiqlal, the Chinese temples of Glodok and Hindu and Buddhist communities. Beyond religion, the city comes together in the stadium: Persija soccer and its fans, the Jakmania, fill Gelora Bung Karno (78,000 seats, renovated in 2018), and the Indonesia Open packs Istora Senayan for badminton. At night, life centers on SCBD, Senopati, Kemang and Blok M. Alcohol is legal but expensive and heavily taxed, and much of social life happens inside malls, which work as an air-conditioned public square until 10pm.

“This Earth of Mankind” (Bumi Manusia), Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 1980

The first volume of the Buru Quartet, written in prison and then banned for three decades. It lays out the racial and legal hierarchy of the Dutch East Indies that produced the city; adapted into a film by Hanung Bramantyo in 2019.

“Gie”, Riri Riza, 2005

Biopic of Soe Hok Gie, a Chinese-Indonesian student and activist, filmed in Jakarta and set between 1959 and 1969. It shows Sukarno's city, the marches, and the silence that followed 1965.

Benyamin Sueb, “Kompor Meleduk”, 1979

The Betawi actor and singer who turned Jakarta slang and gambang kromong into popular music. His songs still play on buses, at weddings, and at fairs, and they're the sonic portrait of the city before the skyscrapers.