This mosque is actually kind of interesting

Day 13 - Jakarta 

We only had one full day in Jakarta and we had read that the traffic in this city of 40 million people can be really bad, so we decided to treat ourselves to a private half day tour of the city, which would also get as back to the airport in time to meet someone who was arriving from Bali that afternoon.

We were collected from our hotel at 10am, and fortunately at this time on a Sunday the traffic wasn't too bad. Our first stop was the Istiqlal mosque, which didn't look like a mosque at all but more like an austere government building. Strangely it hadn't been designed by an Islamic architect but rather by a Protestant. The design was very functional as it could accommodate up to 200,000 people on the numerous open plan floors which were designed to allow cooling breezes to blow through. Initially we weren't that keen on seeing another mosque after our trip to Pakistan last year, but we both agreed that this mosque was definitely worth a visit. 

After a quick look at the Jakarta Cathedral across the road from the mosque we drove to the National Monument in Merdeka Square, a very tall monolith with a museum in the base containing dioramas with a comprehensive history of Indonesia from prehistoric times up to the present day. This was where the advantage of being on a private tour became apparent, as we were able to skip buying tickets and jump ahead of the long line of locals waiting to get in.  

We then walked around old city, with a huge square and many Dutch colonial buildings, with lots of tourists and locals in Fatahillah Square enjoying their Sunday. Inside on of the old buildings we visited a traditional a puppet workshop where tales from Hindu mythology are told via intricately carved and painted shadow puppets made from leather.

The final stop in our tour was at the old wharves where Jakarta's problem with sinking was explained to us, as the city is built on a swamp and parts of it are below sea level, and even though it is protected by a sea wall it still floods regularly. 

We managed to beat the rain which started falling as we drove back to the airport, arriving in time to meet Courtney and family flying in from Bali to join us for our two night boat trip to see wild orangutans near Tanjung Puting in South Kalimantan.