Life is tough on the streets; I’ve been staying in Jakarta for a couple of months and have racked up enough experience in traveling around Jakarta.

On the angkots, you will see all sorts of peddlers peddling every item imaginable, cigarettes, masks, tidbits, bottled drinks, and today I saw a middle-aged man even trying to sell utensils!

These peddlers go from bus to bus, climbing up and down each bus with their entire load of wares, hoping to sell something and earning pittance per trip, if they sell anything at all.



Today I headed to several places.

ITC Mangga Dua, Mangga Dua Square and Mega Glodok Kemayoran, cumulating the whole Mangga Dua locations, I started out from Grand Paragon along Jalan Hayam Wuruk.



Grand Paragon was a dead place despite it’s majestic-looking exterior, I can imagine it was once a vibrant shopping centre but has slowly died out with all the vice happening at night in this area.

The next location was LTC Glodok or Lindeteves Trade Centre Glodok, which is basically an industrial equipment and hardware haven. The place is largely closed on the weekend though but you can still see shops open selling industrial ventilators, sensors, generators, mechanical power tools, protective equipment and all that.


Levels of LTC




Weather too hot? Maybe you need a fan....








Maybe your computer is getting hot? How about a radiator?


Tired of blackouts? You need a generator..


Get all your protective gloves here


Large tapping bits


Huge drill chucks


FLUKE instruments





After that I headed North, passing Stasiun Jakartakota and witnessing the hubba-hub of bustling activity of commuters trying to get to wherever they are trying to get to, from a birds’ eye-view, the scene must look like that of a entrance to a massive termite nest. Mikolets, motorbikes, pedestrians, buses, bemos, bajajs, taxis, vehicles, everyone trying to get to someplace. What a sight!








These are not "parked bikes" but rather motorcycle taxis, known as "Ojeks" here, where you haggle with the rider the price and your destination and they will shuttle you short distances for a fee.

If you're poking around narrow back streets, or just in such a hurry that you're willing to lose a limb or more to get there, then the ojek might be the ticket for you. Jakarta's ojek services consist of guys with bikes lounging around street corners, who usually shuttle short distances down alleys and roads but will also do longer trips for a price. Agree on the fare before you set off. Bargain before you get on - ask a local what the price should be first.





The streets are crowded with these pushcart vendors, known as "warung-kecil", or "lima kaki" (5-legs) as the colloquial terms go.




Rare sight except for major transportation nodes in Jakarta, the Bemo.



Bemos operate like Mikrolets, not Bajajs, they are even rarer and harder to figure out than a Mikrolet. Originally brought to Indonesia by the Japanese government as part of a disaster relief package in 1962, the vehicles were never manufactured in Indonesia in as great a number as bajaj or becak. Bemos can be found in and near Benhil, Tanjung Priok, Manggarai, Kramat Jati and other areas outside Jakarta.



I also passed by what is possibly the cheapest barber I have found in Jakarta. 8,000rp cut for adults ($1.20), do you want to risk getting you scalp scraped by unsanitized and filthy scissors and risk getting a blood-borne diseases?

Ok that was pretty extreme, but I’d rather pay 6 more dollars for a more comfortable haircut. It is an option for many of the locals living below the poverty line here.


Some surviving venerable becaks in Jakarta. It's a little different from those in Jogja, these becaks do not have overhead covers.



Next ITC Mangga Dua. It was a scene similar to Cempaka Mas repeated all over again. Throngs of people, hawkers and peddlers selling every imaginable basic commodity, food, bags, clothes, accessories, perfume, toys, etc. I didn’t stay long in this hive of buzzing humans.





Next. MGK


Believe it or not, this is actually a church.

My last destination is Mega Glodok Kemayoran (MGK), another centre dedicated to hardware and car-ware equipment and accessories. It was a pity the place is closed on the weekends, just as well it looked like it would have been a very interesting place to visit since I do not know of any equivalent centres like this in Singapore. The closest probably would be Sim Lim Tower, but nothing on this size and scale of industrial equipment and machinery for sale, you could build your own factory just shopping for equipment at MGK or even LTC Glodok.








Mega Glodok Kemayoran