Jakarta
Jakarta is a loud, relentless and impatient city. The sprawl, the traffic and the weather can be daunting but those who find their way around uncover a metropolis in motion.
In quieter parts of Jakarta, the largest city on the main island of Java, some people still live the way all Jakartans used to: conversations happen over afternoon tea and to the soundtrack of slow-turning ceiling fans. Time runs unhurriedly. Elsewhere, a new generation is turning crumbling corners into creative spaces, reinventing classic Javanese cuisine and rediscovering the archipelago’s ancient drinking culture. Boozy evenings start over dinner in old colonial-era mansions and stretch into the early hours at grown-up, often smoke-filled cocktail bars and late-night drinking dens. I’ll take a simple iced kopyor, please.
Jakarta is not the easiest city to love but for those who get it, it’s electric.
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