Feeling the heat in Jakarta

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The hotel we are in is about 30m away from two mosques in either direction. What ensues at 4.30am is the call to prayer. It's quite loud. And it lasted for an hour this morning. In the middle of the day, or at sundown, it can be an enchanting and bewitching sound, one which resonates with the culture and here of the environment. But at 4.30am, I'm not at my best. Anyway, that's that. I'm travelling in a predominantly Islamic country and hopefully I will soon be used to it. I imagine that church bells at 4.30am would be equally annoying!

So, after managing to get back to sleep for an hour, my day properly started with an early morning run around the challenging pavements of Jakarta. At 6.30am, the streets are quite busy with people serving food, fixing motorbikes, chatting, making their way to work, waiting for buses..... But not running. It's probably because it is HARD WORK! It was around 30 degrees and humid as hell. The pavements disappear under your feet at random intervals and the kerbs are HIGH. And because of this, locals stared at me in complete and utter confusion as I passed! However, I managed a good half hour, and was set up for a day of sightseeing.

We started our tour with a visit to an old Chinese house which was surrounded by high rise buildings. Jakarta is a great blend of old and new, modern and traditional, rich and poor, and this house was no exception. Flanked on all sides by shiny glass and sleek metal, the brightly painted wooden structure had been left alone, due to its perfect adherence to the principles of feng shui. We explored for a while as the day around us began to grow hotter and then visited Chinatown proper - visiting a quaint Chinese temple, home to three religions worshipping under one roof. Inside, the walls and fabrics glowed red in the reflected light from the hundreds of paper lanterns and candles while incense curled elegantly through the air and into our noses making our eyes water. Beautiful dragon statues stood proudly inside and images of deities adorned the walls.

Next, we visited the commercial port, Sunda Kelapa, where the Dutch first landed. Here, we wandered amongst vast wooden vessels, armies of men swarming over them and loading and unloading their cargo. Their clothing billowed on the washing lines while birds swooped and dived overhead. Then it was back on the minibus into the welcome air conditioning and we crawled through Jakarta's busy streets, admiring the range of architectural styles as we passed: colonial buildings, a hangover from the Portuguese and British rules, canals left by the Dutch legacy and brand new buildings, a nod to the forward movement of this vast metropolis. At the museum of the Indonesian Bank, beautiful Corinthian columns proudly guarded the contents of the Grecian style building.

Soon we arrived at Jakarta's heart, the old town of Batavia. Here, we wandered around the beautiful Fatahillah Square, surrounded by stunning red-tile-roofed white buildings, their green shutters adding a splash of colour. All around the square, preparations were in full swing for the Independence Day celebrations - bright flags surrounded the edges while a huge game of football was in progress, women cycled on fluorescent bicycles and others gathered in groups, chatting animatedly. Western tourism is still fairly emergent in Java and we caused quite a stir as we wandered around, taking in the sights.

After a delicious lunch, we made our way to Istiqlal mosque - the largest in South East Asia and able to accommodate 250,000 worshippers at the same time. Inside, we passed groups of men and women resting and sheltering from the sweltering midday heat. We climbed two flights of stairs and stood on the first of five balconies that ran the entire circumference of the mosque, looking down at those praying below, lines drawn out onto the carpet to give each person space of their own. Craning our necks upwards past the 8 vast silver and black pillars supporting the dome above us, we gazed at the vast 40m-diameter structure, beautifully etched in gold which reflected the light coming in from the hundreds of windows along the two long sides of the prayer hall.

Outside, we found the drum that calls the worshippers each prayer time and then wandered through the outside terraces. Here more prayer "mats" were painted onto the terracotta floor tiles, allowing the maximum number of people to pray at once. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, and during festival times, millions of people descend on Jakarta to celebrate and worship, so space is needed. We also took time to appreciate the view from the terrace, from which we could see the two towers of Cathedral Church rising elegantly just behind the dome of the mosque - yet another example of two religions co-existing side by side in harmony with one another - during large festivals each place of worship will allow the followers of the other to use their car parks. Maybe one day, in the West, we will learn to follow their example.

After a brief detour to the Jalan Surabaya antique market, we enjoyed some downtime before heading out for a group meal. This was a VERY local eatery where our guide translated what was in front of us on a counter and we pointed to what we fancied. I opted for Beef randang, a spicy Javanese dish, Jackfruit curry and what I was informed was a chicken and green beans curry. When I took it back to the table, several of the pieces of chicken did not seem to be as white as you may have expected, while one was very white. I asked whether this was definitely chicken. I eventually managed to work out that it was gizzards. Gizzards and brain. So, we feasted on brain, heart and liver. Well, we each tried one organ. I'll probably not bother with chicken heart again, but the sauce and beans were delicious! Dessert was a coconut pudding, which had the consistency of jelly or creme caramel. The flavour wasn't bad. However, the texture was like nothing I have every had before. It never dissolved, not matter how much you chewed it, the pieces just moved from one part of your mouth to another, making it incredible hard to swallow. We valiantly battled on to finish an acceptable amount before claiming full bellies and headed home to bed.

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