Day 2 - Visit to Batavia

Well after the excitement of our visit to the embassy, we headed back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes ( as we were dressed well for the embassy) before we headed out to the old part of Jakarta known as Batavia.  I wonder how many of you know that both the Portuguese and the Dutch had a significant impact on Indonesia in the 16^th century and that Jakarta (or Batavia as it was named by the Dutch) was one of the most important shipping ports in Asia.  From Batavia spices were shipped around the world along with other exotic items to be found in places like Indonesia that were new and different for people like the Dutch.  There was such a trade in Indonesia that the Dutch people who were living in Indonesia, being homesick for their country, built their buildings in the style of those found in their own country and created canals just like in Holland.   I have mentioned the traffic in Jakarta and getting to Batavia was no different.  In fact we got to an intersection and I just didn’t know how our bus driver was going to get into the traffic, but little by little he did – although I think I had my eyes closed as he did!!

 

 

 

The old port of Batavia is still in operation and there were many boats pulled up at the port loading up goods to be taken out to the many islands around Indonesia.   The boats were carrying everything from water tanks to petrol.  The port was a hive of activity and there were people everywhere, trucks, motorbikes and cranes.  We walked the length of the port looking at all of the boats and the people busy loading them as we went along. 

 

 

 

After our visit to the port we went off to have dinner at Café Batavia.  This café was beautiful, located in one of the old Dutch built buildings off of the old town square.  At night time the town square turns into a huge market with stalls selling everything.  We walked through the market to get to the restaurant.  Inside the restaurant was fantastic, with beautiful wood everywhere and pictures all over the place. 

 

 

 

Now Eric the Echidna has been with us all the way along, but there have been sometimes that he has not been allowed out of the bus (embassy, port visit etc) so Miss Cooper and I decided that he had better come to have some dinner with us so that he wasn’t sulking in the bus or thinking that we’d forgotten about him.  We were sure that he would be able to get out and about much more on day 3 when we went to Yogyakarta.  After dinner it was back to the hotel to get packed and ready for a very early morning wake up at 4:00am to get to the airport.