Jakarta offers many good places for souvenir hunters

Jakarta offers many good places for souvenir hunters

Sudibyo M. Wiradji, Contributor, Jakarta

As in other tourist destinations all around the world, most
airports or star-rated hotels in culturally rich Indonesia
provide a special counter displaying typical handicrafts as
souvenirs for visitors.

However, it is common to find that a visit to special shops
selling handicrafts is preferable for visitors because in
addition to allowing them to view a wider selection of
handicrafts, they will also have a shopping experience in a
country which is, in many ways, different from their own.

A question that arises for most tourists is where
to find good places to buy handicrafts as souvenirs before
leaving the capital city of Jakarta. For foreign tourists whose
visits to Indonesia are arranged by a travel agent and include
shopping in their agenda, finding the shops might not be a
problem because the guide will accompany them to the shops.
But for adventurous tourists who prefer the romance of
traveling alone without the assistance of a guide, finding the
right place might need a little more effort.

With the Internet now beginning to gain ground, access
to Indonesia's arts and crafts is getting much easier. You can
get adequate info on the items on the Internet
from anywhere in the world before you even set foot
in Indonesia. The largest online marketplace for arts,
crafts and antiques is RajaCraft.com. The homepage allows
visitors not only to view finely selected Indonesian home accent
products, furniture, jewelry, fine arts, textiles, and genuine
antiques, and ask for more information on the items they're
interested in, but also to buy the items that are featured.

Among the good places to buy traditional handicrafts in town
are Pasaraya in Blok M, South Jakarta, Sarinah Department Store
on Jl. MH Thamrin, Keris Gallery on Jl. H.O.S. Cokroaminoto in
Central Jakarta, Plaza Atrium on Jl. Senen Raya, the numerous
shops along Jl. Kemang Timur Raya in South Jakarta and Pasar Seni
Ancol.

In these shops, you can find a wide variety of Indonesia's
ethnic handicrafts, all with their own unique features. In
Pasaraya, for instance, as many as 80,000 items from the
different provinces of Indonesia are on display, ranging from the
simplest ones like keyrings, pens decorated with a leather
puppets or ashtrays to the delicately carved characters of
Javanese leather puppets, and Balinese masks and statues.

You can also find wooden puppets from West Java, carved boxes
from Jepara, Central Java, batik cloth, silver products,
sapphires and amber, plaited items from Tasikmalaya and Lombok,
ceramics, assorted home decor items, accessories and lots more.

For those who have developed a love for ethnic textile, you
can find double weave Ikat from the islands of Nusa Tenggara,
silk Bugis sarongs from South Sulawesi, gold-painted Balinese
prada fabrics; shimmering Kain Songket from Palembang, which
features silver and gold threads weft in woven cotton, or silk
Ikat and Tapis weavings from Lampung.

With the traditional nature of the items Pasaraya is selling,
the spacious, air-conditioned third floor of the building is full
of ethnic ambience. A visit to either Pasaraya or Sarinah Jaya in
Jakarta is a good introduction to Indonesian handicrafts. From
here you will know better what you should look for on your
travels through the archipelago.

The art shops in the department stores have fixed prices. For
only Rp 10,000 or Rp 15,000 (almost US$2), you can purchase a
uniquely decorated keyring or a pen decorated with wayang
figures. More complex carved items cost more, depending on the
size and the material used. The shops also have good stocks for
those wanting to buy on a large scale, with the packing being
supplied free of charge.

However, if you want a bargain, you can visit the Ancol art
market in Ancol Dreamland. This extensive art market has a
lively, carnivalesque atmosphere and a huge variety of arts and
crafts on display. You can also see many of them being made by
the craftsmen and women, as well as live dance and drama
performances from all over the archipelago.

For those who fancy the traditional style of
antiques/furniture and want to buy these as souvenirs, you may
not find what you are looking for in the art shops in the
department stores. One of the popular places to find these items
is in the Kemang or Ciputat areas. There are oodles of
antique/furniture shops in Kemang. SIP Gallery, for instance, is
known for its huge stone carvings from Muntilan, Central Java.
Other shops also display stone statues depicting characters from
ancient Indonesian myths and epics. The statues come from
Yogyakarta and Bali.

You can also find antiques in the Jalan Surabaya art shops, in
the Menteng area, close to Ismail Marzuki Square. The 500-meter
open-air market here offers the most extensive collection of
antiques in the city -- great for a browse and a bit of
bargaining! The street is brim full of bronzeware, old coins,
'Chinese' porcelains (actually from Central and West Java), east
Indonesian textiles, terracotta, ceramics, leather puppets and
all sorts of paraphernalia that defies classification.

If you don't get the time to visit Jl. Surabaya, purchasing
handicrafts in a shop at the airport or the hotel where you're
staying would be better than arriving home feeling regret at not
having bought any souvenirs during your visit to Indonesia.