Jakartans gather for one-minute wonder
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Forgetting the current prolonged crisis, hundreds of thousands of Jakartans flocked the city's main thoroughfares on Monday night to brave massive traffic jams and crowds to celebrate New Year's Eve.
Blowing paper trumpets, playing with fireworks and ignoring a ban by the city administration by setting off firecrackers, revelers in their cars and motorcycles jammed roads as well as public recreational places.
Jakartans started to flock roads heading to the National Monument (Monas) park and Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Central Jakarta at 4 p.m. despite the overcast sky hanging over the city.
Among the popular places, the National Monument complex in Central Jakarta attracted the most revelers, with thousands of people cramming every nook and cranny of the 80-hectare park.
Many of them went along with their families early in the evening, picnicking in the park, carrying their mats and tucking into their evening meals.
Many others just sat on top of their parked cars or drove slowly around the park, blowing their trumpets and playing with car horns, creating an unimaginable amount of noise.
The park became jam-packed with thousands of revelers.
Surprisingly, when the clock ticked 12 a.m., no special attraction was on offer to entertain the hundreds of thousands of people at the National Monument park, except several blasts of fireworks from nearby Aryaduta Hotel.
Some people, nonetheless, had prepared with their own attractions, such as small fireworks, which entertained the revelers and made the sky above the park more colorful.
"Although there is no big attraction, to me, it's a beautiful night," said Karta, with his girlfriend sitting behind him on his motorcycle.
No wonder there was no show at the National Monument as the city's official New Year celebrations were centered at Ancol Dreamland park in North Jakarta, where Governor Sutiyoso led the ceremonies.
Sutiyoso marked the New Year by setting off a firework display, which colored the city's skyline for almost 30 minutes.
Sutiyoso arrived at Ancol 15 minutes before midnight, panicking all the organizers, by getting on a Harley Davidson motorcycle belonging to the City's Land Transportation Agency.
The governor had to abandon his bus, which was among his entourage of six buses, because it got trapped along nearby Ancol tollroad, some five kilometers from the stage.
There was no way to pass the tollroad near Ancol as people had parked their cars along the highway, so as to get the best view of the fireworks.
According to Ancol's General Manager of Promotions at Ancol Dreamland Y.J. Harwanto, the park imported 1,010 world-class fireworks from Canada, Spain and China.
The park management spent more than Rp 1 billion (US$98,000) for the New Year celebrations, of which Rp 750 million was used to finance four onstage performances and concerts across the park.
One hour earlier, the governor and his entourage, including Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo and city council chairman Edy Waluyo, joined the New Year's Eve celebrations at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta.
Witnessed by thousands of people, Sutiyoso even sang Begadang (stay the night) together with Rhoma Irama, dubbed the king of dangdut.
Separately, revelers also celebrated New Year's Eve at Taman Ria Senayan in Central Jakarta, while many others enjoyed a dangdut music show held at the nearby offices of state-television company TVRI.
People also flocked to Bung Karno Stadium sports complex in Central Jakarta and the Hotel Indonesia roundabout.
Amidst the festivities at the roundabouts, two groups of people held peaceful rallies there.
The festivities began to cool down at around 3 a.m.
However, while Jakarta's streets started to empty, an explosion rocked Jakarta, killing one person.
This explosion spoiled a festive night, which otherwise passed peacefully.