Jl. Jaksa may be seedy but it has a heart

By Pandaya

JAKARTA (JP): There is no other street in Jakarta as internationally well-known as Jl. Jaksa, a 500-meter one-way road near City Hall. Its fame, or infamy, also has spread among locals, though Jakartans and foreigners have very different ideas of the street.

The road is lined by cheap hostels and unpretentious bars that bustle at night, and has been a popular spot for foreign backpackers and budget tourists for many years. The "foreign flavor" of the street is legendary: the omnipresent travelers and Western-style bars and restaurants.

The street's popularity among westerners keeps the street alive 24 hours a day and locals' businesses ticking. A great many people count on the road for a living as tourist guides, taxi drivers, street vendors, parking attendants, hoodlums, travel agents, bar girls -- you name it.

Many foreigners are so enamored of the street they refuse to stay anywhere else when visiting Jakarta. David, a British citizen, for example, has been in Jakarta for several years and he is addicted to drinking and socializing on Jl. Jaksa. He has even lived in the area.

But the road is a different cup of tea for the more affluent and trendy Jakartans. They usually view the street as a bule colony infested with low-class prostitutes catering to bule miskin (poor westerners). Needless to say, they go elsewhere for drinks and entertainment.

This negative image dismays John Christian Torr, a Jl. Jaksa regular who has been roving the street for 10 years on and off. He is one of the Jl. Jaksa fanatics who has witnessed the street's changing face and has become a part of its eccentric nature.

The British citizen, who teaches English at a Jakarta college and practices photography as a hobby, is determined to help the street shed its negative image. He has been exhibiting his photos at Q Bar/Restaurant since Aug. 30 about life on Jl. Jaksa in the hope that people will understand that the street "has a heart".

Torr says he is upset that people in Jakarta generally have an unfair perception of Jl. Jaksa.

He says Jl. Jaksa is a place where people "can become themselves", where they can do what they believe is good without being harassed.

"Look, people can kiss in public here," he says. He argues that Jl. Jaksa is not the only place in the city where ills and vice occur, but on Jaksa people do not have to be hypocritical.

On the walls of Q Bar are about 30 of his black-and-white shots of the people who make Jl. Jaksa go 24 hours a day: bar girls, cigarette sellers, his friends, travelers.

Torr puts up new shots every week. Some of the subjects pose as if they are having their picture taken for their passports. In some of the group photos it is impossible to tell the pictures were taken on Jl. Jaksa because none of the street's peculiarities show in the background.

The photos are simple in technique, and the subjects stare at the camera, smiling, laughing, grimacing or acting cool.

Many photos are printed the size of postcards, forcing you to lean in toward them, as though you were trying to hear them whisper to you amid the blaring music and merry laughter of those in the bar.

Some pictures, like that of a parking attendant caught napping on a wooden bench, are humorous.

The Q Bar/Restaurant lies in the middle of Jl. Jaksa. There is no large sign in front announcing its presence, so if you do not frequent the street you may have to stop and ask for directions.

You won't miss the exhibition because it will run until "there are no more photos to be had on Jl. Jaksa", as the organizer promises.