Melting pot Jaksa will forever shine

Melting pot Jaksa will forever shine

When fresh-faced student backpackers land in Jakarta on their
globetrotting travels, budget restrictions usually preclude a
stay at the Hilton or the Grand Hyatt. And so, it is to Jl.
Jaksa, just south of the national monument, that they flock,
quite literally, in their tens.

The poor lambs then have to run the gauntlet of the expats on
the slide, dipsomaniacal English teachers, local gangsters,
dentally challenged ladies of the night, bestubbled transvestites
and over-optimistic blowpipe salesman who have made the street
their own. Yes, it is in Jaksa that initial conclusions about
Indonesia are usually drawn by the tie-dyed, visa-upon-arrival
brigade. Many, unwittingly interpreting Jaksa as a metonym for
the whole country, will come away from their experiences slightly
shell-shocked and with a strong sense of the weird and confusing
nature of Indonesia.

But how fair is it to castigate Jaksa as a Bintang-soaked
repository for the city's transnational lowlife?

The street is undoubtedly the cheapest place to drink in town
and this will always be a factor in its popularity. However,
there's no reason why one shouldn't, with adequate preparation
and a clean change of underwear at hand, enjoy a life-affirming
evening on the infamous strip. Jaksa is a laid-back, mellow kind
of a place in comparison with its famous, chaotically packed
equivalent in Thailand -- Bangkok's Khao San Road. Just grab a
bajaj to the top end of the street and saunter from bar to bar
until you reach the bottom end, exhausted but enlightened.

The first bar on Jaksa is also the newest. Absolute Bar
resides where P's Place used to and has the mosquito-repelling
advantage of being both inside and air-conditioned. Drinks are as
cheap as they come here and ex-P's Place groupies should head
down and check out the minimally stylish decor (and the vodka).

Opposite Absolute, BFC Bar's tree stump stools and tables do
tend to make one feel like an outsize garden gnome but the place
is cheap, usually busy, and attracts a good cross-section of
locals and foreigners.

Further down, Memories and Betawi Cafe occupy the center of
the street and can certainly pack them in although they have a
rather, shall we say, down-home approach to decor and ambience.
Next to these two, Ali's bar houses Jaksa's ethnic African
patrons. Africans elsewhere in Jakarta tend to be, for various
reasons, slightly suspicious of their Jaksa-frequenting brethren,
but at least Ali's Place plays infectious African pop music and
has a party atmosphere.

Further down, Pappa's Cafe is open 24/7 and is a cheap and
cheerful place in which to drink yourself unconscious. It also
serves the dodgiest Spaghetti Bolognese you'll ever encounter.
Forget Al Dente, you can break your teeth on this stuff.

Would-be gourmets should instead head for the deservedly
popular Ya Udah Bistro next door, which serves delicious European
cuisine at great prices.

Opposite YUB, Romance is Jaksa's other indoor, mozzy-free
environment and is pretty miniature inside, although good fun if
you can manage to annex the place with a group of friends. You
will then be home and dry at the end of the strip, with only the
bearded ladyboys who hang around the end of Jl. Wahid Hasyim to
slalom through before a taxi home and a Panadol enema.

Swanky restaurants and bars may wax and wane in Jakarta but
Jaksa will forever shine as a rather dog-eared beacon of
unpretentiousness. It is a true multicultural melting pot and the
perfect antidote to the terror/war-on-terror tedium of our times.

Terrorists will never destroy this street, why would they
bother? The mix of locals and bules are doing a good enough job,
slowly wearing it down on their own terms.

--Simon Pitchforth