KOTA TUA
Historic district to visit in Jakarta, at the mouth of the Ciliwung River, a site where the Batavia fort was built.
We're at the mouth of the Ciliwung River, where, in the 17th century, the Dutch built the Batavia fort, later destroyed in 1810. It's here, at Sunda Kelapa, that you can see many pinisis, the old-rigged Bugi sailing ships, moored on the kilometre-long quay, and dream of the spice merchants, traffickers and pirates, heroes of Joseph Conrad's novels, who plied the Java Sea from Malacca to the Moluccas. These boats, with their often colorful prows, are built of teak, and their various parts are pegged together without nails by highly skilled carpenters. Jumping from gangway to gangway, coolies carry sacks of rice, dried fish, Bornean wooden beams and cable wheels on their backs, bending under the weight of their burden. Fatahillah Square was the heart of the city until the 19th century. Formerly Batavia's town hall square, it is now lined with long, noisy and polluted streets. Right next to Cafe Batavia, the Portuguese cannon Si Jagur is a famous Dutch prize of war. The end of the cannon represents a hand closed like a fist, with the tip of the thumb protruding between two fingers, a sign said to symbolize the strength of the Portuguese fleet at the time. In Indonesia, this sign is a sexual symbol, and for years many women came to rub their bellies against this hand to increase their fertility. This practice was eventually banned by the municipality.
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