Jakarta oh Jakarta. This huge metropolitan city is ridiculously crowded with so many vehicles on road and the inevitable traffic jam. And yet Jakarta has the long history of being one of the largest cities to be found. In this city, people can find the various cultures of Indonesia piled up as one. There are people coming from various places of Indonesia and they come to stay and giving the additional colors to the already colorful life of metropolitan city. Jakarta stands and become the place to live for a lot of people from the rich to the poor people. It is a very diverse city.

History and Culture of Jakarta

The history of Jakarta started from 12^th century when the city was known as port SundaKelapa. It was under the control of Pajajaran Kingdom. The Portuguese were the first Europeans who come to the city and they were given permission to stay by PakuanPajajaran Kingdom. In 1957, the Muslim prince of Cirebon, Prince Fatahillah conquered SundaKelapa and changed its name to Jayakarta. In the end of the 16^th century, the Dutch taken over it and changed its name to Batavia.  Under the control of the Dutch, this city was known as the Queen of the East.

In 19^th century when VOC rule over Batavia was about to end, the population already reached one million and until now is still growing. Batavia changed its name again to Jakarta when the city was occupied by Japanese in the year 1942. Jakarta was taken as the shorter name from Jayakarta. Nowadays, the population of Jakarta has projected to reach 30 million people from various cultures of Indonesia. The original culture of Jakarta itself is called Betawi. This original culture slowly fading away but there is a hope of surviving along with the raise of awareness in appreciating the culture.

Interesting Sides of Jakarta

Being a huge city makes Jakarta has a lot of things to be offered to anyone who visited it. The visitors of Jakarta can enjoy the color of the past by visiting the old city of Batavia that is located between Central Jakarta and West Jakarta. There are a lot of shopping centers those will be interesting spots to be visited for the branded items. Visiting TMII or Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta is nice to be done especially for the people who wish to walk around mini Indonesia in the count of day.

There is a lot of options for dining in the fine restaurants with wide selections of foods and visitors may also party all night at the clubs available. Reaching Jakarta itself is not a difficult thing to be done. Jakarta can be easily reached from SoekarnoHatta International Airport or HalimPerdanaKusuma airport. The city can also be reached with buses or trains from other cities and some people feel more comfortable to drive cars by their own. Once arriving in the city, people can explore the city with various vehicles such as taxis, bajaj (tuk-tuk), Transjakarta buses and the ordinary public buses. Going with taxis or cars will be recommended.