"It's a Personal Time Machine …"
"The evening had just started to fall when we stepped into our carriage and entered old Batavia, and I was impressed by the unbelievably death quiet which reigned here all over. One drives past the well-known City Inn, over a lonely square, where formerly a castle stood then passes through a large gate and finally sees the city hall in front, with both buildings reminding us of the construction style of the 17th century."
January 23, 2001
IN 1862, a traveler told the above story in the book Batavia in Nineteenth Century Photographs. Photographs of different corners of Batavia (present-day Jakarta) from two centuries ago look almost empty. The streets of Matraman, Kebon Sirih, Harmoni, Gajah Mada, Hayam Wuruk, Pintu Besar—names synonymous today with overcrowding and a source of major stress for many Jakarta residents due to nightmarish traffic.
At that time, Batavia looked
...