Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, Indonesia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta known for?

Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta is best known as Indonesia's capital and largest city, the political and cultural heart of the country. The nickname says it all. Locals call the capital The Big Durian, an answer to the Big Apple of New York.

Beyond its own borders it anchors the sprawling metropolitan area of Jabodetabek. It also holds the secretariat of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, on the coast of Java by the Java Sea.

Where is Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta?

Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta sits on the northwestern coast of Java, the island at the core of Indonesia. The Java Sea lies along its entire northern edge. The province opens directly onto that sea, its shoreline the northern edge of the whole territory, while the land runs back from the water into the plain behind.

Two provinces wrap the rest of it. West Java borders the capital region on the east and south, and Banten closes it off to the west, so the province is ringed by land on every side but the coast. It is small ground for so large a national role.

The territory covers only a compact stretch of the Java coast, far smaller than the sprawling metropolitan area around it. That wider area, known as Jabodetabek, spills well past the provincial line into West Java and Banten. Land presses in from three sides.

The ground lies low, flat, and open. Close to sea level, the plain slopes gently north to the Java Sea, which is why water and the coast shape the capital region as much as its streets do.

What is Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta like?

Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta is Indonesia's cultural centre, the place where the whole archipelago comes together in one province. Diversity defines it. People from across the islands of Indonesia settle in the capital, so the streets carry a mix of cultures drawn from far beyond Java, all speaking Indonesian as the common tongue.

Food is a large part of the draw. The capital sets out a wide variety of dishes, gathered from every corner of the country and served at every level of budget. Life runs late here.

The city keeps a busy nightlife and long rows of shopping malls, and pockets of greenery break up the density between them. Its nickname captures the character. Locals call it The Big Durian, the way New York wears the name Big Apple, a tag that fits a capital which can overwhelm at first and win people over slowly.

As the seat of the ASEAN secretariat, the capital region also gathers a steady flow of visitors from across Southeast Asia. All of it sits in one dense province on the coast of Java, a single crowded meeting point for a country of thousands of islands.

What is the history of Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta?

Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta traces its founding to 1527, when a settlement first took hold on the northwestern coast of Java. The city grew from that root. Over the centuries the settlement on the Java Sea rose into the leading city of the archipelago, and with the founding of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945 it became the national capital.

The capital region keeps the special province-level status that its name records.

What is the climate of Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta?

Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta has a hot, humid tropical climate, warm through the whole year on its low stretch of the Java coast. Real cold never comes. The year turns instead on rain, dividing into a wetter season and a drier one, with the heaviest downpours soaking the low coast along the Java Sea.

Sea air off the coast keeps the province warm and sticky from one season to the next.

How do you get to Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta?

Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta is the chief point of entry to Indonesia, the busiest arrival for travellers flying into the country. Most come by air. As the national capital, the province draws flights from across Southeast Asia and the wider archipelago before onward travel fans out to the other islands.

On the ground it ties into the metropolitan belt of Jabodetabek, with roads and commuter rail running out into the neighbouring provinces of West Java and Banten.