Sunda Kelapa harbor tour On foot

Friday 9 April 2010, 06:30. On the left is the map of Sunda Kelapa harbor, my first On Foot blog. The red dots are the route me and my friend Retno took. The journey started from Old Tower which was built in 1839, formerly the harbor master office.

As it was still early, the tower was not open yet but I climbed up the tower at the end of the tour and took a panoramic (click on picture to view it large) view of Sunda Kelapa harbor area. The picture gives you the idea of what the harbor master could see from the tower, but of course everything has changed now. At that time, the buildings are not as crowded as today and the dam (on the right) was not there so ships could go further inland. The old ship's dock were behind the old tower at Kakap rd, so they are no longer accessible by ships and the building is now a restaurant.

A regular tour will take you directly to the ships at Maritim Raya rd. As we were on our own, we took different route starting from the left of the old tower to Pasar Ikan (Fish Market) rd.

On the left is Maritime museum. The building was built between 1652-1773 by the Dutch and it was used as godown for spices to be exported to Europe, while the wall with outpost was the city wall.

We were too early for the museum but I have been there before. Inside you can find old diving helmet, ships steering wheel and other maritime related artifacts but no ship wreck.

If you go there, don't throw away the museum ticket as it is used to enter the old tower too.

I was hoping to see some fish selling activities at Pasar Ikan but it seems that Pasar Ikan is no longer used as fish market, instead it is used to sell ships equipments as you can see piles of anchors in the background of photo on the left.

I was hoping to see the ships too from Pasar Ikan but the area was surrounded by wall of dikes, so we continued our walk north through narrow dark alleys until we found a bridge crossing a small river full of boats.

At that bridge, we saw a boat trying to pass under the bridge and was stuck as the tide was high.

There were some interesting photos I took along that narrow alley but it would be too many to be posted in this blog.

Out of narrow dark alley, we found Batang rd. We were surprised to see Becak, those three wheeled carriage used as public transportation parked in front of an old mosque. Becak are now banned and not allowed to operate in city of Jakarta.

We still could not see ships from this point so we turned back to the narrow dark alley.

The alley was like a maze, so I was lost to be frank. We found a stairway to climb the dike that surrounds the area and voila ... we could see the ships finally.

From that dike, we rode a boat. This boat ride is not recommended for there is no safety means, the boat does not provide life jacket or anything.. ride at your own risk.

The fare for trip to open sea was more or less US $3 but I don't have the guts to go that far. I feared that a wave might capsized the boat and wet my camera.

Nevertheless, this boat trip gave us different perspective of the harbor. We could see the whole ship body and the rear of the ships as well.

Only wooden ships (schooner) called Phinisi berth in Sunda Kelapa harbor.

We landed at the outer end of the harbor. Actually the fare was for a round trip but we wanted to see the harbor activity.

Cargo (cement) is being loaded manually through narrow wooden plank bridge.

I would think twice to walk over the bridge.

Since the dock is no longer accessible, ships are fixed on site. Here they fill between the wood gaps with rubber, but only above water hull. I wonder how they fix areas below water.

Mbok Jamu (female potion seller) selling energy drink for manual workers.

A boat driver waiting for passangers.

This is the last photo in Sunda Kelapa tour On Foot and so the end of Sunda Kelapa tour On Foot. I chose Friday because there is less tourist on week days but on the other hand, the traffic was heavy.

By Herdanto