Jakarta’s Old Batavia Trail

I don't know if it was the content or the guide that was problematic. We were 2 people on a private tour and the guide didn't seem to want to be there. To be fair though, my colleague and I travel a lot and are not garden variety tourists. We went first to the national museum, where there is not a lot of English explaining the exhibits and the guide didn't seem to be much help. English-speaking guide was also a bit of an overstatement. A lot of the exhibits didn't seem to make any sense or to have any continuity, and by the time I realized we were being shown things backwards (there are arrows on the floor), my soul was dead and I didn't care anymore. Then we went to Chinatown. Anyone who has been to Chinatowns anywhere else in the world is likely to feel pangs of disappointment, as this is more of a farmers market with a few other vendors thrown in. That was a quick walk, with the guide moving through the alleyways with the speed of an F1 pace car, leaving us no real time to look at anything. I wish I would have made him stop so I could take a picture of all the small frogs tied to a table. We then went to some museum on Fatahillah Square but again, disinterested guide coupled with very little English descritption meant it was more of a brisk walk through a disjointed collection of things in a dense crowd than anything else. We then went to see a puppet maker and he was FANTASTIC! Really friendly and informative and spoke very good English. I'd have happily paid to have him take us around the rest of the afternoon. I don't know if we had any choice about eating lunch at Café Batavia. We were just taken there and that was it. There were other more interesting looking places in the area that wouldn't have involved being surrounded by Australians drinking cocktails out of coconuts. We did however have a excellent view of the square where what seemed to be a goth girl-pop group filming a music video, and that was well worth the price of lunch. Our guide didn't really even seem to know where we were supposed to go, as he then wanted to go to the market, but we wanted to see the puppet museum, which we were standing in front of. Again a not enthusiastic tour, but the place was wonderful and creepy . By then we still wanted to see the harbor, which we did, but desperately needed a drink so cut the market and had the guide and driver drop us near a bar. Somewhat agressive pestering for my contact info from the guide.

Old Batavia is in a very poor area...not safe, we cannot walk around the hotel. The part of new JAkarta is worth tovisit

Tour guide is very excellent and flexible. Highly recommend