Visiting the Old City/ taking a Cruise on the Harbor on Christmas Eve

The Dutch settled Indonesia in the early 1500s.  The first city was Batavia, now Jakarta, located on a harbor on the island of Java.  This section of the city is now referred to as the Old City.  We went with the Healys to see the area.  As you will see from the pictures, it is still a important harbor for import/export of goods and is home to the largest fish market in Indonesia.  While there we took a cruise around the harbor.  This was one of our more interesting day trips around the Jakarta area.

The first train station based on Dutch style of building

The entry to the harbor.  Note the date, 1527

Heading out on the pier

A lot of manual labor is still used to load/unload the ships.

Note the lack of shoes!

The must have been at least 75 boats like these lining the pier.  Most are made of wood.

This is a working boat--similar to the shape of most the boats. 

Trash is a real issue!

 

Nicely dressed family!

 

The ladies do like style and color.

Heavy equipment is also used to load the boats

 

Gail has been wanting to take a cruise--this was our boat, the one next to the red and blue boat!  Gail with the boat owner--he was also the power!  When we walked up, he was bailing water out of the bottom of the boat............

 

 

The view from our cruise boat.......

A family out for a ride--notice the mother with the pink jilbob, and the young girl with a white one.

An operating boat.......

A small hut.....

From the boat...beautiful hi-rise with a very nice mosque to the left.  

The boat captain guiding us backwards between ships back to our starting place!

Besides giving tours, the boats are used to take the locals back and forth through the harbor.

A food vendor on the pier--she is talking on her cell phone! 

This lady is selling food while standing in six inches of water! 

 

In the taxi driving to the fish market...about 3-4 inches of water.  The smell was terrible and everything was so dirty that we didn't get out of the taxi until we got to the end of the pier!

Following are some pictures of fish for sale--I have never seen so much fish!

 

An ice vendor--some of the fish was on ice. 

One of many food vendors in the fish market.  Gail likes fish, but declined stopping here for lunch!

 

A view from the end of the pier.