Jakarta – National Museum

Day 66 – Jakarta, Indonesia

I started by a visit to an old and quirky shopping mall, reputed, according to Lonely Planet, for its textiles. I must have been too early, because most of the shops were closed. I mean, it was only four hours after the official opening time.

Pasar Glodok

So since I was out anyway, I took the bus to the National Gallery. At least half is closed for renovation, so I think I got the condensed version.

I tried to take pictures, but the display cases are often smudged, the lightning is really awful, and objects that are half enclosed in display cases and half out are difficult to photograph. So I uploaded only a few pictures.

Medicine container

They have two treasures on display (pictures not allowed) with many gold jewellery, good explanations of these jewellery (symbolism, use, etc), and several impressive regalia from these past centuries. (I like looking at gold jewellery. Oooh, shiny!)

I also enjoyed the ceramics, with samples from several Chinese periods and artefacts recovered from the seabed. It tied up quite nicely with the ceramics museum I had visited in Hoi An, in Vietnam.

Fun in another way was the English text of the less interesting displays, making one want to take up a red marker and correct a few sentences.

There was a gamelan going on on the main lobby, and I managed to record a few seconds with an almost good sound. I hope that you will get an idea of the local music. 

Gamelan