Jalan Surabaya, Jakarta, is a great place to visit if you are passing
through the capital city. Jalan Surabaya is located in the suburb of
Menteng, Central Jakarta. Jalan Surabaya Jakarta is a long straight road
that is famous for its antique stalls. There are stalls selling antiques, such as woodsculptures, wooden wayang puppets, masks, porcelain, ceramics, brass utensils, souvenirs, traditional antique guns, metal ornaments, antique lighting, vinyl and records to more modern goods like luggages, hand bags, golf stuffs. There is even a dentist located on the street, though I wouldn’t advise visiting it! Menteng used to be the central government district of Jakarta. It is perhaps for this reason that there are so many nice parks in this district of the city. You will also find that a lot of the streets are lined with trees, which makes the area really nice to walk around. Just like Jalan Surabaya Jakarta, walking around the stalls will be very comfortable since you will be walking in the shade, which is a lot cooler.
The market on Jalan Surabaya Jakarta has been there since the 1970’s.
Initially it was only open on the weekends and had half day opening
hours and used to sell household goods and appliances to locals. In the
1980’s, one of the stall holders started selling antiques. His business
was really successful and in the best traditions of capitalism, everyone
copied him! As a result Jalan Surabaya Jakarta is now really well known
for its antique market.
If you are visiting the capital city, don’t forget to come to Jalan
Surabaya Jakarta. There is some really super cool stuff that you can
find here if you have the senses of antique collector (however a lot of
the things here are modern replicas, so be wary). Most of the stall
holders are really friendly and some of them are fluent in English.
Having a conversation with them is a great and interesting way of
learning more about Jakarta’s history. This month I would love to share several pictures that I captured on
Jalan Surabaya Jakarta, where I was living before I moved to Yogyakarta.
It will always be a pinch of memories when I cross this road again in
the future. I have many happy memories from here. I hope you enjoy the
pictures!
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