Getting there
Jakarta is served by the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Tanjung Priok harbour.
Soekarno-Hatta is used by a host of commercial airlines connecting Jakarta with other Indonesian cities, South-East Asia and major hubs around the world.
Garuda Indonesia is the national airline.
You can also enter Indonesia via ferry from Singapore and Malaysia —
in fact the trip from Kuala Lumpur to Medan takes just a few hours, and
has been a major route for surfers and travel junkies needing to renew
their Indonesian tourist visas, while ferries also link to the island of Java, where you’ll have to catch a bus or train to reach Jakarta.
Getting around
Bus
Jakarta suffers from congestion due to heavy traffic, especially in the central business district. However, it has a new bus system called the TransJakarta, with an increasing number of routes. The city had hoped to fund a monorail but the project was abandoned early in 2008.
Bajaj
Auto rickshaws, called bajajs, provide local transportation in the back streets across the city. They’re basically a motorbike with a capsule on the back, suitable for a maximum of two passengers. Flag them down anywhere in the city and haggle with the driver to establish the cost of the journey before you ride.
Rail
There are no trains or subway rail in Jakarta itself but trains connect the city to its neighbouring regions: Depok and Bogor to the south, Tangerang and Serpong to the west, and Bekasi and Cikampek to the east. The major train stations include Gambir, Jatinegara, Pasar Senen, Manggarai, Tanah Abang, and Jakarta Kota.
