Jakarta

The 132m tower was finished in 1975 and the flame on top is sheathed in gold. A single lift serves the viewing deck, so at weekends the queue runs to hours. You can walk into the square free; the ticket is only for going up.

Dutch-era government buildings box the square in on four sides. Coloured bicycles rent by the hour with a wide-brimmed hat thrown in, though riding them off the square is not allowed.

It still occupies the Batavia city hall of 1710, so the floors tilt and the door frames sit low. Cells in the basement that used to fill with water remain, too low to stand up in. Upstairs the heavy black teak furniture has been left where it stood.

The largest mosque in Indonesia, and the architect chosen to design it was a Christian. Outside prayer times a guide takes you in, and robes are lent at the door. An underground passage now links it to the cathedral across the road.

Consecrated in 1901, a neo-Gothic church whose three spires are framed in iron. A small museum sits in the upstairs gallery and takes visitors when there is no mass.

Wooden pinisi cargo schooners still work in and out of this harbour. Porters carry sacks over planks laid between hull and quay. Crew wave you aboard and then ask for a tip on the way down. There is no shade anywhere, which makes walking it by day hard going.

Traditional houses from every province were built at full size on one site. A lake in the middle carries islands shaped like the archipelago, a map read from above. Since the overhaul cars park outside, and inside runs on electric shuttles, bikes and walking.

Herbal shops and noodle counters fill lanes narrow enough that scooters squeeze through. Jin De Yuan temple, deep in one of them, went up in the 1650s and was rebuilt after a 2015 fire. The market runs in the morning and shutters come down in the afternoon.

The bronze elephant in the forecourt, sent by the king of Siam in 1871, is why people call it the elephant museum. A fire in 2023 shut it for a stretch before it reopened. The rooms of bronzes and Hindu-Buddhist stone figures repay the most time.

Islands scattered off Jakarta, one to two hours by boat from the Ancol pier. Water near the mainland stays cloudy, so getting in means going further out, and the weekend boats need booking to get a seat.

West of Kota Tua's square, a building where the old Dutch church once stood has housed a puppet museum since 1975. Leather shadow puppets and wooden ones fill the walls, each island with its own faces. Church-era gravestones remain in the courtyard.

A former court of justice built in 1870, its white columns facing Kota Tua's square from the east. Modern Indonesian painting shares the rooms with regional pottery and Chinese trade porcelain. Inside it is calm compared with the square.

The colonial Javasche Bank building, made into a museum as it stood. Money's history runs in order from spice-trade coins to today's notes, and one room holds stacked gold bars. Stained glass and marble halls survive, worth seeing in themselves.

Beside Sunda Kelapa harbour, in warehouses where the VOC once stored spices. A 2018 fire damaged part of the complex, since repaired. Across the road the old harbour-master's tower leans, and its top floor feels tilted.

First built in 1650, Jakarta's oldest Chinese temple. Fire took the main hall in 2015 and it was rebuilt. Tucked inside the Glodok lanes, its incense drifts into the alley, and over Lunar New Year the doorway jams.

A lakeside village at Jakarta's southern edge, set aside to keep Betawi culture alive. Long-eaved Betawi houses and a stage stand by the water, where stalls sell kerak telor and bir pletok. Lying well outside downtown, it draws locals as a weekend outing.

A long line of antique stalls along a residential street in Menteng. Old vinyl records, brass lamps and battered suitcases are piled up, with new pieces aged to look old mixed in. The first price named assumes you will haggle.

A contemporary art museum opened in West Jakarta in 2017, rotating shows of Indonesian and foreign artists. Timed tickets for popular shows go fast, so book online first. A separate hands-on room lets children touch and play.

A large zoo in south Jakarta, relocated here in 1966. Inside, the Schmutzer Primate Center puts gorillas and orangutans close behind glass. Weekends and holidays bring family crowds that pack the gates.

Gardens opened in 1817, roughly ninety minutes south of Jakarta by commuter train. Between old tropical trees you glimpse deer on the presidential palace lawn. Bogor is called the city of rain for its afternoon storms, so mornings are best.