Java Jamboree: Epilogue

Batavia and Betawi -yes, surely, I have heard these two words before. My late sister liked to read her school history book out aloud and long ago during my childhood, in the stillness of the night, once I heard Batavia being mentioned. Batavia according to Wikipedia was a ship of a Dutch East India Company which was shipwrecked in her maiden voyage and subsequently became famous because of mutiny and massacre among the survivors. But the Batavia I knew was not a ship but had to do with the Dutch just as much. Dutch used to call themselves Batavians. Batavia was the land of the Batavians during Roman times, the land around the city of Nijimegen in the Roman Empire. The Dutch historians, during Renaissance had tried to promote these Batavians as the archfathers of the Dutch people. They took this idea to their colonies, to Batavia City in New York, America, to Batavia, Suriname and to Indonesia, too where there was a Batavia from 1619 to 1942. Batavia was actually one of the old names of Jakarta and one wee morning in August, 2008, in this old city where one could find among its inhabitants, the Betawi people-the Malay Creole who speak the Betawi Language-I found myself with some friends making our way to a hotel in Kota. Our plane from Penang had arrived at an odd hour and even in my grogginess, I could see little red and white flags decorating the dirt stained road we were traveling in and there was much promise of a fun jamboree to come in my maiden trip to Jakarta, Java....






At Penang International Airport...


Flying to Jakarta, Java, Indonesia...

Traveling Tip: Catch every moment!