The immigration office in South Jakarta has a particular smell: air conditioning struggling against the heat, floor wax, and the faint, nervous sweat of a hundred people holding numbered tickets. I'm here for my KITAS photo and the final biometric check, clutching my passport and the receipt from the bank. The whole thing has the feel of a highly orchestrated, very bureaucratic line dance. It's tedious, but it's the beat of the music if you want to live here.
As I wait, I'm tallying up what this life is actually costing me. My temporary place, a one-bedroom flat a bit north of the centre, is set to run me about 3.5 million rupiah a month, which, give or take, is roughly two hundred and thirty dollars. It's not fancy, but it has a desk, a bed, and a kitchen where I've already made a mess of some instant noodles. It's a start. The plan is to find something more permanent once the KITAS is locked in.
My ticket number is called. A man behind a glass partition checks my fingers, takes a photo that makes me look like I've just been woken up, and stamps a piece of paper with a solid, final-sounding thud. I'm one step closer. He tells me the card itself will take a few more days to process. That's life here; things move at their own pace. You just have to learn to move with it.
I step out of the office, blinking in the sun, and my stomach makes a sound that could rival a truck horn. It's past lunch. I flag down a Gojek and give the driver an address in Menteng. I've heard about a place called SEMAJA Menteng, and I'm hoping it's as good as the name suggests. Ten minutes later, I'm sliding into a seat, the air conditioning is a physical relief, and the smell of grilled chicken is taking over my brain.
I order a classic: nasi goreng, with an iced kopi susu gula aren to cut through the heat. The coffee, palm sugar, and milk is about 20,000 rupiah, a little over a dollar, and it's the best thing I've had all day. The fried rice, loaded with chicken and a fried egg on top, comes to around 35,000 rupiah. Lunch, all in, is under four bucks. You could eat like a king here, and I intend to research that theory thoroughly.
With my stomach full, I have a choice. I can go back and try to work on my SIM card data plan, or I can do something that feels a little more like the reason I came to Indonesia in the first place. I decide to head to the Galeri Nasional Indonesia. There's a retrospective on Oesman Effendi, the painter whose work apparently graced some of the old rupiah banknotes. I know nothing about him, but the idea of seeing the art that used to be in my wallet is too good to pass up.
I take the MRT to the Gambir station. The ride is quick, clean, and costs about 4,000 rupiah. It's hard to complain about a city commute that costs less than a bottle of water. The station is busy, a river of people in the middle of their day, but it's an orderly flow. I tap my JakLingko card and exit, walking towards the museum, which sits in the shadow of the Monas obelisk.
The gallery is a calm, quiet space, a breath of cool air that isn't just from the AC. The Effendi exhibition is wonderful. His paintings are full of bold colours and a kind of gentle energy. I'm not an art critic, but I can feel the history in the room. It makes the abstract idea of 'Indonesia' feel tangible, like a story told in brushstrokes instead of words. I stand in front of one canvas for a long time, just trying to take it in.
After an hour or so, I leave the cool sanctuary of the gallery and step back into the city's embrace. The sun is not as brutal as it could be, a thin layer of cloud taking the edge off. It's 33 degrees, but it feels like 38. I'm starting to learn that the 'feels like' is the only number that matters. I decide to walk towards Monas, just to see it in the daytime, but I notice something unusual.
There are still traces of the huge prayer gathering from a few days ago, some barriers being taken down, a few security checkpoints dismantled. I remember reading that the area was packed with close to a hundred thousand people on the first for a national prayer. The sheer scale of it boggles the mind. The city certainly knows how to make things big. And in a few days, on the seventeenth, it's going to do this all again for Independence Day.
I can't get into Monas itself; the line is enormous, a snake of tourists and locals alike. I'm in no mood to wait. Instead, I get another coffee at a place called Giyanti Coffee Roastery, a little spot tucked away that feels more like someone's living room than a cafe. The barista knows his beans and the room smells of roasted coffee and wood. I take a seat by the window and just watch the city go by.
And this, I think, is the real business of living in a city. It's not just the big landmarks; it's the space between them. It's finding your coffee spot, learning the fastest route, and figuring out that the thing on the menu you can't pronounce is actually your new favourite meal. It's the feeling of the city starting to bend around your routines instead of the other way around.
A few hours later, the evening cools down just enough to be tolerable. I meet a friend of a friend, a journalist who's been here for years, and he insists we go to a place called SKYE Rooftop Dining & Lounge in the SCBD district. We take a ride up to the 56th floor, the lift doors opening onto a view that makes me understand why this city is such a magnet. The skyline is a glittering circuit board, sprawling and alive.
The drinks are pricey, roughly 150,000 rupiah each, a far cry from the warung prices from lunch. But we're paying for the view, and what a view it is. It's a whole other Jakarta up here, the one of business deals and luxury apartments and golden triangles of power. I can see the MRT line winding through the city below like a luminous scar, and in the far distance, the dark expanse of the sea. It's a city of layers, and I'm only just starting to peel them back.
My friend tells me that the real cost of living isn't the food or the coffee; it's the lifestyle creep. You start taking car rides instead of the MRT. You eat at places like this instead of the sate stall on the corner. It's a cautionary tale, I think, as the lights of the city twinkle below. 'The best advice I can give you,' he says, 'is to never lose the warung. It will keep you anchored.'
He's not wrong. I've had wagu beef that was great, but I've also had a simple bowl of soto betawi that cost about 30,000 rupiah and tasted like a hug from a grandmother. The cheap eats are the soul of this city, and they're practically giving it away. I make a mental note to keep my feet on the ground, even when my office is in the sky.
The ride home on the MRT is a quiet one. I'm surrounded by people checking their phones, heads bobbing to music I can't hear. The train glides through the city, a mechanical whale moving through a canyon of glass and steel. I get off at my stop, and the night air is still warm, a constant temperature that feels like a blanket.
Back at my flat, I open my laptop and look at the calendar. The seventeenth is in less than two weeks. I have a choice to make: fight the crowds to see the ceremony at the presidential palace, or find a quieter spot to watch the neighbourhood celebrations. There's something about the idea of seeing the flag raised with a hundred thousand other people that feels important, like being part of the story instead of just reading about it.
I decide I'll go. I'll wake up early, I'll wear my best shirt, and I'll stand in the heat with the rest of them. It's a small thing, but it feels like the next right step in learning what it means to be here, not just as a visitor, but as someone who is building a life. And for now, that life is in Jakarta.
I switch off the lamp and the city hums outside my window, a low, constant lullaby. The immigration office, the bank, the noisy roads, the quiet museums; it's all part of the same thing. This isn't a holiday; it's the start of something. And as I drift off, I can hear the distant, muffled beats of a gamelan practice from somewhere in the neighbourhood, a strange and comforting soundtrack to my new life. Selamat datang, indeed. I think I'm going to like it here.
Tomorrow is another day of paperwork and discovery, but for now, this is enough. The city is here, I am here, and the long journey is just beginning. The countdown to the seventeenth has started, and I plan to be front and centre for it. There is nothing else to do but sleep, and dream of the islands that wait beyond this bustling capital.