Bekasi: the city that's always in a rush
so bekasi... it's this massive city on the edge of jakarta that most tourists skip entirely and honestly i get why. i just checked and it's 28°C there right now, feels like 32°C with humidity at 78% - hope you like that kind of thing.
anyway, bekasi sits at 6°14'06"S 106°59'32"E right along the cikarang river. the place is huge - 210 square kilometers of concrete, factories, and shopping malls. someone told me that bekasi traces back to the 5th century kingdom of tarumanagara and was actually a capital back then. wild to think about that while you're stuck in traffic on the jakarta-cikampek toll road.
the weather's tropical year-round but here's the thing - from june to october it gets drier but also smokier. may and june are apparently terrible with smog from all the factories and traffic. air quality can be pretty bad honestly. someone told me they could barely breathe walking around central cikarang where all the big factories are - suzuki, panasonic, you name it.
bekasi's surrounded by some interesting neighbors. west is east jakarta, north and east is bekasi regency itself, and south you've got bogor regency and depok city. if you get bored, those are just a short drive away. well, "short" in jakarta traffic terms which could mean anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
population's around 2.64 million as of 2024 which makes it the biggest city in west java. that's a lot of people crammed into 210 square kilometers. the culture's this weird mix of betawi, sundanese, and pure jakarta commuter vibes. you'll see traditional stuff like wayang kulit puppet shows and calung dalengket music performances happening in some neighborhoods, but then you turn the corner and there's another shopping mall going up.
the food scene... well, local markets sell kembang goyang cookies which are these sweet little flower-shaped things. but honestly most of the eating happens in malls and along boulevards like harapan indah. it's very much a commuter city so there's tons of restaurants but they're mostly chains and mall food courts.
things to know if you're visiting: traffic is brutal. like really bad. the toll roads connecting to jakarta are constantly jammed. someone told me it can take 1-2 hours just to get from soekarno-hatta airport which is like 50km away. air pollution is another thing - that industrial smog i mentioned earlier plus all the vehicle emissions. pack breathable clothes and drink lots of water.
accommodations are mostly budget stuff. hotel bunga karang runs about rp200,000 per night which is like $13 USD. don't expect luxury but it'll do for a night or two.
tourist attractions... well, there's shopping. lots of shopping. grand metropolitan mall, heaps of waterparks like go wet, some recreation parks. the siliwangi museum if you're into history. but let's be real - bekasi isn't really a tourist destination. it's a commuter city, an industrial hub, a place people pass through on their way to somewhere else.
what makes bekasi interesting is how it embodies modern indonesia - this ancient place that was once a kingdom's capital now covered in factories and malls, serving as jakarta's eastern industrial arm. it's chaotic, crowded, polluted, but also kind of fascinating in its own messy way.
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