Jakarta Hauntings: A Ghost Hunter’s Messy Diary

i stepped off the bus in jakarta and realized my backpack was doing a terrible impression of a hummingbird. the air smelled like a swamp in a suitcase, which i guess is what happens when you have 95% humidity and a low-pressure system hanging around like a nervous aunt. the temperature was stuck at 24.27°C all day, so it felt like someone had turned the thermostat down and left a candy coating over the whole city. i just checked the live reading and it's *still 25.23°C, which means the heat is more of a mood than a measurement. my skin sizzled, my eyebrows peeled off in a dry panic, and i kept muttering "why do i have to be so wet now?" because nobody wants to be a walking dehumidifier.

jakarta might look like a jungle of concrete on a map, but it’s actually a chorus of alleyways that shout at you. the first night i wandered the old harbor, a spot where the tide is always a little higher than the last rumor you heard. locals told me that if you get bored, bandung and surabaya are just a short drive away, and you could hear the ghost stories get swapped faster than a cheap street kebab. i found a 5‑star rating on TripAdvisor for a “nighttime lantern tour” that promised to show me the “mysterious spirit of the port,” but the Yelp review sounded more like someone’s grandma complaining about the soggy rice. anyway, i skipped the lantern tour and went for the ghost alley myself because i love turning things on their head.

the map i used is a mess, but it works (see below). it’s basically a teleport to the city’s skin and bone.

i pressed the button on my cheap EMF detector and heard that tiny "buzz"‑the kind you hear when your phone rings in a movie. apparently that’s the real signal.
someone told me that the airport terminal has a hidden "cold spot" where the EMF spikes, but i heard a local bartender whisper that the real spook is under the sunda kelapa lighthouse. he said, "if you get bored, bali is just a short ferry ride away, but you’ll need a stronger flashlight to chase the ghosts there."
i laughed, then got creepy when his coffee mug started vibrating for no reason.
the gear i brought was nothing fancy: a reusable flashlight, a digital voice recorder (the cheap one that looks like a plastic dinosaur), a pair of old sneakers that already smell like a basement, and my EMF detector which beeps only when the battery is low. i also snagged a smartphone that runs Android 12. the flashlight is always at 100% and the recorder is supposed to capture that weird "whoosh" that ghosts supposedly produce. i heard a rumor that the badminton court near the kebun park is haunted by a spirit that refuses to play fair, but it sounded like the neighbor just wanted to scare tourists away from his banana stand.

there’s a certain vibe here, like the city is breathing through the walls. the humidity makes every breath feel like an over‑inflated balloon, and the low pressure squishes the sky into a heavy grey blanket.

i got an unsolicited warning from a guy on a motorbike: "don’t go into the grand mosque after dark, the echo is a liar and the light flickers because a ghost is whispering to the ceiling." i didn’t believe him until i saw the lights actually fade for a second, which could have been a power surge, or could have been a spirit doing its best impression of a light flicker. i chuckled, "maybe that’s just the city’s nervous system."

overall, i’m a bit exhausted from walking the streets with a detector that keeps telling me it’s "checking" for ghosts that are probably just miswired lights. still, the messy adventure gives me a shot of adrenaline that no latte can match. i’m already drafting a second post on the foggy mornings at lake toba (yeah, i’m crazy enough to chase ghosts in a lake after all). if you’re reading this, thanks for the clicks, the weird laughs, and the half‑drunk advice that keeps the story alive. happy hunting, wherever you’re haunted.

the images i snapped are all from Unsplash; i just dropped them in because they look cooler than my own blurry photos.

TripAdvisor review for jakarta ghost tours Yelp guide for hidden alleys and you can check the latest Reddit threads in r/Jakarta_ghosts for overheard gossip. someone told me that the old library has a ghost that never finishes its book, and i’m tempted to stay up all night reading with it. i heard a local warning: "if you get bored, surakarta* is just a short train ride away, and the ghosts there drink coffee faster than they read." i smirked, but the humidity reminded me that this city can’t be outrun, even by the fastest train. thanks for sticking around, and remember - if the air feels like a sauna, you’re probably in the right neighborhood.