A trip to Jalan Surabaya is like a time travel to the old Indonesia. Located in Central Jakarta’s historic, charming neighbourhood of Menteng, this street offers plenty of knick knacks for your collection or as souvenirs. The area consists of rows of kiosk or stalls that sells various antique goods from general household items to rare, collectibles stuff. There are a fair amount of tribal handcrafted valuables from heterogeneous Indonesian ethnicity. You can find a lot of rare records as well. Selling old vinyls of local and western music is one Jalan Surabaya’s specialties and has been a designated haunt for avid record collectors.
A quick search on the net of the street’s history yielded this brief write-up: ‘Antique market at Jalan Surabaya has been in existence since 1974, and was officially opened by Ali Sadikin, the Governor of Jakarta at that time. Before the antique market was build at Jalan Surabaya, antique traders sold their goods by walking around Kota Tua Jakarta while carrying the goods on their shoulders to find people who wanted to buy from them. The current traders at Jalan Surabaya are mostly the second generations of the former traders who traded by walking around’.
As it’s customary in most Indonesian market, bargaining is a must. Prices are inflated so it’s up to you to bring it down to the best price possible, at least according to you. It will involve haggling and walking away. Usually, the traders will call you back and try to meet your price. Definitely bargain down to at least half the price they offered or more and you should not feel bad because they would give it to you if the price is right. It’s useful if you’re knowledgable about vintage items since there’s a possibility of passing off fake goods. If you’re not planning to purchase, enjoy the day browsing through this tree-lined street and checking out heritage artifacts. It’s an idyllic place to be added to your list of weekend hangouts in Jakarta.