Jalan Jaksa 4.21

Jalan Jaksa is a short street approximately 400 meters long at Menteng subdistrict in Central Jakarta, Indonesia. It is located about 1 km south of the national museum, Monas and west of the Gondangdia railway station. The street connects Jalan KH Wahid Hasyim to Jalan Kebon Sirih. The six-meter-wide road offers tourists the opportunity to get cheap accommodation, and of course nightlife. It is designed as the main choice of foreign as well as domestic backpackers who visit Jakarta.HistoryIn Indonesian language Jaksa means attorney. During Dutch colonial period it was a gathering place for law students from Rechts Hogeoschool. In the late 1960s Jl. Jaksa started to become internationally known among backpackers though the International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF). In 1968, Nathanael Lawalata the secretary general of the Association of Indonesian Youth Hostels, converted his house into a hotel to establish the Wisma Delima. This was not only the first hotel in Jl Jaksa but also the only hotel in Jakarta that was internationally listed by the IYHF. In 1993, the Jakarta Tourism Office stated that 57,201 foreign tourists had visited hotels and hostels in the street and the surrounding area, including 29,676 Europeans, 9,309 Australians, 4,215 Americans and 649 Africans. The average length of stay of foreign tourists at Jalan Jaksa was three days.On 5 - 7 August 1994, the first annual Jaksa street festival was held.The street festival aimed to increase the popularity of street and simultaneously celebrate the culture of indigenous Jakarta residents, known as the Betawi people. The 1998 monetary crisis, the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing and the decision in 2005 to reduce the standard tourist visa from 60 to 30 days have reduced the number of budget tourist numbers at Jalan Jaksa. Many backpackers decided to stay directly in the other parts of Indonesia instead of spending 10% of their 30-day visa in Jakarta.