L

ife in Jakarta is always associated with shopping malls, where city folk bring their babies for schooling, or attend lunch meetings. Some others prefer to stop at a mall to wait for the rush hour to end or perhaps have their driver’s licenses renewed. Weekends are the perfect time to have a break from the malls and here are five alternatives as suggested by the Wikentanpakemall community:

Museum hopping

Golden years: Two toddlers admire the stacks of imitation-gold bars at the Bank Indonesia Museum. The educational museum displays the history of Indonesia’s economy and currency. JP/NurhayatiSome museums look like they haven’t been cleaned for years, but there are others worth visiting. The newly renovated Museum of the Drafting of the Proclamation Text on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta, for instance. There is also the National Museum, popularly known as Museum Gajah after the elephant statue in front of the building, which offers various, diverse activities. It has hosted many cultural festivals, like the ongoing Iran cultural festival this week. Or there’s the modern, well-maintained Bank Indonesia Museum in Kota, West Jakarta, which presents information about Indonesia’s economy, both from the past and today. It has collections of coins and paper money from all around the world, as well as historical Indonesian coins.

“Visiting a museum is a lot cheaper than going to a mall. As Jakarta has an array of museums, my two daughters will randomly pick one to visit on weekends. Sometimes the museums are dull but we always have many stories after visiting them,” said Sandra Utami, a resident of East Jakarta.

What about farming?Why not?

Initiated a year ago by architect and city planner Ridwan Kamil, the Jakarta Berkebun (Jakarta Farming) movement has started a new trend nationwide through its social media network. The account @jktberkebun is now followed by more than 3,900 people, who have planted vegetables like water spinach and eggplants in small, unattended plots of land around the city.

Indulging the taste buds

Ryan Ahmad Santosa of South Jakarta, along with his parents and siblings, choose to eat out for their main weekend activity. “We all love to eat and Jakarta is a heaven for culinary tourism,” he said.

Dining out has become the latest hobby among Jakartans. Anything and everything about food is easily accessed through lifestyle magazines, newspapers, online media sites as well as the city’s numerous food bloggers.

“When it comes to food, Jakarta never runs out of menu options. When we have no idea of where to go, we just check our BlackBerrys and we can find a new culinary destination,” Ryan said, adding that kulinerjakarta.com is one of his main reference sites.

Ryan and his family are happy to go the extra mile to find a new place to eat but some of us might not want to go that far during weekends.

Wandering around near the house ...

Admit it. Many of us just don’t know so much about who our neighbors are and what they do for a living. The awkward situation, which was captured by Salman Aristo in his movie Jakarta Maghrib (Dusk in Jakarta), landed many people in trouble due to distrust and prejudice.

“I felt that I didn’t know very much about the eight families living near my home. So one day, I went to their houses offering cookies, and asked whether they wanted to have regular get-togethers,” said Annisa Kurniasari of Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. Her neighbors said yes. The regular gatherings have been taking place now for one-and-a-half years. “We have 10 new members now. We also plan to start a regular charity event,” she said.

Joining weekender communities

Arranging out-of-the-box weekend events by oneself can be difficult. Thus, it is a lot simpler to join hobby-based communities like Wikentanpakemall, which literally means “weekend without going to the mall”. The community, which held its first event — visiting Ragunan Zoo — in 2009, has since gathered to attend a ceramic-making course at the Arts and Ceramic Museum, a literary discussion with noted poet Sapardi Djoko Damono at Bogor’s Botanical Garden, and nature walking in Muara Angke, North Jakarta.

“We are tired of spending our weekends in malls. Through the movement, we try to devise creative and informal weekend activities for family members,” said M. Nofal Kurniawan, the Wikentanpakemall community’s spokesman. Their Twitter account is @wikentanpamall.

There is also a movement called @jalankaki, which promotes walking habits among Jakartans. Glenn Marsilam, one of its founders, said the movement had yet to decide on weekly activities. However, some of its members have already set up a routine, exploring a different part of the city every weekend.