Life of Jakarta's night owls have become more comfortable with plethora of hip, trendy and instagrammable 24-hour restaurants and cafes in the last couple of years.
taying up late is in the DNA of some Jakartans. From wartegs (stalls selling Tegal food), neighborhood security posts to the side of the streets, it’s easy to notice Jakartans spending their nights not in bed but on their motorcycles or plastic stools.
In the past, night owls did not have a plethora of options on where to spend their night in the capital. However, the invasion of hip, trendy and Instagrammable 24-hour restaurants and cafes have mushroomed in all corners of Jakarta in the last couple of years.
As night roamers now have more comfortable places to hang out, the dynamic in the activities in these late-night joints has transitioned from smoking cigarettes on wooden benches to smoking cigarettes while working with a laptop and fast wireless connection.
At 3:30 a.m. on Friday, some of them had just finished working and were spotted playing mobile games in Warunk Upnormal at Plaza Festival in Kuningan, South Jakarta.
“Our shifts started at 8 p.m. and we just finished half an hour ago. There’s not really much to do at home, so my coworkers and I decided to play a couple of rounds of PlayerUnknown’s Battleground [PUBG] here,” said Taufan Sanjaya, 29, an employee at a hotel in South Jakarta.
Taufan and his two coworkers said this had been their routine for almost a year. Unlike most people, they sleep just before sunrise and wake up during the late afternoon to grab lunch.
“Some of our employees are friends with the frequent customers who come late at night. During the academic year, many students from the neighboring Bakrie University come here to either hang out or study,” said 28-year-old Prana Jaya, manager at Warunk Upnormal Plaza Festival.
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