Glodok was the old Chinatown of Batavia, allocated to the Chinese by the Dutch in 1741. Today, it has a steamy, slightly sordid atmosphere, and a stroll through the spitting street kitchens will provide plenty of colour for the day's diary entry.

Eager to prevent a rerun of the Chinese massacre of 1740, the Dutch prohibited all Chinese from residing within the town walls, or even from being there after sundown. The following year, a tract of land just to the southwest of Batavia was allocated as Chinese quarters. The area became Glodok, Jakarta's Chinatown, and the city's flourishing commercial centre. More than two centuries later, however, history caught up with Glodok and the riots of May and November 1998 reduced a lot of the area to ash and rubble. Much of the legislation that had discriminated against the Chinese and their language for decades was lifted in 2000, but it will be years before the scars are fully erased and the last of the burnt buildings rebuilt.

The museum's the place to go if you're into heavy, carved furniture and other memorabilia from the Dutch period. Among the more interesting exhibits is a series of gloomy portraits of all the Dutch governors-general and early drawings and etchings of Batavia.

Housed in the old Batavia Town Hall, the museum is probably the most solid reminder of Dutch rule anywhere in Indonesia. The large, bell-towered hall was built in 1627 and housed the administration of the city, the law courts, and even Batavia's main prison compound.

Lapangan Banteng was laid out by the Dutch in the 19th century, and the area has some of Jakarta's best colonial architecture. The 1901 cathedral and one of the largest mosques in southeast Asia, the Istiqlal Mesjid, can both be found here.