Enjoying Car Free Sundays from the Ascott Jakarta, Indonesia.

Your guide stayed for a couple of nights at the Ascott Jakarta, five minutes' walk away from the Bundaran HI rotunda. I was lucky to have been checked in on a weekend, because Jakarta enforces Car Free Sundays - not the whole metro, mind you, but only from Jalan Sudirman to Jalan Thamrin, and only from 6am to 12 noon. That's a three-mile stretch from Monas in the north to the Semanggi Cloverleaf to the south.

The car-free stretch cuts through the "golden triangle", Jakarta's business district, home to the capital's embassies, business headquarters, and fanciest malls. As a guest of the Ascott Jakarta, your guide found himself staying right in the middle of it all -  just a short walk from Grand Indonesia Shopping Town and Bundaran HI next to it.

Which meant that on Sunday, your guide was excellently placed to catch the local color. Walking down the street from the Ascott Jakarta to Bundaran HI, I noticed plenty of street food stalls set up to feed the biking masses. The rotunda itself was a mass of circling bikes of all makes and colors - hipster fixies, mountain bikes, racing bikes, and BMX's, transporting able-bodied Jakartans around and around the rotunda, and back down the highway in the direction of Monas.

The central island - the raised cobblestone rim that borders the fountain - was also a riot of activity, with resting bikers, picnickers, and strolling families getting a great view of Jakarta at leisure on Sunday. Looming over everything is the Selamat Datang Monument - a "welcome" conceived by then-President Sukarno for visiting athletes during the 1962 Asian Games.

Tired bikers can just step away from the circle and have breakfast at one of the numerous stalls set up between Grand Indonesia and Plaza Indonesia. Sate ayam (chicken satay), bakso (soup), and bubur (rice porridge) are available if you want to indulge. Blogger Christian Hartono Tanu waxes positively euphoric on the good eats you can get during Car Free Sunday:

For tourist expecting local breakfast, Jakarta Car Free Day is a thing you don't want to miss. Local food merchant are selling their specialties along the way. Imagine how nice it is to enjoy bubur ayam, siomay, bakpao, lontong sayur, bakso, mie ayam, ketoprak, sate padang, or the legendary kerak telor after sweating your body. My suggestion, you might want to stop by at Saint Theresia Church and eat the siomay in front of the church. Though it's a bit pricey (IDR 2500 a piece), but it is definitely the best siomay in town! Expecting  a good coffee? Drop by at Sabang 16 Kopi & Srikaya at Jalan Sabang No. 16B and order  The Papua Nabire coffee. And once again, the best in town! (In my Opinion)

Staying as close as I did to the heart of modern Jakarta, I found it very easy to go shopping for both high-end and low-end products (if Grand Indonesia's prices give you nosebleed, you can just proceed to Thamrin City mall on the other side of the Ascott, where you can get batik and other native Indonesian products at much lower prices). I also found that it was a snap to commute via taxi from the Ascott to points further afield, being located right in Central Jakarta.

The Ascott's luxurious apartment suites deserve a story of their own. For more details, read my review of the Ascott Jakarta.

Images © Mike Aquino, licensed to About.com.