Indonesians like to buy souvenirs for their family, friend, or other relatives whenever they travel. If you are also that kind of travelers and happen to visit Jakarta, you can easily find a place with interesting local products of high quality. We have curated best of the best for you below:
1 | Jalan Surabaya
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Jalan Surabaya or Surabaya Street in Menteng, Jakarta, is famous for its flea market. Here, you might find antique German-made gramophone and even a ship anchor from the World War II era. Apart from oldie-but-goodie stuff, the market is also the center for suitcases. There are a lot of trunk choices that come in various designs and sizes. You can also choose whether to buy one that is made in Indonesia or imported from abroad. However, most vendors here do not set fix prices. So, you should learn how to bargain before go to the Jalan Surabaya market. Our tips: start bargaining from half of the offered price!
2 | UKM Gallery Smesco
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UKM Gallery Smesco boasts high-quality products, like local cloth, handicrafts, and snacks, made by local enterprises from 33 provinces across the archipelago. These entrepreneurs are under Small-Medium Enterprises Association. The UKM Gallery Smesco is located in a building also named Smesco (and thus the name!) on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jakarta. It showcases the products on five floors and opens every day from 10 AM to 9 PM.
3 | Tulisan
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Tulisan, which in the Indonesian language means handwriting, is a store selling artist-illustrated items, like coin purses, bags, and passport envelopes. Tulisan is founded by Melissa Sunjaya, who claims herself as “founding artist and visual essayist”. She now has three Tulisan stores in Jakarta and one of which is located in Colony building, Kemang, South Jakarta. Standing on 50-square meter plot of land, this store showcases Melissa’s creations in a form of bags, accessories, and stationery products.
4 | Kemala Homeliving
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If you search for modern knick-knacks and decoration items with a traditional touch, you should visit Kemala Home Living either on its Instagram account @kemalahomeliving or offline store at Floor 1 of Pasar Santa (Santa market) in South Jakarta. Kemala mostly uses high-quality local wood with a finishing element from virgin olive oil for household items. Thus, the wood color is very beautiful! It also offers various other products, such as multifunctional placemats, plates, and candle holders. It also sells pillowcases and tablecloths with beautiful ethnic patterns.
5 | Unique House Rattan
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Rattan items indeed will make your home warmer than ever. Indonesia has a lot of enterprises selling high-quality unique and adorable rattan products made by local makers. One of them is Unique House Rattan in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta. It sells mostly rattan boxes of various sizes and colors. They are suitable for decoration in kitchen, as well as for your laundry box.
6 | Kem Chicks
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Kem Chicks is a gourmet and lifestyle supermarket that is specially tailored for upper and middle cosmopolitan customers. Apart from foods and beverage products, this store also offers local-made household items with high-quality materials, like rattan and ceramic. It has, for instance, stunning tableware taken from local enterprises. You can find Kem Chicks in upscale malls in Jakarta, like Pacific Place.
7 | Batik Keris
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Batik Keris is a one-stop place to look for various Batik clothes collection and Indonesian local handicrafts. It also offers various local snacks and other souvenirs. The Batik clothes themselves are offered from IDR 250,000 to million rupiahs. This store is usually situated inside shopping malls, like Kota Kasablanka and Lotte Shopping Avenue.
8 | Thamrin City
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Who says travelers with a limited budget cannot get a chance to shop in Jakarta? If you are one of them, you should head to Thamrin City. It is a well-known mall for selling a lot of local products, particularly Batik clothes, at reasonable rates. It is situated next to Grand Indonesia Mall, Central Jakarta. You are suggested to come on weekdays because even on those days, the place is crowded.
9 | Alun-Alun Indonesia
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Alun-alun Indonesia of Grand Indonesia mall is a must-visit place for you who look for the country’s finest products. The place showcases products of around 540 small medium enterprises. The items include local textiles – like Batik and Tenun Ikat, sculptures, wayang local puppet. Whenever you go to Grand Indonesia, head to its West Mall’s level 3 to find the place.
10 | Sarinah Department Store
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This shopping place is located at Jalan MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta. This is the center of Indonesian local products. You can find local handicrafts and souvenirs, like wood carvings, puppets, paintings, handicrafts, on the 5th floor with prices starting from IDR 250,000 to millions of rupiah. In addition, you can also find a collection of Batik on the 4th floor. This shopping place was inaugurated by Indonesia’s first president Soekarno in 1967. Sarinah itself was taken from the name of Sukarno”s caretaker.
11 | Pasaraya Grande
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If you need to get quick souvenirs shopping in Jakarta, you should check Pasaraya Grande mall in South Jakarta. Its 3rd floor got its entire area full of artifacts items, local artisan craftworks and lovely souvenirs. There are wood carvings on pencils, book marks, silver products, local sarongs, and ethnic bags.
12 | Pasar Seni Ancol
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Traveling to North Jakarta, you should stop by at Pasar Seni Ancol or Ancol Art Market in Ancol. Here, you will see a bunch of artists making their mesmerizing creations, like paintings, carvings, and self-silhouettes from black paper. This place used to be Ancol’s magnet as it was the center for artsy youngsters to gather while they were creating things and listening to live music performance.
Image Source of Header Banner by kemalahomeliving
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