Volcanoes, islands and lots of culture

Traditional wooden puppet performance. [Photo by Shao Fenglei / For China Daily]

Each weekend, Jakarta's street artists gather at Kota Tua (old town) and dress as various characters, including cartoon figures. For a small tip, you can get them to pose for a photo with you.

It's like a carnival for children - they can pose with Doraemon and eat street food too.

Then, I see two artists in costumes who seem to seated in midair without any apparent support, but I fail to figure out how they do it.

It's also good idea to stroll around the Pantai Indah Kapuk community at night to experience the city's hustle-and-bustle.

The area has Chinese, Japanese and Korean restaurants, coffeehouses and pubs.

There, my friends and I encounter a traditional snack shop that sells martabak, or pancakes.

It is said that the snack originated in Sumatra's Bangka Island, and was first made there by Hakka immigrants from Fujian province.

To make martabak, the cook spreads layers of butter, condensed milk and cheese onto the pancake.

Before we have time to work out how many calories the ingredients contain, the lure of the mouth-watering food overcomes us.

Several senior residents who hail from Fujian province also came by to buy the pancakes.

They are regular customers and invite us to share their fare.

One of the residents says he loves the snack but buys it only once a month to control his intake of sugar.

From Jakarta, it is about an hour and a half to Putri Island, which is not far away from the Pulau Seribu Island.

Both the islands are good for snorkeling, diving and fishing.