Depok

Golden domes, the UI lakes and Chastelein's Old Depok

Depok makes a good day out from Jakarta by commuter train. Walk the University of Indonesia campus from Universitas Indonesia station, around its lakes in secondary forest to the grass-roofed central library, then see the golden domes of the Dian Al Mahri mosque and finish in Old Depok's colonial streets.

Morning: the University of Indonesia. Take the KRL to Universitas Indonesia station and walk into the campus. The grounds are laid out around a string of lakes in secondary forest, and the faculties are linked by the free yellow bikun buses. Walk to the central library, a broad, grass-roofed building on the edge of Lake Kenanga, and look out over the water from its terraces. Weekends are best for the campus atmosphere, with families cycling and jogging; on Sundays a market sets up just outside the grounds.

Lunch on Margonda Raya, where student cafés and noodle shops line the road from the campus gates.

Afternoon: the Golden Dome Mosque. Take a car west to Masjid Dian Al-Mahri, opened in 2006 by a businesswoman from Banten. Its main dome and four smaller ones, standing for the five pillars of Islam, are coated in a thin layer of gold, and the interior has crystal chandeliers and mosaics. Dress conservatively and arrive between prayer times.

Late afternoon: Old Depok. Finish at Jalan Pemuda near Depok station. The GPIB Immanuel church, the old Chastelein foundation buildings and the colonial houses of the Belanda Depok families tell the story of the freed slave community that founded the town in 1714. Catch the train back to Jakarta before the evening rush.

Belimbing dewa, Margonda student cafés and Sundanese lunches

Depok eats like a student city: cheap, fast and plentiful. Margonda Raya and the lanes behind it serve nasi padang, ayam geprek with fierce sambal and noodle soups at student prices, with cafés open late. The local produce is the belimbing dewa, a large, sweet starfruit developed in the city.

Margonda Raya and the lanes behind it are lined with warung serving nasi padang, ayam geprek (smashed fried chicken with fierce sambal) and noodle soups at student prices, plus coffee shops where groups study late into the night.

Fresh starfruit juice, dodol starfruit sweets and syrups are sold at markets and souvenir shops around the city.

As part of West Java, Depok's restaurants lean Sundanese. Look for nasi timbel with fried chicken, tempeh, salted fish and fresh lalapan greens, pepes fish steamed in banana leaf with spices, and karedok salad in peanut sauce. Betawi dishes such as nasi uduk and soto Betawi turn up near the stations, reflecting the city's history as part of Jakarta's hinterland.

Cold drinks are a necessity in the heat. Stalls sell es kelapa muda, young coconut water with ice and palm sugar, and es campur, shaved ice with fruit chunks and jelly.

For sit-down meals, the malls on Margonda and the restaurants along Jalan Raya Bogor have most of the choice, from Javanese to Western. The Sunday market by the campus is good for snacks and street food.

Cornelis Chastelein and the twelve Belanda Depok families

Old Depok has one of Java's more surprising colonial stories. Cornelis Chastelein, a Dutch East India Company official, bought land south of Batavia in the late 17th century, converted the people enslaved on his estate and freed them in his will, leaving the land to twelve families still known as the Belanda Depok.

The story behind Old Depok is one of the more surprising in Java's colonial history. Cornelis Chastelein was a senior official of the Dutch East India Company who bought land south of Batavia in the late 17th century and ran it as an estate with slaves brought from Bali, Sulawesi and other islands. A devout Protestant, he converted his workers and, in his will, freed them and left them the land when he died in 1714.

The freed community organised itself into twelve family clans, among them Jonathans, Laurens, Loen and Leander, and governed the estate collectively. Because they spoke Dutch and practised the colonial church's faith, they became known as the Belanda Depok. Popular stories say the name Depok comes from the initials of a Dutch Protestant organisation, though historians doubt this.

The heritage survives in a small area around Jalan Pemuda. The GPIB Immanuel church, rebuilt in stone in the 19th century, is the community's spiritual home, and the old foundation that represents the families still manages some of the property. Colonial bungalows with deep verandas line the side streets, and the old cemetery holds generations of the clans.

The community's history was not always peaceful: during the revolutionary violence of late 1945 they were attacked as supposed Dutch sympathisers. Today descendants are spread across Indonesia and the Netherlands, but family reunions and church events still bring them back.