Jalan Jaksa

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Jalan Jaksa (abbreviated as Jl. Jaksa) is a short street approximately 400 meters long in Central Jakarta, Indonesia. It is located about 1 km south of the national museum, Monas, and in the direct vicinity of the Gambir train station. The origin of of the street name dates back to the Dutch era, when students of the Rechts Hogeschool Batavia (Jakarta Law Academy) stayed in the area while studying.^{[citation needed]} Jaksa, the Indonesian word of lawyer, became unofficially the name of the street.

In the late 1960s, Jalan Jaksa transformed itself into a favourite place among foreign tourist backpackers. In 1968 Nathanael Lawalata, the secretary general of the Association of Indonesian Youth Hostels, converted his house into a hostel to establish the Wisma Delima.^{[citation needed]} This was not only the first hotel in the street, but also the only hostel in Jakarta that was internationally listed by the IYHF.

The following years, Jalan Jaksa developed itself into the center of hostel place and was mentioned in many popular backpackers travel guide books, including the Lonely Planet.^{[citation needed]} It became more popular when the Jakarta city council determined the street as a tourism area.^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, the Jakarta Tourism Office stated 57,201 foreign tourists had visited hotels and hostels in the street and the surrounding area, including 4,215 Americans, 9,309 Australians, 29,676 Europeans and 649 Africans.^{[attribution needed]} The average length of stay of foreign tourists at Jalan Jaksa was three days.

On August 5–August 7, 1994, the first annual Jaksa Street Festival was held, jointly organized.^[1] The street festival aimed to increase the popularity of street and simultaneously celebrated the culture of indigenous Jakarta residents, known as the Betawi people.

The 1998 monetary crisis, the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing and the decision in 2005 to reduce the standard tourist visa from 60 to 30 days have reduced the number of budget tourist numbers at Jalan Jaksa. Many backpackers decided to stay directly in the other parts of Indonesia instead of spending 10% of their 30 day visa in Jakarta.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2007, Jalan Jaksa is still the main low budget accommodation in Jakarta. It still remains popular among locals, expat English teachers, and other backpackers.^{[citation needed]} While it is nowhere near as other touristic modern places, the street still manages to offer a selection of services helpful to the average budget tourist, including travel agencies, a bookstore, money changers, laundries, pubs, etc.