If you are in Jakarta and someone asks you if you would like to have a trip to the Stadium, don’t expect to be watching a sports game or rock concert. Stadium is the name of a huge club situated in Jakarta’s sleazy northern district amidst a flash of neon signs offering massages and karaoke which mainly caters to Asian expats and local businessmen.
However, Stadium is an exception and is one Jakarta institution which most long-term expats have been to at least once during their nights spent trawling the city’s nightspots. It attracts a motley mix of those who like dance music, illegal substances, late night opening and more carnal pursuits and is an experience not for the faint hearted.
It is a favourite haunt of the Blok M good-time girls, especially after 2 or 3 am when they will go there if they have failed to hook an expat in the bar or better still if they can drag a poor unsuspecting foreign conquest along with their group.
However, although still wild it is tamer than in previous years where it would open for 72 hours non-stop and where some people would enter on a Friday afternoon and not emerge until Sunday evening.
The first thing you notice when you enter is the size of the place. Built over 4 floors it is a mass of people and its various lobbies and carpeted hallways can be a little bewildering. The first floors have karaoke lounges and rooms for massages where a “happy ending” is a required rather than implied part of the service. Then on the third floor there is a bar venue with a live band and girls hanging around who more often than not come with a price attached, although you also get local girls who are just there hanging out with friends.
Finally on the top two floors is the club, which is the reason why most people venture to the city’s northern reaches. The thumping baselines and sounds of whistles and shouts create an energetic atmosphere but you must first try and adjust your eyes to the dark. A feature of Jakarta’s clubs and especially those which encourage illicit activity (sexual or drugs) is the almost total darkness that prevails. In the gloom it is just about possible to make out the hundreds of people moving or swaying to the music but be very careful who you approach, because once they have agreed to leave with you it will be difficult to change your mind when you are outside.
A better tactic is to head for the more well-lit areas, particularly near the top floor lobby just before you get to the dance floor where mamasans will be lurking with their girls who they will practically throw at you. Should you negotiate your way past their admittedly tempting offerings then you will be approached by waiters, shining flashlights to make their way through the throng, who will provide you with beer and often something else for an extra price.
The safest vantage spot is the bar area which has a little more light than the dance floor and where you can spot the better looking girls as they come to quench their first. Remember, this is a place where many of the girls who frequent the expat bars come to have a good time and go wild with their friends, and so you are at a big advantage as there is very little expat male competition. As many of them will be already inebriated or have come here because they didn’t meet anyone earlier you are in a prime positionto capitalise on their good mood. And, remember there is a lot of fun to be had in a pitch dark venue with numerous corners and alcoves where anything goes.
Stadium is not to everyone’s taste, but it is somewhere everyone who stays in Jakarta must experience at least once.
http://www.stadiumjakarta.com/
Read All Articles by: Prester John
Read All Bar and Club Reviews and All Jakarta Expat Articles
Prester has been living and working in Asia for the last six years and four of these have been spent sampling all the delights Jakarta and Indonesia has to offer.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Man, Anthony Otomo and I went there a few months ago but we didn’t know they had a club upstairs – when we walked in it the first floor just looked like a coffee shop so we took off. I didn’t know it was a big club, dang, well next time
worst club i have been too. its also where all the banchi and lady boys like to go, plus undercover cops that lurk there waiting to catch a expat doing something stupid.
On my second visit to jakarta in March 2009, a cab driver recommended the Stadium to me and my friends. We have been to Jakarta two more times since and have made Stadium a must-visit. The ’short-time’ rooms, and girls are of better quality than most in north Jakarta. Price is very fair too.
stadium jakarta is the best forever
Issit safe to di hanky panky stuffs there? Are the girls clean?