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chasing ghosts in jakarta: the messy truth

@Sofia Lane3/9/2026blog

so i've been messing around with ghost hunting in jakarta for a while now, and let me tell you, this city isn't just about street food and traffic jams. there's a shadow side that most tourists never see, and i'm not talking about the kind you find in a museum. i'm talking about the lingering presences, the cold spots in tropical heat, and the whispers that follow you down an alley at 3am.


the weather here is... something else. i just checked and it's 26.7°c but feels like 29.4 with humidity at 85%. it's like the air is breathing on you, heavy and warm. perfect conditions for paranormal activity, or so they say. sweat and spirits, i guess.


now, before you go thinking i'm some wannabe medium, i approach this with gear: emf meters, voice recorders, and a healthy dose of skepticism. but jakarta tests even the hardest skeptics.

there's this place, the lawang palace, that's supposed to be haunted by a female ghost in white. a local told me:

"stay away from the east wing after midnight. she doesn't like being recorded."


i took my chance anyway. i set up my recorder and waited. at around 2:30, i caught a whisper that sounded like "get out" in indonesian. freaky? yeah.

had a chat with some other ghost hunters at a warung near the site. they said the building used to be a hospital during the dutch colonial times. lots of death. makes sense.

if you want to try a tour, there's a guy on yelp who does nighttime walks through the old town. he's got 4 stars but some reviews mention "too much cold air in the room." yeah, that's a good thing here. check out yelp: jakarta ghost tours.

another spot: the kebayoran lama area. there's an abandoned maternity hospital. i heard from a driver that during the 1998 riots, a lot of babies died there. the place is messy, literally, but also spiritually? i went with a friend and our emf spiked in the delivery room out of nowhere.

"i swear i saw a rocking chair move by itself. i was stone cold sober, too."


that's from a dude i met on a local forum. seemed legit.


here's a pro-tip: bring salt. not for your food, but to make a circle around your equipment. it helps contain any... attachments.

now, if the city's ghosts start getting to you, you can always bail to bandung for a day. it's a two-hour drive and has its own share of haunted sites, like the lawang sewu. different vibe, different energies.

i also found a great little coffee shop in menteng that does a mean kopi luwak and has zero paranormal activity. or so i hope. the barista gave me a weird look when i asked about ghosts. maybe i should just keep my mouth shut next time.

definitely check out the tripadvisor thread on haunted jakarta tours. some of the best tips come from there, like avoiding certain nights when the spirits are "angry" (whatever that means). tripadvisor: spirit of jakarta.

there's also a local board called "jakarta occult" where they share evp recordings. be careful though, some say the recordings can attach to your phone. i'm not kidding. i once downloaded a file and my phone's battery drained overnight. could be coincidence, but i still delete anything that sounds like breathing at 3am.

as for me, i'll be back on the streets, chasing evps and trying not to get arrested. because apparently, some security guards don't appreciate you asking about the ghost in their building at 2am. but that's part of the thrill, right?

oh, and one more thing: the humidity ruins electronics. keep your gear in rice bags or silica packets. learned that the hard way when my recorder died after three days. now i carry a bunch of those little silica packets you get in shoe boxes. works like a charm.

that's it for now. i'm heading out again tonight. maybe i'll catch something good. if you're in jakarta and see a weirdo with a recorder and a salt circle, come say hi. just don't ask about the east wing.

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About the author: Sofia Lane

Collecting ideas and sharing the best ones with you.

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