The Blok M red light district in Jakarta

The Blok M red light district in Jakarta is probably the best known place for foreign guys to meet chicks in Jakarta. But as I will explain that just isn’t really justified. Blok M definitely isn’t what it used to be. And to be totally honest, Blok M wasn’t even that great to begin with.

Jakarta isn’t really mentioned when it comes to chicks and naughty nightlife. It just doesn’t seem to be on the radar for most guys. Even when they visit Asia they go to Pattaya and Bangkok. I can understand that. But Jakarta easily rivals famous places like Angeles City in terms of available women and adult entertainment. In fact, there’s a lot more going on in Jakarta than most cities in Asia.

Blok M is just one small part of Jakarta. And it is in no way the best part. Some guys tend to stick to certain areas of cities. It seems like a tendency of many human beings all around the world. The net result is that you end up with Chinatown, Little Italy, Koh San Road, and even red light districts like Blok M.

I can understand the appeal of places like Hooker Hill in Seoul. That’s located in a city where most prostitutes and adult entertainment bans foreigners from entry. So it’s only natural that foreign guys would go where they are welcome. But every place in Jakarta is cool with foreign customers. So I can’t totally explain the appeal of Blok M. Especially in the condition the place is in today.

Blok M

Blok M is actually an entire shopping district in South Jakarta. There’s even a big shopping center called Plaza Blok M. But that’s not what foreign guys are talking about when they speak about Blok M. They have a more specific area accurately called Jalan Palatehan in mind.

Jalan is a local Malay word for street. So you see it all over Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Jalan Palatehan is Palatehan Street. And that’s basically where the Blok M action is centered. Or at least what is left of it. As I said, the place has clearly seen better days.

Nowadays Blok M isn’t even as lively as place like Street 130 in Phnom Penh. There are a couple of bars that are on their last legs. There are also some Japanese karaoke clubs. And that’s basically it. The big brothels are gone. Most of the street prostitutes went elsewhere. And there aren’t even any beggars around anymore. That says more than I can about the place.

In its prime, Blok M was supposedly some wild center of debauchery. I don’t know how true that is. I’ve seen pictures and heard stories. But I couldn’t back it up with experience. I first went to Blok M several years ago. Then I passed through again recently. There was basically nothing to see.

The glory days are over

If you listen to any old hands in Asia, you’ll hear that the glory days are dead and buried. On the one hand it’s easy to write it off as just geezers glorifying the past. On the other hand it does sort of ring true. When you hear about guys banging eighteen year olds with rock hard bodies in Pattaya for 200 Baht “back in the day” right after getting quoted 2000 Baht for to bar fine a mother of four, it really makes you wonder.

The two most famous bars in Blok M were Top Gun and D’s Place. Top Gun was a late night haunt where a bunch of over the hill freelancers asked the foreign guys around for huge amounts of money by local standards. Oh, and there was a band that played songs from 50 years ago at levels loud enough to shake the fillings out of your teeth. One visit was enough for me. It was finally put out of its misery sometime in 2017.

D’s Place was like a half-assed go go bar. A few sexy chicks would get on stage every once in a while and dance with their clothes on. A bunch of old women hovered around trying to suck up the scraps. There was a VIP room where you could get busy but they don’t seem to use it anymore. Now the place is filled with guys blowing smoke and competing over a handful of average chicks.

A standout part of Blok M was the massage center in the Hotel Melawai. I even mentioned it when I wrote about the easiest places in the world to have a threesome years ago. You’ll notice that the massage center no longer features on that list. That is mainly because the massage center no longer exists.

The massage center was located on the sixth floor of the hotel. Foreign guys called the place “5+1” as a sort of code. When you walked in you could chose two or more of the chicks and go right into one of the rooms. They were all pretty much experts and up for anything reasonable. The price was about fifty bucks a chick and they didn’t press on time. But it closed too. And with it went the hopes and dreams of countless men in Jakarta.