Jakarta isn’t the sort of place you’d choose to go to on holiday. Its reputation as a polluted, heinously overcrowded city doesn’t have the same allure as say, Bali’s beaches or Yogyakarta’s temples. And with Greater Jakarta’s population tipping 23 million, it ain’t exactly relaxing. But scratch the surface of the ‘Big Durian’, as it’s dubbed, and you’ll find a vibrant, edgy city with an infectious energy and the best nightlife in South East Asia. Having just spent three weeks working in the city, here are a few ways which I found to survive, thrive and fall for the city in a way I never expected.

Eat on the street: While the burgeoning urban elite hang out in swanky bars and restaurants, where dishes regularly cost the same as a poor Jakartan’s daily income, some of the best food in Jakarta can be found on the street. You can feast on nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodles), soto ayam (a sort of chicken noodle soup), satay (meat grilled in peanut sauce) and a multitude of other delicious dishes, all for under £1. Not only is the food tasty and ridiculously cheap, but sitting at a street stall, amongst a chattering crowd, with the smell of spices and clove cigarettes wafting around you, is a truly Jakartan experience.

Go to a nightclub… or two: Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, and Jakarta its beating heart. Yet quite incongruously, the city also has the best nightlife in South East Asia. Stadium,in Chinatown, holds 4,000 people and doesn’t close between Thursday and Monday. Alcohol is not the drug of choice here, and internationally renowned DJs like Sasha spin electronica to a mainly Indonesian crowd of hardcore ravers. Perhaps the fact that Indonesia is the largest producer of ecstasy in the world has something to do with its enduring popularity…

If you want something slightly less full on, try Kemang, an area packed with bars and clubs, and popular with ex-pats. Nu China is a good bet here, a bar-cum-club crammed with glamorous, well heeled types sipping on Grey Goose and Martinis.

Imbine a G&T at Cafe Batavia: If you want to get away from the crowds and sample almost the only remaining slice of colonial Jakarta, then get a cab to Old City and dive into the cool interior of Cafe Batavia. Most of Old City is in a ruinous state, blackened buildings literally collapsing in on themselves, but Cafe Batavia is a glorious homage to the city’s Dutch Colonial past. The teak and rattan interior and vast ceiling vans are redolent of a very different era, and even on a Saturday evening you will have the place almost to yourself. The fact that I had to explain to the staff how to make a G&T didn’t matter a jot. A really fabulous place to while away an evening.

Take an Ojek: The traffic (macat) in Jakarta is hellishly awful, allegedly the second worst in the world after Bogota. Imagine a population of over 20 million people with no trains, no metro, very few cyclists or pedestrians and one struggling Transjakarta bus network. It’s enough to drive even the most sanguine of people utterly insane.

An alternative to sitting in hours and hours of macat, is to take an Ojek, a motorbike taxi. Most busy street corners have an Ojek stand, characterised by a gaggle of men lounging on their mopeds, smoking - as nearly all Indonesian men do. Although at times a little hairy, you’ll get around much faster by Ojek, and for very little cost. For an impatient person like me, it’s well worth the risk…