Indonesia 2023 (I): Jakarta

Day 1 - Leaving for Jakarta

Okay, this is another post which is a long time coming. What do you expect? 😁

It was sort of a last minute plan if you will. Well it was 🤣. The FT (Federal Territory) day was on Wednesday and we were given a replacement leave on Monday for Thaipusam that fell on the Saturday. With another replacement day that was awarded because of my recent Penang outstation trip, I just had to fork out one annual leave to take full advantage of the long holiday.

I had texted my friend in Bandung but he wouldn't be in town during that period. Bummer. So I contacted another friend who's working in Jakarta to see if he would be around. He'd be working from home and he said he could show me around whenever he's free. Flight ticket prices where a tad high but I closed one eye and bought 'em tickets.

Another friend said beg umrah. haha. I need my checked-in bag whenever I travel

My normal routine of testing, before and upon return

. 

Tak la berat. hehe

I took the 9am flight out of KLIA. After 2 hours of tickets. As advised by my friends who recently went to Indonesia, I had installed the PeduliLindungi app and submitted my vaccine certificates beforehand. They stopped asking for proof of vaccination at the airport. But you need to declare your  BEA Cukai custom form electronically. You could scan the QR code upon checkin at KLIA or upon arrival in Indonesia. I downloaded the app on my phone and submitted it a day in advance. But be sure to save the QR code so that you could show it to the custom officers after clearing immigration. They will scan it and then direct you to the appropriate lanes to scan your bags.

My friend had even gone the extra length and fetched me at the airport. Ok, next time I'll return the favor when he pays me a visit in KL. We took the airport train from SHIA (Soekarno-Hatta Integrated Airport) station to BNI City station after taking the Skytrain from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. All in all it was about an hour of train rides from the airport.

After arriving at BNI City station, we took the MRT from the nearby Dukuh Atas MRT station to Bundaran HI station (the alphabets were pronounced as Ha Ii, an acronym for Hotel Indonesia). From there it was about 750m/10 minutes of walking to Artotel Jakarta, which is just across Gedung Sarimah. Walking all the way from BNI City to Gedung Sarinah is also doable (~2km).

BNI City/Dukuh Atas - Bundaran HI - Artotel

We could actually head on over to Bandung by train, but I rather spent the night over in Jakarta first. Sure, we didn't get to spend more time in Bandung but that meant there could be other chances to come back in the future. Right? :)

The hotel room. Hopefully the artwork doesn't come to live at night 👻

 

We had lunch at a nearby nasi padang restaurant. There were a couple of good dishes, but overall it was average.

In the evening, we bought some local kuihs from Sari Sari and had dinner at the Bakmi GM. Man, I fell in love with Sari Sari in a heart beat. The amount and varieties of local delicacies that they had were amazing. And my friend said that there's actually more in the mornings. Say whaattt? That I have to see for myself.

Gedung Sarinah is just across from the hotel

And these were just a percentage of what they had

Bakmi GM

Before calling it the night, we walked to Bundaran HI to get acquainted with it.

A very grand bus station

Bundaran "Ha Ii" - you'd hear this over and over again in the MRT :D

Day 2 - In Jakarta before leaving for Bandung

The next day, whilst waiting for my friend who was attending his daily standup meetings, I grabbed the chance to go to Monas (Monumen Nasional). I checked on Google Map that it was just walking distance. My friend said that it was already open to the public.

I paid 40,000 rupiah to visit the observation deck. 20,000 for the jakcard and another 20,000 for the entrance. If you already have the jakcard, then you just need to pay 15,000 rupiah. There were lots of school tours on this day, so the queue was longer. The views of the surrounding area were amazing. I bet it would be even more better if I had prior knowledge of Jakarta's skyline.

Artotel - MONAS

The map was useful to find the entrance to the underground tunnel that will lead to Monas

Queueing up for the elevator

MH Thamrin statue

It was time to head back to the hotel. But not before stopping by for more kuihs at Sari Sari. Yes, I love kuihs, more than the main courses. Loads of people were buying them by tray loads. Acknowledging the mistake of buying more than I could consume yesterday, I just bought a handful (and mouthful :D).

Sari Sari

Itu je? LOL

After checking out, we had lunch at Grand Indonesia. The food court itself is really big and has lots of varities from Nasi Padang to Japanese food and Korean food. They even have Halal Guys. But I settled for Pho. 

Dragging my suitcase along Thamrin to Grand I :D

Then we took a Grab (or was it Maxim?) car to go to Gambir station -  to get on the 3 o'clock train to Bandung. We had seats on the right side of the train, which is the literally right side to be on for better views along the train ride.

To be continued on the next Bandung post...

Day 3 - Bandung

Also to be covered in the next posting

Day 4 - Back in Jakarta

We arrived in Jakarta at around 4pm after the 3 hour train ride from Bandung. I opted for a different hotel, which is the All Seasons Jakarta. It is just right outside of the Dukuh Atas MRT station and BNI City station. An easy access to the city and also when leaving for the airport on Monday.

Pretty nice room

After leaving my stuff in my room, we went to GBK (Gelora Bung Karno) stadium for a looksee and then we were off to Hard Rock Cafe outside of the Pacific Place mall. I do need to buy one pin. I found out recently that the HRC is going to close down indefinitely after 31st of March due to lease issues after 10 years of operations.

Bundaran HI - GBK - HRC

Did not blend in well at GBK Hahaha

Soon to be closed down after March 31st after 10 years of operation

Early dinner at Solaria restaurant

Seafood fried rice. And fish cakes are part of seafood. Well, they are not wrong :P

My friend ordered this. not sure what it was called

We knew we had to get up early tomorrow morning for the Jakarta CFD (Car Free Day), but we yet again walked around Bundaran HI and ended up at Sarinah. LOL! They had like a Papua event there and we managed to catch the last few singing performances. They were great!

Day 5 - Jakarta CFD

People in Indonesia start their day really early. The CFD period is from 6 to 10 am, and I could see people had already hit the tarmacs and on their bikes even before then. I joined my friend at around 7:30 in the morning, and by then people were already out in numbers.

We walked from All Seasons Hotel to Bundaran HI. I jogged and u-turned at Sakinah and headed back to Bundaran HI. I think you can jog all the way until Monas, but the perpendicular roads to Thamrin are still operational. So just need to wait for the traffic police to clear you.

It's a cool idea to have a deck at the top of the bus station for people to enjoy the views

More selfies. Couldn't help it 😼

View from the bus station's top deck

My friend joked that one can't say that they are in Jakarta until they made 3 complete rounds at the roundabout. So I did just that! Ha ha ha!

When I was reunited with my friend, we strolled at the street food stalls that sprung up outside of Grand Indonesia. I had to say no. They looked delicious but I couldn't vouch for my stomach :D. Instead we settled for one stall that was operated by a hotel cafe near the Bundaran HI bus station.

A proper food stall

Nasgor (Nasi goreng) for breakfast

Since I still had some more gas left in the tank, I did another Bundaran HI-Sarinah-Bundaran HI loop. It's been awhile since I ran this much :D.

A place to hang

Taking a breather outside of Sarinah

Food stalls near Sarinah

By 9'ish, we called it quits.

:D

That's a lot of walking even for my standard 😂

At first my friend took me to Blok M, the so-called little Tokyo because there were lots of Japanese eateries. I wanted to treat him because he was such a great host. But since they were not fully halal, we decided to go to Sei-rock ya restaurant. There was a bit of a queue but it was worth it. 

Location of Blok M & Ramen Seirock-Ya

We chose the wrong ramen type. This is the thicker one.

Before getting back to the hotel, we again strolled along Thamrin for one last time. We can't seem to get enough of it, can we? :D. But where else do people hang in Jakarta? Of course, Jakarta has other big neighbourhoods.

Lifts at the MRT station have these installations due to covid

(Titik) Temu

Day 6 - Bye Jakarta

My return flight was at 11am, so I took the 6:46am train from BNI City and arrived at 7:33 am. A bit early for others but the fare for this particular airport train was only 30K rupiah. A real bargain from the normal IDR 70,000 fare.

Morning commute in Jakarta

The premium lounge at CGK T3

Hahaha buat perangai. Well, it's to celebrate the first international flight after covid.

Target practice

Very helpful way to store your bags and stuff when using the toilets

All in all, it was quick but fun getaway. Who doesn't like to be on vacation right? :D I didn't get to cover a lot from this trip but I believe on the great outcome. My friend even said that he even looked at the Pulau Seribu excursion, but it was sold out.

Bali is still in the cards for the next probably Indonesian trips. My Bandung friend said that he managed to unlock the secrets to why people keep coming back to Bali.  There's also Batam and Banyuwangi to discover. We shall see. Insya Allah :)