Indonesia 2026 (iv): Jakarta

Continuing on from the previous posting, we took Grab from Stasiun Gambir to Ascott Jakarta - our go-to hotel in Jakarta. It's just a "sneeze away" to Grand Indonesia and ThamCit (Thamrin City) as R put it 😀.

We were thankful that there wasn't any demonstration at Bundaran HI when we were there. When we arrived last week on that Saturday, we took the outer route from PIK to Cirebon.

In the Grab

Our good friend ZD cleared his schedule to join us for the weekend. That was so sweet of him. We needed him especially for the bargaining expertise at Thamcit tomorrow🫠

Dinner and movie

I may sound like a broken record when I keep posting the same things whenever we in Jakarta - stayed in Ascott, had dinner at Marugame, enjoyed CFD on Sunday morning and went shopping at Thamcit. Well, if it ain't broken don't fix it😂.

We had actually planned for Kota Tua, which I myself never went to before and Block M to show my sis around. So these are at least 2 reasons to come back right? 😇.

You can never go wrong at Marugame

Mine

Sopannyaaa 😄

We bought tickets for the 9:30pm Toy Story 5 show.

CFD (Car Free Day)

I doubt that my sister ever went to the KL Car Free morning. But CFD Jakarta is not too be missed. There are tons more crowd and the roads are bigger. We went at 7am and that was still considered late by Indo standards 😝.

We walked from Bundaran HI to the bundaran with the Thamrin statue, took a quick look at Monas from far and headed back to our hotel. We stopped at Sarinah to have a quick snack of kerak telur and at the food stalls near GI to buy some breakfast.

(There's an inside joke on Monas - my sister's Indo colleague recommended Monas to her and said that Monas is Jakarta's KLCC. Wait what? I would think Grand Indo and the surrounding area are more like KLCC 😊)

Monas and Masjid Istiqlal at the background

Same pose, different spot 😅

Stopped to snack on Kerak telur outside Sarinah

There was a mini parade at Bundaran HI to celebrate Jakarta's 499th anniversary. One more year before the 5th centennial on June 22nd 2027. I bet the celebrations would be wild.

We stopped the parade for pictures - taking cue from this one guy who started it

Berbelanja

Iya, kita serumpun!

If I had to do some shopping for my sister last year, I didn't have to do any this year. I just let my sister do the shopping herself.

The echoes of "Boleh", "Silahkan", "Berbelanja" were heard as we walked around in Thamcit. She found 2 telekungs to her liking and added a couple more casual dresses. She was so overwhelmed with all of the designs at this one store - Fame, that she forgot to buy one more that she had picked. We had to come back before the shop closed that evening. A sneeze away right? 😛

The bodyguards

We moved to Plaza Indonesia to check out several more stores - alchemist, 3Mongkis and Cottonink.

Playing the waiting game

the 3Mongkis 🙈🙊🙉

We had late lunch at Grand Indonesia's food court before continuing the shopping agenda. Perfume is really trending in Indonesia.

Lunch at the foodcourt

Desserts at Acaii

mochi ice cream strawberry something 😅

My sis taking cue from R 😊😅

Cukup ke tu?

UP at Thamrin 9

We left the shopping bags in our room and headed to Up at Thamrin 9. It's finally open to the public. We arrived slightly after sunset so we missed the golden hour. It's okay.

We just bought tickets for SkyGarden - the observation deck. For additional fees (which is more than double), you can also experience:

UPSide - walk along the perimeter of the building
UPHigh - go up the highest point (in Southern Hemisphere they say!) with a 360° view.

next time maybe?

While waiting for the elevator

Still waiting 😀

We only got to see the Jakarta on this side of the building

Since we have some time left in our 2-hour visit to the SkyGarden, we nongkrong at the coffee place while enjoying the view.

Before returning to our hotel, we had dinner at alMaz. The "Saudi-style" fried chicken tasted real good.

The rice is unlimited

Going home

The next morning, we had time for breakfast at the hotel before checking out early at 8am.

My sister and I had a 12pm flight out of CGK Terminal 2. So we got a free cab ride from Ascott to Sudirman Baru. The KAI Bandara train came at 9:07 am and 40 minutes later we arrived at the Bandara stasiun. Next we hopped on the KA Layang train to get to T3, giving us 2 hours gap before our flight takes off.