Jakarta ‘The Capital’

Monas – National Monument of Indonesia

Kinda feel weird to write about big city cause most of my articles are about nature. But Jakarta is not just a big city, it’s a Capital City of Indonesia that I’ve been dreaming of to see. On our 2^nd of 3 long weekends in a row, I got a chance to see Jakarta. Living in Sumbawa and dealing with nature most of the times sometimes makes me wanna see big cities too.

From Sumbawa to go to Jakarta I had to go to Lombok 1^st, started at 7 am from Sumbawa Besar and arrived in Jakarta at 10.40 am. On our 1^st day we directly went to Ancol Sea World which took about 40 minutes. I never go to any aquarium before so I was freaking excited to see those fish even tho I went snorkeling a lot and saw many kind of fish too but it felt different. I kinda feel stupid for writing this article and showing how excited I am to be in a big city lol -,-. Sorry guys, as I said I never really been in a big city. Well I’ve been to Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City but Jakarta seems different :).

Sea World Ancol

Sea World Ancol

Sea World Ancol

To enter the Aquarium we had to pay Rp. 110,000/person, I had fun a lot there enjoying many kinds of fish but not enjoying many kind of people around me lol. We were there for like an hour and half, after that we continued the trip to Fatahillah Square. It took about 30 minutes driving but before we went to Fatahillah Square, we asked the Uber driver to drop us to the station which is in a walking distance from Fatahillah Square cause we wanted to eat 1^st. But after we ate we were too lazy to walk to Fatahillah Square -,- and decided to just take the train to Monas. From Fatahillah Station to Juanda Station took about 10 minutes and from Juanda Station to Monas we took Bajaj, Jakarta’s Three Wheeled Taxi, my 1^st time using it :D

Monas itself is a 132 meters tower which is a famous National Monument of Indonesia, located in the centre of Merdeka Square Central Jakarta. We just took some pictures in front of it, we didn’t even go inside. It was pretty cloudy that day and we still had some places to go so enjoying it from the outside was enough :D. After Monas we took another Bajaj and went to Tanah Abang. It is the biggest textile market in Southeast Asia. I wished to find some clothes there but I actually didn’t really find anything and I was just pretty tired from walking all day and the traffic jam there was terrible.

Monas – National Monument of Indonesia

Monas – National Monument of Indonesia

Bajaj

We decided to just go to the hotel we stay at, Neo Hotel in Blok M. Blok M is a business and shopping quarter in South Jakarta, I like this area and the hotel is in a walking distance to Blok M Square. After failed finding clothes in Tanah Abang, I planned to find in in Blok M Square. And it’s kinda like a Japanese Town, many Japanese restaurants along the way. In the evening we just chilled around Blok M, went to a Japanese Restaurant and and walked around the area.

The next day our 1^st activity was going to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII). It is a 250 acres theme park that based on Indonesian Cultures. Exploring around TMII is like exploring around Indonesia. It has all the provinces pavilion. Each pavilion shows the traditional house of the province, and national costumes and even traditional dances. Since it’s big we decided to rent a bicycle, it was Rp. 50,000 / hour and don’t forget to bring hat cause it was freaking hot -,- and too many people. We didn’t enter every pavilion or enjoying every attraction, we just riding around and entered some pavilions like West Sumatera, Papua, NTB, Bali and some others. But even tho we rent the bycyle for 2 hours we only used it for an hour. I was super tired and it was super hot and I kinda felt sick so we decided to get back to hotel. Gotta deal with another traffic jam tho -,-.

West Sumatera Pavilion - TMII

Papua Pavilion - TMII

Komodo Museum - TMII

After taking a rest and feeling better, I wanted to go to Blok M Square. The best way to stop feeling sick is to go shopping :D. I wanted to go shopping there cause I knew it was cheap.  I got 3 pair of cute shoes for Rp. 100,000 and some cute necklaces. Everything was cheaper than in Sumbawa but I don’t want to bring many things and my backpack was pretty small so I only brought some clothes and shoes and necklaces…eh that’s already a lot -,-

In the evening, we went to Grand Indonesia just to see around and had dinner and some deserts. Then we spent like an hour trying to find a way to Skye Bar and Lounge. If I usually got lost in the forest, now I had some kind of new adventures of getting lost at the mall. We pretend that we didn’t need help lol but we ended up asking someone -,-. Skye Bar is in the 56^th floor of the building and we could see a nice city view of Jakarta. They have a pool that I don’t think people can swim in it, for someone who never really go to a bar, I actually really enjoyed it. I like how it looks and I had fun enjoying the view.

In Grand Indonesia

View from Skye Bar & Lounge

After Skye we actually wanted to go to one more bar to enjoy that night before going back to Sumbawa the next day but I guess we googled the wrong one. Turned out the place we googled about is already closed since couple years ago -,-. So we decided to just got back to hotel. Spending the night walking around Blok M one more time and pack our stuff. Even tho our flight was at 11 am that I thought we still had lil bit of time to maybe go to Blok M Square again or another place but with a traffic jam like in Jakarta, we decided to just go to the airport early.

The trip was not even full 2 days but I think we went to many places already. Places that I only saw on TV before. Even tho I regret that we canceled going to Fatahillah Square just because we were too lazy to walk or that we should have enjoyed TMII more, but the trip was so fun especially in Sea World and lol..the bar. Well I always wanted to go to Jakarta so those places were already enough for now. But I will still want to go back again maybe with bigger backpack so I could shopping more -,-. It’s not that I like shopping that much but I could find more stuff with so much cheaper price than in Sumbawa, it makes me enjoy shopping there. Well thanks Jakarta for giving me a new kind of adventure :)

Breakfast at Neo Hotel - Blok M

In Grand Indonesia

Blok M