The first thing we noticed upon arriving in Jakarta; it was hot. It was also busy, manic and kind of wonderful. It’s been six years since I last touched down in South East Asia and, although I have never been to Indonesia before, it still had that “utterly manic but also totally laid back” vibe that I remember from other countries in the region.
This particular blog is probably going to be quite short, there wasn’t a whole lot to do in Jakarta, and we were exhausted so took full advantage and didn’t go out of our way to cram in every sight. We decided to start our South East Asia visit by using up the rest of Martin’s hotel points and staying in a super fancy hotel, both to make sure that we got a good night’s sleep and to guarantee us a night of decent Aircon.
As soon as we stepped off the plane, we knew we had made the right decision. It was like breathing through a wet blanket. After check-in, we popped out for a late bite to eat at a local ex-pat restaurant Waha Kitchen. The food was terrific, and the ambience was really relaxed. Little did we know, that was something we were going to be getting used to throughout our stay in Indonesia.
Everywhere is very cool, and they exude a chilled vibe I’ve not had the pleasure of experiencing elsewhere.
The next day, after checking into our somewhat less luxurious hotel, we headed out into Jakarta. Our first stop was Plaza Indonesia; a very fancy shopping centre that seemed to be one of the very few “tourist” activities to do in Jakarta. While the layout was beautiful, it was just a shopping centre and aside from the amusing picture below demonstrating just HOW fancy this place was and how little class we had, there’s not much to write home about.
Next, we went on to the Jakarta Monument (Monas). We were pretty intrigued by the public transport in Jakarta, so we caught the bus there. There are three ways to get around Jakarta by public transport: rapid bus transit (buses that act like trains, they have a lane to themselves, the bus stops are raised for level access, and you tap in and out of the bus stop, not the bus itself. This is a pretty cool concept and far more practical and cheaper to introduce to a city than a new metro or light rail system.
The other two options were regular buses (precisely like all the buses in the UK but free!!!!), and the metro (this didn’t seem to go anywhere useful, maybe it was new? We didn’t try this one out in the end). The rapid transit buses were easy to navigate, cheap, convenient and super quick. If you’re ever in Jakarta, we recommend at least giving them a go.
When we finally found the entrance to the park where the Monas was located, we were offered a ride on some free e-bikes, electric scooters that had us whizzing around the park at 27km/h. We couldn’t quite figure out why they were free, but we were happy to take advantage.
We did try to get a ticket to climb the Monas, but we were informed that they were sold out for the day. The entrance was super tricky to find. And I’ve mentioned before, but it was hot. So instead we wandered off to go and buy ourselves a sim card to avoid some of the potential catastrophes that we could foresee.
The significant difference between Indonesia and everywhere that we had been before being that, aside from Jakarta, public transport just isn’t really a thing, everyone just gets cabs everywhere via cab or Gojek (scooter taxi). There are buses of sorts, but they are only minivans that drive around with the door open and don’t have a set timetable or destination. We didn’t fancy our luck on one of these so we decided to stick with the taxis.
That night we had dinner in a place called Melly’s kitchen. A great little joint that served Indonesian food and cheap, cold beer with live bands most evenings.
On our last day in Jakarta, we decided to take in a local tourist attraction, but first, we were jonesing for pancakes.
We wanted to have a relaxing day, so we headed to the beach. Or so we thought. We caught a bus to as close as we could get on the map. We then walked for 2 hours along the edge of a major road with no pavement. We wandered across a bowling alley and decided to pop in, mostly for the benefit of Aircon. I smashed it. Martin never stood a chance.
After another 20 minutes of walking, we found the entrance to the “beach”. We had to pay 50,000IDR (about £3) to get in then we jumped on a bus to the seafront. On the way, we passed many attractions, including a sea world and a theme park with roller coasters. The theme of the place seemed to be “rundown”. That being said, it was packed with people all enjoying the different aspects of the park. Hundreds of boats could take you to a little sandbank about 20 minutes off the shore, lots of shops and restaurants and people sat along the coast having picnics and enjoying family time.
After a long day of walking through 35° heat and being utterly baffled by the location we had found ourselves in, we headed back into town for some dinner and an early night. We had a flight to catch in the morning.