Our Jakarta Trip.

What can I say about our recent trip to Jakarta? Tiring, exhausting but fulfilling nevertheless. Most of the time, we were stuck in the traffic jam, something that Jakarta is apparently very famous for. Me, who thought that the traffic in Bangkok was the worse I have ever seen/experinced was greatly mistaken. Nothing beats the "macet" in Jakarta. ( "macet" means traffic jam in Indonesian)

So basically, if you're on a 4 days, 3 nights trip to Jakarta and manage to cover as many tourists spots as possible, you're indeed very fortunate. Luckily for us, our tourist guide was our dear friends Tieke and Bayu who showed us around Jakarta city and the drove us as far as Puncak and Bogor. Hubby did not snap that many pics during this trip as he himself was very tired after a very exhausting week at work. 

But Hubby did snap a lot of beautiful pics when we visited Taman Safari in Puncak. I will blog about our trip to Taman Safari in another entry as it deserves an individual entry of its own. That place was simply amazing.

So, here are some of the pics from our Jakarta trip. It pretty much sums up our trip. Don't be surprised by the pics of food, food and food!!! We did a lot of eating in Jakarta. :D

DAY 1

First pic of the trip. Still in Changi waiting to board the flight.

As usual, Shafiq gets super excited whenever he gets to fly. :D

Shafiq posing in our room at the Le Meridien, Jakarta.

After checking into the hotel, took a cab out to Sederhana. Sederhana is a very famous "padang food" franchise in Indonesia, which is a favourite with Hubby.He usually eats at Sederhana whenever he goes to Jakarta for work. So, he just couldn't wait to take me there.

The food at Sederhana is simply yummy. Sederhana is now my favourite Padang restaurant of all time. Shafiq liked the "sotong" dish so much that he actually asked for a second helping of rice and the "sotong" dish.

I liked the fact that they serve everything they have in small plates so you get to choose what you want to eat, right in front of you. They will only charge you for the dishes you've eaten. Apparently, this is the way it is in Padang restaurants in Indonesia.

I will definitely go back to Jakarta just to eat at Sederhana again. :D

After the very fulfilling lunch at Sederhana, instead of going back to the hotel, took a cab and headed to Tanah Abang. It is a very famous shopping destination especially for textiles and garment items. As we didn't have much time as we needed to rush back to the hotel to meet up with our friends, Tieke and Bayu, I only managed to shop for "kain sembahyang" for our female family members. On our way back to the hotel which was supposedly to be a 10 mins drive away, we got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams and reached our hotel about 1 1/2  hours later. We had to call our friends and reschedule, no thanks to the traffic.

Here's a little something to share to those planning a trip to Jakarta. Please only use Blue Bird Taxis. The only reliable cab service in Jakarta. (As advised by our Indonesian friends). This can be seen by the long queue for Blue Bird Taxis at the airport. It's safer and definitely won't rip you off like the other cabs as they strictly charge according to the meter. 

The view from our room. 

The roads were still clear at that time, 

but you can see that the traffic was slowly building up.

Shafiq with Uncle Bayu. Bayu came straight from his office & met us at the hotel. 

As it was a Friday, he was attired in Batik for work, a known tradition in Indonesia.

For dinner on our first night in Jakarta,
Bayu and Tieke took us to Sari Kuring,
a famous Sundanese restaurant.

The Sundanese version of satay was really nice.

Hubby loves the "stuffed tofu/tauhu".

Ikan Gurame Goreng.

I'm no fan of ikan patin but found myself liking the ikan patin bakar at Sari Kuring.

I really enjoyed the Sundanese dinner at Sari Kuring. Of course my favorite was the Padang food at Sederhana but Sundanese food is much more healthier. Less coconut milk, lots of soup dishes, lots of vegetables (ulam) and a lot of grilled food.

After dinner at Sari Kuring, Tieke and Bayu took us to Pacific Place mall, an upscale 6 floors mall housing a lot of well known luxury brands. Hubby met up with his collegues from the Bank Of America, Jakarta branch.

The X'mas Deco at Pacific Place.

Tieke explaining about the X'mas Deco at the mall.

Shafiq and Mommy near the X'mas Centerpiece at Pacific Place.

Hubby with his colleagues from Bank Of America, Jakarta.

Tieke and I waiting for the husbands to finish their coffee.

Shafiq all worn out from his first day in Jakarta.

The following day, they took us sightseeing around Jakarta city. As it was raining and we were quite pressed for time, we remained in the car and didn't step out to take any pics. 

DAY 2

Hubby managed to snap a pic of the 

Monas National Monument.

Then they brought us to Mangga Dua, another famous shopping destination for the locals and tourists. You can get practically anything here from fake branded bags, to electronic items. Personally speaking, it was my least favorite place because it was too crowded. I didn't do much shopping here. Only managed to buy some "tudung" for my Mom and my MIL, a duffel bag as I bought too many "kain sembahyang" from Tanah Abang the day before and didn't have enough space in our existing bags and 600 individually packed "batik handkerchiefs" to be used as door gifts for my cousin's wedding in February of next year.

Selecting "tudung" at Mangga Dua for my Mom and MIL.

After we finished our shopping in Mangga Dua, it was time for lunch and decided to go to Camu-Camu, another favorite restaurant of Hubby. As it was raining and not forgetting the perpetual traffic jam in Jakarta, it took us quite some time to get to Camu-Camu, only to discover upon arrival that it was closed. So, our hosts took us to Beautika instead, a restaurant that specialises in Manado cuisine from North Sulawesi.

At Beautika. Possing for the camera before digging into our food.

The spread at Beautika. 

The obvious difference about the Manado dish from the rest of the Indonesian cuisines is that it is very hot and spicy. I really enjoyed the "green sambal" but didn't enjoy the rest of the dishes. If I were to rate the types of food that I had the chance to savour in Jakarta, the top of my list will definitely be the Padang food at Sederhana.

After lunch at Beautika, we headed back to hotel to rest. Hubby had his Indonesian Paneristi gathering at 4 pm till late night that day so it was just Shafiq, Mommy and our hosts for dinner that night. It was another horrible episode of traffic jam that night that we ended up having dinner at the food court at Senayan City mall as we basically could not go anywhere else. Even after we finished dinner, we had to wait for nearly 45 minutes for the valet to collect our car from the parking. The whole of Jakarta was out shopping that night because there were some crazy midnight sales going on in both Plaza Senayan and Senayan City. 

Truth be told, in Jakarta, a lot of our time were spent in the car as we always seem to be caught in traffic.

The best time we had, out of the whole trip was our time at Taman Safari in Puncak on our 3rd day in Jakarta. Stay tuned for our Taman Safari escapade in my next entry.

Till then, have a good evening ahead. :D