Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2

Day 20

Mason had work so I and Jon decided to go on a sightseeing tour around Kuala Lumpur together. Our first destination was Chinatown. We walked there from Masjid Jamek station. Masjid Jamek is a small but very beautiful mosque next to the station. In Chinatown we walked along Jalan Petaling which is said to be the main street in the area. Unfortunately it seems to serve more for tourists than for locals these days. But as we were hungry with Jon we found nice restaurant near the end of the covered part of the street which hosted only local customers. Jon’s skills in Chinese language were very helpful in this restaurant.

During eating we decided to visit next in Sri Mahamariamman Hindu temple. The temple was just short walk away from Jalan Petaling. This temple showed me clearly the difference between Hindu temples in Bali and in other parts of the world. And I love that you have to take shoes of in Hindu temple, it feels very good in hot weather. Some woman was celebrating her birthday in temple and she was offering free food for visitors. I had first some kind of porridge which drinkable but it didn’t almost anything. I was feeling full because we just had Chinese lunch and now the porridge but they already filled for me a cup of rice with beans. I didn’t like it because it tasted like coffee and I hate coffee. But it was very nice that they offered these foods for tasting. And I was certainly full after them.

Next we decided to go see the Masjid Negara, the national mosque of Malaysia. It wasn’t easy to find how to get there by foot because you had to cross river and big roads. Finally we found our way to the old railway station which is next to the mosque. This railway station is very beautiful and worth of visit. There was also some information about its history inside and it’s still in use even though it’s called old station. Then we walked to the mosque. There are strict visiting times for non-Muslims and we arrived just before one of the visiting times was starting. Jon was wearing too short shorts so he had to wear purple gown, my shorts were long enough so I didn’t get any special clothing. All female visitors were totally covered with gown and scarves and that was interesting because in other mosques I have visited in Egypt and Israel the clothing rules were not that strict. The mosque is modern and quite simple. The main praying hall has nice glass windows and there was also this smaller building with graves which was very peaceful part of the mosque. And I liked the spiky fountain outside of the mosque which was not working during our visit.

From mosque we went visit its neighbour the Islamic Arts Museum. Museum building is very nice and its collections are very interesting too. I think this must be the museum in Kuala Lumpur and I recommend visiting it very much. I especially liked the exhibition of miniature models of the most famous mosques in the world. Every exhibition room has amazing domes with careful decorations. From the museum we started to walk towards Merdeka Square which is the centre of Colonial District. Merdeka Square has huge flag of Malaysia and basically nothing else. Around it there were some nice buildings like Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Next we decided to go for a dinner in Little India. Finding an Indian restaurant in Little India turned out to be quite hard task. When we asked help people just told us keep on walking. We found many Malay food stalls and covered market street selling all kinds of useless stuff. Finally somebody pointed us to an Indian vegetarian restaurant which turned out to be very good place. We enjoyed our delicious meal and then headed back to Mason’s place after long day of walking.

Day 21

Mason was also working this day so I and Jon decided to go sightseeing together again. Our destination of the day was Batu Caves. Batu Caves has many Hindu temples but the most famous one is Temple Cave where you can enter after walking 272 steps. We took a train to the caves from Bank Negara station and the Batu Caves station is just next to the temples so it’s very easy to reach.

First there is a huge green statue of monkey god Hanuman greeting the visitors of the caves. After short walk you see the huge golden statue of god Murga for who the Temple Cave is dedicated to. The statue was partly in renovation during our visit. Before we decided to climb up the 272 stairs we had lunch in an Indian restaurant near the caves. I also had my first coconut milk fresh from coconut in here. Then we started to climb up the stairs. It was surprisingly easy task. I was little worried of it first because of the heat and my health problems but the climb went smoothly. Except there was one obstacle on the way: there is monkeys living in the caves and of them decided to stole my just bought big water bottle from my hand. And that monkey even knew how to open the bottle and started to drink from it. I was angry but at least other tourists got nice pictures. The Temple Cave was huge and cool but I was now scared of monkey attack. Well, they didn’t attack me again but against some stupid girls who started to eat their sandwiches near the monkeys. The girls got just what they deserved. What I liked most in the cave was a souvenir stall that was selling Hindu related stuff and one those items was a picture with non-stop Hindu song. The song echoed through whole cave and it was playing in my head the rest of the day and I can still remember it. There was also possibility to go visit other caves and get to know their fauna and flora. These tours are not free and it’s only possible to visit these other caves with guided tour. We didn’t go on the tour but it could be very interesting experience.

After the visit in Batu Caves I went back Mason’s place to rest but Jon continued his adventures in Kuala Lumpur alone.

Day 22

We spend the morning in home but we went for a lunch in Irish restaurant. I didn’t know before there could be Irish restaurants, only Irish pubs. After the lunch we walked around in Pavilion shopping centre and had ice cream. Then we went outside to have a walk in KLCC Park and took some pictures with Petronas Towers. That was basically all I did that day. My stay in Malaysia was very much about relaxing.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1

Day 17

I woke up very early. I went to the computers and the guy from reception was also still sleeping on the couch. Soon I got company when other hostel guest, a girl from Canada, woke up too. Receptionist guy also woke up when someone called him. We had breakfast together with the girl and enjoyed morning sun while talking about travelling. Soon other guests started to woke up also and I then started back my things up and get ready for new adventure in a new country. I said goodbye to other hostel guests and then I hunted for a real legal taxi. It took some until a real one passed me.

In Indonesian airports you should always remember that there is a tax to be paid when you leave from them. I forgot this in Bali airport and changed my all money to Malaysian ringgit before the point where you pay the airport tax. Thankfully it was ok to pay with ringgit too. I was hungry so I was looking for a restaurant where I could pay with card because I didn’t have any Indonesian rupiah anymore or US dollars, Singapore dollars, Euros, Australian dollars or British pounds which were ok in the airport restaurants but credit cards were not. Finally I found one café which accepted card payment. One good thing about the airport: toilets have aquariums.

My flight arrived to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the afternoon. At the airport I was surprised when they took my finger prints at the passport checking point. Later I heard that they only do this in the low-cost terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I bought ticket to Skybus from a ticket booth inside the airport but it was quite hard to find the bus from the airport parking lot. At one point of the bus ride I thought the bus was going to break down when it suddenly made loud noise and smell of smoke came inside. Other passengers looked worried too. But in the end we all got safely to KL Sentral. And in there I finally met my friend Mason. He was meeting me with an American guy called Jon. Jon was couchsurfing at Mason’s place and he ended up hanging with us for my whole stay in Malaysia.

As I was horribly hungry without any proper food for whole day I ended up eating at the closest place from me at the KL Sentral: the McDonald’s. After food we went to Mason’s place. It was New Year’s Eve so we watched the New Year’s celebrations from TV and talked about everything what have happened since we last time met. Jon went to get Indian food for all of us and Mason had bottle of white wine so we had small New Year’s party. You could see the Petronas Towers from the building where Mason lived so we followed the official fireworks show from the balcony. So I started the year 2012 in Malaysia and I already knew that my trip in Malaysia would be unforgettable.

Day 18

On my first whole day in Malaysia and for the celebration of New Year I and Mason decided to get a haircut. My hair was definitely too long for this weather. We went to some shopping centre where Mason’s favourite hairdresser was located. Jon came with us too but while we were cutting our hair he was shopping. After the haircut we went to eat at IKEA. Eating at IKEA has become tradition for me and Mason. And I have never seen so full IKEA restaurant, Malaysians clearly love this place.

After lunch we took a metro to KLCC. Mason and Jon first looked for clothes and then we walked in the KLCC Park and marvelled the Petronas Towers in their nightlights. There was exhibition of United Buddy Bears in front of Pavilion shopping centre. I have seen this exhibition before in Helsinki with Mason so visiting this exhibition is also almost tradition for us. From the inside the Pavilion had amazing Christmas decorations still on display. Last thing for the day we had dinner in an Italian restaurant.

Day 19 

I don’t have any memories of this day. I have only 3 pictures from this day and those are evening views from Mason’s apartment. Most likely we stayed the whole day inside and probably ate somewhere in the neighbourhood.

Ubud & Seminyak, Indonesia

Day 13

I felt so horrible in the morning. I went to have breakfast and then went to buy more water. Fever didn’t seem to be so high anymore so I finally got some sleep. But soon I woke up to some singing and smell of something burning. I peeked from window and I saw some women praying behind my door. They were burning coconuts and that’s where to smell came from. They were doing that almost an hour and I was just angry because I wanted to get sleep. Later I realised that they didn’t do that to other rooms. Did the spirits tell that something was wrong in my room (me being sick)? If they were praying for my health it helped because after I woke up in the late afternoon I was feeling quite ok.

I went to the town to eat (in the same cheap place where I had eaten before). When I walked back to the hotel the centre was full of people selling last minute tickets to dance show in Ubud Palace. Because I wanted to see traditional Balinese dancing I bought one ticket. It was one hour until the show was starting so I sat down to wait in a bar drinking honeydew melon juice. Then I moved to Ubud Palace and I got quite good seat to watch the performance. They have these performances every day around Ubud and you can hear the music in the evening echoing around the town which gives a magical feeling. But this show was clearly aimed for tourists. Usually these dance performances last for hours but this was 1.5 hours long which was fine with me because I didn’t feel so well yet. They had 2 different dances in this show. First was short Legong dance performance and then longer Ramayana ballet performance. Both performances were shortened versions of the real stories. But I enjoyed this show and especially the gamelan music.

Day 14

This was my last day in Ubud. I was originally supposed to in Gunung Kawi which is said to be the most impressive ancient site in Bali. But I still didn’t feel perfectly healthy so I decided to skip it because I sometimes felt my head was little dizzy and walking hundreds of stairs didn’t sound very good at that moment. So I was still taking slowly. I went to Ubud Market to buy souvenirs and had lunch in place called Warung Ibu Oka. It’s recommended in every guide of Ubud and by Anthony Bourdain too so it was packed with people when I came there. I shared table with very friendly Australian-Canadian couple. The speciality of this restaurant is roasted pig and that’s what I of course ordered. And it was delicious! And surprisingly cheap! Although the couple told me it used be cheaper, but because Bourdain made this place famous they raised the prices.

Otherwise I didn’t do much on that day. I went back to hotel to rest because suddenly I started to feel little worse again. I organised a ride for me for the next day to beach town of Seminyak where I would spend my last 2 days in Bali. In the evening I went to have dinner in a guide book recommended Tutmak Café. It’s expensive and nothing special so I don’t recommend. 

Day 15

In the morning my ride came to pick me from the hotel. I shared the car with Scottish couple, Swiss woman and American woman. So there were six persons and their luggage in a 5 person car. It was little tight. But we had very nice conversations during the trip. All others left the car in Bali airport so was left alone for the rest of the drive to Kuta. The driver left me at some junction in Kuta and I took a taxi from there to my hostel in Seminyak. Breakfast was still going on so I was greeted with other hostel guests. It was actually nice to have other people around after I had spent many days alone in my hotel room. I had lunch in a restaurant which was other side of the road from the hotel. And the concept of this restaurant soon became my favourite. All the foods are on show and they you just point which ones you want and they fill the plate for you. And it was surprisingly cheap too, probably because many locals seemed to eat at this place too. And the food was delicious. I felt little tired so I decided to rest on my bed for a while. Well, that while became hours of sleep. Rest of the day I spend at the hostel with other guests, just talking and having drinks. I noticed it in Ubud too but here in Seminyak it was clearer because of bigger population:  Balinese people shoot fireworks every evening after sunset, probably to get rid of bad spirits. For dinner I had bad nasi goreng in a bar where other customers were drunk Australians. But it was only place open anymore. 

Day 16

Other guests recommended last night the massage place next door so I decided to try it out too. Full body massage for 45 minutes was only 6 Euros. It was very relaxing and I felt quite numb after that. Then I had lunch again at the same buffet-style restaurant as yesterday and this time I tried different foods. Then I walked to see the beach. The famous beaches of Bali. I must say the first sight was very magical. The smell of salt water, the sound big waves hitting the beach, the wind and the noises from traffic faded in the background. But when I walked closer to the waterline I started to see the truth. The water was full of trash. There were diapers, plastic bags, cans, bottles and even light bulbs. I started to walk south towards Legian and Kuta along the waterline. Suddenly the trashes disappeared from the beach but there was explanation for that; the hotel resort area had started. Beach was cleaned here so hotel visitors don’t need to see the truth. Yellow flags were warning of strong waves but people still in the water. Couple times I almost got sucked by the waves to the sea and I was just standing or walking in shallow water. Somewhere in Legian area there was a gap between the hotels and I got back on the streets. I was feeling so hot and tired so I took a taxi to take me back to the hostel. And as soon I sat down inside I realised that it was a fake taxi. Well, he took me to the hostel but charged a lot of extra; he used traffic as an excuse for that. After that I felt so angry. Again in the evening I was hanging out with other hostel guests. I had dinner in expensive Thai restaurant. We started to watch a Brazilian film in the hostel but soon I started to feel tired and I went to sleep.

I was waiting so much for tomorrow, the day when I would fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and see finally my dear friend.

Touring in Bali, Indonesia

Day 12

This day it was time for tour around the island of Bali. I went to the tourist office where I met with the driver. He said to me that there was going to be 2 Japanese women with us and we went to pick them up from their hotel which was located outside of the town. Driver said it was good thing that I was on the tour with the ladies because according to him Japanese people are too nice to say no. So he said that I should save them during the day from bad situations and that was what I did couple times during next 6 hours.

Our first stop was Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave Temple. The driver said that we need sarongs to enter and we should buy them here if we don’t have because we would need them in every place we visit. Japanese ladies bought their sarongs but I had heard that there are sarongs for tourists available for free on entrance and that was true. So I didn’t buy sarong from there. The temple was interesting looking from the outside; the door was carved as a mouth of some kind of god maybe. Early European explorers thought it was elephant and that why it’s named Elephant Cave. Inside the temple there’s nothing to see. Area around the temple had some old fountains and other temple but otherwise nothing special.

Our next stop was Pura Tirtha Empul or The Holy Spring Water Temple. Again I didn’t need to buy sarong because there was sarongs available for tourists. This temple was very interesting experience. Like the name suggests it has a spring which is holy so people bath in the water. I was watching the bathing ritual and people tried to invite me to come bath with them. If there wouldn’t have been so tight schedule and full day of sightseeing ahead of me I would’ve definitely joined these people. I walked around the temple complex and watched how a praying ceremony was just ending. In this place I did really feel the religious spirit unlike in the Elephant Cave Temple. I really liked this temple and I recommend visiting it. We walked back to our car through souvenir stall and I decided that it would be easier for me just to buy a sarong. And that was a good decision because in the next places where we visited there were no possibilities to borrow a sarong. And it was also useful for other parts of the trip.

Next stop was coffee plantation in Temen. Well, I’m not so sure about that plantation part. There were couple coffee plants here and there and some other plants like cocoa, black pepper and other spices. But I wouldn’t call that place a plantation. And there seemed to be quite many of these “plantations” in the area. But they also had couple of these animals called civets which eat coffee beans. The beans go through their digestion and then people make coffee of those beans. That coffee is called kopi luwak in Indonesian and it’s very expensive. They had some teas and coffee for tasting at the plantation but if you wanted to taste luwak coffee you had to pay for that. As I don’t like coffee I didn’t taste it but the Japanese ladies paid the extra to have a small cup of luwak. And when we started to leave from the plantation, surprise, surprise; we had to go through a shop selling luwak coffee, normal coffee, different teas and local alcohol drinks. I didn’t buy anything but of course the Japanese ladies were shopping like crazy.

Before our next destination we shortly stopped at Penelokan where there was nice view over Lake Batur to Mount Batur, although the mountain was partly covered by clouds. Air was much cooler here at the mountain which was nice relief from the heat but our driver was complaining that air was cold :D Roads were quite crazy at the mountain area, lots of steep hills. It started to rain when we got closer to our next destination which was Pura Besakih or Mother Temple of Besakih. Pura Besakih is the most important and largest temple in Bali. Many guide books warn that this temple could be very annoying experience. Our driver also warned us before we left the car that don’t listen to anybody and he gave me extra task to guard the Japanese ladies. And soon it became very clear why everybody gives warnings about this place. Soon some men were shouting at us from a small booth that we have to check our tickets there. They looked so angry so I decided to show our tickets to them. Then they showed us map of the temple complex and I realised that this wasn’t a ticket checkpoint. Soon they asked us to sign a paper and then we would have a guide which they say is mandatory in the temple complex. Japanese ladies were almost already writing their names in the paper but I quickly stopped them and asked the men to give our tickets back. So without me the Japanese ladies would have got fooled in the first possible place. Then it was time for the temple area. It was raining hard so the views from the temple complex were hidden behind the clouds but I could see that the temple area continued high on the slope of Mount Agung. People were all the time trying to offer guide services or sell umbrellas even when I had one on my own. One of the guides got angry at me when I was protecting Japanese ladies from him and he lied to me that one of the temples was closed. Quite poor lie when I could see other tourists walking inside. Well, there was other entrance to that temple too. But even with all these troubles from locals I recommend to visit in Pura Besakih. In my opinion the complex was very beautiful and the temple design is so unique. On a clear day the views must be amazing. Just remember to ignore everybody there, they will soon get tired of you and then you can walk around in peace.

Next we had lunch. Driver took us to some tourist restaurant which had nice view over a valley. The restaurant had a buffet and the price of the buffet was the highest price I paid for food in Indonesia (it was over 8 Euros). Even the Japanese ladies were shocked of the price. So I decided to eat for full price. The staff seemed to be little shocked when I went to get food for 5^th time. And I still went to get desserts 2 times after that. After dinner we started to drive towards the city of Semarapura. On the way we shortly stopped to see a view over rice terraces. In Semarapura sun was shining again but I was feeling little sick. My ears didn’t feel ok after driving down from the mountain and I also had headache. So it was good thing that Semarapura was our last stop. Semarapura was known as Klungkung before and it used to be the centre of Klungkung kingdom. We visited in Klungkung Palace or what is now left of it. The buildings had interesting paintings on their ceilings but otherwise it wasn’t anything special. The place had also small museum.

On way home we were stuck in traffic. We first dropped the Japanese ladies to their hotel. I also didn’t take the ride all the way back to the tourist office. Because traffic was so bad, it was faster for me to walk back to my hotel. When I got back to my room I noticed the wifi was working. While I was surfing in the internet I started to feel cold and I realised I was getting sick. Soon my fever had risen and I was feeling both cold and hot. I took all the medicines I had and drank water all the time; thankfully I had quite plenty of it. I also had some snacks which I bought earlier so I didn’t need go find food with fever but I was feeling full of the buffet still anyway. I couldn’t get any sleep during following the night.

Ubud, Indonesia

Day  10

My flight was in the afternoon so I we were just hanging around at Mayko’s home in the morning. He took me to the airport and we said goodbye to each other there. I’m really hoping to see him again in the future! I’m sure without him my experience of Jakarta would have been totally different in a bad way. The flight from Jakarta to Bali was surprisingly full of western tourists. Or actually that is not that surprising.

I landed to Bali in the late afternoon; there was even a change of time zone on the way. My first challenge was to find a reliable taxi. I stepped out of the airport doors and soon I was surrounded by people offering me rides. I kept myself and I was looking around and trying to find a taxi stall or something similar. I saw a small supermarket and went there to buy water and on the way I saw the official taxi stall. Phew, I was glad I didn’t need to haggle of my taxi ride. So I first bought the water and then the taxi ride to Ubud where I had accommodation reserved. I couldn’t find any couchsurfing hosts for Bali.

Dark came during the taxi ride and it was pitch-dark when I arrived to my hostel in Ubud. Hostel stuff had some news for me: the hostel was over-booked but they had reserved a hotel room for me at the same price. I didn’t mind that at all, the hotel sounded perfect. One of the hostel staff gave me a ride on scooter to the hotel. Hotel was called Nick’s Hidden Cottages.  I basically had my own cottage there and the staff was super friendly. I went to eat at a restaurant near the hotel and I was shocked when I saw the prices: they were much higher than in Java. The prices were one the things that I found disappointing in Bali.

The whole day I really didn’t realise that it was Christmas Eve until I called home before I went to sleep.

Day 11

Today my plan was to get to know town of Ubud. Ubud is a small town so everything necessary is in the walking distance. Even though my hotel was in the middle of rice fields and forests it was under 10 minutes walk from there to the centre of town. This day I already realised that Bali was a totally different world from Java. Firstly, Bali is full of tourists. I didn’t see many tourists in Jakarta so now it was a little shock to be totally surrounded by them. Secondly, people in Bali are mostly Hindus so there was small temples at every corner and what I found very beautiful was that they put these little flower offerings in front of their homes and shops for protection probably. They even did that my hotel room: there was small new offering for gods or spirits in front of my door every morning.

But on my first day in Ubud I decided to go see first maybe the biggest tourist attraction in Ubud: Monkey Forest Sanctuary. To the sanctuary it was nice walk from hotel through rice fields and forest. At the gates of the sanctuary I saw my first Finnish tourists in Indonesia and that didn’t really excite me. Monkey Forest isn’t anything special. There is monkeys and their shit everywhere but otherwise nothing else to see. There is one big temple and couple smaller ones in the area. So it was a quick stroll around the area. Good thing is that it’s cool there thanks to the big trees.

From Monkey Forest I walked to the centre. Ubud is full shops selling art and clothes and souvenirs. It’s also full of solo female travellers trying to have their Eat Pray Love experience. I visited in Ubud Palace which is nothing special and walked around in the Ubud Market which is more made for tourists than locals. For lunch I found a restaurant with prices almost as cheap as in Java. And they had good local food too. Can’t remember the name of the place but it was on Jalan Dewi Sita and there was temple on the other side of the road.

I was going through my travel guides but I didn’t anything interesting to do in this town anymore. I visited next in the tourist office. I was trying to find out if they had any organised tours to visit the main attractions of Bali. In Bali public transportation is quite badly scheduled and locals mostly go around with scooters and so does many tourists. But I have never drove a scooter before and didn’t want to start learning that in Bali’s traffic. So my only option was organised tour. Tours were actually in quite good prices, with same price you could also hire a driver for you for the day but I wasn’t into haggling with them. So I bought a place for me for one of the tours next day. There would be 2 others coming with me too.

Next thing I wanted to get back to my hotel but I got lost. I finally got back to my hotel 1.5 hours later and I was so sweaty. I put my t-shirt to dry and it stayed wet for my whole stay in the hotel. In the evening I went to have Christmas dinner in a restaurant. It was Christmas Day but it was surprisingly absent on the street scene. Couple restaurants advertised Christmas dinners and there were some plastic Christmas trees on decoration in some places. The wifi wasn’t working in my hotel so I went to find a restaurant where I could use my computer and go check important things on the internet. I ordered a little bit more expensive dinner just because it was Christmas.

Jakarta, Indonesia

Day 6

I woke up early just in case because you will never know what new day in Indonesia brings ahead of you. After leaving from Andry’s apartment I left his keys to a family living downstairs. The family members are the caretakers of the apartment building. I walk to the gate and ask the guards if they could help me order a taxi to the train station. While waiting the taxi I chatted with the guards. Only one of them knew English but he was translating for the others. This chat moment made me just like Indonesians more. When my taxi arrived I said goodbye to this lovely fellows and to this friendly city of Yogyakarta.

I took a train to Jakarta from Tugu station. The train ride was about 7 hours; it actually arrived to Jakarta 15 minutes too early. The landscapes during the train ride were amazing. First the train went through hilly landscapes; you could see the volcanoes in the distance. There were also more forests in this part of Java. Then the landscape changed to rice fields which were continuing as far as you could see. One interesting thing I saw was men guarding the rice field workers with rifles. Makes me wonder why they need rifles, were the workers slaves? Then last hour the train was going through suburbs of Jakarta which made me realize how big this city is. Kids were throwing stones on the train windows so now I knew the reason why the windows were in so bad condition.

I met my host in Jakarta at the train station. His name is Mayko and he came to pick me up with his friend.  He asked if I was interested to go eat and meet some other couchsurfers. Of course I was ready for that. We drove to some shopping centre and met with other local host and his French guests. We first had some street food, then we went to have some beer and then walked around Jalan Jaksa area which is popular area for backpackers to stay.  After that it was already late and we drove to Mayko’s home where I was greeted by his mom and his mom’s dog. I was tired after the early wake up and train ride so I went to sleep soon.

Day 7

Mayko had planned a tour around Jakarta for me and he had invited couple of his friends with us. First we drove around the city pick up one of his friends. While waiting for other two we walked in the skyscraper district and had some delicious dessert. When Mayko’s friend’s arrived we drove to see the National Monument or Monas as locals call it. National monument is 132 metre high observation tower in the centre of the city. Air was hot, of course, and walking to the tower through the square was like walking on a frying pan. Line to the Monas was long but while waiting to get inside Mayko’s friends introduced me to the world of Indonesians snacks that many sellers sold around the Monas. There is only one elevator going up and down the tower so the line was slow because of that. And the elevator is claustrophobic person’s worst nightmare as they pack it as full as possible. Views from the Monas are nice; you could see the whole city from there. And the best thing was that it was not hot up there! The wind was coming from the sea and made air cool up there. We didn’t spend too much time there and then we walked back to the car and started driving to the next destination: Taman Mini Indonesia Indah.

Taman Mini Indonesia Indah is a theme park which includes zoos, museums, gardens, different buildings from all around Indonesia and water park. We first had lunch there, the Indonesians tricked me eating cow fat soup, and unfortunately I can’t recommend it. We drove around the park and stopped to see some of the buildings. I especially liked the buildings from Sumatra, very unique looking. The park was closing so we didn’t have that much time visit it properly and anyways it would take whole day if you want to do that. When the sun started to set we started to drove back to the city. The traffic was crazy and it took 2 hours before we were in the centre. And we still had to drive back to Mayko’s home which is not either near the centre of the city.

Day 8

In the morning we were planning with Mayko what we should go to see that day. We decided to visit in Sunda Kelapa (old port) and in Kota (old town). We first visited in Museum Bahari which tells the history of Jakarta and its port. The museum building was more interesting for me than what it included. Then  we drove to see the port area. The fishing boats were huge and I was horrified when I saw how people go in to the boats. Here were also other western tourists which is rare sight in Jakarta. Water in the sea was the most dirtiest I’ve ever seen.

Next we moved to the Kota area. This was the centre of the city when the Dutch ruled here. It’s near the port but in this city moving to other place is much easier with a vehicle than by foot. I encountered some “Hello Misters” at the square. Around the square there is lots of street food available. Tourists seemed to only use the legendary Café Batavia which I don’t recommend. Definitely go for the street food, it’s million times cheaper than anything in the café and probably even better tasting. I had some tofu with extremely spicy soup, peanut sauce with something good (:D), coconut juice and durian ice cream! Durian definitely has a very special taste. It wasn’t the best ice cream in the world but not bad either.  Then we walked around the area. It has some colonial buildings but unfortunately most of them are in very bad condition.

After getting tired of the heat we drove to some shopping mall and hang out there rest of the day. I was shocked of the pet shops in the mall. Animals were kept in so small cages and most of them were clearly sick in one way or another. There was also exotic looking species, like some rat-like animals. There were also turkeys and chickens, animals which you definitely don’t see in western pet shops.  But after shopping mall visit we had dinner at Mayko’s home. His mother had made a delicious meal. I also bought fresh durian at the shopping centre and “enjoyed” it for dessert. Yuck. Mayko’s friend came for a visit and I gave rest of my durian for him.

Day 9

On my last day in Jakarta we decided to go visit in National Museum. But when we came there it was closed for afternoon siesta. So Mayko decided that we should go to visit in Jakarta’s Chinatown which is called Glodok. We parked the car next to a river which smelled like death, probably there were some dead bodies in the river and that’s why I didn’t want to take a closer look at it. We walked around the narrow streets of Glodok and I bought some rambutan fruits. It was rambutan season so there were extra delicious (or that’s what the locals said, it was my first time eating rambutans so I don’t know if they taste different other times of the year). There was lots of turtles on sale, big ones and super small ones. They were both for pets and for food. And now I also know that turtle shit smells bad. But I wanted to buy them all and release back to the sea. We also visited in building which was selling all kinds of electronic stuff because Mayko needed to buy something from there. We also visited in the area where all the pirated films and music are sold. Mayko said that porn section should be avoided as a western tourist because all the sellers want to be your best friends there and it could take you forever to get out of there. But I have to say about Glodok that it’s very authentic Chinatown compared to other Chinatowns in Southeast Asia which are spoiled by tourists and I definitely recommend visiting it but try to find local to go with you, otherwise you could get lost there.

After the Glodok experience we went to back to the National Museum. I liked the part about New Guinea, lots of interesting information and items from the part of the world which is much unknown for me. I also liked the courtyard with historical statues. New part of the museum was probably still under construction. There was items already on show but the escalators didn’t work and it looked unfinished.

After museum we went to have seafood dinner in shopping mall. This city is full of shopping malls; we never visited same shopping mall twice. The food was amazing especially fish with mango sauce, delicious! After dinner I bought my first sugar cane juice and I fell in love with it. Then we drove back to Mayko’s home. Mayko went to visit in church and I was hanging around his home during that time. He came back with his friend and we talked some time before his friend left home. Then it was time for my last night in Jakarta. Next day I would take flight to Bali!