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!