Anita and I had planned to go to Jakarta since August 2010 and we bought KLM tickets online (it costs RM10 if you pay by credit card. You can pick the ticket up at the KLM office at Park Royal Hotel but must pay in cash; if you pick up your ticket at the office but opt to use your credit card to pay for it, you’re still charged the RM10 fee). It cost us RM293 before the RM10 charge. So affordable and cost less than even AirAsia!
I told Mummy about it during Eid and as I was successful in getting a two-bedroom apartment, she was keen to come along so I bought tickets for her and my nephew, el niño. Ticket prices had gone up slightly by then but at least still managed to get child fare for el niño.
But of course Mummy didn’t go in the end and I was very sad when I visited her on the morning of my departure.
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Met up with el niño at Putrajaya KLIA Transit station and together we boarded the train to KLIA. I had done prior online check-in so it was just a matter of dropping our bags. I had planned to get to the satellite building anyway to shop and was happy that the flight would depart from the satellite building (I had thought it would depart from the main terminal as it was an ASEAN-bound flight).
We went to the gate at 4.30 pm and met up with Anita there. The flight was a bit bumpy – too many clouds – but the in-flight entertainment kept us quite occupied.
We landed at 7 pm local time and were out by 7.30 pm. Anita had pre-arranged a limo with the hotel at only Rp190,000 (taxies from the airport to downtown charge around Rp200,000 on average). The traffic was kind to us, probably as it was Christmas Day and we reached the hotel after 8 pm. There were only a few towers at the hotel apartment complex and only two lifts that service our floor at Block A.
Our two-bedroom apartment had a kitchen/dining area (complete with stove and microwave besides the refrigerator) and living room (with flat-screen TV and cable network. Having said that, while there were ESPN and StarSports, the stations didn’t show any Premier League matches at all – I had to wait for Sports News on CNN and BBC and later Internet to find out the scores and drama against Chelshit and Wigan. Grrr...).
We went out to explore the area for a bit before returning to hotel to relax.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Anita went on a city tour today, joining other tourists on Grayline. I decided to check out the antique market at Jalan Surabaya and then stop at Gambir station to buy tickets for the next day before checking out the museums in the Old City.
We took the bajaj to the antique market and spent about half an hour there. We then took another bajaj to Gambir station but were told that we couldn’t buy tickets in advance so we left. It rained when we were at Gambir but had slowed down to a drizzle when we left. We took another bajaj to Fatahillah Square and there were lovely buildings and already a lot of people there!
After taking photos at Fatahillah Square, we headed to the Puppet Museum (Museum Wayang). This museum is dedicated to puppetry with shadow puppets and three-dimensional wooden puppets on display. The building was once the Old Dutch Church (De Oude Hollandsche Kerk) before being converted into a museum in 1975. Entrance fee is dirt-cheap at IDR2000 for adults and a mere IDR600 for children below 12.
Next we headed to Jakarta History Museum aka Fatahillah Museum. Housed in the former Stadhuys (Town Hall), the museum features memorabilia depicting the historical developments of the city. The entrance fee is similar to that charged by the Puppet Museum. I was amazed at the crowd; Indonesians really value their own history and culture.
It was almost noon when we emerged back into the sun. We took photos of the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, Post Office and Café Batavia before leaving the Old City.
We took a bajaj to Sarinah Department Store where we performed prayers, had lunch and did a bit of shopping. Then we headed to Plaza Indonesia – spent a longgg time there (who ever knew my nephew could shop? And took a much longer time than me? I’m a quick shopper. Serious.). Our last pit-stop was Grand Indonesia where we had dinner.
We returned back to the hotel by taxi and turned the TV on in time to see Malaysia score their first goal against Indonesia in the first leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup!!! Malaysia went on to win the match 3-0.
Monday, 27 December 2010
We woke up early today as our destination today was the Safari Park near Bogor. Anita joined a tour while I decided it was something I could do on my own. Besides, I read that the traffic jam heading to the highlands where the park is could be horrible. So el niño and I took a cab to Gambir station and bought Pakuan Express tickets to Bogor. The train was late in arriving though; we waited more than half an hour but once it came, we managed to get good seats and the train ride was comfortable. It took only 55 minutes to reach Bogor. We also met a few Malaysian students doing their medical degree in Jakarta who were also heading to Bogor for their term break.
I read that we could ride an angkot to the Safari Park but little did I know the park was quite far from Bogor town itself. So we hopped on ojek (motorbike taxies) and rode to the park. One advantage is you beat the traffic jam of course. Parts of the road were closed in sequence to allow traffic to flow – you could travel for some miles before being stopped and the traffic from the opposite direction be allowed to move. Then they get stopped and you resume your journey. Motorbikes, however, are allowed to continue and not subjected to this partial ‘road closure’. Despite this, it still took us an hour to get to the park. If we had taken an angkot or a car, it probably would have taken us two hours to get there and I’d be nursing a headache after being stuck in a vehicle that long in the heat.
We bought tickets and walked in to the bus area. If you come to the park by public transportation, you can ride the park bus around the park. Animals are left free to wander around the park (except for the carnivores – tigers, lions and even bears, which are left in their own gated area) and you can feed the animals from your car. The tour ended maybe 45 minutes later and we were free to roam the park.
It started to drizzle shortly after but I came prepared with raincoats so we were not too bothered by the rain. We went to the baby zoo where we took pictures with some animals (each visitor needs to pay only IDR10,000 for each animal they want to take pictures with). El niño was so excited and wanted to try out some rides (*sigh*); thank God it was raining or he’d ride even more than those he eventually did.
I read quite a few reviews saying that the safari park is wayyy better than the zoo in Singapore and the crowd was a good indication of the popularity of the park. We caught glimpses of the dolphin show (there were just too many people!!!) and after exploring a bit more of the grounds, reluctantly found our way back to the ojek drivers for our ride back to Bogor.
We reached Bogor train station just in time to pay the ojek drivers, buy train tickets back to Jakarta and board the train. The train left the station at 3.35 pm and we reached Gambir station at 4.30 pm. We hailed a cab back to the hotel and rested.
Dinner was had at the nearby Pasar Festival.
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Anita joined another tour to Bandung today so we agreed to do our shopping together the next day. So today, el niño and I took a cab to Plaza Senayan (it was shopping day today!). We passed Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (where the second leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup Final between Indonesia and Malaysia would be held) and saw a lot of vendors selling Indonesian football jerseys etc outside the stadium. We also saw a lot of people queuing – I’m not sure if they were queuing for tickets because surely the tickets had been long sold out? We shopped, performed prayers, window shopped and had lunch at Plaza Senayan. I was quite please as I finally managed to get my Cesc t-shirt - it cost more than the one I saw in Isetan earlier (I didn’t get it then as it was in L-size) but had a 30% discount. Then we crossed over to Senayan City. It has more or less the stores at Plaza Indonesia anyway so we left before long and headed to Plaza Indonesia.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
All three of us shared a bajaj this morning and headed for Tanah Abang. I was only planning to get simple prayer attires for myself and Akak. Anita managed to find good deals (she really bought a lot!) and we ended up at Tanah Abang for more than two hours. After that, we headed to – yup, you guess it – Plaza Indonesia to continue our shopping. El niño and I crossed over to Grand Indonesia before returning to Plaza Indonesia for our late lunch.
We left before 5 pm and were stuck for more than an hour in the crawl. I suspect the cabbie was not familiar with our hotel location as he took a different route and as a result, we got caught in the after-office traffic jam. On the other side of the road, we could see vans and buses and even trucks ferrying Indonesian supporters to the stadium in Senayan.
Malaysia lost 1-2 after leading but won the Cup on aggregate. Congratulations Team Malaysia!!! I’m so proud of you. I didn’t realise we actually have young players who could play football well ;')
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Well, our stay had come to an end today. I woke up missing Mummy terribly. Anita left early bringing her bags down to the luggage room as she joined another city tour today. El niño and I checked out at 10.30 am and took the bajaj to Plaza Indonesia. There was an area called Miniapolis at Level 3 and el niño wanted to ride the train (what is it about boys and trains??!!). We had lunch at Grand Indonesia before heading back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, we went for a massage (we had earlier scouted for spas in Plaza Indonesia. I could get two massage sessions at the hotel for the price charged at the spa in Plaza Indonesia!).
We met up with Anita at the lobby at 4.10 pm and went to the pre-arranged vehicle for our ride to the airport. We reached the airport an hour later and dropped off our bags. The flight was bound for Amsterdam with a transit and cabin crew change in KL. We landed 20 minutes before schedule and yet our bags only appeared at 10.46 pm so el niño and I had to run, run, run to the KLIA transit station for our 10.52 pm train. I dropped off el niño at Putrajaya station where he waited for his family to come and continued on alone to KL Sentral. Abah came to pick me up and I was home by midnight.
So that was my year-end trip. I hope you had a great holiday too!
One fine day, I hope I can go on a safari in Africa like these lads
Where you can practically reach out to pet the jungle cats
And have giants like these tailing behind. One fine day, insyaAllah
I told Mummy about it during Eid and as I was successful in getting a two-bedroom apartment, she was keen to come along so I bought tickets for her and my nephew, el niño. Ticket prices had gone up slightly by then but at least still managed to get child fare for el niño.
But of course Mummy didn’t go in the end and I was very sad when I visited her on the morning of my departure.
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Met up with el niño at Putrajaya KLIA Transit station and together we boarded the train to KLIA. I had done prior online check-in so it was just a matter of dropping our bags. I had planned to get to the satellite building anyway to shop and was happy that the flight would depart from the satellite building (I had thought it would depart from the main terminal as it was an ASEAN-bound flight).
We went to the gate at 4.30 pm and met up with Anita there. The flight was a bit bumpy – too many clouds – but the in-flight entertainment kept us quite occupied.
We landed at 7 pm local time and were out by 7.30 pm. Anita had pre-arranged a limo with the hotel at only Rp190,000 (taxies from the airport to downtown charge around Rp200,000 on average). The traffic was kind to us, probably as it was Christmas Day and we reached the hotel after 8 pm. There were only a few towers at the hotel apartment complex and only two lifts that service our floor at Block A.
Our two-bedroom apartment had a kitchen/dining area (complete with stove and microwave besides the refrigerator) and living room (with flat-screen TV and cable network. Having said that, while there were ESPN and StarSports, the stations didn’t show any Premier League matches at all – I had to wait for Sports News on CNN and BBC and later Internet to find out the scores and drama against Chelshit and Wigan. Grrr...).
We went out to explore the area for a bit before returning to hotel to relax.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Anita went on a city tour today, joining other tourists on Grayline. I decided to check out the antique market at Jalan Surabaya and then stop at Gambir station to buy tickets for the next day before checking out the museums in the Old City.
We took the bajaj to the antique market and spent about half an hour there. We then took another bajaj to Gambir station but were told that we couldn’t buy tickets in advance so we left. It rained when we were at Gambir but had slowed down to a drizzle when we left. We took another bajaj to Fatahillah Square and there were lovely buildings and already a lot of people there!
After taking photos at Fatahillah Square, we headed to the Puppet Museum (Museum Wayang). This museum is dedicated to puppetry with shadow puppets and three-dimensional wooden puppets on display. The building was once the Old Dutch Church (De Oude Hollandsche Kerk) before being converted into a museum in 1975. Entrance fee is dirt-cheap at IDR2000 for adults and a mere IDR600 for children below 12.
Next we headed to Jakarta History Museum aka Fatahillah Museum. Housed in the former Stadhuys (Town Hall), the museum features memorabilia depicting the historical developments of the city. The entrance fee is similar to that charged by the Puppet Museum. I was amazed at the crowd; Indonesians really value their own history and culture.
It was almost noon when we emerged back into the sun. We took photos of the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, Post Office and Café Batavia before leaving the Old City.
We took a bajaj to Sarinah Department Store where we performed prayers, had lunch and did a bit of shopping. Then we headed to Plaza Indonesia – spent a longgg time there (who ever knew my nephew could shop? And took a much longer time than me? I’m a quick shopper. Serious.). Our last pit-stop was Grand Indonesia where we had dinner.
We returned back to the hotel by taxi and turned the TV on in time to see Malaysia score their first goal against Indonesia in the first leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup!!! Malaysia went on to win the match 3-0.
Monday, 27 December 2010
We woke up early today as our destination today was the Safari Park near Bogor. Anita joined a tour while I decided it was something I could do on my own. Besides, I read that the traffic jam heading to the highlands where the park is could be horrible. So el niño and I took a cab to Gambir station and bought Pakuan Express tickets to Bogor. The train was late in arriving though; we waited more than half an hour but once it came, we managed to get good seats and the train ride was comfortable. It took only 55 minutes to reach Bogor. We also met a few Malaysian students doing their medical degree in Jakarta who were also heading to Bogor for their term break.
I read that we could ride an angkot to the Safari Park but little did I know the park was quite far from Bogor town itself. So we hopped on ojek (motorbike taxies) and rode to the park. One advantage is you beat the traffic jam of course. Parts of the road were closed in sequence to allow traffic to flow – you could travel for some miles before being stopped and the traffic from the opposite direction be allowed to move. Then they get stopped and you resume your journey. Motorbikes, however, are allowed to continue and not subjected to this partial ‘road closure’. Despite this, it still took us an hour to get to the park. If we had taken an angkot or a car, it probably would have taken us two hours to get there and I’d be nursing a headache after being stuck in a vehicle that long in the heat.
We bought tickets and walked in to the bus area. If you come to the park by public transportation, you can ride the park bus around the park. Animals are left free to wander around the park (except for the carnivores – tigers, lions and even bears, which are left in their own gated area) and you can feed the animals from your car. The tour ended maybe 45 minutes later and we were free to roam the park.
It started to drizzle shortly after but I came prepared with raincoats so we were not too bothered by the rain. We went to the baby zoo where we took pictures with some animals (each visitor needs to pay only IDR10,000 for each animal they want to take pictures with). El niño was so excited and wanted to try out some rides (*sigh*); thank God it was raining or he’d ride even more than those he eventually did.
I read quite a few reviews saying that the safari park is wayyy better than the zoo in Singapore and the crowd was a good indication of the popularity of the park. We caught glimpses of the dolphin show (there were just too many people!!!) and after exploring a bit more of the grounds, reluctantly found our way back to the ojek drivers for our ride back to Bogor.
We reached Bogor train station just in time to pay the ojek drivers, buy train tickets back to Jakarta and board the train. The train left the station at 3.35 pm and we reached Gambir station at 4.30 pm. We hailed a cab back to the hotel and rested.
Dinner was had at the nearby Pasar Festival.
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Anita joined another tour to Bandung today so we agreed to do our shopping together the next day. So today, el niño and I took a cab to Plaza Senayan (it was shopping day today!). We passed Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (where the second leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup Final between Indonesia and Malaysia would be held) and saw a lot of vendors selling Indonesian football jerseys etc outside the stadium. We also saw a lot of people queuing – I’m not sure if they were queuing for tickets because surely the tickets had been long sold out? We shopped, performed prayers, window shopped and had lunch at Plaza Senayan. I was quite please as I finally managed to get my Cesc t-shirt - it cost more than the one I saw in Isetan earlier (I didn’t get it then as it was in L-size) but had a 30% discount. Then we crossed over to Senayan City. It has more or less the stores at Plaza Indonesia anyway so we left before long and headed to Plaza Indonesia.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
All three of us shared a bajaj this morning and headed for Tanah Abang. I was only planning to get simple prayer attires for myself and Akak. Anita managed to find good deals (she really bought a lot!) and we ended up at Tanah Abang for more than two hours. After that, we headed to – yup, you guess it – Plaza Indonesia to continue our shopping. El niño and I crossed over to Grand Indonesia before returning to Plaza Indonesia for our late lunch.
We left before 5 pm and were stuck for more than an hour in the crawl. I suspect the cabbie was not familiar with our hotel location as he took a different route and as a result, we got caught in the after-office traffic jam. On the other side of the road, we could see vans and buses and even trucks ferrying Indonesian supporters to the stadium in Senayan.
Malaysia lost 1-2 after leading but won the Cup on aggregate. Congratulations Team Malaysia!!! I’m so proud of you. I didn’t realise we actually have young players who could play football well ;')
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Well, our stay had come to an end today. I woke up missing Mummy terribly. Anita left early bringing her bags down to the luggage room as she joined another city tour today. El niño and I checked out at 10.30 am and took the bajaj to Plaza Indonesia. There was an area called Miniapolis at Level 3 and el niño wanted to ride the train (what is it about boys and trains??!!). We had lunch at Grand Indonesia before heading back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, we went for a massage (we had earlier scouted for spas in Plaza Indonesia. I could get two massage sessions at the hotel for the price charged at the spa in Plaza Indonesia!).
We met up with Anita at the lobby at 4.10 pm and went to the pre-arranged vehicle for our ride to the airport. We reached the airport an hour later and dropped off our bags. The flight was bound for Amsterdam with a transit and cabin crew change in KL. We landed 20 minutes before schedule and yet our bags only appeared at 10.46 pm so el niño and I had to run, run, run to the KLIA transit station for our 10.52 pm train. I dropped off el niño at Putrajaya station where he waited for his family to come and continued on alone to KL Sentral. Abah came to pick me up and I was home by midnight.
So that was my year-end trip. I hope you had a great holiday too!
One fine day, I hope I can go on a safari in Africa like these lads
Where you can practically reach out to pet the jungle cats
And have giants like these tailing behind. One fine day, insyaAllah
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