Carting Around in Jakarta

I liked that the female bathrooms didn't have a silhouette of a lady in a dress

As I was planning my stops around Asia, I remembered that a good college friend, Mu, lived somewhere in Indonesia but I wasn’t sure where so when I asked him, I learned that he lived in Jakarta but he warned that there wasn’t much to see. With that warning, I planned a very short stop over to pay him a visit and when I say short, I really mean short. 

Fuzzy fruit

In the air again

I'm so rich!

Since I arrived at the airport late in the afternoon, Mu had given me instructions to go from Damri bus station to Gambi station and it took me a bit to figure it out but when I got onto the right bus, it was a straight shot and it wasn’t too long before I found an old friend. 

Not sure what statue this is that I passed by

Welcome to Jakarta! Yay!

Dark views...

As we grabbed a taxi to Mu’s shared house, he taught me that I could say “thank you” by saying “terima kasih” so I tried it on the taxi driver and wasn’t quite sure if I was successful or not. Anyway, after we dropped off my bags at Mu’s, we headed out to the Grand Indonesia which is a huge shopping mall and we got grub at the food court because there was a pretty big selection to choose from. 

So many things to choose from at the food court

Nom nom nom

Hi Mu!

 

At the top level, there was a small interactive museum that was mainly designed for natives but Mu said it was a shame that not many know about it. I, however, enjoyed learning about the different cities in Indonesia and how there are different types of attire, greetings, celebrations, and so on. There was actually a good amount to explore in that little museum that we ended up staying there until they closed for the night and Mu and I headed back to his. 

These portraits say hi to you in their different dialects

Indonesian entertainment

Stitching

The islands of Indonesia

Warrior!

Trying out different Indonesian garb

Learning about different Indonesian instruments

Batik design

Some photos we took at the museum

Had to buy toothpaste but check out the sign!

Walking the streets at night

The Welcome Monument

Hey! There's the Welcome Monument!

The shower situation was pretty foreign to me (no pun intended) and it really made me realize how spoiled and western I am sometimes. When I walked into the shower, I expected to see a shower head but all I saw was two large basins of water and when I asked Mu if I went into the right area, he confirmed that I had and I just needed to wet my body by pouring water from a small container in one of the basins over myself, lathering up, and then rinsing by repeating the first step. Despite the heat and humidity in Jakarta, I still wanted a hot shower so this came as quite a shock to me. I am not one to complain about things like this so I took in the experience and was just glad to be clean and to have a bed to sleep in.

Since Mu had to work that day and I was going to catch my flight out to Sydney later in the day (I told you it was a short stop), I brought my bags with me and we went to his office where I could drop them off. Since Mu needed to work, I had looked up a few things I wanted to check out and went on my way. I took the metro to a station near Kota Tua, “Jakarta Old Town,” and picked up some pastries at a little cart that I ate as I walked. As I was figuring my way around the streets (some streets looked impossible to cross), I’m sure I looked like a foreigner because an older man started walking next to me and made small talk about where I was from and where I was going in the city. I made it to the Jakarta Museum and walked around to see what else I could see before deciding to go in. I walked along the river and watched as people in small boats were fishing out all kinds of rubbish from it. I don’t know what it was that intrigued me but it was very interesting watching them do this.

Mu brought me breakfast!

Pathway from the metro

 The square in front of the museum

The main museum

The river along the way

Fishing...

Eventually, I made it to the entrance of the Jakarta History Museum, “Batavia,” and it was so humid and smoggy that day that I was just excited to have some sort of solace indoors. Around the museum, there seemed to be little alleys packed with vendors and I wanted to go check them out later as it was still relatively early and it didn’t look like much activity at that point. There were school groups around and it looked quite bustling around the museum so I headed in. At that point, I was not surprised to not be greeted with air conditioning (oh how spoiled I am sometimes…) but it was still cooler indoors so I gladly paid the small admission fee and spent some time learning about the history of the city.  

Inside the museum

Old city plans

Not sure what this was...

Cannon

Recorded history in stone

So many different school groups playing

Such colorful bikes!

Statue of Hermes at the exit

 It didn’t take me too long to get through the museum so I decided that I better head off to see what else there was to see. In my quick research of what to do in Jakarta for a day, I had written Petak Sembilan down which is a market in the heart of Jakarta’s Chinatown because I love checking out little markets like that. As I made my way towards that area on the map, I walked down a street that looked fairly vacated but there were lots of paintings and art set up and a few random stores selling furniture. It was cool to watch some of the art being painted right in front of me but it felt so out of place in a way. As I continued to follow the little blue dot on my Maps app, I had somehow walked past where I was supposed to find Petak Sembilan so I asked someone for help and was told that I was there. I didn’t know if there was a landmark to look for so I wandered a bit more and eventually, I happened across narrow walkways of cramped stores that sold all sorts of animals and herbs and plants and other knickknacks. Sounds about right for a small market in Chinatown. Very interesting to walk through. 

Street art

Recreating images from a tiny photo

Found Jakarta's Chinatown!

So many tiny birds

Little jelly snacks?

After I had looked through enough of the little shops, it was about time to meet up with Mu to grab my things and head out. Even though it was a short little meeting with my friend, it was nice to see him and check out his city. By the time I got to the airport, I had found out that my flight was being delayed by three hours! So stuck in that small, humid airport with no wifi, I entertained myself by updating my blog and people watching. 

The National Monument in the distance

After what felt like a long while, I was so relieved to finally be boarding the plane to Denpasar Bali, my layover city. On my flight, I sat next to a woman who made conversation with me about where I was from and she told me that she was going to visit her daughter who was graduating. We exchanged information because she told me that she wanted to read my blog and when she asked what my plans in Bali were, I told her I only had a few hours so I asked if there were any beaches she recommended that were close to the airport. She told me that she would ask her daughter when we got off the flight and her daughter ended up offering me a ride to the closest beach which was also attached to a mall. I’m glad that these were trustworthy people because they didn’t kidnap me and I’m alive to tell the tale. 

Airport noms

So misty in the plane

Our airplane meals

Bye Jakarta!

Upon leaving the airport in Denpasar

So it wasn’t too long of a ride to the mall and it looked like most of the stores were closed at that point so I headed to the back which led to the beach. It was dark but very peaceful. Off in the distance, there was a small wedding party that was letting out lanterns out to sea and it was all very beautiful so I took a few moment to take it all in.  

Got the the mall near the airport

Beach behind the mall

Letting off lanterns

The rest of Bali in the distance

Difficult to capture the beauty of the beach

Christmas decorations at the entrance

As I was figuring out how to get back to the airport, I walked out of the mall and down the street to get some ice cream and change and started to calculate how much more Indonesian money I had left. I walked by a few small shops and these guys on motorbikes asked me if I needed to go somewhere and we struck a deal for them to take me to the airport. Again, another time that I consider myself lucky for coming across people that ended up being trustworthy. 

Walking around Bali

Big walking man sign

These signs were pretty hilarious

Walking around the airport

So with a quick day in Jakarta and a few quick hours in Denpasar Bali, I concluded my tour of Indonesia and was on my way to Sydney!