Jakarta, Day 3

my third and last day in Jakarta. my flight leaves for KL at 1545pm. Mashi was to stay on another day and return back to KL the next evening (good luck Mashi! =P)

our plan for the third day was to visit Tanah Abang to check out more kain. and i was hoping to find a batik shirt for my brother. so we woke up early to maximize the morning hours available before i had to pack and leave for the airport. our stay was inclusive breakfast; we had to forgo the day before in favor of our Bandung trip.

breakfast was served on the 4th floor of the hotel. in addition to the usual western breakfast, nasi lauk was also readily available, lol. in Dayana's DST school subject, rice for breakfast is a big fat WRONG but i ain't complaining, hee~

breakfast

gazebo

Jakarta, morning view

on the way to Tanah Abang, Mashi got abit jakun to see green people on bikes whizzing on the roads. have you heard of Go-jek? the taxi driver tells us that's it similar to Uber, only motorcyclist-style, a service that offers not only just transport, but courier and go-mart as well. or maybe it's similar to Go-get, i have no idea. anyway, ade beran? especially on Jakarta roads, lolz. i told Mashi to give it a try after i left for the airport. adventure sikit! bahahhahahaha.

go-jek!

you can get lost in the maze of stalls in Tanah Abang. the last time i was here was in 2009. all the kains were located at the lower levels of the building. see all the lovely batiks? cantikkkkks gilerrrrrrrrrr!!!

#borongsallthebatiks

their choices of batik are not bad either

we found softer lace here as compared to the one Mashi purchased in Bandung, but they were selling it for 150K per meter (i already added them to my wishlist =P~) immediately asked Mashi to fast fast get married so we can #buyallthelaces and plan our next trip to Bandung haha. there was this one gorgeous beaded lace selling for 350K a meter. that one's PERFECT for tailoring a wedding outfit. cantik gila.

more lace. cantik nak mati

i. want. this. lace.

despite having a tight schedule, we managed to experience riding this vehicle, haha. it took us as far as Gambir Station. from there we had to take a taxi to get back to our hotel.

ride to your next pit stop... mcm amazing race lol

milestone achieved! haha

i had to stop by Kuningan City Mall first because bibik made some last minute requests for local medicine.

since i had luggage allowance, we spent my last few minutes in the hotel trying to cram everything into my luggage bag. i remember Mashi laughing at me for bringing my wheeled luggage (she backpacked to Jakarta). see how that bag finally berjasa in the end? in fact, i should've brought bigger luggage, hahahahah. tak muat ok, 3 pairs of telekung, 4 sets of kain, 2 shirts, a boxful of Kartika Sari and who-knows-what-else. i brought back the heavier stuff, she brought back some of my lighter stuff since she only had a 7-kg allowace (itu pun she complained her bag was heavy lugging it around the airport lol).

according to the taxi driver, the traffic (macet) usually starts to build up after 2pm-ish on weekdays, so it might take you slightly longer to get the airport. it was already 1pm when i left the hotel, the journey took me 45 minutes to get to Terminal 2. you had to pay 9K + 6K in toll fees, plus the taxi fare of 145K.

ke bandara: lancar

heading for the airport

there wasn't much to do at the airport so i checked-in my bag and headed for the departure hall. the only things i got here were a couple of souvenirs for my sisters. thinking back i should've just bought them some lace in Bandung. oh well, maybe next time.

the aircraft for my return flight was an old model, so no in-flight entertainment for me =(. their safety briefing video was given via monitors that folded down from above... sigh. so i was literally mati kutu for the next 2 hours, lol. luckily the seat in between me and the other passenger was empty.

the Commander of my flight happened to be the very same Captain that cleared the husband for his final line check last December. excuse me for my slight jakun-ness, but i get a little bit excited whenever a tech crew's name is familiar to me, even if i don't know that person at all haha.

old aircraft!

my chicken sandwich

Arrivals

and 2 hours later... i landed in KL just before 7pm, just in time for dinner. lol. back to reality. let's do this again Mashi, ok? =D

Jakarta, Day 2

i don't remember what time i fell asleep but i do remember waking up to my 3.15am alarm to get dressed. we requested a taxi at the front desk the night before so we had to be ready at the lobby by 4am.

for some reason the taxi driver thought we were going to the airport instead of the train station T____T.

we bought burgers to eat before boarding the train. when we purchased our train tickets from the kiosk, what we received was only the receipt for our ticket purchase. we actually had to print out our train tickets using the machines provided before boarding. our tickets cost 100K per person one-way. one of the guards helped us purchase them through the kiosk yesterday. the irony was, after we paid for our tickets to Bandung, we found out that there were no more train seats available for the trip back. lol.

no worries. mari gamble, says Mashi.

the train service that was operating the Jakarta-Bandung route was called Argo Parahyangan. i think Mashi purchased tickets for the executive coaches; our coach was really roomy and food was available for purchase on the train. i assume it's the norm for the locals to purchase their tickets in advance, so the cheaper classes were unavailable by the time we wanted to get ours.

the train was slightly delayed; the train left the station about half an hour late. total journey to Bandung was about 3 and a half hours. it was still dark out, so there wasn't much to glimpse out the train windows. since i didn't get enough sleep the night before, i spent the whole duration trying to catch up on my sleep. Mashi woke up at some point in the journey to take photos out her window.

an equivalent of our ktms?

railway platform at 5am

Gambir Station

the train interior

sleepyhead selfie

muka tak cukup tido

morning view

welcome to Bandung!

we hired a taxi to take us around for the day. the taxi driver first brought us to a bunch of factory outlets: Summit, Passion, Heritage. i didn't get anything much from here, to me the clothes found here were so-so. Mashi went on a mini shopping spree though. lol. that was the main purpose of her trip to Jakarta, so knock yourself out!

one of the factory outlets we visited

we were then dropped off at Kartika Sari to buy the supposedly famous brownies. i was too busy figuring out what to buy that i forgot to take any photos here. they would pack all your purchases into small boxes for you to transport them on the plane/bus/wherever easily. people say their Brownies Kukus were most famously sought after; i personally felt that their Brownies Bakar were the best. i purchased one of them bakar ones to eat with Mashi in the taxi. wish i had bought more of them to bring back. the kukus ones tasted like normal moist chocolate cake if you think about it.

next we moved on to Pasar Baru, since everyone says Bandung is famous for their laces, no? you know how Japanese anime love to exaggerate the character's eyes whenever they depict them shining in awe or wonderment? yeah that's exactly how i describe the two of us when we came across rolls and rolls of gorgeous lace.

was half glad i didn't bring enough rupiah on this trip =P. the store we went into said they could even tailor you an outfit completed in one day for 800K, lace and lining included. too bad we weren't staying in Bandung, i would've taken up on the offer immediately lol. i have yet to find a tailor i'm comfortable with back home.

Mashi was also on a mission to find a particular piece of cloth for her friend so while she poked and prodded every lace in the store, i sat down and chilled (and started an imaginary list in my brain on what type of lace and color to buy in the future hahahah).

mashi belek kain sepenuh hati

yummy lace colors

the people here are really helpful - sanggup hunt high and low for whatever color cloth they think you might fancy. they tried really hard to find a matching lining for the lace that Mashi wanted to get. they even managed to find an exact match for her friend's cloth. they mentioned to us that outsiders usually buy cloth by the kilos. hebat, oh?

which color lining????

we also purchased some telekung here as well; we conveniently passed a store selling a whole lot of them on our way in.

Rumah Mode was our last pit stop of the day. this was where i purchased some outfits for my kids. in my opinion there wasn't much to be found here (that was to my taste), but food choices were abundant here.

Rumah Mode

haul for the kids

before dropping us back at the train station, the taxi driver brought us to a place where we could get mee kocok for 20K.

Mie kocok is an Indonesian beef noodle soup, specialty of Bandung City, West Java. The dish consists of noodle served in rich beef broth soup, beef tendon, bean sprouts and bakso, kaffir lime juice, and sprinkled with sliced fresh celery, scallion and fried shallots.

mee kocok

mine didn't have bean sprouts, lol

since there were no more trains or buses available to get back to Jakarta, we took a van back to the city with a bunch of other strangers, costing us 120K each for the ride. we left about 4pm and arrived at Gambir Station 3 hours later. it rained on the way back, i was half frozen because i was seated in the middle and the air-conditioning was on full blast T__T.

that night after lugging our things back to our hotel room we decided to go downstairs in search of street food for dinner. we came across this stall just outside our hotel, selling nasi goreng gila, whatever that is. here it's normal for people to eat at food stalls by the side of the roads. it was so dark you could barely see what's on your plate. the nasi goreng wasn't bad, actually. it didn't have any onions (or whatever-stuff-that-i-don't-eat) that i had to fish out lol. we shared our table with some other person who was working at the Embassy nearby. aaaaand he offered to pay for our food. thank you kind sir!

street food

nasi goreng gila

i retired early that night. Seventh Son was on tv but i was too tired to care. i think i started snoozing way earlier than Mashi, haha.

Jakarta, Day 1

so i went on a girls-only trip to Jakarta last weekend. i didn't believe it either when Mr.Pilot said i could go teman Mashi for three days (mere sympathy because her friend had to bail on her? not too sure about that, but i'd rather not push it!!!). he was rostered for the weekend so in a way i wouldn't be missed as much, no?

my one regret about this trip was that she planned it inconveniently BEFORE pay-day!

well anyways, since Mashi's flight was scheduled to leave at 0950 at KLIA2, i decided to pick the 0910 flight so that i wouldn't have to wait so long at Soetta before her flight came in. unfortunately Mr.Pilot's reporting was at 0620 and i hadn't finished packing by then despite me planning to chill at the airport for the next three hours, all due to a no-water scare at 2am -____-

after fruitless attempts at randomly turning on and off taps we only realized that the reason for no water at our house was someone had turned off the main pipe at the meter OUTSIDE, which we never bothered to check T_T (we installed a pressure pump the day before so the water was temporarily turned off).

by the time i reached back home i only had less than an hour to pack and reach the airport if i wanted to check-in on time, so no time to say goodbye to the kids, whoops. i'd forgotten how long the check-in queues could be in the mornings; that morning the queue practically extended to the F counter!. 8.15am and the check-in line was still 5 kilometers long so i ended up running to the stand-by counter and checked-in there. they usually give priority to final call flights provided you strain your ears to hear their announcement.

the automated gates at immigration was kaput, so i had no choice but to join the long queue. i got a stamp in my passport though, haha. i was a bit miffed that i went to HK last year and didn't get a single stamp both ways. what's the point of paying rm200 for a passport renewal and not being able to prove that you actually went out of the country? =P.

i only had less than half hour before the gates closed, so no time to visit the satellite building for no reason =P

morning selfie before boarding

first flight out for 2016

the flight to Jakarta wasn't full. i practically had the whole row to myself (row 29 lol). economy food was mediocre (compared to Mr.Pilot's choice of business class menu hahahah), the curry barely had anything in it but gravy T__T. luckily the aircraft was one of the newer ones, so i was happily preoccupied with The Peanuts Movie throughout the 2-hour flight =D.

the cabin

a whole row practically to myself

morning cloud porn

breakfast

Charlie Brown for in-flight entertainment

i landed at Terminal 2 at 11.10am. i've forgotten how boring Arrivals were; there wasn't much to see or do except to either eat or wait for your ride. after reading back my messages with Mashi i only realized that she was going to land at Terminal 3. haiz. okay so luckily she mentioned that there was a free shuttle bus service to get around terminals, so off i went to look for a bus - after i changed into a more comfortable pair of shoes. geez, i swear that most of the shoes i own aren't travel-worthy. at first i thought of walking but yeah ok i had to scratch that - Terminal 3 is nowhere within walking distance of Terminal 2, pui.

welcome to Indonesia

the airport wifi connection wasn't so good; i kept getting disconnected. i waited over half an hour for Mashi to emerge from Arrivals. instead of taking a taxi to get to town, we decided to take the Damri bus to get to Gambir Railway Station in Central Jakarta (adventure! she calls it), which cost us 40K. i fell asleep on the bus, i was too tired from waking up early lol.

Jakarta traffic is horrendous, i tell you. it may seem like there's barely an inch of gap between the other vehicle beside you (while zooming off at fast speeds), but oddly enough they drive in such a way that i have yet to come across any road accidents during my stay there. in other words, diorang lagi skill. haha.

after looking for train tickets at the train station, we decided to have lunch before heading off to the hotel. i'm not very adventurous when it comes to Indonesian food, but ayam penyet i can still take. the sambal was really spicy. aaaaand the ayam penyet in the menu looked far more bigger n juicier than irl, lol.

our lunch - nasi ayam penyet. and es teh.

so off we went to grab a taxi to get to our hotel, situated in South Jakarta. we paid 50K for the taxi, which in turn manage to get us lost because the taxi at didn't know where the hotel was even after giving him the address. T____T.  he even had to get down and ask around for directions, haha.

one landmark we passed was the National Monument, or Monas. with our tight schedule, pity we didn't have time to drop by. Mashi was amazed by the kereta kuda we passed by. lol.

after literally going around in circles, we finally FOUND made it to the hotel, lol. the hotel was only four stories high, with breakfast being served at the restaurant on the fourth floor. the room was simple, yet functional. it had a queen-sized bed, a tv, a gigantic fridge even bigger than the mini bars you find at hotels (to comfortably hold all the food tourists buy no doubt hahahahah), air-conditioning, hot water, a balcony (with not so much of a view lol), so it was all good. oh they even had wifi! big plus for someone who refuses to activate roaming overseas =D.

the extra facilities that they had was a 'fitness center', a pantry at each level where you can cook if you wanted to, and also free laundry service for 4 garments per day (top, bottom, bra and undies AHAHAHAHHAHA ok just kidding).

our accommodation

simple yet functional

balcony view. LOL

Mr.Pilot sent some cloud porn photos. he had just arrived at BKI; it's been two months since his last flight. his cloud photos are way much awesomer than mine; he gets first class view of them lol.

Mr.Pilot's cloud porn view

we decided to go sightseeing on foot before heading over to HRC Jakarta in the evening to catch the live band, something Mashi says we must do while in Jakarta =D. the nearest mall to our hotel was Kuningan City Mall so off we went.

i'd say that for me malls were really so-so, unless you're really into mall-hopping or if you were looking for something specific to get. we stopped by their local supermarket just to ogle at their stuff. it's true when bibik says that what you find here cannot be found there, and vice versa (which explains why she just loves to buy packages of milo and maggi and ship them back to Indonesia). i just had to take a photo of their local medicine to send to bibik back home, lol. how i go by our Panadol is the same way she goes by her Bodrex =D

obat Indonesia LOL

since our train the next day leaves at 5am, we had an early dinner first at Cafe Betawi before ending the night at HRC. the food here was ok, although i found my dish to be a bit too spicy.

slightly higher-end dinner

bakwan baso

mashi's nasi goreng

toilet selfie at Kuningan City

we couldn't book a table at HRC so we put our names on the waiting list and walked around Pacific Place Mall while waiting. someone kirim an HRC souvenir but the one Mashi was looking for wasn't available, so in the end she bought some pins for herself, because they were on sale (buy 1 free 1 i think).

HRC!

Pacific Place Mall

the live band started 10.30pm so about an hour earlier the restaurant called us saying our table was ready. while waiting for the live band to begin jamming, Mashi did some research on Bandung (she subscribed to 3-days overseas data) while i sipped my drink and cursed the lousy wifi data connection haha. did i mention that this was my first time at HRC? i still don't really get why everyone gets so hyped over HRC merchandise. maybe i should experience their hotel or something one day. i left the restaurant two hours later almost half-deaf in the ear. lol.

Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta

first live band experience

some strawberry infusion

both of us went back to the hotel and pengsan terus because we had an early day tomorrow.

Day 2: Bandung!