Days of shopping in Jakarta...

Classification :: Trip Report

We went back to Jakarta by car again. We tried to stop by the R&R area, but it seems like the Bandung's Highway R&Rs were not fully developed like us. The main highway was okay. So we stopped at one of the R&R and quenched our thirst!
Bob walking around looking for the mineral water!
Farah enjoying the coconut water while my mom and ina were standing the heat. It was hot like the desert!
It took almost 3 hours before we reach the relative house. During the journey, there was an accident, where a bus flipped to the side and laid in the middle between the opposing road.

Indonesian are better drivers. They drive like racing on the highways but accident rarely happens. They took over other cars no matter by the left or the right side. Thus, no jams on the highways. Even accident, the jam was not as long as what we experienced in our country.

The first place we went once we reached Jakarta was the house of a relative there. Then, they took us to the said hotel and we had dinner together at a Nasi Padang Restaurant, Sari Bundo. The place was not so clean but that was their choice. Looking at the bill; WOW, it was almost RM400. That was crazy. The food wasn't that nice. The only thing that I can eat was the Cow Brain, my favourite. Sounds yummy isn't it? Hahaha!

Pak Hassan and family in his house.

The next day was still the holiday for the Indonesians. So, the relative took us to a place where everyone went there to shop for cheap items; Mangga Dua Mall. I thought it was gonna be a mall something like Mid Valley or KLCC, but I was wrong. It was something like the upper floor of Pasar Besar Kedai Payang in Terengganu, or Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah of Kelantan, just that, it was air conditioned, so it feels like I'm in the Pertama Complex of KL, with all the sales people were the Indonesian.

My mom bought two big boxes of wedding souveniers for my sister's wedding. Me and Bob was reluctantly being 'pow'ed by the relative by following us everytime we go eat. How could they expect us to pay every time we go and eat? That was quite ridiculous. They ordered all the expensive food while I was just ordering food that cost me Rp5000, that's about RM2.00 in Malaysia. Gosh.

That was actually the people of Indonesia's impression whenever Malaysians went there. Everywhere in Indonesia, no matter whether in Tanjung Balai, Tanjung Pinang, Selat Panjang, Bandung or even Jakarta.

In the afternoon, we went back to the hotel and went out again in the evening. We went shopping for food as we planned not to go out for dinner. My father think the other way around. He needs rice. So we decided to take him out to a very nice restaurant just opposite of our hotel, Sari Minang. Nasi Padang again but this time, VERY NICE. IT was actually next to the restaurant that we were having dinner the night before. We should have gone here last night.

So the next day, it was Tuesday and we have a lot more time to spend. We decided to go to Ancol, something like a theme park. I thought it's gonna be big but it wasn't. I was hoping that it would be as big as the Disneyland. Well, we only managed to go to the Samudra where there were 4 shows, Seal, Dolphin, 4D cinema and Variety Animal show. I enjoyed 4D cinema the most. That was my first time being into such cinema. Shit man, the snake was so in front of me haha..! Then we had dinner at another Nasi Padang Restaurant by the sea side. Not bad this time!

The best shot of the dolphins that i snapped!
Outside of the Dolphin's Arena

In the afternoon, we went to Mangga Dua again. This time we bought some Rupiah again. Gosh, the RM value keeps going down. This is bad. We're so in loss. It was supposed to RM400 for each Rp1,000,000 or more but it didn't even reach the 1 million at all. RM400 can get only Rp950,000 only. I used to bought Rp1,300,000 at RM400. That was Rp350,000 of difference.

So we went there again. Oh god! There was a lot of price different between holiday and working days. So what happened was, I bought a lot of handbags! I bought a lot of souveniers for my brothers especially.

That night, we went out with a friend of Bob, who we call as Pak Danny. He drove us in his newly bought Starlet. Not even that. He was showing off. He was a rally driver so I had a really nice chat with him.

And Wednesday was the last day there. My mom noticed that she hasn't bought enough so we decided to shop at Mangga Dua again. I bought few more things too. By afternoon, we went back to get ready to go back.

On our way to the airport, we went (again) to east Nasi Padang at the Natrabu Restaurant. One special thing about this restaurant is that, they put the picture of Dr. Mahathir having his lunch there sometime ago at their entrance.

So bad isn't it? Why? They 'used' Dr. Mahathir to make people come to eat at their restaurant. Dr. Mahathir should be paid royalty for that! Then we went to the Soekarno Hatta International airport and waited there for almost 2 hours before departed back to Malaysia!

Ina and Farah

Smokers have special places in Indonesia. It used to be no smoking in almost everywhere but the people denied the ruling by saying, we smoke using our own money, not government money, so why stopping us? Hehehe...!

We arrived in KLIA at around 10PM with all those extra luggages; including my growing tummy!