/ 6:10 PM

Jakarta...let me hear you scream!

Our Jakarta trip has officially gone down in history as a trip-to-remember. Despite how extreme our experiences were while we were there, the fact that Jam and I are each sitting at home, missing those little adventures and escapades is testimony that that was one epic trip.

And so it began, this little adventure, on the afternoon of December 16th. We were at the airport to catch our Lion Air flight from Singapore to Jakarta, Indonesia. The thing about travelling within South East Asia is that citizens of ASEAN do not need a visa to go to a neighbouring country. Convenient, isn't it? Much like travelling within the EU, I suppose. But anyway, us 3 musketeers began to act all loco, and I knew it was going to be an amazing trip with the other 2.

An approximate 3 hours later, we landed in Jakarta. The flight only took close to 2 hours, but it got delayed due to poor weather conditions.


Once at the airport, I surprised Jam with my ability to speak Bahasa Indonesia while asking the airport staff the direction to the immigration counter. LOL. Managed to get out of the airport for what seemed like 3 seasons later, and all the airport service staffs were calling out to us to offer us their services. Jamuna, the beauty queen amongst us 3, got asked "Are you from Istanbul?" by some guy at the airport. That was rather funny. She just walked away, surprised.

Once we were out of the airport terminal, cab drivers surrounded us asking where we were heading. It's not that funny when you realise that they are trying to cheat you, cause when I told them we were looking for a shuttle service to Blok M, an area in South Jakarta district, they claimed that we have to go to the other terminal to get the shuttle service, and it will cost us Rp100,000 to go there. That's about $17 approximately, mind you, just to be driven to another terminal. Good thinking we saw the ticket stand for the shuttle service called Damri which brings you to anywhere in Jakarta out of the airport. And so we purchased a ticket each, costing about Rp30,000 (if I had remembered correctly) to go to this elusive of a place called Blok M.

Boarded the bus and I could say that Jam, Neem and I might have died and got back alive and died again and then became alive again, for about 5 seasons later and the bus took forever to get out of the airport. For close to 2 hours later, we arrived at this area called Blok M, and hitched a cab to get to this hostel which I initially saw in hostelworld.com. The thing about being a tourist in a place like Jakarta is that you'd inevitably get ripped off by cab drivers who try to earn a few extra profits from supposedly-clueless and blurish people like us. Fortunately, we have a few nice and friendly locals who informed us earlier how much it would cost to hitch a cab from a certain destination to another. After much negotiation (or perhaps, arguments) with the cabbie, reached an agreement (he doesn't operate by meter charge), and we were in his cab, not-so-patiently waiting to be driven to our accomodation.

The joke was on him when he turned around and asked for an additional Rp2,000 to pay for the "farking". We were like "what?!", and I defiantly told him off saying how I'm only going to pay for the drive, Jam and Neem were already chuckling at the side realising his mispronunciation of such an innocent word. 5 minutes into the drive, Jam realised that Rp2,000 is merely SGD$0.30, or even barely 30cents. Hahaha! Well, you can't blame us for thinking he was trying to rip us off right? I mean, scepticism is probably the key to this trip. (no, wait, we are just stingy bastards, more like it) And their currency comes in thousands, so like, seriously, wtf?!

Anyhoos, the cab ride which seemed to last forever finally took us to our hostel. I was sitting on the right side of the cab, and so noticed nothing. Jam saw what seemed to be a park on her side of the street, and when we arrived at the gate of the hostel called Jakarta Bed & Breakfast, Neem grabbed Jam's wrist, and I saw a crucifix somewhere, and Jam refocussed her eyes, and much to our anxiety, it was...ladies and gentlemen...a cemetery we were at. Our little timid hearts could not do such places as we each have wild imaginations to manage, each. So we pleaded to the cabbie to take us out of there back to where we came from, paying him double the amount. Just for as long as we are out of that place.

And so it was still Day 0, and we were hungry and without a place to stay at about 11pm Jakarta time. We were about to call it a horrible trip, on the verge of giving up, thinking it was a bad mistake to come to Jakarta. Until we managed to use the wifi service at KFC and found a hotel with vacant rooms.

Another 30minutes cab ride later, we arrived at Swiss Belhotel at Jalan Mangga Besar on the fringes of Central Jakarta. Everyone were tired, but we were at least determined to get a room and crash.




We got an awesome room, with Plasma TV and all and really comfy beds and toilet, and not to mention, full length mirrors. Hahaha! Naturally, with our new found happiness, we got all loco in the hotel room.





Arvi and Abdul came to visit and it was so nice to see them again after a long time.



These two jokers were probably the entertainment for the night as they rattled on with the curiosity over the Indian culture when they discovered Jam and Neem are Indians. Funny lads. It was all good to catch up with them, and then they had to leave. Jam, Neem and I spent the rest of the night in our hotel room, having a little bit of girly chat and playing fun games. Day 0, I must say, had been a real-life lesson there.

The following morning, we were greeted with a great scrumptuos hotel breakfast and a day at the "beach". And off we went on our pursuit to Ancol, supposedly a recreational district in Jakarta. From cute boys in the bus to being "stalked" by old beefy Dubai men, somehow I conclude that we could have done with a male companion to Jakarta with us. Then again, once in Atlantis Water Adventures, us 3 girls went all out to make our own fun and we knew it was good that way, just us girls and no dudes around. Haha.

A&W for late lunch after swimming, and exhausted us hitched a cab back to the hotel to prepare for the night.

Parties in Jakarta are really awesome, if you know where to go that is. For one thing, the 3 of us could definitely say that we took most effort in dressing up for the night. Thaat's right, no doubt about that. A dinner at Hard Rock, where I met my soulmate, and a random exploration of a closed shopping mall later, we were good to go. X2/Equinox at Plaza Senayan has got to be THE party of Jakarta. The crowd are amazing, we have so much space to dance around, something you won't get much of in Singapore's clubs. And we made a few new friends on the floor. We started the dance floor, for the record. Arvi came to join us much later after he booked out of work, and it must had been one of the two memorable experiences in Jakarta. Haha!

Two nights in a row and we were rocking it out. Bandung was awaiting in Day 3 where we shopped, and I managed to contact Try and his wife to bring us around town, albeit for a really short time, and managed to pack a few new items home. But we were down for one last party before catching the flight back, and so we returned to the ever-promising Equinox, ready to hit the floor again.

The highlight of the night was probably some Cameroon football players (who are playing for some Jakarta football club) trying to hit on us. So not what we were looking for. Saw a number of cute Indonesian guys I might have been tempted to flirt with. But to my dismay 1 of the cuties was boring and could not speak English, another one had a girlfriend, and...yea. That's about it. Until I met Yudi and he was so cute and all and when he found out I was from Singapore, introduced me to his friends and bla3. Legendary, I must add.

3 hours later, we were at the airport, checking in to catch our flight. What a way to end the trip.

So here's the my 2 amazing friends and our one helluva trip. I love you girls. xx

/ 6:10 PM

Jakarta...let me hear you scream!

Our Jakarta trip has officially gone down in history as a trip-to-remember. Despite how extreme our experiences were while we were there, the fact that Jam and I are each sitting at home, missing those little adventures and escapades is testimony that that was one epic trip.

And so it began, this little adventure, on the afternoon of December 16th. We were at the airport to catch our Lion Air flight from Singapore to Jakarta, Indonesia. The thing about travelling within South East Asia is that citizens of ASEAN do not need a visa to go to a neighbouring country. Convenient, isn't it? Much like travelling within the EU, I suppose. But anyway, us 3 musketeers began to act all loco, and I knew it was going to be an amazing trip with the other 2.

An approximate 3 hours later, we landed in Jakarta. The flight only took close to 2 hours, but it got delayed due to poor weather conditions.


Once at the airport, I surprised Jam with my ability to speak Bahasa Indonesia while asking the airport staff the direction to the immigration counter. LOL. Managed to get out of the airport for what seemed like 3 seasons later, and all the airport service staffs were calling out to us to offer us their services. Jamuna, the beauty queen amongst us 3, got asked "Are you from Istanbul?" by some guy at the airport. That was rather funny. She just walked away, surprised.

Once we were out of the airport terminal, cab drivers surrounded us asking where we were heading. It's not that funny when you realise that they are trying to cheat you, cause when I told them we were looking for a shuttle service to Blok M, an area in South Jakarta district, they claimed that we have to go to the other terminal to get the shuttle service, and it will cost us Rp100,000 to go there. That's about $17 approximately, mind you, just to be driven to another terminal. Good thinking we saw the ticket stand for the shuttle service called Damri which brings you to anywhere in Jakarta out of the airport. And so we purchased a ticket each, costing about Rp30,000 (if I had remembered correctly) to go to this elusive of a place called Blok M.

Boarded the bus and I could say that Jam, Neem and I might have died and got back alive and died again and then became alive again, for about 5 seasons later and the bus took forever to get out of the airport. For close to 2 hours later, we arrived at this area called Blok M, and hitched a cab to get to this hostel which I initially saw in hostelworld.com. The thing about being a tourist in a place like Jakarta is that you'd inevitably get ripped off by cab drivers who try to earn a few extra profits from supposedly-clueless and blurish people like us. Fortunately, we have a few nice and friendly locals who informed us earlier how much it would cost to hitch a cab from a certain destination to another. After much negotiation (or perhaps, arguments) with the cabbie, reached an agreement (he doesn't operate by meter charge), and we were in his cab, not-so-patiently waiting to be driven to our accomodation.

The joke was on him when he turned around and asked for an additional Rp2,000 to pay for the "farking". We were like "what?!", and I defiantly told him off saying how I'm only going to pay for the drive, Jam and Neem were already chuckling at the side realising his mispronunciation of such an innocent word. 5 minutes into the drive, Jam realised that Rp2,000 is merely SGD$0.30, or even barely 30cents. Hahaha! Well, you can't blame us for thinking he was trying to rip us off right? I mean, scepticism is probably the key to this trip. (no, wait, we are just stingy bastards, more like it) And their currency comes in thousands, so like, seriously, wtf?!

Anyhoos, the cab ride which seemed to last forever finally took us to our hostel. I was sitting on the right side of the cab, and so noticed nothing. Jam saw what seemed to be a park on her side of the street, and when we arrived at the gate of the hostel called Jakarta Bed & Breakfast, Neem grabbed Jam's wrist, and I saw a crucifix somewhere, and Jam refocussed her eyes, and much to our anxiety, it was...ladies and gentlemen...a cemetery we were at. Our little timid hearts could not do such places as we each have wild imaginations to manage, each. So we pleaded to the cabbie to take us out of there back to where we came from, paying him double the amount. Just for as long as we are out of that place.

And so it was still Day 0, and we were hungry and without a place to stay at about 11pm Jakarta time. We were about to call it a horrible trip, on the verge of giving up, thinking it was a bad mistake to come to Jakarta. Until we managed to use the wifi service at KFC and found a hotel with vacant rooms.

Another 30minutes cab ride later, we arrived at Swiss Belhotel at Jalan Mangga Besar on the fringes of Central Jakarta. Everyone were tired, but we were at least determined to get a room and crash.




We got an awesome room, with Plasma TV and all and really comfy beds and toilet, and not to mention, full length mirrors. Hahaha! Naturally, with our new found happiness, we got all loco in the hotel room.





Arvi and Abdul came to visit and it was so nice to see them again after a long time.



These two jokers were probably the entertainment for the night as they rattled on with the curiosity over the Indian culture when they discovered Jam and Neem are Indians. Funny lads. It was all good to catch up with them, and then they had to leave. Jam, Neem and I spent the rest of the night in our hotel room, having a little bit of girly chat and playing fun games. Day 0, I must say, had been a real-life lesson there.

The following morning, we were greeted with a great scrumptuos hotel breakfast and a day at the "beach". And off we went on our pursuit to Ancol, supposedly a recreational district in Jakarta. From cute boys in the bus to being "stalked" by old beefy Dubai men, somehow I conclude that we could have done with a male companion to Jakarta with us. Then again, once in Atlantis Water Adventures, us 3 girls went all out to make our own fun and we knew it was good that way, just us girls and no dudes around. Haha.

A&W for late lunch after swimming, and exhausted us hitched a cab back to the hotel to prepare for the night.

Parties in Jakarta are really awesome, if you know where to go that is. For one thing, the 3 of us could definitely say that we took most effort in dressing up for the night. Thaat's right, no doubt about that. A dinner at Hard Rock, where I met my soulmate, and a random exploration of a closed shopping mall later, we were good to go. X2/Equinox at Plaza Senayan has got to be THE party of Jakarta. The crowd are amazing, we have so much space to dance around, something you won't get much of in Singapore's clubs. And we made a few new friends on the floor. We started the dance floor, for the record. Arvi came to join us much later after he booked out of work, and it must had been one of the two memorable experiences in Jakarta. Haha!

Two nights in a row and we were rocking it out. Bandung was awaiting in Day 3 where we shopped, and I managed to contact Try and his wife to bring us around town, albeit for a really short time, and managed to pack a few new items home. But we were down for one last party before catching the flight back, and so we returned to the ever-promising Equinox, ready to hit the floor again.

The highlight of the night was probably some Cameroon football players (who are playing for some Jakarta football club) trying to hit on us. So not what we were looking for. Saw a number of cute Indonesian guys I might have been tempted to flirt with. But to my dismay 1 of the cuties was boring and could not speak English, another one had a girlfriend, and...yea. That's about it. Until I met Yudi and he was so cute and all and when he found out I was from Singapore, introduced me to his friends and bla3. Legendary, I must add.

3 hours later, we were at the airport, checking in to catch our flight. What a way to end the trip.

So here's the my 2 amazing friends and our one helluva trip. I love you girls. xx