Jakarta, Indonesia

Nov 7th

The plane ride into Jakarta, Indonesia last night was interesting. We arrived very late at 11:55pm and just as we were about to deplane all of the lights went out. We sat in the pitch dark for about two minutes before the emergency lights came on. Even then we only had enough light to see silhouettes of each other- nothing else. The flight crew came over the intercom and said that we were having a problem connecting to the ground power supply. We ended up waiting for 25 minutes while they replaced the power outlet before we could get off. It was annoying and tired, but that’s part of the fun of traveling I guess. We then proceeded right to customs, where we realized that we didn’t have visas to enter the country. We knew that it was simple and cheap to get them when we arrived, but somehow managed to walk right past the visa counter on our way to customs. It was poorly labeled because while we were waiting at least 20 other people came from the customs area also having missed the visa counter. We paid the $10USD and got our visas. It’s really funny to me that USD are accepted at so many places. At the airport in the Philippines we bought dinner with USD (they had big signs everywhere saying “for your convenience we proudly accept US dollars“) even thought I think we were the ONLY Americans in the whole place. Regardless we were pleased that they took USD because neither of us had any Indonesian Rupiah’s yet.

Jess’s friend Meza and her sister met us at the airport when we landed. We all drove back to Meza’s house, which is huge and gorgeous. We got to their house just before 2am, and all went to bed right away. I felt bad because since they are Muslim the whole family gets up at 5am to pray then Meza had to go right to work after praying- she must have been exhausted!

Jess and I got to sleep in which was nice! We woke up very warm this morning and attempted to turn on the AC but couldn’t seem to get it to work. Then Jess decided to jump in the shower and quickly came back out saying the water was freezing. We quickly realized that the electricity and hot water was shut off by the time we got up, we‘re really experience the culture and will plan ahead in the future. We both took cold showers which actually felt really good after the initial shock because it was SO hot today- reaching 93 degrees without the humidity factored in.

After showering we headed downstairs where Meza’s mom and sister, Icha, was waiting for us with a full meal prepared. Her mom speaks very little English but sat with us and chatted- Icha translated for us. There was literally a feast on the table that was prepared by their maids. We enjoyed us soup with meatballs, rice, noodles. vegetables, fish, chicken, bread with chocolate chips which was really good - served with butter and chocolate sprinkles on the side. I loved the tea, which was the best tea I’ve ever had- I‘m definitely bring some home! We also had mango and salak (snake fruit). It’s native to Indonesia and grows on a species of palm tree. It tasted kind of like bubble gum!

Since Meza had to work, Icha and her friend took us around the city all day. It was nice having them to show us all of the best sites and translate. We were even lucky enough to have their driver chauffeured us everywhere we wanted to go. He came with us to all of the different sites but kept his distance most of time. He was really nice and pointed things out and explained stuff to us too, even though he didn’t speak a word of English, Icha translated everything for us!

Our first stop of the day was at the National Museum, which I thought was really cool. Then we went to Monas, the “landmark” of Jakarta. It is a 132 meter high statue with a gold flame on the top that was built by their first President in the 60’s. We got a private tour from a tour guide trainee. His English wasn’t that great but we just went along with it anyways and read most of the signs ourselves while nodding to whatever he said.

 

After that we headed over to the mall, which is also huge- we‘re starting to notice a trend with the malls in Asia… they are all HUGE. We had lunch and frozen yogurt. The Fro-Yo was fabulous… very refreshing on such a hot day! We went to this place called, Smooch where you get a bowl and fill it with as much yogurt as you want - there were 8 different flavors to choose from- then you put on the toppings that you want. The final bowl is weighted and you pay a certain amount based on the weight. It was great, I had acai berry and vanilla frozen yogurt topped with lots of fruit!

After our frozen yogurt we drove to the old part of town that was settled by the Dutch, called Kota Tua. The museums were already closed for the day but the sun was setting and we walked around the plaza, and it was beautiful. There were people everywhere, hanging out, some praying, and lots of street vendors, it was a really nice glimpse of a typical Indonesian Saturday evening.

All day getting between our different sites and places that we visited we encountered a lot of traffic and going to dinner was no exception.After spending a while in the car we arrived at a waterfront area and went to a restaurant where you get to pick your own seafood for dinner.

It was a little difficult for us because we didn’t really know what some of the choices of the sauces were, how the fish would be cooked and also didn’t understand what the options for rice and vegetables were, but everything ended up tasting great at the end. We had a feast and it only cost $10 each, we actually ended up having so much extra food that in the middle of our meal Icha called the driver to come into the restaurant and help us eat the food! For dinner we had salmon, crab, calamari, veggies, and rice. Everything was cooked in lots of sauce, but otherwise it was really good and fresh! I ordered coconut orange juice and it was served in a whole coconut which was really cool.

After dinner we were all tired and full so we decided to head back to the house. Jess and I each showered and caught up with our blogs. Off to bed!


Love,
Katie.