Jakarta in a day

When you are in Jakarta for a short visit and have one day off to stroll around the city, here are some places that you can and should see within one day. No, they are not shopping malls.

1.    Monas

Monas is the landmark of Jakarta. Situated in the central of the city, this is the easiest meeting spot for most people. Make sure that you arrive in the morning so you don’t have to wait for too long in line to get to the top of the monument where you can view all over Jakarta

Jakarta seen from the top of Monas

2.    Museum Gajah

I would say that this Museum is the most complete one if you want to see the culture of Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke. They have a complete collection of traditional artwork from the whole country, also from the ancient period. This museum is located right across Monas and it takes around 7 minutes by walking.

Some collections of Museum Gajah

3.    Museums in Kota Tua

There are several museums that are located in Kota Tua, such as Bank Mandiri Museum, Bank Indonesia Museum, Fatahilah Museum, Puppet Museum, etc. There are some alternatives to get there from Museum Gajah : by car (I don’t suggest this because it’s difficult to find parking space), by taxi or by Transjakarta busway line Blok M - Kota. The last option is advisable when you are not rushing with the time and like to travel on low budget transportation. 

Inside look of Museum Bank Indonesia

Some of the puppet collections from Puppet Museum

This area is also famous for people to do some photo shoot sessions because of the ancient look of the old buildings.

Kota Tua area

Museum Fatahillah

4.    Café Batavia

When you are tired after walking around the museums and looking for something to eat or drink, then Café Batavia is a good place to relax. They offer Asian and Western food, as well as Indonesian. This restaurant is really famous among expatriates and tourists because it has a unique atmosphere.

 Bar in Cafe Batavia

The restaurant on the second floor

Men's toilet in Cafe Batavia

5.    Tour Sepeda Ontel / Bike for Hire

In the hall of the Kota Tua area, you can hire a bicycle with the tour guide and he will take you to ride around to visit other places nearby, like Naval Museum (Museum Bahari), Sunda Kelapa port.

Sepeda Ontel

6.    Ancol Marina Bay

Where is the best place to see the sunset if it’s not by the beach. The next place you should visit is Ancol Marina Bay. You can also go there directly from Kota Tua by taxi or by Transjakarta busway. If it’s still to early to catch the sunset, then you can go to the art market (Pasar Seni) or Sea World. There are many nice restaurant along the beach where you can have dinner or just to seat and have some drinks. Of all the places, I think having a romantic dinner by the beach is the best way to end the day.

Pasar Seni (Art Market)

 Sunset by the beach

Walk our way to Tangkuban Perahu

If you happen to travel around Bandung and stay there for a few days, Tangkuban Perahu is one place that is worth to visit. This place is located 30 km north of the city and it is also reachable from Lembang or Subang. If you are coming  from Jakarta, I suggest you to start early in the morning, because you can never tell the traffic  in Jakarta or even in Bandung, especially during the weekend and holiday.

The best way to go to Tangkuban Perahu is by private car because it is quite difficult to reach by public transportation. You can also hire an “angkot” if you are staying in Bandung.

There are many things that you can do in Tangkuban Perahu beside sight seeing. If you are a shopping freak, then there are many shops that sell souvenirs or traditional handy crafts to satisfy your need.


You can also enjoy some traditional snack and drinks which are sold in small huts, like grilled corn or Bandrek (a hot ginger drink).

You can also walk along the crate but at certain point, the road become a bit dangerous if you are not careful. But if you like hiking, then this is an good challenge.

Sultan's Palace, Taman Sari and around Yogyakarta

Oh, it has been months since my last post. I should have posted my third day journey months ago, but things came up and I was so lazy to write anything. Anyway, here is my story. 

Our third day schedule was to visit the Sultan's Palace and Taman Sari Water Palace. We took a becak ride to the Sultan's Palace first. It was quite early but the Palace was already full with visitors. Just like my previous visit to other tourist's destination, again we had an English tour guide to explain everything about the Palace and the history about the royal family of the Sultan. Since we had already visited Ullen Sentalu Museum a day before, we were then familiar with everything that was being explained by the tour guide. Our tour guide is a nice lady. She informed us that every 10:00 AM there is always a performance in the hall of the palace. This time there was a performance of Gamelan. 

Gamelan performance in Sultan's Palace

I remember that years back when I was in school, I did a Study Tour and visit the same palace. But at that time, it seemed that the Palace was big and there were so many things to see. It took one whole day for us to see everything and this time it only took half an hour. Maybe the itinerary for foreign tourist and students are different. 

After we finished our visit at the Sultan's Palace, we walked to Taman Sari Water Palace. As we got out of the palace, there were many becak drivers offering their service to take us anywhere. But since we had known that Taman Sari is close by, we preferred walking to get there. 

Seeing the place, I could see that the Water Palace was a very nice relaxing place. There are 3 big pools that once were used by the royal family of the Sultan to bathe. There is also a room that was used as a place for the family to have spa. 

Taman Sari Water Palace

For this visit in the water palace, we didn't have any tour guide because they also didn't provide one. But there were many "unofficial" tour guides available all around the place in case you need one. You just needed to pay around IDR 10.000 and they would take you to all places and give some explanation about them. Since we didn't feel the need for one, so we decided to guide ourselves all around this place. 

My friend Wolfi and I, we were the unconventional tourists at that time. After we finished our visit in the water palace, instead of taking a becak ride, we decided to walk and went through the alleys to get out of the area. I guess you know what would happen to people who don't use map or GPS when they walk around in an unfamiliar area. Yes, they get lost. That also happened to us. But the beauty of getting lost is to know some interesting places that most tourists don't get to see.

Javanese houses in Yogyakarta

It was really a tiring day because on this day we walked a lot and that reminded me of my tiring walk in Prague. Lucky that this time I was wearing a pair of proper shoes. So, after we found our way back, we walked to Malioboro. It was really an exhausting journey because it was in the middle of the day and the weather was hot. We made a stop to have lunch in a small shopping center and followed with a quick coffee session. 

Old church building

After recharging our energy, we finally made it to Malioboro. There were too many shops in this area, I decided to walk in to Mirota to have a look. The reason why I went to this shop was because there was no need to bargain. I knew that there was no use to bargain if you were walking with a foreigner because they would still give you a higher price than you could get. Being inside of this shop was really relieving. Especially after walking in a super hot day. We didn't stay long here because we also had a plan to go swimming and we tried to get back to the hotel as soon as we could. We learned that during our stay in Yogyakarta, in the day the weather might get really hot but later in the afternoon, around 15:00 to 16:00, the weather got cooler and it turned to rain. So, we wanted to enjoy the pool before it rained. 

As predicted, it really rained after we were swimming for half an hour. So, we decided to take a rest for a while before we went to have dinner. Actually, if it had not rain, we also had a plan to join a Yoga Class. This hotel where we stayed had free yoga classes twice  a week, every Monday and Thursday. But since it was raining quite heavily that afternoon, I decided to just stay in our comforting room instead. 

It was our last night in Yogyakarta, so we decided to dress up a bit for dinner. Wolfi wore the batik shirt that he just bought in Mirota and I was wearing a batik skirt. We had dinner in an Italian restaurant. I had pasta and he had pizza. According him, I made a better choice of food than he did. 

Batik rocks!!

    

Our last dinner in Yogyakarta

It had been wonderful three days in Yogyakarta. Great times, great company and great places made this a wonderful holiday. I am looking forward to having my next holiday!