Detour to Jakarta

Here’s the overdue blog post I was talking about earlier so I’m sorry to keep you waiting for quite a while. Right after my trip to Bali, instead of flying straight back to Malaysia, I boarded a flight to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

“I thought I’ve seen this armor somewhere on another person’s blog and in a comic book…”

Flying to Jakarta took approximately two hours from Bali, and I would be here for three days.

Truth to be told, I found Jakarta to be the second ‘Kuala Lumpur’ – which was both good and bad.

GOOD because it’s modern and I saw a lot of familiar places which I could find in Malaysia… like McDonald’s. 🙂 And since Bahasa Indonesia is similar to Bahasa Malaysia – with the exception of some differences – going around and reading signs were a piece of cake. This is where being able to speak Malay pays off. 🙂 A lot of things sold here are cheaper than in Malaysia too, so definitely to please shopping addicts (not that I am one, of course).

And the BAD points about going to the second ‘Kuala Lumpur’? I have to admit that my expectations on the trip went down, especially since I just came from Bali, which was a damn good trip if I must say so myself. The traffic jams here are worse compared to KL; a wrong turn can result in another 15 more minutes lost just taking another road. And there weren’t many attractions to look forward to, either. But hey, at least I can tell my friends that I’ve been there before! 🙂

Due to time constraints (working on two big projects right now), I’m keeping this post relatively short so I hope the photos make up for the content. After all, don’t pictures paint a thousand words? 🙂

SOGO Shopping Mall

Semmy was kind and generous to pick Ladan and me up from the airport. Yep, Ladan tagged along too! Semmy had just moved to a new house and now lives one hour away from Central Jakarta (where Ladan and I spent the next three days in). So we gave him a free treat to a dinner at the Japanese Restaurant in SOGO Shopping Mall. 🙂

Later, Semmy taught both Ladan and me how to play bowling.

Semmy showing how it should be done.

Ladan about to throw the first ball and knock ’em pins down. 🙂

Me holding the bowling ball for the first time in my life… five seconds before I threw my first gutterball too. 😛

… See the direction of the bowling ball? Gutter ball!

The Jakarta Cathedral

Dee Ferdinand and Kevaz tags along on our adventure for the day!

The Jakarta National Museum

Until then…