Now Listening To Hardwell - Arcadia
So I think I am able to squeeze some time to write about my Jakarta trip. Will be splitting it into two parts - day one by itself while day two and three will be together.
Departed in the morning, this was my second time flying with my parents (the first was to Phuket over five years ago). My mom hates flying so naturally I was worried for her. Terrible flight due to the turbulence we faced approaching our destination. I have never been to Jakarta but I have heard of their infamous cannot-make-it airport. The recent AirAsia crash made my jitters worse plus that vicinity is known for their bad weather conditions. I have flown for about 20 times in my entire life and have had my fair share of “fuck are we going to crash” feeling but this was my first time feeling super nervous. I was contemplating on flushing myself out of the plane's toilet bowl and parachuting down. We could not land on time due to the heavy air traffic so we kept circling clouds for half an hour. But thankfully, we landed safely.
With my mom!
Nervous but still must selfie
Upon touching down, Asraff and I decided to part ways with my parents since they were headed to their friend’s house and I had my own itinerary. We decided to cab to Senayan City. Note: Only flag their Blue Bird cabs (they are blue in color) since they are metered and generally safe because their drivers are licensed. Cab fares from one spot to another will never amount to more than SGD $10, trust me. And for cab lovers like me, I wished it was the same for Singapore. Now most people will realise that there are both Senayan City and Plaza Senayan. They are situated opposite each other. Both are high end shopping malls with brands that I dont normally patronize, unless you are fucking rich then go ahead. However, I recommend Pondok Indah Mall as an alternative since they have recognizable brands like Metro and Forever 21!
Walked around SoGo to look for Asraff’s pants and he bought a pair from Giordano. Note: Every 10,000 rupiah = about SGD $1. We got it at around SGD $30, slightly cheaper than what you can find in Singapore stores. Then we settled down at TWG for our late lunch and holy shit was it cheap. Our 2 mains, 1 appetizer, 2 drinks and desserts cost a total of 520,000 rupiah inclusive of 20% service charge. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, food and service!
Walked around SoGo to look for Asraff’s pants and he bought a pair from Giordano. Note: Every 10,000 rupiah = about SGD $1. We got it at around SGD $30, slightly cheaper than what you can find in Singapore stores. Then we settled down at TWG for our late lunch and holy shit was it cheap. Our 2 mains, 1 appetizer, 2 drinks and desserts cost a total of 520,000 rupiah inclusive of 20% service charge. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, food and service!
After that we cabbed down to faveHotel Melawai, checked in and slept. I do not know how much a night cost since my dad settled the bill for our accomodation but it is relatively cheap as compared to hotels like Grand Hyatt etc. It is located slightly off their CBD area but since transportation is not a matter (because its damn cheap guys) I am not complaining. The hotel was super cute, loved their pop-art theme! I think in Singapore this hotel would have been considered as a chain of boutique hotels instead of a budget hotel because if it was Jakarta and it was a budget hotel, it would probably look like:
Ho shit son. This is somewhere in Hong Kong though
But no, it was pretty decent! Go google yourself ok
Okay so my parents finally came back and woke us up. Asraff the lazy pig chose to skip dinner and continued on with his beauty sleep. We three decided to walk around Blok M (I do not know why they call it M hahaha) and ate A&W for dinner! Blok M sells weird stuff that you probably wont ever need or buy. Its something like our infamous Lucky Plaza. You can get a pair of buy-and-throw-away (aka BATA see what I did there) shoes for SGD $5. Done with dinner and we headed back since there was zilch to do. Went back to bed and into Asraff’s warm arms since it was going to be a long day ahead.
And goodnight guys
