Money Note: The US Dollar to Indonesian Rupiah conversion varied from place to place, also depends on what valuation of bill you are changing, to make it easier for you, let's use U$D 1.00 = IDR 9,000
Jakarta is like Manila...
... without the English! Frankly speaking, I didn't like it that much and was happy we only spent a day there. I guess it is unfair for me to judge too soon because we probably didn't get to see the nicer places, so let me "save" that dislike by saying that we didn't get to go to the nice shopping places which were supposed to be really good :o) maybe next time.
I was also grateful that we knew people there because it looked difficult to get around. I had a fun time experimenting with the BTS Skytrain in Bangkok, but Jkt really made me nervous. It was weirder that Pinoys look Indonesian, and you feel like such an outcast because of the language barrier. (Didn't help much that the people think we were Indonesian and they start speaking to us in Bahasa.. Uh oh)
Bel and I really didn't know what to expect in Jakarta so our itinerary there was blank til the last minute. I just wanted to see my friend Nyla, whom I have promised to visit a long, long time ago. I was just our luck that by the time our Indo trip get finalized, she also learned that she snagged a job in Canberra, Australia and was scheduled to leave the day after we arrived! Great for her but bummer for our reunion (and there goes our tour guide...) Her housemate Ivy, also a Filipina (and a UPLB grad!) was nice enough to still give us a place to crash , amidst the frenzy of packing since she was about to move out as well.
We arrived super late Friday evening and got picked up by Nyles at the airport. the airport is very much like our own NAIA 1. Since it was super late , we paid around 250,000 IDR (about 25 USD) from the airport to Nyla's place which was right in the middle of the city. Normal price should be around 180,000 IDR only... (thanks Nyla for treating us!)
 |
| Hanna and Belinda making a mess in Nyla's and Ivy's living room. Ahem. "Assessing luggage" |
The following morning, we had a whole day planned with Milan and his family. Milan is a former colleague from Manila who is now living in Jakarta with his family and they were kind enough to adopt us for the day. Originally from Slovakia, they just moved to Indo last Feb and were eager to explore.
It was difficult to find a good list of "Places to go in Jakarta," and what looked interesting on the web was the Taman Mini Indonesia Inda . Check out the
TMII in Wikipedia,
TMII in TripAdvisor, and the
TMII website. Roughly translated, it means Miniature Indonesia Park. It intrigued me because it reminded me of our very own Nayong Pilipino. Why not squeeze in a visit to all of Indonesia by visiting this park?
We left the apartment at around 9 am and packed Milan's Innova - we were an interesting bunch. Three Europeans, 2 Filipinas, in a right-hand drive car, in unfamiliar streets, and a tiny English - Bahasa, Bahasa - English Dictionary .. oh, and a delayed reception GPS. Of course we got lost a couple of times (the most interesting one was when we took a wrong turn and ended up at a Muslim mosque, we were in summer clothes and got stared at really bad!) It didn't help that a thunderstorm met us when we got near the vicinity of TMII! Better be worth it...
Well, it was worth it... sort of. I couldn't quite explain what I felt about the place. I guess I give them points for trying to come up with a great park (especially since one of the reviews called it the Disneyland of Indonesia!) . The entrance itself looked grand, but the insides looked neglected. As if it had once enjoyed its days of glory and fun. In Filipino, I would say, "sayang!" Nevertheless, it was still an interesting visit!
Entrance to the park cost u about 10,000 IDR (for the whole car, about a dollar ). Since it was 300 hectares , maps were all in Bahasa, and we simply got lost trying to navigate it by ourselves, we decided to get off the car and ride the nearby cable car. At 25,000 IDR (about 2 USD) , we were taken from one portion of the park to another (I won't say from end to end because it didn't look like the end.)
The park was huge from above , and it definitely cannot be seen in just one day. We caught a glimpse of a crowded waterpark and some compounds of different traditional Indonesian communities. When we got off, we decided to walk through the houses. Some were really well maintained, while some were not. I wondered how they allocated the resources for it, maybe local governments are assigned to the specific region? Most interesting for me was one house which walked you through the traditional wedding ceremony. I am sorry but I cannot recall too much of the history because it was just so hot and sticky to be attentive! Soon, we got sick of too much houses and didn't even go inside some. Almost everything showcased wedding garments. They looked very much like our own Mindanao's colorful costumes.
 |
| Girls with Erik at the entrance of Museum Indonesia |
Our last stop for the day in at TMII was the Museum Indonesia near the entrance. By far, it was the best place we visited that day - the building was intricately designed and the displays were wonderfully preserved inside. Reminded me of Cebu's Museo Sugbo, small , tight, crisp, meaningful! They had literature, paintings, sculpture, history, life size diaromas , in a clean, well preserved environment. What's great about TMII is that you only pay for what you want to see - each attraction has separate entrance fees. Museo Indonesia cost us 5,000 IDR, barely 1 USD.
And with this, let me introduce you to my rating system for trip reviews:
1* - Don't bother
2** - Visit only if you have time (don't smack yourself for not being able to go...)
3*** - Try to go, you won't be disappointed
4**** - Don't miss it!!!
I rate between TMII
2** - 3*** , maybe there's more to it than what we saw. There's also an iMax theater and a couple of other museums (14 total!) ... but maybe there are some other places to visit in Jakarta.
When visiting TMII, don't forget to bring water, wear walking shoes (that's easy to remove because some of the houses don't allow them...), some snacks (limited choices) and a camera! Bring loose rupiahs (most expenses range from 2,000 IDR - 25,000 IDR) Not much souvenir shopping here also. You need 2,000 IDR when using the restrooms, which are not really that clean and equipped (bring toilet paper!)
Our flight was delayed for almost 3 hours that day. It was also really confusing in the waiting area, since it was just one huge room with one gate where all the different flights were being called. The formal announcements were scarce and barely audible... and we only knew that flights were being called when a ground steward starts going around the room calling for lost passengers. If we weren't impatient Filipinas, we wouldn't have known that our flight was delayed because they didn't announce! They tried to feed the people food but it didn't look too good so we passed (besides, we were full of J.Co already!) 
