I was in Jakarta a week ago, going on unforeseen adventures, meeting up with friends, and realizing my dream of attending the Java Jazz Festival. Since my Indonesian friends mentioned endlessly on how boring Jakarta was (made me more curious of the city) yet wants me to come over to meet them, I thought why not, since the 3-day music festival was happening at the same time.

Fast forward to the trip, Abang and I headed to Pasar Baru on the first day, an odd choice for tourists. The reason why we ended up here was because I realized that my current film rolls weren't enough to last me for the rest of the trip. Due to the inconvenience of public transportation (as of writing, the MRT lines are still in construction), I only had one chance to get my film rolls and it was going to be this day.

Next on the list was the Jakarta Cathedral where I ooh-ed and aah-ed the whole time I was there. It was my first time getting so close to a neo-gothic cathedral that was so beautifully designed on the facade and heavily detailed on the inside. Do check out the newly renovated museum right beside the cathedral first before exploring the main building. This will give you the extra wow factor when you enter the cathedral after the museum tour. We did the other way round but was quickly ushered to the museum first so that we could come in to the cathedral again with more knowledge of its background. The museum was really interesting with relics and fascinating items which definitely gave much more meaning to the whole experience.

Our legs were officially jelly-fied at the National Monument (MONAS) as we took more than an hour just to enter the humongous MONAS compound (walked all the way from the cathedral and couldn't find the MONAS entrance) and another 30 minutes walking around in search of the underground entrance into the monument (we were so blind to have missed it). It could have been a 10-15 minutes thing if we took the becak straight from the cathedral.

Imagine spending so much time walking non-stop and finding entrance after entrance, we finally got in to the monument and was greeted by the announcement that it was closing time. DAMN. The only regret was getting in late and not being able to see everything, including going to the top of the monument deck for a view of the city. 

We sat for awhile on the floors of the museum to get all the air-conditioning we can before going through the timeline of Indonesia's history which was displayed at the ground floor. I really love how each historical moment had their respective box space with figurines giving life to the historical events that occurred. I definitely recommend everyone to visit this place for the walking experience historical information and amazing view.

By the time we walked out of the entrance, the sky was dark and the moon was up. Tired and famished, Abang and I took a Grab to our last destination for the day, dinner at 3 Wise Monkeys. This Japanese restaurant has an ala carte menu and an all-you-can-eat buffet menu. 

We went for the buffet  menu which was IDR487K ($34.75) for the both of us. The buffet menu included soups, salads, appetizers, fried and grilled (tori karaage, grilled salmon head, etc.), mini rice bowls, noodles, desserts, sushi, and sashimi. 

The photos below does not do any justice to the food we had! How I wish my film photos could let you taste how great the sashimi and sushi were. We ordered the same sashimi variety so many times because it was so, so good. Our favourites for the night was Aburi Salmon with Truffle Sauce (4th pic below) and Salmon Lava (5th pic below). The rest were good too but we repeated the orders for these two varieties so many times, making it the biggest winners for the night.

I remember going back to our Airbnb thinking about what Abang and I did for the day and the adventures we went through while visiting some of the places on our itinerary. I realized that we had a lot of fun despite some of the shortcomings (MONAS incident broke my legs and heart, really wanted to see that city view huhu), we had a lot of fun and enjoyed every moment of it. 

Jakarta wasn't so "boring" as they say it was. I believe no where in this world is "boring" as long as you are willing to do the homework and figure out what are the places that might interest you as a traveler. So far day one was good, though my legs were jelly-fied by the tremendous walking around and I swear we both got darker due to the sun.

In regards to the traffic, I think it wasn't too bad provided you aren't on the road during peak hours. Also, the place you are staying at is equally important. We stayed at the JIExpo area and personally, both Abang and I felt that though the surrounding was a little bit off but the location was good. It was near to a lot of places that we wanted to go. Most importantly, after a long day of exploring the city and dancing to jazz vibes in the evening, we can be back early and have more rest!

Here's a very interesting something I managed to snap outside of our dinner place. If you see this in Jakarta, it's a cultural mascot used for prayers but now it walks around so that they can collect "donations" if you take a photo with them. I didn't pay for this shot because I ran up the car without knowing at that time that there was a required "payment". Plus, it really scared the hell out of me as it was dark when this white face appeared out of no where.

That's all for the first day in Jakarta. The next one will see us exploring Glodok, Jakarta's Chinatown. See you in the next blog post!

xx

R.

Film photos / Pentax Spotmatic / Fujicolor C200