Jakarta Day 5

Jakarta Day 5

Rise and shine again. Only today I decide to skip the morning session of the conference and wake up late at 9am plus.

Hee, too tired from waking up early every morning.

I needed to check out and so after depositing my luggage with the hotel, I went to the cafe to eat my buffet breakfast.

I have been eating the same breakfast spread for four days now, am getting a little sick of it.

So I didn't eat too much since I'm going for the rest of the conference and lunch will be served.

After the conference concluded at 1pm plus, we decided to take a cab out to do some last minute shopping before we return to the hotel at 6pm to get our luggage and go to the airport.

Once we reach the shopping centre, we split up to do our own shopping. I didn't get much stuff also.

See who I found! So cute hor. Pity Dear wasn't around to take a photo for me. Can't wait for Dear to eat it with me!

And see who I found too!

There was a Popeye's in the shopping mall, think it's much cheaper than ours. Again, it made me think of Dear.

They even sell merchandise too.

When I got tired and since it will be some time before I eat on the plane, I tried their bakso noodles. I saw a lot of locals eating there. So I guessed that the food there should not be too bad.

What you have to do is go the counter, tell them what ingredients you want and if you want noodles.Then the person will cook them in boiling water. It's like yong tao foo.

The only thing is there is no english menu and the stuff dun really know eng. So I just anyhow point and order. Hee. So proud of myself.

My noodles and bottled tea. I think I ordered a couple of expensive meatballs. The whole meal cost abt S$3.

After that, I went to meet the rest and we went back to the hotel to fly home.

Finally after a long day, it was home sweet home and back into the arm of Dear who had kindly picked me up from the airport.

Jakarta Day 4

Jakarta Day 4

I went out for dinner with the rest of the SG ppl and this time we went to the high class shopping district of Jakarta.

I dun noe if is it becos the shopping centre is too atas or if it was a weekday, there was almost no one.

We dined at this Indonesian restaurant which was recommended to us by the hotel concierge. I didn't know it's going to be a high class restaurant.

I had hoped to eat real authentic indo food, not high class indo food that has watered down its flavours to cater to atas customers.

That said, the food is not too bad.

The restaurant setting

The avocado coffee that a couple of them ordered. Tasted quite weird, in my opinon.

And our dinner spread: Tahu Telong, Fried fish, chicken curry, stuffed squid and curry vege. It costs abt S$20 I think.

After eating, we walked around to look see and it was back to the hotel to pack our luggage for the next day.

Jakarta Day 3

Jakarta Day 3

After a day of work, we are out for dinner and some shopping again.

Waiting for a cab at the hotel entrance. Some of the cabs are Mercedes cars. First time I sat in a Mercedes!

And the scary perpetual jams. It totally makes you hate travelling from place to place.

The shopping centre that we went. A bit like Chinatown complex, not very glam kind of shopping centre.

And after shopping around, most of the food places were closed. We ate at a fastfood outlet that was still open. Their fastfood outlets also charge 10 percent tax. Walau.

My drink- Milk tea with cubes of grass jelly.

My fried chicken rice. Not very nice cos there's no sauce so the meal was very dry. I had thot that it will be bbq chicken.

And they only have sweet chilli sauce. Yucks. So I couldn't even find chilli to go with my rice so that I won't find it so dry.

Hoot of the day. Snacks again. Cos nothing much to buy. Their fashion staff is not very fashionable and as my companions were young aunties, naturally we went to supermarket.

And the supermarket this time: Carrefour.

I realised that baby clothes are very cheap in Carrefour. Less than S$1 for a top!

Jakarta Day 2

Jakarta Day 2

Rise and shine early the next day for the start of the conference.

The view of the city from my hotel window

The hotel ballroom where the conference was held over the next 4 days.

See the ppl standing near the door. They are security personnel waiting to give us a safety briefing before we start the conference.


And the dinner reception at the end of the day. So sian lor, only finger food. So had to eat a lot to fill the stomach hee.

My companions needed to rush work to do presentations the next day. So we didn't go out. Off to the hotel room for a night of tv.

Jakarta Day 1

Jakarta Day 1

Let me round up the travels for the year. Hee. Off I went to Jakarta on a 5-day work trip in end Nov.

It was my first time travelling for a real working trip, so was quite nervous abt it.

Luckily the mission was just to attend a seminar to gain learning experiences, so I could tell myself to relax and try to treat it like a hol.

I flew to Jakarta with some of the ppl who are going there and shared a hotel cab to our hotel. We arrived in the late afternoon at about 4plus I think.



The scenary as we drove out of the airport before we get near to the city and the notorious jams enveloped us.


In the cab. Lucky I pre-booked a hotel cab lor. As I walked out from the immigration area, there was so many ppl crowded at the arrival hall entrance, all waving sign boards. So scary.

And when I reached the luggage belt, I almost had the shock of my life. There were no labels at the belts to say which flight it is serving. We had to walk almost to the end of the hall before we find a belt that had a screen saying it was our flight.

After abt a 40mins ride (it started drizzling during our cab ride), we reached the hotel. This is the elevators to take to the hotell lobby after you enter the hotel. So grand right.

Sg hotels are never so spacious and grand. I have observed that most of Jakarta's big hotels are very big in nature with very grand architecture. Think it's becos they have a lot of land.

I was quite worried about making the trip, what with the terrorism threats and earthquakes.

But over the course of my stay, I grew to feel quite safe in my hotel.

There are many security measures in the hotel and while they made me feel sad that terrorism is part of the locals' everyday lives, it also made me feel safe.

More importantly, the staff at the hotel are all genuinely warm and friendly. Anyone who passes you along the corridors will greet you and smile. By the end of my stay, they made me feel like I could really count on them to do their best to save me if anything happens.

The friendliness of the locals is the thing that I missed the most when I come back home. But then maybe they were so nice cos I may be like an expat to them. Just like how ang mohs get better treatment here in Sg.

The hotel lobby


Looking down from the lobby to the hotel entrance

And the Christmas tree that the staff took 4 days to set up. I wonder was it that difficult or it's just their relaxed way of lifestyle.

And my hotel room! Very big and nice but slightly aged. But at US$90 per night including breakfast, it's a steal.

The bathroom area

And the room with a big plasma tv

My dinner at a restaurant in one of the shopping centres. Luckily my travel companions wanted to go out and explore after we settled ourselves in the room.

It's the best meal I had during the trip. The chilli was superb.

Think it only cost about 35,000 rupiah. And we get to eat in a restaurant setting. Cheap and good!

But the shops over there close quite early though at around 8.30pm. So there wasn't much to do and we ended up shopping more at the Giant supermarket to buy food and drinks.

Hoot of the day!