ID: Jakarta Trip Day 4

Our last day in the city. After breakfast, we walked to Plaza Senayan which is situated just behind our hotel. Since it was still early, the shops just opened and there were not many people yet. After strolling for an hour, we decided to cross the road to Senayan City Plaza. This mall houses another set of high end boutiques (Plaza Senayan also has lots of boutiques), so it sorts of complement those in Plaza Senayan. It seems that this is bigger than Plaza Senayan.

We just walked around and around noon, we walked back to Plaza Senayan for lunch. Had kebab at the food court for lunch. The food court was bustling with people from nearby offices. Seronok jamu mata hahahaha.....

Around 12.30pm, we decided to walked back to the hotel and checked out at 2pm. For our transport to the airport, we booked with the hotel at Rph150,000 per trip with Avanza. Considered as a good bargain since this includes toll and luggage (with no extra payment if we stuck in traffic jam). Normal cab will cost around Rph110,000 inclusive of toll. However, if the traffic is bad, the fare may go higher. In fact, the transport booked with the hotel is also from Silverbird group of companies, the only trusted taxi services in Indonesia.

We left the hotel at around 2.40pm and praise to God, the journey was uneventful. We reached the airport within 30 minutes. There is nothing much to do at the airport, so we decided to go into the check in area. Scanned our bag and walked to the designated check in counter. Unfortunately, the counter is not yet opened.

MH occupied counters 36 until 40. In fact, there were around half a dozen of passengers waiting in front of the counters. In the vicinity, other airlines in progress of check-in their passengers are ValuAir VF504 to SIN, AirAsia Indonesia QZ7716 and 7676 to BKK and BKI respectively, Shenzen Airlines to Nanning, SQ961 to SIN, EK357 to DXB, and EY471 to AUH (which was delayed from 3.20pm to 7.10pm).

MH check in counters opened at 4.05pm and within minutes, we were checked in by a new staff (in my opinion - since she is not that smooth in handling the check in). Immediately after checked in, we proceed to immigration and into the airside. Now, since there are some time to kill, we settled at Starbucks with a nice view of tarmac.

Our bird for the day, MH722 is an Airbus 9M-MKE. I have been in this metal before on my flight to DXB four years ago. The flight log for this bird can be found here.

The plane landed at CGK as MH723 at 5.25pm and will depart at 6.30pm to KUL as MH723. The push back was at 6.30pm and within 15 minutes, we were airborne via runaway 25R.

Flying at 40,000 ft above sea level with average speed of 900km/h, the route took us along the Sumatera coast line into Palembang, Singapore and over the city of Johor Bharu before descending into KUL. The ETA was 9.20pm local time.

We landed safely via runaway 14L at 9.15pm, 5 minutes ahead of schedule and taxied to Contact Pier at Main Terminal Building. Parked at A8 and within minutes, we were in the terminal.

~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ KLIA, Sepang

~~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself~~

ID: Jakarta Trip Day 3

Today, we decided to have breakfast at Senayan Cafe on the ground floor. The only reason is for a comfortable table suits for breakfast. Choices just a bit better that those offered at the Executive Lounges.

After breakfast, our jalan-jalan programme was to take busway to Stasion Kota, the last station for this route. Just a short walk from the station is Kota Tua Jakarta (Old Jakarta). This was used to be the centre of Jakarta and few colonial buildings still in existence, with couple of them are not being well maintained. After snapping here and there session, we walked to the harbour (Sunda Kelapa, if I am not mistaken), which was a long and not so pleasant walk.... the map shows the distance not too far, but we were wrong. With the bad traffic along narrow roads and unpleasant smells from drainage, we felt we had a wrong choice to walk.

My advise is, take a cab or do not visit the harbour at all.

For a quick quencher, we stopped by A&W at Jakarta Train Station, which is known as Station Kota. From there, we walked along Mangga Dua street, again a wrong decision to do so. Once we reached Mangga Dua, we were disappointed. The complex is not as what is portrayed in the travel guides on Jakarta in the internet. For me, not worth at all to visit this place.

Since we walked quite a lot for the half of day, we found one reflexology centre that offer only Rph30,000 for 1.5 hour. Wow! a bargain. And being bad customers, we did not pay any tips .... hahahhaa..... not that we didn't want, but the masseur I got was not good enough.

(Actually, after we left the place, I felt a bit guilty for not giving tips.... may be next time :-))

We took a busway in front of Mangga Dua which is a different route from our normal busway. This time, it is a grey route (based on the colour of the bus used). We have to change two stations in order to get to our normal red-orange route along Jalan Jenderal Sudirman. Worse, it was peak hours and the bus was cramped! So, lesson learnt, try not to take busway during peak hours.

On the way back, we stopped by Plaza Semanggi, looking for early dinner. Actually, it was lunch and dinner together. We tried this american joint there, cannot remember the name though. We also visited Planet Hollywood, around 15 minutes walk from the mall. Again, a wrong move since the rain just stopped and peak hours. To make the matter worse, Planet Hollywood was not as I expected at all. Actually, it does not look like Planet Hollywood at all (at least in my opinion).

Walked back to the mall and later to the busway halte for a trip back to the hotel.

~ MT @ Indonesia

~~ Senayan, Jakarta

~~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~~

ID: Jakarta Trip Day 2

Woke up early for morning prayer and then, filled up stomach with breakfast at Executive Lounge level 12. In this hotel, there are two executive lounges; level 12 for non smoking lounge and level 16 for smoking lounge.

It is so unfortunate that the choices for breakfast are limited - and to make it worse, there is no proper table for breakfast. Patrons have to make do with coffee tables and we have to bend to eat or you bring the plate to you by putting it on your palm. Troublesome!

The view on Sunday morning was breath taking. A lot of city dwellers thronged the stadium areas for morning exercises. A lot of cyclists on the road as well as rollerbladers. It seems that on Sundays, the road around Gelora Bung Karno are reserved for cyclists and bladers.

A couple of hours later, we walked to the nearest busway halt, Gelora Bung Karno and took the bus to Sarinah station for a quite a long walk to Pasar Tanah Abang.

There is a standard fare for busway, Rph3,500 per pax for a trip. However, if you take the bus between 5am - 7am, it only costs you Rph2,000 per pax.

After a light shop at Tanah Abang, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. It is not far, but the traffic was not that good. We passed by the famous Hotel Mulia and enter teh hotel from the other side of the stadium.

In the afternoon, we took a busway again and now the destination is Plaza Indonesia (I cannot remember the station name).

My first impression once I stepped into Plaza Indonesia was "wow"!!!. I wonder who copy who i.e., Pavillion KL vs Plaza Indonesia. The set up has some similarities in terms of arrangement of shops within each floor and area.

After that, we walked across the street to Alun-Alun Indonesia within Grand Indonesia Shopping Town. It was like a maze to me, in which we actually got a bit lost in it. Tired of walking we decided to walk back to the busway station for a trip back to the hotel.

~ MT @ Indonesia

~~ Senayan, Jakarta

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

ID: Jakarta Trip Day 1

Since I just completed my MBA, I decided to give myself a treat. Spending few hours on airlines website, I managed to secure RM245 per pax return trip to Jakarta on MH. After being in the country for quite a long time, I am venturing out again.

Before I continue on, I want to thank my good friend, BH for sponsoring this trip (inclusive of the hotel stay :-)) thanks a lot!!!

Our flight is to depart at 6.05pm from Gate G4. This time, it is 9M-MMS, one of MH's Boeing 737-4H6 fleet. Since we checked in from home, we only reached KLIA about 4.30pm for endorsement of our boarding passes. No bags to check in.

Since I have not visited KLIA's airside for so long, we decided to take the aerotrain to the Satellite terminal - just to get the view :-) Noticed quite few changes. Now, there is a Jungle Walk (I think that is what it is called) where passengers can experience tropical forests at the airport. The entrance is behind the Information Counter in the aerotrain station vicinity. Also, more shops are opened, but still these initiatives, in my opinion fail to attract more passengers or airlines to utilize the airport. M4HB may ned to be more creative :-))

Strolling around the Satellite terminal, I managed to spot few foreign airlines i.e., Air Astana (I remember this airline that I took to Almaty, Kazakhstan - however, it was via Bangkok), Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Emirates, Silk Air, KLM, Qatar Airways and Xiamen Airlines.

30 minutes prior to ETD, we took the aerotrain back to Main Terminal pier for our boarding. After security formality, we took an escalator down to holding lounge. Wow! Looks like this is to be a near full flight. Our seat were 8E and 8F with 8D was occupied by a guy going to Jakarta for business with the oil company there.

Since this is MH, we do not have to buy food :-) we were served dinner with a choice of beef rendang with white rice or kuzi chicken with tomato rice. This is served with fruit cake, Ferrero Roche chocolates and Spritzer mineral water. BH chose chicken, so I decided to taste the beef. (Not that I wanted the beef, but I took chicken as well, there will be no photo on the beef :-)).

After the two-hour flight, the 737 landed at CGK terminal 2 via runway 07L and decked at D4 at 7pm local time. Within 30 minutes, we were out at the arrival hall looking for Bluebird taxi.

There are many touts inside the arrival hall, so the advice is to find the Bluebird taxi logo outside the terminal and approached one of the staff. They are recognizable with their blue Bluebird vest.

The fare started at Rph6,000 and to reach our hotel at Senayan the fare costs Rph90,000. This excludes toll charges and the additional fare from the airport (which is set according to zone where Senayan is in Zone I). The toll is Rph11,000 and the additional charge for Zone I is Rph10,500. For information, Zone II is Rph9,000 and Zone III is set at Rph7,500.

The hotel looks decent with run-out facade and 1970s lobby design. More detail of my review on the hotel can be viewed here and here.

Our room was at Executive Level overlooking Gelora Bung Karno sports area (consists of stadium, softball field) and have a nice view of Jakarta.

After shower, around 9pm ++, we walked to FXtainment Centre around 100m away from the hotel (at the intersection of Jln Jenderal Sudirman and Jln Pintu Satu Senayan) for a quick bite and to buy some drinks. It is always my policy to request for the hotel to clear the mini bar so I can utilize the mini fridge).

Came back to the hotel an hour later, watched tv and said goodbye to Day 1 around midnight!

~ MT @ Indonesia

~~ Senayan, Jakarta

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~