My Trips: My First Impression of Jakarta, Indonesia

Saturday, March 07, 2009

My First Impression of Jakarta, Indonesia

I went to Jakarta for 2 days business trip and back on Friday night. It was a totally new environment and experience for me, and it's also my first time in Jakarta.

The cost of the return flight for Airasia is MYR440.00 included tax, this is a direct flight from Senai to Jakarta.

The plane touched down around 2255hrs Indonesia time (2355hrs Malaysia time). I was picked up by the driver arranged by the client from the Airport. He will sent me to the Hotel which been arranged. The journey from airport to Hotel was total 1 hour 30 minutes!
I told myself....this is not Jakarta anymore! I'm curious and ask the driver : "Where am I?" He replied : "This is Lippo Cikarang".
Oh! Great! I never expect that I can experience my trip out of Jakarta. (But maybe it's still under the Jakarta District).

Along the way, I saw cars & trucks everywhere. The traffic here is really heavy and congested! There were motorist riding their motorcycle without "Helmet", I believe this is common over here.
The Highway looks clean and wide (4 lanes & 1 emergency lane), and the Toll fees are cheap (compare to Malaysia). The driving style here is danger, they cut in to your lane without any prior signal! I think I can't drive over here...Haha!
The popular cars here are Toyota. It capture almost 70% of the local market! Beside that, "Kijang" also easily seen...it's also a Toyota car.

When we passed by Jakarta town, high rise buildings are everywhere and there were many tall buildings still under construction...

Another situation I noticed over here is....there's no restriction for smoking even in a Air-Conditional area, especially restaurants. I think it's bad for non-smoker....

The driver brought me to a Chinese restaurant for supper before the hotel, that was my first meal after touched down! The owner of the restaurant is from Singapore and he's a friendly guy!
I ordered the Singapore Mee-hun (Vermicelli), and the taste was not bad. It cost IDR17,800, which is similar to MYR5.50. I felt it's cheap because of the size...

Sin Ma Restaurant & Cafeteria
Jalan Galeria Singaraja,
Blok E 28K,
Lippo Cikarang - Bekasi 17550
Tel : (021) 8990-6838

This is the Only Chinese Restaurant I saw along the way from airport to Hotel. After the supper, it was almost 2am (Indo time) in the morning. I quickly check-in the hotel with one bottle of Bintang (local beer) and that end my first day at Jakarta.