Meeting Hengkie and Angga: Day Tour in Jakarta, Indonesia

At long last! After a year of planning of going to Indonesia, I finally met my long-time twitter friends– Hengkie and Angga. It was last June 12, 2012. Yup! Philippine Independence Day and I was out of the country – free of doing work, free of stress! :D

We touched down Indonesia about 1 o’clock in the morning. Hengkie was the one who picked us up. :)

Hengkie and I

That morning, we had a quick breakfast at the hotel. Hengkie told us that we were about to go to Gambir station to meet Angga. It was about 9 o’clock when we reached the train station.

Hengkie, I and Jonah: On our way to the bus station at the airport.

Touring the city can be fun when you have lots of things to do and you have a car too. Aah! Good thing Angga brought his car and they toured us around the city for free. No need for tour guides because of Angga and Hengkie. :D

Meeting Angga

Our first place to visit in Indonesia was its capital city, Jakarta. It is more like Makati City here in the Philippines. The difference is that buildings in Jakarta are not that tall. It is not crowded too.

View of the Central Jakarta

While roaming around the city, we noticed the fancy architecture that this city has. We also visit the Monument Nasional, popularly known as MoNas. It is a tower with a museum underground strategically located in the center of Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, standing 132 meters high. Surrounding MoNas is relievo or reliefs of the Indonesian History. Inside the museum you can see dioramas depicting the country's history from its earliest colonialization continuing to what is Indonesia now in the 20th century.

Walking along Merdeka Square

Dioramas inside the museum

The tower resembles a torch. According to the locals, the top of the tower which serves as the fire of the torch is gold-coated. According to them, the obelisk and flame symbolize the Indonesia people's struggle for independence. Angga said it is a symbol of wealth. Well, I agree to Angga. It can be a symbol of wealth since it is made from 50kg of gold. (Source: wikipedia.com)

We weren't able to go up the tower because of the long queue and not ample time. Anyways, it cost 7,500 Rp if you want to go up an see the city of Jakarta from the top.
Next stop was a place to eat. We decided to dine at McDo or MacDee as Indonesians called it.

(Jonah and I kept on saying McDo. We never thought then that Angga and Hengkie were wondering what ‘McDo’ was. Haha!)

McDonald’s in Indonesia is not the same with ours. You have to eat with your hands. :D

View from McDonald's
While eating, we tackled of many things. We taught them Filipino language and they taught us Bahasa. We learned much about each other's culture. It's cool to know that there are some words in Bahasa that is similar in Filipino like 'mahal', 'mura', 'ako' and more. 'Mahal' in Bahasa is the same meaning as 'Mahal' (expensive) in Filipino. Same is true with the word 'Mura' (cheap).

‘I love you’ in Bahasa is ‘Aku cinta kamu’.
The next place we visited is a shopping mall. There are several shopping malls in Jakarta and the one we visited was Grand Indonesia. It was just a swift tour inside the mall. We were able to buy shoes and tees because it was sale. :D
Food court inside Grand Indonesia
The comfort room
Mall's Interior

Rich Kid Jonah: Shopping!

We had to leave the mall early because we had to catch an early evening flight to Bali. So after that visit, we went straight to the airport – Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. We stayed inside the airport and continued tackling about different things.
At J.Co

Hengkie :D


Yummy J.Co Donuts! :D
I invited them to visit Philippines someday. And they too said that we should go back and visit Indonesia again. :D