This week, our friends come from Scotland named Liam and Marianne. They both took annual leave from work to travel to some well-known places in Indonesia. Jakarta was the last city to visit before they head back home so we decided to make their visit memorable. I took them to few historical places, such as Jakarta Old Town, Cathedral Church, Istiqlal Mosque, National Monument and Menteng area.

The largest ‘bedug’ in Jakarta

The Grand Mosque Istiqlal Jakarta

The weather was so hot and humid when we walked around, especially in National Monument. We arrived by 12 am and lucky us, there was not too much people, we got a chance to go to the rooftop and enjoy Jakarta’s view from above. At our walk home, around 20 people gathered at front gate and apparently they are bikers community who has been cycling all the way from Denpasar to Jakarta! What a tough people!

After walked down half day, we went to Suropati Park in Menteng and had a little rest, chatted about the exclusive Menteng area. This park really is an oase in the middle of bustling city, so calm and peaceful. Perfect way to wrapped up our walking tour!

I don’t usually group someone with another person when running Jakarta walking tour. But, Johanna, a guest from France, let me run a tour with ‘additional’ guest, Susan, who came from Washington DC. What happened next? They both surprised me.

Témpé” and “Peté” are Their Favorite

Johanna, who has a plan to travel across Indonesia in three weeks, loves ‘peté’. Peté is a local fruit that usually paired with sambal (chili sauce). It has a bitter (a little bit) and a crunchy taste, because you can eat it directly, freshly, without being cooked first. What made me surprised is…. peté for some people, including me, is a food that we must avoid, so I was laughing when Johanna said, “I like it!”

Source : suaramerdeka[dot]com

If you eat ‘peté’ too much, then your urine will smell soooo bad for one or two days after you ate it. Even if you already flush your toilet a couple times, the smell is still there, lingering inside your toilet. That’s why when someone eat ‘peté’, some other people will feel ‘eeeeww..’ and imagining about bad smell in the toilet, lol..

And, how was Susan? Did she like ‘peté’ too? Unfortunately, she was not there when Johanna tried peté at Padang Restaurant. She already back in the hotel after one day strolling around Jakarta Chinatown and Jakarta Old Town area with us. In our walking tour, Susan said, “I like témpé, we have it on the (United) State, but we don’t cook it in as tasty a way!”

Tempe

So…what’s came to my mind is Susan should eat ‘témpé’ when we had lunch together. Oh, wait, I didn’t wait until lunch to let Susan and Johanna taste local foods.

We ate coconut milk popsicles, called ‘és potong’.

We tried fish cake, called ‘pémpék’.

And so on…

I should say thank you for my friend, Meta, who joined the tour, also Susan and Johanna, to let me understand customs and habits in their own country. Thank you and see you when I see you! 😀

I always feel excited when meeting people who attend the same university with me. That was happen when Anne and Laura said, “We came to Jakarta to study in University of Indonesia”. At that moment, I was thinking, “Oh well my friends, let us start our Jakarta crafting day and share stories about University of Indonesia!” 😀

Anne and Laura both came from Holland. Their main reason to choose studying in Indonesia is that they can have better access to travel across this beautiful country, starting from Sumatera (meeting an orangutan), Yogyakarta (enjoying sunrise at the top of Borobudur temple), Bali, Lombok, and so on…

How about Jakarta? In Jakarta, I cannot give them beautiful forests or beaches to see, so we played together by painting local crafts.

It was something that they did differently with usual weekend. In Jakarta, malls and department stores surround us. Those are easy places to choose when we want to hang out with friends. But with me, I let them to experience something different, let’s get back being children once again for one day! \m/

It was a perfect sunny day when I ran Jakarta walking tour with Francesca and Neil. I got an impression that I will start to like them, because we have something in common. We can smile and laugh easily. 😀

We started our walking tour in Monas, a national monument that surrounded by the largest park in the heart of Jakarta. And continue our walking tour to Jakarta Old Town and Jakarta Chinatown. I must say, we had a lucky day from the very beginning. We got a lot of chance to visit some place that usually will not open for public.

Where is it? The Amazing Tree House.

Usually, I cannot visit this house and just imagine what this tree house inside looks like from the outside. This place for photography purpose, and we must rent for the whole house to get inside it. We passed this house in the early morning and nobody is around. I asked the guard to take a peek inside and he allowed us to get in a while. See what you can see inside this amazing tree house in Jakarta!

Tree eats the house

Another lucky chance was a shadow puppet performance that held just for that day in June. Even we cannot understand Javanese language that shadow puppet master said, but the music was so amazing. They played with a full set of gamelan (Javanese music orchestra for shadow puppet performance) and brought two sinden (singer) that have magical and enchanting voices.

Since Francesca and Neil decided to stay long here, they asked me a lot of things about this city. Yes, we did a city tour, but actually we were talking, discussing, and commenting everything about Jakarta.

I was introducing Francesca local habits, customs, and some ‘tricks’ to live like a real local. How to take a bus ride, where to shop or buy specific things in Jakarta, and eat a lot of Jakarta snacks. It was not even a Jakarta Food Tour, but they had a full stomach in one day with me, lol.

I cannot get enough to please the lovely couple I just met on that day. So, after hours of walking, chatting, and eating, I took them to a foot massage parlor in local Chinese mall. Neil, who was supposed to be stronger than Francesca and I, cannot endure the strong hand of his foot therapist.

It was hurt a little, but it’s for his sake. But, he can’t endure it and said, “I don’t care what he said, just stop it!” with a horrified face. I and Francesca cannot stop laughing at him. Hahaha…

But, when the therapist starts to do head massage, he really liked it. It was like he can took it forever, and again, we laughed at him harder and harder. 😀

After a wonderful Jakarta tour that we had, Francesca said to me, “When I found your website, it is really like oh my God this is what I looking for, and yes it is. So, I can’t wait for our Jakarta Food Tour next month!”

Chatting with two local kids who speak English very well! Amazing kids in their young age

Yes, she and Neil want to book my other tour experience, Jakarta Food Tour. I am so touched that people enjoy a walking tour with me and had an unforgettable moment in Jakarta. This capital city is not a touristic city, but such a lovely city. People can fall in love so easily as long as they start to open their heart to love, something that I did since a long time ago. 😉

“Could you help me do shopping in some malls in Jakarta?”

It was an ‘odd’ request from someone in Australia, Micole, asking me to ‘open’ a new tour : Jakarta Shopping Tour. At first, I don’t understand why people need my help to shop in the easiest and the most convenience place in the world? After hearing his explanation, then I know why shopping in Jakarta is not easy for him and accept his request to stroll around malls and department stores in Jakarta.

So, why? Because Micole knows something that it is ‘make sense’. Once I made shopping tour schedule and plan, I just realized that shopping in Jakarta is quite difficult if you don’t know where to go, how to go, and how much time that you need to go from one mall to another. It is quite frustrating if we just have one day and need to go from mall-to-mall in Jakarta.

But, we made it, yeayy!

We started shopping tour from one of the luxurious mall in Jakarta, Plaza Indonesia, then continue to visit Sarinah Plaza, the very first mall in Jakarta. Since it was a shopping tour, and yes we did shopping there. We found a lot choice of goods in different department stores in Jakarta. And, I personally started to make price comparison here and there, lol.

From Central Jakarta, we continue to the north part of Jakarta. Mall of Indonesia! One of the biggest malls in Jakarta, surrounded by apartments and offices, this mall become something you would not want to miss when visiting North Jakarta.

I found that Mall of Indonesia offers us a different vibe of shopping experience. The goods and foods are different with something that sold in central or southern mall in Jakarta. As a ‘shopping expert’, Micole told me, it was because the market is different, that’s why the mall sells different things too. This is for to fulfill market demands and consumers preferences surrounds it.

Me and my friend who helped me run this shopping tour, Yupa, cannot help our self to join Micole to do shopping in mall. I even don’t think it was a tour, because we did shopping and we like it, like every women does! Hahaa..

After one full day of shopping around Jakarta, then we finished our journey at Dapur Sunda restaurant. The foods are so authentic, serve a lot of local cuisine from Indonesia. I love it because the taste is very close with something that comes from my mom’s kitchen. And, Micole loves it too, he said : “Even the peanut sauce, they really made it.”

So, who else want to join us in Jakarta Shopping Tour? :p

It was nice Saturday when I met Allegra and her two friends, Patrick and Lisa, from Germany.  Before meeting me, they often came to Indonesia, but they had no chance to explore wonderful part of Jakarta. So, as their request, I helped them plan a City Tour Jakarta and guided them while strolling around the city.

City Sightseeing at Syahbandar Tower

What I learned from them, they enjoyed to see how people do their daily works, as a fisherman, as a seller at local market, as a pork butcher, et cetera. Patrick, the only male guest who joined Jakarta Walking Tour, said he wants to know ‘the process’. For example, a fish which sold on the supermarket, he wanted to know where are the fish came from, how to catch the fish, how long fisherman sailing ship to catch the fish, and every process before the fish touch down the supermarket. He wanted to know from the very beginning.

He says, “When I know exactly from where and how the fish or the goods can be seen in front of me, I can start to appreciate small things. Because, then I realized that even the fish is so small, it comes from somebody hard works”.

At Fisherman Boat

So, he was very happy when I tailored him to go to North Jakarta to meet some fisherman and strolled around fish market. He finally can meet fisherman in person, not in whisper only. Hahaa.. It was something that he cannot found on his country, Germany.

They also felt happy when I took them to local market. I encouraged them to eat anything they never seen before. Guava, a tropical fruit, they do not know what it is like before. Patrick said, he had drink guava juice before, but he did not know what it is really like. Lisa and Allegra, do not know Guava at all, that was their first time taste Guava.

Sunda Kelapa Harbour

In city tour Jakarta, I also treated them with some local snack in the market, such as lemper ayam (chicken filled glutinous rice), gorengan (fried foods), candied orange, cakwe (fried breadstick), coconut milk popsicles, et cetera. They all felt happy to eat something that they never taste before. It was a surprise for their tongue! 😀

So, the day when they joined City Tour Jakarta, I as a local guide feel very grateful. I was happy to meet such humble friends from Germany who dare to face ‘the reality of Jakarta’ (got stuck in traffic, jostled in the public bus), want to try something new, and have a big curiosity about what happen in Jakarta. Lisa, Allegra, Patrick, I must thank you!

Source :  http://goo.gl/NhzQ4q