My mind wandering about snow in Jakarta

There is a lake that you can see 3 meters below clearly. There is Mozart House, there is Arnold Schwarzenegger birth place, and there is Martin’s hometown called Austria, a country in Europe continent which has 7 million people live in it. While I and Martin had a walk around Jakarta, it is not only I who told the story about Jakarta, but he also took me to ‘fly’ to Austria, his beautiful hometown.

Jakarta Tourist AttractionsThank you for sharing and made me wondering about Vienna, the clean lake, and also the snow. Now, it is time for me to share about our walking tour in Jakarta. So, I still remember the weather on that day. It was extremely hot, and even I who used to that kind of sunlight almost every day here, still sweating all over my body. But, surprisingly Martin liked the sun. He told me that his friend should be jealous because Austria is very, very cold around October, reaching five degrees during winter time.

So, he didn’t mind with the heat, and I took him to Jakarta Old Town Square and Chinatown. We stop in whole sale market and see a lot of souvenir and gifts, something that Martin can’t find back in Austria. We didn’t buy any, but see many. I enjoyed the crowd and let Martin know that we had a popular gem stones among men, fried snacks (banana, cassava, tofu), sweeten fruits called “manisan” (mango, ambarella), and local snack from coconut called “pancong” cake.

After strolled around the crowd, the local music performance, and people of Jakarta, then we wrapped the day on Jakarta city land mark, Monas! Thank you for being a part of Jakarta walking tour, and I was happy to help him know better about the city. See you under the same sun!

Martin Austria Guest Jakarta Tour Review

 

Another hello from Belgium

For many times, I felt like I was not the guide, but my guest became my guide instead. So did when Luca, a friend from Belgium (but he is also Italian who speaks French) who strolled around Jakarta on that sunny Sunday with me.

He did explained history and correlation between Indonesia and Europe in the past time. I learnt a lot about how people live in Europe as an union. Most of the country in Europe had one currency (Euro). People can be born in one country, but can live and work in another country with less difficulty. As an Indonesian who needs a visa or permit to go to a far-far-away country, I think it is a good system. People can live anywhere without any limit. That’s a good spirit, isn’t it?

Okay, back to our walking tour, we meet some school boys who were practicing English. They were asking and trying to communicate with Luca, and I should thanks to Luca with the patience he had back then. It was two groups of them and took a while for him to interact with them. And, don’t forget about the sun, that shines bright (“like a diamond”) we had back then!

Jakarta Tourist AttractionsThe tour wrapped with a new route (for me it was a new one!), a back way to go to the hotel around City Walk Jakarta. Thank you for showing me the back way, Luca! With the trees, gentle wind, and beautiful mosque we passed, it was a good afternoon to say good bye and it might be another hello in the future.

Jakarta Tourist Attractions

Luca Belgium Guest Jakarta Tour Reviews

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : UK Guests

It always nice to meet Fra and Neil. After food tour on last July, this time they invited a friend from Scotland, Calum, to enjoy walking tour in Jakarta. No word can describe the happiness we had on that day, just let the pictures speak for itself. (:

 

Thank you Fra, Neil, and Calum. Baci baci!

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : Sabah Guests

It was a ‘familiar’ experience when I help Bae, Suriati, and Julia to explore Jakarta on late August 2015. They all came from Sabah, Malaysia, which has similar customs and habits as me as an Indonesian. When Asian girls are visiting new places, we should take a photo or selfie, or both. So, we did it, cheers!

Jakarta Walking Tour

Lucky for us, when we visited Jakarta Old Town, it was Sunday and it means it is a car FREE day. We can walk, stop, or do anything we want in the middle of the street. LOL.

Suriati is the best. She was ready to walk around Jakarta and use her Go Pro, Polaroid, and phone for one main reason, taking tons of photos!

Jakarta Walking Tour

Yes, she is beyond awesome! :’)

Here are some places we visited:

On that day, Jakarta is in the hottest ‘boiling point’, it was 34-35 Celsius and we were walking without umbrellas, only Bae had her red-royal-hat on her head. So, we decided to finish our walking tour on Gurame Fish Soup. Wait.. How could I finish a tour with a fish soup?

Jakarta Walking Tour

Bae with her ‘royal’ hat :p

Yes we could, we stopped at a Chinatown food court and ordered tekwan (fish soup from South Sumatra) and one big bowl of fish: Gurame soup. A friend of Bae recommended her to order Gurame Terbang that I’ve never heard of. Terbang means Fly, and Gurame is a kind of fish that has large fishbone, and we can eat the whole fish if it is deep fried. I help her to order the closest Gurame that we can found, so Gurame Soup it is!

Jakarta Walking Tour

Then, our walking tour closed by a fresh and yummy fish soup. Thank you for coming to Jakarta friends, hope you enjoy it all and have a good shopping experience in Jakarta! XoXo

jakarta tour reviews

Bae Malaysia Guest Jakarta Tour Review

 

 

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : Scotland Guests

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.

front of bedug in jakarta mosque

The largest ‘bedug’ in Jakarta

inside the istiqlal mosque

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!

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : US & France Guest

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

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 jakarta

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’.

the best popsicle in jakarta

We tried fish cake, called ‘pémpék’.

Pempek (Fish Cake)

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! 😀

Jakarta Tour Reviews

Jakarta Tour Review

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : Holland Guest

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/

Jakarta Travel Review

 

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : Italy Guest

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.

the tree house city tour jakarta

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!

the tree house city tour 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.

coconut ice drinks

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!”

bank indonesia museum

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. 😉

jakarta tour reviews

City Tour Jakarta Reviews : Aussie Guest

“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.

jakarta shopping tour

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.

jakarta tour review

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

How To Bargain Like a Pro in Jakarta

As a foreigner, it doesn’t mean you can not buy things with a fair price and be afraid of being victim of a scam. You just only have to learn how to bargain like a pro. How exactly? I’ll tell you.

haggle in jakarta

First of all, you need to know that Indonesia has many different kind of markets. Traditional market, modern market, or mix of both. In big malls, there usually a fixed price for everything. But, in semi-modern or even traditional market, you still can bargain for a cheaper price, especially when you want to buy a huge amount of products.

Types of market for you to show your haggling ability in Indonesia includes traditional market or usually called by locals as “pasar”, and trade centers like ITC, WTC, retail stores and etc. Chinatown is actually a good example. There are stores on every corner of the streets and it had trade centers nearby. If you are curious, you can check out the City Tour Jakarta Chinatown Tour.

How to Bargain Like a Pro in Jakarta : Learn Basic Conversation in Bahasa

When you want to ask the price to the seller, ask it in Bahasa. You can start with “Pak/Bu, ini berapaan? (How much is this?)”. And continue with “Harganya bisa kurang, enggak? (Can you give me discount for this?)”.

How to Bargain Like a Pro in Jakarta : Haggle The Price to 70 {9e84ad3adf7f6649419c3d34c511cc75d18ba3101b1ac61299241cdd2f2cd7ab} Lower

Second, haggle the price to 70 percent lower than the initial price. 70 percent?!

Don’t be surprised, it is actually quite common, and you will get the product at that price level, but of course it also depends on what you are buying. If you are afraid the seller will get angry if you do that, just say it jokingly with a smile on your face and you might want to persuade the seller with “Kasihlah Bu/Pak, buat penglaris.”

how to bargain like a pro in jakarta

How to Bargain Like a Pro in Jakarta : Memorize Numbers in Local Language

You might want to memorize numbers in Bahasa, so you can know the exact amount of the price and you can use it to mention the amount you are willing to pay for the product.

How to Bargain Like a Pro in Jakarta : Take a Local Friend to Go Shopping

If you don’t have time to learn Bahasa and feeling not comfortable enough to shop alone in an unfamiliar place, your last resort is take a local to accompany you to go shopping.

You can choose which item you want to buy and just give the rest to your local friend. But, you need to remember that not every local people have the ability to bargain price. So if you want to ask your local friend to shop with you, ask the one who use to shop like a pro!

Now, if you are ready to take on the challenge to show your new ability, it is time to shop. Where can you start? First stop, Jakarta Chinatown of course!