Welcome to Jakarta Mr. and Mrs. Lynch! It was an honor to host Becky and her husband, Jonathan, on their honeymoon in Jakarta. Yup, they were a newly married couple from London, and spent two weeks to catch a glimpse from city to city in Indonesia. Jakarta is the city that became their first stop, they booked 5 hours of City Tour Jakarta, and I became their first local friend in Indonesia. Hehee..

We are all shy at the beginning :p

The most memorable experience with them was eating Chinese food on Gang Gloria, small alley in Jakarta Chinatown local market. We sat side by side – eating, drinking, chatting – while people passing by our backs. Tasty food, hot weather, and coconut ice drink, unforgettable moment. :’)

Enjoying Coconut Drinks at Chinatown

Then I tailored them to stroll in street artist alley, show them our famous gem stones. Becki bought one ring with green stone on the top of it, it was her first souvenir in Jakarta, ‘batu akik’ a.k.a. gem stone! 😀

After that, we continued our city tour Jakarta and I took them to Chinese local market. It was almost Chinese New Year, so the market was full of people who need to buy things for New Year. Red clothes, red envelope, fruits, candies, red-hanging lamps, red decoration, etc. Back then, we could see red colour things sold everywhere, the market surrounded by one main colour, RED!

In Front Of De Maria Church Jakarta

I must say, it was the tour of light. Unexpected thing came when I ran City Tour Jakarta with them. What does it means? It means we saw different kind of light on that day. Lights from hanged Chinese lamps on 50 metres street, lights of the gem stones, and in the end of our tour, we saw the lights of Monas Jakarta.

Back then, we arrived around 6 pm in Monas Jakarta Park, the tower started to shine with colorful lights. It was red, blue, green, yellow, and purple flashed the Monas Jakarta Tower, the colour switched in a moment. Yes, it was a beautiful thing to see.

At Monas Park Jakarta

It was also nice to know a lovely couple from ‘Harry Potter land’, I saw their strong connection by myself. Becky was outgoing person, cared by Jonathan who was very quite and thoughtful in every decision he made.  I hope their may have a lot more happy life in coming days, and had wonderful things to remember on our City Tour Jakarta. 😀

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It  was a unique experience when I ran City Tour Jakarta with Francois. From the beginning, I had difficulty to say his name in a right way. So, on that day I asked him ‘how to spell your name’ couple times, back then I really felt bad about it.

But, in every bad situation always had a bright side.  The good thing is…now I can remember clearly how to say or spell his name, Francois, it’s Frank – ko – a – se. Finally I can speak in French, LOL 😀

Francois is enjoying painting

Okay, back to the topic, so how was city tour jakarta going on?

I must tell you, it was ‘funny’. Funny because it seems Francois became my tour guide, not me. He has a lot to tell about his country, about art, about his own business, about everything.  So, in Jakarta Walking Tour not only he knew something about Jakarta, but I personally learnt things from him.

He said that Jakarta and his home town, Cape Town, has some similarity. Back to the colonial era, a lot of Javanese people started to live in South Africa, consequently we had language in common. Such as, office, in Jakarta I called it ‘kantor’, and in Cape Town he called it ‘kantoor’. Honestly, I feel…wOw. Glad to know interesting fact like that, really. :O

Soldier Uniform at Bank of Indonesia Museum

Then, I took him to Fine Art Museum, I found that he had a big interest in art, painting, and pottery. He can stand still, stay silent when was looking over a painting. Good for him, in that Museum we can see many legendary painter’s art works from Indonesia, such as Basuki Abdullah, Affandi, Raden Saleh, S. Sudjojono, et cetera.

I also knew him as an open minded-traveler, because he wants to try something new as I suggested. While we strolled, I made him taste some snacks and traditional drinks, such as selendang mayang (Jakarta’s traditional ice drink), kue cubit (traditional pancake), and cendol ice (made from coconut ice milk, jackfruit, brown sugar, and ‘cendol’).

Selendang Mayang Ice Drink

In the end of City Tour Jakarta, I personally felt really hard to say good bye because he was like a ‘guru’ to me, tell me a lot about culture, life, and how to run a startup business. So, we took an extra little time to chat in Sabang Street, found a good restaurant (Natrabu, a Padang Food Restaurant) and drink coconut ice drinks while we discussed about everything.

Chit-chatting with my friend, Ari. (Photo taken by Francois)

Definitely, run a City Tour Jakarta with Francois was a one time experience that I will find not so easy to forget. Oh, and one more thing, for you who love  a nice frame on Instagram, you can found his photo works on @fvs2 (p.s. he has a very good eye and unique perspective, trust me! 😉

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