Never thought in my mind that you can start traveling from the place you are live in, which is for me is in Jakarta. Some of us maybe live in Indonesia’s capital city for more than 10 years, and most of us are born in Jakarta, like me.
But we are not really familiar with the city. Many of my friends even haven’t gone to Monumen Nasional (Monas). While most of tourist who went to Jakarta will visit it first 🙂
So, I decided to ask my office-mates (which most of them are come from outside Jakarta) to join the Jakarta Walking Tour from Jakarta Good Guide. We chose City Center as our route for that day.
If you want to know about Jakarta Walking Tour and see where we go around City Center? Just keep reading 😉
Our meeting point was in
Museum Nasional, which also known as
Museum Gajah. We met
Hans who is our tour guide that day from Jakarta Good Guide.
Gajah means Elephant in Indonesian. We called it Museum Gajah because in the front of the museum, there is elephant statue which is a gift from Thailand.
Too bad, we didn’t enter the museum. But Hans explained to us about the history and what’s inside of the museum. Don’t forget to take a picture in front of the whirlpool statue like we did.
It was pouring on that day, so we decided to adjusting our time due to the weather. From Museum Gajah we took a walk into the
National Monument (Monas). The monument is the symbol of Jakarta, like Eiffel Tower for Paris.
You can take the elevator to see Jakarta from above. But one thing you need to know if you want to go up, you need to take a very long queue. My suggestion is you have to come early if you want to experience it.
I have already gone to the gold part (which is on the top) a few years ago. My advise is you’d better bring your jacket because it is very windy at the top. But the scenery is breathtaking. Just go up at least once, and you know why 🙂
Moving to another place, we went to see the
Presidential Palace near Monas. This is where President Jokowi live now. Hans informed our other guest from London and Singapore how lively the palace is when we had Independence Ceremony on August.
We couldn’t go inside, so we were moving to another place again.
The next place is
Ragusa, Ice Cream Cafe. I have been eating in this place for twice. And even Ragusa has been famous with the ice cream and the history, I don’t know why Hans let us to visit Ice Cream Cafe while we were cold because of rain >.<
But, at least my office-mates now know about Ragusa hahaha.
We ordered Spaghetti Ice Cream (IDR 35.000,-) with vanilla flavor. Don’t get wrong, this menu is not the combination of Spaghetti and Ice Cream. It is just ice cream that served look like Spaghetti.
For me, the flavor is good even the price is not :P. But I really disappointed with the service. When we came, the server ask us in hurry. While we were thinking about menu to order. And when I asked for another spoon, the lady in the cashier told me to ask from the man in the back. He was cleaning the dishes and gave me a wet spoon. The worst part is, they don’t give you tissue unless you pay for it. Blah!
After finishing our ice cream, we went to
Istiqlal Mosque. For you who want to visit this place, you need to dressed properly. But don’t worry they rent you the clothes which like Kimono.
Since only Muslim can enter the center of Mosque, for you who are not Muslim there is a tour from Istiqlal Management. They will give you tour around Istiqlal.
Alhamdulillah we also took our Zuhur Prayer inside one of the biggest mosque in Asia 🙂
Since it was already afternoon, we couldn’t continue the tour which was going to
Cathedral Church. So we had a lunch around Istiqlal area. After that we took a
City Bus Tour which shelter around Istiqlal (near Juanda, TransJakarta Shelter).
It took about 10-20 minutes to wait. There is no queue, so it was like “survival of the fittest”. The one who can stand and able to go first than the others is the one who can take the bus, despite how long have you waited the bus. Which is suck 😛 I hope government will have the solution about this matter 🙂
Since it has been so long since I was taking double decker in Jakarta, so I chose to sit at the upstairs. This bus is free of charge. And all of the passengers must sit down. There is no information about Jakarta inside the bus which supposed to have for the City Bus Tour. It is not like City Bus Tour at all. It is just a free transportation 😛
That’s it for my first walking tour with Jakarta Good Guide. This tour is a pay-as-you-wish kind of tour. There are 5 route options that you can choose. You can check for more info about Jakarta Good Guide in their website.
Thanks for reading 🙂
View Comments
jakarta feels different in rainy conditions, more peaceful
ohh ga jadi sama mas Farid ya?
hehehe servisnya Ragusa emang gitu siih, rada malesin emang :/
belum lagi kalo pas rame, kita kalo dah slesei makan masih nongkrong disitu bakalan "diusir"
Yes. But not convenient when we go sight seeing :(
Ga jadi Dit. Jadinya sama Mas Hans.
Iya, engga banget deh. Padahal dulu pas kesana ada pemusik yang pakai biola sama cello. Skrg bener2 plain. Mana pelayanannya gak oke.
So sad to read about Ragusa. :(
I used to love to stroll around by myself around Jakarta and indeed, it is a very nice city btw.
Aku dulu kepengen gabung sama Jakarta Walking Tour, tapi keki sendirian. Kalau mau jalan ke spot yang beda lagi ajak-ajak yah! :D
Heee, songong amat itu Ragusa :( Semoga servisnya makin impruf lahhh... Pernah naik City Bus jugak, ada yang jelasin pas itu, cuma pakai Bahasa Indonesia, kasian bule yang naik hihi
I am a little bit sad,too. Because the last visit before I had a great time. Now I am surprised with the service quality :(
Yuuuukkk. Nanti barengan sama temen2 yg lain. Kukabarin yaaa :D
Iya Una. Kaget juga. Kok sampe segitunya.
Iya tuh kmrn kan barengan bule. Dia nanya nanti ada pemberitahuan turunnya ga? Krn aku liat ada papan di depan kayak transjakarta, aku bilang kayaknya ada deh. Lagian kan kita barengan nanti ku kasih tau. Eh taunya aku terpaksa keluar krn ga dpt tempat duduk ?