“I like it more than taxi!”
It was my friend from Austria, Bernd, told me about what he felt when he had a ‘bajaj’ ride in Jakarta, (bajaj is a vehicle with three wheels and using gas as its fuel). He was happy when the wind coming through bajaj’s open window and had a ‘pleasant’ moment when the driver showed his driving skill, always make a quick takeovers, in every possible way, lol. Bernd is Martin’s friend. They are working together in Austria, and got a chance to come to Jakarta. I must say thanks to Martin for recommending me as a guide in Jakarta. Without him, I could not show how fun bajaj ride is, and Bernd would not know that most of the driver in Jakarta has a fabulous driving skill. 😀
Natural Air Con on Bajaj
Although the main street that we should pass was closed due the Jakarta Marathon event (I was not happy with this by the way –red), but I tried to take another way to go. Grabbed a taxi, and start to tell the story about Jakarta inside it, while enjoying the traffic jam. At least, I could smile when Bernd got excited when he saw one motor bike with three passengers on it, hahaa..
Our walking tour was not only about visiting some touristic places or museums, but more about sharing the story. I let him walked around local markets, taste local snacks, and discussed everything which is not the same with what usually exist in his home town. There are so many differences. That’s why I can tell him so many stories. Everything that we saw during walking tour had its own story, why and how, what and who, unlimited possibility for type of questions that can arise.
I might not have every answer, but in each question that I can’t answer, it has something to be learned about. In the end of the day, it was not Bernd who learn something about Jakarta, but it’s me who got a lesson. Thank you for sharing the stories, and someday I want to say “you bring holiday in the dark tunnel” in the right place!
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.
Thank 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!
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!
The 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.
“Dadakan” is we are. One of the Indonesian – English slang that reminds me of two friends, Caroline and Carmen from Sarawak, Malaysia. “Dadakan” means something that comes up so suddenly in an unexpected situation. Because they were contacting me one day before the tour, and we promised to meet on McDonalds in the next morning, without me, as a guide, knowing their faces or what they really look like. So, yeah it was an unexpected tour that brings a lot of surprise in a day.
I wasn’t planning to go to Sunda Kelapa Harbour, but when Carmen asked “Can we go there?”, my answer was “why not, yes we can go to the harbor!” We take a bajaj (a vehicle with three wheels) ride and climbed to the highest point of Syahbandar Tower. Up there, we saw how the Batavia (Old Jakarta –red) looks like, and learnt the reason why the tower had an important role in the past time. We also went to Maritime Museum and take a shot inside the beautiful architecture.
The funny thing is when we were going upstairs, one security personnel followed us and said, “Do you want to have a photo-shoot up here?” Oh my… he thinks that I – who bring a camera along the way – am a photographer, and Caroline and Carmen will became my photo models. I think they are just too gorgeous, so people around us feel ridiculous, why such beautiful ladies come to the northern part of Jakarta, hahaa..
Another ‘ridiculous’ moment was when I took them to Chinese market. It seems like, they just followed me eating along the way. I did like Chinese food, so did them, but the thing was I eat more, like I will never go there anymore, lol.
After all, thank you for coming to Jakarta, I would like to meet and eat Chinese noodle with you all next time. See you around!
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!
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!
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!
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?
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!
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
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](https://jakartawalkingtour.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/suaramerdekadotcom.jpg)
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.
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/
