Saturday was an exciting day as we get to greet one of our great friends from the States who is coming to visit us and explore Indonesia with us for a couple of weeks. We started the day with a workout, bananas and yogurt with blueberries, laundry, and I finished The Egyptian movie. We headed to the airport in the afternoon to meet Sarah. We were hungry, so we shared a fried rice dish at the airport. Sarah came strolling out right on time and then we took a Grab car back to the apartment. I worked on some things while Sandy helped Sarah settle in – we have a two-bedroom apartment, so she gets to stay with us. For dinner, we went back to the same restaurant we started with when we arrived on Tuesday. We all had the ginger tea concoction, along with Gado Gado, chicken satay, lamb satay, and a salad. At the end, Sarah and I each had an Indonesian drip coffee with ginger syrup that was amazing. We picked up a couple of things at the grocery store and then went home so Sarah could get some sleep after a long trip. Sandy and I watched some TV and then went to bed ourselves.
The three of us had eggs, toast, avocados, and bananas for breakfast on Sunday morning and then we headed out to see some sights in Jakarta. We started with the furthest point north of what we wanted to see and that was the port area. We wanted to see the old wooden schooners and we found them, but the port area was relatively quiet on a Sunday morning and especially with the Labaran holiday and half of the population having left the city. We walked through the port area and met a new friend, Russell, who was doing the same thing we were doing. He is originally from New Zealand and now lives in southern California. We eventually made our way to the Batavia Marina. Russell joined us and we sat around chatting about travels and silent retreats while enjoying juices, water, and a breeze to cool a warm and humid day just a bit. After the marina, we shared a Grab ride with Russell to the central train station, where we said goodbye. He headed toward his hotel on a city train and we went to Fatahillah Square. We wandered through the square, which was packed compared to when we were there on Thursday.
We “window-shopped” amongst the numerous food stalls with all kinds of Indonesian food. We didn’t buy any but enjoyed checking them all out. The three of us then took a Grab car to the National Monument square with the intention of going to the top. The monument celebrates the country’s independence from Japan and the Netherlands. Japan had taken the country during World War II and when they were defeated, the Netherlands wanted the islands back and a movement came together, said “no thank you,” and won their independence.
Unfortunately, the tickets were sold out for the rest of the day and we made plans to return on Monday. We made our way over to see the Presidential Palace, the Istiqlal Mosque – the largest in Southeast Asia, but it was closed to non-Muslims because of Eid al-Fitr, and the Jakarta Cathedral – open, but a service was taking place and it was full, so we could not go inside.
Next up we took a Grab car to the BCA building and then went up to the 56th floor for drinks and dinner at Sky Rooftop Restaurant and Bar. All three of us had beers, burgers, and shared a frozen tomato salad. Everything was delicious and the views of Jakarta were fantastic – it didn’t hurt to be there for sunset.
Then it was home to get our funds sorted out for the coming week where we will need some cash, pick up yogurt at the grocery store, watch some TV, and get to sleep.
Sandy and I went down to the gym on Monday morning and then we had toast, peanut butter, bananas, and yogurt with blueberries. We headed out at 12:30pm and our first stop was the National Monument. When we arrived they informed us that we couldn’t go up to the top until 5pm, so we bought our tickets and went over to the National Museum, which we had planned to do today anyway.
The National Museum covers a lot of content – it presents a history of the country from prehistoric times through current times although not necessarily in a logical timeline based on where exhibits are in the two buildings. It also has a stone sculpture garden with artifacts from the main Hindu-Buddhist period (around 700 years ago). They had a sizable presentation on Muslim history in the country and a photography exhibit that we did not visit. After a couple of hours, we were hungry and tried Bapao from a food stall outside the museum. The options were chicken, beef, beans, or chocolate. We tried them all except for the beef one. I thought they were excellent. They are doughy balls that are about the size of a softball and have the fillings inside. After our snack we walked back over to the National Monument and took 30 minutes to walk through the museum in its base. They have put together an interesting series of dioramas (maybe around 40 or 50 of them) that take you through the history of Indonesia.
We took the elevator to the top of the monument and enjoyed excellent views of Jakarta again, like yesterday at Sky Rooftop – this time from a little further to the north, but still in the city center.
Back on the ground, we went to a large area of street food stalls and decided on nasi goreng, which translates to fried rice.
It could be made with chicken, tripe (beef intestines), or beef. The owner did not speak English and neither did the other people waiting for their food, but they were all super friendly. They had ordered tripe and we ordered chicken. It all ended up being made together, so we all shared the large bowl of tripe and chicken nasi goreng.
It was a very good choice, and we were happy with both of our street food stall experiences today. We headed home and got to bed later than we were hoping because we are travelling tomorrow and we have to be up extremely early.
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