alhamdulillah.safely touched down at LCCT approx 1145am yesterday.i should say it was the most memorable journey to jakarta…

lets recap

9 to 13 feb 2006 : took return flight to jakarta and spend 2 days at bandung and remaining days at jakarta.however, there were ppl entertaining us.means that we need not to worry on the transportation,accomodation etc. plus, went with 5 more ppl that makes the option of hiring apv was the cheapest and the most convenient.at bandung we have kak sarah’s friends whilst at jakarta, we have rozaina’s uncle and maya’s cousins entertain us.not much of worry.blasttt

2 to 6 may 2007 : also took return flight to jakarta however spend all 4 days at bandung.shopping,tangkuban parahu,shopping,eating,singing,paragliding,manicuring and yeah,shopping.hik3.back to jakarta only to sleep overnite at kak mil’s crib and then catch flight to kl the next morning.fun fun fun 🙂

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so now.6 to 9 nov 2008.it was me and mirah.actually only few days before the departure that i realize that we only have 2 days at jakarta.another 2 days burned for travelling ie arrive at night to jakarta and depart early in the morning back to kl.heh.whatever ;p and btw we were there to do some shopping and lot bit of jalan-jalan.

day 1

arrived at jakarta and waited for mirah’s cousins (they took the next flight from kl), 2 of ’em.we took taxi that costs us Rp180,000 and straight to alpine hotel located in the jakarta city,jl. gunung sahari raya, only 10 minutes drive to mangga dua and 20 minutes to tanah abang 🙂 oh, the journey macet(traffic jam) banget.checked in at approx 12 midnight and off we went to sleep.btw all 4 of us shared the same room and cost us Rp270,000/head for 3 nights.lucky that the hotel management wasnt so strict on no of ppl inside the room.ha ha

day 2
woke up early in the morning.had our breakfast and at around 845am, we had a walk to the nearest bus stop, Halte Jembatan Tinggi and took a bus ride to ITC mangga dua.the fare was around Rp2500.it was friday and the road was super busy.and dusty.and sunny.and with so many ppl.phew.what a combination.since we arrived quite early, most of the shops havent been set up yet.so we just walk around.looking for kartu undangan shop, and lucky that we found one.however, no hasil since everything was not up to mirah’s expectations.duh.poor her.and so we walked to pasar pagi mangga dua.just next to ITC.we did some price comparison between shops.for souvenirs.at approx 11am, we decided to go to tanah abang.so we took angkutan from opposite topasar pagi and to the nearest busway station, Kota.from there,we took Rp3500 ticket to Sarinah station and walk to Salero Jumbo, a nasi padang restaurant, to have our lunch and zuhr+asr prayer. Costs us Rp94,000 for the lunch.oke la 🙂

so we continue our journey by taking bajaij (looks like a combination trishaw+motorcycle) that can only accomodate 2 ppl and 2 small plastic bags only oke!haha.not advisable to those who bring too many plastic bags after shopping.coz the bajaij is very small.yet superfast coz can mencelah2.its Rp8,000 per journey.

lesson learnt #1 -> to take public transport in jakarta is that, NEVER hop on the transport before you nego the fare coz u might kena ketuk easily and get bimboed(kene tipu = jadi bimbo.haha.joke).and try to ask around first(the local ppl) so that u get to know the actual price.ye lah they will sure ketuk tourist,no?same as what happen here in malaysia.i mean everywhere also like that kot.huhu

oh okay so we arrived at Blok A tanah abang approx 3pm and we split to find our own stuff.at around 5pm we gathered and walk to Blok F at the back.my oh my so smelly and dirty.haihs..;(. we walk around and the survey activity continues.we managed to find the suitable souvenirs(finally!) at one of the shops there.did some nego and nego and nego(our main activity.sampai tadi beli barang kat pusat bdr pasir gudang pun nak ternego harga.mwahaha).so we exchanged phone numbers with the shop owner and promise that we’ll come back the next day for payment.

oh did i tell u that i didnt bring enough cash?yeah.i didnt!i thot that all shops will accept visa for payment but nada.if only they accept, they’ll charged 3% to 3.5% on top of the item price.so i tried to withdraw my money at the atm using my visa but to no avail coz i forgot the pin number.so i borrowed mirah’s money (A LOT) since thats the only option i have.thanks dear 🙂

lesson learnt #2 -> do calculation beforehand and bring cash suitable to your calculation.be it RM or Rp or u might face the same problem as mine.susah woo tgh2 negara orang tade duit.huhuhu

lesson learnt #3 -> activate your visa for cash withdrawal at atm anywhere in the world and REMEMBER the pin number.ha ha silly me

so we spent like an hour or so,figuring out how to get cash.oh many thanks travelmates for the patience!

its almost dark when we started our journey back to our hotel.we planned to go back to pasar pagi to get mirah’s stuff however when we arrived there at approx 8pm, the pasar pagi already closed and we walked for approx 30minutes to WTC mangga dua for dinner at A&W.so relieved when we finally get there.huhu.why 30minutes?yes,sesat.thankyou for asking.then we took busway and then bus ride back to alpine hotel.we arrived at around 10pm+..

oh the beautiful thing about this trip is that we managed to use almost all mode of transportations!!hik hik

day 3
the day that we have to make sure all to-buy list checked.so we woke up earlier than the day before and had our breakfast.the journey was similar to the day before and the only thing is that we went directly to pasar pagi to look for the stuff that we already decided to buy.i did some shopping at this one shop whilst mirah was here and there shop for her stuff.hehe.we completed the ‘business’ at pasar pagi sometime around 11am and off we went to tanah abang Blok F and went to this nearby shop (that we promised to come back the day bfore), to do some payment and arrangement on the item delivery to hotel.next pit stop is the Blok F itself where we did some nego and shopping and nego and nego.and shopping.telekung,kain sulam,blouses etc.then we went to Blok A and split our own way, find our own stuff.all 4 of us met up at around 4pm+ at the entrance and it took us almost half an hour to get a bluebird taxi, to bring us back to the hotel.we took cab coz we need to arrive early for zuhr+asr.alhamdulillah we arrived at 5.15pm and have a goooood rest!

oh we had McD for lunch cum dinner thru McD delivery.

“mau paha atas atau paha bawah”

haha.that was funny.never knew such terms in my whole life.another call,

“oh maaf buk kausar.ga bisa contact nomornya.mentar ya,diulangin
pesanannya”

and that goes like 2 to 3 times..miscommunication.another call,

“maaf buk kausar.ga bisa kesemua paha atas.sebagiannya paha bawah bisa
ga?”

haha.sopan sungguh McD jakarta.salute.well it took almost 2hours our food to arrive and we were starving like nobody cares.haha.

oh and then we received another phonecall.finally, the delivery.hehe.we were like ohmygodd the boxes!sooo biggg and looks heavyyy!!lucky that the reception has a weighing scale.after roughly estimate the total weight of our stuff,we sat back.we try to pull ourselves together.too many what-ifs in our mind.what if there are limit for xs baggage.what if the boxes cudnt be checked in due to oversize, what if the custom at lcct asks too many question etc etc etc…we prepared for the worst and did our packing still.and sleep soundly ………..
day 4
the moment of truth.we woke up as early as 4am.did our subuh prayer and off to soekarno hatta airport at 6am, by apv.costs Rp200,000.

first roadblock : pak polisi at luggage scanner

“banyak banget ini.ga bisa lepas”

he brought me to the room and….

“kayak gini jika mau dilepasin,bisa bagi duit
ngopi”

“Rp50,000 bisa ya”

“mau ngopi ramai2..Rp100,000 aja”

i just gave the pakcik the money.my first involvement in bribery.whadaaa~

then to the check in counter…

2nd roadblock : misplaced my immigration card

“kartu imigrasi kayak gini ada ga?” (flashing mirah’s
immigration card to me)

“oh..mentar ya”

it took me almost 5 minutes to selongkar my bag and alhamdulillah i found the card.huhu

3rd roadblock : access baggage payment

“charge akses baggage nya is Rp….juta”

“oh okay.kartu visa bisa ga?

“bisa..”

alhamdulillah.and the amount was as calculated the night before.mentally and emotionally prepared.haha

oh then we went to immigration counter and had jalan2, quick breakfast and some shopping.and waited at the gate.

touched down at 1145am and went to get our bags and boxes..off to custom declaration counter,,,

4th roadblock : the scariest one, the custom Q&A

“ada apa dalam ni….untuk apa…berapa harga semua ni…cukai 30% dari
jumlah harga..”

[buat muka ketat kesian]

“oke awk bayar RMxxx je.kat kaunter dan ambil resit”

“terima kasih”

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haha.valuable experience indeed…so there you go.my full-of-surprises journey.i find my journey so weird and full of lesson learnts..oh talking of lesson learnts,

lesson learnt #4 -> if you want to buy items in bulk, pls consider the total weight

lesson learnt #5 -> bring suitable size of luggage so that u can handcarry it.check in light bags and handcarry the heavy ones.this is in case of access weight.

well all in all, i had blast with mira and her cousins.tho there were ups and downs, that what makes the journey even more interesting and memorable…

this journey makes me feel grateful that i live in malaysia and not indonesia.enuff said.

footnote : Rp1,000,000 equiv to RM350