MY KIDS, IN LAWS, grandchildren, and I just returned last tuesday from a four-day trip to Jakarta. It’s our first time to visit Indonesia and we’re very much impressed with their highway system going to and from their airport. The city is clean and very progressive, although still third world like us as there are also beggars and homeless people in their streets. (But we seem to have more.) We got sale plane tickets and sale hotel accommodations at the 5-star Le Meridien and it’s really worth it. We just hired a hotel van to take us around. We went to Batavia, also known as Old Indonesia, as it’s full of old houses and buildings like Vigan. It also has beautiful museums and quaint cafes. Also impressive is the National Monument at Monas with its set of historical dioramas tracing the history of Indonesia and how they rebelled and got their independence from their Dutch colonizers. Actually, we got our independence earlier than them, both from Spain in 1898 and the U.S. in 1945. They got theirs only in 1949 but, in spite of rampant corruption just like in our country, they seem to have progressed much better than us. We went to a huge theme park called Ancol (pronounced Anchol) and it’s actually a conglomeration of various theme parks like Sea World, Atlantis (like our Splash Island), and others (like a cable car ride around the whole area). It’s located by the sea and you can also swim on the beach if you want to. We chose to go to Ocean Dream Samudra because it has a 4-D film presentation of “Dora The Explorer” (a fave of our grandkids), plus a sea lion and dolphin show, a live action presentation filled with dangerous stunts called “Scorpion Pirates” (similar to Universal Studios’ “Waterworld”) plus a hippopotamus and bear show. It took us the whole day to see all the sights, plus there are so many kiddie rides in its also. If you think we’re a country of malls, then you should visit Jakarta. Our driver took us to one called ITC-MAS that’s like 168 in Divisoria but it’s so crowded we preferred to go to the bigger malls, Grand Indonesia Shopping Town and Plaza Indonesia. Grand Indonesia is as big as MOA. On the top floors, they have beautifully designed food courts, a more pang-masa one in one floor and, on the upper floor, one for fine dining restos that are made with lush gardens complete with fountains and windmills. On another floor, there’s a carnival for kids with various modern rides also. Our grandkids just loved it. Also, their food is much cheaper than in Hongkong, KL, Singapore or Bangkok, even if you pay in hundreds of thousands of rupiahs. The only difficulty is communicating with their sales people as only very few speak English. Another hitch is we were not warned we’re supposed to pay a terminal fee upon leaving the country. We thought only Manila does that. In their case, they charge a bigger fee, P1,200 in our money compared to our international airport that charges only P750.
