Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta is the capital and the largest city of Indonesia, which is also the world's second most populous urban area after Tokyo, Japan. I suppose the focus of this post isn't really on the expanse of the city, which I haven't had the chance to explore a lot myself, but I shall also cover two relatively new modes of public transport: Soekarno-Hatta Airport Rail Link and MRT Jakarta.
Officially inaugurated on 2 January 2018, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Rail Link was built to cut travel time from the airport to the city centre and vice versa as the roads between the two are frequently affected by horrible traffic congestion.
The airport station looks modern and hip.
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It costs Rp 70,000 (~S$6.65) to go from the airport to BNI City railway station.
Take note that it's not possible to pay for your ticket by cash. I used a credit card. |
The train runs at intervals of 30 to 60 minutes, with the first one departing from the airport at 8.57am and the last one at 4.57pm. When we heard the announcement for our departure time, my BFF and I scanned our tickets at the gantries and boarded the train.
Each train is equipped with a total of 272 seats.
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| There's a USB charging port between two seats. |
The maximum speed of the train is 100 km per hour.
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| I really can't imagine living so close to a train track. |
In about 55 minutes, we reached BNI City railway station in Central Jakarta.
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| BTW, BNI stands for Bank Negara Indonesia (lit. National Bank of Indonesia) |
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Standing at 262 m, Wisma 46 is a distinctive skyscraper in Jakarta.
Did you know that it appears in Need For Speed: Underground 2? |
From there, we made our way to
Liberty Hotel Thamrin to drop our luggage.
It was time to try commuting on MRT Jakarta, which was officially opened on 24 March 2019.
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| We'd be travelling from Dukuh Atas to Bundaran HI, which is just a stop away. |
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| Phase 1 of the MRT system covers 13 stations. |
As shown above, you need to get a contactless smart card called Jelajah with a refundable deposit of Rp 15,000 (~S$1.40). The charged fare for a one-way trip starts at Rp 3,000 (~S$0.30), increasing with distance.
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| It appears that the train comes every 10 minutes during non-peak hours. |
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| There's a women-only car during peak hours of 7.00am - 9.00am and 5.00pm - 7.00pm |
The interior design of the train is pretty similar to that in Singapore.
There's a so-called micro library at Bundaran HI station where you can borrow books. I wonder if anyone has actually borrowed one.
We walked quite a distance to get our fried chicken lunch.
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Gereja Santa Theresia is a small international Catholic church inaugurated in 1934.
Such a pity that it was closed when we were there. |
It was raining cats and dogs after we were done with lunch, so we decided to go back to the hotel and wait for it to subside. We went out again only after the sky turned dark.
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| TransJakarta is a bus rapid transit system in the city, the first of such in Southeast Asia. |
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| Grand Hyatt Jakarta (5*) is located directly next to Plaza Indonesia, an expansive shopping mall. |
Tugu Selamat Datang (lit. Welcome Monument) is one of the historic landmarks of Jakarta at the Bundaran HI roundabout that was completed in 1962 as part of the city beautification projects in preparation for the 1962 Asian Games.
Our destination was the huge Grand Indonesia, which is said to be one of the top five shopping malls in Jakarta.
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| The shopping mall is spread over two main buildings: West Mall and East Mall. |
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| I'd love to have such huge pretzels. |
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| Welcome to Europe! |
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| I've forgotten the title of that artwork, but it now reminds me of Borobudur Temple in Central Java. |
The next morning, we took the train and dropped off at Istora Mandiri MRT station to go to
Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium. Here are some photos of the vicinity.
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| That spiral building is the headquarter of the Ministry of Finance and Tax Directorate General. |
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| TVRI is a national television network, the oldest one in Indonesia. |
After exploring the stadium grounds, we walked to a nearby shopping mall called Plaza Senayan.
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| That's quite a huge building of the Ministry of Education and Culture. |
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Patung Pemuda Membangun (lit. Youth Advancement Monument) was erected in 1971
in conjunction with the 445th anniversary of Jakarta to inspire youths in nation building. |
The three-storey shopping mall is also among the top five shopping malls in Jakarta.
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| Have you seen polar bears in the wild before? I've yet to get that experience. |
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| Lovely dome interior design! |
I was taken by surprise when I saw a branch of Lawson, a convenience store chain from Japan, at Senayan MRT station. Please bring Lawson to Singapore!
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| They also sell oden (Japanese fish cake stew). |
On our last evening, we went to Mall Taman Anggrek, the largest shopping mall in Indonesia that's nestled within eight residential towers and houses with more than 500 shops spread over seven floors. Not surprisingly, this is also among the top five shopping malls in Jakarta. The other two that I didn't get to visit are Pondok Indah Mall and Pacific Place Jakarta.
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| There was a Harry Potter-themed holiday event from late November 2019 to mid-January 2020. |
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| Care to play Quidditch? |
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| Which Hogwarts House would you be in? |
The shopping mall boasts Southeast Asia's first indoor ice rink.
Once we were done exploring and having dinner, we took a cab to go back to the hotel, having to bear with quite a terrible traffic jam.
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| Mall Taman Anggrek holds a Guinness World Record for hosting the world's largest LED display. |
I shall list down the eateries that I've tried during not only the December 2019 trip, but also the past few trips:
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