Day 2 was very tiring to be honest and I need some time to rest but no space for that since my stay in Indonesia is nearly over.
I know it will happen that I will not be able to see the beauty of car-free-day from 6am-11am in Jakarta.
I know at some point that I should arrived a little early but my Grab/Uber make some wrong turn again so I missed the last hour but I was able to witness it for maybe 5-10 minutes of it.
Imagine if I was just able to get up early for it then shoot some photographs (next time, promise).
Since we missed car-free day, we head straight to National Gallery. Surprisingly, entrance was free for a full 3 gallery from different artists.
The galley closes at lunch and we are already done with the first gallery before lunch so we save the 2nd gallery for after lunch good thing there was an eatery inside the vicinity it was disappointing at first but I think it was the only way that they serve rice and a little bits of chicken in it. It was cheap and bit heavy since it was rice. We finished the 2nd gallery and the other one in 1 hour I think.
Next stop is the Flea Market in Surabaya. If you love antiques then it was the perfect street for you. Diana wanted to take home at least something from there but it even for a small piece of jewelry, it was a bit pricey. If you really want something for your home that was antique and unique, it's perfect. We really walked down that street until the end where we can ride a cab and then time to find a shopping place, our plan is to go at Glodok.
Next stop was to shop we do our own research but at some point it fails us. lol
Glodok is a huge place, we didn't find the Chinatown. One really problem was even the cab drivers sometimes don't get what we say or can't understand where we want to go. We said that we will just go this huge mall called, LTC-Glodok. Guess what, well there are handful stores that are open but mostly, the rest was closed. Great. hahaha we usually just laugh at it.
Upon the long route just to get to the next circle for u-turn so we can be dropped at LTC-Glodok, we already passed by Old Town and as it was disappointing on not seeing the Chinatown or anymore souvenir or cheap markets, we just decided to go to Old Town and ride the Mikrolet/Angkot good thing the one that we rode in just have one teeneger and later on an old lady hop in just as we were near Old Town / Kota Tua. I was seriously waiting for the old lady to pay her fare so I can know what to say while paying just like on how we are riding Jeepney in here as well as to what they need to say if they are already in their destination. Curious mind but we are already in Kota Tua.
There are lot of things to do in Kota Tua like there are still museum but we are just into joining the local and of course at least try Cafe Batavia.
As we are just walking everything seems to be interseting already we grab some drinks while roaming around and I got this fruit drink that I'm craving already ever since. There are lot to see in Kota Tua most especially that it was a Sunday and everyone is there having fun and just spending their free day with family and friends.
After roaming around for a bit we already decided to dine in at Cafe Batavia, just for experience and feel the vibe even we are just going to grab some snack.
After Cafe Batavia we decided to go to Thamrin City to try our luck to buy some souvenirs but all they got is not we are looking for. My mom just want some ref magnet and I can't find it.
One major thing happened to us while on our way to Thamrin City is that our Blue Bird cab driver doesn't even know where it is. We can't book a Grab/Uber since it was a busy street and since it was pretty common, we thought that the cab knew where we are going. Unfortunately, he doesn't know. All I know is that I passed by Thamrin City since I walked down that area that morning while catching the car-free day because Diana and I were supposed to meet at Plaza Indonesia which is just near at one entrance of Grand Indonesia. I knew and we also searched that Thamrin City is just somehow at the back or side of Grand Indonesia. We are already near and we already noticed but the cab went straight, at first we thought that he will be turning at the next one but dang it he went straight and I know it was the wrong way since it was already the road leading to Tangerang.
We are somehow freaking out but as we are somehow keeping our coolness since we are both earth sign (see what I did there?! lol), Diana and I didn't argue but we find some way on how we can deal with this driver. Early on our ride, he was already calling someone maybe asking for directions but he can't contact them so he just drive. Thankful we have internet connection, we were able to track our way to Thamrin City we literally spend 30 minutes again on the road where we are on rush to be able to see what Thamrin City is all about and it was closing at 7pm.
Just to be honest with our experience, when we knew we are already near one advantage of different language, we are talking in our native tongue when our driver can't even understand english. We rode Blue Bird meaning it was a metered taxi and that long route he did make it up to 100.000 when it was just 50.000 when we are infront of Grand Indonesia. When we are somehow at the vicinity of Grand Indonesia after that long route, our taxi just hit the car at the back! We thought that there will be commotion since he really hit it but no talk happened! that was one way we can just run and pay just 50.000. Since no commotion or talk since he already hitted that car at the back, we are planning on how are we going to run if we just pay 50.000. We are worried that the driver will be coming after us but he was probably a new driver and a young one so hopefully he will not come after us. Diana talked it out to him but I bet he didn't understand that we will just pay 50.000 since it's his fault at first we thought that he was just playing us around so he can earn huge with our ride but sorry we are Filipinos who knows better than that.
He didn't come after us though. Guess what, no souvenir shops in Thamrin City.
Everything closes super early like 7pm.
The good thing about this adventure is that we were able to talk to some locals and ask questions though sometimes they still don't understand but you will see that they are determined to help.
As we are already losing hope, we just decided to go to Merdeka Square for the Monas and we decided to take anothe Blue Bird cab because this time we are sure that he will not fool us and he defintely knows where are we headed.
We arrived in Merdeka Square almost tired, good thing there are shops already for souvenirs! I found ref magnet but seriously, no major souvenir shop in Jakarta. I was joking all night that I will open a souvenir shop in there. We found few ref magnet but I was wondering why it got a Starbucks or Hard Rock Cafe as a souvenir. After going around we try to atleast eat some local food but as we are hungry, we want somthing familiar and not the ones in there. It is not pleasing our taste buds but you will be amazed on how they cook at least egg with some spices and making it an omelette. We just end up buying water.
Monas was our last stop and as much as we want to try going up there in the tower, Merdeka Square is so huge that we are already tired from walking all around the whole day. We were somehow near the Monas but apparently the entrance was at the other side so we just decided to just sit at the open area and just stare at its beauty while changing colors with a little bit of lighting on the sky.
I love Merdeka Square even we didn't able to get to the every end of it, how come we don't have such parks and all we got are malls?
We agree to grab a late dinner at a fast food so we searched for a 24 hours fast food chain and we got KFC nearby. We rode a Bajaj for probably the last time for this trip for that KFC then we recall our very tiring day and we will see each other tomorrow at the airport.
Booked our ride separately and I got to recall everything while I'm on my last ride from Central Jakarta to Tangerang thinking that I will be missing this place that I got to experience alone but mostly spending days with new found friends.
While I was on my ride the radio played, Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots and Green Light by Lorde.
It was indeed a day with full of new experience.
As soon as I got to my hotel room, I cleaned up then fix my stuff since I will be heading to the airport early the next day.
Goodnight for the last time for now, Indonesia.
My Photographs: Indonesia
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