Jakarta Trip - Dec 2008 (Day 1)

The family is excited about the Jakarta trip tomorrow. Well, it has been some time since we did some overseas travelling. Indonesia may not be far but I believe it will do my kids a world of good.

The last time we travelled was also to Indonesia but that was Medan and Bukit Tinggi, way back in mid 90's. Aida was still small then at about 3 or 4 years old. She lamented that she doesn't have a memory of that trip.

So, we have some packing and preparations to do today ahead of tomorrow's trip. We have exchanged about RM1k into Rupiah. The rates was quite ok yesterday at 3320IDR to a RM1, after it had risen to 3350 few days back.

Members of this tour group:
- Haji Nasir, from Easy Tours
- Ahmad Al-Hadi & Family
- Faaina-the wife
- Aimi Nadiah @kakyong
- Muaz
- Aida
- Hj Ridwan @ Abuya & Famili
- Fauziah @ Ummi
- Hanzolah @ bangah
- Ainan @ kaklang
- Haritsah @dedek
- Siti & family
- Jihah
- Hasyir
- Shafie
- Azol
- Fairuz
- Zainuddin with wife & 5 children

1150 all the bags are packed. Just waiting for kyong n aida coming back from hair saloon. Hehe.

1200 kyong n aida is back.

1225 trying to locate wak rahman, a family friend, who has been assigned to send us to the airport.

1240 wak rahman arrived to pick us up with his unser. The journey begins..

Wak rahman is an interesting guy who is actually a friend of my wife's dad. He is an elderly guy who has a stylish sense for dressing up. Just gotta see his pic to understand this.

1447 did our jamak prayers at klia surau n lunch in mcd

1500 cleared thru immigration at klia.

1545 at the waiting lounge.

1645 seated in the plane... Our flight is KLM 0809. Getting there is half the fun, so says the tagline of KLM..

1700 up up n away...

1845 slamat tiba di sukarno hata airport di jakarta.

"Welcome to Jakarta, a city with 12.5 m population", says Pak Heru our local tour guide. Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia which houses 220m total population, which is the country with the most number of muslims in the world.

13 rivers run through Jakarta which is originating from the Bogor mountains.

Jakarta's name owe its origin in the 16th century to Jayakarta which means "Glorious Victory" in celebration of the victory of a local islamic sultanate over portuguese entity after a dispute over a trade treaty sometime round 1522. The Dutch changed it to Batavia when it was a colony.

The Japanese changed it back to Jayakarta during its occupation but the locals disliked it. And Sukarno officiated the name of Jakarta when Indonesia gained independence in 1945.

Jakarta is famed for its traffic jam termed "macet" by the locals which is easy to understand with 7million registerd vehicles coupled with a not so well planned transport system. However, we managed to snaked through Jakarta with relative ease that night to our destiantion.

2000 We arrived at Restaurant Selera Jumbo where we had a sumptous dinner nasi padang style. There Red Fish Head Curry, Meat Rendang, Chicken Curry, some vegetables.

2130 check into ibis hotel. Wat a letdown. Wifi hv to pay la at abt idr30000 per hour. Dats abt rm10 per hr. We r in room 707. The hotel room is quite ok. The floor is not carpeted but wood style.

2230 did my jamak prayers (merging magrib to isya - takhir mode)... suffering from a bout of flu... downed 2 tablets of actifed... and i am off to lala land....