Racikan Selat

Jakarta - After the smooth flight from Singapore, I took the silver Bird cab waiting outside the airport and it cost me Rp 200,000 to the Hotel.   It is always my policy to take the Blue Bird family - Blue Bird, Silver Bird and the higher end Golden Bird. 

When we reach the edge of Jakarta city, the cab travel came to a crawl and the traffic was bad - took me roughly one and a half hours to reach Le Meridien Hotel.   Had to quickly unpacked, iron my shirt and get ready as my partner will pick me up @ 1pm for lunch and meeting.

Lunch as a new experience with the food I had never tasted before.   I even took a photo of the menu because there are so many new dishes on it.

Es Mangga

Es = Ice
Mangga = Mango

There are nice slices of Mango in this drink and it  taste refreshing.

Deep fried cow skin

Definitely unhealthy as it's the skin of the cow deep fried but it tasted so good and crispy.   

Racikan Selat

Racikan Selat is salad dish that originates from the city of Solo.   Solo is a city in Central Java.   This dish is more like a beef stew - there are slices of beef, potato wedges, potato chips, carrots, lettuce, green beans,  braised egg,  Lontong (compressed rice cake) and served with sweet soybean-based sauce and eggy mayonnaise. 

Nasi Pecel

 Nasi pecel is a Javanese rice dish served with pecel (cooked vegetables and peanut sauce). The vegetables are usually kangkung or water spinach and a fried egg.

Tahu Pong

Tahu Pong = Hollow Toufu

This dish was served with fried egg and also some prawn battered.  The chilli paste is what makes this dish delicious.

Interesting food

Jakarta - Arrived into Jakarta on time but long delays cause by massive traffic jam on route to the Hotel Le Meridien along Jl. Surdirman.   The weather is hot and humid but the ride was smooth in a Silver Bird to the Hotel.   The check-in lady that greeted me at the reception was exceptional.  Le Meridien is part of the Sheraton chain of Hotels is running an incentive to reward their excellent staff.  I have 4 cards to give away and gave one to the check-in lady @ Le Meridien Hotel.

Erwin brought me to a non-descript restaurant called 'Star Cafe' and the food I have never eaten before.

Japanese Pizza

Jakarta -  I wanted to visit the Luxurious shopping Mall - Grand Indonesia which is next to Grand Hyatt Hotel to check out some of the shops.  I bough a pair of running shoes for my son and it was much cheaper as compared to Singapore.

Both Lesley and I went hunting for dinner and came across this diner which is a Japanese casual dinning restaurant called Pasta De Waraku.  This chain of restaurant originated from Singapore under the waraku group.   It was brightly lit and had numerous plates of what was served on their menu displayed on the glass cabinet.

Beautiful lined menu on showcase

Another angle

Unagi Pizza

 The servings of the Pizza are small only 4 pieces but taste delicious.

Seafood Pizza with prawns and scallops

My choice of spaghetti - Vogole Cabonara

Lesley choice - Spinich spaghetti

As we walked around we came across a cafe named after an Ice Cream and it was crowded.

Here I am at the games arcade.

Delicious satay

Jakarta - We had dinner at this Indonesian Satay chain - Sate Khas Senayan restaurant,  The food is good.

Ginger + peanut drink

Background is a noodle dish
Foreground is Tahu Goreng

My dish Ox Tail soup & rice

Yummy delicious satay Chicken and Beef

Jakarta Massive traffic jam

Jakarta - I booked Lesley 'air-ticket to arrive the same time as me and I saw him queuing up at immigration counter and approach him.    The queue was long and there were many foreigners who had forgotten to purchased their 'on-arrival VISA' and thus had to start their queue from the back - quite unfortunate.   There is no VISA required for ASEAN member countries visitors.

Along the way to the hotel, I was hankering for a nice 'seafood' meal.   We went to Pondok Laguna restuarant.  The last time I was here was 3 years ago - the restaurant was crowded as ususal.  I ordered the food as I was familiar with their menu - not much changes, even the waiter uniform remains the same.

Deep Fried Gurame (Fish)

Udang Pancet (BBQ Prawns)

TaoFu with stuffed prawn fillings

BBQ Squid

Indonesia Food

Jakarta - Going out for Lunch can be a big hassle because of the heavy traffic jam especially along Sudirman Rd.   Finally we reach Pacific Place - this is a classy mall with Ritz Calton Hotel beside it.  Ritz Calton has 2 luxury class hotels in Jakarta - One is located at Mega Kuningan district called Ritz Calton Jakarta (which got bombed by terrorist) and the other at Pacific Place.   The Ritz Calton Hotel and JW Mariott located at Mega Kuningan is around the Embassy street.

I just checked the price for Ritz Calton Pacific Place and it's around USD 300 per night - wow very expensive.

Lunch was at the Linkway half way between Pacific Place and Jakarta Stock Exchange Building - a Sundanese restaurant - Dapur Sunda - B1 # 17.   I like Sundanese food and enjoyed it very much - Gurame Goreng, Gurame Bakar and Kangkong chili.  One of the best known restaurant in Jakarta and have many branches around Jakarta.

One of the dish was 'pete' which is Soya Bean but this is raw and I did not like the taste.  I prefer it cooked like Edamame (Japanese soya bean pods boiled in water with salt) - taste so much nicer.

For Dinner, we went to Plaza Setiabudi for Japanese food and the restaurant is Takigawa.  Takigawa restaurant website states Japanese fusion.  From my experience, there are few Japanese restaurant outside of Japanese that meet the stringent quality and taste.   I am very particular when it comes to food.   Since it was suggested my another vendor, I just went along  but very sceptical.   The photos on the menu does not look apetitizing and there were few choices that I would choose.    So, I decided to go for the same dish which hardly any restaurant should get it wrong - Tenzaru Soba - Japanese cold soba noodles with Ebi Tempura.  'Sorry Sir, this dish not available - no prawns for today.' 

So I chose Japanese Cold Soba and Unagai (Eel) - the dish was OK.   My other customers ordered Sushi, Volcano (Fusion sushi -  salmon, scallop, crabstick, prawn, carrot, glazed with the house special sauce and tobiko) and Katsu.  

The Sushi has a strong vinegar taste on the rice.
Volcano - when it came does not look appetizing but I still tried it and that will be my last time.   It has a weird combination.
Katsu - I love Katsu and it is always the dish I would eat when I arrive in Tokyo but it's pork.  In this restaurant, pork is not allowed so they replaced with tuna and chicken.   The chicken meat is too tough and not juicy - it was unprofessionally done as if I would have done it at home.  lol....

In Japan, the Katsu - when you bite the pork katsu, the meat is still succulent and juicy.   I was told by Terry that there are lots of preparatory work that goes into making a very good Katsu - the meat cannot be frozen and it has to be chilled at a right temperature.

My experience proves me right....

Chinese Food in Jakarta

Jakarta - Upon arrival at the Jakarta airport, I walked past what looks like immigration for 'Foreigners' but thought nothing of it.  When I reached the usual immigration counters, I was puzzled as all the signs overhead read 'Indonesian' and I thought there must be some error.  Until I heard a Immigration officer shouted 'Foreigners' up there.  I looked and this officer was pointing back to where I just walked past.   I had to walk back a few metres to the location and there were immigration counters with signs overhead that read 'Foreigners'.

Once I cleared immigration, got into a taxi limousine and the ride took about 1hr to each Le Meridien Jakarta Hotel.   There were traffic jams once we start entering the outkirts of Jakarta.   I was told by my driver that 'Golden Bird' are the black mercedes car with black license plate with any taxi sign and it looks like a private car.   'Silver Bird' is metred black mercedes car with yellow license plate with a Silver Bird taxi sign over the taxi roof top.  'Blue Bird' is the normal metred taxi.   All 3 belows to the Blue Bird company.  I understand also from him that there is a 'Sapphire Bird' a  much bigger MPV with overhead TV and much bigger space.

The website of the Bluebird group - http://www.bluebirdgroup.com/
There is a 24hr hotline number which you can call and they all speak English.
The Hotel gave me a nice room facing Jln Sudirman.

My room

I had lunch with my customers at Satay House Senayan - a very popular Indonesian Satay restaurant that specializes in all types of Satay.   This branch is within a mall called Citywalk Sudirman. 

Dinner was at a chinese restaurant with 4 branches in Singapore - Pu Tien Restaurant.   I have not been to any one of them in Singapore.  

Pu Tien Restaurant



Delicious Baked crab on top of 'Tang Hoon' glass noodles

Chilli Crab (similiar to Singapore style)

Guess what this?

No, it is not some alien food but fried 'Man Tow' and in the centre of the dish is stir fried chicked.  You are supposed to stuff the stir fried chicken into the 'Man Tow' and eat it like a sandwich.  In Singapore, we have 'Man Tow' to dip into the Chilli Crabs.   The 2 dishes of crabs are so delicious and each dish cost Rp210,000.

Arrive in Jakarta

Jakarta - It was traffic jam majority of the way to my Hotel.   Ambhara Hotel - South of Jakarta - rated 4 star hotel and the room that was given to me is very old.   The hotel room floor is solid surface (like marble) and no carpet so had to wear the slippers that they gave me.  The bathroom is dirty and some parts of the bath tub is cracked.  The bath towel has the hotel emblem on it and looks rather old and being used over and over again.  

Tried to take a bath and the shower cable was bend and water came out of the shower head - as a result I had to use one hand to make the shower cable straight and the other hand to hold the shower head to bath.   Rp 998,000 per night (about US$ 100) with breakfast. 

This hotel was chosen because it's a 5 minutes walking distance to my customer office.

Off to Bangkok...

Jakarta - Met Joe, Sam and Yudi for breakfast at 9.30am. The breakfast was good but I was surprise to find there were 'Pork' on the breakfast buffet spread unlike in Malaysia1n hotels, there will definitely be no 'Pork' on the breakfast menu. After meeting the customer - we had to rush to the airport within 2 hours. Yudi drove us and we got there with 1hr to spare - that was good. Still enough time to relax in the Premier lounge. Since Joe and I were going to Bangkok, we manage to change our originally SQ Sing/Bangkok flight by 1 and 1/2 hours earlier.

Pondok Laguna Restaurant

Jakarta - Flew SQ 959 with Joe and it was a good flight into Jakarta. Since it was a short flight about 1hr 35 minutes - the head sets were not given out. So, I watched a Korean movie and read off the English sub-titles - "Once upon a time". Whilst watching, I was intermittently interrupted by a loud and rude laughter coming from a passenger sitting across me. He brought his own headsets and was laughing so loudly that other passengers were turning to see who this idiot was....I was not able to finish the movie.

I stayed at Le Meridien Hotel - a very nice hotel in central Jakarta around US$110 (excludes breakfast). Breakfast is about US$10.

The afternoon was spent preparing for the workshop of which only 10 attended. There was a major street protest and it affected the attendance so having 10 was not that bad. It was held at a service office (Marquue) directly opposite Le Meridien Hotel (very convenient).

After the workshop, we went to have dinner at my old time favourite Pondok Laguna restaurant. There was no intention of going there but because Yudi lost his way to the intented restaurant and we passed by Pondok Laguna restaurant - I told them not to waste time and just have our dinner there. Furthermore, the food is so good and is one of my favourite restaurant.

Got home 2hrs earlier...

Jakarta - Yudi met me again at 8am and he is very punctual. A business ethics very rare in Indonesia where time is like 'rubber'. Sometimes called 'rubber-time'. We had breakfast and quickly caught the shuttle bus to the ICT exhibition. Today is Saturday and the expected crowds will be public, I decided to change to an earlier flight. I tried calling the night before but SQ hot line was busy for hours but in the morning I manage to change to a 5pm departure instead of 7.05pm. The ICT Exhibition was very quiet and many of the booths at the Singapore Pavilion had already packed and gone home. Around the time to leave the exhibition, Yudi gave me a lift back to the hotel in time to change the 2pm limousine booking to the airport.

ICT Indonesia 2008

Jakarta - Yudi and I arranged to meet for breakfast, so I set my alarm at 7am. Enough time for bathe and change for breakfast meeting at 7.30am. The breakfast spread was wide - eggs cooked to your requirements, porridge, sauggages (chicken and beef) and etc.. There are no pork served as Indonesia is a Muslim country. After a hearty breakfast we have to catch the free shuttle bus to the ICT exhibition area. Yudi advised me to have a heavy breakfast because there weren't any good food in and around the exhibition area. The shuttle bus pick-up was at the next hotel - Orchardz Hotel - it was just a 5 minutes walk. At few minutes past 9.30am, the shuttle bus left the Orchardz Hotel. Coming out at the entrance of the Hotel, the bus needed to make a U-turn - it was so strange to see the bus driver assistant getting off the bus and stopping the traffic. This action stopped both sides of the road for a good 10 minutes. The cars were backed up for as far as the eye can see as it was the morning peak traffic. The exhibition called ICT Expo 2008, was located at the old Jakarta airport. This technology exhibition occupied just one hall and I managed to visit all the booths in under 30 minutes. This is the 3rd day of exhibition and the crowds poured in only in the afternoon. There were many enquiries and overall it was a good exhibition. We were afraid that there might be another protest demonstrations around Jakarta on petrol price hikes but luckily it did not happen. In the evening, Yudi took me and another new friend - Lee, to Restaurant Seafood 21 located across the road of Mangga Dua Square (huge departmental store). We had one dish of crabs cooked with pepper and another cooked Padang sauce. The crabs tasted not fresh thus spoiled the dishes. The prawns (Udang) were giant and we had that BBQ - it was tasty. Squid (Cumi) was fried with flour (Tepung). Kangung (a popular vegetable in SE Asia) fried with Balachan but it came with Bean paste sauce. Overall, it's not one that I would recommend to friends. Total damage = S$48.

Night flight into Jakarta

Jakarta - I flew the last flight into Jakarta and arrived at 7.20pm. In just 1hr 40 minutes, I arrived Jakarta. The clearance of immigration was slow as the area was crowded maybe due to planes arriving at the same time. I booked the Golden bird limo for Rp 360,000 - it was a Mercedes limo that took me to the Hotel. This time I am staying at Sheraton Media Hotel & Towers @ Jl. Gunung Sahari 3 - approximately US$86 per night. This is a 5 star hotel but the facade of the Hotel is old and badly need refurbishing. It is a pity that it is part of Sheraton chain of hotels, you would expect that being 5-star and Sheraton that is would have some high standards. The room is sizable but old, the bathroom needs renovating as the tiles were blacked with algae between the tiles.

Searching..

JAKARTA - There are lots of security checks entering buildings and hotels - for both people and cars. Cars are checked on their undercarriage, boot, passengers and bonnet too - and the security personnel were polite. Every time, I go back to Le Meridien Hotel - there is a metal detector that I need to pass through. It can be troublesome but it is the high crime that worries me the most.

Even my Indonesian partners advise me never to walk on the streets alone at night or even daytime, it can be very dangerous. Obviously, I don't see many foreigners walking around too. If you intend to go from building to building take a bluebird or silverbird taxi.

Lunch was @ The Buffet - it was all you can eat for just Rp 55,000 (about S$10). It is extremely cheap with a similiar restaurant would cost at least 3-4 times as much. The food was not to my liking - either too oily, too sweet. There was not one dish that I really like but I was in good company and that matters.

Dinner was @ Pepper Lunch - at Plaza Indonesia. Pepper Lunch also has branches in Singapore but I have never tried it. You had to queue and a number tag was given. We did not know what this big number tag was for - 75 - until the waiter brought us to the table no. 75. Aha! The food is good and the beef is very tender...the meal for 2 cost about Rp128,000 (S$22.50). That is quite reasonable.

Plaza Indonesia is a posh shopping centre comparable to the Paragon @ Orchard in Singapore. Lots of high-end fashion brands have boutique shops catering to the super rich Indonesians. Don't intend to spend shopping money we adjourned to Grand Hyatt Hotel which is adjacent to this shopping centre. Grand Hyatt Hotel is beautiful hotel and of course the lobby is grand - we had drinks at the Burgundy bar and had my usual Baileys on the rocks.

Tomorrow will be Indonesia's 62nd Independence day - it will be a public holiday but I will be on my way back to Singapore.

What! @#&! no right turn...

Jakarta - I spent so much time on the road that writing about the traffic woes is most naturally. My partner, Yudi says that he will grow old very fast driving around Jakarta - it is so choatic. He picked me up at 8am for a meeting at 9am at the customer place for a location that is not far. He instead of going through a tunnel, he took a wrong turn and ended up having to make a U-turn and this takes about 30 minutes to get back to the correct turn-off.

Yudi too sometimes have a problem because there are few road signs so you really have to know your Jakarta roads very well otherwise you will spend hours on the road and this can be an expensive and unpleasant journey.

Taking taxi is also another risk - take the only reputable Taxi company - Blue Bird group with with their famous Blue Bird taxis or Silver Bird taxi (this is the executive taxi).

Dinner we had at one of Indonesia's popular restaurant situated in the middle of Jakarta - Pondok Laguna @ Jl Batu Tulis Raya No 45-47. This was one of my my favourite restaurant 10 years ago - nothing really change. They had the streams of water flowing inside the restaurant, which you can sit in the hut and enjoy the fishes below. We ordered their famous “fried gureme” (gurame goreng) and fried tofu stuffed with shrimp (tahu kipas). Also ordered grilled cuttlefish (cumi bakar), fried sambal Kangong sambal and Oxtail soup. Every order usually followed by warm rice placed in a banana leaves covered basket. Their snacks of Emping (Crackers made from flattened Belinjo seeds) dipped into chilli is very tasty. Emping has a slightly bitter taste.

Traffic jam everywhere..

Jakarta - The flight to Jakarta on SQ was pleasant. SIA had some special seats in front row economy that are more spacious. I was able to put my leg out and not touch the front seat - it was comfortable but for only a short while of about 1hr 20 minutes. I met up with my channel partners outside the airport near McDonalds and the weather was hot. It has been more than 10 years (my last trip to Jakarta was June 1997) since I have been back to Jakarta and not much has change especially the traffic - looks like it got worse. Travelling around Jakarta is a nightmare in a constant traffic jam. 2 hrs in a traffic jam is quite normal for road warriors salesman - in the car you can see cars coming to the main road from the right and left, further down the road more cars are making U-turn...it was quite a scene that brought back memories. KL and Bangkok traffic jams look junior compared to Jakarta and I think it was because the subway and light rail helped alleviate the traffic. People use the rail and thus do not need to drive everywhere and this eases the traffic jams. At strategic locations, Jakarta has self-appointed traffic wardens that guide cars coming out of small lanes into the main road and for their service they get a small tip. At traffic junctions, there are many street touts selling peanuts, water, pineapple, newspapers, etc...it's risky business with cars manoeuvring in and out of lanes. 

According to the data of WHO every year an estimated 3 million people die because of air pollution or about 5% of the 55 million deaths annually world wide. 1,500 millions of the premature deaths occur in Asian cities. Many more suffer serious health effects from air pollution. The working lives of many are shortened by health problems from breathing filthy air.

Six of the world’s 15 most polluted cities are found in Asia. The top positions go to

#1. Katmandu, Nepal,

#2. New Delhi, India,

#3. Jakarta, Indonesia is tied together with Chongqing, China.

#5. Calcutta, India. A third of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions are puffed out in this region. 

 Accommodation was the Le Meridien Jakarta Hotel @ Jalan Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 18-20 - this is a 5-star hotel located in Central Jakarta. They have courteous and helpful staff. The rooms are very clean and spacious. The only problem is that I had a smoking room and you can still smell the strong smoke residue in the room, even though I requested for a non-smoking room. We were so busy that we have a late lunch @ 3pm but it was worth the wait because it was Satay @ Sate Khas Senayan. This restaurant is popular with Indonesians and foreigners alike, with good satay - they had mutton, chicken and chicken skin satay. Their tofu goreng is also tasty and uniquely cooked. I had a very sweet drink of iced red jelly with slices of Avocado - high recommended to try this drink. It has been all about traffic because I spent more time in the car than outside....cheers.