Jakarta Long Post, Babeh!

OK whine no more! here's the post completed with pics! Yang ado-ado jelah ye. Takde DSLR ponnn

Hello all. As you all are already informed, I was away for a 5 days trip to Jakarta. And now I'm back. As much as I'm glad to be back, I am missing Jakarta already.

The fun, the place, the PEOPLE, the food, the shopping galores.

Awesome.

Take a good seat, sit back, relax, and enjoy this long post :p

1st Day - The day a bassist turn me on.

We took MAS not AirAsia. But it was a good deal, RM 325 to and fro. Quite cheap, kan? Me and bff went all jakun to find out all the things we don't get to see from the surface of KLIA. especially to ever ride that train to Gate C. My God, you can tell how jakun I was from my face! Ha-ha.I bought a Tie Rack scarf at KLIA for RM34. Quite a bargain, huh? I love it!

Bff heading to gate C.

The flight was funny. I picit-picit semue butang yang ada habis lampu segala menyala. Tak kesahlah orang sebelah cakap jakun ke ape, kate first time naik International Flight. He he he.

Sila perhatikan kejakunan itu. FYI, headphone tu takde bunyik, ok.

Upon arriving at Soekarno Hatta Bandara, we were greeted macam artist. Disambut dengan ulat-ulat teksi and porter-porter cekik darah yang tolong angkat barang kami. We were supposed to check in at Aston Rasuna Apartment, but somehow the Pakcik Teksi made us stopped at Ibis Slipi (sounds like sleepy iblis pon ade haha) and checked-in there.

Welcome to Indonesia - Airport KB jauh lagi santek, kan?


See, see... macam artist dow!

BFF trying my newly bought Tie Rack in the hotel bathroom
We went out for lunch at Plaza Senayan. We didn't know how to get there, so we asked the bapak polisi. he made us took a bus which costed us 2000rp per head (that is like, 60 cents?) I can't tell how buruk the bus was. Imagine General, but wayyy wayyy waayyyy more buruk. When the bus was moving suddenly this one little girl hopped in and gave us each an envelope written 'Assalamualaikum. Tolong beri sedikit wang untuk saya buat belanja makan', and later she sang a few songs. OMG it was a heartrobbing moment to see such a small kid asking for a bite.

The 2000rp per pax bus.
Die menyanyi-nyanyi ok
Plaza Senayan is a place for orang kelas atasan. It was like, hurm, Gardens for Malaysia. That girl, from the bus, I could swear she has never (even in her dreams) came into the place. It is full with people with good money and big cars (and driver of each own). Sangat sedih bila fikir how big the gap are for them. =(

Center court, Plaza Senayan.
I had Nasi Uduk with Ayam Kremes. Sangat sedap tau! Adli, Dell, and Boy had other indonesian cuisines too, tapi dah lupa nama. Ha-ha.


Dell's meal. ITU KULIT LEMBU YANG ADLY MAKAN. haha

Later that evening we went to Java Jazz. We managed to catch Dimi (my god the bassist turned me on!), Afgan, and a few other local indie scenes. The place is all air-conditioned and the sound system were very good. Kata international event kan.

Yeay got the tix!

At 1st Stage

Dell wif Afgan

The Turn-On-Factor (TOF) Bassist! ARGH!

Dimi and Tangga

We got interviewed by a television program called Kusuk Kasak. Ha-ha. Klaka kan?

I didn't watch ALL of the performances tho. What do you expect? there were 9 stages with back to back performances for 3 days! Bayangkan kat food court pon ada, kat kaunter tiket pon ada, kat luar pon ada, kat semua hall ada, kat entrance ada, even sampai ke floor bawah, atas semua ada. Gila ok memang lost! And that includes Jason Mraz. I didn't watch him doing jazzy I'm Yours, because I simply cannot miss all other good performances (apart from we have to pay extra for the show, that cost like 60 to 90 Rm je ok, and he did it for like 2-3 hours for 2 days! What a loss I'm not a big fan!)

Two of the stages

We were so worn out we went back to the hotel without the guys and slept before we even had dinner. Ha-ha.

2nd day - The day I got pampered

We started early that day. Boy's friend, Jay, arrived the night before (on AirAsia, Boo! :p) so today, we had to cramp 4 persons at the back. Jay is a funny guy. We laughed all the way to Mangga 2 at his jokes. Even the taxi driver laughed. This time the taxi driver took us into the squat area. Rumah-rumah yang lagi buruk dari any rumah kat Malaysia, ok. Sangat kesian and there were so many people! Sedih sangat tengok how they live their lives.

Mangga Dua is a shopping heaven for Malaysians. They all said kalau Malaysian datang mesti duduk hotel-hotel dekat-dekat situ aja.

@ Mangga Dua

After shopping balik hotel tukar baju terus pergi Java Jazz lagik. He-he. 3 days with good music and live performances. God! Life is a bless! This time we stood up for Soulvibe, Ecoutez, Glenn Fredly, and apetah lagik I dah lupa! He he. Boleh ke?

Ecoutez!

This, people, is the fantastic Maliq and D Essentials

Soulvibe

With Brian McKnitght (?)
We found out that there were free manicures for ladies, so we headed to Femina Lounge downstairs. Then only we found out that place is so cozy and it offers Jazz music style orang-orang tua macamtuh. So lepas tu, everytime we felt tired standing up, we would head down to the hall to listen to some soothing jazzy sound.

Imagine, people doing your nails, seating on a cozy cushioned sofa, and live sound of sax. I'm a princess!

BFF got manicured!
3rd Day - The day BFF was kidnapped!

Early day, again. Today 4 of us went to Tanah Abang while Adli went to Grand Indonesia. Tanah Abang is a HHHEEEAAAVVVEENNNNN shopping galore. Each floor has more than 100 shops and there was FIFTEEN FLOORS.

Do your own math.

Drinking Alpukat at Tanah Abang
I got myself 2 (cheap!) kebaya and kain semayang and so many things more including things for Pink. While I was looking for the last piece of Kebaya requested by Pink, Boy called to tell me Dell was missing from his eyes, and the best thing is, she didn't have a phone with her. So all the shoppings have to stop while all of us went to look for her.

Imagine 15 floors. With cramped people. Hurm. And masa-masa tuh jugakla, the PA system has to break down, hence, we couldnt make any announcement.

Adli called a few times by now, he's already back to the hotel, BUT, he didn't have the room key with him. We called him a few times too, to check if Dell was already back to the hotel. But there were a few dissappoinment before he finally called to say Dell has safely arrived alone on a cab.

Thank God!

With all the missings and searchings, we both were so dizzy we decided to stay at the hotel sekejap before siap-siap to Java Jazz (again!). On the way there we realised that today is the final day, we all were SO SAD. the party is finally ending! SOBS!

We watched Tompi (My God he's superb!), KLA Project (bes gilak!), and Maliq & D Essential. This was superb. The songs, the arrangement, THE DANCE! (they danced, my god!) The DRUMMER, argh. Everything was so flawless (even the pregnant Indah) there were so many people watching (macam konsert Jom Heboh oke!) and people screaming singing to the songs. Awesome. Unbelievable.

Tompi yang superb

Angga of Maliq!


They danced, even the drummer!!!
The drummer, My GOD! Makan hati okay Azwin Andy Malik! Haha.

Before the Maliq's show, we sat outside the hall enjoying the doughnuts from Krispy Krepes. This was when we saw Ashraf Sinclair with his wife BCL. The wife is like a shining star. There were lots of people asking for photos with her and all but Ashraf just stood there watching the wife getting all the limelights. So we figured out what the hell. Lets show the sinetron main cast (poor thing) he actually got some people who knew him.



Not available in Malaysia. Haha.
So Jay went to him, tell him that he's from Malaysia and all, and asked him for a picture. And dia macam, 'Oh ok, where are our friends?' and Jay said, Over there! Ha-ha. SO he had to come to us because we wanted a picture with him. Klaka!


With ashraf (who!)

Boleh ke, artist yang datang dekat peminat? Jangan main-main dow! Haha.

After Maliq, we went to Sarina Road for supper and met Taugeh, Adli's friend, there. He brought us to warung tepi jalan at Jalan Sabang. Finally, real Indonesian dining style! Haha. Hari-hari asyik makan food court je! So we tried the Sate Ayam with nasik yang pelik-pelik namanya (Indomie Telur Cornett = Internet) haha. And lepak-lepak till Azan Subuh. Wah begitu panjangnya malam ini! Haha.

With Taugeh at starbucks Sarinah Street

4th day - The day I speak Germany.

Since the nite before was a late nite, we figured maybe spending more time in bed would be fine, since we're checking out at 12 and will have a long day until tomorrow morning flight. So after we said goodbye to Ibis Slipi, we went to Pasaraya at Blok M to have our lunch. Pasaraya is more like, hurm, Metrojaya in Malaysia.

Bye bye Ibis Slipi!

Jay introduced us to a friend, Taufeeq, (whom he himself had never met) here. He's so kind and humble and polite (and rich and handsome) and he even impressed the (straight) guys (let alone me, Dell, and Jay haha). He's a Malaysian staying in Jakarta doing some busway project or whatever (too busy looking at him than to listen to him haha).

After we did some shopping in Pasaraya (things here are super cheap. Paris Hilton perfumes for less than 200 and Nine West purse for less than hundred!) we decided to head to Grand Indonesia to meet Dell's Friend, Maw. So everyone has a friend in Jakarta but me? LAME! haha.
At this point, I envied Jay. The guys got to go to Taufeeq's place to put our things there before went to Grand Indo for dinner. Demmit!

Grand Indonesia is huge. It's for rich people, more like Pavillion, but, double the luxury and size and all. Gile besar oke!

At dinner I decided to have something normal (had enough of all those uduk timbel things) so I had a steak. The others had some other pizza and lasagna and mee but none of us go for the indonesian things anymore. Enuff is enuff haha.

Dinner at Grand Indo

After dinner Taufeeq offered us to join him and his friends at Pisa Cafe near Jalan Sabang. So we took a cab there but the taxi driver doesnt know where the cafe is so he dumped us nowhere and we had to walk there. Jay was a clumsy tour guide (:P) he took the different route as told by Taufeeq so Taufeeq had to come and fetch us in the middle of nowhere. Haha.

Jay was walking next to him and I was behind them. he was telling Jay a few things and I listened when suddenly I replied 'Aso'. I don't know how to say this or to spell it but a few times Kak Jaja/Safuan said it, I asked them what's the meaing, they said it's 'I see' in Germany.

Little that I knew, I did a good job to impress the guy. He stopped for a while, looked at me, and asked 'Are you from germany? I heard you said Aso'

So we chatted and walk side by side (ditching jay away) until we reached the cafe. I could hear Jay maki-maki aku dalam hati. Haha.

We had drink at Pisa Cafe while talking and chatting (and endlessly looking at him) before we decided to call it a night. After dropping Taufeeq's friends at their places, we went to spend our few last Jakarta hours at Taufeeq's place.

5th Day - The day I said Goodbye.

We woke up at 4, because we needed to be at the airport two hours before the flight. Sangat sedih by now, having to say goodbye to taufeeq Jakarta.

Apparently we weren't told that the flight was delayed due to some accident at the airport (damn it) so we have to spend extra 4 hours (which we could've spend at Taufeeq's) doing nothing at the airport.

Weng tak buat apa-apa at the airport.

4 hours later, we were already on the plane back to KL (and slept all the way!)

Yes. As much as I'm glad to be back, I miss Jakarta already.

I do.

Jakarta, was awesome!