road trip - visiting indonesia with the daydreamer

Hey everyonee! I am Ima from The Daydreamer! I am so so happy to be here, be a part of Lindsay's 'road trip around the world' series, and write about the city where I live, which is Jakarta.

Do you all know where Jakarta is? It's the capital city of Indonesia, a tropical country which is located at the southeast part of Asia, on both sides of the equator. I bet all of you know one of our most beautiful islands, Bali? And you do know that island is so wonderful, right? Well, there are a lot of places which are just as beautiful as it.

Jakarta, located in Java Island, is probably the busiest town in Indonesia. It's the center of government, the place where president spend most of his time, a metropolitan city with so many buildings that you might sometimes forget you're in a agricultural country. To be honest, it's a very crowded city with a crazy traffic. The first time you arrive here, you might say 'man this city is crazy!' but then you spend a couple of days here and you'll say 'man this city is crazy, but I really love being here!'

Anyway, if you only spend a little time here, here are the places I think you really need to go, asap! First, go to National Monument. In Indonesia, we call it Monumen Nasional or Monas for short. It is located in Merdeka Square, near the Presidential Palace and National Museum. Monas is a landmark of Jakarta for decades. Let's just say, if Paris has Eiffel Tower, and Pisa has its Leaning Tower, Jakarta has Monas. It's design is also unique. It is designed like a candle and a flame. The flame part is actually made of gold. Beautiful.

originally taken from here and here

When you're here, dont forget to go to the top of the building and see the scenery of Jakarta. It is probably the tallest building in Jakarta. Also, the area of Monas is so huge and has some attractions such as water fountain.

After that, you might want to go to Kota Tua (Old Town). This is a very historical place as you can find a lot of museums and other historical places. When you go here, I bet there are gonna be a lot of people there with cameras. Yep this place is probably the #1 place for photo hunting in Jakarta.

Sources : here and here

Museum Fatahillah at Jakarta Old Town. Sources : here, here, and here

Cafe Batavia. Sources : here and here

Bank Indonesia Museum. Sources : Here and here

Taken by me via my phone at Sunda Kelapa Harbor, Kota Tua.

At night, I think it's best if you go to Bundaran Hotel Indonesia. It's water fountain is very beautiful and was built on 1962 to host the Asian Games. You might as well spend the luxury time by shopping at one of our best malls, Grand Indonesia, which is located just near it.

Photo originally taken from here and here

To go to all of those places I've mentioned above, you can take TransJakarta, which is a public bus, but it's actually pretty comfy. You can take a cab too, of course, but it will cost a lot more (One trip by TransJakarta only costs Rp.3500, about 40 cents USD).

Hope you like this guest post and are thinking about coming here. I'll be waiting for your visits. :)

Thank you so much, XXOO

Ima