Jakarta : my first impression

No sleep prior to doing this 7 hour 45 minutes flight. Fast forward to a scourging hot Jakarta at 1:20 in the afternoon local time. It was crazy, being able to feel how hot it was outside while we were doing our last cabin checks. I couldn't believe how warm it is. Hailing from Manila, Jakarta's neighbouring country. It's not that hot, especially in this time of the year.

Horrendous traffic awaits us, we couldn't wait to hit our bed and snooze after being awake the whole night. It was 4 pm when we finally arrived. Checked in, and finally holding this million dollar per diem everyone's raving about. Let me see what I can do with all this thousands and thousands.

I decided to sleep around 10pm, cause if I sleep now I will be wide awake by past midnight and it will totally ruin my body clock. I went out for a bit. KFC is calling, that's a 5 minute walk from the hotel. It was actually located inside an office building nearby, and wanted something to fill up my tummy. I was actually inside an elevator when I realized I have no time to spare since (first) I'm alone....sleepy and a little bit hungry. She was on her way to the parking lot, actually.... When I went and ask her.
Instead of just telling me which way to go, she went out of her way like a tour guide and showed me where to find it. Went up the escalator, pointing out other options. Wow. I didn't realized they were this nice. Reminds me so much of my kababayans.

I decided to skip breakfast on my first day here in Jakarta, as I wanted to spend more time in bed. Heard about great things about their breakfast buffet from my colleagues though. I couldn't wait to see them myself tomorrow though. A cousin of mine used to work here as a teacher and another High school friend. Who else to ask but the people who had a first taste of Jakarta's hospitality. Since I don't have interest in shopping starting this year, which I will elaborate in another post. I was suggested to visit Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall - a high end mall, which was nearby. 10 minutes away from our hotel by taxi. Heard there's you can actually go there by walking. But for first timers, we are clueless.

This Mall just had so much feels!!!!! It wasn't congested as we were hoping for. We headed right away to food hall to check out some restaurants. I was looking for this Japanese restaurant my cousin suggested, but you know when you see a queue follow it! It must be that good. we tried this Muragame  Udon. The food was good, but it's not something I will crave in the future. It was good. The food is being prepared and served right before your eyes. I have mentioned how confusing this currency is! Imagine bringing with you 1,000,000 indonesian rupiah. I paid 104,000 for an Udon, three piece tempura and a bottle of water. The feels of their coins seems like a toy coin. Done some grocery after, then had some milk tea before heading back to the hotel for some after dip. I couldn't believe how cheap the food was!!!!! but shopping was jut normal, like any other place. So I decided to skip on shopping.

It was late already when I was told to check out Monas--their national monument. and another national heritage.
Maybe next time, when I have more time and there would be people coming with me.