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Channel: @Dale_Philip
It's my second visit to Jakarta but my first chance to really explore. The last trip was just a 24 hour stopover where I spent all my time at Dufan amusement park.
I started my day with a full belly of local food. I made good use of my free hotel breakfast at the DoubleTree hotel in the Cikini area. The biggest benefit of earning Diamond status with Hilton is that you're always entitled to a free breakfast in their hotels and I'm not one to pass up on value.
I wanted to check out a couple of famous landmarks in the city. My hotel wasn't far from the Proclamation of Independence Monument so I walked there. I took the backstreets rather than the main road so I could get a glimpse of local life and chat to some Jakarta locals.
When I got to the park which hosts the independence monument, it was surrounded by construction and all gates were closed. I walked the full loop before asking one of the security guards if I could come in for one minute and he was nice enough to let me.
So I had the whole park to myself. The monument I came to see was a statue of Sukarno, the first leader of independent Indonesia, standing beside his deputy, Mohammad Hatta and reading out the proclamation that Indonesia was now an independent country. The statues were erected on the spot where this event actually took place, which used to be Sukarno's house.
After visiting that landmark I took a break, with a swim at the DoubleTree's swimming pool, then went back out onto the streets exploring.
I was headed to the National Monument, which was a fair distance away, but I decided to walk it and see what interesting things I could find along the way.
I found the street called Jalan Surabaya which is a famous antiques street. It's a big row of small shops selling ornaments, wooding carvings and such like from all over Indonesia.
I made two further pit stops before reaching my destination. One at Indomaret for a durian ice cream and another at a mall for some air conditioning, where I found a cafe selling jackfruit cendol. Those cold and refreshing sweet treats were just what I needed.
I arrived at MONAS (the national monument) just as it was closing. I had no idea it would close as early as 4 pm. I had thought it was going to similar to India Gate in Delhi where the area around the monument is a big hangout area for people in the evening, but it seems this place is only open in the daytime.
Rather than end the vlog with a fail, it decided to just pause it and resume the adventure the next day. That's commitment for you!
I returned to the monument, only to find out that I needed to book a time slot to get up the tower, so again I left and returned.
Thankfully there's a big market near the entrance to the monument park and lots of food options are available. I tried Soto Betwai which is a local Jakarta beef soup. I thought the broth tasted very similar to a Tom Yum soup in Thailand. Unfortunately the beef wasn't the best quality and was very chewy.
I returned, again, and spent some time looking at the museum in the basement of the monument. It tells many stories from Indonesia's history and was quite interesting. It helped me pass the time until I was finally able to get up the tower and have a full 360 panoramic view of Jakarta.
0:00 Indonesian Breakfast 16:29 Local Streets 25:43 Sukarno Hatta Statue 33:05 DoubleTree Pool 36:20 Antiques Street (Jalan Surabaya) 46:22 Durian Ice cream 49:03 Jackfruit Cendol 57:38 National Monument (MONAS) 1:06:07 Soto Betawi (Jakarta Beef Soup) 1:15:32 Indonesia History Museum 1:24:20 MONAS Tower
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