Discover Jakarta: National Monument & Old Town Jakarta
What do you do to spend your free time? Some of you might spend it by surfing social media, some by eating delicious food, some by cooking the delicious food, and some by traveling to nowhere. So, how do I spend my free time? The answer is the last one that I mentioned; traveling to nowhere OR to place that you just decided in a few minutes.
So, last week, 17 September 2017, I did do that with Ika, again. I had nothing to do on Sunday, and she was home for semester break. At first, I and Ika planned to explore places at Cikarang Selatan. We were so excited to go the night before since we saw a very interesting spot to take some pictures. The fact, we had no idea about which place we should go to Cikarang Selatan. So, we discussed where shall we go for that day exploration. It turned out that we ought to go to Jakarta because we will have plenty of places to be visited. Besides, I have not visited Jakarta for more than four years.
To go to Jakarta, the decision took us to go to Bekasi train station. Yes, we took Commuter Line to go to Jakarta. Not only because it takes less than an hour, but also because it is really affordable. We took the Commuter Line to Jakarta Kota station, the very last station in Central Jakarta. It costs only IDR 28,000,- for two persons. The ticket is inclusive of guarantee which IDR 10,000,- per card. We can claim the guarantee, so you can have your money back, and it means that it only costs IDR 8,000,- for two of us to go to Jakarta, right?
When we were on the train, we were kind of confused about which place shall we go (again). I told Ika that I never been to Jakarta National Monument (Monas), and she laughed so hard. She told me that if we wanted to go to Monas, we have to take off on Juanda Train Station and have to walk around 5 minutes to the entrance gate. Sure, we did go to Monas.
My first impression when I came to Monas is "amazing". Since I never been to Monas before, I do think that the place is amazing. The place is neat, clean, and well managed, but the weather was quite hot on that day since we arrived at Monas at 10.30, I think. Sunny Sunday, so I and Ika saw a lot of people from car-free day event or maybe just enjoying the morning sunshine moment with their friends or family. Monas is surrounded by some parks which clean an green, so you can just lay on the ground and just chill and relax. You might think that it is not, but maybe it is. I took the picture at 10.30, remember~
I asked Ika about things that we can do in Monas, and she said that we can go inside the building and sightseeing or take the mini-train tours. Since it was quite hot that day, I chose to go inside Monas than took the mini-train even though it is free. Ah, another thing that you can do in Monas is going to the culinary center.
To go inside the Monas, you have to buy a ticket which the ticket counter is located in a tunnel with three-meter depth underground. Yup, there is a tunnel at Monas, and the tunnel will lead you to the inside of the Monas. The ticket is affordable, and it is cheaper if you have a student card. If I am not mistaken, it costs only IDR 5,000,- to go to the goblet, and IDR 10,000,- to go to the top, and IDR 10,000,- is for the ticket assurance, warranty, or something administrative. After you bought the ticket, you have to walk through the tunnel. By the end of the tunnel, you will see the relief of Indonesia's History. Since it was a bit crowded, again, I did not take any pictures. Let's talk about the monument instead~
The monument was built in 1961 and it finished in 1975. The monument itself was built on 80 hectares area, and the building is consists of three main objects; Goblet, Independence Room, and Top. The building uses 17-8-1945 numbers for the constructions to represent the date of Indonesia's independence. 17 meters is the height from the goblet to the ground floor while 8 meters is the height from the museum to goblet area above, and 45 is the number of square areas in the goblet which 45 meters x 45 meters. Three meters under the building, you can also find a National History Museum. Inside the museum, you can find more than 50 dioramas which each of them will show you the history of Indonesia from the very beginning until the new order of Indonesia. Unfortunately, since it was so crowded and a bit dark on the day I visited Monas, I did not take any picture of that. Here are some pictures that I took during waiting on the line to go to the top and goblet.
I was so lucky that day because of the clear sky. The sunny weather also helped me to get good pictures. Well, truth to be told, I waited for about three hours in the line only to go to the top of the building. If you are planning to explore this place, please do come earlier so you will not experience the same thing as me. I and Ika skipped our lunch and decided to have our late lunch at Kota Tua instead of a food court nearby. After waited for about three hours, it was time for us to go to the top. BUT unfortunately, the credits on our ticket -the ticket is a card with credits in it, so you only have to tap and tap in every entrance gate- is limited. It turned out that the officer on the previous gate tapped on the wrong gate. We were supposed to tap once on adult and once on student gate since Ika used her student card, but our ticket is tapped on adults' gate twice. After we explained to the officer, we still allowed to go to the top, yippie!
Since the building stands tall 433 feet on the ground, the view is totally mesmerizing. You can totally see Jakarta within 360 degrees!
That's all the view after three hours waiting in the line. The reason why it took so long for us to got to the top is that there is only one passenger lift which only can accommodate 11 persons by the maximum. Actually, there is a stair that people can use, but the management tends to close it and rather to use the lift, considering the safety. I and Ika only spent less than 30 minutes on the top since we hadn't had our lunch. The lift will take you to the goblet, and you have to take the stairs to continue to go down. The view that you can see from the goblet is pretty good too cause there is a lot of space available to take shots. On the other hand, it is a bit hot on the goblet since there is no roof to protect you, but the place is great to take some city view background for your portrait.
Thank you to Ika to take my picture, haha. After we had enough of our pictures, then we decided to go to Jakarta Kota to have our late lunch and sightseeing in the afternoon. It took less than 15 minutes to go to Jakarta Kota train station. It costs only IDR 24,000,- for both of us, which means one ticket is only IDR 2,000,-.
After we arrived at Jakarta Kota, we walked to Museum Fatahillah (The picture at the beginning of this post) for about 5 minutes. The place was sooooo crowded, So could not take any more specific picture for the architecture. I took a panorama picture for that, and it was pretty hard since a lot of people were doing the sightseeing as what I and Ika did. I took it with a bit higher angle, so I did not get any people on my frame. Before we went back home, we had our late lunch by enjoying Ketoprak. Ketoprak is Betawinese typical vegetarian dish that consists of rice cake, tofu, and angel noodles served with peanut sauce. You should try it! You can choose whether Ketoprak in Restaurant which price can be more than IDR 40,000,- OR you can try Ketoprak from Food Cart which price is only IDR 15,000,- just like what I ate with Ika, haha.
After one day of exploring Jakarta, we decided to go home. Everything in Jakarta is never disappointed me, the skyscrapers, the city view, the dishes, and so on. I realized that there are still a lot of wonderful and amazing things that I can find in Jakarta. I am looking forward to having another spare time to visit Jakarta in one day trip. Captured at Jakarta Kota train station, here is the very last picture that I took before we went home.
So, how do you spend your one day trip to Jakarta?
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