5D4N Jakarta & Bandung, Indonesia Trip Itinerary (2011)

Here is the compilation for all the post relating to my trip to Jakarta & Bandung last two year for 5 days and 4 nights.  

Day 1 (20th December 2011)

- Arrived Jakarta & MaxOne Hotels.com 








Day 2 (21st December 2011)

- Part 1: Leaving Jakarta for Bandung
- Part 2: First Day in Bandung 







Day 3 (22nd December 2011)

- Bandung - Kampung Daun, Tangkuban Perahu, Dago & Riau Street and Rumah Mode
- Superheroes Everywhere in Cihampelas Street 





23rd December 2011

- Back to Jakarta & Ibis Jakarta Mangga Dua 







24th December 2011

- Mangga Dua Area & Goodbye Jakarta







Extra Features:

•  2011 Jakarta & Bandung, Indonesia Trip (Sneak Peek)
•  Accommodation: Sensa Hotel Bandung
• Travel Haul & Expenses

Hence, this post concludes the final travelogue of my Jakarta & Bandung, Indonesia which also my final trip for year 2011. I know that I am backdated travel blogger which claimed by one of the blog reader of mine and I did tried my best to blog as fast as I can but it seems that there are too many things for me to blog about. Even my 2008 UK & Europe trip I haven't completed yet and I had been abandoned these travelogue for quite some times. Therefore, I might continue with my 2008 UK & Europe trip in the next few blogposts before starting with my 2012 travelogue.

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Indonesia Day 5 - Mangga Dua Area & Goodbye Jakarta

Date of Visited: 24th December 2011

So on the fifth day, it marked as the final and last day of our vacation in Jakarta city. And because our flight is at night, thus we can have our last minute shopping before depart to the airport. As we stayed in North Jakarta, this is one of the area that offers an interesting selection of wares including bargain clothing, fake designer wear and electronic goods.

There are at least four shopping centers interconnected via bridges to each other offering endless bargain and shopping experience; ITC Mangga Dua and Pasar Pagi Mangga Dua mainly sell clothes while electronics at Mall Mangga Dua and Harco Mangga Dua.

ITC Mangga Dua, the shopping mall we went for 2 days.

Selling all kind of goods especially on garments, bags, shoes, accessories. Absolutely an ideal place for those who adore shopping craze.

With more than 200 shops and 7 floors, this place is so huge, packed and overcrowded at the same time.

Harco Mangga Dua, mostly on electronic goods and it is directly located in front of our hotel - Hotel Ibis Jakarta Mangga Dua. We didn't spend most of our time here cause we more prefer ITC Mangga Dua.

As we walked further down which approximately 8-10 minutes of walking, we came across another mall - WTC Mangga Dua. All the shopping name are almost the same, just the front name distinguished them. Therefore, no surprise might be mixed up their names.

By the time we were here, not many shops opened yet. Just spotted a fast food chain restaurant, A&W and small convenience store.

Some random but unique building that caught my attention while walking back from WTC Mangga Dua to ITC Mangga Dua.

Done with last minute of shopping and check-out procedures, we took taxi from our hotel to the airport. Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is the main airport of Jakarta and fyi, the name of the airport was taken upon the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno whereas Hatte is the first vice-president. There are three main terminal buildings and if you are taking AirAsia, it will depart and land in Terminal 3. Be sure to inform the driver cause the 3 terminal buildings are not interconnected. From Mangga Dua area to the airport, the taxi fare is most likely cost IDR90,000 (roughly around RM32).

Starbucks and J.Co is available in Terminal 3 to satisfy your hunger and wait, CFC?!

Mommy and I had our early dinner before flying cause we didn't bought the in-flight meals. Kinda pricey but I guess it's normal for every airport. 

Last but not least, do take note that wherever you buy airfare especially from AirAsia, try to check whether airport tax included. Country like Indonesia especially, airport tax is not included in the airfare. Therefore, do not simply use all the money and end up, couldn't flight back to own home country cause can't afford to pay the airport tax. The airport tax depart from Jakarta airport cost IDR150,000 per person (roughly around RM54). So, if you saw a very cheap airfare via AirAsia to Indonesia, don't be so happy first and check whether the airport tax is included or not. Be a smart consumer! Luckily I did a research earlier or else, my mom sure finish all the money by shopping.

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Indonesia Day 4 - Back to Jakarta & Ibis Jakarta Mangga Dua

Date of Visited: 23rd December 2011

Besides train, the other means of transportation you can choose from is by taking a shuttle transport service from Bandung to Jakarta. Previously when from Jakarta to Bandung, we took train (blogged about this before - HERE) but mommy felt uncomfortable with that. Luckily I did early research before and we decided to take shuttle service. Browse through quite number of blogs and also from Tripadvisor's forum (this is how I did my research in planning a trip), most of them recommended Cititrans. 

Luckily for us, one of the pool of Cititrans in Bandung is tucked inside Ciwalk (Cihampelas Walk Shopping Mall), which is located just right beside our hotel - Sensa Hotel Bandung. My mommy and I would also like to thanks to our local tour guide cum driver for his effort of helping find us to find those pools of Cititrans. Once we found the pool, immediately we booked our preferred time at 11.00 am (Indonesia time) that cost IDR60,000 per pax, which similar to the cost of the train too.

The journey from Bandung to Jakarta was smooth and safe all the way but not until upon reach in Jakarta city. The traffic was terrible and massive jam everywhere. It was supposed to be 3 hours ride but turns out to be 5 hours ride. The worst case was we couldn't found out hotel. The driver supposed to stop somewhere in Mangga Dua but we did requested him to drive to our hotel which we booked earlier. The driver could only do so cause there were only 3 passengers; mommy and I and another lonely guy passenger. In returns, he did requested for extra charge of IDR70,000 (roughly around RM25) but turns out to be a disaster. I guess was not his problem afterall as he did his best to ask the local but looks like the location of the hotel was so complicated and confusing. Another disaster was on my mom side where her nature was keep calling her (if you get what I means). Therefore, my last resort to book another new hotel for just 1 night instead of keep searching our hotel for almost 2 hours. Really a disaster in Jakarta city!  

I spotted this Ibis Jakarta Mangga Dua Hotel and requested the driver to stopby here to query regarding the availability of the room and the room rate. Luckily for us there are rooms available but for sure, we were out of budget.

One of My Travel Tips:
Please make sure bring along your credit card cause we don't know when we need to use it, especially when comes to unforeseeable circumstances.

Last minute booking and we managed to secure a standard twin room.

The bathroom with sufficient of amenities

Although it looks old, but it was quite clean.

A perfect choice for those who want to shop in Mangga Dua as it located not too far away, less than 5 minutes of walking

View from our room

Another side of the view

For just a night, I could say that I am pretty satisfy with all the comfort and cleanliness especially. Plus, free WiFi connection makes this hotel another plus point.  

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Indonesia Day 2 - Leaving Jakarta For Bandung (Part I)

Date of Visited: 21st December 2011

By the time we woke up, we found it's only 7am of Indonesian time. Jakarta time is 1 hour behind Malaysia time. Mommy and I woke up early to wander around nearby the hotel before leaving Jakarta to Bandung. And also to hunt for breakfast as it was not included in our hotel.

Some of the area in Jakarta was indeed clean. No kidding!

Some of the buildings we saw at this business district of Jakarta Golden Triangle. Jakarta is divided into 5 cities/municipalities; which are Central, North, East, West and South. The area that we were staying was in Central Jakarta which is the smallest city and home to most of Jakarta's administrative and political center.

Mom couldn't find any coffee shops nearby the hotel. She needs at least drink a cup of coffee everyday. Hence, we decided went back to our hotel, MaxOne Hotels.com for breakfast before checking-out. The reason I choose this hotel mainly because it is so near to the train station and we heard a lot of congested jam in Jakarta. For sure, we don't want to miss out train.

This is auto rickshaw of Indonesia, which being by the local as Bajaj. Initially we plan to take taxi to the train station from our hotel, but the staff recommended us to take this as it was more faster and cheaper too. You can bargain with them before decided to ride with them. Mommy and I did bargained with the driver and finally both of us agreed to pay the driver for IDR15,000 (roughly around RM5). The ride is similar to tuk-tuk in Thailand.

Gambir Station, the mainline railway station in Central Jakarta that will depart to Bandung. Besides Bandung, it also depart to other major cities of Indonesia such as Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.  


The time schedule. The train from Jakarta Gambir Station to Bandung depart for every hour or two but it is advisable to check it advance as it might change. There are two website that you can check out if you want plan your journey from Jakarta to Bandung or even to other cities:

1. Train Travel in Indonesia
2. Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero)

As I saw one of Jakarta's icon, the Monument National or in short known as MONAS is located just besides the Gambir Station and also cause we had a lil bit of spare time, I told my mom I wanna go there for photoshooting. But turns out, it need at least 10 minutes walking. Mommy was quite worry that we might be late for our flight, hence this is one and only shot that I managed to capture from the station:

Monument National of Indonesia, MONAS

Bear in mind that if you wanna take taxi in Jakarta, it is advisable to take this blue colour taxi which known as the "Blue Bird". Up to date, I heard lots of positive comments from the foreign tourists.

We bought the Executive class for IDR60,000 (roughly around RM22) per person. The seats are quite comfortable with fully air-conditioned. There are even meals being sold inside the train such as fried rice, fried noodle, snacks and drinks but might be pricey. Well, mommy and I had bought quite lots of foods and drinks before we depart.

Finally, a train ride for 3 hours, we reached Bandung but unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs once we arrived. This is what I hate when comes to travelling - heavy rain that really spoil the travelling mood.

So, it rains heavily in Bandung and what did we did? Stay tune for the Part II of Bandung travelogue.

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Indonesia Day 1 - Arrived Jakarta & MaxOne Hotels.com

Date of Visited: 20th December 2011

My Journey Around South East Asia: First Destination - Singapore

My resolution for the year 2011 was to travel abroad at least 4 times in a year. So, I did went Shenzhen, South Korea and Singapore but I still think that it wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger towards travelling abroad. Indonesia came into my mind when one of my besties just came back from there and told me it was a shopping haven. I haven't been to Indonesia for my entire life and I was thought why not gave Indonesia a try, right? So when AirAsia was having a big promotion, I managed to secure airfare with a return cost of RM330 for both my mommy and I. Plus point was direct flight from Kota Kinabalu. So, we won't wasting our time to travel to Kuala Lumpur for flight connection. It was a surprised for my mom and she never expecting that I will buy the airticket for her. My mom almost turned down my offer but at the end, she decided to go.

The flight from Kota Kinabalu to Jakarta took roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes and here we are, at the capital city of Indonesia. The queue was long cause there are other flight arrived at the same time too. But overall, the process of getting through all the immigration and custom checking were smooth and clear. The time differences between Jakarta and Malaysia is 1 hour behind but do take not that, not all cities of Indonesia have the same time zone. I found out about this when I went Bali this year. 

We arrived Jakarta airport quite late and I was clueless what mode of transportation should I get? I did do research that for safety purpose, it is advisable to take the "Blue Bird" taxi but when we went out from the airport, we didn't saw any of them. Got no choice but to hire taxi service from the airport counter and it cost us IDR170,000 (roughly around RM61) to our hotel.

This is the hotel that mommy and I gonna overnight for a night only, MaxOne Hotels.com cause of the following day, we are gonna move on to the next city. This budget hotel cost me RM146.00 cause I booked less than a week before going there. Might be pricey but no regret for staying here cause it was indeed a great location as it strategically located in the central business district of Jakarta Golden Triangle.

Colourful, funky and trendy reception counter is what caught my attention once I stepped into the hotel.

And even their lift design is so creative and impressive.

Mommy and I were quite shocked when we entered the room. By looking at the size of the room, it was quite small. However, that wasn't big issue for us cause overall, both of us were satisfied with the cleanliness of the room and also the bathroom. The room was nicely decorated with some artistic decor, equiped with a flatscreen television and were blessed with a comfortable double bed. Basic toiletries are included such as shampoo and shower gel and there is a hot water. The most important was free WiFi connection within the room.

Last but not least the thing that impressed me was the room number of the hotel. Before step into the room, we were tried to find our room but we didn't spotted any number stick on the door. Then only we realised the room number was underneath us. Impressive right?

I am highly recommended to stay in this hotel if you are planning to visit Jakarta some day. One and only thing that should take note is request the room that is not facing the street cause it was quite noisy during the day time. You don't want the lively street to disturb your beauty sleep, right?

I booked this hotel through Agoda.com but if you want to get more details, click HERE for more.

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Indonesia Trip Teaser

Hello everyone! It's been a hectic period for me for the past few days as I was sick, tried to adapt to my new working environment and doing my last minute plan for my trip. Yeap, currently I'm somewhere around Indonesia and guess this year will be another year for me to celebrate Christmas in oversea as in previous year, I was in Taiwan celebrating Christmas.

Indonesia is my fourth trips of the year and it is also will be my final year end holiday. Hopefully no more sudden trip again because I'll busy with other things soon I get back to KK. So far for this trip, everything is under control (hopefully) and what amazed me was the people over here was so friendly. However, things are expensive especially on the transportation and foods.

We took direct flight from Kota Kinabalu to Jakarta.

Then on the next day we reached, we took train from Jakarta to Bandung.

This is what I hate when comes to travelling - Heavy rain really spoil the travelling mode

We stayed so near to the shopping mall and street which means, soon we'll burn a hole in our pocket.


But for a non-shopaholic like me, I did plan for few sightseeing around the city. I can't stand if shopping everyday lah.


It will Christmas soon in the next few days. Hereby I wish everyone especially to my dearest readers,

Merry Christmas to all of you!


May this wonderful festival bring abundant joy and happiness throughout your life!

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