Business trip to Jakarta, Indonesia

 

Tugu Monumen Nasional
National Monument - Jakarta, Indonesia
Photo was taken by Sony Ericsson P1

JAKARTA, Indonesia - My business trip to Jakarta in September 2009 was my second trip to Indonesia but it was my first trip with my current company. We stayed in Bogor, a city one hour away from Jakarta, but we went to Indonesia on weekends. Jakarta is nice and big city with a touch of local and Dutch architectures. Hotels are more expensive in Jakarta compared to Bogor, so my colleague guy and I shared the room. The other 2 lady colleagues shared also the room.

I met up with my colleague and former housemate in Trinidad and Tobago, who was then working in one of the auditing firm in Jakarta. He brought me first to the National Monument (Tugu Monumen Nasional) which is one of the famous places in the city.

Wikipedia describes the National Monument (Monumen Nasional or Monas) is a 433 feet (132 meter) tower in the centre of Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, symbolizing the fight for Indonesia. Construction began in 1961 under the direction of President Sukarno. Monas was opened to the public in 1975. It is topped by a flame covered with gold foil. The monument and the museum are open daily from 08.00 - 15.00 throughout the week except for the last Monday of each month when the monument is closed.



Plaza Indonesia
Home of the first Starbucks in Indonesia

We then went to Plaza Indonesia for dinner and had coffee at Starbucks. Starbucks at Plaza Indonesia was the first Starbucks in the country. Cool! Plaza Indonesia is the first high end shopping centre in Indonesia which opened its doors in mid-1990.

Just opposite Plaza Indonesia is the Grand Indonesia. Wikipedia describes Grand Indonesia Shopping Town as a mixed-use complex including a shopping mall and the Hotel Indonesia covering an area of about 640,000 square meter (6,900,000 sq ft), located on the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Jakarta in Indonesia.



Decors inside Grand Indonesia

What I like about Grand Indonesia is that they have nice decorations inside the mall. There are trees, train stations, waterfalls and other modern designs.

It was Hari Raya (a Muslim festival) when we were there so some shops were closed for business. We also visited bars in Mulia hotel, Shangri-la and Airforce One. Of the three we visited, we found the bar at Mulia hotel to be the best. I came back to the bar by myself when my colleague went back to his home country in Malaysia. I stayed one more day in Jakarta after our audit engagement because I was not able to change my ticket back to Singapore due to the earlier flights were all fully booked. 

It was indeed a good experience. Keep on following my travel blogs. Also, for all your travel needs (airfare, hotel, cruise package, holiday packages, car rental and more), please visit wow amazing holiday website.