SECTOR LIMA: Short Stay in Jakarta

The title says Jakarta, though looking at the picture, one would think that I landed in Tokyo. In reality, my first destination when I landed there was for a bite to eat. I was taken to a Japanese ramen house where I ate a very delicious meal. The name of the place I cannot recall but I was told these types of fancy ramen places all import their chefs straight from Japan. Japanese food is big in Jakarta since they are found everywhere.

Pictured above is another fancy Japanese restaurant. Take a closer look at the signage outside the door. In Jakarta, residents carry up to twenty credit cards since depending on which card you have, it could save you up to 50% off your meal.

Despite being born in Indonesia, I had never been to Jakarta until now. The capital of Indonesia, the city is huge. Traffic jams everywhere and motorcycles dominate the roads. Their way is the right of way. To this day, it still makes me cringe every time I am in the car as motorcyclists would swerve in and out of traffic.

For a large city, there really was nothing for residents to do other than go to the countless malls. I must say, their malls are much better than the ones in Toronto. Since my relatives in Jakarta are very wealthy, they took me to the very best malls. It shocked me to see all the malls have security check points in front of the parking garages. Armed officers would open the car doors and the trunk while another with a bomb sniffing dog would circle the car. Another would do the same but with a mirror to look underneath the car. Although armed, they are always courteous and would always wave us through with a smile. Before entering the mall, there is another check point with an x-ray machine and a metal detector.