We flew from Kuching, Malaysia, to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Our arrival in Jakarta was uneventful, and it was super easy to get the visa upon arrival! You just pay them $25 USD and they give you the visa on the spot. It took no more than a couple of minutes!
We had been warned numerous times to only take Blue Bird taxis in Jakarta, since they are the only ones that can be trusted as honest and safe. But there wasn’t a Blue Bird taxi counter among the taxi counters inside the arrival hall at the airport, so we chose another company that looked okay. The ride to our hotel, Ibis Arcadia, was fine and the price seemed reasonable.
Our room at Ibis Arcadia was very nicely decorated and we received good service. We paid more than usual for a hotel room, but after reading about many of the sketchy hotels in Jakarta I wanted to stay somewhere where we would feel safe. Internet was not included in the price of our room, so we spent mornings and evenings in the Starbucks down the street, using their free WiFi. It was a nice place to hang out, and there was even live music one evening.
The Starbucks was attached to a shopping center that also had restaurants inside, where we ate a couple times. Food in Indonesia is cheap!! The Japanese restaurant had delicious food at a good price. I tried the salmon lovers combo, that came with all types of salmon.
Jakarta is a huge city, but didn’t appeal to our tastes and so our stay in Jakarta was pretty low key, with George catching up on work, but we did visit one exciting place- Dunia Fantasi!