First Impressions of Jakarta

I was in Jakarta for a 3-day trip at the beginning of October - all because Angie got transferred there for a year. So lodging was free :-)

Eventhough I've been to other parts of Indonesia before, it was my first time in Jakarta. And whenever I travel to a place for the first time, I try not to have expectations to avoid disappointments.

Here are 3 of my personal observations of the city:

Traffic
One thing that people usually tell me is that the traffic in Jakarta is horrendous. One can get caught in a traffic jam for hours just to travel a short distance.

However this time I didn't get to experience the horrible traffic that Jakarta is famous for, simply because I travelled on a weekend. I heard that traffic is usually notorious on weekdays during peak hours.

Customer service
Customer service standards in Jakarta are relatively higher compared to other countries - even in KL where I live.

In Jakarta we walked into malls and shops and the staff would greet us like they value the business we're potentially giving them. Even if we don't buy anything, they would still smile and thank us as we walk away.

At the Sate Senayan restaurant in South Jakarta, there was a staff on duty in front of the washroom to greet and direct customers to the washroom. That particular staff also ensured that the washroom is consistently clean. I haven't seen such a thing yet in KL.


Malls, malls and more malls
When it comes to malls, Jakarta is in a league of its own. The sheer boldness in the way the city builds its mammoth malls is amazing. I think Jakarta has ample land and enough customer volume to sustain these giant malls.

We went to 3 malls during my stay in Jakarta - Pondok Indah Mall, Anggrek Mall and Grand Indonesia. Amongst the 3, Grand Indonesia lives up to its name as the grandest mall of them all. Can someone please tell me what is the biggest mall in Jakarta?

Review: Tea Spa in South Jakarta

I was in Jakarta early last month to visit Angie who has been transferred there for a year.

On my second day in Jakarta, we hopped into a bajaj and headed for our spa session.

 The bajaj is built for small sized people. We could fit 2 people at the back. But I don't think even one sumo wrestler can fit in there.

After riding around and getting lost, we managed to find Tea Spa on Jalan Gunawarman 9, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta.

The spa is locsted above a cafe that sells tea (what else!).

As we walked up the stairs we were greeted with this table:

I like this table with the 'Tea Spa' wordings at the top.

While waiting for the lady to prepare our massage materials, I went around snapping pics and took this:

 Interesting words ...

The lady led us to the room where I managed to snap a pic before the massage began:

We chose the 3-hour Perfect Contour Tea Treatment which is one of the spa's signature package. The package consists of a Tea Aromatherapy French Massage (for slimming), Herbal Tea Body Scrub, Herbal Tea Body Mask and Herbal Tea Body Wrap.

My massauer was good with her hands and placed just enough pressure.

After we finished the treatment and I had my super sweet ginger tea, the lady led me to another room for my half leg waxing.

This time the waxing was way below that of the quality I get back in KL.

First of all, they used poor quality wax. After the therapist applied the wax onto my legs and left it to dry, she had a tough time peeling off the sides of the wax to give it a good yank. When she finally could peel the edges, the wax tore away in small parts and she had to scrap away the remnants from my skin.

The end result was that it was not a clean waxing in the sense that there were still hairs on my legs and even tiny bits of wax still stuck to my skin.

Eventhough the massage was good but the waxing was not great at all and I would certainly not recommend you to do at Tea Spa.

After the massage we went looking for the famous Sate Senayan:

When in Indonesia, always look for the word 'gratis' because it means 'free' :-) 

This was dinner:

Clockwise from top left: Sate Senayan, Sup Bontot and Nasi Complete. 

While enjoying dinner I was fascinated with these 3 wooden sculptures at the entrance of the restaurant: