Back in Jakarta for another few more days as I make my way towards Thailand/Vietnam. The flight ticket from Jakarta to Vietnam too expensive so I will fly from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, then train/bus to Thailand, then onto Vietnam. But first my revisit here in Jakarta. The first visit to this city was not exciting, spectacular or impressive as I thought it would be, instead, plain, boring, expensive city. The accommodations are expensive, this being my second visit to Jakarta, I have stayed in South Jakarta and again stayed at the same hostel being the most affordable for me. SS Homes nightly cost was 250,000 rp, a room with a double bed, shower, toilet, tv with all the movie channels, air con, clean and private.

I did meet with a fb friend that lives in this area and she hosted me or became a so called guide taking me to Jakarta’s icon the National Monument (MONAS), a sky high tower with a 360 degree look out view of the city. I was able to capture many daylight photos, would have like to have captured the city night lights also but, did not.

The ticket I had purchased allowed for me to go up this tower, a free city bus ride and a free entrance to Ragunan Zoo. As we did after the city view in the tower, took the city bus back, and the next day went to the zoo, the zoo was not that impressive as there was way too much walking to see the animals, I walked and walked without seeing that many animals, I just got tired of this walking and not seeing the animals I came to see.

Now one thing that is cheap in Jakarta that I need to give credit to, is the online motorcycle service called ‘Go-Jek’, it is cheap, fast, reliable, order a ride online, a motorcycle picks you up at your location and gets you were you need to be quickly and safely for 10,000-30,000rp ($1.00-3.00 CAD) is all I ever paid to the locations I needed to go.

As far as food goes, well the street food is good and cheap, in a restaurant a little more expensive but again still affordable. It seems to me when I arrive at a place if the accommodations are cheap then the food is not, and if the food is cheap well then the accommodations are not, it is one or the other, hard to find both food and accommodation cheap, as I did at Lake Toba.

I did leave a beautiful friendly host/guide/friend/lady behind after she gave me a wonderful tour of the city and we shared company for the four days I stayed, eating out together, being together, meeting her mother and I was sadden to leave as she was sadden to see me go, as with friendships and bonding there is a connection that is made be it a strong friendship of like, love, caring, happiness and so on that each enjoys and wishes not to end, I do enjoy meeting new people wherever I travel and becoming friends, what I do not enjoy is saying ‘bye’ to the friendships that I have made, knowing we will probably not see each other face to face again.