Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Going to Jakarta and Bandung - 1

During June school holiday this year, Inka and Irza went to Jakarta with their parents for a short 2.5 weeks holiday. They left Singapore for Jakarta on 1 June 2006 with their mother, while their father followed them on 3 June 2006. They took the Valuair flight directly to Jakarta from Singapore. On the 3rd, they fetched their father from the airport and then went directly to ITC Mangga Dua, to accompany their mother and their grandmother for some shopping. ITC Mangga Dua is very famous for its cheap goods compared to other shopping malls in Jakarta. Although they didn’t like the shopping mall, which is very crowded, but they enjoyed having their lunch at the food court on the 7th floor. More pictures at the ITC Mangga Dua can be found here.

The next morning, Irza went to Cinere Mall with his parents, and they did some grocery shopping at the Hero supermarket there. In the evening, the whole family went to Pondok Indah Mall and of course, their main destination would be the Timezone amusement centre. They were having a great time playing there, accompanied with their father, while their mother and grandparents went around shopping.

They also had lunch at Bakmi Gajah Mada (or Bakmi GM) restaurant, located on the second floor of the Pondok Indah Mall, just in front of the 21 Cineplex. Inka and Irza really enjoyed their chicken noodles, which is Bakmi GM’s specialty. More pictures at the Bakmi GM restaurant can be found here.

On 6 June 2006, the whole family went to ITC Kuningan, again to accompany their mother for some shopping (again). They reached there around lunch time, so they immediately went to the Ambassador Mall, the shopping mall next door, which is directly connected to ITC Kuningan, to have some lunch at the food court on the third floor. They really enjoyed their Indonesian food, such as ayam kalasan and soto betawi. After lunch, while waiting for their mother shopping, they were having a great time at the small playground, which is located on the same floor as the food court. More pictures at the Ambassador Mall can be found here.

On 7 June 2006, they went to Bandung, together with their parents, grandmother and aunt. Bandung is a city about 120km south east of Jakarta, and connected to Jakarta via the new Cipularang expressway. With this new expressway, the journey from Jakarta to Bandung only takes about 2 hours. Irza was very impressed with all the railway bridges, which can be seen from the expressway.

They reached Bandung at around 12pm and after having lunch at their grandparents’ house in Cimindi, they went to the factory outlet stores along Jalan Riau, Bandung. While waiting for their mother, aunt and grandmother to shop, they went to a playground called Happy Days, which is located on the third floor of one of the outlets.

After waiting for the avid shoppers to finish their shopping, they went to the hotel to check-in. They stayed at the Aston Hotel and Residence, a new hotel which is located at the Braga Citywalk shopping complex. The hotel is new with a very nice lobby. However, since the shopping complex is also quite new, it’s still empty. Only the amusement centre and the food court on the second floor are opened, together with some other small stalls. There’s also Braga 21 cineplex, which is also very quiet. More pictures at the Braga Citywalk and Aston Hotel and Residences can be found here.

In the evening, while the avid shoppers were shopping at the factory outlet stores along Jalan Juanda (Dago) such as “Grande” and “Jetset”, Inka and Irza had “early” dinner with his father at the KFC along the same stretch of road. They went back to the hotel after going to the Bumbu Desa restaurant along Jalan Pasirkaliki to buy some dinner to be eaten at the hotel.

[Indonesian version]

(Continued to Part 2)

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Quicklink: Photos of the Week – 2

These pictures were taken before we went to Jakarta early this month for a short holiday.

More pictures during our holiday in Jakarta and Bandung will follow. Stay tuned. :)

[Indonesian version]