Is Jakarta worth a visit?

[Prosal]

 

Tiara Cera (Today Country) is a popular and low-class bar/disco/brothel in Lokasari Plaza. It's big, VERY dark and incredibily packed from 4pm. Most girls there are in the petite, ugly, and drug-addicted range, and on busy days, some of them can make up to 10 short times a day.

 

You won't find in those brothels (or in the Blok M expats joints) the best and freshest girls in town. lol

 

 

Anyway about your trip, I agree with Carlton ; Komodo, Yogjakarta (Borobudur) and JKT in one week could be a matchless feat. But you could even do better by adding Manado and then Lake Toba. ::

 

As my estimated collegue said, better make a side trip to Bandung ; the 2 hours train ride from Jakarta (Gambir Station) is breathtaking, it goes through spectacular ravines, volcanoes, tea plantations, rice terrasses, ect. Bandung is a very pleasant city, with beautiful surroundings, Dutch colonial districts, nice art deco hotels, outstanding food (that you eat with your fingers), some good bars and discos, and TONS of easygoing and very approchable girlies eager to meet bules. Girls from Sunda country -Bandung- are well known for their beauty all around the archipelago.

 

Cheers

[carlton68]

'Komodo, Yogjakarta (Borobudur) and JKT in one week is a feat ; but you could even better with adding Manado and then Lake Toba.' If you plan it right you might at least fly over Kalimantan. I'm sure there is still time for helicopter skiing in Irian Jaya :-)

 

Well, possible if you have your private or corporate jet.

 

My dream is to win the lottery, move to Jakarta and have my own small plane to zip around the country / region. Not that this will ever happen.

 

I thought you aren't going to places like Tiara Ceria? Some people like petite, it was the heavy make-up (five layers of whitening creme, for me this is ugly) and the bored-out-of-their-mind-look that turned me off. For sure they're starfish in the sack, but I'm not gonna find out.

[Prosal]

 

" My dream is to win the lottery, move to Jakarta and have my own small plane to zip around the country / region. "

 

 

I'm with you on this one bro !

 

The Indonesian Archipelago is one of the most fascinating regions of the planet. This extraordinary and incomparable patchwork of sceneries and cultures is unique.

 

 

 

[pappu67]

Hello guys;

 

I will be in Jakarta next month. Will stay at the Mulia. Is the Bar CJ's still a good place to pick up girls. I was there a couple of years ago but did not partake.(My weekend in Thailand wore me out . Anyway I was not sure how to approach the girls at the bar. Are all of them available. What are the damages. Also are there places close to Mulia that make sense

[Prosal]

CJs in Mulia is a great place, one of the best in town. Chic deco, good DJs, impressive sound system, great atmosphere, and always lot of women. Be careful with the thirsty piranhas who could ask you for Long Islands Ice Teas : drinks are not cheap, around 10 $.

 

All women there are not 'in the game'. CJs is very popular among westerners and freelancers/occasionals, but also among local clubbers, celebrities, models, ect. Wednesdays ' ladies nights and Sundays are the best days ; weekends are so crowded that it's hard to get a drink and even almost impossible to go from the bar to the toilets.

 

Mulia is also close from Taman Ria Senayan, a restaurants/bars/discos complex (regular places) around an immense artificial pond, where you'll find the very chic Manna Lounge (beautiful people, good jazz and great selection of wine and cocktails) and Embassy, the most trendy club in town ; there's also in Taman Ria Senayan a lot of restaurants, like Bebek Bali, a VERY pleasant place to eat excellent balinese-style duck (bebek). Highly recommanded.

 

For mall hunting (often fruitful in Jakarta), Plaza Senayan, a huge and chic mall, popular among middle to upper class communities, is only two minutes from Mulia. Try any Cafe, like Cafe Tator on third floor, strategically located, or the basement foodcourt during lunchtime. I recommand also Waroeng Pojok, on third floor, which is a simple yet very good indonesian restaurant designed as an old-fashioned "warung", and where very often some girls stop for some snacks and fresh fruit juices.

 

 

Have fun.

 

 

[frogpatrol]

Damn, you two should start your own website! Very helpful information, and not from a Frommer's perspective. Like it.

 

Per your advice to ease up a bit, I'll leave the dragons for another day. They are stuffed on sacrificial goats anyhow.

 

Bandung seems well worth a visit (btw, this was the place I read about which had the carriage activity), as do the other places you mention.

 

Still think that I might try to swing a two-three day trip to Yogja, which gives me 4-5 for Jakarta and environs. Anyhow, don't want to bore you with that stuff. Just wanted to say thanks.

 

Owe you many beers if you are in these parts.

[pappu67]

Prosal;

 

Thanks for your detailed reply. On another board I read about an area called Block M. Is that close to Mulia?

 

thanks

[soppy]

it s a short taxi ride from the mulia

 

check out jakartablokm.com for more

[Prosal]

 

Carlton

 

Cool link : Indonesian slang.

 

 

::

[Minuman]

Embassy at Taman Ria Senayan burnt down in august and is currently closed for renovations (well duh...).

 

CJ's is... well, not past it's "best before -date" but getting there... Packed on wednesdays & weekends but some days it's too deserted for its own good. The hookers congregate on the main thoroughfare leading from the front-entrance to the toilets, and also on the upper lounging area. It's the same, quite a small bunch week after week. The current band is ok, better than the previous one or the one before that.

 

Stadium is, since july, a no-go -zone unless you wish to be harrassed by the MiB: constant raids and I think it was even closed down for a while. If you go, DON'T be an idiot and dabble with narcotics. Just don't.

 

Delila at gedung Patra Jasa on Gatot Subroto is swinging, totally at the height of its popularity (as per my observations). Very fun place to go after CJ's or Bats or what have you. Arabian gents at their best behaviour.

 

Vertigo at Plaza Semanggi was for a short while the bee's knees but it has turned into a "johns eyeing tarts" -kind-of-a-joint amazingly quickly, effectively deterring the young urbans and hip-types. Blergh. It's still reasonably priced (covercharge 50,000 Rp. but unlike at most places where you have a choice of beer or juice, here it includes also a liquor + mixer). Music is hip-hop and such bollocks, but I did hear a tune or 2 of prog. house when I stuck my head in not too long ago. Worth checking it out.

 

Jalan-Jalan in Kuningan, a place that was thought to be lost into obscurity, has made a surprising comeback and now is again favoured by 20-somethings. Quite cool but I went only once, rest is hearsay. If you are old and ugly, don't go, let the kids have it. (j/k, but seriously)

 

Dragonfly at gedung Graha BIP; wow! It's like Club Monaco but fancier and more packed, even as it's been open for a good while already. No obvious ayam there. Touted to be the celebrities' choice as well, I personally spotted Agnes Monica there in late september. This place rocks (well it doesn't; the music is the same R'n B -garbage you expect it to be).

 

In other "news": The EX-extension of Plaza indonesia is likely to be torn down, as they are making a REAL extension and the current EX was always designed as a temporary solution. This means the Hard Rock Cafe will also move, once again. No timetable as of yet (or none that I'm aware of) but I wouldn't wait if I was to make the final pilgrimage. Hope the new wing will kick ass, EX does admittedly look like something the Teletubbies would likely choose to reside in. The work has resumed on the Jakarta monorail -project (even though the constructor of the actual trains still hasn't been officially decided) and you will see signs telling you to take care as there's an ongoing project esp. around Jl. Casablanca/Jl. HR Rasuna Said -intersection and on Jl. Asia Africa... Well I'd like to live to see the day when a project of this nature is the most actual threat to my well-being in the Jakarta traffic.

 

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In the regional -section, I'd like to seize the opportunity to plug the TJ's Club (apparently, the full name rings as "The Jet-Set's extraordinary club... uhh, so I'll stick with the TJ's...) in Yogyakarta. Asyiiik loh! Apart from Yogya being one of the nicer ones as Indonesian cities go, its citizens obviously are not afraid to let their hair down and par-tee. Unsuspicious from the outside, this joint on the airport-road (Jl. Adi Sucipto) is housed in what looks like a warehouse somewhere in Liverpool, but inside is made into a black-blue-chrome -coloured clubber's paradise and then some. The open-design upper level has comfortable lounges with sofas providing good oggling down to the dance-floor, and lots of cute waitresses in sort of naughty school-girl uniforms (not Afterskool -kinda naughty but very nice). International DJ-guests and promotional happenings (packets of Djarum Black Capuccino -ciggies were handed out as if they were going out of fashion when I stopped by). They also have nights with all drinks bought by girls going at 50% discount -in theory that is; either I look awfully feminine or the promotion was extended to cover the companions of females also, as we were treated to drinks always at 50% regardless of who ordered. Italian sparkling wine at something like 250,000 Rp. for a bottle (don't ask me which brand as I didn't drink nor was I interested) is not a bad deal considering the surroundings and considering it's in Indonesia. JW Black worked out to be something like 400,000. All in all very, it's a very cool place. Another top spot in Yogya is Hugo's Cafe, also on the road to airport and further away from the city centre. Attracts similar crowd as TJ's but is more expensive and less striking in it's appearance; it's an older joint. No whores (nor westerners for that matter) in either of these clubs. Don't know where to go if looking for the former; the latter tends to gravitate to Jl. Malioboro where there's shopping. We stayed at Melia Purosani which has rooms exactly like those at Gran Melia Jakarta, i.e. excellent, and the location was good as well.