Walking Tour in Jakarta: Cikini Area

Last Sunday, on January 17, I participated in a walking tour conducted by Jakarta Good Guide (@JKTgoodguide). It’s a “pay-as-you-like” tour. They have various routes, and the one they held last week was to Cikini area. I’ve been interested in this tour weeks ago when Tyas (@icblues) joined the tour in Kota Tua (Old Town). But I was also worried that I might be too tired to wake up in early morning, because I would’ve just arrived at home late on Saturday night after a business trip to Singapore. Turned out I could wake up quite early the next day! So let’s go for a walk 😀

Arrived exactly at 9 AM at the meeting point, Gedung Joang 45, I was excited to see lots of people had already gathered there. I was registered to the tour by oom Pitra (@pitra) who then introduced me to Pino (@pinonyuu) and Milly (@millyshafiq). Yay, new friends! After confirming my attendance and receiving a free postcard, I joined the English group together with the three, out of curiosity XD The group was guided by Farid (@faridArdian). Turned out I enjoyed being in the group so much! Maybe for the next tour I’ll also join the English one.

We started from the meeting point itself, Gedung Joang 45. I’ve never thought that the European-style building is actually a tourist spot, so I was kinda surprise when I saw the ticket booth XD. We paid IDR 5,000 and received a book about Jakarta and its tourist attractions.

Farid explained the history and historical events happened in that building, took us around to see stuff from pre-independence era, from wardrobes of the youth army to Japan’s propaganda posters. What’s more interesting was the car collection at the back of the building. We got to see the cars used by our first president & vice president, with unique twists such as one was stolen and another was once turned into an oplet (a public transportation car).

 

The back part of Gedung Joang 45

We then walked to Cikini Post Office Building, but we couldn’t send the postcards because it’s Sunday. So we proceeded to our next spot, Tan Ek Tjoan Bakery. Anyway the paving blocks were beautifully painted with murals done by IKJ art students (CMIIW) in cooperation with Korea(‘s university?).

Let’s play?

To my surprise (again), the Tan Ek Tjoan Bakery in Cikini (established in 1921) has been closed down 😮 There gone another historical shop in Jakarta… However, the business is still running, not through the shop but carts. The factory in Ciputat still sends the breads every night, at 11 PM to be exact. Some of the tour participants bought the breads, quite fulfilling as a breakfast.

The next stop was the famous Taman Ismail Marzuki, which was then a zoo owned by Raden Saleh, an Indonesian legendary painter. We went inside, not to the planetarium, but to Jakarta provincial library. I didn’t know the library was there all along =_= The library is air-conditioned, so it’s good to visit and take a break from intense sunshine outside. We just walked around & got some explanation on old photos of Jakarta. Maybe someday I’ll visit it again to read books there. Btw, you’ll need a Jakarta citizen ID (KTP) to enter and read books there.

Inside the library

Just across the TIM, there’s an alley where a legendary ice cream shop, Tjanang, stands. Too bad that now the ice cream isn’t the main product, but the pempek (fried fish cake). We bought ice cream there (a cup is sold at IDR 12,000) and hey, it’s delicious! It’s rather like sorbet than ice cream. I bought the coconut one and it had coconut crumbs!

Strolling the pavement, we passed Perguruan Cikini School. I just knew from this tour that President Soekarno’s children attended this school, and there was a b0mbing incident when one day he brought them to school. Actually there is another destination in the tour: PGI Cikini Hospital, where Raden Saleh’s house is located inside. Too bad we couldn’t go there in group and too awkward to go one by one XD so yeah, we just skipped that destination.

The Perguruan Cikini School

Ice cream saved our lives!

We turned right and arrived at our last stop: Flea Market at Jl. Surabaya. The market sells antique stuff, from traditional Indonesian, Chinese, Arabian, to western-themed stuff. It’s really a nice place to find unique decoration, but I think a pricing skill is needed.

The tour ended there. I could tell that the participants were happy, especially foreign tourists who kept asking questions and didn’t bother to take many photos. It turned out that our group was the group with the least group-photos, LOL.

Bonus pic: One particular house, a huge one, at Cikini which intrigued me so much XD But the history of this house was rather unknown, other than the info that it’s owned by Hasjim Ning…

One suggestion for this tour route: Include Bubur Cikini (BurCik) across KFC in tour explanation. Its porridge is hella good! XD

Check out Jakarta Good Guide’s walking tour schedule here.

Highlights in 2015 & Hopes in 2016

Yaaa, berhubung gue makin malas nulis blog dan lebih suka twitteran tapi entah kenapa ga bisa di-archive, banyak kejadian yang ga tertulis di sini, padahal kan bagus kalo tiap bulan bisa ngeblog.. T_T Baiklah, daripada ga jadi nulis, gue bikin list top 5 kejadian yang berkesan aja di 2015. Here goes!

1. Interaksi jarak dekat dengan Hyde

Buat yang kenal gue, pasti tahu segimana ngefansnya gue ke Hyde & L’Arc-en-Ciel. Tahun 2015, tepatnya di bulan April, gue dapet hadiah dari Tuhan berupa kesempatan ketemu Hyde, bahkan sampai salaman, minta tanda tangan, minta peluk & foto bareng (walau hasil fotonya belum gue terima sampai sekarang). Ceritanya, Hyde bersama VAMPS datang ke Jakarta untuk manggung di acara Japan Night (yang sayangnya tiketnya kurang laku). Gue udah pasrah karena ga dapat respon dari panitia saat mengajukan komunitas yang gue urus sebagai media partner. Untungnya, jalan terbuka melalui seorang staf Jepang yang kenal dengan komunitas yang gue urus, dan beliau terkesan “membalas jasa” dengan memanggil Hyde dan memperkenalkan gue ke dia! OH.MY.GOD…. Momen tersebut gue post di sini.

2. Nonton konser NEWS & L’Arc-en-Ciel di Jepang

Selain Laruku, ada satu grup lagi yang gue ikuti, yaitu NEWS, boyband beranggotakan 9, lalu jadi 8, terus 6, terakhir jadi 4 orang. Tahun 2015 ini alhamdulillah gue ada rezeki dan kesempatan untuk nonton konser mereka yang bertajuk WHITE, di bulan Mei 2015, di Osaka. Ini merupakan kali kedua gue nonton konser mereka. Postingan: masih di-draft XD

Beda ichiban tapi tetap satu (?)

with Nana (Dewi yang moto) XD

Mengenai konser Laruku, sebenarnya terbilang nekat karena uang gue sangat pas-pasan. Tapi lagi-lagi alhamdulillah, tiket Garuda Indonesia untuk bulan September waktu itu lagi murah-murahnya 😀 Berangkat deh gue dan empat teman ke Osaka (lagi), untuk nonton konser L’ARCASINO. Ga tanggung-tanggung, kami nonton 2 hari!. Postingannya bisa dibaca di sini (day 1) dan di situ (day 2).

3. Punya keponakan

Yeay! Di tahun 2015 akhirnya gue punya keponakan sendiri! Bayi cowok lucu dan mbul yang lahir bulan Agustus 2015.. Sekarang lagi seneng beliin macem-macem mainan, walau si baby kadang masih lupa muka gue T^T Stay healthy and grow well, baby Al!

4. Ketemu Yuki Furukawa & Mirei Kiritani

Bulan Juni, ada event J-Series festival yang bertujuan mempromosikan drama Jepang di Jakarta. Event gratisan ini menghadirkan aktor (Yuki Furukawa), aktris (Mirei Kiritani), idol group (gue lupa namanya & JKT48), dan anime song singer (Valshe). Sempet kurang semangat ama performernya, tapi ternyata fansnya banyak yang dateng! Gue sendiri dateng pengen liat Yuki & Mirei. Temen gue malah ada yang beruntung ketemu Yuki sebelum acara & bisa foto-foto.. Keberuntungan gue berlanjut dengan memenangkan door prize berupa boneka maskot NTV (Nippon Television/ Nitere), lalu gue disuruh maju ke panggung untuk berfoto dengan seluruh pengisi acara! Gue sampe diketawain Mirei gara-gara grogi ngomong “Thank you for coming” ke Yuki XD. Postingan blog: masih di-draft :p

(foto menyusul, males ngubek di HP)

5. Jalan-jalan ke Korea

Berawal dari “Ah 2014 duit alokasi buat ngonser ga kepake nih, yaudah buat jalan-jalan ke Korea aja”, gue & temen gue Heya pun melancong ke Korea pada bulan April, tepatnya ke Seoul, Gyeonggi & Busan. Sekalian gue melepas rindu ke negara yang pernah gue tempati selama hampir 4 tahun. Ternyata walau banyak perubahan (yang lebih baik), gue masih ingat hampir semua jalan dan pengkolan di sana XD. Sempet ketemu beberapa teman lama juga 😀 Yang lebih menyenangkan, kami masih kebagian lihat sakura & festival bunga musim semi! Yeay! Postingan blog: masih di-draft juga huhuhu :p

Hopes in 2016

Tahun 2016 gue harus lebih proaktif cari kerja sampingan, soalnya gaji mulai nggak cukup untuk menabung & jalan-jalan, haha… Pengen coba jadi translator Bahasa Inggris ke Indonesia atau sebaliknya nih. Translator Bahasa Jepang – Bahasa Indonesia juga oke. Kalo Bahasa Korea…sepertinya udah berkarat karena jarang dipake, hehe..

Soal karier & akademis, gue mulai bimbang antara lanjut kerja atau cari beasiswa untuk S3.. I do enjoy my job as there are many things to learn from, but I also really want to continue studying in Doctoral’s course. Umur juga makin banyak, otak makin tumpul, jadi sebenernya harus cepat bikin keputusan.

Soal percintaan? Hmm, gimana ya…Tahun 2015 kemarin gue merasa lega karena sudah mulai bisa deket lagi ama cowok :p Tahun 2014 tuh bener-bener masa kegelapan. Siapa pun yang mendekat langsung gue jauhin, hahaha…masih terlalu sakit hati ama seseorang. Tapi ya gue nyadar, ga boleh gitu terus..nanti ngejauhin jodoh sendiri. So, whatever 2016 will bring me, bring it on!