Our adventures of the day are figuring out transportation and going to Museum Nasional, the National Museum.
Grab is the Uber of South East Asia, in fact, Uber even sold their business here to Uber a couple of years ago. We consider using Grab, but taxi’s here are super cheap and we are concerned about communicating how to find the lobby of our condo. (Reviews on Airbnb indicated this can be an issue). I look up the approximate fare for a taxi and we decide to take that approach.
We walk down to the street level and signal one of the many taxi’s driving by. I have written out the name of the museum and the address on a slip of paper. I show it to the driver and say Museum National and he replies “Yes, I know it”. He turns on the meter and off we go. William has Google mapped the route and the driver doesn’t make the left that Google suggests. He loops way around. Well, maybe the driver knows something....or is he taking the scenic route?? We arrive at the museum and the taxi fare is less than 35,000 Rupiah ~ $2.50 USD. Although by principle we don’t like to be “taken for a ride” if we were it doesn’t cost us much.
Grab is the Uber of South East Asia, in fact, Uber even sold their business here to Uber a couple of years ago. We consider using Grab, but taxi’s here are super cheap and we are concerned about communicating how to find the lobby of our condo. (Reviews on Airbnb indicated this can be an issue). I look up the approximate fare for a taxi and we decide to take that approach.
We walk down to the street level and signal one of the many taxi’s driving by. I have written out the name of the museum and the address on a slip of paper. I show it to the driver and say Museum National and he replies “Yes, I know it”. He turns on the meter and off we go. William has Google mapped the route and the driver doesn’t make the left that Google suggests. He loops way around. Well, maybe the driver knows something....or is he taking the scenic route?? We arrive at the museum and the taxi fare is less than 35,000 Rupiah ~ $2.50 USD. Although by principle we don’t like to be “taken for a ride” if we were it doesn’t cost us much.
The old portion of museum has a courtyard with some interesting statues and stone carvings. From there we move to the modern section with it’s five stories of exhibits. The footprint of the building isn’t huge and it takes us two hours to see the exhibits even William periodically resting his foot.
We walk out of the museum and one of the street hawkers tries to convince us that he is a tour guide and can take us all around Jakarta to see the sights. We firmly thank him and tell him “no” a number of times and finally he just helps us to get a BlueBird metered taxi. He warns us not to take the other taxi’s, take just the metered BlueBird. Good advice. We are not worried from a safety perspective, more that we don’t want to be ripped off (even more).
We have the taxi drop us off at Grand Indonesia Mall where we will have lunch. There are many restaurants to choose from, including at least one restaurant with a Michelin star. I saw Fish & CO when I was doing a Google search, and the idea of a nice price of fish appeals to us. When I ask for directions at the mall information booth I ask for Fish and Company, assuming the CO meant company. The gentleman gives me a puzzled look and I see a lightbulb go on in his head. He responds that they have a Fish and C O. Hmmm, sounds like my guess is wrong. Anyway, we have a decent meal at Fish and C O. No alcohol, of course.
We walk out of the museum and one of the street hawkers tries to convince us that he is a tour guide and can take us all around Jakarta to see the sights. We firmly thank him and tell him “no” a number of times and finally he just helps us to get a BlueBird metered taxi. He warns us not to take the other taxi’s, take just the metered BlueBird. Good advice. We are not worried from a safety perspective, more that we don’t want to be ripped off (even more).
We have the taxi drop us off at Grand Indonesia Mall where we will have lunch. There are many restaurants to choose from, including at least one restaurant with a Michelin star. I saw Fish & CO when I was doing a Google search, and the idea of a nice price of fish appeals to us. When I ask for directions at the mall information booth I ask for Fish and Company, assuming the CO meant company. The gentleman gives me a puzzled look and I see a lightbulb go on in his head. He responds that they have a Fish and C O. Hmmm, sounds like my guess is wrong. Anyway, we have a decent meal at Fish and C O. No alcohol, of course.
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