My First Outing in Jakarta - Ancol

Last last last….. Sunday, 23/09/07 (oops..sorry for the late post), was my first outing to visit Jakarta.13 of the Silverlaker from different project and different team..Bank Syariah Mega,Bank Bumi and NISP…

Morning:
We left Taman Anggrek to Ancol in 3 taxis. Reached the main entrance to Ancol, everyone have to pay Rp 10,000 for the entrance fees..

What’s in there?

First destination: Sea World
Entry fee: Rp 40,000 (but due to Bulan Ramadhan, there is a promotion of Buy 1 Free 1
Tourist attraction: various types of fishes, piranha, turtles, sting rays, ermmm wat else? My comment: Nothing special in it …almost similar to Aquaria@KLCC

Second destination: Gelanggang Samudra
Entry fee: Rp 60,000
Tourist attraction: 1) Dolphin and White Whale Show – 30 mins
2) Dunno what Animal Show – 20 mins
3) Sea Lion Show – 20 mins
4) 4D Cinema – 15 mins
My comment: 1) The dolphin show was exciting. I’ve recorded the whole show using my phone. Those interested…please let me know…only Rp 10,000 per view….hahaha!!
2) Following the animal show, there were bear, altar and hippo for the performance. The hippo just came out to show how much it can eat….
3) Sea lion show was almost the same like dolphin..So kinda bored d…coz that near lunch over and we were hungry….After the performance, we were allowed to take pictures wif the sea lion. The trainer asked the sea lion to kiss everyone who take picture with him.
But I requested the trainer…please….I don’t want to be kissed by the sea lion. Stand by my side will do…..:p
4) The 4D shows was interesting…you can see that the animal is really coming near to you. And ….it splashed water to u too…..it’s FUN.

Ding ding ding ding…..It’s Lunch time…(@ 3.30 p.m) I’m so hungry ……grr grrr grrr
Columbus Fried Chicken Set 3 – A bowl of rice, 2 pieces of fried chicken Rp 20,000
We spent 15 mins for to food to be served and chit chatting….

Third destination: Ice World
Entry fee: Rp 50,000
Tourist attraction: Carved ice cubes...and some snow to play with …….what else do you expect?
My comment: It’s really cold in there………Have a try!
Around 5.00 pm, we had a walk at the beach side……seeing the sun set…wind blowing…so natural…so comfortable…..

Beli Bantal Gratis "SARUNG BANTAL"

After changing the money, felt so rich. Hand started to itch. On the way back to apartment, we passed by a counter selling pillow.”Beli satu Bantal Gratis Sarung Bantal”. I wanted to buy a pillow for sometime becoz the one that I’m having just cant make me sleep well. I actually thought of buying from Malaysia and brought over becoz the price of the pillow over here was quite expensive. Average bout Rp 100,000 per piece. My mom stopped me..”Sigh! RM 40 is worth enuff for you to sleep comfortably for a year my dear…”Tat was what she said.

Without thinking any further, Jun Yau and I walked in to the counter, The salesgirl served me and said “ Bu, belilah..bantal ini (bigger in size) hanya 87(means Rp 87,000)…dan yang itu 32 (showing us the smaller size pillow)” I’m being so blur and slow in converting Rp to RM asked the salesgirl again on the price. “It’s so cheap …only RM 13 for the small pillow..worth it la….”,said Jun Yau.

“Ok, I’ll take the small one”, I said. The salesgirl wrote the invoice for me. Then, the salesgirl showed me few selection of the pillow case. But I don’t really like the design. After few minutes of choosing the pillow case that I like, the salesgirl told me that I’ve chosen cost about Rp 186, 000. And after discount is Rp 126,000. We were shocked! |The pillow case is much much much MORE expensive then the pillow that I bought. Then I thought maybe the free pillow case don’t have much choice. “Mana satu yang gratis”, I asked. The salesgirl then replied and said,” Yang gratis bukan untuk bantal yang bu belikan. Ok, fine. Maybe the pillow that I bought was too cheap for a free pillow case. I decided only to buy the pillow and not the pillow case thinking that I’ve an extra Spiderman pillow case.

When I’m about to pay for the pillow, I saw the invoice stating Rp 132,000. I showed it to Jun Yau and said, “Isn’t it only Rp 32,000? Did we hear it wrongly and the salesgirl wrote it wrongly? We asked the salesgirl again and she said,” It’s Rp 132,000”. “Not Rp 32,000?”, I asked. “ Unggak(means tidak/no), bu.Yang bu pilih Rp 132,000. Harga sebelum discount Rp 264,000.Ini brand Wellen.” My next question was “How bout the big one? Rp 187,000??” The salesgirl said,” Yang itu Rp 87, 000, bu”. Jun Yau and I started to laugh. We wonder why first of all the pillow case was more expensive than the pillow,secondly the misunderstanding of the free pillow case and thirdly the miscommunication that we’ve made.

After making the payment, Jun Yau sarcastically said, “Maybe the so called “Gratis sarung bantal” was the plastic bag..or else you’ve to walk back without it.” Lolz…..

At the end, I just bought the BIGGER pillow with a CHEAPER price WITHOUT the EXPENSIVE pillow case….

Money Changer Experience

Yesterday was the 3rd day of my 3rd trip to Jakarta..I've yet to exchange any IDR...still trying my best to survive with Rp 200,000 tat I left from the previous trip... but becoz both Jun Yau and I wanna visit Sea World on Sunday which will cost us about Rp 200,000 per pax inclusive of meal & transport of coz.....so we've no choice but to change some IDR YESTERDAY...after work...we met up at Mal Taman Anggrek and looked for money changer..it's already 7.45 pm..most of the money changers were closed...in the midst of looking for the money changer, Jun Yau saw a travel agency and he said he wan to ask if there is any promotion package for Jakarta trip...we asked bout the package available and bla bla bla...then we decided to think bout it(package offered).Before we left, we asked the guy who served us where can we find the money changer...to my surprise...he said " You can just ask the 2 guys there (who were standing outside of one of the bank corridor) the one with the white T-shirt and pink T-shirt(which in fact one of the guy was wearing yellow T-shirt instead) " .....we looked at each other with an unbelievable face..."the guys outside????? " ....we then walked out from the travel agency..passed by the guys and we stopped...we were still wondering whether we should ask or not...

Here goes the conversation :

JY: Hi Pak, do you have IDR currency for exchange? Can you change some for us?
White Shirt Guy : Oh, you can ask him (pointing to the Yellow Shirt Guy)
Yellow Shirt Guy : Yeah, I do have. What currency you want? USD?
JY : Ringgit Malaysia. What's the rate r u offering?

The Yellow Shirt Guy tooked out his calculator and show the rate to us ...Rp 2550

Both of us felt the rate was too low....they really think we are stupid and dunno tat we can in fact get a better rate?
JY : R u all always here to exchange money for ppl?
Yellow Shirt Guy : Yea, will normally hang around here after all the money changers were closed..
SM : Pak, can you give us a better rate? - trying my luck ...
The guy then gave me the calculator ...asking what's the rate I would like to have...greedy me put Rp 2650...hahahah..for ur info..that's actually the lowest rate that I can get before...@ Harco..:p
The guy disagreed and both of us also walked away.....

5 steps away...Jun Yau suggested tat we should change a bit since need it so urgently for tomolo's trip....we're in fact only planning to change about RM 200 and will not have much different though...we're expecting at least Rp 2600 and the different is only bout Rp 12,000(RM 4.80??)...Astaga!!! (oh my god)..since when become so calculative.......we walked back and asked the guy wat's the best rate tat he could offered....Rp 2600..he showed us with his calculator...we finally comes to an agreement .....

After the deal, we walked away...both of us was laughing all the way...coz couldn't believe tat we can exchange $$ in tat manner.....what an experience!!!

tat's all for today..it's now already 12.41 am Jakarta time ...*yawn*
stay tuned..and i'll have more updates bout my stay in Jakarta...

Cheers...:)