During the private Jakarta Walking Tour we did last week, our tour guide Pak Candha invited us to their monthly free walking tour for the coming Sunday (today), this time to Passer Baroe area which we hadn't been, too bad we already had made plans to go to Bogor although we had pretty much seen last year what the city has to offer. So when Galuh bailed on us last night, Luis and I texted Pak Candha that we were so participating today!
Armed with stroopwafel and Dutch Koetjes Reep for Pak Candha unlike the last time (hehehe), we arrived at Juanda Train Station as the meeting point for the large group. By large, I mean around 75 members and at least 5 guides! After briefly talking to Pak Candha, they assigned a tour guide for each small group and luckily we were the first ones to arrive (read: on time, since most of them were late) so they put us into the first group. The guide's name was Mas Farid, younger than Pak Candha but equally easy going and knowledgeable! Point-wise he took us to Philately Museum, Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Passer Baroe, and Gereja Ayam, but the tour was much more than that! We visited street kiosks that still sell unique post stamps, bumped into Balinese dancers having just done their performance at GKJ, learned a history lesson of Passer Baroe's origins and the development of it on an equally historical bridge, visited a photo exhibition of the replicas of never-before-seen war photos (owned by Dutch museums), listened to a story of Toko Kompak inside Passer Baroe complex, explored an old Buddhist temple with its super nice chief, and took pictures with the church's rooster on the background, before ending the tour by a free lunch at Bakmi Gang Kelinci sponsored by Chevrolet. The group itself was so much fun and after mingling with a few different people within the route, we clicked the most with a Malaysian, a Pakistani, and a Filipino.
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| Isn't she so lovely? |
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| Filipino - Indonesian - Dutch/Spanish - Malaysian - Pakistani |
Just like last week, the tour came to an end at midday. We said goodbye to the group and Mas Farid, and headed back home for an exciting night: we had a dinner reservation at The Cafe, Mulia Hotel, as a proper celebration of our second anniversary! This is my favorite buffet in Jakarta especially for the Indian station and I was beyond excited to share the dining experience with Luis, since he's just as crazy as I am about Indian food. After a nice, cold shower and a nap (at our separate places, of course, duh, LOL), he would pick me up at home and we would take a taxi to the hotel. On to the Part 2 post!
