Today was our last day in Jakarta and we intended to relax most of the day. We had an 11am massage appointment but went to the swimming pool first to take a dip. At the deepest point it was 1.5 meters and the pool wasn’t very large. We shared it with 2 very noisy kids too, basically the girl screaming at her brother to leave her alone.

Afterwards we went to the spa and they lead us to a couple’s room. We had an aromatherapy massage included and also signed up for an extra 60min facial that was less than $20USD per person (I can’t remember the exact price). It was a bit weird when we got into the room because they gave us disposable underwear, so far I’ve been to places in US where you are required to be completely naked or like in Korea where they give you a massage with all your clothes on, I’ve never been to an “half-clothed” place.

The first thing they do is give you some ginger tea and rinse your feet. They ask you to select an aromatherapy oil, they offered only four types. The massage itself was quite nice and I was falling asleep… but the facial was even nicer as I truly dozed off a few times and I could hear Ron snoring. I really enjoyed the cucumber water towelettes they put on my eyes and all the nice soothing creams.

After our 2 hour treatments, they were supposed to give us some Alila Momento of spa products to take home with us but the lady at the counter did not know what I was talking about so we figured we’d ask later at check-out.

We had lunch at the other hotel restaurant called Shanghai Storm. We had simple things like fried rice, fried pot stickers, fried taro cake, stir fried French beans with beef, and fried corn cake.

Everything fried, bad huh? Oh well, we were on vacation 😛

As we were exiting the restaurant, a dragonfly was flying about and landed on this branch of the flower arrangement, quite pretty don’t you think?

We spent the afternoon shopping at the Blok M mall and had to head back to the hotel early in order to pick up our luggage and head to the airport. We made the mistake of not heeding our hotel’s advice and took a non-Blue Bird Group taxi. The guy said he’d promise to get us there quickly (took us about 30 minutes to get to the mall from our hotel) and it’d be the same price (35,000 Rupiah) as when we came to the mall (oh, 1USD = +/-9000 Rupiah).

What a mistake. The guy ended up taking us on the highway where we had to pay toll (5000 Rupiah) and we went around in a huge loop around the city and it took almost double the time (over 50 minutes) and almost double the cost (the meter was at 54,000 Rupiah). We knew he was trying to rip us off so the hotel staff helped to negotiate with him that we’d only pay him 35,000 Rupiah plus we already paid him the 5000 Rupiah for the toll. It wasn’t the cost for us, more of the principle of it. The guy finally accepted it and left.

We had the hotel car take us to the airport instead of trying to deal with the taxis again. It was only $15USD anyways so not that bad.

At the airport, we ran into another problem. When checking in you have to pay 100,000 Rupiah departure tax per person. We only had about 150,000 Rupiah left and $50SGD so we ended up paying the 50SGD and they only gave us 50,000 Rupiah in change. They rounded the exchange rate to 5000 Rupiah for 1SGD, usually it’s at least 6000 Rupiah or more. At that time though we didn’t care and just wanted to get back to Singapore. Not a good way to end a vacation but oh well, c’est la vie.

We had the buffet at the hotel this morning, nothing too special. They had “make your own porridge”, “make your own eggs”, plus some already cooked dishes, pastries, cereals, fruits, and juices.

Our hotel has a pretty nice pool which I think we’ll check out tomorrow before our massage.

After breakfast, the concierge helped us to find some places to visit. We ended up visiting one museum and then just wandering around a couple of shopping malls.

Elephant footprints:

Hermes (aka Mercury), although I’m not a physician, I deal with medicines daily:

At one of the malls they have an indoor RC car track:

It’s like watching a miniature version of Fast and the Furious. The cars actually drift around the corners. Now Ron wants to buy an RC car to build and play with.

We headed back to the hotel for our 7pm at the hotel restaurant, Buzz. They had a dinner for two set out for us with candles and our menu selection.

We had a bit of a problem dealing with the staff as our meal should have included 2 glasses of sparkling. At first they refused to offer us the sparkling wine since they were basically saying it would go to waste if they opened it and only served us 2 glasses so they offered us 2 glasses of white wine instead. We had already ordered a bottle of white wine that wasn’t included with our meal so we insisted on the sparkling wine. The situation even involved the night manager but eventually got resolved. We found out later that the sparkling wine was just actually Arbor Mist – Orchard Fruits Chardonnay, which is NOT a sparkling wine. Plus it’s a pretty cheap wine, I think less than $5USD per bottle but they were offering to sell it to us for $20USD (they offered that we pay for the whole bottle of “sparkling wine” rather than wasting the rest after 2 glasses).

Anyways, after all that, we finally could enjoy our meal. We started with a selection of breads with different dips: thai tampenade, olive oil, and anchovy spread.

Pumpkin soup with basil:

Scallops served on a half-shell:

Roasted salmon on a bed of buckwheat noodles in light soy sauce:

Selection of chocolate pralines:

Tiramisu served with an almond cookie:

It was quite a filling dinner, we didn’t even finish the pralines and had them sent up to our room to eat for breakfast 😛

Maybe you wonder why this romantic weekend? Today marks our 9 1/2 years of being together, and our 3 1/2 years of marriage.

Jetstar was having this deal of one for one tickets and the place we ended up choosing for our trip was to Jakarta, Indonesia. Most of the others were already booked or still quite expensive… Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia so we thought it’d be a tourist destination but friends told us that it is not that tourist friendly and it has been dangerous in the past. We got lots of tips from them before leaving like don’t carry a purse, don’t flash your camera around, keep money in many pockets, only take Blue Bird Group taxis, etc etc. So I think we were pretty prepared to come here.

Our flight was around 8pm so I had to leave work a bit earlier than usual to get to the airport. We got stuck in a bit of jam but managed to check in on time.

We were starving so had a snack after checking in. We tried something healthy at a place selling smoothies and wraps.

Green tea smoothie

Tandoori chicken wrap

It would at least tide us over until we reached Jakarta. Our flight was pretty short, less than 2 hours I think. We had our hotel arrange airport pick up so there was a guy waiting for us after immigration. He was holding a sign with my name on it, first time for everything 🙂

We picked up our luggage and he lead us outside, it was still really warm and very humid even thought it was late evening. A mini van drove up to pick us up and bring us to the Hotel Alila.

Check-in was a bit awkward because they thought I had booked two rooms. For some reason I did receive 2 email confirmations but my booking only said 1 room, no idea how that mix-up occurred.

We went to our room and were greeted with a nice fresh fruit platter.

We had booked their Intimate Moments package, which includes the following for $97.50USD per night:

Intimate Moments is a 3-day/2-night package, especially designed for those who are looking for a truly fresh and inspiring setting to mark their love, renewal of vows or commitment. Enjoy a warm hospitality and an escapade destination that is surprisingly different…

Intimate Moments benefits inclusions:
-2-night stay at Alila Jakarta
-Choice of romantic set menu breakfast for 2 persons served in the room or buffet breakfast at buzz Restaurant
-A 3-course candlelight dinner for 2 persons at buzz Restaurant accompanied with 2 glasses of sparkling wine
-A 1-hour aromatherapy massage for 2 persons in a couple room at mybodyspa
-Romantic room set up, tropical fruits platters and welcome drink in the room
-Alila Memento to bring home contain Spa Alila products for him & her
-Guaranteed king size bed and late check out till 4pm
-2-pieces laundry per day (non accumulative, exclude dry clean & extra pressing)
-1 portion of dimsum accompanied with any paid lunch or dinner at Shanghai Storm Restaurant
-24-hour high-speed broadband internet access in the room
-Usage of outdoor swimming pool and mybodygym
-Access to Alila Jakarta Executive Lounge

Not too bad for the price we thought.

Because of our late arrival, we didn’t have a proper dinner so thought we’d try room service. We’ve never ordered room service before so we thought it’d be fun 😛

Ron ordered some pineapple cocktail plus a tenderloin steak:

The steak may look small but it was actually quite thick and cooked rather well. The mustard seed mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy were pretty nice as well.

Although we shouldn’t sleep right after eating, I’m pooped and want to go try out the huge pillow on the bed (it’s about double the size of a king sized pillow).