Lizzy and I took an evening flight that went smoothly. She slept 90% of it and I dosed off for quite a while. We got to the hotel around 1am as the line for visa on arrival was quite long. We went to sleep almost at 2am.
We started our day late as she slept until 8:30am and I was up since 6am. Breakfast area was nice and cozy. Lizzy enjoyed the food and the chat with mami
Then we went to a mall, so many malls in Jakarta, for some play time as our first apartment viewing was 1pm.
Lizzy had Ice shaves for lunch while I tried out local vegetables dishes and one with tempeh. I think I’ll love Indonesia food!!!
We met with the agent to show us the unit. It looks very nice and spacious. The amenities are out of this world. Has a gym, indoor outdoor pool, meeting room, sauna and steam room, cold pool for dip in after sauce, hair salon, mini maker, playground. What else can they fit???? I’m hooked.
Then we met with a friend who just moved in. So it was a nice to hear their experience of moving into Jakarta.
We then visited another apartment which turn out not as fancy as the first one. I think we’ve made our mind… it was love first sight!
Then Lizzy and I went to another mall to meet with a colleague of mine for coffee. Lizzy and I had dinner at the mall before heading back to our hotel. This girl finished the entire serving of chicken wings 😁
First impressions:
Jakarta infrastructure is better than Manila. Many highways and modern buildings.
It’s not a walkable city. Outside of the condos there’s no pedestrians path. So getting places needs a car no matter how close.
Food is great! They seem to use a lot of spices which make the dishes very flavorful. Large variety of food as well.
People are nice and friendly.
Despite not knowing a word of the local language, we could move around as people are receptive to English and signs.
Traffic is heavy but not worse than Manila.
Shopping malls are ubiquitous, life seems to happen in malls.
There are more options of everything, taxis, restaurants, groceries, playgrounds, etc. a lot to explore!!!
Our New Journey 
It’s cool to hear about the places you are living and exploring as they are in parts of the world that I don’t know that I will ever see! The lack of walkability would be such a huge adjustment for me as my city is sooo walkable. That’s one of the reasons we are staying in Minneapolis proper. A lot of people tend to move to the suburbs when they have kids, but there are no sidewalks out there… we love having tons of things to walk to from parks to restaurants to a lake!
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I love this first pic of Lizzy!! I read this the other day, on my phone, and when it first popped up I thought I was seeing it wrong on the smaller screen- she looked so old and grown up! Giving the peace sign, hahaha! Love it. How fun to have one on one time with her for this little trip. Looking forward to following your experience in Jakarta.
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