On this day August 18,2019 I go out for my first city tour in Jakarta. Ragil, together with bu maya and two students from the dorm nauffal and faza accompany me to a tour. We meet at the dorm at around 10 a.m. Ragil pick a grab that we will used going on a bus station. I was so excited because it was my first tour and I am so happy because I was able to go there with the students I lived with in dorm and also my new friends ragil and bu maya. Before going to the bus station we decided to go to Alfa Mart one of the small stores in Indonesia and in the Philippines it is like a 7/11 store. We decided to buy some foods and drinks first, Ragil decide to pay for their foods and left the food and the drink I get. He asked me to pay for own food so I can practice talking in Indonesian language, he asked me that because he already teach me about the value of the money in indonesia which they called “rupiah” and also the word “berapa” which means “how much”. I am so nervous and excited to do that, so yes I pay for my food and was able to count rupiahs too. If I am not mistaken I pay “empat ribu tujuh ratus ” for my drink or 4700 rupiah.
After we buy some foods we go to a bus station and we wait until our bus arrived. It was my first time so I take some pictures at the station and laso inside the bus. Our first destination is in Monas. It was my first time riding on a bus in Indonesia and it was a priority to give the seat to elderly or person with disabilities so we stand up to give the seats and we remain standing until we arrived to our station. It was so tiring but I enjoyed it since it was my first time standing on a bus, and they called the bus as TransJakarta. We arrived at the station at around 11:30 a.m. and it was lunch time, so we decided to go to a mall where it in KFC. It was my first time eating in a KFC in Indonesia and It was “enak” or in english delicious but it was so spicy specially the sauce.
After taking lunch we take some rest first and the boys pray first before we go to Monas. We walk around until we arrived in Monas. I am so surprised because there are lot of people around and ragil told me because it was weekend and today is holiday. I enjoyed walking aroung Monas we take some pictures where Monas will see.. We decided to go under the Monas tower at the top of the Monas there is like a flame figure which is made up of gold at about 50 kilograms in weight. I was surprised when ragil told me that because it was a huge pure gold. Before going inside the Monas we had to buy ticket and it was unfortunate that we cannot go to the top of the tower because it was aready 3 p.m. and it was closed every 3 p.m. Wejust decide to go inside where there is a museum and there is a lot of miniatures about Indonesia. The life in Indonesia, what indonesia looks like, some events that happens from their past, how their houses looks like in the past, their first election, the colonization of portuguese to them and almost everything about their history is posted in the museum inside Monas. It was fun so fun and I learn a lot of things from their history specially on how they fight for their sovereignty against other countries just like the filipinos who also fight for our contry’s Independence.
For my first city tour I enjoyed it a lot. Going back to the station we used the free bus and we wait for it to came around Monas. But before going back to the dorms ragil bring us to a food store, where we can eat a good food which they called “nasi goreng” or fried rice. It was so “enak” or delicious in english but again it was spicy. After we eat we have some rest before going back to dorm. Ragil accompany us going back to the dorm and we thank him for accompanying us for the city tour.
I decided to take a shower change clothes and off course pray and thank God for guiding us for the whole day.
JOHNRELLEMATTHEW 