1st Jakarta Work Trip 2026

Yay! Done! It was a short trip from Monday to Wednesday night and Daddy Lim was worried about managing the 2 cats. Well, we all survived! Some caffeine will definitely help.

The flight to Jakarta was pretty bouncy at times. I no longer panic at turbulences but this one was bad enough to make my heart beat faster. The seat belt sign was turned off right before I got my meal served and I thankfully got my coffee. I like drinking kopi O on flights. They just taste different in the air - a nice difference.

I met a Singapore colleague on flight. Not planned, but always nice to meet somebody familiar. We shared a taxi to the office and both of us met the same issue with the egate and had to Q for the immigration. I duno how it works; the egate officer said that we needed to select something to enable egate when making the online arrival declaration. Anyhow, I get an extra stamp on my passport! 

It was a busy day and I took my last call at 6pm JKT back in the hotel. The hotel said that they upgraded my room. I barely have time to enjoy the room though. 

My favorite soup when I am in Ayana Midplaza hotel.

The soup dinner was supplemented with some snacks from 7-11. I also tabaoed the following day lunch at site, knowing that it would be very ulu and I probably have no time.

Of course we must go to the gym in the morning. The hotel has a very nice, spacious and well equipped gym. I got my 4.5km done.

I have to rave about the hotel bfast. I like so many things about this hotel. Hoho.

I only realised that it was raining heavily when I was at the lobby waiting for my taxi at 7.30am. I was worried about the bad jam bcos of weather and traffic but it took about the usual 1.5 hrs. 

The day was about meetings, and moving from 1 site to another for more meetings. Coincidentally, the same Singapore colleague and another one were all at site and we arranged to head back to Jakarta together. Bcos it is the Ramadan month, people start and end work earlier. We were told that the peak hours would be between 4pm to 6pm, so we arranged to leave at 6pm. The traffic was amazingly smooth and it took us 1.5hour to get back. We were prepared for a 2 to 3 hours ride. Speaking of Ramadan, I found out that only 50% of my Indonesia colleagues are Muslims and fasting. Apparently, something common in Jakarta. 

Bcos there were other colleagues, I had proper dinner rather than the usual room service. One of them is an Indonesian by birth and brought us to a mega shopping mall, which I unfortunately didn’t have time to shop. We went to Paulaner Brauhaus. Pretzel! But we had nicer ones in Europe.

The mall was about 5 mins car ride from the hotel and thankfully moving traffic. 

I leave for Singapore on the 3rd day. I somewhat miscalculated my time such that I had to miss bfast after gym and take a 8am call. I wasn’t too hungry, but it was so wasted to miss the good bfast. Lunch was the leftover snacks from the day before and I rushed off to the airport at 3.45pm for my 8.20pm flight, hoping to beat the 4pm peak traffic. 

Traffic was normal; the normal Jakarta jam. I was hungry. 

I spent whatever time I had in the taxi and waiting for the flight working and catching up on work. 

The flight took off on time. Of course I wasn’t hungry during dinner/ supper but I still ordered bcos I wanted the bottle of water and bun. Hoho.

The flight more comfortable, though mild turbulences for a long time, such that I had to forgo my kopi O. There were quite some empty seats. I was too lazy to ask for a change of seat though.

All done, and back in Singapore at 11ish pm. Survived and done another Indonesia trip! Daddy Lim, kids and the cats survived too!

Mummy Lim