McDonald's Price in Jakarta

I have been wondering for some time about the McDonald's prices around the world. Is it more expensive or cheaper than my country.

For those people who have been wondering about McDonald's price in Jakarta, here it is:
The rate for rupiah today is: 1 USD = Rp. 8850

MCDONALD MEAL
6 Nugget + Large Fries + Large Drink 
Rp. 35,200 or Usd 3.97

Cheeseburger + Large Fries + Large Drink 
Rp. 35,200 or Usd 3.97

McChicken + Large Fries + Large Drink 
Rp. 38,500 or Usd 4.35

Fillet O Fish + Large Fries + Large Drink
Rp. 38,500 or Usd 4.35

Bigmac + Large Fries + Large Drink
Rp. 40,700 or Usd 4.59

DoubleCheeseburger + Large Fries + Large Drink 

Rp. 40,700 or Usd 4.59

Tripple CheersBurger + Large Fries + large Drink
Rp. 45,200 or Usd 5.10

MY HAPPY MEAL

» Happy Meal : Cheeseburger + R.Drink + Toy 
Rp. 24,200 or Usd 2.73

» Happy Meal : 4 Nugget + R.Drink + Toy 
Rp. 24,200 or Usd 2.73

» Happy Meal : 1 Crispy Chicken + R.Drink + Toy 
Rp. 22,000 or Usd 2.48

» Happy Meal : Spaghetty + R.Drink + Toy 
Rp. 20,900 or Usd 2.36

BURGER

» Beef Burger

 Rp. 8,800 or Usd 1.00

» Cheeseburger

 Rp. 17,600 or Usd 1.98

» Double Cheeseburger

 Rp. 24,200 or Usd 2.73

» Bigmac

 Rp. 24,200 or Usd 2.73

» Fillet-O-Fish

 Rp. 20,900 or Usd 2.36

» McChicken Burger

 Rp. 22,000 or Usd 2.25

» Spicy Chicken Burger

 Rp. 8,800 or Usd 1.00

» Tripple CheeseBurger

 Rp. 30,800 or Usd 3.48

CHICKEN McD

» 2 Crispy Chicken + Large Fries + Large Drink

 Rp. 38,000 or Usd 4.29

» 2 Hot Chicken + Large Fries + Large Drink

 Rp. 38,000 or Usd 4.29

» 2 Crispy Chicken + M.Drink + M.Fries

 Rp. 35,800 or Usd 4.04

» 2 Hot Chicken + M.Drink + M.Fries

 Rp. 35,800 or Usd 4.04

» McNugets 9 Pcs

 Rp. 24,200 or Usd 2.73

» 2 Hot Chicken

 Rp. 23,200 or Usd 2.62

» 2 Crispy Chicken

 Rp. 23,200 or Usd 2.62

Chinese New Year 2012 Jakarta

Happy Chinese New Year 2012 Folks! This is happened on the 23rd January this year and many chinese people are celebrating. The chinese people usually celebrate their new year with families and they visit each other cousin, relatives and family this time of the year. When they visit, the custom is to give a hongbao or red envelope with money inside for the people who haven't married including children by the married people. This red envelope symbolizes good luck. Also the customary thing about chinese people is to have a feast in their house with plenty of food for their incoming guest.

Chinese New Year's Eve

Chinese people usually began the night before with a dinner feast with their core family at home or restaurant. For me this year we have a simple shabu-shabu at home because there is only a four of us, my sister already move out with her husband.

Shabu-Shabu

Chinese New Year

The next day we started visiting our families and relatives. That's means house hopping and plenty of eating and socializing. =) There are just a non stop eating from morning till night. And a lot of hongbao too.

Morning

Lunch

This year I can say that most places that I visited are serving Indonesian food. Usually there is an altar in front of their house if they are a buddhist and on the evening you can occasionally see an attraction of Barongsai or lion dance in front of their house. It's purpose is to attract luck and ward of evil.

Altar

Lion Dance

Jakarta Street Food Part 2

About

Street food in Jakarta is fairly easy to find. Often wherever you go the street vendor are just there around the corner or displaying their cart on the street. For those who want to try, there are several things to consider:

1. The hygiene. Street food usually are not too hygiene. You will know what I mean once you see them.
2. The taste of the food is not always tasty, but cheap. Then how to find an authentic cheap good street food? I can say experience is the key. Or you can ask for local people here. Hopefully, I can make some post about this in the future.

See my Tips About Food in Jakarta for more info.

See more street food on my Jakarta Street Food Part 1.

Es Buah Segar/Fresh Fruits Syrup

It is a freshly cut fruits with sweet syrup. Price about 5000 Rupiah or 80 Cents USD.

Cart

Bakso Super/Super Meatballs

The same with ordinary indonesian meatball but with a size of a tennis ball. Price is around 16.000 Rupiah or 2 USD.

Cart

Super Size Meatball

Tahu Gejrot/Fried Tofu with special sauce

Fried tofu mixed with garlic and chili sauce. Price is around 5000 Rupiah/ 80 Cents USD.

Cart

Seafood City Restaurant - Jakarta

I just went to my mom's birthday dinner at Seafood City restaurant in Pluit area. This restaurant is part of Bandar Djakarta Group known as one of the popular seafood restaurant group in Jakarta. It is located near the sea so it has an open view of the sea, not many restaurant have this kind of thing in Jakarta so it's should be cool to watch the sunset while having your dinner. They offer a lot variety of seafood and provide live seafood product to the customer for their personal picking. In my opinion, the place and the food was good but it's a little pricey. It is worth trying once in awhile to have a seafood experience in jakarta.

Location

Front Entrance

Location: Pluit Karang Ayu Street, B1 North Jakarta
Phone: 021-66676060
Website: Seafood City - Bandar Jakarta

Live Seafood Selection

Seating

Chinese New Year 2012 Jakarta is Coming!

Whenever Chinese New Year is coming, many places in Jakarta especially in malls there are many red chinese ornaments. There are also many shop or booth that sells cookies and chinese food. The chinese have a custom that whenever Chinese New Year is coming, they would send cookies, parcels and gifts to their families or friends. So, that's why many places in Jakarta that sells these kind of things especially places where there are a lot of chinese people.

By the way Chinese New Year 2012 is on 23 January. =)

Taman Anggrek Mall Jakarta

One of the most crowded mall in Jakarta. This mall is already exist for more than ten years as I recall but yet still not a bad mall. You can find a lot of stuff here and also the only mall that has permanent Ice skating arena in the town. The thing that I like about this mall is there's a lot of diverse shop in here, you can find almost anything. Fitness centre, cinema, food, clothing, electronic and ice skating.

Location: Letjen S. Parman Street Kav. 21, North Jakarta
Phone: 021-563 9300
Website: Mall Taman Anggrek

Location

Front View

The Interior

At the Center

Hallway

Nail Landmines in Jakarta - Ranjau Paku

Nail land mines have been a long time problem for people in Jakarta. There are a lot of this topic on the Jakarta News lately so I decided to cover it in my blog. There are two possible perpetrator in this, one is a robber the other is the guy who doing business fixing the flat tires usually a little street vendor.

There are many group of volunteering people who trying to fix this situation who cooperate with the police. Despite that, the nail land mines still an existing problems that Jakarta has today. They usually clean those nail land mines using magnet for collecting all the nails. You can see the location in this website ranjaupaku dot com. They covered mostly main area which has many nail land mines.

Mini Vehicle with Magnet on the Front

Nails Colector

Police with Nail Magnet

Tips when you have flat tires:

1. Try to get to gas station or a restaurant or any building to change your tires. Try not to stop in the side of the street. Usually in the building or parking lot there are security that can help you with that and it is safer.

2. If you have to stop on the side of the street to change tires, lock all of your door car so people can't just steal your belonging in the car. They only need a split second to steal your belongings when you change your tires.

3. Look at your surrounding if it's empty or not crowded it's best you still drive your car to the nearest building. Better be safe than sorry.

In closing, you have to be street wise and cautious to live in Jakarta. Beware and aware of your situation is the best thing.

Jaywalking in Jakarta

One thing about Jakarta streets is there are a lot of Jaywalking. People in Indonesia like to cross the street anywhere. So don't be surprised when you come to Jakarta and see a lot of people jaywalking on the street, especially people from western countries. In here many people are not aware the danger of it and the accident and the annoyance by their actions of jaywalking are high. Some people even carelessly crossing the street without cautious and it's up to the people who driving the vehicle to carefully slowing and stopping when they cross. This is a big annoyance in my opinion.

Ridiculous Business Man Jaywalker

Carelessly Crossing Jaywalkers

The Tips

To be honest, I'm also sometimes doing some jaywalking, it is not a crime here. But I'm only doing that when I don't have any option or I'm in a rush and I tried doing it with the littlest amount of disruption for the traffic. I always recommending people to take a legal way of crossing though, it's more safer.

Tips if you see a jaywalker:

1. See in the distance and slowing down your vehicle if there is a slightest gesture of the people crossing jaywalking. You don't want to get caught of hit and run, do you?
2. If there is a Zebra Cross you better stop when you see people wants to cross.
3. Honk a lot till the person sees you then proceed to stop or keep moving dependent the action of that person.

Tips if you want jaywalking:

1. Look carefully about the cars and wait for a possible timing to cross. Try to have a minimum disruption on the traffic by crossing during the red traffic light when the car is stopping.
2. Waive your hands before you want to cross so the vehicle can see that you want to cross.
3. Time your crossing carefully, try not to get hit by them.

Dessert in Muara karang - Sweet Poetry

In Muara Karang there is not many dessert places to hang out with your friends or when the weather is hot. Last weekend I tried one of the newly opened dessert place in Muara Karang Area which is Sweet Poetry. Usually I went to the malls to find some desserts like pudding, ice cream, sweet drinks but heyy.. the effort is too much like trying to find the parking spot, walking up the floors and others. That's why I like it when there is a dessert place outside the mall like Sweet Poetry.

Location: Pluit Karang Timur O8 no. 72, North Jakarta.
Phone: 021-6611213

Sweet Poetry Location

Front View

The Food

They offer a wide variety of Chinese dessert menu. From fruits, ice cream, sweet tea, latte and many others. They have many chinese dessert specialties where I never taste before anywhere else. It's good to try some of them some other time. The price is also not expensive. Average the dessert will cost you around 15.000 - 25.000 Rupiah/ 2-4 Usd. It has good value and cozy place.

Staff wearing T-shirt with Chinese attribute

Menu

You can see other Picture in Sweet Poetry Album.

Tips About Food in Jakarta

Talking about authentic food or street food in Jakarta is not an easy thing to describe because everybody have a different opinion about the taste. There are also so many place offering the same food here. For example, Fried rice is very common in Indonesia, you can find this food everywhere from 5 star hotel to street vendor. So how to choose and find a good authentic food or street food in Jakarta?

Here's my tips:

1. Research and ask local people who knows about the food. But don't just ask random people, it is better to ask local foodies and look at local food website or food blog. I have seen many food blog that gives good info on local food.

2.  When you passing by a food vendor, you might also want to look about the hygiene. If the place is dirty and not many people eating there, it's probably not good. But not every dirty places have bad food, sometimes when you see there's a lot queueing to it, probably it is good and might worth to taste it.

3. For street food you better have some money in little amount because usually the price is cheap and they don't have spare change for big amount of cash.

4. Trust your feeling and try more! Anyway, life is an adventure right?!

Photos in Blog

To use a lot of photos or not? That is the question that I have in my mind lately. Since the beginning of the blog, I realize that I used a lot of photos to describe what I meant about the posting. Cause I do believe a picture represent a thousand words. However since I used free blogging website, there are some limitation of this which is they only provide 2 GB free space. If your blog gonna exceed that, then you gonna have to pay. I know that photos make your blog interesting but at my rate of posting photo in this blog, I'm gonna burn my free space a lot quicker.

I do realize that at some point, even if I don't post any photo eventually my free space will run out. So I'm gonna have to pay anyway. But at that time I'm already have a lot of posts in this blog and hopefully, I can generate a lot of traffic by that time.

So, my strategy for this blog is to use a few photo to represent the point and use a low size file for the photo. Is there any way to put a lot of photos without using a lot of space?

Lotte Mart Jakarta

Today I went to Lotte Mart for the first time in Kelapa Gading area. It is a brand from korea so there is a lot of korean brand product in here. The place was nice and well managed. I like it here because it is not crowded like Carrefour and there are some product here which other supermarket is not selling.

Location: Raya Boulevard Barat, Kelapa Gading Area, North Jakarta.
Phone: 021-4523 811
Website: Lotte Mart Jakarta

The Picture

Front View 

Inside

International Products

Sizhuan Carb in the Food Court

Mall of Indonesia - Jakarta

It is one of family mall in Jakarta I think because it is not much to see here. In this mall, there is a little theme park inside the mall, that's why I think many people went here with their kids. Also there is lots and lots of restaurant. On the third floor there is Blitx Megaplex Cinema. Besides that, there is really nothing much to see or shop.

Location: Raya Boulevard Barat Street, Kelapa Gading Area. North Jakarta.
Phone: 021-4586 7888
Website: Mall of Indonesia

Mall Of Indonesia Location

The Inside

Atrium

Indonesian Product Centre

Theme Park

Hallway

Theme Park