1. Hey, Tom! I’m glad to hear that you finally decided to visit me in Indonesia. Because I’m thinking that this is going to be a special trip for you, I’ve prepared a special itinerary for you too! It would be nice to hear your comments on the itinerary I made so I could do some changes as soon as you reply my email. More or less, this is my itinerary for you: <br />Day 1 – 26th March 2011<br />This will be the day when you arrive in Indonesia at 7 pm. The security check here takes quite long time, so we’ll be out from the airport at around 8 o’clock. From Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, we’ll go straight to Mulia Hotel, which is located in Senayan, West Jakarta. The hotel is not really expensive, but it has a high-standard quality with pleasant view and strategic location. I’m sure it’ll feel like home to you. From the airport, we only need 35 minutes to reach the hotel. When we arrive, you can go directly to the room because I have taken care of everything. You can either rest in your room or relax yourself at the Sanctum Reflexology in a mall nearby. If hunger strikes you again when it’s getting late, you can choose any kinds of food that people sell on the side of the streets. I’ll bring you back to the hotel as soon as we finish whatever activities we do so you can save your energy for the next day.<br />Day 2 – 27th March 2011<br />Rise and shine! We’re going to start your trip on this day. I recommend you to do a little sport in the morning. If it’s alright, you can go straight to the hotel lobby once you wake up, because I’ll be waiting there. You do not have to dress up or take a bath because I’m taking you to a famous stadium in Senayan where we’ll jog and look around. Oh by the way you may want to bring a little money for drinks or snacks. We’ll return to the hotel after one hour, and I’ll take a shower there if I may . At 9.30 am, I’ll bring you to one of the landmarks of Indonesia, which is TMII. TMII stands for Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. It is a beautiful place where people could see the miniature of Indonesia’s islands and many other fun places to visit. We can see the bird’s park, the famous komodo museum, a huge aquarium with variety of fishes from Indonesia, and also the botanical garden. It is a very good place to take pictures of. There’ll be a lot of souvenirs shops if you want to buy some for your family or friends back in Europe. We’ll have lunch at 12 o’clock at a Padangnese restaurant still in that place. You won’t regret eating Padangnese foods because they’re really everyone’s favorite. There’s one more thing you shouldn’t miss, it is the IMAX movie theatre where you can watch a short documentary movie about Indonesia’s culture. We’ll be there at around 1 o’clock. After that, we’ll go back to the hotel at 2 pm, take a rest, take a bath and do anything to relax yourself. It will take around 2 hours to go back to the hotel. At 6, we’ll go out for dinner and go to Plaza Senayan for refreshing. You can do anything you want there until 10 pm.<br />Day 3 – 28TH March 2011<br />On the third day, I’m going to give you an old Jakarta living sensation. We’re going to visit the old places of Jakarta. But before that, let’s do another sport to loosen up our muscles. We can play golf at the Senayan Golf Club not so far from the hotel. The best time is at 10 am, because there are only few people playing at that time. After our golf session, we’ll find a Sundanese restaurant around that area for lunch. You really have to try the ‘sambal’ and ‘lalap’. ‘Lalap’ is a combination of fresh vegetables served with spicy sauce called sambal, just like salad. At 1, we’ll leave Senayan for the Old Town, which is often called Kota Tua in our country. Don’t forget to bring your camera to capture everything in this place. Many kinds of photoshoots are taken there, from the photoshoot of student’s yearbook to the photoshoots done by famous photographers in Indonesia, so you should do one too . Kota Tua is a very nice place to visit because of its old and attractive architecture. We’ll stay there for approximately 4 hours. There are lots of things you can see there, including the Fatahillah Museum. And finally, we’ll move on to the next place, which is Mangga Besar. There, you can enjoy the nightlife entertainment and we’ll have dinner at one of the cafes there. We’ll return to the hotel at 10.<br />Day 4 – 29h March 2011<br />In the morning, make sure you eat enough healthy foods because this is going to be a very tiring day. At 9 am, we’ll leave to Ancol. Ancol is located along the sea. Many people spend their time in the beach in Ancol with their families and friends. But this time, I’m not going to take you to beach because I know you’ve enjoyed the beaches there in Europe. I’m taking you to the most favorite amusement park in Indonesia. Before that, we’ll go to the animals’ attractions there. I’m not sure if you have this kind of attractions too in Europe. At probably 11 o’clock, we’ll walk to the Fantasy World or known as Dunia Fantasi in Indonesia. There are more than 20 rides you can play. From the simple ones to the extreme, they’re all there. We’ll be there until the park closes, because the entrance fee is quite expensive. But I’m sure you’ll enjoy playing there so much. Don’t worry about the lunch, there are also restaurants there. The park closes at around 6, we can take a walk around that area first once we finished playing. There is also a famous art market called Pasar Seni in Ancol. We can drop by to that place and look around, hopefully there will be some artists art work so we can ask them about the place. At 7, we can go to the nearest seafood restaurant and have dinner. After few hours, we can go back to the hotel.<br />Day 5 – 30th March 2011<br />Enjoying the last days of your holiday, we’re not going to do any more extreme or tiring activities. I’m going to take you to breathe the fresh air in Sunda Kelapa Harbour. This place is famous for its view where you can see a lot of big boats, people fishing, people trading their catches and even the local people who live there. We can take a walk along the seaside while taking pictures. This is also a very good spot to take pictures, because the traditional values are still seen. We can travel around the harbour for like 1 and a half hour, and move on to the more exciting place. Our next destination on this day is what we call as Pulau Seribu or Thousands of Island. Well, there are not really thousands of islands there, but a lot. We can visit one of the islands and enjoy a lot of water games there, including speedboat, banana boat etc. You can stay there as long as you want, because I have rented a small cottage for relaxing. When you’re done, you can pack up your things and we’ll leave the island. For the night supper, we can travel around the place to do some culinary travel. Again, we’ll be back to the hotel at 10 pm.<br />Day 6 – 31st March 2011<br />Shopping day! As soon as we finish our breakfast at the hotel, I’m going to take you to a street full of souvenirs shops where they sell a lot of handicrafts and other things. The place is called Jalan Surabaya. Surabaya is a city in East Java and jalan itself means street. Tourists like you often visit this place because they really admire our country’s creativity and art. After the souvenirs hunt, we’ll have lunch in a place where they serve truly Indonesian food. The restaurant is called Café Batavia. You can see how Indonesian the restaurant is by looking at its name, can’t you? And you can’t forget the most influential landmark of Indonesia, which is the National Monument of Indonesia or known as Monas (Monumen Nasional). This national monument was built during the regime of Indonesian first president many many years ago. We’ll go back to the hotel in the evening, because you need to pack things up and take enough rest.<br />Last day – 1st April 2011<br />On this last day, I didn’t set a lot of things for you to do, because I think you might be feeling tired when you get home. So I’m planning to take you to Gelora Bung Karno Stadium again and watch people practicing football or baseball there. Sometimes there’s a match too. We can also have lunch around that place. At 1 pm, you better take a rest at the hotel while I take care of the hotel payment and everything. We’ll leave the hotel at 3 pm and hopefully arrive at the airport an hour later so that we don’t have to do anything in a rush. Your departure time is at 7.55 pm, and the check in gate opens at 5.<br />So that’s the itinerary I made for you. I wish you could stay longer in Indonesia, because there are still many other things you should see. Well, I hope you enjoy your trip here and have a safe flight!<br />