One of the main differences between Thailand and Indonesia are that people in Indonesia are much more diverse in terms of looks, origin, behavior. Already in the airplane from Doha to Jakarta I saw really different kind of characters, much more raw than the ones I used to see on my flights to BKK.
The thing that sucks straight from the beginning in Jakarta is the heavy traffic, even worse than BKK and that a street life with shops and vendors almost doesn’t exist. Life is happening inside buildings, in shopping malls, hotels or other complexes. This is sad, because I usually enjoy just walking out of the hotel to the places I like. Not in Jakarta, without a taxi, you are lost.
I stayed at the Shangri-la again. It is a good hotel. But next time I will stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I didn’t check it out last time, but this time I saw that I liked it more.
At Grand Hyatt they have the Burgundy bar, at the Shangri-la they have the Bats bar.
The freelancer scene feels a bit different than in BKK. I would say in general the freelancer girls in Jakarta are a bit more rough in general than the Thai girls, but they do look better and their bodies are more curvy. It is not difficult finding girls with big boobs – go search for that in Thailand… Normal Indonesian girls are the most good-hearted of all SEA girls, but the freelancer scene in Jakarta I find pretty rough. Some girls I have the feeling would also steal if you give them the opportunity, so watch out. Thai freelancers in the hotel bars I certainly trust more.
Nevertheless, I almost had only good experiences with the girls from Bats and Burgundy. Bats feels like CM2 in BKK, a place I actually never really liked. It is the same for me with Bats, strangely I still visited that place often maybe because I simply stayed at the Shangri-la. There is also a girl working I knew from last August and I stayed with her a night again. She is a very charming person, I hope to see her again.
Burgundy is smaller, comparable with Spasso in BKK – a bit more classy than Bats I would say.
Blok M, a street with about 10 bars is cool. But it is not as safe as BKK. Some strange things happen inside the bars as well. In Thailand you are used that mostly only farangs or Japanese are inside of these places. In Jakarta, many Indonesian guys and plenty of other people are inside as well. It is a lot more diverse and feels pretty much out of this world. Manila has nothing in comparison as well.
Best place at Blok M is Top Gun from my point of view. I got allowance of the owner to shortly shoot video there. I missed to visit that place last time. I was too much stuck at My Bar there.
The girls are not the prettiest there, but it is also not expensive. Be careful, not all of the girls seem trustworthy to me. Better stick to short-time. I got scammed by a runner from Top Gun once who just pissed off after I went clubbing with her. In Thailand they stick more to the rules.
The best girls you can find in Indonesia are the normal girls : you can search for them in shopping malls or in normal clubs for example. Jakarta is a fantastic clubbing town, it reaches the same class as Bangkok and it is certainly better than Manila.
Some of the best clubs are Dragonfly at Graha BIP, Red Square at Arcadia Senyan, X2 at Plaza Senyan, X-lounge/Vertigo at Plaza Semangi. K7 I had no time anymore to visit and Stadium is a place full of dXXXX.
The nightlife in Jakarta is much more uncontrolled. In BKK, Pattaya it is more like Disneyworld managed by a few powerful interest groups. There is no such thing in Jakarta, there are lots of people with certain influence and power who are all playing there but it is not controlled by any single force. This makes it in a way interesting but also more dangerous.
At Red Square I met a French guy who looked like a model but already had been 10 years in Indonesia. He was there together with a very high police officer. They let me join their table and I partied and talked a long time with them. Greetings to your crew if you read those lines - sorry that I could not stay. They had 2 Indonesian models with them, probably the 2 prettiest babes I had seen on the entire trip. Jakarta is a true jungle…
I have the feeling that I will meet them again. I am curious how things develop there.
It is funny that one day before I was at Red Square, some football players of Bayern Munich, Germany’s most famous football club, had been there because they were playing a friendship game against Indonesia shortly before. Germany got a very good reputation in Indonesia – many German and French people work there. The No.2 guy of the Grand Hyatt Hotel Jakarta is actually half German. He was flying to Germany the same day I did, more strangely he was even in the same plane and he flew back from BKK like me. I was totally shocked to see him coming out of the plane.
In the airplane I was sitting next to a Russian consultant doing business in Jakarta. Doing business in Indonesia must be exciting.
I have a good friend from Jakarta who is living on the same street as general Suharto. They own a herbal drug pharmaceutical company there. I had dinner with him. About half of his time he is now in Singapore because his wife and baby is also there. It was awesome to see him again. I met him back in 2002 at MIT. I wish I could see him more often. Email alone simply is not the same as seeing the people. It was good that he gave me a real trashing about all the shit I was doing Tokyo and elsewhere.
On vacation and when drunk I turn pretty much into a maniac mode. I think my craziest night was the night before going to Bali. I sadly didn’t take any video that night. I could punch myself for that ! I started at Dragonfly where they had a VIP party. That club looks extremely cool. Jakarta really does not need to hide behind BKK. Dragonfly is the shit and the girls dress stunning. Jakarta girls in general dress to kill. Bangkok girls always have that jeans and simple shirt combination. In Jakarta the girls impress with dresses or beautiful skirts and nice shoes. Fashion awareness is much better in Jakarta.
So, after partying hard at Dragonfly I went to X2, maybe currently the best party place in Jakarta.
The manager of Burgundy is actually the former manager of X2. I talked to him and I also talked to the assistant manager of X2. I was dancing really crazy there and a lot of my memories got deleted from my X2 time. Next day I got messages from a girl I could not remember. My mobile already displayed her name and not only a number which means I must have saved her name that night already. She told me that the assistant manager told her that I gave a high amount of money that night to security ( 3 million RP ). I actually don’t know why I did that. She and the manager also didn’t know why I did that. Well, never mind. I came back probably around 5 am to the hotel. At 6 am I found myself in my boxers on the Horizon Club flor. I must have gotten out of my room and sleep-walking. That also happened to me at the JW Marriott in BKK about 2 years ago. But there my ex-gf found me on the flor and brought me back in. This time I had to call someone from the Horizon club flor phone to let me in again. Embarrassing…
Wake up call 7 am. Nice, another night with no sleep and almost a break down again at the airport. I was very happy when I landed with Air Asia on Bali. I stayed at Kuta Beach at the Mercure hotel. The hotel is ok, there simply is no good hotel on Kuta Beach. But location is always very important for me and the Mercure has an excellent location on Kuta and the prize is reasonable. I had a sea view room there which was ok but not a place where I like to stick around longer than necessary. Still, I think I will be coming back because there is nothing better prize/value related out there. I will only also spend a few days in a hotel in Ubud or another place as well and enjoy a few days of pure relaxation and in a better hotel with a private pool, etc.
Bali is a big island. It reminds me of Phuket, Thailand. But Bali is bigger and there is more to do and see on Bali. Nightlife is also very good on Legian street but not as big as maybe Bangla road. Still I like Bali more than Phuket. The beach is nice but not as beautiful as Boracay. Boracay is the No. 1 beach worldwide I have seen so far. On Bali there are again very diverse tourist groups – you won’t see that in Thailand. There are many Japanese girls who look for some fun (even saw some with Indonesian men sex slaves, hehe ) and there are lots of Australians, some of them own business on Bali. The non Indonesian girls on Bali are very hot, but it is not easy to approach them. The j-girls also more look out for the surfer guys which I am not. The Indonesian girls are very sweet. I think many of the girls on Bali look for a romance with a nice Bule. I had the feeling that the girls here are more real than a lot girls in Jakarta. Of course they don’t dress so good here, but it is more relaxed and easy going. The girls will be happy to take you on their motor-bikes around the island. Damn, one girl was speeding with me on the back. I was really afraid, gladly I had a helmet. In retroprespective this was a very good time. I want to get back to Bali next year. This time I stayed with far too many girls, mostly picking them up from dancing clubs like Bounty, Paddy’s or Embargo. I think next time I would stick only with 1-2 girls for a week. I even met a freelancer at Paddy’s who had been working in BKK and Pattaya at Marine disco as a freelancer. She was hot and it was fun to chat about Pattaya and her life in Bali now. I was also flirting with 2 waitresses. I think they were really nice girls and I am still in good touch with them.
The spas in Bali are amazing. Thailand and Indonesia are the best in the world for spa massage quality. A spa I went often to was the Hidden Spa Oasis at Kuta. I always had a four hands massage (non-dirty) package there. I was in heaven.
Bali feels very safe, much safer than Jakarta. On the street Legian where a lot clubs are, a bomb exploded a few years ago. But I would not be too worried, it can always happen everywhere.
Places I visited on Bali were Kuta, Ubud, Semanyak, Nusa Dua. There is a lot to see on this island and takes quiet some time to get there. Next time I try to explore more.
When I was back in Jakarta on some days I had appointments with 4 girls on a single day. All girls I met at different places. This was almost stressfull. Next time I try to go more slowly. These girls are also pretty much into stalking. They sit around in the Shangri-la lobby and watch you when you go out. They also have their informants everywhere. That reminded me of Thailand. When I sit a while somewhere at lower Sukhumvit, it often won’t take long until I get the first SMS of some girls channeling into my mobile asking me where I am and what I am doing.
I think Thailand is a much more livable country. For longer stays Thailand is the best country of whole SEA in my eyes. The prettiest babes of whole SEA are Indonesian girls. The best English speaking ones and the closest ones to our culture are Filipinas. So make your own pick or do it like me and just try to visit them all.
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