I woke up late again. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well, even though it was much warmer than I was used to. I slept until about 9 AM and took a quick shower, as usual. I packed everything into my backpack and left the room. I am sure I would get used to staying there if I stayed for a week.
The name of the hostel was BORNEO Hostel, located on Jl. Kebon Sirih Barat I. If you are brave enough, you can give it a try. They also have rooms with air conditioning.
At the entrance, there was a young guy sitting on a chair, looking bored. At first, I thought he was one of the guests staying there, but it turned out that he was one of the front desk staff. I didn’t realize it because he looked so young and was sitting on a random chair. There was nobody sitting at the reception desk.
As I left the hostel after placing my key on the front desk, he said something to me from behind that I didn’t understand. I simply replied, “Yes.” I’m pretty sure he was asking whether I had left my key on the desk.
After leaving the hostel, I headed to a coffee shop that I had found online. However, after just a couple of minutes of walking, I came across a hidden coffee shop advertising a breakfast special. The day before, I had walked past the street several times without noticing it.
The coffee shop was right next to a fairly large restaurant called Sambal Warisan Jaksa and was connected to it. At first, I mistakenly entered the restaurant instead of the coffee shop, but one of the young staff members kindly told me to use a different entrance.
As I walked in, I immediately noticed how clean and new the coffee shop looked. It wasn’t very large, but it had about ten seats inside. A young woman who looked to be in her twenties greeted me right away. Although she didn’t speak much English, she kindly took my order.
I ordered the breakfast set, which cost 25,000 IDR ($1.40). It included an iced Americano and a pain au chocolat. The quality of the pastry wasn’t great. Nobody can beat the chocolate croissants in France. I still miss all the pastries there.
The coffee shop was completely empty, even though it was the morning, when coffee shops are usually busy. I started writing in my personal journal and updating my blog. Although the loud music distracted me a little, I was able to keep writing.
After about an hour, the staff member approached me and said, “We have to close because one of our staff members is sick.” I wasn’t sure whether that was actually the reason, but considering that there hadn’t been a single customer while I was there, I wondered if they had decided it wasn’t worth staying open. How could a coffee shop survive with only one random traveler as a customer? I wondered whether they usually got more customers. I might not even be able to find this coffee shop the next time I come back to Jakarta.
As I left, she apologized, and I replied, “It’s okay.”
After leaving the coffee shop, I started looking for another one because I had decided to spend the entire day doing nothing except updating my blog. I knew it was going to rain later. Fortunately, it hadn’t started raining yet that morning.
As I walked along the street, I felt a little uncomfortable wearing a tank top. In Jakarta, showing too much skin isn’t generally considered appropriate. I already knew that, but all I had were tank tops, so I didn’t have much choice. This was another reason why I didn’t really want to go outside during the day.
Luckily, I found another nice-looking coffee shop called Jakarta Coffee House. Only one young woman was working there by herself. Like the previous coffee shop, it was fairly small. She spoke English very well and explained the menu to me.
On the counter, there were several different kinds of coffee beans, and she let me smell some of them. To be honest, I don’t really have a favorite type of coffee bean or the ability to distinguish different flavors. More importantly, I care about the caffeine more than the taste.
I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker before, but living in the United States for more than three years made me appreciate coffee—or rather, caffeine. I still think it’s ridiculous that Starbucks opens at 4 or 5 AM in the US.
I ordered a hot Americano made with Toraja beans, which she recommended. It cost 30,000 IDR ($1.70). The price was almost twice as high as at the smaller coffee shop, probably because it was located on a main street.
The coffee tasted great. As I sipped my coffee, I continued updating my blog.
After I got tired of writing, I chatted with the young barista. She was 25 years old and had started working there just last month after spending a couple of years at another coffee shop. She even spoke a little Japanese. We talked about random things for around 15 minutes before she went on her break. Another young male staff member came in and took over her shift.
Then the rain started pouring. At that point, I was the only customer in the coffee shop, and I thought, “I knew it.”
I ended up staying there until about 5 PM.
After finishing my writing, I left to go train at a gym. There were two gyms nearby: a local gym and Anytime Fitness. I first tried the local gym because I thought it would be cheaper. However, the woman at the front desk told me they didn’t offer one-day passes, so I headed to Anytime Fitness instead.
The day pass cost about $7–9, as far as I remember. I trained my whole body for over an hour. Although it was expensive, I was happy that I was able to get a workout in.
After leaving the gym, I had dinner at a food stall. As I sat down at one of the outdoor tables, a young woman wearing a hijab came over to take my order.
I ordered two different types of sate along with rice. The total came to 85,000 IDR ($4.70), which wasn’t exactly cheap. Still, I thought it was worth it because the portion was generous. I was hoping to get a decent amount of protein.
While I was eating, several children and parents approached me asking for money by selling tissues or suddenly singing. One of the children stood in front of me for several minutes.
I’m still not sure what the best thing to do is in situations like that. Does giving them money really help them in the long run? Personally, I think donating to a charity or organization that genuinely helps children in those situations would have a much greater long-term impact than giving money to people randomly.
After seeing and experiencing situations like this, I feel more willing to donate to organizations that genuinely support children and families in need.
After enjoying my meal, I headed to the capsule hotel I had booked. I don’t really have much to say about it because it was just an ordinary capsule hotel like the ones you can find almost anywhere. It cost $7.
I took a shower and went to bed at around 10 PM.
