Raffles Jakarta

A welcoming sight after a tiring journey

Raffles Hotel Jakarta, where I stayed at in Jakarta, was a real gem. A true 5-star hotel, with attentive staffs, great food and awesome room, it was a real surprise that we were provided with such a lovely place to stay. Arriving there after more than a couple of hours being stuck in heavy traffic was a relief and a blessing.

The exterior was understated

The view from my room on the Saturday Morning

As soon as I checked in, a couple of colleagues who also just arrived suggested that we check the cafe out and have a meal there. And the buffet there was just excellent. And the excellent quality food carried on to breakfast the next morning. Asian, Oriental and Western palates were catered for, and I was full for the rest of the morning as soon as I was done.

Enough about food. How was the room?

From the sitting area to the bed

The huge bathroom

A nice desk to get your work done

It was a big suite, with separate sitting area, bedroom and a sizeable walk-through bathroom complete with a separate shower and bathtub. There were a couple of TVs - one in the bedroom and another in the sitting area. They also had proper free wifi throughout the hotel for guests. I really can’t complain except for them not having live football as part of their sports channels. Thankfully United lost that weekend, so I did not miss much!

The king-size bed was really comfortable, and I slept like a baby on both nights. Since dawn was around 5.30, I enjoyed the early morning starts, with breakfast starting at 6 am. And with that, I went to bed well before 10 pm despite the TV on. That was what I call a hotel room ...

Time for breakfast

It tasted nicer than it looked

Those egg tarts were sinful!

Cute area for cakes

Getting around was also smooth. The hotel has a connection to a mall next door through an exit on the first floor. Security was tight with your bags being X-Rayed every time you enter the hotel premise. The conference hall was located on the 11th floor. The place was so big that our conference only occupied a third of the total ballroom space. The rest was a venue for weddings - they had three different weddings on the three days I was there. This was deceptive form the modest-sized lobby they had on the ground floor.

Suffice to say that my stay was too short. I did not even have the chance to see the pool … or the gym!