Menu
Expat.com

Sim card / satellite cable tv / Indian food

Last activity 14 June 2014 by brittdoo

Post new topic

SamIndo

Hi,
I am new and yet to enter to Indonesia - Jakarta for business visit for 3 months. My work/Business place is in central .
1.I would like to know Is there India restaurants, or hawker center where we get India food , what will be the cost in Singapore $.

2.Is it possible to get satellite cable tv to watch Indian ( Tamil and Hindi ) channels ...., if so what is the service provider name.

3. which is the best sim card and what will be the cost , with data plan, Can we get in the airport or which is better.

Regards :)

happyhour

1) there are some Indian restaurants in Jakarta as far as I know, not sure if still in central Jakarta but some years back there was one somewhere in Menteng area close to Thamrin. The cost in S$ you should be able to calculate yourself, if you move here that should be one of the first things to know.....exchange rates.

2) I do have First Media at home and they do have Indian TV channels

3) Pre-paid phone cards you can get everywhere, at the airport, supermarket etc...
There are so many different providers so it also depends whether you just want to have a local number being reachable and making outgoing calls or using a smartphone including internet service etc.

Fred

There are several Indian restaurants but I've been disappointed with most.
I'm from the UK where we have some of the best Indian restaurants in the world, so I'm probably just too fussy.

I have no idea about the Indian TV channels - sorry

SIM cards are easy to get hold of, usually at a cost of Rp5,000.
Telkomsel seem to have the widest coverage area and are pretty reliable, as far as the phone services go.
The data coverage is less great, with wildly variable speeds, often something a snail would consider slow.
However, if you're in coverage area, Bolt internet is a cracker.
Cheap and works very well, in the coverage area.
My best speed has been 33mbps download.
http://www.boltsuper4g.com/

lukereg

Dont buy SIM cards at the airport, they are way too expensive. Better wait until in the city and then buy them from a small stall. Around 5,000 to 10,000 for a normal number and then for special numbers (081 81818181881 etc) you pay way more.

Fred

You should be able to get Indian TV via the internet.

SamIndo

Thanks for reply ...

Just let me know which is the best sim card to buy
My usage is , local call ( very limited ) and need to use internet on my smart phone ( around 2 GB per month) ( i check but not in english not able to understand )
If I go for Telkomsel like which package.

Also looking for calling card from Jakart to india , ( In singapore I used to buy call back calling cards/ hello cards ).
In Jakart where to look and what to buy..for calling cards to India and singapore.

Thanks

Fred

Calling Indonesia to <pick a="" country="">.
I use skype's services for calls to the UK, but they also have pay as you go and packages for a wide list of other countries.

I also use Telkom's phone and internet but the latter is commonly too slow to do much other than looking at basic sites, and far too slow to guarantee a clear skype call.</pick>

ray.allen

Hi,

There is an Indian Restaurant in Lippo Karawaci. If I'm not mistaken its called Taal. Hope this helps.

Fred

ray.allen wrote:

Hi,

There is an Indian Restaurant in Lippo Karawaci. If I'm not mistaken its called Taal. Hope this helps.


I've heard good things about that place but have yet to try it.

ray.allen

I think their Chef is from India so its definitely authentic Indian Cuisine.

lukereg

If you could tell us the food you buy in Singapore from the hawker stalls and how much you pay before tax and it will help us further. Also where in Jakarta Central will you be so we can help work out where the nearest phone shop is and which region of India you are from so again we can make sure we provide you with the right type of food.

Or through some simple searches in google ending in the word Jakarta you could work this out yourself.

SamIndo

in Singapore from the hawker stalls
like chicken rice 4 to 5 or 6$
Mie goreng 4 $ 
Indian  3SGD to 5 SGD
you can have food with a drink ( PepsiCo ) around 4 to 5 or 6SGD.
mentioned  appox staring price .....

but you get all type of food in the world in singapore...

Olddevil

There are quite some number of Indian restaurants/eateries in Jakarta but you can't compare it with Singapore because in Singapore there is Indian-Singapore native. All in all if you compare Jakarta to Singapore, Jakarta can offer you more, depend on what you are looking for.

You can go to Ganesha in Sudirman or Kemang but it serves mostly typical Indian food belongs to northern part of India. Ganesha is upper class restaurant. Mostly Indian restaurant in Jakarta is mid-upper class restaurant. There is also Kinara also in Kemang.

If you want just to have food and don't bother about the atmosphere than you can go to Taj Mahal in Samanhudi Pasar Baru area. There is also restaurant Pakistan, it serves pakistani food with cheap price. It is in fatmawati.

My suggestion you should try to eat food other than your typical food if you travel a lot.

As for SIM card, the most well known product is telkomsel but I can't give you any further input about it.

brittdoo

Simcard: I would go with Telkomsel.
You can have prepaid "Simpati" simcard, you can buy them at many places and just ask the shop keeper to install and make it work (free service).
For data services (telkomsel), just type *363# and choose telkomsel flash. The menu is in bahasa, but just go with telkomsel flash, flash volume-ultima, and then "flash bulanan" (valid for 1 month - automatiy extended if you have enough credit, if not, you'll need to extend manually). At this moment, 2GB is 65.000 rupiah and 4GB is 110.000 rupiah (valid for 1 month). But there are many other options in the menu.

Indian restaurant: I have only tried koh-e-noor at Plaza Festival (close to Taman Rasuna Apartments, where many Indians live). The food is pakistani/indian and quite popular among Indians in Jakarta.

Tv: Not sure if first media has indian channels. Here is the channel line up: jkt.firstmedia.com/channel-lineup/jakarta/digital. Another option is to buy an indoor antenna (around 200.000 rupiah if I remember correctly), but also not sure if you can receive indian channels.

brittdoo

I just remember there is an indian food delivery called Anjali Cafe:
cafeanjali.com
Their food is pretty good and very affordable (but they only deliver in Kuningan area I think)

Articles to help you in your expat project in Jakarta

All of Jakarta's guide articles