Java And Bali At Jakarta
If you ever visited the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in Jakarta, you would be glad to know that this huge 165 ha park offered motorcycles, bicycles and tandem bicycles for hire.
We only discovered about this as we came down from the skylift (cable cars) which we took to go across the big lake that spans the whole park, interestingly decorated with a man-made islands shaped in the whole Indonesian archipelago - complete with Mt. Kinabalu for Borneo Island.
The only disadvantage about using these vehicles was that, it’s not convenient to take your time to explore and discover each buildings in this park.
We rented our motorcycles for an hour (for Rph 30,000, bicycle costs Rph 20,000) and it was amazing how fast this hour went by!
So fast that I did not managed to chat with anyone on this part of our tour around the park.

Besides, for me, the Javanese architecture (see picture), though they are beautiful with the carvings and temples, they were not as impressive as the Sumaterans.
But they were still mesmerizing and I wished I had more than one hour so I can find out about what these buildings were for - such as one curiously named “Bale Gedong” (see picture) in the Java’s pavillion.
Another thing with the pavillions on this side of the lake is that they are so close to each other that I had no idea which pavillion was I at.

Besides, with my husband waiting on the road side with his motorcycle, I had only a few mins to walk in the compound and snapped a few pictures before we rode to the next gate.
What I noticed amongst most of these Javanese buildings is that they are fond of stone statues and carvings (see picture).
Outside their buildings and on their walls. We can safely conclude that while the Sumaterans are experts at roof buildings, the Javanese then were expert in masonry.
Besides statues, there are also a few replicas of candi or temple.
One which I hope to be able to visit for real in the future, is of course the Borobudur (see picture). The replica here is 1:30 of the original size. There are are 2 other replicas of candis.
There is another one which, without any label, I can only assume was a temple - because there was an elephant statue inside.
To me, there did not seemed to be much difference in the architecture and culture of Java and Bali.
All their buildings looked similar and to be honest, I was not much interested here. Perhaps, it was also because I could not spend any time chatting with anyone about the buildings or their customs. Not only were we pressed for time (to return the motorcycle and to return to the city before traffic jams get worse).
But perhaps, there should have been a map or information for each pavillions, just to give visitors some ideas of the buildings without asking anyone.
By the time, we reached the end of the pavillion, it was time to return the motorcycle - and I did not even get to stop to see the church, mosque and temples.
Not even any museums - such as the oil and gas museum (see picture) and a Komodo Dragon museum (shaped as a komodo). 13 museums!
Then there are the flora and fauna parks - Orchid park, bird park, freshwater fish park…10 parks in all!
Not to mention monuments - Flower clock, Friendship monument…8 in total.
Finally, recreational facilities such as the swimming pool park, Keong IMAX theatre and etc.
There are so many things that we missed here that I think we have to stay around the area the next time we plan to come here because there is no way anyone can enjoy the place and all its attraction in just one day.
Not if you intend to soak in the essence of what Indonesia has to offer.
Definitely a place to visit for anyone who comes to Jakarta - but you must come prepared to walk and chat.
**Part 1 : Sumatera To Papua In Jakarta**
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Perhaps because it was mid-morning or maybe because we were going out of the city, it was a quick 30 mins drive through a pretty jam-less highway (Jakarta standard).
A Singaporean family with a car us to join them as walking around 165 ha ground was no joke! Luckily my husband had the foresight to turn them down because it actually took me the whole morning just to explore only one side of the lake.
The Dayak culture was prominent at the
But the most interesting custom of the native here was their burial style.

The buildings at the
A Papuan man - who looks just like a Timorese - was most helpful and informative. I learnt that they who live in this island, thousands of kilometres away from us in Borneo, spoke similar accent to Sabahans. “Ko mau pigi mana?” he gave as an example.
Because we were short of time, I could not spend much time on the details and missed inspecting the costumes and many times, I was not even sure which province pavillions was I at - because they were no clear division.
After the pavillions of Sumatera, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Papua (among that I remembered), it was only halfway across the lake. My husband was tired by then and we took the cable car back to the entrance.
When we first read about the damage done to the Merlion due to lightning on the 


During one of our last trip here, Qi was stopped by a few Eastern European ladies who requested to have a picture with her.
Fortunately it was a cloudy day so we let the kids indulge in the sight of the Merlion while we people-watch the other visitors.
Although Bandar Seri Begawan is only an hour drive away from home, we decided to spend a night at the Rizqun Hotel last weekend.
We were very pleased with the room as not only was it spacious, we got two queen-sized beds for a twin room and you can just imagine the bed spring being tested occasionally by two bouncing-loving kids.
Speaking of the pool, although there is a grown-up pool and kids’ pool, there were very limited towels - and I don’t think this is something a hotel that claims to be 5 stars should suffer.
When a family member told me that he’ll be staying at the Naumi Hotel during his business trip to Singapore, you can just imagine me turning green with envy.
The building that housed Naumi Hotel used to be another popular business hotel in the past called the Metropole and as a taxi driver informed my relative, it went from a S$60 per night to a S$400 per night.
A kitchenette complete with microwave, toaster and hot plate and full set of cultery (for the Deluxe Room).
An iPod dock by the very comfortable bedside which having no iPod nor ever used one, my relative was quite unimpressed with.
Coffee lovers will definitely love this hotel for it’s Nespresso machine to brew espresso in your own room. Unfortunately, my relative is a non-coffee drinker so the novelty of this machine is lost on him too.
But if you really can’t live without “fried kuey tiaw”, the shoplots outside the hotel is full of coffee shops and the
The shopping places of Bugis and Raffles City (and the MRT station) is less than 500m away.