JEWELLE TAN

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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Posted July 5th, 2009 under When I Do Travel. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.