Day Tripper: Cable Car ride at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

It was not our 1st time visit Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta, not like our trip before, this time our timing was not quite perfect. Our little brother and his wife and son were in J-town, and this little man was very eager to had first hand experience riding Cable Car. I could recall my last ride on the same cable car was like 25-30 years ago, so this kind of exciting for me and my kids too.

Though we came early enough -early as on our timeline of course-, once we hit Taman Mini gate we saw  thousand of people flooded this park already. We decided we had to jump on the queue of the first cable car station -thanks to our parent that lend us their car plus driver, so we don't have to find parking spot ourselves-. 

Bought our ticket, lining lane seems empty, we thought we still can kick up our morning with another ride after Cable Car, until we followed through this metal-waist-height-bar to turnstill door, got our hand stamp, and wohoo....the queue was just unbelievably long! It seems moving through though, so we kept going until up to Cable Car deck an MORE and MORE people -was waiting on the platform. No turning point, we continued queue, tried to do quick math between numbers of people and timing of cable cars come and go. Long way to go. We did not think that it will be this long queue so we left our drinking water inside our car, and no sight of water vendor on the deck -on that time I really wish there were drink vendor or 'pedagang asongan' as we called it.

This flashing timer turned green after 26 seconds, means the cable car on the queue is ready to dispatch....it's 26 seconds distance between one cabin and another...

Rama loves buildings, structures and mechanical things so much, this photo taken by him -so I could check the company who made this Cable Cars on the net, that was he said-

We finally had turn to jump on our cabin after about 1 hour 10 minutes standing on the queue. Cable car ride was about 10 minutes, gliding along from C station (where we started) to B station and return back from B to C. There was also another station, A station which lead to B station too, and back to A again.

The view from atop was fantastic, we could see Taman Mini area from above, getting to enjoyed Taman Mini more compare with driving around this huge park -which one of traveller blogger said that "nothing mini about Taman Mini"-

It's worth the queue and Rp.25.000,- ticket fare.

Should try again next time. 

Sugar Factory & Museum , Klaten , Central Java

On our last Lebaran holiday, on the way from Solo to Jogjakarta, we intentionally stopped by on this Sugar factory, located on the roadside of Solo to Jogjakarta main road, on the outskirt of a small town called Klaten, to be precise.

Me and kiddo had been visited this place once, the main idea was we wanted to take a stroll inside this sugar factory complex using their wood-powered lorry used to carry sugarcane crops from a nearby plantation. We missed the last lorry schedule  by 10minutes, so my children were quite disappointed at that time.

So when we were passing by this sugar factory again this time,  we decided to stop and try our luck.

Me myself was growing up on small suburb outskirt Solo, near a sugar factory called 'Colomadu'. So I was no stranger to lorries carrying sugarcane, the sirens of the factory used to marks shift changing, or days of local night market setting on around the factory once a year when it's come to sweet season the factory will start to turn those freshly harvesting sugarcane into white sugar. I still remember the aroma of  cotton candy sold by food vendor on the market with merry go round on the backdrop.

I always wanted go share the experience with my little family about it. The opportunity has open its own door for us.

Just like others, this Gondang sugar factory built by Dutch when they had Indonesia as their colony. Old yet sturdy, Gondang is one of the  couples of the sugar factory still operating these days in Central Java, under government-owned company.

It cost IDR 25,000 per person to ride the lorry around the sugar factory. It was only 4 people aboard before us, another 4 passengers aboard after us, off we went around. The lorry itself was German-made, 1 loco and 3 lorries. We sat on 1st and 2nd seat row on 1st lorry, right behind the loco, once they started adding more and more wood to its loco-burner, we were chocked by smoke -literally- ; and moved to very back seat of the lorry while laughed for our poor seat choice.

Lorries run at 1 km/hour speed -I guessed- given the mechanic ran on its side faster than lorries. It's gave us good view of inside the factory. Those huge and unused machinery on its yard, many old trucks and vehicles used to transport harvested sugar cane  and they even have their own electricity power plant inside the factory.

The tour with lorries around the factory took no more than 30minutes but was really worth an experience.

I wasn't aware that my son was very much into the sugar museum as well. The museum lay on the same complex with the factory, with a couple of old locos  displayed on its front yard. We had to buy another ticket to go inside the museum,IDR 10,000 per person. The museum is not big but had quite complete information about history of sugar factories around Central Java. Some information that was framed on the wall were in Dutch language -since we don't understand at all, my son insisted to take some pictures of those information and he will show to his Dutch fellows at school and have it translate.

Apart from a usual map and mock-up they put on display, they had an old type-writing machine and sewing machine on display as well. I had no idea why it's on display. No information whatsoever. I guess it might be from one of the house occupied by head of Gondang Baru Sugar Factory.

Needless to say, 10,000 rupiah certainly worth for me, giving the experience our kids had on the museum. If it's not that we have to continue our road trip, we would stay a bit longer and have a tea break on their in house 'Banaran Cafe' . May be next time.

Day Tripper : Miniapolis

As much as we don't favour indoor playground, we kinda run out of option few Sundays ago. We don't usually do Sunday outing but since government decided that following Monday it's public holiday so we think it's ok to splurge another day on the weekend.

We could not stand the heat and humidity, so the idea to go play in Miniapolis- a kind of indoor playground-just pop on our head. We never been there as a family but Little Miss R went once with her school mate. She jumped for joy when we told her our destination and therefore busy telling her big brother for do and don't in Miniapolis.

It should be 30 minutes drive -tops- from our residence to Miniapolis -which located right in downtown Jakarta, on the 3rd level of Plaza Indonesia-. Thanks to our lack of information about half day traffic detour every 2nd and 4th Sunday on the bloodline of Jakarta -jl.Sudirman and jl.Thamrin,- took us more than 1 hour -which include circling around same streets couple of time, Google Map wasn't helping either-.

As we expected, not many visitors when we arrived about midday. We learnt our research that many Jakartan start flocking shopping mall around 1-2pm. Means we got chance to enjoy most before getting to crowded. We decided to bought day-pass ticket which covered all venues and unlimited playing time -and it's not cheap for sure, double it as well-.

 { Amazed }

 { Getting the ID tag }

Miniapolis itself bit larger that I thought, with shops surrounding its carousel and playground, mini-train track plastered on the floor, snaking around between shops and connecting one area to another. We jumped on the train and I had a good look of the shops when aboard while my kids enjoy the ride. Well-known shops like Mothercare, Crocs or Okaidi -the newest brand from French- were among them. I like independent store like Little Heirloom with their gorgeous display. One if them like Brown Tree displayed very cute doll with  -unfortunately-not-so-cute price tag attached.

Since we bought day pass tickets, we had the liberty to stop playing, grabbed our lunch on foodcourt 3 levels down, and back uplevel to play more. There were couple of restaurants and cafes on the same level as Miniapolis. We choose cafe Excelso and got ourselves -me and my husband- caffeine while our kids conquered tha playground. This cafe was packed with parents waited for their kids play on the playground. So we had to kept ordering so we don't get kick out ;-)

No children happy when its time to go home. Mine too. If following day still a holiday, I would be happy to let them play for a couple more hours, and I could also have more times to enjoy my afternoon coffee with my husband.

One last game before we headed home, Digiwall. Here, my kids in one team play another sibling, and hey, it was so much fun. Physical -as they had to touch all the light that on randomly and having their score announced at the end yet challenging. I do not mind playing it if they allow me.

  { Ready to climb the Digiwall }

Will we back? Hmmm...yes, not anytime soon but yes.

See you in another day tripper.

Day Tripper: Stasiun Jakarta Kota

I was standing on one of the corner of Stasiun Jakarta Kota. The very last platform -line 12- was behind me. On my left, I could see people come and go to a well known convenience store tried to grab whatever they forgot on the last minute before their train depart. There were long fence stretched in front of me, divided this big station hall into two areas: Free access area where people could walk across this hall, from one main entrance to another entrance on the other end; and restricted area or platforms area, which only passenger holding their ticket could go in and wait their train on green painted wooden bench, or people like us who bought what so called 'Peron ticket' that allow us to join those passenger.

I could see another chain convenience store on free access area, and people walked their walk.

I feel like travel back in time.

It was few years ago - I was standing on similar spot. Not in Stasiun Jakarta Kota, Sydney Central Station instead. I clearly remember there was 1st platform behind me-for intercity train-; a ticket office for intercity train next to a small convenience store on my left, and I could see the grand entrance of Sydney Central Station on the same designated spot Stasiun Jakarta Kota had.

Apart from my melancholy feeling, our last Sunday day tripper was fun. We wanted to go visit this train station since last holiday. Not for specific reason though. We heard people talked about this beautiful vintage building, we feel like proving it.

It's true, so beautiful and quite well looked after building. I amazed with the cleanliness of this public place-by Indonesia standard of course-. The platforms were also well looked after.

While we -my husband and I- adored the architecture, our children enjoyed the view of those trains, come and go in every ....mmmm...10 minutes I guess. Rama was so thrilled to get chance peeking inside one of the carriage -an old, on aircon carriage- ; while we agreed he could aboard inside this parking carriage -to get the idea how's look like inside- ; he was over the moon. And Ramya get scared to let her brother swallowed by this big toast-shape metal; she was super worried the train will start moving when Rama still inside; so they would not see each other again -OMG! -  .

Another half an hour and hundreds of pictures later, we decided to end our day tripper with quick tour de convenience store to get cure of our thirsty throat, and peek inside a Japanese train serving express route to Bogor -an opposite of the carriage Rama went in beforehand- stationed on platform 12.It's air-conditioned, clean floor with cushioned seat, and extra staff plus very polite security guy guarding its door.

By then, we knew what will be on our next day tripper agenda: Catch an express train to Bogor!

It's a HOLIDAY!

Day Tripper : Museum Nasional

Now that we knew most museums in Jakarta closed for public on Monday, we felt on the right track when we came to Museum Nasional on last Tuesday –last day of my children school holiday-. Located on Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat in downtown Jakarta proved its easy access for visitor.

Some people called it 'Museum Gajah' or Elephant Museum as it had an Elephant Statue on its front yard, gift from King of Thailand when he paid a visit to the Museum dated back on 1871.

It was quite early when we arrived, we saw about 10 westerner-tourists waiting for the tour guide. After couple of minutes of usual travel ritual: photo shoot –perfect time, perfect weather, perfect lighting- we bought entry tickets which surprisingly cheap – Rp.14.000 for 2 adults and 2 children- and walked in to 1^st area which Ethnography area. It's a big room with Indonesia map on the wall showing roots of Indonesian ethnic group, completed with sketch of Indonesian ethnics on their traditional costumes.  It's a jaw dropping map, seeing so many ethnics in Indonesia and I ashamed to tell you that I haven't seen some of them in  their traditional costume before –mind you, I grown up here, in Indonesia, shame on me-

Walked along, there were more and more collections of items displayed behind glass panels, from all around the place in Indonesia. They were grouping based not only of their ethnic groups or location where it was found, also based on the functionality of those items.

Of course everyone have their favorite piece.



(Batik stamp;
I wonder if I could make a ring with this pattern)

Pineapples anyone?

What about this so stylish baby-carrier? Long before Baby Bjorn carrier made its famous way.

What amazed me are all those pieces handcrafted meticulously. Every detail was shown how their way of life presented on their culture, and their culture presented on their arts.



(Rama & Rama)





My son –Big R- really into Wayang at the moment –thanks to his school program this term, he loves Wayang more than Star Wars- so he stop on every Wayang's display. He even able to explained to one of the fellow tourist from Germany about Gunungan or Tree of Life-you may call it-; information that my brain never had interest to suck in; or he understood why Topeng or Mask had different colors means different character –good, half good half  bad, or simply evil.




While her brother busy with his Wayang-mind, my daughter –Little Miss R- stumble upon displays of traditional transportation mode. She jumped for joy when she saw miniature of Andong, Dokar and other traditional carts –again, credit goes to her school, which introduces her about all those traditional transportation this term-.

 

Just about on the centre inside the museum –I guess it's a foyer between A and B building –no map were given when we enter this museum, so we have to take clue from display information- it's a mini stage of Wayang Kulit that spread those puppets beautifully as if ready to perform. Brought back my memory when I was about 8 years old and my dad took me to Wayang Kulit show on my neighborhood  on one evening , I was so sleepy and winging, I couldn't see the beauty of it.

Many more items are displayed, the more we looked at those items, and the more we felt we know nothing about our Indonesia's culture.  We fall in love again with our Indonesia.

(Take a break)

Once we finish walked inside this ethnography section, we proceed to the next big hall and greeted with miniatures of traditional building and houses from around Indonesia. My daughter started to feel tired, made me keep walking without having a chance to look at every display. Following room was room full of ceramics collection, from ancient Indonesia kingdom to colonial period. Such a pretty collection with most items is in white and blue.

Out from ceramics room, we came to a big backyard with Archaeological collection, stoney-thing from Hindu & Buddha period, and scatter over this backyard, and there was a water buffalo –I guess???- As a centerpiece on this yard.  Sun was quite harsh, we couldn't stay long there so we took some photos –my son pointed at Buddha-head statue and made a very straight statement: mum, no wonder Buddha statue in Borobudur had no head. His head is here…"

About 2.5 hours since we enter this museum, we went out with different feeling. Not only me& my husband mission was successful –made our children know Indonesia history better; even this might only a tiny part of the process to get to know their country;  we also agreed this was our best Day Tripper so far.


PS:
We took about 400 shoots on that day. Some are blurred, some are amazing snapshots. I promise you to bring those photos to live, sometime next week.
Keep checking....