Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta

2/6/2009 - We just had bread for breakfast and left to Jakarta by 7:30a.m. Bid all the traffic jams and managed to reach Jakarta within two hours. We were the early bird as there were no single tourist yet when we arrived at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII). Most of the rides including cable cars were still not in operation. Had drinks while waiting for the kid's theme park to open. Experienced the change of weather from Bandung. The air was stuffy.

The kids theme park was in a sorry state. All the rides were backdated and many were out of orders. But kids were kids, they still enjoyed the rides regardless of the conditions. I guessed this was a beauty part of being kids.

Choo...choo...the train ride at the kids theme park.

Finished the ride, we were approached by two red bunnies. We were offered to photograph with them. Actually those muppets were self employed. We were fooled by them as at the end of the photography sessions, we had to pay to each one. We thought it was covered in the admission fees.

These were the two red bunnies...not free service.

We walked to another park. This time, the kids were so excited. Guessed what? It was a water theme park which was a new added attraction. It was just opened and under promotion with 40% discount. Too bad, none of us brought swimming suits. The kids were so frustrated. From the balcony at the ticket counters, we could see the overview of the park. They had snow session with penguins and slides. The areas was bigger than Sunway Lagoon and quite impressive from the distant. I suggested that for those who might drop by this place should venture into this.

The TMII area was big, about 120 hectares. The purpose of the TMII by Indonesian first lady was for tourist to discover Indonesia within a day.

They had several museums, replicas of each ethnic groups habitats and lakes. The replicas were almost equal to the actual sizes. Since we had limited time, we only explored the Indonesia Museum and The Kids Palace (Istana Anak-Anak). Indonesia Museum was worth to explore as it had lots of information on Indonesia's 26 provinces with different cultures. architectures, clothing and traditions.

This was the Indonesia Museum.
The family shot infront of the Indonesia Museum. Note the architectural design of the building resembled the era of some sort like Borobudur Empire.

This shot was taken at the museum garden. Notice the landscape and water features...

View the bottom photographs to appreciate the Indonesian values and cultures through some of the displayed items at the museum. Photographs were allowed with minimal fee charges.








Displayed complete bride/rooms costumes for all the ethnic groups in Indonesia.

The bridal dais

Indonesia also famous with the wayang kulit (shadow puppets show) and they had three to four different types of shadow puppets. One was quite similar to Kelantanese shadow puppet made of leather and they also had one with 3-D version. The 3-D shadow puppets were crafted from wood complete with fabric costumes. Each shadow puppets would carry their own trademarks. Like the one below was called Wayang Tengul. I was not sure what was the meaning of tengul. May be somebody could help me out .

Apart from shadow puppets, they also famous with show that required the players to project themselves through mask appearances.

The masks portrayed of different characters in the show.

Our next stop was the Istana Anak-Anak (Kids Palace). We had to ride a car as it was not within walking distant. The Kids Palace was a copycat of famous Walt Disney design. I was a bit put off as the nice building was rather left empty internally. It would be nice, if they housed statues of the famous walt disney characters from the fairy tales like snow white, cinderella etc to reflect the identity of the building. There was also no activities like story telling or show to attract kids.

The Kids Palace ended our tour at the TMII.