Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

Our last full day in Jakarta and we decided to spend the morning at Taman Mini a 150 hectare park - where is the mini in that -which offers a glimpse of the 33 provinces, divided more or less along ethno-cultural lines. It opened in 1975 and the principal feature of the park is that the many pavillions are actual size reproductions of the architecture of each province. Clothing and traditional activities are on display as well as reptiles, birds, insects and other indigenous creatures.

Pavillion of Indonesian culture covering the various provinces.

Throne in the Sumatra pavillion.

Replica of Papuan boatmen.

I am afraid that is the best view we could get of the Komodo Dragon, the largest lizard in the world.

Andrew with a smaller monitor lizard.  Quite friendly obviously.

 and with a medium sized python - one of his party tricks.

Tomorrow we leave Jakarta for Amsterdam.  The only worry is that it is 1 May tomorrow and Mayday demonstrations are the thing in Indonesia, workers protesting about all sorts of conditions.  The roads are expected to be blocked for a good part of the day and this year the demonstrators are apparently targeting the international airport in an attempt to get the Prime Minister's attention.  We are, understandably worried about our transport to the airport.  This international travel business is not without hassles.

Edible sights around the markets

This is a photo of a vendor that sells both petrol in bottles and honey in bottles at the same stall.  It is not easy to tell the difference.  Hopefully the bottles don't get mixed up too often.

A butcher at one of the small markets in a lane way.

and goats ready to be purchased or butchered - who knows?

Chinatown market - spices.

sea cucumbers - both dried and fresh.

 
Frog legs and turtles below.  Not the type of delicacies we Aussies are used to.

and lastly, George peeling a pomello.  It is like a giant mandarin.

Art and culture in Jakarta

We do not have to go far out of their apartment to find the finest wall hangings.  George is a collector par excellence of batiks, ikats and songkets.  These are photos of just a few of their lovely wall hangings.

and some others 

and these are wayangs, Indonesian puppets.  Personally, I love the wall hangings but the wayangs are not to my taste.

We did however go to the wonderful Textile Museum and looked at some very old pieces.  The Indonesians have textile production down to a fine art.  They produce the most fabulous things.  George and Shirley also took us to the Inacraft Exhibition which was on for the weekend.  We spent 5 hours there.  The next day we went to an art auction.  It is a great shame that this visit is at the beginning rather than the end of our travels.

A ceramic wall hanging outside a Chinese temple. 

Sights around Jakarta that appealed to us

This is the view of a mosque right across from the balcony of George and Shirley's apartment.

and below is the view on the other side of the balcony, of the fountain, below their apartment.  On Sunday the road was closed for a cycling extravaganza.  They look like ants from the 25th floor.

Fishing boats on the harbour.  The port has been one for over 1,000 years.  These are the small sampans and very inaccessible for the average person.  We had to look over the wall in the small, incredibly crowded, labyrinthine, dirty, smelly fishing village in order to get this glimpse of these boats.  The larger freight boats are at the more accessible but not at all picturesque harbour.



Below is the former Governor's office now a museum in Fatahilla Square in Batavia.  Batavia is the oldest part of Jakarta but not many of the old buildings have been kept or preserved.

 A tuk tuk.

Jakarta Indonesia - our first overseas stop

We have arrived in Jakarta, this bustling city of some 17+ million.  It has the most crowded traffic conditions of anywhere I have visited.  Bangkok is crowded and Cairo is chaotic but Jakarta is teeming with cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks and the like.  The traffic is quite ordered, it is the sheer volume that makes it so unbearable.  Traffic queues are so bad they can wear one down.  Nevertheless, we are enjoying ourselves tremendously.

Above is the Jakarta skyline from George and Shirley's apartment.  Below is a view of the other side of a street vendor selling food.  Unlike Singapore, it is not advisable to buy food from these vendors.  Hygiene is very suspect here.

This shot is taken inside George and Shirley's apartment.

and the ceiling - both in the day and at night.

The apartment is beautiful and they have made us very welcome.   Just one last shot of the pool view from their balcony.  I could take a lot of this.