Istiqlal Mosque

Back in May I took the girls to visit the Istiqlal Mosque or the Mesjid Istiqlal. Non-muslim visitors are welcome to visit. You can pick up an english-speaking tour guide at the entrance to the Mosque. We just had to remove our shoes. The girls and I did not have to cover our heads.

I believe the Istiqlal Mosque is the largest mosque in S.E. Asia. The tour guide told us that during Ramadan, up to 200,000 people may worship at the Mosque. The tour was relatively short. Our guide just took us to see the main prayer room. He didn't really say that much. I snapped a couple of pictures, tipped the tour guide, and we headed home.

Although it was a short visit, I am glad we went. I think it is worth a look. The dome is beautiful. The courtyard and main prayer room are enormous. From the main prayer room, you can see that the Mosque has 5 levels, representing the 5 pillars of Islam. The Istiqlal Mosque is an impressive structure. I can only imagine what it looks like full of people during Ramadan. That would be quite a sight.

Refilling Ink Cartridges

If you haven't tried this, refilling your printer cartridges is a good way to save money and help out the environment.  Cartridges can be refilled numerous times if done correctly.   I asked a friend if she knew of a place I could get my printer cartridges refilled here in Jakarta. She recommended Amazon Refill Station in Ratu Plaza.  I'm sure there are other places around town, but I have really liked Amazon Refill Station.  It cost IDR 40,000 to refill my HP color cartridge and IDR 25,000 to refill the black cartridge.  I was told that the cartridges could be refilled 5 times each. 

Check out this article Ways To Go Green with Ink Cartridges.  I liked the 4 step outline that was set out in the article. The article wasn't that long, but if you don't want to read it, in a nutshell it said:

1) CONSERVE-make the ink last as long as possible
2) REFILL-doesn't require additional manufacturing and is cheaper
3) RECYCLE- 80% less energy consumed than manufacturing a new one
4) SUPPORT-choose eco-friendly products and companies

FYI:
Amazon Refill Station
Ratu Plaza Jl. Sudirman No. 9
Lt. 3 No. 77
Tel: (021) 7279 7725
Jakarta 10270

Taman Safari

We decided to take the kids to Taman Safari this last saturday. I was a little nervous about going to Taman Safari on a saturday since all the guidebooks and blogs we have read always say to avoid going to these kinds of tourist places on the weekends.  The reasons of course are the bad traffic and the number of people. 

Our driver suggested that we leave at 6:30am.  We ended up leaving closer to 7am.  We arrived at Taman Safari around 9am.  That's pretty good considering how bad traffic can be.  There is essentially one road in and out of the city into the country.  The road also necks down to one lane so traffic can get really bad, especially around the split where one side goes to Puncak and the other side goes to Bogor.  My driver said that one time he was there at that intersection for 4 hours!

We bought some carrots and bananas before entering the park.  Our driver did the bargaining for us with the roadside vendors.  The price we got was 2000 rupiah for a bundle of carrots and 20,000 rupiah for a branch of bananas.  We paid 36,000 rupiah total.  We bought 8 bundles of carrots and 1 branch of bananas (FYI there are alot of bananas on one branch). 

The tour took us about an hour and half to drive around the park.  We took our time. 

Entrance into the wildlife park.  We showed the cashier our Kitas and got the local pricing.  It was 360,000 rupiah for the 5 of us and our driver.

Right after you enter the park, there are restroom facilities available.  The charge is 1000 rupiah to use the restrooms.  You can also opt to take a tour bus instead of driving your own vehicle through the park.  I would recommend the personal vehicle option.  We saw the people on the tour bus trying to drop carrots and bananas down to the animals.  You can't get the up close and personal experience with the animals from a bus.

The first animals we saw were elephants and zebras on the left and monkeys on the right.  We threw a couple of bananas to the monkeys.  I was a little nervous about the monkeys since I didn't know if they would get too excited and try to climb onto the car or into the car through the windows.  The monkeys just stayed on the ground.  They seemed content to just have food thrown at them.

Mmmm...carrot!

There were llamas scattered throughout the park so lots of opportunities to feed and touch the furry critters!

Also saw Hippos several times throughout the park.

African cows...large horns make them look rather intimidating don't you think?

Being so close to the rhinos made me just a little bit nervous.

Kids love giraffes!

There were separate areas for large predators like lions, and tigers, and bears (oh my!).  There are signs saying to roll up your car windows as you enter these areas.  We noticed live wires maybe 6 inches off the ground surrounding the areas where the more dangerous animals are kept.  I don't know about you, but we kept our windows closed...not sure I trust the puny live wire to keep the predators away from the car.  I have to admit that I was so thrilled to be so close to these animals that I'd only ever seen at a distance at most zoos.  Even the lions were only a few feet away from the car...amazing!

There were a couple of places where you had to drive through some water.  DH and I thought it was a nice touch.  Not only do you get to see the animals, you get to go off roading...ha ha. Not really since you are still driving on a paved road, but it was fun. The kids got a big kick out of driving through the water.

 

Where's my carrot?

After the drive through tour, we stopped at the baby zoo. 

We had lunch at SFC

We figured out what happens to the animals when they die...they end up at SFC as decorations.  There were animal heads on the walls as well as this elephant's skeleton.

We stopped and saw the elephant show.  There are a variety of free animal shows throughout the day.

For 10,000 rupiah per person, you can have your picture taken with a baby tiger, baby lion, baby leopard, or an orangutan.  We opted for a family picture with the orangutan.

The kids loved Taman Safari and asked when they could come back.  We would love to see more of the shows.  There is also an amusement park area as well as a water park.  I think we will bring the kids back again another time.

We left around noon and got home around 3pm.  Again, not bad considering that you never know how traffic might be.  So, it really wasn't bad going on a saturday.  We did get there early and since our kids our young, they were tired already after a few hours.  Families with older kids could probably spend the entire day there and not run out of things to see or do. 

Bukit Bangkirai

We did not take the family to Bukit Bangkirai.  DH went on his own one weekend while he was still in Balikpapan.  I wish I would have had the opportunity to go.  That is one thing that I would love to do while in Indonesia...visit a true tropical rain forest.

Bukit Bangkirai forest is located in East Kalimantan about 58 km (36 miles) outside of Balikpapan. From what I understand, it is considered a virgin tropical rainforest.  This conservation parkland is approximately 1500 hectares. The most famous attraction at Bukit Bangkirai is the Canopy Bridge.  The bridge connects 5 large Bangkirai trees and is 30m or almost 100 ft. above the ground. The bridge is about 64 m (210 ft) in length.

Bangkirai trees live for up to 150 years and can grow to 50 m (164 ft) in height and 2.3 m (7.5 ft) in diameter.  Those are some large trees! 

Sometime I'll try and get DH to write a blog post about his trip to Bukit Bangkirai.  For now, here are some pictures from his excursion.

Regency Water Park

Right after we arrived in Jakarta in late February, we were informed that DH would be spending 4.5 weeks in Balikpapan at a client location.  After being on our own for a few weeks, I decided to take the kids to Balikpapan to visit DH for spring break.

We took the kids to the Regency Water Park in Balikpapan.  The kids had  a good time.  We were informed by an expat doctor that the water was clean and up to Western standards.  After the kids played in the water, we bought tickets to go see a 4D show at the onsite theater.   You wear the 3D glasses and then during parts of the show, you get water/bubbles splashed on you.  The kids enjoyed the show. 





Swimming pool at the waterpark.  You can rent inner tubes and other fun water toys.  I saw some kids in paddle boats.





Where my kids spent most of their time.  Almost the entire pool area is shallow.  The only deeper parts are the areas where the slides dump into.  There is a smaller toddler sized slide on the backside of this pool.  There is also another larger slide.  My son that is 6 really liked both of the larger slides in this pool.  For the really large slide with the pirates on top, the water doesn't move that quickly and it is difficult for an adult to slide down without an inner tube. The girls just enjoyed splashing and walking around the pool areas.

There are also even larger slides in the waterpark, but you have to be a certain height.  My kids were all too young to go down the larger slides so we spent most of our time in just the 2 areas pictured above.

Around the pool areas are little huts where you can put your things.  They are also a good place to get out of the rain. It was actually raining when we first arrived. Even for a weekend, the park was relatively empty.  More people came later on, but at least when we were there, it was never crowded.  We arrived around 9 am and left around 1pm.

I have no idea how this waterpark compares to the ones in and around Jakarta like Waterbom.  I suspect that it is probably smaller since Balikpapan isn’t really a large city and isn’t exactly a tourist area.  Still, we had a great time at the park.  Visiting the Regency Waterpark was a fun way to start off our spring break

Panoramic Views

I took some pictures off 2 of the several balconies in our 12th floor apartment.  I stitched them together in Photoshop Elements 9 using the photomerge panorama option….just for fun.  These are views of the Senayan area of Jakarta.


The Hotel Sultan is on the left and Plaza Semanggi is in the center.



Bung Karno Stadium is in the center of the panorama.
The tall building in the center is the Hotel Mulia.


Senayan has numerous malls and shopping areas.  Senayan City mall, Plaza Senayan, Pacific Place Mall, FX mall, and Plaza Semanggi are all located in this area. Grocery stores like Hero, Food Hall, Giant, Grand Lucky, Kemchicks, and Lotte Mart are also clustered in this area.