Catholic Cathedral

If you take a trip to visit the Mesjid Istiqlal, there is a Catholic Cathedral across the street that you can also visit.  I did not take my girls into the Cathedral.  We had already been to the National Monument and the Istiqlal Mosque and they were getting antsy.  We just waited in the car while my brother-in-law went across the street and visited the Cathedral.  It has twin spires and was built in 1901 to replace an earlier Church (info from Lonely Planet Indonesia).

Here are some pictures that my BIL snapped of the Catholic Cathedral.  It is a beautiful building with interesting architecture, carvings, art, and stained glass.

Ragunan Zoo

When DH's brother came to visit in May, we went to Ragunan Zoo. I wrote an earlier post about going to Ragunan Zoo on a holiday.  This first time that we visited the zoo was on a wednesday morning.  We dropped DH off at work and then headed to the zoo.  We were there around 8:30am.  I think the parking fee was 5000 IDR.  The entrance fee is IDR 4000 for adults and IDR 3000 for children 3-12. 

There were people at the entrances with cameras taking pictures of my kids.  They got a little pesky.  My girls don't like having me take their pictures much less perfect strangers.  I have heard there is someplace that you can buy the pictures.  I haven't figured out where or from whom you purchase the pictures despite 2 trips to the zoo.

Going on a weekday morning was great.  It felt like we had the entire zoo to ourselves.  We walked for quite awhile and still did not see the entire zoo.  We all enjoyed seeing the animals, but I also enjoyed the scenery. Ragunan Zoo has a lot of trees and plants. It really feels like taking a trip out to the country even though you are still in the city. So, if you haven't had a chance to go to the zoo, definitely put it on your list of things to do in Jakarta.

Althought you avoid the crowds by not going to the zoo on weekends or holidays, things like the camel rides, train, and horse-drawn carriages are only available during those times.  We didn't see very many vendors either when we went on a weekday.  I guess there are pros and cons to going at the different times.

As one last note of interest, I read on a couple of websites that zoo management has designated set feeding times for the animals.  The feeding time for Komodo Dragons is on wednesdays at 11:00am. Apparently the hippos are fed and get their teeth cleaned daily.  Crocodiles are fed on wednesdays and saturdays.  I wish I had known about the feeding of the Komodo Dragons since we were there on a wednesday morning.  I think that would be so interesting to see.  The kids and I will have to check out the zoo again another time.

Ready?

Well, I don't know if I'm ready, but I guess maybe I've done all that I can to prepare for our trip back to the US tomorrow.  Normally, I'm not so nervous about traveling with my kids, but this time is a little different.  We generally book our own tickets, and we make sure that we never have more than a 3 or 4 hour layover at the longest.  Well, this time around, our layovers are 4 hours on the short end and 9 hours on the long end. 

I wrote a post earlier about some of the things I generally take when traveling with young children.  For this trip, I expanded on the activity section.  I usually just break out the crayons and markers and let them color or draw in a coloring/activity book while we are in the airport waiting for the next flight.  This time since the layovers are much longer, I don't know that the kids will enjoy the activity books for 4 to 9 hours! 

The activity books are still a great idea though so I printed out some free coloring pages from this site.  This is a great website because they have coloring pages from almost every conceivable kids movie/cartoon character that you would want.  My kids love Tom and Jerry, Disney Princesses, Ben 10, Hello Kitty, and Hamtaro to name a few.  I printed double-sided coloring pages to minimize the number of sheets of paper I used.

I also printed out some hidden pictures, dot-to-dot, mazes, handwriting practice worksheets, letter tracing worksheets, etc.  You can do a search online and find lots of these printable activities. If you put the activities in plastic sheet protectors and place them in a binder, the kids can use dry erase markers and do the activities over and over again.  I had activity books for the kids when we were in the states, but somehow they didn't make it into our suitcases when we moved.  I plan on putting together new books for the kids when we get back from our trip.  These binders are great for traveling in the car or keeping the kids quiet at doctor's offices or church. 

I thought it would be fun for the kids to play some games.  I am bringing UNO and a memory game.  I went to a website called Education.com and found more fun games.  This website has lots of free fun worksheets, games, and activities for all different grade levels.  You do need to register to access the printables.  I printed out a couple of board games for the kids that I thought they would enjoy playing.  I printed one called Monster Mix-up.  I also found one called Penny Stackers.  They had a wide variety of fun printable games.

I made some home-made tangrams. A tangram is a puzzle consisting of 7 flat shapes that you use to put together given only a silhoutte or outline.  The pieces cannot overlap and you have to use all 7 pieces.  Check out this website to make your own tangram and to print some puzzles to solve. I think my oldest (6 yrs.) would enjoy trying to solve some simple tangram puzzles or maybe making his own creations.  I guess we'll see if he likes them.

For the younger kids, I just printed out shapes in different sizes and colors...circles, ovals, squares, triangles.  You can construct pictures from these shapes...sun, bird, flowers, etc.  I thought the younger kids might enjoy playing with the shapes and/or watching me create some things for them.  I found the template and ideas here.  This is the same website that had the tangrams. 

I didn't want to haul a bunch of dolls around so I made the girls some paper dolls.  I printed the dolls and clothes on old worksheets.  I used the paper doll graphics that were included with the Scrapbook Factory software that I bought awhile back.  I think the girls will like the paper dolls.  I loved playing with paper dolls when I was a kid.  When I was younger, I liked changing out the clothes.  When I got older, I made my own people and designed my own clothes.  I remember that I spent hours playing with paper dolls.  I even made my paper dolls their own cardboard house...fun times!  Maybe things were simpler back then.  I don't know.  I still think paper crafts are really cool.  I hope my kids will think so too. 

I also have a little baggie of back-up toys.  I saved some little toys that came in the cereal boxes we bought.  I also have some mini rubics cubes that were a party-favor from a friend's birthday party. I have a toy telescope that came in a kids meal. I have a couple of other miscellaneous toys.  I generally hate these little types of toys, but I save them for party goodie bags, to give out at Halloween along with candy, or for trips.  Kids like having new 'toys' to play with.

Despite all my preparations, I confess that I finally broke down and went to a toy store and bought 2 sets of Polly Pockets for the girls and an Omnitrix Ben 10 toy for my son.  I have them hidden away.  I plan on breaking them out as a last resort if all my other resources fail.  I went to Kidzstation in Pasaraya Grande.  I'm not positive, but I think Kidzstation was on the 6th floor in the back.  The front of the floor is mostly children's clothing.  They had alot of toys marked down 50% so I was able to get all the toys for the same price I would have paid for them back in the US.  I think most imported goods in Jakarta are marked up about 50%, toys included...like legos, barbies, etc.

Well, we are off tomorrow.  With the layovers, we won't reach our destination for some 40+ hours.  I'm going to try and add a few posts while we are on vacation.  When I get a chance, I'll blog about how the trip went with the kids.  I'm expecting the worst, but hopefully it won't be as bad as I think it will be.  Wish us luck!  I think next go around, I'm going to see if we can bypass the company travel booking service and book our own trips to minimize the amount of time we are just waiting around for the next leg of the journey.

Pasaraya Grande

Today I took a trip to Pasaraya Grande in Blok M to pick up a few last minute souvenirs for our trip back home.  I went to the 5th floor where they have handicrafts from all over Indonesia.  I looked looked around a bit and decided that I would buy some fans with Batik fabric and some magnets.  I just needed a couple of knick-knacks.  The sticker price on the 5-pack medium sized fans was 70,000 IDR and the 5-pack magnets were also priced at 70,000 IDR.  I walked around and the prices were similar around the floor.  I noticed that there was a small section in the back that had a smaller assortment of handicrafts. My brother-in-law had told me he had bought a few things in the back section and that he was able to get a discount.  Apparently you can bargain on the prices but supposedly only in this small area.  DH had tried bargaining for a carved teakwood Komodo Dragon that we bought a while back in a different area of the 4th floor, but they wouldn't budge on the sticker price. 

Anyways, I got the fans for 40,000 IDR and the magnets for 50,000 IDR.  I also picked up a teakwood elephant basket for 150,000 IDR.  The sticker price was 255,000 IDR.  I asked if I could pay with a credit card.  They said I could, but then I would have to pay the sticker price.  Needless to say I paid cash. So I guess that's the catch...cash only if you want a discount and only on the items in that small section.  There was actually a decent assortment of handicrafts in the back section so I would consider trying there first if you are wanting to buy some souvenirs. I was happy with my purchases.

Asleep in a Suitcase

We are getting ready to take a trip back to the US.  Although we have only been in Indonesia a couple of months, we decided to go ahead and take the kids back this summer to visit friends and family. My 4-year old has been so excited.  She keeps saying that she is going back to Texas and that once she is there she refuses to come back to Indonesia.  I asked her why she wanted to stay in Texas.  She said because Texas is "so beautiful!"  Spoken like a true Texan :)

I had some suitcases out to start packing.  My daughter dragged out an extra suitcase and put her pillow in it. She said she was sleeping in the suitcase tonight.  I thought she was just kidding, but when I checked in on her, she was indeed asleep inside the suitcase. 

Ragunan Zoo on a Holiday

We decided to go to Ragunan Zoo this last wednesday.  It happened to be an Indonesian holiday.  Truth be told, I was a bit curious about what it would be like at a local attraction on a holiday.  Taman Safari on a saturday didn't seem that bad, but I guess we were just lucky.  All the guidebooks always say to avoid going to local attractions on weekends and holidays. 

So, although I had anticipated alot of people, I was quite blown away by the number of people that were at the zoo.  They were literally everywhere...on the main roads in the zoo, on the walkways, even on the lawns.  I don't know the last time I saw so many people.

We still enjoyed being at the zoo despite all the people.  DH and I had been talking about whether or not we wanted to make a trip to Komodo Island to see the Komodo Dragons in the wild.  I told DH maybe we could check out the Komodo Dragons at the zoo to see if we thought they were really all that interesting.  The kids loved the Komodo Dragons!  It was cute to hear my 2 year old say "Komodo". We're still thinking about the Komodo Island trip.



It got pretty hot walking around the zoo. I don't know if being around so many people made it feel hotter, but we definitely were feeling the heat.  One thing about being at the zoo on a holiday and I'm sure it's the same on weekends is that there were vendors everywhere!  They sold everything from cold drinks to ice cream to sunglasses and toys.  The kids talked us into getting them ice cream and bubbles. 

We didn't see as many animals this time.  We took our stroller with us and it was difficult to maneuver the stroller on the walkways when there were people everywhere.  Around lunch time, people were sitting on mats all over the zoo.  The walkways also had people sitting on them.  We decided to get lunch at one of the local stalls and then head home.

So, having been at the zoo now on both a holiday and on a weekday, I would recommend coming on a weekday. But of course, if you don't mind the crowds, it is definitely an interesting experience being around so many people!