Indra's Site

Date: Saturday, 7 June 2008
Location: Gelanggang Samudra, Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia

On Saturday, 7 June 2008, I and my wife went to Jakarta, Indonesia for a short 1.5 weeks holiday, following Inka and Irza who were already in Jakarta since 29 May 2008, making use of the June school holiday to spent more time in our home country.

We took Valuair's morning flight and were greeted by my parents and the kids at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. From the airport, we immediately went to ITC Mangga Dua to allow my wife, accompanied by my mother, with her shopping spree. :)

Since I know that the kids won't like being dragged around ITC Mangga Dua, I took them, accompanied by my father, to Ancol, which is only around 15 minutes drive from Mangga Dua area. Our destination was the Gelanggang Samudra, an animal-based theme park in Ancol which I once visited while I was still a kid. Inka and Irza have never been to this place before.

On top of Ancol's entrance fee (12,000 rupiahs per person and 12,000 rupiahs per car), we needed to pay the Gelanggang Samudra's entrance fee of 60,000 rupiahs per person. That would set you back around 72,000 rupiahs (around S$10 or US$7.79) per person, which is quite reasonable. There are three animal shows, namely dolphin show, sealion show and other various animals show, staged several times a day, and each show is being conducted at different times, to ensure that we can attend all the three shows at the shortest time possible. There's also one 4D show which we can attend, and the kids also can have unlimited access to some rides, such as bumper car and balloon ride.

The trainers of the animals who staged the shows are also very professional in bringing up the shows with some jokes here and there. However, the shows were being presented in bahasa Indonesia, so foreign tourists might have difficulties in understanding them although they can still enjoy the animals' talents and capabilities during the show. That might be the reason why this attraction is still appealing for domestic tourists, but not much appealing for foreign tourists.

On a side note, my digital camera was running out of battery when we were there, so I had to use my PDA phone's camera to take the pictures. Apologise for the low quality of the pictures.