Indra's posts with tag: indonesia
|  | Date: Friday, 13 June 2008
Location: Dunia Fantasi, Ancol, Jakarta
Still part of the June 2008 Mudik Trip series:
Mudik Trip (1): Gelanggang Samudra, Ancol
Mudik Trip (2): National Monument (Monas)
Mudik Trip (3): Ancol Marina Beach and Cable Car
After trying the cable car ride at Ancol's marina, I and Irza went to Dunia Fantasi, a famous theme park attraction in Ancol.
Dunia Fantasi has indeed changed since the last time we visited the theme park (can't remember when). It has a new entrance, and the used to be bumper car for adults, Ubanga-banga, is now restricted only for kids, which Irza (as usual) enjoyed very much.
We also tried the Alap-alap, Pontang-Panting, Ombang-Ombang, and of course, our favourite Arung Jeram. It's just that we didn't know (or forgot, to be exact) that taking the Arung Jeram ride will make us soaking wet... not just wet... but soaking wet...
My camera was running out of battery while we were still taking the cable car ride, so I had to use my phone camera during our excursion in Dunia Fantasi. Apologise for the low quality of the pictures.
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| | Date: Friday, 13 June 2008
Location: Ancol's marina/beach area
While Inka has already went to Bandung with her grandparents, after dropping off my wife and her mother at pasar Tanah Abang, I took Irza to Ancol, again.
We went to the marina and beach area and took the Gondola, Ancol's cable car ride between the marina beach area and the Sea World area. The cable car ride gives a stunning view of the Ancol's seashore and the Mercure Hotel nearby, as well as the Ancol lake, some part of the Dunia Fantasi area (the Halilintar roller coaster ride) and the Atlantis Water Adventure area.
It costs only 25,000 rupiahs (around SGD$3.68 or USD$2.69) per person, for unlimited trip on the cable car for the day. You will be given a wristband and a stamp on your hand, and you can board the cable car as many times as you like within the day.
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| | Date: Sunday, 8 June 2008
Location: Grand Indonesia, HI roundabout, National Monument (Monas)
On a nice Sunday, I took Inka and Irza to see the National Monument (Monumen Nasional, or Monas), which is located in the heart of the Jakarta's city.
We parked our car at Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, since my wife and Aunty Tessa would like to visit the new high-end shopping mall, which is located just next to Plaza Indonesia and not really too far from the HI roundabout (bunderan HI).
From Grand Indonesia, I took the kids for a short walk past by Plaza Indonesia to the HI roundabout, which is famous not only for its Monumen Selamat Datang (or the Welcome Monument) but also for its side function to be used by demonstrators for any kind of demonstrations in Jakarta.
We then boarded the busway (TransJakarta bus rapid transit) to the National Monument (Monas), three stations away northbound. To be frank, this was my first time (!!!) visiting this monument after countless numbers of passing it by without actually visiting it. Of course, this was also the first time for the kids to visit the monument.
BTW, on a side note, this was also the first time for me and the kids to board the busway. :) I found that the busway is quite convenient, with automatic ticketing system similar to the one used by Singapore's bus and MRT.
In Monas park, the kids were happily running around the park while I was busy taking pictures. The nearest park from the busway station would be the Taman Monas Barat (West Monas Park), which is located west of the monument. From there, we walked to the north area of the monument and then took a tram ride around the area. The tram ride is free, however the queue is quite long so you have to be patient while queueing.
We could actually go up to the top of the towering monument, however the queue is very long (since it was a Sunday) and we decided not to venture that. We then went back to the busway station and board the TransJakarta bus back to the HI roundabout.
Reaching HI roundabout, we went back to Grand Indonesia and found out that there's actually a small indoor theme park on the fourth floor (level 3A, to be exact) of the shopping mall. Inka and Irza managed to took a canoe ride at the theme park before heading home.
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| | 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.
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Original article can be found here. 
Alhamdulillah, acara kopdar blogger Indonesia di Singapura dengan Pak Budi Rahardjo kemarin berjalan dengan lancar. Hujan yang kadang bisa datang dan pergi dengan mudahnya di Singapura, ternyata tidak datang kemarin sore walaupun langit sempat mendung.  Acara kopdar bertema BBQ tersebut diadakan di salah satu BBQ pit di kompleks apartemen tempat tinggal saya di Singapura, dengan menu utama sate Braddell, sate khas Indonesia andalan Mbak Hany yang memang sudah terkenal di kalangan komunitas warga negara Indonesia di Singapura. Hampir semua rekan-rekan blogger yang datang memuji enaknya sate tersebut, sampai Arief pun bahkan menyempatkan untuk meminta bocoran resepnya. 
 Beberapa rekan blogger juga membawa serta istri/suami dan anak-anak mereka, menjadikan acara tersebut mengasyikkan bukan hanya untuk para bapak-bapak tapi juga untuk para ibu-ibu yang asyik merumpi, dan anak-anak yang asyik bermain, berenang di kolam renang, dan menyalakan kembang api.
 Seperti yang Pak BR bilang, walaupun ngalor ngidul, tetap saja obrolan para blogger tersebut masih dalam koridor teknologi. Obrolan berjalan dengan asyik dengan diselingi beberapa rekan yang membantu ngipasin sate dan chicken wings, anak-anak yang asyik bermain dan berlarian, dan rekan-rekan yang ahli fotografi seperti Judhi dan Andri, snapping pictures here and there. 
Saya mengucapkan terima kasih yang sebesar-besarnya kepada rekan-rekan yang menyempatkan diri untuk datang ke acara tersebut. Berikut adalam daftar peserta yang datang: - Bintang tamu Pak Budi Rahardjo, bersama putri.
- Andri Setiawan, bersama istri Army Widyastuti.
- Indi Soemardjan dan Meutia Chaerani, bersama Noe dan Kei.
- Sari Sudarsono, bersama suami Jeremy Wagstaff.
- Suryatmaning Hany, bersama mas Iwan, Hanan dan Haifa.
- Goio Martosudirjo.
- Anthony Fajri, penggagas acara kopdar.
- Judhi Prasetyo, bersama teh Ami, Aily dan Algo.
- Dedhi Sujatmiko, bersama Devi dan Ajeng.
- Didik Achmadi.
- Arief Yudhanto, bersama Tuti dan Ezra.
- Indra Pramana, bersama istri Imelda Yolanda, Inka dan Irza.
 Sayang ada beberapa rekan yang tidak bisa hadir. JaF aka Pak Rane tidak berhasil menukar jadwal siarannya di RSI sehingga tidak bisa datang ke acara tersebut, padahal beliau sudah bersiap-siap untuk datang ke acara bersama "pasukan"-nya, apalagi dari dulu beliau memang sudah dreaming ingin mencoba sate Braddell. Sementara Roni Subrata berhalangan hadir karena istri dan anaknya sakit pada saat yang bersamaan, dan Ady Wicaksono juga batal hadir karena mendadak sakit.
 Foto-foto yang saya ambil (amatiran dengan menggunakan kamera pocket) bisa dilihat disini (Multiply) atau disini (Flickr). Sementara, foto-foto dari Judhi (dengan menggunakan kamera profesional) bisa dilihat disini. Sebagian foto-foto dari Andri (juga menggunakan kamera profesional) bisa dilihat disini, sisanya nanti akan di-upload ke situs Picasa-nya.
Update on 2 January 2008, 8:20am SGT: Foto-foto dari Andri sudah di-upload oleh beliau dan bisa dilihat disini. Link terkait:
Akhirnya, blog yang bikin heboh seluruh warga negara Indonesia tersebut akhirnya ditutup oleh Blogspot/Google, beberapa minggu setelah saya mem-posting artikel yang mengajak rekan-rekan untuk mem-flag blog tersebut. Berikut adalah skrinsyut-nya setelah saya mencoba mengakses blog tersebut pada hari ini, tepat di Hari Raya Idul Adha (walaupun blog tersebut mungkin sudah ditutup beberapa hari sebelumnya). Blog tersebut dianggap melanggar terms of service-nya Blogger, jadi hanya bisa dibuka oleh author-nya sendiri dan tidak lagi dibuka untuk umum. 
Alhamdulillah. Terlepas dari siapapun yang membuat blog tersebut (ada yang menduga bahwa blog tersebut dibuat oleh orang Indonesia sendiri yang ingin memperkeruh keadaan), saya sangat bersyukur bahwa blog tersebut akhirnya ditutup oleh Google. Dalam kesempatan ini, saya juga ingin mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Idul Adha 1428H kepada rekan-rekan Muslim semuanya. Update on 21 December 2007, 10:20am SGT: Hari ini, saya kembali bisa mengakses blog tersebut. Kemungkinan besar, blog tersebut sudah di-reaktivasi oleh Google. *sigh* 
Originally posted here. 
Setelah sekitar dua tahun yang lalu, Priyadi membuat Top 100 Blog Indonesia, disusul oleh Heri pengelola situs Kodok Ngerock! yang tahun lalu membuat Agak Realtime Top100 Blog Indonesia, tahun ini, Patung, pengelola situs Indonesia Matters, juga membuat Top 100 Indonesian Blogs. Berbeda dengan Priyadi dan Heri yang hanya menggunakan peringkat Technorati sebagai acuan, Patung menggunakan beberapa acuan lain dalam menentukan peringkat. Selain peringkat Technorati, Patung juga menentukan peringkat Top 100 Blog Indonesia versi beliau berdasarkan Google PageRank, Yahoo Link Count, jumlah pelanggan RSS feed di Bloglines, dan Alexa Traffic Rank. Di Top 100 Indonesian Blogs versi Indonesia Matters ini, Priyadi menempati urutan pertama, disusul Bali Blog di urutan kedua, Enda Nasution di urutan ketiga, Anang di urutan keempat, dan situs Indonesia Matters sendiri di urutan kelima. Selain itu, sistem peringkat ini membedakan blog berbahasa Inggris dengan blog berbahasa Indonesia, sehingga kita bisa melihat peringkat khusus untuk blog berbahasa Inggris dan blog berbahasa Indonesia. Sayang blog-blog yang saya maintain seperti Planet Indra, Minda Indra dan Planet Singapura belum masuk ke dalam daftar. Saya sudah kontak Patung, mudah-mudahan beliau berkenan memasukkan blog-blog yang saya maintain ke list tersebut. Semoga.
 Sebagai bangsa Indonesia, apa reaksi Anda ketika pertama kali membuka blog ini?
Marah? Kesal? Malu? Pengen ngamuk? Tenang… tenang… Mari kita menenangkan diri, dinginkan kepala. Blog tersebut di-host di Blogspot, dan Google menyediakan fasilitas "Flag Blog" yang akan memberikan notifikasi kepada Blogger mengenai objectionable content di blog tersebut. Daripada "menyerang" pemilik blog tersebut dengan komentar, apalagi sampai menebar perang di dunia maya, lebih baik kita flag blog tersebut agar segera ditutup oleh Blogger/Google. Bukankah kita adalah bangsa yang cinta damai? PS. Link didapat dari Andry.
| | During our mudik trip to Jakarta, we took the opportunity to visit Senayan City, a new luxurious shopping mall at the vicinity of Senayan, south Jakarta, not too far from Plaza Senayan. I first knew about this new mall from one of the posts written by Devi, my fellow blogger from Jakarta. She said that she really loves the mall (well, who doesn't?) so we went there just to have a look.
The mall is, indeed, luxurious, with many shops selling things we cannot afford. Somewhere in the basement -- or is it lower ground floor? ah, who cares... :) :) -- there's a Krispy Kreme donut outlet, with one of its staff giving out free donuts! Wow! This Krispy Kreme is really a stiff competitor to J.Co Donuts, which outlet is located on the same floor, just the opposite! Unfortunately, we cannot find both outlets here in Singapore.
As for the kids, Timezone is still, and will always still be, their favourite destination. In Senayan City, Timezone is located on the fifth floor, on the same floor as the food court. The food court is also nice, with great ambience. Inka and Irza really likes the pizza from Trattoria Pizza, one of the stalls in the food court selling pizza. Why? Because the pizza is thin and crispy, similar to New York Pizza which the kids usually eat at Harbourfront Centre in Singapore.
[Indonesia version]
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| | 8 June 2006: Braga City Walk, Bandung, Indonesia. We stayed at the Aston Hotel and Residence, which is within the Braga City Walk complex. |
| | 4 June 2006: Having dinner at Bakmi Gajah Mada, Pondok Indah Mall, Jakarta. Chicken noodle is their specialty. |
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