Jungleland, children adventure park at Bogor

During fasting period in June 2016, my niece and nephews were in school holiday too, my brother decided to bring them to Jakarta for holiday. We stayed at our sister's home at Raffles Hill Cibubur for 2 nights, actually we planned to go to Taman Mini on Saturday morning, unfortunately it's raining since morning, so we stayed home till afternoon.

It seemed the raining would stop, we went to the sport club restaurant called Bistro to have lunch there. The restaurant's view was facing to the beautiful swimming pool with its slides and bubble water. We promised them to go back there at evening or the day after, as we'll go to other place after lunch. Going out from Raffles Hill area, it's already around 13:30, the traffic was so crowded. Taman Mini was quite a far distance and it's too late to go there, we changed the plan to Mekarsari, unfortunately when we had to take the U-Turn, the traffic was even worse to go there, so my brother decided to take the highway to Jungleland. None of us had visited the place before, so we were blind just reading the signs and using GPS from smartphone.

The highway was not crowded, unfortunately when we entered Sentul area, it's very jammed. It's caused by car accident, we still could see the passengers who got the accident. The traffic was jammed because people were slowing down, they would like to see the accident, the white saloon car was broken heavily on the front, the front windows were broken. The passengers sat down in the middle of the street and made a call. Reaching Jungleland area, we decided to park in VIP area because my niece was sleeping so we had to carrying her to the entrance gate. It's almost 14:30 when we arrived, we're quite lucky as there was a promo from one of popular bank in Indonesia to give discount, the woman at the ticket locket was quite surprised that we would enter the theme park so late, as they'll close at 17:00.

We're lucky that we could take group picture helping by one of the visitors, although it's very difficult to take children's picture, my niece woke up already as she could see attempting colorful environment. At the entrance gate we could not get the map to go around, so we had to take picture from the billboard size map at the entrance. The zone was divided into 5 zones, carnivalia, tropicalia, mysteria, eksplora, dino world. Most of them for children, anyway if the child below 90 cm, they could not ride some vehicles.

The first selection was "harvest time", it's like a small roller coaster, my niece was crying as she was not allowed to ride as she's too young (3 years old) and short, so her brothers and father join the ride. After the ride, we brought them to "mini ferrish wheel" where my niece was accompanied by her mom, while her brothers together on the different cart. She's quite happy as she's allowed to ride it and could see us from above.

The next ride was "North Pole", where the children could sit as if on the sea lion, this time the eldest brother was not allowed to ride, it's only for the small children. The sea lion was on the water going around following the path which also went through a small cave and a small speed bump, they enjoyed it.

Rainbow train was attracted the children, it's colorful and all of them could join the ride. Lucky there was no long queue as it's fasting period, so they could ride some attractions in a short time, although some attractions were closed as it's under renovation. After twice circulation, the train was stop. I thought all of them could play "mini bumper car", unfortunately my niece was not allowed to play, to comfort her, I bought a colorful ice cream. She's happy to eat it as there was pink color as her favourite color for everything from clothes, shoes, bag, spoon, etc.

As the theme park quite huge, we decided to take the train with a long carriages to bring us around. It's like the real train with open carriage, my nephew was excited to see the train's mechanism. It took a few minutes to wait for the other passengers. We could see a giant octopus and dino statue on the way, the eldest brother insisted to visit it.

To see the panorama view of the park, we stopped by on the ferris wheel that allowed all of us to ride. The view from the top was magnificent, we could see the mountains as the background covering by the cloud, also the ripple river water flowing in the middle of the park. It's a picturesque view with lovely cool weather. My eldest nephew kept saying that he would like to visit Dino, so we followed him to Dino World.

The gate was quite attractive with Dino's statues, there was a guide wearing adventurer costume such as Indiana Jones. Entering the close room was quite scary as we were welcome by a loud sound of Dinosaurus and its moving. My niece was scared, she immediately asked her mom to carry her. I like this Dino World, they used censor to detect people movement. The Dino would move and sound only when there's a person passing them. It contains all kind of Dino with its explanation about Dino's type. It's good for education.

After Dino World, the kids would like to take another train, the circus train with Circus locomotive and colorful carriage with elephant on the top was the final ride as the park was closed. They didn't want to go home, they still wanted to play as it's too short, unfortunately none of them was operated anymore. On the way to the gate, we stopped by at Starbuck which has funny building. The rooftop looked like bananas with monkey on the top of it, while the wall looked like woods. We bought some coffees and snacks. Before going home, we took 'wefie' for group picture in front of the nice world globe from metal with jungleland signage. I felt glad that we had a chance to enjoy jungle land. If there was no children, definitely we (my mom and sisters) would not get a chance to visit it. We were happy, also the children.

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Unique Javanese Ganjuran Church, Yogyakarta

During our vacation with elementary school friends, I decided to go to the church on Sunday morning. My friend suggested to go to Ganjuran Church with its unique decoration that's worthy to visit. Only 3 of us joined with 4 of our female teachers on that Sunday. The mass would begin at 07:00, so we had to leave the guest house at 06:00. I felt so sleepy, wanna to sleep longer as I slept late on the day before, around 02:00 o'clock.

Our teacher was ready earlier than the time, lucky we were on time, so they didn't need to wait for us. It took around half an hour to reach The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus located at Bantul, 20 km to the South from Yogyakarta which was established in 1924 by Schmutzer (Dutch) family. It's the first time I visited this Roman Catholic church, I heard that there were some miracles happened to some visitors including my mom. Our car had to park on the left side of the church's area, on the way to the church, there were many stalls sold holy things such as rosary, bible, medal, statues, candles, etc. It's attempted to stop for shopping, but we focused to go to the church first.

The gate was like temple decoration, and the church formed as 'joglo' (Javanese home) decorated with Javanese carving. It's beautiful especially the ceiling with its yellow light illumination. Only half of the capacity occupied at that time, maybe it's still too early. I brought our teacher to the middle of the church at the front seat, but they preferred to sit at the middle of the left wing behind the choir. They said that they were not fluent with the language. The mass would be held using Javanese Language. The mass would last for around 2 hours.

During the mass, I had difficulty to follow it well, I could not reply or follow the choir as there was no book to guide us as we use to have Indonesian mass. They should provide Javanese book for guests as there were many visitors come, and they would like to join the mass actively. Lucky that the Catholic mass ceremony is the same everywhere, although we could not reply, but we understood the meaning and the ordered.

The church complex was quite huge, behind the church were St. Elizabeth hospital, abbey and orphanage. A replica of Hindu's temple (Prambanan) for adoration was at the right side of the church beside the chapel. People could lit the candle and put some fruits in front of the temple. They also could wash their face or drink the holy water from the taps next to the temple. One of our teacher washed her face with the holy water then she prayed fervently in front of the temple. Two rows of pine trees were lined beautifully flanking the temple. At the back and right side wall were full decorated with 15 Stations of the Cross reliefs.

After the mass, we took some pictures in front off the altar, with its beautiful golden carving. The angels were displayed worship with its Javanese hat such as in puppet show. Maria was displayed as Javanese queen carrying Jesus while Joseph as the Javanese King were also wearing Javanese clothes. I like the dramatic manifestation decoration to accommodate Javanese Culture. It made people in that area easier to symbolize their beliefs.

We had drinks tea and eating snacks such as traditional steam bread and the yummy crispy peanut brittle at a small hut outside the church, we returned to the church's area at "pendopo" (open hall) to wait for our friends. There was a wide area with benches in front of the church. Some of us went to the toilets next to the bathroom behind the "pendopo". Not waiting too long our friends arrived bringing some snack boxes to fill our stomach before having lunch.

I got a chance to take picture at the adoration cave for Maria at the corner of the church. The status was in black color with Javanese costume. Many candles lit in front of the statue, people could kneel or sit on the bench to pray. Here was not as crowded as the temple for adoration. My friends who just arrived took some pictures in the church before we continue our trip to the other place. A pilgrimage place with Javanese nuance is worth visiting especially for the Catholics. Schmutzer family were success to uplift economic condition of the society around the church. Ganjuran church plays an important role as the history of Javanese enculturation process of the Christian faith.

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Natural beauty of Samigaluh, Yogyakarta

In May 2016 I went to Yogya with my elementary school’s friend, some of them brought their family, it could happen because of the initiative and generosity of one of our friend. We gathered from Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang and Kediri using various modes of transportation. On the 3rd day we went to Samigaluh by mini bus and micro bus, it took around 2 hours from Yogya to reach Samigaluh at the north of Kulon Progo in Yogyakarta Province.

Actually there are many tourism places at Samigaluh, such as waterfall, cave, flower garden and tea plantation. When we arrived there, the next 2 km distance upward to tea plantation could not be reached by mini bus, so we had to cramp the passengers to our micro bus, it looked like the public transportation as some of them must sit facing to the back. Lucky that our friend also brought a car that could bring some other friends from the mini bus. Fortunately the micro bus could arrive safely to the parking lot near to the plantation area although it’s overload and the road was very steep. The air conditioning was shut down when driving upward.

There were restrooms near to the parking lot, as the weather was much colder than the city, most of us wanted to go there first. Nobody guarded the restroom, just a small box available next to the toilet to put our money after using it. The toilet was quite clean and the water was cold. To reach the tea plantation we still had to walk on the hilly road, no vehicle was allowed to go up.

Although the weather was mild, we were sweaty because we struggled to walk on the steep road. Four persons of our elementary school teacher which were around 70 years old joined us in the trip. Some of them even walked backward, she said it was lighter. Unfortunately they could not reach the top, they took a rest on the bamboo bench at the edge of the road, then decided to return to the parking area. Some food stalls were available to take a rest while waiting for others, some of our friends were kind enough to accompany them.

When we reached a crossroad, a local person informed that we could go straight to reach the top of tea plantation or take the left path to go for photo spots. Of course we chose the left path as the road looked easier, it’s sloping while the other way climbed very steep. We took some pictures on the intersection, I didn’t realize that our teachers were not there anymore. Not further from the intersection, we could find the very nice spots for photo. I was very surprised and happy to see it as I didn’t expect that I could see that amazing views. They have built 2 storey bamboo bench on the trees that enable us to enjoy the view on the cliff. Actually I have seen in the internet the place called 'Kalibiru' that had the facility, I really want to go there, but my friend told me it’s difficult and took a long path to walk, he’s afraid that our teacher could not reach it. That’s why I have dropped my desire to enjoy Kalibiru.

After taking pictures together on the bench below the tree with my friend, and no more people at the bamboo bench on the tree, I rushed to climb the ladder to reach the bamboo bench on the tree. Unfortunately a young couple were faster than me to reach it. I gave my smartphone to my friend to take my picture from below to show the height of the bench. We asked the couple permission to take picture. Finally my friend and myself stayed there longer to take more and more pictures while the couple decided to go down. Only 3 of us dare to take picture on the bamboo bench, while others took picture on the leader. I really loved the scenery, I could see the panoramic view from above the tree, the natural beauty presented just in front of my eye. I would like to stay there longer, unfortunately there were still many interesting objects below the tree.

Our friends had taken many pictures together below the tree, as they didn’t dare to climb to the bamboo bench on the tree. We didn’t want to miss it, so my friend and I went down the tree and would like to take a picture on the wood swing. Unfortunately we had to wait a long time for 3 girls that never stop taking picture, so we decided to take the other object first, where there was a heart frame on the bamboo board above the cliff. Unfortunately it’s cloudy, so my photo was not as good as my friend, my face looked dark, almost like a silhouette.

Finally I was the last person who got the turn to take a picture on the bamboo bridge protruded into the middle of the canyon. It’s rather scary as there was no handle at all on the side of the bridge, we had to be careful and kept our balance well. After standing pose, I also took a sitting pose to show the height of the bridge, actually it’s more frightening because the edge of the bridge looked somewhat torn. My friend who took the picture was shaking, she said that she was afraid that I’ll be falling down. I really loved the result of the picture, thank you my friend who took the beautiful shoot :-)

We didn’t feel that we had spent a lot of time there, my friend, one of the committee, asked us to stop taking picture and going back to the parking lot. On the way down, I asked them to take picture together in the middle of the tea plantation, as we didn’t have the picture at all with the environment. It looked very beautiful in the middle of green tea, it’s very fresh and nice to see.

The natural panoramic view was really very refreshing, our effort to reach the photo spot was worthy. We could enjoy the winding river surrounding by mountains make us drift away. If you like nature, you should visit Samigaluh. We didn’t have much time, so we didn’t have a chance to see the waterfall, flower garden and cave. Back to the mini bus we were starving and started having lunch, lucky that the committee has prepared a really nice lunch, grill 'kampong' chicken with vegetables, and very nice rainbow heart pudding as the dessert.

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Beautiful Hallim Park, Jeju Island, South Korea

I joined Jeju daily tour to West course on 28th Apr 2016, one of the visited place was the colorful Hallim Park. The park was divided into 9 sections, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to explore all of them as the tour guide only gave us 70 minutes to explore around 100.000 square meters park. The tour guide shared the park map then he brought us to the entrance of Hyeopjae & SsangYong cave passing through the palm tree avenue. As the time was limited, and we're more interested in flower, my friend and I decided to skip the cave.

On the way to the cave we saw beautiful cherry blossom, so we went back to the path. To take pictures under the white cherry we had to wait for a family finishing the shot. Lucky they were kind enough to help us taking photo with both of us under the tree. We also took our own picture alone for recording the short season of cherry blossom.

To save time we directly went to tulip garden which was located next to the cave in "wild grass & flower garden" section. The path was decorated with colorful tulips on the big pot and some human stone statues with stone benches to take a rest and enjoy the scenery. My friend loved the stone statue and wanna take some pictures. We kept walking until finding overlay white flower unfortunately we didn't know the flower's name.

Continue walking following the path we're happy to find bunch of tulips, the color was very attractive, bright orange combining with yellow while the other was pink combining with white. The red one was quite beautiful, the white color looked like lace decorating the edge of the flower. We took some pictures from different angle to capture its beauty. They're planted in the plastic bag, not directly on the ground.

Crossing through a wooden bridge on the pond, we took picture in front of a woman brought water to fill the big water jar. At the next area we found another bunch of light pink tulips and orange tulips. It's surrounding by some stones for decorating. On the way out from the area we passed through the line of human stone statue again.

We skipped "Jeju stone & bonsai garden", continue to the "Jae-Am folk village" where we could see Korean human stone statues to describe their daily activities such as playing with their children, also some animal stone statues such as horse, pig, etc. The house was also built from stone and wood with thatched roof. The real food seller in the traditional house were available to sell Korean snacks.

We kept trying to find cherry blossom garden, I saw cute kindergarten children enjoyed the bird park. I could see a peacock in the cage spreading its beautiful wings to attract others. An ostrich was walking back and forth near the peacock's cage. Beautiful orange combining with yellow color flowers were arranged next to the bird garden. We tried to use our selfie stick to capture it, unfortunately the selfie stick's button was not working, so I took a video instead of photo.

On the next path beautiful cherry blossom trees became shelter of a family monument. We thought it's the cherry garden, the end of our searching. I still liked to take some more pictures while my friend would like to find souvenirs in the shop near the exit gate, so we were split. 10 minutes before the gathered time, I've just realized that the cherry garden was at the other side, I met one of my friend in the trip from Singapore, she confirmed the direction to the cherry garden. As it's a very short time, I ran to the location. I found many cherry blossom trees there, I took many pictures, lucky that a woman was kind enough to help me taking my pictures on the bench in the garden. The result is very satisfying, she took three times with different layout without me asking for it. Finally I ran to the pink cherry, and did selfie pose :-)

Running to the exit gate was very tiring, actually I passed the "water garden" which must be quite interesting as it became the campaign picture of Hallim park. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to see it, unless the bus will leave me behind and I had to catch the bus by myself to the next destination. Lucky I could arrive on the bus on time. I think they should provide more time so we could enjoy the park more relax and visit all of the areas in the park.

Don't miss to visit the park, I think it's worthy to stop by there especially in spring or summer. I was lucky that I could experience cherry blossom. Jeju is warmer than Seoul, so the cherry blossom is earlier.

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Interesting Culinary in Solo, Central Java

When I visited Solo, I've got a chance to meet my old friend who lived there. He was kind enough to accompany me and my colleagues to explore Solo specialties. I loved Solo's food, it's sweet and yummy.

The first lunch was my favourite Timlo, a traditional Solo dish, clear broth soup with Solo sausage, innards part of chicken such as liver and boiled egg cooked with sweet soy sauce. He brought us to the original place of Timlo Sastro, which was popular since years. It's located at the corner next to the landfill garbage, it's difficult to find the parking lot. No aircon inside, just a very simple diner place, but it's very crowded, even some of guests must queue to wait for seat. I really loved it, the taste was so fresh and savory.

Dinner time my friend picked me up at the hotel, he brought me to a very beautiful classic restaurant, called "Goela Klapa" provided Indonesian cuisine. I like the restaurant ambience with its colonial style decoration. I'm confused what to choose, so many things in the menu that I would like to taste. Finally I ordered and "selat solo", beef tenderloin served in thin watery sauce made from a mixture of garlic, vinegar and sweet soya sauce. It is served with boiled egg, and vegetables (carrot, potato, tomato, green bean and lettuce). My friend ordered some side dishes to eat together, e.g. satay, fried banana and tape bakar colenak (grilled cassava). My friend selected roasted rice while his wife preferred mix tofu with egg-rice. I ordered mix ice for dessert, it's very yummy, I love it. The service was good and the food was served and arranged beautifully.

The next day we had lunch at Nini Towonq which's popular of its various yummy shaved ice. As my friend said both "es teler" and "es Nini Thowong" were nice, I ordered both of them, one before lunch and the other for the dessert. Again here I ordered "selat solo", I prefer here for the taste. One of my friend ordered soto (yellow chicken soup), while others ordered gudeg, Javanese cuisine, made from young unripe jack fruit boiled for several hours with palm sugar, and coconut milk, they also loved the taste.

Finally for dinner, my generous friend brought us to "Omah Lawas", Jl. Dr Supomo 55, Solo. It's one of "HIK" (Hidangan Istimewa Kampung) means village foods which's popular lately in Solo. There are so many HIK that were crowded with guests, some of them are provided live music with nice environment to chat and gather with friends of family. They provided many kind of foods, from various rice, many side dishes and beverage with competitive price. You have to queue, taking the plate then select and take the food by yourselves, then asked for the beverage, it would be calculated at the last row by the cashier, depend on what you take. There were various beverage from hot to the cold one. I like the method as it's fast and I could take what I like based on my own portion, not too big size.

It seems that my 2 days culinary experience in Solo is not enough, it's proven that Solo has many delicious foods. You should spend more time to try many restaurants with its specialty. The people in Solo is so creative to follow the modern era, by providing different approach to enjoy the traditional food, such as HIK. Don't forget to taste Solo culinary when you visit.

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Artistic Pohsarang, Pilgrimate Site in Kediri

Last Sunday, 27th Dec 2015 I went to Pohsarang with my family (mom, sister and brother's family). It took around 30 minutes driving from Kediri city (10 km), located on the slopes of Mount Wilis with altitude of 400 meters above sea level. It's drizzling when we arrived, so we brought umbrella. It was the first visit for my cousins to the Catholic Sacred Place, Pohsarang, all of them looked very eager and excited.

Pohsarang church complex presented the Christian faith and Catholic places of worship in the local culture. The beautiful buildings is unique and a monumental work that deserves to be preserved and maintained. It's build by Henri Maclaine Pont who cared about the environment, so the building is very sustainable with the surroundings. All aspects including local cultural and religious philosophy incorporated in the form of architecture with highly aligned. Unfortunately there was no mass when we arrived, so the church was closed, anyway we still could see the altar from the fence. There was a cross ventilation on the ceiling which could make the sun shines through the room.

At the right side there was a set of "gamelan" to accompany the choirs during mass. My cousins racing to climb the stage to try beating the gamelan to provide sound. They were enthusiastic to try different tools, anyway we forced them to go down, as it's in sacred place, not for playing around.

We continued going down to the bigger mass area, where there was also an altar with bird form ventilation on the roof. It had bigger space for the people to join the ceremony, there was a podium made from wood to read the bible and for the pastor giving a sermon. My little niece was very cute, she was carried by her father to reach the high podium, closing her eyes and clasped her hands to pray seriously.

Mary cave which was popular as "Gua Maria Lourdes Puhsarang" as the main destination to make devotion to Mother Mary, people often praying with rosary. To reach this place we had to go through a path which has many stores on the left and right side of the path. Most of them were selling spiritual accessories, some of them also sold food or souvenirs. If you don't bring any bottle for the sacred water, you could buy jerry can in the store. Also candle for praying, all praying tools are available. Some benches were available at the park.

The Mary statue height was 3.5 metres, it's imitation of Mary statue in Lourdes. You could lit the candle right below of the statues and kneel or stand in front of them. My cousins liked to blow the candle as if the candles on the tart cake when they had birthday, so I had to keep them far from the candle, and informed them that it's for praying not for birthday cake :-) Beside the statue there were some water holy water which would come out based on motion sensor, anyway there were some normal taps if you would like the easier way. The water was very fresh and clean, it's nice to drink and wash our face with the water to refresh. You may also keep some of them in the water or jerry can to bring home. Most people believe that the holy water could heal diseases.

Stations of the Cross contains of 14 stops. Golden human-size statues at every station describing how Jesus suffered long time ago from death punishment until buried. In every station you could lit the candle in front of the statue. The place was hilly, many stairs to go, my cousins loved to run up and down, we were afraid that they could fall down, we had to warn them many times to be careful. Many big trees available, we could walk under the shade of the trees to avoid sun shine. A mausoleum provided for passed-away pastors, and a columbarium to keep the ashes of cremated Catholic bodies. If you would like to stay for meditation or praying, there is also some lodges around the area. This beautiful place is not only good for praying, but it's also a good place to reset the mood as they still keep maintaining the natural green place. Not only for Catholic people, but now it becomes the popular tourism place for public in Kediri.

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