Day 180 Taman Mini

We have now arrived in Jakarta. Yesterday afternoon we flew from Bali to Jakarta and were picked up at the airport by Cornelia's friend, the bride. We spent the rest of the afternoon together, picked up her wedding dress from the seamstress, and met her family. In the evening, her mother invited us all to dinner and we also met the groom, who just said hello briefly and then went to eat with his family. It was very exciting to meet all these people.

Since the family still had final preparations to make for tomorrow's wedding and we didn't want to get in the way, we decided to explore Jakarta today. The family organized a friend to pick us up from the hotel and drive us around. Jakarta didn't really have a network of public transportation and the traffic was so heavy that I never would have dared to drive a car or motorcycle here. We had planned to visit Taman Mini. According to our information, this theme park should be a model of all of Indonesia and showcase the different regions.

After about 2 hours of driving (in traffic jam), we reached the entrance. It turned out that the park was much bigger than we had imagined. It was simply huge and we had no idea where to start. So we drove around the park aimlessly with our driver.

To get an overview of the park, we decided to take the cable car and ride through or rather above the park. We did just that and from above, we could also see the model of Indonesia with all its islands much better than from below. However, it was difficult for us to identify the islands as they were not labeled. But it once again showed how big Indonesia actually is.

After the cable car ride, we visited two regions that were represented. They showed the traditional houses and clothing of these regions. They also exhibited relics and figures depicting life in the past.

We then visited the bird aviary, which showcased the various bird species of Indonesia, some of which are endangered.

As we strolled through the aviary and watched the different birds, I felt excited to hopefully see them in their natural habitat on the rest of my journey through Indonesia.

After the birds, we also visited the reptile house. While the aviary was quite well done, the animals here lived in small cages and were not really kept in a species-appropriate manner. The highlight of the house, which was in the shape of a monitor lizard, was the huge Komodo dragon.

Lastly, we visited the aquarium and the insect collection. The aquarium was not particularly spectacular and most of the tanks were not beautifully designed.

However, they showcased the different freshwater fish of Indonesia.

The beetles and insects were all dead and preserved, so you could look at them in peace. The most exciting thing was probably the map that showed where which insects and beetles occur in Indonesia.

Finally, we visited the butterfly aviary, which was beautifully done again. Around 10 different species of butterflies flew through the air here.

Taman Mini, which I had imagined more like Swiss Miniatur, was actually a mixture of a zoo, museum, transportation museum, and the open-air museum Ballenberg.

Since we wanted to see the old town of Jakarta, we did not visit the entire Taman Mini but headed back to the city center. As we approached the dense traffic of the old town and were about to reach our destination, a police officer informed us that the old town was closed due to an event. Well, then we skipped it and went to one of the many shopping centers here in Jakarta, looking for some shoes and a tie for me for tomorrow's wedding. That turned out to be a much more difficult task than expected, but we finally found something affordable.

In the evening at the hotel, I tried on the clothes and was satisfied with the result.