Travel with me, PY106: JAKARTA 2005 Part 5

Phew...sorry to keep all of you for so long...it takes me sometimes to finish this trip off...

You can find sooner parts here --> Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

**HAPPY FRIDAY...ONCE MORE**

I, my colleagues, Joyce, Togi, Kadariah and class from many countries, has arrived at the SeaWorld comfortably in Blue Bird Taxis. It was a nice & large place, full of well designed facilities. The SeaWorld has much more than showing sea animals. It has many premises and parks for recreation and other activities. At that moment, I don't know exactly why this place is called SeaWorld.

Here is the front of the building...

Here is the place for visiting underwater animals. The entrance fee wasn't too costly. As you may know that Indonesia has a lot of strange but fantastic fish, sharks, turtles, and other water creatures due to its archipelagic landscape. Oceans and seas here are the best home for them. Inside the building, we found a huge amount of interest fish and other water creatures. Some of them I recognised their shape but not their size because it was so big!!

This place is claimed to be larger than Singapore's Underwater World but I havn't visit the Singapore's Underwater World so...can't agree nor disagree.

The place didn't object you to take photos but since the light was dim, my photos are awful...but don't worry...there is one left for you ^^

From the beautiful SeaWorld, we tried to discover more about the SeaWorld area. So, we left the group which is full of shopaholic ladies and start a new walking trip again...

We, then, have discovered that this huge place is not called SeaWorld. Thanks to the Wikipedia for revealing it's name which I already forgot.

This place is called 'Taman Impian Jaya Ancol' (Ancol Dreamland).

According to the Wikipedia, the Ancol Dreamland is "an integral part of Ancol Bay City, a popular resort destination located along Jakarta's waterfront, Indonesia. Opened in 1966, it's currently the largest integrated tourism area in South East Asia. Boasting an international championship golf course, a theme park, world-class hotels and other recreational facilities, it's the most popular destination of its kind in the region". The SeaWorld is only one part of the Ancol Dreamland complex. More information on Ancol Dreamland on Wikipedia is here

After spending some times on the Dreamland map, we agreed to find the way to the seafront. Because we still didn't see any glimse of jakarta sea and it's not too far in the map.

Again, we're wrong. The real distance is not so far but we found a long fence which we can't walk through. This S.C.U.K fence made our walk longer to one quick-walk hour and that might be more than 1 hour to reach the seafront. I'm soaked and my legs are tired.

The seafront is okay for its valuable as 'once at Jakarta sea'. There was almost no wind. I think it's the time to reveal 3 of my colleagues ^^, Mr. Aphichai, Mr. Seteep, and Mr. Sombat. Can you believe that they can walk in the same length and speed as me for many days? They're incredible, aren't they?

+++Now, what's next!!!+++

It seemed like we didn't think about returning route...but we agreed of no more walking in this huge area. Luckily, we found one Blue Bird Taxi nearby. The driver was sleeping. 'OH...what a nice place to sleep!' I thought.

We woke him up (Hey, you're my only hope...get up...don't sleep *0*) and ask him whether he can bring us to Mangga Dua. This dude didn't understand our English (or Tinglish), so we spotted the location in our life-saving map. Firstly, he tried to deal with us about the cost (As I said in part 4 that even in the Blue Bird Group, you've to make sure the driver will use the meter before getting on the car) but we treat him by saying 'NO'. After we tried to walk away, he then agreed to use the meter.

'GOOD, man!!'

I arrived at Mangga Dua shopping centre named 'ITC Mangga Dua' at about 5 p.m. The centre was full of fashion stuffs, e.g., clothes&garments, shoes, bags. The centre was enormous, many wings, many levels, many shops. I thought that if women get in here, they won't be anywhere else for days. However, we're all men, so, just walk&explore was enough ^^. We ended up in the same restaurant, Hoka Hoka Bento, because we needed a load of good food that day, so tired, so hungry, don't need to risk trying new thing now...

After finishing the dinner, my legs feel a bit better. We're about to walk for a bit more but, surprisingly, most shops were start closing. It's only 6 o'clock and I don't know why they close so early 'cause in Bangkok, these type of mall close at 9 or 10. We, then, have to leave.

This ITC Mangga Dua is not far from TransJakarta's 'KOTA STASION' (Kota Station) but we've no stamina left for a half-hour walk. So, we decided to take 'small car' to kota. The front of ITC was crowded and it's not possible to find a Blue Bird Taxi because there's some gangs there asking for money from every car that received passenger. I hate them because they made us wait 30 minutes for that 'small car'.

The small car charged us 1000Rp each to reach Kota station. The fare can represent its quality. The small car brought us to the WRONG DIRECTION in a given traffic flow!!!

+++NOOOO........PLEASEEEEE, I DON'T WANNA DIE +++

We reached Kota station safely. Took the old comfortable TransJakarta back to the hotel. That night, I slept as a dead log...

**BACK HOME**

I and my colleagues left early next morning. We decided to use a Silver Bird Taxi from hotel to the Airport. The Silver Bird is more luxurious than Blue Bird ones but it costs you more. We decided to use it instead of 2 Blue Bird Taxis because of our luggages.

We arrived the airport early, so, we'd some times to look around. It is a nice airport as I firstly said. Let's the pictures say...