On our 5th day in Jakarta, we went to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Mini Indonesia Park) that was open to the public in 1975 with $26 million of investment. The park is about 15 km from Jakarta, and it took us a little over 40 minutes. The Lonely Planet book says that Ibu Tien Soeharto conceived the idea of building the miniature park with a full-size house from each province. But I was told that a few students of architecture major came up with this idea first. Since I'm not a historian, I'll leave this for history buffs to debate.
Our friends Cathy and John generously offered their car and driver to us while they were on vacation, so I thought it's a good idea to see the miniature Indonesia before I make travel plans for the next 3 years. The park is huge - 100 hectares. I was trying to walk through the park, but Pak Datong, the driver, persuaded me to give up the idea. Well, if it were just Ted and I, we could have walked through the park. But with my parents and the kids, Pak Datong's suggestion made more sense. What surprised me most was the Chinese archway that is still under construction (see the last photo above). Once upon a time, ethic Chinese were not allowed to learn Chinese language and keep their Chinese names. And now, a symbol of the Chinese culture is under construction in this park. I also saw quite a few billboards of Chinese language schools in south Jakarta.
In the park, there is also a monument (first picture) commemorating the Non-Aligned Movement as the late Indonesian President Sukarno was one of the founding leaders of the movement, together with Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia (from Wikipedia).
I'll try to make as many day trips as possible before school starts on August 7. Tomorrow, Elizabeth will take a placement test at the International School. We'll see how it goes. Eddy's test is scheduled for next week.
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