Geology Museum (Bandung)

When visiting to Bandung, by chance we passed the geology museum. This museum was located in Jl. Diponegoro 57. As the museum lover, we immediately change our destination to this museum. This building was big enough, and it has a big yard outside. In our mind this museum would be the same like the other museums that have a poor maintenance. But we were wrong!! When we are going inside this museum, I asked about the entrance fee to the young lady at information counter that welcomed us friendly. We were shocked, because it was FREE … yes we didn't have to pay any cents at all. All we have to do just to fill the guest book, after that they even gave us a sticker of the geological museum. Wow, it's amazing... No entrace fee at all..

The museum that previously named Geologische Dienst was declared on May 16 1929. This museum had 2 floors with art deco's style. The museum is divided into three area of exhibitions, Geology of Indonesia in the West wing, History of life in the East wing and Geology for human life on the top floor. In this museum we can found the many type of rock, the mineral, the fossil, and several artefacts from the several location at Indonesia. It has a lot of collections include with the detail information. It declared, that this museum is the biggest and most complete at South-East Asia. When I visited, I saw several foreign tourists who were looking around thoroughly.

When entering the room, I amazed, this museum is different from other museums in Indonesia. They had an organized, with clean floor & clean glass display, comparable with the museum at Singapore. We can found seat for rest at several locations. The toilet was also clean and have a good maintenance. It was excellent for a museum that did not charge the entrance fee. On the first floor it displayed mineral stones, and from its information it amazed me that Indonesia were blessed with a huge natural wealth, and someone said that Indonesia is blessed with the greatest and most diverse biological resources in the world, after Brazil.

They also displayed evolution of human life is explained in both Bahasa Indonesia as English, a collection of life size dinosaur replicas. In the far corner a selection of skulls can be found, amongst which a replica of the popular ‘Java man'. And we can found volcano area, with explanations on formation and working of these in Indonesia abundant gunung api, literally: ‘fire mountains'. It is good knowledge for students and for our kids.

At the second floor, we can found miniatures of tanker ship, offshore oil drilling, coal mine, etc. It shows the equipments to do all those activities. Very informative. And it amazed me again, they had a lift elevator for disabled person, with a wheel chair inside... Wouw, it never found at other museum in Indonesia.

In front of museum, we can found a souvenir shops. They sell many things of geology stuff with affordable price. There are bracelet form natural stone, handicraft from stone, and even snacks & beverages.

A big place, clean, tidy, free of charge, educative, what else you look for ?? This place is a great place to educate your kids during your vacation to Bandung beside going to mal and hunting at Factory Outlet (your favourite destination).

But be aware of they opening hours. Geology Museum opens from Monday - Thursday 9 am-3.30 pm, Saturday & Sunday 9 am - 1.30 pm. They closed on Friday & public holidays. Please contact (+6222) 720 3205 , (+6222) 720 3208 for further details.

Have a nice trip,

Uniquely Indonesia....