Bank Indonesia Museum

Bank Indonesia Museum is located in the Jakarta old city, in front of the Beos Kota rail station, right next to the Bank Mandiri museum. This museum originally was a hospital Binnen Hospitaal, and then used as a bank that is De Javashe Bank (DJB) in the year 1828. Then, after the independence in 1953, this bank-nasionalisasikan in a central bank of Indonesia or Bank Indonesia. But not long, the year 1962, Bank Indonesia's move to new building. Building is left empty, but the BI board of governors appreciate the historical value of building up high, so take advantage and become melestarikannya Museum Bank Indonesia. This museum is inaugurated on 15 December 2006 by Bank Indonesia governor, Burhanuddin Abdullah.

You may read detail of this article in :
http://indonesia-lover.blogspot.com/2009/04/bank-indonesia-museum.html

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Lawang Sewu - Building with thousand doors

Lawang Sewu located at Tugu Muga Semarang (Central Java). It is a famous landmark in the region of Semarang and a pride for Java. This ancient & magnificent building was an office of Nederlandsch Indishe Spoorweg Naatschappij (NIS), which was built starting in 1903 and completed in the year 1907. After Indonesia's independence this building is used for office DKARI (now PT KAI-Indonesian Rail Company), after PT KAI move to a new building, this building used by Kodam IV / Diponegoro (Indonesian Military). After Kodam IV move to new building, Lawang Sewu was left empty for many years.


You may read detail of this article at
http://indonesia-lover.blogspot.com/2009/05/lawang-sewu-thousand-doors-building.html

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Kasepuhan Palace (Cirebon)

During our trip to Cirebon, we interested to visit the Kasepuhan Palace which located in the center of Cirebon's city. It is very easy to reach the palace, in the Kasepuhan No. 43. Even this palace so close to the main distric, most of local people have never been go into this palace.

Entrance ticket (at year 2007) is Rp 3,000 (about USD 0.4) / person for local tourist. Entering the area, we will be accompanied by a guide whom dressed in traditional uniform, they usually are having relationship with the kingdom, it called "abdi dalem". This palace has a gate and a fence made of brick red fabric, and it said bind together without using cement at all. In this palace there are mixture of cultural between Java, Sunda even China and Europe. At the palace there are statue of 2 white tigers. Inside this area there was Masjid Agung Sang Cipta Rasa.

Palace in Cirebon have some similarities that may become standard with other palaces in Cirebon, which are : at the North and East there is a mosque, have courtyard for people to interact each other and have a tiger statue as a symbol of Prabu Siliwangi. But among other palaces in Cirebon (Kasepuhan, Kanoman and Kacirebonan), Kasepuhan Palace seems the one that well-maintained.

Inside the museum, which is located in the North there is a palace heritage objects such as the kingdom of war equipment, and train gold cannon used during the battle. This train is called Train Barong lion, elephant head belalainya holds the trident (the influence of Hindu), winged garuda (the influence of Islam) and the caudate dragon (the influence of China). This train has already Shockbreaker technology and also to have mechanical wings flutter. But this train since 1942 has enabled more and not only out to 'dimandikan' every 1 Syawal. Unfortunately the situation is less terawat too, when the goods are already hundreds of years. Meanwhile, in the museum in the South there is a palace jewelry, trinkets, plates, and a palace used during times of Sunan Gunung Jati.

Seen a lot of cultural influence of Islam in the ornamen2 palace. However, in this palace there are also many Chinese porselain2 also decorative lights of Europe and also keramik2 that depict gambar2 about figures in the Bible. There is also a painting Prabu Siliwangi with a tiger, which is drawing attention in the eye and tiger Prabu we will follow the position where we are. Hhmm ... hair? Please try your own. In some rooms there is a tray containing a voluntary donation to the museum care and hygiene. Guide was told that in the event Dorce Dorce Show had possessed in this place, because it does not ask permission before taking pictures in this place and the new round after drinking from the well in the palace guards dimantera by keyword. The message is to keep every visitor should not offhand attitude & ..

Overall this palace is worthed to visit, because the location is easy to reach and the entrance fee is affordable, tour guide was good in delivering explanation (in Bahasa). Kasepuhan palace open from 8:00 to 16:00 hours for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday, for Friday from 7.00-11.00, and it will close for Friday's pray time, and then reopened at 14.00-16.00, for Sunday / Holiday at 8.00 - 17.00

Have a nice trip, Uniquely Indonesia ...

ps: Sorry for the bad English, I am using google translate for now, until I do have time to fix the translation. You may read Bahasa version of this article at http://www.jalanjajanhemat.com/2008/11/keraton-kasepuhan-cirebon/

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Kawah Putih (White Crater)

Kawah Putih means White Crater, located at South Bandung (West Java). It took about 2,5 hours drive from Bandung. There are several tourism objects near Kawah Putih such as Situ Patengan, Ranca Upas, Strawberry field (that we can pick our own strawberry), so make sure you visit several places when you go to South Bandung, due to it's quite far distance from Bandung.



Before being discovered in 1837, the people who lived around Mt. Patuha believed that the mountain top was a sacred place, haunted by the holy spirits of their ancestors. They would never venture anywhere near the mountain top's forests. A trespass like that would mean bad luck or even death. They also believed that on certain nights these spirits would have a meeting discussing the security and welfare of their people and the conservation of the forests and the natural recources that supported their livelihood.

Kawah Putih can have different color in their lake, because it is covered by an active (fumarolic) volcano which has been dormant since 1600. As such they water is typically acidic, saturated with volcanic gases, and cloudy with a strong greenish color.

Near the entrance gate we can find hut to take a rest. It has a fresh air and in the morning you will feel breeze. Its a rare situation that we can get in the busy & crowded city. Entrance fee is quite cheap, only Rp 3.000 on 2005 (about 30c) for domestic tourist, and another Rp 3.000 for car parking fee. Too bad, it does not have good facilities for tourist such as clean restroom, canteen, tourism information, etc. We hope soon the local government will have more concern to provide world class
tourist attraction.

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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....

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