Gathering at East Coast Park

Date: Saturday, 23 June 2007
Location: East Coast Park

On a breeze Saturday, after dropping off my wife, my mother and my mother-in-law at VivoCity, I took Inka and Irza to East Coast Park. We met some of my colleagues with their families, for a picnic cum gathering there.

Inka and Irza was having a great time flying Uncle Zul's kite and play with Uncle Zul's kids, Asma and Muhammad. They were also having fun playing the "Mind Your Step" game and guessing game with Kakak Maslindah.

Trip to Jakarta #3: BSD Plaza

Date: Saturday, 2 June 2006
Location: BSD Plaza, BSD City, Serpong, Tangerang, Indonesia

After swimming, we went to BSD Plaza to have dinner at a nice seafood restaurant near the carpark. The food were great, and the price is cheap.

Apologise, we didn't manage to take pictures of the grilled fish, fried fish, squid, crab and other dishes, since we were very hungry after swimming. My wife only managed to take the picture of the otak-otak.

Trip to Jakarta #2: Ocean Park, BSD

Date: Saturday, 2 June 2006
Location: Ocean Park, BSD City, Serpong, Tangerang, Indonesia

On our third day in Jakarta, we went to Ocean Park, the new water theme park located at BSD City, Serpong, Tangerang.

The water park is quite big, and the facilities and attractions are comparable to Singapore's Wild Wild Wet or Malacca's A'Famosa Water World, although it's still smaller than Kuala Lumpur's Sunway Lagoon. There are the lazy river circling around the area, wave pool, many types of slides and water-based children playgrounds.

The location is quite convenient, only around 30-40 minutes from my parents' home in Cinere, thanks to the Serpong Expressway which is now directly connected to the Outer Ring Road Expressway at Lebak Bulus.

Similar to Wild Wild Wet in Singapore, Ocean Park BSD uses a smart card for visitors to make payments for the tickets as well as all the facilities inside the theme park, such as lockers and tubes rental.

Unfortunately, not many photos we took there since all of us were swimming so we needed to put all our belongings, including the camera, inside the lockers. The entrance tickets are 50,000 Indonesian rupiahs per person for both adults and children, with additional charges apply for locker and tube rentals.

The kids were really having fun.

Trip to Jakarta #1: Changi Airport

Date: Thursday, 31 May 2007
Location: Changi airport, Singapore

That day was a public holiday, Vesak Day, in Singapore. We took Lufthansa flight from Singapore to Jakarta, taking off from Changi airport at around 5:05pm, only 10 minutes behind schedule. We landed at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta (Cengkareng) airport at around 5:40pm local time.

Sadly, it was *NOT* a public holiday in Jakarta. For some reason, Indonesians celebrated Vesak Day on Friday, 1 June 2007 instead. Don't know what caused this difference. I thought that day was also a public holiday in Jakarta, but it was not. Can you guess how did that matter to us?

Yes, you guessed it right. On a weekday, during evening's rush hour time, Jakarta's traffic is a nightmare. It took us a solid 2.5 hours to reach my parent's house in Cinere, south Jakarta, from the airport in west Jakarta. Traffic jam at the inner-ring-road expressway has started from Jelambar, all the way to Grogol, Tomang until we exit the expressway at Slipi. Luckily, the traffic jam on the subsequent route we took to Cinere (Slipi --> Pejompongan --> Pondok Indah --> Lebak Bulus --> Cinere) was not too bad, despite the underpass construction at Kebayoran Lama.

Welcome to Jakarta. :)

(To be continued...)

Selamat...

Seperti biasa, dalam perjalanan semi-mudik ke Jakarta seperti sekarang ini, akses Internet saya sungguh terbatas. Tidak bisa online setiap hari, kalaupun bisa, koneksi hanya bisa dilakukan dengan menggunakan akses dial-up yang lambat. Kadang saya bisa menemukan Wi-Fi hotspots pada saat berkunjung ke shopping mall tertentu, tapi ternyata tidak gratis alias harus bayar. Selama ini saya hanya menemukan hotspot gratis di Mal Pondok Indah.

Tentu saja, situasi "fakir bandwidth" ini tidak mengurungkan niat saya untuk mengucapkan selamat kepada teman-teman saya yang sedang berbahagia minggu ini:

Selamat kepada pasangan Kukuh dan Maria yang baru saja melangsungkan pernikahannya hari Minggu (3/6) kemarin. Semoga berbahagia. :) Wah, padahal saya lagi di Jakarta nih, kok ngga terima undangannya ya. :) Pantesan kemarin Enggar bilang mau ke Jakarta, ternyata mau menghadiri acara pernikahan Kukuh toh. Mbok ya kalo mau nikah itu jangan diem-diem gitu loh. Saya aja baru ngeh kalo Kukuh mo nikah setelah Harry ngasih tau di milis bemo-batavia.

Selamat juga kepada pasangan eRBe dan Tyty yang baru saja dianugerahi putri pertama mereka, Auriel, pada hari Selasa (5/6) sore kemarin, jam 6:28pm waktu Singapura, 2.88kg, 47cm. Mohon maaf, saya dan keluarga tidak bisa menjenguk ke rumah sakit karena kita masih di Jakarta dan baru akan pulang ke Singapura minggu depan.

Photo courtesy of Yolli.