Date: Sunday, 8 June 2008
Location: Grand Indonesia, HI roundabout, National Monument (Monas)
On a nice Sunday, I took Inka and Irza to see the National Monument (Monumen Nasional, or Monas), which is located in the heart of the Jakarta's city.
We parked our car at Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, since my wife and Aunty Tessa would like to visit the new high-end shopping mall, which is located just next to Plaza Indonesia and not really too far from the HI roundabout (bunderan HI).
From Grand Indonesia, I took the kids for a short walk past by Plaza Indonesia to the HI roundabout, which is famous not only for its Monumen Selamat Datang (or the Welcome Monument) but also for its side function to be used by demonstrators for any kind of demonstrations in Jakarta.
We then boarded the busway (TransJakarta bus rapid transit) to the National Monument (Monas), three stations away northbound. To be frank, this was my first time (!!!) visiting this monument after countless numbers of passing it by without actually visiting it. Of course, this was also the first time for the kids to visit the monument.
BTW, on a side note, this was also the first time for me and the kids to board the busway. :) I found that the busway is quite convenient, with automatic ticketing system similar to the one used by Singapore's bus and MRT.
In Monas park, the kids were happily running around the park while I was busy taking pictures. The nearest park from the busway station would be the Taman Monas Barat (West Monas Park), which is located west of the monument. From there, we walked to the north area of the monument and then took a tram ride around the area. The tram ride is free, however the queue is quite long so you have to be patient while queueing.
We could actually go up to the top of the towering monument, however the queue is very long (since it was a Sunday) and we decided not to venture that. We then went back to the busway station and board the TransJakarta bus back to the HI roundabout.
Reaching HI roundabout, we went back to Grand Indonesia and found out that there's actually a small indoor theme park on the fourth floor (level 3A, to be exact) of the shopping mall. Inka and Irza managed to took a canoe ride at the theme park before heading home.
