The Risky Journal

Known as the city of malls, probably only few people know that Jakarta actually also houses dozens of museums. A wikipedia post lists more than 30 museums in the city! So, if you have been bored to visit shopping centers, you probably want to visit those museums. I have made a vow that I will visit museums more often this year. So far I have visited five museums. Why visiting museums? it's cheap and you can learn lots of things. For starter, last Sunday, I visited the National Museum located in Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat No. 18. The museum, which is also known as Museum Gajah (thanks to an elephant statue in front of its building), is located just across the Monas shelter of Transjakarta bus.

Yesterday was probably the most amazing and precious Saturday during my almost-two year stay in Jakarta. Instead of obeying to Jakartans' weekend ritual (read: visiting shopping centers. FYI, there are more than 70 shopping centers in Jakarta), I chose to visit the National Monument , widely known as Monas, located in the heart of the capital city. It is just 20 - 30 minutes by riding my motorcycle from my boarding house. I went there after a friend of mine told me that there would be several festivals being held at Monas.  Well, for your information, I rarely went to Monas. First, I usually avoid open space area during the day. The heat in Jakarta is unbearable. Second, it is rainy season. Lately, there has been no day without rain here in Jakarta. But, it turned out that my trip to Monas was quite wonderful.  Below are some pictures of my visit to the monument. Pictures tell a thousand words right?  Entering Monas . . .  Shady and breezy: The...

This post's title may sound weird. Who wants to hold picnic amongst tombstones? Well, I will ... if it is hold in Museum Taman Prasasti. Located at the heart of Jakarta, Museum Taman Prasasti offers its visitors with unique experience. Visitors will not be seeing diorama or charts of Indonesian history. Instead, visitors are presented with tombstones! Entrance of the Museum Taman Prasasti This 1.3 acre museum was actually a cemetery for noble Dutchmen when Dutch occupied Indonesia. After Indonesia's independence, the Jakarta administration turned it into a museum in 1977. Since then, it has become one of rare green areas in the city.  Don't worry if you will wake the death. All deceased bodies were procured by their families during the museum's construction. Some were also relocated to other cemeteries.  It is very easy to get to the Museum Taman Prasasti, by either using Transjakarta buses or public minivans.  If you decide to go with the former, ch...

You probably wonder why my blog is decorated with snow flakes all over places... It's not that I celebrate Christmas (well Christmas is massively related to snow), but I admit that it has little thing to do with it. I watched latest Glee episode about Christmas and there is the scene that shows snows falling down from the sky. It was so beautiful that made me miss wandering around snow as I did earlier this year. Well I got the chance to enjoy my very first snow in my lifetime in United States. Thanks to US Department of State for granting me SUSI Scholarship. It was really cool when I watched, touched and felt snow for the very first time. It was cold, lol surely it is. A friend of mine even dared to eat it!! Lucky enough he did not get sick for eating it. Now, watching latest Glee episode entitled Extraordinary Merry Christmas brought me back to memorizing those joyful days of walking around the street when snows were falling down from sky, or even walking in the midst o...

I am sorry for neglecting this blog for ages. Some business in the past two months really kept me from updating this blog. Therefore, let me start by posting some lighter posting hahaha ... Well, the past two months were very hectic as I was involved in a recruitment process of becoming a journalist (a journalist to be precisely) in a very well known English newspaper in Indonesia. Thanks God, I was able to make it through. I am leaving Solo by the end of this month, sad, happy, excited, worried, oh well this feeling is indescribable ... Hahaha ... But surely I am going to walk through it. :) During the past two months, I traveled a lot, back and forth Jakarta and Solo (it will be fourteen time by the end of this month). Lucky me, I was still able to have vacation to Dieng Plateau, located in Central Java in October 2011. It was a great trip spent with my great friends. Well, below are some of great pictures taken by a very great photographer " Al Muwafiqi ". Lo...

Supreme Court USA, Washington DC During my trip to USA on January - February, I visited one of the most important building in US i.e. Supreme Court building. It is located in Washington , DC . Like any other governmental building in US, it is all painted white and it has Greek architecture style. It felt so great to be there. It felt like a dream since one year ago, I only studied it from text book in my American government class.  It was in the morning, and pretty cold, somewhere between 0 - 5 Celsius degree. I love the cold haha. I stood in a line with my group waiting for the door to open. Entering the building, like usual we needed to pass through a very tight security check. Then, the awesome part ... the museum ... Like any other governmental building in Washington DC , there is a museum that is opened for public, and it is free !!! I observed many photos, figures and else ... Then, I found this scripture... ...