Jalan Surabaya an antique shops at Jakarta

Jalan Surabaya is a flea market that well known for the antiques goods.  Jalan Surabaya itself is located at the Menteng residential area, at the Central of Jakarta. The Menteng area is a new urban design developed in the 1910s to become a residential area for Dutch people and high officials. This area has become one of the most expensive areas for residential real estate in Jakarta. Several important people such as former president Suharto take up residence in Menteng. The President of the United States Barack Obama spent his childhood in Menteng, attending local schools including Besuki Public Schooland St. Francis of Assisi School.

antique shops at Jalan Surabaya

You can see kiosks/shops along the Surabaya Street. It has been existed since 1974. There are about 180 or so stalls in a 500-meter line on left side of the narrow street. It sells various items that usually attract collectors, historians or those who simply want an extra touch of authenticity in their living room. 

antique shops at Jalan Surabaya

Some stalls has specialty on antique goods. You can find stalls sell only porcelains with variety models and ages while others only sell books or cassette / phonograph records, or specialized on selling bags and suitcases. However, many stalls sell variety antique staffs. You can find stuffs  like wayang, porcelain, wooden sculptures, mask, eating utensils made of silver and brass, antique lamp, metal souvenirs, old fashioned ornaments, old telephone, old camera, old woven cloth, phonograph record, and some others.

old gramophone at Jalan Surabaya

Tips:

• The antique goods do not have prices. It depends on the rarity of its models or age of the goods or quality of it. So browse around if you already know what to buy. You need to bargain when you want to buy it. Do not forget to do price comparison between one shop to another.

old cameras and Books at Jalan Surabaya

• There are some goods been replicated to the original one, but some time there are some modification on antique goods. So if you know the antique goods you can test your experiences in here otherwise better to bring someone who understands about antiques when you visit Jalan Surabaya.
• Take a bajaj or taxi to here, it will be very complicated to reach Jalan Surabaya by public transportation. 

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The beautiful beach at Tanjung Bungah

Tanjung Bungah (also spelled as Tanjong Bunga) is a suburb of Penang, Malaysia. It is situated in the northern part of Penang Island. It was known as a fishing village, but now it's populated by many commuters from Georgetown and people who work in the hotels along the beach. You will pass through this area when you're heading to Batu Ferringhi.  There are many hotels you can find here which are lower priced than those in Batu Ferringhi.

Tanjung Bungah beach view at night

Tanjung Bungah was hit on Christmas 2004 by the tsunami. The Royal couple of Malaysia paid a visit to the area hit by the massive tidal waves in Tanjung Bungah and checked on the floating mosque.

tanjung bungah street from batu feringgi

Tanjung Bungah has become a favorite spot for foreigners to settle down in Penang because of its proximity to the educational facilities at Dalat International School as well as its proximity to the leisure areas of Batu Ferringhi and Gurney Drive. The Penang Branch Campus of Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC), which has its main campus in Kuala Lumpur is also located here.

tanjung bungah main street

Tanjung Bungah is a valley of 1.5 km across and 4 km long flanked by hills on the west, south and east, and the sea on the north. The hill to the east is known as Pearl Hill or Mount Erskine and is 194 meters high. The hill to the south leads to Bukit Bendera.

If you go to Malaysia, it is one of destination tourists spot to experience the beautiful sandy beach. Two of the most popular spots, Tanjung Bungah and Batu Feringghi are well developed ‘island paradises' featuring top range accommodations and some natural attractions. The most unique aspect of the island is perhaps how cultures combine seamlessly so don't be surprised to find a mosque, Chinese or Indian temple a few hundred metres away from each other.

tanjung bungah beach 

There are many hotels available in Tanjung Bungah.  They are situated between the beach and the busy road. There are traffic lights and a bridge for pedestrians to cross the road.

Tips:

One of the attractions of Tanjung Bungah is the floating mosque. It was completed in 2005.

Every Friday a lot of people come from far away to pray in this floating mosque

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The Mekarsari Park, who those love the green plants

Mekarsari Park is an exotic garden which has various types of fruit plants collection from many regions in Indonesia. This park is one of the centers of biodiversity conservation of tropical fruits in the world, particularly fruits in Indonesia. It is as well as a place of cultivation research (agronomy), breeding and multiplication of seeds which then disseminated to farmers and the general public .

credit photo: promolagi.com - Mekarsari view from Tower of View

Mekarsari Park collects thousands of species of plants of many kinds. This place has a laboratory that produces excellent fruit crops such as pineapples, guava, star fruits, honeydew and many more.  One of the laboratory product is a hybrid between cempedak and jackfruit called nangkadak, cempeka and pedakka. Very distinctive flavor and sweet aroma as cempedak but looks more like a jackfruit.

credit photo www.mekarsari.com

The park is approximately 13 kilometers from Cibubur toll gate,  located on the main road between Cileungsi and Jonggol. It is relatively easy to reach from Jakarta, Bogor or Bekasi. It took  about one hour from Jakarta to go to this place.

With an area of 264 acres, this park has many spots that you can enjoy, such as Family Garden, 27 hectares of recreation Lake, Baby Zoo, spotted deer, Garden Center, Greenhouse, Outbound area, carrion flowers, Kids Fun Valley, Tower of View, and Waterfall building known as Tirto Puri Sari. This waterfall is one of the favorite places visitors, especially for children; here they could see a waterfall pouring from the house shaped building, very pleasant.

credit photo www.mekarsari.com

Visitors are invited to tour the park and try the freshest harvest.  Hope on the park train and go around to visit the greenhouses of  honeydews (melon), snakefruits, starfruits and sawo/sapodilla garden (sapodilla durian, sapodilla alkesa, and sapodilla abiu). Visitors are allowed to taste the fruits while learning about the cultivation of that fruit at the same time and can also buy the harvest straight from the greenhouse/farms..

credit photo www.mekarsari.com

Mekarsari Park provides rented bicycle for cycling around the park. It has an outbound facility too and various water rides at lake such as banana boat, dragon boat, water bike, aqua bike, floating donuts, giant bubble, to canoeing. Extra charges start from IDR 20,000

Mekersari park launched "Water Kingdom Mekarsari" who claimed to be the largest water park in Asia. This place has an area of 5.2 hectares and connected directly to the lake area of 27 hectares. There were 12 water rides game consists of eight pool, four slides and a water sports.


Tips:

• Mekarsari Park recently launched tourist train ride called "Fruity World Tour" since the beginning of March 2012. By simply paying 10,000, visitors will be taken around  Mekarsari for 30-minute train ride tours and information about the places visited.
• The best place to enjoy a relaxed atmosphere with friends is on the edge of Lake Cipicung, if the weather permits, you can arrange to have a picnic with your family.
• Visit the "Garden Paradiso" for an affordable bonsai collection.

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