Art in Malls

Many art pieces are now showcased in malls. I personally quite like it since many of them are very interesting. Going to the mall is one of urban Indonesian's favorite pastime, so I guess it makes sense to have art pieces smack in the middle of it...I mean, if they don't come to you, you should come to them, right? Maybe museums should start doing something like this too to gain more interest from the public?

Photo from: http://indah-ariani.blogspot.com/2009/11/bila-batas-makin-mencair.html -
Art at Pacific Place

Taken at Grand Indonesia

I find this piece of a "melting" Borobudur very beautiful. And I bet this took quite some time to make!

Taken at Gandaria City

These window shutters are put together to form a wall which leads to a space displaying antique wooden tables. I love the colours...

Solar Energy baby..!

Just a quick post before I head off to see a movie at the French Film Festival (yup, it's that time of the year again...how quickly time goes by).

Yesterday, I was quite surprised to see this ad in Kompas.


Now this is more like it. Nuclear energy for Indonesia? OMG...I can just imagine the disaster in that!!

With the abundance of sunshine (unless the polluted air of Jakarta is blocking its path), solar energy is the way to go. Learning from the past, I hope PLN plans this programme thoroughly & then execute it accordingly...otherwise it will be just another great idea that goes down the drain :(

Chocolates-Flipflops-Noodles

Like in any country, Indonesia has several local brands that are synonymous with certain products. Here are a few Indonesian brands which I loveee...

1. Chocolates

Ok, please don't compare our chocolates to Belgian ones. But still, there are two Indonesian brands that I love: Silver Queen and Beng-beng. These brands have been in Indonesia since I was a child (in the age where malls were still scarce in Jakarta and I still often see rainbows after a pleasant rainfall).

Silver Queen is a chocolate-nut product. You can choose from several nut types with cashew nut being my favorite (I think this was also the first one they produced). For a long time, it was associated with its flat rectangular shape, but now they have a new variant that is "chunky". Even though I have been a long time fan, but I never paid attention to who produces this product. And surprisingly, they don't have a website?

Beng-beng is a chocolate wafer bar. While Silver Queen cashew nut hasn't changed its flavour (according to my tastebuds), I think Beng-beng has had some product development done. But still, a value for money product, it won't hurt you to try it! It is produced by Mayora, one of Indonesia's biggest FMCG companies.

2. Flip-flops

"Quick, I need some flip-flops!". Just head to your nearby warung & and for just Rp. 9,000 you can purchase some Swallow sandals. They're cheap, easily available, and considering the price, quite comfortable and sturdy. Nowadays, the brand also produces a more stylish line (which is of course a bit more costly). What else could you want from a pair of flip-flops?

3. Instant Noodles

Why I can't live without it: the smell... when someone is cooking instant noodles is so tempting; and then of course the MSG taste...even though noodles are essentially tasteless (?), marketers have come up with a variety of chemical flavours.

Why I can't live with it: it is not nutritious and not good for your health. Of course, some people may not agree with this, even the effects of MSG is still debatable. But the fact is, if I go to a doctor when having digestion problems, somewhere during his examination he would ask whether I have been eating lots of instant noodles lately. *word has it that your stomach needs 5 days to digest the noodles*

Anyways, all the controversy aside, Indomie is the market leader in Indonesia. Actually, the brand has become a generic name for instant noodles. The company that produces it is Indofood which is also one of the biggest companies in Indonesia. Word has it that Indomie is exported to many African countries as well and is quite popular there too.

DuFan

As usual, the end of the year is a hectic period at my office thus my absence from this blog. Things have now slowed down though, which means...after working hard, it's time to play hard! Starting with the office's family gathering event to DuFan.

Dunia Fantasi a.k.a DuFan is an amusement park in Jakarta. It is part of Taman Impian Jaya Ancol (or just "Ancol" for short), a resort destination in north Jakarta which houses a number of attractions among others SeaWorld and Atlantis Water Adventures. Its large area is often used to host events such as Java Rockin' Land (an annual rock festival).

DuFan has the typical rides such as the merry-go-round, ferris wheel and roller coaster.

For a guide on the rides, I found this blog post quite useful. (Note though that since it was written in 2009, it hasn't included DuFan's newest ride: Hysteria). Please check it out: Guide to Dunia Fantasi

Since I don't have a strong stomach, I only went on the "easy" rides and avoided the challenging ones such as the Tornado where you are twist and turned while dangling in the air.

Tornado Photo by Garnieri (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28420232@N05/3384662353/)

Even a few of the boys looked sick after going on it

But I was intrigued with Hysteria after seeing it didn't involve any spinning around, just a few "freefalls". So...I gathered the courage and went on it and well...words can't explain, you need to try it yourself ;)

Hysteria Photo by Nadiloo

Obama's visit to Indonesia

I've always found the hype surrounding Obama a bit silly. Ok, he lived in Indonesia when he was little, so.....?

But last Tuesday, while sitting in traffic and feeling disappointed that El Shinta (a radio station known for its traffic reports) has hold off its reports in order to broadcast live the joint press conference of Obama & SBY, I suddenly got a mellow feeling when hearing Obama speak his first words: Terima kasih. Selamat Sore....
The next day, when he delivered his speech at University of Indonesia, hearing him say things like "Pulang kampung nih", brought a big smile to my face.

So does this mean I have joined the Obama craze? Hmm...not exactly. Watching him mention about his memories of Indonesia was actually like when I meet a foreigner and hear him talk favorably about his time when vacationing in Indonesia. It's just this feeling that we have something in common, a feeling that "Hey, my country has brought joy to someone's day"...

But all this aside, I was impressed with the speech Obama delivered. When was the last time any of our officials mentioned about Bhinneka Tunggal Ika and used it in such a motivational way?

Anyways, I wanted to share a few photos of Obama's visit to the University of Indonesia. My sister, who is a reporter, got an invitation to attend the event. She sat in the second row so got quite decent pictures (she actually bought a new camera because of this :) ).

While Obama is smiling & shaking hands with his "fans", his bodyguard looks kind of stressed out :)

Former president B.J. Habibie was among those who attended the event. So nice to see him smile, he lost his wife a couple of months ago

Look at the crowd, trying to take photos. Around 7000 people were present

Thanks Sis for the pics!