Jakarta’s Museums

26 March 2008
One of the things that I loved in Australia was visiting museums. I think museums enrich my knowledge and make me more civilised. I enjoyed tremendously visiting the Art Gallery of NSW and Victorian Art Gallery (well, they are not museums, but they do house a lot of artifacts) and I found the Museum of Sydney and National Museum of Australia in Canberra interesting. Since coming back to this City, I have not really been able to visit Jakarta’s museums. As a child, I only visited the museums in Taman Mini. I know there are more museums in Jakarta than those at Taman Mini. Moreover, I heard that Jakarta’s museums were neglected.Beginning this year, I have visited some museums. Finally, I have the time to go around and enjoy the City’s museums. Of course, everyone that I shared the story with would comment, "Why do you go to a Museum?" "Don’t you have better things to do?"Last weekend, my friends and I went to Museum Bank Mandiri, Museum Wayang and Museum Fatahilah. Thanks to the arrangement from Retno and the nice company of Astrid and Harun, I had good time in Jakarta’s Old City. I had to say that I really enjoyed visiting Museum Bank Mandiri. It’s such a nice Museum. The Museum Nasional, fondly called Museum Gajah, was also beautiful. I can’t imagine that Jakarta actually has some really interesting museums comparable to those overseas in terms of collection richness. But once you talk about the cleanliness and the management, of course, Jakarta’s Museums are in shambles. After wondering around Jakarta’s Old City, we then went to have Lo Cu Pan in Glodok. That’s amazingly delicious. I also found bakso goreng, just like the ones at Bakmi Pinangsia in Kingsford. Furthermore, after probably 10 years, I finally rode on an M 12, the mikrolet that I used to take during Junior High School years. Goodness! It was like a lifetime ago. And you know what, it was not expensive at all. The museums’ tickets are just so cheap and thanks to Busway that stops at Halimun, going places become much easier particularly during holidays that make Jakarta empty.I think our culture that centers around shopping malls should be changed. We should center our activity around more cultured buildings like museums, art galleries, and cheap eating stalls with superb food.