They had their grading on 23 November 2013 @ Jurong Green CC. Due to their levels, both of them had different grading times & we were there since 445pm.
Proud to say, they did well & below are the results of their hard work. Results were certified / issued by The National Abacus & Mental Arithmetic and Mathemetics Test Committee
The last day of our vacation for CNY. Our flight takes off in the late evening, so we still had a full day ahead. As it is & as usual, it rained again. But the rain this morning lasted longer than usual. The carpark lots were flooded with water gushing in from the main roads. Its okay for us as we had nothing on for that day. We idled in bed & watched TV for almost 2 full hours.
The children asked to splash at Atlantis Water theme park. As I read in travel related forums & reviews, this place seemed to be the least attractive. Not much recommendations & even if there was one, the rating was poor. True enough. When we got there, there was not a single soul in sight. This was not even comparable to LEGOLAND's Malaysia) theme park ** just my personal opinion & if you have been there, you would agree with me **
Can u see the mozzie's bites on Lionel's legs? There were more than these of course!
The roads were still flooded when we left for the airport. At this point, I wanna said a BIG THANKS to all taxi drivers of the Blue Bird Company, who had pick us up & sent us on a safe & smooth trip to our destinations. Though I do not know your names but the taxi numbers were as follow:
CS 492
ED 0089
AB 2090
YD 5980
CFM 1266
KS 072
TLP 746 39731 (this taxi is not part of BB)
LED 6523
Okay folks, that's all. Back to Singapore & back to reality. Thanks for reading & following my post. For those who are planning a trip to Ancol, Jakarta, I hope you can find some useful & relevant info. :)
Opposite Mercure was Ecopark. On the map, there were many interesting themes such as Eco Cruiser, Learning Farm, Animal Feeding, Outbondholic, Eco Bike, Paint Ball & Eco Adventure. But there were no one around for us to enquire on the above. We walked for a while & came across this Outbondholic. They have different circuits such as Flying Fox, Log Crossing, Spider Net, etc...
We paid 70,000 rupiah x 2 for the kids to go on the circuits. (weekend price - 80,000 rupiah). After getting the kids ready in their safety harness, they were off. But as it was raining for the past few days, the grounds were wet & muddy. Worst, they were infested with mozzies. All of us got bitten quite badly but Lionel got it the worst as he was wearing bermudas. As he had to concentrate on his task, he cant possibly slap the mozzies.
I was taking photos & videos so the mozzies had fun attacking me since I was glued in one place from time to time.
See the above pic where I managed to kill 1 mozzie. This idiot must have just finished sucking my blood. You can see the blood on my hand.
Next on our agenda was Dufan or Dunia Fantasi as the locals called it. Admission: 180,000 rupiah/person.
This is Jakarta, Indonesia's version of " Its A Small World "
Temple of Fire - Another interesting production.
After watching the Temple of Fire show, we followed the crowd & came through the back door which leads back into Eco Park. We saw this restaurant - Talaga Sampireun & decided to have some light snacks since we got a show to catch later in the evening.
The place was cozy with different dining themes to cater to different guest - private function rooms, open air concepts, air conditioned huts, etc..
We chose the open air huts where the kids went crazy feeding the fishes.
Tape Goreng, Serabi Solo, Singkong Kukus, Es Sirsak Talaga Sampireun & Es Merah Delima.
See if u can match the names of the food we ordered accordingly. No cheating; do not google. Haha..
This was our finale for the evening. " Fantastique - Magic Fountain Show ", somewhat similar to our Sentosa's " Songs of the Sea " show. The admission tickets were given complimentary to us when we bought the Dufan tickets. Usual price would cost: 50,000 / 60,000 rupiah weekday & weekend respectively.
Below were shot clips of the day's happenings. Enjoy!
Good morning. We were back at our hotel by 7pm plus last evening. We passed by the entrance of Ocean Dream Samudra yesterday & that would be our plans for today.
We were given a map & the timings of the various shows & we marked out the show accordingly - animal variety show @ 0945, sealion show @ 1030, dolphin show @ 1115, 4D SpongeBob @ 1200, Dolphins & Mermaids show @ 1230, Stuntman show @ 1315. There were different timings for each show and we want to make the best usage of time.
** there were 2 other shows that we missed as they crashed with some of the other show timings. 4D The good, The bad & A Horse / 4D Dora Adventures. Though you can still watched them at a later timing @ 1500 & 1600 respectively but that would mean staying almost the whole day there. **
Luckily, Rachel forgotten all about the Dora Adventure. She was wincing on why we couldn't watch that instead of SpongeBob. We have explained to her that Dora's show timing was @ 1300. If we watched that, then we would missed the stuntman show @ 1315. The next show would be at 1515 then.
Admission: 90,000 rupiah/person. Being a Monday, there was not much of a crowd, except for some students on excursions.
Animal Show with otters, hippos, sun bears & also the sea lion show.
Dolphins Show.
Mermaids & Dolphins Show. Supposingdly about how some divers discovered the mermaids, dolphins saving their lives & so on. The introduction at the beginning of the show was again in Bahasa Indonesia. Oh well..
Scorpions Pirates Water Stuntman Show. The guy above in the photo was quite comical with his actions & expressions.
There were real explosions & stunts, very realistic.
Since we finished our highlight of the day, we browsed through our map & saw Snow City. Now, this was interesting. We took a shuttle bus (FOC) with some help from the locals to get to Ancol Mall. Note: There are different bus routes around Ancol. Be sure to study the bus guide before you board a bus.
How is it we never noticed that there was a Snow City when we were at the mall yesterday? I was getting excited. The afternoon sun was scorching & it would be so cooling to be in the snow. A check with the security guard at the mall & was told Snow City has since closed down. So the map was not updated!!! So much for all the excitement!
Walking aimlessly by the beach area, it started to drizzle again. We took another cab out to Mangga Dua Square for shopping. This building is actually within walking distance from Ancol but Ancol is so big, walking to the mall would be very tiring, depending where you start from.
Mangga Dua Sq is something like Platinum Mall, Bangkok. You have shoes on 1 level, then clothings on another, bags & such on another, etc...
Our dinner @ Tio Ciu 99. Same cooking style like our Singapore's Tze Char.
First full day of our vacation & it had to rain. We were walking along the waterfront & had to dash for cover when it rained all of a sudden. We decided to have our breakfast @ Kopiduk.
Luckily, it rained only for a short while. Pre warning: it rained everyday while we were there during this CNY period, especially in the mornings & late afternoons. So folks, do take note of this wet season.
Pre trip: wanted to make a booking for Jakarta City Tour & Taman Mini Indonesia but hubs said to book the tour upon arrival. Spoilt-spot! No tour desk @ the airport, neither was there one at the hotel. Grrr... I shot a black face, a real dark one at hubby. Mood dampening!!!
The rain stopped. Hubby flagged down a cab - Blue Bird Group is what you will want, folks. We told the driver our destination, hoping he would understand. You see, we do not know Bahasa Indonesia & the locals there can only understand simple, one word of English.
Along the way, it started to rain again. As we do not know of any specific place to start @ Taman Mini Indonesia (let me termed it as TMI - troublesome to type such a long word), the driver stopped us at a sheltered building which we thought to be the main gate. We paid 40,000 rupiah for admission & 125,000 rupiah for the taxi fare. As we found out later, that was the banquet hall & the people outside were all guest attending a wedding. You can imagine my irritated look.
No one to ask, no info counter around ( we saw one later on our way out), we were really lost. A sign caught out attention. Tram ride: 20,000 rupiah/person. We had no choice but to take a ride around the park. Sorry folks, no photos to show as it was raining & my mood was really bad that morning. I chose to keep quiet all the way.
** I forgot to do most of my homework, like taking down the cost & time travelled from one place to another, a thing I would always do when we are on vacation.... **
It was still raining & I told hubs to get out of here & returned back to Ancol. The only sentence I spoke from arrival to departure. I was that pissed off!!! We flagged down another Blue Bird cab & hubs asked if the driver can drive us around & surprisingly, he understood our intention & gladly abide.
I have half the intention to ask the driver if he can stopped for us to take pictures now & then. Zipped!! We found out there were many interesting places to visit inside the park itself. However, there were individual admission fees to be paid. The rain stopped when were were on the highway.. Heavens really played a cruel trick on us...
We stopped for lunch at Seaside Suki. As it was a weekend, the place was real crowded. We made our orders but forgot to inform the service staff we want non spicy ones. As it is, even the pineapple rice you see above was spicy. Hubs ordered some desserts for the kids - Singkong Thailand S2 & Lumpia Durian (if I remembered correctly). We paid 275,880 rupiah.
SeaWorld was just across the road & this was of those travel forums recommended attractions. Admission: 90,000 rupiah/person.
Once outside, we came across a CNY parade procession. B&W lion dance??? Vampires as part of the procession??? We had to laugh.
We practically combed the whole stretch of Ancol, from its Marina ( private yatchs & high end apartments/bungalows) to Ancol Lifestyle Mall on the other end.
I leave you with a short video clip on the CNY parade.
We visited my grandparents in the morning & on a sad note, my grandpa couldn't even response to us calling him now. He can hear alright but he's living in his own world.
Our flight to Jakarta, Indonesia departs @ 1525hrs via Valueair (code sharing with Jetstar). We stayed at Mercure for the next 4 nites. When we did our research, there were 3 hotels available on Agoda.com near Ancol Dreamworld, North of Jakarta - Aston Service Apartments, Mercure Convention Hotel & Putri Duyong Resort.
Since dinner time was round the corner, we walked around the waterfront, looking for a suitable dining outlet. We came across Pasar Ikan & it was very crowded. Not knowing the "rules", we entered their restaurant & begin looking at their market area. So many different types of seafood to choose from, we didn't know where to start.
We asked a staff for assistance & he asked us for our number. Huh? What number? We shooked our heads. He replied in short, simple English:" Counter number, wait call, order, makan"
We then realised we have to get a number from the counter after registration, then wait for our number to be called before we can place our orders. Seems like going to the doctors. Looking at the crowd sitting inside & the crowd waiting outside, we gave up the idea.
We had dinner at Pizza Hut instead and boy, was the service terrible poor & the atmosphere warm. No aircon!! After dinner, we strolled along the waterfront, enjoying the sea breeze. A boatman approached us & invited us to take a ride in his boat. We paid 250,000 rupiah for a 20 mins ride.
Mercure Convention Hotel.
This is Pasar Ikan.
Pizza Hut which we spent a wasted 263,000 rupiah for the above meals.
Enjoying the sea breeze.
Putri Duyong Resort. They had various room types & one that caught our attention was the boat-like room which had their own private pool.
