Taman Safari Indonesia II (Part 2 - The Walk About)

We were all hungry after the ride throught the safari. So, we looked for the restaurant located in the middle of the Taman Safari. I ordered Sop Buntut! No, it is not made of a piece of ass. It's actually ox-tail soup!

After a hearty lunch, we took a stroll around the zoo. This time around, I could take my own sweet time to photograph the animal and not confined into a stuffy van.

This is Orang Belanda (Dutchman) or Proboscis Monkey.

Check out the nose...:)

Cheetah waiting to be fed.

Life in a box. Visitors pay a few thousand rupiahs to have their photo taken with these cuties.

Beauty and the beast? The tiger looked like it was heavily sedated throughout the photograph taking session.

A pygmy hippo enjoying swim.

My first encounter with Komodo Dragon. I read so many horror stories about this giant carnivour but they look kinda "tame" and sluggish in the zoo. LOL!

Feeding time....Chomp! Chomp! KFC - Komodo Fresh Chicken.

Phyton. Slither! Slither!

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

A Siberian white tiger dipping its paws into water to cool down on a hot sunny afternoon.

Fierce but gorgeous face.

I enjoyed the experience at the Taman Safari Indonesia. Great place to "shoot" animals, if you are a photography enthusiast.

What I don't quite enjoy is the "take a photo with the animal" booth. The tiger and the lion looked like they were heavily sedated. The baby lion looked stressed when it was held by a white woman....(see video).

What animal painted these beautiful T-Shirts?

Find out the answer in the video. Also check out the cute baby orangutans and the Komodo Dragons.

ENJOY!

Coming next: The Magical Mt. Bromo.

The countdown starts 16th July - Midnight

After a disappointing and disastrous debut by Standard Chartered KL Marathon, we would certainly look forward for a new event to forget all about that event.

Good news!

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon registration starts 16th July. Midnight!

I have run the entire categories - full 42K, 21K and 10K in previous years (Not eligible for Kids Dash...LOL!). Based on my experiences, it is one of the best in the region.

So, get ready your credit card and standby next to your computer.

See ya in Sinagpore Dec 6?

Taman Safari Indonesia II (Part 1 - The Drive Through)

Taman Safari Indonesia II Prigen, Pasuruan- East Java is located by the highway between Surabaya and Malang, East Java. It is approximately 50 Km drive from Surabaya. It was our next stop after Candi Belahan.

If you are wondering why there is a "II" behind thhe Taman Safari Indonesia...there are actually TWO Taman Safari in Indonesia. The other one is located in Bogor.

We hired a MPV, along with the driver for Rp500,000 per day (exclusive of BBM/ fuel) for the trip.

We paid double for the "tourist" entrance fee Rp80,000 compared to Rp40,000 for locals. Actually, we could have passed as locals if we keep our mouth shut and asked our driver to buy the tickets. Nevermind-lah....We will contribute our bit to Indonesia's economy and hope the money will go to the welfare and upkeep of the animals.

So, off we went into the safari in our chauffer-driven MPV.

There, we were greeted with a bunch of turkeys once we entered the safari. Pretty odd choice of an opening exhibit in a safari if you ask me! (Insert gobbling sound effect here)

Things began to pick up after the turkeys.

Enter the overtly friendly Illamas...

And a curious moose....that kept peering into our window.

But some of the inhibitants of the safari is completely not bothered with our presence.

Some of the aminals are not really "roaming free" as they were confined by electical wired fencing. But it is as close as we could get without having our heads or limbs ripped off by the big cats.

Our trip was more like a "shoot and run" akin to "hit and run". We didn't get to spend much time observing the animals. We just had to keep moving after snapping a few shots of the animal as there were plenty of cars in queue. School holidays just started!

But within the mad rush, we did get to see some "hot" action like this...

Don't forget to bring a camera with zoom with you go to a safari!

Don't try to get closer or I will sneeze on you! Oink! Oink!

Stop! Zebra crossing! I mean a Zebra is crossing! LOL!

They don't like to move it move it.

Check out those antlers! Gorgeous, eh?

A horny couple! ;)

If you can't go to the animals, let runwitme bring the animals to you...

Click Play!

ENJOY!

Coming next: Taman Safari Indonesia II - The Walk About.

Free Ticket To Surabaya, Anyone?

I have to interrupt my Surabaya/ Bromo/ Ijen mega post with this breaking news!

I was at Sunway Pyramid yesterday, to meet Ah Tau who was having problem downloading his Surabaya/ Bromo/ Ijen trip photos from his camera. So, I offered to help him.

There was also a Visit Indonesia promotion going on at the concourse area at the mall. So, we check the booths out after I settled Ah Tau's camera problem.

I took the opportunity to collect tones of travel brochures from the booths. Both of us filled up the lucky draw coupons to win some prizes from the promotion.

To make the long story short, I ended up on the stage receiving the prize from the VIP from Indonesia Tourism as Ah Tau is too shy to go up the stage. The prize was - a free return ticket to Surabaya.

Isn’t ironic? We just got back from Surabaya a few days ago!

Ah Tau decided to give away his ticket. Any taker? No strings attached. Please contact me pronto. (My email at the side bar)

The ticket expire end of July.

The shoppers were treated with cultural performance and fashion show on the stage!

So, naturally, I took out my equipment to capture those wonderful moments. Heheh!

Aku suka Jaipong....

How low can you go? Watch all the bapaks' glasses steam up! LOL!

I think this dance has some Chinese feel to it.

A mesmerizing duo with stunning costumes.

Mooo....No prizes for guessing correctly where this dance is from.

Indonesian dances are such a delight to watch. The music is enchanting – with the degung (gongs) and hypnotic drums. The dancers move with such gusto and abandonment in their tight kebayas and hip hugging batik sarongs.

They twirl, shake and wiggle like there’s no tomorrow. LOL! Could easily give Shakira a run for her money....Don’t believe me? Check this out.

ENJOY!

Eyecatching fashion displays from Allure Batik were weaved in between the dances. I took some still shots while frantically switching between video mode and digital still shots mode.

I wish my camera has more depth of field for me to play with. Well...I guess I have to wait until I get a proper SLR with special lens to achieve that.

Here’s the video.

ENJOY!

Kudos to the Indonesia's Ministry of Culture and Tourism for putting up a great show at the promotion in Sunway Pyramid and bringing us beautiful glimpses of what the country has to offer.

If Malaysia is Truly Asia, Indonesia boasts the Ultimate in Diversity.

There are so much more to see and do in Indonesia. Love the food. Love the exotic places. It is cheap to travel and shop too. The only downside is I always have the fear of being swindled by the tour operator and taxi drivers. (Speaking from experience here)....

Where is my next destination? Thinking of Makasar...But if they have a marathon anywhere in Indonesia, I will be the first on to book my plane ticket there. Too bad, road races and marathon in Indonesia are as elusive as the Sumatran white Rhinoes. (Insert sigh here!)

Candi Belahan - Sumber Tetek

On the second morning, we ordered “roti bakar” (toasted bread) from the eatery across the road from our hotel.

When our orders arrived, we got a surprise. The “roti bakar” was totally not the usual toast. I think it should be called “roti goreng” (fried bread) as it was pan fried, burger style! - Two slices of bread, drenched in margarine, cut into four pieces and decorated with colourful 'hundreds and thousands' sprinkles.

What a wonderful source of energy for the morning!

After our sweet breakfast, we continued our journey out of Surabaya toward east. Our first stop was Candi Belahan or Sumber Tetek as it is known to the locals.

This little unique ruin is located at the hillside of Mt. Penanggungan at Gempol district, East Jawa. The ruin is dated back to the 11th century. It is said that ashes of Airlangga King, the ruler of Jawa at that time was stored here.

There are two statues on the wall – one of Goddess Laksmi, holding her two erm…mammary glands, sort of like squeezing the water into the shallow pool (6x4 meter in dimension). The other one is Goddess Sri. Both Goddesses are symbols of fertility and prosperity.

According to the locals the water never runs dry from the two nipples even at the driest seasons. The locals use the water source for daily chores like bathing, cooking, drinking etc.

When we arrived, there was a family having a picnic at the Candi. The air was filled with laughter from the kids, frolicking naked in the pool.

We stopped briefly to take some pictures.

I took one, posing just like this boy. (Too shy to be posted here).

The water is cool and refreshing, originating from the mountainous springs. I drank some too, straight from the source. It is erm...invigorating. Heheh!

Check out the video.

ENJOY!