Safari Time

The King of the Jungle at Taman Safari

Today we left the hustle and bustle of Jakarta and headed up the mountains towards Puncak. Our destination was Taman Safari. The cool and fresh mountain air was a refreshing change to the pollution and heat of the city. We had once owned a villa in the mountains. My parents were disappointed that the scenic road had now been lined with buildings on both sides and that the views were no longer existent. However, they were glad that the buildings were all shops and they could reminisce about the various food items that they loved buying and eating.

As the name implies, Taman Safari is a...safari! You are able to drive around the trek in the comfort of your own car and view the animals around you. It was much better than I expected! The whole family delighted in spotting the animals that were often very close to the car, sometimes too close! Judging by our response, one might be forgiven for believing that we had never before seen a live animal in our lifetime. The one problem that we had thought, was that our van, was equipped for Jakarta traffic and weather. That is, it was tinted such that being inside the van was like night time! And...the windows do not open other than those by the driver and and front passenger seats. My polariser helped a little with reducing the reflection and glare with taking photos through the windows but they all have a slightly green tinge to them...Various members of the family slowly migrated towards the front of our van to get prime viewing position. Whilst we spotted lions, tigers, bears, birds, deers, hippos, giraffes and many, many more animals, my mother pointed out durian trees.

Our teeny tiny room with our suitcases open on the available floor space because there is no storage area!

Oh how I love a buffet breakfast. Sad to say though, this one was rather limited in choice

Kwayteow

Black glutinous rice with coconut cream

And of course no good Indonesian would dare have a meal without chilli to go with it

Buying fruit on the way up. One of many many types of bananas

These ones are SMALL!

We were all excited to see the animals so close to us

First Alysa moved to the front

Followed by Uncle Michael

Followed by everyone else!

Owl!

If you're going to be in traffic jam, let's throw in some zebras

Being mooned by the stripey creature

Not sure the licking attempt is much better

Giraffes

Yes that would be a lion crossing the road right in front of us

Next animal to cross in front of us, a Bengal tiger

White rhinoceros

The very natural setting of the park. You can just see the car in front on the path

I have decided that diets have no place in this country. How can I get into shape when we have 2 rounds of lunch followed closely by purchases of snacks to eat along the way?!?!? I also had to satisfy my need to drink all my beloved drinks from my childhood. It is afterall the land of the cheap freshly squeezed fruit juice. Our descent back down to Jakarta was predictably long, made worse by traffic. We met up with the rest of my mother's family for dinner before crashing in our hotel.

My brother Brian, his wife Asha and my niece Alysa

Rainforest Cafe anyone?!?!?

My Uncle Andrew and Jonah minding the seats with prime view of the elephant show whilst we get the food

Definitely not particularly safe for peanut allergy sufferers here...

Wildlife everywhere, even near the restaurant

The elephant show was surprisingly ok! They used the elephants skills to re-enact their story including deforestation and how to protect them in the future

Eating a satay makes any show better

Lunch round 1

One of my childhood favourites, bakmi ayam

Yay, coconut!

Lunch round two by the river

Soursop juice, another personal favourite. Oh how I love you!

Uncle Brian, breathing in the aroma

Jonah was luckily able to continue sleeping on the couch like seats

Still sleeping despite being transferred twice!

Dinner...Padang food

Time to meet up with more family

Brian and Ryuzo, brother of the groom