Dunia Fantasi and Sea World

Sea world

The fish were SO close
This is the touching pond with turtles. It is Ben's arm at the bottom.

This was the underwater tunnel.

I loved these preserved fish, they reminded me of the girls arguing!
Outside Sea World.

Dunia Fantasi and Sea World.

GJ took a day off during these school holidays and we headed off to Ancol.
Ancol is the area along the sea front at north Jakarta. It is an old swamp land that has been converted into a seaside recreational area. There is a marina that is the gate way to the Kepulauan Seribu, the Thousand Islands, as well as hotels, parks, markets and golf course.
We visited Sea World (not like the gold coast) and Dunia Fantasi
(A mini Disneyland/Dream world).
Sea World is a tropical oceanarium with an under water tunnel to view the fish. The kid had a great time touching a big turtle in the petting pond. It was very interesting (and cool!) way to spend an hour or two.
After this we wandered over to Fantasy land where we sweated out the remainder of the day. Chelsea was overjoyed that she had grown tall enough to go on all the rides. My little daredevil went on a huge roller coaster with three upside down loops, TWICE. Georgia only managed once. The dodgem boats were a huge hit with the kids having three turns. Ben LOVED the little kid’s roller coaster and kept wanting more.
It was extremely hot and humid and had no air conditioned restaurant to cool off in for lunch.
I dragged them all along to the “It’s a Small World” –Istana Boneka ride. No one was interested until inside where all family members were entranced. The cute Disney music was playing, but sung in Indonesian. To me it was just like being back in Disney Land CA.
After many hours spent zipping around the park it was time to head home.
A huge storm was visible in the distance, which we missed, but in turn left the traffic on the south side of Jakarta in complete chaos. This added over an hour to our travel time which is not a hardship as we don’t have to do the driving and we have a three screen DVD player in the car. Mr Yadi, our driver even had time to watch a lot of “Eight Below” a great family movie.

All this fun and no day sleep has had a little side effect on an obnoxious 3 yr old boy. Today Ben hit any one who did not follow his wishes. The guard got whacked for not letting Ben hose him and his motor bike, Sarinah got whacked for saying Selemat Pagi to Ben, the girls got whacked for being sisters etc etc. Drastic measures were called for and after an extended stay in the thinking spot (and a smacked bottom) Ben reluctantly apologized to all and then had a 4 hour afternoon nap. I think the nice Ben has returned.


The dodgem boats, our three kids were in the red boat.

This was the view of the sea side from the top of the Ferris wheel. We could see a few of the "Thousand islands' and many, many cargo boats.


This is the view looking back towards the city, hidden by the haze.

This is part of the scary roller coaster that the girls went on.
GJ got the short straw and did the carousel ride.

This is the entrance to the "Its a small world" ride.

Farewell from Fantasy land.