18th Moon Station

Water fountain

One thing I like from my previous trip to Bogor is that they installed drinking fountain for public, although it's still limited in the town hall's courtyard and I've just found another one in the Bogor Botanical Garden. It's really helpful to rehidrate thirsty citizen and visitors alike without having to resort to buy bottled water.

Sadly, seems like the one in the town hall is disabled already. Probably because of abuse from the locals who take the water for their household use, or maybe unsatisfied drink sellers. Well, I'm no local, but it's really too bad that such a useful public facility has to disappeared. I'd rather like the installation to grow to even more place actually.

The zoo in Jakarta

My first impression of the Jakarta’s zoo, Ragunan, is… big. Second impression is how the place looks like it’s built in a forest instead of cages in spaces open to the sun.

Banana land

Tried an exploration to Kebayoran Lama marketplace yesterday in curiosity about a recommended film processing lab there.

Seems like it’s true, they only sell film and process it (C-41 only) and not selling any vintage camera collection, or maybe just to strangers.

After that, without buying anything, I went to take a walk into the marketplace area to and take a look of the marketplace itself.

The most interesting part must be this block that’s dominated by banana stalls.

I didn’t spend much time talking to them about the place though, had to chase the train coming.

Anyway, a fresh new experience here. Too bad I didn’t took out my film camera too for the experience. But at least here’s some of the digitals.

End of a ruin

Last year, I found an old abandoned building in central Jakarta. The construction is stopped and the place is untouched for more than a decade. It’s a very unique and beautiful place remembering the location in a premium zone.

It’s a location not well known, contributing to the attraction even more, because it’s not a postcard background like the old town or the roundabout always flocked by photographers.

Muara Angke port

Muara Angke is a fishermen port in northern Jakarta. It houses two fish auction site and markets.

I want to had another go at photo hunting with Ciel (my camera) so I tried this location. It’s filled with activity but not exactly crowded, so a quite balanced density of peoples to move around and take pictures without disturbing their mobility or getting someone blocking the view.

Frankly, I don’t know what’s wrong yet but the colours are all screwed up. Not to mention the blown out highlights which I’m not sure if it’s my fault or the minilab’s fault.

Amusement Park

Very late post, but last month my office went for a company birthday picnic to the local amusement park.

Can be said that it’s an old amusement park and if you compare, things are not that amazing compared to modern amusement parks abroad. The iconic rides of a typical amusement park such as carrousel, merry-go-round, roller coaster is small now compared to when I saw it last time (IIRC, 2nd year of elementary school which is more than a dozen years ago).

The most saddening thing is perhaps how it copied amusement parks from other country (such as the Universal Studio globe in front of the entrance).

But still, the things I enjoyed the most are not their new rides. I’m never a fan of screamer rides from the first place. Instead, it’s actually those traditional rides that bring back nostalgia.

Those modern things that’s designed to get adrenalin rushing with speed and height ? They are like drugs pushing fake feelings into your brain.

That said, I almost not ride all of the rides and instead spend my time walking around shooting pictures of peoples instead. The queue on popular rides are too long and a waste of time after all.

One personal note. I had two best childhood memories about this park. First is a climber game house that’s already torn down maybe from last decade. The second one is a cup noodle vending machine. The vending machine is no longer working, but it’s now resting inside a cup noodle vending stand. Hi!

Biggest regret in the trip is probably… I put in an exposed film roll into my camera! The roll became useless. That one is from the time my family used a free one night ticket in a hotel downtown.

Jatinegara, the teak land

My photo walk last Saturday is to the Jatinegara area. This is also one of the hub train station in Jakarta (next time I’ll try Senen market) and surrounded by an old marketplace selling various things.

The place is lively and despite being in the afternoon, there's a lot of peoples on the street having activities outside shopping malls. Then again, this is East Jakarta, which I think had some similarity in entertainment availability as Eastern Indonesia.

The old marketplace

Another place our group went to is the Blora marketplace. This is a city government owned traditional market, and inside is really a familiar scene.

The young station

Track of the photo hunting yesterday is from Sudirman street until Manggarai station. The distance is considerable (about 4.47 kilometres).

On the way is the Blora street, a smaller street next to the 8 lane main street that might not be so obvious for the peoples only going towards the mall. Well, walking here give that a bit older side of Jakarta feel that I really like.

There’s also lots of trash cart parking by the street side, some even have family living nearby.

We split up into two group of five. I’m with the group that stayed behind for a bit. We explored the Sudirman station. The rest are heading down to take pictures, probably of the graffiti laden underpass tunnel.

JaSH 7

Two weeks ago, the large photography forum in Indonesia had it’s 9th birthday and the members held a group hunting event. Street hunting, which for Jakarta is held around the Manggarai area (it has a major train station, so must be an important place in Jakarta before capitalist car companies hold their fang and claws).

It’s a refreshing change compared to the usual model photography event.

Anyway, some pictures from the events. The film pictures had that white banding because I accidentally opened the camera before finished rolling. Even though I quickly closed it, the pictures are partially burned.