Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII)

 

Visiting Indonesia can be a countless option of travel experiences because the country is a vastly wide archipelago, as wide as almost 2 million square kilometers, offering innumerable destinations to go to. This, surely, requires a lot of days to cover all the gems. But when the interest becomes stronger, and the time you have is too short, you can always pay a visit to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in the Eastern part of Jakarta. This culture-based recreational park is a summation of vivid Indonesian cultures on a 150-hectare land of festive attractions.

The original idea of building a smaller scale of Indonesia was initiated by the former Indonesian first lady, Siti Hartinah (familiarly known as Tien Shoeharto), who was inspired by the speech of her husband, President Soeharto, the second President of Indonesia. She was eager to introduce the beauty of this exotic archipelago to the world as also a conduit for nationalism. She believes that the country keeps a large number of fascination throughout its richly diverse culture and deserves a worldwide recognition. Taman means park and Indah means beautiful, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah thus means an ambitious project to portray the beauties of Indonesia as a whole in a large miniature park.

Its original attempt was not only to reconstruct the traditional homes of the various provinces, but also to actualize a realistic model of the environment of the various characters in Indonesia. The main area shows an artificial lake with little islands scattered around it, forming the many islands of Indonesia. These mini islands are built resembling nearly identical topography of the origin islands. There were mainly twenty seven models of traditional house, each has the characteristic of the twenty seven provinces. But the number of provinces has risen and it added six other model houses from Bangka Belitung, Banten, West Sulawesi, North Maluku, Gorontalo and West Papua while the East Timor's (that had secession from Indonesia in 2002), became the Museum of East Timor.

Apart from the miniature park, TMII offers plenty series of escapade. Amongst the highlights, TMII feature a castle called Istana Anak-anak Indonesia (Indonesian Children Castle) that has a structure of that in the Cinderella story. It consists of four levels and an impressive collection of educational valuables, including the science and technology set, musical instruments, sport fields and many other more that might certainly build children's curiosity. There is also a theater by the name of Teater Imax Keong Emas that has a shape of a giant snail and is the most popular icon of TMII. If you want to see the whole park from above, try the cable cars that will transport you around the park with bird-eye view from the height of fifteen to twenty meters above the ground.

Other interesting spots include religious buildings of various religions, ten natural gardens, fourteen museums (including the famous Museum Indonesia), a 4D Theatre, monuments and several other recreational areas.