After Singapore

I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more

Category: museum

  • Yogyakarta Solo Trip

    Yogyakarta Solo Trip

    To my surprise, not everyone likes to travel. In a department I also work at, the quality assurance agency, I found at least two persons who are not into traveling, even when it is a company-paid business trip. Long story short, I volunteered to go for this particular trip of 2-day auditor training in Universitas Sanata Dharma (USD), Yogyakarta.

    I am not in the highest rank in the organization, but high enough to be entitled for executive class in train trips. Therefore, for the departing trip, I chose Argo Wilis train. Lucky me, they just recently replaced the compartments for this line in December 2025 with the New Generation compartments. I like the fact they have screens to inform the next destinations and where we are now.

    I arrived in Yogyakarta as scheduled, around 13.25. I took a TransYogya bus towards the south, to meet a friend in Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) Yogyakarta. Surprisingly the fare for the bus was very cheap, Rp2.700 for a trip (for cashless payment – with cash it’s Rp3.500). ISI itself is not too close to a bus stop, so I took another motorcycle ride to ISI. While waiting my friend H to come, I decided to wait inside a gallery. It showcased paintings and statues made by ISI students.

    Not so long after, H arrived. He drove me to a cafe in a northern area near UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada), a favorite destination for UGM lecturers. We had tea and snacks on that cafe and talked a lot. H is a guitar expert and was one of the judges on the FLS2N event, where I built the scoring system.

    He then drove me to UNY Hotel, where I would stay for the next three days. It is a decent hotel, but the location is very strategic for me. It was just 5 minutes walking east bound to USD, located inside UNY (Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta), and 5 minutes west bound to UGM. Both UGM and UNY have fairly good outdoor exercise facilities that are open for public. In UNY Hotel, I stayed at room 519, next to a wifi router. However, the internet was not working so I had to share internet from my smartphone.

    That evening, I decided to run around the campus, especially because I had sit for 6 hours in the train. After running for 3,5km, it suddenly started raining cats and dogs. I regretted my decision to run but still feeling lucky that I was near a place to stay while waiting the rain to ease.

    After a few minutes, it eased but did not completely stop, so I decided to have an early dinner in a restaurant nearby.

    The next day, I spent most of my day attending the training at USD. I found USD‘s logo interesting, because the font they use for the logo resembles the font I frequently used in my various designs when I was in high school, i.e. the Copperplate Gothic.

    Copperplate Gothic, is it?

    In the evening, I went straight back to the hotel because the local weather agency predicted that it is going to rain soon. Just before I entered my room, I realized that I had a chance to fix the internet, simply by restarting the wi-fi router. I did try unplugged and re-plugged the power and it worked! Hence I had internet for the next couple of days, along with other guests on that floor.

    In the morning of the third day, I ran. I ran around the area of UNY and UGM. I ran too early in the morning that some of the gates were still closed and I had to jump over. By the way, UGM has this nice “Wisdom Park” that allows people to jog or do various sports in the nature (pictures below were taken a day before).

    I underwent the training during the day, and in the evening I took another bus to a gudeg restaurant on the northwest side of UGM (also to self-indulge for me being able to pass the auditor test). I spent the rest of the day writing work report and this blog post.

    The next morning, the last day, I finished some other works in the hotel room, then checked out and headed to the city. I took another TransYogya bus to Malioboro 3 bus stop, near the Vredeburg Castle. I really like riding the TransYogya buses. It is a simple bus system just like in Bandung’s Trans Metro, but better. At almost every bus stop, there will be officer standing by to process fare payments. However, they do extra miles by ensuring passengers are taking the right bus for their destination, not missing a bus, and step carefully while boarding or alighting the bus. All of those without asking for extra money (pungli). Each bus also has one officer aside from the driver, processing fare payments for passenger boarding from unattended stops as well as ensuring passengers are not missing their stops.

    Inside the bus. Note: This image has been digitally altered by Google Gemini to sharpen it, as my hand was shaky when taking the picture.

    The Vredeburg Fortress is a nice destination to visit at Malioboro street. This had to be some fortress used during the war era, and now turned into a museum. What I liked about it is that it is very clean and well maintained. The entry ticket is quite affordable (Rp20.000 per person) and the souvenirs are generally more expensive.

    The Entrance to Vredeburg
    Cannon in V
    Not Han Solo Trapped in Carbonite
    Javanese Father Dio
    Perfect place to lament on your misery

    I then walked again along the Malioboro street towards the station. I also like the fact that the streets were generally clean. There was a little disturbance of some street vendors being too nice to you (with the hope that you will buy their products). Along the way, there were many old shops and cultural buildings like Djoen Lama coffee shop and Kampoeng Ketandan gate. I wanted to try Djoen Lama but it was full.

    I then walked again and tried the Lumpia and Malio Gelato. Lumpia was okay, but not as good as ones in Semarang. The Gelato, opens at 10 AM, was really nice. I recommend the popcorn flavor (though I didn’t tried most of other flavors).

    I then walked again and checked in at the station for my train trip back to Bandung. It was pretty crowded and I wanted to finish this blog post, so I rented the executive lounge. I grabbed some snacks for lunch in the train later, typed some paragraphs, then headed out because the train had come.

    On my return trip, I took the Malabar‘s economy class, since it was a public holiday and I did not have to work on train. It was not as good as Argo Wilis‘ executive, but as long as you don’t have to work on the train, it should be fine (because there won’t be much space for your laptop when you are seated). On the bright side, you are forced to see outside the window, where the view is stunning on most of the journey.

    The train reached Bandung on time around 18.01, and my wife was already there to pick me up.

  • Asia-Afrika and the Museum Konperensi

    This trip was unexpected. It was when I serviced my car at Auto 2000 Asia Afrika, the customer service told me that I had to wait few minutes for the car to get a free wash. There were two cars in front of mine in the line, and after 15 minutes they didn’t move. So I decided to walk around Jalan Asia Afrika to see if there is interesting place to visit. My Nokia phone told me that Museum Konperensi is not too far away. Museum Konperensi is a museum inside a building named Gedung Merdeka. However, once inside, it’s difficult to distinguish which one is Konperensi, and which one is Merdeka part.

    Walking towards the museum, there were interesting places around the street. One is Bandung KM 0, which denotes the “exact coordinate” of Bandung city. This point is useful for standardizing distance between Bandung and another cities, especially in intercity roads. The other is a local newspaper “Pikiran Rakyat” office, which features some boards showing today’s newspaper for free. In case you don’t have Rp 2,900 for a copy, you may just go there to read one.

    I reached the museum few minutes before 1 PM. Unfortunately it was closed for lunch from 12 noon to 1 PM. However, after waiting for few minutes, it finally reopened. The entrance is free, but visitors have to fill in the guest book. Without looking at my entry, the receptionist asked me where I came from, thinking that I am a tourist. I innocently answered “Jalan (street) Mohammad Toha”. “Ah, Bandung!”, she confirmed.

    There were pictures of Indonesia’s founding fathers like Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta, and some dioramas from the independence era. There were also other exhibits from the konferensi theme. One of which was a classic telephone that, of you pick it up will play a translated version of a phone call by a Eastern European lady with Soekarno. The conversation sounded suggestive at first, but turned political then boring along the time.

    Another place to see is the conference hall, most likely the room where the Konferensi Asia Afrika meeting was held. At the stage there were flags of the members. There were also a big gong of world peace showing flags of different countries, though I am not sure what it means in this Asia-Afrika context.

    After about half an hour visiting the museum, it was time for me to go back to the service center. It was an interesting experience, since I don’t have too many chances to visit this type of places.

    Museum Konperensi / Gedung Merdeka is located at Jalan Asia Afrika. Come here by public transport with help of KIRI angkot navigation.

  • Red Dot Design Museum

    Just after my visit to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum, I went to a nearby museum namely the Red Dot Design Museum. It exhibits various award-winning industrial designs, as well as sell them in the museum shop. There’s not much to tell here, just the fact that the museum was relatively small, but contain a lot of interesting stuffs inside. And when you see the ideas, most will make you think “why nobody thought of it before!”. I share some of the ideas here, so enjoy! (if the slideshow is too fast, you can pause it with the button)

    My favorite is KeepIt. What’s yours?

    Red Dot Museum is located at N° 28 Maxwell Road, Singapore 069120. It is reachable by Tanjong Pagar MRT.

  • Singapore Biennale 2011

    Biennale is Italian for “every other year”. In Singapore, the word is taken to name a bi-yearly art event that is held in various places. When I said various places, it did really vary. In this year biennale, it took place at a museum, abandoned airport, as well as the merlion statue near Esplanade Theater (which many people have mistaken it as reparation work).

    I’ve been to the 2009 Biennale with my friends, and I didn’t want to miss the 2011 one. This time, I also went with my friends, but we only went to the exhibits which are free of charge. We started around 10.30 in the morning by visiting the Old Kallang Airport. Some of us came early, while the rest were slightly late. While waiting the others, we walked around the grassfield in front of the building. It was interesting, because what I thought earlier as thrashes were acually artworks. There were opened briefcases with pots and plants inside it, or a glass box containing textbooks from the olden days.

    Inside the building, there were even weirder exhibitions. In one big room, there was a giant mock up of a fabric factory, with the resulting giant fabrics all around, made of papers and wires. In another half-painted room, there were furnitures from Ikea. The room that interested me the most was a simple dark room, with only neon lamps bent and placed to represent the phrase “Don’t Worry”. It was very simple, yet very subtle. Another interesting exhibition is, well, not the exhibition itself, but a sign that said something like this: “On 13 March 2011, a cleaner accidentally removed some stuffs, which he didn’t know they are part of the artwork”. Well, you never know how an artwork can transform to something else more interesting.

    Nearing lunchtime, we were starting to get hungry, and there was only a small coffee shop there in Old Kallang Airport, so we decided to move to another exhibition, Hotel Merlion, because it’s closer  to various restaurants in the city. This is the exhibit most visible to tourists, as it is located at the center of the city, and without the makeover itself, Merlion has already been a tourist destination. From outside, it looked like just a red box covering the Merlion statue.

    We had to wait in line to get into the room, and there were about 50 persons in the line. However, the organizer has managed it nicely so that people won’t have to wait so long, as well as having ample time inside to enjoy the room. As usual, there was an annoying behavior from  some people, trying to have 2-3 people in the queue, then “smuggling” another 4 to join them by cutting the line, after their turn to enter the exhibit was about to come. I was standing in front of them, so it didn’t make our turn slower. But it did affect our experience inside the hotel, since the organizer has limited the number of persons inside the room to avoid overcrowding.

    After few minutes of sightseeing and photo taking, the organizer asked us to leave the room to give chance to another eager tourists. And that marked the end of our tour to the Biennale. Quite a short trip, but it was interesting.

    Trivia: The Merlion Hotel did serve as a real hotel room at night, for few months. People can check in the late evening, and have to check out in the morning. Booking was made through phone call to a certain phone number served by a single operatory only. It was fully booked just an hour after the line was opened [1].

  • NUS Museum

    After giving up persuading my friend to go to CSI Exhibition ($20 for geek stuff, too expensive!), I finally decided to go to NUS (National University of Singapore) Museum instead, alone. It’s funny that I have been taking the master course for 2 years here in NUS, but only recently I visited the museum.

    The museum is located next to the University Cultural Center, another building which is normally visited by the lovely PM Lee at least once a year. The museum has 3 levels, and the main entrance leads you to the 2nd level. Nobody was there except the receptionist when I entered the museum. She reminded me to not using flash while taking photographs, answered with a short confirmation from me.

    The 2nd level exhibits fossils and artifacts from the past, as well as their sculptures and paintings. There was one room also showing pictures and stories of mystical rituals in Singapore. From the past. There is no more ghost now in Singapore.

    I then walked down the stairs to the 1st level. There was only 2 persons there, a security guard and another receptionist. The guard kept looking at me while I was walking towards the exhibition room, and even when I browsed inside. It’s a pity for him, there’s nobody else he can watch to fulfill his duty. The receptionist looked as bored as the guard, constantly looking at the LCD monitor she had. And when I walked past her, I could see her playing the Solitaire game. Pity her, too.

    Oh, the exhibition. At the 1st level, there were 2 rooms. One room displayed ancient Chinese ceramics, while the other exhibited paint themed work of modern artists, in collaboration with a paint company. There I found another visitor, at last. I just smiled at her and spoke no more. While looking at the works, my head hit a signboard hanged to the ceiling, and made it swing lightly. The sign read “I would tell the truth”. Well, I tell you the truth that I did hit that signboard.

    Then I moved to the 3rd floor, where artistic but freaky sculptures are exhibited. Some of them showed nudity, but not in pornographic style.

    This 3rd floor finalized my visit to the museum. Pretty exciting visit, though very quiet inside.

    NUS Museum is located at N° 50 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119279. Admission is free.

  • Asian Civilizations Museum

    I’ve just received an email from NUS recently, saying that as a student I am entitled to enter 5 NHB museums for free. Asian Civilizations Museum is one of them.

    Finding a friend to go along was not very easy, since the entry fee of $5 could be too expensive for such a not-so-cool venue. Luckily, Richson has keen interest on this kind of stuff and we both decided to go there around 2PM, just when the free guided tour should start.

    We arrived there few minutes after two, and the receptionist asked us to wait down the lobby for the guide to come. But after waiting for +/- 10 minutes, we didn’t find any guide. Instead, we saw the receptionist approached other tourists and said something I didn’t know but made the tourists just went upstairs to start their tour immediately without a guide. We thought that the guide was not available or we were late, so we went upstairs too, anyway.

    The first exhibition was Singapore River, which tells us about the history of Singapore since centuries ago, and how the Singapore River played role in it. It was the major hub for market and Singapore. When it was widely used, the river was full of thrashes. Until one day the prime minister decided to start a $200 million project to clean the river in 10 years. The cleaning was successful, resulting as what we see today. Yet in one article, the writer complained about the unique characteristic of the river has lost due to the cleaning.

    Next part of the exhibition showed us how curators analyze antiques. For example, a painting would be seen under UV light, showing the pencil sketches the painter had drawn to understand the background and intention of the painter.

    The other exhibitions were divided into 4 groups: Southeast Asia, China, West Asia and South Asia. I’m not sure why they exclude other West Asian countries like Japan and Korea. There were also a special exhibition “Hunters and Collectors” where it shows works of explorers from western countries in Asia. It took about 2 hours for us to cover everything except South Asia part. We started at level 2 and continued to level 3, but were to tired to see the last exhibition South Asia at level 1.

    One interesting part when we visit the Southeast Asia, there were a small room with sitting mats. There were also books about stories for children from various countries. We sat there and I took a look on one storybook from Bali. It tells a story about a big, ugly frog named Gobrag. He is nasty and likes to sing (reminds me of the character Giant from Doraemon movie). He sings so badly the other smaller frogs were disturbed. But even they told Gobrag to silence, Gobrag never listen. So one day the small frogs sent three of them to find out another place good enough to live, without disturbance of Gobrag. After walking for some distance, those three frog came to an island. Suddenly the island was moving, and it turned to be a big monster. The three frog went back to their home and told the story to everyone, including Gobrag. But Gobrag didn’t believe.

    “Is it nastier than me?” ask Gobrag

    “Of course!” they answer.

    “Not possible, I am the nastiest! Is it uglier than me?”

    “Yes!”

    “Impossible! Bigger than me?”

    “Absolutely!”

    (At this point I thought Gobrag would come by himself to the island and got killed by the monster. But this story has a very good twist…)

    What Gobrag did was, he blew himself up and ask them again, “Is it bigger than this?”

    “Yes, it is still bigger than you!”

    Then he tried to blow himself again. But still they thought the monster is bigger than Gobrag. Gobrag blew up again, but up to the point it was too much for him. He exploded and died. And the rest of the frogs lived happily ever after.

    —

    Sorry I told the story more than the museum itself, but I found it more interesting than the artifacts and other history lessons. You can read more stories there at the museum, anyway.

    Asian Civilizations Museum is located at N° 1 Empress Place, Singapore 179555.