The Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in Jakarta is sort of the Indonesian equivalent of Disneyland. It is very large and has areas devoted to every part of the country from Sumatra to Irian Jaya. Like Disneyland, there’s an entry fee to get into the park and then additional fees for everything else inside as well so if you’re making a day of it your wallet would definitely be hurting by the end. This is really only a partial review as of the animal displays I only saw the aquarium, the insectarium area, and the reptile park; disappointingly the bird park was already closed for the day when I arrived. I didn’t get there till about 3pm because I was doing other things in the morning, but figured that was alright as it was open to 5pm and I was just going to see the bird park and zoological museum. Once there and looking at the map though I saw there was also an aquarium, and insectarium and a reptile park. The park is so big that there is a free shuttle that runs round the middle, a non-free train and a sky-train, and you can hire motorbikes as well. There are also taxis cruising all over the park. I just walked. The aquarium was much bigger and better than expected, much better than the pitiful one at the Ragunan Zoo. There was a range of big and smaller tanks, most well-cared for, with a lot of big and way-big fish and several unusual species. One of the more odd exhibits was a “fish spa” where you could put your feet or hands in a pool and have scores of little fishies pick your skin clean. The entry price for the aquarium also included the insectarium next door which was actually a museum of dead insects rather than live ones, but it led out into what I assume was a butterfly garden even though it was utterly devoid of any butterflies whatsoever, and that led onto an awful little menagerie of small mammals and birds in tiny tiny cages. Very sad that was. Further along the road, the reptile park was situated around the zoological museum which was inside a building constructed in the shape of an enormous Komodo dragon! Unfortunately there was no clear view of the building to take its photo because of the sky-train rail and the surrounding trees. The museum wasn’t very interesting due to the mankiness of the stuffed animals, but the reptile park was alright. Some terrariums were very small but others were very large. Most of the reptiles were quite ordinary species, nothing much to get excited about. I was a bit disturbed at the endangered Bornean turtles that had their shells painted in lurid colours and their names (eg “Nova”) splashed across the paint. The next stop was the bird park, the reason I came to Taman Mini in the first place because I’d heard they had an excellent collection of birds from all over Indonesia including the Moluccas and New Guinea and I was hoping to see some species I hadn’t before – but they were closed! They had closed at 2.30 which is a damn ridiculous time to close if you ask me. I was very put out. I’ve got quite a few photos so when I get home I’ll upload all those as they can show better than words what everything was like.
various photos now uploaded Taman Mini Indonesia Indah Gallery re-reading the thread I realised the review I did was really pretty shoddy, so here's a bit more. Its from memory because unfortunately I seem to have mislaid my notes from the Javan zoos. Reptile Park: the Reptile Park is situated around the outside of the Zoological Museum which is a building in the shape of a giant Komodo dragon. I have no photos of this interestingly-designed building as good views of it were obscured on all sides by trees and the sky-train rails. The Museum contained a fairly large collection of very badly mounted Indonesian animals. The Reptile Park had a nice collection of reptiles, although nothing was really out of the ordinary. I did have a species list but it has been misplaced; most of the species were Indonesian (from memory the main exception were the common iguanas). Some of the enclosures were reasonably large but there were also many of a very small size (although really no smaller than you'd see in many Western zoos' reptile houses). Aquarium: situated on the ground floor of a building next to an artificial lake containing various cichlids and other large fish. It was much nicer than I expected it to be. The http://www.zoochat.com/1232/wall-plan-aquarium-140310/ is sort of circular with the tanks arranged around the curves, but there are some open pools near the entrance for arapaima etc, and also in the centre of the Aquarium. There was a wide variety of shapes and sizes in the tanks, a number of them looking no different to what you'd find in the house of your average hobbyist. Interesting sights included the http://www.zoochat.com/1232/foot-spa-live-fish-140317/ ("doctor fish" Garra rufa), a (barely) live http://www.zoochat.com/1232/baby-siamese-twin-dragonfish-scleropages-formosus-140329/, huge examples of eg clown knifefish and various Asian catfish, etc. There were several show type displays for fish of special interest to local visitors such as dragonfish and http://www.zoochat.com/1232/tanks-osphronemus-goramy-140312/. Insectarium: the Insectarium disappointingly only displayed dead invertebrates, but it led into a big covered garden of sorts which I assume to be a butterfly garden although there were no butterflies in evidence. After this area was a truly awful little menagerie. A couple of muntjac had an alright pen, but the http://www.zoochat.com/1232/javan-mouse-deer-tragulus-javanicus-140518/ had a small bare pen with inappropriate substrate and the http://www.zoochat.com/1232/squirrel-cages-140515/ were pretty nasty. Worst without doubt were some tiny vertical ornately-wrought cages, such as the http://www.zoochat.com/1232/cage-papuan-sugar-glider-petaurus-breviceps-140521/. A very very unfortunate exhibition in a facility that sets itself the grand task of presenting the natural and cultural diversity of Indonesia. Surprisingly there was no dedicated area apart for this poor little one for displaying captive mammals at Taman Mini although they had the Aquarium, Bird Park, Reptile Park and Insectarium for other animal groups.
