Taman Menteng - Barry oh Barry..

A nice way to spend your Sunday afternoon is by wandering around the Jakarta city with your family since you don’t get that opportunity a lot in the city, especially on weekdays. It seems that Jakarta offers a different joy and fun during weekend, one of them is the less traffic at Jalan Sudirman and M. Thamrin. I took the courtesy of having my family, my Mom and little sister to visit one of the cool places to hang out in Jakarta, it is called Taman Menteng. We departed from our house at 3 p.m. and we arrived there at 3.30 pm.

The place is famous with its two glass-buildings and surrounding greenery and also its football/basketball court. But nowadays Taman Menteng is even more famous with the controversial Little Barack Obama statue, which they called it the Barry statue.


Well, the reason of being controversial is because some people in Jakarta believe that there are other significant person or hero from Jakarta that deserves a spot or place in the park such as Muhammad Husni Thamrin, Benyamin Sueb, etc., So, why it has to be Barry (little Barack)? Is it just because he went to the elementary school in Menteng area, near the park itself, and now that he has become the president of USA? During the first week of its installment people kept discussing and opposing it, even some are willing to take it doen from the park. Nevertheless, we were lucky enough to see the statue before something bad happened to it.
Aside from the controversial statue, the park was crowded with teenagers and lovers who seemed to be in their own world. Hehehe..
We spent the rest of the afternoon by taking pictures and wander around the park.

Too bad the park is less maintained because you could see garbage, trash and some writings on the wall. Plus it was raining at that time; hence you could see some of the spots in the park are flooded by water, even the parking spot is a bit drained by water. Why do some people just could not appreciate art and maintain the park for our own amusement? Sometimes I feel pity to those kinds of people.

After spending an hour of enjoying the view in Taman Menteng, we went back to our car and headed straight to Plaza Senayan for some late lunch there. Now here is one place of a high maintenance building.



The route is going to Jalan Sudirman, until you find the Bundaran Hotel Indonesia where you could see the flushing fountain and also the Selamat Datang statue. Afterwards you take the right turn going to Kuningan or Menteng area, passing the Hotel Nikko entrance and just follow the road until you find the second intersection, make a right turn and then you will see the Taman Menteng on your left side. Or if you are from Kuningan area, just follow Jalan Rasuna Said going to Menteng, you will find the park on your right side.

Entrance fee is only Rp 3,000 for car parking