​A special event in celebrating our 72nd anniversary of Indonesian independence throughout August is being held in national gallery. Entitled “Senandung Ibu Pertiwi” (Tunes of the Motherland), it is a painting exhibition from our six presidential palaces collection. The event was started in August 2nd and will end in August 30th, from 10 am until 8 pm. They will open as usual in August 17th. I was deliberately picked the weekdays and after lunch time to avoid the crowd and can enjoy my quiet time admiring the paintings. It was worth it!

National gallery is just opposite Gambir train station, only 15-20 minutes from Shraya Residence. It could be reached in shorter time if you go in weekend with less traffic.

This time painting exhibition is a bit different from the prior exhibitions, Raden Saleh and Aku Diponegoro, visitor have to make a registration in separate building (next to the exhibition building, only few meters separated by parking space) and given a visitor tag and a stamp. Bags must be left in the deposit counter like usual. It is more organized.

Entering the exhibition building, a guard will quick scan your body and allow you to proceed.

​Before entering the display room, a big screen picture of amazing painting from presidential palace in Bogor, entitled “Russian Wedding” is a gift from the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics at the time, Nikita Kruschev. Painted by Konstantin Egorovick Makovsky, a famous painter in 19th century. It took sometime for me just to look at the picture. I wonder what would it be like if I can see it from the original masterpiece. Amazing.

​Entering the display room, with the first theme is The Nature of Indonesia. Paintings of scenery of beach, sea, and.. this one painting get me fixated on. None other then Raden Saleh’s “Drinking Tiger” (1863). Picture below.

​One room displays portraits of female wearing kebaya. An Idealization of Indonesian women. Picture below.

​Mythology room. Creation of Basoeki Abdullah that delivers local beliefs such as from wayang stories and myth in Javanese culture. Soekarno, our first president, asked the maestro to make a painting with a story from the world of wayang for The Istana Merdeka (Merdeka Palace). Basoeki Abdullah chose the story of Gatotkaca.

​Spirituality and Religion room. The reprisentation of nature and human religious practices are addressed in the form of religious figure in the works of Walter Spies, Ida Bagus Poleng (two of others). Meanwhile, Basoeki Abdullah explore the combination of natural objects and religion.

​There’s one room that shows copies of documents about the story behind  some of the paintings. There was this particular post about a book that wrote about Basoeki Abdullah’s Nyai Roro Kidul and the writer is Astri Wright. A very familiar name. One of our old guest at Shraya Residence. Picture above.

Below, are some paintings that I also got attracted. 

The displays in the gallery

This third part of Menteng District article will review about places on the west side of Menteng area and will be the last part. We talked a lot about places from colonial era in the first and second part, the third part is about the next era. Era of Soekarno.

HI was one of the first 5-star hotels in the country, better yet in South East Asia, and has been the city's landmark. In front of the hotel stands the "Welcome statue" or Tugu Selamat Datang to welcoming the guests who visited Jakarta on the occasion of the 4th Asian Games in 1962. The hotel was initiated by President Soekarno in preparation for the Asian games and was officially opened on August 5th, 1962. 

In 2004, HI started a big interior renovation and opened again in 2009 as Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta. The iconic building is now managed by European hotel group. They safe some memorabilia from the original HI and display them in some areas of the hotel.

This is a corner from one of the entrances, they display pictures from the opening ceremonial back in August 5th, 1962. Across the photo collages, are the two elevators that actually the first two elevators in Jakarta and still functioning well.

The picture right up above is the famous painting "Flora Fauna Puspa Indonesia" of Lee Man Fong that is placed on the lobby of Bali Room. He was one of Soekarno's favorite artists. The painting represents Indonesia's identity and great richness. It is a pity when I took this picture, there was a wedding reception preparation and there was a white wall decor covered some part on the left and right side of the masterpiece. 
The art was painted with oil paint on a wooden board and glued to the wall. It had been an integral part of the hotel since it was built. During close period whether before the big renovation started in 2004 or before re-opened in 2009 (I forgot this detail), they rescued the masterpiece before shipped away in a cargo. Explained my tour guide from the front desk crew. Very lucky!     

Pictures above, are some paintings that were selected directly by President Soekarno and displayed in the old HI. Now, they were display in the memorabilia corner.

Sarinah is a 15 storey department store located in jalan M. H. Thamrin. Start to built in 1963 and inaugurated in 1967 by Soekarno. Sarinah is the first shopping center in Indonesia and also the first skyscraper in Jakarta. The name Sarinah was originally belong to an au pair who took care of young Soekarno. Sarinah was meant to be a shopping center that can provide people with good quality products with affordable price.

Theresia church was built in 1934 designed by Fermont-Cuypers bureau. Although the design had been made in 1926 by R.K. Kerk en pastorie Gondangdia and Ghijsels made his design version before 1925 but non of those designs got realized. Entering the world’s economic crisis, every project were on hold. Teresia church was built after the great depression with some changes in its design. The church was meant to built similar as Paulus church but had to be simplified in order to have saved some budget. Two years after Teresia church built, Paulus church was built in 1936. You can read about Paulus church at Menteng District - part 1.

[Above] A very nice detail of the design. Look at those tinted glass. This is a private property (I guess), but don't know for sure does anybody live in this house. It looks abandoned. Nevertheless, Its beauty still attract me to take some shots.

This is the one and only mansion left in jalan Cikini Raya. It belonged to late Hasyim Ning and now, I believe it was passed to his descendant. Hasyim Ning (1916-1995) was a wealthy businessman.   

There is a chocolaterie in jalan HOS Cokroaminoto called Dapur Cokelat. The shop is a gorgeous antique house with shingle roof. And like any other chocolate shop, the interior is just lovely. Dapur Cokelat is Indonesian chocolate product. If you come by to the shop, don’t forget to try their chocolate milk. It is sooo.. yummy!

From the previous post in September, The Menteng District part 1 we learned the history of Menteng back in the colonial era, where the Dutch designed Menteng as the first garden city ‘tuinstad’ in Indonesia (formerly known as Dutch East Indies). Menteng was developed second after Kota Tua, where Jakarta or shall we say, Batavia back then, was covered by trees. Nowadays, because of its long period of time existence, Menteng has tall big trees and colonial buildings or houses where it is pleasantly to live in.

Menteng district is divided into 5 administrative villages or in our term, kelurahan (pronounce: keh-loo-raa-haan) : Menteng, Pegangsaan, Cikini, Kebon Sirih, Gondangdia.

Our guest house, Shraya Residence, is located right in the middle of jalan Surabaya, kelurahan Menteng of Menteng district (Kecamatan Menteng) just opposite the antique market. Jalan Surabaya is famous of its antique market on the left side of the street. It was originally started from some flea merchants came from pasar rumput (a traditional market from Manggarai area) back in 1960s selling home appliances on the side walk of jalan Surabaya. Among the goods, they sell antiques which turned out to be a popular item that people looked for. Since then, the merchants sell more antiques that attract more people and antique collector. In 1974 the government started to re-arranged the flea shops into a semi-permanent shop to be more presentable for tourist.

Jalan Cilacap, just next to jalan Surabaya, is where the colonial building (built in 1923) turned in to a beautiful hotel, The Hermitage. We wrote about The Hermitage in our previous post, you can read about it at http://www.shrayaresidence.com/shraya-kulture/colonial-building-turned-into-a-hotel .

If you walk further from jalan Surabaya to jalan Diponegoro direction, just before a red light, there's an intersection if you turn right into jalan Pasuruan, it will lead you to jalan Teuku Cik Ditiro. There, you can find coffeeshop, restaurants, hospitals, money changer, ATMs.

A particular restaurant called Bunga Rampai is a very lovely place. Beautiful as in architectural, interior, and the food. We also wrote about this restaurant in previous post. Click this link: http://www.shrayaresidence.com/shraya-kulture/lovely-restaurant-in-our-neighborhood-bunga-rampai to read all about it.

If you go straight from jalan Teuku Cik Ditiro (it is a one way street) to jalan RP Soeroso, you will entering Gondangdia area. Three restaurants in Gondangdia that have been there for 20 years or perhaps more. They are: Paramount, Trio, and Mie (noodle) Gondangdia. Paramount is a Chinese restaurant that often have wedding receptions famous for their Nanking chicken and crab soup. Trio is serving delicious black pepper beef, and other Chinese dishes. Mie Gondangdia is famous for its Ayam goreng mentega and puyunghai.

Cikini area is side by side with Gondangdia. Cikini has more commercial places than Gondangdia. You need anything, you name it, you can find it in Cikini. From eateries, bakeries, laundry shop, office or printing necessities, pharmacies, grocery stores, supermarket, jewelry shop, flower market, banks, office buildings, hotels, apartments, movie theaters, an art auditorium, until an Olympic sized swimming pool. Some eateries in Cikini area was already reviewed in our previous post, you can find it at http://www.shrayaresidence.com/shraya-kulture/eateries-in-jalan-cikini-raya . And.. an update of this previous post, a restaurant called Java Bleu already closed. Such a pity.

The hidden gem in Cikini area, I must say, it is the house of Raden Saleh. Raden Saleh was an aristocratic Javanese with an Arabic blood and became so famous because he was a briliant painter. His house is the only colonial building built not by the Dutch. Please read about his fabulous house at http://www.shrayaresidence.com/shraya-kulture/house-of-raden-saleh
Below are some of Raden Saleh's paintings and his house.

In Cikini you will find a gold center. It is a jewelry shop building, where in the basement you can find the traditional market that originally was located on that spot since as long as I can remember. I still remember accompanying my grandmother going to pasar Cikini to buy fruits, meats, anything. Even perfume shop.

If you just walk straight on Cikini Raya, and at the end of the street, on your left, you will find a movie theater with an Art Deco design, called Metropole XXI. Of course back then, it still called Metropole 21. The XXI means the theater already renovated with the new standard from the 21 cinema company. Even until this day, they still renovating for the food area. I just love the architecture, makes you feel that watching a movie with style.

In kelurahan Kebon Sirih, we have a museum that has an important role toward our Independence day. It is Museum Joang 45 and located in jalan Menteng Raya no. 31. Just before jalan Cikini Raya. This old building was a hotel (Hotel Schomper) built in 1938 by a Dutch businessman named LC Schomper. The hotel was meant for senior Dutch official, foreign businessmen, and local officials. When the Japanese invaded Indonesia, hotel Schomper controlled by Indonesian youth and used as dormitories and nationalism education for young men who fight for Indonesia’s independence. The name was replaced into Menteng 31 building. In 1973 the government was doing some renovation and in 1974 it was inaugurated by President Suharto and Jakarta Governor Ali Sadikin as Museum Joang 45 or we all call it as Gedung Joang 45.

On the back of the main building, there is an open area where they keep three cars of Soekarno and Hatta.

Menteng is an old neighborhood with residence that have been living in this district from generation to generation. We love our tall trees, narrow streets, old buildings, along with all its ugliness. Understanding the history of this city, it is saddened when you watch old buildings or houses abandoned until it crumble or demolished just so people could build a tall, prestigious concrete that doesn't goes along with the city's design. Usually they are a new resident in Menteng and didn't really understand the meaning of garden city and the beauty of a graceful heritage building. -SK-