When we took the Grab car from the Batu Secret Zoo to the hotel yesterday, the driver was telling us that we really should visit the Museum Angkut, a Transportation Museum within the same group as the Zoo. He said, in confidence, “If you could only visit one thing while in Batu, you should go to Museum Angkut”.
So, we did. But before that, we had to have lunch! Jessi made a suggestion to go to the Sate Hotplet Batu. We ordered quite a sinful bunch of plates: Otak Goreng (cow brain omelet — my favorite), Tongseng Kambing and Tengkleng. And the mutton & chicken satay, of course. Aina ordered her own satay: fatless chicken satay. Definitely not a sinful meal for her.
They were delicious! The mutton satay was yummy and I couldn’t stop eating the tongseng and otak goreng. I definitely ate too much today… came out of the restaurant with a big belly.
Then, we took a 6-seater Grabcar, which surprisingly was quite easy to get here in Batu, to the Museum Angkut… From the outside, the Museum actually looked rather small. It looked like a two-storey warehouse building, filled with old cars and bicycles.
Oh how we were wrong.
Yes, the first parts were filled with old cars, bicycles, jetplanes and even horse-carriages. But the stuff displayed there were very historically cool… It has a few Model T cars from Ford, the first Indonesian presidential helicopter, first Indonesian Jet fighter, even horse-carriage of the Mataram Kingdoms.
On the second floor, they had all kinds of Indonesian traditional transportation means. Aina had to try everything, from becak, helicak, andong…
We didn’t go to the third floor, where there was a fuselage of an aircraft sitting at the roof (where supposedly we could get in), because I think we got distracted by the backyard… there was a complete replica of Batavia Kota Tua and Sunda Kelapa Port.
We made a rest stop and snacked at the small warung at the end of the Sunda Kelapa Port. We were kinda hungry and Little Joe needed to feed, too. We honestly thought, that was the end of the museum, and were thinking of going back to the third floor to check out the aircraft fuselage. But then we saw another warehouse-looking building with, like, a hundred vehicles sitting in it. So we went in… So many interesting cars to see!
When we came out of the warehouse, we ended in this Broadway-themed road. So I guess, there was no way we’re gonna go back to the to see the plane fuselage. There were just too many to see ahead!
We stayed in this road for a while, because Little Joe needed a diaper change, and there was actually a baby-friendly bathroom here in this area. Yay for baby-friendly museums! Aina was busy taking pictures, too.
Not long after Joe finished changing into a fresh diaper, loud music started to appear and rows of cars came out from the warehouse we were in, driven by people in costumes. And the costumes were kinda random: From Scooby-Doo to Darth Vader. From Ironman to V of Vendetta… Then, they got off the cars, and started dancing! So bizarre!!
Joe didn’t really enjoy it, because the music was too loud for him. So, we continued to the next building, which has a label: Europe. We went passed Italy with Italian cars, Germany with German cars (pretty Karman Ghia!), and France with French cars… and a mini Eiffel Tower.
Then, we came out into this large garden with pretty flowers and a large white structure behind it, labelled the Buckingham Palace! I guess we’re going to England, now… In the garden, there was a small shop where you can rent a flowery costume for half an hour. I guess, a lot of people wore them and took pictures in the garden with the “Buckingham Palace” in the background. I asked Aina if she was interested in renting, but she wasn’t. Sorry, no pictures of the costumes…
In the Buckingham Palace, there was a kiddy playground area where you can get into a plywood red double decker bus. There was also a kind of choo choo train, but instead of trains, they were cars. We tried it out, while Ari and Kungkung was busy looking at the real cars: a few Rolls Royces were in the collection. Aina and Jessi also managed to take a picture with the Queen.
After England, we went out to the Hollywood, which I think was the last area of the museum. By this time, everyone was exhausted. So we just skimmed quickly (there were pretty cool mustangs and camaros there). And we went out through an old train.
Now, we were out of Museum Angkut part, and arrived in a sort of floating market setting. There were food and gift shops everywhere. We had to skip the Indonesian Heritage Museum (A.K.A. Museum Topeng — they changed their name, apparently), which was located at the end of the trail here, because we were spent. Too tired to go to another museum… So, again, this means, we have to go back to Batu again someday, to continue the museum-hopping.
We also opted out of having dinner there. We were too tired to be outside, so instead, we headed back to the hotel, and ordered Baso Malang Arief though GoFood.
You see, Bakso Malang that I knew were tiny compared to this! This one, all the items were about 3 times the size of the ones that I am used to. Originally, Jessi and I thought we ordered Bakso Malang for snacks before going to dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. But after trying to finish it up, we were too full to have the real dinner. Actually, I stayed full the next morning! Too stuffed, I guess.
You can find more photos in Museum Angkut 2018 photo album, and other photos of the trip in Batu & Malang 2018 Trip photo album.
For the rest of the trip, you can check out the entire stories at Batu 2018: Short Getaway with Family.
