Following an overnight flight and change at Kuala Lumpur, I arrived in Jakarta, meeting up with Scott Jesser from Mackay, and made my way to the Batavia Hotel in the old Dutch commercial and administrative district.
I am joining Rob Dickinson's Java steam tour together with about 30 enthusiasts for steam locomotives and steam machinery, mostly visiting a selection of Java's sugar mills.
Jakarta is a busy megalopolis that is permanently shrouded in a light smog, contrasting significantly with the much more pleasant country areas of this densely-populated island that we will be visiting.
After a short rest we headed off to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, a massive project of the Sukarno era. It is a kind of recreation park and multi-museum complex that features the culture of every province of Indonesia.
Taman Mini has a 600mm gauge train that runs every 30 minutes and takes about 25 minutes to traverse its circuit, with a top speed barely above walking pace.
It also has a railway museum (that I visited in 2008) and wonderful reproduction buildings from every part of the country with monumental construction (usually timber) and beautiful carving featuring bright colours.
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