TheThemeParkGuy

Planes full of sun-seekers landing every 20 minutes. Adventurous backpackers on spiritual mass trips. Low-cost life in the side streets. Bad roads. Packed beach. Homeless cat. Moped. Massage. Burger King.
That's what Kuta, Bali's tourist aggregation zone, feels like. And in the middle of this is Waterbom Bali, a cultivated and beautiful tropical garden with three slide towers and the latest Canadian water slides. It's really an impressively fine water park that makes...

Visited 2012. Part of Ancol Dreamland. Less well-kept than Waterbom Jakarta. Offers the usual lost city theming and features a big pool in its center. Ok to visit...

Visited 2012. The premier destination within the boundaries of Ancol Dreamland. Roller coaster, flume ride, river rafting ride, Wild West town, all included. Well-kept. Lowest point: an incredibly dreadful, slow and long 'It's a Small World' rip-off that will give you plenty of time to reflect on the past or think about the future...

Visited 2012. Part of Ancol Dreamland. This is the equivalent of the American/Australian SeaWorld/Sea World parks. Enjoyed the messy hippopotamus feeding show, hadn't seen something like that before. Not bad...

Visited 2012. Part of Ancol Dreamland. Small oceanarium, but better than expected. Attractive interior design. Not to be confused with the American and Australian brand, nor with the neighbouring 'Ocean Dream Samudra' that has all the animal shows...

Visited 2012. Stylish, well-kept water park with lush greenery but much fewer slides than at Waterbom Bali. The ticket price I consider a bit steep for the locals. Halfway between the airport and Ancol Dreamland...

Bandung looks like Cambodia, with Hong Kong style shopping malls in between. Starving cats on non-existing sidewalks, surface cables galore, shanty homes, waste water channels, and then... King Kong, Gucci, and Chanel. I won't attempt a socioeconomic study of what went wrong here, so let's take a look at Trans Studios Bandung on its own merit: and it's surprisingly great! Situated inside a first-rate shopping mall, the indoor theme park sports a Universal Studios-like...

Visited 2014. Small, mall-attached indoor family amusement center, inspired by Disneyland's Toontown, and equipped with coaster, carousel and video games...

Visited 2014. Smallish, snow-themed water park, equipped with Canadian-made water slides. Not worthwhile for tourists, but certainly appreciated by the locals...

Visited 2014. 2013-opened theme park in the southern outskirts of Jakarta. Boasts a China-style grand themed entrance, but there is almost nothing behind it except a collection of low-rise standard rides, randomly scattered around an ancient-looking temple. Who designed this, please?...

Visited 2014. Colorful and well-landscaped water park 1 hour drive south of Jakarta. Equipped with solid slides, a wave pool, and even a bird park. It's no match to the great Waterbom parks found in Bali and Jakarta, though...

Visited 2014. Newly-opened, small outdoor amusement park that primarily serves as a venue for festivals and concerts. Main features are a Ferris wheel and about a dozen small kiddie rides...

Visited 2014. Opened in 2007, this was one of the first KidZania branches. It must be traumatizing for Indonesian kids to leave KidZania after 4pm. First, because it closes too early on weekdays, and second, because there is quite likely no city anywhere in Indonesia that has the infrastructure, organisation and social coherence KidZania recreates. If I was an Indonesian kid, I'd never wanna leave...

Visited 2014. As a non-Asian visitor, you immediately add to the attraction offerings found at Trans Studio Makassar. Kids, mothers and employees approach from all sides, asking for name, nationality and their photo with you, with their curious, open, wide Indonesian smiles. The level of attention exceeds that found in rural parts of China. It's cute, but it also underlines how misplaced this world-class Gary Goddard-designed indoor theme park is. Equipped with great...