MONAS OFFERS FRESH AIR, NICE SCENES FOR VISITORS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 8 (ANTARA) - You Need a track for jogging, a park for picnicking, a culinary center for eating or even a shady tree with benches for a leisure romance? Just visit the National Monument (Monas) square in Central Jakarta.          "The Monas square is a place which provides answers for different visitors with different purposes -- people who want to have an exercise, hunt money, feed deer, check health or even defecate in a mobile toilet," Roshad (40), a cleaning service worker at the park said.          That's why in a Sunday morning before sunrise, hundreds of 'hunters' began flocking into the 80-hectare square in Central Jakarta where the towering, 132-meter-high National Monument (Monas) stands firmly.          However, those visitors did not come to the Monas square to hunt deers or birds in a city forest park inside the square. They mostly came there to 'hunt' for wellness, exercises, or even money.          "I came here to go jogging. My doctor asked me to take an exercise because I have a high cholesterol level. It took me 10 to 15 minutes to walk around the monument for one round. I have finished four rounds in about one hour," an old chap said.          Jogging is not the only exercise that you can take to regain your healthy condition in the Monas square.          For those who are still young, they can bring a ball and play 'soccer' at a number mini football fields, including futsal fields, at certain corners of Monas.          On that Sunday morning, some parents looked amazed to watch their children flying kites in the park while others hired bicycles and pedaled around the square.          In a number of corners inside the Monas square, you can hire a bicycle. So don't bother taking bicycle onto your car if you want to have a picnic or an exercise in Monas. There are many on street bike rentals there.          There, different kinds of bikes are on "temporary sale". The tariff varies. "A bicycle of two pedals costs Rp20,000 per 30 minutes and three pedals Rp25,000," said Mamat who rents bikes in the Monas area.          If you come to Monas alone, and get lazy to take a walk or go jogging, just watch or even join certain groups of community who have different kinds of exercises such as laughing or breathing exercises.          There are many kinds of breathing exercise groups, like tai chi, chikung, or even reiki, where participants try to synchronize the slow movements of their bodies to the tune of music, or even no movement at all.          If you do not like tranquility type of exercises, you can still find a group of community, who take laughter as the subject of their exercise. Laughing that force your abdomen to contract can reduce different health complaints such as blood pressure, high cholesterol and many others.          Instructors skilfully will tell you a story that will make you helpless but laughing hysterically. This community members during practice take several positions such as standing, sitting and lying while instructors in each stage tell a story that will tickle your stomach.          Sometimes, when this group of community takes its exercise at the Monas square, the number of on-lookers is larger and they laugh even louder than the community members.          If you laugh so helplessly that you feel you want to piss or defecate, don't worry, in different directions of the monument you can easily find a mobile toilet that are ready to 'receive' and keep your 'waste'.          Visitors who are reluctant to take part in the laughing 'session' can have another method to regain health. They can simply get a stroll in a special walkway under shady trees in a park in the southern section of the monument square.          But here, visitors usually grimace while walking along the path. They grin not because they are pinched by lovers but because corral stones perform their task to massage their feet.          It is a reflexology walkway, adorned with coral stones designed to massage visitors, just adjacent to the city forest park (also inside the Monas square) where a group of deer would welcome visitors to ask for different 'meals'.          The deer park is an interesting place for those who come for a picnic, particularly children because the deer is tame, some even approach the fence to ask for foods.          That is Monas, a place for different purposes, not to mention its function as a place for different official ceremonies, rallies and a destination of study tours.          Built in three phases since 1961 and completed in 1976, Monas which is topped with a flame of 14.5 tons of bronze covered with 50 kg of gold foil, symbolizes the fight for Indonesia's independence.          Feeling not well after taking an exercise? There are many medical students from various universities who offer their services.          You can check your blood pressure, the levels of your cholesterol, gout, glucose and others. They will charge you Rp20,000 for a cholesterol test, Rp5,000 for blood pressure and Rp10,000 for gout.          Hungry, thirty or need a souvenir? hundreds of hawkers and other street vendors also flock to the square to 'hunt' money and offer different kinds of souvenirs, cakes, food and drink. Some hawk their merchandise and some others simply put mats and their goods on the pavement.          Food stalls and souvenir shops are found in the southern part of the Monas square, just side-by-side with the parking lot. So before you drive back to your home or cities, just try your foods in the culinary center or buy souvenirs in the shops.***5*** (T.A014/A/H-NG/18:10 /a014) 09-10-2011 19:21:2