Big ride: Visitors line up for an elephant ride at Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta on Tuesday. Holidaymakers flocked to various tourist attractions in the capital during the Idul Fitri holiday. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

The face of four-year-old Lutfi was flushed with excitement as he eagerly walked through a giant aquarium tunnel, gazing at various marine creatures on display at Sea World park at the Ancol Dreamland recreational park in North Jakarta on Sunday.

It was his first-ever trip to the popular tourist destination.

'€œWe come here because my son has never been here before. He is very enthusiastic and this place feels very lively,'€ Lutfi'€™s father, 31-year-old Jane, said.

Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers flocked to the many recreational features on offer at Ancol Dreamland park during Idul Fitri holidays.

The number of visitors reached its peak on Sunday. City-owned developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol recorded 130,100 people to have visited the amusement park on that day.

The 552-hectare recreational site saw 124,000 visitors on Saturday, up from around 80,800 on Friday.

'€œThis year'€™s figure is higher than last year'€™s,'€ PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol spokeswoman Metty Yan Harahap said.

Ancol Dreamland park was just one of the city'€™s various popular recreational sites that saw a surge in the number of visitors during this year'€™s Idul Fitri holiday season.

On the eastern side of Jakarta, tens of thousands of revelers packed into the Taman Mini Indonesia Park (TMII) cultural park on Saturday. The park, which features a number of pavilions representing the nation'€™s provinces, recorded around 31,500 visitors that day, tribunnews.com reported.

Also on Saturday afternoon, 67,000 holidaymakers crammed into the 147-hectare Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta.

'€œThe number of today'€™s visitors jumped by three times from regular days,'€ Ragunan Zoo spokesman Wahyudi Bambang said as quoted by kompas.com.

On Sunday, tribunnews.com reported that the zoo saw 203,303 visitors. The roads heading to the zoo were congested on Sunday and a number of smaller streets in the residential areas around the zoo were occupied by visitors'€™ vehicles.

Meanwhile, the East Flood Canal in East Jakarta appeared to act a free and favored recreational site for locals during the Idul Fitri holiday. Residents relaxed there while enjoying snacks and drinks sold by street vendors.

Hary, 34, and his wife, 32, accompanied their 6-year-old son Raka as he played with his kite at a spot on the riverside on that Sunday afternoon.

'€œMy wife usually feeds my son here every afternoon. We can get fresh air here,'€ said Hary, a resident of Duren Sawit in East Jakarta.

Residents also flocked to malls on the second day of Idul Fitri.

Aside from recreational centers, shopping malls act as favored destinations for residents in Jakarta during Idul Fitri.

A number of malls in the city, such as Grand Indonesia, noted that their visitor numbers remained normal, and likely increased on that day.

'€œVisitors on the second day of Idul Fitri reached 90,000 people with 11,150 cars,'€ Grand Indonesia senior public relations officer Brigida Alexandra Marcella said as quoted by Antara news agency.

The number, according to Marcella, hiked from the first day of Idul Fitri, on which between 70,000 and 80,000 visitors and 9,000 cars visited the mall.

25-year-old South Tangerang resident, Rayania, said that she chose to visit malls during Idul Fitri holiday because they were less crowded than popular tourist spots such as TMII and Ancol.

'€œUsually, recreational areas are much more crowded than malls. If I had visited one of them, I
would have felt stressed, instead of feeling relaxed,'€ she said in Pondok Indah Mall in South Jakarta.
(alm/foy/agn)

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