Malang, IO – Enjoying yourself while learning more about transportation? Why, that’s entirely possible! You just need to visit the Malang Transportation Museum, where you can see samples of traditional, vintage, and modern means of transportation from all over the world. How exciting!
The Transportation Museum is also replete with photo spots – enough to fill your camera’s memory space because of the sheer number of snap-worthy sites! Let’s take a closer look for now…
How Many Vehicles in the Collection? Hundreds!
The Malang Transportation Museum collects hundreds of vehicles, transportation, and conveyances from various countries through the ages. Their collection, which numbers more than 500 units, includes conveyances such as pedati horse carriages, becaks, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and even airplanes!
The museum has 150-200 cars, the oldest being an American model: a 1910 Buick Model 10 Toy Tonneau. Unlike modern cars, it looks pretty much like a carriage with an engine. It’s more than a century old, but it still runs! How amazing is that?
Another noteworthy car in the Museum’s collection is the 1952 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe. This particular car is a valuable piece of our history, as both the Great Commander General Soedirman and Proclaimer Bung Karno rode in it at one time.
Among the Museum’s air transport collection pieces, we can say that the most popular is the replica of a former Indonesian presidential plane, which was a Boeing 736 series 200. When you get inside, you can see how lavishly the presidential cabin is set up: work desk, meeting space, dining space… A lot of people love to sit down and pose, imagine that they’re the president and rule all affairs of the State right here. No wonder it always has such long queues! The presidential airplane is parked on Runway 27. It’s a must see!
Another interesting aircraft is the Bell 47-J helicopter, famously known as “Si Walet” (“The Swift”). Soekarno won this bold, red-and-white chopper from the US Government in exchange for his release of CIA agent Allen Pope, who was involved in the PRRI/Permesta insurrection. Like all the other pieces, the 1958 American chopper is well-cared for.
A Trip around the World…on One Site
Do you dream of circling the globe but you’re only earning pennies and the COVID-19 pandemic imposes unpleasant restrictions on you? Don’t be sad: the Malang Transportation Museum can help! Is it to England, Italy, Germany, France or America you’re traveling to? The Museum provides replica landscapes of important cities of these countries – all the better to show off their European vehicle collections, of course!
For example, the Buckingham Palace zone allows visitors to take photos with legendary British transportation like Mini Cooper, Raleigh, Rolls Royce, Land Rover, and others, with an extremely Instagrammable backdrop. The American Zone, themed by Las Vegas and Hollywood, shows a replica of these legendary towns with distinctly American hot rods. Other noteworthy Zones in the Museum include Chinatown, Sunda Kelapa, and Batavia. By traveling through these zones, visitors acquire knowledge about the history of transportation in different areas and eras, in a lively way. There are also regular parades of the vehicles through these zones. That’s quite an exciting museum visit, don’t you agree?
The Malang Transportation Museum also provides simulators, including the Flight Simulator that allows you to experience what it’s like to be a pilot safely, and the F1 Simulator that gives you the experience that a car racer has.
After going around the museum, you might get tired and hungry. Why not visit the Pasar Apung Nusantara a.k.a. the Archipelago’s Floating Market? It’s located on a simulated river in the Museum’s grounds. You get to it by boat, and you can also choose to go boating before, after, or instead of eating at the Market. Cool!
The Malang Transportation Museum is located at Jl. Terusan Sultan Agung Atas No. 2, Ngaglik Village, Batu, East Java. Tickets are slightly pricey at IDR 100,000.00 each, but I think they are definitely worth it. Are you now interested in the first and biggest transportation museum in Asia? (nur)