A trip to Museum Bank Indonesia (De Javasche Bank), Surabaya

source: AntaraFoto.com

To tell the truth, this was the first museum I visited in the city. (Shame on me?)

I always have an interest on museums. I love how they give us clues of the pasts. How people used to work with things, how they learned during the time, and this one, how they actually operate a bank during the colonial era.
This impressive old building resides at Garuda Street no. 1. It's a bit tucked inside a small alley so me and my friend almost missed (and get pissed!) the place. After making the second turn, we finally found it!

No entrance fee. It's FREE!

From 1953 to 1973, the government operated the building as Bank Indonesia - the first bank to operate clearing system from 6 major banks in the country. After being renovated for several times, this bank hasn't lost its touch of 'Dutch-ness' I shall say :D

This was used to be a basement floor and after a major renovation, it is now the first floor. (Lucky we don't have to creep in these.. ) As I walk through it, the atmosphere was cool and humid. I was skeptical as to where this small path leads to.

The vault I peep through, has been modified
and somehow leads to this humid room.
They used to keep confidential documents here.

But it turns out that it leads to another vaults.I saw several safe deposit boxes and managed to peep on one of them.

Gold digger!

Specimen in 1960: President Soekarno series

Too bad, we don’t have IDR 500 paper money anymore.
We use coin now
and it makes our wallet thicker, don’t you think?

The ground floor displays several tools and equipments that they used, to make and destroy money from time to time.

During 1970 until 1991,
paper money with defect condition would be destroyed with this tool

Heading to the second floor, this was where the bank activity took place.

I feel like dancing...

Just checking if it is still working. Well, it does!
This revolving door was used to be the main entrance of the bank . After a major renovation, the entrance door is moved to the first floor. (so the 2nd floor was actually the first floor and the first floor was the basement. Confused?)

The 2nd floor of the building

Some doors are…vanished!?

People would save, transfer, or draw money on the 2nd floor. *So the tellers worked as ATM machines I guess :D

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It was an exciting 1.5 hours visit! I'd love to explore another museum in the city! THOUGHTS FOR TODAY Why you should visit museum? If you can't find a reason to love museums, then these few points might enlighten your mind.

1. Museum makes you smarter. Really, it will excite your brain as you witness decade-year-old machineries, or how stuff works back then. 
2. Museum makes you grateful After all these years, you will come to realize that you are living in a world filled with advanced technologies where you don't have to wait for days just to transfer funds. 

You have no idea how they could actually do stuffs in traditional ways, and yet, they survived! Imagine if it was us! Thy shall be frustrated.