Hotel Indonesia 41 year old

JAKARTA: Hotel Indonesia will celebrate its 41st anniversary on Tuesday by staging a modest ceremony in the evening.

The hotel's public relations manager, Meriam Roy, said on Monday that the ceremony would kick off at 4 p.m. and all guests would be invited to participate.

"Our guests will have the chance to enjoy traditional cuisine including kerak telor (pancake made of glutinous rice with fried coconut) and mie tek tek (noodles cooked with vegetables)," she said.

Besides the special menu, Hotel Indonesia would also present a tumpeng (cone-shaped steamed rice with various dishes) and a documentary on Betawi Tempo Doeloe (Old Jakarta), which would also highlight the history of the hotel.

Hotel Indonesia was inaugurated on Aug. 5, 1962 by then president Sukarno. The hotel was built to host the athletes participating in the fourth Asian Games. Initially, the hotel only had 421 rooms in two wings, the Ramayana and Ganesha wings.

In 1974, then president Soeharto inaugurated an additional wing, the Bali wing, which increased the number of rooms to 570.

Meriam said that for Tuesday's event, the hotel management would present awards to loyal clients and put on an entertainment program featuring local artists. -- JP