Hotels prepare to accommodate guests in Ramadhan

Hotels prepare to accommodate guests in Ramadhan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ramadhan is again upon us, and Muslims in Jakarta have many
choices as to where to break their fast, as most hotels offer
special menus.

Several five-star hotels are offering Ramadhan packages,
whereby guests can rent their function rooms for tarawih (evening
prayer, after the breaking of the fast). Ramadhan buffets are
also available for the breaking of the fast meal and sahur
(predawn meal).

The Shangri-La Hotel, for example, has provided several
function rooms -- with a capacity of between 600 and 4,000 people
-- for tarawih. The room rate is calculated based on the number
of people it can accommodate, with prices ranging between Rp
100,000++ (US$10.95) and Rp 125,000++ per person. The breaking of
the fast meal is included in the cost.

"There has been great interest in the package, particularly
from large families looking forward to holding a mass tarawih on
weekends," said the Shangri-La's communications coordinator,
Sugeng Purnomo, on Thursday.

Guests can also break their fast at the hotel's Coffee Garden
Restaurant, enjoying an array of dishes from bubur kacang hijau
(mung bean porridge) to kolak pisang (bananas cooked with coconut
milk and palm sugar), puddings and sorbets. The buffet is
available for Rp 120,000++ per person from Sunday to Thursday,
and for Rp 130,000++ on Fridays and Saturdays.

In keeping with its tradition, the hotel will also display a
replica of a mosque. This year, the mosque is Baghdad's Khulafa
Mosque, and made of 300 kilograms of chocolate. The replica,
created by the hotel's team of culinary artists -- led by I
Nyoman Sukardji and Herry Pujiantoro -- took a month to complete.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Hilton International Hotel is offering
a family pesantren (Islamic teachings) package for Rp 1 million
to Rp 1.35 million every weekend. Besides sermons from noted
preachers, the program will include Muslim fashion shows and
poetry readings.

The hotel will also be offering a breaking of the fast buffet
at its Peacock restaurant for Rp 125,000++, which includes a
selection of kolak. Its sahur package is priced at Rp 105,000++,
and the hotel's famous bubur ayam (chicken porridge) is certain
to be on the menu.

Although the Borobudur Hotel will not offer any of its
function rooms as part of a Ramadhan package, guests can attend a
tarawih together, at the hotel's mosque every night.

Guests can also enjoy a buffet for breaking the fast at the
hotel's Bogor Cafe for Rp 130,000++ per person, and a set menu
for sahur for Rp 98,000++ per person, while listening to a
marawis (Islamic music) performance.

The hotel will also offer the warmth of a pasar malam (night
market) at its Singosari Poolside Restaurant. The restaurant will
serve various traditional dishes, such as nasi uduk (rice cooked
in coconut milk served with side dishes) and soto kuali Solo
(Surakarta-style chicken broth).