Short Vacation To The Mountain

January 05, 2009

Short Vacation To The Mountain

Pic: Kebun Raya Purwodadi

Pic: Playing in Kebun Raya Purwodadi

My baby girl loves animals as much as her brother does. Few months ago I brought her to see Taman Safari 2 in Prigen Pasuruan. Just 2 hours away or less from Surabaya. Both our children were so happy to see so many animals walking around our cars. We can even touch them since they keep coming to check us out and most likely to beg for food.

So I made a promise to my daughter to bring her back to that safari place.

For this Christmas holiday, I decide to make 2 vacations. For the first vacation I bring my family to Batu, a small town on the mountain. But on the way there, we made a quick stop to see a botanical garden that is just right on our way. This garden is called Kebun Raya Purwodadi. To better understand about this garden you can read Duncan Graham's Blog.

I am so glad that I bring my children to see nature. They both were so happy! Much more happier than when I bring them to the mall. Especially my boy. He is so curious with everything. He keep talking so excitedly non stop about everything he just saw. He ran around trying to capture bugs. He even come prepared. He brought a used cookie plastic container from home so he can keep his new found "pet" inside so he can inspect them in more detail later.

His little sister is still to slow and maybe still a bit scared to catch bugs on her own so all she did just cheering her big brother when ever he caught one more bug. Then KK generously share his "pets" with her. They are so adorable together. So curious and so happy !

From Kebun Raya Purwodadi, we went straight to our usual hotel when ever we go to Batu , we always stay at Klub Bunga which I believe is the best place in that town. For this visit, since I did it at last minute, I got their executive room on the top level.

Pic: Eating Gelato together at Klub Bunga

This is our second family holiday where we go without bringing the children nannies. I am curious to know if I can take care of these 2 children with out the nannies help. Well.... the answer is yes. I fount out that actually it is easy because KK is big enough to take care himself and LL is still small, but she is pretty easy going person, except about eating. She is very picky.

But the whole time we stayed here, the hotel provide us with 3 meals a day with all you can eat buffet. So there is always something that my picky eater girl can eat. Thank God!!!!

We stayed in that hotel for 3 days and 2 nights. We had a lot of fun together. I arrange a relax trip to Taman Selecta. This place on Dutch colonial era was called the little Swiss. It was built in a 20 hectares land in 1928 by Royter Dewvild, a Dutch man. This Garden is located in a valley at 1100 meter from sea level. The first Indonesian President Soekarno and the first vice President Moh. Hatta, both loves to stay here.

The fun part about Selecta is we can feed the big fresh water fish in their ponds. Then we can take picture in their flower garden. We can also play too. Less than 100 meters from Selecta, there is market too where we can shop for beautiful plants, fruits, and other gifts. The kids love it.

Pic: At the playground in Selecta

Pic: Daddy's little girl

Pic: Picturs of the flower garden in Selecta.

I also brought the children to see Agro Kusuma. In that place we can see how they grow our vegetables and fruits. They use 2 system, organic and hydroponic. Most of the organic fruits and vegetables in Surabaya is supplied by this company. Over there not only the children can pick a few red strawberries ( most of them are shipped to Surabaya together with other suppliers and yet they still can not filled the demand ), I also can buy a lot of organic vegetables freshly pick but with only a fraction of the price that I usually pay in Surabaya. For example for a red bell pepper, in Surabaya I paid Rp. 15.000 for one but here I can get 4 !

So as you can guess, I go crazy. I bought 20 kg of oranges, 20 kg of apples, 2 kg of red bell peppers, 2 kg of green bell peppers. etc.

In the late afternoon, we usually already back to the hotel to swim in their warm water pool and then we go to eat our dinner. After dinner we usually are too tired so we hit the sack early. I think this is the best arrangement when traveling with young children. We start the day early and ended the day early too.

After 2 nights there, we drove back home, but first we made another quick stop at the Taman Safari 2 to see, touch, and feed the animals. At the entrance, the caretakers of this place sell carrots and peanuts that we can buy to give to the animals. I bought a lot and yet still not enough. The kids loves it so much! Even LL is not scared to hand feed the carrots to the deers, llamas, etc. The kids never stop giggling. Since this is holiday, the amusement park is so full. So we decide not to go there because we need to rush home so we can make it to go to the church for Christmas service. I guess the children are already satisfied because they don't mind we go home directly.

But because the traffic is so unexpectedly great today, we made another quick stop to eat lunch in this unique place.... to see more photos about this restaurant you can click here.....