Royal Safari Garden - Puncak and Club Bali @Kota Bunga - Cipanas

Christmas decoration on the lobby of Royal Safari Garden

Merry Christmas everyone \(>.<)/ So…tell me…did u get lotsa presents? Me? Nah…I was the one who gave the presents wkwkwk and received none (!T_T) But at least, my girls were happy…opening presents from me and ‘Santa’ (btw, we aren’t Christian but we enjoy the celebration). How was your Christmas’ eve? I hope all of us are having a blast and a blessed holiday. So…where do you go for the holiday? We just came back from our holiday, nowhere farther…only the outskirt of the city like Puncak and Bandung. We always go for year-end holiday prior the peak seasons. Why? There are lots of reasons, ie pricey hotel rate, overcrowded point of interests, long lines on amusement rides and even on McD (yes…been there and done that), not to mention a very long queue during the check in/out…and waiting too long ruins the holiday mood don’t you think so?

The putty golf arena

Leopard' lobby

So here on this post, I will write a review of 2 hotels that we stayed during our holiday around Puncak area. The first will be Royal Safari Garden, a very big complex about 5mins of drive from Taman Safari. The complex includes aquariums, splash waterpark, mini bird park, and few rides such as camels/elephants/ponies ride, choo-choo-train, and many more. Bike for rent, basketball field, spa/reflexology and fish spa, kids room, fishing and vast garden are available too. For the accommodation, they have rooms and bungalows for rent. The newest rooms will be the Leopard building one (they have several building and named it after the animal) while for bungalow, they have a 2bedroom to 3bedroom bungalows for you to choose.

Our room

 

Since we got the Leopard room, the building was quite new (compared to the aging other building ie Komodo building). The room was clean with twin bed and a single extra bed on the floor. Basic amenities were available includes complimentary mineral water and cokes. Small fridge, SDB, flat TV and coffee/tea maker were available as well for your comfort. Breakfast was good too (each building has their own resto for your convenient). Free wifi was available and there are lotsa food/souvenirs stalls inside and outside the hotel. Another benefit for staying here is you got IDR40k off for Taman Safari entrance ticket per pax…perfect!

Simple yet tasty breakfast on the rooftop with awesome view

The kids club

The next one will be Club Bali @Kota Bunga, Cipanas. A bit farther from Taman Safari (about 30mins of drive), the location of Club Bali is quite strategic as well, inside Kota Bunga Villa estate with at least 4 attractions spots nearby (The Little Venice as the closest one, Arena Fantasi, Taman Bunga Nusantara and Cibodas Botanical Garden) and many other attractions around the area as well. Club Bali is sort of serviced apartment, which is normally rented by its members, however some vacant rooms are rented for non-member as well. We took the 2bedroom deluxe room which had 2 queen beds and 1 extra bed on each room. Since it is a serviced apartment, they furnish the room with kitchen and its utensil for your convenient if you prefer cooking on your own, dining table and living room, and 2 bathrooms with another extra toilet. The blueprint from Club Bali said that the sleep capacity of the room is 16 though I counted 10 persons (5 in each room) for extra comfort.

View from our balcony

fireplace on the lobby

Our bakiak competition and we lost wkwkwk

The facilities provided are quite complete with badminton field, swimming pool, big lawn for hosted activities, kids room, billiard, resto and lounge, as well as karaoke room. During the peak season and weekend, the hotel organizes a competition among the guests (it is not compulsory but taking part was very fun) by paying IDR 50k per room (and they provide prizes as well). Shuttle to the nearest attraction spots and free wifi are available as well. Overall, our stay here was FUN!

Both rooms have the same layout

the bathroom

dining table

The sofa bed in the living room - across the kitchen

T5 Suites - Pattaya - Thailand

I got free upgrade...and I stayed alone

Hello December… one of my fav month in a year…coz it always has the festive atmosphere. With Christmas and New Year are approaching in just few weeks (stores have been dressing up and Christmas carols can be heard anywhere), December marks our holiday too…yay another month of school holiday  \(>.<)/  This time, we only spend the holiday around the outskirt of the city, few days here and there. But before we are talking bout the long holiday, I would like to tell you bout a hotel that I stayed over the last weekend in Pattaya

Guess...how much did I pay for a night? Less than US$30...awesome rite ^^

I went solo to Pattaya for 4 days, to attend an event with more than 6k of like-minded people around the world who loves to travel…sounds awesome isn’t it? Well, I am not going to retell bout the event (maybe sometime in the future) but I fell in love with the small budget hotel that I had chosen. T5 Suites is a new and small 3-star hotel, a 5-storey building with minimalist and simple design. It’s located about 3mins of walking distance to the main road of Pattaya and the nearby convenient store (and about 5mins of driving to PEACH – where the event was held). The surrounding was peaceful and quiet, a guarantee of good sleep without being bothered by a drunk people (which was quite normal on the other part of Pattaya)

Basic toiletries but spotless

When I arrived after being lost (the driver didn't know the streets in Pattaya and only understood Thai language - well he drove me from Bangkok), feeling tired and sleepy (it was long hour from Jakarta to Bangkok then continued to Pattaya), it felt wonderful when the hotel staff served a cold orange juice to welcome me in their small lobby. Lovely and prompt service. Though the receptionist had a barely passable English, however I really appreciated how they did their best to cater my need. They even upgraded my room ... when i was sleeping alone ^^ Scared me for the first night (never slept alone) but since the bed was good and I was tired, I slept like a log on the next night ha ha ha

The electrical outlet was brand new and i had to tear off the wrapping plastic to use it wkwkwk

My room was awesome, too bad it was across the lift and I could hear the ping sound every time somebody called for it. But it didn't bother me much since I got a big - spacious room with a king bed and a single bed (enough for 3 - 4persons). The room was clean and spotless, the bed was neatly done, everything was in mint condition...totally perfect. They provided basic toiletries and clean towels, hair drier, SDB and fridge, big screen LCD with almost hundred of channels to choose. The only drawback was they didn't provide coffee/tea maker in the room, but considering how attentive the staff was, I was pretty sure they would had provided it if I had asked for it.

My American breakfast (i especially requested no toast to go with this)

They had small dining room at the back of the lobby. Breakfast was good and cheap (my room didn't include breakfast), even the mineral waters were cheap too compared to the ones that we bought at the convenient store. They provided free fast wifi around the hotel that helped me a lot to connect and kept my communication with my family at home. Another thing that I like was the shuttle Baht-bus (compared to the normal van/car/mini bus), this song-taew was unique and the experience to be driven using this was awesome. Though the shuttle service only available until 10pm, however the manager went beyond my expectation, showed up and picked me up when I made a request at 11.30pm by himself. Totally top-notch customer service!

the small dining room (on the left) and the small lobby (on the right)

The hotel shuttle uses songtaew (Baht-bus)...another experience that I liked   ^^

Kuntum Nurseries - Bogor

Inside the park

Hello everyone…how are we doing in this lovely November? Us…we are preparing for the final semester exam (well – it’s my girls actually – I just cheer on them and prepare piles of practice papers to them to do ha ha ha). We are so looking forward to the year-end holiday – though we have no plan set for it until now except spending few nights after the exam out of town with family. But in case you are starting to wonder where to go for the December holiday…nothing far but yet perfect for family outing, perhaps you could consider Kuntum :-)

At the gallery

 

We came here a week ago when we intended to go to Puncak but the traffic was sooo terrible and I was sooo hungry at that time, so we enrouted to Bogor instead. We stopped at Kuntum Nurseries (at Jalan Raya Tajur No.291, Bogor) with big green eye-catching billboard on our right side of the road. Driving into the allocated parking lot, we didn’t expect the place to hold interest for us (well – it is a nursery – though I love flowers and all but I thought that was all). Stepping out from the car and taking the surrounding, I told my husband that we might need to find another place for weekend but we decided to lunch here (too hungry to be picky wkwkwk). Not much option were available for lunch either, since most of them offered similar dishes so we settled for the most corner stall – near the bakery corner, having Sundanese meals. The lunch was good with big portion and standard pricing (but the preparation took so long – or probably because I was too hungry so I felt I waited forever for the meals to come). If you fancy fishing, you could fish in the pond next to the food stall.

Finished our meals, we strolled around the nurseries and arrived at the open gallery. Here, they showcased variety of wooden furniture and knick knacks. But I love the building concept, open wooden building with less walls and fish ponds right outside the building. We took our time there just sitting on the porch, enjoying the view and the breeze. If feeding and watching fish is not your cup of tea then fish-spa might be something that you could try there. Further inside, we can enter into the recreational park by paying IDR25k per person and you can borrow the farmer straw hat for free (take it – I know it doesn’t go well with your style but it was hooot out there. For me…I took a selfie with the hat wkwkwk). The park is good (despite the sun) but they provide enough shelters here and there. There are lots of thing that can be done inside the park, from feeding the animals (sheep, cow, rabbit, dog prairie, goose, and many more – starting from IDR5k per packet of food), harvest fruit or veg (too bad – no fruit was available for harvest when we went there), or catching fish with hands (with IDR 100k, they will put around 20 small fish into the small pond for your kids to play catching fish). They also have other activities like pottery or planting, but these are reserved only for larger group of people

Felt like in Bali ^^

So...what do you think. Pretty interesting place isn't it? I would love to go there again (>,<)  Hope you enjoy the place as much as we did