Pine Forest - Sentul

The Pine forest

Hello again (^.^)

The road to get there

Actually I planned to postpone writing bout this place until I'm quite free (hectic Monday but u wouldn't hear me complaining bout it) but since there were plenty of questions from my friends, asking all sort of questions bout this place, then here it is ^^

Picnic yay

How to get there:
Just take the highway to Bogor and exit at Sentul Selatan, then turn left and follow the direction given to JungleLand Sentul (basically just follow the main road for about 6minutes) then turn left again. Follow the road for another 2minutes (don't fret - there are plenty of signage around). Then turn left when you arrive at the T-junction (T-intersection), follow the roundabout and take the first left-turn. In several hundreds of meter, you will arrive at the parking space for JungleLand. 

The camping ground

Turn right into a small uneven road and follow the road until you meet another T-junction (there was a banner of satay seller - I hope the seller still sell satay when you go there LOL). Then take the right turn (if you see a signage about hotspring then you are on the right track). Just follow the road until you see a cluster of pine trees on the right and left sides of you, then you will arrived at your destination

I guessed - autumn will be a perfect time to visit this forest since all leaves turn greener

If you want to go to the hotspring, just follow the road for another hundreds of meters ahead.

The newly-built & clean prayer room & restroom

Entrance tickets:
For the pine forest, the entrance ticket was IDR10k/adult and IDR 4k/car. When I went there, kids were free of charge. For the hotspring main gate, the entrance ticket was IDR 10k/adult and IDR 4k/car. Again, when we went there, kids were free of charge. To use the hotspring, the ticket was IDR5k/pax in which you can use the communal open hotspring. However, if you wanted a private pool like us, we paid another IDR100k/family-pool/hour

The humble foodstall

Pine forest:

To get the maximum enjoyment here, you should bring your own food and mat, and have a picnic here. But in case you forgot, there are kids who rent out the mat for IDR20k/usage - as long as you want it. However, for foodstall, they mainly sell instant noodle and snack with beverage. So if you are looking for some proper meals, then you better bring your own. 

Hotspring:
For the hotspring itself, I have nothing much to tell. Since we chose the family pool, I like how they cleaned the pool after usage, so the water which filled up our pool could be considered new. It only uses bamboo curtain blind to separate each pool and you have to walk few steps to reach the changing room (so mind your clothing before dipping yourself into the pool). Each pool has two taps, the cold and the hot water in which allow you the option to choose how hot you want your water to be, but they only have the cold one in the changing room (which felt refreshing after being boiled in the pool).

Careful with this pine-worm

Sorry no pic on the pool - it was for private collection LOL but I hope you enjoy the post (I know - I kinda rushed the writing)

The pavement to hotspring

Yes - bring back your trash ya - NO littering

Curug Country - Bogor

How could I complain for getting lost...*sigh*

Hello ... to you who loves Monday ^^ 

This time I wanna write about our adventurous day-out last weekend. It'd been a while since our weekend trip and I was sooo bored at home. Actually I (and my colleagues) had planned to go to Bandung on the first weekend in April which was cancelled on last minute (aarrgghhh...I was so looking forward to it) and since we'd had no plan last weekend, I kinda spurt an idea to my hubby for a short trip around Bogor.

The stone steps from parking lot

We surfed around the internet, found several places to consider and agreed to visit Curug Country (which looks instagrammable). Lucky I found this blog which describes very clearly on how to get there...yes...you better check his blog out. Big thanks to him (especially the GPS coordinates) that we managed to arrive at the destination without a fuss. Ok - we did get lost - not lost actually, it was just a wrong turn LOL, probably the Google Map showed the shortcut.

My hubby - helped all of us crossing the river

Normally I would be grumpy...got lost after 3hours of drive from Jakarta (with lunch break in the middle) but geez...the view was breathtaking and I just forgot bout the sore on my bottom for sitting for wayyy too long and was busy clicking the camera button on my mobile. Shortly after taking the wrong turn, we arrived at the destination - please do stop and ask the neighbour - they were friendly and willing to give the direction.
 

The trail from river to the waterfall

We parked the car at a small rocky area and walk down the narrow stone steps before continuing on a clayey forest trail. The trail stops at small river, about 3m wide and here we gotta cross it. The current was quite strong, about 25cm deep, but there were big rocks that helped the crossing. After that, we continued strolling on another trail (careful please - it was narrow and the clayey trail tends to be slippery) before went down on tens of stone steps (going down was easy - going up was tiring wkwkwk *I still have a sore thigh right now)
 

Awesome isnt't it?

Sweat and tiredness was soon forgotten when we reached the bottom. The waterfall wasn't as high as others but it fell over different band of rock which was quite a sight. Too bad, there wasn't a safer way to go under the waterfall so that we could have enjoyed the refreshing splash (there was a small trail which was considered dangerous by my hubby). So we moved and let the girls played on the lower part with the calm water.

The girls were enjoying themselves

Ah, before I forgot, please check your car (especially the tires) before leaving since some road were rocky and uneven and wear your sturdy shoes/sandals since the trail was slippery. There were small food vendor at the parking lot and at the waterfall (with firewood - ehm my hubby said the coffee tasted better ha ha ha) which sells instant noodle and beverages. But in case you are bringing your own food/beverage, please...please...please bring back the trash. It is a pity seeing such a beautiful place are being loitered by trash. Ah...one more thing, the mosquitoes were quite persistent

Enjoy! 

My Drama Addiction - Part 1

So…here I am…writing about my new addiction that made me forget my fictions…mangas and sometimes…my sleeps too (>.<) Frankly, I never watch TV, just because I never find pleasure from watching those series or infotainment or news. Besides, if I have free time, I'd rather spend it on my tablet, flipping thru the pages of my favourite mangas. So it was all started when my WA group was gossiping about a TV series that was adapted from K-drama, titled My Love From the Star. The discussion was heated and I was sooooo curious about this K-drama and suddenly I found myself later that day, buying the DVDs and burning the midnight oil – binged the whole series in 2 nights phewww…talking about curiosity kills a cat…^ . ^

OK, don’t get me wrong…I still dislike TV much (so please don’t ask me about the newest gossip or latest news). I mostly watched my drama thru DVDs or some video streaming site or…copy it from my friends ha ha ha the best way, fastest and cheapest. So last year, I was so occupied with the drama that I neglected my blog (T_T)! but no worry, I made a promise with myself that from this year onward, I will only watch a really good series – which I guessed comes out once in a while. I will share to you my K-drama favourite but not today since now I will focus on the C-drama (since the list was shorter…muchhhhh shorter)   

The Poster of The Sound of the Desert

I don’t like C-drama…for me, the series is too long and sometimes drags on and on and on and I lost my inclination. Some have almost the same plot, amnesia - accident - cancer - lost child - could be said as the major ingredient. However, there were several Chinese TV-series which I managed to finish and surprisingly, all those series have Cecilia Liu as the main actress. The first of my favourite was The Sound of the Desert (aka Ballad of the Desert), telling about a journey of a girl raised by desert wolves into a prominent lady whose heart was being fought over by 2 handsome men. One was the disabled Mo Xun (played by Hu Ge) and another was the Great General Wei Wu Ji (played by Eddie Pheng *drooling*). I’m not going to write the recap here (LOL it was 30something episodes) and I believe you could just google it (even reading the recap needs hours). I liked this movie because of the chemistry between Cecilia Liu and Eddie Pheng…all right…95% because of Eddie Pheng and the rest was the plot. Though I found the plot about the drama-house was too much (i fast-forwarded a lot on this one) but I was very glad when Xin Yue finally chose Wu Ji at the end (yay – felt like Eddie Pheng chose me wkwkwk)

 

The poster of Scarlet Heart

Next on my list was Scarlet Heart (aka Startling by Each Step). Just like on The Sound of the Desert, Cecilia Liu played almost similar character, an opinioned and headstrong woman. I chose this series due to the time travel plot…yes – I have a fixation toward time travel…and Nicky Wu who played as the Fourth Prince Yin Zhen. He has been my heartthrob since I was a girl…though now I have moved on toward others wkwkwk. Here, Cecilia Liu time traveled back to Qing Dynasty and was involved with several princes. Though it was a bit confusing as I had to memorize all those princes’ (about 14) names and faces but I am sooo looking forward to the Korean version of Scarlet Heart (Moon Lovers) in which my dearest oppa Lee Joon Gi will play the Fourth Prince (arrrggghhh can’t hardly wait for September).

 

The poster of The Imperial Doctress

And the last on my list was actually the one that I just finished watching last night, The Imperial Doctress. This time Cecilia Liu played as Tan Yun Xian (though for the rest of the movie, she was Hang Yun Xian), a woman who aspired to be the first female doctor in history of Ming Dynasty. Her character was pretty similar with the previous two but I was disappointed since Yun Xian didn’t end together with Zhu Qi Zhen (Wallace Huo) hiks hiks !(T_T)

Before I sign off, lets cheer together with me for Cecilia Liu and Nicky Wu for their-oh-so-very-romantic wedding party at Bali last week      

Warung Taru - Dago

The facade of Warung Taru

Who loves Bandung? I do ... and I bet you like it too. Just a short 2hours drive, Bandung is perfect for a short weekend escape almost for everyone (...ok...aside from the terrible traffic during the weekend and crowded attraction spots), from various natural attractions to shopaholic, from culture seeker to food-addict.

The corridor between the smoking lounge with non smoking one

Banana fritters with cheese and palm sugar - nom nom

This time my choice fell on Warung Taru - a classic traditional eatery just around the corner of Jln. Ir. H. Juanda to Dago. Warung Taru means rumah kayu (wooden house), so the whole place was built using wood and bamboo. The place itself was charming with one-of-a-kind decorations filling the rooms but what I like the most was the valley view.

The interior with heavy oak furniture and wooden frames

For me, Warung Taru was a place for snacking - enjoying the afternoon coffee while observing the view and people goes by. A good place to waste the time...doing nothing while munching on the banana fritters (which tasted so good). But I wouldn't recommend this if you are looking for a fancy meal since the menu here was limited to Sundanese basic meals like soto.

The view at night - overlooking the valley

Though there weren't much on the menu to offer, I always find myself back here whenever we go to Dago area. Perhaps, this spot would be your favourite too   ^^

The Youniq...a unique boutique hotel in Malaysia

The lighten-up corridor

Hello again (>.<) How have we been doing? I know, this blog was on hiatus for several months but no worry, I will write a bit now and then from now on. There are many items to write on my list, starting from my newly-founded-addiction-to-kdrama, new places and city, and some random items   ^.^
 

Comfy big bed for me and my husband

So this time I would like to write about a tiny budget hotel in KL which was charming (well - at least for me). We kinda had a short stop-over at KL and we were looking for somewhere to sleep near the airport area. We found this hotel thru online booking service and I booked it just because of the location, the price and the review score wasn't that bad (too lazy to find another place - it was only a night). I didn't explore the hotel so I couldn't write much, we were sort of check-in, sleep and then check out in the morning.

The tiny corner of bathroom - but spotless

Anyway, we didn't expect much when we arrived at the hotel, pretty late at night. So I wasn't really surprised to find the hotel was squeezed in between shops. It was small but very eye-catching, especially at night with all those bluish & purplish spotlights (but I guess it will be hard to find during daylight). It was kinda hard to miss the hotel since the surrounding was dimmed.

The basic amenities

Since it was for a short nite, we chose 'Sleep 2 S' room which was small but nicely arranged with very simple furniture. We have all basic amenities provided, from small flat TV, electric kettle, and AC but they didn't provide safe deposit box neither fridge. I don't know whether they provide it for other type of room but we didn't use and need it anyway - we only needed the bed ^^ Our room didn't come with breakfast so I bought myself a bread

Oh - look at those mugs ...loved it

Overall, we had a good sleep...the room was clean...everything worked as it should be. Lucky I have a soft spot for purple since all i remembered was all those bluish and purplish light outside and inside the hotel wkwkwk). BTW if you are interested, you could check the hotel's website here

Yes - apparently the AC remote often be stolen/missing so they felt the need to put a thick thread to it