Club Huis - Puncak

The logo

Hammocks between pine trees

Hello again

The food stall

Outdoor area

As I promised on my previous post, this time I would like to write about Club Huis, the charming café near Pesona Alam Resort & Spa. Actually at that time, we didn’t have any plan to drop by but when we drove up the lane to the resort, there was a banner telling us to turn left – and we followed the banner wkwkwk (we arrived earlier than the allowable check in time anyway). The cute café is located in between the pine forest – a little bit hidden from the main road but if you wander around the pine forest, you wouldn’t miss it.

Knickknacks

The seating areas - indoor and outdoor

A barbecue corn stall was the first sight upon the entrance, offering simple traditional delicacies that brings back the old-time. Few old bicycles and wooden ducklings welcome us to the café. Across and on the left side of the cafe, few white-washed-wooden chairs and desks are placed for those who prefer to enjoy the vast greenery of pine forest and basking under the sunlight and cold breeze. Few hammocks that are hanging between the trees lured us to sit and rest our tired bodies from the journey. At far, we saw some workers were doing the pavement job that leads to another road. On the back porch of the café, few patio chairs blend well with tables made from log, some with garden parasols that provide shading. On the other side, there is a rabbit hutch for kids to play with.

The vintage indoor setting

Charming isn't it?

Enough enjoying the sight outdoor, we went in for order. Inside, the small room is only adequate for 3 groups of visitor but the design are charming. Antique stuff with various kinds of knickknacks decorates the room and shelves. Frames in various sizes are filling the walls with big plush sofa ready. I couldn’t hold myself – the place is totally instagrammable. The foods and beverages here are pretty standard with reasonable price tag too. Enjoying the view with a bandrek or ice blossom tea here is the best way to spend the weekend away

The bandrek

Entrance to the club

Love this sign ^.^

Pesona Alam Resort and Spa - Puncak

Welcome to Pesona Alam

The main road

Hello everyone…how is your day? For me, I still feel refreshed after spending a short weekend at Puncak with family. OK, for those who doesn’t know, Puncak is a famous mountainous weekend retreat for Jakartan and its surrounding. It is cold with plenty natural attractions and it has so many restos/cafes scattered around for you to have a taste. It is just 1hour drive away from Jakarta – if no traffic jam (that means you should leave quite early – since the traffic police often opens and blocks the road to and away from Puncak on certain time frame to decrease the traffic congestion around Puncak). Yes – this place is actually a nightmare for driver (especially a new one) despite its charms to many.

The pine forest

The whole complex from the hotel room balcony

So last week we…finally…able to spend a night at Pesona Alam Resort & Spa (it is always fully booked since its opening and getting few rooms without prior reservation – especially on weekend – are impossible). Not only can be considered as a new hotel (yes – I would prefer newly built hotel especially in the cold area – wouldn’t like to sleep on a damp mattress with molding smell in the room), Pesona alam is perfectly located just a drive away from the famous Taman Safari Zoo and it boasts classic chic design that is very much instagrammable. Nah – did I catch your full attention already (> , <)   

The kids pool in the villa

The family pool in the villa

Yeah - beanbag to float

The entrance to the resort is sandwiched by scarce pine forest which is getting thicker the further we go. Not far from the entrance, there is a cute café on the left side of the complex (will write bout this soon) while on the right side, we can see a row of villas. The villas come with 1 to 3 bedrooms, in which each villa has kitchen, dining room, living room, and a small terrace, with a country-type of design. Natural color is dominant with the usage of wood panel and steel plank. It is minimalist but still oozes the coziness.

The hotel room

The bedroom of villa

The facade and inside of the villa

The bedroom comes with hair drier, industrial shelves to put clothes and stuff, comfy bed and linen, air conditioning (Puncak is not as cold as it used to be and I switched on the air-con so I could cuddle up under the blanket), and basic toiletries. The kitchen itself is equipped with rice cooker, microwave, electric stove, electric kettle, fridge (with refreshment that we can have – free of charge), water dispenser (hot and cold), tableware and some cutlery. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide cooking oil, dish washing detergent, knife and seasoning so if you want to have a cooking fiesta, you gotta bring your own stock or run to the nearest convenient store for it (about 5min drive from the villa). Another lacking from the kitchen is they only provide one electrical outlet so we couldn’t have simultaneous cooking (they provide plenty of electrical outlets around the villa – but that means you will need to plug your kettle behind the door, a microwave at the corner of working desk or probably you will need to move the rice cooker to the middle of the living room – at least that was what we do when we stayed there LOL).

The trampoline

Pony ride - with a small fee

Halimun Lounge

For indoor villa entertainment, they provide flat LCD on each room – yay – no more fighting over the remote, plus another one on the living room, all with cable tv subscription too. Outdoor, they have 2 swimming pools, the kids pool and family one. They have a lounge with fireplace where we could sit and chitchatting while sipping the free-flow hot bandrek (a Sudanese traditional beverage that is perfect for cold weather) and nibbling a steam cassava or sweet potatoes. One minus thing is the fake fireplace otherwise it would be cool ^^ Beside all the above, the villas have a beautiful landscape in which you can enjoy while lounging on the purple-beanbag placed outside the villa…ah…heaven (> . <)

Awesome isn't it?

Part of the villa's garden

The landscape near the villa

If you are looking for something more convenient, you can opt for the hotel rooms instead. Located across the villa (you could use the golf-car as the free shuttle to and forth), they offer 2 types of room to choose. The room size is standard with standard amenities as well such as flat LCD with cable, air conditioning, SDB, electric kettle, hair drier, fridge (no free stuff here ha ha ha) and toiletries. Again, with minimalist interior which is not much different than the villa, the room is comfortable for 3 adults (they have a long sofa-bed in each room). Industrial design can be found on each floor, but the look is softened by - again - wood panels and natural colors around the hotel. The sofas and ornaments placed on the lobby bring out the classy charm too.

Get Bengawan Solo black coffee for free from Club Huis for staying in the villa

Yes - this was what we do...sitting and enjoying the view

Since the hotel is nestled on the top of the hill, the mountain-over-looking lobby (Halimun Lounge) is one place that you definitely can’t miss – especially if you like soc-med. The pool rings-out the lobby gives the perfect view to the mountain, lustful greenery and amazing sunrise – especially if you sit on the round ottomans on top of the pool. The hotel utilized the landscape perfectly by building its hotel few levels down from the lobby. This hotel provides spa, resto, pool and gym, outdoor lounge and for family with kids, no worry since there is plenty to entertain the kids from kids club (they have special performance for kids every weekend), mini football arena, mini outbound and trampoline, bike rental and of course a pony ride.

The small football field

Grand piano in the resto

 I hope you enjoy your stay here – just like us *wanna get back there already    

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