Quality Time with My Boys

It was on first weekend of November when I and my husband, Jason, decided to take our boys - Omar (5yo) and Owen (2yo) - for a short trip to Batu, Malang, East Java, to escape from the heat of Surabaya.

We've been wanting to take the boys away from the city, away from the malls and dirty playgounds, hoping for them to experience nature in a way we never get a chance to do when we were living in Jakarta.

One of our friend has mentioned about this place, Kusuma Agrowisata Batu, Malang, and recommended us to go there.

So we were off to Batu, Malang, at 10AM. We were hoping to get there by at least 12PM, but unfortunately we got stuck at Porong -where Lapindo mud incident happened- and got into Malang city by 2 PM. Luckily I have packed sandwiches and drinks so we all had lite lunch on the way.

It was already 2:30PM when we got in to Malang City. We passed by Toko Oen, a legendary restaurant built in 1930. It was too late for lunch actually, and too early for dinner, not really up for tea or coffee, but we couldn't resist to come in and decided to have a proper lunch there. From outside it looks like an ordinary building, but when we got to the inside, feels like coming in to my grandma's house, something familiar with all these Dutch design. High ceiling, antique doors and floorings, old pictures and all these antique furnitures... So I felt a bit nostalgic at the moment...

So we ordered Hotdog, Bitterballen, Lumpia, Crab Fried Rice, Javanese Fried Rice, Galantine and Beef Tongue Steak.... Did i mention that it was just the four of us going ?

We had planned to stay at the Kusuma Agrowisata Hotel, one of the facilities at the agro tour complex, over confidently calling at the last minute just to find out that at that exact day, all the rooms are fully booked ! There was an event held by 3 different companies all at the same place so alas! we have to find another place to stay for the nite.

So after a quick browsing on the mobile phone we found this place De Daunan Home & Garden Guest House, not far from Kusuma Agrowisata. And it's getting dark outside, so we postponed our visit to Kusuma Agrowisata and decided to just stay at the guest house that night.

De Daunan Home & Garden Guest House was renovated from what used to be a house of a family... They have 8 rooms, all at a very very friendly price. In the biggest room they have a piano... And in our room they have a series of Encyclopedia for Kids from the year 1985 !!! The boys were really thrilled and read those book all night. We didn't get the chance to look around as it was already dark outside when we got there, and decided to wake up early to look around in the morning .

We woke up really early the next day. It was 4AM and the sun had already shown up. Boy that place was heavenly. Look at Owen having his bottle of milk by the fish pond.

The guest house managed to have a garden of organic vegetables and fruits. They have dragonfruits, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, kyuri, cabbage, jathropha, etc. It's amazing what they can do with a  2000 m sq area. We had a little chat with the nice farmers, excitedly explaining how they first started the farm with help from one of local university. Very interesting.

After saying goodbye to the nice lady at the guest house, we were then off for the agro tour.

By paying Rp.40.000,-/person -free for under 4yrs old- each of us can get a package of Strawberry and Apple tour where we can pick the fruits to-go, a cup of Strawberry Milkshake and Apple Juice welcome drink,  and 1pack of Hydroponic Vegetables. Well, nature for the boys so far is their grandma's 2000 m sq backyard, while Kusuma Agrowisata plantation and their facilities lies on a 60 hectares land, 1100 metres above sea level on the slopes of Mt. Panderman. So we were really excited !

The place was amazing, but we had to walk all the way from the strawberry fields to the apple fields, which quite far, and goes up and down following the terrain.  We wished we had the boys' stroller so we don't have to carry them all the way back up !  And with me being 3 month pregnant at that moment, it was a bit hooh and huuh all the way. But I and Jason agreed that we had to burn all the calories from having too much foods the other day :D

And these are when we were picking strawberries the apples ! We went to hydrophonic vegetable farm but sorry, we were busy preventing the boys from entering the greenhouses, so no picture :(

The place was amazing, we were so thankful for having the chance to go there ! The boys were so happy, they forget to fight and were busy throwing questions instead . Of course they got exhausted and slept all the way back to our home in Surabaya.  It was a perfect weekend for us. Me and Jason could spent quality time with our kids, and more to that, at the end of the day we feel like we already planted nature in our kids' heart.

Things I prepared for this trip :

• Snacks, sandwich and drinks for the kids ( mom and dad too)


• Favorite toys


• Anti mosquito repelent, I trust lemongrass oils to prevent mosquitos and other insects from biting us. It has a distinct odor, but it's 100% natural and works wonder :D