Sunday, April 27, 2008

Lamongan theme park

Wisata Bahari Lamongan.
That is a theme park in Lamongan, East Java, Indonesia
This theme park is on the beach.
Yup, near the sea.
Only you can't surfing here.
The wave not so high, and to many corals.

Lamongan is 70 Km from Surabaya.
Takes around 1.5 - 2 hours to reach it from Surabaya using car with average speed 100km/h.
You can use bus from Bungurasih terminal, but I don't recommend it.
To dangerous in bus terminal.
Many pickpockets and robbers.

It's saver and faster if you rent a car.
From Surabaya you can use highway.
If you just landed in international airport, Juanda,
you can in from Waru gate and follow direction to Gresik / Tanjung Perak.
It takes about 1 hour before you exit from the highway in Manyar gate.
Don't exit from Gresik / Lamongan gate.
You can reach to theme park; but 1 hour longer.

After you exit from the highway,
follow the direction to "Wisata bahari Lamongan" or "PCL" (don't know what is it)
You can enjoy the view.
One of the interesting view is Pegunungan Kapur
The sign if you already near by the Wisata Bahari is; you will see ocean on the right.
If you saw it, then only about 500 m from the gate. Also on your right side.
The parking fee is Rp 2000 for car (in 2008)
We arrived on 11.00 am (wow, it's really hot here)
It's hot and humid. Almost the same in the Sentosa Island, Singapore

The entrance ticket has two prices.
You can choose it. Either you want to play the games or only walking around.
You can choose from the list. The different only for the games.

Because it's my second times go here and we brought eldery,
so we bought the cheap one. Rp 20.000 [Mon-Fri; weekend Rp30.000]
After all we don't want to play game. We want to enjoy the park and the view.

First stop; we are going to "the cat house".
Inside we can read all about cat.
The history, the species, their habit, etc.
Also, there is a lot of live cats.
Many kinds of theme.
Including cat that live in the cold weather. (they use air cond since Indonesia is very hot)
So you can watch their habit and take pictures.

Satisfied watching kute cats,
we continue our step.
Next we reach to the Ships and Shells gallery.
I like that place since it's cool and a lot of shells inside it.
I can watch and got a bit information about traditional ships in Indonesia.
They made it really good and detail. I admire it.
The most interest me is traditional ship from Majapahit kingdom.
They made it base on the relief in Borobudur temple.

Still in the same building, in the next room we can watch plenty kinds of shells.
They have a lot shells varians
Also their habitat and what make them very expensive.
Mostly shells from asia has an expencive price because of their beauty and rarely.

After cooling myself and finish admiring the shells,
we continue our walk.

Since it's free,
We are going to ghost house named "Sarang Bajak Laut" (means Pirates cave)
Imagine this; going to ghost house in the middle of the day.
Yup.........boring
After watch view moving dolls, we reach the exit.
My mother in law don't like it since it's dark and noisy for her.

From ghost house, we are going to Insectarium cave.
Yes,
It show many kind of insects and where they live.
All of the already preserve.
The living only scorpions and snakes
The interest from this cave is, a chalk-cave.
Here's on of the view inside the cave



It's a natural cave.
The entrance is man made, but after walking down the stairs we are in the natural chalk-cave
Inside there's a small pool. I can't see what kind fish live in it.



Look...... the Lamongan Icon. Frog stone. Is it like a frog? Come and see yourself

After taking pictures; we are heading to........
The WATER WORLD !
it's not a movie; but honestly this is the icon of Wisata Bahari
It's a labyrinth, BUT.......
98 % you will wet after pass this labyrinth.
Yes, the garden it's like 'Alice In The Wonderland'.
The flowers is big. But..... carefull the flower is a gargoyle.
To make it more fun.... It's not every flower has the gargoyle.
Also from the grass and other hidden spots.
It's react base on our move. They hide the sensors perfectly.
Why I said 98% you are gonna wet?
Try to find the answer. It's fun.

After changing our cloths and dry ourselves;
we are having lunch.
Many kinds of Indonesian food or instant food.
The price is reasonable.
Since Lamongan famous for their soto, we bought it.
We want to know the original taste of soto lamongan. hahahahaha.....

Next we are heading to the beach.
You can play many kind of water sport.
banana boat, canoe,ski boat,fishing,etc.
Actually we have 15 minutes free for canoing; but it's too hot.
So we skip it.
We watch live seaturtle in the small pool (feel sorry for them. They are very dirty)

I'm tired, so I sleep in the swing onnthe beach under the big tree.
The air is cool. aaaahhhhhh........ much better than before.
My wife and her mom walk around.
about one hour they are back.

On the way to exit, we found Texas City.
Yup it's a cowboy area.
We can riding horse or rent a cart.
The course is near the beach.
We are just watch cause we are tired already.

Actually there's plenty of games such bumper cars,
jetcoaster, mini motorcross, go cart,rodeo,
bumper boat, and many of them.
But we don't have enough time.
May be next time we should have one nite here.
There's a nice hotel beside the park.
My friends said it's nice, and you can fishing too.
The view from hotel is very good.
Well......... next time.

Then we going home.
It's 15.oo.
Wow time run very fast.
But it's fun and they have a good facilities.
I just hope they can maintain it.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Third day

Third day,

This is the last day in Malaysia. 11.00 am I'm going to Singapore by bus.
There's a bus station in the First World Hotel.
So on the first day we arrived in the hotel,
I already bought tickets to Singapore.

So today I wake up a bit late.
Checking our luggage.
After all check,
We go down for breakfast.
After breakfast we walk around to enjoy the place before we leaving.
never now when I'm going back.

10.00 am we back to the room to get our luggage.
Then we wait in the station, near the lobby.
The bus is ready, but I rather to stay outside.
want to enjoy the fresh air.
but I already put our luggage in the bus.

I'm lucky.
We got seat right behind the driver.
I always enjoy the view from bus.
I also like to drive.
From my seat I can enjoy the view.
The road is wide.
there is copra field on our left-right.
The weather is not cool anymore.

After 30 minutes,
we stop for awhile.
It's a souvenir shop.
Near main road, and there's jungle behind it.
The sell some souvenirs in central market.
But I forgot, which one cheaper.
There's many kinds traditional snacks and branded snack.
We stop only 10 - 15 minutes.
Most of the passengers stay in the bus.
Then we continue the trip.
I was curious; what kind of view I'll going through.

We're not going to KL.
We're in into highway.
I like it, coz there is no jam.

After 1 hour in the hilly road,
the road is strait. No corner.
The bus already in the maximum speed they allowed. 90 km/h
Shortly I'm getting boring.
The same view ( kelapa sawit trees), the road only strait a head.
Nothing special.
Then I decided to sleep.
better keep my energy.

The trip take 6 hours.
I don't know how long I slept.
The bus is very comfortable, I can streching my legs.
I don't have this experience in Indonesia.

We stop again in Johor Baru, city border before we reach Singapore.
We stop in the restaurant.
Mom ask me if I'm hungry.
I saw the menu they have, then I decide not to buy anything.
I'm not in the mood to try food.
And the place is not representative.

We stop for 30 minutes.
We are in the bus for another 30 minutes, the we reach the border.
All the passangers and luggages are putting out of the bus for customs check.
The custom work fast and efficient.
The check all the luggage through X-ray detector.Don't need to waste time to open one by one.
After that, we getting on the bus again,
and in 30 minutes we already arrive in the last halte.

that's end my first trip in Malaysia

Tuesday, April 15, 2008


Hey...... that's me in the First Hotel lobby :)

The second day.
I woke up early in the morning.
True, it's holiday time,
but I want to feel the atmosfer in this 'city in the cloud'

I was right.
Just like what I want.
It's still quiet,
the air is fresher than yesterday noon.
A lot of guests still sleep.
I like it.
Most of the guest spend their time in the casino.
Me...
I can't get in since I didn't use proper dress.
The dress code for man is use shirt and shoes.
I only brought t-shirt and sandals (hey, I want to enjoy my trip)

After enjoy the morning atmosfer,
I went back to room and take a shower.
Then me and mom go to have breakfast.
We have buffet for breakfast.

The buffet in the third floor.
We have fried rice, bread, potato, and.... lot of chocolate milk.
Not much menu, but I enjoy it.
Specially..... it's buffet. All I can eat.
And one thing I remember till now is.......
the view!
My table was beside the window.
so I can see cars, buses, and trucks below.
There was moving clouds out side the window.
It's so cool. Like in the movie.
The temperatur was 16 Celcius degree. brrrr......

8.00 Am we go to the lobby and found the taxi we ordered yesterday.
First , we go to Chen Swe temple.
It's a budhis temple.
New temple, but I like their architecture.
There is a pagoda there but it was close.
So we only can take the picture from outside.

Also there is a waterfall.
Above the waterfall there a big statue of Kuan Im.
We were only 30 minutes in the temple.
We don't explore much.

Then we move to the city, KL.
It took 1 hour to get there by car.

First we go to central market.
I don't like it very much, coz there's also traditional market like this in Indonesia.
After mom bought few keychains, we leave to KL Tower.

KL Tower is a telecommunication tower.
What make it special is, it surround by natural forest.
yes....
Natural forest. They named it Bukit Nanas.
Forest in the middle of metropolis.
That's amased me.
I never saw a forest in the middle of city.

We use elevator to go to the observation deck.
There we can lend a MP4 player.
There is explanation and story inside it.
Every window has number. So we can see and understand what are we watching.
The MP4 player tell us all.
There's 4 language : English, Mandarin, Japanese, Melayu.

After round the tower and take pictures, we're leaving again.
It's all ready noon.
Time to get lunch.

The driver (and guide) bring us to melayan food.
Too many chili and santan for me.
I dont like chili stuff.

After lunch, we ask to go to Twin Tower.
Here's the problem begin.
The driver don't want to go to the twin tower.
His reason is difficult to park the car.
Can you believe it?
Twin tower is Malaysian icon, and don't have parking car ????????

After debating, the guide only bring us to watch the Twin from the road.
Like a fool we watch the tower from inside moving car.
Great !!!!
I'll remember this guide service.

One thing that's bugging me..... I use travel agent from the airport.
The have booth in KLIA.
In my mind, they will be professional.
Guess I'm wrong.
For USD 100 I got 8 hours services.

Yes. This is my mistake that I mention in the first article.

And the bonus is........
the car can't go up to the genting highland.
With lot of excuses the driver ask us to go back hotel by bus.
What a great service.

Afternoon we got back to the hotel.
After taking a shower then we start to take a walk around the hotel complex.
Not long, we got dinner and mom back to the room.
She is tired.
Then she asked me to watch the show in the ball.
It's like circus.
Well, it's good enough to spend my time.
Then I go back to my room around midnight.
Mom already sleep.

Tomorrow we have to prepare to go to Singapore by bus.
Honestly, for the first time, I don't like KL.
May be because of the city tour service.
But I do love Genting Highland.