Jawa Timur Trip - Batu Night Spectacular

We had our early dinner at Omah Kitir Cafe. We read in many sites that this is the most romantic restaurant in town. In my mind, I had something like The Valley Cafe in Bandung whereby the diners could eat and enjoy the scenery of the town from above. Sure this place is at the higher ground, but we could not see anything even though we were seated outdoor.

The cafe served western food and we ordered a few varieties for sharing. The taste of the foods was quite nice although the place turned unsuitable for eating when it was dark. We chit-chatted for a while before proceeding to Batu Night Spectacular as our last itinerary in Batu.

Omah Kitir Cafe

No lights, nothing. Maybe this is why people refer to this cafe as 'the most romantic' in town.

Batu Night Spectacular is another highlight in Batu for night timer. It is opened at 6 p.m. and last until midnight or so. It consists of lanterns festival, ghost house, theme park rides, eateries, and shopping streets.

BNS

Moving inside

Go cart at the left, swing at the back, something else at the right, and a pretty lady in the centre

Castle full of lanterns

Lampion Garden

Phototaking 101: Block the path to create impression of having the place for yourself

Love Garden

I wish I can erase the two at the back

Millenial Cinderella

We also stopped by the food court nearby the Love Garden to stretch our legs and enjoy wedang ronde and sekoteng. Wedang ronde is glutinous rice ball in ginger soup and I extremely love this dish. However, the version of wedang ronde here does not use brown sugar thus it is not as fragrant as it is supposed to be.

After we finished with the display and exhibit, some of us went for some shopping at the shopping street. The rest just waited at the food court nearby the exit.

The food court

Tired but happy face

A full day to enjoy Batu finally ended. We got back to the hotel and gave ourselves our deserved sleep for the next day long journey back to Surabaya.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next - Morning in Malang

Jawa Timur Trip - Highlights of Batu

We started our second day with a soto breakfast. Another soto? Yes. And this time it was Soto Ayam Bang Joe (Bang Joe's Chicken Soto). It was not a disappointment: the soup was thick and the taste was just nice, the chicken was tender and skinless, there were also vermicelli, bean sprout, and eggs. We had a happy breakfast.

The small eating hut is located by the side of the road

Soto with kerupuk aci (flour cracker)

We then continued to the first destination, The Bagong Adventure Museum Tubuh (The Body Museum). This is a very interesting place whereby the museum showcases the body parts of human and the visitors are made to enter from the mouth of Bagong. In the world of wayang (Indonesian traditional puppet show), Bagong is one of the character with round body shape, big eyes and thick lips and has funny behaviour.

This museum is owned by the same company who owns Museum Angkut and other main attractions in Batu. Museum Tubuh is located by the side of Jawa Timur Park I. However, we only decided to visit Museum Tubuh since we did not have intention to play with theme park attractions in Jawa Timur Park I.

Museum Tubuh consists of 6-storey building with different zones for the visitors to walk through. This museum is also the first and the largest in Southeast Asia thus far. Another interesting thing in this museum is the section that showcases cadavers, the  preserved corpses. Visitors are not allowed to take pictures and videos, kids are not allowed to enter. The attendant in this section explained to us clearly about the process and the origin of the cadavers.

Entering from the mouth of Bagong

Besides Museum Tubuh, there is Jawa Timur Park I

Non-smoker's vs Smoker's Lung

Kidneys

Zone of Reproduction System with Displays of Pregnancy Stages and Screening of Sperm vs Ovum

This is a place for kids to learn for sure, but I think there are too much informations being pasted on the wall in each zone so in the end I am not sure which of the information that I really absorb. Everything is so-called forced to enter this tiny brain. I read until I reached a point when I could not read anymore I just stopped. I enjoyed to see the cadavers the most as it was something new and exceptional.

We continued to our next destination, Jawa Timur Park II. Jawa Timur Park II is the recent addition of the attractions in Batu that focuses on education of fauna. It started operation back in 2010 and the complex consist of Museum Satwa (Fauna Museum), Batu Secret Zoo, a small theme park, Pohon Inn Hotel, and eateries.

We purchased our tickets online for Museum Tubuh and Jawa Timur Park II for IDR 125,000 (~SGD 13). However, we were still held back by the terrible system when we claimed our pass. The purchase confirmation did not show any QR code or bar code or any code of that kind. When we reached the customer service officer, she still needed to flip and flip and flip a lot of things to search our booking and she still wrote us a receipt BY HAND. So what's the point of online system?

We got our pass around 11 a.m. and we proceeded to Museum Satwa. I could see from the facade that its inspiration came from 'Night in the Museum'. We walked in and enjoy many displays of animals from different parts of the world.

Outer Look of Museum Satwa

Snacking before entering

Dinosaurs in the atrium

Insectarium

What are we doing LOL

Bison

A little bit of 3D display in the museum

Aquarium 

Ice Exhibits

There was a small incident that we witnessed inside. It was in front of a display of penguin. My friend is a huge fan of penguin and she wanted to take picture with it. She stood there to pose already and she found water dropped from the ceiling. She quickly moved away and lucky enough for her, a vast amount of water was pouring from the ceiling shortly afterwards. The cleaners quickly cleared the area.

We took around 1 hour to enjoy the exhibits and we walked out when it was lunch time. There were two places whereby visitors can have their lunch, an open aired food court and an indoor food court. We intended to eat indoor but the whole place is reserved for a tour group, so we moved to the outdoor eateries.

There are a few choices here: bakso (meatball soup), bakmie (noodle), tahu telor (rice with fried tofu-egg in peanut sauce), gorengan (fritters), nasi pecel (rice with steamed vegetables in peanut sauce), fast food chain, ice cream, beverages, etc. The taste and the price were not bad for foods in theme parks.

Food Colony, the open aired food court

Tahu telor

Tahu Isi Goreng (tofu fritters with vegetables filling)

After lunch, we continued with Batu Secret Zoo. This zoo is huge as in HUUUUUUGE! Be prepared to walk A LOT up and down before you can be out. It's a one-way thing and I have warned you!

The collections in the zoo were a lot but the zoning was not so clear and straightforward. I could not really see why monkeys keep appearing in different places even though the neighbouring cage showing for legged mammals. I am not an animal person, so whatever I saw here I forgot shortly after.

Cheers!

Welcomed by the largest rat in the world. I am shivering now.

The first zone

Hello! 

Gloria???

Peacock

Alpaca

Reptile Zone

Pinky flamingo!

Homo sapiens

Savannah, animals are out in the open, humans are caged

Moving out of Batu Secret Zoo

Moving into Fantasy Land, the theme park

One of the attractions

The place emerged to zoo-like again after a while. We saw giraffes, deers, tigers and lions. I really pity the tigers and lions. They look really sad and their body is flabby. I think it's not the way they want to live, inside a cage and become some kind of show for humans.

River

Giraffe has the longest tounge!

Deers

Sumatra White Tiger. Look at his flabby skin :(

The King of the Jungle is missing his jungle I guess

The lion exhibit was the nearest to the exit. We finished our touring inside this monstrous size zoo and our legs turned quite jelly already. We phoned our driver and get him to pick us up.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next - Batu Night Spectacular

Jawa Timur Trip - Late Night Foodies in Batu

After all the fun at Museum Angkut, it was a matter of tummy again. We felt so hungry we might even eat a giraffe. We asked the driver to drop us at Alun-Alun Batu (Batu Town Hall) so that we could hunt for foods all night long.

I remembered I had come to this exact place 14 years before and it was so different. It was so quite and dark back then with only one or two restaurants in operation. The alun-alun and the buildings have not changed but it had been decorated with lights and people, it's so merry!

It says 'Batu Tourism Town'

The street foods!

And many more

Happy faces surrounded by foods

We walked around the small circle and bought ice cream, fritters, and stuffs. We then walked across the road to find restaurant to eat. The first restaurant across the road that we approached, called Watu Lontar Restaurant, declined us without clear reason. It looked empty but the waitress told us they had full reservation and could not have us. So we walked further to a place called 'Cafe Batu'.

Cafe Batu

We were brought to the upper floor where we could enjoy the scenery of Alun Alun from bird eye view. It's quite cosy to sit and relax there even though we waited for our food for very long and some of our order was not delivered. We were only informed last minute that the food was not available anymore and when we ordered the substitute, it never came too. I guess the restaurant should mend the management and the system for better service. The foods were actually quite tasty although some a bit too salty.

Quite impressive, huh?

Still waiting for the food

We finished our dinner around 10 p.m. and we walked towards the most recommended late night snack in Batu. It is sticky rice with many variants of topping in a small kiosk called Pos Ketan Legenda. The queue was quite legendary.

The late night queue

After we reached the front, we were to order what we wanted as fast as possible by mentioning the code in the menu. There are sticky rice with peanut, with soya powder, with chocolate rice, with chocolate rice and cheese, with durian, with chicken floss, etc. etc. We ordered 2 durian, 1 peanut, and 1 chocolate rice and cheese. We then waited for a while inside the kiosk. I don't recommend to sit inside for people who are claustrophobic.

Finally!

We were glad we were wise enough not to over-order. None of us thought that the taste of the sticky rice more than so-so. Our moms could do better.
Either:
1. This place was really over-rated and many people were curious like us
2. Our taste buds were disoriented due to tiredness
3. The taste does not suit our liking
4. Food in our hometown is way better

It was almost 11 p.m. when we decided it's time to find our hotel and give ourselves some beauty sleep. Another day tomorrow!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next Post - Highlights of Batu