Jakarta trip

Overall like other people that go back to their hometown after 2 years ( the last time I went back home was in 2006 December for my younger brother wedding, when Maya was just 4 months old and Indy was 4 years ) , my schedule was tight to visit here and there, meet family and relatives, and must bring my 2 girls around all day , everyday.
Poor kids they must be tired too. Indy was ok , but it will be tougher on Maya ( as well on me)

As I mentioned before, Jakarta is full with the latest , high end, medium end and bargain center mall/shopping complexes. I just went to a few of those new one, and skipped all the other that I've been before . And for this post to save your time to read I will only highlighted the 2 places I want to share , I think it is great for kids ( who knows if you visit Jakarta, you can try these places )

KIDZANIA Indonesia

I first heard of this place in the AirAsia Indonesia flight. And I was wondering what was that. And I found it it was interesting and went to check it out and decided to let Indy go in with my aunty, as it needs about 6-7 hours to play inside at least, and I dont think Maya can stay that long inside.

So here is what it is ( taken from it's website)
KIDZANIA is a unique EDUTAINMENT CENTER for children between 2 to 16 years old and their parents. It is a kid-sized replica of a real city, with streets, buildings, retail and different vehicles going around the City.

Here, children play adult roles and they learn how to be a doctor, a pilot, a construction worker, a private detective, an archeologist, an F1 driver and over 100 other PROFESSIONS and OCCUPATIONS.

In KIDZANIA, kids use our official currency KIDZOS. Here, children learn to appreciate the value of money, by performing over 100 professions and occupations and earn a salary. Their salaries earned, can then be used to buy goods and services available in KIDZANIA (See “Our Economy” section).
KIDZANIA is an indoor facility

So As you can read, it is like a small city, I was amazed also and thought: geee I wish I can play this when I was young...how lucky our children is .....
But beside the fun part I think it is educational too.

When you entered the place, you need to buy ticket like in the airport and then they will greet you WELCOME TO KIDZANIA. The supervisors are all adults and they will address all the children with Ibu or Bapak ( Mam and Mister) just like adult. They will be given 50 kidzos too start in cheque form and they can choose to cash it or put in the bank and use ATM card. And they must do it all by them self.
Of course for kid age 8 and above it will be so easy. But for younger kids it will be abit hard , but for Indy 's age ( 6) is ok too, need more guidance but she can handle it well.

She went there with my nephew Dylan age 10. Dylan is Taiwanese so they speak Mandarin to each other, Dylan also understand and speaks english but he is more comfortable to speak Mandarin to other people unless he really has to.. :-D He knows that Indy speaks Mandarin so he didn't even bother to speak English to her. Since Indy also speak Bahasa Indonesia quite well, she doesn't have any problem in Kidzania , for English speaker kids there are English speaker supervisors too. But for Indy I didn't request for that, as I purposely want her to handle the language challenge , I just told her if you don't understand or they speak too fast for you, just raise your hand and say " maaf , saya tidak mengerti...." ( sorry I don't really understand). On some roles , she went in with, Korean kids , Singaporean kids or even kids from KL. So that time the supervisor will speaks English to them.

Back to the topic, inside Kidzania , you can found whatever you found in a real city. From Bank, petrol station, Tax office, court room, police office, jail, hair saloon, hospital, dentist, energy room,
supermarket,TV station, Radio station, stage, cinema and then there are factories of : noodle, ice cream, chocolate, candy etc etc....
You can check the website for more info and photos

Too my surprise Indy choose the "job" that was not on my list for her, I know she like too play beautician, or more girly stuffs , but she choose to be window cleaner, construction worker. And refuse to work in hair saloon, stage and dentist. ( it is true that the first time she went there , she was with Dylan her cousin, but when she went there the second time, she still didn't want to choose more girly job, instead she became police office and running around to catch a bad guy :) )

Beside that she also be pizza man, bakery girl, work in instant noodle factory, and so on...
She also got her driving license, scientist certificate, baker certificate, ATM card, and bring back a pack of instant noodle that she made, cookies, and bought a bear doll for Maya with her hard earning kidzos. She at the end had 190 kidzos and spent 170 for the bear for her lil sis that keep bothering her , and bite her. And just spent 20 kidzos for her self on sticker and pencil. I was impressed actually by her unselfishness . I told her why you need to spent so much for Maya, you should buy more for you , not just stickers and a pencil. She said : ah never mind la, Maya didn't even play there. She is too young ya mommy. Can't find many job there. I can get 5 kidoz if I work as shoe cleaner or window cleaner. :-D...funny rite.
Also she was so concern about the money she earn. And keep asking my Aunty if that job will give her money or must use money ( some thing like taking airplane, bus, taxi will cost their kidzos)
Same with cousin Dylan, they just want to earn earn earn, until one role, they need to spen 5 kidoz and both Indy and Dylan were so panic and told my Aunty : no no we don't want this, we dont want to spend our money " but they already wait in line for long time , so my aunt told them it is ok...just cost 5... ...:)

Indy went 2 times to Kidzania, the second time, me and Maya followed her in for one hour or so. After that my aunty replace me.

So here are the photos

Waiting for ther turn to deposit her cash in to her bank account

Waiting to deposit their money in the bank. Despite the gender different and age different and language different, Indy and Dylan get along pretty well.

Following her Gege inside the traffic police office to get their Driving license to be done.

Very serious right.....

Now is Gege Dylan turn!

As construction workers
Build those wall, buddy!
Keep building!

Dylan working at the petrol station.
Indy is waiting for her turn.
Finally Pizza making
Can you tell that her father made pizza for living? :p

She is familiar with this, just like to roll cookies dough at home :D


And now put the tomato sauce

Have to decide which topping to put


YAY...our own Pizza!!!! As window cleaner

as the controller ( second time visit)


Indy and Dylan in action!

Hi....

waiting for their turn...( I dont know for what hahaaa)

Working at the hospital , Nursery section.


Coloring time

First become the customer, later on she became the cashier at the supermarket.


As little sciencetist

So which bacteria is harmfull and which one is useful?

Officers Indiana.

During the briefing before the alarm went off ...and they need to run after a buglar around the city and catch him.

Clean mommy's slippers.

Maya and her signature "get me out of here" scream in Kidzania.

Fire fighter , Indy didn't got the chance to be one. It is so cool , they even have the fire truck and go around the city with the weewow weewow sound...A dream come true for boys!
Again making deposit to her account .

taking some cash out from her account

The declaration of independence

Beside that, I also took them to Seaworld Jakarta. Since Maya loves Fish so much , and for her to go inside the tunnel to see all fish swim above her must be amazing. She keep saying " look ma fish up! fish there...fish here.. fish big....fish very big.... "

The are turtles on the back that you can touch, and on the other pool there are baby sharks also.

Inside the tunnel
Beauty!
Big fish...

Again in the tunnelShark quarium!

Sharks feeding time...

Beside that , these are some extra photos .

With my pregnant SIL and trying out their brand new Peg perego stroller. :-D

Maya loves this place and Indy is too! The token/card are affordable about RM 1 per game.

Mom did have some fun too! Getting a " smoky eye look makeover"

I must said this time is the most challenging time to travel for us. As Maya is at the difficult stage and both of them were not in their best health conditions. But sure we will love to travel again with kids. Sure it will be hard on mom specially, and yes I was tired. But it will open the whole new experience for the kids.

I flew back to KK alone with 2 kids. This was not the first time I travel alone with them. 2 years back I also went to Jakarta without my dh ( via Brunei) and I think it was easier because Maya was still 4 months old. This time she is much active and alert ( read as: running around in the airport, pulling front passager hair in the airplane, calling the next passenger while they were asleep : uncle ...uncle sleep? , Cried and screamed during take off and landing, pulling the Imigration cards as I wrote it , and I prayed oooh please let the imigration officer understand my wiggly writting oh and she did one explosive poo in the airplane and God knows how smelly that was...poor people that sit near us.....). If it is sound funny in this post, trust me It was not funny at all for me at that time , but I remind my self.. oh well at least I will have an interesting blog about Maya's behaviour.:-D

I did put some "small surprise toys" for emegency situation and some candies and treats too. During the long line during checking in in the airport, and immigration or while waiting for boarding that will help. As for Indy she got this game boy kind of thing that will keep her busy and not driving me nuts by keep asking me : when we will go ma? is it time yet? are we there yet?

And if you travel alot , it is good to keep some extra immigration cards , so you can fill that before the trip and it will save your time and sanity. I got mine from my cousin and I filled it up the night before, but I didn't have the Malaysia one so that why it was tricky to wrote that on the plane. Last time with other airline I did ask the assistance from the crew to filled it , but as you know with the lower budget airline, the crew were more busy making instant noodle and making coffee and teh tarik and calculating the price and the change. :)

Indy and her dearest Pho pho
Me, Maya and My dearest Mom. She has Parkison diasease for the last 15 years. But she is in better shape now, Thanks God.
Maya was looking at the giant presents

With my Aunty, infront of this glittering silvery Christmas tree of Mall Of Indonesia.


Taken in one of the private club in K. Gading area.

One of my favorite photo of the girls....very civilized here....no hair pulling or biting or screaming...

So am I tired from this vacation? SURE....
Will I do it again? absolutely if finance permit :) why not??
My next project? hmmm I plan to have a trip with one of my "friend" , no husband allowed (kwang kwang kwang) , and we plan to bring our kids to Hongkong Disneyland next year.... My wish ? I hope Maya can behave better by that time! Time to save money now! No more new bags for Mommy :(

Mini Garage Sale this Saturday/Sunday

After long time of talking and planning. Finally I give my self a limit. This weekend or never....
The reason I post here is to PUSH my self so I can't cancel it because I already announced it here....

Mini because I still haven't got the time to sort all the things that I can let go...
Garage sale is because you know it is second hand or gently used.

Items for sale : toys, books, barbie, soft toys and adult clothings.

Indy will try to sell some lemonade ( most probably I will do it and too save time n energy I will not squeeze the lemon maybe buy sunquicks hahaha). She still need to decide the price per cup.

Ok that is for now, I am off to sort more stuffs

Date /Time : Saturday 13 dec ( 9-2 pm) and Sunday 14 dec ( 9-12 pm and 3-5 pm)

Shot on the spot TAG

Oh man.....got this tag from bonnie right after I came back from the clinic to bring Indy. She got fever for 2 days. but she doesn't have any cold or flue or cough . So the Doc said she is having strep throat.
As there are white spots on her back throat. And it must be treated with antibiotic.
So...here is my sweaty face after bring Indy to doc and take maya from daycare....
I must do this fast as Maya now is eating her fruits with maid downstair.


Before I post my ugly picture, here are the rules :

1. Take a recent picture of yourself or take a picture of yourself right NOW!
2. DON’T change your clothes; DON’T fix your hair… Just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
5. Tag 10 people to do this…

Don't blame me if you can sleep after seeing this photo ! muahahahah

So here it is :

1...

2....

3........

BOOO....and yes purposely took my pc , so you can see Bonnie photo again and the yahoo chat box. :p

I want to tag:

Taty,

shabbymom,

ok for these mom if you havent put on your tudung then put on first, but that's it no make up yee...hehehe

Roz,

Yanti

Aunty J

Joyce S

Deana

only 8 persons for now! :D

Bali 13 nov to 22 Nov 2008

So we took 10 a.m flight from Jakarta to Denpasar. We are aware of the alert situation on the newspaper following the execution of the bomber from the bali terrorist attacked. But Thanks God Bali is calm and peaceful as usual.
Arrived in Denpasar at 2 local time ( one hour different from Jakarta time or same as M'sia time) We'd decided to stay in the same Villa like our bali 2007 vacation. Villa Puri Ayu in Sanur Area. Sanur is more quiet than Kuta but still not that far from Kuta. We choose to stay in 2 bedrooms apartment this time. We love to have kitchen when we travel with kids and the villa has the private garden and gazebo too. Some people like to stay in the hotel room with balcony. But with stroller and sandy slippers from the beach, seashells that they will collect, I would really prefer to keep the dirt out of the room.

The living room area. Too bad we didn't take photo of the garden and gazebo

The kitchen, nice to have when you travell with young kids. So we can prepare a simple meal.
The villa puri ayu pool.

Anyway the choice are endless in Bali. Depends on your budget and style. There is the highest end villas, 5 stars hotels or resorts, backpacker motels, and so on. The favorite area can be : Kuta , Sanur, Jimbaran, Seminyak, Legian beach, or the lush Nusa Dua area. But that is not it...there are north beach , Lovina, where you can go by the boat before dawn to watch wild dolphins on the sea welcoming the sunrise.

Since we 've been too most of the touristic spots last time ( this is our 3 rd time and Indy and Maya second trip to Bali) , so we want to keep it simple and easy for us. No touristic spot this time to visit. If you never been to Bali , there are a lot of things to do from art and dance perfomances,silver jewerlly shopping, furniture or wooden art shopping, of course clothing , there are many stores selling the most affordable clothing to the luxurious batik boutique ( try Seminyak area), the nicest and must see places are: of course the Tanah Lot,Ubud, Uluwatu, Danau Bedugul, Kintamani, also the capital of Bali, the city of Denpasar and there are many more other places in Bali such as Lovina, Nusa Penida , Nusa Lembongan ( by cruise) etc

Bali is such a great place for everyone. You can do bungee jumping, do many of watersports, take a cruise , go on submarine or go to WaterBom water park ( a big bummer for Indy as the Waterbom closed for renovation while we were there), you can go river rafting , go to Safari ,swim with dolphin like we did, and it is SOO MUCH FUN and WORTH IT!!! Talking about dolphins , these dolphins ( that we swim with ) also can do therapy for autistic children . In the Melka hotel they also have a mini zoo with other animals such as kangaroo, monkeys , deer, and you can also let the kid to do horseback riding, Indy is a horse lover and sure she wont miss every chance she got to ride a horse.

On the Dolphins note : Sure one of my favorite animals is dolphin , They are just amazing and so intelligent . I watch many times the dolphins shows since I was a kid, touched it too, but I must tell to be able to swim with it in the swimming pool is one of my dream came true. The dolphins are actually quacks like a duck hahaa and it was fun, Maya said to me , DUCK DUCK . I said no there is no duck and then she said FISH!!! BIG FISH when she saw the dolphin in the pool. I told her that is a dolphin. Do you want to swim with the dolphin? She didn't look quiet convince ahhaha.... it is big and weight almost 200 kg. There are certain rules that you must follow to swim with dolphins. And I can tell you , the eyes of the dolphin speaks a thousand words!! It has the most expressive eyes. And we all know why because it is mammals . And they are so communicative and playful too. The trainers told us that they can be stressed , nervous just like human. And when we were just arrive, I took Indy and Maya to approached the pool and guess what? The dolphin know that we were there and she ( the female one) start to swim fast around the pool and make a jump out of water to make a big spash, and then with her tail up she waves to us. And this is not during the show!!! And then she stared at Maya for a minutes and wow you can really see the eyes are just so friendly. And Maya stood still and keep looking at the dolphins. And then with Indy , The female dolphin did the same , but this time she even jump out the pool and stay there to look at Indy at a neared distance before she jumped back to the pool again , and keep starting at her , while Indy talked to the dolphin , like halo....hi dolphin! I will swim with you soon!!! I love you....

Can you see the eyes? it was amazing! Maya was so taken by it.

And Indy officialy announce she is in love with dolphins, and list down : Dolphin trainer as one of her dream job ( beside baker, or open a hotel for dogs ). I think it is good for her to see more proffesion that she can do when is grow up.
Gently touch Indy's legs

And clearly the dolphin loves Indy too. She keeps swimming toward Indy, play with her feets, go under her . Me and my dh were soo jealous as for us we must swim to the dolphin but the dolphin keep swimming to Indy !
See what I mean? The dolphin was like playing peak a boo with her! Even kissed her on her cheek!

Another place that is great to visit for kid is sure Waterbom bali. We went there last time and Indy loves it soo much but too bad it was closed for 2 weeks . So we went to Safari and Marine park and it was great. I am a fan of Taman Safari Indonesia in Cisarua Bogor. Indy always must go there when we went back to Jakarta. So this time , it is great to be able to see the animals again but in a different way. In TSI Cisarua we can go in the safari with our own car and feel the zebra, deer, camel from our own car. But in Bali we must go on in their bus. And there is the guide, and the journey last about 30 minutes and we can see the animals right outside our bus walking, running or sleeping ( no cages). And then you can take photos with tiger, orang utan, elephant, and so on. We did this in TSI Cisarua so we skip all that. When we visited The Safari and Marine Park, Maya was not feeling so well. Poor girl , she was having a fever. But still excited too see all the animals . Then Indy and My dh went to camel ride. They did not ride on the elephant this time as they did it last time. Indy practicaly wanted to ride on every animals she could. Camel, Elephant, and of course the pony.

Waiting for the bus to enter the safari adventure


The screaming Maya at the Safari and Marine Park, Gianyar. Bali

No no... it is not silver pomfret! It is the man eater PIRANHA !

There were big fish on the back but can't really see from this pic


Some of animals that you can spot from the journey :
RhinoVery beautiful but sleepy White Tiger

The hip-o
One of my favorite animal The Tiger. They are so magnificent from near.
My other favorite animal ? ORANG UTAN!!!!!


Koo Kooo
Remind me of my girls when they are sleeping :)

Camel Ride

Didn't take much photo with animals since we had photo with some of it last time.
She ride on the elephant back 2 years before

But she never feed a baby elephant that near before! This is her first time.

The good thing here, beside Safari , there are also the fun park with all the rides for kids and adults ! And there is also the Water Park with all the slides. Since we cant go to Waterbom so this will just heal the wound.... And Maya love the slides so much but too bad we much limit her time in the water as she was not well that day.

While we were in Bali, my sister was also there for bussines trip. So we managed to have dinner with her and her friends and the famous BEBEK BENGIL in Ubud area. And also we tried the Italian cafe in Seminyak area.

Maya feasting on her Kahlua cake. I think she was a bit drunk afterward! LOL

Us at Warung Italia, Seminyak

My childhood memory of Bali includes hair braids!!!! And of course for Indy too!

Do you like the result? She also had the pedicure here by the beach!
It was a treat for her as she was sick and not allowed to hit the pool or beach that day.

While cie cie was having her treat. I must entertainted Maya...

Overall that was it. Some other times we just take it easy and relaxing at the villa, swim 2x a day. Have a walk on the beach , Indy and my dh collect seashells so they got busy every afternoon try to add their collection.

Is it Lembu, Kerbau, Sapi? or Cow?

Along Sanur beach..

Early morning walk in Sanur
Body lulur in our room


Followed by flowers bath. She said she feels like a princess.

And of course that included daily fights



But at some other times they act quite nice to each other like during this trip with the glass bottom boat.

We flew back to Jakarta after 9 nights in Bali and my dh went back to KK to go back to work, While me and the girls will stay in Jakarta for another 11 days .
To be continue.....

Vacation Jakarta Bali 2008

So Finally I got the time to blog about our family vacation in Indonesia.
My intention is to share about vacation with kids. Share tips on Bali, some children friendly places, activities and so on.
Hopefully you will find something useful :)

We took Airasia this time, direct from Kota Kinabalu to Jakarta. The journey took about 3 hours . It is much easier that to take other airlines as it must stop in KL or Singapore or Brunei for transit . The downside of the AA flight to Jakarta is the late timing. It leaves at about 9 pm and reach Jakarta at midnight or 1 am Malaysia Time.

We stayed for 2 nights in Jakarta before we flew to Bali. Jakarta - Bali flight takes about 1 hours and 30 mins. We meet my family, had dinner together and visiting some relatives.

We also visited the lastest high end mall in Jakarta. Jakarta has many great malls and shopping centers. It is good but sometimes there are no other activities except malls and malls and malls and kids there are normal to be Children of the mall. One thing that I 'd like to share is a great place for children Kidzania . I will make one post on this later on. Indy had a blast there and sure if we go to Jakarta again , this is the place she wants to re visit.

Jakarta the CBD , taken from my sis's apartemen in Semanggi Area

One Pacific Place, the latest high end mall in Jakarta. Above the mall is the Ritz Carlton Hotel. And there is Kemcik supermarket that sell the best imported stuffs and meats in town. My dh wanted to cry when he saw the selection of premium meet and sausages and the cakes .

There are many big amusement center and it is hard for Indy to resist.

One of my favorite photo. My dh with my mom ! It is great to see my mom again after 2 years and she is excited to meet Indy and Maya.

One thing they can't miss. To take shower in my parent's house. They love it!
Yay I am in Jakarta now!

My lil brother and his pregnant wife , family friends

My old mand and dh

Just before we left for our holiday Maya was sick , she vomited and had diarrhea . And she was still on medication when we left. So during the traveling and while we are in Bali , she was still not yet 100 % Fully recover. Indy also catched a bad cough. During holiday and traveling I always pack some basic medications with me like Paracetamol, cough syrup, inhaler and ventolin for bad cough , cold syrup.

Other notes that parents that want to travel with young kid or toddler must note , don't expect too much from your kid. And don't be too worry if their eating pattern, sleeping pattern, appetite and behavior change during this time. Take it easy and relax. Me and my husband agree that children won't stop us from traveling , of course we will have different itinerary compare to those who travel without children. Don't even dream to have a quiet romantic dinner, or a relax sunbathing by the swimming pool or sea or reading your favorite books while you are having a full body massage or full day at the spa . Most of the time your itinerary would be: running after your kids to prevent them jumping into swimming pool or fish pond, eating your meals ( breakfast , lunch , dinner) in rush as you need to drag your screaming toddler from disturbing other or climb on table, chairs, or stairscase. You must have a super sharp eyes to spot a nice thing to buy as you only will have 5 second to decide what to buy, what color, what size, and haggling for price while your toddler /kid try to run away with some chocolate/sweet /ice cream from the next store. But that doesn't mean we will not enjoy it, we will be tired for sure but they children will learn a lot from the experience and with a bit of creativity we can still can have a massage ( we called the masseuse to our villa after the kids are a sleep )
And be a BAD MOM during the vacation can help you also. Me? I gave sweets and chocolate or chips when I need them to be quiet ( during queing for check in in the airport, waiting for imigration, or in the long driving journey) . Dont't even think ,that a steam carrot or green beans, or an apple will do the trick for my kids during this time. I promised to my self as soon as we go back home I will cut all those treats , mean while....I do what I had to do for my sanity sake....

to be continue

Searching for School bus for my dd

If any of you know a contact of School bus driving that goes to Chung Hwua - Kota Kinabalu area to Damai/Luyang area. Please let me know.
I need School Bus service for my girl to go to her primary school next year.

You can drop me email or comments

Thank a bunch!

Complete the sentence tag

YES I am back. And still need to recover from my vacation.
To update my blog I will do this tag. I grabbed it from Bonnie



1. Life is full of stories

2. I smile when i remember something funny ( OF COURSE KAN)

3. I can't sleep when I dont have something to hug ( my bolster pillow)

4. I love the smell of the rain

5. When I can't sleep, I keep telling my self to sleep sleep sleep.. SLEEP!

6. I often dream about my school year, childhood.

7. I get irritated when I saw someone being unfair to others.

8. I like the sound of kids laughter.

9. People often call me Sa, San, Sandra, Bek.

10. I wish I could buy more bags hehehee.

11. The best creation in the world is internet.

12. 1st 3 words that comes to my mind: eat, job, family


13. I've discovered that I am lucky and blessed

14. When I'm in love, I try to be the better me..but it is hard ...:D

15. A baby is born with no sins.

16. Before I met my husband, I never thought I will marry a "white" man.

17. A good marriage requires ALOT OF PATIENTS, PLENTY OF RESPECTS and MANY FORGIVENESS.

18. I dislike liar

19. I say 'I Love You' not to many people

20. My favourite subject in school was biology