Much like other countries in the world, Indonesia has its own city of apples. Batu east java is nicknamed as “ The City of Apples'' because it is one of the largest apple-producing regions in Indonesia. Other than that, the city is also known for its various theme parks and natural attractions.
In my family, we have a NYE tradition where we would BBQ until the sunrise of the 1st january. However, since this year, my mom and I were in another province, we replaced it with staying overnight at a villa. My family happens to live just an hour from Batu, East-java, the city of apples. So, that’s where we decided to spend overnight and a day. However, since theme parks are overpriced, we just visited the plaza and random places on the way. And this is my first traveling of the year with my full family.
We stayed at a villa called “ comfort living at puncak pinus” which is a small villa located in the pine forest area. It’s located among local’s houses instead of a dedicated villa area. I found the place through some research. In Batu, there are many villas with reasonable prices at night. The lowest I found without a swimming pool was 20$/night for about 6 people. However with a swimming pool, the cheapest I found was 40$/night for about 6 people. After spending hours on finding the best deal, I ended up finding that villa. It has 3 bedrooms with a small swimming pool. It was quite decent for the 8 of us.
We started the journey late. It was heavily raining too, so my uncle couldn’t drive fast through the steep roads. A journey that was supposed to take less than 3 hours ended up taking more than 3 hours. By the time we reached the villa it was around 8PM. Though it was that late and the temperature was over 20C, it didn’t stop me from plunging into the pool.
So was my cousin, Ray who tested the pool. After plunging into the pool, I made a hot cocoa with marshmallows.
The villa felt like a home that made us didn’t want to explore places the next day.
First Sunrise of 2022
I stayed up just to catch the sunrise, my first sunrise of 2022. I didn’t realize that from the kitchen, I could see the sunrise. But I still decided to grab my camera and tried finding a spot where I could capture the scene in much clearer view.
I took my mom with me to a random viewing spot that was much clearer and had less wires than the one from the villa. Though we saw better sunrises in the past, that sunrise was something different. It was just the two of us. And for the rest of the year and our life, it’s going to be just the two of us.
We headed back when the sun was settling in above. I was already sleepy but managed to stay up until it was the time when everyone else was awake. We tried the swimming pool and after that I had breakfast.
My mom made simple toast and some rice with peanut sauce and salads. Next thing I knew, I fell asleep until 12PM, the time when we had to check out from the place.
After checking out, we went to drive around the city quite a bit until it was 3 PM when we decided to spot at the Plaza.
Before we arrived at the plaza, we stopped for a quick snack. Ray, my cousin, was opening the car’s window and we smelled something really good.
It was the smell of Putu, an Indonesian cake made from rice flour colored with pandan leaves. Inside of it is a liquid palm sugar filling. So, we stopped and decided to get some of it. I handed a bill of 20.000IDR to Ray, and he bought 15.000 IDR worth of Putu.
During this trip, all we did was not only taking pictures and just being overall a sloth, we also ate a lot of snacks.
Batu Plaza
Batu plaza is the cheapest option to have entertainment in this city. It is free of charge to enter, unlike many other attraction sites. However, there is an extra charge if we want to get to the ferris wheel and see the city from up above. I tried this in the past and it was cool.
Like many other places, you have to scan the covid-19 tracing app before entering the place. It’s quite a hassle just to enter a small compound of the plaza. But it was worth it. Surrounding the plaza, there are so many food stalls and mostly they all sell common hype food such as croffle and dumplings. That day, we got there quite late and the ferris wheel was closed. I could only take pictures from the outside. And the others were sitting in front of the apple statue.
After that, we left inside the plaza and went to look for snacks. We decided to get dumplings.
Then, we visited a roastery and cafe that was just 2 shops from the dumpling place.
I like that quote on the wall, " my mother told me to choose coffee wisely".
Inside that place, we got to see a roaster machine and also sat on the 2nd floor and saw the plaza from up above.
It suddenly rained heavily just before we left the cafe. So, we couldn’t go anywhere more than those places.
That’s why I planned on going alone to actually explore the city. To me, visiting and exploring are two different things. Exploring is more about covering plenty of destinations, meeting the locals with the goal of learning about local customs and culture. But visiting is just a stop to a place without even attempting to learn anything about the local and its culture.
Stay tuned for more of my adventure. I feel like this year, my life will be full of adventures. The closest in my plan is to watch moto gp. I have got the ticket and am looking for accommodation. This will be my first time watching a Motogp and I hope it’s going to be an epic one.
Mac's Pinmapple Travel List
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 | Mac is a jack of all trades. A typical introvert in love with literature, books, technology and philosophy. She is also so into nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than that, she is passionate about cooking and traveling. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things. If you like her content, don't hesitate to upvote, leave a comment or a feedback. A re-blog is also appreciated. |