Christmas Holiday - Day 2

All our hotel rooms were twin beds room.  So, in my room, I shared the bed with Renni, and Nico was using the other bed.  One time at night, I suddenly heard a 'bump', I looked at Nico's bed. It was empty, so he must have been fell. So I waited to see if he would cry.  But unexpectedly, he stood up, put a big grin on his face, climbed back to the bed, and continued his sleep.  I just could not help to laugh if I remember this incident.

Morning activities

In the morning, Nico was waking up early, about 5.30 (I wonder if he remember the falling experience).  He was very excited, using the binocular to see some monkeys at the tree accross the street from our room's window. Then he ran outside to see Yudhis, who was already waking up too. After a while in Yudhis' room, he went to the other side to wake his aunt up.

There was not much in the morning plan. We freshened ourself, then went down to the breakfast area. After breakfast, some of us went to the swimming pool while the others to the parking area to fly the kite.

For Nico, it was his first 'real' swimming experience (discounted the playing at the pool-side in our apartment at Kelapa Gading when he was only a few months old). At the beginning, he was excited but also afraid to go in the pool.  But when he was accustomed to the water, he started to enjoy playing in the pool and splashing water.

 Yudhis and Vitvit played with the slide

 Water splashing

 Shower after swimming

Check-out and Lunch

At about 11am, we packed our things and ready to check-out from the hotel. Still, the check-out process took us some time. Then we proceed to our next check-point: LUNCH.

We went to Bandar Djakarta, which is just beside the hotel.  It is a seafood restaurant, where you can choose your own food -fish, shrimp, shellfish- before they are cooked for you.  This restaurant is very well placed.  The atmosphere is just right.  You can smell the sea while you are eating since it IS very close to the open sea.

 Choose your own seafood 

 Posing in the restaurant

After the lunch, we took a ride in a boat.  There are two boats available for the visitors of Bandar Djakarta restaurant. The boat will go with a minimum of 6 person on board, since there were 12 of us, we took one boat just for our family. It was just a quick round, but we could really feel the wave when the boat took us to the open sea. A really great experience!

 

Preparing to board the boat

In the boat

Closing the holiday

The boat trip was our last activity in Ancol.  After the trip we all got back to the cars and left Ancol.  The next and last stop to close the whole holiday trip was Pondok Indah Mall.  It was chosen because it is just located in our way home.  From the mall, we went on separate ways to our own home.

Christmas Holiday - Day 1

Our family started the christmas holiday today. The plan for this holiday started from the beginning of this year. The original plan was going to Bali, but since the economic crisis hit Indonesia and increase all costs, the plan changed.  

First stop : Kite Museum

There were three cars that used for this trip, one from Parung, one from Bintaro, and one from BSD. Our first destination, and also the rendezvous point, is the Indonesia Kite Museum located at Jl. H. Kamang Pd Labu - Jakarta Selatan.  

In the museum, the guide showed us the video of the story of kites around the world, then we were taken to see the sample of kites.  There were so many forms of kites from Indonesia and the whole world, even in form we had never seen before, like the form of a ship, chariot, and bicycle.  There are also kites that looks like cylinders, and a very small kite which only about 2cmx2cm!

 Different kind of kites from around the world

  Very small kite!

After we saw the kites, it was time to join the workshop.  We made our own kites!  The museum guide showed us how to make our own kites, while the smaller kids colored the drawings in smaller kites.  These activities proven to be a lot of fun for all of us.  For the children it was even more exciting since they might have never seen a real kite before.  After we finished making the kite, it was time to try it.  We all tried to fly the kites, but none of us was successful.

 Coloring and creating kites.

 Kids trying to fly the kite,

We also had our lunch in the museum.  We brought the food from home, so it was plenty of food for all of us.  We even have some leftovers to take to the hotel.

The hotel : Mercure Ancol

The next stop was the hotel.  We got some rooms at the Mercure Hotel in Ancol area.  It is a holiday season now, so almost all the rooms in the hotel had already occupied. Luckily we had our reservation a month ago and we could get four rooms for our family.  But since the hotel was considerably crowded, it took some time just to check-in and get our keys, and took a short rest.

Night activities

It was not clear what was the original plan for dinner, but the final decision was going to Pizza Hut located not very far from the hotel. Some pizzas, chicken wings, salads, spaghetties, and soup sure made our stomach full.  Even Krisna and Nico who were just had their afternoon meal at the hotel still enjoying the dinner.

After dinner, we went to visit the wedding of a family of a friend. Then we planned to go to the 'Kota Tua', but since the children had already exhausted and they were falling asleep in the car, we just drove back to the hotel and decided to called it the night.