One sign of getting old is to prefer staying at home rather than going out. This fact seemed to apply to me, in which this Christmas I found more happiness at home. However, I was obliged to take my family out (because it was school holiday!), and one night stay out of town sounded nice too. Long story short, we decided to go to Jatiluhur Valley & Resort (JVR), a hotel located next to the Jatiluhur Reservoir. So here we go.
We drove to Purwakarta about 8.30am in the morning. It was a short journey from Bandung thanks to the toll road. Exited at KM 64, we drove to the Purwakarta town first and had brunch at Hutan Jati Cafe & Gelato. It had a very interesting concept: a small forest inside the city. Purwakarta is rather hot and humid, so even under the greeneries it was still hot. Fortunately they also provided indoor airconditioned area. It also became a perfect ambience when it started raining outside.
We waited for the rain to eae then drove to JVR. I tried to take a shortcut as suggested by Google Maps, and had to drove through a very narrow road.
The road that led to JVR ascended and descended, and surrounded by greeneries, so it feels out of town. We arrived around 12 noon, and it was not the time yet for check in. The kids spent about an hour playing in the indoor playground, making friends with another guest who were checking out. After they got bored, we drove to Istora. It’s part of the JVR but closer to the reservoir and had better view.
It was hot outside so a few minutes before two we drove back to JVR main building for check in. After checked in we realized that the lobby was on 3rd floor, and to get to our room we had to take the elevator down to the 2nd floor. We rented two rooms, with connecting door. We complained that one of the room smelled cigarette (despite warning of Rp1.000.000 fine for smoking), and the housekeeping helped us by spraying some air freshener. Y wanted to spend alone time in the room but the kids were bored, so I took them to play in the outdoor playground area.
Around 4.30pm, we drove out to find a restaurant for early dinner. I craved for meal at traditional restaurant and we chose RM (Rumah Makan / Restaurant) Teh Titin, just a stone throw away from another restaurant RM Teh Pipin. The nostalgia of having meal in a traditional restaurant served well, but the experience there were not so nice. Just after the grilled fish were served, several flies came around and bugged us. The mango juice were a bit rotten, and the asam manis (sweet and sour) squid was too spicy.
We headed back to hotel to rest. The hotel held a nobar (nonton bareng / watch movie together) event at 7pm, but we were too tired and watched the classic Shaolin Soccer movie in the room instead. I slept early that night, to wake up early at 4.15 AM in the morning and prepared for morning run.
I ran to JVR Istora area, but my main purpose was to catch the sunrise. The sunrise sun was not very visible because the west side of the Istora was largely covered by trees. But still, the view was beautiful there.
I came back to my room afterwards, waiting for the others to be ready for breakfast at 8 AM. Breakfast was at the pool side, and the kids requested to swim. However, we deemed that the pool was not clean enough for swimming so we skipped.
After breakfast, we walked down the hill for about 1 km to see axis deers, in a small preservation area. Along the way we picked up some leaves to feed them. However, the security guard forbid us to feed the deers with such leaves, as he deemed it to “hot”. In Chinese culture, aculturated to Indonesia, food are categorized as “cold” and “hot”. Hot foods are known to cause “inner heat” (panas dalam) that may cause illnesses like sore throat.
We then walked back up the hill to the hotel. Surprisingly it was easier to climb up the road than to walk down. We then took a shower and checked out from the hotel.
On our way home, just before entering the toll road, we had lunch at RM Ciganea. With about the same price to RM Teh Titin, we had better experience here. It was the first time our family tasted Sate Maranggi, beef satay that grilled with basic sweet and savory spices. Y, who didn’t really like beef, seemed to like it. We brought some more to give the kids’ grandma at home.
