The first one was when I was working in Synovate as a part of family gathering, second was with Yufi's office also as a part of family gathering and the third one was with my mom as a part of Ratu, my sister's school trip.
I remember she wasn't enjoying the 2 first visits at all, in fact she was much smaller then about 2 - 3 years old. When she went with my mom, she came back with a lot of stories about what she saw...
We didn't really plan to go to Taman Safari that Saturday, it was all spontaneous kind of a thing. She didn't really want to go anywhere but Yufi and I thought since it was her last days of school holiday and because of work we didn't take her anywhere but my mom's house and she has been glued to her PSP and all day, we dragged her along and at the end she was really enjoying the trip as typical Jakarta children who are more familiar with mall than nature....we strive to drag her to nature or other activities beside malls it is much healthier and fun - exactly what my dad used to do when we were about her age. I didn't take Ratu this time, next time ya aunty (she was still in school - we left house at 7 am in the morning).
Maybe next time we come back with the whole big family including my nephew Arsya who has never been to Taman Safari before
So there we were driving to Puncak, with her complaining about going too far from home (d'oooh)
By the time we reached Taman Safari it was 10 something am because we stopped by to get some breakfast and trapped in a traffic around Ciawi.
She got excited by the time we reached Taman Safari's gate - but forgot to arm ourselves with carrot for feeding the Llamas and its friends, made a visit to the loo and drove to the ticketing booth..off we drive along the Taman Safari drive way.
The first one we saw were elephant and hippos, Llamas are everywhere, Cica called them "preman" (thugs) because they always poke their nose into the car looking for carrots, I could see Cica's excitement, she even wind down the window and poked her head out and saying hello to all animals hahahahaha Yufi and I were so happy seeing her enjoying this trip after her complaining all the way up to Puncak..goshh!
We drove slowly to see one animal after the other for Cica to take a "closer" look as she refused to wind up the window and still poking her head out all the way through and chirping happily. She was amazed by the giraffe who was standing gracefully and very statuesque. There were some zoo keeper herding the elephants for the show in the amusement area and one elephant poked its trunk into the car and brushed Cica's face hahahahhahaha forgot to take a picture tho
We drove from one animal to another animal, as there were a lot of cars the queue was long as well
Although considered a bit crowded especially during weekends or school holiday but it is very entertaining. Taman Safari also has expanded its facility and it is bigger than the last time I went there. .We managed to visit the other part of Taman Safari where Pinguin was located, we also went to the Curug Luhur waterfall which located in the back area of Taman Safari.
For people who can't be bothered drive their car around and park from one end to another, there is an option, ride the Taman Safari train, with small amount of money and it goes to each point of destination in Taman Safari, you can hop on and off throughout Taman Safari without extra charges as long as you keep the tag intact on your wrist.
There is swimming pool also.
The other attraction is of course the baby zoo. You can see baby and not so baby animals in it. You can ride a pony, camel and elephant also in this area. Cica took pictures with baby panther and tiger which enough to give me cold feet, in case the baby tiger or the not so baby ( I guess he was a toddler in human's age :P) scratch her on put those "cute" paw on her face. but it didn't happen....
For parents, there are several restaurants and cafes located all over Taman Safari, if you want to have a little rest or lunch you can pop in to one of them. The prices are decent, some are expensive some are fine. There are several spots where you can enjoy "bring your own" lunch (Read: picnic) which I think is better especially if you come here with a bunch of your family, you would be better of with this option, much more fun.
Cica was also interested staying overnight in the caravan hotel / camping ground in Taman Safari. Should give it a shot one day, quite interesting
Below are photos of which we took during our trip to Taman Safari
Overall our visit was very entertaining for Cica, I guess she wouldn't mind if next time we go there again.
See you next time :)
