Pink and Undecided: batu

Review : Milenial Glow Garden - Batu, Malang

Hi! Hi! Hi!

Here's another unplanned blog post, i guess having the first smallest glimpse of vacation in over a year really meant something for me so here i am milking out my creative juice of every single squeeze i can get out of the mini escape!

Like i mentioned in the Senyum World Hotel review, we got free tickets from the hotel (which is located in the same area as this park) to Milenial Glow Garden. I struggled trying to take off my mask as quickly as possible to take pictures, take pictures and videos (being confined to one place for a long period of time makes people greedy okay), and absorbing the experience so i thought i wouldn't blog it as i didn't take enough detailed pics of the whole place (you know how OCD and detail oriented i am) but then seeing i have so many pictures anyway - it'd be such a shame not to share it all.

Probably fave pic taken at Milenial Glow Garden

I went there shortly before PPKM started and they closed down - they are still temporarily closed now but i figured since places are starting to open again, they would probably open soon so if you're thinking of visiting - reading this post hopefully can help you decide if it's worth visiting or not.

Milenial Glow Garden (JaTim Park 3)
Jl. Ir Sukarno No.144, Beji, Kec. Junrejo, Kota Batu, Jawa Timur 65236

Entrance ticket's IDR 60k for weekdays and 80k for weekends. As this is mainly a photo taking park (especially the first half of the park, it's a digital art type of park), i'd guess you'd want to take nice pics here so i would say avoid weekends and public holidays if possible.

Festive lights welcomes you even before you actually entered the park

First room of the park takes you into a dreamy deep blue sea

All of the pictures of this blog post are taken with hubby's Samsung Galaxy Note 10 camera and my Oppo Reno 4

I'd say you don't need gadgets that are to fancy to take artys pics here hehe

I am easily amused so i was super happy playing around and daydreaming around the digital art, especially the interactive ones haha

I went there only with hubby and i was lucky he was in a good mood and didn't mind to take endless pics for me haha, i'd be quite upset if he was one of his moods and i couldn't take pics for the Gram!

I also did take a lot of selfies because not every area's all that photogenic that i would bother posing and taking my mask off for

Isn't this one glorious tho

I kept on saying, can't go to teamLab Borderless museum yet, nevermind - i am happy to get these pics already hahahaha

Seriously tho, i feel like taking aesthetic, artsy pics are possible with minimal effort here...

Snowy digital art but i was sweating bullets because, eh i think most of the park was cool but i was tired from taking my mask on and off haha

These pics are even dreamier if you can edit - i suck at editing so i use presets but i will post the edited ones in my IG coz i cannot be bothered for my blog posts HAHAHA

Oh yeah, i was probably sweating from climbing around and posing lol

I have no idea what these types of neon illusion rooms are called, they are not photogenic so if you want to see more you should check out my reels on IG

One of the most Instagenic area with giant balloons

Forgot to take the mask off my neck and when we tried to redo it, hubby couldn't get the angle right and i was getting annoyed hahaha. Also for some reasons the photos we tried to take in 2nd attempt were all super pixelated and blurry i don't understand...

Lighting in this room changes a lot so you have to be patient and wait for it to change to the shade you want

Genuinely pissed face because i really was getting annoyed

Hubby was patient enough to want to keep on trying but i was losing brain cell every minutes and also people were coming in and i def didn't want to be anywhere near others without a mask on so i decided i had to be happy with the ones we took and move on LOL

Waited quite a while to take pics in this area because it's literally just one spot (i really wanted to go to these types of black and white cartoon style cafes but since we can't travel yet i was determined to get at least one here la) and people lingers for some unknown reason T.T

I honestly don't understand why people would linger in these types of photo spots, there is absolutely nothing to see here T.T why can't people just take pictures and then move, give way to others who also wants to take pictures. I was losing my patience so i just asked hubby to quickly snap some as waiting for people to get off and clear the mirrored area would probably take me to 2022 WTF. At least in this one you mostly can only see my reflection right....

Yes, i continuously lost my patience although i was still having fun haha. My patience for people are growing even thinner due to pandemic, i have less tolerance now bzzz.

The area with fairy lights waterfall, it was beautiful okay....

Holding my pose for a long time to wait for the shade that i want to turn on hahaha

A candid that i really like because i think i look very cute (and very young) here hahahaha. My nose looks like those of stone elves' (the ones in Frozen!)

If you notice i am wearing a different mask it's because the strap of the disposable one broke suddenly, thank God i always pack extra masks now!

Selfie is a must when there are nobody around to take our pic for us haha

We thought we came to the end of the park after the waterfall lights area, hubby was like "That was short", but turned out we're only halfway done! The second area is not photogenic but actually very fun and exciting! You have to take off your footwear (they provide free lockers) as the next areas are wet - i'd advise you to wear shorter clothing as it's quite a hassle if you're wearing jeans/long dresses.

The only pic i took in the area and i don't think you can even see the water (it's ankle deep in this area but deeper in others) here

There are rooms where you can try walking on bean bags (it's very hard okay, a good exercise but not a very good idea when you're out of shape and is wearing mask as you'd be quite out of breath like i was hahaha), a deeper pool where there are digital kois that would burst into flower petals when you step on it, and also a kiddie "haunted house" (if you bring young kids, you don't have to worry because it's not scary at all as there were only slow moving animatronics of cartoon ghosts. Again you can get a better picture of this area if you check out my reels on Instagram as i am currently enjoy making them, i post a lot of them lately.

After we got out of the wet area, there are a small digital play area, as there were only the two of us and we're very cautious as it's the pandemic era, we only check it out for a few minutes and moved on.

The last area is the outdoor :

In day time, this area is very cute to take photos at! I should go back sometime hehe

There are some kiddies rides in the outdoor area, again we just checked them out in passing - it'd be fun to visit with family and friends next time (in better circumstances too), i totally forgot to take pictures of them.

We didn't stay long, maybe less than 2 hours? I just immediately move on when i see more people approaching (but it was very quiet, still it was at the beginning of the worst corona wave in Indonesia so i was very very paranoid too) - but we would've stayed longer if it's normal time and we have more people coming with us i guess haha.

Overall i enjoyed the park very much, i loved the aesthetic pics we managed to get in the photo taking areas, and i was pleasantly surprised at the second, more adventurous area (i honestly didn't expect it, i also didn't do any reserach of the park beforehand haha). I think this park is definitely quite fun and there is something that the whole family can enjoy, whether you're there to take pics, of to play around. Younger kids would be amused of the digital arts and rides and teenagers can enjoy the games too i supposed.

Definitely worth a visit (and the entrance ticket price).

#Pink

6:39:00 PM
42 Comments

Mini Review : Senyum World Hotel Batu

batu

Hi guys!

How are y'all holding on?

For those of you who are in Indonesia like me, things must not be easy for y'all too as we're in the midst of PPKM (as i type this, it was just announced that PPKM is officially extended until 25th with relaxations starting on the 26th, fingers crossed that the infection rate will continue to go down significantly in the next few days so we can restart our activities without further delays), and especially seeing people on the other side of the world having their world opening up again - but we must persevere, get ourselves vaccinated as soon as possible (i am waiting for my 2nd jab on August 2nd) and keeping health protocol, it WILL happen to us too and it'll happen soon, we just NEED to reach the same herd immunity like them too. Hang it there, my fellow Indonesian (and South East Asian in general as see most of our neighboring countries are struggling like us too) - better days WILL come!

Anyway, before the trainwreck of Covid tsunami that hit us in early July, things were a lot more peaceful so in early June i decided to book a hotel in Batu for a little reality escape as my son was gonna have his school holiday and things seems to be pretty safe for a short getaway. But seriously, planning anything that is more than a week away is NOT a good idea for this day and time because we all know what happened next. Things escalated fast and crazy my mum decided that they would not come anymore and forbade me to bring my son as well. Thankfully somehow the hotel rooms that were not supposed to be refundable were cancelled (and fully refunded) after we seek assistance from the hotel - and for this i must applaud their services.

The hotel that we booked was this :

Senyum World Hotel
Jawa Timur Park 3
Jl. Ir Sukarno No.144, Beji, Kec. Junrejo, Kota Batu, Jawa Timur 65236
Telepon: (0341) 3073999

So i was attracted to the hotel because they have thematic rooms and i thought since i haven't been on any vacation in over a year, if i am finally about to go on one (albeit a super short one), i would want to be able to make a lot of contents out of it too. The thematic rooms means i can take pics in room and plus it's sort of a resort (with mini golf etc) so there should be a lot of spots to take pics at - but since the reality was different than how i originally planned the whole thing to be, there are things that i have to adjust accordingly.

First of all, i planned to have photoshoots around the hotel itself - reality was we didn't even arrive to the hotel before dark and then i immediately wanted to go to Millenial Glow Garden (a new park at Jatim Park 3, we got 2 free tickets from the hotel and it's awesome!) before it gets too dark so in the end we didn't even explore the hotel at all *LOL*. Second of all, i was pretty paranoid the whole time i was there (honest to God, it was the beginning of the second wave and things were very scary, it felt like another apocalypse and with things circulating around it get the feeling like we'd contact the virus as soon as we stepped out of the house *LOL, like the air outside is contagious *sigh*) so i discarded my plan to change clothes often and stick to the very minimum so we'd have less things to sanitize WTF.

Since we didn't even get to see the hotel apart from our own room (hubby also decided to stop at every level when we got back to check on the other floors because each floor has different themes LOL) and the lobby, i initially thought i wouldn't blog about the hotel but seeing that i want to update the blog and i'm not in the mood to write about beauty, i decided okay lah i'll do a short review (and look at me yabbering away already so it's probably not gonna be that short anyway WTF) and when (because i totally plan to) we return and can explore more then i will do a 2nd, more thorough blog post.

First thing we noticed, there are actually 2 buildings. this one is where we were staying and the other, taller building has a simple minimalist interior

For the thematic building, i'd say that everything's on brand *LOL*. Like, it's loud and brightly colored, you know right away that you're in a theme park's hotel right away

If i'm being honest, the lobby is a little bit tacky for my liking *LOL*

And honestly i was worried about the place being crowded as it was during school holiday, but i got the inkling that it'd be better during weekdays (personally i was like, really? People still go on vacation on school holidays? Honestly, the kids has been online schooling for more than a year already, what's the difference between regular days and school holidays anyway? LOL) and as you can see that the place's practically deserted so i felt better immediately. There were a lot more people around when we checked out (probably all the occupants of the whole hotel that were checking out as well) though

And just our luck... We got the theme that i like the LEAST LOL. It's Africa >.<. It's just personal preference ya, i just prefer light colors and brighter lit rooms so i was really hoping for Japan (looking at the photos in their website, China and Greece seems nice too although hubby said Greece's too tacky and comical but i don't think i mind), or anything but Africa >.< i'm not a fan of all these tribal, wooden, brown, animal printed decors. There is even a (REAL) taxidermied lion welcoming you once you enter the level *LOL* (i forgot to take pics but i took a video, you can check it out on my Instagram reels as i like to take short videos for my reels now). I think we can totally request for any floor, and if we want we could probably asked for a room change but i decided that we shouldn't bother... I'll just experience Africa for now and i'll specifically ask for Japan next time

And here's the room. It's pretty nice and cozy, and very large - one of the reasons why i was drawn to try to stay here is because they have 36m room and i love large rooms (well, you should see our bedroom in our home, then you'd know why small bedrooms are driving me crazy LOL)

Hubby said that the room's similar to Baobab, i strongly disagree because Baobab is like a LOT more luxurious LOL, but yeah probably a similar, safari vibe.

Seriously the patterns and all the decors really didn't vibe with me *LOL*, i mean... You take one look at me you'd know that this is not my vibe, right? But to be totally fair, it is a comfortable and generally clean hotel room. FYI, i was so worried that i specifically asked the hotel if the sanitize the room every time a guest checks out and they assured me they do, that's why the check in time is 3 PM during pandemic as they need more time to sanitize.

A little bench to sit around if you haven't change your clothes yet *LOL*, pre pandemic i was already pretty anal about outside clothes never touching our bed, you can bet i become crazier after pandemic hits

And another super important part of a hotel room for me (apart from if there's any staining in the bed sheet) : the bathroom

I'm pretty happy to report that the bathroom's pretty much sparkling clean so i felt very comfortable immediately

Geez look at the leaves wallpapers -____- sorry guys i'm just not a fan of jungle themed, if you're a Tarzan fan you'd have a field day here tho *LOL*

Enjoyed my 1st cup of coffee in a hotel room after a year...

Despite my aversion to the decor and theme of the room, i had a great time at Senyum World and i had a good night's sleep (without much difficulties to fall asleep at all) which means it's pretty much #PinkApproved!

Before this i never really considered Senyum World at all because my son is a teenager already (if he's younger i'd definitely checked it out sooner) and honestly pre-pandemic pricing of the rooms didn't seem to be worth it for me. I don't remember how much their room rate was but i remember comparing it to like, Aston and found Aston (which is obviously a little more luxe) to be more worth to stay at. Right now their room rate is around 550k per night for weekdays (weekends seems to fluctuate between 650-800), do i think it's still high? I'm cheap so i'd say, a little *LOL*. But if you can experience the full place, and if you 1. have young kids or 2. want to take pics, then i'd say you should consider it in the (safer condition) future! I don't think they still have the promotion where you get a free tickets to Millenial Glow Garden (i think it was only for June) but it was a seriously good deal as the ticket costs 60k per person (for weekdays) so it's already 120k off the 550 paid for the hotel!

I personally would love to return, on a weekday and hopefully when they have more promotion on the room rates *LOL*. What do you think? Would you like to stay here too for a vacation?