During our stay at Colmar Tropicale, we brought the kids to strawberry farm and animal park. For a city boy like Edison, he may not have seen a “real” chicken before – I mean the alive and kicking, not those at Cold Storage.
He eats a lot of strawberries too, but he has no idea how and where they are grown. So, this trip is going to be fun and educational for him.
Strawberry Farm
The strawberry farm is located at Genting Highlands, about an hour drive from Colmar Tropicale. Admission is free for all visitors. Strawberries are not the only fruits propagated here; organic vegetables and flowers are also cultivated in adjoining nurseries.
Visitors who like to pluck their own strawberries will be given a pair of scissors and a small basket to collect their pickings. The strawberries are charged at RM6 per 100gm. I find that it’s actually cheaper to buy the packed strawberries from the store. But again, it’s for the fun and experience, I bet most visitors don’t mind paying slightly more.
The strawberries are grown hydroponically in elongated plastic sacks with soil, which are stacked on wooden racks to conserve space and maximise output. Water sprinklers are used to water these plants at certain intervals during the day.
I always thought that competition is an excellent way to motivate the kids. So, I put the three of them on a strawberry-plucking competition. They were all ready with their scissors and baskets. They were given 15 minutes, and the one who came back with the most strawberries will be the winner.
There is only one rule for this competition – they can only pluck the red strawberries (the ripe ones). It was actually quite challenging because most of the strawberries are not completely ripe. Given their heights, they can only reach the strawberries at the bottom rack.
The kids are ready for the challenge. Ready, set, GO!
Holding the handle of the basket on one hand, and a pair of scissors on the other, Little Edison was all ready for pluck the strawberries.
Fifteen minutes later …
The kids eagerly showed me their baskets. Little Edison got the most strawberries, and I announced him as our winner of this competition. He was so delighted; he danced around and sang, “I win! I win!”
We brought the 3 baskets to the counter to weigh them. Altogether, the kids got 300gm of strawberries and that cost us RM18. But don’t expect the strawberries here to taste brilliant. They are quite small and taste sour.
Nonetheless, the kids polished up all the strawberries when we got back to our suite. They plucked the strawberries by themselves, and they munched on the fruits with a great sense of achievement. Even when they are sour, they said “Nice and yummy!”
Mini Animal Park
This animal park is located within Colmar Tropicale. Admission is charged at RM3 per person (adult and child). Pet food is sold separately at RM3 per pack.
What we can see here are rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and a deer. There is also a children playground. The park is quite small, that’s why I called it a Mini Animal Park. The kids had fun feeding the guinea pigs and rabbits.
I told Little Edison that rabbits don’t eat leaves; they will only eat the pet food provided. He didn’t believe me and he tried his luck to feed the rabbit with a leaf. Much to his surprise, the rabbit munched on the leaf and he proudly said, “Mama, you see – the rabbit eats leaf!”
The deer got the kids really excited. In order to feed the deer, we have to place the food on our palms and the deer will eat them directly from our hands. My nephew, Jaerone, asked us a very interesting question and he made us laughing non-stop.
Well, what did he ask?
His question was, “Is the deer’s tongue dirty?” When we told him “Yes, the deer never brushes his teeth!”, he refused to feed him. Haha! He is such a clean-freak and he wants everything to be clean all the time.
My niece, Jaynie, and Little Edison enjoyed themselves feeding the deer.
All in all, it was an exciting trip to the strawberry farm and animal park. It’s not something that we can do often in the city, and I’m glad the kids had a great time exploring the nature.
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