colmar

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.

If you want to take a few days away from the city life, and take your children to a place where they get to see and enjoy the nature, Colmar Tropicale is an option for you to consider.

We were looking for a quiet retreat where we could just enjoy each other’s company in a relaxing and comforting atmosphere, and allow our children to see and breathe the nature. This place has all that we need!

We truly enjoyed walking down the cobblestone streets and taking pictures of the resort with a beautiful landscape as well as scenic views with its vintage buildings, swans, flowers and mountains. In the evening, the sparking street lights never fail to add to its charm.

This is a picture of the street, taken at 5pm and 7pm.

The medieval buildings are so colourful and unique, they are perfect backdrops for our photos. This is Little Edison, standing at the entrance of Colmar Tropicale.

The front entrance has a draw bridge, and I think that’s the trademark of this resort. We took at least ten shots from different angles here.

This resort has a swimming pool, but we didn’t go swimming because the weather was quite cooling. At night, there aren’t much activities besides the stage performance (which starts at 9:30pm) and kiddie rides.

So, after our dinner, we returned to our suite. The adults watched TV and chit-chat, while the kids were busy playing hide-and-seek. Well, this basically sums up our first day at this resort.

In my next post, I’ll share with you about our visit to the strawberry farm and animal farm. Please stay tuned …

Last week, we went for a short resort holiday in Malaysia with my parents, my brother and his family. School holiday is here, and going on a short vacation is a wonderful and relaxing way to take a break from the hurried and stressful lives that so many of us are facing.

This trip was a perfect blend of fun, excitement and relaxation. It’s a pity that V is unable to join us due to his work commitment. So, I flew solo to KL with Little Edison, met up with my family members and drove to Berjaya Hills together.

As an introduction, Colmar Tropicale is a unique French-themed resort that sits 2,700 feet above sea-level. The first of its kind in Malaysia, this resort is inspired by the 16th Century Colmar Village in Alsace, France.

Visitors can indulge in a truly continental French experience in this resort, alongside beautiful architecture and historically-designed landmarks that will surely bring them a step back in time.

This resort is located at Bukit Tinggi in the Pahang state. It’s about 2 hours drive from the KL LCCT airport. My brother has earlier booked a two-bedroom suite that can accommodate a family of 6 in comfort. We checked-in to our suite at around 5pm. We quickly took a shower and went out for an evening stroll.

Here are some pictures of our two-bedroom suite. It is very clean and spacious, with a living area, kitchen area, two separate bedrooms (both rooms with attached toilets) and a common toilet.

This bedroom (pictures above) is really VERY spacious. It has a two-door wardrobe and two side tables, next to the king-size bed. It has ample space for the kids to run around, and we also requested for an additional bed in this room.

To be continued …