Day 1: Rainforest Treehouse Adventure

We went for a really really short and a really really budgeted trip over the weekend during this June holiday. No plane, no train, no boat, of course not by foot. We drove into our neighbouring country, Johor Bahru (Malaysia).

The purpose of the trip was to allow everyone to be connected with nature, to feel our Mother Earth. Most importantly, to allow the children to experience the life out of the city; a simple and carefree life without gadgets, without televisions., no homework, no structured learning. For parents, no chasing the kids for homework and no rushing of time.

Before we headed straight to the treehouse, we stopped by a cafe for our lunch. It’s called the Excavator Bistro & Cafe. Check out daddy’s happy face. 

Discover the interior! They have parts of the machine scattered around the cafe for visitors to admire. As we were the 1st customer of the day, we got to choose our table. Look at that (I didn’t know what’s that called) in the centre of the table. Isn’t that cool?

The cafe serves Thai fusion food. We ordered what we wanted and went exploring the cafe to take pictures while waiting for the food to be served.

Mei mei was pretty amazed with their interior decorations and requested pictures to be taken.

They have those some mini trucks displayed on the shelves and visitors are free to touch, feel and play with them.

Our food was finally brought to our table. Service was a tad slow. They felt very apologetic about it. The food was generally wasn’t too bad. I like their Thai milk tea (forgotten to take a picture of that) as it has a unique taste and very refreshing.

After lunch, we headed straight to the Rainforest Treehouse located at Gunung Pulai, Kulai. It wasn’t difficult to find and best of all, parking is free! One of the staffs guided us verbally which treehouse belonged to us and we made our way there.

We were wondering why they did not bring us up personally. After a long walk up the stairs and steps, we understood. To reach our treehouse, it took us 10-15mins walking upslope! With our barang barang, I tell you, I felt like throwing the bags down every step I took. It was tougher than the Bukit Timah Hill! We kept stopping along the way to catch our breath. The adults were panting like mad but the kids just lightly hopped along every step and went ahead without waiting for us. That moment, I felt old, really old.

Finally, we saw our treehouse up there. Yes, is really UP THERE! The small little hut beside the treehouse is the toilet. To tell you the truth, it really tested our endurance and determination.

Check out the interior. Wa la! How exciting is that? This was the small house we had “rented”. We have a safety box without the need of security code and that’s the crate you see far right at the corner of the picture. Safety box is not for human thief prevention. More for preventing the monkeys from rummage and taking our stuff away especially food.

We rested, changed to our swimming gear and headed to the waterfall nearby the treehouse. Look at the rubbish all over the place. It wasn’t a very pleasing view.

It was crowded too so we moved on further up of the waterfall.

Found a quiet spot but not near to any waterfall. We saw people higher up on the huge rock behind and so we moved even further on to discover new spot.

Finally found the place that we would like to settle down for some fun. Water was pretty cooling and refreshing, we stayed there till evening time with a group of new found friends.

Do you know that waterfall is good for our respiration system? I’m talking about natural waterfalls not man-made, though. Natural waterfalls tend to be in places with clean air. Hence, your respiration system will definitely love you for it. The sights and sounds at the waterfall have a huge effect on our mood. It helped us relax and de-stress in today’s busy world.  Now you know why we stayed there for so long.

It was almost time for dinner when we got back to the treehouse. We had a quick washed up and headed to the event hall for food. Mind you, is not your typical grand event hall with nice decorations. Is an event hall with huge space, no tables and chairs, and just a stove in the center for you to do the cooking. Yes, live show cooking and eat it right away!

That’s the stoves. No gas. Just charcoal and fire burning away.

Our food, utensils, and sauces readily available.

For the little ones, we have someone scooping for them. Mind the fire and smoke!

Here’s our simply delicious dinner of the day.

We got to know some new friends at the treehouse and the kids had some fun before we headed back to our humble little treehouse for the night. Look at that huge hammock! Awesome, right?

So, do you think we have met our purpose? Definitely! We walked on the ground without shoes, we went to the waterfall and we connected with nature. We bathed using the stream’s water and without a heater. We ate food cooked on the stove. We washed our dishes using ashes (no detergent) after the meal, on our own. What a great day we had!

Alrighty, is getting late and time to switch on our torch while we walked back “home” for a good night sleep. Do stay tuned for our next day’s adventure…good night!