Eco Farm Tour!

Yesterday, we took a day trip into Malaysia to visit an Eco-Farm.  It is the UK Farm situated in Johor, Malaysia. 

I bought a groupon tour back in January that included the farm tour.  It sounded good and was a good price, so we gave it a try.  I have to say the farm was something special and worth visiting, but I don't think I'll be buying a groupon tour into Malaysia again.  We traveled with my friend and her 2 daughters. 

We met our tour bus at the Ang Mo Kio MRT Taxi stand at 7 am.  We were a few minutes late, and our 12 seater bus was oversold.  We had 13 passengers.  We managed OK, Wyatt either sat on Scott's lap or he sat in the very back row (4 seats across) with the (4) girls.  By the way, no seat belts at all on the bus.

We headed into Malaysia.  When you take a tour bus over the border, you have to deboard and go through customs and immigration on foot.  It wasn't too busy and the kids did really well, but definitely not a highlight.

Once through, we stopped at a chocolate shop.  It was advertised as a chocolate factory, but I'd say a chocolate store.  They did have a picture of a chocolate pod and then examples of the different stages of processing.  Then, back on the bus and another stop for breakfast.  Then bus again for about an hour drive to the farm.

We really liked the farm.  It's mostly a goat farm, but there are also organic fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, ostrich, and herbs.

We enjoyed the beautiful views.  Sometimes, staying in Singapore, the city can get to me.  I need to get out into nature.  This was a great place to go to really feel a connection with nature. 

 We fed the goats some hay.

 This baby goat is only 7 days old.  All the kids got to hold him.  Poor thing!  He was SOOO soft! 

 Wyatt LOVED feeding the goats.  He was laughing to himself the whole time.  Occasionally, a little hop out of giddiness.  Too cute!

 We got to see the goats make a mad dash to the milk. 

 Next we went to the herb sanctuary.  We walked under a passion fruit vines.  I got this picture standing underneath and looking up.  I think passion flowers are so beautiful!

 On to the ostrich!  We were so surprised at how aggressively the ostrich would take the leaves from our hands.  They were so strong! 

 On the farm, there is a little village constructed to show how the indigenous people of Malaysia once lived.  It is called the Jakun Villiage.  This boy and his family are hired by the farm to live there and give demonstrations to tourists.  He used his blow dart gun to pop a balloon that was high up in the tree.  He also showed us how they would trap animals using a bamboo cage.  In the demonstration, Wyatt got to be the bait animal (he pretended to be a bunny) and he waited in the cage.  Then Lily was the tiger and she walked into the cage and the door came down.  Fun!

 These homes were hand built on the farm property to show the style of homes that the Jakun people live in.  Our guide told us they are about 80% wind and water proof.  Not what we are used to.

Next, we saw a goat herding demonstration and then we got to feed the goats milk from a bottle!  The kids especially loved this!! (I mean both my kids and the goats!)

Our next stop was a mushroom growing house and the organic vegetable garden.  The kids were thrilled to find a few different tree houses here.  This tree house is in a wishing tree.

The mushrooms were grown in plastic bottles housed in a dark shed.  It was really interesting to see.

It was a full day!  After all of this, we were very hot and tired and ready to head home.  However, our next stop in the tour was at a new outlet mall center in Johor Bahru.  sigh.  We weren't really interested, but it didn't seem that we could not go.  It was interesting to see because it looked exactly like an outlet center you would find in the US, complete with a large parking lot, which I haven't seen since we arrived.

After the outlet mall, we had dinner.  We were taken to a strip mall that had a room filled with tables.  I think everybody there was on the tour and were there to have our included dinner.  It was Chinese food.  The kids didn't really eat and they were extra tired and ready to go home.  They did really well, but it all started to break down at the end.  I ended up going to the bus early with them and putting on a movie on the ipad.  Once we were on our way, we had to stop at the boarder again and then it was another 20 minutes or so to the MRT station.  THEN... Finally, a taxi home.  What a day!