Farm In The City

Last Wednesday, 17th July 2013, Jaden went for his first ever school field trip. 

Since I was pregnant and can no longer handle Jaden's growing strength, I engaged the help of his ABA therapist, K.

His school field trip was to a place called the Farm In The City.

This place is rather interesting as they have quite a number of rare animals, and the children are allowed to have the wonderful experience of petting, feeding, riding, fishing and animal shows. It is really a place recommended for families with children to come and experience it for themselves.

Parents, teachers and students were all to drive there on our own and meet at the location latest by 10am. Of course, there were some late comers as this place was not very easy to find, even with the help of the GPS. We were nearly late ourselves despite leaving the house at 845am and the morning traffic was surprisingly smooth. I made the mistake of turning into Puchong area instead of heading straight and paying the toll, that leads us to Cyberjaya and then take the exit for Seri Kembangan instead. *sigh*

Luckily, K had google maps on her phone and we followed the instructions from there :)

Since I knew it was going to be a hot trip, I dressed Jaden as comfortably as he could. Sleeveless tops, shorts and sandals. 

When we first went into the farm, we were greeted with this tiny pony, that was so small, you would not have the heart to want to even place a child on it. Then, the farm guide lead us to the first pit stop -Tortoises.

There were all sorts of tortoises in their enclosures and there were two big ones that were out and roaming around, getting fed by the children. Boy, it was a feeding frenzy where the children were just trying to stuff the tortoises full with veges. Feeding food was handed out for free by the farm employees. I guess, it was all included in the entrance fee.

After the tortoises, we had to pass by the reptile area. Well, these reptiles were in their enclosures, which is a huge relief to me. Pythons, monitor lizard, were there cayman; not that sure...

After the reptiles, we went past the chicken and duck coops, where really fat chickens were freely roaming around. Next to the chicken coop, we were led into the locked pen where children gets to feed the deers and bearded goat. There were three deers roaming freely, although at that time, the farm guide held on to one deer and the children got to touch and feed them. These animals must have been used to crowds of children coming at them.

Jaden's therapist did a wonderful job in letting Jaden experience all of the feeding and petting and pointing to where the animals are, and making sure he sees them. In fact, she commented that Jaden was not afraid at all of the animals and he was just trying to stuff the food into their mouths. Scary! 

Then we came out and saw some wallabies. Of course, these wallabies were in their own closed up pen. Supposedly there were some joeys but the joeys must be fast asleep in the pouch. 

We moved on to the birds enclosure where everybody gets to experience these friendly birds coming and eating off from their hands. I am not sure if Jaden got to do that because he was sort of in a rush. He didn't like the idea of stopping.. he just wants to move on and on .. *sigh* my impatient boy but hearing feedback from his classmate's mother, these birds will just perch on your hands and eat their bird food. Budgies, pigeons.. as for me, I just wanted to get out from there as fast as I could. I was so afraid of getting shat on by all those birds flying around. Did I mention that there was the green and white peacock in there too. Sadly, these birds did not want to show off their beautiful feathers. 

After the birds, we climbed up and down the stairs, went past the vegetables and fruit farms and came to the cow shed. In there, was a big black bull. Jaden fed him grass a few times and we moved on to see the ostriches.

It was really tiring by then for me, as there were a lot of steps to climb back up, and thankfully, the next stop, there was a big airy canteen with lots of seats for us to rest. 

In front of the canteen, were the rabbit and guinea pigs hutches and the children get to feed these super friendly fluffy animals. There was also a long man-made drain, where all the guppies are, and the children were busy fishing them out into the pail. The children were just going wild there.

Jaden had his snack there at the canteen since he did not really want to fish. He was more interested in getting himself into the drain. 

Hubby cooked fried mee hoon for Jaden the night before, so his son won't feel left out where others have meehoon. :)

After Jaden ate and rested enough, it was time to move on to the jungle walk. There were iguanas sunbathing themselves up on the trees, little friendly monkeys and of course, another tortoise that decided that he wants to roadblock the exit.

We came out to another petting area, where the children got to pet an albino skunk (carried by the farm caretaker, of course) see two giant rabbits, ferrets, more snakes and then, the beautiful macaws. 

The children got to watch the bird shows, which the clever birds each have an act of their own. 

Since Jaden was not very interested in the birds, K and I brought him to look at the ponies and it so happened on that very day, was the day the raccoon was brought out to test out his newly finished enclosure. So we got to see that bandit like animal.. 

K brought Jaden to walk further while I went and rested in the shade a bit. K said Jaden seemed interested in the pelicans instead and wanted to stay a bit longer there looking at them.

After all that walk, it was lunchtime for the whole school gang and we headed to the air-conditioned restaurant and had our lunch. That, was the best moment for all of us as after all that hot, sweaty walk around, everybody welcomed the air-conditioning.

Since Jaden has his ABA team meeting that very day, we had to leave earlier than the others. So, the only thing Jaden missed out on was to have his pony ride. I am sure he would have been ok with it, rather nonchalent if I must say. Just like how he was on our Phuket elephant ride.

Anyway, it was a good school field trip and I am glad Jaden got to experience it, with the guidance and patience of his loving therapist.