A Village Of Enchantment At Sativa Sanggraloka Hotel, Mojokerto

Artistic room

This hotel has 52 rooms and cottages, starting from 40 USD for a standard room, and going up to 88 USD for a suite cottage (cash only). There are also two types of outdoor views you can choose from, a pool or a garden. All rooms have an air conditioner. Most rooms are spacious, and the interior is filled with artistic wooden furniture. The tops of the bed frames have carvings that resemble Buddhist shrines. Somewhere on the wall, there is a decoration of floral relief that is made of stone, and similar to some candis inside Trowulan archaeological site. The chairs (for the cottage) are made of knitted rattan. The bathroom is also spacious with a hot shower that runs well throughout the day, and a bathtub a bit bigger than what you will find in most hotels.

Garden with Majapahit replicas

The garden area is unique. Here you will see some structures and statues that you can see at Trowulan archaeological site. One of the very noticeable is the miniature of one of the shrines found in the archaeological site named, candi Brahu (candi: the local term for Buddhist or Hindu shrine). This shrine is thought by archaeologists to have been used as a crematorium for the royal families more than 500 years ago!

From the garden you will see the surrounding mountains (Arjuna and Welirang) and the villages below. If you like to work out in the morning, you can take a brisk walk or jog around the garden. The gardens works of art, the surrounding view, and the cool weather will make your jogging experience truly unique!

Order cow's tail soup for your meal

The hotel has a restaurant named Dewi Sri, which is the best dining place in the area. If you don’t like the idea of eating at an Indonesian ‘warung’ (Indonesian food stalls or eating place with modest facilities), here is the place where you can have your meals during your stay, unless you can manage to go to the nearest city of Mojokerto (10 km/6 mi away) to eat.

They have breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet (free breakfast for hotel guests) which covers Indonesian (e.g. nasi goreng or fried rice), Chinese (e.g. egg drop soup), and Western (e.g. croissants) cuisine with fruit salad, and tea or coffee. Don’t miss this restaurant’s specialty: sop buntut (cow’s tail soup). The soup is hot, thick, and meaty, which is good to eat when the weather is cool!

Dewi Sri Goddess

You can also see several sculptures of a female figure named Dewi Sri, the Goddess of land fertility, according to Buddhists and Hindus, who is believed to bring fertility to the land of the worshippers. You can see her statues everywhere in the hotel’s outdoor area, including in the swimming pool where the sculptures were made as fountains that continuously pour water into the pool. Whether or not you worship Dewi Sri, why not say your wish while being close to the statue? Who knows if your wish will come true?

Herbal plants

Another unique aspect of this hotel is the herbal plants on its garden. These plants are the ingredients to make ‘jamu’ or Javanese herbal medicine which is known to have began its development in Majapahit era. It’s not without a reason why these plants are here. The hotel is committed to maintain this tradition by planting more than 300 species of herbal plants, which have different health benefits, like pace, which is known to help cure osteoporosis, and Gynura divaricata that contains high antioxidants to help prevent and fight cancer. More than that, people can buy these plants and plant them at their home! Some of the plants, like aloe vera and ginseng, grow really fast. In just a few weeks they multiply, and in a month or two the herbal plants will dominate the garden.

Here you will also find ‘Maja’ trees (maja: calabash or aegle marmelos in Latin). This is interesting because the word 'Maja’ in the name of 'Majapahit’ kingdom was derived from the maja fruit, which tastes bitter, but has medicinal value (known to have an antibiotic property to fight infection).

Want to try jamu? There is a joglo (Javanese house/bungalow with a sort of pointed roof, and pillars to support the structure) in the garden area named Griyo Jamu (house of jamu) that sells a jamu brand named ‘Iboe’ (iboe: mother), where the ingredients are taken from the garden. Tell the health consultant what your health problem is and let him/her make jamu for you to drink. They will open a sachet containing some dose of herbal powder, and then mix it with hot water. For some symptoms like fatigue, sometimes a raw egg yolk is added to it. Since jamu tastes bitter, you will be given a candy to eat after swallowing the jamu.