Playing Tourist in Jogjakarta

Been almost half a year since my last visit to Jogja, so my last visit this December-January was quite long. I took 5 days off from the office. Well anyway, it’s quite fun to come back home and playing tourist in my hometown, haha..

I spent my New Year’s eve on Ellen’s home with some old friends and new friends that I’ve first met. But the NYE night was started with a dinner with my family at Holycow steakhouse, our fave restaurant in Jakarta that newly opened in Jogja. Same taste, same price, but different atmosphere and class here. Holycow can be categorized as expensive and elegant dish here in Jogja. Maybe because the place is at a hotel, while it's more like 'warung' in Jakarta. But still, i enjoyed my food so so much. Yum! Happy tummy, happy me! :)

Back in Ellen’s house, we had a random talk and had a beer pong competition! Only saw it on TV series and always curious to do it, and i just did the game! So fun! And to be honest it's hard! Haha.. It looks easy but actually the ball just wouldn’t go to the glass easily. Geez. I paired up with Denis. Won in round 1 but lost in round 2. I ended up drinking 3 glasses and i got hot and red already lol. I really cant drink. :p

I also had a grilled marshmallow. Also a new thing i tried and only saw it in TV series before. Haha. Well actually so many foods provided by Ellen but i couldn’t eat anything more since i got so full in Holycow but i managed to eat a grilled gindara and some marshmallows. Lol. It was such a great night! Basically it’s a night where we allowed to get drunk by the beer pong, and another beer round for the losers of other game. Haha..

First pic of 2014!!!

Did I get skinnier? People said I lost some kgs, and I thought so too. Haha.. I need to get more skinnier this year.

Rain was falling along the first day of 2014! Crazy! So we went to my dad's cemetary at noon. Been exactly 18 years and i feel that it was super long time ago. I don’t really feel dad's existence in my life, i don’t even have any precious memories with him. So yeah, i can say that my mom builds my life, she's the superhero who taught me everything and made me the woman i am today. Maybe we don’t look close to each other but we’re definitely close in our own way. A weird way, haha.

2014 is such a great year to start a new thing and a new experience. Beside the beer pong and grilled marshmallow, I went to Ullen Sentalu Museum for the first time in my life. I stayed in Jogja for more than 10 years but I never visited this museum. So one day I played tourist with my friend, Meme. Too bad she already went there before so I took the tour inside the museum alone. Alone! Between the real tourist group inside. Lol. The admission fee is 30K and the tour takes approx 50 minutes. They also give us a traditional drink for our health.

Inside the museum, it's all about Javanese culture and history specially Jogja and Solo history. Inside there are lots of batik, sculpture, painting and also the portrait of the king, queen, princess and the prince many years ago. There are also many letters from friends and relatives to the brokenhearted princess, and there was one letter that caught my eyes. It said :

“How happy i am to see that light only comes from the darkness and shadows. So does happiness.”

I think it’s a good quotes and also true!

We went to Jejamuran after that trip. I really love to eat there! Jejamuran sells everything mushroom! There are a lot of mushroom dishes they made, from satay, tongseng, crispy mushroom, rendang, soup. Ah, it’s a foodgasm! Not to forget it’s really cheap. It’s a MUST to go there if you’re visiting Jogja.

In my last day in Jogja, I went to Mirota Batik, a place you should go when you're in Jogjakarta, the center of batik, souvenir, stuff, handgift, actually just everything related to Jogja. And today was also my first time to watch the Oyot Godhong cabaret show. It's quite fun and entertaining but the seat was horrible! They should make a proper stage and seat. I posted some videos of them on my dayre. Anyway, we don’t have to give them tip here. Haha. Not like in Thai where the ladyboys are super super materialistic. And also the ticket price is super cheap, 30K for VIP and the regular is 20K. You better get the VIP one or you'll end up sitting in the back with backache.

Well, for me this is quite unique for a performance in Jogja, and maybe the only one in Indo. Never saw another one in Indo before. Haha. So it's kinda nice. Just make sure to come earlier to the venue before you run out of the ticket because every show they only sell 40-50 tickets (if I’m not mistaken). It’s so limited.

I actually love my last visit to Jogja since I tried so many new stuff. I look forward for another exciting new thing and experience in this new year. :)

May everything goes well as His will.

 

xoxo,

2013 Kaleidoscope

Back again with the annual kaleidoscope! 2013 have been an amazing year so far, so many great things happened, also bad things, good and sad memories that accompanied me all along the year.

I travelled a lot on this year! Yay to this! The best time of the year was of course my travelling time. Malaysia and Thailand, a short visit to Bintan and Singapore, and even a local place like Pari island and Malang. They were all great and awesome and I wanna do it again and again. Going on holiday have never been failed to amuse me. Love love love travelling to new country and places! I hope there are many places to go too in the following year. Well, actually Singapore and Taiwan are already booked for next year. Haha! :D

Had a graduation ceremony from BDP BCA. Finally after a year graduated we celebrated the ceremony where we got the certificate and placate. Complete with traditional look for each batch. My batch wore Dayak traditional costume from Kalimantan. It was awesome cos I got the chance to gather again with my batch. I missed them so so much! I always love hanging around with them all. Some of us are really really close because we can go crazy together, talk about other people lol, and of course because we shared the same experience and history during our learning time in BCA.

I had completely moved on from the Russian Guy, thanks to my random friend who appeared in my dream one night. lol. It was such a random dream but it convinced me that I deserved better. Someone who of course appreciates me for who I am, values my dream and wants to grow with me. #code

“Where the hell is this prince charming in a white horse??”

Why are you taking so long to get to me? I am patient but it’s hard to find a man in the right time and place. But as people said, God’s timing is perfect. So I just have to wait as I develop myself and prepare to be a good woman and spouse and wife and mom. :)

Anyway, December has been a great month! Doing Christmas stuff in office like gift exchange and camwhoring all the time with Christmas stuff. It’s fun! Even my bosses joined the photoshoot lol.

Back in my hometown, I found so many old stuff that is very memorable. Also tons of my old pic that are really cute. I already put some in my new frame and I’ll bring it to Jakarta and put it in my room. Hihi. I had a Christmas dinner with my family and had another dinner with my bffs 2 days later. We also had a gift exchange. I love my bff and glad to have them as my friends. One of them is my cousin and the other has been friend with me for 12 years. Too bad some of them couldn’t join our dinner. 

Work for me was like a rollercoaster and unpredictable. Sometimes I love  it, but I also hate it. I just wish that I can find something else that fitted me more and earn more money. Something I love more.

2013 passed by so fast for me. Really, it passed super fast, I remember that NYE last year I spent it with my family in Jakarta, watching movie while waiting for the count down. Anyway, thank you for everyone who was with me during 2013, who shared my ups and downs, thank you. It’s been an awesome year for me. I’m grateful for every lessons, experiences, things that I learned during that year. I wish that the new year brings more surprises and miracles and that my dreams come true. Wish that 2014 become a great year and even better year than 2013. Also I wanna grow closer to Him.

Happy New Year 2014!!

Cheers!

Food Journal : Moovina

It was another Saturdate dinner with Akun and Jubel. I actually needed to go to some ordinary place but they took me here instead! Moovina. Yup, this is another fine dining kind of restaurant with a lounge inside too, it’s in Plaza Indonesia. Moovina is basically divided into 2 floors, the upper part is Mezzanine @Moovina, it’s darker and more like a lounge with a bar area, they also have the smoking area here, and a private room to gather with your friends. It’s more modern with open kitchen concept. The lower part is Dolce Moovina, this is the one for fine dining, more cozy I guess because it has a garden theme, just really nice. They have an outdoor area also but I didn’t see it at that time.

When you see how the waiter and waitress serve, you’ll notice that it’s kinda a high class restaurant, the way they treat you is different. The uniform is nice. They were actually slow at first, they didn’t bring us the menu until I called them first. I don’t know if they didn’t see us because it was really dark or what, because we were taken to the table by one of the staff, then why didn’t she take our order too? Well after that they were just really helpful though. Helping us nonstop with our photo session. Lol.

Our orders were Chicken Cordon Bleu with Aglio Olio Spaghetti, Jon Dory Fish with Mashed Potato and broccoli, and also an Apple Pie for dessert. For a recap : it’s SO-SO. My chicken is not worthy for that expensive price. It’s just as same as 40K cordon bleu, really. And my spaghetti was really salty. Even though I love salty food, it’s just felt too much. And some of them felt like a lil bit uncooked. I don’t know. The dory my friend ate was good enough but not special, the broccoli was tasteless. I liked the apple pie though, not overcooked and not too oily, the caramel is not really sweet.

They actually have many choices of fine dining menu, start from 60K to 500K, with the choice of steak, wine, cocktail. It’s a perfect western and international dinner for you who love it. Don’t forget to make a reservation before, because it can be real full in the weekend. Eventhough Moovina has a really big space, I couldn’t find a non-smoking seat last Saturday. Well, maybe a seat at the lower floor will be better. Overall it’s a nice place. But will I come back here again? Maybe, for the atmosphere, not for the food.

   *below picture is taken from berrybenka.com

If you see my picture above, I feel like I’m skinnier now (yay!). See my thigh there, feel like SNSD’s thigh huh? lol. But my cheek cant lie, it will not get less chubby. :(

Moovina : Plaza Indonesia 3rd & 4th Floor #06 || Ph. 021 2992 4567, 021 2992 3999.

 

xoxo,

Trip to Thailand–Bangkok

Boarding to Bangkok in the afternoon…. My hotel in Bangkok was Siam Swana (book through Agoda, again). I saw the rating in Agoda and it was fantastic. It was a modern room but really small, specially when there were 4 people inside the room. They don’t have an elevator either, I know it’s only a 3 floor building, but still, we had heavy suitcases! Andddd they didn’t provide breakfast. Luckily, there were lot of streed food near the hotel, and also 7-11. You can always have your breakfast there. Haha.. There’s a sushi restaurant in front of the hotel and it was good. Open at 11 am. What I love about the hotel that it was super close with the BTS station (Ratchathewi) so I could go everywhere easily. And the BTS system in Bangkok is really easy to read, I didn’t lost at all. But before, I googled all of the places I visited detail, how did we go there, which station we went up, which one to down. You must arrange it. 

I met my old friend, Denis, and he took us to Asiatique Mall. Kinda ruined my itinerary because I planned to go there the next day after temple visit, haha. We went by taxi, however he said when you go with group of friend it’s better to take taxi than BTS because it still cost cheaper. But I tell you, sometimes the taxi in Bangkok are mafia, they didn’t want to use the taxi-meter! Well maybe if you can speak thai they will treat you differently. Asiatique is an open air mall which have lot of stores from clothing, snack, home decoration, gadget accessories, and of course lots of restaurant. I went there really late so I didn’t see all of the stores, but I tried the best curry crab here at Kodang Talay! well, maybe the 2nd best because the most famous one is Somboon Seafood but Denis told me that it’s super expensive. But it was damn delicious, the sour and spicy fish was also good, loveeee it! Aaahh, it makes me wanna go back there again, just to eat the curry crab. But I just found out that there’s Somboon Seafood in Jakarta, haven’t tried it yet though. There’s also a giant wheel there and we took it, just tried everything.

Went to Madame Tussaud Bangkok to open the 2nd day! It was literally a camwhoring time, haha.. Nah, we had chicken rice for breakfast near the hotel. Taste good enough, enough for breakfast time. After Madame Tussaud we went to Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is pretty far from the city. Very very big market with lot of stuff sold here, it was tiring and killing my feet! I only bought scarf and case for my iphone, and some souvenirs for my friends back home. What we did there were eat and eat, because foods were cheap and taste good! We went for shopping again at night, went to Platinum for some cheap fashion and Siam Paragon for the expensive one! Haha. I actually don’t really like going to over crowded store like Platinum or Chatuchak because it will only make me confuse on picking the clothes but I did buy 3 skirts here! Hahaha.. I just suddenly found the store where the uncle sold only skirt there. 170 THB each! Dumb me, I forgot the name of the store, I think it’s on 3rd or 4th floor. I also found the store where they sold replicas with cheaper price. I couldn’t bargain anything there, too lazy to do it, and they already marked the price. Different price when you buy retail and wholesale.

3rd day was temple day! it was crazy hot and a crazy long journey. Went there by BTS and then took the Chao Phraya boat and hopped off to Wat Po. Then walked to Grand Palace, which was actually quite far! I recommend you to take tuktuk, even when they say it’s only behind Wat Po. I could barely walk. Wat Po was big, and Grand Palace is much bigger. I only went there for quick sightseeing and camwhoring. The hot weather was killing me. Bring an umbrella with you everywhere. It’s a must on travelling! After a long walk in the palace we took taxi to Khao San Road, I heard that it’s the tourist place, lot of restaurants and bars. And suddenly it’s raining! A blessing in disguise again, because I need a really long nap for my legs. lol. We went back to the harbour to take a boat across the river and went to Wat Arun after and enjoyed a lil sunset there. We went to MBK at night, had dinner there, and again bought some thai snacks to be brought home. It was a crazy long day but very lovely. We closed the day with a thai massage!

The last day in Bangkok we went to Jim Thompson House. It was a museum of Jim’s family, the house was built with a nice architecture and the collection were from all over the world. Beside visiting the house itself, they also have the silk store inside, there are bag, clothes, scarf, pouch, and so many more. The silk are pretty with of course an expensive price. Last, we visited Terminal 21, which actually has more stuff than the other mall I visited, there are also local designer collection there, so many styles to choose. Too bad we only had very limited time.

My overall trip to Bangkok was awesome, I missed visiting the Ancient City and maybe a lil hiding attraction and place to eat in Bangkok. I planned to go to Cabbage & Condom, Patpong, Erawan Shrine and Lumpini Park, but didn’t have enough time to go to those places. Maybe at the next visit. I will exactly back to Terminal 21 and Platinum for clothing search, but not Chatuchak. And maybe do some party at my next visit. Haha.. Nah I didn’t go to Pattaya because I didn’t think any interesting attraction there beside the floating market and the ladyboy show. I already had that experience in Phuket before. Beside, an Australian couple told us that there are lot of mafias there. Not safe and not that good. Anyway, I saw lot of people there who are changing their gender, woman dresses up like a man, and vice versa. Thailand is crazy wild and free! Well Thailand is unique in its own way, you have the culture to see, the shopping, and also the beaches. Love it!

 

xoxo,

Trip to Thailand–Phuket

Been a long time since my last time blogged about something here, and yes, I’m kinda moved into another blog. Haha.. But it’s only for my personal satisfaction to write what’s on my mind freely, without worried of getting caught talking about things I shouldn’t write here. But for now, let’s just focus on what I want to write here! So my last post was in August which was about the celebration of my 25 years living on earth. Life has been good to me so far, I’ve moved on completely from my last ex (yay!) and things got crazy at work. But my best moment was the trip to Thailand last September. I’m kinda make a good planner after all, and we weren’t really lost there. Haha.. It’s gonna be a long post :)

So I did make my itinerary long before my departure to Thailand, I was searching for some cheap flights, hotels, anything that wouldn’t make me bankrupt. Haha. I looked for a nice but cheap tours in Phuket and got one that turned out to be really nice. His name was Chai, I got his information from tripadvisor, and I can give you his email to reach : yok_ktb@hotmail.com. I did every conversation through email and finally ended up on whatsapp. I ended up booking every tours and attraction through Chai because I knew it would give me the best price, much discounts, just don’t forget to bargain. Lol.

Me and my 3 other friends arrived at night on Phuket and we were picked up by Chai himself with a 10 seats car, he provided us his hotspot before we could buy simcard there, so it was a lil help for all of us who are a soc-med junkie. We checked in into our hotel, 88 Hotel (booked thru Agoda). It’s a super cheap hotel with a large room and pretty clean. I think it’s worth the price. But the breakfast was standard, don’t expect too much. We got some local dinner near the hotel, it’s a noodle soup with that special thai’s herbs. That pic below was the view outside my window room, and yeah we had a balcony.

My 2nd day in Phuket was a trip to Phiphi island, which was not real good because it was raining and the sea water was high so we couldn’t hopped into some islands. And our boat was in full packed! Way too crowded and people wanted to puke because the wave were crazy. We then stopped to had some snorkeling before we went to lunch. The snorkeling spot was pretty good, except the gear wasn’t that good, couldn’t see the water clearly. The buffet menu was standard, I don’t really enjoyed my phiphi trip. I preferred a more private trip. Well, we finally landed at Khai island, where we could do swimming or just sunbathing, but it was the best island, the water is crystal clear and it’s really pretty. I wish I could stay longer there. It felt like heaven. We finished the trip around 4 and then got back to the hotel. We bought some snacks at the traditional market near the Jungceylon mall before we had our dinner there. Lots of food there! Pork everywhere, with very cheap price. Yum yum! We went to Simon Cabaret at night, to watched the ladyboy show, which was pretty interesting and also entertaining. Just beware when you want to take picture with those ladyboy, make sure there’s no other ladyboy around you orelse s(he) will ask for money too. We took a tuktuk and walked around Bangla Road after, crazy night life out there.

My 3rd day was another sea tour, this time we went to Phang Nga Bay area, which is famous for the James Bond island. Another tour picked by Chai, but this time it’s really different. It was private, there were only 11 people in the boat, and we went to more destinations than yesterday. We hopped in and off to some islands, and then went to an ice cream cave, went for canoeing, and had a much better lunch at Panyee Island. Except the beach that we went for some swim wasn’t as pretty as in Phiphi. The tour operator name is Rattanachol. And it was really good and not as expensive as the number 1 travel in tripadvisor, thanks to Chai. We had dinner beside our hotel tonight, and it was good enough too. Basically I’m fitted into almost all of thai food because it’s spicy, so I had no problem with it. We went to Phuket Fantasea this night, it’s kinda unique show because it combined the traditional wayang, circus, magic show, drama, and all. It’s just too expensive I think for a show like that. It is even more expensive than our sea tour! Crazy!

Our schedule in Phuket before heading to Bangkok was pratically doing the city tour. We rented the car from Chai for half day, and it already included the driver too. Beach to another beach, went to couple view points to see Phuket beaches, before finally headed to Big Buddha and ended up in gem factory. Yeah, you really had to go there because our driver insisted to go there, it’s kinda a tourist gift shop. You know, the jewelry were pretty, specially the earring I saw, it’s a square earring with ruby and diamond inside. But yeah it’s damn expensive. But don’t worry they also had cheaper version of everything, silver, pearl, souvenirs. Anyway, don’t forget to go to cashew nut factory! It’s famous in Phuket! We got a lil problem with the car, so we should stop for a while in a car workshop. But because of that we managed to have a brunch at Pizza Company, the famous pizza in Thailand. Hihi, blessing in disguise.

Once again, I booked every tours and attractions from Chai, also the car rent, that’s why I got cheaper price. And I will definitely use his service again when I go back there. I love my trip to Phiphi because there is Khai Island. But I recommend you to go with private trip (ask this to Chai, but I think it will be more expensive) and maybe go to Phuket in sunny season. It is too bad that we couldn’t enjoy Phiphi since it’s super pretty. If you have more time in Phuket, you can try the elephant trekking, ATV, or maybe shooting. And maybe you can visit more islands beside Phiphi and Phang Nga. My friend said she had amazing time when she stayed in Phiphi (I’m interested!). But maybe I will go there again with my spouse! haha.. See you real soon in Bangkok trip! :)

xoxo,

Super Long Holiday

During May, I was super free, I had nothing to do, like at all. Just helping my mom at the shop at noon, and that’s all. I was totally bored to death anyway.

But I had many friends which birthday is in May, so yeah, a lil and big surprise again!! :D Started in 12th May, Akun’s bday. We did plan the schedule after we knew that we would go to the beach on 11th, so the rest of the day was spent to kill the time. Beach, dinner, monopoly-ing. We had a pretty special cake for him, and actually a special treatment. Buttttt, we missed the treatment because the ladyboy we hired didnt come to the place. It sucks. Imagine if he got the hug and kiss from the ladyboy!! Creepy! haha! xD

 -Indrayanti Beach at Wonosari-

  -The cake and birthday boy-

Had a birthday dinner with friends at Takigawa, new Japanese restaurant in town. Expensive costs with ordinary taste. I definitely prefer Sushi Tei :p Oh wait, but the interior is quite pretty. We sat in the tatami room, and my friends went camwhoring with the lamp. I did that too ;)

Another surprise for friend’s bday on 26th May. Just like old time, car parade for the birthday boy :D We set the car at the uni’s parking lot, and then took him to the street. People were staring, laughing, taking picture. So funny!

Nextttt, went to Semarang to another culinary party with the beloved friends. Fat! Fat! Fat! Had our breakfast at warung gudeg in Muntilan, not big fan of gudeg, soooo… no comment! ;p First destination in Semarang was the new mall, Paragon. It’s actually really small! The best part is Charles & Keith store which we dont have in Jogja, the rest is just the same. We went to Alcatraz Grill for lunch, camwhoring inside!! The concept of the restaurant is prison, but they only have one room that suit it and lucky we got that room. It was very empty at that time. Next we went to Citraland mall and some markets. We went to S2 for dinner. They say this is the most happening place in Semarang, where jetset-ers come to dinner. The concept itself is great, Japanese, Chinese, and Western foods in one building but with different room. You can also choose to sit in the middle in open air space. Pretty! Last, we went to try Lind’s cafe for dessert. It reminded me with restaurant in Dago, Bandung, the concept is the same, they offer the city view. Pics below!! :D

 

Last but not least!! Pehcun day again!! Still in Parangtritis beach, but no eggs this time! We went at the night, time to fly the lantern, just like in Tangled movie!! :D We wrote our wishes and flew it into the sky. Pretty!!

Hihihi, holiday is over!! Time to get money and focus at career!! Hwaiting!! 파이팅!

 

xoxo,