Sunday, November 19, 2017

Days in Kuching | Malaysia

Lepas dari kebisingan kota, dan penatnya pekerjaan, Kuching bisa jadi 1 destinasi yang menyegarkan. Terletak di Pulau Borneo dan berbatasan dengan Pontianak, Kuching terbilang cukup mudah untuk dicapai.

Kuching umumnya terkenal untuk tempat berobat. Banyaknya orang Indonesia khususnya Kalimantan yang berobat disana, tapi Kuching juga menawarkan suasana liburan yang tenang dan refreshing.

Mata uang Kucing adalah RM, untuk standar harga, basically tidak jauh berbeda dengan Jakarta, bahkan lebih murah.

Untuk jalan - jalan di Kuching, taksi online cukup sebagai sarana transportasi dan juga google yang cukup akurat untuk berpindah titik. Jadi tidak perlu khawatir untuk mencatat alamat satu per satu.


Place to eat

1. Kolo Mee

Datang ke Kuching, wajib banget cobain makanan satu ini. Mudah ditemukan dan ada dimana - mana. It's kinda street food yang murah dan enak dan biasanya dijadikan sarapan. Topping-nya bisa pilih dari baso, seafood, polos, etc. Sambalnya itu cabe potong dengan cuka.

Tempatnya ada di sebrang 7-11 Jalan Abell. Tapi basically bisa kalian temukan Kolo Mee everywhere in Kuching.

Complete seafood Kolo Mee RM8, Teh C RM2.  
Nah ini tempat kita makan Kolo Mee. Bersama matahari dan view yang refreshing banget. 

2. Taiwanese Porridge near Kapit Hotel

Tempatnya ada di deretan Kapit Hotel, sayangnya gak ada di google. But its a must try buat kalian yang tinggal di daerah Kapit Hotel, Jalan Abel. Namanya 台灣小粥 (Tai Wan Xiao Zhou). Jadi kedai ini jualannya bubur dan sayur - sayurnya. Bisa pilih sendiri mau sayurnya apa. Dan gak mahal plus enak. Rasa Taiwan banget.

Harga sayurnya disajikan per piring, 1 piringnya mulai dari RM1.5 - around RM4. Ada telur asin, sayur, terong, daging, semua nya bisa pilih sendiri sesuai favorite dan yang jelas harganya terjangkau. 

3. Sambal Pete Tribal Stove

Bagi kalian pecinta pete, ini da bomb banget. Rasanya mantap dan petenya fresh banget tanpa ulat. Dan harganya only RM4. Adanya di Tribal Stove, sebrangnya Hotel Hilton waterside. Pokoknya wajib banget kesini buat makan sambal petai nya, dan tempatnya nyaman, fav one yang deket jendela kaca sambil liat pemandangan.

Sambal pete yang super duper ngangenin

4. Brunch in Granary

Buat yang suka nge-brunch dan cari tempat yang dekat area Waterfront or Chinatown, Granary cocok banget. Tempatnya asyik dan bisa di book untuk acara. Tapi untuk harga, lebih mahal dari restaurant or kedai biasanya ya, harganya kisaran RM 12.

Untuk rasa, not bad. Standard untuk brunch pada umumnya.



Place to refreshing

1. Museum Kuching 

Terletak di bukit, jadi untuk mencapainya kita harus melewati jalanan menanjak. Tenang saja, taksi online akan menghantar sampai ke pintu masuk.

Entrance view
Ticket counter. Camera also need to have ticket or put your camera in the counter.

Semua tentang kucing ada di dalam, termasuk souvenir. 
Tapi, pemandangan di luar lebih menarik view-nya

2. Cat Statue

Icon Kuching adalah Cat Statue, yang ada di beberapa spot di area Chinatown. View pemandangan jalannya pun menarik.

Icon di Jalan Abel
Icon di dekat Bata Chinatown

3. Chinese Historical Museum

Kalau kamu pecinta history, ini tempat yang tepat untuk dikunjungi di area Chinatown. Free entrance fee anyway.



4. Upside-down House

Di Kuching juga ada upside-down house, tepatnya di sebrang Hilton Hotel, tapi jalannya agak menanjak. So prepare your belonging & shoes anyway. Entrance fee untuk foreigner RM 20/orang.



5. Chinatown & Waterfront

Chinatown dan waterfront terletak berseberangan. Area Chinatown cukup luas dan banyak barang yang bisa ditemui mulai dari jajanan, souvenir, shopping mall, restaurant, pasar, dan spot untuk photo.

Grafiti everywhere, atas kiri adalah Riverside Mall
Rujak yang ngangenin di sebelah kiri, dan perahu untuk menyebrang seharga RM 1 per orang per trip

Thanks Kuching, see you next time!



Saturday, September 30, 2017

Cross to Borneo w/ Citilink | Indonesia

As domestic flight, honestly I don't really familiar with this airline call Citilink. So let me try and have testimonial with this airline.

I take flight from Jakarta to Pontianak on morning around 10.

We enter on board on time. Seat arrangement is 3-3. Firstly I get seat in window and full people on our line, but before flight, the stewardess asking volunteer to move to emergency door. And I raise my hand.

On board situation & view from window

So I move into the emergency door, both of us sit in and feel spacious since we sit 3 seat space.

The crew will teach you how to open the emergency door in emergency situation and also you can read the introduction in front of you.

Children, elder, and pregnant woman prohibited to sit in emergency door.

Such a spacious place
Citilink's view
There is no on-board meal but complimentary meal available. And I just eat my own snack & enjoy the view. I never bored to have kinda view.




Yes, yes, yes thats Borneo. Always love the island view from plane window. 

Touchdown Adi Sucipto

Overall Citilink has a comfortable flight and provide on-time schedule. So it may be your candidates to choose domestic flight in Indonesia. 






Thursday, September 28, 2017

The Lodge Maribaya, Bandung | Indonesia

As it's suddenly became famous, I try my luck to visit The Lodge that located in Maribaya, Bandung. Let's verify that it's as beautiful as people said.

It was long holiday when I go there. The traffic is suck in Bandung, use google map and drive as google told. The streets are broken and uphill. So make sure your car is ready to go through the way. 

As the traffic is freaking crazy on the way to entrance, so along way better to park your car on locals. It cost IDR 30K and they will raise your wiper as you paid. 

Left : Local parking area looks like. Mendung2 gitu.
Right : Local toilet along way, and show your voluntary contribution to the can there
Also you can found street food along the way to entrance : Kue rangi
Left : Ticket counter (*I definetely forget how much, should be around IDR 20K I guess
Right : Entrance door

Dan ternyata di dalam so much people OMGGG
The famous sky tree behind the scene, we just walk through
The Pines cafe, maybe I should come on weekday and enjoy the peaceful of this from The Pines
Place to eat traditional food
Cozy view
Before leave change your ticket w/ free drinks

It was such quick walkthrough in The Lodge since so crowded inside, but for sure I can imagine it's a good place to relax in weekday.




Sunday, September 24, 2017

4 hours back to nature, Bogor | Indonesia

It was Friday and I have day off. What a pleasure ! 

For sure I want to have some relaxing free-day. For me relaxing day is when I can enjoy peaceful things as well as I can calming my mind. 

Start from Rawa Buaya Station, I take commuter line to Duri Station for transit and take Bogor destination commuter line. It takes around 1 hours 40 minutes from Duri to Bogor. Since it was weekday, the train to Bogor is not crowded as usual. 

Indonesia commuter line nowadays, will give you surprise of the cleanliness & comfort.
How to take commuter line?
Make sure you know the route from your nearest station to the destination. Find the train schedule on KRL website or click here. Use your e-toll card or you can buy the 1 time ticket in the station and deposit IDR 13k for the 1 time card. I use the Mandiri e-toll card, for first time activation just tap on the station in activation card area and you can use it as your train ticket so on. FYI, first and last car is ladies only.

How is the comfortable rate for commuter line?
It's quite comfortable with AC and cleaning service inside train. Also its prohibited to eat & drink inside. Not only cleaning service, you can find patrolman also. For ladies, kindly recommended to take first and last train car which dedicated only for ladies. 

How much is the ticket price?
For 1-25 km is IDR 3K, and IDR 1K for each next 10K applies multiply. So I only need to paid IDR7K for this trip to Bogor. Quiet cheap right?

I arrived around 10 in Bogor Station and getting hungry. Lets start to explore ! 

I take taxi online as my transport media in Bogor. I use Grab and surprisingly the driver come fast and not far from my point. And I use the voucher code, so this day in Bogor I didn't pay any charges for my transport except the train ticket. Yeay! What a pleasant journey !

Culinary list to try when in Bogor : 

Surya Kencana area is a place where you can find everything about food and have ancient view. And here is the list that I tried.



1. Soto Mie Agih 

Its very famous that so much people recommended this, and I'm going to try. It have many store in Bogor, I try the one in Jalan Surya Kencana No. 311. Grab rate is IDR 18K and take around 15 min from station. 

Surya Kencana street full of food. Can you spot the Soto Mie Agih store?
Right one is Soto Mie Agih bakut & babat IDR 39K
Lo Mie IDR 39K, Es Cincau Ijo IDR 8K
Overall the taste is like Chinese soup light pork taste. If you don't like Chinese soup taste than you might don't like it. But if you are a meat lovers then you'll love it. 

2. Ngo Hiang khas Bogor

Right one is Ngo Hiang ala carte pork & chicken IDR 33K

Neighborood w/ Soto Mie Agih you can easily found this Ngo Hiang store. It was my first time to try this, you can choose both chicken or pork. Same if you are a meat lovers than you'll love this.


3. Bir Kotjok khas Bogor

It's not a alcohol beer, but traditional drink made with ginger and others spices. It taste very fresh and I already miss it. Ahhhh so gewddddd
IDR 5K per bag, its taste very traditional and fresh 

Place to freshen mind in Bogor : 

Bogor Botanical Garden, as it famous for the Istana Presiden and the Rafflesia. For me the attract point of this garden is the way I can walk closely to the nature in huge garden and listen to bird sing, feel the sunlight, and keep my mind calm. Walking over there to refresh our mind before going back to the busy office life.

Entrance fee for local is IDR 15K and IDR 25K for foreigner. Car & motorcycle are allowed to enter but I think to walking over the garden is much better where you can breath the fresh oxygen.

It was my second time to been here and still feel excited to breath the fresh air.

Botanical shop inside the garden

Things to bring home :

Famous as Bogor icon, macaroni panggang is a must try. Place around 15 minutes from Station and it was a great place to chill in. Definitely will come back to chill in. 



4 hours in Bogor is definitely giving something fresh for my mind. Till next time Bogor !



Sunday, August 13, 2017

Lesson by Street Vendor


 行萬里路勝讀萬卷書 - It is better to travel far than to read voluminously.

Quotes jadul dari Chinese ancient yang selalu terngiang - ngiang di kuping everytime gue travelling. Yes, thats right. Travel is not just a travel. One of my travel bucket list is to learn from local.

Last travel gue ke Kuching gue belajar dari 2 street vendor.

Yang pertama a burger vendor.

Di Kuching itu night life-nya gak se wow di kota besar, jadi waktu malam gue mau cari makan sekitar jam 8-an hanya beberapa toko aja yang masih buka. Akhirnya gue dateng ke burger vendor di serong hotel gue. (*Hotel apa? Baca ini ya :)

Kayaknya sih gue pembeli pertama ya dilihat dari penggorengan-nya yang masih mulus. Karena disitu cuman ada si penjual, gue, dan nyokap jadi dia sambil bikin sambil ngobrol santai.

Datang dari mana? Dari Jakarta. Oh, sekolah di sini ya? Nggak. Sekolahnya dimana? Di Taiwan. Wah jauh ya mandarinnya jago dong. 

Si uncle yang kalau dilihat sudah berusia diatas 50an itu terus ngobrol dengan senyum dan sambil masak daging burger gue pelan - pelan.

Yang bikin gue amaze itu knowledge dia tentang dunia lain bahkan sejarah Indo. Dari cara menu dia yang tertulis dengan huruf calligraphy spidol dan menata burger bak menata sketsa arsitektur gue jadi berasumsi si uncle anak art yang pengen coba2 jualan.



Beef & cheese burger pesenan gue lengkap sama peanut butter dan harganya seinget gue around RM5, which is only IDR 15k.



Gue gak banyak nanya tentang background dia dulunya, tapi gue bisa merasakan hidup santai dengan suasana downtown sambil kerjain sesuatu yang lw suka tuh rasanya heartwarming banget. Bayangkan kita yang kerja di kota besar setiap hari kerjaannya rush banget, ini urgent itu urgent. Bentar bos bilang mau ini segera, bentar meeting itu. Jauh beda banget sama kehidupan si uncle yang menikmati angin dan langit malam sambil kerjain apa yang dia suka.


Dan yang kedua adalah pedangang rujak di riverside.




Sekilas tidak ada yang menarik dari stand ini. Banyang stand di sepanjang riverside yang menawari aneka jajanan sampai barang elektronik pun ada. Gue yang lagi jalan - jalan sore sambil menikmati indahnya sunset terpanggil oleh stand ini.

Dan yang menarik gue kesini adalah mandarin old song yang keluar dari dalam stand ini. Yes, antique banget deh dari radio tua yang masih ada tempat cassette nya sampai lagu yang diputar. Akhirnya gue singgah dan order rujak, cobain ah rujak sini kayak apa.

Bedanya dari rujak Jakarta, sausnya petis, isinya ada bengkoang, nanas, timun, tahu dan ditaburi bubuk kacang tanah di atasnya. Kalau gue lebih suka tanpa tahu karena menurut gue aneh rujak pake tahu. :P Rasa petisnya khas bgt enak. My fav. one. (*tersedia porsi kecil RM3, medium RM4, besar RM5

This regular one
Waktu lagi nunggu rujak dan merhatiin jajanan apa yang bisa gue serbu, mata gue tertuju sama papan menu yang ada. Kalau biasa cuman isinya menu jualan apa dan harga aja, ini isinya foto si Akong lagi mancing ikan, foto jadul si Akong, dan karikatur orang beli rujak.

Guys bisa bayangin background-nya old mandarin song, liatnya foto - foto jadul si Akong. Terus pas gue mau beli minum dia masarin jualan-nya lucu banget. Minum susu kacang biar putih kayak tahu.

Hahahaha

Ahhh gue jadi berinspirasi banget buat menikmati hari tua seperti si Akong ini hidupnya santai, dengerin lagu tua dan nghadep-nya riverside yang sunsetnya bagus itu.

Gue belajar lagi yang bikin kita  bahagia bukan harta atau kedudukan tapi bisa ngelakuin apa yang kita suka dan hidup relax. (*mungkin aku sudah terlalu lelah bekerja


Kuching mengajarkan gue banyak hal, salah satunya me-relax-kan pikiran, batin, dan jasmani.

Thanks Kuching for all the lesson.