Coffee Shops in Kelapa Gading: An Investigation

“You live in Kelapa Gading? Wow, you’ll never go hungry.”

We looked at each other real quick and realized that even though Kelapa Gading has been the place we go home to for the past 6 years, we had never really give the place much of a thought. It’s convenient of course, but we’re Southerners by heart, which means we would know more about Pondok Indah Mall than Mall of Indonesia. 

The mall has been our comfort zone for food, coffee and grocery shopping. But the franchise cafés are getting too crowded with families, moms gathering and nannies with the strollers. So we dared ourselves to check what’s outside the doors. Turned out we’ve been missing out some good stuffs. A pity that is, because we spent most of our time on the North side of the city, where tasty food is plenty and homey café are flourishing. So one public holiday weekend, we decided to go down to the Mall of Indonesia’s vicinity and check out what’s available for our date: blogging and homework that is.

Here are three of our findings: TOF Sicacilla, Coffeegasm and Kahvenin, located just right outside the Lobby 8 door.

Let’s go to Korea: Answering the Basic Questions

I blurted the idea out there and never thought it would come true. So far, I’ve only arranged trips to Singapore and Malaysia. Penang and Bangkok are the furthest away we went on our own itinerary. Well, there was this Western Europe trip half a decade ago, but my brothers took the lead on scheduling. All I had to do was showing up at Heathrow.

So this is a big jump from our regular Southeast Asian traveldates. 

Question #1: WHEN?

The best time to visit Korea is Autumn (or I call it “Fall” cos I studied in the U.S.). The falling leaves, the changing colors and the not-so-cold weather made Korea an ideal destination in September and October. Sometimes early November too. So, if you’re not familiar with these scenes, have yet to experience autumn, don’t think twice about when. Yes, it’s pricey but it’s worth the view.

But between us, we have enough Autumns and Thanksgivings that we’re not into falling leaves anymore. “I want to see snow,” Andrew had said. Several times, too. I’ve showed him pictures from when we’re stuck snowed in for days. He argued back that he was too young to remember anything about winter time. Well, the truth is I miss Winter air too. Snow is another thing but breathing the cold air is happiness for me.

And it’s been 10+ years since I last see them (cos watching Frozen on movie theatre doesn’t count).

It’s Winter for us, then. Cheaper too. When it comes to price of our return ticket, there was 50% gap between the two seasons. Winter being cheaper. With the two of us, a 50% gap combined equals to another return ticket. So Winter it is.

Counting in school holidays and Christmas – New Year day offs I can take from work, we finally settled for December 31st departure. New Year’s on the plane didn’t sound as bad. And in reality, it wasn’t that bad. We flew Garuda Indonesia (our national airline). Hats and party equipments are available to cheer for New Year, 30 minutes after our boarding time. Once in a lifetime indeed. 

Question #2: WHERE?

If I can redo my itinerary, I wouldn’t pack so many tourists spot on one week. It’s either Seoul, with a side trip to Sorak Mountain and Sokcho or Busan with a few days in Jeju. The thing is we never know if we’ll go again.

On second thought, we’ll go again. This trip, we had to scrap off “Train to Busan” from our itinerary in exchange with a day in Everland.

So, I would recommend you to start your K-itinerary with Seoul. Because there are so many things you can see in Seoul and you can filled a week worth of activities by being in and around Seoul. Stroll through the different neighborhoods and theme parks, the palaces and the shopping areas. Give Nami island a day or book an early morning bus trip to Sokcho, visit Mount Sorak and return to Seoul the next day.

With Winter, and thanks to the recent Olympics, trains are available from that part of South Korea. The ski resorts are within reach too. Wish I had known these things before scrambling to visit everything. But again, we didn’t know if we ever will come back to South Korea. So at least we’ve been to Jeju, to Sorak and everywhere in Seoul.

Question #3: HOW MUCH?

This is a little hard to justify because I can only speak for departures from Jakarta. But I bought my tickets at a travel fair, which cost me half the regular return ticket price. There are budget airlines with similar price of the Garuda Indonesia ticket I purchased. I wouldn’t recommend them because Garuda Indonesia flies non-stop to South Korea, a 6-7 hours trip.  Some of the budget airlines schedule includes an overnight stop at either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. Although it won’t be a problem with me and Andrew, I wouldn’t recommend them for family travel in general.

Yes, ticket-hunting is a must for us.

Tickets on hand, now it’s time to talk about accommodation. It’s best to book them 1-2 months in advance to ensure you get the best prices possible. Check on local festivals and avoid them if you’re not planning to participate. Check everything. A hotel in Dongdaemun isn’t always more expensive than Myeongdong. Look at different hotels, check the facilities and see how much a room without breakfast is. Also check if they have deals on extra nights. I figured that 4 nights in a Dongdaemun hotel are cheaper than others I browsed through because they had this 3+1 discount night. 

Food in South Korea depends on where you dine. My favorite mini market Gimbab cost about 2000KRW. I’m addicted to them and always have them in my backpack. The Onigiri is around 900 – 1000KRW. But I traveled with a bunch of Asian families (including Andrew) and we had to search for rice along with Lotteria fried chicken we ordered. The microwaved rice bowls are 1000 to 1500KRW each at mini market. Eating in restaurants can be costly. Pork noddle (guksu) in Jeju cost 9000 – 10,000KRW while Rose Latte in Insadong cost 6500KRW. A portion of fried chicken (shared among us) cost 24,000 – 26,000KRW. I personally love going to Lottemart and shop for bread, pork cutlets, milk and the so-called food supplies. Pack sandwiches for lunch or dinner on the go. It cuts your food cost and save you time cos you don’t have to stop and eat while you, for example, browse through Myeongdong.

So it depends. 

Well, we managed to round up a 10-day trip to South Korea (including 3-day in Jeju). It costs us roughly 15 million Rupiahs (a little over 1000USD) for two persons sharing hotel rooms, excluding meals, attraction tickets and personal shopping.

Unfortunately, 10 days aren’t enough. We want to go another round to Busan. Hopefully sometime soon, and in a different season.

The Fun Rides of Legoland Malaysia

We arrived with the assumption that Legoland is for small children and Dudu is too old for the rides. So, we didn’t expect much even after we were there by the gate that morning, especially when we just stopped by Universal Studios the previous day.

But you don’t have to be as cool to be lovable. Universal Studios may be awesome, but Legoland has a different kind of charm. Even for non-Lego enthusiasts like us. We spent half day at the water park and another half at theme park with lunch break in between. It was fun and if Universal Studios is done in a day, this one needs extension. At least one for each.

But before we go into our favorite rides in Legoland, let me share that the theme park online ticketing service is real friendly and helpful. I ordered my tickets through their official website but the e-ticket didn’t arrive in my mailbox. I emailed them and they helped track down my tickets, re-sending them in no time. So we’re able to depart in peace. The price is also competitive. I bought it on the official website because believe it or not, it’s the cheapest I can found after comparing with several travel agents and websites.

According to its official website, 1-day theme park pass is RM156 (or around Rp.480k) if you book 7 days in advance.

The website has also been helpful in providing information regarding how to reach the place from Singapore by bus so I didn’t have to look anywhere else.

Legoland Malaysia is thrilling as well as educational. It’s less crowded than Universal Studios, so we spend more time playing and enjoying the park rather than standing on the line haha. We can play as many times as we want without worrying about the line or the other people. 

The 2 A.M. Big Bad Wolf Book Run

I have a love-hate relationship with my hometown. One of the reasons is that living in Jakarta is never boring. You always have something to do, even in the middle of the night. We have two long weekends in a row where public holidays fall on Monday. And we have that 24-hour Big Bad Wolf Book sale. Perfect.

Despite being not as enthusiastic as when the Big Bad Wolf first came last year with their books, I pushed myself to go. Mainly because last year we found Garfield comics and hoping this year the book collection would be as interesting. But the reviews had come back with long queue reports, especially on the cashier area. The only time to go is hours before dawn. So I threw the offer of “stay up all night” to Dudu and to my surprise, he agreed.

The Batik Village of Laweyan, Hidden Treasure Behind Surakarta's Street

In many of our frequent visit to Solo, we found a Kampung Batik (Batik Village) hidden behind the city’s main roads. Solo is dubbed the City of Batik, as written upon arrival at Adi Soemarmo Airport. So one morning, when Dudu is busy swimming at the hotel with the cousins, I went with the moms to Kampung Batik Laweyan.

“Where do you want to go, Ma’am?” The taxi driver asked. Apparently Kampung Batik Laweyan consists of different shops and stores stretched along the long yet narrow street. Because we arrived by car, the driver took us to a shop called Batik Putra Begawan, accessible by car and have several parking spaces. From the store, we can either walk or take a tricycle to different shops in the area. The Batik shops are practically next to one another, selling different Batik items in different shape and sizes. From the air-conditioned modern store like Batik Putra Begawan that we went into, to the one inside a traditional Javanese Joglo houses. Some of the shops are located inside small alleys, fit only for pedestrians and bicycle, right next to Batik workshops. Unfortunately, the workshops are having their day off on Sundays and I was there on Sunday morning. Otherwise, visitors can learn more about Batik’s creation process and watch how the painted ones are made.

Hong Kong Beyond the City Lights: Geoparks Dream

Hong Kong is on our bucket list. No, it's not because Dudu saw it on Transformers. It's because my only visit to Hong Kong was almost two decades ago. Needless to say I only can vaguely remember the city. I remember there's a region called Tsim Sha Tsui, there's this train going uphill with a Madame Tussaud on top. I'm pretty sure the happiest place in earth hadn't opened its doors in Hong Kong then.

But that's about it.

So, despite having been to Hong Kong i couldn't write about the places I go. This post is written as a participant to #WegoDiscoverHK blog contest and I'll be taking the outsider point of view, talking as if I've never been to the city.

Back then, it was a standard tourist visit, as I went with an arranged tour group from Indonesia with my aunt and cousin. We probably went where everyone went. Now that I've visited few other countries out there, I realize there's always something more to a destination that what's offered on your local travel agents offered. 

The other day, I was surprised to see this picture on my instagram feeds. I captured the scene before it went away. For me, who always thought that Hong Kong is identical with scrumptious dishes and city lights, something as naturally scenic as this is a pleasant surprise. Especially when my current travelmate, Dudu, is an adventurous outdoor boy. I figured if there's something this pretty, there should be more to Hong Kong than the skyscrapers have to offer. Of course something like Disneyland or Ocean Park is tempting and we do want to spend a day or two there, but we decided to look around. We found this interesting site.

Jakarta Toys and Comics Fair 2017

In the midst of Lego Batman craze, let’s just say the Power Rangers stole the Jakarta Toys and Comics Fair weekend. Or at least that’s what we thought. The event at Balai Kartini Jakarta has been a regular date destination. We’d make time for a few hours, checking out toys, and if we’re lucky we’d go home with a few new friends for Dudu’s action figure collection.

The 13th Annual Jakarta Toys and Comics Fair (2017)
When: 11-12 February 2017
Where: Kartika Expo, Balai Kartini, Jakarta
Admission: Rp.50,000 (Presale Rp.45,000)

This year, the event arrived a little early, just few days shy of The Lego Batman Movie premiere on local movie theatre in mid-February. But when I propose the schedule to Dudu, he read on and decided for day two. “I want to see Power Rangers,” he reasoned. A valid one because, well, he’s been into Power Rangers for a while. Plus, the movie is coming out and he’s been watching the trailer dilligently on Youtube. So, when a Power Ranger cosplay/live action is scheduled for day two at 1 PM, there we are.