Indonesia Day 2: First Day in Bandung (Part 2)

Date of Visited: 21st December 2011

Continue from Part I: Leaving Jakarta to Bandung

Upon arrived Bandung, it rained cats and dogs. It is one of the most annoying things when comes to travelling.

Hence, my mom suggested to have lunch before taking taxi to our hotel and we spotted this small little Japanese bento shop located right at the exit of the train station which known as Hokka Hokka.

Both mommy and I ordered and shared a set which consists a bowl of rice, fried chicken nuggets, fried fish cake, grilled chicken, salad and a coke that cost IDR57,000 (roughly around RM20). We tried to wait but looks like the weather wasn't on our side. Without waiting any longer, got no choice but immediately take the taxi to our hotel.

This is the hotel we were staying for 2 nights when we're in Bandung - Sensa Hotel. It is indeed one the highly recommended not just by me, but also my mom who truly fall in love with this hotel. Will blog about this in the upcoming post.

Even the location is absolutely superb. It located in the center of Cihampelas Street, where we pampered ourselves with cheap shopping. Most of the items sold here were jeans cause this is the place known to be jeans centre. I noticed the jeans were super cheap and you can even request to alter for free. Not just that, Cihampelas Street is different from other streets in Bandung in terms where you can see many superheroes huge statues which are amazingly standing on the top of the buildings such as Superman, Spiderman and more.

Almost the whole rows of Cihampelas Street filled with garments. 

Besides Cihampelas Street, Ciwalk or fully known as Cihampelas Walk Shopping Mall is located just right beside the hotel. It seems to be newly opened shopping mall with many unique and amazing shops.

Before we went back to the hotel after spending almost 2 hours of shopping, we settled down by having dinner. We had a set of Teriyaki Chicken Noddle and fresh Strawberry Juice but turns out the teriyaki chicken noodle taste awful. Luckily there is a convenient store in the Ciwalk, so we went and bought few foods.

And what did I bought on my first day in Bandung? A Smurf T-shirt which cost RM17 (consider quite cheap) and a set of fridge magnet for collection.

NOTE: Kinda quite rush for this post cause I am currently travelling for my final trip for the year. An overland trip to 3 different cities in a week.

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Indonesia Day 2 - Leaving Jakarta For Bandung (Part I)

Date of Visited: 21st December 2011

By the time we woke up, we found it's only 7am of Indonesian time. Jakarta time is 1 hour behind Malaysia time. Mommy and I woke up early to wander around nearby the hotel before leaving Jakarta to Bandung. And also to hunt for breakfast as it was not included in our hotel.

Some of the area in Jakarta was indeed clean. No kidding!

Some of the buildings we saw at this business district of Jakarta Golden Triangle. Jakarta is divided into 5 cities/municipalities; which are Central, North, East, West and South. The area that we were staying was in Central Jakarta which is the smallest city and home to most of Jakarta's administrative and political center.

Mom couldn't find any coffee shops nearby the hotel. She needs at least drink a cup of coffee everyday. Hence, we decided went back to our hotel, MaxOne Hotels.com for breakfast before checking-out. The reason I choose this hotel mainly because it is so near to the train station and we heard a lot of congested jam in Jakarta. For sure, we don't want to miss out train.

This is auto rickshaw of Indonesia, which being by the local as Bajaj. Initially we plan to take taxi to the train station from our hotel, but the staff recommended us to take this as it was more faster and cheaper too. You can bargain with them before decided to ride with them. Mommy and I did bargained with the driver and finally both of us agreed to pay the driver for IDR15,000 (roughly around RM5). The ride is similar to tuk-tuk in Thailand.

Gambir Station, the mainline railway station in Central Jakarta that will depart to Bandung. Besides Bandung, it also depart to other major cities of Indonesia such as Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.  


The time schedule. The train from Jakarta Gambir Station to Bandung depart for every hour or two but it is advisable to check it advance as it might change. There are two website that you can check out if you want plan your journey from Jakarta to Bandung or even to other cities:

1. Train Travel in Indonesia
2. Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero)

As I saw one of Jakarta's icon, the Monument National or in short known as MONAS is located just besides the Gambir Station and also cause we had a lil bit of spare time, I told my mom I wanna go there for photoshooting. But turns out, it need at least 10 minutes walking. Mommy was quite worry that we might be late for our flight, hence this is one and only shot that I managed to capture from the station:

Monument National of Indonesia, MONAS

Bear in mind that if you wanna take taxi in Jakarta, it is advisable to take this blue colour taxi which known as the "Blue Bird". Up to date, I heard lots of positive comments from the foreign tourists.

We bought the Executive class for IDR60,000 (roughly around RM22) per person. The seats are quite comfortable with fully air-conditioned. There are even meals being sold inside the train such as fried rice, fried noodle, snacks and drinks but might be pricey. Well, mommy and I had bought quite lots of foods and drinks before we depart.

Finally, a train ride for 3 hours, we reached Bandung but unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs once we arrived. This is what I hate when comes to travelling - heavy rain that really spoil the travelling mood.

So, it rains heavily in Bandung and what did we did? Stay tune for the Part II of Bandung travelogue.

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Foodie Friday: Foods Around Kuching

NOTE: Non-Halal Food Post

Like what I did mentioned before in my previous post that during my trip to Kuching with my family last week, our trip seems like more towards food adventures. Besides Penang and Malacca, I think that Kuching is consider one of the city in Malaysia to be one of the place for food paradise.

Kuching has a number of notable and famous local dishes that mostly served in hawker stalls. It doesn't means that you have to go for grand and luxury restaurants for fine and delicious foods, hawker stalls sometimes serve more delicious than that.

The FOUR heavenly foods that you must try when in Kuching:

Who doesn't know this, the most famous noodle of Sarawak - Kolo Mee? A flash-boiled egg noodles that classically served with crushed garlic and shallot, minced pork, white vinegar, either vegetable oil, pork oil or peanut oil, and sliced barbecue pork known as char siew which is my favourite food that I can have it almost every morning when I was in Kuching. You can have this as low as RM2.60 per bowl in Kuching. It's dirt cheap and sometimes the hawker is generous with the amount of char siew.

Kueh Chap, a ricecake strips served in a herbal soup with assortment of pork internal organs, deep fried tofu, and hard-boiled egg. 

Another favourite of mine, Tomato Sauce Kuey Teow. Some people found it weird to eat this ricecake strips in the tomato sauce but for me, it is simply delicious. Some of the stalls in Kuching do serve in crispy deep fried noodles and you can request whatever ingredients you wanna add into this meal. For me, I prefer chicken, pork and fish cakes.

 

Sarawak Laksa – Spicy coconut prawn paste-based broth served with rice vermicelli, omelette and chicken strips, prawns, sliced deep fried tofu, and occasionally clams. But to be frank, I seldom had this in Kuching cause my mom serve the best Sarawak Laksa.

Apart from the above four heavenly foods of Kuching, there are even many unusual and unique foods you can find around Kuching itself, such as:

I found this one kinda special cause I never came across in anyway, the Belacan Bihun. A vermicelli served together with octopus mixed together with spicy shrimp paste. Did anyone found this food in other place besides Kuching, please share with me but I doubt so on that.

Rojak Buah - Mixed of pineapple

Kuching Special ABC with their special name. From left; White Lady, Harry Potter and Gangnam Style. 

I was so surprised but at the same time, laughed for non-stop when I heard the name. Their ABC are freaking cheap too where you can get as low as RM1.70. Gosh!

Three Layer Milk Tea or locally known as Teh C Special. This three lay­ers are often made up of tea which is on the top, evap­o­rated milk in the middle and Gula Melaka syrup in the bottom part. Not just three, there are some shops even served in five layers. Cool!

Most of the foods above are hardly for you to bring back or even give to your friends and family, unless going to Kuching by themselves. But no worry, as there are always something you can bring back as a gift from Kuching, none other than Kek Lapis or Layer Cake. Everytime when I see those passengers from Kuching flight, most of them brought a big box and sometimes even more than that filled with Kek Lapis. There are many flavour with different kind of patterns and motifs.

I doubt that most of the foods above are hardly to be found in elsewhere, except in Sarawak especially the Kuching city. Wanna try and eat the origin, buy ticket and heading to Kuching for a food adventures that for sure will make you craving for more. No offense but a Malaysian who had been to many countries but not Kuching, it's kinda shame on you. Should plan your trip to this humble cats city someday. Meow!

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360 Urban Resort Hotel, Kuching

Usually when my family and I went back Kuching, we will stay in our uncle's place but that's when we were in small group. But unlike my recent trip where there were 8 of us, we had to book the hotel and one of hotel that my dad like to stay is Merdeka Palace Hotel. Only recently, my dad found out that one of his classmates operated and owned this 360 Urban Resort Hock Lee Center or also known as 360 Hotel which located within 5 minutes from Kuching's central business district.

360 Hotel is divided into two tower; Tower A comprises 178 brand new rooms and suites which I think suit for those who travel in couple whereas Tower B offers 95 rooms and apartments which are more suitable for those who travel in big group especially for the family, just like us. 

My dad booked 3 different rooms to accommodate 8 of us. Let's take a look at my parents and brothers' room first - The Executive 2 Bedroom Apartment, shall we?

Once we stepped into the room, we were astonished with the spacious living room. It makes us feel like we were home instead. Exactly a great place for a family gathering.

Then, we can even cooked our own meals at the kitchenette that fully furnished with microwave oven, refrigerator, gas-fired stove, cooking utensils, pots and cutlery.

Two of the bedrooms comprise of 1 double bedroom and 2 single bedroom and each attached with own bathroom. There is even a bathroom located outside the living room, which means the total number of bathroom in this apartment are 3. No worry to fight for the bathroom anymore.

Double bedroom

2 single bedroom for my brothers

Whereas for my sister and I, we got the Executive 1 Bedroom Apartment:

Where our room comes with a living room and a kitchenette too

Our modern and chic room with warm colors that exude luxury and comfort

All of our rooms are equipped with 32" LCD TV, hairdryer, iron and ironing board, laptop size security safe, and complimentary 2 bottles of mineral water. We also noticed there is a DVD Player that is only available for our room type only. The only difference of my room compared others was the TV located right in front of my bed whereas the rest of the other two rooms TV were located in the living room. 

Regarding the bathroom, it was definitely clean and all those basic toiletries are provided such as hand and body tower, shower gel and shampoo, soap, shower cap and cotton bud. The only thing I had problem was the hardly adjustable hot water. Well for the rest, I have no issue on that. Some of our room do have bathtub. 

Adjacent to 360 Urban Resort Hock Lee Center is a decent shopping mall which houses 3 restaurants (Chinese, mixed of both local and western or even pub), supermarket and assorted shops. Other facilities in the hotel included expandable coffeehouse, swimming pool and gym but unfortunately for us was we hadn't so much time to utilize them.  

The only pro side was the location of the hotel which located far a bit from the city centre, unless you have car. Overall, we were satisfied cause for such a big and spacious room, we managed to get the room as low as RM150 per night.  

Interested with this hotel and wanna know more, do find out more HERE.

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Family Gathering in Kuching, Sarawak

Just when I thought I need to wait for at least another 6 months for another trip of mine right after back from Bangkok trip last month of October, no, it didn't happened. Out of sudden, my dad requested all of us including my Boyfie and even my sister and her boyfriend from Singapore for a family trip to my second hometown, Kuching. I wasn't born in Kuching anyway but I was part of Sarawakian cause both of my parents were. I went back Kuching like almost once every year but since after I went college, I seldom went back.

It was kinda last minute decision, we decided to fly with Malaysia Airlines after compared the airfare between both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines. So, don't always think that AirAsia is cheaper all the time but do the comparison with Malaysia Airlines first. I did flew with Malaysia Airlines when I back from my Bangkok trip last month of October.

My second trip with Boyfie this year after our Hong Kong & Macau trip in September. 

To my surprised, we flew with Malaysia Airlines new Boeing aircraft. I can even charged my smartphone inside the aircraft. Cool man! I always wanna blog my flying experience with Malaysia Airlines but too many travel posts in queue. :S

We stayed in 360 Urban Resort Hotel. A service apartment hotel with spacious living room and kitchen costs RM150 per night only. It's freaking cheap because this hotel operated and owned by my dad's classmate. Will blog about this in the upcoming post. 

Since this was the first time for both my Boyfie & my sister's bf visited Kuching, therefore my uncle brought us around and visited some of their museum.

Sarawak Museum Old Building 

The Spring, the largest lifestyle shopping mall in the state. Went here just to take photo of the tall Christmas tree. I didn't bought anything cause most of the shops inside are available too in Kota Kinabalu city such as Padini, Guess, Mango, Esprit, Quiksilver, Roxy La Senza and more. 

We didn't wandered around Kuching much cause there are quite few of family events being held throughout the trip. 

My mom's uncle and aunty 71st & 81st birthday celebration. That little gal in blue dress I blogged about her before - click HERE.

My brother and my sister's boyfriend birthday celebration.

 A group photo of my grandpa and grandma of mommy's side together with all the grandchildren. I am the eldest one but I think soon or later, I am the shortest among all of them.

3 days 3 nights in Kuching with Boyfie were indeed too short for us but we had a very big and huge family gathering, not just on my mom's side but on my dad's side too. I did met my twin cousin too, who has the exact same birthday as mine - same day, same month and same year too. Just the time were different. Might going to Kuching again for her wedding soon.

Last but not least, my Kuching trip seems like more towards food adventures. Eat eat eat is what we did throughout the trip. That's the reason why I refused back to Kuching cause I always putting on weight with all the delicious and cheap foods.

Tiger prawns, sea cucumbers, crabs, scallops, fresh fish and more cooked by my aunt and her husband who owned seafood restaurant in Kubah Ria in conjuction with my brother's birthday celebration.

 All the notable local foods and meals that we had. It's dirt cheap where you can get Kolo Mee as low as RM2.60 with so many char siew. Will blog about this too in the upcoming post.

Kuching South City Council Cat Statue is wearing the X'mas costume.

So here, I concluded that this City of Cats marked as my 10th trip for the year 2012 itself. 

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Indonesia Day 1 - Arrived Jakarta & MaxOne Hotels.com

Date of Visited: 20th December 2011

My Journey Around South East Asia: First Destination - Singapore

My resolution for the year 2011 was to travel abroad at least 4 times in a year. So, I did went Shenzhen, South Korea and Singapore but I still think that it wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger towards travelling abroad. Indonesia came into my mind when one of my besties just came back from there and told me it was a shopping haven. I haven't been to Indonesia for my entire life and I was thought why not gave Indonesia a try, right? So when AirAsia was having a big promotion, I managed to secure airfare with a return cost of RM330 for both my mommy and I. Plus point was direct flight from Kota Kinabalu. So, we won't wasting our time to travel to Kuala Lumpur for flight connection. It was a surprised for my mom and she never expecting that I will buy the airticket for her. My mom almost turned down my offer but at the end, she decided to go.

The flight from Kota Kinabalu to Jakarta took roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes and here we are, at the capital city of Indonesia. The queue was long cause there are other flight arrived at the same time too. But overall, the process of getting through all the immigration and custom checking were smooth and clear. The time differences between Jakarta and Malaysia is 1 hour behind but do take not that, not all cities of Indonesia have the same time zone. I found out about this when I went Bali this year. 

We arrived Jakarta airport quite late and I was clueless what mode of transportation should I get? I did do research that for safety purpose, it is advisable to take the "Blue Bird" taxi but when we went out from the airport, we didn't saw any of them. Got no choice but to hire taxi service from the airport counter and it cost us IDR170,000 (roughly around RM61) to our hotel.

This is the hotel that mommy and I gonna overnight for a night only, MaxOne Hotels.com cause of the following day, we are gonna move on to the next city. This budget hotel cost me RM146.00 cause I booked less than a week before going there. Might be pricey but no regret for staying here cause it was indeed a great location as it strategically located in the central business district of Jakarta Golden Triangle.

Colourful, funky and trendy reception counter is what caught my attention once I stepped into the hotel.

And even their lift design is so creative and impressive.

Mommy and I were quite shocked when we entered the room. By looking at the size of the room, it was quite small. However, that wasn't big issue for us cause overall, both of us were satisfied with the cleanliness of the room and also the bathroom. The room was nicely decorated with some artistic decor, equiped with a flatscreen television and were blessed with a comfortable double bed. Basic toiletries are included such as shampoo and shower gel and there is a hot water. The most important was free WiFi connection within the room.

Last but not least the thing that impressed me was the room number of the hotel. Before step into the room, we were tried to find our room but we didn't spotted any number stick on the door. Then only we realised the room number was underneath us. Impressive right?

I am highly recommended to stay in this hotel if you are planning to visit Jakarta some day. One and only thing that should take note is request the room that is not facing the street cause it was quite noisy during the day time. You don't want the lively street to disturb your beauty sleep, right?

I booked this hotel through Agoda.com but if you want to get more details, click HERE for more.

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