Singapore Fling

My mom is one of the most impulsive persons I've ever known. So I wasn't that surprised when last month she suddenly asked me to join her for a short trip to Singapore, with my sister and sister in law. My father finally joined us too in last minute.

The trip didn't have any specific reasons, other than Mom wanted to spend some time with us, girls only (this was before my father's sudden decision to join us, haha). So we decided to visit some nice culinary destinations that we've never had a chance to visit every time we came with the kids.

There are three places that I would love to recommend:

1. Tiong Bahru Bakery 
Actually, this place has several branches, including one in Orchard area. That's why the concierge in our hotel was confused when we asked him the way to Tiong Bahru, the original location of the bakery. But we wanted to feel the atmosphere besides eating the food, so we decided to just go to Tiong Bahru. We took a bus and it stopped not far from the bakery. The bakery was small and it was Sunday when we went there, so it was pretty crowded. Fortunately we got a table near the windows when we arrived. The bakery is owned by a French couple, so the menu has lots of variety, and authentic taste, too. We ordered chocolate almond croissant, apple crumble, bacon bagel and some pie with cheese (I forgot the French name, sorry!). The price is quite high, maybe because the target market of the bakery is the expatriates living in Singapore (so many bules when we were there, most of them are young couples with small kids). But the coffee and tea are great, and the food is very very delicious, so it's all worth it. It feels like you found a little piece of Paris in the middle of Singapore old town district.

http://www.tiongbahrubakery.com/
#01-07, 56 Eng Hoon St, Singapore 160056 ‎
6220 3430

The Almond Croissant and Bacon Bagel are superb!

Make sure you go to the original location.

2. Song Fa Bakut Teh
I am not a fan of bakut teh, for me the taste is too strong and even a bit like medicine. But my sister said that there's one place in Clarke Quay that has the best bakut teh ever. It even doesn't really taste of bakut teh! So we decided to give it a try and having lunch there. It's located just across The Central, the big mall above the Clarke Quay MRT station. The place is so crowded we even had to wait to be seated. The atmosphere is pretty nice, the interior is designed like an old Chinese restaurant. We ordered pork ribs bakut teh, fish soup, cakueh and vegetables. And my sister was totally right! The bakut teh didn't taste like strong medicine, but more like pork rib soup :) I enjoyed it so much, even the price was okay (we actually spent more for our breakfast in Tiong Bahru than our lunch here). My only complaint is the tea. The Chinese tea was not that good, lukewarm and didn't have strong taste. Not at all like any old Chinese restaurant!

http://www.songfa.com.sg
17 New Bridge Road #01-01
Singapore 059386
Business Hours:
11.00am - 9.45pm
Last Order: 9:30pm Please call to check on availability
(Closed on Monday)
Tel: +65 6438 2858 

From the upfront.

Those pork ribs are heavenly!

3. Tim Ho Wan
We heard about this place because people said that this is the hottest spot to eat dim sum in Singapore now. It's gained an entry in Michelin guide and originally came from Hongkong. In Singapore, it's located in Plaza Singapura, not far from Orchard Road. But since the waiting line is usually very long, we decided to come on Monday (with hope that people are too busy going to work and don't have time to eat dim sum in the morning), and we came very early, before the restaurant was open :) But guess what? There were actually people already waited in the line! And the thing is, because we were still waiting for my mom and dad to join us in the restaurant, we were not allowed to go inside! The rule is to wait until all members of your group are coming. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for too long. And we ordered so much food because we were very very hungry XD The must try of this place is Baked Bun with BBQ Pork. It's like puffy milk bread, with juicy bbq pork inside. It's so delicious I felt guilty to eat it! Other menu that are also worth to try: vermicelli roll with pig's liver, steamed pork dumpling with shrimp, and pan fried carrot cake. My mouth is now watery just thinking about them XD The price was okay, but a bit expensive compares to dim sum in Jakarta. We spent around SGD 70 for 5 people.

http://www.timhowan.com

68 Orchard Road #01-29A Plaza Singapura
Singapore 238839
Tel: (65) 6251 2000
Opening Hours:
10.00am – 10.00pm (Monday  – Friday) Last Order @ 0930pm. 09.00am – 10.00pm (Saturday, Sunday and Public Holiday)  Last Order @ 0930pm.

No reservation so make sure you come early!

The super duper delicious bbq pork bun!

Notes from Balimoon

A few months ago, one of my aunts who has been working in Pertamina for more than twenty years announced to us that she will be retiring soon. And to celebrate the moment, she wanted to take us all (yep, the big family!) to Bali for a short holiday. We called the vacation our Balimoon :)

So here are some notes, recommendations and snapshots from those short memorable days (we wished we would have more surprising free vacays like this in the future, tee hee!).

Flight
We took Garuda flight, it's as smooth as usual, right on time. And we were really grateful not to take Lion air this time, because during our stay in Bali, Lion Air had some incident and had to be landing on water! How dreadful.

Welcome to Bali, Krucils!

Hotel
Courtesy of Pertamina (well not really, they only gave discount actually, not free rooms hehe), we stayed in The Patra Jasa Hotel, located in Tuban area, just next to the airport. The hotel has an old-school ambiance, and it's quite refreshing after stayed in many modern-minimalist hotels recently. The rooms are located in cottages, with cute little balconies outside. It is quite a long way from lobby to the rooms, but luckily the hotel provided mini cart with drivers that can take us around. My most favorite part of the hotel is the pool. It is really large, with enough space for the kiddie pool, and there is a special part for playing water polo and even water football :) The best part of the pool is the bar!! It has this terrific happy hour program - buy 2 drinks, get 1 free! And because there were not too many people in the hotel, the bartender even let us get the happy hour spree even if it's not the time yet :) And if we got bored, we just went out to the beach at the back of the hotel. The beach was not too crowded and it's quite clean, but it had lots of sharp corals, so we had to be careful especially when playing in the water.

Great pool!

Happy Hour, Happy Me!

Food Galore
On the first day, after checking in to the hotel,   we went to Naughty Nuri's in Batubelig, Seminyak for lunch. The place is great! I really love their unique decor, with many many pig statues and pictures. Really cute! The food was good, I tried their famous pork ribs, really delicious and crunchy. And the salad was great too! What I like about Nuri's (and other restaurants/cafes in Bali) is they have this cool Book Swap section in the area. So if you happened to have any books that you would like to swap, you can just leave them there and take the books that were in the shelves.

Nuri's, for Naughty and Nice!

Pig!

Heavenly!

Book Swap, anyone?

For dinner, we went to Warung Made, still in Seminyak. Well, one thing about Warung Made, their food is actually so-so, except for the pork (especially for the pork satay! One of the best). But since we had all-pork lunch earlier, we decided to eat porkless for dinner. We had this package of nasi campur Bali, with chicken satay and vegetable springroll. It was okay. I would say that you can skip Warung Made for the food, but it is still a good place to hang out, listening to the life music, joining other weekly activities, from dance to jazz music to traditional gamelan and other art stuff. And they have pretty cool stores too in the restaurant, including ethnic clothing stores and Periplus Bookstore.

The next day, after a crazy morning in Tanjung Benoa (where some of us went parasailing and  the others rode a boat to Pulau Penyu), we had a nice lunch in Bebek Bengil Nusa Dua. This place is quite new, located in The Bay, Nusa Dua. It is spacious and good for group lunch/dinner, and if you bring many kids, they can play around in the back garden which is facing the ocean. We ordered Crispy Duck package, really crunchy and tasty as usual, although the package was slightly more expensive than the one in Bebek Bengil Jakarta. But the surprise arrived in the form of tiramisu. It was super duper delicious!!! Do try it if you stop by Bebek Bengil :)

Delicious crispy duck

For dinner we went to Jimbaran. Unfortunately it was raining, so we had to eat inside the restaurant. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember the name of the restaurant. But the food was so-so, not too fresh, maybe it's because we ordered another group menu. Luckily the rain stopped after we finished the dinner, so we had time to watch a traditional dancing performance in the stage outside, just by the beach. It was great, especially when I looked at the kids' faces while watching the performance. Priceless! :)

Balinese dance performance.....

.....and the audience :)

On the last day, we had free time. Some went to the malls, some were looking for oleh-oleh, and some were swimming and playing at the beach. I swam with Yofel and played at the beach, and because we still had free time, decided to meet Mia, a fellow book blogger, to have lunch together. Mia (with her boyfriend Janner) took us to Biku, a cool place in Seminyak (I think Seminyak is the new Legian now!). Their food was not bad, but not that special either. But the price is reasonable (around 50k for Indonesian dishes), and I love the place so much! It was decorated in ethnic theme, and there is a secondhand book shop, Ganesha, that sells books, knick-knacks, and postcards. Most of the guests were foreigners, though. Probably the place is not too popular for local tourists. Thanks Mia for taking us there!

2nd hand bookstore at Biku

Babi kecap, enak lho!

Thanks Mia!

Souvenirs & Chill Out Places
We tried two different places for souvenirs: Agung and Krisna. The prices were not too different, but I still prefer Krisna. It has more options, and it takes credit or debit cards for payment. Agung is smaller, with limited options and some clothes were not in good quality. So Krisna is still our recommendation, although Rayo lost his Blackberry here :( Well it's a bit careless actually because he left it for just a moment in a chair, but when we went back there, it's already gone (of course!). How many honest people are left in this world, I wonder?

For chilling out, I truly recommended WooBar in W Retreat & Spa, Seminyak. The atmosphere was so cozy, with lots of big sofas, sofabeds, and even beds! Perfect for chillin, reading a book while sipping a glass of martini or just a bottle of cold beer. Well, that's the dream. But since we brought many kids, we just played by the beach and ordered some snacks (their mini pizza and samosa are great!). The beach was very clean and not crowded. And it's free, too! But if you want to plunge into the pool, you have to pay IDR 300k if you're not the resort's guest. Well, we had to skip that one and be content with the beach! I wish I could go back to this place again someday, just to chill with a good book!

Chillin out

the 300k pool :p

Yofel, loves to play at the beach so much!

On the second day, we went to Tanjung Benoa to do some water sports. I would very much like to go parasailing or banana boating. But we decided to take the little kids to Pulau Penyu. We rented a boat from the water sports people (the one we went to is called Kanaka Ocean, and it had quite reasonable price and interesting package). We rode the glass bottom boat, feeding the fish in the middle of our way with some bread, and took pictures with the giant turtle and snake in the island. To tell you the truth, I didn't recommend Pulau Penyu that much. It's too touristy, crowded, and the animals were not treated really well. I took a pity for the giant turtle, and they even taped the snake's mouth! But there was not much to do for little kids in Tanjung Benoa, because they were not allowed to go in banana boat or jetski or other adrenaline rising activities, so Pulau Penyu was the only option.

Feeding the fish

Glass bottom boat

Giant turtle, pukpuk

Unexpected Moments
Of course, in every vacation, there will always be unexpected surprises, bad or good. Besides Rayo lost his Blackberry, we also had a rough time just before the holiday ended, when Yofel vomiting several times, and complained that his stomach hurt. Because it happened just before we left, we decided to just wait until we get home before taking him to the doctor. Luckily, we had the large Boeing plane and Yofel was asleep during the flight.  We took him to the doctor the next morning and he's well again now. Apparently, he didn't eat well during our trip, so he had ulcer problems. Poor Yofel! That's why you need to be less picky with your food, dear!

All in all this was a very memorable holiday, and we thanked our Tante Elly so much for this wonderful trip. We wish you the best in your future plans...and we hope that one day we could be just as generous as you are! :)

2011 Best Finds

We're saying goodbye to 2011 in a few days, so many memorable moments, laughter and tears, things that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Here are some of my best finds in 2011.

1. Kramersbooks and Afterwords Cafe
The coolest bookstore ever. It's located in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC, and I was lucky enough to visit the store when I went to DC this past summer. The bookstore has a certain cool vibe,with shelves full of books at the front area and a bar in the back. And thankfully, it's not as pretentious as Aksara! And the books are cheap too =) My perfect kind of place. I wish there's a place like this someday in Indonesia.

2. My birthday is on Thanksgiving day!
I've never celebrated thanksgiving before, but this year, for the first time in my office's history (and my history as well!), we celebrated thanksgiving. Complete with two huge turkeys, so many delicious traditional food, and the best home made pumpkin pie ever, made by my American colleague's girlfriend. And the best part? We had the celebration on my birthday! So it's considered my birthday celebration too! (without me even spending a dime, hee hee!)

3. Book Blogger Indonesia
I bumped into this crowd on the internet when I was in my lowest moment. Suddenly my spirit was lifted again, knowing these people who shared the same passion with me: books! Since I joined the group, I only had chance to meet with two of them, but it felt like I know all of them forever =)

4. Hummingbird
Bandung is still at the top of my list if I want to find a good place to eat. Frankly speaking, so many overpriced restaurants and cafes in Jakarta, making the good culinary experience turn into a not so good financial situation. So I'm so happy everytime I went to Bandung, there are new places, affordable but nice places, ready to be tried. Hummingbird is one of my favorites this year. A cute little restaurant, has a warm ambiance, and quite good food too. Try the roast chicken with rosemary and their peach tea. Yummy! =)

5. Discount time, baby!
One of the best inventions in internet era so far is the promo and discount site! Me and my colleagues are addicted buying the promos from sites like Deal Keren and Ada Diskon. It's so much fun! Not only the feeling that we had been saving money (a mexican buffet lunch for only IDR 40k, or fancy karaoke for IDR 15k per person, hurray!), but also the chance to try something we never did before. I found a good dentist from one of the promos, and I even tried to do a treatment here, for a very very cheap price. I love discount sites! Who doesn't??? =p

6. Meat is still my choice
I'm totally not against vegetarian. I admire them! But from what I experienced this year, vegetarian is not my way (yet). Especially since I found some places serving really nice carnivore-dish =D One of them is Moe's Place, a great place in Kemang, their specialty is ribs (my choice is baby-back pork ribs, it's heaveeeen!!!!). The quality is almost the same as Tony Romas, but with almost half the price. We celebrated our anniversary there (without even planning it), and we had a great surprise, 25% discount! When I asked until when they'll have the promo, the waiter answered "We haven't decided yet". So go there, hurry! =) Ow, and I also had the best steak of the year, in Outback (I tried the one in Ratu Plaza). Their Outback Special is ridiculously delicious, a very juicy sirloin (ask them to serve the medium one). It’s indescribable =)

7. Time.com
My most favorite site of the year! Their articles, especially the ones in "Top 10" category, saved me in the most boring day at the office or even the most stressful ones. I love how the editors write in a witty, smarty-ass way but still delightful to read. I envy their creativity. Read this Top 10 Everything of 2011 and you'll be taken into a great journey of the year =)

8. BCL
What? The singer? Are you kidding me? Certainly not. Luckily, I'm still sane =D And I found an old school amusement park in Bandung, called Bandung Carnival Land (or BCL!), thanks to my sister =)I took Yofel there and it's a great change from an overly expensive playground at the malls. The simple yet terrifying roller coaster, the as bright as carnival lights, and even the ancient haunted house with the "real" ghosts =) Crazy fun!

9. Sriti Hotel
This is a hotel we stayed at when we had Christmas holiday last week in Magelang. The hotel is surprisingly good, with clean and tidy rooms, nice pool, and warm Christmas-y feeling. It's not that expensive too, about IDR 350k per night for standard room (but a bit more expensive during holiday seasons),located in the center of the city. I will definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to crash in Magelang.

10. Bookish Me
2011 had offered me many great moments as a bookworm. I found several very great books this year. One of them is Special Topics in Calamity Physics. This is not a new book, but it's my best book of the year. Been a while since I read a book that can haunt me long after I finish it. Marisha Pessl had written a really nice debut novel about a girl who tries to find her identity, in the middle of a mysterious murder. The other book is Jellicoe Road, a coming-of-age novel by Melina Marchetta, very intense but enjoyable at the same time. Both novels have brilliant slash crazy epilogue, not to be missed for anything. Probably my favorite epilogues ever!!! I do look forward to reading more good books next year. Fingers crossed!!!
Ow, and another great bookish experience is when I was asked by The Urban Mama to represent them as a speaker for Aleph (Paulo Coelho) Book Discussion with Times Bookstore. Crazily nervous, but in the end, I loved the experience! =)

11. Dinosaurs Rule!
Yofel is in love with dinosaurs. Literally =) And the good news is, I found so many great things related to this ancient animal. Cool books, movies, t shirts, birthday cupcakes and even a big T Rex baloon we bought in ELC. And I found so many interesting facts about dinosaurs too, thanks to Yofel and his obsession =) At least he's not into guns and robot (yet!), but if he does reach that stage, I will let his Dad take over the stage =D

Anyway, it's been a great year, of course lots of stumbling too along with the climbs. But I am very grateful for this wonderful 2011, and looking forward to a great 2012 as well. Wishing everybody more adventures to come! Happy new year! =)

Treasures

What makes me love Bandung so much is the ability of this city to give me endless surprises. This city has many hidden treasures, ready to be discovered in any time.

You'll be surprised that at the back of St Aloysius school building, in a crowded-small place with only a tent covered it from rain or shine, there's a very delicious Batakuah (means: Baso Tahu Kuah). Very original taste, in a very cheap price.

And in Jalan Bungsu, in a small alley across Atoy Salon, you could try a great mie ceker. Yummy.

Or, how bout this store at the second floor of a small building in Dipatiukur, where you could find choices of old records, including the first album of NKOTB and Pink Floyd?

Or, for me, who love books more than anything...There is this little attic shop in front of Unpar, called Omunium, that sells lots and lots of second hand books, books that are very hard to be found in other stores, with a magnificently reasonable price. I've just found this Newbery Winner book, that is quite rare around here, in only Rp 24.000,00. I always love to smell the pages of a second hand book, while imagined where that book came from, who had flipped its pages before me...

Those little treasures are the reason why I love this city so much. And to think that I would have to leave again soon (this time, for good)...Uhmmm...it's heartbreaking.

Hedonnya Hidup

I consider myself to be very lucky, karena gue udah dapet banyak kesempatan buat ngerasain hal-hal yang belum tentu semua orang bisa ngerasain..

Mulai dari jaman jadi wartawan politik, gue udah berkesempatan menjelajahi Indonesia dari mulai Pulau Kalimantan, Sulawesi, sampai ke ujung Papua..Gue juga ngerasa bersyukur banget dapet kesempatan sekolah ke Belanda, yang bikin gue sekaligus bisa berkunjung ke tempat-tempat dan negara-negara di sekitar Eropa, dari mulai ngubek-ngubek Museum Louvre di Paris sampai mengagumi keindahan kota Barcelona.

Dan sekarang, kesempatan-kesempatan itu datang lagi, setelah gue berkecimpung di dunia tulis-menulis majalah lifestyle. Menyenangkan memang, karena gue bisa makan di restoran yang nggak mungkin gue kunjungin kalau harus bayar sendiri, atau tinggal di hotel yang rasanya juga nggak bakalan gue lirik kalau berlibur dengan biaya pribadi...

My latest experience tentang kenikmatan hidup adalah minggu kemarin, dimana gue dapet kesempatan liputan bareng beberapa temen kantor ke Bali..Yang menyenangkannya, kita liputan seputaran makanan, hotel dan spa untuk edisi mendatang...

Dan memang bener, yang namanya uang, biarpun bukan segalanya, ternyata emang sangat berpengaruh besar untuk menikmati indahnya hidup...Kamar yang gue tinggalin di Hotel Bvlgari (daerah Uluwatu, yang adalah hotel Bvlgari kedua di dunia) misalnya, lengkap dengan private pool dan semua produk keluaran Bvlgari (mulai dari shampoo, sabun, sampai parfum), rate satu malamnya adalah US $1200, dan itu masih untuk low season...Sementara makan malam yang gue nikmatin di pinggir pantai Hotel 4 Seasons Jimbaran, harganya mencapai Rp 1 juta untuk tiap orang..Kebayang kan gimana rasanya kalau harus bayar dengan uang sendiri? Bisa-bisa makannya sambil nahan muntah (padahal rasa makanannya sih emang top banget...). Gitu juga dengan treatment spa yang gue dapet sebagai compliment dari Grand Hyatt..Enak banget, tapi kalo liat harga di menunya, mungkin hanya bisa gigit jari...

Sebenernya gue nggak anti dengan kenikmatan duniawi...Hanya aja, gue kadang masih suka bingung dengan orang-orang yang bisa ngeluarin uang demi memenuhi hedonnya hidup, kadang dengan jumlah yang nggak masuk akal..

Tapi...terserah masing-masing orang sih...Kalo gue pribadi, selama emang bisa menikmati semuanya (tanpa harus bayar!!!!hahaha), ya gue bakal menikmati dengan senang hati..=)