Enjoy ethnic Mongolian Culture at Ordos Grassland, Inner Mongolia

In Sep 2017 my friend offered me to join Inner Mongolia tour using charter flight, the difficult part was to get the correct pas photo for getting China visa, so many pre-condition, the pas photo size was not in normal size using cm, but even till mm. It's the first time difficult experience although I have applied visa for many other countries including China. Our travel agent rejected all my pas photos although it's passed for other embassy, finally I took at the photo studio that had been used by my colleague to get China visa recently. Finally my visa had been approved about 3 days before the departure, the departure city was Jakarta, while I lived in Surabaya, an hour flight from Jakarta. One of the destination place I like in Mongol, was the Ordos Grassland.

By bus from the previous city, we passed infinite grassland scenery, we could see a herd of horses or sheeps grazing, even some camels. Part of The Great Wall could be seen on the way to the destination. Our bus stopped at the tourist center building, there was a beautiful carriage in front of the building where we could sit on the red bench in the white carriage to take picture. A "Prairie Resort of Ordos" monument with wolves available at the central, unfortunately it's quite difficult to take picture as it's against the sun shine.

We welcome by Mongolian ladies wearing traditional clothes and put a blue scarf on us accompany with traditional live music. There's a corner decorated with Mongolian accessories, my friend and I waited for a turn to take picture there. In the building available a souvenir shop, most of us directly went there to find Mongolia souvenirs. Lucky I could got a bronze candle holder with standing horse which I would like to buy in the previous place, but it was finished, no much time to find other souvenirs, our tour leader asked us to go faster to the bus that had waited at the back of the building to pick us up to drive to the hotel.

We would stay in the unique Mongolian yurt. I thought it's the real yurt, in fact it's a normal 2 stairs hotel, but they build as if side by side yurt. It's beautiful, I like the design with white wall, white dome and blue ornaments. As there were many visitors, we had to wait for a long time at the lobby, waiting for the room key. Boring waiting, I walked outside to take pictures, but I had to be careful not stepping on the horse's shit :-) As soon as we'd got the key, we rushed to the room to take a rest after a long hour bus driving. Stunning going inside the room, I felt like inside a yurt, my eyes stared to a large half circle bed which could be used for 4-5 persons, but it would be only used for 2 of us. The decoration was nice, the bed was surrounded by woods, wide windows available for enjoying the scenery. As the weather was quite mild, we didn't turn on the air conditioning, just open the windows to enjoy the fresh air. My friend and I chatted, charged our mobile phone while resting on the bed waiting for the dinner time.

We would attend gala dinner, it supposed to be for ceremony/celebration with the king. Before enjoy the Mongolian ethnic culture, they would lend us traditional clothes to wear during gala dinner. We would be treated as the king's guest, so we have to dress up properly. There were around 150 tour participants, so you could imagine the chaos to take the clothes as nobody guarded the clothes and taught us how to wear them. No reservation for the clothes size either, if the clothes were too small, people would try to get the change, so people rushed to take the best costumes, the earlier was the lucky person as they could have more option. The costumes were worn on top of our own clothes, so we could change anywhere in the restaurant area, no need to be inside of bathroom or changing room.

We came on time, but others already came much earlier, we're not lucky enough to get the costumes we wanted. My friend grabbed the available clothes in the room, succeeded to get me a red dress while she chose the golden one. Unfortunately my dress was too small for me, I could not close the right side button. As there were no more option for another bigger costume available, I tried to hide it by holding the right side when taking picture. The restaurant decoration was quite luxurious, full of red and golden colour, many places could become a good background of our photo wearing the Mongolian costume such as beautiful bronze sculpture painting, golden pillar, also royal seat which had to be queued.

Reaching the dinner time, we were asked to enter the restaurant room which was more amazing. It's arranged like a circle with different height for the guest seat, so whoever sitting behind was still able to see the middle area under the beautiful chandelier. Various meals were provided on the table for each person with a coke tin for drink :-). Opposite the entrance was the king throne, accompanying by 2 queens at his right and left side. They chose one man as the king and 2 women as the queen from the guests.

The celebration was started when some people entering the room behind a messenger, they went towards the king, reading the message that I could not understand as I can't speak Chinese. Then some dancing were performed for all of us, the king and the guests. While enjoying the entertainments, guests always served one by one with more and more food by the waitress and waiter in traditional costume. Most of the food was traditional which was served during the ancient days for the king, mostly made from lamb, it's not too suitable with my appetite. Finally the dancer brought a the main special menu, a whole grill lamb, to the middle of the room as one of the attraction, I heard they provided 4 grill lambs for all of us. Each of us got a full portion of small plate, first I only wanted to try a small bit, as I don't like lamb. When I tasted it a little bit, it's delicious and not lamb smell at all. I like it, it's very crispy, finally I finished the remaining portion for me.

The dinner was finished around 1.5 hours, we didn't forget to take group picture to record our experience with Mongolian party costumes before returning the costume. Another event had waited for us at the bonfire building. Outside the weather became very cold, my jacket could not help a lot to warm my body. I almost run to avoid the cold and getting faster to the place. As my friend jacket was thinner, she almost gave up with the cold, and planned to go back to the room first. Finally she agreed to join us to the bornfire place, she ran fast and reached the place before us. On the way we saw some Mongolians riding horse with their costumes brought archers or swords.

Entering the building was warmer, but we had to go to the open air bonfire area looked like a stadium, we sat closely to each other to make us warmer. The attraction opened with the horse parade with soldier on top of it. They started lit on the fire in the middle of the area, 2 master ceremony opened the event using Chinese, unfortunately I didn't understand what they said as I could not speak Chinese. It's continued with other performance such as singing and dancing by local people, till made fun with some guests for running race on the sand while carrying a woman, the winner who had struggled and tumbled many times finally got souvenirs from them. It's quite fun to close our day. The place was far away from the light pollution, we had a chance to see the shining stars at the night sky. Inner Mongolia has extreme weather. The difference in temperature between day and night was quite dramatic.

After early breakfast that I skipped, we had to bring our luggage to the bus. My roommate friend preferred to stay in the lobby while waiting for the departure time as she needed the free wifi in the lobby to check her email. I went first to the bus to put my bagpack, I saw the scenery was beautiful with some yurts, I took picture with my friends. We tried to jump while our friend took the picture, unfortunately it kept failing as he hadn't configured properly. We saw my roommate friend went out from the lobby, we shouted to ask her hurry to take picture together. She ran, unfortunately she tripped and stumbled down on the asphalt made her knee's hurt and her jeans torn. All of us were very shocked then ran to help her, after reaching her we could not stop laughing, when describing what's just happened. Poor my roommate friend, she didn't focus on the road, rushing to join us for taking picture while all of us encouraged her to come as fast as possible. Lucky it was the last day of the trip, as she was difficult to walk after that, it hurt when she bent the knee. Fortunate that her knee was not broken, so she still could walk by herself.

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Famous Mirabell Garden Salzburg, Austria

I really want to visit Salzburg as I saw its beautiful scenery in my favourite musical movie “The Sound of Music”. During my East Europe tour, we visited Salzburg, one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps, just for half day.

We arrived at noon after lunch time, Mirabell Garden was the only place that’s scheduled to be visited in the tour itinerary. A bus tour with “The Sound of Music” branding was parked on the parking lot, we took some pictures while waiting for our friends stopped by at the toilet. Entering the garden, we welcome by a woman statue fountain in the middle of an circle pool surrounding by flowers. The Mirabell Gardens were opened to the public by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1854, it becomes a horticultural masterpiece and popular backdrop for photographers.

The next part of the garden was larger, it’s the main garden decorated with beautiful flowers, statues, also a big fountain. As my friends were busy pose and taking many pictures, I had to make myself available for others helping them taking pictures so they could take my picture in return. Otherwise I would only had the scenery without me for documentation. Lucky after quite a long time, they remembered me :-), asked me to go to the middle of the garden to take some pictures behind the flowers with the Mirabell palace as the background. The Baroque masterpiece of Schloss Mirabell Palace was initially built as "Schloß Altenau" under the reign of Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606. It was a present for his concubine Salome Alt and most famous for its splendid garden.

When I’ve returned to Indonesia, I explored Mirabell garden, I've just found and realized, actually Pegasus fountain is one of the landmark beside the palace. Unfortunately we didn’t go through the Pegasus fountain to run down the hedge arcade along the Grand Parterre what Fräulein Maria and the Trapp children did in the movie. It’s quite very short time to visit the beautiful garden, no time to enjoy the scenery by sitting on the available benches for visitors. We left through the gate which was guarded by sporty man statues at the left and right side formed the gate arch.

Our guide brought us to the other side of the city, the Makartsteg, a bridge over the Salzach River in Salzburg′s city centre. It was named after the 19th century Historicist painter Hans Makart, who was born and raised in Salzburg. It’s raining when we crossed the bridge which was full of various padlocks from couple lovers who’re falling in love. Makart became famous as a painter of the Viennese Historicism, providing artwork for many of the pompous buildings of the Ringstraße. The Makartsteg is open for pedestrians and cyclists only.

Continued walking to the old cities to visit Mozart’s house, we went through many small aisles, the guide didn’t allow us to split as there were many people around, he would find difficulty to find the lost one. Finally we reached the house, it’s not too big, you must pay to see inside the house on the 2nd floor which has become a museum now, none of us was interested in it. The guide was giving us free time to explore the area, so many beautiful shops around it, which sold souvenirs, bags, etc. Some restaurants and attractive café design were also available there, we passed by a restaurant which displayed the big size shrimp, bread to attract people.

I visited some souvenir shops to buy small stuffs such as cute magnetic for mom and myself, also visited chocolate stores which sold Mozart (the genius musician who was born in Salzburg) chocolate for gifts. Actually many souvenirs were cute, unfortunately it’s quite expensive when I calculate in IDR, most of the time I cancelled to buy because of the price. Beside that, it’s quite difficult to bring the easy breakable once, such as house miniature, glasses, decorative plate or crystal, clocks, etc. Most of souvenirs I bought was chocolates and magnetic decoration for fridge 

The local guide brought us to the bus stop area went through the same way, including Makarsteg bridge, as now it’s not raining, we could take some beautiful pictures with the padlocks, the river and beautiful mountains as the background. So many tourist buses were parking on the area where we were waiting for our bus, there were benches for us to sit. The city was ready for tourist visit, they kept maintaining well the tourism places which were existed many years even centuries, also provided and arranged well the infrastructure to progress with the modern world. I also like the weather there, although it’s quite cold and windy, we should wearing jacket at least. If you would like to experience “The Sound of Music”, you should at least spend one whole day in Salzburg. You could join the local tour with has short or long hour trips to trace the movie places.

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Delicious Food in Bandung

I went with my mom and sisters to Bandung, one of the goal was enjoying the food. After driving more than 3 hours from Jakarta because of the traffic jam, we decided to have lunch at Mie Naripan at Jl. Naripan 108 which opens from 07:30-20:00. The location was at the corner of the street, always full of people, lucky that we could get the parking lot. The restaurant was so simple since 1963, still in old fashion home model, no aircon, just using the ordinary fan. The taste was so good especially for the fried meat ball. You could order the original noodle or the sweet noodle called "mie yamin", fried wonton also available to accompany your main menu.

Next destination for afternoon tea was Cisangkuy yogurt at Jl. Cisangkuy 85 was opened since 1976 at 06:30-20:30. It's next to "Pasar Cisangkuy", it's very crowded, difficult to get the parking lot. We had to park on the edge of the street under big trees, it's rather far from the restaurant. The restaurant atmosphere was nice, an old Dutch building with shady trees, so many food-stalls at the front of the restaurant sold many kind of food. My mom and sisters ordered the famous lychee yoghurt and fried sausages accompanied by French fries. I don't like milk or yoghurt except the frozen one such as ice cream, so I ordered strawberry juice. While waiting for the order, I checked the food-stall and interested in trying "serabi" similar to pancake, it's made of rice flour not wheat flour. I ordered two flavor for the topping, one was banana chocolate, while the other one was choco cheese. We were allowed to eat them inside the restaurant, you even could order it through the waitress's of the restaurant.

For dinner we went up to "The Valley" restaurant, where we could see the city lights from above. We got lost for a while as the signage was not too clear, and it's quite dark already. The road was quite narrow and steep, especially when we arrived at the restaurant Jl. Lembah Pakar Timur 28 (Dago), Bandung, phone 62-22-2511450, we had to park at the top parking area with quite steep road right after almost 180 degree U-turn. I was quite afraid, lucky that my sister was quite calm and she could manage it well guidance by the parking man. The evenings at The Valley Bistro Garden was very amazing, there was indoor and outdoor table, unfortunately the one at the edge of the cliff already reserved. The restaurant was decorated with many lights, it's very beautiful especially when you have dinner there. Some people even use it for pre-wedding photos. The restaurant was quite dark, only a candle in the middle of the table became the light when you read the menu. If you have an SLR camera, you could get an amazing view. I only had pocket camera and iphone, I didn't know how to set manually for the pocket camera, so I only used the automatic setting. The result was not too good, too many noise, and the detail it's not clear. The waiter was so nice, they didn't mind helping us to take our picture.

The food menu was very various from European, Japanese & Oriental cuisines, filled with flavour and elegance. As we were still quite full, we ordered some menu to be shared. We ordered spaghetti and meat platter, we also ordered the dessert, poffertjes, chocolate cake (contain cashew nut) with ice cream and banana cake with ice cream. The food presentation was very beautiful, the portion was quite big too. The spaghetti came complete with small lasagna and other condiment, while the platter was including the big grill shrimp. A live music was accompanying the guests to eat, it's quite warm & relaxed ambience. The weather was nice, it's quite mild and clean, far beyond the crowded traffic in the city. The food price was rather expensive, but it's worthy with the service and view they'd offered.

The next day after visiting Kawah Putih tourism place, you could find the story in another article in this blog, we had dinner at the delicious "Sate Maulana Yusuf", at Jl. Maulana Yusuf 21. The lamb satay was very tender, there was also chicken satay, we ordered it with rice cake. While waiting for the seller grilled the satay, we ordered fried tofu called "tahu pletok" and "tahu aci", it's fried with starch and onion. You could eat it with its special sauce, but I prefer to eat them with the satay peanut sauce :-)

Ma Uneh was also visited, it's a Sundanese restaurant at Jl. Pajajaran Gg. Terasana No.132 Bandung, phone: 022-4202568. We had to go through a narrow path to reach the restaurant, I don't think I could find it by myself, no signage. The restaurant providing all cooked food displayed for the guests. We only need to order by pointing the finger to the food, then they would cut in small pieces and serve it in the small plate to be delivered to our table. The rice was served inside a bamboo basket, the plain tea was served free of charge. I like the tongue stew and fried lung, you need to go to the cashier to pay after meal. I heard that they started from small stall, now it becomes bigger, cleaner and more modern with ceramic floor. Although the place inside the alley, so many visitors come, it's already popular for the delicious food taste, so people don't mind walking to reach it. The service was quite professional, no need to wait for a long time to be served although it's crowded.

Kingsley Batagor Jl. Veteran 25 Bandung, phone: 022-4207104, was also one of the place we visited. Batagor stands for "Bakso Tahu Goreng", meat ball and fried tofu and dumpling with peanut sauce. The complete portion was quite big, as we've just had lunch, I could not finish mine. The restaurant was quite big and new, unfortunately the service was not too good because it's too crowded. We had to remind the waiter many times and still wait for a long time to get our order. The other table who came later than us even served earlier than us. I also ordered the popular mix ice called "es Bungsu" contains of young coconut, fermented cassava, fermented black sticky rice, and pomegranate seeds.

The last place we visited for culinary was D'Jadul Restaurant at Jadul Village resort & spa, Jl. Terusan Sersan Bajuri no. 45 Lembang. Although it's near Bandung, to go there at weekend really needs a big effort. Anyway the place was very an exotic relaxation amidst rich heritage atmosphere, the food was also very delicious. Interior was decorated with antique collection, the signage for female & male at the toilet was unique. The 2 levels restaurant had a bar at the first floor with some couches. We took the second level to enjoy the scenery while having lunch. The stairs were made of wood while the railing was from bamboo. We ordered different menu, then trying to taste each other, the chicken teriyaki was nice. D'Jadul also had 21 villas and a museum, the lush garden around the villas were very amazing, ponds full of lotus. There were also beautiful ponds contained many Koi, another pond contained the alligator fish. To go around the big areas, they provide a golf cart, so old people still could enjoy it.

To buy snack, we also stopped by at Ny. Yong, Jl. Setiabudi 144 to buy the very delicious Gepuk (sweet & savory beef), it's quite expensive cost Rp. 14.000,-/pcs. You could ask them to pack 5 pcs/box or 10 pcs/box, it's included the sauce in the package. It's frozen, so you could bring it home safely, just fried a while when you would like to eat it later. Prima Rasa bakery & cake shop, Jl. Kemuning 20, the big snack shops in Bandung was full of people. It's very fun to shop here, so many variety snacks, from cake, chocolate to cracker. They also provide some tester for some snacks to be tasted before buying. If you go by flight, don't worry how to carry it, they would help to pack your shopping in the cartoon box. Bawean was the next cake shop we visited, it's popular for its Nougat Roll. As the oldest bakery restaurant since 1946, they still kept maintaining the high quality with traditional recipe. The shop was very nice, including small café inside to eat the cake or gelato. The snack packaging was very nice, anyway the price was quite premium. The guests were not as crowded as Prima Rasa, and less variety of snacks.

That's my culinary in Bandung, it's quite a lot I think. Just remind myself not to go to Bandung too often unless my diet would fail :-)

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Sunset at the Peak, the Highest Place in Hongkong

One of the must visit tourism place in Hongkong is the Peak located at Victoria Gap. I had been there a few years ago, now I accompanied my mom. It's a pity I've just realized after queuing at the tram terminal that I forgot to bring the ticket that we've bought, so I had to go back to the apartment. We left the queue, I asked my mom to wait in front of the office building, there was no chairs, until she had to sit on the stone. She experienced the pain as she's just felt down from the escalator, it seemed that her bone was fractured, so she had to eat the painkiller pill to release her pain to continue the trip.

The way to apartment was climbing the hill, it's very tiring, so I could not walk fast, even I had to walk reverse as I finished my energy. After taking the e-ticket I almost run back to my mom, at that time the queue was much longer, so we had to stand longer. I used regular Octopus card to ride the peak-tram, while my mom used the senior Octopus card. The price different was quite significant. It's almost an hour to reach our turn to go to the peak, we didn't buy the ticket to the observatory deck. It's the world's oldest and most famous funicular railways, the tram rises to 396 metres (about 1,300 feet) above sea level, so steep that the buildings we passed look like they were leaning a gradient of between 4 to 27 degrees!

Lucky it's still not sunset when we arrived at the top. Mom and I had a chance to take pictures under the observatory deck. The Peak Tower, with its iconic wok-like top, offers a dazzling array of shops and sure to make for many happy hours of great dining with a view experience, leisurely shopping and souvenir hunting. There was a square among the buildings with fountain, some backdrops displayed miniatures of old Hongkong were also good objects. We entered the other shopping mall building across the tram station, we found that we could see Hongkong from top of its mall free of charge. We enjoyed the sunset from there.

My sister's friend informed that the Vietnamnesse restaurant, Pho Yummee, was delicious, so my mom and I decided to taste it for dinner. It's a casual yet contemporary Vietnamese restaurant that offers a quick respite. No other guest at that time, we ordered the warm and delicious pho noodles and the yummy Vietnam crepes. It had an exceptional warm with very friendly waiters, relaxed and convivial atmosphere, with comfy mustard-colored sofas and white-washed seats complemented with round top dining.

Madame Tussauds was our next destination, a unique celebrity-inspired attraction that connects guests with famous people, famous events and famous times. Featuring six themed areas, provided guests with the opportunity to meet their idols and did the things that famous people do! Mom was really admired the natural beauty of the legendary British actress Audrey Hepburn. She also took a picture with her favourite rock & roll musician, Elvis Presley.

The attraction features over 100 local and international celebrity wax figures with exciting audiovisual effects and interactive experiences to create truly magical moments for all guests. Although we're tired, we were so excited to take pictures with the wax statue from Hongkong celebrities, royal family, musician, athletes, and fantasy kingdom.

The last destination was the peak market, the perfect place to buy something special for friends or relatives. The market features a modern reinterpretation of traditional Hong Kong venues, such as Temple Street and the Ladies Market with vendors selling Chinese artwork, silk collectibles and curios. For sheer variety of products and brands in all price ranges, The Peak Tower offers a unique shopping experience. From street markets style to traditional Chinese product stores, you can find everything from watches and jewelry, electronic gadgets to best-value antiques and collectibles.

We had to join a very long queue to go down by tram, it took almost 2 hours, standing on a really really long queue as all people also would like to go home at that time. The weather was quite cold and it's windy. Reaching the end of the station after riding the tram, we didn't have any energy to walk back to the apartment, lucky that we could get a taxi to go back. It's very tiring, but the peak was worthy to visit with its environment, food, scenery and shopping venues.

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Venetian Hotel & Historical Site of Macau

On Friday we managed to get a hotel in Macau which are very crowded during weekend. It's very tight time when we departed from apartment in Hongkong to the ferry terminal for Jet Cotai, we still needed to change the voucher with the boarding ticket. It's less than half an hour before boarding time, I was very worried, lucky that we could catch the ferry right before departure after passing through immigration post in Hongkong.

Arriving at Macau, we rode the free shuttle bus to the hotel. Venetian Macao Resort & Hotel where we stayed for a night is very luxury and beautiful. It's very huge hotel with 3000 suite rooms. Lucky there's Carnivale 2014 event starting on that day in the hotel. Check in time starting at 13:00 o'clock, so we put our luggage at the concierge for easier going around before check in time. The golden statue in the main lobby is beautiful, it's connected to the beautiful golden aisle towards the world largest casino (550,000 square feet).

We went to the Venetian canal where guests could ride a serenading gondoliers, we also met and took picture with a couple who were wearing the Spanish ancient traditional clothes for dancing party. The ceiling was like a blue sky, they could control the light, to become lighter or darker. Many grandeur shops featuring world renowned brands entertained guests to shop. After taking some beautiful pictures, we went for lunch as my sisters were starving. We had to walk further to find the food court, it's very crowded, so many kind of food provided from Vietnam, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Chinese food, etc. My mom shared her lunch with me for teriyaki chicken rice, it's very delicious.

After lunch, we went back to the main lobby for check in, it's queue already. We ordered Bella Suites with 2 Queen size beds as 4 of us are adult. It took a long way to walk from the main lobby to our room, it's very spacious, 70 sqm with aristocrat style. A sunken living room area with its comfortable sofa was facing to the windows with its own TV. An elegant huge marble bathroom with bathtub and shower completed with dressing table. A big plasma TV were provided for watching from the beautiful beds. Although the rooms were very huge, the hotel only provided 2 small bottles of water. After taking a rest for a while, we decided to go to the other side of Macau.

Asking the direction from the concierge, they were kind enough to inform that there was a free shuttle bus from city of dream which was across Venetian hotel to Sintra hotel in the old Macau. Waiting for the bus for a few minutes, it took around half an hour to go across the bridge to go to the old Macau. Reaching Sintra, we walked to Senado square as Macau's urban center for centuries. Taking some pictures on the square surrounded by neo-classical buildings, we decided to carry on the journey. Strolling through Senado we passed by the beautiful St. Dominic's Church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary which dates back to the early 1600s, when it was founded by the Dominicans.

We didn't know the direction so I kept asking the people on the way by showing the Macau map pointing to the Ruins of St. Paul's picture. Lucky we could find it before dark, the façade of the old St. Paul's Church which opened in the 16th century and served as Asia's first Western college. The Ruins of St. Paul’s was officially listed in 2005 as part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Historic Centre of Macau. It's very crowded, after taking some pictures with the Macau iconic place, we took a rest. My mom was very tired as she got accident in Hongkong, fell down on the escalator impacted fractured to her tail bone. She could not walk or sit too long and she had to take a pain killer medicine twice a day to be able to continue the journey.

The popular snack store on the corner was attracted us, as they provided the tester, so we could buy any snack we like after tested it. The packaging was very beautiful, it seems that we would like to buy all of them, unfortunately we had a limited space in our luggage. They also sold the nice pork meat, but I preferred the other store also sold pork meat which I had tested on the way up to St. Paul. My sisters and my mom bought the popular Portuguese egg tart, they loved it. It's nice to eat while it's hot. On the way down from St Paul, most of the snack stores providing tester on the way, so I felt full tasting it, it's fun anyway.

Still had a chance to take picture of beautiful shining Senado square at night. Finding public toilet was very difficult in Senado square, finally we found walking to the left side of the square. We went back to the Sintra hotel direction, we stopped by for dinner before going back by free shuttle. Actually I would like to bring them exploring the beautiful hotels with its free entertainment of lighting and fountain, such as Grand Lisboa, Wynn, MGM, etc. Unfortunately all of us were very tired, so we could not walk too far anymore.

Reaching our hotel, it's just in time to see the 15 minutes lightening show performance on the lagoon. There's also live music and some stalls selling food and beverages, but we're too tired to enjoy it, so we went directly to our room for taking a rest. We're quite satisfied with our trip that day.

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Culinary Taste in Balikpapan

During my stay in Balikpapan, I tried some yummy snacks there. The first one was "mantau" @Depot Simpang Empat, Jl. Letjen Suprapto No. 06, Phone 62-542-743049, Balikpapan, near the popular traditional market "Kebun Sayur". I really love the crispy mantau, inside is very soft while the skin is crispy, it's rather sweet. It could be eaten with beef black pepper, as I don't like spicy food, we ordered butter fried chicken. There were 2 types of mantau, steam and fried, we preferred the fried one as we tried the steam one was not warmed first by them, so it's not nice. They cut the mantau into 4 pieces, so you don't need to worry it's too big for you. It cost IDR 4.000,-/piece, it would be better to eat while it's hot, I could finish the whole 2 fried mantau by myself :-). Beside Mantau we also ordered "Mie siram" (noodle doused with thick vegetable soup). The Chinese food restaurant was not too big and it's very simple with some table and wood benches. The chef cooked at the front near the entrance, no air conditioning, just fan, but the food was delicious, and so many guests visited the restaurant. If you would like to take away mantau for your family at home, you could order the steam one, they have a box to keep it, you could put in the fridge in 2 weeks then frying it when you would like to eat.

In the morning near our hotel there was a row of small shop, people called it "ruko-rumah toko" (usually for home on the 2nd and 3rd floor while the store on the 1st floor) which sold many kind of food. We stopped by to buy the famous yellow rice, you could select the side dish whether chicken, beef or fish. When going to the cashier, I saw some fried snacks, I selected the fried banana and megali?. I don't know the name, it's made from green bean. I never ate it before, but I like the taste, it's nicer to eat while it's still warm. My friend bought many kinds of bakpau, similar to mantau filling with chicken, pork, green bean or others.

Seafood, especially crab is one of the most popular menu in Balikpapan, you could not miss it. We had lunch at Dandito Restaurant, Jl. Iswahyudi 72, phone 62-542-764367 ordering their soft shell crab as we didn't like to have difficulty peeling the crab's skin while ordering the popular crab with sweet and sour sauce. We also ordered sauted kale, anchovy bean sprout and fuyunghai (vegie mixed with egg smothered in sweet sauce). You also could take away the sauce crab, they have prepared the special box which is safe to bring to other city by flight. Actually there are another popular restaurant for crab, called "Kepiting Kenari" restaurant, Jl. Iswahyudi 4, phone 62-542-764018 just across Dandito, unfortunately there is no soft shell crab, so we didn't go there.

After shopping some traditional accessories made of beautiful stone in Kebun Sayur, we went to small restaurants provided seafood inside the market area. We stopped by at one of them, ordered the grilled fish, unfortunately it's finished, so we had to move to the other one beside it. We could select directly for the raw fish, then they grilled for us. While waiting for the fish, the waitress automatically provided the vegetable soup and a plate of white rice. The fish was very fresh, provided with the chili if you like spicy food.

Just a few metres from Kebun Sayur, there was a stall which sold the traditional snack from East Kalimantan, called "Pisang Gapit". They grilled the bananas, pressed it within a pair of wooden bar, slice it, then giving palm sugar mixed with coconut milk including slices of fresh jack fruit. It's very yummy, but it's also made my stomach full as the portion was quite big. That's the original taste of Pisang Gapit, some seller would provide more combination for topping, such as chocolate, cheese and peanut. I still prefer the original one with many jack fruit pieces for topping.

Anyway if you like to eat in the fancy restaurant, you could go to Open House café and restaurant, at Jl. Markoni Atas 88 located at hilly, higher than Balikpapan city, so you could enjoy the sunset. It's very huge complex surrounded by tropical greenery gardening different decoration style for each building, full of antique collection items. I really like the decoration, it had multiple levels of the rooms that's connected with beautiful stairs made of mozaic ceramic. It is absolutely stunning - beautifully furnished, lots of pools for fish and swimming, also great views to the city and sea.

The higher level and different seat location had a minimum amount to be spent for food & beverage. Anyway they didn't prohibit us to take pictures from the place. Even the owner put a bathtub next to the bar table, while at the other side you could see a piano as the center of point interest. After taking some pictures, we started to select table to seat, we preferred to seat without any precondition terms. It still looked nice anyway, the table made of the cutting wood with its cambium exposed. The food presentation was very nice, the taste was also delicious. I love the yummy apple pie with ice cream as the dessert. It's worthy to visit, the ambience was so nice especially if you like photography, anyway the food price was a little bit higher than common restaurant.

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