Culinary tours in Bogor

Bogor is just an hour driving to South from Jakarta (around 60kms), it's popular as the rainy city because of the frequent rain showers. The city has a presidential palace and a botanical garden (Kebun Raya Bogor) – one of the oldest and largest garden in the world in the middle of the city. In the yard of the predential palace you could see many flock of deers relax or finding food on the greenish field. It's a nice amusement for people who pass by the palace. Some deers have long and branches anthers, it's very beautiful. On the road you would find many "angkot" (public transportation) passing by.



It's lunch time when we reached Bogor, we directly went to Gumati Cafe - Resto - Gallery at Jl. Paledang No. 26 & 28 Bogor 16122 (Telp. : 0251 - 8324318, 8313422 email : gumati-cafe@cafegumati.com) to have lunch. The restaurant ambience and concept is nice, unfortunately the cleaness was not maintained well, so many dust and cobweb on the wall and decoration. From the restaurant you could see the scenery of Bogor city including the river, because it's higher than the city. A blue swimming pool made the environment more comfortable. The restaurant was decorated with painting, ceramics and also some traditional statues from Bali, Sunda and Java. They provided Indonesian and Western food, we ordered Indonesian food, such as nasi timbel (rice with vegetables, meat, and fish), fried chicken, and green chili chicken, for beverage we ordered coconut lemon ice.


After lunch we went to Jl. Surya Kencana to buy bread, asinan and ngohiang. Although it's very crowded, lucky we could find the parking lot right in front of the store. The bread store was not too big, the package was also not too good, but the taste for its chocolate bread and cheese bread were delicious. My sister bought "combro" outside the store, it's a fried snack made of cassava filled with chili fermented soybean. It's spicy, but nice if you like spicy food. We went toward the alley to buy "asinan" (salted fresh fruits) to bring back to Jakarta for my colleague. It's very yummy and juicy to eat together with cracker noodle.

We stopped by a store which sold many Bogor traditional food, such as candied nutmeg, Bogor peanut, "bajigur"(hot drink made of coconut milk and spices), etc. Right beside the store there was a small restaurant popular for its' "Ngohiang Gang Aut", such as a sausage roll consisting of minced pork or chicken seasoned with five-spice powder, rolled inside a beancurd skin and deep-fried egg. I bought 1 chicken and 1 pork for bringing back to Jakarta. I attempted to try "Rujak Pengantin", it's very delicious.


Finally we would stop by Roti Unyil Venus, Komp. V Point No.1 Jalan Raya Pajajaran
Bogor, Jawa Barat 16142, Phone(0251) 8364008. It's a cake shop which sold petit bakery with various flavor, they called it "roti unyil" because it's very small, just one bite. They're filled with a big amount of chocolate, cheese, banana, sausage, vla, corn, etc. Some of them could keep for 3 days if you plan to bring back to your hometown. It's very crowded in the store, we had to queue to wait for the waitress serve us. Meanwhile I bought 10 pcs of Kue Ape (such as pancake made of wheat flour, rice flour and coconut milk) on foodstall in front of the store. It's my favourite snack, it cost Rp. 6.000,- for 10 pcs.


Shopping was our next destination, there were many factory outlets in Bogor, such as Bandung, but it's less crowded. We parked on one shop, just walking distance to the other stores. The clothes were nice in model and material, you could buy any clothes based on your budget, so many options to choose. We didn't feel it become dark, so we decided to stop the shopping.


For dinner, my sister brought us to Novotel, it's almost dark there. The hotel is quite far from the city, it's very quiet but the scenery is awesome. So many pool with water lily (lotus) on it, the yellow lights also made the scenery very interesting. A large green garden made the weather very fresh and cool. We were eating in the gazebo, ordered soups, calamari and hot tea. A live music with male and female beautiful voice singers accompanied us to wait for the order and also enjoy the scenery. When the live music ended, we're also ready to go home. We were very satisfied with the activities for eating and shopping.

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Memorable Elementary School Reunion in Kediri

Last 18th Dec 2010, I joined my elementary school reunion. It's a result from a persistent effort from one of our friend who could find the address and contact of our classmates. It's been 30 years since we graduated, most of us never met each other. One of the most helpful tool was facebook :-) From around 150 classmates, she could manage to encourage around 50 friends to join the reunion.


To make it more memorable, we decided to stay over one night, so there's more time to chit chat after a long time no see each other. Also not allowed to bring family, to make all of us comfortable to share the memory and not busy taking care of each family. Wisma Yohannes was our selection, it's very close to Pohsarang, the pilgrime place for Catholic in Kediri (such as Lourdes).


It took around 30 minutes from Kediri city by car, the road was quite narrow and rather step, it's higher than Kediri, so the weather's colder and fresher. Arriving there around 16:30 with our teachers who taught us 30 years ago. Some of them were looking the same young as they taught us in elementary school, as if time stopped. Some bedrooms in bungalow were prepared for them to rest before the ceremony would be started. They're rather dissapointed not informed that they could stay, they didn't prepare any clothes to change, so they had to go home at midnight after the ceremony.


Wisma Yohannes was beautiful and peaceful, it's quite huge. A beautiful garden welcome us, and a small beautiful chapel was at the side of the garden. You need to follow the path to reach the bungalow contains of 2-6 rooms at the left and right side of the path. The biggest bungalow was right after the chapel at the right side, it's arranged for the ladies of our group. The man would get bungalow near to the teachers's bungalow.


We took some group pictures on the gate with one of our energic teacher, currently he's still active as teacher in our school. After taking pictures and chit chat in the garden, suddenly it's raining hard, so we had to run and stop in the dining room to continue the conversation. Most of our friends had been changed, taller, older and of course most of us were fatter than before. It's fun sharing our story, some of our friend were very funny that made the environment cheerful.


The committe provided traditional sweet snacks, while waiting for the ceremony. It took place in the hall, then continuing with speech from some representatives (teacher and ex students from each class. Before having dinner, we prayed together, tumpeng (rice such as piramid), meat balls and satay were the main menu. It's ended by giving doorprize to the participant, and souvenirs to teachers. To record the memory, we took group pictures accompanying by live band till midnight. Some warm dessert were provided, unfortunately we're too full to eat the ronde (glutionous rice with ginger soup) and grill corn.


In the morning we had 'nasi pecel/tumpang' (vegetables with peanut sauce and rice), the favourite traditional food in Kediri. Some of us were taking more than 1 portion, it's very delicious to eat in front of the bungalow looking at the big swimming pool with beautiful mountain as the background. With different bright color T-shirt for each class, we took some group pictures with beautiful scenery around the hotel. It's a memorable event for me, thanks to the committee who worked hard to make it happened.


If you want to stay in Wisma Yohannes, please reserve in advance. People often use it for retreat. The price is quite competitive, because they also do it for charity, it's often fully booked. There's a beeline to go to Pohsarang, if you want to go to church or Maria cave for praying.

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Tasty Tender Deer Steak in Pakanbaru

Visit Pekanbaru as the capital city of Riau, in Sumatra last Oct 2010, we were welcome by the drizzle. The driver informed that in Riau the weather changed within hours, from very shiny day to heavily raining. The Sultan Syarif Kasim II international airport also serves flights to and from neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Maybe some of you has heard about Pekanbaru, because the city regular suffered from smoke due to forest fires during dry season that impacted to Malaysia and Singapore too. Some modern building were spread out in the city, such as library building built similar to an open book.



We stopped by for lunch in a restaurant called “Pondok Patin Haji Yunus”. They provided traditional Sumatra food from Pekanbaru such as Ikan Patin (catfish), the soft fish cooking with curry. The restaurant environment was nice, it’s a traditional house on the fish pond. A live music, simple band with a singer accompanied guests having lunch. Most of the food was spicy and hot, but they also provided fried chicken for anybody who didn’t like spicy food. The beverage name was very creative and funny, such as “es airmata pengantin” (bride’s tears ice), “es laksamana mengamuk” (admiral’s furious ice), etc. It’s raining hard when we were eating, but it’s only for a while.


The Great Mosque of An-Nur was one of places that we’d visited. It’s raining hard when we stopped at the front of the mosque, so we had to run to avoid getting wet. The Mosque was beautiful and big, we had to put off our shoes to enter the mosque hall on the second floor. A colorful Al Qur’an (the moslem bible) was provided for the guest. Arabic calligraph was carved with golden color on the pillar in the mosque. After satisfying enjoy the interior, we went down the stairs.


At the back of the mosque, there’s a traditional wedding party, it’s very colorful and cheerful. Lucky for our friend from Lausanne, because it’s a new thing for him to see the bride and bridegroom wearing the traditional Minangkabau wedding clothes. We peeped from the front door to see the party inside. Then we continue the journey to “Pasar Bawah”, a very crowded traditional market that you could find souvenirs, accessories, toys, snacks, etc. It’s very hot and stuffy, difficult to walk and shop, so we only stayed there less than an hour.


My friend and I stayed in the Labersa Grand Hotel and Convention, the garden was very beautiful with a group of elephants on the pool with fountain and small bridge. There was a restaurant with a huge aquarium up to the wall in the middle of the restaurant. The lobby was also nice at night with its lighting. On the top floor, there was a leisure place with coaches and also a bar with many gorgeous paintings on the wall. It’s a pity it’s so quiet, nobody visited or served the floor.


On the next day my friend from Pekanbaru offered us to taste deer meat, it’s quite far and going through some small roads, I don’t think I could find it by myself. Reaching the Kayu Manis Garden Resto and Gallery, we had to climb some stairs. We selected the place on the terrace, it’s bright and you could enjoy the scenery. For the menu he recommended to select deer steak served on the hot plate. It took quite a long time to cook it (around 30 minutes), so while waiting for it, I took some pictures to record the beautiful scenery. Some bungalows were provided with different name for guests who want privacy with their group. Different interior and design were applied for each room and bungalow. Indoor room was decorated with some paintings, ceramics, antiques, etc.


I ordered Martabe, traditional juice mixture of passion fruit and Dutch eggplant. When the meal was ready, it's looked very attempting and smelled good. My friend’s recommendation was 100% correct, the deer steak’s very delicious and tender, although it’s rather too spicy for me. It’s the first time for me to eat deer, definitely I want it again sometime. Don’t forget to visit this restaurant if you want to try the unique food.

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Central of beautiful jewelry in Banjarmasin

It took around an hour flight from Surabaya to Banjarmasin, capital of South Kalimantan. My friend and I arrived at Syamsudin Noor airport at lunch time, it's raining. The airport was not too big, from the plane we had to ride a bus to the airport building. I heard the new bigger airport was being built for the international flight. There are two parts of Banjarmasin, the old city and the new one, the government would move soon to the new part of the city.



Banjarmasin is famous as its jewelry, the central jewelry market is at Martapura. From the airport is nearer, around 30 minutes drive. We went directly there, because they close at 17:00 while we left airport at 14:00 already. No food and drink during the flight, we were starving, so we stopped by at Soto H. Anang in Martapura to taste the local food. We ordered the delicious yellow chicken sooup called "soto Banjar" and grill duck. You could eat soto with rice cake "ketupat" or rice.


After our stomach full we had a new spirit to shop the beautiful stones jewelry. Our driver brought us to a shop, Zamrud Plaza (Jl. A. Yani 125 Martapura, Phone: 62-511-4720751) not the market which's just a few block from our lunch place. The shop was quite convenience, it had a complete collection of stones, jewelry and Banjar handicrafts. If you lack of cash, there was also ATM in front of the shop. We shopped a lot there, no need to go to the market anymore. The price was much cheaper comparing to Banjarmasin city.


I was interested in crystal necklace with its bracelet, also some stone brooches. Bead wallets and small bag handicrafts were also the result of my hunting to give souvenirs to my relatives. If you like diamond, saphire, ruby, etc, they also had them, either as stone or already become accessories such as ring or earing. The salesgirls were kind enough, they didn't mind accompany us to select our preference. When I paid they were kind enough to give me discount.


Rattan Inn was the hotel where we stayed for a night, in the morning they entertained the guest with traditional music. The hotel was not too high, just 3 levels. My colleague in Banjarmasin office said that no high building in Banjarmasin because the land was swamp, so the foundation is not strong enough for building a high skycraper. The electricity was not good either, it's often off. In the hotel I experienced twice, at 17:00 and 22:00, it's not good for electronic stuffs, such as Air Conditioning, TV, refrigerator, etc.


At night we had dinner around 20:00 in Rudy H, a seafood restaurant at A. Yani Km 3.5 no.285 Banjarmasin. We ordered some fish, e.g. grill patin, fried lais, and seluang, and sweet sour shrimp & vegetable. While waiting for the food, we ate the delicious amplang (the fish cracker from Banjarmasin). The fish was nice, it's fresh, piquant and sweet. The restaurant was decorated with antique stuffs such as ceramics, and old cupboard. A life music with a singer and a keyboard player entertained us during the dinner.


Banjarmasin's waterfront of Martapura River. The city is laced with flood-prone waterways, and many houses are built on rafts or stilts over the water. Many of such waterways are also used for travel, using relatively small rowboats (only major rivers are accessible by larger speedboats, tugboats, longboats, and barges). Our driver offered to sea the floating market at 05:00 in the morning. I prefered to sleep because it's an hour earlier than Surabaya time, so it meant that I had to wake up before 04:00 if I wanted to see.


If you like stone jewelry, definitely you must visit Permatapura. The price was so competitive, you won't regret to visit it. You also could visit the place where they make the jewelry to polish it to become a beautiful ornament.

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Picturesque panoramic view of OIA - Santorini

After a long journey from Jakarta, around 16 hours without counting waiting time during transit, transit at 3 airports in 3 different countries (Jakarta-Singapore-Istanbul-Athena-Santorini), finally we reached Santorini around lunch time. A bus picked us up in the airport, it's quite small for 16 of us with big luggages. The bus baggage could not store all of the luggages, so the last row of bus passenger seat had to use for piling up the luggages. Bus went directly to the hotel to drop all of us there. The hotel looked great with white walls and stone pathway to the lobby. We were waiting quite a long time to check in, the hotel lobby was not big, but it's quite nice, it could give us shelter from the hot weather outside. After getting the room key, we only got around 30 minutes to fresh up.



My sister and I took a bath in rush and change clothes, so it's very braces. Others had waited for us for lunch. We crossed the street in front of our hotel, Al Greco which has 4 swimming pools. A beautiful scenery of Santorini beach with its island and some small boats passing by were welcoming us. The layering rock on the beach with houses above it was complementary to the scenic scenery. Walking under the sunshine was very tiring especially when we were hungry. It's a pity that the bus didn't drop us to the nearest place to the restaurant.


We went through old town where we could only pass through by foot, or sometimes by riding donkey. The road was narrow, sometimes up and down. So many stores at the left and right of the road selling souvenirs, clothes, hats, bags, etc. A Malay restaurant that providing Chinese food was our destination for lunch after almost an hour walk.

After lunch by bus we went to OIA, exquisite small town, to see the best scenery of Santorini. Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion, destroying the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island, and leading to the creation of the current geological caldera. During the trip to OIA, we saw that the land was very barren. Most of the building were painted white with no roof tile but concrete roof. There were many small chapels with bells as private belonging, but public may use it along the way to OIA.

The bus stopped, we had to continue walking to reach the cliff. The main pedestrian street connects its ends accross the top of the cliff, with many local branches. There was a church right on the edge of the cliff, we took some pictures in front of the church and the beautiful scenery on the cliff. OIA is famous for its imaginary sunset and its narrow passageways get crowded in the evenings. The most popular spot to watch sunset is by the Kastro walls. Before reaching the castle, there was a small way to the other end of the cliff where we could see the beautiful scenery at the right and left side.

It's very amazing, I took many pictures there. Some professional models were also taking pictures at that time, so the place was closed just for them. After another half an hour, they finished and we could take pictures from that side. While waiting for the sunset, my sister and I were sitting on the wall, enjoying the scenery. We didn't want to walk further to the castle, because from that place we could see the panoramic view of Santorini with its unique characteristic view of white buildings and blue dome for the church contrasting with the deep blue of the Aegean Sea in the background. Houses, paths, churches built up skillfully on the northern part of the island, with low-lying cubical houses, made of local stone and whitewashed or limewashed. From where we sat, we could see donkey go down and up the hill riding by tourists. I could not imagine if we stayed in the hotel there, it's very heavy and difficult to bring the luggage because you had to walk on stairs, no escalator, no lift :-)


During the beautiful sunset, we could not see the circle sun, but the red color sky before sunset was beautiful as the background of the OIA panoramic view. On the wayback to the bus stop, we passed by some stores selling cute souvenirs, restaurants, clothes, jewelry, etc. We often stopped to take pictures, because the store design was beautiful especially with its light at night. I bought sweet roasted pistachio nut with sesame, because the seller offered tester and I like it. It's difficult to bring back to Indonesia because it's easily break and they didn't have a good package to avoid the damage.


OIA is beautiful, an ideal place for those seeking peace and quiet. It's very windy, so prepare your jacket, especially for protecting the cold at night.

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Pamukkale, magnificent natural cotton fortress

Turkey is awesome with its magnificent natural resources. One of them was the fabulous white limestone that was used for bathing by people in Hierapolis era, called Pamukkale (a World Heritage Site). Pamuk means cotton in Turkish and Kale fortress, so the name means Cotton Fortress. The white mountain could be seen from the distance, it seemed like snow at the top of the mountain.


We had lunch in a beautiful restaurant with big swimming pool, on the background was the white Pamukkale. It's really amazing, we hurried to finish the lunch, we could not wait for visiting it soon. It's noon time, the sun shone so strong, we stopped by a garden with a nice pool with goose and duck, also a small fountain to take picture. We could see the beautiful Pamukkale from the garden.

There were some entrance to Pamukkale, our bus driver was selected the shortest way. On the bus stop we could not see the white mountain, we had to walk on foot around half an hour passing some ruin historic buildings to reach the leveling pools. For old people or anyone didn't like to walk, there was a shuttle cost 2 Liras/person.

It's so excited when we reached the racking pools. Visitors were able climb all over the "travertines" (collected pools) of mineral water. The water contains of various mineral, people believe that it's good for our health and it could cure diseases. My sister decided to put off her shoes and start playing with the warm water. There was a long dig that people were allowed to take a bath, not in the pool. The guard would shout if somebody tried to walk in to the pool. Because it's quite dangerous by the edge of the cliff, it's very slippery.


I wore sport shoes, it's difficult for me to take off, so I only took some pictures of my sisters from above the wooden bridge. Not too long I was attempted to try the water too. So I put off my shoes and left them on the wooden bridge to approach the travertines. The water was warm, it's not too hot, unfortunately it's not the place where we could swim or soak our body for relaxing. Too many people and too dangerous place for the activities. Anyway the scenery was very amazing, I wanted to stay there longer, but the time was limited.

My friend's children was running around, chasing each other. They played with the water, until their clothes were wet. One of them was falling, it caused her skirt was totally wet. All of us were enjoying visiting the place that we could not find in another place in the world, it's very unique.

Around 500 meters from the travertines, you could swim in the cleopatra's swimming pool cost 30 Turkish liras which has the hot, bubbly water. The swimming pool bottom was not covered with ceramic. It stayed as it was with some ruining of the building, you could see some broken pillars, stone, etc. People say if you open your eyes in the pool, the minerals in the water are supposed to be good for your eyes. You also could sit on the chair at the garden by the swimming pool with the ancient city as the beautiful background. There's also restaurants and shops facing to the pool.


We decided to take the shuttle to be faster going back to the bus, lucky it was raining hard when we arrived on the bus stop not during our visit to the pool. Our hotel was a thermal hotel, which had a thermal water in the pool that contains the same mineral as the travertines. Pam Thermal Hotel exists in the western part of Turkey, in Denizli city and Pamukkale Karahayit region, in the foot of forestry mountain. Karahayit region is also famous for its red water. This thermal spring which has its source within the hotel, fascinates everyone by its formation of beautiful red colored lime stones and thermal pools.


The thermal water of Pam Thermal Hotel all the year is 58 Celcius degree. The natural thermal mud has been used for medicinal and beauty purposes for centuries. This curative water with its thermo mineral and magnesium, calcium, carbon dioxide, sulfide and bicarbonate is suitable in many areas as a curative treatment. You could submerged your body inside the layering pool depend how hot you could stand. Nearer to the top would be hotter. You need to buy a swimming cap cost 2 Liras before you could enjoy the pool. It's very comfortable swimming and submerging in the warm water while the weather's cold. If you don't bring swimming suit, don't worry, you also could do it in the room. The water would be available only in certain hour period as written on the bathroom wall, so you could enjoy the warm curative water in the bathtub.

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