Monkeying Around the World

Ivan, Jennifer and I took a taxi to the train station on June 23, 2009.  We wanted to get from Solo to Surabaya.  Unfortunately, the train was sold out except three Economy seats that has no air-conditioning.  Jennifer said she would rather ride the bus than sit on a train with no air-conditioning. Ivan didn’t mind so mind, but i sided with Jennifer and so Ivan was outvoted two to one. You see its very important that my bananas are not kept on hot environments – they lose their quality you see.

We took the bus at 8:45 am.  Ivan and Jennifer watched shows on the laptop.  I took a much needed monkey nap.  Lunch was included with the ticket – but it wasn’t anything special.  We arrived in Surabaya around 2:50 pm. 

We checked in at the Garden Palace Hotel.  We chilled in the room and had a snack.

There’s a restaurant right by the hotel called Cat’s Pajamas.  We went there for dinner.  We sat down on a big bed.  The restaurant was running a special of buy one, get one free for tapas. 

Ivan and Jennifer ordered 5 different tapas dishes - carpaccio with salad, tuna with tomato, prawn with salad, grilled fish and eggplant and asparagus salad.  I ordered a few banana tapas – bananas with honey and peanuts, banana stuffed chicken and banana salad with a light vinaigrette sauce.  The food was alright.

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Garden Palace Hotel on June 24, 2009.  We stored our backpacks with the hotel.

We got picked up around noon by couchsurfers Steve and Rose. They contacted Ivan after he put a request on the Surabaya Couchsurfing message board for somebody to show us around Surabaya. Steve is an English guy and Rose is his Indonesian wife.  Everybody was hungry so we drove to the closest mall.  We went to the food court.  I ordered fried bananas with a peanut sauce.  Ivan ordered rice with chicken while Jennifer got noodles with chicken.  Jennifer was supposed to add the soup into her noodles. 

She wanted dry noodles though.  She added lots of the sweet soy sauce that was provided by the restaurant.  The food was tasty.

Steve drove us around Surabaya telling us about the city.  Surabaya’s meaning has something to do with a shark and a crocodile.  That’s why they have statues of a shark and a crocodile wrapped together like they’re going to fight. 

Steve drove us to their custom built house.  Rose designed it herself.  It was still under construction.  They are building a pool right in the living room.  So, once it’s completed, you’ll see a pool right when you walk into the house. 

The house has lots of windows so it gets a lot of natural light.  It’s a beautiful place!  Steve and Rose offered us Indonesian snacks.  Rose gave me a banana and I was happy!

Steve drove us around his neighborhood.  There’s lots of custom built houses being built.  There are no restrictions to what you can build there.

Steve teaches at English First - so he had classes to teach that night.  He dropped us off at the mall near our hotel. We shopped for awhile.

Jennifer had a facial and a wax.

We got our backpacks out of the storage area at the Garden Palace Hotel.

We would be staying at a couchsurfer’s house named Lupe.  She lives with her husband at her mom’s house.  Lupe and her husband picked us up shortly after 7 pm. 

We drove to a mall since Lupe was meeting friends.  Surabaya has so many malls. 

We sat down at a sushi restaurant.  Ivan and Jennifer ordered a few sushi dishes.  I ordered chicken & banana teriyaki with rice.  The food wasn’t very good. 

The sushi had no flavor.  A lot of Lupe’s friends arrived.  There were also people from couchsurfing.  Jennifer made a new friend, a girl named Gloria.  They both like to create things.  Everybody was chatting.

The group wanted to go either bowling or karaoke.  By the time, everybody was ready to go, it was too late for bowling.

We went upstairs to head to karaoke.  It was a Family KTV room.  We got a big private room for an hour.  The machine grades you on your singing ability.  Ivan and Jennifer sang a lot of songs.  Nobody ordered any drinks.  Ivan and Jen were singing Bohemian Rhapsody.  It was almost the end of the song and one the girls stopped it.  She said it was an accident.  I thought it was rather rude.  It was fun watching everybody sing.

A few people in the group wanted to go inside the nightclub Foreplay.  It was expensive to get in since there was an event going on.  Ivan and Jennifer thought they would pass on it.

Lupe and her husband drove us to their house.  Lupe’s mom is traditional.  So, Ivan and Jennifer had to sleep in separate beds. 

I got my own bed all to my monkey self!  It was a little hot though since there was only a fan in the room.

July 3rd, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Surabaya | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I had the breakfast buffet at the Puri Artha on June 21, 2009.

We checked out of the Puri Artha Hotel.  We really enjoyed our stay there.  It’s such a beautiful place to stay with friendly staff.

We got a taxi to the train station.  The train ride took about an hour to Solo from Yogyakarta.  The seats were hard plastic as it was just a local train.  But, it didn’t really matter much since it was such a short journey.

We hopped in to a taxi to our hotel.  We checked in to the Ibis Hotel.

We were all very hungry.  We walked next door to the Novotel.  The restaurant was serving a buffet Sunday Brunch.  The food looked good and was a decent price, so we grabbed some food. 

Ivan worked on his blog.  I watched tv with Jennifer.  I worked on the blog.  Ivan walked around the city.  We all watched Jurassic Park on the tv in the room.

Ivan set up that we would meet a local guy from couchsurfing.  Bayu wanted to meet at Galabo.  Galabo is a street that is shut off to traffic at night. 

It’s filled with food stands. 

There’s train tracks around the city.  The train doesn’t run at night.

We met up with Bayu and his friend.  The tables were practically filled up.  An employee put down a mat over the train tracks.  Bayu said he would find us some food.  I started munching on my bananas.  I wasn’t sure they would have any good dishes. 

Bayu ordered some local food for Ivan and Jennifer. 

We had dinner on the train tracks.  They had Nasi Liwet , selat (the salad), and Gempol Pleret Ice. 

Jennifer didn’t like the selat. 

She did order another place of Nai Liwet (rice with chicken, coconut milk and a spiced egg).  We chatted awhile with Bayu and his friend. Here is Ivan with Bayu and his friend

We said goodbye to Bayu and his friend.  We took a becak back to the hotel.

Ivan, Jennifer and I had breakfast buffet at Novotel Hotel on June 22, 2009.  The food was good.

We got a taxi to the Kraton Museum. 

There are so many things in the museum like canoes, gongs, umbrellas, cannons, old stage coaches and shadow puppets. 

It was interesting to see all the items. 

There was a guy let you wear his hate and sash to wear by the stage coach.  He took pictures of Ivan and Jennifer – and we gave him some money as a tip.  I saw two statues holding bananas. 

I was excited and grabbed one of the free bananas.  But, the bananas weren’t real.  The statue was just a tease.

Next, we rode a horse and cart around the kraton itself. We got the horse and kart to drop us off at the central market where we went into a batik shop to look at the batik. There were lots of nice shirts in there but most of them were not batik – just normal shirts with nice prints on them. Of course though, the real batik ones were really expensive.

Ivan had read in the Lonely planet about a place that has live cobras that can be killed in front of you and then eaten. We decided to check it out, and so jumped into a becak and set off looking for the snake man. He took us to the street where he thought it was  - but couldn’t find anything, and so we drove for a lot longer, until Ivan realized that we probably weren’t going to find it and so went back to the original street we were on. It was at this point that we came across the highlight of the day – for me anyway.

Ivan brought a basket for me – at only 10,000 rupiah (1 us dollar) for the entire basket, they were probably the cheapest bananas I have ever brought! As we were walking around after buying the bananas, we actually did find the snake stand – but the snake man was on his holidays so was not there!

Back at the hotel I checked out the bananas Ivan had brought for me.

I had enough bananas to restock my main supple, my emergency supply AND my secret stock! Plus I had a few left over to give to Ivan and Jen.

That evening went to an Italian restaurant nearby called O Solo Mio. All 3 of us ordered pizzas. The pizzas arrived with packets of tomato sauce, which was something none of us had seen before.

Yes it may look tasty – but the pizzas were all very average tasting – I didn’t even bother eating most of mine, and just ate some bananas I had brought with me – they were so much tastier than the pizza!

We took a walk along the road to where the Solo fairground was called. I would love to tell you the name of the fairground – but I have since ripped the Solo info page out of my Lonely Monkey guidebook – you see once we leave a town we rip the pages out of the guidebook because we don’t need them anymore and it makes the book lighter!

At the fairground was a troupe in a theatre that was doing a show. We guessed it was a traditional Indonesian story but of course we couldn’t understand as it was all in Indonesian. They was some fighting and some singing..and Jennifer found it a bit boring, so we didn’t stay long, and after a while walked back to the hotel.

Ivan went to buy some wine so we could have another Banana and Wine evening. After the success of the first one, we were all looking forward to this one.

I presented a varied selection of bananas from my collection, and we all enjoyed eating them while drinking some nice wine.

July 3rd, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Solo | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I had lunch at the Chandra Restaurant on June 20, 2009.  Ivan and Jennifer both had the Nasi Goreng.  I had noodles with chicken and bananas.

We took a taxi to the Sultan’s Palace.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in since it was closed.  It seems a lot of the tourist attractions close around 2 pm.  That’s way too early for us!

There was a man who wanted to guide us.  Our guide took us to a shadow puppet place right near the Sultan Palace called Classic Wayang.  The shadow puppet’s design is made with a spoke of a bicycle.  It can take over two weeks to create it. 

The shadow puppet is made out of strong buffalo skin.  Then, an artists paints it.  The painting can take a week to make.  It can take longer if the puppet is larger.  One of the guys who does the artwork showed us finished projects. 

Jennifer really liked the shadow puppets.  She was thinking of buying one.  The guy said that since they live near the Sultan Palace for free they can charge what they like.  The guy wanted 450,000 IDR (about $45 USD).  We said that we might come back to buy it.

We walked to the Water Castle.  We almost didn’t get to go inside.  The guide talked to the guy who was closing the gate.  Somehow, the guy said we could go inside. 

It’s a palace that was built in 1758 by Sultan Hamengkubuwono I for the Royal family. 

It’s mostly ruins now because of an earthquake.  But, you can still see the pools and arches.  It’s interesting to imagine what it once was.  But, there’s really not much there to see.

We walked further on.  There was a shop selling artwork and shadow puppets.  The puppets weren’t the same quality as the Classic Wayang workshop.

Next, we went to the Bird Market. 

There’s lots of illegal animals for sell like owls, bats and snakes.  Ivan and Jennifer thought the bunny rabbits were so cute.  They are pretty adorable. 

I was more interested in the bananas that were for sale.  It does smell in the market though.

Our guide took us back to Classic Wayang.  Jennifer wanted to pay 400,000 IDR (about $40 USD) for the shadow puppet. 

The guy said he couldn’t sell it for that price. Ivan acted like it was all the money he had left.  The guy said there was an ATM nearby.  We started to walk out of the workshop.  Then, the guy agreed on the price.  The shadow puppet is named Rama.  The guy said he would e-mail Jennifer about the meaning of Rama.  Although, she still hasn’t gotten an e-mail from the workshop.  The guy rolled up the shadow puppet and wrapped it in cardboard.  He said it would be fine rolled up for months on end.

We said goodbye to our guide.  Ivan thinks he got a commission for the shadow puppet.  He did tell Jennifer that the quality was better at Classic Wayang.

We took a becek to the Alun Alun park.  Ivan and Jennifer rode ATVs.  I rode with Jennifer.  We went around the grass area in the park.  It was pretty fun!

Ivan read that there are two Banyan trees in the park.  Somebody puts a blindfold on you and you have to walk to the other tree.  If you reach the other tree while blindfolded, you will have good luck.  We didn’t have a blindfold, so Ivan covered his eyes with his shirt. 

The first time, Ivan was very far from the tree.  On his second go, he reached the tree.  I’m not sure if he gets good luck, since he failed the first time and then succeeded the second time.  I would have tried the blindfold thing if the trees were banana trees.  At least, then I could get a treat afterwards!

We went to Malioboro.  It’s the main street in Yogya (that’s what most people call Yogyakarta).  Jennifer found some nice souvenirs in the shops. 

We took a taxi back to the hotel. 

We had dinner at the Chandra Restaurant in the hotel. 

Ivan and Jennifer both had the tasty salmon with potatoes.  I had the Nasi Goreng with bananas.

We took a taxi to Hugo’s Cafe.  There was a lot of people in line.  It was a special event with Glenn Fredly.  We found out later that he’s an Indonesian artist who sings love songs.  The admission price was 100,000 IDR at the door and it came with free cigarettes.  The event was sponsored by a cigarette company. 

We walked inside and it was so crowded.  Ivan found a place by the bar.  He ordered two glasses of red wine.  The bar was really smoky.  The house band wasn’t too good.  Ivan thought that we should leave.  We had no idea who Glenn Fredly was. 

We took a taxi back to the hotel.  Since, it was late – we went to bed soon after.

July 1st, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Yogyakarta | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I woke up early on June 19, 2009.  We had the free breakfast buffet in the hotel. 

We got a taxi to Malioboro.  We were running a couple minutes late for our 9 am class.  We got there about 9:17 am. 

We started our class around 9:30 am.  Ivan and Jennifer met the teacher.  I was just watching Ivan and Jennifer.  I had Ivan’s iPod to watch tv shows and listen to music.

There were many finished batik paintings done.  The teacher said we should choose one.  Then, we could trace it with a pencil on a piece of white cloth.  Otherwise, we could create something original if we wanted.  Ivan and Jen really don’t draw much - so they picked a nice batik painting to trace.  Ivan picked one with three geckos and Jennifer started tracing a painting with two cats.

The teacher set up the fire.

He placed wax in a bowl over the fire.  It would melt the wax down.  He showed Ivan and Jennifer what art object to use.  The object would hold the wax and it comes out of a little tip.  You have to put the wax where the lines of the picture is.  You can use lines or dots.  The wax only lasts a little while.  It won’t show up if you let it cool.  The idea is to have the wax showing on the opposite side of the cloth.  Ivan and Jennifer got a cloth to practice on first. 

It took a little while to trace the wax on the cloth. 

Ivan finished his picture first.  Jennifer was having problem with the wax.  It was cooling and she would put the wax on the paper – then it wouldn’t show up on the other side.  The teacher said he would help her out.  He told us to go get lunch at Bedhot Resto down the street.

We walked to Bedhot Resto.  Ivan and Jennifer got lunch included with the class.  Ivan got Nasi Goreng while Jennifer got noodles.  I had noodles with bananas.  The lunch was okay.

We walked back to the class.  There’s some awesome artwork on the walls. 

The teacher had finished adding wax to Jennifer’s artwork.  It was time to add color. The teacher asked what colors they would like to use.  If they wanted a certain color they would paint that part with paraffin or with wax.  The teacher applied the color of a dust like substance.  The substance created coloring in the water and then he put water on the cloth.  The painting would dry in the sun.  Then, the color would appear. 

Ivan thought that the teacher should explain why the colors would appear with the different color substances. 

Ivan and Jennifer kept adding more paraffin.  More colors would appear on their painting.  The teacher would always put the water on the painting and the colors would appear.  Ivan wanted to do that part as well. 

There were so many processes since sometimes certain colors would appear after several wax or paraffin applications.  It was very time consuming.

At the end, you can add cracking to your painting.  Both Ivan and Jennifer wanted this for their background.  It gave it a kind of tie-dye look. 

The teacher said we should walk to the Bedhot Resto.  He said we could put the paintings in boiling water and it would remove the wax on the paintings. 

It only took a couple minutes to remove the wax.  The teacher said they could hang it up in their hotel room to dry.  The class ended around 3:45 pm. 

Ivan and Jennifer thought their paintings turned out nice.  The teacher liked Jennifer’s painting better.  Her painting was simple with big cats on it.  The class was nice since they got a nice painting to take home.  It was a plus that the painting is very light and can be folded into a small square.

We took a taxi back to the hotel.  Ivan and Jennifer hung their paintings on a chair outside the room so they would dry quickly.  We chilled in the room for awhile.  Ivan and Jennifer used the internet.

We took a taxi to Gajah Wong for dinner.  There are three different areas you can choose to dine in.  They each have a different type of music in each one.  Ivan wanted the jazz room but the band wasn’t on yet.  We sat down in the room with music of Javanese Gamelan style.  The music was kind of annoying.  Ivan said we would switch to the jazz classical music room since the band would be on in a few minutes.  The third room has country music in it.

Ivan and Jennifer started off with Salmon Chowder. I ordered fried bananas in a light sauce.  Ivan had vegetarian lasagna. 

Jennifer got tagliatelli al fungi.  The jazz music was good. 

Ivan and Jennifer ended with a apple tart.  The food was alright. 

We took a taxi home.  Shortly after, we wet to bed.

July 1st, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Yogyakarta | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Swiss Bel-Hotel on June 17, 2009. 

We got a taxi to the train station.  We were headed to Yogyakarta.  Ivan and Jennifer bought Executive seat tickets for the train at 150,000 IDR each. 

We went to sit down on the train.  Lunch was included with the seats.  It was Nasi Goreng and a banana.  Jennifer kindly gave me her banana.  We all slept a lot on the train.  We arrived at 4:15 pm in Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogyakarta).

We checked in to Puri Artha Hotel.  It’s a great hotel with Javanese and Balinese artwork everywhere in the hotel. 

The pool area has a dragon near the pool.  The hotel is located a few minutes from the main area of Yogyakarta.

It was tea time in the Chandra Bar.  The tea and snacks are complimentary. 

I had Ivan’s yummy fried banana. 

We had lunch in the Chandri Restaurant.  Ivan had asparagus soup and salmon with potatoes.  I had noodles with chicken and bananas. 

Jennifer had the Nasi Goreng.  The food was good.

We watched tv in the room.  Ivan used the internet.  There is free wi-fi in the rooms and in the bar and restaurant.  A computer in the lobby is free to use for guests.

Ivan, Jennifer and I had the free breakfast buffet at Puri Artha Hotel on June 18, 2009.  I had bananas and yogurt.  Ivan and Jennifer had some toast and cereal.  Ivan also had some boiled eggs.

Ivan worked on his blog.  Jennifer and I watched tv in the room.

We had lunch at the Chandri Restaurant in the hotel.  Ivan had the salmon curry with rice.  I ordered the Nasi Goreng with Bananas.  Jennifer had Spaghetti Marinara.  The food was tasty again.

Ivan went to chill at the pool.  Jennifer read Season of the Machete by James Patterson while I worked on the blog.

We took a taxi to the main street of Yogyakarta called Malioboro.  We walked around to find the Bedhot Restaurant. 

It’s a restaurant with colorful artwork on the walls.  Ivan got the guacamole and the chicken porridge.  I had the banana pancakes. 

Jennifer had the chicken teriyaki.  The food was alright here – nothing special.  Ivan set up a batik painting class with the restaurant.  The class is held 100 meters away from the restaurant.  It was set up for Saturday (two days time).  We started walking outside the restaurant.  The guy we set up the class with came out.  He said that the teacher had something already set up for Saturday.  Ivan decided to do the class tomorrow.

We walked around Malioboro.  There’s a lot of souvenirs shops on this street.  We headed to the hotel soon after to get some rest.

June 28th, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Yogyakarta | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I had lunch at Gado Gado Cemara on June 15, 2009.  It wasn’t anything special.

We got a taxi to the train station.  We wanted to go to Bandung -unfortunately, the next train was in two hours.  We asked a security guard about the bus station.  He took us to a guy who drives his car.  We got lucky to get a private car for a cheap 300,000 IDR, which is about 30 US dollars.  Ivan had talked down the price by flashing his winning smile. I was about to reach into my backpack and pull out a few bananas to give to the guy so that price could get even cheaper, but Jennifer spotted was I was doing and told me to save my bananas incase I have trouble finding new bananas to replenish my supply in Bandung.

The car ride was 3 hours long.  We got dropped off at the By Moritz Guesehouse.

We checked in to By Moritz.  It’s a basic room, with the emphasis on the word basic. However, the employees there are very friendly and give good information on tours. 

We got a taxi to the Factory Outlets. Bandung is known for its factory outlets. We shopped for awhile.  Ivan bought some cheap clothes.  One of the stores had Louis Vuitton jeans for $18 USD.  They had lots of brands for very cheap like Ed Hardy, Volcom and Esprit. Everything there was really cheap – much cheaper then the factory outlets in America. However, Ivan suspected that some of the stuff was fake, because some clothes were just too cheap to be real. 

We got a taxi to the Yogya CiWalk.  Ivan wanted to check out the Blind restaurant.  This restaurant is where you are served in the dark (and I mean pitch dark).  The servers are all blind.  You order first and then are taken upstairs to the restaurant.  I can’t believe it was so dark in there!  I ordered the spaghetti with bananas.  Ivan got the spaghetti with tuna while Jennifer got the fettuccine with mushrooms and chicken.  The server tells you exactly where your fork, spoon and drinks are.  Ivan’s eyes were hurting.  He thought that they were trying too hard to see something.  They weren’t used to being in the dark.  We were the only people eating in the restaurant..at least we think we were – I mean of course we couldn’t see anyone else because it was so dark..but unless everyone else in there was staying completely silent, then we were definitely the only ones there.  The food was okay.  The experience of eating in the dark was really cool.  Jennifer liked eating in the dark. 

We had booked a trip for the morning to go to the volcano and hot springs.  So, we headed back to the hostel to get some rest.

Ivan and Jennifer packed up the backpacks on June 16, 2009.  We put

the backpacks into the back of the car.  The car took us up to the volcano. 

It was a little chilly out.  Men were selling hats and scarfs.  The view was really great. 

Horses were there if you wanted to take a ride. 

We walked back to the car.  We drove to the Sati Ater Hot Springs.  Jennifer changed into her bathing suit.  I stuck my foot in the water and it was really hot.  Ivan really liked it.  It took a little while for Jennifer to get used to the temperature.  Jennifer was the only girl in a bathing suit and Ivan was the only guy not wearing a shirt. I was the only monkey at the hot springs.  The springs are hot because of the volcano.  There were a couple different pools, some with waterfalls. 

There was a pool with a slide but you had to pay extra to use it.  I had a banana popsicle.  Ivan and Jennifer got a cup of noodles for a snack.  It started raining.  We went to sit down in the eating area since it’s covered.  Ivan got a bbq corn on the cob for him and Jennifer.  We were seated with some Muslim women.  They offered Jennifer some of their food.  She said no thank you.  It looked like it might have been beef.  It stopped raining. 

We went back to the car.  We were driven to the strawberry patch.    Men were trying to sell us strawberries and blueberries.  Ivan and Jennifer had a few free samples.  They didn’t think the blueberries were very good. 

We could pick strawberries if we wanted to.  Ivan and Jennifer weren’t sure how to do it though.  There was a track for ATVs. 

I rode with Jennifer.  It was fun riding although a bit bumpy.  Ivan and Jennifer bought a box of strawberries.  They tasted good!  They also got some homemade strawberry ice cream.  It tasted artificial with too much sugar.

We drove back into the city.  We were dropped off at the Swiss Bel-Hotel.  We checked into the nice hotel. 

Ivan had set up that we would meet a couchsurfer.  Dimas said he would come pick us up.  We got ready for a night out.

Dimas picked us up.  We drove to a hotel near by.  We picked up two other couchsurfers. who were from Malaysia.  Then, we drove to the restaurant Black Romantic.  Dimas’ friend Ben and his friend met us there.  Everybody ordered food.  I ordered noodles with chicken and bananas.  Ivan and Jennifer both had Nasi Goreng. 

Jennifer thought it was the best Nasi Goreng she’s ever had.  The rice was spicy.  We chatted for awhile at the restaurant.

Dimas took the other couchsurfers back to the hotel since they had to wake up early the next morning.  We drove to a Mexican bar and Ben met us there.  The bar was pretty full and really noisy.  Dimas really wanted to try hypnosis.  Ivan thought it was too noisy in the bar.  Dimas was trying to convince him though.  Ivan decided to give it a go.  Dimas was really easy to hypnotize.  It was really funny.  Ivan told him that he was a librarian and he had to tell everybody to be quiet in the bar.  So, he was going up to people in the bar and telling them that they must be quiet! People didn’t know what was going on – one guy thought he was high on mushrooms. I didn’t understand what high on mushrooms meant – I don’t see how you can be ‘high’ on mushrooms unless you stood on them! Dimas believed that his shoe was his cell phone.  He began talking on the shoe phone. 

Then, Ivan said there was a conference call and his other shoe and the water bottle were the other lines.  It was a lot of fun seeing Dimas hypnotized.  We had a good night.

June 27th, 2009 | Tags: blind, factory outlet, hypnosis, shopping, volcano | Category: Bandung, Food, Indonesia | Comments (2)

Ivan felt a lot better on June 14, 2009.  We got up pretty late. 

We hopped in to a taxi headed towards Fatahillah Square.  It’s part of the Old Jakarta and has lots of old Dutch buildings. 

We went to have lunch at Cafe Batavia. 

The place has great decorations everywhere.  I ordered some banana dumplings. 

Ivan ordered some shrimp dumpings and chicken shu mai. 

Jennifer ordered noodles with crab meat while Ivan got Nasi Goreng. We had a great view of the square from our table. 

The food was good, and the restaurant was really beautifull inside – lots of character and nice furnishings.

We walked around the old square.  The buildings are really old since it’s in the old Dutch quarter.  There was a show happening. 

A few of the men were fire breathing.  Lots of people were taking pictures.  A couple were getting professional pictures done. 

Jennifer snapped a picture of them.  Ivan and Jen liked the area in the square.

We decided to rent a bicycle.  Men take old bicycles and fix them up.  Ivan drove us around the square.  He had a hat on.  I’m not sure why, but everybody kept laughing at us. 

I guess they’ve never seen a white guy with an Asian girl and a monkey riding a bicycle before.  It was fun riding around in the square.

We took a taxi back to the hotel.

We got ready to go out.  We took a taxi to Park Lane Hotel.  The French restaurant was recommended there, but it was way too expensive.  We took a taxi to Plaza Indonesia mall.  We decided to try out Immigrant restaurant.  It has an industrial feel to it.

Jennifer took a few pictures of the restaurant.  A big Security guard came over and started talking Indonesian.  He seemed like he was too shy to say what he needed to say.  A server translated and said There are no picture taking in the restaurant.  Jennifer said sorry and sat down.

Ivan and Jennifer started off with avocado canapes.  It was actually not canapes but Ritz crackers.  I ordered a good banana fettuccine. 

Ivan and Jennifer ordered a calzone with chicken and spinach and a chicken tangine to share.  The calzone was really delicious.  The chicken tangine wasn’t very good.  It didn’t have much flavor to it. Ivan started taking pictures and nobody seemed to care.  Jennifer didn’t understand why she could take pictures and he could.

June 26th, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Jakarta | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I had lunch at Gado Gado Cemara on June 12, 2009.

Ivan and Jennifer started off with the Gado Gado which is tofu, cucumber and peanut sauce.  Ivan got the Nasi Goreng Asin (Asin means spicy).

Jennifer got the Soto Ayam which is a soup with chicken, clear thin noodles and onions.  I got the Nasi Goreng Ayam (Ayam means chicken) and I added bananas to it.  The food was good.

We took a taxi to the Jakarta Fair 2009. We got there just before the ticket went on sale, so we had to wait for a little while in the line before we could buy our tickets. Once we brought our tickets, we made our way inside.

The fair covers a big area.  We checked out everything.  It was like trade fair..but not just for businesses…basically it was like a showcase for Jakarta and Indonesia.

There were these wooden souvenirs that were really cool.

Too bad they were so heavy or Ivan probably would have bought something.  Jennifer bought some cool souvenirs.  There are lots of girls offering free samples of products.  Most of the food items were kinda weird.

We rode the bumper cars.  I rode with Ivan.  It was lots of fun.  Ivan even let me drive for a bit, while he had hit foot on the gas.

We took a taxi back to the hotel.  Ivan wasn’t feeling good - he had a fever.  We got some food at the convenience store nearby.  We had cup of noodles for dinner.  I went to bed early.  Ivan and Jennifer watched the movie Super Size Me.

Ivan had breakfast in the room on June 13, 2009.  He had a vegetable omelette and toast.  Jennifer and I went to Gado Gado Cemara for lunch.  I ordered a spicy Laksa soup with bananas.

Jennifer got the Nasi Goreng Special.  The food was tasty.

We chilled out in the room.  Ivan still wasn’t feeling well and so didn’t really feel like doing much.

We walked to Chili’s for dinner.  It’s only a 5 minute walk away from the hotel.  Ivan ordered the chicken fajitas.  I had the banana salad.

Jennifer had southwestern chicken tacos.  The food tasted pretty good and it was nice to have some non-Indonesian food for a change.

We were going to spend the evening in the hotel room - but then Ivan decided that he felt better, so we went to the Ritz Carlton.  There’s a lounge there with a Canadian band called Exit-t and they were playing there that evening.  Ivan also got to see them the other night with Yogi.  The entrance is 100,000 IDR which includes one drink.  The band consists of two girl singers, a guy singer, bassist, guitarist, keyboard player and a drummer.  We ordered some fruity drinks.  I had a virgin banana daiquirri.

Jennifer really liked the Berry Ferrari.  It had fresh berries in it.  The band sound awesome.  They sound just like whatever band or singer they’re performing.

The band sang We are the Champions by Queen, Ironic by Alanis Morrissette, I Will Survive, Say a Little Prayer and Gangster’s Paradise by Coolio.  Jennifer liked that their outfits had the same colors or similar designs.  Also, that they seemed to have a cool dance for almost every song.  The band liked to interact with the audience as well.  This band is definitely the best cover band we’ve seen on our trip.  We left the lounge at 3 am to get some rest.

June 22nd, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Jakarta | Comments (3)

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Mercure Convention Center Ancol on June 10, 2009.

We got a taxi to the Ibis Hotel Arcadia, which was back in the centre of Jakarta. We checked in to the hotel. 

I worked on the blog in the room.  Ivan went to the mall.  Jennifer rested in the room. 

Jennifer I went to eat at the coffee shop in the hotel.  I had noodles with bananas. 

Jennifer got the Nasi Goreng Seafood.  The food was alright.

I worked on the blog more.  Jennifer uploaded pictures to Flickr. 

Ivan went out with an old friend from the Everest trek.  They went to Cafe Batavia.  He had shrimp dumplings and Nasi Goreng.  He also was driven around Jakarta.

Jennifer and I ordered room service for dinner.  I had rice with chicken and bananas while Jennifer got spaghetti carbonara.  The food was okay.

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Ibis Hotel Arcadia on June 11, 2009.  We checked in to the Luxe Hotel across the street, which was slightly cheaper and had rooms available unlike the Ibis which was full that evening.

We took a taxi headed to Water Bom, a water park.  The taxi driver got lost, and at one point we were driving through a small village which had a flood - the water was almost as high as the doors of the taxi! We all agreed that this is probably not the correct way to get to the waterpark. Once we eventually arrived, we brought our tickets and went in. I was reading and chilling out in the sun.  I don’t really like swimming too much.  Ivan and Jennifer rode most of the rides there.  There’s actually not that many rides available as its quite new.  The park provides big floating rings for people for one or two people.  Ivan and Jennifer were walking around the Lazy River.  The lifeguards told them they needed the floating rings.  They didn’t understand why they couldn’t just walk or swim around the Lazy River.  We had a good time at the water park.

We got a taxi back to the hotel.

We hopped in to a taxi.  We were having dinner at The Apartment.  It’s designed like it’s a man’s apartment.  There’s the bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, patio, and a library.  There’s real items in each room.  In the Bathroom, there was a shower, sink, towels and a robe.  We were seated in The Bathroom.  It’s a great, unique concept. 

The menu is printed like a newspaper.  Ivan got the salmon pasta.  I ordered the banana marinara. 

Jennifer got the penne pasta chicken.  Ivan had a bathroom drink and Jennifer had the library drink.  The food was good. 

We went to check out the other rooms.  There’s even a car right outside of the restaurant.  We got the bill - the holder looks like a letter. 

What a cool place!  The employees at The Apartment were very friendly - they all wear pajamas as their uniform!

We got a taxi to Red Square.  Ivan and Jennifer got a drink.

Jennifer’s drink was a Watermelon Mojito.  The drinks were tasty.  The music was nice. 

We took a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe.  Ivan wanted to check out some live music.  It was really loud.  The band was good.  They sang lots of different songs like YMCA, Creep by Radiohead, Come on Eileen, Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode and Take on Me by A-ha.  Ivan thought that they murdered I Want to Break Free by Queen though.  We had a good night.

June 22nd, 2009 | Category: Food, Indonesia, Jakarta | Leave a comment