Monday, May 18, 2015

AOE: "Bebek Tepi Sawah", Ubud.

"Tourists don't know where they've been, Travelers don't know where they're going."

- Paul Theroux

Bali is always be the most favorite destination in Indonesia for international or domestic tourist. I and my friend chose it for our holiday as my girlfriend is also originally from there. Even though Bali is my girlfriend's hometown, we randomly went to some new places without observing it first. Once we decided to have a lunch at "Bebek Tepi Sawah" in Ubud. It is known for its beautiful scenery. It has a rice field decorating the place. We could walk through it because there is a way splitting it. It is really beautiful as people say.

Beautiful scenery that "Bebek Tepi Sawah" has makes its price of foods quite expensive especially for us. We didn't bring much money because we planned to travel in backpacker way. Forcefully we just ordered some beverages there. We canceled our lunch moment and chose to take some pictures there. Our hungry stomach didn't stop us enjoying the place. We never regret to visit this place. As Paul Theroux says, "Tourists don't know where they've been, Travelers don't know where they're going." I think we just applied that aphorism in this journey. Hehe.. 
















Friday, May 1, 2015

AOE: Yogyakarta Day 3, City of Yogya.

Hi, finally I got my mood back to write here after I struggled finishing my final thesis of my master degree, actually I'm still working on it and it's not finished yet hehe... It has been couple days since I posted my day 2 in Yogyakarta. So, here it is, my experience of day 3 in Yogyakarta.

Since I and my family have been to outside the city of Yogyakarta on day 1 and 2, we decided to try some culinaries inside the city. My gf once told me, "If you have a holiday in Yogyakarta, you MUST try The House of Raminten because it's quite cheap and has a traditional theme". She know that I used to blog an unique things everytime I travel to somewhere as I did in Yogyakarta. So, I asked my family to go to this traditional cafe since it is inside the city and not too far from our hotel. We used a rent-car on that day, so it just took several minutes to be there. Once we arrived at The House of Raminten, I personally sensed a different atmosphere, a viscous culture of Yogyakarta. Its rooms are decorated by traditional design. The waiters and waitresses wear traditional outfits. I also saw a paintings of Raminten, a lot of ornaments, and offerings (in Indonesia, it is called 'Sesajen').

The House of Raminten
Inside The House of Raminten
How about the foods? We intentionally ordered different kind of dishes, so we could try many unique dishes in one visit. We ordered extra big 'bubur ayam' (chicken porridge), 'es krim goreng' (fried ice cream), 'es krim bakar' (roasted ice cream), and 'ayam koteka' (koteka chicken). [For you who don't know about Koteka, It is a male traditional outfit from Papua. It is usually used to cover their genitals.] That cafe put the name of the outfit on the food. That's ridiculous.

Koteka Chicken
Fried Ice Cream
Roasted Ice Cream
Extra Big Chicken Porridge
A lot of cafes usually just concern about their profit. That kind of concern mostly affects their quality of products and services. Because of that, customers are not satisfied later and they might not come to those cafes anymore. That situation doesn't occur at The House of Raminten. Good taste and great portion don't affect the price of the foods. It is quite cheap for quality like that. I was impressed by the cafe.

Last day in Yogyakarta made us want to buy some gifts. As usual, if anyone visit Yogyakarta, they must be buying bakpia or wingko as a gift. So do I. Green tea flavor bakpia was my choice. I bought it because that was my first time to try that super delicious bakpia.

Green tea flavor bakpia
If bakpia and wingko have become Yogya's first must-buy gift, Monggo chocolate shows its fang to enter the competition haha.. Monggo chocolate is not just an ordinary chocolate. There are some flavors that complete its collection of products such as Durian, Mango, Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Strawberry, Red Chili, Pala, Rendang (Indonesian's most famous food usually made by beef), etc. It is unique, isn't it?

The collection of Monngo Chocolate products
My Red Chilli and Rendang flavor of Monggo Chocolate
Tourist who has been to Yogya must be known about Malioboro street. Some people said if you want to buy something like clothes, foods, and gifts at the certain level of low price, just go to Malioboro street. We can see a lot of merchants around Malioboro street.That's why if you go there, you can see a crowd and also a bunch of people bargaining. But for me, instead of bargain something randomly at random merchants, I prefer to buy something I definitely wanna buy at merchant that I and my family used to buy. I bought some packs of pecel, a kilos of cashew nut, and a kilos of sweet emping at Beringharjo traditional market. This traditional market is one of the most famous place in Malioboro street. I and my family personally believe that merchants inside this traditional market are more believable than outside the market. It is worth it to be listed on your must-visit list.

Elephant statues with gravities near Malioboro street
Malioboro street
Pecel and friends haha
Inside Beringharjo traditional market
My favorite cashew nut
I didn't expect something new from this trip because I've been there for a couple times. So, after we finished buying gifts, our next plan was wait for the train which was 5 hours ahead. At the same time, my friend from Yogyakarta texted and asked me to join her session of broadcasting at KR Radio. So, I gladly join her. Her session is about Kpop and fortunately I have a little bit knowledge about it. That was a pretty good experience for me.

Me and Aiu at KR Radio Yogyakarta
In this trip, I didn't let my passion of traveling push me so hard like when I was in India because this was a family holiday. So, I had to think about the others who maybe doesn't like to do my way. On the other side, I had to think about my parents stamina who aren't young anymore. But after all 3 amazing days that we've been through, I definitely want to thank God for giving me this unexpected experience from offroading around mount Merapi until joining my friend broadcasting. Alhamdulillah!

See ya !