My Daily Day 2

while I’m recovering, I will let you enjoy all the pictures from the trip.

CLICK HERE. <-- Updated

Videos

• My uncle’s villa in ubud Bali
• Ubud to Denpasar Drive
• Sanur Beach
• Noisy Jakarta

So many things to share about our trip to Bali… first thing first… we’re in Taipei at the moment waiting for our next flight to LA at 11:55 pm (now it’s 9:14pm).  I used the public computer that has chinese characters and all the thing that I couldn’t read… funny keyboard!

anyhow our trip to Bali was awesome… short but awesome.. We took Air Asia to Bali.  AirAsia is the cheapest flight you can get from Jakarta to Bali… 2 people round trip cost us about $150 US dollar… yeap $75 dollars per person.  But they don’t serve food and no seating arrangement.  Just picture you ride a public transportation (CyRide Bus).  First come first serve.  But the flight was okay tho.. clean.. and nice.

When we got to Bali, my aunt’s mom employee already waiting for us with ‘Ms. Destri’ sign on his hand.  Awkward moment for a while since I got used to calling people by their first name now I was confused what’s the polite way to call him. So I started with Joi (his first name) and then Pak Joi (Indonesian title for sir) and ended up calling him Om Joi (Om is a term for uncle).  He brought us to eat at a local restaurant and then we went to the Kuta beach.  We played for a little bit and then off we go to Tanah Lot (it’s a very beatiful place with an awesome view) I will post all the pictures once I got back to Ames.

After that we went back to my uncle’s BEAUTIFUL Villa in Ubud.  So drop dead gorgeous, you have to see the pictures.  It has a private swimming pool and 3 bedroom and 3 bathroom.  We swam for a little bit and then we had dinner at ‘Bebek Bengil’ (dirty duck restaurant).  This restaurant is one of the best duck restaurants! even one of the top 10 chef from NY said that this place has the most awesome crispy duck (carson read the article and passed it on to me). The crispy duck cost about $6.30 but the restaurant view is gorgeous… very romantic.

Second day: we started with shopping at the art market in Ubud.  This is what I learn.. bringing a ‘bule’ (aka foreigner with blue eyes) cost a LOT in bali… when I started asking for price when the person saw me walking with Carson they opened the price as high as $25 bucks!! while the real price actually probably only $5 !!!! arghhh but Carson learned pretty quick… he started walking by himslef and he told me what he wants so I can bargain till I death!! huahauahuah so I got bunch of good stuffs.

Actually before that we ate ‘Suckle Pig BBQ’ (babi guling).  I didn’t really enjoy it since when we came they just brought the whole cooked pig. And I saw it head I can’t eat when I can see the pig’s head in front of me.  But seems like Carson really enjoy the food. heheheheheh

After the shopping we went to Waterbom (water park) in Denpasar Bali.. it was fun… except… Carson’s entree fee was $17 while my ticket price as a local is $10. Isn’t that crazy…..every where they have different price for local and foreigner.

After waterbom we walked around the Kuta area, we saw the memorial site for the first bombing in Bali.  Shopped more… For dinner… we went to Jimbaran to eat some seafood… this place is awesome… first we picked the fish and then we went to seat  near the beach.  Beautiful… and the food is AWESOME… we both agreed that probably this was the best seafood that we ever had in our entire life…. we had 2 red snapper fish, 2 crabs, and 1 portion of clams for $14 bucks!!!!

it was too good to be true! the next day we just visited the Sanur beach and went straight to the airport to come back to Jakarta.

Probably this blog is too long but I just have to share it with you….

Yesterday we went to my 98 yrs old granpa’s house… he’s still doing great… he lives in Sukabumi (3 hrs away from Jakarta).  It was a very tiring trip to sukabumi.  Went back to Jakarta and we had our last dinner at ‘Dapur Babah’ (Babah’s kitchen) with Mama, Om Robert, and Nina (his daughter).  It was a very interesting restaurant… the interior was so cool they adapted an old chinese house style with all old pictures, insences, candles, red walls, budha statue.. etc etc.

Alrighty I’m done yapping…. time t take my sleeping pills so I can sleep 10 hrs straight! huahauahuahauah

Ames, here we come!!!!

Hi, so the next 3 days we probably won’t be able to update our blog since tomorrow we’re leaving to Bali. I wish that I could have a hi-speed internet access so I can upload all the food pictures and mae everyone jealous hehehehheheheh.

Anyway, yesterday we dreadfully busy, so today we tried to sleep in a little bit. I woke up at 9am since my ‘helper’ (maid) woke me up and told me to call my mom. So I did that, she was going to invite me to have dim sum. So I told her how bout in 1 hr since I want to make sure carson has enough sleep.

We went to Samudra Rest. at the mall they have buffet + dim sum deal only for Rp. 79,000 (which is $8.60 per person). Let me explain what kind of buffet we’re talking about here. First you sat down and they will ask what do you want to order, she gave us 2 menus, one is the dim sum menu and the other one is the chinese menu. We ordered what we want as much as we like both the dim sum and variety of chinese foods.. they also have some appetizers and dessert carts so you can get those too. ALL of that only for $8.60 PER PERSON! wow! we ate alot!!! I think we ate for 1.5 hrs!!! hahahahah

After that my mom dropped us off to Plaza Indonesia, we want to see what’s EX is (Entertainment X’enter). It’s actually just a mall with a nice theater. The theater loby is look like a hotel lobby and the place is really nice for only Rp. 60,000 ($6.60). The seats are pretty big and cozy (not like Movie 12.. not even close!!!) so I decided to take a nap since I’m not really enjoying the movie.. I enjoyed the seat tho (picture will be uploaded later once we got back to Ames).

5:30pm we went home and relax a little bit, we had a wedding to go to.. it’s Leny’s wedding, she’s one of my best friends when I was in Junior High. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone at the party so I didn’t even think of going to the beauty salon and get my hair and make up done. But I was wrong!!!! I saw manyof my HS friends there too!!! arghhhhhh…. anyway at least they still recognize me and said hi :).

9:00pm Wedding in Indonesia is pretty short, usually the reception will be held from 7-9pm and by 8:45pm they will turn on all the lights so people will go home. We went home and changed to casual clothes. My mom called and asked us to hang out at Pisa Cafe she said that they have a live music over there. So we decided to join them (my mom, papi robert, nina, bram, and shally).

The cafe was so full with ABG (Anak Baru Gede or tennage kids), so annoying you can tell that they’re probably only in HS and they already smoke and drinks and dress up like a sluty #$%^@! aarghhhh the thing about jakarta.. there’s no age restriction for drinking and smoking. Even tho they do have it.. they don’t care if you have money you can get anything you want.

We stayed there until 11:50-ish pm. Now I need to pack and get ready for tomorrow.. Bali wooho!!! finally we have time for just the two of us. yippieeee……

I’ll update our blog 3 days from now ok… stay tune!!!

PS: So far carson opinion about Jakarta is… people in jakarta loves to eat.. eat… eat.. shop.. shop… shop… eat… eat.. eat… or he said … makan.. makan.. makan… mall … mall.. hahahahahh

Sorry.. we’ve been busy for these past few days. Okay.. start from yesterday.

Me & Icha went to Mangga dua again, and left carson at home for few hours. Probably he already sick o shopping for bags. Anyway we got 3 more bags, 2 for me hehehehhe.

Then after that me, cars, mom, om robert and nina (his daughter) went to Lippo Karawaci supermall. This mall has similar to what Mall of America has.. a theme par inside of the mall.. but smaller version. At the mall I found this cute store called sixt nine. It’s an awesome cheap cool clothing, 5 bucks per piece. The down side of this store is all of the clothing are all size and you only can try the bottoms, not tops. Oh well.. i got 3 pieces.

That’s it for yesterday.

This morning me & Carson went to Pulau Bidadari (Fairy Island). Pulau bidadari is one of the thousand islands above the Java sea. Our Photographer (Cedric Matric) picked us up with his car around 10am. We got to the marina by 11 and took off with the speed boat. It took about 17 minutes from Jakarta to Pulau Bidadari. It’s a really nice and beautiful island, and cheap.. it cost about 54 bucks/night including 3 meals to stay at the island. But we didn’t stay we came there just for photo shoot. There were at leasy 4 different wedding couples were there for only photo shoot only since they have beautiful spots. We ate lunch first (these all already in 1 package deal). We pay about 385 bucks for the photo shoot from 10am-5pm, transportation, food, make up and hair stylist. Awesome deal huh??!! the down side of this trip was it was so freakin HOT!!! I mean literally i can felt it that I covered in my own sweat. Even the mae up artist kept on telling me that my sweat size as big as a kernel of corn. And Carson pretty tired and sweating too since the first outfit was long white shirt and black pants while I was wearing my cute lil black dress that I ripped apart because I fell on the ground and steped on my dress. We were taking a picture at this cool fort, and I was going to jump down and I slipped and step on my dress. I’m okay tho.. not my dress, good thing my mom just bought me another cute lil black dress 2 days ago.

But after we changed to our second outfit we were good, the sun wasn’t as bad as before and we took pictures around the beach so we can soak our feet in the water. Anyway the whole experience was awesome… but I don’t thin I could be a photo model who has to do outdoor shots.. I really did has a short temper under the sun and it will be so easy to make me snap and mad at people. We went back to Jakarta around 6:17pm and went back to the house. Changed.. took a shower and then we went to dinner.

My best friend picked us up from my house and then we went to Restaurant Damai (my other best friend’s restaurant). I had Bihun bebek (rice noodle with duck) and carson had the combination rice with roast pork, red pork, and roast duck. Some of my HS friends came over too so we were kinda re-live our HS moment by looking thru some old pictures. I felt bad for carson since he just sat there not understand what we’re talking or laughing about. I did try to translate some of ‘em… but I guess Indonesian silliness and jokes are not as funny as I thought when I translated.

We went back home aroun 12:20am and we really need some rest now.. big day tomorrow!!! some of you might know what’s gonna happend tomorrow.. but some of you might not know… and I don’t think the whole world to know.. so.. if you know… ssh… just keep it quiet okay…. alrighty.. nite nite… 5 hrs sleep should be fine (maybe).

PS: I have a lot of pictures to upload but maybe later.. not tonight ok :).

Photos for today.

We went to Bogor this morning with my mom, we hunted more hand bags.. I got 2 for myself hahahaha. Bogor is only 1/2 - 1 hr away from Jakarta (if there’s no traffic jam). We managed to leave the place around 3 so we won’t be stuck in traffic.
Tajur is the place that we went, near the place there’s this large black monkey (see picture). And they have this pond with big fish! it’s ginormous!!! (see picture).
After that we went back to Taman Anggrek Mall, my mom needs to touch up her hair color and while she’s doing her business we went upstairs and had popeye’s chicken & seafood platter. I guess Carson already sick of Indonesian food, or at least he needed a break.

6:07pm, my mom done with her hair. We went home. Two of my very best friends will hang out with us. They picked us up around 9pm-ish. I miss ‘em so much!!! so we hung out till 12:20-ish am. We most likely will see them again tomorrow… fenny (the girl) her mom own a restaurant, so we will eat at her restaurant… yummm… bihun bebek (rice noodles with duck).

Today’s plan.. I will go to mangga dua again and hunt more stuff today.

Pictures for today blog 

What did we do today, oo we went to Mangga Dua ITC (cheap-o mall) hehehehhe me, cars, my mom and my aunt went there to find dresses. I got a cute black dress for like 20 bucks. Then we bought some souvenirs from here hahahhaha 2 bucks a piece stuff but looks cool tho.

Anyway we went shopping for hand bags… ok.. for those indonesian people.. they know what’s in Mangga Dua… this place is so famous for their fashion knockoffs heheheh cheap but looks so real. So we can still be in-style and not requiring a lot of money. Just boost up your self esteem and they will think you wear real stuff.

After all the shop we went to Bakmi GM (Gajah Mada Noodles) for lunch, so yummy!!! we will be back to Mangga dua on Wednesday with Icha… bad news… I lost my glasses I don’t know where I put it, I asked my maid and she doesn’t know either.

Next, we went to Taman Anggrek mall again.. this time only the two of us and I didn’t change my face. Got my first misscommunicationj with my mom. I got yelled at, but oh well.. I guess mother and daughter has their ups and downs.. She made me re-live my HS moment. I thought that our other driver will pick me up from the mall so once I’m done I called his cellphone and he supposed to come down from the parking lot. But I couldn’t reached my driver so I texted my mom and asked about him. Suddenly my mom yelled at me asking whether we want to go home or not. Anyhow we found out that I think she forgot to let my other driver know to pick us up from the mall. Everything is fine now… everybody happy :).

PS: we already got our airline tickets to Bali.. 2 people 2-way total $150 hahahhahaha so cheap… but they won’t assigned our seat so we have to fight to get our seat. Night night

Here’s the link from yesterday and the day before.  And yes the scarry girl is me hauhauah everyone was shocked when they saw me.

Even one of my cousins didn’t recognize me.  I walked up to him and just say hi and stand in front of him.  He was like “I do know you…. I really do… hold on.. I know your name… let me think” Even his mom (my aunt) thought that I was his friend… she didn’t even recognized me… it was fun!!!

I walked to the bride and groom, and I asked her do you know me, and she said No… hahahahahah so much fun!

Photos for today and yesterday blog 

We went to Bandung (2 hrs drive from Jakarta) with Melissa and her hubby Kingston. Melissa is one of my childhood bestfriends. They picked us up around 2-ish and off we go to Bandung.

Sept 22.

We arrived around 6-ish since there was a traffic jam (yeah… tell me about it.. everywhere.. trafic). We checked in at the Motel (Setia Budi Indah), quiet a decent place for only 39 bucks per night. After we relaxed a little bit we began our food journey. First, we went to ‘Kampung Daun’ (Leaf Village). It’s a gorgeous place and very romantic. Go to my kodak gallery page to see how beautiful is this place.. pretty nice landscaping and all candles and tiki torches everywhere… the food is awesome too! we ate grilled fish and more awesome food. We took bunch of pictures around that area.

After we finished eating at Kampung Daun, we went to ‘The Valley’, this place is like.. the ‘Cast Away’ restaurant in California, so you can see the whole city from up there. We had Zuppa Zuppa soup.. it’s awesome.. it has croissant bread on top and cream of mushroom and corn inside. SO YUMMY!!! then we took more pictures…

Done with ‘the Valley’ we went to eat Grilled Corn with 4 flavors… sweet, salty. spicy and sour. SO GOOD.. we ate at the bus stop where we just sat on a lil chair and we actually have a ‘private guitarist’ singing for us (aka pengamen) hahaha… street performance.. but I just think it’s funny since there we were 4 of us sitting and he just came in front of us and start singing :). WHile he’s singing for us, carson decided to play a little drum with the plastic chair. hehehehehehe

So that’s for yesterday, we went back to our motel and we just fell asleep right away.

Sept 23.

We woke up around 7-ish, couldn’t go to bed since there were too many noises… start with the prayer from the mosque aroun 5-ish, and then the rooster start cockle doodling for us, after that dogs barking continuosly!. Finally we woke up and we thought it was raiing outside but actually the people who works for the motel start washing all the guests’ cars. Isn’t that nice!!!

Let’s the food journey begin!!! we started with Rainbow Noodle (Yamen Noodles), really good! with fresh strawberry juice and strawbery yogurt. Next we started shopping, Bandung is so famous with their outlet store. We got some stuff for people back home.. branded coat only for 35 bucks! yeah… too bad the one that I wanted didn’t have the Medium size. by the way my size in Indonesia is way bigger… usually I can wear size 0 or 1 jeans in US now in Indonesia I wear Medium for top and Large for pants! huahauhauahuah isn’t that crazy!!!

Anyway we got good stuffs for people.. and for ourselves. We spent about 150 bucks tonight on shopping.. but 150 bucks here we got 15-ish items! hahahhaa 10 buck per piece average.

After done some shopping we went for Durian Ice Cream (es duren). Carson didn’t try it, he said it smells like feet. But the very first time he smelt it, he said that it smell like Iowa (aka hog’s and horses menur). hahahahhahahhaha.

Done shopping, we went to eat Lumpia Basah (not really sure how to translate lumpia basah.. anyone can help me here???)

Then we went to eat Batagor (Fried tofu with peanut sauce). Traditional Bandung food.

WOW so much food in 1 day..but icha (melissa) told me that that’s how it is when Jakarta people come to Bandung… food and shop!!

Alrighty,.. we need to relax for few minutes and then we’re going to eat with my mom.

PS: I will try to put caption on the photos.

So today this morning we woke up at 8-ish and I feel so restless… but we need to get up.. we went to this restaurant call Iton (pronounced as eaton). They served this dumplings that has soup inside the dumplings. They even have a manual instruction how to eat the dumpling, we picked the dunmpling using chopsticks and put it in a spoon. Then you have to bite a little bit and slurp the soup first. After that you eat the whole dumpling. Carson said it’s very good (enak he said).

Then we went to this nice real estate area near the beach (Pantai Mutiara). This is where all the rich people lives. It has nice houses when I said nice.. I think they’re even nicer than the Bel-Air houses. These houses more like beach houses.. it has a little lake on the back yard, so they park their yacht in their back yard. (Picture will be posted later).

Now we’re sitting at the Cafe Cartel, one of the cafes that has hot spot. And we found out that we can buy internet voucher that we can use at those cafes that hot spot and also can be use at home using dial up. SO YEY!!!! I’m so happy… feel so alive again!!!

anyhow… thanks for all my co-workers who send me back emails!!! I miss you guys so much!! I miss ‘I don’t wanna be here’ Sara and ‘ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh’ lisa… and ’singing/mummbling’ ryan… and everybody !!! miss u guys alot!!!

Okay now… pictures will be posted maybe sometime tomorrow night.

Photos for today blog

O m goodness… yes we’re home… and we’re using dial up.. so mostlikely picture will be only one or two from now… but we will try to update our blog as much as possible.

We had breakfast with Casey and michelle at the botanical garden, and then Casey dropped us off at the airport. First thing first… I tried to look for our flight on the departure board… but guess what??!! our flight wasn’t there. So I thought maybe Casey dropped us off at the wrong terminal. But nope… our flight got cancelled and we didn’t know!!!!! and I asked for our money back and they won’t give it to us.. they told me to go to the website. So I was so mad.. we went to the Grauda Indonesia counter ans asked when the next flight… it’s 12:20 and it was already 11:40am.

So we spent and extra 120/person for the airline tickets. And managed to get to the gate on time. *piuhh*

Arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport, and I couldn’t find any familiar face. We walked around a little bit and I found my mom.. *finally!!* and then I saw Om Robert. Off we go to lunch.. we took Carson to eat Curly noodles… the very famous curly noodle in Jakarta.

Since we don’t want carson fall asleep and get jet lag so we went to Carefour and bought some grocery. Then we got myself a cellphone number.

ooo ooo carson so excited about this one.. we found out that they have 90 in 1 game boy advanced game. So he’s so excited!!!! and it’s only $15/each !!! hahahahahah

Now we’re going to have dinner with Om Robert’s family…

PS: It’s hot and humid… and lotsa mosquitos.. and traffic jam!!! huu huuuuu