Kebun Ide: Hope to have more like this

Living in a city like Jakarta, makes me craving for greeny ambience all the time. Not to mention a privilege of being outdoors with fresh air. Well, at least it is for me.

When I had a chance, either weekend or when in a short holiday, is a must for me to find this greeny ambience. Unfortunately, sometimes I was not that lucky, though. 

One Sunday, after seeing a post on Instagram, I asked my husband to take me to this place, Kebun Ide. Located in one of my favorite neighborhood, Bintaro area. Precisely, it has the same entrance when you go to Lot 9, but it is located in the far back. When I went there, no signage at front like Lot 9, which made us not sure enough that it was the right direction.

Arriving to the place, I was so happy!. A simple greenery view that I always look for to see, well at least during the weekend. Yeayyy…!!!

This outdoor space offers some activities that you could do.

You could simply sit down in one of seating areas, or you could sit on one of the circle mat provided on the grass area in the middle. This place will suit more for you who would like to bring your kids. The grass field is wide enough to have your kids running around, playing bubble gun or bubble blow, flying a kite, play mini soccer or simply throw and catch the ball.

What to eat and drink? Well, their main course is Gelato. They offer the regular flavor (dark chocolate is always my favorite), but also some unique flavor like pakcoy and sakura. My fave here so far are the coffee and chocolate ones. 

Aside of the Gelato, they also offer some quick bites and coffee drinks.

One unique findings about the place is that you will not find any ashtray on the tables, instead you will have a water plant in the pot. Really appreciate if you could be in the outdoor and smoke free. Good also for your kids, right?

At the back area, they have hydroponic house. Hopefully soon they will sell veggies as well. 

This place is also available for your private event and sometimes they have some classes open that you could join, ex. How to make gelato, ukulele class, design class, etc.

Looking good so far, right?  

They used to open starting 1PM, but now they also open in the morning, starts 8AM. Look forward to come back here in the morning with more fresh air, after morning weekend jog or bike time. Or maybe a morning for myself, in the greenery space with good coffee and some writing? It would be a good morning kick off being in this greenery outdoor-smoke-free space. 

Never been here in the evening or at night. Hopefully not get accompanied by mosquitoes.

Thank you Kebun Ide. Hope to have more places like this in the neighborhood. 

If you happen to know more places like this, thanks to drop me a message and share. See you, around….

R Rancamaya, a mindful gateway

This hotel had been on the list for a while, finally we made it to stay here. Thanks to online travel promotion 🙂 

Before going here, we had set some expectations that we were about to get “trapped” in the hotel, because we found no nearby attractions or places to go in the neighborhood. Unexpectedly, it was enough for us. 

Arriving early at the hotel, we checked in and asked for mountain view room, but they only have twin bed rooms. Surprisingly, they upgraded our bedroom to super deluxe double bed since it was our first time visit to the hotel. How the holiday started well.

While waiting for our room ready, we walked around the hotel near the dining area in the lower floor and soon found us surrounded by wide open greenery area with a view. Hm, can’t wait to have more walking in the morning exploring around.

Arriving at the room, it was bigger than we expected and had mountain view as we requested. Looking down, my favorite view, the swimming pool with greenery view. 

Sunset after the rain

However, the room furniture was not as I expected, but having the bed direction toward the mountain, it was not a big deal at the end. Waking up in the morning with super wide glass window with the mountain view, really paid off. 

Overall, our stay was delightful and enjoyable. Here are the top reasons:

• Recommended for staycation where you really want to get rest. Hotel facilities and ambience will be enough fulfilling your needs during the stay.
• We enjoyed our morning walk exploring the hotel and found many activities that guests could do here, especially if you bring your kids; entertaining playgrounds, ATV ride, deer park, pony ride, rabbit houses.

• Wide long pool with great surrounding ambience and the mountain view afar. Will be great if they have double bed room with pool access as well.

• The mountain view from the room with wide glass window was great, We enjoyed the view while having some hot drinks on the bed and got comfy. 
• Good breakfast at The Pavilion; not extra delicious, but well enough for us. The dinner we had in one of the restaurants (@ De Yard) was also satisfying. The price was still friendly for hotel dinner and the food taste was not disappointing. 

Considering this hotel for staycation with your family (with kids)? Here are some suggestions to maximize your stay in the hotel and the short holiday.

• Leave Jakarta early in the morning and arrive at the hotel early. Checked in and while waiting for your room ready, take your kid to enjoy the playground: deer park, pony ride, rabbit houses, or simply have them running around in the wide open grass area.

• When it’s nearly lunch time, have lunch at one of the restaurants. As mentioned above, @ De Yard offers friendly price. Take your time for lunch and enjoy the ambience. If your room still not ready yet, you could take your kids to the indoor kids area as well.
• When your room is ready, get rest and tuck your kids for afternoon nap and they could enjoy the pool in the evening. Continued with dinner in the hotel.
• In the morning, depends on what time your kids awake. You could bring your kids for a morning walk in the hotel area and revisit the playground after or before breakfast. 
• Before check out, the kids could enjoy the pool again and you could continue to have lunch to Bogor before heading back to Jakarta.

Sound good, already? Well, I hope this will help you plan your next family staycation.

Happy holiday!

As Easy As ABC day in Bali

Going to Bali, surely you will not want to miss the beach, right? This time, I enjoyed the beach quite differently than before. It was my first time spending a day at the beach club.

The destination was ABC, Artotel Beach Club in Sanur. They were opened for few months when we went there.

It took almost an hour to reach it from Seminyak area, that we could took a nap for sometime in the car. Not bad, after the big brunch we had earlier 🙂

We had a cloudy weather all afternoon there, but I still get entertained with the beach club ambiance and the soft breeze by the beach. Would be good that you have a reservation before coming here and you could secure one of the lazy chair or daybed closest to the beach. Well, sometimes, all you need from a holiday is lazy-ing, especially when you have the beach in front of you.

At ABC, you could also enjoy swimming in its awesome lagoon pool in the center of the area. Kids love it! Be prepare, it will take back and forth asking them come out of the pool.

Not just the awesome pool, there is also other center of attraction; 2 floors bamboo building next to the pool. You could enjoy your food and drinks with the pool view or the beach afar. Bamboo and white/grey dominated the beach club ambiance in general, gave modern look yet close to the nature.

For me, the daybed was simply what I needed there. Reading a book and enjoying the accompany of your friends/family were all good. It could fit 4 -5 adults.

Not to forget, having some bites and drinks are a must in a holiday. To enjoy the daybed, there was minimum spending amount for the food and drinks, which I think it applies at most of beach club.

At ABC, it was all worth it: good food, good ambiance, though we missed the blue sky; maybe on next visit.

BEAU (by Talita Setyadi), where good things happen

Good place, good food.

It is actually as is, if you asked me  about this place.

Located at one of my favorite neighborhood in South Jakarta, where the street is doomed with great dine places, from simple to fancy one, from Asian to Western, this was also become the BLD destination.

If you go by car, you might have chance to miss this place if you don’t slow down. I would suggest to come here by taxi. The parking lot is very limited and if you park nearby, the street is already crowded with busy vehicles passing by.

Once I arrived, I had good feeling that I would love this place: it is white, there are many plants indoor + outdoor and wooden tables + chairs. It already scores one for me.

Inside, the place is not big, but offers homey and bright ambiance. Of course, lunch time is not suggested, if you want to relax and speak quietly with your friends. Still, you will get entertained by the smell of the freshly baked pastries. Happy!

So, what to order?

The food hardly fails me here. Compared to my first visit on its first months opened, they have much more to offer in the list. Definitely not to miss: the bread and the pastries, as they claimed as Artisan Bakery.

If you happen to be here already, I would love to hear your favorite meal to order. Gonna try it myself on my next visit.

BEAU by Talita Setyadi – Cikajang | Jl. Cikajang No.29, Petogogan, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan |(021) 27517454

Christmas Time in Singapore

At least for once, I always wanted to see some Christmas ambience outside Indonesia.

Finally, this manifestation came true. We went to Singapore for our first Christmas trip.

Here are some Christmas excitement we had there:

Harry Potter Wonderland at Changi Airport

After Hello Kitty in the previous year, this time Changi presented the Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley & Hogsmeade Village at Terminal 3 Departure Hall. As Harry Potter fan, knowing this I was so excited! What a good timing! Well, it was not as in London or in Osaka, but still it excited me already.

I did not spend time at Diagon Alley, since you have to register and to reserve a time slot before entering the area. We could participate in some exciting activities here, but you need to post 3 photos of the event on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #ChangiWizardingWorld. Show them to the staff with your free iChangi app, then you could enter the area and join the activities.

They had some activities that you could join: Robes Fitting and Wand Challenge,Quaffle Toss and Niffler Challenge Game. Limited number of people could try the games at any one time. We would have a digital queue numbers for all activities with an SMS alert when it was your turn.

At The Hogsmeade Village, it was an open space area, where you could visiting the “shops” and see the Hogwart’s train. There was one cool show here that we had a chance to see before we departed back to Jakarta: the magical snow. Quite short, but still it was cool to see and imagine how it was like to have snow actually in the village.

Christmas Wonderland at Garden by the Bay

For the fifth time, Christmas Wonderland at Gardens by the Bay was back with its European-style Christmas extravaganza (30 Nov to 26 Dec).

It was a bit cloudy with chilled wind after the rain when we arrived there. The excitement started when we heard the Christmas music played as we enter the festival area. Turned out it was the Blizzard time already; where we could have the “snow”, which actually was like shower of foam, but still fun experience though.

The center point of this area was the magnificent Luminarie Mirror Maze light sculptures, handmade by Italian craftsmen using white wood from the south of Italy. It took at least 30 days for the installation! If you get closer to it, it was so mesmerizing and how tiny we were.

Surrounding this fascinating architecture, was the festive market, with many attractive stalls of food and beverages, from lime juice to beer, from waffle to meatballs. Bought some of it and enjoy having it in the Rhapsody Garden while waiting for the show.

I knew that on December, the Supergroove Tree usually perform with Christmas songs. I always wondered how cool it should be enjoying Christmas songs in the open air with attractive multi-coloured illuminations. Well, overall the lighting was spectacular, but I hoped the songs were played with more upbeat and the tempo was also quite slow for me.

Orchard Road Disney Christmas Light Up

This year Orchard was dominated with blue and pink lights from Disney characters; stretching from Tanglin Mall to Scotts Road and up to Plaza Singapura.

We went to the blue lights zone with Mickey Mouse and friends, while pink lights zone was having the Disney princess.

I grew up with Mickey Mouse and friends. Of course seeing this attraction along the road was thrilling for me. We could see some attractive sponsored installation with Mickey and friends along the way. People would line up to take photos at each of them. So, was I 🙂

It was not Orchard Road if it was not packed with people. It was still Thursday evening though.  I don’t think I could stand it if we went there on Friday night, as they said it would be more jammed.

Christmas Village at Ngee Ann City

The Christmas Village was the area in front of Ngee Ann City, where you could find the compact area with exciting activities: various amusement park rides, including The Great Carousel, food and beverages stalls (including wine and beer) and live performances stage.

When we were there, the live performance had not started yet, which made the place still quite spacious and kids were still able to run here and there or enjoying the rides.

Before we left, we found a Santa House in this village, another sponsored installation where we could take a photo there (helped by the staff) in the Christmas home area. Good coincidence to have a chance having family Christmas photo.

Vivo City

We did not come here at night, so the Christmas installation was not lit yet. Here are some that we saw in the open space area in front of the Food Republic.

There were still many Christmas attraction that we might not had chance to visit during our stay, but the experiences were already filled our hearts with Christmas joy.

Look forward for another Christmas holiday in other part of the world. Europe Christmas winter market, maybe? Amen.

10 Reasons Staying at Tijili Seminyak

Whenever I go for a vacation, choosing the place to stay is important for me. As on vacation, I would like also to get rest in comfortable place and wake up to something nice around. Sometimes, it would cost extra dime for this, but there were also times, where it came with good deal.

I had been having some places to stay in the list and this one, I think had been on the list for too long. Tijili, Seminyak, Bali.

Arriving at Tijili, I just could not stop to smile. Stepping in its lobby, I could not wait to get my camera and start clicking the shutter here and there. I got easily entertained with modern colorful look. Bright colors, but not shocking colors. Warm.

The hotel has two views of bedrooms to choose: street view or pool view with balcony.     I had the second one. The balcony was small, the pool view was just enough. At least, when you open the door, you could see below some blue of the pool.

Not the resort kind of hotel, but simply nice to stay.

 

 

Why Tijili, Seminyak?

1. It is not in the very heart of Seminyak, but still nearby. You could enjoy the Seminyak vibe, but far from the crowd and hustle bustle surroundings. It worked well for me, who does not into busy ambience.

2. No need to rent a car if you simply want to enjoy Seminyak area and surroundings. Online taxi would be enough at your service with affordable price. They also have a shuttle service to take you to the heart of Seminyak. But, please do check well the time table beforehand.

3. It offers beach towels that you could use when you go to the beach. Make sure that you keep well the towel and the towel card.

4. Not has direct access to the beach, but still in the walking distance area to enjoy Seminyak beach. A little sport before lying on the beach should be ok.

5. You can count on food online delivery. There are many good choices around and won’t keep you waiting too long for the food.

6. The room has simple and nice colorful interior. Comfy bed is included.

7. You could extend your room check out time when available, if you need to catch your flight in the evening. Some charges applied, but still worth to have the room for some rest and taking a bath before departing.

8. Swimming pool. Sounds standard, but definitely makes a different for me.

9. There are mini markets across the street to provide you with some snacks and drinks

10. Instagenic hotel, that would keep you busy taking photo here and there.

 

So happy to have this place checked on my place to stay wishlist and spent good time there.

Thank you, Tijili….

The beauty at Kim Soo Seminyak

If you would spend a day in Seminyak area in Bali, I would suggest you to come here. Kim Soo, where the homey cool stuff and coffee shop in one place.

I have been reading and seeing many who have come to this place.  They shared many instagenic photos, not only the place, but also the good stuff sold there. The more I see them, the more I want to go.

Finally, got a chance to stay in Seminyak on my last visit to Bali. I definitely put Kim Soo in the list to visit.

When I arrived at Kim Soo, all those instagenic photos I saw was there: good place, good vibe and good stuff in one place. Soon, it becomes one of my happy place; a therapy for my mood.

Kim Soo in Seminyak, actually old Dutch Colonial style building which had been renovated back in 2015. The interior and exterior have the touch of bohemian, classic and ethnic that mixed well into a “home”instead of a “shop”. The unique thing, it does not have a door. Instead it has the canvas blinds that they drop late each night and roll them up in the morning.

To enjoy the place and check out all the good stuff there, you would need at least 30 minutes to spend in the shop and extra time if you want to sit down and enjoy some drinks and cakes in the coffee shop.

Unfortunately, I had not had a chance to spend some time in the coffee shop. I mostly spent the time browsing the good stuff in the shop. Not to forget, taking pictures here and there. True, it was instagenic as it was seen. You cannot not taking photos when you are here.

I almost got a Rattan beach bag / tote bag for myself, but the size was too big for me. The quality and the price should not be regretted. Hopefully, they would make the smaller one. Would be nice to bring it to the beach.

Then I fell into a black simple rattan handbag that I could bring to a wedding. Good finding with reasonable price.

Looking forward to come back again and hopefully in the more friendly weather so we could enjoy the outdoor sitting area, hanging out with a cup of drink, cakes and probably a good book to read.

Hm, already curious of what will I get here from my next visit… 🙂