VISIT INDONESIA: Independence Day Specials!

August is popular with celebrating independence day. I don’t know why there are few countries that celebrate their independence day in August. Few examples are Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland. Indonesia also celebrate their independence day on August. For some people who knows the struggle of being ruled by other party, Indonesia’s history can be a painful one. Getting our independence has shred blood, tears, and sweats (like BTS’s song) of our founders and heroes. That's why on this year’s Independence Day, I tried to make a special edition content. I visited historical places regarding the independence day in Jakarta. You can checked the footage of my friends and I visiting Proclamator Monument (Tugu Proklamasi) and National Monument (MONAS).

I had so much fun visiting those places. My OOTD that day was also matching with our country’s flag, red and white. I made “Kemerdekaan Fun Fact” o my video, hope it help the viewers to know a little bit of our history and how smart is our first President. On this blog post, I’m going to write more about the behind the scene of this travel diary. So, watch my video to know what I’m talking about.

Actually, my friends and I went to those places last year. I treated them a buffet lunch as my birthday celebration last year. Since, we are bored with our usual hanging out activities, I suggest them to visit those places. Even though they live in Jakarta, they never went to Monas. I’ve been to Monas for several time, but I’ve never been to Taman Proklamasi. This idea came from an article I saw from an inflight magazine when I went to Jogja last year.

Since we have lunch in Grand Indonesia Mall, going to those places are not far. After lunch, we went to Taman Proklamator first. The park is located on Jalan Proklamasi no.56. It used to be Jalan Pegangsaan Timur no.56, where Soekarno lived before. They demolished his house and made it into this park. Use Google Maps to find this place. I’m not good in giving direction with public transport in Indonesia.

 

Mr. Soekarno, Indonesia first President

Mr. Mohamad Hatta, Indonesia first Vice President

Waited for some time to get this group photo

This will happened if you don't have your monopod

There weren’t a lot of people coming here because this place is less popular than Monas. But, it’s nice since we can take lots of photos without any photo-bomb and look too touristy. The downside is, when we want to take a group photo, we took a long time to ask people passing by to take picture for us. The best time to visit this park is in the morning or around 4PM. We stayed for 40 minutes. There weren’t much to do there beside sightseeing or just to sat down for relaxation. Maybe, you should bring monopod to help you take a group photo if you came here.

#shotwithiphone

Then we drove for 15-20 minutes to Monas from Taman Proklmator. Monas is the icon of Indonesia, specifically Jakarta. Soekarno himself initiated the construction of this icon. This monument is located strategically, in the heart of Jakarta. You can see it from the south, east, west, and north side. Soekarno himself intentionally build Monas on that specific location, because it is near the Istana Merdeka (President’s palace) and other government offices. So, if you go to Monas, you can also visit other attractions such as, National Museum, Cathedral, Istiqlal Mosque, Pasar Baru, Lapangan Banteng, Radio Republik Indonesia (the first radio in Indonesia, also the one who spread the Independence news to the whole world!), Gambir Station, several shopping malls in Jakarta, and much more. You can search the surrounding of Monas on Google Maps.

Oh, there is also double-deck bus for sightseeing! AND IT IS FREE! More info about the route can be seen from here.

Since I’ve been to Monas few times, it isn’t a new thing for me. But it is for my friends. Monas was under renovation for few months before I came here last year. Because this year, there was an event for Countdown to Asian Games 2018 held on Monas on the 18th of August. That’s why they did some renovation. The one you saw on my video was so much better than before the renovation. Stalls and food court are placed nicely BEFORE entering the Monas area. The area is quite big, so if you want to go to the monument, you should take the shuttle train provided. Well, if you want, you can walk, but I’m not sure you will do that because it is quite far and hot. No matter what time you go there, it will be always HOT.

our kind of group photo, girls vs boys

If you want to go to the inside of the monument, where there is museum underground and you can go to the top of it, you need to pay IDR 27,500 (adults) and IDR 13,500 (kids). These price is a total price if you want to go up to the top. If not, you only need to pay 20,000 for adults or 10,000 for kids. The underground museum have air conditioner installed, so you will not feel too hot. But, on the second floor, where you can hear the proclamation speech of Soekarno, there doesn't have air conditioner. The area is also smaller than the underground museum.

Inside the museum, you can see around 51 dioramas (a 3D display). Each diorama tells a different story but all of it are connected. From the beginning of human evolution till Indonesia’s development. You can see how painful Indonesia’s struggle to get independence.

After strolling around the museum, we went upstairs to go to the “Ruang Kemerdekaan”. There, you can hear Soekarno’s voice recording when he read the proclamation speech. Fyi, the space does not have AC, so you won't stay long there. The recording plays every hour from 9am to 5pm. When I went there, it was around 7pm, so there is no recording. We just went through the room.

At the time we are waiting for the lift to the cone, it was almost raining. At the time we are at the top, it was raining heavily. We couldn’t enjoy the skyline of Jakarta, because it was too crowded and rainy. We went down after few minutes. We waited for an hour before we decided to go back. The rain doesn’t stop for few hours. Andddd my friend just bought his new shoes, so he doesn’t want it gets wet. We waited until the rain is less heavy. We waited for the train shuttle and then suddenly the heavy rain pour down again. Entering the train was also a struggle, we have to fight with other people who wants to ride the train ASAP. My friends and I were separated. Then after we arrived, we faced another problem. We couldn’t see the floor. It was flooding around an ankle-high. In the end, my friends have to remove their shoes. LOL. We ran to the food court to wash our hands, but the water was so dirty. So we ran to the car, use a lot of tissue and wet tissue to clean ourselves and our shoes. It was a roller coaster ending of our day trip. We finished our trip with a good McDonald meal to save our stomach.

Do bring monopod and have fun!

Nevertheless, it was one of the best day trip I’ve done, because I can share the insights of Independence Day with my friends. Also, we tried to get rid the habit of spending money to the mall or watching movie. Let’s try to appreciate the small little things that are big in value, like visiting historical places near you. Get to know your country history and feel proud about it. I hope you enjoyed my Travel Diary and behind the scene of it. Have a nice day, all!

VISIT INDONESIA: One Day Trip to Ocean Dream Samudra

Hello all! I’m sorry for MIA for a quite sometime, but I’ve been so busy with school lately. But now, my 3-weeks holiday have just started. So, I’ll be posting some post that I’ve postponed (somehow its rhyming, lol).

So, last May (yes it’s been a longggg time) I went to Ocean Dream Samudra in Ancol. Actually, this place was called Gelanggang Samudra, but they changed their name since…. I don’t know. This place is meant for animal shows. There are Dolphins, Honey Bear, Beaver, Birds, Monkeys, etc. Well, for some of you who never been to Jakarta before, Ancol is a recreation place in Jakarta. It has the same concept with Sentosa Island, Singapore; Genting, Malaysia, etc. In this area, there are few attractions you can visit such as, Dufan, it is a theme park in Jakarta; Sea World, a big aquarium; Atlantis, waterpark; Sea, beach clubs; and lastly Ocean Dream Samudra.

Inside, you can watch several animal performances, few rides, mini garden, 4D theater and action performances. But, the main highlight is the animal performances. They have schedule for each shows, shown below. If you want to go here, better check their schedule so you can watch every performances. The tickets to enter here is 95,000 rupiah on weekdays and 160,000 rupiah on weekends. More ticket prices info you can find it here. Well, for what kind of performances they shown can be seen on my travel diary video on YouTube, which you can find it here.

Despite the “cleverness” of each animal that entertained us, it has some negative sides. The reason I create this post and video is to create awareness. Actually, I’m not an animal lover. I’m not fond with animals, even the one categorized as pets. But, I care about this earth, and animals are one component in the ecosystem we lived inside. These types of performance have several dilemmas. First, the animals didn’t live in their real environment. Places like this, create an environment similar with their environment using some man-made components. Their meals are also given, so they couldn’t find their own food. It will affect their food-hunting and survivor skills, also their diets. I’m also not fully assured that they are taken care properly or not.

But on the other side, children these days can get away from electronic devices and connect with the animals they saw from books or videos in real life. Not only for entertaining, but it create education in a fun ways.

Well, I’m still not sure which side should I take, but lets not making it worse. Hopefully, the companies who have the same business as Ocean Dream Samudra, have a good consideration on managing it. Not thinking for the profit, but also the animals. We, as the viewer also need to be considerate. Don’t litter the place; don’t give any foods to the animals without permission or giving strange food. Just enjoy the show. If you are capable, you can travel to their real habitat and interact with them directly.

Thank you so much for reading this blog post. Hopefully, you are aware and care about the animals wherever you live. Have a nice day!

BEAUTY: Body & Bath Works Haul!

HELLO!!
 

Today I'm going to talk about my latest hauls which happened around 2 months ago. I'm sorry I've been very busy for few months and I didn't have the excitement to write on the blog. But now, I'm back on track! I hope I can write regularly this time. I have something big to tell you!!! Wait for the next post! OKAY?? :D
 

Let's jump to the main topic! So, few months ago I went to Grand Indonesia Mall and when I was heading to Zara store, I saw this bright, big, eye-catching shop, and it was actually Body & Bath Works!! I never knew they had opened in Jakarta! When I asked the sales, they said they had opened for almost a year in Jakarta. They opened at the malls that I rarely visit, so I never knew. 

So, when I visit the shop they have a special promo which are buy 3 get 1 free for body wash and body lotion. Since my aunt gave me Body & Bath works body wash, I wanted to buy another one. But since they didn't open their store, I have to ask my friend who live in USA to buy it for me. But thankfully, they have opened their shop here! So, unhesitatingly I choose 3 body wash and 1 body lotiion for free. I choose: Japanese Cherry Blossom (both shower gel and body lotion), Paris Amour, and Beautiful Day. 

I really wanted to repurchase the one my aunt bought for me, but I forgot the name and also they changed the packaging which makes me confused. Anyways, I really love all the scent I choose and I got excited to try it soon! :D

I also bought the hand sanitizer and I bought 4! LOL. They also have a promo for the sanitizer. But unfortunately, they do not have a lot variety of scents. So I chose 3 of it and I bought 2 pcs for 1 scent. I choose: Sweet Pea, Mad At You (2 pcs), and Aqua Blossom. Both of my shower gel and hand sanitizer has the same range of scent. It is refreshing and very bloom-spring kind a scent. I was really excited to try it out as soon as my regular hand sanitizer finished. 

Well, that's all I'm going to tell you. If you like Body & Bath Works products, which one is your favorite? And what do you recommend? Let me know in the comment! 

Thank you!! 

See you soon

 

xoxo,

 

VISIT INDONESIA: Instagramable Jakarta

HI!  

So, this is might my last post for a while, but I hope I can post up much more posts. After all, thank you for reading my nonsense blog! I will work hard to make this blog better and better than before. :)

Okay! Let's get into the post. This post is quite interesting for you who like photography. Last week, I went to one of the unveiled museum in Jakarta. Well, it is not a historical museum type, it is more like contemporary, modern museum. My partner was inspired to come here from a music video of an Indonesian vocal group, GAC. Well, you might see the music video here. Btw, their voices are amazing! Check them out!

Alright! The place itself named Art:1 New Museum, located at Jl. Rajawali Selatan Raya No. 3, Jakarta Pusat, Special Capital Region of Jakarta 10720. It is near JIEXPO, Kemayoran. It is not only a museum, but also a gallery. Last time, I only got to visit the gallery. The gallery it self was fantastic! It displayed many talented Indonesian young artists. I belief they are still young (since they don't write any bio-data of the artists). Here, you can also buy the artwork. They are amazing, but I could not afford it though. LOL. Here is some of the artworks:

Most attractive and the detail was impressing!

My favorite artwork

The main reason we came here were we want to have a good instagram picture. LOL. Instagram nowadays became a competitive social media. People strive to post a really great pictures slash photography skills. Since, we watch the review of the music video that praise a lot the shooting location, we would like to come there. So, here are our few instagram picts:

 

Well, that's all what I wanted to tell and show you. Hope you enjoyed it! It is free to look around the gallery, so you may explore your photography skills as long as you like! It is still a hidden space, so not many people came here. I really love it here! I would like to see the museum soon!! 

So, untill my next holiday, I'll see you guys soon! 
Goodbye for now. :)

XOXO,

Hangout Places in Jakarta: SumoBoo

Hello!

Finally, got the time and the place to introduced and reviewed. Since, it's holiday time, I got the chances to try some 'trendy' hangout places in Jakarta.
So, here it is my review about Sumoboo in Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK), Jakarta. 

This place has opened since a few months ago, but I just got a chance to visit it now. Usually, they are full packed with people. They could make the guests to queue for 2 hours. Yeah, it's crazy, I know. That is the reason why I wanted to try this dessert shop. Is that really nice? Why its always full packed? Finally, I went there yesterday with my uncle, brother, and cousins to find out the answer. Oh! Actually, they opened 4 branches, but it also full packed with people. (btw, I make the review only for the PIK branch)

Sumoboo is a dessert shop located in Pantai Indah Kapuk or known as PIK, or Taman Anggrek Mall, or Kota Kasablanka Mall or Ruko Sunter. The concept of this dessert shop is Japanese style dessert shop. It can be seen from the name (Sumo, the Japanese wrestler, usually they are very big), the menu, and the interior. While, actually many dessert shops came from Taiwan. Well, I don't know which one it take the concept, but it was quite nice. 

For anyone living in Jakarta and often go to PIK, you might find this shop easily. The shop having a catchy exterior, which are logs of tree and yellow painting, and glasses. For people outside Jakarta or outside Indonesia, you could enter this address into your GPS:

Rukan Crown Gold Blok D No.17
Bukit Gold Mediterania – PIK (Pantai Indah Kapuk)
Jakarta Utara

Menus

They are famous with their shaved ice shaped in bear face and nutella bomb. So, we decided to bought that. In addition, we also ordered the tori popcorn. Here are the pictures of each dessert and food we ordered:

1. Boo! Kakigori

This is what makes Sumoboo famous and known widely! Kakigori means shaved ice. While, Boo is the name of the bear, I guess. Anw, this bear shaped shaved ice cost for IDR 30K. It was quite pricey, since the normal shaved ice with fruits and some stuffing cost around that price (read: Pat-bingsoo, Korean Shaved Ice). The inside of this shaved ice is ice, pudding, flavored syrup, and ice cream. Voila! It became this bear shaved ice! My little cousin, she is 8 years old, said to me: "It was easy ya to make this. Only shaved ice, shape it to make like a bear face, put an ice cream, and cut out strawberry to make ears, and use milo balls for the eyes and nose". Yes, Vianney it was easy, but we should appreciate that they have to make it for hundreds of people everyday. 

2. Nutella Bomb Kakigori

For this type of Kakigori, it has nutella filling mochi (rice cake) with Milo powder, and ice shaved. It was so simple, but I liked it! The richness of the chocolate taste, was great. But, it was so simple, that I might ask my maid to replicate it. My mom sells mochi, so it was easy to made the nutella bomb. Hehehe. 

3. Tori Popcorn

Tori Popcorn is type of snacks, made from chicken. It is a mini cutlet chicken. urgh, I don't know how to explain it, so here's the picture. Please interpret it by yourself. (sorry for the foodgasm vocabulary shortage!). Anw, this snack taste gooood! I likeedd it! The spices used are adequate, so the taste is not blunt, even we ordered the non-spicy one. We ordered 4 portions! 3 non-spicy and 1 spicy. The spicy one was crazily spicy!! I could not eat it, without drinking tons of water or the dessert. I'm not the type of person who is spicy-mania nor I can't eat spicy. I do eat spicy, especially in Korean Food, but other than that, I don't really eat it. 

Rate

I will gave this 3.5 stars out of 5. Why? Because, it was not that special. I don't get it why people queue for that period of time. And the price was quite over-price. But I do like, the plating and the atmosphere.

That's all the review of this dessert shop. 

Thanks for reading!

See you on the next post.

Hangout Place in Jakarta: Collete & Lola

Hi there! I'm back this time with a post about hangout place in Jakarta.
I believe there are a lot readers who live outside Jakarta. Even me. I live outside Jakarta.
So, I presented this post for all of you who want to spent your holiday in Jakarta. :D
Enjoy!

Recently, I went to Senayan City to watch Despicable Me 2 with my seniors. After we watch, we want to go to Senopati. Senopati is located near Senayan. It has a lot of Korean Restaurants, cafes, and a lot of hangout places. So, I said to my seniors how if we try to go to Collete & Lola. It's a new cakes shop in Senopati. I knew this place from my friends on instagram.

Arrived at Jalan Senopati Raya no. 64, we saw a bright writting of Collete & Lola. It was so eye-catching. We parked our car via valet service because it was too crowded. They only have a little space of parking. :( Then, we enter the cake shop. But, we have to wait. Inside was insanely full! I thought it because of the restaurant above the shop that have a lot of customers, so the parking was full. But, Collete & Lola had a lot of visitors! like... A LOT!!! 

While waiting, we got to take pictures. B-) After waiting like 10 minutes, we finally got to enter the shop. It was a joy for me to be able enter the shop. The shop is SUPER DUPER MEGA CUTE! I love cute stuffs, as u guys know. It has a colorful walls, cute stuffs, cute box, cute CAKES!! It was quite crowded, but it still an excitement for me.

We order a Panda Cake, they called it "Call Me Panda" cake. It is a chocolate cake with a biscuit on the bottom of the cake. And of course they have Panda face on it. It taste gooodd! :9 Well, I am a chocolate lover. :3 This is the cake I love. I wanna try out other chocolate cake of them, but it might make me too full (because, we still going to have dinner! :p). 

Also, we order another cake, but I don't know the name. It taste like a cheesecake, but it's not. :| and I don't really like this cake. It not sweet, so I don't like. It doesn't mean it was bad. We all have different favorite taste, right?

Beside cakes, we order teas! :D It cost 28.000 rupiah for one teapot of TWG tea. :D I ordered Carmel Creme Tea. It taste quite weird. But it still a perfect partner with my choco cake!

I also take away some macaroons! It cost 10.000 rupiah per piece. They have a promo to buy 5 get 1 free! :D I want to take away macaroons, because I want the box. But, they give me a paper bag instead. huhu. Quite disappointed. :(

Spend one or two hours there with taking photos and chit chat. The place is quite comfy for chatting. But it feel like we have to get up early from our seat because they still have a long waiting list guest. They should expand their shop. They only get one floor shop with not much space for people. They already used up their spaces for their display.

This bakery and cake shop is one of Ismaya Group's cafe. They usually sell a quite pricey desserts, but I think this shop sells a reasonable price. They served a good size of cake. So, people don't feel sick (enek). This shop has the best interior design of any bakery & cake shop in Jakarta! I don't feel like wanna go home. Hahaha.

So, readers, if you wanna come here, you may find it at Jalan Senopati Raya no. 64. (under Yeyo Restaurant, Across Hanyang Garden). Their food and drinks prices are about 10k above. ;) It's quite affordable, right?

My rating for this shop is 4 stars out of 5!

To see more info, you may go to their facebook page or website. :D

XOXO,
Jennifer