Pulau Tidung & Pulau Semak Daun

We brought you back some postcards from Pulau Seribu, or Thousand Islands - Jakarta ! Will knew  I've been craving for beach, so the idea to leave Jakarta on Saturday morning to Pulau 1000, taking the fast boat CitraJet, leaving every 8.30 am from the new harbour in Muara Angke,  only one hour and a half journey ( Rp 100.000 one way, not that expensive and pretty fast ) just perfect if you want to enjoy some sun, snorkeling or just chill, away from this big city and Monday-Friday routines. Feel free to check my previous blog post about Pulau Semak Daun Just Another Trip to Semak Daun Island, back in 2009 when we just graduated from high school. Happy to had a chance visiting the island again last week, we did a little photoshooting, made it to Pulang Tidung, Pulau Panggang, Pulau Pramuka and Pulau Semak Daun Island.

As CitraJet last stop was Tidung Island, we decided to check what's on the island. Tidung island is great if you want to do some water sports like banana boat, jetski etc, easy walk at the bridge, you can find lots of guest houses there so don't worry about accomodation, prices pretty cheap too starting from Rp 100.000 per night. But it's kind of difficult to rent a fisherman's boat to do island hopping so when we saw a fisherman going back to Pulau Panggang, I just jumped into the boat and the captain didn't mind to take us to Semak Daun Island. Bring back the good memories when Will, Bram, Riza, Andret and I went there...5 years ago. Nothing changed with the island, we went camping there and very happy waking up next to the quiet beach with a rainbow in the blue sky.

Jembatan Cinta "Pulau Tidung"

It was so good to sit at the fisherman's wooden boat in the middle of the ocean, I felt closer to the sky, the breeze and how warm the sun touched my face. Watching the sun rises and set definitely a magical moment I don't wanna miss from traveling.

Good morning Jakarta !

Muara Angke in the morning

CitraJet from Muara Angke to Tidung Island Rp 100.000 one way

I like the new harbour better than the old one. First, it seems safe for you to park your car there, more organized than the old harbor, they even put the boat schedule which if you miss the 8 am boat, you still can catch the 8.30 am and 11.00 am. Again, our weekend trip was very cheap, the fast boat always better and super convenient, happy to bring home some good photos for the blog.

CitraJet : Rp 100.000 / one way

Rent one fisherman's boat from Pulau Panggang to Semak Daun, then the next morning they will pick us up and drop to Pulau Pramuka where next you can catch a boat / CitraJet back to Jakarta at 12.00
Rp 150.000

Small tip for Semak Daun island's keeper Rp 50.000

Bring your own food or snack, or buy the meals from the local restaurant costs Rp 10.000 - Rp 30.000

Kota Tua & Segarra Beach Club

Exploring Kota Tua or Old Batavia, the heritage site located between North and West Jakarta - continue with cocktail and light snacking session at Segara Beach Club is actually a great idea for tourists coming to Jakarta for couple of days visit or local people that always wanted to do something different, relaxing and easy. This idea came up from my girl Rike, she was so bored of going to the malls and doing the same weekend routines,

     

wonder what else to do. Thousand island or Pulau 1000, Puncak, Bogor, Ujung Kulon, Bandung, Pangandaran beach are just few of getaway destinations you can visit in the weekend. But have you ever imagine how it will be so nice if only this city has one or two big parks where people can bring their family to chill and play, relax, read books and eat hot dogs on the grass ?

     Take busway from Blok M to Kota Tua, or drive all the way to Kota Tua, start your tour from Bank Indonesia museum, Bank Mandiri museum, Fatahillah square, Wayang museum, Toko Merah, Stasiun Jakarta Kota, the port of Sunda Kelapa, Maritime museum, fish market, lunch at Café Batavia, then drive to China town. I found it still nice to walk around the Fatahillah square, watching some happy faces  riding bicycle, local tour guides and tourists, some pretty girls dressed up very nice posing against the old building and photographers carrying their SLR cameras trying to capture every single beautiful moments, angle, people and movements, street vendors selling various items from traditional food ( kerak telor, otak-otak goreng, ketoprak and many more) , sunglasses, tshirts, paintings, etc.

     The rumour has it that sometime around August and September this year, the government plans to hold a three-weeks festival in Kota Tua to attract more visitors. Not only festival, Jokowi as the governor announced at least Rp 150 billion to revitalize Kota Tua area. Let's hope they will really fix Kota Tua since this place promising good opportunities for tourism industry in Jakarta.

Cultural dinner for APEC 2013 at Bank Indonesia Museum

Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa

Sunda Kelapa Harbour... A must visit place in Jakarta

Stasiun Jakarta Kota, was built in 1870

Kerak Telor

Ondel-ondel

Meet the hero, Noni Belanda, toy soldier, farmer and me !

      Stop by at Café Batavia either for lunch or light snacking. We recommend you to try Batavia orgy and poffertjes. Taste the sweet and sour sensation from home made sorbet, layered with mix fruits and topped with vanilla cream. Definitely one of the best ice cream in town and perfect companion while Rike and me were gossiping about the guy in pink shirt sitting just behind us. It was very hot and humid, 26 degrees, these 2 huge fans of life were in the middle of conversation about love life, fantasy, career and dreams. Rike talked about her dream man from Grey's Anatomy and now that she found Darren in her life, even though long-distance relationship is not always easy, but this guy completes her life. While I've been craving for a new adventure, to do another amazing and big big things, it's just me in  new place with bunch of new people. Slowly working my way for it, in the mean time I'm  happy my visa for Australia has just been granted, got few writing gigs and some other projects that I've been looking forward to do. Ooh seriously there’s still so much out there to see, win, experience, and get … Then suddenly Rike eyes caught this  prince charming walking inside the restaurant with his girlfriend,  got two of us melted, a little heart attack  and nose-bleeding ( kidding ) How a part of us wanted to kill or shoot the girl, but of course we were just joking. See that's the good thing of having girlfriends, you can practically share anything ( not boyfriend ). 

     It was almost 3 pm and we decided to move to Ancol. Saw some family picnic on the green grass, sharing food, love and laughs, little girls running naked in their cute underwear, young couples cuddling, it was all about happiness and simple joy being under the sun with the loved ones. We went to Segarra Beach Club, Rike ordered us martini, illusion, french fries and calamari while waiting for the sunset. Loving the breeze, the cocktails, and a great tour we did together since this morning... 

  

Batavia orgy : Rp 89.000  

Poffertjes : Rp 29.000 

Martini : Rp 90.000

Illusion : Rp 90.000

French Fries : Rp 40.000

Calamary : Rp 40.000

Batavia Orgy & Poffertjes  ( Cafe Batavia )

martini, french fries and illusion at Segarra Beach Club 

Having cocktails, girl talk, while watching the sunset at Segarra Beach Club. Loving the easy weekend.

Meet the gorgeous Rike Rivanny. 

Under The City Lights by Gabion Reinansatia

Late night photo shoot session I did couple of weeks ago with a multitalented photographer and designer Gabion Reinansatia and his beautiful girlfriend Ivonne Helena in Jakarta. They took me to some cool spots in town, the city looks so much better at night, beautiful lights, less traffic of course, plus... I'm happy to announce that my travel VBLOG project is in progress, can't wait to show you more places :) 

Next post : Beijing 5 days itinerary and budget...

The lady behind travelagys.blogspot.com

travelagys.blogspot.com

Ed & C

Ps : Thank you Ire & Oneng ... love, G

Weekend Escape : Puncak

Let’s take a break for a while from China trip. In this post, I'm going to take you couple of hours away from Jakarta for a weekend getaway, easy Saturday morning tea-walk in Puncak. Been having some of these photos just sitting around in my laptop, and when I was replying some of fhe readers email about places to visit in Jakarta, I thought...heyyy I should post about Puncak. I actually recommended tourists to leave Jtown early in the morning to avoid the traffic, drive all the way to Puncak. You can spend the whole morning tea-walking, riding little horses, go for paragliding, lunch in Rindu Alam or Cimori restaurant. Perfect if you want to relax, away from skyscrapers, in fact this is my favorite place just to have a long walk, clear my mind, with a bit of day-dreaming. I remember how my girls were excited to do this short trip, Eno was so busy packing and choosing summer outfit, making sure her pants match enough with the top and shoes - for the sake of good pictures with little horse, while Mandy bought us some breads and snacks and Olga surprised me with her super sporty look like a real athlete ready to do marathon. Ha, you know girls are complicated ( sometimes ), except now Puncak surprisingly too hot, even at 6am we arrived at the tea-plantation,  I was sweating a lot. 

Speaking of which, I met 2 backpackers from Germany last Saturday when I was having brunch in Kemang area. My eyes caught this couple looked lost, just standing outside the restaurant for more than…15 minutes. I was exactly like that when I visited Cambodia, Vietnam, Beijing, or any new places I’ve never been before. Confused, scarred , excited at the same time trying to figure out how to get to the hotel, restaurants, bus station, etc. I could imagine it must be not easy for tourists coming to Jakarta or Indonesia for the first time. First, the traffic. Second, the language. I decided to say hello and asked if I could help them. Julius and Petra, students from Germany, were looking for taxi to take them to Gambir train station to visit Bandung. They wanted to do a bit of shopping in Bandung then go to Batu Karas to surf, but not so sure how to get there. I explained them they could either take night buses from Kampung Rambutan which all of you can read my previous post about Batu  Karas and Green Canyon. Aahhh listening to their story about Asia trip made me seriously can not wait til my Australia visa out in the next 2 weeks. From Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne to Tasmania. Stay tuned at Travelagys, meanwhile hope you enjoy photo below from Puncak

The weekend getaway short trip ended with big seafood dinner in 212 seafood Kelapa Gading. Eno was craving for lobster so she forced us to eat nothing but seafood that night. We ordered 10 different meals from squids, lobster, crab, ikan ayam-ayam, vegetables, grilled fish, and many more.

Who says small girls don't eat ?

Summer Palace

ANOTHER GOOD NEWS for travel and food lovers in Indonesia ! EPICURE INDONESIA 

magazine - April issue  NOW ON STALLS ! Coming to Indonesia to give you  not only food, style, travel and restaurants reviews, but also some ultimate recipes for garden party, tips from top chefs, and many more....just the perfect guide for you ohhh food lovers ! Grab your copy guys ...

Epicure Indonesia April issue 2013 www.epicureindonesia.com

Catch my travel article :D

S U M M E R   P A L A C E - B E I J I N G

        Get ready to fall in love with how gorgeous Summer Palace ( Yiheyuan ) in winter. 16 KM from central Beijing, located in Haidian District, you can take subway line 4 and get off at Beigongmen station. The entrance fee costs you RMB 40. Enjoy walking and ice-skating in the frozen Kunming Lake, explore some old buildings and temple, the Seventeen-Arch bridge and Longevity Hill. I've never seen how's Summer Palace look like in Summer, but I'd say winter is the best time to visit this place. Less tourists, yes it's very cold, my high-heeled leather boots made it even harder for me to walk and run ( they said...beauty is pain ) but  my favorite part...I guess just sitting and watching the boys hanging in the frozen Kunming Lake for hours. Such a simple joy. Didn't believe my own eyes when they pulled my hands to walk with them in the frozen Kunming Lake, I mean in my head was what if all the ice melts and we'll all drown !!! 

       We even danced with some local women in the park, had this funny conversation with a local man that didn't want to take picture with me and my two girls - he thought we weren't beautiful enough, ouch. We really had good times and definitely recommend you to see Summer Palace too

Cheap and yummy crepes for breakfast

Having crepes and coffee before Summer Palace tour

Ten of us left the hostel really early in the morning to visit Summer Palace and Lama Temple. We were hungry, craving for hot coffee and anything..anything delicious for breakfast. Exit from Beigongmen station, one of our guys found this  little food stall selling hot crepes and coffee – just exactly what we need to start the big day. Plus it's cheap ! Perfect for backpackers... 

Summer Palace in winter

Walid Tirouche was an expert gymnastic teacher

Watching the frozen Kunming Lake

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