Category: Indonesia City

Things to do in Malang : Visit Toko Oen Malang

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When you heard the word “Malang”, spoken by an Indonesian, people will remember for its cool weather, its famous fruits, ‘Apel Malang’, types of apple that grow in Malang, Bakwan Malang and of course, Toko Oen Malang. Malang is two hours driving from Surabaya. Or if you are staying in Jakarta while in Indonesia, you can get there by train or plane. There are not much of differences on the tariffs as I described in previous post about Surabaya.

Nice weather at The High Land

Based on research from University of Southampton, the warm and nostalgic feeling have a strong connection (source here). People tend to have more nostalgic thoughts on colder days. Malang city, fortunately has a nice city temperature, around 19 – 30 celcius and located in high land area, 429-667 metre above sea level. That’s why Malang always make us – the travelers – feel more relax, chill and nostalgic at the same time.

Things to do in Malang : Warming up at Legendary Ice Cream Store, Toko Oen Malang

As I arrived in Malang, I go straight to an ice cream store I would love to visit every time I got the chance to visit Malang. The store name is “Toko Oen”. It doesn’t just serve ice cream, but also pastries and drinks. The building architecture is kept in its original form, preserving styles from the colonial era. It also has a welcome banner that written in Dutch.

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An Old Piano and Pictures from Soekarno’s Era

I ordered a portion of ice cream (again!). It such a waste not to try those in this store. One portion contains one scoop of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream with one chocolate wafer and two wafer sticks. You can get it for IDR 35 k.

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Oen’s Special

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They also sells Javanese traditional snacks for takeaway

One scoop of cold ice cream in Toko Oen Malang will drops your body temperature in cold weather, which is a good thing because it makes your surroundings feel warmer. Not just your body, vintage decoration in Toko Oen Malang can even warm your heart.

While you in Malang, you can try visiting Toko Oen Malang that will make you chillax, help you to lose your memories of happier time, warm your heart and bound you with their delicious ice cream scoop. So, make sure you put ‘a short visit to Toko Oen Malang’ in your things to do in Malang list!

Do You Know?
The word “malang” also means “unfortunate” in Indonesian. So, don’t be surprised when you find some Indonesian don’t give the reaction you don’t expect when you speak the word. Be careful on using it 🙂

 

Wayang Museum Jakarta

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Indonesia‘s Shadow Puppet Theater is well known as a part of local tradition with very long history. Every tribe in different regions in Indonesia has their own kind of puppet, we call it ‘wayang’. As a traveler, you might need to go all over the place to know deeply about various kind of wayang in Indonesia. But, for a glimpse? You should visit Wayang Museum Jakarta, because they have it all.

Wayang Museum Jakarta

Wayang Museum Jakarta

The Wayang Museum Jakarta is located in Jakarta Old Town area (Kota Tua), West Jakarta. It opens from 9 am to 3 pm with IDR 5 k entrance ticket per person.  The Wayang Museum Jakarta open almost every day except for Monday and any of Indonesia’s national holidays,  because museum’s maintenance should be done once a week.

Shadow Puppet (Wayang) made from Cow Skin

Shadow Puppet (Wayang) made from Cow Skin. Beautiful, isn’t?

Gundala-Gundala. North Sumatra Puppet that will play when local people asking about rain to God

Gundala-Gundala. North Sumatra Puppet (3 metre tall) that will play when local people ask for the rain from God

For foreigner who want to hear wonderful story about Indonesia’s shadow puppets, Wayang Museum Jakarta can provide you a free tour guide who knows very well about  their wayang collections. I recommend you all to ask about that tour guide service in Wayang Museum Jakarta front desk, it is really worth it. The tour guide will explain to you about background stories of some play in wayang show, how to make wayang, and everything you need to know about wayang. Make sure you do not miss that free service in Wayang Museum Jakarta.

How to Draw Wayang Instruction on The Floor

How to Draw Wayang Instruction on The Floor

Beside various kind of local puppet shadows collection, Wayang Museum Jakarta also displays numerous dolls from countries like India, France, Cambodia, China, Germany, et cetera. It seems like puppet culture is a global culture that spread around the world.

Katakali Doll from Southern India

Katakali Doll from Southern India

Since 2007, Indonesian Wayang recognized as the world heritage of masterpiece creation by United Nation. So, I think Wayang Museum Jakarta should be a very interesting place to visit while you take a city tour Jakarta, right? 😀

What to do in Surabaya

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You have taken a city tour Jakarta with our local host, right? If you have, you must have grown familiar with the city. If you are, then you should take a chance to visit another capital city in Indonesia, Surabaya. Surabaya is the capital city of East Java, as one of the big cities in Indonesia, it also has many high buildings, apartments, malls and business areas. As years go by, the population keep growing, thus make the bad traffic put a test in your patience, quite like Jakarta, but still not as bad as Jakarta.

Sura (shark) and baya (crocodile) statue

Surabaya’s Icon that Depicts The Fight Between a Shark (Sura) and a Crocodile (Baya).

How to get there

There are many options to reach Surabaya.

1. By plane. You could ride a plane from Jakarta to Surabaya by riding a plane from Halim Perdana Kusumah or Soekarno-Hatta Airport, the ticket price is usually around IDR 450k-700k, but it can be higher if you book during peak season. It usually takes about 1 or 1 hour and a half.

2. By train. There are executive trains that you can take from Gambir Station in Jakarta. The train’s name are Sembrani and Argo Bromo Anggrek, the price range is not too different from ticket plane as a described above, but it should never higher than IDR 700k, but you have to sit about 9 hours long.

3. By bus. If you want cheaper price, you can go by bus to Surabaya for only around IDR 150k-300k, but it is a long journey. You have to ride the bus for approximately 17,5 hours long. So, make sure you won’t get tired or get bored along the way.

<< What to do in Surabaya : Lets eat, eat, and eat! >>

– What to do in Surabaya : Sate Klopo as your breakfast

Surabaya offers many choices of breakfast. You can found food stalls everywhere around the street, from nasi pecel, gado-gado, soto ayam, and many more. Most of it you can also find in Jakarta. But, you should not miss the chance to make Sate Klopo your breakfast choice, because it only exists in Surabaya, one and only restaurant in a street once named Ondomohen Street, thus the restaurant adopt the name, along with the name of its owner, Ibu Asih.

Sate Klopo Ondomohen Ibu Asih

Sate Klopo Ondomohen
Ibu Asih

Processing of Sate Klopo

Process of Making Sate Klopo

Sate Klopo came from the word ‘satay’ and ‘coconut (klopo)’ in Javanese dialect. The satay was made from cow’s meat, served with grated coconut on top of it. The meat is juicy and rich of flavors. By the time I get there in the morning, it already full of people and there is no empty seat, so ordered a take away, IDR 25k for one portion.

– What to do in Surabaya : Zangrandi Ice Cream as your afternoon treat

Surabaya is known for its extreme heat, especially in dry season, so enjoying an ice cream would be a perfect choice. Buy ice cream from the mini market maybe? Hold your thought! Go to Zangrandi instead. It is a classic ice cream store founded by Renato Zangrandi, an immigrant from Italy in 1930s. Zangrandi located in the center of the town, near Garden Palace Hotel Palace Surabaya.

Zangrandi ice cream store

Zangrandi Ice Cream Store

ice cream variants inside the cooler box

Ice Cream Variants
inside The Cooler Box

For a hot day in Surabaya, I chose to order Avocadocano, a cup of ice cream with avocado flavor and served with freshly sliced of avocado fruit and a chocolate wafer stick. It is not too sweet and easily melts in your mouth. You can get one portion of ice cream variant for around IDR 35k-45k.

Avocadocano

Avocadocano

– What to do in Surabaya : Save the best for the last!

After you had enough strolling around Surabaya, it is the time to make a final stop before you take a rest at the end of the day. Eating Lontong Kupang would be a perfect choice while you stay in Surabaya. ‘Kupang’ is some kind of shellfish in a really small size, usually served with bigger kind of clam satay, ‘lontong’ or some kind of rice cake wrapped in banana leaf, and ‘petis’, a traditional seasoning that taste sweet and spicy.

Actually you find Lontong Kupang easily in Sidoarjo, a city near Surabaya, but it is quite near and you can grab a taxi there. You can choose Lontong Kupang foodstall in Sidoarjo malls or in the food corners in Seruni Street that also open at night. You can enjoy this menu and for prevention of allergy of eating this food too much, you can order coconut drink.

lontong kupang source - wikipedia

Lontong Kupang
(Source : Wikipedia)

Okay, once your stomach full, time to go back where you stay and take a rest. Once you wake up the next day with new spirit and energy, you can try continuing the trip to other parts or East Java, like Malang, every town offers its own specialty, so don’t miss it! See you next time. 🙂

 

Toko Merah Jakarta in Jakarta Old Town

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The Red Shop – well known as ‘Toko Merah’ – always become my very first place to start exploring around Jakarta Old Town (Kota Tua). Unfortunately, I found that not many local guide recommend Toko Merah Jakarta as an interesting place to visit when run a city tour Jakarta.

The fact is if I compare Toko Merah Jakarta with another tourist attraction place around Jakarta Old Town, Toko Merah might be put last on the list of visiting place choices. Less glamour, less attraction, no English speaking tour guide, and it is just a building, with no slide show, no history dioramas, no printed story, nothing.

Toko Merah (The Red Shop)

Toko Merah Jakarta (The Red Shop)

However, nothingness is not bad at all.

I realize that Toko Merah Jakarta offers us the silence, so we can absorb old vibe better than any place around.

Toko Merah's Main Lobby

Toko Merah’s Main Lobby

The building keeper told me that Toko Merah Jakarta was built in 1730 as the residence of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Gustaaf Willem baron van Imhoff. Afterwards, the ownership of this building changed several times, and the building function is changed as followed.  Hotel, Bank, Hospital, Warehouse, and when Toko Merah Jakarta owned by a Kapitein der Chinezen of Batavia, Oey Liauw Kong in 1851, it became a shop and private residence.

It was cashier counter when Toko Merah had a bank function

It was cashier counter when Toko Merah Jakarta had a bank function

The Chinese Kapitein decorated the building, painted brick walls with red color, so it was known as Toko Merah. When he had decorated with his personal taste, he did not change the original building structure . Toko Merah Jakarta had kept Dutch building structure, with huge windows, double tall doors, high ceilings, hanging lamps, et cetera. So, the Chinese decoration blend with Dutch architecture until now. Quite interesting, right?

Lobby's Door

Toko Merah Lobby’s Door

Huge Window at 2nd floor

Huge Window at 2nd floor

Hanging Lamp

Hanging Lamp

So, when you do a city tour Jakarta in Jakarta Old Town area, make sure you put Toko Merah Jakarta on your visit list. You need to pay IDR 10 k for one person as an entrance ticket. Small money for a better understanding of Old Jakarta (Batavia) sounds remarkable, isn’t it?

Toko Merah is two building merged by its owner

Toko Merah : two building merged by its owner

 

Revealing Nostalgic Vibe at Braga Street Bandung

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Jakarta has its own charm. As the economic and political capital of Indonesia, Jakarta attracts many domestic immigrants who bring their various languages, dialects, foods, and customs. But, I will tell more about city tour Jakarta later. Now, for all of you travelers around the world who have extra time to see more around Jakarta, I want to show you about Jakarta’s neighboring city, which is Bandung. It is three hours driving from Jakarta and known as the city that has various kinds of flower, so it often called “Kota Kembang”, which means “City of Flowers”. As large as Jakarta, Bandung is quite a ‘huge’ place to stroll. Circling the entire city for one day is never been enough. When I stayed in Bandung, I took a chance to stroll around Braga Street Bandung that has its own uniqueness in the city.

How to reach Bandung?

Rent a car. It will costs you IDR 500-600k (including driver), fuel charge around IDR 200k, and tolls fee around IDR 200k. At least, you need to prepare around IDR 1000k just for transportation cost.

But, you also can try using Bandung Travel Bus Service like Day Trans, X-Trans, Baraya, and many more similar travel bus services which have routine schedules to reach Bandung from Jakarta and vice versa. It will costs you IDR 80k  – IDR 100k for one way per person. After you arrived at Bandung, you can ride a taxi to go Braga Street Bandung. I am sure it will save a lot of money, right? 😀

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Foods around Braga Street Bandung

In Braga Street Bandung, there are many restaurants that opens until midnight. I chose to dine in Braga Permai, a restaurant which has a nostalgic vibe. Serves various kinds of European and Indonesian food. They also producing homemade ice cream in various flavors. The price range is about IDR  50k – IDR 100k.

Braga Permai at Night

Braga Permai at Night

Ravioli Beef

Ravioli Beef at Braga Permai Restaurant

I also visit Braga Citywalk, some kind of mini mall in the middle of Braga Street Bandung. The tenants are not as many as other mall in usual, most of them are serving foods or beverages, one of them are Tokyo Connection, which connected to Giggle Box (a Western Café) beside it. I ordered one cup of hot green tea latte, it looks nice, not surprisingly tastes good also.

Green Latte

Green Tea Latte at Giggle Box

Where to stay?

It was worth to spend a night in Braga Street Bandung. There are so many hotels which have affordable price and close with pedestrian and touristic area. For example, I chose to stay in Ibis Styles Bandung Braga that resides at the Braga City, a street that famous with historical buildings around it. There are something unique about this hotel’s interior. These are a few snapshots of the lobby interior :

A Chic and Simple Design Interior

A Chic and Simple Interior Design

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1970s Vespa

I got a room in sixth floor, the room is quite cozy and when I look through the window, I can have a good look to buildings and streets below. I can see Savoy Homann Hotel, an architectural heritage and a fine example of art deco colonial architecture of the East Indies, across the street.

Room's Window

Room’s Window

Savoy Homann Hotel Across The Street

Savoy Homann Hotel Across The Street

It is said that Charlie Chaplin stayed  for a couple times in this hotel when he visited Bandung in 1900s. Guests that want to see the room are allowed to see the room he once stayed by asking permission to hotel staffs. If we look a little bit to the right, we can see the twin tower of The Great Mosque of Bandung (Masjid Agung Bandung).

That was a little review about food in Braga Street Bandung. There are still so many places and treats we can find around different parts of Bandung, so it is not enough to visit them in one whole trip. So, don’t think you will see everything in one day, maybe you will found something new in every chance you got when visiting Bandung. Cheers! 😀

One Day City Tour Jakarta

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A combination of bad traffic and limited time might not help you with one day chance to visit whole Jakarta. So, I give you 4 place which can put on your one day city tour Jakarta itinerary :

1. One Day City Tour Jakarta : Visit  Jakarta Old Town (Batavia)

Located on North Jakarta, Jakarta Old Town area is a place where you can find a lot of old building with Dutch architecture and museums.

Dutch Architecture Main Gate on The Red Shop Museum

The Red Shop’s Main Gate with Dutch Architecture

You also can found some museum in Jakarta Old Town area :
– Bank Indonesia Museum
– The Red Shop — currently closed for renovation
– Arts and Crafts Museum
– Wayang Museum Jakarta
– Fatahillah Museum
– Indonesia Post Office Museum

I suggest you to spend at least half day to stroll around Jakarta Old Town. If you do not have many time left, visiting Bank Indonesia Museum (Museum Bank Indonesia) and Wayang Museum Jakarta is a must, do not skip those two museums. Trust me.

2. One Day City Tour Jakarta : Visit Jakarta Chinatown (Glodok, Petak Sembilan)

From Jakarta Old Town area, you just need to walk around 15 minutes to Jakarta Chinatown. You can take a glimpse of traditional market, local Chinese mall, or eat in Chinese food restaurant. And you can also find Viharas, Chinese Church around that area. But, to walk around Jakarta Chinatown is a little bit tricky, because there has a lot of small alleys, you do not want to get lost and wasting your precious time, don’t you?

A Glimpse of Vihara

A Glimpse of Vihara

3. One Day City Tour Jakarta : Visit Monas at night

Next, you can put Monas on your Jakarta Day Trips. National Monument or Monas Jakarta located in the heart of Jakarta. It stands 132 meter from the ground and it has 35 kilograms pure gold at the top of it. Actually, you can go up there to see Jakarta from the top of Monas Jakarta, but the queue is unbelievably too long, you better go to a higher building if you really want to see Jakarta from the top.

Image Courtesy : Media Indonesia

Image Courtesy : Media Indonesia

So, the second option (a better option, I think) is to visit Monas public garden at night. In 82 hectare area, you can see Monas Jakarta spread splendidly with colorful lights. Everyone can come to Monas Garden until midnight to do sport, recreation, etc.

4. Eat and Mingle at Sabang Street at night

Sabang Street is also known as Haji Agus Salim Street located on Central Jakarta, near Sarinah Mall and has various kind of restaurants, food trucks, or Jakarta street food. You can find Western, Eastern, Indonesian, and even Fast Food on Sabang Street. When sun goes down, Sabang Street get more visitors, people seems to never sleep!

Food Truck on Sabang Street (image courtesy : news portal okezone[dot]com]

Food Truck on Sabang Street (image courtesy : news portal okezone[dot]com]

For one day city tour Jakarta, we also recommend you to visit National Museum in Central Jakarta in the morning. They will tell you more about Indonesia’s culture and heritage in one place. At least you need 2 hours to see all their famous collections, a lot of interesting stuffs and stories. So, are you ready to explore Jakarta in one day? To get some help about arranging tour, go check our city tour offer here