Purposely cut all the needed ingredients so that I wouldn’t have to start cooking that early. Little did I know when I took nap at 2.30pm due to terrible headache, mum woke up me an hour later asking me to start cooking!

Of course, I snoozed the ‘alarm’ until 4pm, lol!

I thought I would have enough time to kaotim everything myself, but I’m so wrong again. Again, help was needed in the kitchen. Mum, sis and even dad crowded the kitchen, helped stirring, frying and washing the plates.

By 7.30pm, dinner was served.

Baked scallop and bacon with honey mustard sauce; Garlic beer prawn; Thai style steamed fish.

Omelette wrapped minced meat; Stir fry lotus root, peas and assorted mushrooms; Almond Chicken Strips.

Braised Abalone With Mushrooms and Garden Greens; Watermelon cube soya jelly.

Ahh~ I was so full after dinner… but now, don’t know why I’m hungry d. T_____T

Happy Lunar New Year!

One fine day, many, many months ago – my parents and I visited to have dinner at Dome outlet in Gurney Plaza. Though Dome is popular for very fragrance and delicious coffee, they offer variety of dishes too!

Like usual – we walked in, took seat at the comfy sofa and were given menus. We ordered shortly after browsing through the menu and then waited patiently for our order to come.

MY MUST ORDER : a cup of mocha which came with 2 pieces of my favourite cookie, biscotti!

You can dip a biscotto into the drink and then eat or you can eat it alone without dipping! Both ways are yums! ♥

Mum’s chicken pie came first.

The pastry is so crispy! And the ingredient below is heavenly! Though it’s taste similar to their mushroom soup, the texture is thicker and more delicious! Yums!

I opted for lighter meal, hence this meal.

I’ve actually tried chicken avocado sandwich in Delicious before. The presentation of the meal is obviously different, and so does the ingredient and taste. The bread wasn’t as hard as the one in Delicious – probably because of the different bread. The chicken meat wasn’t hard also. And the salsa sauce – it’s very appetizing! Mm~*

Lastly, my dad’s seafood rice. Can’t recall the real name so I create my own. Kakaka!

Though it’s just a simple dish – rice with dory and prawns topped with cream sauce; but it’s quite filling! I dislike cream sauce (therefore disliking carbonara), but this cream wasn’t too much! So thumbs up for this dish.

Too bad we could only try 3 dishes in the menu. Would definitely go back for more!

Food & Environment : 4 out of 5.

Okay, this post is super backdated. We went on 28th June 2009 but somehow I’ve overlooked this post. Hmph.

6 of us went there and seated on this comfortable sofa. We took quite some time to order, since we’re quite indecisive on what eat. Then we toyed the big guns a little while waiting for the food.

That day is also the day I get to play with 35mm lens. David just got that lens not long ago that time and he is generous enough to let me test it.

I can’t remember what drink I ordered that night since it was more than a year old story. Haha.

I love the 35mm, but somehow some pictures I took aren’t sharp. Maybe my hands shook a little when taking them under low light (the place is quite dim); or I took without really focusing them yet. But I didn’t really know the real reason as when I looked at the display screen after snapping, they were clear and stunning.

Ahhh. I totally have no clue on what to write since it’s an old story – probably I should let the pictures do the talking.

Bon Appetit! Keke!

The dishes are absolutely creative. Sate marinated with chocolate, chocolate sauce over steak, popular German food called roesti – all those dishes I never tried or came across before. I especially like heart shaped pie that Aaron ordered. Too bad I can’t remember all the name of the dishes. Aih!

3 different types of sausages – which Daniel ordered, I think. The 3 sausages came along with the peanut sauce. I wonder if he felt full after having that. Hmm.

Last but not least, collage of everyone’s beautiful faces. XD

I read that Schokolart is closed for renovation. Hope they could fast fast finish renovating the place so that I could go there for dessert the next time I visit KL.

Just came back from 1 day trip to Ipoh for makan-makan session! We ‘flew’ from one place to the others. Some are good, some are erm.. disappointing. Some are closed, but already made up our minds to visit them next time.

We even visited the caves, giving our tummies some time to digest them before starting eating again. Lol

I’ll specifically cover them one by one soon! Right now I need to shower, finish up my Indon posts and pre-pack for my coming trip!

See you!

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/06/12-hours-makan-all-the-way-trip/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:21:45 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1575 I woke up early in the morning, at about 6 something. I couldn’t sleep well because of the cold. Knowing that there are only 2 bathrooms/toilets available on each floor and nobody was up yet, I took my own sweet time bathing, washing hair and brushing teeth, Haha. Then I woke Sat up and the girls in my room.

While going in and out of the room to the toilet, I bumped into an Indonesian guy who stayed in the room opposite ours. From exchanging smiles to small talk, all I know about this guy is he’s from another part of Indonesia (can’t remember where now – I think it’s Medan) and he’s in Jakarta for work. He then asked where am I coming from. When I told him that I’m from Malaysia, he revealed that he used to work in Malaysia in the city of Kuala Lumpur long, long time ago. After that I went back to my room and he went to the toilet.

Had Yakult as breakfast! Hoho!

Then it was time to go. I took my backpacks and went down with the rest. We waited for our pre-booked Alphard Taxi at the verandah. After getting call from the company saying that the taxi is somewhere near the area, we walked out to the main road, Jl. Jaksa since the company claimed that the taxi is too big for the small lane.

Again, I bumped into the same Indonesian guy and he bid goodbye to me. I said goodbye to him back. Sat was puzzled on why a stranger saying bye to me and I responded. Haha! I then explained to him the whole thing and he finally understood.

Spotted an Astro mini satellite while walking out. Hoho! The peach colour building behind is La Margot Hotel.

Sat pre-booked two taxis but only one came. The other one claimed that he got caught in the jam. So we sent one taxi off first – the one carrying Aaron, Elise, Lasker, Daniel and David. The rest of us waited at the junction anxiously for our cab as we need to check in by 10.  After all, we were told that the morning traffic in Jakarta is always heavy, so we’re hoping not to be caught in one.

An interesting looking tourist information corner with a helmet as representative. Haha.

About half an hour later, our taxi came. He apologized for his lateness and then we boarded the taxi. I was a little bit disappointed as I was hoping for outgoing, outspoken driver like Dade (the driver we got the night before).

In the entire journey, he just kept quiet and listened to local news and prayers on the radio, while the rest of us looked out to faces of Jakarta in the day.

And I concluded that Jakarta looks better at night. Lol! In the day, it looks like Beijing. @_@ Don’t ask me why.

We reached the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Terminal 2 for domestic flight to Denpasar at about 9 something. The journey is shorter I guess, as I paid only 34.000 Rupiah (RM12.60) for the taxi ride including toll I think. Forget to jot down if that’s the taxi payment alone or with the toll. Paid the driver, took picture with the car and then went in the airport for check-in.

The security was quite tight there. The lady security officer would only allow people in the hall if we showed her the boarding pass. But how can we get a boarding pass when we bought the ticket online? Luckily, Sat printed out the flight itineraries (as he said he foresees this would happen) and we went in smoothly.

Like usual, we turkeyfied our check-in backpacks for 30.000 Rupiah (RM11), followed by checking-in our turkeys, getting our boarding passes and paying the departure tax of 40.000 Rupiah (RM15) which is not included in when purchasing our flight ticket.

My turkey weighted 10kg upon checking-in. I don’t understand why there’s 900 gram difference as I didn’t add anything in. In fact I threw 2 things out – my out-of-shape-blue-top and a pair of long-pants-with-holes. Was it because of the air that got trapped in the backpack? Or the way I squeezed my stuffs into the backpack.

Feeling hungry, we went food-hunting to fill our stomachs. Spotted NZN outlet at the airport, so I pulled Sat over to have a look at the ice-cream choices – to see they’re selling the same favours or they have those we couldn’t find back home. Upon scanning, I found out we never had ‘Spotty Dogs’ flavour before, or maybe I didn’t remember seeing it previously. Then Sat bought 2 scoops, one scoop of Spotty Dogs and another scoop of his favourite flavour for me to try. Slurps. Can’t recall how much it costs, but I think it’s almost the amount we used to pay in Malaysia after conversion.

Yup, all the way in Jakarta to have New Zealand Natural ice cream. True, loyal fans right? They should award us by giving us free ice-cream for loyalty. Lol!

While Sat and me hovered over the NZN counter, the rest went and bought gigantic curry puffs at the other side of the booths. After seeing them munching the curry puffs (where they purposely showed me the filling of eggs, and chicken chunks), I asked Sat to get one to try.

Can’t remember how much the curry puff is priced at because I forgot to jot them down. But I think it’s about 5.000 Rupiah (Rm1.85) per piece? Or maybe 10.000 Rupiah (RM3.70) one as the size is big.

We sat at the tables belongs to the curry puff’s outlet before going into the Departure Hall. Quickly finished our food and then calculated last night’s dinner. Though we kept the receipt but it was rather complicated to calculate as it didn’t tally in the first place! Somehow we managed to settle it after few rounds of calculation and David was again loaded with Rupiahs! Haha!

Feeling like going to the loo, I asked Sat to accompany me to the loo, but he didn’t follow – which I didn’t know why. Probably because he saw me walked behind Ailing and Emily, thinking that they went too. I don’t remember if they went too, but I REMEMBER as I was in the toilet’s cubicle weewee-ing, I heard a guy whistling in the LADIES TOILET, and then a loud bang on my cubicle’s door!

I was super duper kan cheong (panicked) at that time as I was weewee-ing halfway through only when the thing happened. Still, I prepared myself to launch an attack should the guy try to break open my door or do some silly stuff.

Luckily, nothing happened after that. I quickly flushed, opened the toilet door, scanned left and right, quickly washed my hands and ran out of the toilet to where the rest were.

And obviously I complained to Sat for not accompanying me. HMPH!

Then it was time to board the plane. Woohoo! Finally the hard-core backpacking days were over and hello to the tour-style! Haha!

Our flight took off slightly later at around 11 am. The whole journey took 1 hours and 45 minutes. Initially Sat and I thought that it would take us 2 hours and 45 minutes to reach Bali but we were wrong as we forgot to minus an hour off to the calculation as Bali is one hour ahead of Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

We napped not long after flying. But soon, I got hungry and woke Sat up. Haha. Damn evil la me. Then I ordered Air Asia’s nasi kuning for him, nasi goring sate ayam for me and a bottle of water. Damn potong stim upon seeing the size of the bottle. Moreover, I need to drink lots water especially flying on plane and the bottle definitely wouldn’t be enough for both of us.

Still, we can’t afford to order another bottle as we were running out of Rupiahs! Thus, both of us tried drinking as little as possible to last us the entire flight. But eventually, my throat was so dry that I had to finish up the bottle and asked the stewardess for another bottle of water.

She came to me and told me that they have already closed the counter and gave me a cup of warm water instead! Without charging me anything!

Ahhh! I felt so thankful for what she did. She saved me from possible sore throat (which I didn’t want to have during travelling) and the fact that the water was warm is even better! My throat felt better instantly and I gave half to Sat to quench his throat. He was also surprised to see the lady passing me the water without charging me.

Probably they didn’t know how to charge me gua. Moreover it’s just water, not some fruit juice or wine or beer.

**If you are offered wine by the air stewardess, please opt for fruit juice or water, because wine and beer will make your throat feel even worst after that. Believe me, as I tried that before. Out of glamour (because first time being offered as usually the First Class and Business Class only got it), I took a glass of wine from her hand, slowly drank it and found myself requesting for 2-3 cups of water an hour later. LOL**

Soon, I could see land and sea from the plane window. I assumed that land is Surabaya as we’ve flown more than an hour. Lovely view, took few shots and continued whispering and giggling with Sat.

Then announcement of landing was made, where we were asked to fasten the seat belt, push up our seats, etc etc. I looked out of the window, and I saw this beautiful bay, lovely moon crested sand island just few metres away from the shore (which looked like highway built on top of the sand island. Haha!) and boats going in and out from the bay. I asked Sat to have a look at the place, and he asked me back, “where is that place? Kuta?”

I have no idea on where is that place. So I told him, “ya gua.” Haha.

Our plane began descending lower and lower and lower till the sea felt near. Okay, this plane is not a water plane (it’s not Maldives anyway), so it wouldn’t land on the sea. But because part of the runway is surrounded by the sea, that’s why the sea looked and felt near to me.

Didn’t know why those senget/blunder photos look nicer than the straight ones? Hmm.

I never been to Hawaii, but the moment I stepped onto the land of Bali, I felt like I was in HAWAII! Haha. My mind must have been jumbled up, or maybe I yearn for Hawaii too much that I see Bali as Hawaii – as they say Bali is the Hawaii of the East.

At that moment, I wished I bought the oversize lady straw hat in Prambanan for 20.000 Rupiah to cover my head and face. I didn’t take that as the lady refused to go a little bit lower at 15.000 Rupiah, and my mind forgot to convert the 20.000 Rupiah into RM7.50 at that moment. So yup, I should have close the deal!

As we were walking, the breeze coming from the sea felt like tho welcoming us to the land of Bali. Despite the sun shining directly on our skin, I didn’t feel any pain or hotness. Probably the wind made the rays gentler.

We walked into the Arriving Hall of Ngurah Rai International Airport, took our backpacks and then spotted our fellow friends, Jess, Steven and KeatMeng standing with the locals. Jess was holding signboards bearing “Adokys Travel – Mr. Satkuru”

Together with them were our guide, Mr. Yoga and a personnel from the agency – which I can’t remember his name. Ops. The travel personnel  introduced our guide to the rest of us and then accompanied us to our vehicle.

I was super excited upon seeing all five of them as it further confirmed that the Bali trip would be well-taken care of by the agency Sat engaged with. Finally we can totally relax and enjoy the whole trip. Before that we felt like we were living on a ticking bomb. T_T

When our van came (a-13-seats-van), we quickly loaded our backpacks and sat in the van. Then the travel agent bid us goodbye and our van left the airport with high spirits.

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We walked along the streets, scouting for reasonable local food. We stopped by few restaurants, with David occasionally walked in and asked for the menu. I was tempted to eat at one of the warong at the roadside, but Sat have told me earlier before the trip that he feared that some might have weak tummies; reminded me not to suggest that.

Done scouting all the restaurants, we walked back to a café somewhere near Hotel Le Margot as we felt that the place looks better until we saw ‘roti canai’ in the menu. We were puzzled for a moment, and then we realised, we’re actually looking at the menu that we can find back home!

Immediately we walked out of the cafe, laughing. Then one by one pointed out that we should have noticed the silver chairs that can be found at the mamak stalls.

Somehow we ended up at the Jasa Bundo Padang Restaurant, as our Taxi Alphard driver, Dade advised us on trying the nasi padang. But he did remind us not to grab everything from the served dish, not even use the spoon to scoop it up; as one need to pay for that plate the moment you did that.

Not really understand what he meant by that, we walked in – with that warning in our heads. We were welcomed by the owner or I think he’s the owner of the restaurant. The one by one the waiters brought small plates of dishes and placed them in front of us. The owner then explained that those that countable will be charged according to the amount of pieces we take. For example, if we were to take a piece of fried chicken out of the 2 available on the plate, we’ll be charged for that piece only.

As for the uncountable like vegetable, minced meat, we were charged 5.000 Rupiah (RM1.85) per plate.

Spoiled with choices and with the warning still ringing in our head, we carefully chose the plates that wanted to eat. I shared with Sat; only took if both wanted to eat that. I was so tempted to take the cumi-cumi (sotong) but one piece costs 8.000 Rupiah (~RM2.90) if not mistaken, so I stopped myself from taking it.

Only after finishing my meal, did I know that Sat also eyeing at the cumi-cumi; he didn’t take because he felt it’s costly. Argh, if he took that, then I can steal some from him! Lol.

Then Sat suddenly voiced out. I knew that he was boiling with anger after someone claimed that he was trying to rip the person off by asking him to pay the amount Sat have rounded as Indonesian currency doesn’t have smaller changes like in tens. They got have coins like 100 Rupiah, 500 Rupiah but even the Indonesians themselves didn’t round them up to thousand. He pointed out that he wasn’t angry if that person refused to pay 1.000 Rupiah which is like RM0.37 (as the amount wasn’t a lot to start a fight with), he was terribly upset and furious to know that the person voiced it out directly behind him.

I know him. He’s the person who doesn’t really care about what people thinks of him, but if he’s already did so much to make this trip enjoyable and some funny fellow came and cari pasal just because he rounded the amount to the next thousand, he’ll definitely flipped!

If you don’t understand, then do this simple math: 85.000 Rupiah divided by 3. What do you get? 28.333 Rupiah right? Obviously one will direct pay the person 29.000 Rupiah.

The atmosphere was intense. Ailing and Emily broke the silent by drinking quite loudly. Which made me giggled and the rest started talking and things went back to normal. I then consoled him and he told me he’s okay, just need to let this out to avoid other funny thing again. (True enough, nothing funny happened after that! LOL)

As we were talking over the dinner table, suddenly the faces of those sitting in front of me looked stun. Feeling weird, I turned back to see what gave them the look and I was stunned too.

A ahgua was dancing indecently in front of the shop; shook and sway his body and slowly went down with both legs wide open. So disgusting!

The owner quickly as his waiter to give the ah gua some money and shooed him away. The ah gua left after being ‘paid’.

Seeing this, we quickly asked for bill. As much as we wanted to pay separately, the owner went and summed up all plates we took, including the chicken and cumi-cumi pieces, the bowls of oxtail soups and bowls of rice. David footed the bill first.

After a fulfilling dinner (we ate a lot!), we decided to explore the city a little; by walking! Though I was feeling very tired and would gratefully fall dead on the bed in Bloem Steen Hostel, I gladly comply and dragged both feet around the area. I didn’t take pictures from and this explains the lack of pictures in this post.

We went jaywalking. Passed by few decent looking warongs, where one of us would say, “we should have come here earlier!” Lol. Even walked by a very nice looking pub called, Penang. Lol. Never known Penang is so famous! Haha.

We walked considerably quite far, before making a left turning. That road has even more restaurants and food courts, but most of them already closed up. There was rubbish piles at the side of the road, probably the council will clear them up early in the morning the next day.

Down the road, there was a crossroad. We turned left, walking back to our hostel. It’s like a big U-turn, with different things/buildings to see on the way back. There are even more warongs – stir-frying, barbequeing, grilling food; which made me salivated upon smelling them.

We stopped by their local 7-11. Some went in to grab some drinks, while the rest stood outside chatting. I was getting very, very tired by then, and would gladly use a bed that time. Haha. David and Aaron came out, after buying the ‘Love Potion’.

What an attractive name for a drink! Haha.

Further walks down, we reached the entrance of Jl. Jaksa. The street became more packed with people and cars. The bars were blasting songs loudly; all packed with people. We dropped by a mini-market somewhere near the nasi padang restaurant to buy drinks. I bought a can of local beer, a Bintang beer for 9.800 Rupiah (~RM3.60).

Then we walked back to our hostel, and Ailing, Emily, Sat and I sat at the verandah, talking and drinking the beers we bought. David then joined us, where he tried to entertain us with his jokes. Haha.

At the same time, we tried to contact the Bali gang. They were supposed to reach Bali at about 11 something Bali time. After knowing that they have reached safely and been picked up by the local agency we liaised with, Sat went out to the nearest cybercafé to wire the rest of the money to that agency. The rest of us were still there, chatting and laughing.

Realizing it was considerably late and knowing that we’re going to have a long day ahead the next day, we quickly finished our beer and called it a day.

I quickly showered; packed a little, lie on the bed, talking to the rest until we fell asleep. The air-cond is set super duper low temperature that I shivered half way sleeping and used my small backpack to give warm to my feet.

As the room’s lock isn’t secured, we used our backpacks as weights against the door. Emily told me the next morning that she had to push the backpacks one by one aside when she woke up for toilet in the middle of the night.

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From Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman, it took only 10 minutes to reach Taman Sari Water Castle. The van driver parked his van at the car park area and again, knowing that we have to pay for the car park, we asked on the price. But our van driver told us to pay only when we’re leaving. Without wasting any time, we quickly got off the van. It was a sunny day, and I hate sweating after showering. Blah.

We then sent someone (can’t recall who) to check out the entrance fee while we waited near the van. He came back with surprising news – something about taking camera in and has to pay 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50).

Shocked upon hearing the news, most of us decided not to take any pictures there. After collecting the money, we then walked in, with another two person (can’t recall who d) got the tickets on behalf of us at the ticket counter.

Then the two came back to us with another price! –”

Only after the third time, we got the amount right. Haiyo. I think we spent like 15 minutes figuring out the correct entrance fee. Pengsan. The entrance to Taman Sari Water Castle is 7.000 Rupiah (RM2.55). To take photographs in the area, one needs to pay additional 1.000 Rupiah (RM0.37) only.

We got ourselves a guide with no payment. He then led us to the four towers where the Sultan and his family would pray. There he explained the background of water castle – like when it was built, by whom, for what purposes, the earthquake, etc etc.

I didn’t really listen to him as I got so impatient because of the weather, blah; but I remembered the important details; like the first Sultan of Yogyakarta built this for his family’s recreational as well as fort and was abandoned after being badly damaged in an earthquake. If not mistaken, the earthquake happened during the 4^th Sultan ruling. Then the Portuguese government renovated the whole castle.

He led us to the bathing area! There we could see two big pools on both sides. The one on the left is for the Sultan’s wives or concubines and the one on the right is for the Sultan’s children. Both pools now look inviting and fresh after renovation funded by the Portuguese government.

Made me feel like jumping in but I stopped after seeing a dead tikus (mice) floating in the kid’s pool.

At the side of the concubines’ pool, there’s a plant with small round green fruits. Our guide took one, squeezed it open, and then told us that in olden days, the ladies used this as nail polish. Then he asked for Elise’s fingers and painted on one of the fingers. Curiously, I offered my left thumb.

He painted. A shining layer appeared on top of my nail, and I happily showed off to Sat. Which made him said this, “good, no need use money to buy nail polish d. Just plant this at home.”

On the left side of the pool, there’s a watch tower. This was used for the Sultan to watch the ladies bathing in the concubines’ pool. If he interested in one or few of them, he would call for them to accompany him to bath at his private pool, which located at the other side of the watch tower.

What an interesting life the Sultan had in past!

The Sultan’s pool is smaller compared to the others, but it’s big enough for him and his chosen ladies to play around.

At the watch tower, there are also changing room and Sultan’s bedroom. The changing room is now empty (like duh!), but I can see that in the golden time, this room must be full of clothes and decorative.

As for the Sultan’s bedroom, there are holes underneath the bed. That’s for the servants to burn the aromatic leaves/woods/potpourris to warm the bed and also to scent the room.

We then walked to the back of the castle. The area is open up, with lots chicken running about freely. The chicken looked well fed too. Lol.

There the guide told us about the connecting route and on houses nearby the Kraton (Sultan’s Palace). He told us all houses here, including his, are occupied by the Sultan’s servants since the first Sultan till now, all generations are still working with the Sultan. He claimed that he and the other guides in the water castle work as guide free of charge, or in other field as way to show gratitude and loyalty to the Sultan for not claiming back the houses they stay. He added, in each generation, there must be one that must work for the Sultan; therefore it’s him who chose to work for the Sultan.

Asked if he works full-time as a guide, he said no. He said that all of them only required to work like 2 or 3 days per week. On other time, he would work other place.

He spoke that they got nothing from doing such service, and off and on tourists would give them tips for doing the job well.

When he spoke on the tips, it suddenly all made sense on why he’s telling so many things about this. Lol. But we all decided to chip in money for his tips, as he did do a good job in showing us around.

Then, he brought us to this handicraft shop located in the same area itself. Our guide told us that the people of the Sultan took handicraft skill to improve their living and hope that we could get something if we like.

Living in Malaysia with the culture almost similar to Indonesia where we can find batik so easily, we scanned through the entire shop – I had my eyes on a piece of batik but never dare to ask the price because I scare it would be expensive and I would find it to be very difficult to say No after that. Haha.

After that, our guide brought us out of the castle to another place. We walked past kampong contoh (excellent village) and could see that the villagers were quite stunned to see us. There’s one that said, “arigato” to me out of the blue and bowed! I was like – err… Do I look like Japanese? Lmao. Lmao.

We then reached a covered area with stairs descending down. Not knowing where we’re heading, I just followed the rest. The scenery changed from proper looking kampung to dilapidated brick houses. They are mostly abandoned.

Spotted an old bird cage. I guess it was used centuries ago. Unsure why it’s left there. Hmm.

Few turns to the left and right, and we reached to a nicer looking abandoned house.

If I’m not mistaken, this place is used to be the Sultan’s retreat house gua. It was quite dark, and deserted, and a bit eerie. There were no light, and the only light we had come from the sky. So I could imagine how dark it was in the past.

Looking at the watch, we realised we had spent more than an hour there. Quickly we walked back to the water castle. Along the way, we collected money of 1.000 Rupiah (RM0.37) – some gave more and then passed to our guide once we got back to the entrance of the water castle.

But before leaving, I asked him if there’s such place where there are staircases all over the place in water castle?

He gave me a puzzled look, and asked me what’s the place called?

If I know about the place, I would have named it – instead of asking staircases place. Moreover, I saw that place in the photo album taken by my juniors during his visit to Yogyakarta last year! How can I be wrong? T_T

Then he shook his head, and said, “I’ve showed you all places here in water castle.”

Lazy on arguing about it, I gave some dumb excuses like probably see the name wrongly or maybe not this water castle; bid him goodbye and left this place. Sat passed 2.000 Rupiah (RM0.75) to our van driver for the car park and drove away after paying.

Initial plan of visiting the Kraton got scraped as we have only barely 1 hour left before checking in as our flight to Jakarta is at 4.30pm and we didn’t even had our lunch yet. Feeling VERY HUNGRY, we asked the driver to recommend us a place to eat.

He then asked if we want to try seafood and went on describing about eating in middle of paddy fields, about freshness of the seafood.

Upon hearing the word seafood, we immediately said NO, and asked for cheap, local food by saying we were all students, not earning yet. Lol. Tell me la, how can we dine like Kings and Queens when it supposed to be a budgeted backpack trip? Lol. Moreover, that’s our 2^nd day in Indonesia only. We can’t afford to toss the Rupiahs around on good expensive food when we could find the equivalent ones in 1/10 the price!

I guess the driver finally got that we’re the thrifty travelers that he brought us to Soto Pak Marto Taman Sari Cabang. We buta-ly (blindly) walked in, not knowing what was in store for us. Sat, Aaron, Daniel and me sat at different table as there weren’t enough for 10 of us.

There is a big menu on the wall, based on the menu, we made our order. Curious on what’s es jeruk, I ordered that… just to know that’s lime juice with assam. Lol.

Few minutes later, the food came. Halfway eating the dish, I realised it contains beef. –“ And they only serves soto; either both mixed up (soto campur) or separately (soto pisah) like mine.

Feeling full from our lunch, the other table started to pay the bills at the counter. Just when the people of our table want to make move, a ahgua (she-male) walked in the shop, went around asking money. Seeing him coming near, I buat bodoh, pretended not to see anything and ignoring him at all.

The next time I know, he uttered insults at me in don’t know what language. And the young girls in the store who understand that giggled and looked at me.

WALAO EH! If the same scenario happened in Malaysia, I would have scolded him back, in Hokkien. But since I was in foreign country and I got a plane to catch later, I just kept calm and continued acting dumb.

The ahgua left after hurling insults. I then paid my lunch which costs 9.000 Rupiah (RM3.30). We had to pay for parking too, 2.000 Rupiah (RM0.75).

From our lunch place to airport didn’t take long. Probably about 20 minutes later, we reached the Adisucipto Airport. The van service ended there, and we paid 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50) per person which amount to 500.000 (RM185) Rupiah for the 2^nd day service. Since this country is known to tipping guides and drivers, we gave the guide a total of 20.000 Rupiah (RM7.50). That’s like 2.000 Rupiah (RM0.75) per person.

Then we walked in.

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At the crossroad, I spotted a man walking around the stopped vehicles; one hand playing the trumpet, the other hand held out, begging for money. He then showing off his skill in front of a bajaj (like the auto-rickshaw in India) carrying an angmoh lady and her local guide; until the lady took out money from her purse and passed it onto the trumpet man’s palm.

Interesting!

50 minutes later (the journey back took longer as there were more traffic on road), we reached our hotel. Sat requested for the van driver to drop us off Jl. Malioboro before he drove home and he agreed. He asked the driver to wait for us for half an hour.

With such limited time to shower and rest, I quickly went to the public bathroom and shower while Sat went out to look for cybercafé to resolve some matter. He assured me that he’ll be back soon.

Now back to the public bath thingy, there’s no heater and public soap whatsoever, and I forgot to bring mine to the bathroom. I only remembered taking in the given towel, my clothes and hair shampoo! Goodness! Haha. So I used the hair shampoo as the body shampoo as well, washing myself in the blardy cold water! I was thankful for the clean water, but if the water was hot, then it would be better.

By 7.20pm everyone already started gather at the poolside, but Sat was nowhere to be found! My anxiety level increased, and I asked for Ailing’s help to sms him. Afterall I didn’t want everyone to think ill-ly on Sat for not turning up punctually.

He finally showed up and quickly took a fast shower. I asked him what took him so long after we got back to the van. He said there were lots people in the internet café; have to wait for his turn to use.

Our van brought us to this T-shirt lane, somewhere near Kraton, the Old Palace. We were clueless on why he brought us there, but we were very hungry and the shirts definitely wouldn’t feed us well. So, Sat told the van driver to directly bring us to the Jl. Malioboro where we can find decent food.

There was a fiesta in the town at Jl. Alun-alun Utara, near the Kraton. We could hear music blasting out loudly, laser lights dancing in the sky, people talking over the speakers, urging more people to come in; mini-train with loud honk going round the area; vendors selling balloons, snacks, drinks – the area was lively and full of people!

Our van driver stopped at the side of Jl. Senopati. Sat then told him to be here the next day at 8.30 in the morning as we engaged his service for 1 ½ day in total. That’ll be another 500.000 Rupiah (RM185 or RM18.50 per person) to be paid to him for the next day’s excursion and airport transfer.

From there, we walked towards the Jl. Jenderai Ahmad Yani and 5 minutes later, we reached Jl. Malioboro! Oh my, there are lots food vendors, especially ladies grilling satays on a small barbeque pit on the walk pavement, while yelling “Satay! Satay!” However, the price of the satays got cheaper, and cheaper as we walked. Lol.

Tempted and hungry, we tried those satays. We paid 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50) for 10 sticks of satays and their local lemang (if I’m not wrong, that’s the lemang). I took one stick to try. To be frank, I felt like I was biting on chicken skin or chicken fat instead of meat. I was confused if all satays in Indonesia are like that or only the one at the streets.

In front of the sate stall we bought from, is a kuih stall. Emily, Elise and Ailing were attracted to the colourful kuihs, therefore buying some from them. Can’t recall how much it costs but it’s definitely cheap.

The above kuih is almost the same as our kuih melaka, except that the filling is partially hard brown sugar whereas ours is the melted brown sugar.

Few steps ahead, I spotted a wooden stall bearing the word – RON DE. Curiously, I went to the stall and asked the old man what’s ron de. He replied in very heavy Yogya’s Indonesian language – from what I know he spoke about sup halia (ginger soup) and the ingredients (he pointed to the ingredients in the stall as he spoke) all mixed together. Knowing that that soup wouldn’t harm me, and would help me kick off the wind in my tummy (because of the ginger), I ordered one bowl, sharing it with Sat.  It costs 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50) too and it was heavenly!

After seeing 2 thumbs up from me and Sat, Emily and Elise ordered a bowl each too, sharing with Ailing and Lasker. Memang enak!

Jl. Malioboro is packed with people even on Wednesday night! There are shops selling cheap T-shirt (damn cheap like RM3 per piece, but lazy want to bargain more because don’t want to carry extra load on our back), all sorts of colourful snacks, souvenirs, shoes, bags, and so on. There are also food carts at the corner/side of the road, with mini tables and benches for their customers.

At the middle of the popular street, we decided to go to the funfair we saw earlier. That place looked more entertaining and since we don’t feel like buying things yet, we crossed the road to the opposite side, and walked the opposite way to the funfair. Along the way, we saw few angmoh and local kids playing 3-on-3 basketball on the pavement. There was a girl playing in there too! Fuiyo, girl power!

About 15 minutes later, we reached the entrance of the funfair. At the entrance there were carts selling fried snacks. We bought some there, if not mistaken 500 or 700 Rupiah (RM0.20) per piece which amount to 3.500 Rupiah in total. But the lady didn’t have change when we gave her 4 pieces of 1.000 Rupiah, so she gave us extra one piece.

And being so clumsy, while eating, one of the pieces – fried tofu fell off the plastic! Boohoo!

Done eating, we entered the funfair. I think we were the only foreigners there! It was quite scary but since we’re in considerably big group, it should be okay. There are plenty to things to see – colourful decorated hermit crabs’ shells (which remind me greatly of Wenyan because she used to have one last time), cheap jeans and leather jackets, DIY T-shirt prints, and many more.

Also, one can find their local rides there.

One that caught our eyes is the ‘twister’. Local would sit at the bench with their arms hold tightly at the wooden plank which acts as the back rest too, while the operators would pull and push the ride, making it swings up and down.

Interesting yet dangerous!

Still feeling hungry, I begged Sat to feed me more food. He then pointed to a Bakso stall near the ‘twister’ ride. Not knowing what bakso is, I simply ordered that and I was very, very, very hungry!

The bakso costs 6.000 Rupiah (RM2.20), Sat’s fried rice costs 10.000 Rupiah (RM3.70) and a bottle of Teh Botol costs 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50).

After coming back to Penang only I knew that the meatball in the bakso is actually made of beef. Lol. But since I didn’t know about it when I ate that, I think I’m not that entirely sinful gua…

Tired for not having enough sleep, everyone agreed that it was time to go home. We walked back to Jl. Senopati, hailed two taxis for 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50) to our hotel, Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman.

As much as I want to shower before I slept, but the thought of the cold water I had earlier totally turned me off. I washed my face, brushed teeth and fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.

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So all of us were summoned to granny’s on 8th day of CNY.

That day was the eve of Hokkien New Year (Thni Kong Seh) celebration. Due to maternal granny’s first year of passing, we didn’t give prayer and offerings at home.

When we reached, we realised that my aunts were busy making ang ku kueh. I never seen the process before, quickly took out my camera and shoot! Keke.

I can’t recall what flour they used, probably some glutinous rice floor (I maybe wrong, never bother to check about it.. LOL), add red colouring, and water, little bit of oil, mixed them together. As for the filling, aunt used sweet potatoes; boiled, peeled and smashed. The skin (red dough) is flattened first, before wrapping the filling. Then it is placed into the wooden mould like the picture above.

Give it a little knock to get the shaped dough out and the end result would look like this.

My aunts made the process looked so easy; which I can’t say if it is as I didn’t participate. Would love to get my hand dirty on doing this, but I think I rather stand aside and watch – avoid screwing things up. Haha.

Next, the shaped dough is steamed for about 10 minutes? You see, when I didn’t involve in making the kueh, I don’t know the exact detail. Haha!

Yet somehow the shape looks not so attractive to me after being steamed. They look so puffed up, and the shape isn’t distinctive anymore. I prefer the uncooked kueh. Haha!

After the angkukueh were all steamed, it was time for lousang.

There is nothing much to shout about the yeesang. Typical method of lousang-ing, lou it as high as possible until it was all over the table. Haha.

This year I was abit late in listing down the recipes and going around looking for the ingredients. Didn’t know what stuff I got so busy with until almost neglected the most important Chinese culture. Lol.

I almost told my mum to just buy the ingredients for steamboat because I got ‘lazy’ just by thinking bout it! The agony of coming out with 8 entrée!

But then the tradition must go one – since it started by me. *sendiri cari pasal la* So, when the day came, I started chopping up the ingredients at 3.30pm as mum requested to eat earlier at 7pm.

Mum would drop by the kitchen, asking if I need her help. But thinking that I have plenty of time left, I told her that I’ll be fine on my own.

Little did I know, time really FLEW!

By 5.30pm, only 2 courses were done and I had to yell for my sister to help me in frying few things as I was busy preparing for the major dishes!

Bacon wrapped scallop

Sat came at 6pm – cause I told him too. And I thought of asking him to help up. But he dressed up so nicely and calling him to the dirty kitchen would mess him up.

So just me and my sister. She went on deep frying 2 dishes, and stir-fry the vege on my behalf while I frantically ran in and out the wet kitchen getting more and more ingredients, the correct plate; did wrapping, decorate dishes and food tasting.

Stir-fry mixed vege with love apple

Guinness stout spareribs

Firecracker prawn

By 7pm, the fish was put into wok for steaming and the plates were laid on the table, together with glass cups, chopsticks and spoons. Followed by the dishes soon after that.

Restaurant style steamed white pomfret

The dinner started half an hour later as I got carried away with the timing. However the highlight of the dinner was still in the oven by the time we started eating. LOL!

After 15 minutes into eating, I took out the chicken from the oven. This dish supposed to be double-steamed, but because mum gave away the steamer to her friends last time which I didn’t know about that (–”), we have to ‘bake’ the chicken.

Lotus wrapped 8 Treasure Baked Chicken

Thank god it turned out well despite the black burning of the lotus. *Phew

If you noticed there are only 6 photos available. That’s because I forgot to take picture of the dessert – which doesn’t really matter since it was half fail. Half fail because the tastewise was good, but lookwise it didn’t! Probably putting ice cream on top of the supposedly cake would make it nice! Haha!

As for another one, it supposed to be fruit salad – which I didn’t make because everyone couldn’t eat anymore at the end of the meal. We only took dessert 2 hours after dinner as we were too full!

Having been the ‘major chef’ on the CNY eve since 2006 continuously is seriously an honourific task. From choosing the right recipes (in order not to clash with superstition beliefs) to cooking the dish out and decorating them requires an enormous work and energy and time! But it’s all worthwhile. Afterall reunion dinner only occurs once a year, so no complains!

Maybe next year I should reduce to 5 entrée and 1 dessert. 6 (pronounced as lak in Hokkien) sounds like LUCK tho the Cantonese’s ‘fatt‘ (8) which means PROSPER! sounds even nicer! Haha

Well, we’ll see about that next year…