driving in the fast lane

i just came back from malacca - the first time i've driven myself up there!

the trip's meant to be a short 2 day 1 night affair mainly involving eating and lazing around in a nice hotel. relaxing and luxurious. the secondary goal would be to let me get acquainted with driving in malaysia, under the supervision of my parents. n i think we accomplished our goals splendidly ;)




we had stayed at the majestic hotel, a beautifully restored mansion attached to a small block of rooms overlooking a bend of the malacca river. it's tastefully furnished to resemble something not out of place at a colonial clubhouse, with generous dark wood panels and regal chrome lights. n as if to clearly emphasis that this is malacca - a major peranakan settlement - a splash of psychedelic colours and a twist of hybrid styles were applied most cleverly throughout.

our first lunch was at nancy's kitchen, the supposedly quintessential peranakan establishment in the heart of historic malacca. we ordered a sample of the well known traditional dishes, all painstakingly made the traditional way. well, i've never really appreciated the big deal over peranakan food, but i suppose nancy's food was quite nice, though a tad overly oily (i'd suppose pple don't really care abt their health when they decide to binge on good malaysian food). but their chendol is just sinfully irresistible. for one, their chendol's the REAL deal, not the hard tasteless strips of plastic u normally get. n the gula melaka was just so so good.
after an entire afternoon of sampling tarts, biscuits, kuehs, and other chinese/peranakan pastries throughout the jonker area (and after a long long nap back at the hotel), dinner was a teochew place not far from nancy's that chubbyhubby had recommended. teosoonlong's quite a typical chinese zichar place (with all the charms of its roadside muck) that has upgraded itself to a restaurant with air-conditioned seating. the food's good, no doubt, n the service friendly and efficient, though i must admit, the place is really overpriced >.<breakfast was skipped the next morning, and lunch was hainanese chicken rice (balls) at hoe kee (however u spell it). well, it's recommended by the taxi driver, and everyone's crazy over it (the queues to all the hainanese chicken rice establishment are testament to the phenomenon), so we HAD to give it a try. well, i'm personally not particularly impressed, but i suppose the food was enjoyable.
ending off the trip with more desserts and more pastries, i
had sped us home zooming down the highway at 160kph. which was a stark contrast to the jam at the malaysian border where we got stuck at on our way there, crawling at a record breaking speed (or slowness?) of less than 500m(etre)ph :S haha.

back home!

after getting back to yogjakarta and checking into a hotel right in the middle of the city, we decided to explore the vicinity of the hotel, and i was quite sad to discovered wad a

mess of a muck the city really is. not surprisingly. o well. i suppose that's the real indonesia for u; not ur fancy hotels, luxurious resorts and ur manicured plantations; where things r dirty, old, run-down, spoilt and covered in grafiti, where ur air is choked with smoke, where ur pple r down-trodden and dirt pooor.

we had our christams eve dinner at this themed restaurant with a gamelan ensemble performing while we dined, which was really quite nice. and then we spent the rest of christmas rushing home to have dinner with the rest of the family.

coffee POISONING!

we had toured the coffee plantation proper today. n i found it such an exciting and interesting tour! the plantation grounds were really quite huge, and exploring every nook and cranny on our own was already quite an adventure! but it was much more educational and informative to have someone show us around and tell us more about the flora and fauna found on the estate.

the plantation grows 4 types of coffee: arabica, robusta, excelsia and java. in addition to coffee, it also grows all the fruits, vegetables and mushrooms served in its restaurants, plus a myriad of spices.

here's a bush of arabica coffee plant. note the fat and sparse fruits and small leaves.

coffee beans, unroasted - without (left) and with (right) their skins.

roasted coffee beans and the leaves of all 4 coffee sub-species - note the different shapes and sizes. (from left) java, arabica, robusta and excelsia.

roasted coffee beans eaten the local way with brown sugar. a myriad collection of spices grown in the plantation (above), some used to make exotic and delicious concoctions (below). after we left the plantation and on our way back to yogjakarta, we decided to make a little detour to steal a peak at the infamous volcano, mount merapi. pity the clouds were still obscuring merapi, but the view of the surrounding area atop the observatory was satisfying enough.
mount merapi (above) obscured by thick fluffy clouds.
and thus, by the end of the day, i had drank so many cups of coffee and nibbled so many coffee beans, (and had gotten so uncomfortable from it all) i think i'd give coffee a rest for at least a while... haha :P

*squeel* AGAIN

i woke up late and started the day reading beedle the bard in the little gazebo in the villa by our private pool, followed by a long and invigorating swim at the public lap pool. yea, it was really refreshing :) after brunch and more slacking, we checked out and made our way to our next resort in a coffee plantation high up in the mountains (see http://www.losari.info).

and wow. is it another *squeel* worthy place again! i was running amok in the villa and the resort grounds once again, squeeling inside me all the while. haha. it's a whole different concept from amanjiwo, the previous resort. it's more in the style of the colonial era (dutch), with very strong local flavours and a touch of 'eco' tourism. somehow it seems as if everything's stuck in the good 'ol days from 'the age of greatness' with ur old world oppulence, european charm, and the ingenuity of blending all these with the best that javanese village quaintness can provide. besides having an infinity pool vanishing into the far away mountains and jungle (the resort is surrounded by no less than 8 volcanoes), the resort's got a very attractive grand old dame of a club house, where coffee is served in the afternoon, and where a pianist plays oldies to your fancy.

we got ourselves another villa at losari too. this time it's a 2-storeyed affair. my parents' room on the ground floor leads to a patio, with a large lazy couch, overlooking the mountainous jungled wilderness, while my room's downstairs, where i have lots of space and privacy all to myself ;)

i went for more swimming at the infinity pool, which was getting very cold when it started to rain, while my parents went off for another massage at the spa. the rest of the evening was spent lounging in the bar, and simply doing nothing :)

i did prepare a petalled bubble bath for my parents in their bathroom though. the bathtub just looked too good to not bathe in, and the bathroom has these large windows that look out into the wilderness too! n with the bowl of petals and candle just right beside the tub, how can i resist? haha :P

*squeel*

*squeel squeel* today's been such a wonderful wonderful day! haha ^^ n with superior internet connection, i've got the luxury of uploading many many photos!

we left yogjakarta late this morning, and after a short detour to a snake fruit plantation, we made our way to borobodur, a buddhist temple complex. which was also built like 1000+ years ago. it's actually like a large pyramid of stupas and wall reliefs depicting buddhist ideas n motifs. it's a really grand n majestic thing, n i got so excited running all over the place snapping photos! but i suppose i was most impressed by the intricate carvings on the reliefs? i mean i could spend days just looking through every single panel in the complex n still yearn for more. they r just simply so exquisite! here r some samples:

with the main touring of the day (n trip) done, we checked into our new hotel (see http://www.amanjiwo.com) n decided to plonk ourselves there till we check out tmrw. n boy is a fantabulistic place! the hotel complex is located at the foot of the hills overlooking borobodur, sandwiched between lush forests n neatly cultivated padi fields. n yes, i was squeeling inside all the way :Plunch was in taken in a pavillion at the end of a trail winding through tall grass, overlooking the padi fields. it was a lazy afternoon having lunch lying on couches, sipping watermelon-pineapple-lime-mint punch and reading.

we spent the rest of our day browsing through the hotel's extensive library, lazing in our villa, and swimming! omg. they've got one of the most pleasant lap pools! ^^ v v nice. with the mountains n jungles in the background, overlooking the padi fields. n they fill their pools with spring water from the mountains! thus one of the cleanest pools i've swam in.

dinner was in the hotel too (u'd b surprised how rural we r) and they had a small gamelan trio perform for us over dinner. the place is really tranquil at night. with little light pollution, n just the sounds of nature chirping/croaking softly in the background. we had gone for a traditional javanese massage later in the evening (which was really quite relaxing, esp after a day of fun. n swimming.) n we'd retired back into our villa to soak in our own little private pool. n my parents insisted that we all have a bubble bath in the outdoor tub by candlelight afterwards :P o well!

we ended the night reading (my mom - the many many books she borrowed from the library) and internet-ing (me & my dad - i'm busy chatting n blogging, as usual) in our villa with classical javanese music playing softly on the sound system in the background. n it just feels great :)

tired n stuffed!

it's been such a tiring day! n my dad's been over feeding us again!

we left the hotel at 8 and started our day touring the kraton (palace) of the sultan of yogjakarta. apparently he's one of the few remaining sultans in java, and who still actually commands great prestige. the palace was simple but nice, n i really liked the gamelan/wayang pavillion that's got a FULL ensemble in all its royal splendour. pity we missed the performances. another palace - the water castle - was also really quite quaint, with its courtyards of towers and pools.

we spent quite a bit of time exploring local handicraft specialities, including batik, silverware and wayang kulit puppets, before having lunch at this most interesting restaurant overlooking a vibrant garden, that also has the strangest of flavours of drinks like iced tea with cinnamon, black pepper and chili padi or lime punch with tumeric, ginger and lemon grass.

the afternoon was spent lost in the grandeur of the hindu temple ruins of prambanan which were just awe inspiring and emotional. the entire temply complex is just simply amazing, esp considered the whole thing was built 1200 years ago, lost to the junlge, discovered by the dutch in the 18th century, restored by the end of the 20th century, only to b damaged badly again in the earthquake of 2006. i had gone completely trigger happy by then. haha. n to top it off, classical javanes music was piped in in the background. really delightful!

after another more ruins and trying some javanese durians (which are HUGE and very much more oblong, n very delicious too) we were so tired we decided to call it a day and return to the hotel. pity we got back to late and the pool's closed, and somehow they decided that sunday should b a quiet night and no performance/activity would take place on tonight. o well. maybe we'll just rest earlier tonight and wake up earlier tmrw morning...

ugh. i'm really so tired and so stuffed i dunno how i'm gonna survive the rest of my hols! i suppose once we get further away from the city our pace would slacken? and we'll get too tired of indon food soon enough? :P

dinner in padi fields, hotel in lily ponds

2008/12 - Indonesia, Yogjakarta

it's my 1st day in indon. well, it's been a long long time since i'm back in java? the last time i was here i was 3... n boy has it been an eye opener!

soekarno-hata airport in jakarta is really lovely and quaint. it looks more like a garden with pavillions than an airport. n it feels so retro 1980s! with tesselated smooth red brick pathways n all! it just feels so... indon? haha.

by the time we reached yogjakarta it was already almost 9 pm. we haven't really had dinner yet, n so after checking into our hotel, we went to jimbaran for dinner. like its bali namesake, the restaurants in this area serves good seafood dinner in padi fields with a rustic touch, complete with candle light and open pavillions. yup, dinner was delicious. n it came with 5 different types of chilli! n everything was just so spicy n hot i swear i'd get my worst intestinal rushing yet! haha.

we had a walk round the hotel after dinner n realised that the hotel's really very nice! we got soooo excited and happy just touring the compound and already started to take sooo many photos! haha. it's got so many lily ponds with pretty borodudor themed stone works strewn all over the place. n the swimming is absolutely fabulous! it snakes round the garden, opening into lagoons n ponds and crossed by bridges. it's b so much fun exploring it! n there r little gazebos where pple can have intimate private dinners in the garden!

to top off everything, our room's got a little nice balcony overlooking the garden! bleh. i could just stay in the room n rot! but o well. a busy day of touring beckons tmrw n the driver insists we start out day at 8 !