Indonesia Trip: Waiting Sunset at Rock Bar in Ayana Hotel

After visiting Pandawa beach, my sister wanted to us to visit Rock Bar in Ayana Hotel. I've heard about this Rock Bar many times before. Some people said that this bar has stunning sunset view. Ayana Hotel located in Jimbaran, not far from the Pecatu where the Pandawa beach's located.

The Ayana Hotel complex was so vast, therefore going to Rock Bar location from the entrance gate can be quite tricky. After taking some wrong ways, finally we made it to the Rock Bar. From the lobby, we can see the beautiful view of the hotel's swimming pool and garden.

view from the lobby

Even though its kindy tacky, but me and my family couldn't hold ourselves from taking picture since the view of the hotel was so beautiful.

with the hotel's garden as my background

After done with the photo, we went to Rock Bar entrance gate. There were a long queue at the gate. The Rock Bar crew told us it was the queue to the elevator that will bring costumer downstairs where the Rock Bar is located. She also told us to take the stairs if we wanted to arrived faster. Then we chose to take the stairs. From the stairs, we can see the stunning view of the Rock Bar.

the view while walking from the elevator queue line to the stairs

Rock Bar view from the stairs

We finally arrived at the Rock Bar and directly took the best seat that we can get. When we saw the menu, we found out that there was no main course here, there were only appetizers and desserts. So we chose sushi roll and chocolate mousse. The cheapest drink in there was its ice tea, which cost me IDR 90k.

we got nice seats actually

view from our seat

Sushi Roll

Chocolate Mousse and Blueberry Sauce

the famous pricey ice tea

The taste of the Sushi roll and Chocolate Mousse were good, but not great. I guessed they're pricey because Rock Bar's stunning view. Well, you know, good view usually comes with the price.

When the sun was almost set, we saw the raining cloud was coming toward Rock Bar from far away. So we quickly asked for our bill. Right after we paid the bill, the rain poured to Rock Bar which made most visitor run away avoiding the rain. And yes, we didn't catch the sunset :(


XOXO,
The Tourist

Indonesia Trip: Pandawa Beach, Bali

Last January, me and my family had a short trip to Bali. My sister plan all the itinerary, so I just enjoyed what she has planned. It's been a long time for us since the last time we visited Bali. Nowadays, Bali has more malls and shopping center. I am not sure if Bali goes more modern or just more crowded.

The first destination was Pandawa beach which is located in Pecatu, on the south of Bali island. The driver said that this beach is newly opened and become a new tourist attraction in Bali. From Kuta to Pandawa beach was not quite far, it took us about an 30 to 45 minutes. When we almost arrived there, we saw a limestone hill was excavated to create a road to the beach.

the view of the hill from the parking lot

The road was declining from the limestone hill to the beach. When we arrived at the parking lot, we can see from below how much part of the hill that was excavated. Then we walk to the beach. At first I though the beach will be quite and peaceful, but the reality was different. It was Saturday, so the beach was crowded and honestly I could not really enjoy it.

yes, it was packed with people

another view of the beach

Even though I didn't interested with the beach, but I was really attracted by huge statues that were craved in the limestone hill. There were six statues actually, but the main statues was only five. They are the statues from Five Pandawa story, which consists of Arjuna, Bima, Dewi Kunti, Nakula, and Sahadewa statues.

five pandawa statues

me and my sister in front of Bima statue

The view of the beach from the statue's location was great. There were also a parking lot in here for people who wanted enjoyed the beach from higher perspective.

we can see the beach from here

view of Pandawa beach from the higher parking lot

XOXO,
The Tourist

Indonesia Trip: Arjuna Temple, Sikidang Crater, and Telogo Warno Lake in Dieng

Before went to my best friend wedding in Wonosobo (see the early story in the previous post), me, my sister, and my travelling partner, decided to stay at Dieng first. Dieng is located not far from Wonosobo. The route was so simple, we only need to follow Dieng street from Wonosobo to Dieng. In the middle of the route, we met a retribution post, where we had to pay for entrance fee.

There were many tourist attractions in Dieng, but we chose three most favorite place to visit. The first one was Arjuna temple. Actually it was a temple complex, so we could see many temple at once.

When we arrived in there, the rain was falling and it was almost afternoon. Since we didn't know where’s the ticket booth, so we went straight to the temple. There were 5 main temples in the Arjuna temple complex, they are: Arjuna, Puntadewa, Srikandi, Sembadra, and Semar temples. Compared to the other 4 temples, Semar temple was more look like a stone house compare to a temple. Even though the complex was quite small, but the variation of each temples made this place interesting.

Semar and Arjuna temples

left to right: Srikandi, Puntadewa, and Sembadra temples

me, in front the 5 temples

Since it was almost evening, we decided to go to a homestay nearby to take a rest and continue our journey the next day before going to the wedding.

On the next day, we went to our second destination, which was Sikidang Crater. Sikidang crater was located near Arjuna temple complex, but you better use car or motorcycle since it will sweat you if you go there by walk (like what I did when I went here at the first time).

Actually you only required to buy one ticket to enter to Arjuna temple complex and Sikidang crater, but because we didn’t buy ticket to enter Arjuna temple complex, so we had nothing to show when the officer asked us about the entrance ticket. Then we have to bought the ticket for IDR 10k/person.

When arriving in Sikidang crater parking lot, the sulfuric smell was everywhere. Some sellers then approached us and offered mask to reduce the smell. They sold it around IDR 3k each. Other seller also offered us to buy some local foods.

the view of Sikidang crater from parking lot

From the parking lot, we had to walk about 2-3 minutes to get closer to the crater. We had to be careful while walking since there were some sulfuric smoke coming out from the crack in the land. While walking I saw some sellers also offered a horse rental to take the guess to the crater.

the horse rental

The crater itself quite vast, almost three-quarters basketball field. Local people said the temperature of the water in the crater is thousand celcius, but my partner didn't believe if it was that high. Near the crater, smoke was everywhere, but since we stood from where the wind blow, we didn't trapped by smoke.

Sikidang crater

While I was in there, there was a group of people cycling to the crater. They had cycled from Blitar, East Java. That’s really far from Dieng. Well, I don’t think my calf could afford cycling that far.

the cyclists (with standing applause from me)

Finished with the crater, we continue our journey to the third tourist attraction, which was Telogo Warno lake. The name Telogo Warno (Color Lake) is coming from the color or the water. This lakes has two colors, which are turquoise and dark grey. Another lake in the Telaga Warna lake is Pengilon Lake. The water in Pengilon lake and Color lake have different color, but since there are no separator between the two lakes, so the colors were blended. The water in the color lake is calm and you can even see the reflection of the hills around the lake in the water. Just like mirror.

Telaga Warna (Color Lake)

Pengilon lake

the area map

Ticket entrance to this place was so cheap, only IDR 2k/person. There was a small island in the middle of the lake. In this island, you can also see some meditation caves. There were 4 caves: Semar, Sumur (Well), Jaran (Horse), and Pengantin (Bride) caves. Each of the caves has mystical history that attracts people who believe in mysticism. Some people also said that Indonesia 2nd president ever meditated in one of these caves.

Semar Cave

Bride Cave

Sumur Cave/Well Cave

Horse Cave/Jaran Cave

After done with color lake, we went back to the homestay to dress up for the wedding reception and then continue the journey from Dieng to Wonosobo. Even thought we went to Wonosobo at 11 a.m, the fog already come down and made us really cautious.

the foggy road

XOXO, 

The Tourist

Indonesia Trip: Quick stop at Borobudur temple

Last May, my best friend had a wedding reception. She held it in her hometown in Wonosobo. As a loyal friend, I decided to bring my sister and my best travelling partner to the wedding. Since there's no direct flight to Wonosobo from Jakarta, therefor I had to took a flight to Yogyakarta first then rent a car for travelling from Jogja (the short name of Yogyakarta) to Wonosobo.

To get to Wonosobo, we went to Magelang first, then took a short cut through Kreteg. Borobudur Temple is located near our route, so we decided to turn to Borobudur temple first, since we still have plenty time.

After parked our car in the parking lot, we walked to the ticket booth. While we walked, there are many sellers came to us, from sun-glass, hat, until fan sellers came toward us offering their stuffs. Although we have brought our equipment, my traveling partner decided to buy a cheap sun-glasses since he didn't bring his sun-glasses and wanted to look cool in the photos. FYI, if you came here during daytime, the sun will dazzle your eyes and the hot weather will stroke your skin directly. Maybe because there were not many trees there, so the weather became very hot. So, don't forget to bring umbrella and sunglasses when you come here.

Entrance ticket to Borobudur was IDR 30k/person. I heard they’ll cost you differently if you are a foreigner, about USD 20/person. This price already include sarong rental. Actually using the sarong itself wasn't a must. When I came to Borobudur years before, I didn't even met anyone offering me to wear sarong. This sarong is only used to appreciate the temple itself because there are Borobudur painting in each sarong. Well, after all, it's free anyway, so I didn't mind at all.

wearing Borobudur sarong

Borobudur complex is so vast. If you tired to walk around by foot, you can take a bicycle, mini train, or even elephant. Each of these alternatives required you to pay some costs.

There are ten levels in Borobudur temple. To enjoy the whole temple, you can walk around every level and see the story that were carved in the temple's walls. But if you don't have that much time (like what we did), you can climbed the stairs directly to the top level of the temple. In the top of the temple, you can find many Stupa. In each Stupa, there's a Buddha statue. Some people believe if you can touch the Buddha statue inside Stupa, then you can get your wishes come true.

an open stupa with Buddha inside

me, among the stupa

From the top level of the temple, you can see beautiful panoramic view of area around Borobudur temple, which mostly consist of blue sky and green fields and hills.

view from the top

After enjoying the view, we decided to came down and continued our journey to Wonosobo.

XOXO, 

The Tourist

Thailand Trip: Rooftop Dining at Zense

If you googling about what to do in Bangkok, rooftop dining will be one of the recommendations. There are many rooftop dinner places in Bangkok. The most popular rooftop dining in Bangkok is Sky Bar - Lebua at State Tower and Vertigo and Moon Bar at Banyan Tree Hotel. Those two require minimum spending with expensive price if we want to make reservation. Because me and my traveling partner had limited budget so we decided to choose the more affordable rooftop dining place, which was Zense. We were so happy when finding out that Zense located in Central World mall, which can be reached by foot from our hostel.

When arrived in Central World, it was quite difficult to find the lift to the 17th floor where Zense's located. We called the restaurant and then the receptionist told us to take lift in a Zen shopping mall. I guess we came too early at that time, so the restaurant still empty, but that was great because we can pick the best spot that we want.

the view from our seats

I ordered Salmon Crispy and my traveling partner ordered black pepper beef as the main course. The foods were tasty, especially the dessert, Mango Sticky Rice. The view were amazing too, especially we could see the sunset while we were eating our dinner.

mango crispy

black pepper beef

enjoying my dinner

it's already sunset

When the night came, the lights from buildings and skyscraper gave different look to the view.

the night view

Overall, great view and tasty view were blend into memorable combination in Zense. I love it!


XOXO,
The Tourist

Thailand Trip: Jim Thompson House and Bangkok Madame Tussaud

Since I stayed in the heart of Bangkok, so I can reached many great places just by foot. One of them is Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson is located in a small alley across National Stadium. 

I guess Jim Thompson house is often visited by foreigners, because they're so ready with english brochure and english tour guide. The ticket price already include the tour guide fee, so you don't need to worry of paying additional cost.

colorful silk thread at the entrance gate

the unraveled thread

the place to wait for the tour started

Jim Thompson is a silk trader from USA who fell in love with Thai. He is well known as the one who revitalized the silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. He disappeared in 1959 and then Thai government took over his house and managed it as a tourism placed named Jim Thompson House to honor his services in Thai silk industry. I recommend you to visit this place if you want to understand the concept of traditional Thai house and (of course) the journey of Jim Thompson. 

The tour guide forbid us to take a photo of the furniture inside the house. So I only took the photo from outside the house.

the tour guide explaining about the house

the house from outside

After finished with Jim Thompson house, me and my traveling partner continued our journey to Siam Discovery mall, and went to the sixth floor where Bangkok Madam Tussaud was located. We already bought the ticket online, so we just show our online ticket.

The wax statue inside Madam Tussaud was look so similar with the real one, but of course you still can differentiate which one is real person and which one is statue because nothing can beat the realness of human skin. 

To help enjoying the place and made the visitors had memorable photo, Madam Tussaud provide some supporting equipment. The supporting equipment were available in Queen Elizabeth II's, Obama's family, Beethoven's, Steven Gerrard's, Madonna's, and Jackie Chan's statues. I really enjoyed taking pictures with all the wax statues >.<

with Indonesia first president, Soekarno

someone's looked so happy taking photo with Lady Diana

with Queen Elizabeth II

let me borrow your phone,  Mr. President

Beethoven was watching me playing with the piano

Hi Gerrard! Hi Rooney!

Yao Ming is so tall, I felt like a chihuahua

I used to be a Belieber

dancing with Madonna

with Johnny Depp

I can play virtual fighting too in here

tea time with George Clooney

with Lady Gaga

Xiexie Jackie Chan

XOXO,

The Tourist