A Coffee Convert

Taking a degree in Architecture or working as a journo did not make me a coffee drinker. But a few months into writing a scientific paper found me pouring a cup of java in the office pantry twice a day. Nothing fancy, just local brand Kapal Api coffee. Coffee is a godsend and I'm a convert.

Another reason for this new habit is because the office always has a pot of coffee brewing in the pantry. I think I'm working with coffee snobs *insert horror music*. Besides housing the coffee powder, the pantry also keeps a coffee maker, a coffee press jug, coffee filter papers, a coffee bean grinder, and...of course...bags of coffee bean from across Indonesia because my office has branches in Aceh, North Sumatra, four provinces in Java, South Sulawesi and Papua, all of which has coffee-producing areas. Another blessing of living in Indonesia: you'd never run out of coffee beans to try :).

There were moments when I felt sleepy and headed to pantry only to find coffee beans instead of coffee powder. No other choice but to grind the beans and pour them to the coffee press jug. The coffee grounded by my own hands tasted much better, though :D.

I have been struggling with the rising gastric acid everytime I had coffee, but I think I find some tricks that work for myself:  (1) I try to eat a good portion of meal before drinking a cup of coffee, and (2) I put a generous portion of cream/milk to help ease the acid effect.

It would still be a long way for me to be a black coffee drinker. But for now, I can explore the cafes that are mushrooming in the city.

Have any recommendations for a coffee newbie?

Tiger Kiss

Mulan Jamilah, a 6-year-old Bengal tiger, kisses caretaker Abdullah Sholeh in the garden beside their home on January 20, 2014, in Malang, Indonesia. Sholeh has become best friend and a full-time nanny to the tiger. Mulan's owner, Noer Muhammad Sholeh, 51, asked Abdullah to take care of the tiger when it was a 3-month-old cub at Dilem Village. Sholeh regularly sleeps, plays, and fights with the huge tiger. Found here

Good News On Sumatran Rhinos

Harapan, a young male Sumatran rhino, was born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2007 to mother Emi and father Ipuh. Harapan spent time in three US zoos over his first 8 years of life: the Cincinnati Zoo, White Oak Conservation Center in Florida, and the Los Angeles Zoo. (rhinos.org/International Rhino Foundation). 

A Sumatran rhinoceros has given birth at an Indonesian sanctuary. The female calf was born on Thursday, weighs about 45 pounds ( 20 kilograms ). Read more here.

[Movie] Ada Apa Dengan Cinta 2 ?

Indonesian | 2016 | 123 minutes | Director: Riri Riza

((Beware of spoilers))

Ok, I finally caved in and watched it in the cinema. I mean, how can't I not watch it when everyone I know raved about it. I don't think I watched the first movie in the cinema (I waited until it was aired on TV), but here I am, watching the sequel on the big screen because it was the talk of the town.

The sequel opens with Cinta (Dian Sastrowardoyo), Maura (Titi Kamal) and Millie (Sissy Priscilia) gather to celebrate the comeback of Carmen (Adinia Wirasti) from a rehab center. They decide to take a girls-only vacation in Yogyakarta to cheer Carmen up, and to see the exhibition of a Yogyakarta-based artist Eko Nugroho (By the way, this guy is top notch!). 

Fourteen years after the first movie, each character has continued with their own life, but they are still friends. Cinta works in an art gallery that handle work of arts and performing arts, she is also engaged to a young and handsome businessman Trian (Ario Bayu), Maura is now a sassy housewife, who still bosses around her friends, Millie is married to Mamet (Dennis Adhiswara) and they are expecting their first child, while the sporty and tomboy Carmen has just gone through a difficult breakup with her ex-husband.

The absence of Alya (Ladya Cheryl) is explained when they bade goodbye to Alya's ash burial. It was a bit sad to see Alya's character gets killed in this sequel, especially since it was Alya that made Cinta realized that she loved Rangga in the first movie. Can't you just make Alya in a comatose and then revive her in AADC 3, Mira Lesmana and Prima Rusdi?

Meanwhile, Rangga (Nicholas Saputra) has also made a living in New York. He opens a small cafe with a friend, while still continues writing poems and articles as well as taking photographs. People may not like looking older, but I personally like that Rangga has the dark circle and lines below his eyes. 

Rangga misses Dian in the cold New York, but he tries to bottle up all his feelings. Until one day, a young girl, who claims to be his stepsister, shows up at his cafe, asking him to come home and see his ailing mother. Guess where Rangga's mother reside? Yogyakarta!

During their trip, Carmen and Millie see Rangga. The girlfriends tell Cinta and advice her to meet him, for a good closure before she marries Trian. At first, Cinta refuses. But then Carmen set them to meet at an art exhibition. Cinta, who is not ready for the meeting, is furious with Carmen and says the things that she shouldn't say about Carmen's failed marriage. Carmen goes out all night to cool her head, and when she returns, the girls make peace. Cinta finally agrees to meet Rangga.

What initially planned to be just one-two hours of meeting expands into a 24-hour reunion. They tell each other what has happened during the years of separation, fight several times and then make up, and the best thing is they show the audience what makes Yogyakarta an unforgettable city.

The ending is sweet and expected, Cinta ditch Trian for Rangga, of course.

Random thoughts passing in the head during the screening:

• I think the script is written in a rush. They could have done better. The banter between Cinta and Rangga, who is supposed to be in late 20s or early 30s, sounds like a couple of teenagers having a fight.

• There is a line from the first movie that gets reiterated in this second movie: "Rangga, what you did to me was cruel."

• Product placement in this movie is very visible and, to some point, annoying. A**le, L*n*v* and A*ua D*n*n*, to name a few.

• I love it that AADC has this habit to instill political issues. In the first movie, it is told that Rangga's mother left him and his father because his father wrote a thesis that criticizes the government and led to Rangga's father being fired from work and considered as anti-government. In the sequel, there is a scene where Cinta and Rangga watch a Papermoon Puppetry show, titled A Cup of Coffee from Playa, which tells about the 1965 tragedy that separates a couple.

• The first movie has one kissing scene, which stirred responses from the film censor body. The sequel has two, and both scenes are not censored! Perhaps there will be three kissing scene in AADC 3, hahaha. It is interesting to see that 14 years has changed the film censor body.

Events For The Upcoming Long Weekend

Hello lovelies, this week I only have three days of work because Thursday is Ascension of Jesus Christ and Friday is Isra Mi'raj. I'm taking a half day leave today to anticipate heavy traffic as people will leave the city.

It's been so long since I last wrote up a list of things to do on the weekend, I hope I manage to put all in one post. Here it goes...

Have a soft spot for foreign films? Watch them during Europe on Screen, which will run until May 8. I've already marked some of the films :).

Bookworms, there's a must-visit book expo at Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Jakarta.

Shrek The Musical hits Jakarta.

Jakarta Food and Fashion Festival is here again.

Other than that, I think I'll put the KonMari's method into action and perhaps go watch Ada Apa Dengan Cinta 2. 

Hope you have a good one!

Other Things About Hong Kong And Macau

Octopus Card

I took the picture in a rush before we returned them at the airport

Once you land on Hong Kong soil, this is the one thing that you should acquire. Seriously. You can use this card for MTR, bus, and ding-ding tram. You can also use it to buy food, and other things where the merchants provide the Octopus reader machine.

In Tung Chung, the apartments are owned by MTR, and the residents' data are inserted in the Octopus Card. Using the Octopus card, the residents are entitled for a free shuttle bus ride to MTR Tung Chung every morning and evening.

A card is priced at 150 HKD, with 100 HKD for credit and 50 HKD for deposit. You can keep it as a memento, but if you return the card at the airport, you get the deposit back (minus a 10 HKD fee) and use the money to do last minute shopping at HKIA's duty free.

iVenture Card

Aneen found information about this card via this link. Then she persuaded me to buy the card. I was a bit hesitant to buy online, so I asked her if we could buy the card upon arrival. If you intend to see as much tourism attraction in HK and Macau, buying this card is a wise decision, because you can save money and time (the card offers 'skip line' benefit). The skip line thing was great, because the queue could take hours!

We used this card to do Victoria Harbour watertour (with complimentary drink), see HK from Sky100 (with complimentary drink and cookies), observe HK's art during Soho Gallery Walking Tour, take the roundtrip of Peak Tram, visit Madame Tussaud's and Trick Eye Museum, hang out at Sky Terrace, take the roundtrip of Ngong Ping 360, have fun at Disneyland HK, climb up Macau Tower and a free meal package at Broadway Galaxy Macau. All for the price of 1,149 HKD.

Transportation

•  HK

I love going around HK thanks to the easy transportation system.

• Macau

While Macau has a more relaxed vibe (and I'm all for relaxation), transportation is one major factor that make me despises Macau. Here are why:
1. Macau has yet to have an urban railway network for commuters, so we rely mostly on buses (which probably come once every 30 minutes).
2. The buses go in circle, instead of going both ways

Let me take an example from the 18A bus route above: you're on Avenida D. Joao IV and want to go to Jardim M. Flora. You must go to Almeida Ribeiro-Ponte16, and then back to Perola Oriental Terminal, and then take another ride to Jardim M. Flora. It's wasting time, money and energy!

Another transportation option is the free shuttle buses that go from casinos to ferry terminal/airport. But the routes of such buses are not mapped out, so it would not be wise to use shuttle bus if you're in rush.

• Ferry between HK and Macau

Aneen (again!) found information on Cotai  Water Jet's promotion via Facebook. By becoming a follower, you can apply for a discount on one ferry ride. You can check this link for more information. Be sure to check which ferry terminal you use for departure as HK and Macau has several ferry terminals.

Thank you Cotai Water Jet!

Photo at Tourism Sites

When you go to a tourism attraction and an officer offers to your picture with his DSLR camera, your first reaction must be: "Oh, but is it free?" The officer will smile and convince you that the photography service is free. The photographer will give you a coupon for the photo. But when you want to see the photo, the officer behind the printing machine will say that if you want to see it printed, you'll have to pay. And the pay is always more than 100 HKD.

We experienced this for the first time at Madame Tussaud's, where we were asked to pay 120 HKD per photo. We kindly declined and continued taking photos with our own camera. From then on, everytime an officer takes our photo, we just ignore him.

Food

I can't give any recommendation on local food because I don't eat much in Hong Kong. I brought cereal drink, biscuits and instant noodles, which I ate for breakfast. I often skipped lunch and only had light snacks for dinner. I was afraid that the food was not halal, while halal food was more expensive. I only ate out a few times, with twice of them were because my friend who resides in HK took me there.

Halal dimsum at Masjid Ammar's cafeteria, EK treated us there.

EK treated us to a seafood restaurant, yummy

In the end, because I was hungry I tried KFC HK's Okonomiyaki Crispy Chicken + mushroom black pepper rice + egg tarts. You just have to try all variants of egg tarts while in HK.

However, no egg tart can beat Lord Stow's egg tart in Macau. Let's hope that it will open a branch here in Jakarta any time soon.

Accommodation

• HK

On the first night, we stayed at Sydney Hostel, Chungking Mansion. We forgot to take pictures of the room, but there are many on the internet. If you're a first time backpacker, I would not recommend this place as it can be very intimidating. Upon approaching the building, many people tried to sell us things: room, food, tour packages. I kept my face straight and it kinda worked. But Aneen was bombarded with offers.

The next day, we stayed with Indonesian migrant workers. There are around 150,000 Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong. Most of them live with their employers, but some rent a place with other migrant workers. Some others rent a place to provide a haven for fellow migrant workers who experience either sudden terminated contact or cannot stand their employers and run away.

I'm not exactly sure which category our accommodation falls into, which is why I'd like to keep it under the radar. We only pay 50 HKD/night/person. If you'd like stay at their place, just shoot me the question and reason for staying via email (Read the About section to find my email). They only take women for their guests.

We stayed at EK's apartment when we're back from Macau. EK's apartment was near the airport and it took only 15 minutes from the apartment to the airport. Thank you for your hospitality, EK.

• Macau

We didn't exactly plan to spend a night in Macau, but since we had difficulty on the first day, we thought we should at least try to conquer Macau the next day. We contacted our migrant worker friend in HK and asked if they had a friend in Macau who could take us in for just one night. Long story short, we stayed with them that night. But we were surprised to see so many migrant workers at the place. 

One of them told us that her contract in HK was ended and she didn't want to make her parents worry if she came home. So she went to Macau (for a visa run, I suppose) and waited for her next contract to complete. Everyone was tense and spoke in a hushed tone. They were kind and even offered us dinner, but it was a relieve to leave the next day.

Hmm, is that all? I guess so. Well, see you on the next posts, then.

Disneyland Hong Kong

Before I began, let me emphasized that I've been wanting to visit Disneyland. So when Aneen persuaded me to buy the ticket to HK, I agreed under one condition: we should put Disneyland in the itinerary. It's a deal!

To reach Disneyland, you must go to MTR Sunny Bay and wait for the Disneyland train. You'd recognize it when it comes.

Inside the car: the grab handles are Disney-thematic

Hi Pluto!

Approaching the main gate

A station for a mini train that encircles the theme park

View along the main street

That rubbish bin followed the girl around after she dropped something into it. It stopped after a few meters.

Tomorrowland

For a non thrillseeker, I survived Space Mountain, albeit barely...

Approaching Fantasyland aka Sleeping Beauty Castle

 Stroller area. The theme park pays attention to the needs of its visitors. Children, senior citizens and people with special needs have the same accessibility around the park.


  

It's a 3D Movie with good effects. I felt splashes of water and gushes of wind during the movie screening

 A visit to Disneyland would not be complete without a picture of you and Mr & Mrs. Mouse :).

Disneyland always brings out the children in you :)

 

Flight of the Fantasy noon parade

 

We watched Festival of Lion King, a great musical you should not miss when visiting Disneyland

It rained in the afternoon, and most of the outdoor playground were closed. No need to be upset, there are indoor playgrounds you can try. 

You can also marvel at the cute buildings

We came after Easter, so there is egg decoration across the park. The eggs were made to look like Disney characters and was placed in various spots. It was like doing the egg hunt :).

 

 

 

Disneyland always closes the day by a firework show. The visitors were anxious about the firework show because the rain might hamper the execution. We were so relieved when the show finally kicked off. It was majestic!

The soundtrack of Aladdin (A Whole New World) has been stuck in my ears until now.