Jan 2020 – Wander and Explore

Cafe for Matcha Lover in Bali – Cafe LateO

Published on 29th Jan 202016th Feb 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

Green tea is one of my favourite drinks and I love to try any forms of it. As an ice cream, cake, cookies, beverages, etc. When I found this place I was quite happy because I am able to choose from a large variety of green tea in one place, no need to go to multiple places to try green tea latte, green tea ice cream, green tea cake. You also have the option to choose the level of the matcha, with level 1 being the softest and level 7 being the strongest one. 😊

If one day you have a chance to visit the capital city of the Bali Province, Denpasar, I would like to suggest that you visit Cafe LateO. This small and cozy cafe is located in Jl. Gunung Semeru No. 3. Right after the Denpasar Cineplex turn left onto a smaller road and after about 200 meters you will find it on the left side of the road. It’s better to ride a motorbike if you want to visit it because it’s not really easy to find a spot to park with a car.

You might be familiar with some of their beverages and will usually be available in other places. But other beverages are also worth a try, such as Matcha Float, Irish Matcha, Rose e Matcha and many more. They are surprisingly good! ☺️ And make my heart and belly happy too! Oh, they also have Hojicha, it’s not really common anywhere outside of Japan. Unlike the normal green tea, Hojicha’s colour is more brown and not green. The cause of it being brown is from the roasting process and the arome is more soft compared to the normal green tea. Unfortunately when I visit Cafe LateO, Hojicha is not ever in stock. 😪 Subjectively, I don’t particularly like the beverages that combine jam like Very Berry Latte or Very Berry Matcha, which is too sweet for me. I’m just not a fan of any drink combined with jam in general.

Wanna try their foods? You sure could! They even have a chili snack. Chili? Yes, real chili. Not a small chili pepper but a bigger one. The big red chili. I’m not sure if it’s only chili or if they’re filled with meat inside. But I’m sorry I do not dare to try it 😂. Other selections on the menu are quite normal in fact. Spaghetti that has variations of spicy levels, crispy calamary, bolognaise toast, chicken cordon blue and some variants of pizza.

Price wise, you only need to pay around IDR 100,000 for 2. Not so expensive right? That’s why this place is quite popular for teenagers and college students. It’s a bit overwhelming on the weekend because of the youngsters so I suggest you avoid those days if you want a more peaceful matcha time. 😆

Happy matcha day

Xoxo

Price wise?

First Trip to Bali

Published on 26th Jan 202025th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88

Ayu and I met online, as we had said in our earlier post, All About Us. I wanted to meet Ayu in person so I bought a ticket to Bali, Indonesia. Overall, the trip was amazing! So many beautiful beaches, cute little shops on the side of the streets and many, many other places to visit.

So let me share about what I’ve done in Bali. Not much because my girl needed to work during the weekdays 😪. But, well, I’m going to talk about the trip with her to Ubud and GWK. The first place we visited together was the Rice Farms in Ubud. It was a fairly hot day, although I’m used to the humidity since I currently live in North Carolina in the US. Walking through the farms felt relaxing. The calming green rice plants everywhere you looked had such a peaceful atmosphere. There was also a swing that you could go on with additional cost and some instagrammable photo spots for free. We stopped for lunch at a place called Tebasari. It was the first time I got to try some of the Indonesian spicy food, and it was deliiiciiioous!

Before I went to Bali, my brother told me I “have” to go to the Monkey Forest, so we went. It was actually a lot of fun watching the monkeys! The way they wrestled with each other, climbing all over and eating their little bananas. Inside the forest there were sacred temples that were usually open for the public during big ceremonies, but not everyday so correct me if I’m wrong. They had many statues of distorted creatures surrounding them.

Ah, after we left the Monkey Forest, we went to a restaurant called Bebek Bengil, for an early dinner. Bebek Bengil means Dirty Duck in English. Although the duck wasn’t dirty, it sure was delicious! (And spicy too!)

The last place that we visited was a place called Garuda Wisnu Kencana. This place, located in Jimbaran, is on the southern side of Bali and is just 30 minutes away from Ngurah Rai Airport. The Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue is about 400 feet tall, which is almost 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. We arrived in the late afternoon around 4pm when the last show of the Kecak dance was about to start. We only took a few pictures in front of the statue because we were in a rush to get to the Lotus Pond Area to see the Kecak Dance show. The show was pretty fun because it was not only a normal Kecak Dance where all you see are guys singing “cak cak cak” with a girl dancing in the middle and ending with a fire dance. Instead, we were able to see the dance about the Garuda Mythology aswell.

Kecak Play

If you are in search of a tropical island for vacation I would recommend going to Bali. Just be prepared to eat reeeeeaaaal spicy food and rice almost every meal!

Sala Bistro – Sanur, Bali

Published on 15th Jan 202014th Jan 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

If you are currently in Sanur area and wondering where you can eat fancy food without make your wallet empty, (unless it’s already empty 😂), I have one recommendation for you. When I was at work on a hot sunny day, I decided to go to Jake’s favourite place for lunch. We found this place accidentally because our usual place to eat for lunch was closed.

Sala Bistro located in Jl. Danau Tamblingan, right in front of Werdhapura Hotel Sanur, if you are coming from McDonalds Sanur, keep going south until you see the sign on the right side of the road. A combination of greenery from hanging plants and wooden canopy will also catch your eyes.

Can’t take too much heat in Bali and need air condition for the win? It has an indoor area aswell. Once you enter the indoor area, you will find some spots to sit with a minimalist design and the touch of tropical vibe from the wooden and rattan. It’s my personal opinion, it’s a quite cozy place to hangout.

When I visited 2 months ago, there wasn’t a variant menu to choose from, but nowadays they have enough choices for breakfast until your dinner time. But please take a note, some options are only available during a certain time. I tried to get chicken popcorn for lunch but it was only available for dinner time unfortunately. But other than that, the combination of choice is okay. If you are in the mood for Italian food, you could choose pizza or spaghetti. In the mood of some buns? they also have burger that’s worth a try. Or just want to have Nasi Goreng? they have it too! Their coffees are from Seniman Coffee in Ubud. They’re famous with their variety of coffee and the good smell of their coffee. Don’t ask me about the taste ‘coz it’s really nice! (I will make a review of Seniman Coffee Ubud soon 😊). How much does it cost? For 2 pax normally you need to pay around IDR 150,000 ++ (exclude 15% tax and service). So, why not give it a shot!

The minority that you need to know here is that they don’t have space to park. Especially if you are a car user, you need to find an empty space somewhere else on the side of the road (it’s rare to find a spot though so you’ll need to walk a ways). Just like any other places in Sanur area, it’s a bit hard to find a park, except if you ride a motorbike you can easily park in the front of the cafe.

So, try it and let me know your opinion 😊

xoxo

Work in Hawaii

Published on 12th Jan 202014th Apr 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

Everyone knows about Hawaii. Islands with breathtaking mountain views, tasty pineapples, and, of course, the beaches. I never thought that I would get the chance to visit one of Hawaii’s islands. Last August (2019) I was blessed with the opportunity to visit the island of O’ahu in Hawaii for work. I was there for two weeks. Although most of the time I was busy working, I was still able to get some of the Hawaiian experience.

My work schedule took place from 8pm to 4am everyday so after work I would go back to my hotel in Waikiki to change clothes and then head down to the beach for the sunrise. The sun was rising from the other side of the island, so I was never actually able to see the sunrise. After chilling on the beach watching the waves and swimming for a bit, I would stop at a local restaurant called Duke’s. They had an all-you-can-eat breakfast every morning. It wasn’t cheap but it was definitely worth it.

My buddy from work and I went on a hike on the Diamond Head Crater Hike. The hike was fairly easy. Had some steep climbs but most of it was just pretty sightseeing. We went in the morning because we wanted to get to the top of the mountain before sunrise to see the view but we couldn’t quite get there in time. The view was still gorgeous nevertheless!

View of Honolulu from the Diamond Head Crater

If I could have the chance to go to O’ahu again I would like to visit the mountains, see a luau, try more cultural foods and definitely bring more friends and family. If you plan on visiting O’ahu Hawaii, I would definitely suggest staying in a hotel in Waikiki, although I hear the northern side of the island is much prettier.

Nusa Lembongan

Published on 8th Jan 202025th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

If you would ask what our favorite part of Bali is, we would say the first would be Ubud because of the real Balinese vibes. The second is Nusa Lembongan because it is small with beautiful views. The third is Canggu because of it’s young vibes with many good places to enjoy the foods and sunset.

Let’s leave Ubud for the moment, we wanna share about Nusa Lembongan. It is located in the southeast of the Bali island, you can access it by speed boat only, about 30 minutes away. The cost? Depends on which speed boat you use. We use the mid class which is not too expensive but with the “okay” kind of feel to the speed boat. Not special, I must say, but for IDR 200,000/person round trip for Indonesian ID and IDR 350,000/person round trip for foreigners that is fine. Check and make your reservation from Glory Fastboat if you wanna try.

There are not many choices for high end hotel in Lembongan, although if you don’t have a high budget (like us 😂) there are many good bungalows and hotels that you could choose starting from IDR 300,000 – IDR 2,000,000. It varies depending on the season too. We chose a hotel not too far from the beach called Bukit Taman Cottage. We got it for IDR 675,000/night. The staff and owner were awesome! If we could suggest something to you, please choose the hotel around the northwest coast and not a hotel that has more than 10 minutes of walking to the beach. Why? Because almost all of the beach clubs and tourist attractions are located along the northwest coast and it’s not easy to access them if you can’t ride a motorbike. The best option that you have for transportation is by motor bike, which costs around IDR 75,000/day. You can get the rental once you are arrived in Nusa Lembongan, (and seriously, there is always someone offering you to rent their motorbike when you’ve just arrived). If you travel with family or kids, you can call a taxi. It is not a usual taxi in the city, No. It is a small pick up truck that has seats and a roof on it. Almost every famous restaurants and beach clubs have their own taxi pick up service that you can call, just ask your reception and they will help, sometimes it’s free and if you want to get a taxi to the place that has no free pick up, the cost for 1 taxi is IDR 100,000 one way. The last option is golf buggy and is more expensive than the other two. The cost for 4 seaters is IDR 1,000,000 for a day, although it’s different for every rental agent. Please take a note, the road is daaark at night, not much light except from the people’s houses so just be careful if you ride a motorbike or drive a buggy.

View from our cottage

Where should you go once you are in Nusa Lembongan? There are plenty of places that you could visit. For us, 3 days are enough to explore. The first day you could enjoy the beach club and sunset. The second day you can go for snorkeling, mangrove tour and then go to yellow bridge and see some pretty beaches. The third day just spend the rest of the time to explore the part of the island that you didn’t see and go photo hunting.

We were there for 2 days and 1 night only and due to that time, the weather was too hot. Gosh, can’t believe that was 33° C. It was so humid. Ayu was dying on that day. We mostly spent our time in beach clubs and swimming. But since Ayu went there before without Jacob, we are posting some pictures of her when she was in Mangrove Tour. I promise we will go snorkeling the next time we go there again. We went to 3 places to hangout. The Deck is a cafe near the harbour (only 7 minutes of walking to get there) and basically, you can see the beautiful view of the strait from there. There is the Sandy Beach Club that you can visit too, we were there from 4pm to 8pm (hahaha 😂don’t judge us, we just wanted to chill out and enjoy the sunset). The last one is Ohana’s, also one of the beach clubs there but our favorite is still Sandy Bay if you want to talk about vibes but if it’s food we’re talking about, we would choose The Deck.

So, have you decided to go there with your friends, family or loved one? We would like to hear your experience there!

xoxo

Gluten Free Burger & ummm.. don’t remember that beverages name 🙃

All About Us

Published on 5th Jan 202012th Jan 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

Hi everyone, we are Jacob and Ayu. Jacob is a worker in a large flooring company in the USA and Ayu is a Hotelier in Bali. We love to share our hobbies, travelling, culinary, gaming and our daily life.

We are both currently living in two separate places. Jacob is living in North Carolina for work and study, while Ayu is a full timer Hotelier. Is long distance relationship hard? Oh, very much! That’s why the idea of creating a blog came up so we both have the media to share and even though we are far from each other we have something that we can work and grow together as a team.

The fun fact about us is, we know each other from game online! An online game where you can meet new friends and socialize with people all across the world, while fighting monsters and raiding dungeons! This game is called Final Fantasy XIV, it’s not all about fighting monster and raiding the dungeons, it’s always nice to have the option to sit back and relax, socializing with friends or random people online, playing mini games, crafting items, gathering materials and remodelling your home. This type of game is called a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game(MMORPG) and there are many other MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and The Elder Scrolls Online that you can try!.

At first, we were close to each other because we have similar hobbies and music taste, (other than we both love playing the same game). Now we want more than that, we have the same dream and goals. We believe that we can make great teamwork as a couple! Fighting!

New Year, New You

Published on 1st Jan 202012th Jan 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

Everyone has their own wish list of what they want to have, what they want to be, where they want to go, and many other goals. This is what is generally called a New Year Resolution. Some people may have resolution about their appearance, just like how we know that some people want to go on a proper diet so they can lose weight and feel more confident and healthier. Others may have resolutions about their job or their money such as obtaining a better job and raising their salary to be able to purchase their needs and wishes (pay tuition, buy a house, buy a car, etc).

Speaking of which, we also have our resolution, which are maaaanyyyy.. 😀 hahaha. But for sure our top priority for now is to have more money (lol) so we will be able to meet each other more frequently and be able to travel more often together. The final goal, since we have our own blog now, is to grow this blog and to share useful information for the reader and, if possible, make money too!

Any resolution that you guys might have, we wish that you will achieve it. Hopefully there are not too many obstacles on the way!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020 EVERYONE! Feel the love and be happy!