Traveling Essentials

My ultimate things every time I travel. Usually I just bring a backpack, and this small sling bag that I put inside the backpack. When I walk around the city, I only take the small bag. Simple and compact. Between these things, I have two that highly recommended to be your favorite too.

MUJI Safety Case

I love this brand for its travel and home products. They are so simple, useful, and greatly designed. I don't usually bring my wallet, just some money and cards. I put that inside this mini bag, with some tickets and important paper. Kept inside jacket, it's more safe than having a wallet inside your pocket. It's so light and easy to take the things out. Price: IDR 185k.

UNIQLO Light Pocketable Parka

One of my most favorite apparel brand. Indonesia is so hot and humid throughout the year, so wearing jacket is a must when walking outdoor. This jacket is so light and feels cool. It can protect you from the harsh of sunlight but keeps your body from the wind or light rain. I still bring another jacket for keeping me from the cold (like in train), so whenever it isn't used, I can fold it so small so no worry to take wherever I go. Price: IDR 499k.

Happy traveling!

Sate Padang

We usually see sate or satay as chicken skewers with peanut sauce. The meat can be either chicken, duck, rabbit, goat, lamb, beef, horse, buffalo, deer, snake, dog, or pork. Altough 80% of Indonesian are muslims, there are some parts in Indonesia where muslim is minority. Or there are some region where many muslims don't do their religion rules and still follow indigenous beliefs, thus make them not consider some food as non halal. So we still see pork, snake, or even dog's meat to be eaten. Just be careful, B1 is Biang (dog, some call it as RW or sate jamu) and B2 is BaBi (pork), particularly when you visit Medan and Manado which famous with the exotic food (mice, bats, etc) or Solo, where there are many dog's meat, or Bali, Kupang, and Papua where pork is common.

Javanese cuisine notably using palm sugar and sweet soy sauce. But in minang cuisine (padang is actually the capital city of West Sumatera, the term padang cuisine in fact refers to minang cuisine)  they never use it and use spices and curry instead. So do the sate padang. Sate padang is beef and cow's innards skewers (most of it are innards, btw) doused with thick curry based gravy and served with chunks of rice cake (ketupat) and spicy cassava chips (keripik lado, lada or lado in minang is chili).

Unlike javanese satay, sate padang is not cooked when we order, all were already cooked and just warmed in the charcoal. The gravy constantly cooked to keep the thickness (when it's cold, the gravy become watery). So the skewers don't include the fats. In javanese satay, as the satay to be burned as order, fats are tucked between the meat to protect the skewers to get burnt, and also to intensify the flavor. Of course you can order to not include the fats if you worry about your health (just like me and my parents).

The taste is.... well, some people love it. It has the hot, spicy, salty, and savory flavor. Other people couldn't accept the taste, because it against their palate (especially javanese who accustomed with sweet satay). The one i took the picture is a well known sate padang in a padang restaurant in Semarang. The flavor is so intense and the hotness is maximum. I and my family quiet enjoy it. Yeah, it's all about our own taste. Some people like it (love it, or even crazy with it), some people don't. But if you like spicy curry, you may try this.

Mie Kremez

In my childhood, this type of snack is very popular. It is just crushed dry ramen with lots of MSG... 😅

When I was a kid, there were many brands of it, and the most popular is "fuji". It was so popular because of its super mini size, so the price was soooo cheap. Just 50 IDR each! (about 0,3 cent USD). Then there was this, mie kremez. It was much bigger, about the same size of regular instant ramen (unlike these, you still need to crush it and add the seasoning, just like instant noodle!). The modern version of it is much much smaller. Maybe because they want to keep the price minimum so the kids can easily afford it? Haha. Even so, adults of my age still love it.

ASUS Zenbook UX303lb Review

I have this notebook for several months, so I want to give review for it based on my experience.

When I bought it (for 14M IDR or about 1000 USD), previously I wanted to buy a macbook air. But it turned out that with the money I could get a laptop with the same convenience but much more advanced specs (The same level with the new macbook pro but with half of its lowest price). Yes! this zenbook UX303lb. Very thin, very light, and very sturdy. What I love the most is its flexibility. You can upgrade the RAM and hard drive easily, unlike other ultrabook. It has many ports, three USB 3.0 (one with fast charging), HDMI port, Display port, and SD card reader (look at the new macbook, just one port for ALL needs). The design is very beautiful and feels bold. And nowadays, windows still dominate the market, so I won't worry with all the software I want to use.

I had confusion when i chose this, whether to buy the new UX305 or this UX303lb. UX305 has lower specs for the same price, but UX305 is fanless, has longer battery life, thinner, and much lighter. Eventually i chose UX303lb because it has the newest Intel Core i7 (vs Intel Core M in the UX305), dedicated graphic card (NVIDIA GeForce 940m), 8GB RAM, and 1TB hard drive. For long usage, I think the specs can support me for both educational and profesional use.

So far, I'm quite pleased with this laptop. I had Sony VAIO before this (still a great laptop for 5 years) so the bar was set high. ASUS UX303lb has a great specs for all modern application. It is very fast; great for gaming, software simulation, or just daily office. The compact body make it so mobile and doesn't hurt your shoulder. The battery life is so-so, great for office (can survive 5+ hours) but not so great for heavy use (2-3 hours. Just look at the specs!). But I dislike the keyboard and touchpad. It's not as comfortable as Sony has, I mistyped and misclicked very often.

Overall, the ASUS Zenbook is such a laptop that I would recommend. It has qualities of a macbook (great design and materials), but has the flexibility of a Windows PC (with a reasonable price, obviously).

Pocky

Pocky with three flavors that are available in Indonesia (wait, there is banana flavor!). I got these from christmas package that was sold at an online store here (blibli.com, great service with free shipping without minimum purchase). Still love the original flavor though....

Sushi Time! (again) at Sushi Tei Jogja

Usually we had sushi roll, and this time we want to try the authentic version of sushi. and these were greeaaatt!!!!! We then ordered another sushi roll, lobster salad, curry rice, and beef bento. It all costs 500k IDR (around 40 USD). So expensive, but no regret! Haha.

Wifi Problem on Windows 10 : Solved!

It's very frustrating when my computer can't detect Wifi signal. Yeah, since the upgrading of Windows 10, sometimes the WiFi setting is lost, and I can't connect to any wifi.

When I Google it for the problem, it turns out that many other people experience it. Some people suggest to input some code to terminal, but the code just doesn't work. So I buy Wifi adapter instead, for IDR 78 k (less than USD 6). The D-Link DWA-123 is as small as your usual flash drive, so nothing to be bothered. I just take it with all other appliances such as flash drive, HDD portable, and VGA converter in one pouch, in case the problem showed again.

P.S: After some windows updates, the wifi problem become less common. Now I can connect to the wifi with my laptop adapter almost all the time.

Review: Elle&Vire Yag Go!

Elle&Vire has always been my favorite yoghurt. Usually I stick to the mixed berries, which is soooo damn good. Perfect creaminess combined with real pieces of fruits.

Today I'm trying the different version, Yag Go. I was attracted by the cute white drop of comical yoghurt. Childish. About the taste, I don't really like it. It's plain like any other yoghurt. I don't know whether it's because of different store I buy, but I found the texture is a bit different with the usual berries flavor. And I expected to find some real fruits, but there was none :(

Will be back to the lovable Elle&Vire mixed berries.

Ayam Betutu (Men Tempeh Bali)

It is relatively hard to find a local restaurant that has halal certification in Bali. During my stay, mostly i eat at hotel or at javanese restaurants. That was one day when I met my friend that work in Denpasar, I tried one local dish named Ayam Betutu. I went with the recommendation of my friend, Ayam Betutu Men Tempeh, just across the Krisna souvenir shop (everyone here know where Krisna is). The most famous restaurant for this dish is Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk, not far from this restaurant. But we eat at Men Tempeh for a better dining atmosphere (but slightly more pricey).

They are using organic chicken (ayam kampung) as the ingredient, so it was safe for me (i'm allergic to the broilers). It was sold in package, about 50k-60k rupiah for a half body of chicken, rice, and plecing (water spinach and bean sprouts with spicy dressing, accompanied with fried peanut and sambal matah). You can choose the fried or saucy version. I found this dish quite tasty, but not so special according to my javanese palate. Nevertheless, you can't leave a place without trying their local cuisine, right?