Jakarta Trip - A Chatting Journey at Shirokuma PIK

The next day after the wedding was my day to relax.

I spent the morning having dimsum brunch at Maystar Central Park with bf's family. The place was so crowded we needed to call the waiters a few times to get our tea, paper towels, and even our bills.

After that, bf and I went to Pantai Indah Kapuk area. I had appointments with my besties here.

Pantai Indah Kapuk, or PIK in short form, is a well-planned and well-built high-end housing estate at the sub-district of Penjaringan. This area is at the north of Jakarta, near to Jakarta bay. This land was actually planned as a green belt land. The area should have been retained undeveloped surrounding the adjacent urban area.

However, something definitely went on below the table, the chair, and everything. Pantai Indah Kapuk development commenced in 1989. Subsequently in 1995, the master plan for this area was changed from green belt to residential area.

Let's put the history and controversy aside.

I don't know since when but the main road of PIK is now full of restaurants, cafes, bistros, and whatever things related to food.

We have seen a lot of people posting of chillaxing at PIK. As a child of this metropolitan world, we don't want to be left behind.

We decided to meet at Shirokuma.

Shirokuma is a dessert cafe specialized in green tea. The exterior is quite prominent with white greenhouse look-alike facade. I expected something garden-like inside.

The front view of Shirokuma (photo source:foodescape.com)

But I was disappointed when I stepped in. The interior has no identity at all. It consists of rustic wooden table, minimalist plastic chairs and green sofa, industrial brick wall, modern chic lighting, and a clueless wall painting.

So I was there, waiting for the rest and our queue number to be called. When L and S arrived, we sat and chit-chatted for awhile before we placed our order.

I liked the service here. Nobody came and pushed us to order before we were ready. We took our time to chat and chat and chat.

Before.

We.

Order.

Like.

A.

Hungry.

Ghost.

There were 4 of us at that point of time. We order 3 drinks and 5 food items. The waitress who served us even commented, "Empat orang tapi pesanannya super". Should we feel proud or ashamed????

Cold ocha for S, Hot ocha for L, Matcha latte for bf. Me? I have my water.

Matcha cake parfait with matcha ice cream, chewy waffle with matcha-vanilla ice cream, Shiratama with red bean, Terimayo japadog

Fried oreo with vanilla ice cream

Matcha cake parfait. Matcha soft serve ice cream melted so very easily, matcha taste was not strong enough, matcha cake was too sweet although the texture was okay, the shiratama has no flavour but the chewiness, matcha syrup was too sweet.

Chewy waffle. Matcha vanilla soft serve ice cream melted easily, chewy waffle was too sweet but the texture was unique, mixture of mochi and waffle, maple syrup on top of the waffle made it even sweeter.

Shiratama with red bean. Shiratama was plainly chewy, red bean paste was too sweet.

Fried oreo with vanilla ice cream. Vanilla soft serve ice cream melted easily, fried oreo was nice but the sweetness was killing.

Terimayo japadog. Black charcoal bun was okay, sausage was deliciously grilled, teriyaki sauce was quite strong.

My favourite of all 5? The non-matcha item: Terimayo japadog!

I love matcha so I can't stand bad matcha food. I don't think this place is worth a second visit. You will get diabetes sooner or later if you eat this kind of food too often.

Eating and chatting and eating and chatting and eating and chatting until M&M arrived. They ordered some matcha items and we continued chatting again again and again.

Until the clock showed 4:00 pm and I realized I must get going. I needed to go back to my real life. So we asked one of the lovely waiters to help us taking photos.

My favourite photo eventhough all of us posed improperly

Okaaay, time to behave

And that visit to Shirokuma summarized my trip to Jakarta. What a lovely trip even though when we boarded the plane it was raining so so so heavy till the sky bridge and the plane flooded. LOL.

Bye bye Jakarta! Till we meet again!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Jakarta Trip - First Wedding Experience for Bouquet & Boutonniere

I went to Indonesia again.

But my objective was not holiday. I went to Jakarta to complete my duty as a wedding planner for one of bf's colleagues. I have helped some people previously to run the wedding on the actual day. However, for Bouquet & Boutonniere, this is the first of many many to come. :)

I assisted them from morning till the night.

Basically, what is a job scope of a wedding planner?

• Working out the concept of the wedding with the couple
• Contacting, making deal, and coordinating with vendors on behalf of the couple
• Assisting the couple in controlling the budget 
• Giving advices to the couple as and when necessary
• Monitoring the progress of the preparation
• Creating a good programme run down for the D-day
• Assisting the couple and organizing the whole event from morning to night

So, you may have wondered, how did I manage to contact and coordinate with the vendors since I was not in Jakarta throughout the time?

The service I gave them was not a full service. I worked out the concept with them, yes. I kept giving advices to them, yes. I monitored the progress, yes. I created the programme according to their requests, yes. I coordinated the whole event, yes. However, the vendor management was run by the bride.

I also took some additional responsibilities of creating props for the march in and decorating the foyer area.

The wedding solemnization took place in Gereja Sidang Jemaat Allah Bandengan. These are some photos.

The guest reception table

Till death do them apart

My happy happy bride and groom

The starting of the ceremony

The solemn church room

The wedding took place in Gedung Arsip Nasional Jakarta. It is a huge magnificent outdoor venue with a very strong vintage feeling.

I love the place so much but I realize that it will only work out with something like 1000 guests or more. The place is too big the guests tend to disperse to the side and the garden feel a little bit too empty.

Anyway, this is what we had for the wedding that day.

The overview of the foyer with decorated photo gallery table 

Close up view of the photo gallery table

Close up view

Another close up view of the right side of the table

Left side of the table where we place the pre-wedding photo album

The decoration of the huge window with photos and love facts about the couple

The other window with the same things hanging and swirling

One of the love facts!

Wishing tree area

How we asked the guests to give some wishes

The happiness of seeing the wishing tree full and glowing at the end of the wedding

Those are my handmade creation for the foyer area. And what about the props for the march in and photobooth?

The sign for the page boy to carry during march in

Matching sign for vespa!

Taaa-Daaaaa. The groom is going to find the bride.

Additional photobooth props for the guests

And this is the photo

There were hiccups here and there during the day but I tried to manage it the best I could. The biggest problem in wedding is how to keep the time sticks to the planning, which is kinda impossible. But with the help of a coordinator for the D-day, the impact can be minimized.

So, we started the march in at 6:20pm and everything ran smoothly after that. The guests enjoyed the food, the atmosphere, the chance to share their wishes. The couple enjoyed seeing their long-awaited day was there right in front of their eyes.

The wedding stage

The bride and the groom kissing over the wedding cake. Something different, huh?

And for me, the biggest happiness was to see these messages popping on my phone.

A very exquisite happiness

So, I am one step nearer to what I dream of. Anybody needs a wedding planner, a wedding coordinator, or a decorator, just contact me!

I can be reached at bouquet_boutonniere@mail.com or Whatsapp/Line at +6590029460 or BBM at 746F2CE3.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Taiwan Trip - Beware of Sands Flies in Taiwan

On the fourth day, Mom started to rant about how itchy her legs were. She said maybe it was because she used the soap given by the hotel and her sensitive skin reacted to it.

I did not think about it until I experienced it.

It was three days after I landed back in Singapore. It started in the morning. Suddenly I felt my legs were so itchy and some red swollen patches on my legs. It looked like mosquito bites.

By afternoon, some turned to many. I used menthol medication oil but to no use.

The next day, there were more than 100 on my left leg and about 70 on my right leg.

Red. Swollen. Itchy.

This was how it looked like

And it has been almost one month, but nothing improved. Sometimes the itch went away, sometimes it came back. I try so hard to resist scratching it but my sensitive skin is totally against me.

How my legs look like now

It's getting more reddish, more swollen patches, more rashes, and some wounds.

I can survive in air conditioned room, but once I go out, the itch just comes back.

So Guys, please beware of sands fly when you are going to Qixingtan. Apply some insect repellant on the exposed skin. I am quite sure those damn things bit me there.

I wish nobody catch this after me.

It makes my life miserable.

Very.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Taiwan Trip - fin

Taiwan Trip - Bidding Good Bye to Taiwan

Our last destination was Shilin Night Market.

It was still 4:00pm but we already reached there. With hungry tummy. 

The first thing we saw was manjoo cake and we straight away bought it. No photo. Because we were just so very hungry

The start of Shilin Shopping District

Shilin Night Market is located in Shilin Shopping District. There are a lot of shops which open since morning. Only the food stalls will open around 5:00pm or so.

Some sellers are still setting up their stalls 

We walked to the back and saw this stall selling quite a number of chinese style bread

I bought black sesame bread but the bread was so hard it was so difficult to chew

Shilin is big. Some of the alleys are specially for foods and some are for fashion apparels. I didn't know how we walked but we ended up walking along an alley with all the restaurants and food stalls. I bought some fish cakes and felt like have more snacks, but Mom was so hungry she wanted to eat RICE.

So we ended up in a Taiwanese restaurant ordering some Taiwanese foods recommended by the chef.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle. For me it tasted fine but Mom and Ah Yi said it was too plain. They expect something more salty.

I don't know what it is called. Basically it's pork, mushroom, yam, quail egg, vegetable, and bamboo shoot cooked in Taiwan style. I wasn't into it.

The two dishes cost us NTD 400 (~SGD 17). When we walked out of the restaurant, it was around 5:30pm.

We walked around for a while. I still wanted to shop but Ah Yi kept saying, "Let's go to the airport".

I was very pissed because it was still more than 6 hours to our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. I didn't want to care for what she asked but Mom told me to just follow what she wanted.

So in the end, we went back to the hotel, took our luggages, and boarded the airport bus. The bus ticket cost NTD 95 (~SGD 4) per person.

Guess what time we did reach the airport? 8:30pm. Three hours before the flight.

Bag deposit - Walked slowly - Immigration clearance - Walked slowly - Eat supper - Walked slowly again - Groomed ourselves in the toilet slowly - Walked slowly - Walked slowly - Sat in the waiting room - Boarding

Good Bye Taiwan

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Next Post - Beware of Sands Flies in Taiwan

Taiwan Trip - The Sexy Beitou Hot Spring

From Longshan Temple Station we took blue line to Taipei Main Station and transferred to red line to Beitou Station.

From Beitou Station, we transferred again to pink line to Xinbeitou.

This is how Beitou Station looks at Xinbeitou train platform

And this is how the train looks like. Not an ordinary train.

Of course not just the outside. You see that table? It's a screen with some information of Beitou Hot Spring!

The MRT journey took about 10 minutes and we finally arrived at Xinbeitou Station! Our destination was just in front of the station: the park.

Beitou Park. Right in front of the station.

The map showing all the possible trail

We didn't know which one to go so we just walked. We visited Katagalan Culture Centre first. This building is located just besides the park. There is no entrance fee, no security, nothing. Just walk in and enjoy the story of aborigins there.

Hello from the first floor

The exhibits

One of the aborigins with the traditional clothes

One of the equipments used long long time ago

We then continued our journey at the park. We walk around to find Beitou Hot Spring Museum. From the outside, it looks like a colonial house but it shows its Japanese heart inside. This area was developed as hot spring resorts during Japanese occupation.

The exterior of Beitou Hot Spring Museum

The Japanese style interior 

The Public Hot Bath Area

The view you get when you look out of the window

We were required to take out our sandals before entering this museum and change with their slippers. I guess this practice is to preserve the Japanese feel of the museum.

Then we walked and walked and walked.

We passed by a public hot spring bath and another museum but we did not get in. We wanted to visit Beitou Geothermal Valley at the end of the road.

The valley is a volcanic crater filled with steaming sulphuric water with acidity of 1.2 to 1.6. The high temperature can reach up to 100 degree celcius and it is not suitable for bathing. The hot spring bathes around this area are sourced from Beitou Geothermal Valley.

In earlier days, there was no fences along the crater and people could boil egg in the water. However, a few accidents had happened until the valley was called Hell Valley. To prevent more unexpected things to happen, the government decided to fence up the area. No more boiled egg but no more accident.

The sign to let you know where to turn

Hot Spring Valley

What you can see when walking inside. Cool?

No, it's hot. See the steam.

There is a cute temple up there

When we walked out of this area, we realized that we were hungry. So we walked and looked for the well-known 'Hot Spring Beef Ramen' as mentioned in some travel blogs. It was a bit of up slope walk to reach the restaurant but it was about 2:30pm when we reached there. The restaurant was having the break.

We walked back down with some disappointment.

We saw a lot of people did some foot bath at one area and we decided to try. It is freeeeeee.

The Public Foot Bath

Some people even brought their dog to have some hot spring bath

After soaking our feet and let the warm stream massage them for a few minutes, we decided to close this journey at Beitou and walked back to Xinbeitou Station. Time to go back to Taipei for our last destination.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next Post - Bidding Good Bye to Taiwan