Tag: Indonesia Travel

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Flying Garuda Indonesia's Executive Class Actually Has...Class

April 27, 2012 at 3:32 PM | by | Comments (0)

Since an important part of traveling includes how you get there, it's always nice to sit up front in an airplane. While it makes more sense to experience first or business class on long-haul flights, doing so requires a lot more digging into pockets than most people can manage. The most economical way to fly in the premium cabin is to use miles for an upgrade.

We recently flew an airline that isn't part of our favorite airline alliance (yet). This means no opportunity to use those frequent flyer miles to stretch our legs. While planning a Bali trip, we needed to fly to Denpasar/Bali from Jakarta, and found one of our options to be Garuda Indonesia. Knowing little about them beyond that they're the national airline, we were curious.

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Foreign Grocery Friday: The Kopi Luwak of Indonesia

Where: Bali, Indonesia
April 27, 2012 at 11:05 AM | by | Comments (0)

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Kopi Luwak. It's often named the rarest, most expensive, most for-connoisieurs-only coffee and it owes all these superlatives to how it's produced: an Indonesian civet (like a possum) eats a certain type of coffee berry. Its digestive system digests the meat of the berry, adds enzymes to the bean inside, and then poops out the bean. These beans are then collected, cleaned and sterilized, roasted and ground into coffee powder.

At coffee shops around the world, occasional bags of the rare stuff find their way into stock, going for $40-$60 per cup. In Bali, Indonesia however, the "cat poo coffee" is far easier to come by since this is where it's produced.

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Bowing to the Surf Gods on Bingin Beach

April 26, 2012 at 2:51 PM | by | Comments (0)

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali continues with some surf-spotting on Bingin Beach, recommended by our own contributor Max Graham.

If you've been following along on our recommendations for an awesome day in Bali, we've reached afternoon, post indulgent fresh seafood lunch. Resist the food coma siren song to chillax right there on Jimbaran Beach, and instead pile back into your private car* for a short drive further south, in the direction of Uluwatu.

It's here, along the coastline between Jimbaran and Uluwatu, that you'll find a strip of prime surfing beaches at the base of cliffs. Dreamland is the first major one for which you'll see signs, but just below is Bingin Beach and believe us that it's worth the extra few minutes driving.

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Eating Your Way Through Jimbaran Bay

April 25, 2012 at 5:08 PM | by | Comments (0)

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali continues with a super fresh seafood lunch and some plane spotting on Jimbaran Bay.

You're in Bali. You want some seafood, right? Right. Let's go get some then.

If you've followed our awesome day thus far, you've already had some breakfast, some sightseeing and some pre-lunch boozing. From the jungle around Ubud, it's time to head back down to the beaches—Jimbaran Bay Beach, to be specific.

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Drinking the Local Brews

Where: Bali, Indonesia
April 25, 2012 at 4:08 PM | by | Comments (0)


BINTANG!

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali continues with drinking...(almost) everywhere and (almost) everything.

All tastes can be satisfied by both non-alcoholic and adult beverages, a fact important to remember in Indonesia where much of the population is Muslim. Still, Bali offers a range of options, considering it's something of a melting pot for locals and tourists.

Our recent travel to the island means we truly got a feel for the local delicacies with some great food, but the drinks were quite notable as well. Though there are Starbucks scattered around, it's best to avoid them as you would the tap water.

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Six Things You Should Totally Buy Onboard an AirAsia Flight

April 25, 2012 at 11:12 AM | by | Comments (0)

Who doesn't love to hate on budget airlines that nickel-and-dime you for every little thing? Ah hem Ryanair and Spirit. Still, despite being branded LCCs (low-cost carriers), some airlines that keep costs down also play it nice, offering items for sale on board that actually make sense.

Just a few days ago, we hopped a 2-hour AirAsia flight from Bali-DPS to Jakarta-CGK and, instead of being prodded to pay more to bring a carryon, we instead were presented with the "AirAsia Cafe meny," a magazine that sells everything from Nasi Goreng and pancakes to Hello Kitty portable speakers and waterproof bags. It's like a duty-free catalog, but then it's not; it's more like duty-free iight.

So long as you've got extra cash (they don't take plastic onboard), here's six things you should buy onboard AirAsia:

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Stumbling upon the Starbucks Temple

April 24, 2012 at 12:02 PM | by | Comments (0)

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali continues with a wander around Jalan Raya Ubud (Ubud's main street) and a visit to the Pura Taman Saraswati temple behind Starbucks (yes, Starbucks)..

Alright, so now that you've breakfasted at Biku, it's time to hop in that private car* and hightail it almost two hours north into the cultural heart of Bali, in the town of Ubud. We recommend going there in the morning, because the afternoon brings the tour buses and floods the sidewalks (already barely wide enough for one) and many, many temples with vacationers who stop, stare, photograph, bargain for tchotchkes and sweat down the backs of their T-shirts.

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Breakfast at Biku

April 23, 2012 at 11:53 AM | by | Comments (0)

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali begins with breakfast at Biku, in North Seminyak/Kerobokan.

Step outside of one of the mega resorts in Seminyak and Kuta and you'll very quickly learn two things: the local breakfast is a billion times better than whatever the resort is giving you "complimentary," and it's kind of difficult to find the beautiful Balinese-style buildings of your dreams in a city where so much is recently built of concrete.

The answer to both is Biku a tea house/restaurant/bookshop that serves a killer brunch and "Asian high tea" in a colonial-style building with exposed beams and ceiling fans instead of AC.

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Wish You Were Here: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

April 20, 2012 at 10:37 AM | by | Comments (0)

Selamat pagi! For those in the know, you know that's "good morning" in Bahasa Indonesian. Naturally this can mean only one thing. We're in Indonesia! To be specific, we're in Bali; even more specifically, the town of Ubud.

After a few flights and even more fun in a few airports, we arrived on the tropical island and it was all worth it. First, we began in the beach town of Seminyak, which was everything you dream of when Bali comes to mind. Infinity pools, luxury hotels, black sand beaches, cocktails, and sun have all played a major role in this trip. We even sampled kopi luwak, a rare coffee of origin in Indonesia basically made from mongoose poop. More on that later.

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Havent Heard of Pacific Royale Airways? Yeah, Neither Have We.

Where: Indonesia
February 24, 2012 at 8:25 AM | by | Comments (0)

With world airlines dropping like flies, it's an absolute pleasure to bring you good news about the introduction of a new airline. These fresh birds come from Asia. No surprise there as the region seems like a hot bed of activity for new and emerging airlines.

Indonesia will welcome Pacific Royale Airways to airports in Southeast Asia. The new full-service airline takes off in less than a month—first flights departing in March. Starting with a small fleet of 4 aircraft, the airline will fill a much needed gap in business travel across Southeast Asia. The flag-carrier, Garuda, being the sole full-service airline of the densely populated nation, Pacific Royale adds more competition by offering a comparable additional option.

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The Dangers of Stepping Onboard a 'Tourist Boat'

April 4, 2011 at 12:04 PM | by | Comment (1)


The Ha Long Bay sinking

If there's something we've learned over the last year, it's never to trust an overnight "tourist" cruise in Southeast Asia. It was only a little more than a month ago that such a boat sunk in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, killing 12 in only 30 feet of water. The safety (or lack of) in these boats is to blame, and nothing has illustrated the issue better than the story of "Adventurous Kate," who survived a shipwreck in Indonesia.

Kate is author of her own blog about traveling Southeast Asia on her own, which she has been doing continuously since October of last year. A week ago, on Monday March 28, she was enjoying a 5-day cruise to visit the famous Komodo dragons of Komodo Island when her tourist boat hit a reef and promptly sank, causing her and her fellow travelers to abandon ship and swim to the closest island—Komodo, with its dragons.

The reason they swam? Half of the life jackets onboard were unusable and both lifeboats failed. Their luggage was waterlogged and left behind, and what they did eventually reclaim had been pillaged by the boat's crew.

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Help Build Habitat For Humanity's First Eco-Tourism Village

January 26, 2011 at 4:41 PM | by | Comment (1)

Habitat for Humanity is creating its first international eco-tourism community in Soran, Indonesia and you can be a part of it.

H4H is teaming up with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to establish a eco-tourism village made up of more than 420 homes and guest accommodations near Indonesia’s famous Prambana Temple. Does that sound intriguing at all? Because they are, of course, looking for some good help to move the project along.

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