Hotel Reviews: Novotel Nusa Dua Bali

Novotel Nusa Dua is a good choice for relaxation. Located on the quite side of the island, the hotel features 175 rooms of deluxe and suite with view of garden, pool, and golf course. Aside from the pool lagoon, they also offer private beach club with only five minutes away from the hotel.

Sushi Masa Muara Baru Jakarta

Lately, foodie enthusiastic, especially who stays at North has been hearing news about a so called mysterious sushi place opens at a secluded area somewhere in Muara Baru. For those who never heard of Muara Baru, the neighborhood mostly known for its port activities including fish shelter and warehouse complex. In conclusion, not a place to expect a sushi place or even any kinds of restaurants to open.

P&B Coffee Shop PIK

A smart restaurant business owner should know that a good restaurant depends on three main factors, food, service and ambiance. Fail on either one and a flaw marked right on. Of course, there are too some other important factors, like personally for me, a clean washroom in a restaurant is a must.

Common Man Coffee Roasters Singapore

I love brunch. It's my favorite meal of the day. Since Spore has bunch of them, it has become a habit for me to always include at least one visit to a new brunch place, whenever I happen to go to the country. I even had a list of all the recommended brunch places in Spore saved in my mobile's notepad and one on the top of the list is Common Man Coffee Roasters.

Pasar Bella Singapore

Meet Pasar Bella, Singapore's largest market located at the Grandstand (formerly known as Turf City), right in the heart of Bukit Timah. Known as the first multi-sensory grocery shopping destination in Singapore with area over 30,000 square meters, it housing more than 30 unique stalls. Open daily with the markets' opening hours from 9.30am - 7pm, and restaurants from 10am - 10pm. 

[CLOSED] TANG WANG Dessert House

 
After Hong Tang and Tong Fu, here comes another dessert house carrying two Chinese syllable as the brand's name. I normally enthusiastically welcome any new diners, but with too many dessert shops suddenly open side by side at one of the street sections in PIK, or popularly known as Hong Tang's street, it becomes too common and less attractive.

Le Quartier

It has been raining heavily since morning and hasn't been showing any sign that it will stop soon. I never like rain. It tend to ruin my mood. But, at least for today, I have the rain to thank for keeping me at home to finish on some pending posts from last year.  

Finally! A chance to visit one of the most talked about place in town. I have been desperately wanting to go to Le Quartier months months ago, around June last year year when I passed by the place. The white & cobalt blue house turned into restaurant is looking too fancy to be missed out. Yet, only until a couple days before Christmas I finally got the chance to visit this French restaurant. 

Ivy's Guide: Jakarta's Taiwanese Dessert Cafes

Just as expected, after frozen yogurt and bubble tea fever, now comes Taiwanese dessert as the trending one in town at the moment. More and more new cafes open offering the same dessert type, some are good, some are pretty standard. Here's the list of Jakarta's Taiwanese dessert place.

Loobie Lobster & Shrimps

Loobie Lobster & Shrimps is another brainchild from the genius talented couple, Chef Atit and Lucy, the owner of Holy Cow! and Holy Gyu!. Offering the same "pocket friendly" concept, Loobie has been happily welcomed by all seafood lovers in town. They have opened for quite some time with the first outlet at Gunawarman street, right beside Turkuaz and across Le Quartier. The second outlet took place next to Holy Gyu! at Panglima Polim and customers are allowed to order both menu from each diners.

Holy Gyu!

It was Saturday. Only a day after we got back from our short new year trip, We were tired, lack of sleep, hungry of steak but wasn't really in the mood to go somewhere far. We were thinking to go to Seven to 7 at PIK, but when I called toll information asking about the traffic to South and they said it was jammed free, our initial plan changed just like that and it brought us to Holy Gyu! It took us not more than 25 mins to reach Panglima Polim, something that could never happen in a normal Saturday night. The parking however was a hassle. With Sinou Kaffe, Mangia, Taco Local, Loobie lobster & Holy Gyu itself located one next to another, no wonder the streets were packed with cars.

A New Year Note

Happy new year everyone!

Can you believe it's 2014 already? I know I have been saying this sentence way too much, but I couldn't help but to think on how time flies. Earlier today I just read about Suri Cruise, the oh so cute daughter of Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes, who just turned 7! Can you believe that she's 7 now? I swear it was just like yesterday when I saw Tom jumpin' on the couch at Oprah's showing how much he loves Katie and yet it was 8 years ago! Time really moves too fast.    

Anyway, a little note to start on my first post in 2014. I wish I could share on how blast I was last year, but my 2013 has not been that great. I feel I have wasted a whole year without making any big difference in my life. Sure, there are great blessings, but if I look back, last year just seems too... Vanilla. Plain without any toppings. It's not that I don't love vanilla, vanilla is good, way better than having rocky road, but you know, a bit of strawberry would be nicer.

To be completely honest, I feel like I have been too caught up with how I thought life's supposed to be and what the society expect, that I end up pleasing almost everyone but myself, prioritized people's need more than mine. What's forgotten by me is this saying, "In a world full of people expecting something from us, always remember the most important person to please is you". When I first heard the saying quite some time ago, it felt too egocentrism for me to understand, but lately it makes more sense to me.

So now, as much as I want life to stop moving so fast, I kinda glad welcoming the new year. It's not about "a new year, a new me" bulls***, but I'm glad how it waken me, resuscitate me to stop wasting my time and start focus on how I want my life to be. Just like Oprah said, Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. And I will get it right this time *finger crossed*.

Thank you so much for sticking with Ivy's Life and I really do wish all of you a wonderful year ahead! 

Cheers,

Ivy