Our Long Weekend : Inacraft 2017 + Staycation at Atria Gading Serpong

I spent my long weekend travelling accross three provinces 😀 My and my husband, we had a lot on our plan for last weekend getaway. I wanted to visit Inacraft 2017 mainly to check out local brands collection of leather bags for myself, and also because I have never gone to Inacraft with my husband. And my last visit to this fair was like thousand years ago lol. Then we had the staycation plan at Hotel Atria Gading Serpong; husband had a free 1-night stay there from a photography workshop event. Another plan was an Ikea Trip; we are looking to get a new wardrobe.

Monday morning, both of us woke up still feeling quite exhausted after a full-day photoshoot on the day before for husband’s client. Still we eagerly drive to Senayan for the Inacraft 2017. We need to leave early in the morning to avoid traffic jam and to ensure we get a parking space easily. Aaand, once our car get to the highway, suddenly I remember that I forgot to turn off the AC back at home. If we were going to a short travel I maybe would let it slide but our plan was to be back tomorrow night; we had to go back (just) to turn it off. We lost a good half an hour and toll money T_T

Inacraft 2017

Fortunately the road was not busy at all. Lancar jaya! We arrived at JCC Senayan around 9.15 am (just an hour drive from Bogor) – still 45 minutes away from the opening of ticket booth – and parked the car not far from the entry gate.

Our visit to Inacraft was quite fun; we enjoyed looking at the crafts shown & meeting a few friends there, but I did not find what I originally looking for, leather bag for myself. There were quite a lot of booth selling leather goods but I just was not drawn to make any purchase. It’s either I don’t like the finishing or type of the leather; the bag model, or simply the way they display the goods in a mess. You know when everything was just hung or piled up together.

Of course there were some that interest me; a pull up cow leather bag combined with kain songket of various pattern. Didn’t buy it though; the price was outside my budget 😀 I don’t know why I tend to be interested in higher priced items. Maybe because it is expensive; it makes me interested in them more?

We only lasted 3 hours in Inacraft; more and more people were coming into JCC and I didn’t enjoy being around so many people in a crowded space. So we got out the building, walked towards the food sellers at Pojok Kuliner Nusantara. We had Nasi Bali for our lunch.

Staycation at Atria Gading Serpong + Ikea Trip

We left JCC after lunch and headed to Serpong for our staycation at Hotel Atria. The hotel which is located near Summarecon Mall Serpong (SMS) actually a business hotel that tends to be busy during weekdays.

We got a single bed non-smoking room on 3rd floor; same floor with the swimming pool. Too bad the pool was really small that my husband cancelled his plan to swim there. The room was okay. It’s just that the walls were not as sound-proof as we expected; because we keep hearing people walking, moving chairs and some other noises clearly as if our door was opened; while in fact it was not.

We spent the afternoon napping and lazying on the bed; until it’s time to have our dinner. My husband wanted to eat Kerang Kiloan Pelaut not far from our hotel; so we would take a walk there. What he thought to be a 400 meter walk were actually much farther T_T And after we get to the area (around warung tenda Pasar Modern Paramount); we could not find that restaurant. Did some more googling then we found out that the place is permanently closed 🙁

Feeling hungry, we walk to the various warung tenda to see what food they are selling. We ended up having bakmi for dinner; and tried chai kwe (choi pan) khas Pontianak, and Bolbi (bola ubi or sweet potato ball). Didn’t snap a picture of the fried choi pan sorry; but here’s the sugar sprinkled Bolbi for you to drool on.

Bolbi is a fried sweet potato ball; it’s hollow in the center. The bolbi stall was very busy; lots of college students are queuing to get their orders. The balls were sold Rp 20.000,- per 10 pcs; and I like the taste. It’s sweet but not overly sweet and a bit chewy.

We decided to get back to the hotel with GrabCar. While ordering the car; my husband noticed the distance between our dinner location and the hotel is actually 1.2 km; much farther from the 400m distance he thought it was hahaha…

Back in the hotel, I fell asleep merely at 9 pm 😀 I woke up at 2.30 am and did some work on the laptop (yes I bring it even on staycations :D) before going back to bed again after an hour.

The morning after; we checked out from the hotel after having a nice breakfast and drive to Ikea. Then the struggle began lol.. yea the struggle to not putting various things inside the shopping trolley just because it looks cute and looks useful.

Raja Konro Daeng Naba & Visiting My Newborn Niece

From Ikea, our next destination is Kemang to visit my cousin Putri in a hospital in Kemang who just gave birth to her first daughter. But we were hungry so we wanted to have lunch first at Raja Konro Daeng Naba. We didn’t order Konro though; but Pallu Basa (which looks a lot like Coto Makassar) with buras and kerang dara (or darah?) with oyster sauce and kerang bambu with spicy Padang sauce. Pallu Basa and both of the kerang dish were tasty but I like the Padang sauce better.

And here’s a pic of me and may aunt (the baby’s grandma). Welcome to the world baby C, tiny and mighty, the littlest feet that will make the biggest footprints in the heart of your parents and family ^^