Romantic Without Spending Any Money: Is It Possible?

Being romantic is identical with candle light dinner, roses, gifts, and fabulous dresses. Admit it, when you try to do all those things above from the cheapest to the most expensive one, they all lead to a bigger spending. But, are they the only way to make the romantic ambience between the lovebirds?

It’s almost the end of the month. And it’s weekend. It means that you all, who’s already in a relationship, you surely do know that you have a compulsory to spare your time with your lovers, don’t you? Well, sometimes, going out and being royal to your loved one isn’t a crime. However, when the end of the month has come, this activity is like keep ‘terorring’ your wallet.

How to overcome this terror thingy, then? 

Here are some tips to do something simple & romantic without spending any money with your loved one:

• Watching DVD together

No need to spend any money, no need to dress up nicely. Just grab some DVDs at your home (and no need to buy the new one!), accompanied by a bowl of butter popcorn, and mineral water (soft drinks is so last year), setting up a comfy place with a low lighting to watch it together, and voila! The romantic yet cozy ambience is yours.

• Cooking by experince  experiment

You don’t need to be a great chef in order to do this. You also don’t need to buy any groceries that leads to a higher spending. What you have to do is just check your refrigerator, pick something unique and unusual, combined it with something that you think would suit it. Just pretend that you together are the ‘matchmaker’ between the food. It’d be much more fun yet romantic at the same time!

P.S: please just don’t combine the rice with chocolate cause they won’t match at all J

• Get healthy and do some exercise together!

Who says that exercising is just for athlete? We all know that this activity will be good for us (just don’t be hyper). No need to spend any money and get healthy, get in shape, get refreshment, and get closer to your loved one. What else do you ask for???

Anyway, whatever & whenever you do, as long as you do it with your loved ones, it  would always be a special moment. Just do the simple things, and have fun together. As it said before, the simpler the better!

Best Cafes to (or Trying to) Study

As a true Jakartan, it’s a normal symptom to not being able to study normally at your own house. Yes, we need to go out. We need to have some regular coffee and comfortable sofas that were not available in our own house. Yes, we are. ADMIT IT.

 

Okay, put all those self-reflecting sentences aside, I do find some scenarios which lead me to find where the best spot are available to study. At one point I might have searched all cafes existed in Cipete Raya. But here are some of my preferred café when it comes to study seriously: 


 Lavish Coffee 

I might have to confess here that the reason I’ve tried Lavish Coffee was because my usual café I go to when I need to study, was too busy at the time. I usually go to Toodz House, but kudos for them being more successful, the place becomes more crowded especially on weekends. As I searched for another quite place, I’d happen to see Lavish Coffee which is exactly in front of Toodz House. I reckon it wasn’t filled with as many people as Toodz, and I decided to go there. The place was really nice to study, and they only have approx. 6 sofas so it won’t get too noisy (unless suddenly Nicky Minaj was there). Nothing really special about the foods though.

Jakarta Coffee House

Pardon me for having too much information about cafes in Cipete Raya. I can’t help the fact that I am actually live here. So, Jakarta Coffee House is one quiet place. I don’t know whether it was just a coincident but I find this café to be really…hollow. The darker lightings they set, as well as the concept of wooden interior, have made it so memorable for me. Truly preserving its name, this café was made for those coffee-manias. Not few persons I see where they only got here for a 500g sack of coffee, and heads back home. If I were more a coffee person I would love to try it. But sadly and fortunately, I don’t. I would recommend this place for you who likes to sense some quite moment, but I don’t think it will suitable for you who likes to study in groups. Besides having the possibility of ‘disturbing the tranquility’, the dim lights will be an additional difficulties for you to study on books and papers.

Kedai Kopi Kemang

Like its name, there’s no way it is located in Cipete Raya. Now we’re moving to Kemang which you might find that it is really difficult to find a quiet place to study. Moving further to Pejaten direction, you’ll find the tiny place of Kedai Kopi Kemang on your left just beside the huge banner of Kanaya Printing. The outside interior looks like it’s an antique coffeehouse, and it’s true. Despite all the hustle of Kemang, this place has calmness feature to offer. Perfect for those who likes to study, do some self-reflecting, or hiding from some mafia.

There goes my options for you guys who would like to find some decent, hustle-free, cafes to study. I write this post not for information purpose only, but also a reminder for myself that it is now only a week left before upcoming exams. I

need to pay those cafes a visit soon.

                                                
(photo: google.com)

A 50 (-Cent) First Dates

A date should always be a happy time. A moment free from your daily stresses, and  a good pretending that there’s no deadline tomorrow. Fully embracing the privilege that you actually are able to share the moment with your significant one. It should also be free of monetary issues revolving your saving balance, as it is a moment where no money –supposed to be- matters. 

Back when I was still dating someone (cue raindrop sound effect), there were occasionally days where we both really want to meet up outside, but got not enough money. Things were hectic at both of our own homes and to meet up outside the house seems to be the better choice. You can’t blame high-schoolers with their limited bucks and their inability to afford their extension of romance. The alternatives for couples to hang out in Jakarta are not much; either you hit the shops, cinema, or restaurants. Which usually it’s all in the same place called Malls. Jakarta has too many malls at this point. You have 3 different malls in Senayan district alone, you have Plaza Indonesia and Grand Indonesia to stand side by side, and the worst part is they actually look and built in the same way. We get tired of Malls so easily, but end up heading ourselves come back again because there are not many other options to go to besides that. Dating in a decent park seems to be a dream that you can only have in London or Manhattan, but definitely not in Jakarta. 

At that urgent moment, I came up with date ideas that can save both of our wallet but enables us to share the experience together. Well, first up, what do you think about a simple Museum Date Day? We headed to our destination, which is Museum Bank Mandiri at Kota using TransJakarta. Starting off from Blok M shelter, we were drowned in conversation for about 25 minutes at that vacant bus and out of nowhere the bus had already arrived at Kota. It is truly my top recommendation for transportation ideas because for 3500 you can go pretty much anywhere in Jakarta. Kudos for government to keep the busway up! Another great thing is, the bus shelter located just in front of Museum Bank Mandiri. So you practically just need to get off from the shelter and -voila- here it is. The ticket for the museum entrance is only 2000. Museum Bank Mandiri is just like another typical museum you had in mind, where the old mannequin with some defects on their heads were standing (or sitting) everywhere. But it was my first time I ever went to Museum Bank Mandiri, so I enjoyed myself taking loads of photos. 

As we planned to go out and find some drinks, we realized that beside Museum Bank Mandiri lies a different Museum with a more aesthetical nuance. It turns out to be Museum Bank Indonesia (BI) and we thought “meh, what the heck let’s just go in!” It was a noble decision because at that day we spent our date was May 18^th that happens to be the International Museum Day! So at BI Museum, besides having a free entrance, there were also events and full-course tour of the museum which was so much fun! Can you imagine of having a Museum Date on International Museum Day? It’s such a fortunate coincidence, and a pure meant-to-be! (cue sad music and raindrops).

To prevent myself getting all drench in unnecessary nostalgic issues, I gotta ask; do you think this personal dating case of mine could be any cheaper? It costs me 7000 in total for transportation in return, and 2000 rupiah for one-full-day of having a blast moment. I have to recommend you lovey dovey couple to try their Ontel Bike as well, you can find it just in front of the museums. Try to stroll around the Old Town and eat up some street foods. There are many street foods or humble restaurant nearby, and it costs you much cheaper than some ordinary food court meals at the Malls. I bet it would be an interesting one date you can never forget in spite of the next 30 movie date you’ll have in the future.

And suddenly Jakarta doesn’t feel so boring anymore, right? ;-)

(photo: google.com)