We really needed to catch up on work today, so we went to Anomali coffee in Plaza Indonesia at the Urban Food Court on level 5. This is not your usual Asian mall food court. I have never seen a food court that looks this well styled. It’s almost creepy how well everything fits together. The same goes for Anomali coffee, everything looks so great, almost too great. There is a marketing genius behind the food court and this coffee shop, there just has to be. The great thing about Anomali being inside of the food court is that you can buy any of the food court meals (which are cheap and quite tasty) and eat them at Anomali while you sip at your beautiful Indonesian, fresh brewed, coffee.
The staff knows their coffee very well,which I appreciate. They tell you about the acidity levels, origin, roast and more. They only serve Indonesian coffee and the beans come from all regions of the country. Nick really liked the coffee from Aceh. I only had tea today. Too much coffee tends to make me stressed, which I already was because…
While sitting at Anomali coffee we found out that our Indonesian visa is not extendable. Which means we have to leave Indonesia much sooner than expected. All of a sudden, there are a million decisions to be made. Where are we going, what will we be doing? Do we still want to travel as much as we do now? Or do we want to take this crazy house hunt to the next level? For those of you who don’t know this, one of the goals of this journey is to find the perfect place for us to live.
The next few weeks will be super exciting. While we decide what to do with our lives, we are going to hang around on the beach and drink cocktails.
Since we have only limited time in Indonesia we’re gonna need some help: Have you ever been in Indonesia? Where should we go? What should we do? And, do you know some nice places to have some coffee?
// pictures are all by Nick’s sister Marit, since I was too stressed to take any
9 months. It’s been 9 months since we left home. 9 months of just him and me. There was never any doubt if we could do this. We moved in together after three weeks and we haven’t been apart since. 5 years and 7 months ago we met and I still love him as much as I did then, more even. We are seeing the world together. There are a few great things in the world, this is one of them.
This picture was taken in Vietnam. We had just arrived and we were looking for coffee. This was the first place we saw, the floor covered in cigarette buds, just some stools and tables in someone’s living room. They served the best Vietnamese coffee. This is where I learned to drink coffee. I remember tasting it and being surprised. Vietnamese coffee tastes like chocolate, milk chocolate with lots of sugar and coffee. It’s divine. There was a kitten on a rope tied to a pole, playing with a ball of string. We just sat there and loved it. So many memories have already been made and there are so many new memories waiting to be made.
Nick’s sister is joining us for a while, she will be here for our new memories. We made this for her because she’s excited out of her mind. // Countdown
We’ve said it before but we really love to learn, this website is so great // Skillshare
I don’t know why I haven’t seen this website before, it’s about everything we love // We Heart
This website is actually for kids, but we love it too // DIY
We’re going to be in NZ in a couple of months and we can’t wait to visit this place // Memphis Belle
I said ‘yum’, Nick said ‘ew’, what do you say? // Peanut Butter Pickle Sandwiches
Enjoy the links, we hope you had a nice weekend!
And it had nothing to do with penguins. Well, maybe a little bit. But it had everything to do with our two favorite things: good coffee/tea and good design.
Last month we spent most of our time indoors. Which is ridiculous considering we’re in Thailand. We were working in our Chiang Mai apartment. Every couple of days we would crawl out of our apartment and work someplace else.
Our go-to-place to work was Penguin Ghetto. Coolest name in the world to be honest. It’s a small coffee place in the north of Chiang Mai, and it’s run by an architectural bureau, NOTDS (none other than design studio). NOTDS had some space left in their office building and they turned it into Penguin Ghetto. The first time we had coffee at Penguin Ghetto, we had no idea it was part of NOTDS and we were amazed by a place this cool at this location. We were admiring the design of the building as much as our coffee.
The interior of Penguin Ghetto is black and white (like a penguin!). The whole outside of the building has been covered with a layer of recycled pallets, giving it an organic look. Penguin Ghetto uses chairs, stools and tables by local designers. They also display work from two designers that live across the street from them. They even have their own coffee, another reason these guys are awesome.
NOTDS is composed of five architects, all in their early thirties. We’ve met Ekaphap Duangkaew, one of the architects. He told us how they came up with Penguin Ghetto and how it was created. It was a cafe that functioned as a waiting room for their clients. The cafe quickly gained popularity among local students, and is now often busy. This could be because of the awesome name, the damn fine coffee (I liked the ‘ghetto coffee’) or the incredible building. Or all of the above.
Right across the road from Penguin Ghetto is linnil‘s studio. She sells some of her notebooks at Penguin Ghetto, which is how we found out about her. We liked her stuff right away. She also happens to be super nice and a super talented designer.
Linnil makes notebooks, bags, and loads more stuff. We absolutely loved all of her notebooks and wish we bought more of them. You can check out her work on her Facebook page! She’s also selling her products in Bangkok’s Art and Culture Center, which is worth a visit if you’re around. She shares her workplace with her boyfriend, who has his own design studio: 3.2.6. Studio. They work and live together, making super cool pieces of art. If you’re ever around, please go say hi and check out the nice stuff they create!
China’s most laid back city is Dali, we liked it and that’s probably why we’ve spent two weeks in Dali working. And with work comes coffee. One of us is an avid coffee drinker and the other is crazy about tea, we’re always happy to find a good cup of either in the cities we work. China is famous for its tea and you can get it everywhere, finding a good cup of tea is easier than finding a decent cup of coffee. We have spent many hours finding good coffee in Dali and this are the three places we loved most.
1. Unknown
Ok, I realize it’s a bummer I can’t remember the name of the place in Dali where I liked the coffee best. I’ve tried finding it online, to no avail. Luckily for you however, I still know what street it’s on and the general location on said street. Angela made a map to show you where it is.
From the outside it looks like a regular European café, big window, with a door to the left. The window frame is painted a light shade of blue and you can see a lot of plants behind the window. It looks kind of hippie-esque, but so does every bar in Dali. You should see the bar behind the door. It looks pretty dark from the street.
The coffee and espresso served here is made with a classic, the percolator. Because of this it can take up to 10 minutes before your coffee is served, but it is great coffee, the strongest I’ve had in Dali. The tea served is made from dried tea leaves, no pre-packaged tea here. It’s tea from the region and bought on the market. Fresh, organic produce can come with some unwanted friends. Angie found a tiny caterpillar on her mint leaves. She refused to drink any more tea the following week.
Like all the places on this list, they offer free WiFi.
2. Bakery 88
The coffee here is pretty good but what makes this place truly great are its sandwiches. After a couple of weeks in China you’ll find yourself with a craving for decent bread, cheese and meats. I sure did. Bakery 88 is the place to go if you want a taste of home while in Dali. They have different kinds of bread here, all home-baked. The whole-wheat nut bread goes great with old cheese, and I loved my BLT. They also sell home-made jams and imported olive oil.
You can pick whatever kind of bread you want for your sandwich. The pastry, pies and cookies are also very tasty. The cheeses and meats are mostly imported from Europe. The cheese is really good!
We couldn’t find a website for Bakery 88, so here’s the TripAdvisor review page: Bakery 88
3. Black Dragon Cafe
Another lunchroom-style café we loved was the Black Dragon Cafe. We both get a literary hard-on when we see books and this place is full of it. They’ve got plenty of new books for sale, and shelves full of second-hand books you can either read there or buy.
They’ve got a decent coffee, and the tea here is amazing. They’ve got a tea called ‘Black Dragon Eight Treasures Tea’, with marigold, globe amaranth, jasmine, peppermint, orange zest, Chinese date, goji berry and rose leaves. It looks cool, the taste is special. The rest of the menu looks good. We had some home-made pie and cookies when we were there and they were delicious.
Website: http://www.blackdragoncafe.com/
