Foodie's Travel Guide to Malang

          I reckon it has been a while since my last post and I finally back to this blog after a while hiatus. Life has been considerably amazing yet busy but I managed my spare time the end of the year to visited one of neighbour town. It's Malang! Some of you might don't have idea where is it, but actually it is located in east java and indeed the better place to rest a while for hustle bustle big city.

         Malang is known with its beautiful beaches or we could say there are many tourist who always visit Malang's beaches in holiday. Modern day Malang, although significantly urbanised, has retained much of its historical character, remains vibrant and is regarded as by far the most attractive large city in the East Java region. Also visit Malang City that offer its interesting places or tourism spot but I will not talking about this because I only focus on awesomely awesome coffee shops here as who doesn't love food? or coffee to be exact?

        I spent 120 hours or 5 days to explore the awesome coffee shops in Malang. I think it was pretty enough time to discover all of them. I surely admit that I'm quite bored with coffee shops in my own hometown that’s I moved to neighbourhood. Surprisingly, the ambiences are great and the prices are insanely cheap! Never expected that far you will find coffee shop in vintage ish old colonial house or in the middle of little jungle in housing area.


          I and my best buddy took the first oh-so early train from Surabaya. Train went around 6:30am then it took only 2.5 hours and we reached the Malang city. The weather was nicely gloomy yet breezy air, it's very contrast with my city. After we took some minutes to rest, we headed to the first café. I need to get my caffeine fix since I haven't got any today. Darn early train! Luckily, as I have listed, we arrived at this lovely café "8Oz Studio" located in university area but housing area to be exact. We barely noticed as didn't have any sign on it. Still feeling christmasy around the corner (not pictured)!. I ordered a cup of cappucinno and latte. As I strolled entirely cafe, I felt hungry then grabbed bagel with blueberry jam. The time was running out so fast and time to back home but I secretly found the newest gelato and we stopped by. We didn't have a chance to order gelato, full tummy so evening Mojito worked so fine. That was a nice start post christmas treat.

          It was Wednesday, a new day to start exploring the city from morning until drop. We start pretty late actually due so many things we should get it done in the morning at home. We started at this legendary place in Malang. Look at the sign, exterior, interior and stuff. That is so many decades ago, but once a legend always a legend right? The menu still the same also the taste, unfortunately we didn't get the good o' drink until the next dat. We believed as we came late we got the awesome pictures! Quiet house with one bike parked on it, and no guests at all. Win!
        I continued our journey to the coffee shop as always since I didn't drink any caffeine this morning. The location is quite surprising, the first level is barber shop then we should hike up the round stair to get there. The coffee shop is small but I love the mood they bring into the tiles, rustic wood table and thanks god the coffees are good too. No complain.


          It was the last day of 2015, I barely prepared any like I used to last year. Luckily, I'm out of home again and gather with best friend and his family. I may or may not believe that celebrating outside home means new ambience, new story and everything's new. We started our morning with a cup of coffee as recommend by my friend who came it early but we didn't have a chance to meet. The thing I visit this cafe was the idea of gravity wall and didn't realise it until found it on the way to toilet. Such a clever idea! Wont miss any so I grab my camera, asked friend and got this headshot! Did I look sleepless night owl? I did. Nonetheless the coffee was good. Gathered with his family was totally different for what I usually did on NYE. Couldn't ask for more but blessed for we have reached in friendship in the past couple months.

          Basically I went back because the last time didn't get any proper shots because packed, raining pour, tired much and I should've stopped complaining. I arrived there pretty early, not opened yet so I could take interior pictures with no guests. Tell me I'm kind of moody person you ever meet, I must wait my food for about 1 hour then the rest already had them. Simply because they were ordering dessert and I ordered main course, but no excuse I did nothing for 1 hour, 3 times waiter reminder and just waited until I got one. It was good but who cares if you did this lame service. Puh! I quit.

 

         Oh the last day of my trip in Malang. Checklist all checked but still had much time to explore more out of checklist. Calling my friend, who had short trip from Malang to Surabaya named it "Inijie" so we rescheduled meeting up in here. We supposed to meet in one of cafe but we came too early, then moved to the neighbour but got none because they were not ready. So we decided to moved a bit closer to different area and gobsmacked by this vintage place. The colonial architecture, interior and stuff got me like... is this even a house or cafe? but actually cafe in the morning, turns into bar house in the evening. Crazy right? and we are not allowed to use professional camera so apologies for lack of pictures here. I admit it is cool place I couldn't even imagine.

          It was raining, so hard and we stucked in here for couple hours. Afterwards, we had to say goodbye as he had another event. We didn't have any idea what would we go, after we grabbed lunch then we stopped by this cool guesthouse. Sorry not sorry I took tons of picture then we escaped to another places. Ha! and the last coffeeshop was out of my expectation, I saw it couple days ago but no expectation at all until I went there. It's located in housing area, the house is totally different with the neighbourhoods. Look at the entrance with old style chinese letter, then we entered really like jungle. A big fish ponds, many trees, antiques and stuff. I will not describing about the coffee here, just very low taste but just chill and relax from hustle bustle Malang.

Eats and Drinks:
on this post.
8Oz Coffee Studio
How Lay
Coffee Kayoe
Laboré Eatery
Vosco Coffee
Rumah Opa
Kedai Koffei Loe Mien Toe

other recommendations
Java Dancer Coffee
Savoy dinning
Golden Heritage Coffee
Noodle Inc

Special Thanks
to best buddy who always accompanied me during my short getaway, Fanuel Bimo! Couldnt ask for more ;).

Photographer by Fauzi Putra with a Nikon D600 and my portraits by Bimo.