10-Day Silent Vipassana Meditation Retreat in Bali

Vipassana introduction (Source: dhamma.org)

Few months ago I stumbled upon a website for the 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat registration. It had been 5 years since my first time attendance in such meditation program.

I thought, maybe it was time to go for it again. And this time, the place was in Bali.  It would be great since it had been 7 years  since the last time I went there and I would have no problem and difficulties in the language. Therefore, without much thinking, I pressed the 'registration' button and applied for it. 

A day after I received the acceptance email from the registration team, and I started to look around for the flight ticket, think of how many days I need to go for the overall trip, where else to go, and so on. I decided to reach Bali 1 day before the meditation started and stay 3 more days after the meditation over. 

I had no idea what the meditation was about, who the teacher was, what the teaching would be like, and so on. Basically, I did not read in detail regarding it and let my self just went there to find it out myself what it would be like. That was why, I often felt lost when the teaching had begun. 

Vipassana introduction (Source: dhamma.org)

In this post, let me share some basic info regarding the place and the program. 

The building was called Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali, located at Jalan Aspal, Penglumbaran Susut, Bangli Regency, Bali.

Dining hall building (women left, men right) - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali

Upon email acceptance, you would receive important and necessary information regarding the retreat such as what you need (valid passport and visa, local contact number in case of emergency), that your cell phone would be handed in to the management for safe keeping during your 10 days there, when to arrive, when course ending, course finance (it was run solely on donation basis and only submit after the course ended), what to bring (loose-fitting clothes covering shoulders and knees, no tight and revealing clothes, jumper/ shawl/ socks for cold weather, towel, toiletteries, laundry soap/ detergent, water bottle, mosquitoes repellant - thank God mosquitoes did not attack inside the meditation hall!), no laundry service provided - could only hand wash, what not to bring (books, religious objects, writing materials, mp3 players and other electronic devices, food), and so on. 

One umbrella per room per person - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali 

It was raining season when I was there. However, umbrella was available, hung outside our room (one for each person), which you could use during your stay there. Flashlight was also provided - hung next to the umbrella so you did not have to bring. 

Towel rack/ dryer was given one outside the room for each person. There were 2 big clothes hanger available for women to share to dry their clothes. Or otherwise, just hung it at that towel rack.

Fyi, the weather there was quite humid with so many rain. Also the weather changed really fast. Like when you saw it sunny, just a while later, suddenly heavy rain poured down. So be alert when you hung your clothes to dry in open space!

View of Meditation Hall - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali 

There would be transport arrangement available from and to airport, Ubud and Canggu at a fee. There was ride share info as well but it did not work out when I tried to get it. The transport from Ngurah Rai international airport would cost IDR400,000, while from Ubud was IDR100,000. 

I decided to spend a night before and after meditation retreat in Ubud since the transport facility was available. Plus, I never stayed there before (I passed by the area last time and felt that it was such a nice place to stay). 

It was not big - reachable on foot to nearby area, Grab/ local taxi/ Grab motor service available, you could also rent bike and bicycle to go around; many good and affordable massage service available in the area; Cafe/ pub/ restaurant were everywhere; shops selling local products and daily necessities like Guardian, Alfamart, etc. were accessible easily as well. 

Me and other 4 passengers took the transport from Ubud. Our meeting place was at Delta Dewata Supermarket at 3pm. It reached the Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali in around 45 minutes to one hour.

We went in to the dining room hall for registration and after that we would hand in our mobile phone, wallet/ money, books, journal, religious objects etc. to the management.

Small, simple, yet clean :) - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali room

Soonafter, we were given our room number and could start going there to put our luggage in and unpacking stuffs. We could take bath too to refresh ourselves before the long journey began :)

Bathroom cum toilet on the separate building - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali

 

There were 5 bathroom cum toilet for 22 of us to share (22 rooms available for each women and men - made a total of 44 pax allowed in each retreat).

It was enough as not everyone would take a bath at the same time. We could take bath at any of our rest time (morning, afternoon, and evening) and usually everyone had their own preference time to take bath. So, you did not have to worry about queuing and stuff. 

At 5pm we were gathered inside the dining hall for the introduction, and then had dinner.

Eating utensils

We were given one set of eating utensils with label of our name on the table - where our seat was located.

We used the same utensils until the rest of our stay. We washed it right after using it each and every time. 

View inside the dining hall (men side) - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali 

The food was buffet style. You could take a many as you wanted, but make sure you could finish them (and not waste it). But as you took your food, please be considerate of people who were queuing behind because they were hungry and not all food was available for topping up. 

They served vegetarian food throughout our stay. The menu was changed every day and they ensured we had enough nutrition for our half-day meal (we took only breakfast and lunch). At 5pm, for new students, we were given 2 types of fruits (banana/ salak/ orange), one piece each. For old students, they were given liquid drink.

Extra cushions and other stuffs available - Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali 

Basically they did not really allow us to bring our own personal cushion inside the meditation hall. You did not have to worry though because many extra cushions (medium and small sizes), wooden chairs, wooden leaning chairs, and shawls were available inside the meditation hall for us to use. 

Soon after our first introduction and briefing, the silent mode was started. We had to keep silent (no gestures towards each other and no body language) throughout the 10 days there as to ensure not to break the sila and not to affect our meditation process.

If you had any enquiry regarding the meditation, there were interview session with teacher available after lunch (11.45am to 1 pm), and also from 9 to 9.30pm at the meditation hall. Make sure you make full use of this session when you felt in doubt regarding your meditation learning. 

Following was the schedule that more or less we had for the 10 days there. 

Dhamma Geha Vipassana Bali Daily Schedule

There would be 1 teacher who would guide our meditation session. There would be audio guide recording by S.N. Goenka in English, followed with Russia translation (as majority of attendance were Russian). 

Some of us were lent the personal ipod with many different language translations based on each person's native language. Like for example, even though I was fluent in English, my native language was Indonesian. Therefore, I was given the Indonesian translation in case I wanted to understand it better in my own language. It was indeed helpful for me.

There were about 45 language translations so far, so you would not have to worry if you were not fluent or good in understanding English.

Do not worry. As long you made your mind into it, you would be able to go through it all. It was a step-by-step learning approach. 

We definitely had to work hard and treasure the opportunities of having such conditions and environment, because in real world, we were not given such privileges - quiet place, provision of healthy meal, teacher's guidance, fresh air, natural environment, and so on. 

After 10 days, we could talk again on the tenth day, and leave the place on the eleventh morning. 

We were advised to practise the meditation into our daily life (recommended twice a day - one in the morning and one in the evening), so that you could feel the benefits of it. 

You would find out its benefits after you experienced it yourself. Definitely, it gave you good benefits into your life.

Fyi, there were many meditation centers all over the world that organised such 10-day meditation courses. You could check it out here. They gave us the apps as well (dhamma.org) and log in access once we became the old student. We could use it for our meditation practise beach home. 

So, I hope this post would help you and give you a picture what you would encounter if you decided you go for it, and if you had any question, you could leave your comment below :)

Unforgettable Chinese New Year 2020

Last day of Chinese New Year

Today it marked the last day of Chinese New Year, which was also called Cap Go Meh (meaning the fifteenth lunar) or Yuan Xiao Jie 元宵节 (the Lantern Festival) or also known as Chinese Valentine's Day.

This year the atmosphere of the overall Chinese New Year was rather special and it was mainly due to the arrival of special guest from Wuhan, China - the Novel Coronavirus or nCoV- that spread not only to Chinese people or within China, but to any other nationalities and all over the world.

List of 33 confirmed cases and its relation up to 8 Feb 2020 (Pic source: CNA Channel News Asia)

Since Singapore was among the top countries often visited by Chinese people, whether it was for business, meetings, working, visiting, and so on, it was inevitable that the nCoV reached to us pretty soon.  This had caused a stir among Singaporean who rushed around trying to stock up masks, sanitizer, cleaning products as a way to prevent the spreading and maintain the personal hygiene.

Our Lohei or Prosperity Toss Platter from Chinatown Complex Singapore 

Yesterday my friends and I embraced ourselves to go to Chinatown Complex Hawker Centre in order to have our Lohei or Prosperity Toss celebration and dinner. Initially we were worried too to choose the place there because it was a well-known hawker visited by both local and tourists. But I thought that there was affordable and nice Yusheng there where I used to patronize years ago and I wanted to introduce it to my friends.

I was quite appalled when I saw no crowd. I mean, usually this place was crowded like hell! There would usually a plate of Yusheng ordered in every table and 'Huat ah' (meaning to welcome prosperity)  shouting would be heard one after another while tossing the mixed vegetables in the air).

With my Mala Partners ^_^

Even when we finished our dinner (around 8pm), the area was quiet. Many shops were closed too near the temple area. Souvenir shop seller complained to me that their sales were not even reaching S$500 on such Friday night as the result of nCoV.

Temporary ban visitor from China (Source: wikipedia. org)

From 1st Feb 23:59 our Singapore government had stopped anyone who had visited China for the past 14 days to enter, or transit through Singapore. Ahh..., no wonder lah why the tourist area became so quiet.

I also thought the MRT would be crowded and I would not get seat, but I was wrong. We managed to get seat and there were many empty seats on and off. When reaching home, I started checking my phone and receiving many pictures. Then only I realized where all the Singaporean went that night.

The DORSCON chart (Pic source: CNA Channel News Asia)

It was yesterday that the announcement of DORSCON alert were raised from Yellow to Orange. Many 'kiasu' (scared to lose) and 'kiasi' (scared to die) Singaporean were rushing down to supermarkets to hoard the basic necessity products, such as: rice, instant noodle, canned food, cleaning products, and so on. The supermarket website was also not functioning due to overwhelmed shoppers and not enough stocks.

Few photos circulated among social media while queuing at supermarket in Singapore

The photos of empty racks, super long queue, and people wearing funny stuffs were circulated around the social media, stirring panic not only within the country, but also affected our neighbor countries like Indonesia.

Today many Indonesian friends of mine sent me messages asking about the situation here. They were also receiving those photos circulated online and was wondering how Singapore had become like this while there was no single case up to now in such a huge country with more than 260 million citizens in Indonesia. They conveyed their worries towards my families and my safe being.

Wuhan Virus VS Kiasi Virus (Pic source: Facebook)

Even this Saturday morning when I walked to supermarket to see the situation myself, as early as 9.30 am, a super long queue had already been there. Everyone was having shopping cart full of things both at upper and bottom part of the cart. They stood there and were patiently waiting for their turn to pay. I saw many unattended carts and baskets too that were abandoned by shoppers who did not have patient to wait for their turn.

Non of our family members were hoarding stuffs like that, thankfully!!! Because we had stored just enough food for our daily necessities which I had bought during CNY promotion period, such as: 5 packs of instant noodles, 2 packs of egg noodles, 2 packs of 5 kg rice for the families of 5 at home. I considered it to be enough for the time being and truthfully I would not feast on instant noodle on my daily meal. I would rather buy vegetable from nearby supermarket and eat it with, just enough for our meal. Otherwise we could still purchase bread from the convenience shop.

Another picture distributed online (Pic source: Facebook)

And since I stopped working, I had a habit of taking simple meal in my everyday's life. Plus I believed in 'I eat to live rather than I live to eat.' So basically my hubby and I took this incident calmly and I could relax at home reading and sleeping rather than queuing at the supermarket.

So far I also had not worn any single mask even when going out. The only mask that I had was the 4-piece mask that our government distributed once per household (which apparently not enough for 5 of us, but eventually, we still had to feel grateful as not every government gave out the mask away to their citizen, ie. Hong Kong, no matter how little the number given was). And although I had the hand sanitizer, I never brought it with me as I had no habit in using it and believed more in the power of washing hand with soap or using wet tissue to clean hands when required.

There was no spray to kill bacteria too at home. The most we added on was adding a small cap of Dettol into our washing machine when washing clothes to kill the germs, that's all.

Full moon at Buddha Tooth Relic Temple - Singapore 070220

No one knew when this virus would stop spreading. In fact, there were still many people not yet coming back to Singapore due to the travel ban (including 30,000 Chinese national who held work permit here in Singapore). It was definitely affecting the economy (especially on tourism and airlines), which reminded many people of 2003 SARS outbreak.

For now we could only pray that we could overcome this storm peacefully and prayed hard that the situation would be under control. May all sentient beings be healthy and happy, free from suffering and the cause of suffering, life full of peace and joy. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu. 

Update news as Sunday 9 Feb 20 (Pic source: the Straits Times)

P.S This morning 9 Feb 20 when I woke up, 7 new cases were announced and it had added to a total 40 cases, and this time it even included the Taxi and private hire car drivers, which were worrying as many people were expected to be fetched in and out every day in their course of work.

However, do not let our guards down to prevent the virus by keeping up with the personal hygiene practice, staying at home more when necessary (instead of roaming around), taking care our health by eating healthy food, drinking more water, vitamin, honey (to increase immune system), and so on. Keep calm and stay away from rumour, which only added unnecessary fear and distress. Stay strong Singapore and let's join hand together to overcome this wave. Take care and good luck!!!

(Fyi, to read the latest Singapore news you could visit the MOH website, CNA or Channel News Asia, the Straits Times (Singapore local newspaper), and so on).

Laid Back Lifestyle

Welcome to Indonesia!!!

If someone asked you what type of life you would like to have in this lifetime disregard the current place that you lived in, what would be your answer??? Well, apparently many people would answer the opposite from where they stayed right now. For example: people who stayed in villages, they would dream to live in metropolitan city; people who stayed in mountain areas, they would dream to stay near the beach, and so on.

For me, who was born and grown up in metropolitan city, once I stayed in mountain and village for about 3 years. That time I did not understand much yet about happiness, neither thought about it. Therefore, I found the place was terribly boring!!! But you know, I guessed millions people would dream of living in such place at least once!!! And yes, if you asked me now, I would still hope to go back there and stay there one more time. But forever? Perhaps not, because I still preferred to stay in tropical rather than four-season countries.

Horas - traditional greeting of Batak Toba

For the past 4 years I was lucky enough being able to visit and stay at the place of my dream. Recently I visited it for the fifth time. It took about 1.5 hours direct flight from Singapore to Kualanamu Airport in Medan. From Medan I still needed to take about two-hour car ride to Pematang Siantar. If went to Prapat (where the boat was docked to transfer to the Samosir Island), I would need another hour of car ride, plus about an hour boat ride to cross over the Lake Toba (the biggest lake in Indonesia). Yes, that beautiful place was called Samosir Island.

Samosir Island - Indonesia

Last year my relatives with families and friend built a place there to stay and I was very lucky being able to stay there for free and comfortably. The location was really good, about 15minutes walk from where we were dropped by the boat. It faced the lake (although not directly - you could go there in five-minutes walk), and at the back, it faced the paddy plantations. Depending on the season, sometimes it could be greenish and lovely. Sometimes it could be so dried. And sometimes you could see the plowing process using machine done by the farmer during plantation time.

Fresh and cooling mountain air :)

The air was cooling and fresh. There was no need to install air-condition inside the building. Just opened the door, it already felt like air-condition being installed (despite hot sun was shining above in afternoon time).

Front and back view :)

The rooms were simple and cleaned. Each was equipped with indoor toilet. If I were lucky, the room was even having balcony facing the paddy plantation at the back or big windows on higher floors that facing the beautiful lake. The highest floor was third floor. There was wifi as well although it didn't reach the back of the building. But it was good too so I could sleep early at night and having enough hours before the roosters started singing as early as 5 to 6 am in the morning.

Tell you, OMG!! At first I wasn't get used to it. When I visited Indonesia, many factors forced me to get up early in the morning. If city area like Jakarta, the sun started to rise at 6 am and by 7 am, the sky had turned bright and made the temperature warm. If the place that you stayed near the mosque (as majority of Indonesia population were Muslim), the prayers sound could be heard as early as 4.30 am. And another one was roosters sound.

It wasn't only one or two roosters around, mind you. Their numbers were enough to play orchestra from left to right. Hahaha... I felt like crying on my first night sleeping in Pematang Siantar, and started feeling regret of not sleeping earlier the night before. So when I reached Samosir, I told myself to sleep early - as early as 10 pm every night - to fulfill the minimum of 8-hour sleep, so I wouldn't get annoyed by the roosters sound, and instead, appreciated them more (no need to turn my alarm clock on).

Mango season now

Every morning when weather was good (luckily it was all good when I was there), I went for a morning walk at 6.30 am. I made a big round walking around the lakeside, with its ups and downs, passing by many guest houses, resorts, restaurants, shops, and so on. Not only that. There were abundance of fruit and vegetables trees too!!

Learn various fruit trees here (dragon fruit)

Durian, mango, avocado, passionfruit, candlenut, dragon fruits, winged beans, chilli, lemon, and so on. One of the motivation to walk that early was to find the fallen fruits from the trees. Hahaha.... You could always find a free one! :D But don't anyhow pluck the fruits of someone's trees. The owner would be unhappy with it!

Huge lemon - gift by the house owner :)

If you would love to have or even buy, you could ask politely to them. Sometimes they might just give it freely to you. But honesty was something that the local people there practise! Fyi, majority of people who stayed in the island was Batak Toba tribe and majority (93% of them) was Christian. It was generally safe to stay there. You could even leave your building wide open with vehicles being parked outside as no body would enter without permission, would never even think of stealing and robbing. They were friendly too. So it was another plus point to stay in the area.

Pork steak and beer Bintang from New Tomok Restaurant

The living cost was still very low (a plate of breakfast noodle cost IDR 8,000 (USD$0.60), a plate of pork steak cost IDR 40,000  (USD$2.90), and a big bottle of local beer (Beer Bintang) cost IDR 35,000 (USD$2.50). Batak people ate a lot of pork. Lomak - a local restaurant name - sold a very delicious babi goreng or fried pork - traditional Batak dish. Grilled fish and lobsters were also famous in the island. The main catch was their chili. It was spicy and delicious!!! So next time when you went there, please do not order "nasi goreng" or the famous Indonesian fried rice all the time!!! Instead, try any of their pork dishes and seafood!!! :)

Weekend market at Tomok

On Sunday morning I went down to the weekend market - near Tomok. You could find many fresh vegetables, fruits, fishes, even coffee powder there. Nearby there were rows of shops in traditional Batak house roof style selling shirts, souvenirs, sarong, Batik patterns clothes, shawl, etc. Just make sure to bargain and compare from one shop to another as they would open the price quite high and targeted much higher price to outsider and tourists.

Souvenir shops at Tomok

Motorcycle were available for rent. Not necessary to wear the helmet and it was not a very crowded place (except for the major holiday time such as: Chinese New Year period, Christmas, and Lebaran - Eid al-fitr). Just had to be careful as it was mountainous road that was full of ups and downs, some of you might not get used to it. You could explore the areas with it, or even on foot. Many beautiful spots in the islands and not forgetting the lake water sports like banana boat (when you're in a big group), speedboat, and so on.

Laid back lifestyle :)

For myself I would prefer to just relax in the building, reading books, and having cold beer. It was perfect for me :D

Banana boat - Lake Toba 

At night it was very quiet except for the animal orchestras sound. Hehe... When the sky was clear, you could see many stars above. Drop of rainwater sound was soothing too. But the lightning was too much only. Hahaha.... scary.... :P

Stone chair of King Siallagan

There was traditional Batak cultural performance too in the dancing show Sigale Gale, Stone Chair of King Siallagan, etc. You could even learn the dance there. Nearby the area you could also visit the Batak Museum, to learn more about their history, culture, lifestyle and so on.

Beautiful scenery from Hotel Silintong

Well, I might not be able to purchase a land there, build the house and spend the rest my olden days there but I had already been feeling very grateful for the opportunity to go there and spend many valuable times over there. Could not thank enough for everyone who made this possible (you know who you were!!!).

With this post hopefully you know where to go next time to experience such a laid back life that was not so far from Singapore!!! :)

Specialty coffee journey :)

Chye Seng Huat Hardware (CSHH)

Well, it is never too old to learn something new in life! In fact lifelong learning is applicable to everyone and what you learn can be anything that interest you. As for me, I found the specialty coffee interest in less than 2 months ago when my cousin brought her parents and myself to experience another level of coffee brewed products at Chye Seng Huat Hardware (CSHH).

The Roastery at CSHH (Pic source: CSHH website)

C-Platform Island Bar at CSHH (Pic source: CSHH website)

The Annex retail shop - CSHH Singapore

There, I experienced visiting the cafe that houses the Roastery, Coffee Bar, and C-platform, giving a unique experience to see how coffee was being roasted and prepared, plus the Annex coffee retail therapy shop where you could find different types of coffee products, accessories, and equipment.

"My mother told me to choose my coffee wisely" - CSHH

As per advised above, we tried 3 different types of specialty coffee there.

Latte - CSHH

1. Latte - the common drink that people usually order (or otherwise Cappuccino) - at SGD $5.50 per cup. The taste, foam texture and decoration was very good although it did not offer much significant thing compare with other types of coffee we ordered.

Cold Brew Black - CSHH

2. The Cold Brew (bottled) - Black at SGD $7 per bottle. Looked more like bottled cough syrup, I found this rather unique as they prepared and sold it readily over the counter and brewed it daily. And the taste was so much fruity and nice. It was not like the bitter coffee that you would usually have in your mind when it regarded to coffee.

Nitro coffee on tap from CSHH - Anyone??? ;)

3. Cold Brew Nitro Black Matter (coffee on tap) at SGD $7 per glass.

Cold Brew Nitro on Tap from CSHH

And this was how it looked like. Does it "WOW" you by its look??? And with the way how it was being produced (by using Nitrogen), it looked very much like beer on tap, wasn't it??

I was feeling overwhelmingly impressive when tried the last two items that we ordered that day. Like I mentioned earlier, the bottled cold brew tasted so fruity. I could not believe that it was coffee. It was resembling very much like fruity tea.

I found the price they charged was fine as it offered good coffee plus the unique taste and experience. Only that the location was a little bit hard to reach (we came by taxi that day), but the visit was definitely worth it.

Ombe Kofie in Pluit - Jakarta, Indonesia (Pic source: Manual Jakarta)

Then, about two weeks ago when I went back to my hometown in Jakarta, I finally visited Ombe Kofie - a small cafe located not too far away from where I stayed, very cosy, tidy, clean, and I felt very homey.

Jason Leo - the man behind the Ombe Kofie (Pic source: Ombe Kofie Instagram)

I'd seen the photos taken by my high school friends who visited this place very often, and heard a lot about it. It was just that in the beginning I was not really understand why people loved going there.

Regular White with complimentary Kue Rintak (Bangka's specialty) and nuts from Ombe Kofie

My knowledge about specialty coffee on my first visit there was totally zero. So I found that a cup of Regular White coffee cost at SGD $4.5 was pretty expensive for a living standard of average Indonesian. But to be honest, I fell in love with the cosy feeling the place had.

Homey feeling blended nicely with my sleeping clothes :P - Ombe Kofie Pluit, Jakarta

At that point of time I was enjoying the decor very much. And it made me thinking, why wouldn't I create one place like this? You did not have to spend much to have such decor - just wooden furniture, peranakan style tiles, indoor plants, comfy pillows and some sofa. But you need good and workable coffee machine and its accessories (which does not come cheap), plus someone who knew how to make a good coffee. Hahaha... So after visiting the two places above, I was thinking of learning how to prepare the specialty coffee when I came back to Singapore.

Main waiting area at Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

I searched online the WSQ (Workforce Skill Qualification) course related to coffee and I found one called WSQ Specialty Coffee Course from Bettr Barista. I chose the WSQ course because I'd received a letter earlier on from the Workfare Singapore that I was eligible for 95% subsidy for any WTS-eligible training courses, which valid only until 31 Dec 2017. And as Singaporean above 25 years old, I was given SGD $500 training grant yearly from the Skill Future Credit. The grant had be given since January 2016 to encourage individual ownership of skill development and lifelong learning. For this course, after the 95% subsidy and $500 grant, basically I paid nothing. And I was available for the training period given for that course. So, why not???

Nice coffee and banana cake for the morning break - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

So I finally attended the 2-day classes plus one hour practical exam held on the third day. Oh my!!! I felt very grateful attending this course because I have learned so much about the specialty coffee. Although I learned hospitality industry for my diploma, the lesson regarding the specialty coffee was not exist during that period of time. What we learned was more on the commercial coffee (those regular coffee served in restaurant after having meals, where we only had to press the preset buttons on the coffee machine - no calibration required, no coffee bean grinding - only coffee powder was used, and so on).

Part of the notes content - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

In Bettr Barista Coffee Academy I learned many basic things about coffee. On day 1 we learned more about theory starting from the history of coffee, coffee cherry, harvesting, processing, roast profile, brewing, coffee characteristics, elements of brewing, how to brew coffee with different coffee methods, how to store coffee, and so on.

Steeping / Full Immersion brewing method using Clever - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

How training was conducted inside the class - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

Other coffee brewing devices - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

We also had practical hands-on experience using different brewing equipment such as:  Clever and French Press. The teacher showed us how to brew using the Aeropress as well. Coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, brewing method, brewing equipment, water, and filter medium were the brewing elements required to produce a good, consistent cup of coffee.

Espresso station set up - Equipment and tools the Barista used everyday - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

On day 2 I learned more on practical such as: setting up the station, preparing Espresso (knowing its parameters, understanding extraction, etc.), preparing Cappuccino and Latte including how to steam the milk and build the right type and level of foam for both beverages. There, I overcame my fear of using the steam wand and holding the milk jug when heating the milk.

With my training mate - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

I also gained knowledge about the different name of equipment and tools in the Espresso station setup, parts in the coffee machine and doser grinder. We were taught how to calibrate, adjusting the  grind size of coffee bean so it could fall at the right Espresso parameter required (within 20-30 secs to yield 25-35 ml per shot). It was quite challenging though and wasted lots of coffee while calibrating. That's why each cup of specialty coffee was charged exorbitantly!!!

Standard Espresso drinks - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

From the class I also had a better understanding the difference between Americano and Long Black; Espresso and Ristretto; and the difference among Cappuccino, Cafe Latte, Piccolo Latte, and Flat White, and so on. So from then onward I would be able to know what I order when I visit a specialty coffee cafe. And I would try many other espresso beverages other than Cappuccino :)

Beautiful Latte art - Bettr Barista Coffee Academy

Well, within 2 days don't expect me to produce such a beautiful latte art as per above picture. Hahaha... I even encountered problem during exam today when pouring the steamed milk into my Espresso cup :D Latte art was not included inside the course content. If you are interested to learn that, you may apply the 2-hour Barista lab course to hone that skill. There are many more other courses available and you can check their website if you are interested to know more about it.

For me this was a good skill and knowledge to learn and applicable to daily basis use. The next time I visit specialty coffee cafe, I would have higher expectation from the coffee that I paid and other extraordinary experience from the coffee.

The world largest Starbucks opened on 6 December in Shanghai, China (Pic source: Qz.com)

Yesterday China just opened the world largest Starbucks in Shanghai.

"Located in Shanghai, the new outlet measures 30,000 square feet (2,787 square meters) and is called the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Shanghai. It’s the company’s second such Roastery, with the first launching in Seattle in 2014. The Roastery stores mark the company’s attempt to move upscale and add variety to its existing chain.

The Shanghai store, which is twice the size of the Seattle Roastery, will offer coffee beans from over 30 countries that can be roasted on premise and then enjoyed by customers. Some of the beans are from China, like the Yunnan Reserve blend, which will be available only at the store. It will also include three bars where baristas prepare coffee in a variety of different ways (pour over, Chemex, Siphon, Clover), and pastries from Princi, a bakery with outlets in Milan and London." - Source: Qz.com

China, which used to have more traditional old generation tea drinkers, has attracted the younger (more wealthy) generation to change the habit into drinking the upscale specialty coffee like what Starbucks offered. Time has changed. Clocks keep ticking. We have to move on with the new trend and adapt to it. 

Live the life of your dream :) (Pic source: Google.com)

This new interest (visiting specialty coffee cafe) would be the add on to-do-list the next time I visit other countries - to see how far they have developed their interest in offering the specialty coffee cafe experience and to feel their unique difference. And who knows one day I can make my dream into the reality?? :)