Our First Shop : LivreTheBooks is Launched !!

After more than a year planning and designing, I am proudly say that our first online shop is launched this week!! Alhamdulillah.... ^^

Our shop's name is Livre The Books.
We sell printable custom planner and notebook for people who like to have their own personalized planner or notebook.

Me and my best friend, Dini, are launching our first online shop on Etsy. You can check on our shop in this link http://livrethebooks.etsy.com./

As you know that I love organizing so much and since 2 years ago I made my own planner for my personal used. However suddenly I got an idea to sell my design because there are so many people ask me where to buy planner like I have. So, I asked Mbak Dini to become my partner for this business. She's a great person for designing things. We knew each other since we're in college because she's my senior. But, we already became a partner in crime since 3 years ago when we're in Taiwan.

We don't have any background in Design (we are Informatics Engineering graduate by the way), but we have hobby in designing things (started with posters for our organizations' activities) and we have the same dream. We want to have our own business. We want to become entrepreneur from our hobby.

Alhamdulillah Allah gives us a way to make that dream come true.

We become a business partner now. I am the planner designer and she's the cover & divider designer.

We're proudly say that "We are trying as the best as we can to be one of the young muslimah entrepreneur even from a small step"

We believe that this small step can lead us to a bigger success.

If you like planners or organizers (especially when you like something made only for you a.k. custom), you can contact us directly and we will personalized what you want.

We sell a PDF Printable files. So, you can print it by yourself at your home. You just simply buy what you need on our Etsy Shop, links http://livrethebooks.etsy.com./

Products that we sell are general planner and muslim planner, which includes :

✿ Monthly planner
✿ Weekly planner
✿ Daily planner
✿ Reading Log
✿ Password Log
✿ Meeting Record
✿ Meal Planning and Exercise Tracking
✿ etc.

You can buy each of those items or you can buy our bundled package, which is of course cheaper than one item price.

Because it's the opening week, we give you this special discount if you want to buy it. This is the coupon code that you can use when purchasing any of our products. You can get 15% discount with this coupon.

LIVRE01PROMO

This promo code is valid until 31 December 2015.

If you have any trouble in purchasing or you have questions, don't hesitate to contact us and we will trying to help you.

We are looking forward for your review and purchase on our shop!! ^__^

Here are some pictures of our products for you :)

  Check on our Dated Monthly Planner in https://www.etsy.com/listing/245393033/2015-2016-dated-monthly-pdf-printable?ref=shop_home_feat_1

 

  Check on our Dated Weekly Planner in https://www.etsy.com/listing/245501490/2015-2016-dated-weekly-pdf-printable?ref=shop_home_feat_2

Check on our Weekly Planner in https://www.etsy.com/listing/245511660/weekly-planner-pdf-printable-colorful?ref=related-1

 

Check on our Daily Planner in https://www.etsy.com/listing/245617438/daily-planner-pdf-printable-todo-list-2?ref=related-3

Check on our Expense Manager in https://www.etsy.com/listing/245523397/expense-manager-budget-planner-bill?ref=related-7

For other products you check on our Etsy Shop on http://livrethebooks.etsy.com/ or click picture below

Kaohsiung Weekend Getaway Part 6 : Cijin Island

Oh yes there's a small island in Kaohsiung which popular with the seafood. Actually is not like an island, because my Taiwanese friend said that it's just a small district inside Kaohsiung. However to go there people have to use ferry or underwater strait tunnel. Let me tell you more about this island.

Source : whenkayametbingsu.wordpres.com

How to get there?

If you have car or scooter, you can go there via underwater strait tunnel. Better to use google maps to go there because it's kinda far and the road is not quite tourist friendly.

Underwater Strait Tunnel to Cijin Island

By scooter you can choose between the tunnel or ferry. The ferry is the same ferry for people. The differences lay in the pricing and where you park your scooter inside the ferry.

The ferry. Lower deck is for scooter and the second deck is for people

If you want to use public transportation, you can go by MRT to Sizihwan MRT Station and walk for around 10 minutes maybe to the Gushan Ferry Pier and please queue for the "people area" not for "scooter area". The price for people is NT$ 15 single trip. For scooter with two people on it, the price is NT$ 75. You can pay by cash but make sure you have the exact amount of money or your change will not going to be given, because you will put the money inside a box. You also can pay with your iPass card if you have one.

Gushan Ferry Pier Station

Before enter the ferry you have to queue and pay by cash or iPass card

Scenery from the boat you can see Kaohsiung's tallest building

What's in there?

There are many places you can go in there, especially if you like ocean. 

People like to eat seafood in the Cijin Main Road where not allowing any transportation passing by. There are many seafood you can choose from outside the restaurant and tell the waitress which fish you want to eat and with what method, for example fried shrimp or shrimp cooked with butter. It was hard for us to tell them what we want to eat because they couldn't speak english and we have to use body language. After you order, they will give you a seat number and you can find your seat after giving you seat number to waitress inside the restaurant. The prices are vary but as our experience, NT$ 100 per portion of a specific fish, shrimp, or any kind of seafood. Because we buy it for 2 people, it became NT$200 for 2 people per dish. Because we couldn't say in chinese how we want the fish cooked, they just give us boiled seafood with soy sauce or mayonnaise. These foods are delicious and cheap for fresh seafood like this.

If you like to go through the coast, you can rent a bike for a person or a big bike for 4 person. I'm not sure how much you have to pay because didn't rent any. The coast's length is almost 3.5 km from the ferry pier to Cijin Windmill. There are many stores where you can rent the bike.

If you like hiking, you can go to Cijin Light House. It's in the top of the hill and you have to walk. No bike allowed to enter. Because we have to go back, we didn't have much time to go there. So, we just go to a tunnel but I forgot the name of it haha

]

If you go to Cijin island, bring your umbrella or hat. You can buy a hat there if you want but might be expensive. Go there in teh morning so you can enjoy your day before it's too hot. Better not in summer also. Maybe on spring or autumn. Then you can enjoy your lunch time there. If you use your scooter, you can go by underwater strait tunnel then back using ferry. 

Don't forget to buy Cijin Island snacks for your friends and family at home. They have shrimp, fish, and squid crackers for you to buy. One package is NT$ 100. It's worth because it's delicious. haha

Kaohsiung Weekend Getaway Part 5 : Lotus Pond and Dragon Tiger Pagodas

When think about Pagoda, what I remember is a movie called "Kera Sakti" or "Magic Monkey". An old Chinese movie which aired on Indonesian TV when I was in elementary school. It has a story when the monkey is naughty, the monk will put him inside the 7 floor of Pagoda. hahaha

The pagoda in here is most likely similar with the one in the movie. But the difference lays in the height. Most of the pagodas only have 5 floors. In front of the pagodas, there are statue of budhism gods, dragon, and tiger.

How to get there?

If you don't have your personal transportation like car or scooter, you can go there by MRT. The place is near Zuoying MRT Station and need to walk for 20 minutes to go there. If you don't want to walk, you can go by bus 紅35 from bus stop in front Zuoying HSR Station.

The lake is huge. I said it's lake, not pond because it's huge. Even you can ind many lotus flowers on this area. You have to walk a little bit far from one pagoda to another and if you come her in summer, bring your hat or umbrella. Very hot outside especially when you go near the pagodas, no trees around. There are several stores and a market near the lake, so if you thirsty you can find something to drink. The vending machine is not working, just wanna remind you that. hahaha

What's in there?

Basically I'm not really sure why there are so many statues of tiger and dragon, also with pagodas and statue of budhism gods there. However, I think it's the center of people who follow Budhism as religion pray there and the lake is one of the scared place for them.

Because the place is in the beautiful lake, no wonder many tourists come here only for relaxation, travel around, or just take a picture. The statues are huge and somewhat beautiful, even at the same time strange. Maybe that's another reason why many people come here.

There are several pagodas which separated into several places.

The first one is the one with a very huge statue of budhism god. I don't know the name of it by the way. In here we parked our scooter because in other places no place for parking.

The second one is the one with big dragon which you can go inside and see the wall sculptures about the story behind the pagodas (if you understand haha). On the top of the dragon, there are three god and goddess of Budhism. In front of it there is a pond that actually make the hot weather seems calm a while.

The third one is the one with dragon and tiger statues in front of the biggest pagoda there. Because too many people there, I couldn't take a great picture of it in front of the statues. Moreover, the weather is very hot and I want to go to our next destination.

So, where is the lotus? You see the green plants in the picture above which seems like a field? It's actually a water and there are many lotus plants. Unfortunately, the lotus is not blossom yet, might because it's summer time. I bet it will be more beautiful in the spring time.

From our experience, you only need to be here for 2 hours. Especially when you come here only for travel and experience something new. So, better have plan to go after this place. Just like us, to Cijing Island. ^^

Kaohsiung Weekend Getaway Part 4 : Love River 'Cruise'

Cruise is one of the best place to spend your wedding anniversary, isn't it? Especially when the name of the river is "Love River". However, that's not what we seen and experienced. haha

The Love River (爱河 or Ai He) is one of the must-to-go destination on Kaohsiung said the travel information brochure we had from information center on Zuoying HSR Station. I agree with that because the riverside is beautiful and there are several cafes there for you to spend your afternoon time with your love ones.

Source : wikimedia.org

The interesting thing is that you can go on a tour (with ticket of course) using a green-boat. Not boat with green painting, but it's a green technology boat. No sound and it uses several solar panel on top of it. So, it's not causing pollution to the air, water, and sound. We've never tried this kind of boat before so it's interesting for us especially for my husband who is solar-tech freak a little bit. hahaha

You can buy the ticket in the ticket booth near one of the cafe and "Love River" sign. The price is also vary, just like another places in Taiwan based on your age and need. You can see on this picture about the price. We paid for NT$120 per person for it. You can check on the information board in front of the ticket counter if you want to see the prices.

However, it's not like what we expect to have. We expect to have a nice trip with romantic view at night, but it's wrong hahaha. Because there were a lot of people go inside the boat and there's a lady who act as a tourist guide and explain in chinese (of course) about the Love River and the history of it. Make us confuse because we didn't understand at all about what she said. But even we're like a "lost" couple, we still can enjoy the night view and relax after rain.

The night view is very beautiful and the smell is actually the smell of ocean. Because what we've seen is that there is a border between river and ocean, and it's near Kaohsiung Harbor.

We also can see the big 85 Sky Tower from our boat and it's beautiful. However, we couldn't see much because it's too late and maybe many buildings already shut down their lamps.

Here several photos we took from the boat.

Kaohsiung Weekend Getaway Part 3 : Escape 41 Restaurant

If you're looking a good restaurant on the seashore where you can find sunset in Taiwan's coast, this is the right place to go. We found this place from Lonely Planet Taiwan edition book that I have, and we absolutely wanted to try because it's in that book, right? It has to be a very good place to go. However, we had to prepare because the book stated that the location is tricky and need to go there by scooter or car. Even better if using scooter.

How to get there?

As I mentioned before, you have to go there by car or scooter because no public transportation to go there. Nearest MRT station is Sizihwan MRT Station and need 5.7 km from there if you want to walk. hahaha If you don't have both,you can use taxi, but the road is a bit tricky there. I will show you why. Please look at this map below.

So, as you can see, you will go through the west coast side of Taiwan in Kaohsiung after pass The Official Residence of British Consulate. These road is going uphill. So on your right side, you will see a forest and on your left side there's ocean.

Then, after you turn left to a housing residence, you will feel the feeling of "you're lost" but believe me that you're not. From our experience, we went there too late so that the sun already set when we're still on our way. Plus it was raining so hard. We can see there's a small storm on the ocean and we're totally wet even we already use our raincoat. Because it's in the small village near ocean, the road was so dark and creepy. My suggestion is, go there before sunset and check on weather forecast before going.

Even in google maps the road looks like big enough, no it's not. The road is typical village road. It's small and only can afford one small car like sedan. It was surprising me a lot when I found a SUV in front of the restaurant because we knew that there's only one way out there and it's a small road. haha

When we arrived, we actually felt confuse because the place is nowhere can be found. But suddenly, my husband found an "Escape 41" sign near a fence which bordering with a cliff and ocean underneath it. The sign is directing to a small path to a narrow stairs that end up in a white building with closed door. I'm terrified with the fact that it's not like a restaurant at all. But when I opened the door, I realized it's true because I saw a red carpet and signs of people talking inside. hahaha

You can see on a picture above, there's a sign in the fence. On the left, there's a small path to narrow stairs. The white sign which look like a lamp is actually the sign of the restaurant. Because my camera is not good enough, the sign is unreadable in the picture. Below is the photo of the small path and the "lamp-like" sign.

See the red door? that's the door of the restaurant. Not like a restaurant, isn't it? But believe me it's a restaurant inside. Below is the photo I got from Escape 41 Facebook Page about the inside of the restaurant. I don't have a good picture of it, sorry about that.

What's Inside?

The owner of this restaurant is Australian, so that's why the menu in here is kinda like pasta, pizza, and other western food. I got a review from WikiTravel that the best food in here is the pizza, so we order one of them, and it's actually delicious. But unfortunately, most of the waitress can't speak english very well and sometimes they're confuse with what we order even we already used body language, so be prepared for it. haha But don't worry too much because as our experience, the owner who is the Australian guy will go to your table and help you with your order. If you prefer vegetarian food, don't worry there're several options for you including Pizza full of four variety of cheese and tomato sauce.

Lonely Planet mentions that this place is one of the best place to see beautiful scenery of ocean in Taiwan and I'm agree with that, even it's already night when we arrived. You actually can choose want to sit inside or outside. These are several pictures that I got from their Facebook Page and on of them is mine (the night view).

Source : Escape 41 Facebook Page 

Source : Escape 41 Facebook Page  

Source : Escape 41 Facebook Page 

The food and scenery are kinda contrast with the service they gave to us. I don't know because they're busy or what but somehow they're not really good at giving the service. Strange looking also come toward us, might because that's the first time two muslim people came to their restaurant. hahaha

So, my suggestion for you, go here before sunset. Better on afternoon because you will arrive there maybe 1 hour later. haha And you can enjoy the sunset there. Don't forget to check on weather forecast and bring map.

We're definitely will come back because we want to enjoy the sunset while eating our dinner.