Archive for the ‘Places Around’ Category

Damn semangat to start the day early the second day. From the second day onwards we have our very own driver, Pak Bas. It is something that almost every average family would have, a driver. Maybe thats the reason why all the cars on the road is always clean and shining even though they roads are muddy, dirty during the rainy season. Its really an amazement to see all the cars sparkling clean, and i mean really clean. Too bad i’m always in the moving car with super dark tinting if not i would snap some to prove.
Its good to have a driver that knows which route would be the fastest and less jammed.

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The only thing i can capture sitting far back in the car.

We went for Porridge for breakfast. Bubur Bun Ung was the much talked about shop. Famous for their very smooth porridge. It was really smooth and tasty.

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Linardy thinking what to order.
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Chris checking out whats good on the menu.

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Kenneth surveying the menu for good stuff.

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Maya also going thru the menu.. Everyone were so into the menu that noone notice me clicking away.

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Noone to take for me, then self take lo…. then then notice me being a ‘vain pot’

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Unwillingly they took one for me.. sad case………

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Once the food arrived, lagi tak ada rasa of the camera.

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Check out the variety of food on the table.

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See noone notice the camera…

After the delicious breakfast, we head to the well known shopping paradise for ladies, MANGGA DUA!!! It is yet a another bigger version of ITC but with different levels that sells different quality clothings. Monday happened to be the day of new and trendy Hong Kong stocks arrival. Most of the boutiques in Jakarta will stock up from Mangga Dua. Best thing is we can bargain for the things we are interested to buy even though most of the stuff there are already pretty cheap. Material there are way better than the stuff we can get off that price from Sg. Wang. The only down side of it is the fashion in Jakarta is not
similar to those back home. Ladies clothings have too much details on it. Lotsa plain beads, colourful beads, super confusing colourful details..not really my style. I was looking for more simple wear, i dont want to look like a Christmas tree walking around town.

After about an hour plus, the boys are tired of walking round and round ladies wear. So we decided to head to the southern part of Jakarta where there is this street full of boutiques selling stuff like those you can get from the brand TOUGH. But these were designed by themselves. Creative young people. The massive traffic took us a very long time to reach that place. (i forgot the street name) and it also took us hours to return home from there even though normally if traffic is smooth its only 20 minutes drive from home.

Before we went home, its eating time again and this time we went to a small little stall, restaurant , whatever you called it by the road side to have ‘Soto Tembrak’. By far thats the best from the whole trip.

Went home and rest a lil then went for seafood dinner with Maya’s family. No photos also cos paiseh the parents will think that they have sent the kid to the wrong college with some crazy lecturer. We had fish two different style, crab, squid, kangkung belacan, & mee goreng. Scrumptcious!!!!!

Later that nite went out to a nearby pub, Eleventh Hour. Just a random pub in Kelapa Gading is better than Santuary in The Curve. The interior..way nicer…. I wonder hows the clubs like….

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A blurry photo of the pub.

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I dont know which look better.. so i put up both cos i only snap twice. That place quite big, and i dont know how to take a better chot of the place.

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After ‘that’ we called it a day!! ( beer seems to come in a bigger pitcher and cheaper price.. heavenly!!!)

The long awaited year end trip to the country that is so near yet so far, INDONESIA. It was something that we have been talking about for a couple of months. Just TALKING. Planning without any actions taken till last minute when Maya & Linardy bought their flight ticket to Jakarta and started questioning me. Its so convinient with the internet and Air Asia, ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’.
Less than half an hour clicking and surveying which flight is cheaper and calling in for final confirmation of details, i managed to get three tickets for less than RM500 per person. I guess its not as cheap as my flight to Hanoi last year but for a last minute thing its quite reasonable.

From the day after purchasing the ticket till the day itself, three of us, Chris, Kenneth and myself were actually quite laid back comparing to the two tourguide, Linardy & Maya. The two of them cracked their heads to plan out our itinery.
 According to the both of them, Jakarta is a land for no ending SHOPPING.
Sounds like my kinda paradise. hahaha… Well it was indeed very cheap to shop there. Clothings esp.

Other than never ending destinations to shop for different things, Linardy has decided to torture his poor AA. Its pay back time after the first semester.. hehhe..Eating expedition, food whole day long, non stop too..

Weeell delay no more its picture time. [no gila photos from the journey there cos i was with two macho guys that think its silly to be camwhoring..sien-nesss. I wish Esther was the one with me.. hehe]

As we reach early morning on the 16th, traffic was smooth. Its only on a Sunday in Jakarta that you would be able to see the road in front of your car, other days, cars cars cars. From the left to the right, front to the back. Traffic is really bad i should say. First destination after we dropped off our luggage in Hotel De Maya, Kelapa Gading Mal. I was wondering maybe its the rain that we couldnt go anywhere else but i was so so so wrong. Try guessing and i bet none of you would actually get it right…

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ITS KRISPY KREME!!!!

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Original glazed.. YUmmy..

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Right after that we left for ITC Cempaka Mas for first round of shopping. The place is actually like Sg. Wang jus a bigger version and less variety of ‘lala-beng’ shops. Just like market selling clothings clothings and clothings and now and then a shop that sells bags or shoes. Like pasar malam at some point.

First day, have to hold fire hehe not much collection and we head to some far away part of Jakarta for homemade ice cream. With only two hours or less of sleep the night before, three of us slept our way around town. When we were awaken, we were in front of a small
shop with a few mobile stalls in front of it.

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Looks like some old school kopitiam. 

[Pardon me for the blurry pics, just woke up..]

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We had Gado gado. It was yummylicious thats why i only remembered to snap photos half way scooping mouthfuls of it.

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Thats one of the famous homemade ice cream. Spagetti Ice Cream. Its vanilla ice cream with noodle lookingshape and with lotsa colourful toppings.

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We also had Sate and thats when the topic of different sate(s) came about. Rabbit, Snake, Dog etc etc.. Eeewwww…

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The Sate stall infront of the restaurant.

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Gado Gado stall.

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The first and also the last photo of me with some Indonesia street culture. Dont ask me why, ask MAYA…

After that Linardy, wanted to take advantage of the smooth traffic and we went to the city center where the Jakarta tower, Monas were situated.

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 Thats Jakarta Tower, Monas behind me. (check out the surroundings.. and people say KLCC park is bad. We should be grateful at times…)

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Mobile Toilet. Its about time they come visit Malaysia and learn from us to spend millions on public ‘high tech’ toilets. :)

We wanted to go up the tower and have a look at the city itself but after the underpass without ventilation and the queue we saw, we changed our minds.

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The surprising thing is, most of them visiting were all locals not tourist. Weird right???

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Just a few must take pictures and off we go..

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With Jakarta’s city as background but i complaint we are too small…

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There you go the last picture of the day and then happily ever after..

JM part II will be out soon, Stay tuned!!

The past week was really crazy. Everyday finish work roughly bout 7plus. Wonder what i was caught up with?? THE ANNIVERSARY thingy la.. This coming WED, 11th APRIL (as per my announcement board) is the SWISS COCKTAIL. There will be some performance goin on and it will be in KDU SQUARE. So can you guys imagine the amount of things to prepare?? hell alot!!!
Anyway, for those who havent give any confirmation to me plz do so.. we are expecting quite a number of guest.

Well so much for the week, obviously the weekend will be for rest and relax. Friday nite was my ex-school mates gathering. It was the first gathering after our graduation that so many turn up. As per ’some’ ppl’s request we end up in KLCC on fri *thinkin of the crowd still scare the hell out of me* (when u hang out so often in 1U and the Curve, i advice u not to go KLCC..its totally different) As most of us were really 1U fans goin to KLcc on LRT really almost suffocated most of us. But for the gurls.. its ok la..(Tan WuYing, plz sacrifice the next gathering ok..)

Most of the good restaurant were full, we innitially planned to go to Chillis but hav to wait for at least 40mins. We ended up in Madame Kwan. Food was good but a bit pricey. Didnt get to take any photos of the food as everyone were really starving by the time we got a table to be seated so, i guess better let the photos do the rest of the talking.

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Sampai sampai they started d..

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Best buds since secondary..

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Bestie color scheme..*winks*

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Group Photo. Wheeee whens the nex gathering??? huh huh huh???

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Then we went outside for some KLCC feel.

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I like this..

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Camwhoring….

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More…

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And more…

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And more with CinaWoods wannabes..

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Half the group.

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Then when Judy started doin ‘her thing’, we all decided to..

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take a final shot and GET OUT OF THAT PLACE.. (malufying nyaaaa)

After camwhoring for more than an hour, we decided to head to PJ for our second round. We visited Laundry bar. Among all only one got really drunk..Look at the photos and see if you can guess who was the special one.. hehe..

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Really glad we meet up and looking forward for the nex trip that might take a few donkey years for it to happen hehhe…

Okay okay last part of my Vietnam trip are gonna be up now. Sorry for the ‘LONG’ delay, dont wana start my excuses here as i will go on forever.

So, after the night stay in Tung Jiu Island which was more like a L@# J@#%! Island to us, We head back to Hanoi. Just to prove how ‘interesting’ was that place, here are the list of ALL the activities available.

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Thats all they have there so think again if any of u are planning to visit okaii.. Luckily we met these people that made our stay a lil worthwhile..

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If not really can die of sien-ness. and all photos at least turn out acceptable cos of the beautiful blue sky.

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Its was a long bumpy ride all the way back and adding to the bumpiness is the air-condition-less bus..Super frustrating!Adding to all the geram-ness, the bus driver refused to send us back to our hotel and everyone were asked to ‘walk’ back. Luckily he drop us off not really far from the hotel and we recognised the route back to our hotel if not we might be still stranded in the middle of no where.

Okay the highlight of the last part is the so called farewell party we had (only four of us la) and so happened that Esther’s and Minh’s birthday were jus round the corner so Minh specially ordered a Sheraton Super Fattening Chocolate Cake.

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Chocolate coated, chocolate filling, chocolate decoration.. all choco….INDULGENCE… but too bad i’m not a choco fan. We all stuffed ourself so much during dinner time we have to wait till our food a re alil bit digested before we start sapu-ing the cake and what else to do in the hotel room but to take crazy snaps????

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The Happy Trio

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The Sampat Trio

And at a point when everyone starts showing off their ‘lansi’ handphones…

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Minh started smsing..

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Esther started mmsing…

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Nghiep started blue toothing…

ME ler ME ler???

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Checkout the SIEN look…. so i tried to get their attention by—-> using the cake la of course.

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My best partner in all ‘kap siao’ ideas.

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She just cant wait to finish it up.. speechless.. est, ur reputation in this site damn cham man.. thanks to me hehe :)

After spending what seems like a century in taking photos, and making esther wait like siao for the cut & makan cake time we finally took one last photo of the birthday boy and gurl.

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Whatever happened next you dont want to know… hehe

So there goes the second last day of our trip. The last day before departure was the saddest day, time to bid farewell and do some last minute shopping and all the hugging sessions made the cry baby cried la of course..

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Infront of the hotel with Nghiep and wife and Hung’s daddy.

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The sweet couples crafted a special place in our hearts.

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Last but not least the terrific friend that we are missing from time to time..

BIG THANK YOU TO DEAREST MINH, NGHIEP & ERICA for making this trip so wonderful and meaningful for the two of us.

@#$#@$ so many photos how to finish everything la…???? !@$#$$!#

Our initial itinerary was only to Halong Bay and Catba Island with one night in a hotel in Catba and another night on a boat in Halong Bay. But when we got to know a few other gurls and bonded almost immediately we decided to change (We actually got conned) to spend a night in Tung Jiu island and gav up the night on the boat.

Here are more photos from the trip, and how we got conned.

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Upon reaching Halong Bay, we had our lunch on the boat and both me n Esther were seated with three other gurls. Two Thais and a Vietnamese. As five of us were the only “X generation” people its natural for us to befriend easily. Andy persuaded us to change our itinerary so we could click together the entire trip. So we discussed bout it and said we will decide by the end of the day.

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The boat departing from Halong Bay. The place was so foggy i dunno why. i thought its Haze but according to the tour guide, its not. (maybe he dont even know what haze meant)

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Jungle trek into some caves.

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Then off on the boat again.

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Five young ladies photo session. This is only breaking the ice session.

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Then…

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Tadaaaaa.. Charlie’s jewel…

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Live telecast on the boat.

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Eh wait wait wait wait check out whats that???

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Macam Titanic but nola.. posing ala titanik only…

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Later in the evening when the sun sets. the scenery is jus undescribeable splendid.

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Reach Catba in the evening and we were left for free and easy time till the nex morning. Went for a swim in the beach nearby but din bring along the camera. Then later at nite we went yumcha.

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Yumcha also meant ‘YumChao’ (alchohol session) in Vietnam. The Hanoi beer is nice and esther got addicted to it. Imagine….

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(esther, hopefully ur mom wont accidentally view this…)

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Next morning after breakfast, off again on the boat to Tung Jiu island.

This time the boat cruised slowly and stopped at one place and let us jump into the sea for a swim..or some just like lazing on board.

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I for one, sure go swim la..even though deep deep water.. simply jump in.. hehehe..

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Those ang mo guys jumped from the third deck whereby i only jumped from the first deck and took bout 5 minutes to overcome the fear of jumping.

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The brave ang mos.

After that, we were sent to this isolated island with noone but us in this building middle of nowhere.

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Thats Tung Jiu Island…….. Total dissapointment so jus rest and relax the whole day.

They hav this area where people have to pay to enter and pay for every other thing they provide. They have dolphin show, crocodile farm and musical fountain. Thats the main attraction la konon. Then there is this beach area where you have to pay for even sitting and sunbathin.. Gosh i hate that place. Swimming area is even smaller than the kids wading pool…GERAM NESSSSS…

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Luckily they didnt charged us for taking photos…

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Long beach huh?? but NO TRESPASSING!!!! !@#@!!@#!#@!# *Adding to my geram ness* @#$@$@$#@

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We hav no choice but to head bk to the hotel. So along the way back, we snap and snap and snap as thats the only thing they didnt ask us to pay for…

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There is a Cinderella carriage..

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Big rock.. in the middle of the way for whatever reasons i dont know..

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We looked alike dont we????

and then i saw this signboard

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I thought we were in Tung Jiu Island.. How come Saigon sign board ????
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Speechlesssssssss