Random thought

As I looked up from my book (so much for not buying any more hardcopies, but I couldn't resist when I saw how cheap books were in India), I saw that many others are equally engrossed..in their smartphones.

It shouldn't amaze me by now, since I started leaving the car and started taking public transport more nowadays. But today, I wondered how time in all were people's time being sucked away at checking Facebook updates, playing candycrush/plants vs zombie/any other faddish games now trending, surfing the internet on their mobiles...

And if all the time spent is grouped together, how vast this time/space zone might be. Enough to turn back time by maybe 10 years?

I have weird thoughts sometime....this time, I blame it on the fever. 

That aside, time to practise more mindfulness myself, spend less time on the mobile, look up and live the life that is ticking away by the minute.

Snippets from the Land of the Garuda

I am really a mosquito magnet : - walk along road kena bitten, sit at dinner table kena bitten, waiting for car kena bitten, waiting for people kena bitten, sit on mat kena bitten, just standing and do nothing also kena bitten..
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You mean that's a house? It looks like a *&^$ palace!
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Places to visit and play in Indonesia includes many others than Bintan and Bali. A pity (or is it a boon?) that most are not as developed.
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I should have visited Prabanam while at Borobudur!
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Java coffee has all of the coffee powder used to brew..inside the brew. Good if you like to chew some kopi-sai when drinking the stuff. Which prob explains why Indons dont usually take kopi.
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I have visited malls and eating places, and yet I didn't have the chance to go to the mall at the foot of where I stayed in Jakarta for all the 4 days I was there. And 4 days are not enough to cover all the fun places in Jakarta.

Land of the Garuda - Day 6

As I type this, I am already home, more or less well rested (discounting the fact that I had to climb up super yesterday morning for the twice-weekly swim session).

Anyway to wrap up the whole entry, so that I could have some sort of record for posterity (shacks...I am slipping into corporate talk already..), the last day of the trip was spent somewhat in a leisurely manner. Breakfast was a local noodle, very much like bak chor mee, but with very nice springy noodles that I dont you can find in Singapore. We stopped by Fenny's sister's place, for her to instruct to her servants, before we set out for message. The message only cost 70,000RP for 1 and a half hour! And good solid massage..basically all needed to be cracked were cracked, all needed to be kneaded were kneaded.

After message, it was time for late lunch (I had really eaten non-stop for the 3 days when I was in Jkt) and we had kambing sate - the indon version of satay.

There wasn't much time left so I had to go back and pack, and left early to beat the jam. With a quick dinner, I bade Fenny and her mum good bye and took the last flight out.

It just dont feel the same without pictures. But all the pics are now in Fen's camera, and I could only wait (till i see the drool inducing pictures of the sate kambing again)

So with that, that was the end of the 3 weeks' escapade away from establishment. I think I am most comfortable in t-shirts, shorts and slippers and it was most comfy for the past 3 weeks. I am going to miss this gear-up veryx5 much..sigh...

Land of the Garuda - Day 5

Finally! A day when we slept in late. After a leisurely wake and wash up (with Fenny’s mother bringing oatmeal breakfast again :D) we took a short walk to another of Fenny’s uncle house somewhere opposite the apartment, to visit Fenny’s 94 years old grandmum. One of Fenny’s cousin Nico was home (oh..he looked so jappy, and small boy kind of cute for a 20 year old) and Fenny asked if he wants to jalan-jalan with us. He said ok and we had ourselves a free ride to shopping :p

So he took us in his Rush (accoding to Fenny, everbody in the household has their own car =.=”) back to Fenny’s place for lunch, and then to another relative’s place, where we picked up another auntie and cousin to go "soh-soh" (in hokkien. The older folks converse in hokkien most of the time though the younger generation would speak in Bahasa Indonesian). Along the way, they were telling anecdotes of all the relatives in the family (like how Nico had his first driving experience when he was 13 (with parents’ blessing can you imagine that) and you can only see the car and not him). We ended up at Grand Indonesia, the latest shopping mall and walked around for 1 plus hour, before we had to leave cos Fenny had a dinner appointment at Plaza Senayan which was another shopping belt area and we had to beat the jam. Nico dropped us at Senayan City which was a good shopping plaza if only we had more time! But it was good enough as I had my Krispy Kreme (yes! Krispy Kreme) and Starbucks :p Senayan City had lots and lots of eating places on the basement too, which was all we checked out before we had to cross over to Senayan Plaza.

Dinner with was Fenny’s friend Edmund and his friend, where there were a lot of bankers’ talk about how gloomy their industry was and going to be :/ After dinner, we hitched a ride from Edmund to go back to the apartment; however Edmund decided to have his driver (I am starting to think that having drivers was the normal thing in Jkt already..) bring us around to see the establishments around Monas (day 1 when I had a view from the top, now I can see them upfront albeit from the car). Along the way we also passed by this new mall call Fx which had all the entertainment and food outlet. There was supposedly a level inside which was all made of glass (meaning tha t you better skip that level if you are wearing dress or skirt..) and also a slide on level 7 (or was it a 7 level slide??) that you can just take and slide down for the fun of it. Hmmm… Anyway Edmund was alsp pointing out all the good food places (half of which are the roadside kind). And there was really a lot of them!

There were just so many malls and food in Jakarta! Not enough time..And we haven’t even had the chance to go to the one just next to our apartment..and spa! Have to go spa!

Land of the Garuda - Day 4

Today’s itinerary was to Bandung. It started with Fenny’s mother bringing us oatmeal breaksfast. We then went to Fenny’s aunt’s place as she was also going to bring her Lebanese friend there and we tongpang-ed her chauffeured car.

We stopped at this place at Setera something where there was an art gallery called Nuart with a café within. The artist, Nyoman Nuart, worked with cooper and brass, and his pieces were either all fluid showing sense of movement or majestic and big as we were greeted by a sculpture of a 10m hand with a woman in the centre of the palm at the roundabout just as we turned into the Nuart gallery. The café was in the midst of a small clearing, with a small waterfall and rapids neaby, and we did some exploring while waiting for the food to come.

This was just next to the rapids

This was a work in progress piece. See the shed next to the head? That was how tall the head was. With something so big, it's amazing that the facial expression was still so engaging. And yes, it's made of metal as well cos we saw the frames and metal sheets at the back of the head.


Lunch was bebek goreng (fried duck) and some gingered chicken accompanied with the sound of rushing waters in the background. The food was fantastic! I cant describe how nice the duck was..and the taste was probably enhanced by eating with hands :p

After lunch, we continued with our journey to the volcano. Known as Mt. Tangkuban Perahu, we did a short trek of about 1.2 km to the first site, which was the remnants of the last eruption, led by the smell of sulphuric acid. From there, the view was fantastic and you could see really far – the rice fields, Bandung town, the mountains， 顿时，心胸开阔。 After that, we headed for the crater at the top in the car. It was freezing cold as the wind were blasting from different directions and I regretted not wearing something warmer. ok, I dont have the photos cos remember my cam died? so all the photos with Fenny.

As we left the volcano, Fenny’s aunt brought us to this café called Kampung Daun. It’s still within the valleys, and Fenny’s aunt said that she had never been there before cos everytime she was there the queue would be so long that they would have to go other places. And I could see understandably why. Walking to our seats along a path lit with soft candlelight in paper bags (the effect was amazing though it sounded cheapo) with occasional pits burning with real logs, the tables were actually individual huts, illuminated with soft lights, with traditional seats (meaning on the ground) with plush cushions and curtains. The food too was very good – the nasi lewit solo was coconut rice cooked with lemongrass, pandan and red chilli is a must to try! The beef rib soup was so yummylicious and the fish tender and crispy (I am salivating now just remembering them...) The price was also reasonable by Singapore standard, which rounds up to about 50 SGD for 4 persons with a table load of food. And it was really a table load!

Fed and satisfied, it was a long way back and as usual I slept in the car (there is something about cars that I realised that they were quite hypnotic and make you sleepy all the time). I think I am going to grow fat :s

Land of the Garuda - Day 3

As planned, we woke up super early at 5.30am (Indon time) to have breakfast, checkout and left hotel to head for Parangtritis Beach. It was about one hour’s drive from Jogja, and you can see the scene changed from small town buildup to countryside as the car (which was the same one which we booked yesterday) sped down the 1-lane unidirectional road, which was probably Jogja’s version of the expressway cos there wasn’t a single traffic light all through to the beach.

It was raining from the Jogja city to the beach though..so when we reached, it was the gloomy overcast sky but the view of the cliffs and the crashing wave on black sand was quite spectecular. We decided to stop for Fenny’s sister Sanny to have breakfast (she chose to nua another hour instead of joining us for breakfast) along one of the many sea front shops, though those opened for business in this morning were only a hanful, and also..they were not the type of alfresco dining in more developed beacg resort, only makeshift stalls kind of setup. In the end we chose one which looked reasonably clean.

After the quick breaskfast and quick shots of the place, Sanny suggested that we check out the nearby Depok beach (the other white sand beaches have to make a big detour), before we returned to Jogja. Ok..the beach wasn't any more exciting too :/ So it was back to Jogja

Our next stop was the Keraton, the Sultan Palace. Built 10 generations ago, the Main Court was the only part opened to public, while the residence was still the current Sultan’s private domain. The Sultan was also the governor in this case, and they still used the Main Court for ceremonial events such as weddings, celebrations using around the Ramadhan and Adilfitri period. Although the place regretfully was not well maintained, the architectural structure and details were still beautiful and symbolic of the heritage of the Javanese culture influenced by Hinduism, Buddism and Islam.

After that we went to Taman Sari, the “Garden of Flowers”, which was originally the private swimming pools for the Sultan and his harem (reminded me of playboy mansion), followed by the former lookout wall that offered a panaramic view of Jogja city, where you can see how Parangtritis Beach, the Keraton and Mount Merapi were actually aligned in a straight line, with Keraton right smack in the center.

After Taman Sari, it was lunch - Soto! With choice of ayam (chicken) and daging (beef), this was a place suggested by Vanda the night before. Fenny and Sanny have been really keen in letting me try all the local cuisine since that was what I told them too :p

After lunch there wasn’t anything planned and we were supposed to head to the airport shortly, so Sanny told the driver that we want to “jalan-jalan”. He drove around the city area (and there was when my cam batt died, and with the spare batt refusing to work, I am without digi cam for the rest of the trip :((( Though Fenny offered me her Sony digicam, but its just not the same as snapping away with your own cam). Although at some point of time, all 3 of us fell asleep :p Thankfully the driver didn’t bring us to sell or something, cos when I woke up, we were at the airport already. Haha~

Fenny’s brother fetched us from the airport and after steamboat dinner at their place, we headed off to Fenny’s uncle’s place to pick up the keys to his new condo apartment, where he had loaned to Fenny for our stay in Jkt . I can only say, there are houses and there are HOUSES. So his place belonged to the second category :p

So our abode would be the apartment at Kelapa Gading– The Summit for the next 3 days. The view from 25th floor was amazing looking at the city lights. Looking forward to good food and good shopping!

Land of the Garuda - Day 2

Updating while waiting for the rest to go for breakfast, before proceeding to our planned itinerary for today. Bearing in mind that Indon is one hour behind Sg, it's only 6.20am here >.<

Yesterday the day also started early. We left the hotel at about 8am (Indon time) to go to Borobudur.

Thanks to Fen’s sister Sanny who did all the callings, we booked a car that came with a driver for 175,000RP (1SGD = about 7000RP. Go figure) for our use up to 12 hours, which was a good deal by my standard :D When we left the hotel, it was raining the kind of sian-sian rain, ie the drizzling type where you know you can still walk about but you have to juggle the umbrella, getting wet feet and stuff. But not only the weather cleared, it became blazingly hot! In the end all 3 of us became sunburnt after only one and half hour :s

Borobudur was definitely worth the visit. Even after over 3000 years, almost all the carvings on the reliefs were still vivid, although a big part of them had been erorded over time. The work and extend of planning that went into the construction of this place was overwhelming by today’s constrcution methods, and some of the carvings were so beautiful! Each panel depicitng various stories and stages of Buddha’s life was 栩栩如生 (I cant find a better English description for it). Even the stone lions which guarded the stairways were so cute that I was petting one of them like a puppy unknowingly when we were stopping and listening to the guide during one of the stops

As the guide explained to us the origin of the relics, a point that amazed me was how trade and commerce had spread ideas, influenced culture that had brought Buddism, Christianity, Islam to this land, shaping its history and current political affairs. For example, the Buddisht temple was built 3000 years ago (with pure manual labour with ingenious engineering and architectural designs); within this century, a church was built in the hills facing the relic; and now the site was in the countryside dominated by Muslims.

One thing about visiting Borobudur though, was that you would to brave the varous vendors hawking souvenirs – from souvenir books,buddha statues, to kites and hats. We were accosted from the time we got off the car, when we were buying the tickets, up to the stairs leading up to the relic. When we came down, they zoomed in on you in flocks and more or less “escorted” you to the car. But then one good thing about that was that you can bargain with them all the way, and they would usually give you a good price at the end of journey just before you jump into the car. Fen bought the souvenir booklet for aobut 65,000RP (about $8SGD) which explained many details of the relic. Though we didn’t buy the miniature statues , they were offered to be sold at about 5000 RP (less than a dollar). I’m not sure how true was that or the vendor was just 漫天开价。

After Borobudur, Sanny instructure the driver to bring us Amanjiwo, a 5 star resort, which she told us that Princess Diana had stayed when she visited Borobudur. So we went on the drive and ended up at a deadend along this kampung road. It was quite weird cos there was only one straight road and no other turn offs. The driver went to ask around, and realised that he had missed the entrance, so we drove back. We almost missed it again if not for the fact the driver spotted the guard house at the entrance, and we realised it – the resort was so exclusive that it didn’t need an entrance sign cos you either know it’s there cos you ARE going there, or you don’t if you happen to just pass by :/

So we went to the restaurant in the resort and ordered our drinks (pretending to live the high life :p) when the waitress asked if we were interested to viisit the rooms. Those on my FB will get to see how luxuriously-inducing-drool the room was. And we were still dreaming about the rooms over coffee. Hah~

Dream coming to an end, we returned to Jogja before Fen realisedthat we missed the opening hours of our next destination Keraton, which closed at 2pm, and it was ranining so we couldn’t visit the beach. So we focused on our next immediate goal – lunch! Which led us to this local famous fried chicken place – Mbok Berek Ayam Goreng. Yummy~ No wonder I don’t see any KFC in this town..

After lunch we were just whiling away time around in town, checking out another famous t-shirt shop called Bintang Dagadu, one silver shop (basically all touristy stuff) before we returned to the hotel and wait for Sanny’s friend Vanda and her husband Frankie to bring us out for dinner. Dinner was at another local fried chicken place (their beef dunno-what,a bit like bak kwa, was very good). After dinner, Sanny was talking to her friends and then she suddenly turned to me and said “We go try Nasi Kuching” . The so-called “cat rice” are small packet rice with different simple condiments such as shredded fried egg,tempeh, chicken gizzard , sold along the road side, and usually sold out within half an hofur from 9pm, thanks to the students patronising from the nearby universities (who according to Vanda, love cheap food with lots and lots of rice,eating at least 3 at one go) .

Each portion is only about 1750RP each. It was a real authentic Indon experience sitting on the roadside on a mat and eating with the locals But I must say I quite liked it!

According to the Frankie, you haven’t been to Jogja if you had not taken a photo at the Monument Tugu.No..Borabudur doesn’t count cos it’s not within Jogja. The monuement was aligned with the beach in the south, the Keraton the Sultan's palace and to Merapi the volcanic mountain. So we took the mandatory photo on the way back. So here goes the pic :p

Just hope that the weather holds up tomorrow for the beach and Keraton.

Land of the Garuda - Day 1

The day couldn't have started any better.

My phone alarm didn't go off cos apparently although I had updated it to ring at 545am on Sunday, the "Sunday" wasn't captured, my sis woke up me at 615, the time when we were supposed to leave for airport, which leaves me 20 mins to change and grabbed my luggage before flying to the airport under 30 mins so that I can check in in time for my 745am flight.

But once on the flight, it was on schedule all the way.

Once I touched down at Jakarta, Fen and her parents picked me up and we went for a quick bite, before we went to the the National Monument ("Monas" for short) for a short city look-see-look-see. While Fen's parents queue up for us (it was a Sunday and it seemed to be a good day for families to bring their kids out, hence a long queue) Fen and I popped into the museum. I must say, if only the lighting for the exhibits improved, I would have been quite impressed with the figurine exhibits on Indonesia's road to independence. Most of the time, I joked with Fen, that the journey must be through dark ages, since most of the exhibits were shrouded in darkness.

After that, Fen and I went back to join the queue for another 20 mins before we managed to squeeze into the only lift that goes to the top of the monument. It was quite worth the wait up cos you get a panoramic view of the whole of Jakarta city. Though I can say I feel the same when I have to squeeze with many others again for the same lift to go down :( But then perhaps considering it was Sunday, it was not too bad. Just dont expect ordeliness and people have shampoo-ed head of hair.

After done with the Monas, we swung by to pick up Fen's siblings, and then we were again on the way to the airport to catch the domestic flight to Jogja. Due to an accident which had happened along the way, we were held up a bit and realised that we might be run the risk of missing our flight.

Jakarta's domestic airport is HUGE! We went to the wrong wing and realised that it was the wrong one, since we were supposed to be at Wing C and we found ourselves at Wing A. When Fen said "Uh oh.." I didn't realise the extent until after 5 mins of quick walking, I found myself looking across half the hall, and realised that Wing B is another 5 mins away.

By the time we reached wing C, I was sweating :s But still in time to caught our flight :)

So flew off, touched down, hailed cab and checked in. And then we hit the so called shopping street of the town - Malioboro. If you are the kind who loves pasar malam, you will probably like Malioboro. But the wares tend to be the same all down the street. Though I had an interesting dinner at one of the roadside setup. Fen's sister told me that Central Javanese's eating habit involved laying rugs and lay the food on the floor. So that was what we did. Along the roadside. Though there were some low tables provided. Food was ok only though..local fare. (photos soon..too lazy tonight :p)

Anyway tomorrow should be the higlight of the trip. Going to Borobudur :)) Cross fingers for nice weather!

Macau Egg Biscuits

I have got a friend recently went Macau before I went HK. I was in search for this stall of egg biscuits manned by a pair of aged couple which my friend told me about, cos the eggy biscuits were really really good (seriously I think other than to see the St Paul's ruins, I was more interest in the biscuit :p). Those who went Macau with me would have remembered hearing it cos I was repeating this from HK island to the ferry to the custom to St Paul ruins. But I couldn't find it amongst all the almond cookies :(

So anyway, had dinner with friend today at this place

where the highlight of the dinner was this :-

I think it's seabass..

And my friend gave me her blog addy. And I found proof that the stall does exist! (plagiarised from my friend's blog)

Round dough..then pressed to become flat-and-crunchy-and-eggy egg biscuits!

I'm so going to find that uncle in the photograph the next time I go Macau.

买东西吃东西买东西吃东西..................

Totally shag out.

Day 1 - with only 2 hours of sleep (I wonder if it's jetstar's ploy to keep switching off and turning on the inflight lights), joined the rest at中環. Ended up at 銅鑼灣 (got krispy kreme!!!). amazed that I can stay up and still humourful by midnight..slept at 2am.

Day 2 - woke up super hungry despite the filling 羊肉火鍋 last night...but only managed to go out to lunch after waiting for eveerryyyboodyy to get ready to move out. But super good dim sum! Ventured to Macau, only to find throngs of people with the same intention =.=" Still, Macau is nice :D. Finished the day with 女人街. slept at 1am.

Day 3 - breakfast was yummy 茶餐廳 (and 波蘿包!!). and shopping..met the rest at the Peak and dinner at 鏞計. And mj in the room..heh~ slept at 3am.

Day 4 - last bit of shoopping. till the very last bit, washed up and went to catch the airport express. Super boring flight (just cos I finished my book..mistake..should hv brought the other book). Touched down only past midnight.

Day 5 - sleep. lunch. sleep. dinner. attempt to pack. download photos(thought I didn't take enough photos but how the hell did I end up with 157 shots? Photos are going onto picasaweb..too many to blog). pack stuff that people as me to buy.

I dread going to work..and I miss the food from HK already..sigh..

Out of SG Message

I will be not be in SG from 25 Jul 08 to 28 Jul 08.

While I am in in the supposedly shopping and food haven of Hong Kong, I will be having fun shopping/ eating/ bitching/probably worrying abt how am I going to cart my stuff back single handedly on the last day.

In the meantime, please do not try to contact me cos I will not pick up international phone calls and incur $$$ which can be spent better while I am there. For any matters which is not urgent, there is the Facebook and other internet peripherals that you can leave a message.I will (try to) return your message when I return.
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As you can see, I desparately need the break from work. And again, I am struggling between decision to sleep for miserly 2 hours or dong until I go airport..deja vu

Interpretation of Art

Dialogue, Amara Mohand
Olympic Park, Seoul







We should talk

Yea, we should

I think I know where are you coming from, but you dont understand what I am saying

Why dont you put yourself in my shoe?

I did. But I don't agree with you.

You never agree with me anyway.
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Two different realms of world crashing into nothingness.

p.s. That's what I like about art. All up to the interpretation. If there is ever a chance, I will put up the artist interpretation of this piece. If there is ever a chance (and of course, if I ever feels like it :p)

Fairy in the Woods

A little fairy was walking through the woods

In the misty morning

she breathes in deep

and wonders why the trees stopped talking

Was it the chilly winter wind,

having robbed the trees of their precious leaves

Or were her ears numbed from the cold

and blocked off those precious sounds

of the rustling bare branches

She tightens her woollen scarve

and wish for the spring to come soon

Start of 2008 from 0000hrs

It started with this

Followed by sinful supper of bbq stingrays and sotongs :D

Nice nice day on the beach on day 2.

Ended with nice cakes

Followed by discovery of loss of wallet on day 3 :~(

*&^%^@#$

Welcoming all donations to help tide me over...

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in getting a new wallet :p

Happy New Year 2008!

It's the end of 2007!!

Just this day last year I was resting at home and getting ready for the big happening night at Sentosa..for work -.-" (what a spoiler..spending the night with banglas and victimised damsels).

This year today, I am somewhere else, but think will still see banglas and victimised damsels tonight.......hmm.......

It has been an interesting year, and prob ended with a surprising twist :p

2008 sure looks promising, and definitely more interesting than 2007!

Well, in the department of new year resolutions.. not that I can ever remembered what was it last year..

but I would sure like to do the following in 2008
(i) Attain my 12% and more
(ii) Do my advanced diving (it is taking too long!! Could have done it like 2 years back)
(iii) Learn how to cook
(iv) Be able to look at life straight in the face (heck..that's what going up the next age bracket is for right?! At least make the numbers worth its while :/)
(v) Spend more time with my loved ones and friends

To all whom I cant get to wish you in person/over FB
happy new year!