Kuala Lumpur - a weekend gateway

This is a retroactive post.

We stopped by in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on our way to Maldives in August.

We have a friend who is currently working in Kuala Lumpur, so she took us around to see as much as possible of the city and also Batu Cave. But I must say, for us, Kuala Lumpur is not so much different to Jakarta, Indonesia except that they have more better infrastructure than Jakarta. Nevertheless, it was ok for just a 3-days-visit.


Create Your Own

May Holiday Part 3 - on the way home

I guess I must post this before it is too long overdue! :-(

Ha Long is located about 3 hours drive from Hanoi. The road and traffic is not so friendly (more small road than highways) but the scenaries along the road are beautiful.

Ha Long is very beautiful and natural and I would strongly recommend to take the 2 days/1 night boat trip. Many people are worry about the boat but it turned out to be a stable boat.

Our boat name was Santa Maria cruiser arranged by the hotel in Hanoi. The food served was very good but the room is just ok for a one night sleep. It's clean but not that sophisticated. Anyway you will not stay in the room the whole day. The boat has a nice sundeck where we hanged out most of the time. My dad was so connected to the nature that he always went to sundeck whenever he had the chances.

The travel agent has a program set for us. They will arrange when you have to have breakfast/lunch/dinner and they also took us to kayak trip. In the beginning I was not that sure about kayaking but ended up enjoying it alot. There is also a designated place where you can swim in the bay which is good after some hours kayaking. The next day we went to the caves to see many stone formations but for us it is not that interesting as this is very normal tourist places that you'll find in China.

The only downpoint was the night. They parked the boat in a quite bay together with many other junk boats. However 2 junk boats decided to make a karaoke contest night and that was just hillarious but yet terrible to hear that loud music and (many times!) not synchronize lyrics. I must strongly suggest that they forbid karaoke to better enjoy the nature. It's not very often we can sit under the sky and enjoying nothing but the sounds of wilderness!

But all in all, I still vote for Halong bay to be one of the 7th Wonder of Natural World!

I will also not post extra about Hong Kong and Macau. It's heaven for shoppers and gamblers as everyone knows it, but just in case you want to see other side of Hong Kong then just take a train ride to Lantau Island (about 30 minutes train ride) and you can see the giant Tian Tan buddha. It was a nice city break especially for the men and they can worry less about their credit card bill for a day! :-)

Enjoy the photos;


Create Your Own

May Holiday Part 1 – Angkor, Cambodia

Now that we are living in Asia, we’ve promised ourselves to intensify our knowledge of Asia, especially Indochina. Being an Indonesian (and I haven't travelled much in Indonesia either!!), I am quite ashamed of myself as I have been to a lot of places in Europe and US and only to some cities in Asia.

Before I live in Shanghai, I have only visited some major cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Guilin), Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which everyone who have been to the last 2 cities can confirm that they are not really typical Asian city.

Therefore, we’ve made our first step to Asia by travelling to Hong Kong, Macau, Siem Reap, Hanoi and Ha Long bay last May holiday. It seems to be a lot of cities to be done in 10 days but we are not so much into shopping so we can skip the trip to the mall in HK.

My parents joined us this time as they were visiting me for the surgery. I will only post about Siem Reap this time and continue with others in the next posts.

First thing we’ve learnt is that travelling in Asia is more complicated with the inter-city connection. Not all places are wel connected by train service and cheap flights are not always available. However I found a very helpful and reliable internet site, Tourism Cambodia, which helps for tickets and hotel bookings and they give detail information about Cambodia. Their price is also cheaper compare to other sites too.

I believe almost all nationalities require visa to visit Cambodia. However they provided an e-visa service which makes it easier. If you prefer not to use their e-visa service, just make sure you have your passport photograph with you when you enter the country.

Also, you don’t have to bother exchanging your money to local currency in Cambodia. Most people trades in USD and they give change in USD as well. You can use it to pay for tuk tuk, bars, restaurants, hotels and water everywhere.

Siem Reap is the city you have to go if you want to visit Angkor. One hint to visit Angkor, it is a huge complex consisting of about 100 temples. It will take you between 3 days to a week to visit all the temples so depending on your crave for archeology, make sure you’ll plan your visit wisely as the price of the entrance ticket is cheaper if you buy for more days. The last time we only spend only a day in Angkor and paid for 25 USD each. The best way to explore the temples is by bicycles or by tuk tuk, a motorcycle powered cart. The area is very peace and serene but be prepared for the hot and humid weather also. Take your time to explore the temples and make sure you have your water and camera handy at all time!

In Angkor we only had the chance to visit the 3 main and must see temples. Those are Angkor Wat itself, Bayon temple and Ta Prohm. The last one is really popular as the temple has been almost outgrown by the trees. You’ll find everywhere trees growing on top of the temple building. Really amazing!

And after you’ve finished exploring the temples, don’t forget to stop at the night market in town or just spoiling yourself with the famous Cambodian massage!



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The Pins are out!

Finally! After 11 months attached to my shoulder, they are finally out! And the truth, they look scary also! Good thing I didn't bother to see how they look before the doctor put them in my shoulder otherwise I will never agree to have the surgery a year ago!

I was very nervous when they prepared me for surgery but the anesthesia doctor was a friendly and efficient german lady and she checked me very thorough and ensured that she will take care of me during the surgery. It was quite a relieved and before I realized, she put me to sleep already.

The recovery (post surgery) went very well also. I stayed one night in the hospital and the nurses were very surprised that I didn't request for any pain killer at all. I also insisted to got back home on the second day as I don't like hospital and its atmosphere in general.

One thing happened on the night at the hospital though. I was half-sleeping when I heard loud noise outside of my room (which is very near to the nurse station). One german lady was talking on the phone in german and she was trying to explain about somebody who had an accident and had a fracture in the bone (she didn't mentioned specifically in which bone). She insisted that an operation needed to be done ASAP and she wanted to have the person in the other side of the line to call her back to the hospital, to the bed number 1210 to be exact! Guess what, THAT WAS MY BED NUMBER!

I was half-asleep and felt already quite annoyed with her loud voice but I tell you now..I was almost jumped out of my bed when she said my bed number loud and clear in german! 1210! I immediately thought that my anesthesia doctor (remember she was also a german lady!) found something in my medical record, came back to arrange another surgery for me for that night!

I immediately thought for the worse to come and I was panic that I started to look for an escape way. Of course I cannot do too much with an I.V. and heart beat monitor attached to my arm. The fact that the room was located on the 12th Floor also didn't give me much option either. So I gave up and I woke Jorge up, hoping he could clarify all the discussions going on outside at that time. I jumped into glory when Jorge came back and said that the lady meant bed number 1310 instead! *Big relieved sigh*

So anyway, the wound is so far healing up good also. The doctor told me that he will remove the stitches on Monday but I have to wear my arm sling for another week and should not carry heavy items for about a month. Other than that, I am good to go back to the office and also to go for holiday! Yay!!!

Friday, 18.04.2008

About three and a half months ago I received a good news from my orthopedic doctor. It looks like that my clavicle bone has grown back together and I should be able to remove the metal pin whenever I want to.

I should be happy, and I am really happy, except that I am no fans of any kind of surgeries. I have cold feet just imagining the sterile surgery room with doctors holding scalpel and trying to cut me open.

To add to my misery, Jorge mistakenly played one movie called “Awake” which tells about a man who suffers “anesthetic awareness” and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed, during heart surgery. Trust me, that brings me hundreds steps away from the surgery room!

Anyway, after putting the surgery into on hold for quite sometimes, I have finally given up and have managed to persuade myself into scheduling an appointment for this coming Friday. That was for sure not an easy job. In fact, I choose this Friday on purpose as I have an important deadline to meet at work on the Tuesday before and I intentionally plan for a holiday in the beginning of May (just two weeks after Friday). If you don’t believe me, you can try to meet your work deadline and arranging for your vacation (including places to see, hotels, tickets, visas, etc) and arranging for blood test, x-ray and doctor’s appointments at the same time. You surely don’t have too much time to think about the “what if” anymore.

And to really add to the burden, I have arranged for my parents to come and accompany me during the recovery week. They will arrive just one day before the “D-day” and we will go on holiday together.

It is funny how they both agreed to come but both have different agendas in their minds;

My mom wants to make sure that I really walk into that hospital and not trying to escape from the back door (trust me, it crosses my mind the last time!)

My dad on the other hand, well now I have to be careful writing this, his “official” task is to guard the back door (apparently I have the “surgery-blood-cold-feet” gen from him so he prefers to keep reasonable distance from the “room”). But most important, his main intention to visit me here is for the vacation (yup, I also inherit the “I-love-to-travel” gen from him). It is obvious that he is more interested to ask about where we are going and what we will see there rather than how the procedure for this Friday will be. (For the record, no complaint recorded here as it really helps me also!).

So I guess, to the rest of you, wish me luck please (and don't put a hidden camera on the back door!).

PS: If you wonder what Jorge’s task at the moment is, well, I have asked him to stay away from any movies but the "Cinderella-and-the-prince-live-happily-ever-after" Hollywood-kind of movies.

Tibet development

We have been planning to go to Tibet in beginning of May but now we have to cancel due to the recent development in Tibet. We are quite disappointed as we now have to find another location to go. The time is already fixed, it will be on the labour day week.

Nevertheles, we are quite astonished with the local media publication about Tibet. The story about the Great Firewall of China is not an urban legend, it is true indeed. In fact, after living in China for almost a year (yes, that long already!), we are quite used to the firewall. Most of the time, sites like wikipedia, bbc, blogspot are closed in China. From time to time, the Government also closed Flickr and Youtube. It's just depending on the current events going on about China in the international world.

But it is quite surprising that the Shanghai Daily and China Daily have been following up closely about the development of Tibet crisis. Of course as Tibet is at the moment closed for foreigners, we can only rely on the official reports given by the government.

I have found some pictures released in SINA.com, a local news similar like CNN. More photos of current Tibet situation can be found here.













UPDATE 29.03.2008: China has recently opened to foreign newspapers to send their representatives to Tibet to do close cover-up of the current situation after the riot. Also China Daily annouces today that 15 foreign diplomats are scheduled to visit Tibet in short term.

Happy Chinese New Year 2008

We are off to Indonesia to celebrate the arrival of the year of rat with my family. To those who celebrate the chinese new year, we wish you all the best for the new year and enjoy the holiday with your family!

新年快乐!
万事如意..
鼠年大吉,身体健康,万事如意,心想事成 !

I found a very nice song about the chinese new year. They've been playing for the whole month in every department stores. Enjoy!!!

Bad Weather in Asia

This is something that you don't expect to have when you are about to travel somewhere.
Shanghai continues to receive heavy snowfall since yesterday and it causes delay and flight cancelation in both of Shanghai airports.

At the same time, my mom has been sending me text messages to give some updates about the rain and flood in Jakarta which also cause flight cancelation/reroute as the runway is covered with 50cm high of water and visibiliy is only about 300m.

The weather outlook for both cities for the next week are not very promising. Rain and snow are still expected in both cities. In China especially, the Chinese New Year holiday is coming next week and they expect heavy travellers traffic trying to reach home to spend the holiday with their families.

So either we are stucked in Shanghai airport or somewhere between Singapore and Jakarta. We actually plan to spend the Chinese New Year golden week with my family in Jakarta. We will have to see if that will be possible.

* Photo is taken from Shanghai Daily showing hundreds of thousands of people waiting for train home in Guangzhou train station.

Just an update..

My work has been quite tiring but yet challenging in the past couple of months. Starting with hectic and stressful three-years operative planning process which were finally accepted by the board of management in Germany beginning of this week (after 3 months preparation), to various kind of projects which involves investing in total new production company in China (and seriously, this will be my first time doing that) to (and still ongoing) potential closing one of our unprofitable business line (which of course involves redundancy plans, risk of future warranty claim, etc). Not to mention the day to day routine job that I still have to do in the office. I was practically only moving from one meeting room to another and presenting one fact after another to different parties involved. Thankfully my company has only 2 floors and 4 meeting rooms.

As the year almost ends in less than 6 weeks, I am really excited with the long vacation trip in December. I have to honestly say that I don’t know why I still come to work everyday, my mind has been continuously wandered to the beach and sun down in Copacabana and the relaxing sound of wind and water which are like lullaby to my ears and of course delicious Brazilian rodizio and its caipirinha. I have all the plane tickets, hotel bookings and visas ready. All I need is to survive for the next 5 weeks in the office!

But before I can do all of those, I still have to attend the company’s board of management meeting at the end of this month, still have two visitors for two new (as they are always) important projects, a trip to the cold-minus 15 degree and snowing Changchun plant is still in the agenda (I just found out about it last night, thanks boss!) and prepare for the year-end closing with the Accounting manager. I tell you all, that beach in Brazil is better be good!!!