Visiting the ‘ancestors’ of earth this Chinese New Year.

Happy New Dragon Year!

Exploring the furthest places in Hong Kong

Suddenly, TV programs stopped and turned into the scene of WTC being hit by a plane. It was unbelievable, and I was not sure what happened but the next day it was very clear.

Well living in a country with 90% Muslim and the country with the largest number of Muslims in the world, this was a very shocking event. After all, we have so many muslim friends.

Well that did not change life in Indonesia until the next year when the Bali bombing came. Suddenly suspicion is everywhere, posters of wanted man in every lamp post.

But of course, life goes on, and at work we joked about that distant friend/relative who became an extremist, living in the jungle of Kalimantan/Borneo.

It may be in Bali, New York, London but terrorism is evil, and one way to stop it is to have equal education for all. Part of the reason why I want to teach? maybe.

But 9/11 has many personal meaning to me:
1) That was the year I came to SG with 50 other wonderful friends
2) 9/11 was the day I got married in the church after 8 years of relationship with the husband

So it will always be a day to remember

Ok for the Non-Catholics reader, this place is modeled closely after the Lourdes in France. The life-like statues is painted gold just like Lourdes and Mother Mary has her own special place.

Moreover there is a chapel for mass. I described as chapel because it is very small, maybe fitting only 50 people each time. So for Christmas they had large tents outside

Well this was another christmas mass in a foreign language

FYI: I had attended the last pope John Paul II Christmas mass in Rome back in 2000. It was in Italian

Yes it was in Javanese and despite growing up with the language, mom and dad spoke it and we understand and speak it in a weird accent.

You see The mass was conducted in the formal Javanese language, only people who took in in school or live in Central Java can understand. Not descents of Javanese who lived exclusively in Jakarta like us. I was as clueless as the husband who don’t understand Indonesian.

Well after that they gave us simple packet meals. With varieties as it was donated by different people.

And then we head for dinner at the most famous sate place in town

Yeah sate pak siboen!
Trust me all their satays taste great and affordable. There are several branches too if I am not wrong

Anyway my east java trip continues the next day to Jatim park.

Jatim park is an entertainment venue located in Malang. They have 2 different parks and a night park as well. Really cool place.

So Jatim park 1 is your usual theme parks with rollercoasters etc. We didn’t go there, we went to Jatim park 2, which consist of 3 things: the batu secret zoo ( so secret u gotta go there to find out!! )

The hotel : made of giant tree

And the third I think it is some sort of science/ history/ art museum I am not sure cos it’s not open yet.

That’s us in front of it, yeah it’s huge and full of people cos it’s the holiday season.

Anyway that’s how we spent our whole day. We didn’t visit the night park because we could not get a room at the hotel so we went back to Tulungagung to stay the night.

We went to eat at some random restaurant which was not so nice. Probably gotta head to Malang town for great food. Batu ( a municipal of Malang ) is kinda touristy

Btw we also visited selecta, the giant swimming pool which now has many other things such as go kart, big flower garden, some agro farm etc

I remember when I was a kid it was just a big swimming pool thar my siblings and I swim in the cold fresh mountain water. And enjoy fried rice afterwards! Such a great holiday. But we didn’t stay long cos it was drizzling.

Of course batu is known for it’s agro tourism where you get to pick apples, strawberries etc. The hotel there is also fantastic but we skipped it this time round.

So after we head back to Tulungagung, the next day we head to Visit my grandmothers.

At this time I would like to offer my prayers to the soul of my paternal grandmother who just passed away in jul 2011.

Her home hold great childhood memories which my siblings and I will always share. You see in front of her house there is a big building. One time it was a frog farm so we get to see huge bullfrogs and had some frog stew afterwards.

Another time it became a crocodile farm so we saw baby crocodiles and so on.

At first it was a cow farm so we get to help milk cows etc.

There was one time also it became a fish and prawn farm.

And one last farm it was once a snake farm.

And I think today it is still a crocodile farm, after all crocodile skin is very valuable

Anyway fond memories of childhood. And because she just passed recently I just returned to East Java too.

Last installment will talk about my stay in sarangan, madiun, more about my maternal grandmother in Tulungagung, the hotel and the great food places

Look out for it.

Anyway I am rambling

The purpose for the trip was mainly to spend time together with my extended family and to introduce my new husband to those who could not come to our receptions.

Especially my two grandmothers

Anyway, first night spent at Surabaya plaza hotel, as the name suggest, this hotel right outside Surabaya plaza. Food options are plenty inside the plaza from fast food to indonesia food. Right opposite is an expo hall, supposed to be quite famous if you are looking for handphones etc

There is a famous rujak cingur stall inside the plaza that was mentioned on the Jetstar magazine I happened to be reading on the flight over.

So worth trying.

Anyway those who are curious, cingur means nose in Javanese so the Rujak ( salad) has some pieces of animal nose inside, sometimes it is buffalo, cow or pig.

There is also the usual KFC, A&W etc

And food courts inside.

We had dinner at this place because the claim said that we have not been to Surabaya if we didn’t try this duck.

The Jco served good froyo at super cheap price so yeah food settled

Next day we checked out and head towards Tulungagung, as it was Christmas Period and we wanted to attend mass the the Lourdes lookalike place called Poh Sarang in Kediri

But before that we visited Madura and took some pictures at the longest bridge in (Indonesia? Maybe just east java I am not too sure).

Anyway us at the Suromadu bridge

More pics of me at this bridge that is modeled after the famous San Fransisco bridge

Well the toll fee is quite expensive though. To and fro I think it was around 20 SGD. to be fair it was an engineering feat, for many years Madura who wants to visit Java had to take a ferry. And yeah Madura is an island by itself and it is most famous for 2 things.

1. sate Madura

Which of course we had for lunch, the more famous stall had already ran out of things ( this was at 2 pm only)

2. karapan Sapi

Which is actually a cow/bull racing. We didn’t watch as we were quite pressed for time.

After lunch we go directly towards Poh Sarang in Kediri.

To be continued in part 2

Anyway to note: this was a road trip. My family flew in from Jakarta while we flew from Singapore.

From Juanda airport in Surabaya it is easy to book a hotel as there is a few travel agencies around. Surabaya plaza was about 350,000 Rp a night and that’s around 60 SGD.

My dad prefers to use Kaha travel agency so yeah look out for their booth as they are quite reliable and had partnership with the good hotels. In 2008 we stayed at Marriott which was also at just slightly higher price and their location is unbeatable. You can check out my other Indonesia travel categories for the room pics and more hotel reviews

From the airport you can book those pre paid taxis that is quite safe n reliable and will send you to the hotel doorstep. Some of them will ask u to pay extra for toll fees but u should make sure that you actually see him passing thru a toll booth. The price for the tolls payable for taxis is the first price that you see. Should not exceed 20000 usually.

After Surabaya, we borrowed cars from relatives that usually comes with drivers, or our relatives drove us around because traffic is hard to navigate for a foreigner for sure. Many many roundabouts without any clear signs. Even daddy is lazy to drive as there is always new development and some parts is really dangerous and road is on the verge of collapsing. So yeah hire a car and driver. It is affordable and easier.

However on our travels we usually indulge in one really good restaurant meal. I mean it need not be the most expensive place in town. But we will pull all the stops. We will try everything from starters, main courses n even desserts n drinks.

Last trip we tried Cabbages and Condoms, the famous place (which is also in sukhumvit)

This trip we decided (or rather I decided) on baan khanita on soi 26.

The place was packed with foreigners n locals n luxury cars complete with chauffeurs adorned the limited parking spaces.

Kinda feel under dressed n unkempt as earlier we had shopped till our last bahts in Platinum mall. So we were carrying huge ugly plastic bags into the restaurant

Us waiting for seats at their lobby ( reservations is highly recommended!!) we were lucky it was a late weeknight (8pm) n that was why they were able to accommodate us fairly quickly

Display area of their table wares, all handmade and cute!! But expensive

More decor stuff

Us t the table and the table settings

Soon our drinks arrived

Their drinks recommendations were spot on. Really refreshing and good

Before we move on to food, I must commend on the service here. I commented that my Tom yam is rather bland and immediately they cook a new portion.

The complimentary starter course. You are supposed to take a leaf, put each ingredients on it, wrap and eat!

Taste really really good. Too bad I didn’t catch the Thai name. But it was really popular among other Thai places too.

Pandan-wrapped chicken

Cute rice shape ( refillable for free!! )

Our main courses (Thai curry chicken) this one is really delicious

Some squid dish that was the chef’s special but it was not that good.

Ginger sauce with glutinous ball as dessert

Mango sticky rice!! Although price was 5x more than the price on the street. It was really good with the ice cream on the side, fresh coconut cream and the peanuts!! Really made a whole lot of difference to this simple dessert

Oh well bill came to about 2800baht or about $120

Definitely cheap considering the amount and quality ( some dishes not pictured cos I am too lazy to take the pic/ uploading too laborious)

All pics by iPhone so pardon the quality

Next up is lake kenyir/Trengganu trip or maybe I will do the east java trip first
Anyway stay tuned!

So here is a few things

1) hotel is located in an “ulu” area. By ulu means it is not smack in the middle of shopping centers area like MBK, central world, pratunam (platinum mall)
The nearest BTS is phrom phong n the hotel provides free tuk-tuk service to the BTS. lt is a short ride of about 5mins.

They can also fetch u from the BTS if u call them so u need to get a pre-paid card.

2) around the hotel area basically there is Nothing much. There is a spa ( let’s relax spa) which is quite good but rather expensive for walk in. Book online to get some discounts. Best thing is that they open till late so you can still get some done after the shopping

Also the fuji supermarket, Starbucks, banks, n a few jap eateries. The one on the top floor of the supermarket served great grilled meats but we didn’t try.

Instead we try Ramen Tei which is really good n affordable.

The usual shoyu charshiu ramen

Flipping thru the menu

And lastly around the BTS station, there is a huge mall with cinema (rather upmarket) with another huge supermarket. I think SOGO is the anchor tenant.
There is boots, etc here too

And in front of the BTS there is a 2 storey naraya flagship store. If you can’t find what you want here, unlikely you can find it anywhere else.

We stocked up on hangers, updated the tissue boxes n bought too many bags *insert ashamed face*

So all in all quite a good place to be in to experience the sukhumvit side of BKK.

So this time in BKK we took it easy.

We went to do massage/spa almost everyday

We also tried the restaurants in sukhumvit area besides the street food.

Crystal Jade near the hotel served great seafood fried rice and made their own chilli

So we had it a few times because it is cheap (compared to CJ Singapore) much more delicious than tr branches in singapore.

And more importantly it is just a few steps away from the hotel n open till midnight. Their mango sago dessert is also exceptional

We had a few spa sessions at Let’s Relax. We found the staff rushed thru our session albeit the hot stone massage was great.

Partly because we came little bit late but still… Not one of the best spa surely.

We also had traditional Thai massage at Healthland spa Asoke branch

It was eye opening as our bodies were stretched in ways unimaginable before. But it felt quite good n for 2 hours we could relax in air con room. And it was quite affordable too

You can check their website for other locations n branches.

Here is the spa lobby.

Taxis know this place quite well n there r many taxis around the area. So no worries about transport

Ok stay tuned for part 3!!

There are actually 2 types of airport express. One that goes direct to Makkasan, there is another one that made 3 stops in between

More information please google

But it is not hard to locate the train station from the airport. The connection is quite seamless n easy.

However, it is not a popular service so do not be alarmed if there is no one that is going to the train service direction.

We decided to take the rail link because we arrived at 6 plus and we don’t want to face BKK notorious jam!

The rail link ticket is 150 baht

And since our hotel is quite near the Makkasan city terminal we go for it

And it is a very comfortable and fast and since there was only 1-3 other people we can put our huge luggages with us n still be comfortable.

Here is how the train like

And us being comfortable in train and without the stress of traffic jam

Of course after that we still have to take a cab to our hotel
Twin palm @ 39

Located at sukhumvit soi 39

We chose it because it is newly opened in sept 2010 an it provided us free wifi, huge room with jacuzzi and best of all only 1600baht a night!!

Of course being new it has several issues like the wifi signal actually bad in the room to electricity problems because the jacuzzi use a Loy of electricity. Coupled that with 2 air-cons, a full size fridge an 2 huge LCD TVs. Yeah we experienced blackouts in the room but nothing serious.

We are satisfied with the room at that price. No breakfast though but There is a Starbucks within walking distance, a Japanese supermarket and some street stalls.

The hotel provide tuk tuk to the BTS station so getting around is easy but hotel location can be hard to find for those unfamiliar with the area.

Well here comes room pictures

Jacuzzi for 2!!

Perfect for us honeymooners rite!

Standing shower area

Living room with full sofa, we have our dinner there at night and next morning all our mess cleared!! No need to worry about sleeping with the mess!!

Cos the hub and I must shower before we can go to bed so with the living room we can eat, watch tv, soak in jacuzzi ( can watch tv at the same time since it is glass- walled!) before finally retiring to bed

The lack of breakfast also means we wake at 11 plus every morning cos there is no breakfast hour to keep to!

Sorry no room pics but it is a normal double bed with another tV, dressing table etc

And the cupboards r huge too!

Well any qns you can drop me a mail!!

So let’s rewind to 16 dec 2010

This is the day we started our 3 weeks honeymoon across Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and indonesia.

So on this day we embark on our 10 days BKK trip.

No matter how long we spend in BKK it is never enough. The food, the sights and most of all the glorious shopping!!

Well this post I will start with my airline.

Nowadays more n more ppl use Myanmar airlines and many of my friends have asked me about the airline.

Well first of all the timing is kinda terrible for us time-starved “singaporeans”
The departing flight is at 4++ pm and returning flight is 11 am which means no last minute shopping and may face the traffic hour rush to airport

4pm+ means can take half day but also means in BKK you r facing traffic hour rush n most shopping centers r closed but of course u can still catch the night market!

Well that’s us in the airplane. It is full service so it served food so basically no complains since it left on time

That’s how the food looks like

Basically a hot dish, bun , dessert n salad. The usual things found in airplane.

Drinks were mineral water orange juice etc.

Their crews were actually French borrowed from another airline so you might be able to meet handsome n pretty French!

Feels quite good to be served by angmoh u know..

Well anyway I will write again quite soon as now I have many photos to share. And we have been on so many trips so I have to document it if I want to remember them.

Ciao

Yeah in total we had more than 3 weeks long holiday!!

We went to Bangkok for the first week and then 5 days in Genting and a week in East Java.

We also spent 3 days in KL.

Over the next few posts I will introduce our hotels in each places we visited.

Anyway this year, since we r married, we decided to have joint new year resolutions. We kept them short and simple and only had 3

1. Lose 10 kgs each
2. Save $xx,xxx amount of money, yes we want 5 digits!!!
3. In line with the 2 others above, to become a better person with more care for our environment and people around us!!

With that

Happy reading about our year end cum honeymoon trip
Happy new year