endroog

We reached London in the evening and it was cold. To me it was very cold… and thats why I chose this time of the year to go. Just sick of the hot weather we have here.

Travel post cannot do without touristy photo such as this taken at Piccadilly Circus. That structure may be one the most photographed structure of its kind. I need not elaborate much of this place as it is so famous that you may have heard about it. The nearby Regent Street is a shoping haven.

Went to Chinatown for lunch… KL hokkien mee. Eh… the food is comparable to some of the famous hokkien mee you can get in KL. Granny was so happy to see Chinatown. After lunch, went to places around there…. Trafalgar Square, National Portrait Gallery, Covent Garden Market, and places around there. I just couldn’t remember all the names.

Roads in London are very narrow even for many main roads.

In the evening, went to Contiki’s basement office near Russell Square for a briefing and check-in for the trip… we’re going to Europe the next morning. 

After the briefing, we walked around looking for the tube station but was made walking around by a man selling bus ticket at the Euston bus station. Arrgh… there’s another tube station, but the guy showed us to Euston Square just down the road. We didn’t know…. and walked…. then we looked at the map again and felt something is wrong. Turned back and we found the station we wanted to go is just right behind the bugger’s office. Arrgh. He’s from africa anyway.

When Szer was taking this a picture of me at the subway, this bloke just jumped in, standing next to me. I was shocked at first and thought someone gonna rob me. Then when i see him in his friar robe, I know he just wanna have fun. A bunch of his gang were heading for some play I’d guess.

And so, we headed home and packed our luggage that nite for Europe. By the way, I think i should invest in a good tripod so that next time when we go holiday, there will be more pictures of both of us together. For now, mostly are single person pictures.

The night flight was rather bumpy and cold due to the rain. When we reached Suvanarbhumi Airport, it was cold and the bus ride to the terminal was quite scary. A busload of people heading to i-dont-know-where. The distance could have been like Selayang Mall to Kepong Jusco. Yeah, it was that far.

Luckily the hotel we booked was near the one of the main nightspot in Bangkok, Nana. After checking in at midnite, the night was spent drinking a bit and slept early. Wong reached Bkk the next morning.

Come morning, went for the complimentary breakfast by the hotel… Omni Tower serviced apartment. Breakfast consist of just two slices of bread, two sunnyside-up (ho pau tan), butter and jam. A glass of coffee and orange juice. Its not a buffet breakfast and it was in a small conference room.

When Wong reached, we went out for breakfast again. Wong took us to a roadside stall where they sell stewed pork, intestine and other stuffs. Something like lou chi yuk. They all had their breakfast while Sean and I went looking for supermarket to buy mineral water and Oreo biscuits. Saw some imported new Guiness Stout in can which can be shaken. I forgot its name. I REGRETTED it for life that I didn’t buy it despite carrying a 280 baht price tag. Read on if you wanna know why.

After breakfast, we went to the Grand Palace for sightseeing. Wong, who has been there regularly for work and family trips, was our tour guide. Btw, always adhere to the no-smoking policy in buildings and certain public places.

Yea Chern took this photo.

There were many local and foreign tourists buying tickets and here’s the way leading to the entrance of the tour. The schoolgirls in uniform as you can see in this pic, asked us in Mandarin if we’re Chinese. Wong answered in Mandarin telling them we’re Japanese and the girls walked off. Man, we’re not paedos.

I just love the vast murals.

Ng touched the wall….. catch him !!!

Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We saw the Buddha in rainy season attire.

So hot we have to buy overpriced tasteless fruit juice to quench our thirst.

Saw some statues of men of ancient China. The Thais originated from China anyway I’d guess.

The Palace with mixed French and Thai architecture.

I wish my house can have the same colourful roof as that in the background.

Baris… baris sediap. Jangan senang diri. The royal guard must have wanted to stab tourists with the bayonet who make fun of them by doing all kinds of poses next to them. The guards are emotionless. Well, thats the protocol.

Ok, after we’re done at The Grand Palace, we went to Pratunam Market. The taxi driver who took us there was an ex Thai boxer. He suffered an accident to the leg. He’s now a coach and he showed us muay thai training ground as we pass by along the way to Pratunam.

The guys wanted to shop for themselves and the ladies at home. This is the beginning of the shopping madness.

After shopping at Pratunam, we went to this post shopping mall for dinner. Central Plaza or something, I forgot the name.

We skipped lunch and we certainly needed dinner after walking the whole day. This is taken at a Thai restaurant, Banana Beach Restaurant, while waiting tom yum and other authentic Thai dishes to be served.

After dinner, accompanied my best buddy for a fag. I smoke when I want to.

Ng, Ken and myself were looking at the nice bags from outside as we thought it was expensive as Sean was so busy browsing the shop. Then Wong called Ng to ask us to go and see the cheap bags. At first we dont believe… but seeing is believing.

Ended up, everyone bought bags for the ladies back home. So cheap you cannot say you’re not buying any of it.

While waiting for Ng to do his big business, we sat here for a rest and look at the stuffs we’ve bought.

The lady on the phone turned away as we were talking too loud. Yea Chern caught sms’ing his wife to tell her he bought bags for her. Geez.

Fountains. We were heading towards the BTS station. Their train service is very efficient.

Yet another shopping centre, Erawan. Ng, overlooking the shrine of 4-faced Buddha.

Every building have a nice shrine for the 4-faced Buddha. Wong said this is the most famous shrine in downtown Bangkok.

After getting back to our apartment for shower and a short rest, we headed out to Nana entertainment centre (a renowned sex mall as stated in some websites)…. which is just walking distance to the place we’re staying. Saw some pole dancing show and ladyboys show. Sometime its hard to distinguish who is real and who is fake. When the place closed at 2am, went back to apartment to drink and chatted as there’s a crisis happening to one of the buddy. Im not gonna elaborate more about it.

Btw, I can’t find any Guiness Stout in Bangkok. 7-11 doesn’t have it, mini market, restaurants and pubs also don’t have it. When I asked the people do they serve Guiness Stout, they dont know what the hell is it and gave me a strange look. They just dont know what the fuck is Guiness Stout. I dont mind if they have only Royal Stout or any other brand…. I needed stout but… they just dont know what is stout. Arrgh. I wanted to shout “Where the fuck can I get Guiness Stout in Bangkok???!!”

Stay tuned for the Day 2 happenings.

Bangkok is great !

Went to the hot spring while on the way to Ipoh the other day. Its a nice place. They have chalets there and run by Federal Hotel Group. Landscape in clean. There’s even a giant octopus at the resort. The place is quite a nice place for a weekend trip but to go out to the nearest town is quite far away. But if you plan to spend the whole weekend in one place, this should be a nice place. You can picnic, play water and go for massage. I love putting my feet into hot water. It kills all the germs that linger between your toes.

I’m standing on water.

How to get there? You take the PLUS highway and exit at Sungkai interchange. You will see signboards leading you to Sungai Klah Hot Spring. You’ll pass by a lot of Felda oil palm plantations before you reach the place.

I have more pictures in my Gimping Photos under the CNY2008 directory.

Second day in Jakarta was great. Reached Mangga Dua by 9.00am. Its just about 20 minutes from our place. Well, this something what Chow Kit is to KL. There’s this shopping mall.. bazaar kind of thing where you can find a lot of things… clothes, accessories, fakes, spectacles, embroidery services, all kinds of beads, you name it. Anyway, I only bought a pair of short bermuda jeans for just Rp9oK. Had Indomie breakfast.

Ok, did I tell you all that.. to me, Indonesian food is just like another malay food. Alright.. maybe my 2 days stint is just not sufficient to eat.. but then the renown nasi padang is just like another nasi kandar. Only that they serve in plates for each dish and its not as hygiene as you thought it would be. Imagine, they put all the available dishes they have in the house on the table and whichever you don’t eat, they collect it back to “recycle”/reheat for the next customer. You only pay for the dishes you ate. Don’t expect the aroma of nasi kandar you always eat in the alleys near your office. You’d be disappointed for generations. The nasi padang we patronised was recommended by a waiter at Cafe Batavia. He said there’s only 2 good nasi padang joint in Jakarta…. Sari Bundo and Garuda. So the one convenient for us to go was Sari Bundo. Another thing is Indomie, an instant noodle which is delicious. I think thats their national food… for every noodle shop there must be indomie in the menu. Bakso indomie, indomie soup, indomie goreng, dry mixed indomie etc….

Eh… went off the chronology of events. Ok… after Mangga Dua, we went to Fatahillah Square by angkut (the tuk-tuk motor bike). There are the various museums… Museum Fatahillah, Museum Wayang, Museum Fine Arts, etc. These are old colonial buildings converted to museum. This is what I wanted to see. After the visiting the various museums, we retreated to Cafe Batavia for a drink. The setting in there is very posh and nice. You should go there if you ever visit Jakarta. After the drink.. went eat nasi padang at Sari Bundo (lunch). While eating lunch, our table was facing a nice colonial building and I was staring at it throughout the meal. Then before we left the restaurant, we asked a waiter there what is that building opposite and was told it is the National Archieve (they call it arsib nasional). Ok good. He even recommended us to visit the place. So we took quite an effort to cross the busy road. Yeah, it was a nice building. According to a picture I saw thereat, it is a fact that there was an awry massacre took place at the backyard of the building a few centuries ago. The locals massacred the colonials, chinese etc.

Later in the evening, we went to the Kathedral in central Jakarta… a gothic catholic church which I believed to be the oldest church in Indonesia. It is a must visit place in Jakarta. At the time when we were there, so happen there was a wedding mass going on and we attended it partially. The church is also a museum in its own right, as the upper level stores artefacts of Catholic presence in Jakarta. But too bad, it was closed that day. Ayoyo.

Its quite weird to me as we’re used to english or chinese mass here and there they speak malay. Let me tell you, I feel very uneasy because chinese are all speaking malay among themselves and chinese traders speak malay to me. It never happen before (except the time people mistaken me for a malay). Its like thing you rarely see here (except my house; i speak malay with Mr Bean sometime). Ok… there are many nice places for wedding photo shooting in Jakarta. Mainly the places are Kota Lama (the Cafe Batavia area) and this Kathedral.

Photo album

Ok… well, went to Jakarta the other day out of frustration for having to miss her so much. Or should I put it like this… free accommodation… why not go for a spin. Even Sean’s dearest herself never been to Jakarta despite being an Indonesian. Alright, my trip had only a purpose…. to see my szer. Imagine not seeing your love one for 2 months….

But then… to tell people I’ve been to Jakarta… I must have pictorial evidence. Hence we’ve visited the National Monument or Monas for short. That tower is simple and in the whole compound perimeter of that structure you can build 2 Petronas twin-towers I’d guess. There’s a museum in the basement of Monas. Models and figurines depicting events from the time of neandearthal period till srivijaya to majapahit to the Dutch and present time are all encased in a behind a glass in wall. After the Monas, we came upon a group of student activists outside Monas. They were marching… striking on some shit and polisi eeerr I mean policemen have to be there to control the situation. These are MPs… military police. Then we walked about half a kilometer to the National Museum only to find it having an exhibition. The museum was closed for the exhibition. There’s a lot of luxury cars parked in the compound. The drivers (ah mats) sitting on whatever that they can rest their asses on. It was a jewelry exhibition going on. No wonder lah. Asked the guy at the door and was told we have to buy ticket to go in. Alright… forget it we told ourselves. I can’t afford to buy jewelry yet.

We the took taxi to one of the poshest mall in the nusantara. Plaza Indonesia and eX Mall which are situated next to each other. Linked and connected. There we had dinner. Gado-gado and lontong medan. After dinner, went to yet another mall…. Semanggi…. man ….. I’m wondering why shopping mall… but hey… its hot there and malls are the only cool retreat. All kinds of clothes and accessories for both genders. After Semanggi, we back and sleep. It was a tiring day.

Check out the photo album: http://fotologue.jp/endroog#/5465034/5465107