Time to leave Bali; the driver came to pick us up right at 5:45am; our b'fast was packed - mango, water melon, bananas, cakes. Couldn't really eat, either the road was too windy or we were followed up a string of cargo carrying trucks spitting out thick black smoke. Quite choking! Where were those hydrogen fueled vehicles?
When we arrived, it was under the cloak of darkness; when we left this morning, the sun was up; we could see more. Villages, rice fields, and couple busy markets people were selling and buying b'fast. It had a total different feel. We got whiffs of traditional cooked food as we passed thru some streets. Too bad, we weren't staying for another day; otherwise, we could easily immerse into the local atmosphere; bare in mind though, you do need to ignore certain things - the degree of dirtiness, the crowd, the "local" bathrooms - more beneficial to be man than a "westernized" woman.
Some funny scenes we noticed while driving to the airport.
- A woman sitting at the back of a motor bike carrying two rice bags; they looked heavy. I was commenting about how strong that woman must be; the driver smiled and said; that woman was carrying piglets. Wow, that explained the sound we heard. The woman was on her way to the market with the piglets to be slaughtered.
- A man was walking on the side of the road; thought he was talking on a cellphone; but no.... He was utilizing his index finger as a 2" drill bit in order to clear his nostril of something; maybe the hole was plugged from all the smogs. I believed I stopped eating after that. Some coordination - walking and "drilling" at the same time.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Done Bali
After a much needed 2 day of rest, we are now getting into work mode for Monday in Singapore; we have just arrived here. Imagine that 6 hours ago, we were waken by the sound of ocean waves and chorus of insects in the forest. And not to mention the 1/2 open air bathroom. You literally showered under the stars! With some luxury items like flush toilet and hot water, of course. Hey Rod, I have finally found a camp site that fits your requirement of "camping" - 5 star hotel with room service. Hee hee....
Anyway, the place we stayed at was called Shankari's Bali Retreat (formerly Sacred River). Audrey used to work there for 9 months in the late 90's. Over the last two days, I found out that we were both in the same place over the same period of time! We were in Hong Kong over the New Year's Eve (Rod and Michele, the trip we took together in the late 90's). And then, she was back to Bali to work and I was at Kuta. How weird was that?
This place in Bali was geared toward spirituality; a self inner discovery type of place. But we were not doing that sort of things. There was no "seminars" of any sorts. We had the entire complex to ourselves with a full complementary staff. At night after 10pm, we were the only people there with the security details of two people. This place needs promotion of doing retreat for companies - like strategic planning and team building. The owner was a very interesting character; she arrived Bali over 20 years ago with only US$500 in her pocket with 3 young children; this resort was her life work; now, she's expanded into jewelery making. She designed all her work; Audrey and I had a tour of the jewelery factory just 5-minute walk from the retreat.
For those of you that are curious: NO, I was not there for the World Climate Change conference. I was doing a bit more in-depth than sitting in conference rooms (fully air-conditioned) at Nusa Dua isolated from the REAL problems. How can you plan to save the world in 5-star hotels with air-conditioned rooms? Firstly, with all the technologies available, we can easily have regions connected to the WWW for web conference; rather have everyone flying into Bali; isn't airplane flying is one of the pollutions? And air cond as well? If we want to make an impact, shouldn't the conference to done in community halls across local villages? You could then listening to the local concerns of what have been causing "the problem"? By transporting all delegates to and from different villages, they would KNOW how polluted in Bali has become; diesel fueled trucks hauling goods from East to West. As a statement, at least car manufacturers could contribute hybrid vehicles, gov'ts sponsoring hydrogen fuel cells buses.... At least that would showed the world that things are changing. Just staying at Nusa Duo, a prime Western tourist destination, would really help? Umm..... I have been living among the local Balinese people - more than those 10,000 participants to the conference. We used less energy; candles, mosquito net, coils... Just trying to conserve. We visited a local village where one of Audrey's friends lived. Now that was the real Bali! Broken roads, people planting Grove trees, Coco trees, rice fields. Concern with the change in climate because it has begun affecting their livelihood.
Anyway, the place we stayed at was called Shankari's Bali Retreat (formerly Sacred River). Audrey used to work there for 9 months in the late 90's. Over the last two days, I found out that we were both in the same place over the same period of time! We were in Hong Kong over the New Year's Eve (Rod and Michele, the trip we took together in the late 90's). And then, she was back to Bali to work and I was at Kuta. How weird was that?
This place in Bali was geared toward spirituality; a self inner discovery type of place. But we were not doing that sort of things. There was no "seminars" of any sorts. We had the entire complex to ourselves with a full complementary staff. At night after 10pm, we were the only people there with the security details of two people. This place needs promotion of doing retreat for companies - like strategic planning and team building. The owner was a very interesting character; she arrived Bali over 20 years ago with only US$500 in her pocket with 3 young children; this resort was her life work; now, she's expanded into jewelery making. She designed all her work; Audrey and I had a tour of the jewelery factory just 5-minute walk from the retreat.
For those of you that are curious: NO, I was not there for the World Climate Change conference. I was doing a bit more in-depth than sitting in conference rooms (fully air-conditioned) at Nusa Dua isolated from the REAL problems. How can you plan to save the world in 5-star hotels with air-conditioned rooms? Firstly, with all the technologies available, we can easily have regions connected to the WWW for web conference; rather have everyone flying into Bali; isn't airplane flying is one of the pollutions? And air cond as well? If we want to make an impact, shouldn't the conference to done in community halls across local villages? You could then listening to the local concerns of what have been causing "the problem"? By transporting all delegates to and from different villages, they would KNOW how polluted in Bali has become; diesel fueled trucks hauling goods from East to West. As a statement, at least car manufacturers could contribute hybrid vehicles, gov'ts sponsoring hydrogen fuel cells buses.... At least that would showed the world that things are changing. Just staying at Nusa Duo, a prime Western tourist destination, would really help? Umm..... I have been living among the local Balinese people - more than those 10,000 participants to the conference. We used less energy; candles, mosquito net, coils... Just trying to conserve. We visited a local village where one of Audrey's friends lived. Now that was the real Bali! Broken roads, people planting Grove trees, Coco trees, rice fields. Concern with the change in climate because it has begun affecting their livelihood.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Middle Eastern food in Cikarang
Yeah right. Last night we went to a recommended restaurant amid traffic grid lock. Took us about 40 minutes from the hotel to restaurant normally would have taken 10 minutes - on a well developed road system that is.
The restaurant is called Al Hambra; it is branded as middle eastern food; but I don't really see much on the menu; saw Western, Chinese, Indonesia and a very small selection of considered middle eastern. Finding vegetarian for Audrey was a challenge in this town. The food wasn't as advertised. We had a hard time getting vegetarian food. O well. I did, ordered Indonesian food in this Middle Eastern establishment; oxtail soup and squid with rice. The oxtail soup was a mail all by itself; 3 huge slaps of oxtail. And it came with rice. That was labeled under "Starters". In this town, you have to roll with the punches when ordering. Cannot expect any sophistication like in more well developed areas. Audrey's salad came out totally different than from the menu; the reason: no more ingredients. So, they were hoping she didn't notice; yeah right! Had they known... There were no one in the restaurant; only us; it was a 3-story house. Guess everyone was too busy stuck in traffic. The town is an industrial one; so should not expect much. People were friendly though.
I think I can classify the area we are in as little Korea/China/Japan; there are so many Korean, Chinese and Japanese restaurants; but fail to find any authentic Indonesian food. Call this progress? We even found a bar called Cheers. There are some authentic Indonesian food if your stomach can handle the street side hawkers; as we inched forward to the restaurants, there were lots of street hawkers setup for business, right on top of pools of waters from the heavy rain earlier in the afternoon; with lamps stringed out from god knows where and pieces of clothes shielding customers from the exhaust. Customers sat on the hard wooden benches. Did not see any locals sampling; only saw three or four people on couple blocks along the street eating; not a good sanitary condition. Most I saw, sat in much more well "cleaner" and "hipper" restaurants - rib places!
I see progress but people are losing out on the traditional food. Everyone long for Western type of things; KFC and Dunkin Dougnuts, Nokia and Sony, Costco type store and Supermarket with frozen food. Well, let see what happen in Bali tomorrow. It will be interesting to see.
The restaurant is called Al Hambra; it is branded as middle eastern food; but I don't really see much on the menu; saw Western, Chinese, Indonesia and a very small selection of considered middle eastern. Finding vegetarian for Audrey was a challenge in this town. The food wasn't as advertised. We had a hard time getting vegetarian food. O well. I did, ordered Indonesian food in this Middle Eastern establishment; oxtail soup and squid with rice. The oxtail soup was a mail all by itself; 3 huge slaps of oxtail. And it came with rice. That was labeled under "Starters". In this town, you have to roll with the punches when ordering. Cannot expect any sophistication like in more well developed areas. Audrey's salad came out totally different than from the menu; the reason: no more ingredients. So, they were hoping she didn't notice; yeah right! Had they known... There were no one in the restaurant; only us; it was a 3-story house. Guess everyone was too busy stuck in traffic. The town is an industrial one; so should not expect much. People were friendly though.
I think I can classify the area we are in as little Korea/China/Japan; there are so many Korean, Chinese and Japanese restaurants; but fail to find any authentic Indonesian food. Call this progress? We even found a bar called Cheers. There are some authentic Indonesian food if your stomach can handle the street side hawkers; as we inched forward to the restaurants, there were lots of street hawkers setup for business, right on top of pools of waters from the heavy rain earlier in the afternoon; with lamps stringed out from god knows where and pieces of clothes shielding customers from the exhaust. Customers sat on the hard wooden benches. Did not see any locals sampling; only saw three or four people on couple blocks along the street eating; not a good sanitary condition. Most I saw, sat in much more well "cleaner" and "hipper" restaurants - rib places!
I see progress but people are losing out on the traditional food. Everyone long for Western type of things; KFC and Dunkin Dougnuts, Nokia and Sony, Costco type store and Supermarket with frozen food. Well, let see what happen in Bali tomorrow. It will be interesting to see.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Traffic jam
Man, going from our hotel to the industrial park where Audrey is teaching was a major headache. We were double-backed, criss-crossed and nudged. In order to move toward our destination, we had to double-backed getting onto the highway; from the hotel to the highway entrance took over 30 minutes plus; Mostly, we were stuck in traffic moving at a sub impulse power of about 1/2 meter per 5 to 6 minutes. The road was half built. So, you were either on the elevated part or the dirt part of the road. Once, you were on the elevated part, you are stuck there.
Free way driving was interesting; you just pick a lane and drive, shoulder included. Seat belt hence was a must. Saw couple abandoned trucks in the ditch; crashed one. Entirely on their sides; one even had the front end completely crushed - passenger cabin flattened.
I think the town was built before the road.
Free way driving was interesting; you just pick a lane and drive, shoulder included. Seat belt hence was a must. Saw couple abandoned trucks in the ditch; crashed one. Entirely on their sides; one even had the front end completely crushed - passenger cabin flattened.
I think the town was built before the road.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Saw the A380
Saw the A380 parked at the gate as we were taxing out to the runway yesterday; from afar, it was not that big but I am sure it was massive. It's flying between SIN and SYD. And you have to pay more to fly this A380 even though the fuel consumption is 25% better than a Boeing. I can see you have to pay more for the Biz and First class; as they are much bigger than anything you have seen. You can even reserve First Class cabin for two. The flight attendants will remind you that the cabins are not sound proved.
I am not sure if I like flying the A380 to anywhere; think about the amount of people will deplane and fight their ways to the immigration hall; imagine if you are frustrated currently with people taking up the entire jetway after deplaning; think about how much more you will be frustrated. And the washroom; good thing this giant is not flying in between any Chinese cities yet!
I am not sure if I like flying the A380 to anywhere; think about the amount of people will deplane and fight their ways to the immigration hall; imagine if you are frustrated currently with people taking up the entire jetway after deplaning; think about how much more you will be frustrated. And the washroom; good thing this giant is not flying in between any Chinese cities yet!
Wow, I am a local millionaire....
with US$300.00 in my pocket. After the money exchange of US$300 in my pocket, I am now possessing a little bit less than R$2,700,000.00 in my pocket after my lunch. The exchange rate at the Official Exchanger was US$1 = R$9,000.00. Tried doing the exchange at the hotel but the rate was much lower then published. Apparently, my US note possession is the "B" series. I cannot get a higher rate. Go figure!! Since when the money serial numbers affect exchange rates? The visa office was happy taking my US$ without even reading the serial number printed on my notes. Maybe some finance professor can enlighten me in a proper financial reasoning. Was there something happened between notes starting with a "B" in the serial number and one starting with a "F"?
I got some mangos from the supermarket after the money exchange. Michele & Rod, hee hee, I got two for about R$2,700.00. Or about 30 cents. And had real Nasi Goreng, melon juice and fish balls for R$33,000. That was about $4.00. Am trying to adjust having so many zeros after the currency and pricing; why not just chop off the "zeros" at then making things easier; I have a stack of R$100,000.00.
The restaurant I just my lunch was across the street from the hotel. There were more workers than customers. A ratio of about 4:1. All the workers looked young like 12 years old or so and up. Umm.... Just wondering what is the minimum age for work here.
As I went from the supermarket to the restaurant, there were lots of drivers on motocycle bikes trying to get your attention; they were the unofficial taxi drivers; nice to see there are some similarity between Shanghai streets and here.
I got some mangos from the supermarket after the money exchange. Michele & Rod, hee hee, I got two for about R$2,700.00. Or about 30 cents. And had real Nasi Goreng, melon juice and fish balls for R$33,000. That was about $4.00. Am trying to adjust having so many zeros after the currency and pricing; why not just chop off the "zeros" at then making things easier; I have a stack of R$100,000.00.
The restaurant I just my lunch was across the street from the hotel. There were more workers than customers. A ratio of about 4:1. All the workers looked young like 12 years old or so and up. Umm.... Just wondering what is the minimum age for work here.
As I went from the supermarket to the restaurant, there were lots of drivers on motocycle bikes trying to get your attention; they were the unofficial taxi drivers; nice to see there are some similarity between Shanghai streets and here.
In Indonesia now
After flying 5 hours or so from PVG to SIN, then 1 hour 20 min from SIN to CGK, we are finally here! And we are not in the Jakarta proper; we are at a town called Cikarang. It is a town "owned" by Lippo! For those who had visited Jakarta briefly with me in 96, the airport has not changed. The only thing is that we need to queue up to pay a visa on arrival; US$10 for 7 days and US$25 for 30 days; being our stays is 7 days, I opted for the 30 days pass instead of 7 days; just in case the rainy season may flood roads. Last week, rain flooded the only highway to and from the International airport; the road was actually built lower then the sea level. Ummm.....
The flight down from PVG was uneventful which was what I liked. Going Business Class helped too. But the food was just terrible. Yuck! The vegetarian meal from PVG to SIN composed of fried noodle, beans and broccolis. The smell from the beans kinda turned me off; it was overcooked and "smelly". What I meant was the smell evoked the much buried pre-90's airplane food smell that caused me vomited from HKG to Heathrow in the 80's. Tried washing some down with coffee was not good; as the the coffee was worst then Tim Horton's by several miles. :-( The thought of having some red wine or Scotch with water occurred to me - need stronger liquid. Singapore airline; wonder what happened? So maybe Frank and Jean were right about the food. Once landed in SIN, we had about an hour; besides went to the washroom as soon as we landed, we went to the lounge; at least there was that place with semi-eatable food. We had the usual sandwiches - "ok la" as the Singaporeans would have said. I did, however, washed down my food w/ a glass of simulated Caesar, extra spicy. Brent would have a hay day in there ;-) Hee hee....
An hour later after arrived in SIN, we departed to our final destination; this time, I opted out the vegetarian meal; poor Audrey, this time the dish came with heavy gravy covering up the not too appetizing noodle and mushroom; always noodle with some sort of mushrooms or cabbage or broccolis. An hour and 20 minutes, we arrived! When the plane was descending, we could see lots of residential buildings on outer islands. No wonder there were always property damages with water.
Immigration was a breeze; friendly buggers too! Not like we went back in 96. When we left the airport, no one collected our custom cards even though we attempted handing them in to someone.
The ride to the hotel from the airport was also non-eventful; it was all well developed highways with crazy driving like Shanghai, except with must faster speed (over 110KM/hr) and a driver with much better manual shifting than Shanghai ones.
The hotel staff are friendly; except they cannot communicate well with English; guess just like me with Mandarin in Shanghai. And things are bit backwards here. There are not enough adapters available; am going to head to a mall in the morning.
Food at this restaurant is very bad; my vegetable curry was made with pre-mixed curry, canned mushrooms, canned carrots, canned everything vegetable; you would figure there are more local dishes; all I saw was Gado Gado; and not the type I accustomed to.
About the car ride, will be tomorrow's report..... Have to save battery.
The flight down from PVG was uneventful which was what I liked. Going Business Class helped too. But the food was just terrible. Yuck! The vegetarian meal from PVG to SIN composed of fried noodle, beans and broccolis. The smell from the beans kinda turned me off; it was overcooked and "smelly". What I meant was the smell evoked the much buried pre-90's airplane food smell that caused me vomited from HKG to Heathrow in the 80's. Tried washing some down with coffee was not good; as the the coffee was worst then Tim Horton's by several miles. :-( The thought of having some red wine or Scotch with water occurred to me - need stronger liquid. Singapore airline; wonder what happened? So maybe Frank and Jean were right about the food. Once landed in SIN, we had about an hour; besides went to the washroom as soon as we landed, we went to the lounge; at least there was that place with semi-eatable food. We had the usual sandwiches - "ok la" as the Singaporeans would have said. I did, however, washed down my food w/ a glass of simulated Caesar, extra spicy. Brent would have a hay day in there ;-) Hee hee....
An hour later after arrived in SIN, we departed to our final destination; this time, I opted out the vegetarian meal; poor Audrey, this time the dish came with heavy gravy covering up the not too appetizing noodle and mushroom; always noodle with some sort of mushrooms or cabbage or broccolis. An hour and 20 minutes, we arrived! When the plane was descending, we could see lots of residential buildings on outer islands. No wonder there were always property damages with water.
Immigration was a breeze; friendly buggers too! Not like we went back in 96. When we left the airport, no one collected our custom cards even though we attempted handing them in to someone.
The ride to the hotel from the airport was also non-eventful; it was all well developed highways with crazy driving like Shanghai, except with must faster speed (over 110KM/hr) and a driver with much better manual shifting than Shanghai ones.
The hotel staff are friendly; except they cannot communicate well with English; guess just like me with Mandarin in Shanghai. And things are bit backwards here. There are not enough adapters available; am going to head to a mall in the morning.
Food at this restaurant is very bad; my vegetable curry was made with pre-mixed curry, canned mushrooms, canned carrots, canned everything vegetable; you would figure there are more local dishes; all I saw was Gado Gado; and not the type I accustomed to.
About the car ride, will be tomorrow's report..... Have to save battery.
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