When I was in Singapore (at the lousy Bencoolen Hotel, wouldn't recommend it), I had this weird dream.
I dreamt that we found out that our friend, Benjamin, had a secret son that no one knew about. His son was also called Benjamin. So I was telling Jason, "Benjamin told me he had a son called Benjamin". Then Jason was like, "What?". Then I said, "Benjamin just found out he had a son. Benjamin's son is also called Benjamin". Then we started laughing uncontrollably because we found that it was hillarious that that sentence contained so many "Benjamins".
Strange and doesn't have any meaning, I know. Told you it was weird. Anyway, cut scene (yeah, like in hollywood movies). We're sleeping in Bencoolen Hotel (so it seems pretty real). I was awake and Jason was sleeping. I could see his pupils moving, so I knew he was dreaming. I had this cool ability to see what other people were dreaming. So of course, I tapped into his dream. Guess what? He was dreaming about having an affair. There was another lady and everything but I couldn't see her face.
Anyway, I was awoken by some noises. There was this deep voice speaking. My first thought was that Jason was in the bathroom having a secret conversation with his mistress. But then I came to realise that his voice wasn't that deep. I quickly turned to my right to see if he was still in bed. Yes, he was! *phew* sigh of relief.
It was then I realized that the noise was from our neighbors at the hotel (the walls are really wafer thin) and that the noise was real and the dream was a dream (I couldn't differentiate for a while because it was all in the current situation). Then I continued to listen to my neighbors chat about (it's 4am by the way) and brush their teeth and flush the toilet before heading off to bed.
Strange dream, Bencoolen Hotel (not recommended, can't stress this enough), wafer thin walls and Singapore. What a combination!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Oh for the love of airports!
Jakarta International Airport. What can I say? One of the worst International Airports I've been to. Imagine our old Subang Airport. Remember, 20 years ago, the time when Subang Airport was still our International Airport? That's how Jakarta International Airport is like. Seriously, when I stepped out of the plane for the first time, I thought I was brought back in time to our Subang Airport.
We had our full Jakarta International Airport experience when we left for our weekend in Singapore. Check-in was no problem but we had a shock when we discovered that they charged a Rp150,000 airport service charge for International flights. That's pretty steep!
I'd bought a cheap Air Asia ticket back to KL the other day that only cost me RM34 all inclusive. That would mean that I'm paying more for the airport tax (RM50) than I am for my ticket. Now, that's just plain silly!
Anyway, we were early for our flight and decided to have a bite to eat. A walk down the short walkway to the boarding gate proved that they didn't have much to offer in that area. There was a Starbucks, a deserted foodcourt, a quaint little creperie and a curry puff place.
Left without many options, we decided to forgo the meal. We headed to the holding room where we thought we'd just sit and wait. After going through the security checks, we got kicked out because there was already some people there from the flight before us. We were told we should come back later.
Leaving the holding room, we found that Jakarta International Airport didn't believe in providing many seats for it's customers (even with the steep Airport Tax they're charging). Every 500m or so, there were a bunch of 4 chairs or 2 chairs. We decided that we'd probably be more comfortable in a restaurant, seeing as we had so much time on our hands.
Honesly, we didn't bring much Rupiahs with us, as we assumed we wouldn't need much, other than for the taxi fare back home when we got back. After the airport tax, we weren't left with much, if we wanted to make it home from the Airport. So, we decided to take the cheapest option, a curry puff.
The curry puff wasn't too bad, but the shop was steaming hot! Seriously, doesn't anyone believe in a/c's anymore? After gulping down our hot curry puff in the hot restaurant, we quickly proceeded to the sparse sitting area and hoped that there would be some seats.
We found 2 seats, sat down and read our newspaper until it was time to board the plane. Before going into the holding room, I decided to visit the toilet (my most favourite thing to do in Jakarta, seeing as how all the toilets are so clean and never leave any surprises). Went in to one toilet, there was only 1 stall. In an International Airport, only 1 STALL! There were two ladies in there waiting. One was standing, the other was washing her foot in the sink. YES!! Washing her foot in the SINK, ladies and gentleman.
After waiting for what seemed like forever for the lady in the stall to leave, I decided to go find another toilet. This one also had only 1 stall but it was available. Seriously dirty, with tissue paper strewn all over the floor and wet and smelly. Even by Malaysian standards (and we have really dirty toilets), this toilet was an abomination! Held my breath and did my deed and left there as soon as I could. Didn't even stay to wash my hands and resorted to wet wipes that I always keep in my bag.
So, if you're ever in Jakarta, maybe you want to use the toilet in the plane before it lands! Just my advice anyway.
We had our full Jakarta International Airport experience when we left for our weekend in Singapore. Check-in was no problem but we had a shock when we discovered that they charged a Rp150,000 airport service charge for International flights. That's pretty steep!
I'd bought a cheap Air Asia ticket back to KL the other day that only cost me RM34 all inclusive. That would mean that I'm paying more for the airport tax (RM50) than I am for my ticket. Now, that's just plain silly!
Anyway, we were early for our flight and decided to have a bite to eat. A walk down the short walkway to the boarding gate proved that they didn't have much to offer in that area. There was a Starbucks, a deserted foodcourt, a quaint little creperie and a curry puff place.
Left without many options, we decided to forgo the meal. We headed to the holding room where we thought we'd just sit and wait. After going through the security checks, we got kicked out because there was already some people there from the flight before us. We were told we should come back later.
Leaving the holding room, we found that Jakarta International Airport didn't believe in providing many seats for it's customers (even with the steep Airport Tax they're charging). Every 500m or so, there were a bunch of 4 chairs or 2 chairs. We decided that we'd probably be more comfortable in a restaurant, seeing as we had so much time on our hands.
Honesly, we didn't bring much Rupiahs with us, as we assumed we wouldn't need much, other than for the taxi fare back home when we got back. After the airport tax, we weren't left with much, if we wanted to make it home from the Airport. So, we decided to take the cheapest option, a curry puff.
The curry puff wasn't too bad, but the shop was steaming hot! Seriously, doesn't anyone believe in a/c's anymore? After gulping down our hot curry puff in the hot restaurant, we quickly proceeded to the sparse sitting area and hoped that there would be some seats.
We found 2 seats, sat down and read our newspaper until it was time to board the plane. Before going into the holding room, I decided to visit the toilet (my most favourite thing to do in Jakarta, seeing as how all the toilets are so clean and never leave any surprises). Went in to one toilet, there was only 1 stall. In an International Airport, only 1 STALL! There were two ladies in there waiting. One was standing, the other was washing her foot in the sink. YES!! Washing her foot in the SINK, ladies and gentleman.
After waiting for what seemed like forever for the lady in the stall to leave, I decided to go find another toilet. This one also had only 1 stall but it was available. Seriously dirty, with tissue paper strewn all over the floor and wet and smelly. Even by Malaysian standards (and we have really dirty toilets), this toilet was an abomination! Held my breath and did my deed and left there as soon as I could. Didn't even stay to wash my hands and resorted to wet wipes that I always keep in my bag.
So, if you're ever in Jakarta, maybe you want to use the toilet in the plane before it lands! Just my advice anyway.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Indonesian Roadtrip - Part 3
Next morning, hubby had a training session in the morning, so we left Semarang at 1230. Was a short trip to the next town; Kudus. Took about an hour and a half. I didn't need a toilet stop!
We had lunch at this tiny shop by the roadside. It didn't look good from the outside. I imagined all sorts of flies and insects flying about the food but was pleasantly surprised that there were close to none.
We had our delicious Soto Ayam. Excellent food! The best I've had all through the roadtrip. My only complaint was that the shop was so hot!! Really really hot and stuffy. I left with delight in my belly but a headache from the heat.
The last stretch of our roadtrip was from Kudus to Solo. I was told that there were 2 ways there. One way takes 2 1/2 hours but the roads were bad, really bumpy and full of potholes. Another way would take 4 1/2 hours but the roads were better.
MD and hubby both decided that the longer route would be a better choice since I was pregnant. I, personally, would have preferred to brave the bad roads and have a shorter trip but was afraid that it would badly affect the baby. Hubby was worried that all the shaking would shake the baby out as well! =)
We took the longer route and stopped for satay on the way. Very different from our local satay. It was sweet, which I found pretty odd.
We finally arrived Solo and stayed at Best Western. Excellent hotel. Beautiful and great service (but in Indonesia, the service is good almost anywhere). Speed Demon Denny was to drive home the next day. All the way from Solo to Jakarta. He started at 12 in the afternoon and arrived and 2 am!! Poor guy.
We, on the other hand, took a flight back on Lion Air to Jakarta, 1 day after Speed Demon Denny left (hubby and MD had more meetings). It was an old plane and it freaked me out because the engines were so loud. I could distinctly hear them accelerating and decelerating. At one point, I actually didn't hear anything and thought we were going to drop out of the sky!! Landing was scary, was pretty shaky and not too stable. Not sure if that was the pilot's fault of the plane's fault though. Poor hubby had finger nail marks on his hand after we landed!
We had lunch at this tiny shop by the roadside. It didn't look good from the outside. I imagined all sorts of flies and insects flying about the food but was pleasantly surprised that there were close to none.
We had our delicious Soto Ayam. Excellent food! The best I've had all through the roadtrip. My only complaint was that the shop was so hot!! Really really hot and stuffy. I left with delight in my belly but a headache from the heat.
The last stretch of our roadtrip was from Kudus to Solo. I was told that there were 2 ways there. One way takes 2 1/2 hours but the roads were bad, really bumpy and full of potholes. Another way would take 4 1/2 hours but the roads were better.
MD and hubby both decided that the longer route would be a better choice since I was pregnant. I, personally, would have preferred to brave the bad roads and have a shorter trip but was afraid that it would badly affect the baby. Hubby was worried that all the shaking would shake the baby out as well! =)
We took the longer route and stopped for satay on the way. Very different from our local satay. It was sweet, which I found pretty odd.
We finally arrived Solo and stayed at Best Western. Excellent hotel. Beautiful and great service (but in Indonesia, the service is good almost anywhere). Speed Demon Denny was to drive home the next day. All the way from Solo to Jakarta. He started at 12 in the afternoon and arrived and 2 am!! Poor guy.
We, on the other hand, took a flight back on Lion Air to Jakarta, 1 day after Speed Demon Denny left (hubby and MD had more meetings). It was an old plane and it freaked me out because the engines were so loud. I could distinctly hear them accelerating and decelerating. At one point, I actually didn't hear anything and thought we were going to drop out of the sky!! Landing was scary, was pretty shaky and not too stable. Not sure if that was the pilot's fault of the plane's fault though. Poor hubby had finger nail marks on his hand after we landed!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Indonesian Roadtrip - Part 2
We finished at Purwokerto around 1830. We had to continue our journey to Semarang, where we'd booked a hotel room for the night. The trip was SUPPOSED to take 2 1/2 hours, but of course, things are not quite that simple!
The regional manager of that particular insurance company was also heading to Semarang. He apparently knew a shorter way there. Both MD and Speed Demon Denny were unsure of the way, so we tailed his car. The roads were horrible; winding and hilly. I had to sit very very still to keep myself from vomiting!
After travelling for an hour or so, we stopped for dinner. It was a restaurant which I thought looked relatively clean from the outside. We were greeted by a very oily floor, strange insects (that I can only describe as a cross between a fly and a beetle) and mosquitoes.
The first table that we were directed to had plenty of those fly-beetle insects on the seat, so we moved to another. Seated, we were asked what we would like to drink. Looking at the menu, coconut seemed like a good choice. "Es Jus Kelapa Muda", we said. In view of the long trip ahead, we decided to share a drink.
Our Es Jus Kelapa Muda arrived. It was pink in color. PINK!! Hmm..Staring at it suspiciously, I asked hubby to take the first sip. He said, "Don't know what it is, but got coconut bits inside". I decided to take the dive.
Sip number 1.
It was very sweet and cold. There WERE coconut bits floating in there but the drink tasted nothing like coconut water.
*deep breath*
Sip number 2.
This was done both to try and determine what was in that odd looking drink and also to decide if I was going to continue with the drink. There were coconut bits, rose syrup and unmistakably milk. So basically, air bandung with coconut. Yea, not for me!
Dinner was done, time to face my nightmare. Going to the toilet! It was relatively clean but I left the toilet this time, feeling like I'd trapped a mosquito in my panties.
We continue our journey rather incident free and finally arrived at our hotel in Semarang at 2345. Tally: 5 hours and 15 minutes, deducting 30 minutes for dinner, final tally: 4 hours and 45 minutes.
The regional manager of that particular insurance company was also heading to Semarang. He apparently knew a shorter way there. Both MD and Speed Demon Denny were unsure of the way, so we tailed his car. The roads were horrible; winding and hilly. I had to sit very very still to keep myself from vomiting!
After travelling for an hour or so, we stopped for dinner. It was a restaurant which I thought looked relatively clean from the outside. We were greeted by a very oily floor, strange insects (that I can only describe as a cross between a fly and a beetle) and mosquitoes.
The first table that we were directed to had plenty of those fly-beetle insects on the seat, so we moved to another. Seated, we were asked what we would like to drink. Looking at the menu, coconut seemed like a good choice. "Es Jus Kelapa Muda", we said. In view of the long trip ahead, we decided to share a drink.
Our Es Jus Kelapa Muda arrived. It was pink in color. PINK!! Hmm..Staring at it suspiciously, I asked hubby to take the first sip. He said, "Don't know what it is, but got coconut bits inside". I decided to take the dive.
Sip number 1.
It was very sweet and cold. There WERE coconut bits floating in there but the drink tasted nothing like coconut water.
*deep breath*
Sip number 2.
This was done both to try and determine what was in that odd looking drink and also to decide if I was going to continue with the drink. There were coconut bits, rose syrup and unmistakably milk. So basically, air bandung with coconut. Yea, not for me!
Dinner was done, time to face my nightmare. Going to the toilet! It was relatively clean but I left the toilet this time, feeling like I'd trapped a mosquito in my panties.
We continue our journey rather incident free and finally arrived at our hotel in Semarang at 2345. Tally: 5 hours and 15 minutes, deducting 30 minutes for dinner, final tally: 4 hours and 45 minutes.
Friday, November 6, 2009
My Indonesian Roadtrip - Part 1
My hubby and his MD were conducting several training sessions in Central Java. To my knowledge, they were driving through a few towns and conducting those sessions and we would continue on until our last stop, where we would fly back to jakarta.
Little did i know that it was a LONG trip. In my mind, it was like: drive for 2 or 3 hours to the first town, stop for training, stay a night and continue on the next day. Was i mistaken!
We started our trip from the office in Jakarta at 0730. Fought through the jam and finally got on the highway. Relatively easy traffic on the highway, so we stopped at one of the rest stops for breakfast.
After breakfast, we continued on our journey. That's when it got "interesting". Leaving the highway for tiny two-laned village roads, traffic was heavy with lorries, trucks and motorcycles, but with two-lanes, it was still possible to get by the heavy vehicles easily.
Being 5 months pregnant meant that the toilet was my best friend. Travelling through tiny villages and not on the highway with nice rest stops every few kilometers was more than unnerving. But my loving hubby was very considerate, asking me every now and then if i needed to use the washroom.
My washroom experience
Stop 1 was at a Pertamina petrol station (it's their local petrol company, like our petronas). Not too bad. Of course not 5-star hotel standard but wasn't as stinky and dirty as i expected. Mildly pleased!
Stop 2 was at another petrol station but this one was a tiny one. Wasn't even Pertamina. Walked in, there were several stalls. Looked in, there were plenty of flies swarming around the toilet. SWARMING! That's how many there were. So many that they could be considered a swarm! At least fifty I estimated.
Having no choice (and not wanting to be a spoiled brat and requesting another stop at a better petrol station), I closed the door behind me while trying to device a plan to prevent the flies from landing on important parts of my body that would soon be exposed!
My ingenious plan (though not so, after going through with it) was to flap my hands continuosly around my "important body parts" as i squatted and tried my best to pee. The toilet wasn't very wide: just enough for one to squat.
Imagine a 5 month pregnant woman (whose waist is now 33 inches in size). Well, 5 month pregnant woman can be interchanged easily with the phrases humpty dumpty, giant ball or clumsy fat lady! So anyway, imagine me trying to squat (difficult enough), then trying to maintain my balance while flapping my hands around wildly and trying to keep a calm mind so that i would be able to pee.
Lost my balance more than a few times, with one of them with my naked butt hitting the wall behind me. While imagining the horror of the amount of bacteria that were now on my butt from touching the spot where swarms of flies were gathered, I temporarily lost my concentration and nearly fell face down into the little puddle of water in front of me (which I can only imagine is a mixture of pee, dirty Indonesian tap water and many other horrible things). Thankfully, i regained my concentration soon enough and didn't fall.
Trying my best to expel as much urine as i could and as fast as i could in such a stressful situation, i got out there as soon as i could, with this horrible feeling that I'd trapped a fly in my panties right where my "important body part" was. In fact, i could still feel it flying around in my panties 10 minutes away from the petrol station!
After that last stop, i decided that it would be in my best interest to hold it in as best as i could before resorting to anymore toilet stops as the villages we were passing by were getting smaller and smaller.
We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch. Walking in i saw that it was "chap fan" style (mixed rice, where there were plenty of dishes for you to choose from to go with your rice). It was in a glass cabinet together with my good friends, the flies. Having no choice, i selected my dishes while praying that I didn't get a nice bout of diarrhea that my husband is so prone to.
After my lunch, made a visit to the washroom again. My review: after stop number 2, any washroom is acceptable. I spent an extra long amount of time in the toilet, trying to empty my bladder as best I could.
Back on the road, it had turned to single lanes! Not only single lanes, but windy, narrow lanes. Imagine the lanes in the housing area in usj, it's half that! We were running late and our driver (who shall henceforth be known as speed demon Denny) was trying his level best to get us there on time.
Fate wasn't on his side as he was faced with heavy traffic on both our lane and the oncoming traffic lane. Weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, i tried not to look so that i wouldn't get a panic attack. Instead, i turned my gaze to the scenery on my left and right.
Scenery was nice. Plenty of green paddy fields on my left and right. After the millionth paddy field, it seemed to have a lulling effect on me and i drifted off to sleep.
I awoke to Speed Demon Denny still weaving in and out of oncoming traffic. We still weren't there yet! Non one knew how long it was going to take, not even my hubby's MD nor Speed Demon Denny. Apparently, they weren't sure of the way.
Anyway, long story short, we finally arrived at our intended destination at 1615. That would make it 8 hours and 45 minutes. Well, in all fairness, we did stop for breakfast and lunch. So let's deduct, say, an hour and a hlaf, so that makes our trip from Jakarta to the tiny town of Purwokerto around 7 hours and 15 minutes!
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