Keukenhof - May 2012

It was the last week before Keukenhof. The tulips are already blooming. Ada yang dah nak mati pun. We took the bus from Schipol airport. A short ride and then it was a few hours of nothing but posing and posing somemore.

We met this kakak and her husband from Shah Alam somewhere in the park. Dia terkejut beruk bila aku offer dia, "Nak tolong ambik gambar kak?" after looking at the two of them juggling an iPad, a SLR, camcorder and a phone to snap pictures. "Eh, ada orang Malaysia...Ambik guna iPad dik, nanti senang nak upload kat Facebook" hamek kau Jah...hahaahha I wonder how did her pictures turn out. And I wonder who she is. But she was wearing a Burberry coat no less!

Now, let the pictures do the talking.

 

Amsterdam, Netherlands - May 2012

It's about 30 minutes train ride from Den Haag to Amsterdam. After last year's fiasco, we didn't get to enjoy Amsterdam. Well, a year later I still didn't enjoy Amsterdam. Orang beribu-raban! Hehehe tapi masih berjaya menjejaki HRC ye. Bagus jugak sebab ada sign everywhere... just follow the cookie crumbs. One thing that I like about Amsterdam is the selection of souveniers. Nak apa je, semua ada. Magnet dia pun cantik2, memang rambang mata.

Anyway this time around, we did something different. We joined a tour visiting places outskirt of Amsterdam. The tour company office is very near Amsterdam Centraal. Within walking distance. You can see all the tour busses lining outside.The tour took about 5 hourds and cost 36 Euros per pax. Quite fun actually.

First stop - Zaanse Schans ...

to see the Windmills. The old windmills was moved here to make sort of a park/ musuem? There's quite a number of attraction here (which I failed to discover). Wanted to go inside the windmills to see what's going on, but it seems far and I'm worried that I might missed the bus. You can also take the normal bus from Amsterdam Centraal and spend the whole day exploring this place. I have an officemate who spent half a day here.. which received a puzzled look from me. What the heck did you do there? All i did was take photos (and used the loo). And that last about 30 minutes? Hahahaha

I also spend time taking shots of this bicycle. Macam tak pernah tengok basikal. Ni la padahnya tak membaca before visiting a place. Tak tahu apa benda. Tak reti nak appreciate apa benda.

Next stop - Volendam

This is a fishing village. With boats and seafood stalls.. the works. We had our lunch here. After overload of kebab, seafood is a welcome change. Plus this stall ada Thai sauce. Then we also had this thing call Poffertjes. It's like small pancakes.. very light, very sweet.. very manis. Yummeh. Kat sini nothing much to see or do, except makan.. and take the ferry/ boat to our next destination. From the pier, we can see a lot of sailboat. Agaknya semua orang weekend pergi sailing. Also we notice a lot folks were out on racing bicycle. Another favorite past time I suppose.

The small village of Volendam. Taken from the boat to Marken. Macam nak hujan, and it was cold!

Final destination - Marken.

Marken was a sort of an island previously. But now there's a highway connecting it to the rest of Netherlands I suppose. Over here we can see how the people live in the traditional sort of way. Think the Dutch lady..milkmaid sort of outfit. All the houses here are quaint wooden houses. We visited a cheese and clog factory. The dude making the clog so the chomels (check him out below.. gambar kasi besar bior nampak)! And we had free tasting of the cheese. That was fun. Sebab free. Hahahahha. The boat ride from Volendam to Marken kejap aje, but it felt ages sebab it was cold. We set on the deck at the top of the boat when the wind is blowing in your faces, memang taubat kejap la.

From there, the tour bus was already waiting to take us back to Amsterdam. If you want to read more about the tour read here)

The Hague, Netherlands - May 2012 - Part II

Scheveningen

There's a beach near den Haag. So one fine day it was a holiday and it was sunny. We took the tram till end of it's line and came to the beach. It was overlooking the North Sea. Coolness. Literally. Sejuk ok, though the sun was out. Not many people as it was quite early. There's a long pier with interesting shops and eating places. We had an earlier lunch at a seafood joint. A lovely break from eating kebab... kebab and more kebab.

Madurodam

Another attraction here is a miniture park called Madurodam. It's a the next stop after my office if not mistaken. It has small scale of everything in Netherlands... from Schipol airport, to the duct, to the AJAX stadium. Kids would love this place. We sort of completed the whole place in like 30 minutes and dah penat. After making endless joke about being Godzilla around the miniture buildings, we were out of there. Hahah tak senonoh.

Cooking session with the team

One my 3rd day in the office, the team suggested that the whole bunch of us should go out and do something. The do something .. is going to this cooking place, where we are going to cook our own dinner. Exciting at first, the jet lagged just sets in. And I don't bloody trust myself with a knife or anything to do with fire! And bugger I thot I would be good at this, rupanya mcm terbanggang ok. We always see all those cooking show that seems so easy - aku pun boleh buat tu... Naah... not when you are with people you just met pastu ngantuk gila babi. Nak pecah telur pun malu2 kucing... (ok maybe that's just me). The menu looks doable (tapi ingredients all in english, some of it I have no idea what they are), so I ended up with goreng telur dadar aje. Hahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. They were all looking at me sideways... "I thot Malaysians all cook at home". (Not this Malaysian apparently). Turns out semua orang sangat terror. Even the guys! Malu akak yo! It was fun actually. We had  pumpkin soup, shrimp, lamb (i had tuna steak instead sbb lamb tak halal kan) pesto, guacamole, chocolate pudding (which I think had rum in it.... tapi aku tawakkal je la). We also had creme brulee. Aku sepantas kilat nak volunteer memblow torch the sugar! I'd put the pictures of everyone so engrossed in cooking, but nanti kang this will be traced back to me, so I put the picture of what I prepared je la.

The creme brulee (aku tolong pukul telur and heat the milk I think).. and burnt it to death

The disgusting looking turd... hahaha pesto in omelette by Moi 

The Hague, Netherlands - May 2012 - Part I

I have been summoned.

This is the first time that I will pay the mothership a visit. Pretty cool. I need to be onboarded for the new job. I should be there for about 2 weeks or so. And dengan tidak malunya, I asked my new boss if I could extend (at my own expense) my stay in Europe. Yes, just do it says my boss. Yeay boss :) Maka saya akan pulang ke 'kampung halaman' membuat hutang yang idak terbayar for the next five years or so.More of that later on.

Merasa la jugak naik Business Class MAS. As expected, sataynya memang tiada tolok bandingnya. Letak dadah ke apa. The flight is about 13 hours. Flight landed in Schipol at the wee hour. Bought me the ov-chipkaart. I took the train heading towards The Hague or Den Haag. The view along the way is very picturesque. Miles and miles of green farm land, peppered with the occasional herd of cattle and windmills.

I checked into Novotel Den Haag. Room's quite nice. But the toilet and the shower is separated. Bugger. But location, location, location. It's right smack in the shopping district. In fact, it's connected to Passage - with some interesting shops. And next door to Dudok, a famous cafe with yummeh apple pie. So this will be home for the next 2 weeks. First order of business? Tidur!

Woke up hungry around noon. Thank god there's a McD a few doors down. Lagi best, dapat guna credit card. Not many places that can use credit card around Hague. Bosan betul. Next order of business I need to find my way to the office. It was Sunday, and I'm expected to be front and center tomorrow morning. With the direction from my new colleague, I manage to hop on the correct tram and stop at the riight stop. The ride is less than 5 minutes and I have to to a bit of walking from the tram stop to the office. Less than 5 minutes. Needless to say, aku la orang yang akan melenggang kangkung jalan pagi-pagi tu. Everyone was like brisk walk brisk walk brisk walk.. and me..saunter saunter saunter... kalau boleh nak jalan backward.. or merangkak. Hahahahahha.

The weather is still cold, but not too cold. My light jacket did the trick. In the office there's heater. On the first day, aku dgn jacket bagai, berpeluh-peluh la kan. Cist. The tram ride is fun actually. Boleh la berangan kejap. I'm surprise that my colleagues mostly drive to work. I thot semua orang akan naik tram and bike and whatnots. Too bad I only manage to find one of a picture of the tram. Dah naik beratus kali, tak teringat pun nak posing. Apa la.

So I was in NL..or Europe from 6th May - 29th May. Lama gila. Will write soon what I did during those days, aside from 'work'. My sister came after a week, seeking refuge in my hotel room. Hehehe.

2012 - Half way mark

Yikes! I didn't blog anything in May? So let this, just be a short entry so that takde la kosong, May takde post. I have been away for almost (almost) a month due to work in Netherlands and short trip (ngada2) to Paris. Also spent a day over the long weekend in Belgium. Makan cokelat and waffle sampai nak muntah.

The one day in Belgium was the day Chelsea played Bayern Munich in Munich. Memang kalau boleh nak pergi Munich hore-hore in the streets of Munich. But it's an 8 hours away on train. Gila! The whole day the news was talking footie. I made it back to the hotel with 10 minutes to spare of the match. Dapat la tengok both goals. Then extra time, then Robben missed penalty, then Tigeroo missed penalty... and CHELSEA is the Europe Champions! Finally. Roberto Di Matteo is LEGEN... (wait for it) DARY! So is Drogba :)

Well Done Blues!

Now.. where can I get my hands on them jerseys/ t-shirts...

Amsterdam - 25th March 2011

I'm sure you have watch one of those funny Mr Bean episode where he's doing something completely innocent and then he gets into a spot of bother that turns into a full blown madness, ended up with him naked somewhere in a ditch? Hold your horses, this story will turn out to be one of those episodes. By far this is the best Klutz Cop story there is yet.

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We woke up at 5 am in order to catch our train to Amsterdam if not mistaken around 6.00 am. The streets were deserted but there's a few cars passing by. We just walked to Gare du Nord from our hotel. Dah sampai, sempat pulak posing dengan train dulu. Sempat jugak pergi kareb sementara tunggu train.

Gare du Nord heading to Amsterdam

We only had a email copy of the ticket. The bar code looks macam tak lepas je. So we asked at the ticket counter and the clerk said that it's perfectly acceptable. So we head to towards our coach which of course had to be at the very end.

And that's when the adventure begin.

We were suddenly stopped by two plain clothes lady police! WTF! But since we were not doing anything wrong, we were calm. We answered their question and showed them our tickets and passport. They went thru our stuff and finally let us go. Tah kenapa la dalam ramai-ramai orang, kitaorang yang kena check. Macam penjarah ke muka kitaorang ni.  Actually we were stopped again at the Paris airport on our way home. Banyak la jugak soal. Dah la aku tengok police tu lagi macam gelabah sebab kena cakap English dengan kitaorang and our English seems more fluent than them. Anyway, we didn't give it a second thot and went on to locate our coach and seat. Again before we enter the train, we show it to the officer by the door, one glance at the printed email, he showed us to our seat.

Please note, at least there's already 5 people looking at the printed email ticket including us.

So all settled. I'm so happy to be on the train again. The Thalys seems more comfortable than the Eurostar that we took from London to Paris a few days before. Suddenly a guy approach us and saying that we got his seat. Puzzled, we showed him our ticket and true enough, we are in the correct seat. So the guy just didn't make a fuss and went to look for another seat. I notice that everyone seems polite and don't mind changing seats. Kalau kat Malaysia, mau dah terkeluar anak tekak bergaduh.

Finally the train made its way out of the station and it is on! Sebelum trip ni, macam-macam la aku berangan nak buat kat Amsterdam. Memang semua tu evil thots la kan. Hehehe. The ride is about 2-3 hours. With some stops at Brussels, Antwerp and Rotterdam. Kitaorang pun apa lagi, zzzz.

An hour in the ride, the conductor start to check tickets. When she get to us, she had trouble scanning the bar code in our email. She apologizes because there seems a little problem with the system. So kitaorang pun sambung zzzz lagi. Half an hour later she came back to us. There's a problem. Your ticket is on the wrong date. It's for yesterday. YESTERDAY?

OMG! Apakah yang telah kulakukan? Semalam aku sedang berpelesaran di Eiffel Tower. We quickly read the email again. Indeed it the ticket was for yesterday. Aku rasa muka aku masa tu dah cuak campur takut campur rasa nak mati semua la ada. I can hear my heart beating in my ear! The lady conductor bless her heart, assured us that not to worry. "I can see how you might have made the mistake. You bought the ticket on 25th of Jan. You think that the ticket is for 25th and not 24th". She told us, that we can stay on till we reach Amsterdam. But we need to sort out of return tickets. I can't thank her enough.

Darn it! Dah la train ni nak stop banyak lagi tempat ni. The seat might have been reserved by someone else. What else can we do but to feign sleep for the next 2 hours. Adooi... terseksanya la. Tutup aje mata. Aku dengar commotion around us. Agaknya ada orang bising kitaorang ambik seat depa. Tapi memang kitaorang buat bodo je la. That was the longest 2 hours of my ride. Kalau dari London ke Paris ambik gambar sampai seribu. Ni takde satu pun gambar aku ambik. Takut punya pasal!

Nak jadi lagi cerita lawak, train tu pun kena detour sebab ada train lain pulak yang rosak on the track up ahead. Shit happens in multiple kan. We are still counting sighhh.

Finally we made it to Amsterdam with heavy heart. On the platform, we met the nice lady again. She told us not to worry. Maybe you can talk to the station master to explain your problem. Siap cakap have a nice day lagi tu. Semoga dia murah rezeki. Kalau dia evil, kena pulak aku turun tah kat tengah ladang lembu siapa kat Belgium ke tadi. Pengsan!

So now semua evil plan is put on hold. We need to sort out our return ticket. Sighhh. I know this is gonna cost. Goodby cheap ticket. We get to the ticket office and got a number and waited for our turn. Sekali tu, nak jadi cerita burung bayan.... tetiba ada pulak police officer datang ronda-ronda kat situ. He saw a single briefcase that was unattanded befhind a pillar not far from where we were seating. He was asking around who's bag is that. Takde siapa mengaku. I have a bad feeling about this.

5 minutes after that, he came back with a police tape and a few of his friends. And to my dismay, he open his mouth and said "Everybody out! Out!" Shit ada suspected bomb pulak. Celaka la siapa punya bag tu. But thinking again, if the police start to ask around, kitaorang la in deep shit. Looking at our ticket, we shouldn't be here today. Kitaorang pun cepat-cepat cabut. Jangan toleh belakan!

Damn it Malik! Memang la stress tapi bila dah ada bomb scare pulak aku rasa mcm sangat ridiculous... aku pun tergelak. Goodness, what else will this day bring. Kakak aku dok membebel, ha tu la kau ... ha tu la kau tu la kau. Adoiii...To calm us down, we went out from the Central Station and into a cafe by the cannal. Minum hot chocolate and chill kejap. After an hour, we try our luck and seems that the ticket office is open again. Well suffice to say we had to purchase a new ticket and it cost a bomb. But after a day that we had so far, I'm not arguing about money.

By the time we buy our day pass, dah penat dah. Takde mood pun nak buat apa. But since we are there, we try to cover what we can. I find Amsterdam noisy and smelly and haphazard. Bila nak cross jalan, you have to watch out for bikes, trams and dogs. Perhaps sebab dah ada blunder ticket tu jadi tak seronok. Hahahaha

We went out the cannal tour ride, Rijkmusuem, Van Gogh museum, Red Light district (hahaha), take picture at Iamsterdam. And yes, we did find Hard Rock Cafe and buy loads of t-shirts. And yes, we did ride the tram. We even tried the herring. OMG tak sedap! If given chance we would want to check out Kuekenhof, to see tulip in bloom, but there's not enough time. We didn't visit Anne Frank's house as there's a long queue. You could take in Amsterdam in a day. Dari pagi sampai petang boleh la habis. But if you want to go to Kuekenhof, that will be another day I guess.

Here's some of the pictures

Centraal Station Amsterdam

  

The famous canal



Mari beli t-shirt lagi

I amsterdam with Rijkmuseum in the background

Van Gogh Museum. Beli poster yang tak gantung lagi

'Coffeshop' near Red Light District. Tak berani pulak nak masuk.

 Tried a bite of fresh herring. Fav snack of Amsterdam. Rasa nak pengsan ok.

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With that, I end my 2011 entries. May 2012 bring new adventure that will take me to new (hopefully far and exotic) places. And hopefully no more encounter of the Klutz Cop kind.

Happy New Year!

Getting Crabby

We always wanted to eat Chilli Crab in Singapore. Tah berapa kali pergi asyik tak sempat aje. So this time around, dah siap-siap google nak cari Chilli Crab yang halal. Surf punya surf, a lot of people recomended this place, along Changi Road name Kampung Chai Chee Restaurant . Check out their website

Walaupun aku tetiba telah demam and had breakouts all over the body. The symptoms were all pointing to measles. Gosh bila yang aku pergi Singapore tak sakit. And we also had to ditch the idea of going to USS. This happen masa pergi tengok Belinda Carlisle and gang. Alhamdullilah diberikan jugak kekuatan and rezeki and dapatlah merasa chilli crab ni. Kitaorang naik cab aje pergi. Bagi address kat cab driver. Habis cerita.

Chilli Crab cecah dengan fried bun. Sedap gila bun tu!

Closer look

Nasi goreng kampung yang masih terkenang sampai hari ini

Memang sedap and price is reasonable. Tapi if nak belanja orang kat sini accept cash aje. So if rasanya nak melantak tak ingat dunia, bawak la duit banyak-banyak ye. Will definitely come back next time.

Jogja - 19 to 22 Oct 2011 - Part 3

Nothing is plan for today accept to visit the Kraton. And also what is this place call Taman Sari. Everyone was talking about it. Tu la sebelum pergi tak google dulu semua benda ni. We had breakfast at the hotel which had a pretty decent spread. My friend was raving about head messages around Jogja. Tak jumpa pun. So instead I booked myself a 3 hour massage at the hotel later in the afternoon.

Kraton or palace or Istana is open for the public to have a looksy. A lot of people were miling about dok ambik gambar. While purchasing the ticket to enter the palace, we were approached by this uncle. Who turned out to be Indian from Canada. From here on, I say this again - It only happen to me.  

This guy, who I shall refer to as Uncle Vinod (not his real name. I do not want this to be traced back to me in anyway. Hahaha), wanted to join us as he said that he did not understand mostly what's being said. So since we can speak English, he would like to join our company while going around the palace ground. We got an English speaking tour guide who took us around. We saw a number of the Sultan's gift collection, clothes and pictures. Ada meja makan tu macam meja makan kat rumah Tok aku kat Muar pulak aku tengok.

Kraton ground

After the tour we tip the lady guide. Turns out Uncle Vinod's middle name is Al Kedekudsi. He claimed that he have yet drawn out cash from the ATM. Ya right. We then went on looking for Taman Sari. I thought there's like a water park or garden somewhere not far from the Kraton. Taman Sari used to be a place of leisure for the Sultan. Agaknya macam summer palace ke? Or weekend gateway palace?

Uncle Vinod still followed us when we met David who's kind enough to bring us to the Taman Sari. Which is now in ruins. It's wedge in between the settlement of the Kraton household. Semua orang nak jadi Prajurit so that you are part of Kraton and get to live around the Kraton. Davis is also a Prajurit who also oversee's the conservation of Taman Sari. Kena kencingkah kami? Mungkin juga. Tapi I had a thoroughly enjoyable day as David seems very knowledgable and keep on dishes bits and pieces of interesting facts of the place.

For example, he brought us to the bathing complex, which has not been used since 100 years ago. There's two pool. One is for siler siler (nama lain utk gundik or concubine) and one is solely for the king. Even the queen is not allowed. So while siler-siler is taking a bath ala Pamela A in Baywatch I would presume, the king will be looking from the tower above, having the chance to choose his pick for the day. If he likes someone he will pick a flower from a newby plant (which was planted for this one and one purpose only) and threw it to her in the pond. Having the golden ticket ie flower, Ms Siler is now invited to bath with the king in his pool. Later they will retreat to the nearby room for an afternoon delight. Macam nak pengsan tak dengar?

The siler pond. On the left the viewing tower. Picture taken by Uncle Vinod al Kedekudsi

This is where all the magic happens! (Creepizoid!)

David also took us to secluded section of the Taman which was in complete ruins. He said that in one of these rooms that the Sultan will meet up with his other wife from the other world - the famous Puteri dari Pantai Selatan aka Nyi Roro Kidul aka Suzana Sundel Bolong yang si Kay intrigued sangat tu. Dah la tempat tu gelap and creepy. He said that those who lived around the Taman still see her from time to time. By that time, aku dah duduk luar dah tak nak dengar cerita. Takut siut!

As the hours go by, uncle Vinod became more annoying. Memula macam semangat la nak translate all the things that David told us. In my head I thought, hmm if I ever going to be a travel writer or travel show host I must always appear cheerful and able to explain things. That last like half an hour, lepas tu aku dah duduk jauh-jauh je dari dia. Si Kay pun.. lama-lama aku dengar dia explain .... bla bla bla de bla bla de bla... something like that la... yada yada yada daddadyaya da something like that la. Hahahaha. Aku paling bengkek bila dia sibuk suruh aku ambik gambar dia guna camcorder dia. Jadi director pulak, you should walk slowly from this angle and that. Don't forget to push record. Eh banyak la cengkadak plak. It's ok you can explain things while shooting the video. I should have left a few second of malay curse words monologue when I had the chance! The final straw came when uncle Vinod sibuk pulak jadi makcik balik dari pasar, nak tanya kenapa aku tak kawin lagi. Dude, in this blistering hit, please spare me this nonsense.

The last place that David took us was the Masjid Bawah Air. An underground praying area complete with secret tunnel from the Taman Air. That's a pretty cool place. Macam bomb bunker pun ada. After that, we concluded the tour and said our goodbyes. Uncle Vinod sibuk pulak mintak email etc. By then aku dah cross the street to buy some drinks. Panas yang amat. And tak kuasa nak layan si mamat ni. Kay apparently gave him his email. Lo and behold, he did write to her a month after that. In fact, he even called her. And called her from Canada. Apakah?! I told Kay, if he ever ask of me, please say I'm dead.

Inception style staircase at Masjid Bawah Air.

Jib under the open roof of Masjid Bawah Air.



After that we went back to the hotel in style. Naik becak sorang satu. Ok Jib naik dengan mak dia la. Hahahah.

Naik Becak keliling Jogja

Later in the evening we went out for las minute shopping. Kali ni aku pun join in the frenzy at kedai Batik. The whole of Malioboro street has nothing but kedai batik. Seluar batik, beg batik, baju batik, seluar dalam batik semua ada. Somehow we thought that the selection at the batik Kraton shop that we went on the first day was nicer. Syabas Kartini kerana telah berjaya menjejaki kedai itu dalam kepekatan malam. Masa tengah pusing-pusing cari kedai tu terdetik dalam hati, kot tetiba ahvang becak ni nak keroyok aku pulak kan. I don't think that I have the energy to run. Perhaps a better defense I thot maybe I can tell them that I have HIV :P Alhamdulillah semuanya selamat.

Dan selamat balik ke 1Malaysia bak kata Jiben.

So Mayan ruins next?

Jogja - 19 to 22 Oct 2011 - Part 2

Today is activity is to explore Candi Borobudur and Prambanan and it's surrounding area. I just found out that Sungai Solo ie. from the song Bengawan Solo.. is a few hours away. Tapi tak ada apa pun kat situ. Even the tour guide/ driver said that "Di musim kemarau ini...", which we echo " tak berapa airmu?". Hahaha. Kay pulak fascinated nak jumpa long lost aunty dia nama Suzana somewhere in Pantai Parangtritis, which is also not far away I suppose from Jogja. But we thought, let's take it easy and see how thing goes. The main agenda is visit the chandi mandi.

We got the driver from the hotel's contact. Punya la malas nak cari suruh orang hotel cari. So the guy call us up and pick us up the next morning. It will be 500K rupiah for the whole day. Boleh la, malas punya pasal kan. First thing we ask him to do is to take us for breakfast. He stop at a shop along the way. Makan nasi dengan lauk pauk. Sedap gila ikan keli tah masak apa ni

Borobudur

The tour guide/ driver help us to obtain entrance ticket into Borobudur. Mahal jugak la. Dapat la discount a few RM by buying from him. I have been warned that the place will be swarmed with penjaja-penjaja who will pester for you to buy things. Beli dari sorang, satu bukit kejar kau lepas tu. I know that drill. So it's game face! Bring it on!

It's about 200 meters walk perhaps across the yard heading towards the tourist office and entrance to the place. Turun aje dari van, dah 20 orang tunggu. Dengan payung, topi, baju, ayam, itik and tah apa benda lagi. Aku memang hati batu sebatunya. I have indeed perfected my blank expresionless face. Just block all the sound and look straight ahead. They smell fear and emotion. One thing to note, never say anything. Not a word. If you say, "nanti la.. karang", kau balik nanti dia tunggu la pulak. Hahaha. Si Jiben telah diwarn tak payah la nak membeli. Tapi dia tumpas juga, nak membeli topi. Ha ambik kau sekali aku pusing dah macam kena kerumun dengan gremlins. Akhirnya semua berjaya masuk dalam tourists office dengan jayanya.

The driver left us there after passing us the ticket. Nak masuk kena pakai kain la pulak. And tetiba the guard there asked us,

   "Surat mana?"

   "Surat apa?"

   "Ya surat begini.. (pointing to a stack of papers). Kena ada surat baru boleh masuk"

    "Habis ticket ni nak buat apa?" (dah la mahal)

    "Kena ada suratnya juga"

Maka high blood pressure aku pun go upstair!

    "Surat yang macam mana? Siapa yang nak kena tulis surat ni pulak? Kertas apa nak pakai tulis surat ni?

Apa bezanya ticket yang dah beli berapa ratus rupiah ni dengan surat? Surat beranak? Surat cinta? Dekat mana nak dapat surat ni? Bila masanya nak dapat surat ni? Siapa yang nak kena sign surat tu? Raja mana?" ha ambik kau...

"Ya tadi beli.. tiada surat?"

"Saya beli ticket bukan surat. Tak tau, driver yang beli ticket. Dia bagi ticket aje"

In my mind, kalau nak masuk tempat ni pun nak peleceh memang nak kena la kan. Nak suruh aku menyuap pulak ke? No way. Aku sudah bagi icy stare dekat guard tu. Sikit lagi mungkin aku kena tembak pulak kat situ. Nasib la si Kartini sangat bertenang. Dan guard tu baik ati nak callkan driver kitaorang. Berlari la pulak datang driver dengan the so called surat. Serious shit lama sikit, akan aku suruh guard tu baca segala surat yang ada kat situ... apa benda la yang ada dalam surat tu. Yes I am an ASS. But seriously explain kat aku apa rasionalnya aku membeli ticket tapi still tak boleh masuk. Kalau tak nak bagi masuk, jangan jual ticket tu.

Anyhoo, setelah friction tersebut, we made our way to the Chandi. Sangat panas ye kawan-kawan. Jauh pulak tu nak jalan. Along the way ada lagi gerombolan yang nak jual-jual benda. This time offer nak sewa payung and yang lagi best, service nak tolong dukung budak-budak kecik naik atas. Bila kitaorang senyap aje, tak paham-paham bahasa dok pester-pester lagi. Aku dah geram, aku tanya dia, "kalau angkat saya boleh? Berapa rupiah?" Terdiam kejap mamat tu. "Ya yang kecil aja.." "Ha kalau nak angkat saya boleh. Kalau tak payah". Bengkek gila mamat tu. Pastu mesti dia maki kitaorang sebab si Jiben sudah tergolek masa naik tangga. Nasib tak apa-apa.

Seriously tempat tu panas and tangga-tangganya sangat steep. Macam nak luruh jantung aku memanjat. Ada 7 levels, each represents something. And every level tu aku kena take a break. Finally sampai jugak la ke langgit ke tujuh katanya. Samapai la ke level-level stupa yang macam loceng-loceng tu. In the recent Amazing Race, they had to count the buddha statue with the different hand gestures. Aku rasa kat bawah, macam ada info board yang tulis all this info. Memang ngok mat salleh tu semua nak kira satu-satu. Ada beribu benda tu around the place. Photo shoot pun bermula. Baju aku dah lencun dengan peluh. Nak turun pun macam nenek tua. Kalau tergolek, kena la panggil balik brother yang nak offer angkat budak tadi!

Assortment of pictures at Borobudur

Merapi

Next destination is to Merapi. Kitaorang semua tertido sikit punya sedap dalam van. I think I might have even snored! Pastu terkejut dengar dengkur sendiri. Hehehehe.

It was about a year ago (25th Oct 2010) that the mount erupted. We can still see the path of destruction along the way up. There's a lot of black sand that is being mined from the river nearby for construction. Pokok-pokok semua dah nak tumbuh balik, tapi pokok-pokok yang terbakar dulu tu still ada lagi. It was very cloudy that day, so tak nampak puncaknya. You can go on motor ride (motor scrambler no less) along the mountain's path to take a closer look. Macam gatal je nak pergi. Tapi kang sape pulak nak cari aku atas gunung tu if anything happen. So lepak-lepak kat bawah je. Despite the hot sun, the temprature up there is very pleasant.

Greens yang dah mula tumbuh among tunggul-tunggul pokok yang terbakar dulu



Very cloudy day, so tak nampak puncak Merapi (kata tour guide tu la)

Untuk celebrate kejayaan dapat melihat Gunung Merapi, kita makan jagung bakar. Terbaek!

Prambanan

Another must visit candi is called Candi Prambanan. Like Borobudur it is also listed as a World Heritage site. The place here is more bertenang and suitable for picnic. This candi is actually a Hindu temple while Borobudur is a Buddist monument. But these days majority of folks in Jogja are Muslims.

Nak masuk, kena beli ticket lagi ye. Kitaorang dah pergi ke kaunter meant for local folks. Baru terperasan that the entrance fee for the locals is way cheaper. We could've easily pass as local as well. Aku pun pernah terbaca blog sapa tah yang berlakon-lakon jadi local and got to buy the cheaper tickets. Memang tak senonoh. Unfortunately, aku terlupa that fact. And masa si Kay dah senyap-senyap beratur, aku terpanggil plak dia. "oit awat kau beratur kat situ?" Hahahahha pecah tembelang. Sorry kak non, lain kali kalau nak berlakon sila brief supporting cast sekali. Hehehehe.

There's a few separate site for the temples. The structures are not as high as Borobudur, but man the place is huge. Jauh gila nak jalan. Jiben at one point, "Kenapa kita dekat sini? Saya nak balik hotel". "Saya pun nak balik hotel" Hahahahha. Nasib kat entrance tu ada tempat makan. Mari la makan dulu. Though tak sesedap tempat breakfast tadi, lapar punya pasal. Layanz!

Assortment of pictures at Prambanan

Si anak kecil yang hampa kerana tertipu kena jalan berbatu-batu (ironically... sambil tengok batu). In the background, si ibu yang masih tegar membeli belah

 UGM

 By the time we got out of Prambanan, dah petang dah. But it's still early. We still have the driver till 5pm. It was just 4pm. So we asked him to take us to the largest and oldest national university in Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Known to the local as UGM.

Coolness! The campus is just like UM in KL. The faculties are located along the the main roads around the city. We could see all the students lepaking and riding their bikes. Ada macam-macam fakulti. Aku nampak Perhutanan la... Medical la.. Falsafah la. We even stop for photo op. Pastu ada sorang budak sudah nak merajuk sebab mak dia nak posing sorang-sorang. Hahahah kesian dia.



Budak kecik yang hangin dengan maknya yang asyik nak posing and tak bagi dia 'enter frame'

  

Famous landmark. Mesti ambik gambar, macam la grad dari sini kan

 

Don't you just love the localized English word? Prioritaskan.. sekali baca ingat Senorita :P

Paris 2011 - Part Quatre

Bonjour!

Last day in Paree. Last day in Europe. Last day of the holiday :(

This morning we woke up early and head out to the places that we haven't been to. First stop is Notre Dame. Ada la pulak Sunday service. Public are allowed to enter for free. Mcm eerie la pulak. There's also paintings in the church tapi malas nak tengok. Pergi just nak ambik-ambik gambar je. One of the main attraction is to climb till the bell tower and take a closer look at the gargoyles guarding the cathedral.Tak kuasa la aku kalau masuk bab panjat memanjat ni.

This is what it looks like outside

And this is in the inside

Next the other museums that we haven't visisted. Top of the list, to see Auguste Rodin's work at Rodin Musuem. He is a great sculptor whose famous work includes the Kiss, the Thinker and the Gates of Hell. The scultures were real and to the detail. Memang blown away. The museum itself was a former hotel with a manicured lawn. Cantik

If you are visiting, do not miss going for a walk around in the garden. A number of sculptures are located around the ground. One of it is the Thinker

Inside, you will find the Kiss. The room is full of different version of the Kiss. Let's call this Make Out room.

This is my favorite is the below bust. Made from clay. Macam real kan.

Next we wanted to go to Musee de Orsay. Partly because we already bought a set of Orsay and Rodin ticket. Cheaper. Tah kenapa kitaorang ingat dekat musuemnya. We keep on thinking this building across the street with a golden dome is the musuem. After half and hour walk, we reached the place only to discover that it's actually an army musuem. WTF. Sekarang sudah penat.

And kenapa patah balik all the way to Rodin tadi sebab nak kena naik Metro. Musee de Orsay is actually located across from the Lourve. Adoiii pagi tu aje, berapa ribu steps tah kitaorang jalan. Nasib bila sampai sana, we get to skip the queue sebab dah beli ticket dari Rodin tadi. Kat sini dah tak berdaya nak jalan. We just pass thru to see more works from Van Gogh, Gaugin, Renoir, Boudin, Monet and tah siapa lagi. Memang best, tapi dah tak larat nak enjoy.

Around 4pm, we made our way back to the hotel. Sempat lagi tapau McD tu. Sampai je hotel, sedar-sedar our airport pick up dah sampai. Tak sempat nak makan McD terus angkat bag semua and make our way to the airport. Our flight was a night, so we had a good 3-4 hours at the airport, to sort out nak claim segala GST. The custom officers tak check pun barang-barang kitaorang. Nasib baik. Kalau aku bukak bag aku, tak tentu boleh tutup balik. They are full to the brim.

Ramai pulak jumpa orang Malaysia kat situ. Semua nak balik via Dubai. Masa nak get refund untuk GST tu aje ada geng bukit yang sangat kecoh, membuatkan minah yang kira duit hangin. Hangin pun hangin la dik, janji dapat duit. Heheheh. Flight dari Dubai ke KL pulak, aku duduk sebelah makcik Arab yang anaknya duduk KL. Takpe ke makcik tu rupanya dah pernah duduk Malaysia. Nasib baik aku tak goreng-goreng dia pasal KL. Heheheh nak sampai KL, makcik tu siap tukar sim card Digi. Hebat tak hebat!

With that, we touch down in KL on Monday 28th March at 9.30 pm. Alhamdulliah semuanya selamat. Alhamdullilah jugak semua yang plan nak buat dapat buat. And looking back, I think one of the pleasant surprise from the trip was seeing the Sunflower by Van Gogh at National Gallery in London and again at Van Gogh Musuem in Amsterdam. Never I imagined that I get the chance to take a close look at the masterpiece.

Just like this trip of a lifetime - Manifique!

Paris 2011, Part Trois

Today is Saturday. The day before, we actually went to Amsterdam. That will be a post of it's own. Hari ini ialah shopping day. First stop, Gallaries Lafayette . Actually takde la nak membeli sangat, walaupun everything was on sale. Sempat lagi satu round kat LV and Longchamp.

Mak aii... ramainya manusia. An advise, if you want to go to LV or Longchamp, baik pergi ke Printemps (sebutnya Pran-tom.. or something like that). Orang tak ramai and tempat lebih bertenang. One of the main focus today was to buy macaroon yang dikirim oleh M_M_Biru.

We bought them from two places, the first one is Pierre Herme at Galaries Lafayette. They are all so pretty and classy and woweee. Macam sayang nak makan. The rose flavoured from La Duree kot.. is to die for. Macam rasa sirap bandung. We packed and keep this in the fridge dan berdoa it will make it during the trip. Hand carry tu... gila precious cargo. Kat airport pun ada jugak La Duree tapi malas nak explore sebab it's in a different terminal than the one of our flight home. Selamat sampai and aku rasa M_M_Biru makan suku sehari. So over 2 dozen... heheh that last about... entah...hehehe.

The whole day went by with a blur. I wanted to get ipad2 beacuse it was release just the day before. Hah, dream on! Berjam pulak pusing-pusing cari Apple Store kat area Opera tu. Dah petang hujan pulak.... but we got a great place for shelter. Mari membeli t-shirt.

We end the day with a quick photo shoot at Arc de Triomphe. Arc de Triomphe sits in the center of Place Charles de Gaulle. (Roundabout yang gila banyak kereta). It was built to honour those who have fought in the French Revolutionary and Napolean wars. Beneath it lies the tomb of unknown soldiers from World War I. Kitaorang malas nak pergi sampai sana, so ambik gambar from across the street aje la.

Malam sebelum tido, we went online to purchase extra luggage on the flight. 60 kg tak cukup! Hahahah. Hotel ni ada pay as you use internet kat lobby. Bagus betul.

Bonne nuit!