Saturday, May 21, 2005

from aksara

here i am, wifi-ing from aksara. free! hahahaha... on my in-law's laptop. very "gak modal" ya, hahaha....

Friday, May 20, 2005

i'm back

phew! the event is over. i'm tired now. luckily i'm taking a leave this coming monday, so 4 days off. hahaha...

anyway, here are some pictures from dufan.


we went too early, so had to wait for more than an hour.


bumper cars! visualize....


this picture was taken when we decided to leave. hmmm.. what was i thinking ya??

Saturday, May 14, 2005

(posted from wapblogger) Wow! What a day! Went to dufan with deden, dania, renya, & vishnu. Compared to the last time i was there, when i went with prima info & still on crutches, today was quite. Not many people. Which was good! No too long queues. I played the star wars, finally. Twice! Lost to vishnu, though. Damn! Hahaha... But i refused to play arung jeram & halilintar. Too many stairs! Sorry, i favored my leg. Hehehe... Oya, before, we went to carrefour. And i found out that my fav snack, the chicken flavored nuts, from thailand, is now available here! Hip hip Hurray! Went home after dufan, only to take a bath and get ready to go to marriott for rianti's engagement dinner. Wasn't expecting a dinner buffet, so i was full already halfway thru. All in all, today was a great day. Too bad there were some annoying smses.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

late nights all over again

hmph. here i am, still in the office. an event is coming up.

Friday, May 06, 2005

(posted from wapblogger) Some songs really, really bring back good memories. Take backstreet boys' everybody as an example. This song reminds me of several things. Two major things, in fact. The first is when i participated in my first pesparawi, or pesta paduan suara gerejawi. 1997. It was kinda a parting gift from me to the effatha youth choir, as i was going to australia. Andre brought this tape, backstreet boys, and played it in my car. We sang so loud! The choir was, and is, unfortunately, never the same again. The second, reminds me of those friday nights at kokoz, after the exams. Now, i don't like dancing, but i sure do enjoy music. With friends like imelda, teddy, arie, and others. Damn! I miss those times. The world has changed, me too, so they can never be repeated. Luckily i have my ipod to relive those moments. *sigh*

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

photos!!!

here are some photos from bangkok!


wat arun. the oldest temple in bangkok. or is it in thailand?


me on the boat.


me in front of inter-continental hotel. a sky train was passing by. we actually waited for the sky train to pass.


two giants, guarding a gate. a nice mixture of chinese and thai cultures.


this statue intrigued me. the hat looked out of place. a combination of chinese, thai, and western cultures?


thai actually invented the art of massage. in wat pho, there are references to this art. and there are also schools for that. and of course, any tired tourist can get their feet massaged.


wat pho. seen from outside. that big building is where the reclining buddha.. well.. reclines.


the famous reclining buddha. it's quite huge.


the head of the reclining buddha.


this car was where the royal grandson was put. and to be taken to his final rest.

Monday, May 02, 2005

BANGKOK story

Thailand Journey - the complete report

Here's the (hopefully) complete report of my experience in Thailand.

Day 1 - April 26
The garuda plane was kinda small. but at least i had the whole 3 seats for myself from singapore.

arrived in thailand, and i was glad to found out i could roam. too bad there was no gprs. waited for kak joni for almost an hour. when he arrived, we took a taxi and went to the plaza athenee hotel. and what a hotel it was! had no time to enjoy the room, however, as i had to buy the board for "show and tell". we went to kak joni's appartment, and from there we went to the central mall. huge, huge mall! got the board and a double-tape for just 99 baht. in rupiah it would be around 25.000. not bad!

went back to the hotel after that. took a shower, unpack some of important things, and went down to the lobby to meet the SEA group. had to distribute some tshirts first, though. felt like preparing a media kit, hahaha... walked there to the thai restaurant. can never remember the name. nice food, but not spicy enough. hizam said the food was not authentic. had talks with new faces, from intel as well as agencies. met stephanie, who was sure we had met before. and she was right, we met in taiwan fall idf 2002. damn! and i didn't remember! it was a very nice dinner. we had fun, and laughed. and laughed. the food kept coming. i was so full.

went back to hotel, and that was it for day 1.

Day 2 - April 27
first official day of intel pr apac face-to-face. more new faces, and old ones. there were some nice materials, but there were some boring ones as well. it was a full-day meeting. and guess where the dinner was? the same thai restaurant we went to the night before! yay! this time we had more people, and the food was different. called kak joni after, and away we went to the night bazaar.

didn't bought anything at the night bazaar. instead, we sat down and had some drinks at the beer garden.

the night bazaar was supposedly only 10 minutes walk from the hotel. but we took BTS (the sky train) and MRT (subway train). considering it was very hot, i didn't mind spending 25 baht for the trains.

Day 3 - April 28
more training materials. had some fun for the mobility brainstorms. oh, and there were so many materials i'd love to get if i was a journalist.

the initial plan was to have a night tour on the river. but it was scrapped for being too long, like for about 4 hours. we ate at the reflexion instead, the french restaurant at the hotel.

Day 4 - April 29
time for the writing class! it was fun, with david as the trainer. and it finished rather early, 3pm instead of the planned 5pm. i decided to extend my stay to sunday. and it was done.

back in the room, the laptop picked up a wifi signal. it was very weak, but i could surf the internet for free. someone must had been careless in setting up the access point.

went to kak joni's place, and we went to the supermarket for souvenirs. fruit crackers! yikes!

after that, we went to patpong, the district famous for its sex shows. kinda like king's cross in sydney. i have to admit, shamefully, i've never been to king's cross. shame, shame on me! the night was so hot, we had to concede defeat and call it quits.

Day 5 - April 30
checked out from plaza athenee. it turned out we had to pay the bills ourselves first. damn!

luckily my credit card had some, well, credits left. otherwise i might have to offer myself at patpong! hahaha....

went to kak joni's place, where i'd stay for the night.

after that, we went to wat pho, the complex where the reclining buddha is, well, reclined. the statue was very, very big. the funny thing about wat pho complex is, there were many outside influences, like chinese, hinduism, etc.

went out, and saw many people lined up, with black apparels. it turned out the king's grandson who was killed by the tsunami was going to be cremated that day. we got to see the motorcade. how lucky! it was probably a one-in-a-million thing.

took the boat and went to mbk mall. bought some more souvenirs there. ate at this thai restaurant, with very spicy food. yummy!

Day 6 - April 1
the last day! went rushing to the supermarket to find more souvenirs, ie. food! but i also bought the davinci code illustrated edition for 1200 baht, so it's cheaper than kinokuniya here! i also bought va dinci's cod, a parody of davinci code. it was so hilarious!

i'd got so many souvenirs. luckily i thought ahead and brought an extra bag. so there i went, with four bags, to the airport. i was so lucky to have kak joni and his family there. must give them a treat when they come here!

the flight was ok. the landing was quite rough, tough. but at least i got home safe & sound.

that was it. my journey to bangkok. photos will come later!