G'day mate!!!

I had been in Sydney since Wednesday nite. Havent seen much of the city except for The Rocks which I had the chance to wander around during lunch & in the evening. That has always been the case with business trip.

I arrived at the hotel around 9.30pm on Wednesday. The suite had a view of Sydney's skyscrapper & part of the Harbour Bridge. Thought I could check out a place to eat but was told that the nearest restaurant, down at the corner of the Essex street would be closing by 10pm. So, that was basically an early nite for me then.

Yesterday evening, my friends & I walked to QVB (Queen Victoria Building), down by George St. The building was simply amazing. Well, we managed to shop a bit at the QVB. It's quite fortunate as the business hour is extended to 8pm on Thursday nite.

I finally got that Corduroy jacket that I've been meaning to get. [Oh yes, I'm in cloud 9]

And today, after a quick lunch, we took a walk to The Rocks. I really must say that the government had done a great job preserving all these old buildings. Well, since it was only a short walk, I made a mental note to come again.

The picture posted is taken at The Rocks, at the junction of Harrington Street & Argyle Street. Notice the cleanliness of the street & the condition of the traffic? Great, huh.

This evening, after the training was over, we walked to Circular Quay and the iconic Sydney Opera House. Ling left me on my own to travel. After walking about the Circular Quay, I made my way back to The Rocks, to have my dinner. It was such a pity that I didn't manage to walk around much to take more pictures before the sun set.

At this point, I'm planning to go there again, after breakfast tomorrow to catch the market before checking out of the hotel.

Well, I love it here in Sydney. The pace is much slower than KL even though it's a city. People are not rushing away like mad men. The city is clean and people are law observing. You won't even have a hard time trying to cross the streets. I like the old sydney & amazed at the restored buildings. I like the happenings of Circular Quay. I like the weather and its cool breeze.

Hey, I don't even mind staying in a city like this.

I wish I could stay longer here & explore so much more of Sydney but I can't really ask for more.

Well, signing off from down under.

Breezing away in Bandung (Day 3 & 4)

I definitely have to come back to Bandung. We literally spent few hours (less than 24 hours, to be exact) in Bandung and that was it. Arrghhh...tak puas hatinya.

We finished meeting rather late and pushed back to Jakarta, sending off a Manager before traveling to Bandung. We were caught in a traffic crawl!! (Yeah, my experience with Jakarta's macet) It took us more than 1 hour just to get out of Jakarta city itself. We made a short stop at a rest area just before the highway, to have dinner and refuel the car. My colleagues even managed to buy some warm clothing there. (err...I found out that wortel is actually carrot. I wondered what that was in the menu)

The journey took us almost 2 hours via the highway. It was pitch dark hence we were unable to appreciate the view. As we got to Bandung, we were struggling to find our way to the place where we're putting up i.e. Hotel New Sany Rosa at the Jalan Hergamanah as our driver was not familiar with Bandung. When we got to the hotel, there wasn't much to see or do.



It's a nice, cosy hotel...seriously, forget the view. There's a nice courtyard right in the middle of the hotel. If you need food, McDonald's right across the street (if only you manage to cross the road).



The room rate is about RM100+, inclusive of breakfast. If you have a driver, the hotel has a different type of room for him. It costs around Rp 100,000 or RM40, and that includes breakfast which is delivered to the room. I think that's pretty fair and convenient.


Having reached Bandung rather late at nite, we decided to just have our rest.

We started early the next morning and managed to check out some factory outlets. Not into shopping, I took the opportunity to catch up with a local friend. Hey, it was a nice chat over chocolate chip crepe & ice blended coffee durian!

My friend later took us to this restaurant called Sambara, and introduced us to Sundanese food. Great ambience, delicious food and damn cheap. For 5 of us, it was slightly over Rp100,000. It was definitely a deal!

We left Bandung right after lunch as we wanted to reach Jakarta by late afternoon.

The first official trip...to Indonesia - Jakarta/Bogor (Day 1)

We arrived in Jakarta just after 10am, local time. As my colleague had made prior arrangement for immigration assistance, we just breezed through the immigration via the diplomatic lane. Cool!

We later made a stop in the city for lunch, eating nasi padang (a must!) & I've tried the avocado juice, with chocolate syrup. Strange taste though...thick, filling and seriously, delicious.

Jakarta, as in any other city, full of life...but some of things that caught my eyes were the numerous statues around the city. Wished I had the time to take pictures of all of them, rather than rushing through the city to get to Bogor.

The journey to Bogor took approximately 1 hour, via the highway. We're staying at the Novotel Bogor at the Golf Estate Bogor Raya. There were beautiful mansions located at the golf estate. It reminds me of Country Height.

Bogor is nicknamed "Kota Hujan" and that explains it all. It was raining since we arrived and throughout the afternoon. So, guess we are stuck at the hotel.

Today is quite free for us. We had a short discussion with the team late afternoon & followed by an early dinner together. Hey, I tried the nasi timbel. A specialty sunda food. I consider it as a very healthy meal as it contains everything. :)

The best thing about today is that, before we retire for the day, almost all of us had booked a massage service. I tried the aromatheraphy massage and for an hour, it cost me slightly more than RM60. It'll be double that price if it had been in KL. It was good & I really needed one. Truth is, I fell asleep along the way. haha.