Friday, July 01, 2005

the "queen's" treatment

since i still can't get to sleep, i better get down to blogging about the whacky good times i had in indo b4 my memory fails me.

firstly, why do i call it the "queen's" treatment? simply becoz i'm been chauffeured to all the places that i went to. it's a luxury for me as keong doesn't drive and my papa is too busy to fetch me around. 2ndly, i ate good food at affordable prices at posh-looking cafes (aka restuarants in spore terms) for all my dinners. lastly, stuff were either half the price of spore's or worth the buy which thus led to my empty pockets. i even had to borrow money from hanny as i still haven't bought everything that i wanted!

Day 1
dearie came to send us off at the airport. the ignorant me and nz thought there was no food served on board valuair so we had a filling bk breakfast.
hanny was there to welcome us at the jakarta airport. had some disturbing incident wif the custom officers while checking out. and we nearly lost our luggage as we were too busy buying alcohol at the shop! thank god we managed to find our baggage at the lost and found counter. hanny thought we were been kidnapped or something. haha.

the first place that hanny brought us to was Mangadua. direct translation- 2 mangoes. we had pempek, gado gado, otak, rojak and avocado juice there for lunch. my appetite was good as we finished all the food. although the outlook of mangadua is not exactly appealing, it is a shoppers' paradise as things are cheap. if u search hard enuff and know where are the good shops to patronise, u would be able to get cheap and nice clothing, shoes, bags and accessories! bascially, it's a one-stop centre! moreover, it closes at 7pm. thus, 1 day is not enough unless u already know wat u wanna get and where u can get them. we actually went there for 3 days!

i spent 40 bucks there on my first day. bought 2 tops for myself and 2 for my stephy too. was contented wif my shopping. wanted to start it slow and easy since it's an 8 days stay.

hanny's parents treated us to a really sumptous dinner at this nice chinese restuarant. again, my appetite was good.
we reminscenced the good old times as the 3 of us played dadi and chatted into the wee hours of the nite.

Day 2
hanny had to attend to some work stuff but it was good news for us as we get to sleep in late. heh. me and nz were such lazy bums!

went back to mangadua again! haha..had something like mee sotong for lunch. yum yum :D went mad that day as i spent 200+ on clothes and bags! but i totally enjoyed it. good bargain and i absolutely love wat i bought! so pleased wif myself. haha. bought 4 pairs of pants and 2 striped blouses for 110 bucks! finally have something to wear for work! and it's really worth it as one piece of clothing was less than 20 bucks! and i adore the working bag and black handbag which i bought too! other buys include 2 tshirts for keong and zh and 2 belts for keong and his dad. felt satisfied but was shocked at the rate my rupiah was disappearing.

had indo fried chicken wings, smelly beans and bamboo kueh (think it's called that) for dinner before zooming off to EX, the entertainment centre for a movie. watched madagascar for 6 bucks as there was a 50% discount for some credit card thingie. probably was too exhausted from the earlier shopping, plus the movie was kinda boring so i fell asleep while watching it halfway. had an italian soda and a slice of stuffed crust super supreme at pizza hut. the pizza hut over there is a vast difference compared to ours here. it's a happening and cool restuarant. they had nice music and many more types of drinks like soda, smoothie and even alcoholic drinks.

not much chatting before we sleep as we were all zonked out.

Day 3
this was a tai-tai day as we went for our 'spa' appointment at this house salon. we paid around 10 bucks for a full body massage, body srcub and hair spa. then, i went on to do a facial as i have never done before. finally, the 3 of us decided that we need to be more pampered and we went for the manicure and pedicure. and guess the price? i spent around 27 bucks for everything! although the facilities were not high class, the massage and quality of treatments was reasonably therapeutic. it was indeed a good deal.

decided to do away wif our clubbing plan as we didn't want out after-spa hair to stink of smoke. had dinner at cafe dermango which means pier, and sang karaoke.

had a relatively early nite as we need to wake up early tom for our bandung trip! excited!

Day 4
picked up hanny's fren, itah, from her house and together wif hanny's bro'z arez, we were all geared for our trip! on the way to itah's house, we passed by some really huge houses aka palaces. we even mistook one of them as a country club as it has a yatch parked outside the house!

watched 'be cool' and this japanese anime during the car ride. on the way to bandung, we dropped by at taman safari. the place was much cooler as compared to jakarta and was really fun. it is a drive-thru safari and the animals are free to roam on the roads. we fed the zebras, elephants, lamas and deers wif carrots and the monkeys, orangutans and even parrots wif bananas! haha. the orangutans were soo cute! i climbed up this railing to feed one of them thru the grilled windows wif bananas as it was locked in an enclosure.
took pictures wif adam and company and a tiger too! roarz..ahahah

had lunch at this traditional indo restaurant called dulang. all of us had to sit on the floor and eat from banana leaves. i dad nasi timbel which consisted of fried chicken wing, beans, tohu and lotsa raw vege. the balachan chilli was super good. we then continued our drive to bandung. checked in at savoy hotel and the room was huge! that was becoz we stayed in an executive suite. heh

dinner was at the vally. the place was really romantic as it was up the hill top and the lightings created the perfect ambience for couples. how i wish keong was there too. however, the food was not really that fantastic. perhaps we ordered the wrong dishes. my la fondue turned up to be not the cheese fondue i expected. instead, the supposed cheese became a pot of oil which i had to use to cook my meat and seafood. it was an oily dinner. but the ambience made up for the food.

next, we went to cellar for some live music. but we went a bit too late. we had red wine, smoothie and tiramisu for dessert. queen's treatment! had a rah rah good time playing heart attack.

Day 5
it's shopping once again! went to a total of 4 factory outlets. the clothes there were authentic but perhaps some of them had minor defects like wrong sizes or labels attached etc. at the first outlet, bought myself a mango striped blouse for 7 bucks! examined it closely but didn't find any defect. bought a nike top for sk for 2 bucks as i thought it would be useful for her pe career. also managed to get a nice shirt of weng.

the 2nd outlet was where all of us went mad. we tried many many clothes and both itah and me got arez to model wear the men's top for our bf and fathers. bought an abercrombie top, another striped blouse (wat's up wif me and striped blouse?)and a pair of white heels for myself. got 2 salt and pepper shirts for papa and keong and an oliver pink top for mama.

didn't buy anything from the 3rd one except borrowed their toilet. heh

over at the fourth outlet, i sort of completed my souvenirs' shopping. bought key chains for my frenz and a gap top for keong's mum.

and along those shop houses near to the mall which we were supposed to watch mr and mrs smith, got my mama a batik dress and a sch bag for weng.

dinner was chicken teriyaki steak at this cheap and good cafe, cafe chiba. paid less than 10 bucks.

boought a working skirt and a pink top for work b4 rushing to catch the movie at ciamplas walk. we missed the beginning as we were late for around 10 mins. sorry guys! the movie was good! and it cost us only 3 dollars! wow! had satay for supper. delicious but fattening. heh.

Day 6
after breakfast, on our way back to jakarta, we dropped by some shops to buy kueh lapis and keropoks. the kueh lapis were good but too bad i had limited cash.

the trip back was not too good as i was kinda suffering from car sickness. puked during the ride. thought i felt better but it became worse during dinner. puked out my fish porridge (so wasted! the food was really good!)and was feeling feverish. according to hanny, i had too much wind in my stomach due to the car ride. her mum made some chinese medicine for me but it was too bitter. had a sip and i refused to finish the rest. i hate to be sick during trips! fortunately, after a good nite rest, i felt much better but my appetite was poor for the next day. there's this queer feeling in my stomach.

Day 7
had a relaxing day as we enjoyed a whirlpool and suana session. my tummy felt much better. think the whirlpool had a therapeutic effect on it. did foot reflexalogy. awesome! haha.

dinner was at kafe pisa and the band was cool! the music was like top 40s. the crowd was spontenous too. the singer even invited me up to dance. i was in beach shorts! wat the heck. i went up up anyway since no one knew me there! soo fun!

Day 8
took cab for the first time. not too bad a ride. went to matahari shopping centre in search for our corn snack and chilli but to no avail. finally ate the curly fries from a&w though. at last my craving was satisfied.

guess wat? we went back to mangadua again! for some last min buy. bought a bag for mama, 1 pair of black heels and 2 pairs of earrings. alright. no more shopping! was contented. my shopping list was done! hurray!

as the previous nite's band and the food was good, we decided to go back to kafe pisa for our 'last' meal. hanny's cousins joind us too. my appetite was back as i heartily finished my crochet and calamari. it was hip hop music and i got to hear my fave black eyed peas songs.

the rest of the nite was spent packing my luggage. kudos to hanny for helping me stuffed everything in!

Day 9
home sweet home. i miss spore and the non-congested road. and i miss my family, frenz and darling too. bought back some dokin donuts wif the remaining rupiah.
wat a fruitful trip!


there u have it. my 8 days holiday, my grad trip. thank you hanny for being such an excellent host. we would not able to get all the good bargains and nice food without u. and nz too. for being such a shopping kaki and great companion for the trip.

my head is spinning now. i should sleep.

Rouge a-hemmed @ 5:05 AM 0 rockers