Bali escape

So we're taking a couple of days of for a rest and relax in Bali. This time we stayed at Conrad. It's simply breathtaking, quiet, and distinct (in a good way). This we actually didn't go anywhere outside the hotel area except the last day. Conrad provides all you need for a perfect getaway.

Wina is having a blast!! Two of her favorite things combined and unlimited time. Beach and swimming! You bet, she is as tan as she can be now.

Korea so delicious!

So finally we stepped our foot at Seoul, Korea! Anyeong haseo, Hangul!! Yippiiee...

We actually have been planning to visit this country since Feb 2007 when we were still living in HK, where the tickets and hotel booking won't be as expensive as in Jakarta, but Toni were requested back to Jakarta unexpectedly. So, there goes our plan. But, we finally made it!! Well, the actual plan was to have winter family holiday with my parents in Europe, but it was a last minute booking which have to squeeze in a very busy schedule of someone (Pawo!), and ended up with an unmatched date. So we had to cancel it. Apparently, someone's have to work at X-mas (rediculous!). Still, no Europe. The the plan changed to some several different places, but we were tired of following an uncertain plan. So, I came up with the idea to go to Korea. Not so far, not an expensive holiday compare to Europe, and there's winter. So Pawo made some checking (well, for the rest of us, free time in holiday because it is holiday season except for Pawo), and yes! That's how we finally arrived in Incheon, via Kuala Lumpur, in a breezy friday morning, Dec 21st.

Korean people are very friendly. In the highway toll booth, shoutings of greetings and thank you are heard once we opened the window. Wow, never heard such a hostile welcome anywhere before.

So we stayed at Lotte Hotel, a glam hotel with it's own department stores & cinema. Not far is the the city hall where they also put giant Xmas tree and ice skating ring, where a long lined up people waiting to get the skate shoes. It was definitely breezing there. Wina had a couple of tantrums, she didn't want to wear the jacket, coats, glove and all the warming stuff. So once, we just took her out with one piece of clothes on her body so she knew how cold it is...... it did get her attention and stopped the tantrum, hahaha....

We took the city tour, as a safe option, knowing that English is't a popular language there. We went to Gyeongnokgung - the grandest palace is Seoul, Cheouwadae - the blue house/ presidential house, Deoksugung- another beautiful palace in the heart of the city, Seoul Tower and Namsan- folk village. The weather was cool, the city was clean and fresh, the people were friendly, too bad the don't speak English.

Then we went to Muju, a ski resort. Yippiee!!! This is the first time for me and Toni skiing. We had such a blast. First we entered the ski school, learned some basics. Then it's on our own. And we loved it!!! It's a real exercise. I mean, you have to be able to lift your butt up everytime we fell down. That's really frustrating if you are overweight or not in good shape. no wonder this sport isn't popular among Indonesia. My dad told me, he went on a ski with his friends, it started with the whole group, but because it's difficult and hard, only two of 'em that can hold on till the rest of the day. yay! I was actually kinda natural in skiing, but i think it's too "show off" if I put my picture skiing down the mountain, lol....

It was fun staying in Seoul. The only downside is that English isn't a common language, and shopping here was quite expensive compared to Hong Kong. Wina really settle with Korean food, anykind anywhere. Looking forward to come back here someday!

Padang full of Adventures

So this is our first trip (beside back to HK) since we're back in Indonesia. After all the ups and downs from Wina incident. So Wina enjoyed her school, I enjoyed my new job, Toni also got held up in his work. We're going to Korea tomorrow for holiday season, but we got a chance to visit my parents hometown, Payakumbuh.

Payakumbuh is one of the city in West Sumatra. It's 1,5 hour flight from Jakarta to Padang, West Sumatra capital city. Then we have to take a car ride for 3 hours to Payakumbuh. The view is fantastic, the air is so fresh.

I seriously believe that I gained wight in Padang, but I don't wanna check it on the scale with my bare eyes. It's too hurtful. . Coz every time we dropped by at someone's house we have to eat. So the first the day in Padang, I think I ate about 6 times. My God!!! And then again on the second day. And everytime there's someone asking me if I'm expecting. Hiks, my belly was that big! Believe me!!
Wina & Ziko at Rumah Gadang

Along with my parents in law, me Toni & Wina had 4 days of fun and adventure in Padang & Payakumbuh, especially Wina. Actually only 3 days for me, coz I'm a lil tight up back in Jkt. There's a lot of her first time here. Like the first time to hold a kitten, touch a buffalo, ride a motorcycle, on a horse wheel carriage, etc. It was a great learning & experience for her. I'm glad we went there.

Touching a buffalo for the first time ----- playing at Nirwarna Beach, Padang

We visited a lot of relatives. The first night we stayed at my ancestor's Rumah Gadang (traditional Minangkabau house) in Talang Maur, a village in Payakumbuh. The air was so clean and cool, it was so refreshing. But we couldn't stay long because of tight schedule. Tante Ayu, Mutia, Mona and Om Ujang accompany us in kampung (village). Nenek Nismah and Mak Odang was staying in Nenek Rasyidah's house (dad's mom) till Lebaran. We also visited nenek buyut (Wina's great great grandmother) who seem to be healthier since staying in Payakumbuh with Om Yan and Tante Susy. We went around a lot. Visited a lot of relatives. Ate and ate and ate. Pheeewww, I hope my belly exploded.

On a horse wheel carriage in Payakumbuh ----- With Ayek's monkey in her home, Talang Maur

The last day, Wina had a friend. It's her cousin, Azra and Anshari. She was happier, screaming a lot, running around and a lot of smiles. So as a gift for her happiness that day, we took her to the beach, Pantai Nirwana. Almost nobody was there, so the beach was ours. The kids found a tiny steam, and for a while they were playing and splashing and owning the stream. Ah, it's a relax afternoon before heading back to rainy and busy Jakarta.

Anshari, Wina & Azra ------- Along the stream in Nirwarna

Jan 2006: Padang, the Hometown

Ngelanjutin cerita Walk With Wina 'flashback' yg cerita2 sebelumnya bisa dibaca disini. Dgn alasan bakal susah pulang kalo udah di HK (yg boong bgt, tnyata stelah di HK malah sering tugas ke Jkt. Alasan yg sama gak ikutan ke Eropa. Nyebelin kaaan!!), Lebaran Idul Adha 2006 kita jalan2 ke Padang. Akhirnya Wina ngeliat kampung halaman. Nginep di rumah Uda, Tante Ayu, dan kampung di Payakumbuh.... Wina belajar sesuatu yg baru, binatang!!! hehe, Wina ngeliat langsung hewan2 seperti kucing2, kambing, sapi, ayam, rusa (yg ini di bonbin) wuaaahh Wina seneng banget! Trus ketemu sodara2, om tante & datuk nenek. Untungnya Wina gak rewelan. Pas kita jalan darat dari Makasar ke Toraja yg makan waktu 7 jam-an aja, Wina malah enak2 tidur. Puas main di kampung halaman, balik lagi deh ke Jakarta yg hiruk pikuk.

F1 Sepang, Malaysia, hawt!

Hot hot hot in Sepang. By hot, i mean the real definition. & the worst thing, i lost my sunglasses. So there i was, just covered by a hat. Thank god our seats are on a roof deck. Anyway, i sat on Platinum K1, which view the start point, pit, and 2 curves. At least i saw the car quite longer in a lap. But Toni, he's in paddock, the best place ever. Same building with the pit, had acces to Kimi Raikonnen & Phillipe Massa chambers, got the VIP treat, so lucky!

Alonso came first. But the man of the day is Hamilton, a newcomer came in second. Hats off for him.

F1 fan must know who's behind

Jumpa di Kuala Lumpur

Lama tak singgah ke KL. Long weekend, akhirnya kita dapat pergi ke Malaysia dengan Wina. Alangkah senangnya! Berjumpa sama Pawo, Mama, Datuk Saiyo, Maknet & ete', semua ada!......

Huahh, i don't think i can speak malay good, so back to english... Long weekend 5-9Apr, its public holiday in HK & there's F1, so we made a family gathering in KL. F1 is part of Uda's job, Pawo wanted to watch it live, the other just want to meet Wina and get together, so there we were.
We stayed at Boulevard Hotel, Mid Valley, nice... the room is minimalist design. Next to the hotel is this huge mall, Megamall. We went to have a look around, hoping to spot something eye catching.... Not!Apparently stuffs here are more expensive than in HK, so Shopping=Cancelled. Lots of changes in KL, it's cleaner and more neat.

Friday, Wina played in the Mall playground. After lunch we wnt to KL Tower, Petronas Twin Tower, lunch at Suria KLCC, in the afternoon Ma'net & Ete arrived, horray....

Saturday, around the city with Om Khilal & family. First stop to Putrajaya, the government city. Everything related to governmance, offices, courts, officers employees home complex was relocated to Putrajaya. Awesome! Then the guys wanted to dropped by at Sepang, to wathc the qualifications which the girls including me didn't have any interest. And it was so not fun waiting in the car, waisting time!After 2 hours of torture, finally we left to grab our late lunch (really late, it's 3pm). Struggled to find a restaurant, finally made the decision to eat at Sunway Lagoon, about 45 minutes from Sepang. OMG! We lost our appetite.

Sunday, Wina played again at the playground while we watched F1 at sepang! Phiuuuuhh, extremely hot in Sepang!!
Monday, we visited Genting Highland & Sungai Wang near Golden Triangle. There's a big theme park in Genting, so Wina had a blast there.
I ike KL, the city is very clean and lot's of nice palces to visit. To bad, a lot of the pictures take came from Mama's camera that she took it home to Jakarta. I only have some. So forgive me, Manet & Datuk Ci'in, i don't have your pics. Next time I'd like to go to the states such as Selangor, Malaka, Kota Kinabalu etc.

Nov 2005 : Europetrip part.1, Italy

Bonjorno! Wow, this was fun! We went to 4 countries: Italy, Vatican City, Austria & Germany. ITALY was a huge explore, even only in 3 cities we had so many beautiful spot to see. We went there on Lebaran holiday, for about 2 weeks. Coz of we were going to move to Hong Kong after New Year 2006, so Uda (aka Wina's dad) didn't come along. He wanted to celebrate Lebaran with his parents and family.

ROME. Beautiful city with the Colloseum, the famous Fontana di Trevi where you throw coins into the fountain while saying your wish; the Roman Forum, ruins of Roman; the Arch of Constantine; Piazza di Spagna, lots and lots of piazza there; Spanish Steps where you can sit, relax and look at all the people passing by; Vittoriano Monument in front of a big circle traffic turnover; and the Pantheon. No other word to say but beautiful.

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

VATICAN. It's quite irony, we visited Vatican City on our Lebaran holiday.... BUT we were just admiring the country(?!!), which was just 5 minutes walk from down town Rome. Yes! It's a small country in the middle of Rome, just about 0.44 square kilometres, with around 600 citizens (wow!). Wina was having fun playing with hundreds of friendly pigeons there. St. Peter's Square, dome of St. Peter's Basilica -is said to be pioneered by Michaelangelo (man, i'm learning art history here, phew!) , and the attractive dressed Swiss Guard.

VENICE. My favorite. City in the middle of the sea. Piazza San Marco, Grand Canal, Rialto's Bridge, Gondolas, San Marco Basilica and Campeline, & the enormous Doger Palace. Window shopping was exciting here, coz they were selling things that you couldn't find anywhere else, like the Romeo & Juliet kind of masque, really really unusual designed clock, & jewelry i can't afford to buy, hehe...

Venice by Gondola

San Marco Square early morning

FLORENCE. It was a short stop before we headed to Pisa. OMG, the buildings are all beautiful. We took some shots at Duomo & Campanile (big clock tower), horse riding around it. Then the driver took us to a spot where we can see overview of Florence. Nice! Ciao!!

Duomo @ Florence

August 2005 : Bali

Bali Bali Bali. Always a great place to visit! When i was living in Indonesia, we usually went there almost every year (it's about 1,5 hour flight from Jkt). This time with Wina, we went to Bali Bird Park, Ubud, Water Boom, and of course, the beach! We stayed at Nusa Dua, and enjoyed the pool, sandy beach, paragliding, and jet skis. She had a blast playing with the water and animals. Too bad, some people here think Bali as quite a dangerous place. OMG, no way! The tragedy on 2002 changed the people perception. So sad to hear that. I can guarantee now Bali is as safe as your home..

May 2005 : Makassar

We visited uda's parents whose dad at the time being was working in a Cement Company there. Makassar is beautiful, famous for it's seafood -ikan dabu-dabu is one of my favorite-, big spacious city with old culture still attached. Makassar is in Sulawesi island, about 1,5 hours flight from jakarta. We stayed at kakek's house in a district that's about an hour driving from Makassar.

We also visited Toraja, a famous tourist spot that still hold their ancient culture and has beautiful view of muntains and forest, and the village houses. It took us about 7 hours driving from kakek and nenek house. Wina start showing that she;s a true traveller, didn't have tantrum and just sleep along the way. One of the attractions is that they buried the dead people in the mountain rock and make a doll to indicate the ones that is putted there. Oh, it's a little scary getting in the cave.

April 2005 : Singapore

Hoho, Wina first flight. You can't tell she was excited or not, i didn't even think she knew what's going on... until the plane took off & most probably hurted her ears. But we were prepare! earplugs are on, baby!!!

This trip was actually a refreshing point 4 me, after i made it alive out of 'bootcamp'. And i got some days off before starting to work, and it's a long weekend, so we were all in for a vacation.

We went to Singapore Zoo (it was raining), the Botanic Garden (beautiful, but Wina was way to attractive hehe), swimming, and exploring Orchad Road. Usually i would rush in excitement for shopping, but with my new mommy body, i didn't have any desire or whatsoever. So my sis had all the fun herself.

There are a lot of interesting places to visit in Singapore, like Sentosa Island, Jurong Bird Park etc. But it's a short visit, the weather was uncertain. Another thing is i was carrying her through the day. Oh, she's heavy! but thank god i got a lot of helping back.

Aside of the raining, everything was great! hope to visit it again in the future n

Beijing Freezing

Beijing, is a huge city like Jkt, but more structured, cleaner, wide pathway and public transport friendly (that doesn't sound like jkt, eih?). We went there on Jan 4-7, already knew that the temperature is below 10. But what we didn't expect is the wind that made the current temp add -10. Brrrr...it's freezing!!

We went to the Summer Palace (get the idea why it's called SP, coz it's only beatiful if u go there on summer), Great Wall Badaling, Beijing Zoo, Temple of Heaven, Tiannamen Square and Forbidden City (huge..HUGE palace square). We went to some other park and palace, but those mentioned are the must visit. Too bad we didn't have the time to ride any hutong (a.k.a becak), and also missed the Great Tomb. Oh, but we saw a big mosque. Fyi, there's quite a population of moslem chinese living in the city, and we got to see some of em walking with their peci on.

Anyway, the most coldest time is when were at the top of Badaling. Man... we couldn't even stand straight coz the wind keep blowing us off our feet. And withWina in her stroller, we couldn't go strolling the wall up and down in stream stairs. So there we were, only made it for about 15 minutes on the Badaling Wall. Fiuhhh! Hands and feets r all frozen -almost had frozzbite-.

The only barrier is language. The people doesn't speak english. When we got in the cab from airport to hotel, cab driver didn't know our hotel. Apparently, they turned avery single word into chinese. Do you know what Hilton or Hyatt in chinese? I can't even say it! So, everytime we went out, we stoped by at the concierge to get the chinese writing for every place we tended to visit. Phew!!

Macau Watchout

Finally we stepped our foot in Macau, after living for quite a while in HK -as if we're such a busy person, hehehe-. By ferry, we went there with Mama & Pawo & we were lucky enough to get fist class lounge with normal price (thanx to our patience being a waiting list for earlier ride). I thought 6 hours in Macau wasn't enough to see all the sightseeing, but it was done in 4 hours. Wow! Macau was actually small -didn't expect that-. Well... we didn't cover all, just the famous attractions, and we didn't gamble nor shopped, so it pretty much done in 4 hours. We saw Portuguese signs everywhere, & they say that it's the official language (& Chinese), so we assumed the citizen can speak Portuguese. "No we don't. I think even the government officers barely speak Portuguese," said the driver. Shocking!

First we stopped by at the famous St. Paul's Ruins (this place is like "u r not in Macau if u don't visit this". Next to it is Monte Fort, that give a splendid views of Macao on top. Then the driver passed by a lot of casinos down town -huge casinos-. We stopped at one of the casinos just to watch a dancing water fountain in front of it, pretty. Macau museum is also inside the Fort.

----------- St. Paul's Ruins ----------------- Mont Fort ----------------- Macau Museum ----------

Then the driver took us to some temples like A Ma Temple, another one i forgot. But it was nothing compare to China's and Hong Kong's. Not interesting. Macao Tower is very tall, but it look similar with Auckland's Sky Tower, though Macau is taller. There's a bungy jumping nearby, I was so eager to try it, but it was on maintenance check. Not lucky!

---------- Garden ---------------------------------- Fisherman's Wharf ----------------------------

At the end of the trip, the driver dropped us at Macau Fisherman's Wharf. Naaaahh, this is the best attraction in Macau. It's a theme park that replicates Cape Town, Italy, and Amsterdam. Hehehe, at last Wina feel fun in Macau.

Overall, i must say if you are not gambling in Macau, the place is less interesting. But, it wouldn't hurt to visit just to take a glimpse of this beautiful man made city that offers mortality excitement.

Konichiwa Tokyo!

Moshi moshi. We're at Tokyo! Huhuhu, I was so excited!!! I mean, this is the second Asia city most wanted to visit in my list. JUst going off the plane my body giggled happily..... hehehe.

Toni was on a meeting here for three days. But we extended longeg so we could take a look around Tokyo. As usual, getting around with Toni is getting around independently. He's very different from my dad. My dad would take some time to study the city that we're gonna visit and tried to cover as many places as we can, take all the important city tour, as if we might never go back there. Toni... he would think a lot of her lil girl, won't take exhausting trip, won't take trip that would make him nausea... Seems like we're in a hurry yet the trip we're taking are trivial.

But anyway, I'm just glad I finally stepped my foot here in Tokyo. Yada!!!!!

So on the days on his meeting, we stayed at Hyatt, but on our own expenses holiday, we moved to Prince Shinjuku Hotel, hehehe..... so moved in and out of Shinjuku. Shinjuku is the central Tokyo. Thank god it wasn't too far from Shinjuku Station, where there's a shuttle bus to Hyatt. The airport was very far away, and we were also caught up by traffic on the highway.

Tokyo is a big city like Jakarta. It has a lot of districts. We didn't covered all the district, there are 23 of 'em. But we did go the famous districts, such as Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza, Odaiba, and Shinjuku of course.

The only tour we took is to Hakone, is at the foot of Mount Fuji, where there are a lot of hot spring water, Lake Ashi -a popular tourist attraction- and Hakone Ropeway, cable car alongside the Lake which goes to the top of Mount Komagatake. We didn't hopped on to Hakone Ropeway becoz Toni couldn't ride it (he has a high phobia) and I couldn't ride it alone, leaving Wina with him. So we just enjoyed the hot spring. It's really fascinating how they design the hot spring, there are many kind of water; green tea, coffee, mud sea... or entertaining type; stream, slides etc.

Fashion is also something else to look at there. Either they are very conservative or very girlish.

Lots of barbiedoll lookalike in every corner of Shinjuku to Harajuku. What's also amazed me is how they just wear a short skirt in a very cold windy temperature. So fashion victims!

Another unforgetable experience is that we rode a Gigantic Ferris Wheel on a tranparent cubic. OMG, i couldn't move my head and body, and I was shaking like crazy. Toni and Wina ddin't seem to have trouble looking around, while I am dead-frost! I will never forget the feeling, and never ever gonna ride on any transparent thing in a high places. But the good news is, since then, I never had any high phobia in getting to very high places. How weird and lucky! hehehe....