Yes, I am flying (again) and this time is to complete my odyssey of ASEAN 10. Going to Hanoi means I would finally complete my visit to all ten of them.
Tapi sebelum fly tu, makan nasi kerabu puas-puas dulu kat Golden Lounge ni. Sampai sana takut susah nak cari makanan halal pula walaupun masa surf kat ZABIHAH tadi, dah jumpa dua Malaysian halal restaurant, Nisa and Warung Sri Belango.
Tadi naik satu train dengan angkasawan kita from KL Sentral. Hensem lah. Tapi Mak Lijah control macho... maintain cool... Buat-buat malu konon...
OK lah. Got to go. Lagi setengah jam nak berlepas, nak jalan slow-slow to Gate 02.
See u in Hanoi...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
En route to Hanoi
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Hello, Sydney...
Visiting Sydney again after two decades was yet the best thing for me this year. Not only did I get to meet my foster-exchange-student-sister, Cathie, and her family, I also got to honeymoon with Pak Lijah (wish it would be an annual event ;) ).
And so I booked my Qantas ticket from Sydney to Brisbane online in order for me to arrive at about the same time as Pak Lijah would arrive from KL on that Sunday morning. I was impressed with Qantas's online services (bagi Mak Lijah yang perak ni, lah). Booking online was normal, but what surprises me was the fact that you can request your meal preference, choose or change your seat as you wish depending on the availability, and the best part... produce the boarding pass well in advance, ALL ONLINE. Senang, kan? So why didn't we think of that back here? Oh.. terlupa, nanti orang tak ada kerja pulak.
.
.
Mak Lijah landed in Sydney and met Pak Lijah kat international terminal. Tunggu punya tunggu, telefon punya telefon, akhirnya kamipun naiklah kereta menuju ke hotel di The Rocks tu. Nak dijadikan cerita, drebar kereta tu was an Indonesian who migrated some 20 years ago.
We got to the beautiful hotel about half an hour later just to find out that we could not check-in yet walaupun nama kat reservation dah ada and that we didnt get the room we asked for. That's a bit weird sebab masa buat booking dulu, diorang responded that as member of the group of hotels, we got the priveleges of early check-in, late check-out, free internet access, breakfast at the club, bla..bla...bla... Dipendekkan cerita, we were referred to at another floor. Di situ, tengah dok sibuk-sibuk explain sana-sini and Mak Lijah already had this in mind that it was not a good start for me at that moment, the Manager on Duty, Baron, asked if we were from Singapore [WHY MUST IT BE SINGAPORE?]. Half disappointed, I guess, he responded that he's from Singapore.
"Ayah saya Chinese Singaporean, mak saya orang putih."
(Erkk... Yikes...! Nasib baik tak ngutuk lebih-lebih. Patutlah rambut dia hitam tapi still look like mat salleh)
"Laa... Ye ke? Lama dah kerja sini?
(Kononnya nak cover kutuk tadi)
"Lama dah. Dah migrate pun"
"So Baron, I tell you what, we let you settle this confusion about our room first, while we go and kill the time at Darling Harbour. OK tak?"
...dan dipendekkan cerita juga... we just walked down to the quay to look for the ferry to Darling Harbour. It was a warm, sunny day and we were happy to make that decision. The ferry ride cost only about AUS$5 each and worth every single moment of the time. We managed to capture a photo (pictured here) of our hotel while on the ferry. Sampai jer kat Darling Habour, Mak Lijah pun called rumah Cathie and spoke to Andrew, Cathie's husband, to confirm our dinner that night.
And so I booked my Qantas ticket from Sydney to Brisbane online in order for me to arrive at about the same time as Pak Lijah would arrive from KL on that Sunday morning. I was impressed with Qantas's online services (bagi Mak Lijah yang perak ni, lah). Booking online was normal, but what surprises me was the fact that you can request your meal preference, choose or change your seat as you wish depending on the availability, and the best part... produce the boarding pass well in advance, ALL ONLINE. Senang, kan? So why didn't we think of that back here? Oh.. terlupa, nanti orang tak ada kerja pulak.
.
.
Mak Lijah landed in Sydney and met Pak Lijah kat international terminal. Tunggu punya tunggu, telefon punya telefon, akhirnya kamipun naiklah kereta menuju ke hotel di The Rocks tu. Nak dijadikan cerita, drebar kereta tu was an Indonesian who migrated some 20 years ago.
We got to the beautiful hotel about half an hour later just to find out that we could not check-in yet walaupun nama kat reservation dah ada and that we didnt get the room we asked for. That's a bit weird sebab masa buat booking dulu, diorang responded that as member of the group of hotels, we got the priveleges of early check-in, late check-out, free internet access, breakfast at the club, bla..bla...bla... Dipendekkan cerita, we were referred to at another floor. Di situ, tengah dok sibuk-sibuk explain sana-sini and Mak Lijah already had this in mind that it was not a good start for me at that moment, the Manager on Duty, Baron, asked if we were from Singapore [WHY MUST IT BE SINGAPORE?]. Half disappointed, I guess, he responded that he's from Singapore.
"Ayah saya Chinese Singaporean, mak saya orang putih."
(Erkk... Yikes...! Nasib baik tak ngutuk lebih-lebih. Patutlah rambut dia hitam tapi still look like mat salleh)
"Laa... Ye ke? Lama dah kerja sini?
(Kononnya nak cover kutuk tadi)
"Lama dah. Dah migrate pun"
"So Baron, I tell you what, we let you settle this confusion about our room first, while we go and kill the time at Darling Harbour. OK tak?"
...dan dipendekkan cerita juga... we just walked down to the quay to look for the ferry to Darling Harbour. It was a warm, sunny day and we were happy to make that decision. The ferry ride cost only about AUS$5 each and worth every single moment of the time. We managed to capture a photo (pictured here) of our hotel while on the ferry. Sampai jer kat Darling Habour, Mak Lijah pun called rumah Cathie and spoke to Andrew, Cathie's husband, to confirm our dinner that night.
We strolled along the harbour taking our own sweet time, took lots of pictures, had Indian lunch, took a ride on the 'train' to go around Darling Harbour and ended the tour at Paddy's Market at nearly 3 pm.
Bila sampai hotel, Baron told us that the room for us was not booked as what we had requested for but he was kind enough to give us free internet access. Now.. is not that nice? Brotherly ASEAN...(walaupun half mat sal, kan?).
That night we met Cathie and the extended family at a lovely seafood restaurant. We had a great time going down memory lane. And that moment was one 'accomplishment' that I have always wanted to do for the past two decades.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Bye bye Brisbane
And so my days in Brisbane were over. Tak dapat nak snap banyak foto while we were here sebab masa sangatlah mampat. Letih betul this time around, melebihi keletihan di Jakarta dulu.
At one of the sessions, we finished at 0015. Yes, it was past midnite. Kalau Mak Lijah ni Cinderella, harus kasut kaca tu dari Nine West. Tapi it's not just about past midnite..it's about Mak Lijah being LOCKED-OUT OF THE HOTEL (de-ja-vu pulak). It was all because the meeting habis after 12 lah..and one of the hotel's rule is that the side entrance will be locked at midnite.
Habislah... And so Mak Lijah yang jahil ni terpaksalah mencari jalan lain untuk masuk ke hotel sampai terpaksa pergi dekat train station. By then it was nearly 0030 and I still could not get into the hotel. Pintu kaca banyak, but they were all locked.
Berjalanlah lagi Mak Lijah di kedinginan seawal pagi dan kesunyian tu.. Rasa suspens tak payah nak ceritalah. Manalah kita nak tahu apa nak jadi kat kita di negeri orang... Akhirnya Mak Lijah sampai jugalah ke pintu utama hotel pada pukul 0100 dan terus ke bilik dengan fikiran yang kosong.
Kalau dah macam tu punya meeting, bila masa nak amik gambar? Anyway, gambar kiri tu, was taken at the pancake restaurant which was actually a church dulu. Interesting, eh? Gambar kanan, obviously was where we had the meeting. It was a very big place, rasanya macam kena jalan dua batu baru sampai hujung... Dan pengalaman Mak Lijah di Brisbane pun dah sampai ke penghujungnya....
