Back to singapore again

Back to civilization again ??
I don't know if shopping centers counts as civilization (for girls yeahhh, hehehe).

This morning i wake up too early. There's few girls just got back from party, and they were so late, and NOISY to the hostel.
So we decide to just take a bath and get out from the hostel at 6.15 am. We left some of our biscuits there, too much to carry.
Theres a tuk2 outside the hostel. But he want to ask us for 80 baht to the hostel, for both of us.
Oh, God, we cried, not again !!
We said 50 for both, and he just don't want. Sorry.. but we're too tired with all of this tuk2 ISSUE, maybe its REALLY a tradition in here if you were talking about tuk2 that's mean headache.
We decide to walk a bit and there's a songthew passing thru. He stop, Maria don't want to do anything about the songthew because of yesterday incident. But i told the driver how much to the airport, he said 60 baht (wew ! lower than tuk2??) and finally he agree with 50 baht for both (could be cheaper because its not really that far).
Anyway, we just jump in to the songthew and then there's two other girls join us to the airport. They were planning to go to Koh Pang Nga. We already been there, sunshine and beach.. good luck girls !
The songthew stop us at local departure, wrong terminal.
But its not that far to go to the international departure. So we walk with the help of trolley (yess they had that !! so happy to see specially when you carry so much luggage!)
Okay, this is it... could we get thru without paying for extra weight with our big luggages ?
I did pay for extra luggage so we both could bring at least 20 kgs each. So total is 40 Kgs.
And you know how much our total luggage after we measure it at checkin counter ????
39,3 kgs !!!!!!!
Hahahahahhhhaaaa!!!
I think that was a good news, and need to be celebrate with being happy for the rest of our flight.
But..psssttt.. little black secret here..you know.. the total weight of our luggage is actually 43 kgs more. I just do some old trick to the backpack. If you were worried about your luggage over weight, when they put that on scale, don't lay them all. Put it straight up where there's less space/pressure to the scale, the weight getting lighter, its physics law. It works for me all the time on budget airlines !

We had our breakfast at the coffee shop at the 1st floor near the Tiger Airways ticketing. I had a cup of tea and a croissant for breakfast. Trust me.. its NOT enough for my Indonesian tummy. So i get few bites on chocolate that i brought also.
And when i take my wallet out, oh no... there it is.. my pink swiss army knife. AAAAAAAARRGGHHH !!!
Once again, i forgot to put it on my luggage.
Maria and i got sudden panic (especially me). But then we try to hide it on my wallet where theres so many magnetics cards (ATM, credit cards, etc) and it is attached to my keys as a key chain, but still it's a knife.
We went to the second floor of the airport. First we cant really decide what to do because we still have like 1 hour time to spent here. There's only coffee shop out side the waiting room. We try to peek in ..well yeah.. there's more shops there but not as much as in Singapore.
First i think it was amazing that a small city like Chiang mai have international airport, but then Maria reminds me that there's been Olympic games held here, so yes, its good. Small but comfy.
So we went to the immigration line to get to the waiting room. And (gasp !) they were taking pictures of me !! (arrrghh!) if i know they will take the picture i would made my self not looks like some one that "had" to be awake at 5 am ! (read:messy and dull).
We do body scan, and then they x-ray our things, my heart beating fast because i don't want them to take the swiss army knife !! and they re-scan my things AGAIN ! i think my face become more pale than it used... but then they said okay... then all sudden i could breathe as normal (i'm such a criminal...don't ever try this people !!)
We took few pictures there. The toilet is clean and international standard (toilet tissue, clean, smells good and no squad potty or leaking waters).
The flight is all right, and amazingly boring. I'm wondering what would it be on the plane for 18 hours or more?? I try to sleep, i feel tired but just can't. Read mags.. oooohh the mags too good to be read, that you know sometimes that you want to keep some of your reading because you afraid that you don't have anything to read.. that "syndrome" happened there, that time, so i quit reading the mags. I just try to write few things on my temporary journal.
Anyway theres a guy that ask for our blog address cause he see us taking pictures and i explain that for our blogs. He is a nice guy, always smile ( you need that when ever you were in a place that you never been, and you don't know anyone !).
So here we are in singapore and its raining quite hard. We're planning to go to Orchad road as soon as we book our bed at Betel Box. When we finally had our bed we feel so tired that we sleep until 5 afternoon.
The raining is not as hard as before, but its cold and cloudy. I guess moonson not only hit Thailand. We went down stair with umbrella. Hungry !
We rush to find Ayam Penyet Ria, just few blocks from Betel Box, all we need to do is just walk along the road, in rain !
My feet all cold, but thinking about the Chilli that i will eat, uuuhhmm.. Yums !!! we're Indonesian we can't live without those hot chilli and extra hot spices.
We almost can't find rice in Thailand, so when we did find rice.. awww and tempe !! feels we just at home (even the tempe sliced so thin !!). We full after eat a portion for eac of us. Maria have a hot Milo and i had my hot orange juice. I have fever !
After eat and lick our finger tips (yummss), we went back to hostel and wash our face and get ready for Orchad Road.
We took MRT and went to Orchad road. We're lost as usual on our very first day on every town.
Singapore, especially in geylang areas is look different than before we went here. There's a lot of pretty light and some people were busy building tent along the road. They were preparing food stand for the holly month Ramadhan.
Its good to see how this country could celebrate all of their religion beliefs. It's quite different than in Indonesia. I said so because even we had so many cultures and 6 religion and beliefs, you could only see the Moslem celebration.
As a moslem, it's good, but as a nation, where is other culture that we should show to others ?? so much to think about.... i rarely see chinese celebration held in Jambi.. where theres so many chinese. Or where its chrismast.. i could only see they put lights and christmast tree only in shopping centre. In Singapore, its every where !
But then we find the place that we want to go.
We have Burger King as dinner at Orchad, and watch Barongsai dance(lion dance) competition until 9.30 pm. The competition is an international competition. We could see the participant mostly is from Chinese or Hongkong. They were great , and people seemed like it.

chiangmai-singapore

Chiangmai-Singapore 3 September 2007

Penerbangan jam 9 pagi tapi kita da membuka mata jam 5 pagi dan jam 7 kurang sudah ready menuju ke bandara karena khawatir ga dapet tuk2 or songthew. Ternyata pagi2 songthew or tuk2 da berkeliaran dan tuk2 dengan sombongnya ga mau nganter ke bandara yang dekat (cuma 10 menit) ga kurang dari 60 baht dan tiba2 songthew lewat dan rasa trauma masih melekat aku coba untuk sombong dan bilang ke bandara mau 50 baht berdua, eh dia langsung aja jawab ya…’tarik mang!!!!!!!!’. Ada 2 orang wanita Australia yang nginap disebrang jalan mo kebandara juga so dia ikut bareng dengan harga yang sama.

Kami ga tau berapa berat backpack kami dan sepertinya kami khawatir lebih dari 40 kg (seharusnya bagasi hanya boleh 15 kg tapi kita da bayar lebih untuk nambah 5 kg lagi). Ga nyangka beban kita berdua dengan 3 backpack 39.3 kg, sebenarnya lebih tapi karena tas fico agak nempel ke dinding meja so beban berkurang sedikit…hehe…lumayan so ga perlu bayar (hanya tas fico 23 kg, maknyos de ngangkatnya!!!).

Penerbangan dengan Tiger Airways (ga perlu bayar pajak juga karena sudah masuk semua dalam pembelian tiket) seperti kemaren cukup lumayan walo cuaca masih tidak terlalu baik, banyak guncangan2 kecil yang buat deg2an. Perjalanan 2 jam buat kepala pusing dan sulit untuk tidur. Di bandara kita heboh buat foto2 dan minta tolong ke seorang bapak bule, kita bilang buat dokumentasi blog kita dan ternyata dia seorang tutor tentang blog dan minta alamat blog kita, ga tau de dia baca apa ga or ngerti pa ga soale sebagian ditulis dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Tiba di Changi dengan selamat, amin!!!!!!! Melewati imigrasi da ga takut lagi, keciilllll!!!!!!

Singapore 3-4 September 2007

Singapore lagi, recek jam kembali, 1 jam lebih awal. Kembali ke hostel yang lama dengan naik taksi, bayar S$12, lumayan mahal euy. Singapore hujan, ga biasanya dibulan2 sekarang. Mo tidur terganggu ma suara anak2 dari korea yang nginap dikamar, da diomongi mereka cuma bisa bilang ’sorry’. Rasa dingin mengundang lapar dan kami makan ’ayam penyet’ S$7.5/porsi. Karena ga bisa tidur kami jalan2 naik MRT ke Orchad Road (pastinya disepanjang jalan ini banyak mall!!!) dan di Ngee Ann City ada pertandingan barong sai, lumayan menghibur. Ga terlalu excited lagi selama di Singapore, apa karena kecapekan dan rasa was2 ga tau mo naik apa ke jambi dari Batam plus fico rada gak enak badan gara2 keguyur hujan (gara2 capek juga kali yakk, gw juga tapi kan rada beda, da terlatih selama jadi field operator yang sering ujan2an karena harus back on line equipment tapi gaji ga naek2...huuuaaaahhh). Balik ke hostel setelah makan di Burger King’s trus ke apotek buat beli obat flu buat fico (hehhehe...). Apotekernya gak mau ngasih obat kayak paracetamol dll gitu tanpa ada resep dokter (whaaalllahh) jadi cuma beli obat batuk woods aja sama vicks aja. Gw heran kok ada aturan gitu ya padahal di Indonesia obat kayak gitu di jual bebas, bahkan bebas banget!!!

ChiangMai day 1 & 2: The History City

Chiang Mai City Tour a.la Fika & Mari :

The famous Three King Park (With beach costumes..hehehe)


Arts and Cultural Centre next to the Three king Park


Walk 20-30 minutes and from the park, you will find night market open from 4.30 pm

Burger King Night Market Chiangmai (Halal problem ? ..solve! just order french fries and chicken/cheese burger)


Night Market from Burger king Level 2




Wat tour day 2

Wat Chediluang very first in the morning


Restoration (?) look at the top of the chedi (its only half of it (?))

girl power...

...read fico's story "we were sent to police!!!"...

I'm cool now but really I was MAD!!!!
I supported you fico...

we can't let people bother and we just be silent.
very amazing last trip in thailand end in police station with stupid, annoying songthew driver that can't defenced himself because he was guilty.
so you guys, don't be afraid to say NO and FIGHT if you are in right side.

go girls!!!!!!!!!!

We were sent to police !!

Okay this is what happened if a fraud songthew guy want to messed with two Indonesian girls.
It wasn't nice at all.
The story begun when we just finished visiting Wat Phrasingh. We decide to go to Doi Suthep by our own in stead taking tours. After went to seven eleven infront of Wat Phrasingh we ask an old white guy about the songthew that goes to Doi Suthep. He said it wont be more expensive than 40 baht for both of us from there.
So we stop one of the songthew (van/pickup public car), we ask wether he could took us to Doi Suthep. But he stop another songthew that coming from different lines and ask (??) that 2nd songthew driver to take us to Doi Suthep.
We cross the street to get to 2nd songthew, and don't want to made silly mistake we ask again wether the 2nd driver want to take us to Doi Suthep, he said yes for 40 baht for both of us.
We then jump in to his songthew. There's no other passenger at the back its only two of us. We quite happy that we could pay 40 baht instead 500 baht just for Doi Suthep.. well.. its out of town, its about 7 km's away.. but we could do it with songthew anyway.
So suddenly just like after 5 minutes ride with songthew the 2nd driver stop and ask us to get to another songthew that said could took us to Doi Suthep for 40 baht (what the heck ???!!!!!!!)
First Maria tought we could just jump in without paying the 2nd songthew but i could see the driver insist for his 40 baht. Maria get really angry !!
I told him its okay if we pay 10 baht for each, but not 40 baht. But he insist. We know they want to fool us, and Maria still get mad at him and give him 10 baht for both of us.
This 3rd songthew driver face turn red and said "if you don't want to pay my friend, he will took you to police station" both of us right away say "YES !!!" we want to go to police station. Its just wont going toi happened to us AGAIN (read in Bangkok)
And, amazingly he did drive us to Police station. I still chilled out, because i could see Maria is still really mad. But when we got to the police station, and we jump off, the driver talk to both of us and try to scare us that he will really told the police that we don't want to pay him. He make his eye bigger and high his tone RIGHT INTO MY FACE.
Okay, that's it !!!!!!!!!!!
He saw how mad Maria is, but he surely don't want to see me mad... but he did made me MAD !
We rush to go inside. I know from his body language actually he is not really want to get in. So i push the door, i could see few police guy inside. My brother inlaw is a policeman. I am not afraid. I didn't do anything wrong.
I step in, and talk to the first police that i see, and unpolitely before i FINISHED what i said that 2nd songthew guy cut what ever i said and try to talk at the same time, i said to my self... oh.. okay.. you are toatll wrong, want the asty part of me, allright, here we go.
I went crazy, and unstopable. Both of us Maria and me talk at the same time very fast in english. Made the police statioon so noisy. Until one of the police ask if there's anyone could speak english and translate what we said in english to thai language.
We did fnally find a couple tat could speak both thai and english. We told her what happened.
First she still thought it just a missunderstading until we told her that the driver absolutely said yas when we ask for Doi Suthep. If he can't take us there, he could say no, like the first songthew driver that we see before him.
After few minutes argueing, and explaining, yelling, and sighning, the policeman infront of us maybe thought "okay, thats all, this is all to silly.. better to send this two crazy girl out of my office". So he did ask the girl that translate us to ask us to go and not to pay anything since were not going anywhere AT ALL.
We go. I said thanks to her and her bf (nice guy). And to the police (that looks like really upset with all the noise), and SORRY to the songthew driver (that not succeed to fool another FARANG just like he always did). We rushing go outside, and think that we're too "hot" to think where else to go.
Still mumbling at street finally we went to our guesthouse, and take a rest for a while.
After 1 pm we were hungry so, we decide, mac love is our choice (read Mc D's), i want cheese burgers and ice creammmm ! after this hassle and heat... i deserve it.. hehehehe

From bangkok to Chiangmai

I have huge back pack on my back(80ltr), one in front of my chest (30ltr)and we still had to drag other bag (50 ltr) to the MRT station, and then sub way. Have to walk on sky walk before reach the subway.
Nightmare !
Its the other price to pay when you're a shopohoilic. I got tshirt for my family, sisters, evern small tedy bear for my niece.
We check out at 10.30 from Central Shukumvit 25. We had our break fast there, also lunch after we get to internet first to back up our cameras memory. Maria camera already full so she have to move half of the datas to a new sony micro flas disk that i just bought (390 baht).
We bought KFC for our dinner at train ( no more "is this cooked with pork?" question at least). The KFC located outside the station. When you get your ticket you have to seek very carefully to the KFC sign on the other side of the waiting room of the station, its on the corner of the food court stairs (the food court on the 2nd floor).
We went here yesterday. We quite supraise to see a white guy as a cashier of the KFC. Ofcourse it could be anywhere, but not at Indonesia for sure. That white guy speak very fluently Thai language, that we even re-thought that he might 50% Thai (he is absolutely physicly 100% white guy).
Our train number was 15. We got the last seat. Its not really a seat, at night it will become a bed. Both of us choose the upper bed, with fan and its rapid train. The ticket price is 491 baht for each.
The train leaving the bangkok station at straight 2.30pm and we will arrive at 6.00 in Chiangmai.
The journey ?
Feels almost the same like a train that i used to go to Palembang from Lampung. Business class.. but you could see lots of "non-passenger" get thru you offering foods, drinks, etc. But at least they were more nicely than you see on Palembang-Lampung train. They don't push you or threat you to buy anything for sure.
I can't really sleep because outside the window the scenery is beautifull. Its not all jungle like in Sumatra. You could see rice field, jungle, yes, and small towns.
I don't want to missed that. Also the sunset for sure.
The ticket guy is really nice to us. He said that his brother went to Indonesia for working (i'm grinning because there's alot of Thai guys working on our plant shutdown job).
There's none pick us up. We check my mail from the raiway station internet (10 baht/15minutes), its fast enough. The internet just looks like a vending machine.
The guest house said that they were probably wont sent anyone if theres none at the station using yellow shirt with julie guest house name. None.
So we ask the information about the tuk2 price to the guest house they said it was 60 baht.
We went outside and theres a woman offering songthew (pickup van) for 100 baht but Maria insist for 50 baht. They left us. But after about 15 minutes the guy back and agree with 50 baht (good job maria !!)
At the first sight when i see the guest house, its alittle bit dark, and Maria also said.. "errrhhh... is this the same guest house that we see online???" well i don't know for sure.
The office is seemed still closed as they said on the net, they will open at 8 am.
So we're trying to sleep pn the hostel looby. That morning there's several people sitting, or just lying down the bed or sofas that the put outside the hostel.
There's several people also seemed just arrive just looks like us with loads of backpack on their back waiting, and trying to get some rest. But same just like us they have to wait.
At 7.30 then they open the front door of the office and i ask about my booking confirmation. They said there's only double room but without hot water. I don't feel i was booking a room without hot water, so i insist to get one. They said they will arrange the room but we should wait until 11..

crazy chiangmai.....

Bangkok-Chiangmai 31 Agustus 2007

Kita berangkat ke Chiangmai naik kereta setelah survey dan beli tiket satu hari sebelumnya di stasiun Hua Lampong (cuma ada 1 stasiun kereta, kita kemaren naik BTS dan lanjut naik MRT tapi dari stasiun .... ke stasiun Hua Lampong lumayan jauh so selamat berjuang kalo punya bawaan kayak kami kemaren). Kita memilih kereta 2nd class sleeper rapid train (491 baht) soale jam berangkatnya jam 2 siang so nyampe Chiangmai sekitar jam 6 pagi. Ada juga se yang berangkat jam 8 malam, kereta Express, coba cek websitenya aja biar lebih jelas!!! Keretanya ga mewah, sama aja kayak Parahyangan Jakarta-Bandung tapi yang ini punya tempat buat tidur so bisa istirahat de. Hati2 dengan bawaan, kita kemaren spare gembok gede buat jaga2 J.

Chiangmai 1-3 September 2007

Di Chiangmai sama aja kayak di Bangkok, semua hostel buka jam 8 pagi so kita nunggu dalam keadaan ngantuk, capek, dekil plus pusing (train lag J). Sambil nunggu kita ke warnet dulu, disini warnet 15 baht/jam dan cepat banget, sangat murah sekali dibanding dengan Krabi or Bangkok yang rata2 40 baht/jam.

Kita nginap di Julie’s hostel, kita nyewa 1 kamar dengan hot shower 179 baht/kamar tapi kamarnya mah kecil banget apalagi kamar mandinya. Menurut gw ga terlalu nyaman se tapi banyak banget yang nginap disini bahkan ada yang rela balik lagi kesini walo da nginap ke tempat lain karena kelamaan nunggu front office buka. Mereka punya restoran so kita ga perlu repot keluar mo makan or beli minum, harganya mang lebih mahal tapi cuma beda 10-15 baht dari warung luar so ga masalah kali ya.

Tadinya mo ikut tour keliling kuil dan tempat kerajinan sutra tapi karena kita pesan buat hari minggu so harganya jadi 3250 baht, halah, mending ga jadi. Tapi kalo hari biasa 2800 baht, mang mahal banget se tapi da dapet makan siang+malam plus menyaksikan tarian tradisional Thailand. Karena ga jadi so kita bertualang sendiri lagi, sorenya kita mulai dengan keliling pasar malam dan seperti biasa semua ada di jual disini.

Perjalanan ga jauh dari ’wat day’, kebetulan tempat kita nginap dekat dengan berbagai kuil yang cukup ternama dan masuk dalam rekomendasi buku yang kita punya dan kuil2 yang akan kita kunjungi kalo pake tour. Dimulai dari Wat Chedi Luang, disini kuil tua, ada 4 patung Budha yang gede lagi duduk dan ada replika patung Budha tidur tapi kemaren lagi renovasi. Wat Phra Singh, kuil tempat ibadah dan banyak dikunjungi masyarakat setempat tapi ga terlalu besar. Habis dari sini kita ga ada rencana lain tapi waktu masih siang dan ada ide mo ke Doi Suthep, kuil tertua di Chiangmai. Kita nanya2 ma bule yang lagi belanja di 7 eleven dan bilang ada songthew yang langsung kesana dan bayar ga lebih dari 40 baht. Mulailah memberhentikan songthew yang lewat dan bertanya dengan bahasa inggris yang singkat padat dan jelas..’doi suthep???’, dia bilang ga tapi memberhentikan songthew lain dan kami bertanya lagi...’we want to doi suthep??...’yes!’...’how much???’...’40 baht 1 person’...’ok, 40 baht to doi suthep for 2 person???’...’yes!!’. Naiklah kami ke songthewnya dan meluncur dengan pasti kearah jalan yang pernah kami lalui. Tiba2 berhenti dan nyuruh kami turun dan nyambung ke songthew lain mo ke doi suthep tapi kami harus bayar dia 40 baht. Gw marah dan jelas tersinggung, ga lagi2 gw diboongi ma supir. Gw bilang ga mau bayar dan supir lain malah marah2 karena ga mungkin kami diantar kesana dengan mobil itu. Gw bilang ’bodo amat, dia janji mo antar kok sekarang berubah dan kami harus bayar lebih, kalo ga bisa antar bilang ga bisa dari awal!!’. Dia malah ngancam, ’kalo ga mo bayar kalian diantar ke kantor polisi!!!’. Gw dalam keadaan emosi, makin berang aja ’hayo!!!!!’. Beneran kami dibawa kekantor polisi dan waktu fico bilang gpp kalo kami ke kantor polisi, gw tetep maju membela kebenaran. Sebelum masuk, supirnya melototin fico dan yang jadi berang malah fico. Masuklah kami menghadap pak polisi dan si supir ’terhormat’ itu yang merasa ada diatas angin, ngomong langsung dengan bahasanya tentunya dan waktu gw mo ngomong...huahhhh...ternyata ga ada yang bisa english tapi untung ada seorang wanita yang lagi mengantar seorang bule yang habis kecelakaan dan dia bisa english sedikit. Pertama si wanita berfikir kami ga mo bayar padahal da diantar, kita ceritakan semua kronologis dengan english secepat kereta dan kami berdua semakin panas dan suara meninggi. Awalnya si wanita sulit mengerti dan si bule membantu kami menerangkan dengan suara yang tenang dan lambat sehingga si wanita mengerti. Si bule juga berkata disini memang sering terjadi seperti itu, si supir sering membohongi para turis dan jarang yang melapor ke polisi. Akhirnya si wanita menjelaskan keadaan dan si supir ga berani membantah, mungkin bapak2 polisi merasa menghadapi kasus yang aneh dan bingung plus pusing mendengar fico dan gw ngomong dengan ’kekuatan bulan’ J akhirnya nyurh kami pergi setelah si wanita nanya ’kalian mau bayar bapak supir ga??’, gw dengan rasa marah dan BT bilang ’ga akan!!’...’kalo gitu kalian boleh pergi!!’. Gw heran, gitu aja??? Dan yang paling ga nyambung si wanita sambil megang tangan gw bilang ’Thailand is beautiful, the people is good’....’maksud??!!!??’ Kami keluar duluan, sedang si supir masih tertahan didalm, mungkin si polisi takut kami dicegat ma si supir kali ya ??!! kami berdua berjanji…cukup sudah kuil2an!!!!!!!!

Untuk menenangkan diri kami kembali ke hostel dan membagi pengalaman ini ma front office, eh dia malah ga percaya dan rada BT ngeliat kami. Negara yang aneh dengan penduduknya yang aneh pula. Karena emosi dan rasa pusing plus lapar, kami merindukan McD kami yang tercinta, panas terik ga menghalangi kami untuk sesuap burger dan kentang goreng dan tak lupa segelas besar coke. Makan siang menjelang sore sekitar jam 3 kurang dan kami melanjutkan perjalanan mengitari jalan yang belum pernah kami lalui dan menemukan ’Pantip Plaza Chiangmai’, mall alat2 elektronik dan fico tergiur dengan laptop yang lagi sale…hehehe…. Oia, disini ada internet gratis so lumayan buat ngecek email dan browse tentang taksi dari bandara change ke hostel. Petualangan Chiangmai kami tutup dengan mengobok2 tiap kios pasar malam dan kembali ke hostel sebelum jam 8 malam karena harus packing semua beban dan kembali ke Singapore sebelum kembali ke negaraku tercinta.