farah’s corner

travelling here and there…
the entire of last week the entire researcher group was away in the north peninsular. the first 3 days we’re in USM for Sustainable Development conference where KARAM SIGH WALIA as one of the speakers, but we took off on Monday the 3rd day was a series of excursion starting from Orang Utam Island in Bukit merah to Nibong Tebal, to observe CSR project on mangrove swamps…

while we were thrilled with the bukit merah trip but we cant say the same with the latter trip. USM brough 2 busses of particpants there but we have to get down at the fisheres office and walked for more than 1 km (in heels) along rocky roads full of cow dungs!

but worth the knowledge we got. i like! then after enduring the riddiculous jambatan jam i drove my friends to Alor Setaq and got lost before actually arriving to Holiday Villa… By the time we arrived most of the shops at Setar walk aro closing but i managed to get myself so sets of nice brooches and crystal necklace…

Friday, we joined our big bosses at Bukit kayu Hitam for a meeting with a stakeholder and stopped at BlackForest Country club which surpass the boundary.. the food was fair. later we head straight for Kulim tech park Corp, another meeting with stakeholders… Mr Z my dear boss who was taking photos caught this, obviously he saw me drifting away and caught in on photo… cheh the jam, the rain was dreadful that we took a few hours to get to kulim. after the b rief meeting, we took off to putrajaya, arriving at nearly midnight…

hence, that weekend i was struggling with my 1 week laundry (note; i handwash everything) and became so tired!!!

monday came and another not so surprise landed… a few weeks ago me and a colleague applied to attend a renewable energy conference in Bogor but since they were quiet we thought well, the application went down the drain… but that monday came and it seems HR was all tensed processing our stuff, making flight bookings, arranging our itinerrary etc,,, man, i was like…. not looking fwd… tenaga pun blm pulih (note: i’m not in the best helath these days rite)… especilally this meant we’ll depart that monday jugak…. gila…

i mean, we know nothing of how to move about, the currencies, the place etc,…

but still, that afternoon i was asked to go back and pack my stuff and come back later that evening.. then i was already in plane that night… and the flight was full…

we touched down jakarta at11.50pm local time and took a private cab (which was a luxurious toyota mpv that cost us Rp 600k) to our hotel, Mirah Hotel in Bogor. The journey was 2 hours. i was well-known for my ability to doze off in cars and buses but i dare not to even close an eye lid here as i dont know are we ok with this private cab, is it safe, is he really taking us there etc…

but really, thanks to the driver, we learns some facts of indonesia here…
the hotel is fine (above pic) just that there’s no iron provided and we have the laundry people to iron our clothes and being charged perpiece… silly…

and that very morning we have to check out and bring our luggage along to the conference as we have to move to another hotel which is novotel… the venue of the conference is IPB, Inst. Pertanian Bogor (pronounced as ee-pe-be) which is now Botany Square, where lies a mall similar to alamanda, at a smaller scale… it’s nice to see familiar faces there, Malaysians i mean.. ada bosses from MOSTI and SIRIM and Zainal san… hahah… thank Allah you were there…

there during lunch at JCO we talked bout and important event that was taking place in malaysia right now. the permatang pauh election. have no interest to know. already expect the results to turn out that way. i just sincerely hope that they stop thinking bout themselves, rather fikir pulak pasai orang melayu yg kian tenggelam ni….

That place is ok… ok lah… ada starbucks and Jco… JCO is big here, the owner, Johnny Andrea also owns chain of salon, for massage etc…

and that night we moved to novotel… and we didnot expect it was a nice hotel… and we got a nice room… i bet it was damn expensive,… there’s a bath tub outside and a garden… very luxurious… (mesti kes bilik penuh and our office only have this option)haha… just look;

not just the room was great… the hotel itself have:

1. spectacular view and scenes

2. Great Floras

3. Great archs (18sx) hahaha

For every RM190, we’ll get Rp 500,000… since we changed more than just that, merasa jugak jadi jutawan. when calculated, RM 1= Rp2631.6

1. the difference in time between m’sia and indonesia is 1 hour. so when arriving jakarta i have to minus 1 hour from my watch
2. the flight was 2 hours (MAS)
3. subuh here is around 4.45am, zohor around 12pm, asar: 3pm, maghrib 6pm, dont know about isya’
4. in jakarta alone the population is 35 million…. imagine that…
5. the biggest and most reliable taxis are from the Bluebird group… their taxis are all toyotas.. taxi kita???
6. it took 2 hour of clear road from jakarta airport to bogor
7. apart jakarta, there many more business/city center that beats kl like kuningan
8. there are no speed limits here, meaning no speed trap!!
9. the indonesian drivers are not too fast although u’re free to speed but yet they r feisty and furious… honking all the time
10. indonesian guys especially those working in hotels and airports are hot!!! and they say i’m arabian (what a spoiler!!)
11. they hold dear to their culture… the patung2 are like everywhere… batiks…
12. the traffic jam is MACET and i really can die out of it

thanks to the MACET, we nearly missed our 3.45 flight. if it is not for the delay, we have to buy another ticket from our own pocket money. it was a 3 hours delay… so kami duduk melangut kat airport… bought a few books at a book store at the terminal… even the airport was traditional… many patungs and batiks and traditional musical instruments sold there.

flight took off at 8pm local time. MAS serves nasi puteh with kurma chicken and gravy, so delicious that i finished off everything. by the time we arrive, it was already nearly 12. we were sl;eepy, tired and took the wrong train and ended up in kl sentral. took a cab back to putrajaya and dahtak ingat apa2 dah…

sekian terima kasih, kalau ada fakta salah sila betuikan ye