Jutz 1 Blog

#6 backdated post.

It’s year end again, which means I’m off from Christmas till New Year. And this year we decided not to go back to China, but instead venture south, to Bandung. Many have said that Bandung is a shopping haven. Apparently it’s full of factory outlet. So we were there to experience if that’s the fact or just rumours passing around.

Day 1

We flew to Bandung on Christmas day (just 2 of us, without the kids). This round we weren’t alone, we went with another friend and her mom. I didn’t quite enjoy the flight cause we were sitting the old Boeing 737, not Airbus. And the flight was pretty full.

Once we arrive, we took a cab and went straight to the hotel. We were greeted by beggars that came smack right up to our car!!! I was shocked!! Yeah, they have beggars, musicians that will come next to the cab and start singing to you when your car stops. Hoping to get some income I guess. A new way of begging LOL.

The hotel…again Daddy complained that it’s not good enough. Well, 3-star what you expect, year end always expensive everywhere. But the hotel lobby was pretty good looking compared to the room haha…

We went for lunch just opposite the hotel, Pak Chi Met, supposingly very famous for their Bakar Food. Each of us ordered different type of food, Ikan Bakar, Ayam Bakar, etc..it came with stuff squid (also bakar) and Prawns (also bakar). Yes very tasty meal. Then we started our shopping adventure. Our 1^st destination was Paris Van Java (Sogo). It was actually not planned, but we had to go there (walking distance from hotel) as our friend needed a pair of sandals.

This place is very much like ermm…KL shopping complex. It’s very nicely done, with cafes outside, and boutiques on the inside. We split into 2 group, our friend went shoe hunting, while both of us went lurking around the place. We went to Daiso (selling Japanese stuff for RM7nett) and bought some stuff.

Next, we headed to Cihampelas, that’s the place they call that sells all sorts of jeans. Once you arrive at that place, you are greeted with many superheros!! Each shop has their own superhero haha…But after many hours of shopping we couldn’t find any jeans that suit us…thumbs down!!

We were stuck in 1 of the shop as it was pouring non stop. So we had our very early dinner next to the factory outlet. The food we had was pretty interesting. More bakar stuff!! It was rice, wrapped with ermm some leave (I don’t think it’s banana), then bakar for sometime and served with some chicken, tempe and more tempe. Well, to me it’s just like lemang that kinda rice…

We walk further down the cihampelas area when the rain mellowed down but still couldn’t get any jeans…gosh…but Daddy did eye on this cool looking skeleton helmet haha..which later he regretted for not getting it.

So we decided….heck, this place has all the jeans you can find that doesn’t suit you at all!! We hop on to a cab and wanted to go to Dago. Dago is another place with a lot of factory outlets. But taxi driver recommended Riau, just around the corner. He said that is good, thumbs up for tourist!! OK lah, so we went to Riau instead of Dago. The taxi driver was pretty friendly and we also enquired about our next day trip how much he’s gonna charge (checking prices) and in the end we did engage him to be our 1 day driver for Day 2 activity.

So we stopped at Riau for shopping, That time was 8pm+, shops close at 930 (aiks…so early for a shopping haven….thumbs down!!). There were 4 outlets there, I only manage to go to 1, but Daddy went all 4 (2 men, 2 women) and he ended up buying a pair of jeans at last. Versace jeans for only RM70!! Super cheap huh. As for me, I didn’t buy anything, but bought some clothes for the kids (20 pieces), cheap prices as well. I paid about the range of RM15-20 for GAP/NEXT Clothing.

Day 2

Today is the day we are going uphill to smell some sulfur. Apart from shopping, Bandung is also known for its Volcano Activity. Here lies Tangkuban Perahu (Upside Down Boat) the partially active Volcano.

We left the hotel at about 930am with our taxi driver. The road up the hill wasn’t that pleasant. Windy for sure!! Nice scenery but I wasn’t in the mood to capture cause I get car-sick (yucks!!). Yeah I’m so used to driving, whenever other people drive and I’m the passenger, I tend to get car sick, sigh..

So Daddy took some shaky shots along the way. I took over the camera only when we arrived at the Ratu Crater. Ratu crater is still pretty much active. I didn’t see spews of lava for sure, but the smell of sulfur sure rocks there!! It was drizzling and pretty misty, hence not very good photographs. I also kept my camera cause I didn’t want it to get wet.

After that, we went to somewhere lower…don’t know what they call, Domas Crater or what, and we walked thru the forest. The walk was pretty long…so long that we kept asking the self-appointed tourguide when are we reaching the base? Manage to take a lot of photos here. It’s really amazing looking at the plants that grow here. So fertile!! Most of the trees barks were black/dark brown. Effects from the volcano activity, as explained. There were many moss grown on the side of the trees, walls, etc…In fact I enjoyed taking photos of all those tiny tiny plants. Things that you won’t notice with your naked eye.

And finally we arrived at this scenic mountain area where we could rest and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It’s absolutely very breathtaking. Then more walk…down to the hotspring. It was raining on and off when we were at the hotspring…arghh…so I was like flashing my camera on and off. No rain quickly take out the camera and shoot, rain start quickly hide the camera.

Daddy was happily dipping his feet into the hotspring. I think he spent easily 30mins there. I was busy snapping photos of the boiling water (which they used to boil eggs) and sulfur crystals that formed on the rocks (sorry no close up cause it was raining!!).

Then we continued walking and towards the end, our mr. tourguide charged us an exorbitant Rp. 600000 (can’t remember the 0s, but it was expensive) for that few hours!!! Note to everyone, do not ever talk to them if you go there, just tell them you walk yourselve…you won’t get lost there trust me. MORE PICS OF TANGKUBAN PERAHU HERE.

That the ends our very interesting tour around the Volcano inclusive of getting conned. We went for lunch down town, some fried chicken shop. This shop is famous for it’s fried chicken. You see it almost everywhere, like their local KFC. Nothing special, just fried chicken. We ordered Sup Buntut (sound obscene huh) as well. Turns out it’s like our local ABC Soup boiled with beef instead of chicken/pork.

What’s after lunch….more shopping!! You see, in Bandung there’s only 1 place to visit, that is the Tangkuban Perahu. There’s simply nothing else…just shopping and endless shopping muahahaha….

Our next stop was Rumah Mode (pronounce as Mo De). Another factory outlet. There were throngs of people, as though everything was free there. We spent like 2 hours there…searching and digging. What’s the outcome, Daddy has the most loot!! He’s definitely a pro-shopper, seems like every shop he has something to buy *shake head*. He bought plenty of shirts (like those golf shirt/football jersey material), all for the price of RM30-40 (Nike Brand you know!!). I didn’t get anything, again I couldn’t find something I like, those that I like no size..arghh..

Then our taxi driver drops us back at the hotel and waited for us downstairs. We drop our stuff took a quick shower and went for 2^nd round shopping. This round he took us to Dago (I think). There were plenty of outlets within walking distance. We hop on a few here n there.

Finally I was able to buy some clothes. Not only 1 but a few, though not as many as Daddy. I bought some babydoll tops for RM50. Slightly cheaper than KL, but they only have 1 piece for each design. Then we went to shoe outlet and bought shoes (for myself and Vyktore).

We shopped till 9pm, then we headed back to Paris Van Java. This is actually our favourite place to get together to settle our daily expenses, take some rest, eat some not so Indon food. We had Chinese food for once, the rest was like Dragon-I concept. Not bad the food, especially the har kow (prawn dumplings) so fresh!! After that we head to this shop, like Lecka Lecka (Icre Cream) Indon version and had ice cream.

Seriously, my legs were already aching after all the walks. We went back to hotel and tomorrow is another shopping day.

MORE PHOTOS OF FOOD HERE.

Day 3

Well, shopping for everyone except Ms. Jasmine cause I had food poisoning. Sigh…why does this happen every time I travel during year end. It always happens 2 days before I leave!! It happened last year in China and this year again!! So there I was, walking in and out of the bathroom close to 6 times on that day…Mr. Hon and friend and mother went shopping came back, went out, came back…and I told him, forget bout me, just go shop, I just want to sleep. And that’s all I did. He of course came back with more loots LOL…for himself, and for the kids and for me as well.

MORE PHOTOS ON SHOPPING HERE.

Day 4

Time to go back. I still don’t feel any better in the morning. Very dizzy sigh…and just when I was about to leave the hotel, I sort of sprained my back (reminds me of sciatica). And boy am I glad to be home when the plane landed. It took me more than 1 week to be back to my normal self. Lesson learned, don’t take ice!!

So what’s the loots like?

Daddy – 4 pair of jeans, lots of shirts

Mommy – 2 baby doll tops, 1 cardigan, 2 tops, 1 pair of shoes

Faythe – 1 skirt, 3 tops

Vyktore – lots of tops, jeans, jacket, shoes (I’m not biased, but sometimes i find it hard to get clothing for V, so when I see good ones, I’ll get more)

We also bought some souvenirs for the family. Sorry no pic, all given out liao.

Would I recommend to go Bandung? Yes for a guy, cause you can find clothing very easily there. Not really for a lady since most of the clothing couldn’t fit me, either too small or too big.

And, if you want to do online shopping you can also do that. Many people these days are doing there shopping online for many reasons. You can find deals on gorgeous living room furniture to things like LCD TVs when people do there online shopping

GENERAL PHOTOS OF BANDUNG…IN CASE YOU WANT TO SEE HOW THIS PLACE LOOK LIKE.

#5 backdated post.

Only 3 more backdated post to go…I hope :P.

So after the wedding, we had Christmas Eve Dinner on 24th Dec Night. As usual, MIL invited some of her friends over for the dinner at her place and we were there too. It was supposed to be outdoor, but it rained so heavily that we had no choice to move everything in.

There were plenty of food served…..in fact I was so busy didn’t have much chance to taste all of them hehe…Kids were kept entertained with Finding Nemo Cartoon (only applies to Vyktore). Faythe was so busy running around, jumping around. She enjoys it most I guess.

We dressed Vyktore up as Santa Claus (wearing Faythe’s last year Santa Clause suit) and he look soo cute!!

At about 8pm+, the carolers from Church came over and started carolling for about 30mins. They come to the house every year. Faythe even joined them to sing Jingle Bells towards the end (she knows the chorus).

We left the kids at MIL’s place about 10pm as tomorrow we will be heading to Bandung for 4 days.

#4 backdated post.

Seems that my backdated post is endless…..I promise, only few more OK :).

I took off on Christmas eve, half day (the other half given by office). And where did I go early morning? Well, it’s Eelaine & Boon Koon’s Wedding!! Sometime ago in July, I wrote bout their ROM (registration of marriage). So here’s the big day. I’m NOT the official photographer of course…..only the kpc photographer :).

I was the 1st few arriving at Eelaine’s Apartment around 930am, after dropping my kids off at MIL’s place. She already started her make up and the official photographer has started taking photos. It wasn’t just any ordinary wedding, but an ex-BBGS gathering as well as there were quite a number of us from the old school.

Well, everyone were busy preparing *edible food* for the groom & his entourage. We had some time, took some photos. The groom were like 1 hour late!! Not sure on purpose or what hehe…

We had a great time torturing the groom & entourage haha…While they were busy chum cha to their relatives, we were busy eating cause didn’t eat since morning!!

I left after the lunch as I had to head back home for Christmas Eve Dinner while rest of the chee mui followed the entourage to the groom’s house for 2nd chum cha session.

More photos can be seen HERE.
The actual wedding dinner were held on 29th Dec, 4 days later after we came back from Bandung. It was in Renaissance and we had loads of fun (all of us dress up and did a make over!!). I only brought Faythe along as Daddy had to work on that night and she enjoyed herself yum seng the whole night.

#3 backdated post.

Sorry readers, still gotta suffer my backdated post. So on the 20th, it was public holiday.
You still remember? haha….I do :P. Since we had friends came down from SG, so early morning we went pick them up from Park Royal. They check out and check in to our private hotel…the guestroom LOL.

We brought them to have the ever famous Fish Head Noodles at Taman Desa…..my oh my…tonnes of people!! And I was suppose to meet up with Cheryl to do some shopping and catch up before the break since she’s going off to SG with Gerald during Christmas. So we went to Mid Valley.

I just love the deco in Mid Valley. I think they’ve got the best by far…I do like the Curve’s deco as well, but I like that Orangy feel MV gives…and the deco were so delicate, each of the flower/orange leave came with a fairy!! I wonder how many thousands they spend on Christmas Deco itself!! I wish I can gasak all the decos after Christmas haha since they gonna ditch it anyway rite ;).

So what else, take pics kow kow with the deco and the kids…except Mr. Vyktore Hon didn’t want to be photographed. He prefer to runaround and let us chase him *remind me to bring the kids leash next time*. Faythe wasn’t too cool about the deco, but she liked the other part of the deco where they put some mushrooms there…she’s a fan of mushroom, that’s why!!

Then Vyktore & maid (of course) followed Daddy back home with our guest, while I stayed on with Cheryl and Faythe and went round and round. Manage to get a pair of shoes which I needed to buy for Eelaine’s Wedding. We had lunch @ Italiannes…ordered that giant meatball spaghetti…and gosh…just too much for both of us.

this is paid post.

Valentine’s Day is round the corner…have you got any pressie for the other half? I haven’t got any…in fact I can’t think of anything to get for him. He has everything that he wants. His cigar, his wine, his tea…endless list. I used to get him cufflinks for his valentine’s day, but those days are gone that he needs cufflinks. If not I’m sure I’ll stash in more cufflinks to his collection. So what should I get? I’m out of idea..maybe should ask him to pick…

this is a paid post.

Staying in New York? Moving out of New York? Or maybe you are new and moving into New York? No matter you are out or in New York, fret not, movers New York can do just the right thing to help you move smoothly. Hassle free!! I remember those days when I had to label all my boxes and move them accordingly when I moved house. That wasn’t so painful, wait till it’s unpacking, it’s really crazy!! Can you imagine I still have a few boxes which I never unpack till today!! I told hubby, I’d never move again unless I’m going in as brand new…just buy everything new haha…..

this is paid post.

Too many properties and want to sell them off? Or want to get some good deals on property? Get a reliable real estate agent that can help you up in this. I’m actually in the process of selling a house and I must say that the process is really killing me. All that waiting, paper signing sigh…I wonder when that chunk of money gonna come in. Or probably because I didn’t appoint the proper real estate agent that can accomplish things fast for me, hence I have to wait so long. Now I kinda regret, I should have be more selective on the agent before I started to sell that house.

#2 backdated post.

More backdated stuff for this week. So before we went for our year end office closure (we always close worldwide from 25th onwards to new year, part of cut cost strategy), one of the manager wanted to organise some Christmas Carolling in the office to spice up that Christmasy Mood. Well, since I can’t sing but I could still contribute. Since I’m the photography club president, we loan some resources to take photos for the event hehe….

It was a very small group, like 10 carolers (pathetic huh…somemore we got 1000+ staff). But it’s OK, our Santa Claus did a very good job. Each time before the carolling session start (we had 3 sessions on diff days on diff floors) he went around rounding everyone to go join in the fun. Only those that come to the carolling gets a treat from his big goody bag.

And you know what, our Santa Claus is imported from France ;). Yup, one of our manager from France agreed to be our Santa Claus…with sunglasses hahaha…It was really fun, no doubt there’s only 10 carolers, most of those whom join in as *watcher* sang along.

This is the 1st time we have such fun activity in the dept, as it’s usually very boring and very uncool…..I hope to see more these sort of activity next time. Maybe Lion Dance during CNY hehe…*boss if you read this, please convey msg to big boss OK*

I’m writing this as an appeal by a blogger friend, Hsiau Chuen. I came to know bout the news yesterday when she blogged about the demise of her FIL. She was telling about one of her BIL (a family of 8 siblings) converted to Islam sometime ago. Well that’s fine, but upon reading her post, I was totally shocked!!

Apparently, the Islam BIL claimed that the dead father has converted to Islam last year so now the father’s corpse can’t be buried with Buddhist ceremony, but has to wait till Syariah Court decides what to do and probably buried the Islam way. Latest updates from Hsiau Chuen’s sister is that they lost the court case.

I mean how on earth did a father got converted when he’s totally bedridden!! And the best part was nobody in the whole d**n family knew bout it except the Islam BIL himself!! And he had never brought upon this matter until the father died…*fainted*.

Aiyo…ini orang tua already mati. Somemore he’s so old, can’t we just leave him alone and die in peace. Let the family handle it. Why have to go until the court to settle. I really pity the family and the dead one. Have some respect to the dead people please!!!

Can any Muslim reader of this blog out there tell me, if say you converted to Islam, does it mean that your parents gets converted automatically also? I don’t think so right?

And if that is the case, meaning to say next time this family gonna have more problem. Cause when the MIL dies (choi choi) then the BIL again gonna claim she converted *fainted*.

Totally whacky!! Share your thoughts on your blog…what you think of this…

#1 backdated post.

I’ve got tonnes of backdated post I don’t even know where to start. But I better start writing before it becomes history. So this will be the 1st one…and you might be seeing more of these for the coming few days till I finish all my backdated post.

We had more than 20 free tickets to Eye on Malaysia. Wahh..so nice eh, thanks to AirAsia ;). They were giving out free to their staff and my hubby the kiasu one grab 20 of it LOL. So we took some and gave some to his friends.

We went to the Eye on Malaysia on 19th Dec (very backdated!!). So happen, we had friends came over from Bangkok & Singapore, hence we took the opportunity to go together. I went there with the Bangkok friends, while Daddy fetch the kids and fetch the Singapore friends. Since I was there early, I had chance to take some shots before the kids came.

It was really an experience sitting in the ferris wheel and going round and round endlessly. The kids were thrilled esp. Faythe. She just kept jumping in the car till I told her she has to stop if not it will go swinging non stop. Vyktore was busy walking up and down the car and at times he was a bit afraid too.

I love the view from the ferris wheel. Absolutely breathtaking, though I’d say that I won’t pay for it, but since it’s FOC, heck :). But I didn’t like the weather that day. It was pretty gloomy, hence I have to keep adjusting my camera to get a nice blue sky.

And after so many rounds I told Daddy, lets get off before I start to get my motion sickness. So we got off and took some more pics when the sun sets. I guess it’s great experience for the kids.

We left the place before they turn on the lights…so no photos of it at night, which I thought that’d be awesome photos!!