Jogja-Solo, One Millionaire Trip

YES! This is the moment that I have been waiting for long. Time to fly, time to walk away from hassle life. Woke up at 3am because our flight is 6.55am. We need to reach there one and half hour earlier.

Day 1 ~ 26.07.07 (Thursday)
The Boarding…
Haha, a very beautiful opening for our trip to Borobudur. Our departure…an unforgettable one. Everyone felt like so relax, nobody worried about the time for boarding. 6.30am, some of the members were still enjoying breakfast in Mc D.

“Attention please, calling for Gate T1, flight AK 996, Mr Chan Chee Ming, Ms Er Chin Chin, Mr Hoh Cheng Meng, Ms Lee Kah Nyee, Ms Lee Lei Kuen, Mr Leong Cheng Leng, Ms Pang Fui Chin, Ms Shirley Cheong Yen Ling, Mr Teh Sin Wei and Ms Yeo Chooi Tsien, please…”

We were so puzzled when heard about the calling of our name. Looking at our watch, opps, it’s almost time for the flight to depart. All passengers in the plane were waiting for us. While rushing for boarding, the scanning for our small backpacks was slow, that had made each of us so excited.

We would be the cause of delay for the flight. The flight could have just left us behind but all of us on board safely for our Borobudur…cheers! You know, being the last 10 persons to get into the flight, we were ushered by the stewardesses, feeling ourselves like VIP…no kidding! Ho ho ho…but no next time, please!

Welcome to Solo…
825am, we reached Solo airport. Time difference for Solo and Malaysia is one hour. Emm…I don’t know how is the check-in area look like for a small place. Solo airport appears to be a real simple one. Someone was waiting for us outside the airport. We were lined up for the loo coz the journey to Borobudur would take 1 to 1 ½ hours.

The journey to hotel…
We were traveling along the narrow kampong road with many paddy fields. Comfortable to see these greenish scenes rather than buildings…real eye washing for the dirt and dust in town!

Nap after nap, we were still looking forward for our destination today. The driver told us 1 to 1 ½ hours, why we were still on the road?

11.30am, finally we reached Manohara hotel after two-hour driving journey. Manohara hotel is the only hotel in Borobudur. So, you have no alternative but have to pay higher rate for the room (Double-bed Rp351,000, Twin-sharing Rp368,500).

Easing the hunger…
Ding dong ding dong almost an hour, Lyn Lyn, the head of the team, had helped us arranged today’s activity. The stomach was making noise now. Without second thought, our first meal in Borobudur – took place in Sunrise Corner Coffee Shop inside the hotel. Nasi Goreng Special (Rp21,500) and Sprite in bottle (Rp6,000). Emm…yummy yummy…the chicken was real kampong chicken, tan gar le wei!

Exploring…
After restored energy level, we started our exploring to Candi Borobudur. The temple will be closed at 6pm. Some members who made this trip purposely for photography could have asked more time to fill their hunger of photography.

Few of us who were not so much into photography, took very short time to explore the whole temple and we had more leisure time to take a rest in the cooling area of the temple. While waiting for other team members who would like to devour the whole temple into their camera, we were making fun around ourselves too. Ho ho ho…they had their fun, we had our fun! Every minute was worth to treasure, no time for boring.

I thought Ming Zai, Ton Ton, Tai Meng, Lyn Lyn and Ney-Ho could create a 3D Borobudur using those picture taken by them. No jokes, compared to their professional standard in taking photo, ours is baby-shooting la. Sure, they need more time to feel, to find their angle and inspiration…strictly no disturbing!

6pm, the sky became darker. We left the temple. Time to clean ourselves and time to fill the stomach again.

Dining…
Found out from the hotel staff, we walked to the nearby “warung” for local food. We tried fish, chicken, vege, potato at Padang Raya. Wow…the chili looked like so-so, but it was spicy hot! The vege appeared to be very raw but not at all and it was acceptable. The potato, my favourite!

The stomach was still left with some space. So, we tried kacang (Rp2,000 one packet) and chicken sate (10 sates Rp10,000) wrapped with banana leaf which reserved the traditional taste at the street mamak.. The kacang was lousy a bit, some cooked, some not. The sate tasted okay but fat meat could have spoiled your appetite if you never like fat meat.

Visual Audio…
We were entitled a free visual audio for Borobudur story prepared by the hotel. After watching the audio, it had made our visit to Borobudur more meaningful. With every carving on the stone of the wall of the temple, it carries different story and lesson to the human. The carving on the stone has become blurred day by day due to sun and rain. Without the help of audio, I don’t think you could know it’s the story about the king, the lion, the cat, the two-headed bird, and so on.

Oyasumi…
Mission completed for today. 10pm, time for bed. We need to wake up at 4am tomorrow for Borobudur sunrise which has cost us Rp102,500. We must rest well to catch the best sunrise tomorrow morning. Oyasumi…

To be continued…

糟糕大白痴

如果二零零七要颁“最白痴奖”，那这奖项就一定非我莫属。原因很简单，因为我连搭轻快铁都会迷路。就讲今天就已经够白痴了。从Hang Tuah 要去Pudu Rakyat，我都上下火车好几轮。目的地是Pudu Rakyat，售票员还真没气回答我问的方向问题，就要我看他们放在柜台的指示（真差劲，这样就是待客之道吗？回家吧，别在那儿干活啊，干嘛摆一副不耐烦的样子，我若懂，才懒得问你呢！哼！）

我以为Pudu Rakyat就该在Pudu 站下车。问了那儿的一位乘客，告诉我说Pudu 有停车，我飞快地跑去对岸，就这样我来到Plaza Rakyat。咦，不对啊，我要去Pudu站，错了，我下车过了对面再等下一趟火车。上了车，坐了两个站，我是来到Pudu站啦。妈啊，那不就是我上一回下错站，还被迫搭巴士才去到同善医院吗！真的很忙，我又回头，等下一趟火车。

啊，我快要疯了，怎么连指示牌都还会看错，下一站却到了Chan Sau Lin。急死我了，我拉了一位马来妹问她怎么搭去Pudu Rakyat。她都还蛮好奇的，问我是不是睡着了，怎么错过了三个站才发现自己做错火车。我该怎么回答呢？告诉她我是白痴吗？告诉她我不会读指示牌吗？看我愣了一会儿，她却略有领悟，在那儿开始笑我。啊，真是丢脸！ 掌轻快铁的Uncle们不知道有没有看到有一个女孩子在那儿忙着上车又下车，上车又下车。。。怎么这么忙？RM1.20 还真值得！

我啊，驾车走错路还讲司空见惯，朋友都知道我的毛病。这下子嘛，搭轻快铁也会错（虽不是第一次，但这次最糟糕吧！），我不得不认自己的遭遇还真够经典，有谁能媲比？ 我自己都摇头，真糟糕！

Peugeot ah wei...

Sometimes in our life, something just happened until when you think back of it, you feel so funny and laugh at yourself. Haha…just like today is a funny one. I was in the car talking to my friend, Uma and waiting for the traffic light to turn green. When I turned my head to the right, I saw the man who was inside the car beside me, he was showing me the hand sign up and down, like telling me to push down or lower something. I didn’t get what he meant at the first place and the first impression I got was looking back at my own car, checking if I had made mistake or if there’s something wrong with my car.

When I made sure that my car is of good condition, I looked him back, he’s still showing me the same hand sign. Aha, this time he lowered his car window, then I understood that he wanted me to lower my car window. When I lowered my car window, he asked “Miss, did you know where’s Pizza Hut?” I told him “oh, yes, go further down, you’ll see it at your right.” After he thanked me, the light turned to green. Both of us looked at each other and burst into laugh, and realized that the man in the car was quite a looker and he was driving a Peugeot. COOL! Peugeot with a looker ah wei...both of us had the same thought in that second – “let’s go to Pizza Hut and have our second round” and burst out laughing again. Sighing...we missed the guy...

Haha…this is not the first time that this kind of funny scenario happened to me. Just few months ago, when I was in front of the traffic light nearby Eastin Hotel, I was listening to the radio and heard as like someone was horning. I looked at the rearview mirror, turned to the left and saw the Indian lady in the car beside me was actually horning at me. And then, she asked me to lower the window, pointed her hand and shouted “where did you buy your glove?” Aha…I was shocked at the first place, but very soon I replied her “From the night market.” “Where?” “Night market at Chao Yang.” “Oh, thank you.” I was still puzzled with that scene when I continued my journey.

Emm…why did it happen? Because I’m a blur queen? I couldn’t tell but it just happened out of my mind. For any reason it could be, these incidences eventually put up a smile on my face and cheer up my day :D

Say “Cheers!”