zags travels

24/05/2006

Having finished things early, I left around 4:30pm heading to Arab Quarter by foot. I walked through Lim(?) Seah St. - interesting & colourful restaurants along the street. On Beach Road, again I found the sign saying "To stay within restricted zone", same as the other one I saw on North Bridge Road. What does it mean? At the end of the block there's a sign saying "End of restricted zone". Hmmm... Nggak ngerti.

I finally reached the Arab Quarter. Interesting street names: Arab Street, Haji Street, Baghdad Street, Muscat Street,... I found Samar, the restaurant Elaine recommended me to try. I didn't try it then, not yet. Still wanted to walk along and enjoy the late afternoon outdoors.

I found the Sultan's Mosque but didn't enter. Maybe I'll enter when I go there again. Then I found this interesting part of the area in front of the mosque: Bussorah Street. This street is closed for motor vehicles. Along there are shops and small cafes & restaurants with tables outside. I really enjoy the atmosphere there. There's a bookshop with a very cosy interiors - carpets and sofa in front of the bookshelves, and the air conditioner is cool, felt good when I enter the place after being exposed to the heat and humid air outside.

I was taking photos of the neighbourhood when I realized my polarising filter was dirty! Arrgh. Need to find a cleaning solution.

It was getting late in the afternoon and my stomach started to cry for food :p I just realized that late afternoon is actually my dinner time - the time when I usually feel hungry, that is (I normally don't have late dinner bcuz I prefer sleeping.) I spent a couple of minutes trying to decide which place I will pick. Then I saw this small cafe just in front of the bookshop. DeliMoroccan. Interesting, especially because I'd never tasted Moroccan food before. I walked there and took a look on the menu. A guy, the owner of the cafe, greeted me and help me with info about the food. I ordered beef kebab and cranberry tea, and took a seat outside.

I really enjoyed the afternoon in the interesting atmosphere there on Bussorah Street while having my kebab and sipping the tea. The owner, who introduced himself later as Jamal, came and we had a little chat. I stayed there long enough, taking my time until right after the sun set - I could tell from the adzan from the mosque. I thanked Jamal and said good bye, he gave me his email address and asked if I would come visit his cafe again. Well, probably.

So I walked back to the direction of my hotel. I was thinking about going to Funan to find a cleaner for my camera filter, but then I thought I'd try Raffles City. And I found it there - no need to go futher to Funan.

I was back at the hotel happy, satisfied and...not hungry. It's always good to have early dinner, cuz I wouldn't be hungry in the evening and I would go to sleep without my stomach full. I didn't know before that I would find the Arab Quarter so interesting. And I got a new friend there. Not a bad day at all!

Late afternoon around 6:30pm I walked from my hotel, back to Chijmes to take photos (have to wait before I can put them here). Then walked to Clarke Quay, then Boat Quay. Took a rest in Boat Quay, sitting by the river. It was 8pm. After giving my legs a little rest and taking some photos, I continued walking along the river to the bay where Merlion statue stands. Very thirsty and started to get hungry. Took photos of Esplanade Theatre on the bay and the Merlion statue. Walked back to Boat Quay, had a few gulp of cold bottled water, and walked to MRT station - I wouldn't go back to the hotel by foot, no thanks.

Chijmes from the front

Chijmes hallway

View to Fullerton Hotel from Boat Quay

THE Merlion

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Took a train ride to Bugis and had dinner at Bugis Junction. When I left it was 10pm, I walked back to the hotel, tired but satisfied. Instead of spending time at the gym on treadmill getting nowhere, what I did is better. I walked, got sweaty and got to many places.

Last night I had dinner with James and Elaine. They asked me to meet up at a place called CHIJMES - apparently it's just across my hotel. And the place is very nice. It used to be a monastery, but now the rooms have become restaurants, cafes and shops. The garden inside is a very nice place to sit and have dinner while enjoying the outdoors.

We met up at 7:30pm at Hogs Breathe Cafe, having some snack while chatting. Then we walked along to find a place for dinner. We ate at a Brazilian restaurant called CARNIVORE. It's interesting - how they serve the food. Two chefs come in turns with different kinds of meat sticked with a metal bar(?) like kebab and ask if we'd like that. If so they would slice it to our plates.

After stuffing ourselves and walking to leave the place, James reminded me that it used to be praying halls - it made me imagine what it was like back then. The main hall of CHIJMES is now used for events such as weddings etc. We took a look at it. It's beautiful but spooky (in my opinion). I asked them if it was haunted. Maybe.

Left Jakarta last Sunday. At the airport got a new acquaintance, a guy working for Pfizer who was also flying solo to Singapore. We spent waiting time chatting. He got news from his colleagues who arrived earlier that 2 of the 3 of them were taken to the Immigration office - the 3rd one who was 'safe' happens to be of Chinese ethnic - what was going on? We arranged to meet at Changi after landing and got in the immigration line together. He was almost certain that he was going to be questioned as his colleagues was. But he was not - what a relief. Then we exchanged money, reconfirm our flight back, and said good bye - went our separate ways.

It was kind of sudden. I went to join Didi for the weekend. After an hour of waiting for the check-in counter to open, I found that all Air Asia flights were delayed. There was even a flight to Batam which was supposed to leave at 3pm that was delayed to 9pm. My flight was supposed to be on 8.40pm but it was delayed to 11pm! It's a boring place, the terminal for cheap flights, so maybe I shouldn't complain? There wasn't even a book shop there. Only a few snack shops and, strangely, a T-shirt shop. They would be closed before we board and the terminal would become even dimmer.

Luckily my cousin, aunt & uncle who live not far from the airport were so kind they picked me up after I checked in for the flight to their house. They even opened their doors for my new acquaintance. We had dinner and spent time chatting. At 10pm my cousin & her husband drove us back to the airport.

We arrived at around 2am. There is no airport shuttle from Le Meridien hotel so we had to pay to use the hotel car & driver to pick me up. We arrived at the hotel at 3am. I was very tired and sleepy.

Day 1

Got up late and had breakfast just before the breakfast time was over. I could see the temple of Tanah Lot from my table but I couldn't get a good angle for a photo because I didn't have a zoom lens. After breakfast and shower, I just couldn't believe that Didi got a call from his office and he had to work! He was supposed to be on days off. So worked on some presentation slides (yuck) and I went around the swimming pool that has curves and slides, then went around the back of the hotel.

Later we had to check out and paid for a car & a driver from the hotel to take us to our next accommodation in Kuta beach. Alam Kul Kul is a nice boutique hotel. It's like a garden with rooms and villas closed to each other. There is a swimming pool and a "garden" pool. The soap bars were jasmine-scented, which I loved. So were the shampoo & conditioner. And we got a complimentary body moisturiser placed on a couple of small basins made of banana leaf - also jasmine-scented. I loved it!

Starving, we walked to find something to eat. We had a very late lunch at a "contradictive" restaurant called "Ketumbar". It's a name of a kind of Indonesian spices, but they serve Italian food, which I think is not spicy at all.

Later in the afternoon we went to the beach watching people surfing and the sunset. I found something familiar: a red flag saying "no swimming in this area" with a skeleton (check out Lonely Planet's BLUE LIST p.32).

In the evening, believe it or not, Didi flew back to Jakarta for an important thing the next day. After dropping him at the airport by taxi, I met up with Aswin at Bali Discovery. He picked me up and we drove on the bike for dinner at a reasonable price: where locals eat. It had been a long time since the last time I rode a bike, so it was fun. He drove me back to the hotel after dinner, and picked me up again at 11 pm. We went to Hard Rock Cafe to see one of a nice jazz group perfomed, Maliq & d'Essentials. It was fun.

Day 2

Aswin's supposed to join me for breakfast (after all I had a coupon for 2) but he didn't wake up and answer my sms until it was late. I had breakfast then exercise by myself on my room's balcony, getting sweaty, taking a break, then having shower. By then it was already too hot to go out so I just relaxed in my room watching TV until I got starved. Aswin came and picked me up again. Dropped off some laundry on the way and had lunch.

Late afternoon he was supposed to pick me up with a rental car, but something came up and he didn't make it. So I went alone. Took a taxi and went to Uluwatu. I was just there for half an hour enjoying the view from the cliff to the ocean and taking a few photos.

Beside the cliff, the monkeys are interesting subjects. A monkey jumped on the head of a tourist, who then couldn't stop screaming while it stayed on her head.

Didi arrived past midnight. I was awaken by the ring on my phone, opened the door for him, and fell into a deep sleep again.

Day 3

It was like the first day he could be on vacation. He wanted to go somewhere. After doing silly things like having temporary tattoos and 4 braids on my hair, we got a rental car and went North to Gunung Kawi Temple in Tampaksiring. It was located in a rice field area, with many stairs down to reach the site. Rock cliffs are carved to form a temple. It was my first time there and I think it's a creepy place.

Somehow we met a couple who offered to take our photo for us in return for us to take their photo for them. So here it is:

From there we drove South past Kuta to Uluwatu to watch the Kecak Dance performed when the sun was setting. It was like magic.

When the dance finished it was already dark. We left Uluwatu and drove back to Kuta and had dinner. Then we came to see Aswin at Harris Resort and watch the live performance of a music group called Saharadja. Their music is unique and interesting. Sometimes it's jazz, sometimes it's ethnic.

Day 4

As planned the night before, we came to Harris Resort again to learn to surf. After some theory and paddling practice in the pool, we went to the sea. It was fun!

Day 5

Breakfast, went to the beach, went swimming, packed and went to the airport. Vacation was over. I went back with dark and burned skin, but I was happy.