Emirates vs Qatar vs Etihad

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

I am now at Abu Dhabi airport. Killing time till my next flight to KL. Another 3.5 hours to go. This is my first time taking Etihad. I've always been a loyal customer of Qatar Airways. But due to some constraint that I will describe later, I am trying Etihad for the very first time, on this trip.

When I started travelling more than one flight, I started with Emirates, as they were among the first airlines that has superb network connection. In 2010, my experience with Emirates was good, or maybe because it was my first time, everything looks fine. :)

Somehow when I started working in Nigeria, I started using Qatar instead. When I travelled with Emirates again, I began to compare, and now Emirates irks me on many front. So after almost 2 years of jetsetting, I am going to lay down my comparison of these 3.

1. Ticket price: Hands down, Qatar wins. Even the business class ticket is 30% cheaper than Emirates. Etihad loose on prices, they are higher than Emirates.
Qatar < Emirates < Etihad.

2. Flight schedule: This one is a bit tricky. I stayed in Port Harcourt, and therefore, in order to fly all these middle eastern airlines, I need to travel to Lagos. We are entitled to it and by right it's not a big deal, its written, once you have a flight from Lagos, the company will bore the cost of flight from PHC to Lagos, with one night hotel stay before and after the trip. However... I have a GM and supervisor that has very deep pocket. Emirates and Qatar depart on 2pm daily from Lagos. Therefore I can take the morning flight from PHC and reached Lagos just in time to check in for my international flight. Etihad on the other hand, now departs at 8.55 am every other day, which then makes me have go travel to Lagos a day earlier and incur the hotel stay cost (Which company pays for it).
For the leg travelling back to Nigeria, Emirates reached Lagos around 12.30 pm, and I will have to rush for the last flight of the day back to PHC. While Qatar only reached at 1.30, which leaves no room for me to travel and get back to PHC on the same day, hence I will incur the one night hotel stay. (Which is still paid by the company anyway). Etihad on the other hand, arrived at 8am, therefore I can comfortably travel back on the same day.
With the current situation of budget crunch, my supervisor keeps on imposing on me to take the cheapest option for the company. Forget the fact that I am entitled to it, that is not the case anymore.
On this part, Emirates win. In terms of flight time, transit time, I prefer Qatar compared to Etihad. Too long transit time (Etihad 6 hours) bores me. I want to get to my destination ASAP.

3. The airport: On this part, I have to breakdown based on my preferred criteria:
a. Internet access: WiFi. For this I'm considering Etihad as the winner. Smooth wifi access and unlimited time. (like now..hehehe). Qatar falls second due to the 3 hours limit, but I got connected instantly when I arrived at the transfer area. Emirates does not get my vote at all, twice, I was there, and I could not even connect to the WiFi. It keep on saying my subscription has expired, whereas I just got there, what the..?
b. Toilet and musolla (surau). Qatar wins, hands down. The toilet is clean, musolla is huge and very comfortable. I barely remember Emirates's toilet and musolla, must be average, as I can't recall anything special. As for Etihad, the toilet is average, the floor is wet, and musolla is nice.
c. Distance between gates. It's a tie for all of the airport. As usual, all the transit hub has huge airport, and somehow just my luck, my terminals are all towards end of the world.

4. In flight service. For this one, I am biased. Just because I am a gold member for Qatar, they will greet me by name every time I went on board. The cabin crew all mostly friendly, and the food is OK. For Emirates, the service is not bad, I remembered the food being superb! Etihad's food is average, but the cabin crew not friendly. The took the headset 30 minutes before landing! Qatar allow me to hang on to it till touch down :)

5. In flight entertainment and others: All are good compared to Europe airlines..(Air France, Lufthansa)  hehehe... Emirates and Etihad fly Airbus, all seats comes with USB port, therefore I get to charge my phone in flight, Qatar fly Boeing, sometimes I get Airbus, but it's not often..

There it is my comparison of all these 3 airlines and airport. My preference would still be Qatar Airways. If Mr Boss insist on tightening the budget, I'll see how I can manage... :)

Till next time,  Wassalam.

Hidup Huru Hara...and for what?

Assalamual'alaikum w.b.t,

My life has been a complete mess of upside down for the past few weeks. Many reasons but let me just tell you two :)

One, we (the women at work) has been working on converting a cabin from a construction project to a mini library. I was tasked to be head of the furniture team. We started off by having a charity carwash on 9th May whereby the employees are asked to bid for their choice of leadership team members to clean their car. Of course, there were some hesitation at first in getting people to bid, :P but after a bit of persuasion, we managed to get the bid in. It was a success, we managed to raise more than RM 1500 in both bidding and donations.

volunteers playing a fool

this group really did their thing :D

From that money, off we went to IKEA and of course Jusco to splurge on the bookcases and pillows, the end result..tara...!!!

Furniture's team vision came true ;) Feature wall was done by a contractor, painting was taken care by other task force

The collection of Malay version of Harry Potter. My gift to the kids !!

Seronoknyala boleh summarize 1 month of hardwork to 2 para and 4 pictures (you wish is it that easy..hehehe..) Regardless, we handed over the library to the folks, and PD womens club will follow up to maintain the library.

In the midst of running around organizing stuffs for the library, I was also running around KL-PD almost once every 3 days or so, all because to settle things that leads to me being here. Where? Here, in a soon to be my rice bowl country, insyaAllah. As mentioned before, I received a new job offer, and yes, I am now in Nigeria. I am not starting work yet. I am on my APT (assignment preview trip). Leading to this, I need to get my medical check up done, which leads to multiple types of vaccination, you name it, I would most probably have the shots already, starting from the famous yellow fever vaccine, rabies (3 shots!!) , meningitis, hepatitis and yes I am still due for typhoid once I get back next week. Those shots are all taken in KL and I was scheduled to get it on Wednesday, so yes, KL-PD dah macam Cheras to Times Square dah gayanya...tiring OK!!

What more with the whole visa application, chasing letters from the Hague and all kinds of bureaucratic matters. At last I managed to get my visa on Friday 14th June. Flight confirmed on 15th, what kind of time gap that I have :P and that is not the whole of it, I still need to apply for my actual visa once I got back in KL. This is only a once off business visa for the APT trip only.

Let me just share the legs of travel this far (and I am not even at the final destination yet).
Friday:
2200H : Taxi from flat to LRT Cheras
2220H : LRT Cheras to Tasik Selatan
2240H : ERL from Tasik Selatan to KLIA
2320H : Reached KLIA (I prefer the train from KL Sentral, non stop and only 28 minutes to KLIA)

Saturday:
0330H : KUL-Doha (flight time est 7.5 hrs)
1100H : Reached Doha , 1 hours break before transit
1200H : Doha - Lagos (flight time est 7.5 hrs)
1900H : Reached Lagos (local time around 1400H)

ye...nama saya binti Yusop..hahaha..dieya, totally got you :D

ample space for my foot..tidoq tak hengat!!

Am staying in for the night. Tomorrow morning (0900H local time) I'll be flying to my final destination, Port Harcourt. It will be a 1 hour flight. And from Monday till Thursday, I'll be meeting my future team mates, bosses and potentially neighbors too..!! Can't wait :)

on the way to hotel from airport. normal scene for them, well at least much better than begging, they earn their living and nothing wrong with that.

Postcard offer!!!

I promised to do this last time, so am doing it now :)
If you wish to receive postcard from yours truly, kindly leave your postal address in my mailbox by Monday an I'll be able to send from here. If later,I can still send but via PD's post office ;)
I'll be checking the blog on Monday!!
p/s: dieya, i lost all my sms.my phone rosak, so this goes to you too :)

D-1: Series of events that makes me wanna vomit blood...

D-1 (2nd Feb 2012)


0550 : Woke up, took a bath, wait for Suboh. Start packing right away after that.
0700 : Go to work. Reach ~ 0720 start working on monthly report right away.
0830 : Dash into the plant, quick discussion with Ops
0900 : Back to my desk, more emails replied
0950 : Make way to local clinic, gotta replenish my meds stock
1015 : Run some last minute banking business
1030 : Pick up laundry
1040 : Back in office to handover duty
1100: Chair a meeting
1155 : Meeting ends, speed like a mad lady to Seremban
1225 : Got into Immigration office, confirmed my passport was not even close to ready!! There was like a gazillion people in the office. Buat muka nak nangis, ask for their help, I need my passport tomorrow morning, pronto!! An officer promised that they'll try to work on it, have to come back at 5
1300 : Mad lady episode 2 back to PD
1335 : Got into the office, managed to settle some stuffs
1410 : Enter another meeting, (sneak in and out in between to settle some stuffs)
1535 : Meeting ends, finally I can do some work.
1600 : Got a call from Immigration, was told to be there at 5
1630 : Pack things, told my SV I need to leave despite owing him one more thing. Promise to send him tonight
1700 : Dropped by the house, I accidentally left the GPS
1715 : Starts raining on the way to Seremban
1730 : Seremban is flooded, water came out of nowhere, major road flooded.
1740 : Finally made it to the Immigration Office, passport not ready yet, still have to wait.
1800 : Finally, its done. Make my way out, next stop KL
1810 : Took quite a detour, some roads in Seremban was just flooded!!
1830 : Enter PLUS. stopped at R&R Seremban, bought some pau to keeps the hunger pang controlled.
1930 : Reached KL
2030 : Made way to Low Yat
2115 : Frantically search that GPS kiosk!! Where is it?  I thought there were a lot of it!! Found one at the escalator, send to update map.
2200 : Done!! Ija told to meet at her office, follow her back to Bukit Jelutong
2245 : Stop for dinner (waktu ni memang dah nak muntah sangat..!!)
2330 : Reach Ija's house, clean up and start completing the work that I owe my SV 


D (3rd Feb 2012)
0130 : Emailed my SV on the ppt material
0220 : (Now).... update blog..

My life for the past few days has been drama. I sent my passport to be renewed in PD's office on Monday. They promised me 3 days (Wednesday) as they need to send to Seremban. I called on Wednesday morning, asked to call back after 2pm. When I called at 3pm, they told me the system has been down for the past two days, and they could not guarantee when I can get my passport!!! Rasa nak nangis OK, I need that passport Friday early morning, there is no freaking way I can go to any office to collect my passport :( Since they sent it to Seremban, I called Seremban's office, same answer, system down, passport not ready.

I was calling quite a few times since I was disconnected for a few times as well. Finally an officer asked me to go to the office on Thursday and they will try to work something out.
So, as mentioned above, that was how my Thursday goes~~

And today in few hours, I will be flying to the land of the middle earth, Legolas, wait for me!!!

Don't tell my mom- finally~~

So many things to write, yet I am bitten by the year end bug. Howeverrr.... I need to get this one out of the way.

5th Dec 2011
Its my final day in Bandung. I woke up at 4am~ yes, Fajr prayers are early, sun risen at 5~ish but the actual business hours in most places are still at 9am. To me its a 3 hours waste already. It was raining heavily so I went back to sleep, somehow I was woken up by the sounds of kids, many of them!! I mentioned earlier that this guesthouse was located in the middle of pesantren. What a pesantren without a school right? So yes, its Monday and kids do go to school... (duh!!)

taken from my room's balcony

Looks like they had their assembly going on. I get ready for breakfast and waited for the kids to be dismissed before going down. I have to pass through the crowd in order to get to the cafe. Today the plan is just to walk around and maybe try to find some last minute ole-ole to be brought back.

After breakfast, I took a walk around the pesantren, its a complete complex on its own.

nursery, clinic, various guesthouses and parking area big enough for any event to take place

I took angkut with no particular destination in mind, trying to kill time before checkout. I was trying my luck to find the famous Kartika Sari. I thought I saw a big one on the route from Island Plaza to Lembang, asked the angkot driver, but he brought me to one of Amanda's Brownies chain instead. Since it was still early in the morning, they don't really have much baked good yet, so I just moved on. I board on the same angkot that sends me there as I know it will bring me back to where I started. This time I get to see more of Bandung. The area that it covers was Kalapa. And on this route I located the famous Jalan Dago, that is where most factory outlet was situated. I did not stopped though, first because I have no money :P and second, I am not the type that can buy there and then. I will need quite a significant amount of window shopping time before deciding, so I wouldn't want to risk missing my flight back ;)

Went back to the guesthouse, settled the bill and checked out. The driver drops me at the airport around 1pm. My flight was at 3.45 pm but I just liked to be there earlier.The flight was delayed (again!!) and I finally touched down in LCCT at 7pm. I recorded one safety violation on Air Asia (I just could not leave my work behind :P )

Do not do this at home. You should switch off the engine before refueling. Major fire hazard!!

My ex-housemate picked me up and after dinner, I reached home around 10pm. I came back exhausted but satisfied :D I learnt many new things.

Previously I know nuts about Islam in Indonesia, but through random conversation I found out they have few groups, biggest is NU followed by Muhammadiah. I even bought a DVD about the founder of Muhammadiah. That answers my curiosity why sometimes we heard Indonesia celebrate Eid one day earlier, because they have this different groups and school of thought. For now its a new knowledge to me. Its not my position to discuss which one was right and and which one is not. Its a long debate between them and I don't plan to dwell on that much more.

The people, despite most of them looks like 'preman', they are helpful actually, and people on the street does not look like people in the sinetron. I was always amazed by how beautiful those sinetron cast are, every single character be it the good ones or the bad one are all pretty and somehow looked pan-asian mix. In actual fact, most people are really close resemblance to us Malay (well, that is a broad statement) . Even among Malays we differ from one another. But the point is looks doesn't matter, its the inside that counts. I was scared to pull out my camera most of the time. I don't know what I was so afraid about, but I was just being cautious. But when I do took it out, I get few request ;)

I did managed to fulfill my objective, see the place as it is, experience a little bit of their culture annndddd....... came back with this :

I did not even busted the luggage limit...hahaha...

So there it is, my short trip in writing. Coming back I have more places to add to my list. Will blog about that later. Till then, daaa...... :)

Don't tell my mom part 2

*Warning, this time it is really a long post with lotsa pictures (well, at least longer than the previous one~~)

So I went back to the room and start forking out all the cash that I have, after doing some calculation, I have enough money to pay the room, pay airport tax and some spare cash to get around and by 'cheap' stuffs. So I am not so screwed then..hehehe.. :D but first thing the next morning, I need to find a money changer. The amount of rupiah I have won't last me for a day.

4th Dec 2011
First thing after breakfast, I made my way to Jln Asia Afrika, as some tips that I got from the locals, that is where one of the money changer is. Besides, I have not really entered the Gedung Sate. I reached the area around 8AM, and many business were not opened yet. After asking few people, I managed to locate the money changer. In the midst of searching, I ended up in Braga area, though its not fully opened yet, I can see that the area is kinda hotspot area. Few couples were having pre-wedding photoshoot, and some youngster armed with DSLR were roaming the area.

Few shops selling some great artworks are on this street

After that I completed my pending visit to Gedung Merdeka. What's interesting at this place is the building's history as it housed the first ever Asian-African Conference in 1955. Malaysia of course was not part of it as we were still on our way to independence then.

History were made here

After that, I moved on to my next destination, Gedung Sate, nope, they did not sell any sate there, it was named so because of the shape of the building central's pinnacle which resemble the shape of satay. Another building that is yet influenced by European architecture. The building now served as government office and so happened there was a cycling event that was ongoing on that day.

Across the street, there is a whole market going on. Foods, clothes, leather goods and many other stuffs were on sale. But since I am running low on cash, I just did what I enjoyed the most :) took lots and lots of pictures!!

After I had enough of look-see, I board on another angkot and make my way to the all time famous Cihampelas Walk, I must say, without an expert, I wouldn't know which jeans is a real bargain, they all look the same to me, I wouldn't be able to differentiate the quality. 


I entered the Ciwalk Mall and yet another event was ongoing at the center court. One thing that impresses me was, when it was Zuhur, there is an announcement via the mall's PA system announcing that. Though they did not put on the azan, the announcement itself put Ciwalk Mall a step above other malls that I have been to.

And in the mall, guess what I did? I watched a local movie ;) (still within my budget, besides, I'd passed a meal over a movie anytime!!). For RP35,000, the movie was well worth it. The cinema was new and classy, seats were comfortably large and the closest seat to the screen ain't that close. The movie was not a thriller movie, despite the title, it was a romantic comedy and I enjoyed it.

After the movie, I decided to make my way to Paris van Java mall, to see what so great about it. I asked for which angkot to take, but seems like it was on the opposite direction. With my 'almost good' sense of direction, I decided to walk. After a few turns, I was convinced that I am on the right way, but I was pleasantly surprised to bump into this structure :

It was in my initial list of places to see, but since I forgot to print it out, I kinda forgot about it. The architecture have many resemblance with Gedung Sate, the roof especially, because it was designed by the same architect.


It was drizzling when I left the masjid, and it got much much heavier when I am less than 500m to the mall!! I was making the booth along the streets as my pit-stops. Most of the booth sold pirated DVD, and had I not been short on cash, I would have walked back with some serious damage on my wallet.

My feet were drenched but I continued the walk to the mall. Its scary to see how fast the water level risen in the span of less than half an hour. Must be due to the poor drainage system the city had. Anyhoo, I got to the mall soaking wet!! After a quick tour, my verdict, not so great at all. The reason it was getting quite a buzz is probably due to the vast brand it houses under one roof, which we found in most malls in Klang Valley, no big deal. However, this one caught my attention. I was not a fan, but I don't think we have this in Malaysia though.

You'll never dine alone?? erk..salah team...

And that was my last stop for the day. I board onto an angkot, heading towards Geger Kalong, where I stay and plan to retire for the day. The place where I stay is like 10 mins walk from the place where the angkot drops me. Along the way, there were a lot of stalls selling lotsa street food. I dropped by to sample some :)

gerai gorengan punya FB & twitter!!

The first one Es Pisang Ijo, is actually banana wrapped in crepe like dough that is green in colour. It was then cut and mixed with shaved ice, condensed milk, syrup, chocolate rice and some other jellies. The taste was akin to ABC but not so sweet, which I like a lot. Cost ~ RP 2,000.


Next was various type of fried stuffs (gorengan). From left to right, banana wrapped in curry puffs like dough and deep fried. Second one is potato doughnut with fillings (I bought chocolate and strawberry fillings) and next to it the glutinous flour both from white and dark glutinous rice, it was rolled onto icing sugar. Each of the gorengan cost RP 500. I asked for the local name, but the moment I got onto the next store, I totally forgot about it already :P 


Last but not least is tauhu pedas, the tofu has some very spicy filling and it was dipped in batter before deep fried, this one cost RP 1,500 each. The last picture was Nasi Uduk, based on my reading, I was expecting Nasi Uduk to be like our nasi lemak, but what I got was more like Nasi Ambeng, yellow rice, with fried tempe and omelet, plus some fried beehon with it, and it cost me RP 4,000.


I did not bought the food in one go of course :) this is some of what I have tried for the 3 days I was there, that I think was interesting to share. So there it is, my journey for yet another day in Bandung. The final part will come next :O

Don't tell my mom part 1

*Warning, long post ahead.

Yes, the title is right, what I am about to tell you, please don't tell my mom. Though none of you knows her anyway..hahaha.. I will tell her personally later when she comes to KL this weekend :P

It was April, and I was stressed for some reason, and so happened Air Asia have yet one of those deal, and guess what, I booked a returned ticket for myself to BANDUNG in Dec!!! Me, myself and I. I did not even considered to ask another single soul to go with me. As the months gone by, I slowly looked up online, what so great about Bandung (save the shopping aside). Come November, the month flew very quickly. Things has been hectic at work with one thing came up after another, and next thing I know, it D-7!! I have not even secured a hotel booking. I was looking for few options and has been in contact with few places, but seems like they are all fully booked by now. One of the contacts gave me another options and alhamdulillah they still have available room. I didn't even bother to look up any further, and confirmed my booking right ahead.

Few days before the trip, I was tied up at work (who isn't?) and on the Thursday (1st) and Friday (2nd) we have the long awaited departments away day at Gopeng. My flight scheduled to depart from LCCT on Friday 7.15pm. So there I was cracking my head, how do I get to LCCT from Gopeng, the chartered bus only left Gopeng at 2pm, straight to PD. So I decided to give the second day activity a miss. So here's what my time looks like on Friday.

1100H : took from Gopeng to KL (jam somehow along the highway, only reached KL around 2pm)
1415H : board a bus to LCCT at the newly renovated Puduraya 
1600H : reached LCCT, took my own sweet time to have late lunch while waiting for the flight
1930H : board the flight (yes, as usual delayed Air Asia flight)
2100H : reach Bandung (local time, Malaysian time is + 1 hour)

The thing is, I didn't even printed the guesthouse contact no, I just remembered its name, and what if they forgot to pick me up? I did not bring my laptop, my phone is not 'smart', so there is no way I can access the net if at all I need to upon arrival. Better yet, all those things that I looked up online, all those places that I wanted to go, remain as a list in my laptop....yes , I totally forgot to print out my plan.

So there I was, in the plane, with a bleak vacation plan...serve me right!! Maybe if I had told my mom, none of this would have happened.. :P Oohh ya, at this point, only some people in the office knew that I am going to Bandung alone (plus my 2 sisters, I warned them not to tell mom yet, as sometimes she worries about nothing).

So okay, to cut the story short, the driver from the guesthouse did picked me up and I arrived safely in Bandung. I was suprised to find out that the guesthouse is actually in the middle of a pesantren!!

3rd Dec 2011

When I looked up for places to see in Bandung, this one caught my attention, Observatorium Bosscha. Maybe because I was partly interested in looking up the skies in the dark night trying to find the stars (don't ask me about constellation, I have no clue!!) . I hired a driver to send me to this observatory and we got there at 0800H. The visits starts at 0900H, so I killed time by having some walk around the area. Like any other observatory, it is situated at higher ground, and at this altitude and weather, the surroundings are just breathtaking!!

radio tower not for radio station, staffs quarters, and the main structure that keeps the giant telescope

The visit starts with a brief explanation by this lovely undergrad student of Institute Teknologi Bandung, as the observatory is a research center managed by the university. Later we were brought to the main telescope, another student took over and explained about how it functions. This is apparently the largest telescope in South East Asia, to date. Thailand is in progress of constructing a bigger one now.

I must say its a worth visit and such a pity that not many promotions are done to attract more outside tourist to the observatory. All the visitors are local people and from what I gather from the 'satpam' @ pak guard, only a handful of Malaysian visitors make a stop at this observatory, and they are mainly students.

The visit finishes around 1100H and I asked the driver to drop me at Gedung Merdeka for a little walk around the town. When we reached there, they are closed for lunch and without wasting any time, I find my way to Pasar Baru. I didn't plan for a mega shopping spree, but I do bought some stuffs there. I dare not took out my camera at the market, security reasons..hehehe...

From Pasar Baru, I was asking around on how to get back to the guesthouse. So in the end I took a 'beca' that cost me RP 20,000 (I know it was way overpriced, but I considered it as sedekah anyway) and the beca driver finds me an 'angkot' that goes straight to Geger Kalong, the district where I stayed. 'Angkot' is actually a modified van that could take up to 15 passengers at one time. The fares ranges from RP 1,500 to RP 4,000 depending on destination. They have specific route, and I think its the most cost effective mode of transportation. On the roadside, there is all sorts of people doing all sorts of things to make a living. At any traffic lights, the 'angkot' will be approached by either junk food sellers or 'pengamen'. 'Pengamen' is their version of street performer, except that they did not just stay put at one place, they roam around the street. This guy actually sang quite well. When the lights turned green, he will hand out a cup, and depending on the passengers, we can choose to pay, but from what I see, they seldom gets anything.

I didn't dare to take his photo face to face... :D

I went back, dropped the stuffs and went out again. This time to a shopping mall, Istana Plaza, I was only looking to draw some cash since I have spent most of my rupiah at Pasar Baru :P Somehow I was carried away and stepped into music store. After choosing few DVD, upon making the payment, I was short of cash!! I quickly ran to the nearest ATM, and guess what, my transaction was rejected!! I still have some RM, and I was trying to find a money changer, and none was available nearby. At last I have to split the payment between cash and debit card.

After that minor crisis, I board onto an 'angkot' and went back. That night, I was doing quite a detail calculation to make sure I still have enough cash to pay the guesthouse, and to go back...hahaha....

Will I have enough cash? what do I do next? stay tuneeddd........ ;)

Selamat siang ibu-ibu..!!! ;)

Assalamualaikum.....

Lama deh nga ketemu. Coba tebak aku di mana sekarang? Ya bener, aku lagi libur, tapi ini hari terakhirnya kok. Ntar lagi juga pulang, lagi nungguin check in di bandara ni. Aku tu udah 2 hari kurang lebih di sini. Da dulu ya ibu-ibu, sampai ketemu saat aku tiba di Malaysia ;)

Do'ain aku selamat ya!! :D

Salam sayang,
~jeet

Catching Up Time

On Sunday, after breakfast I head over to Borders across the street, there were some talks about that borders closing down (make sense since the one in Times Square downsize from double-stories with huge part of the floor coverage, down to one small lot that fits better to a convenient store). When I went it, I did not see a significant bargain, and in fact, the prices are slightly above Malaysian market. So probably this outlet is making money…

I already had a lunch date secured with a former contractor that I work with back in 2009. Normally I did not really share much with contractors on personal level, but with these two persons, I can get along with them very well. They once told me if I ever get to SG, let them know. I met Erick first, as the other one, Claire has a preplanned lunch and she joined us later. Erick took me to Ayam Penyet Ria, at Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road, located on 2^nd floor.

He is from Medan, and according to him, this is the best affordable place if he feels like eating something from home. Erick no longer work at that company so we pretty much talked about his new work. We were too busy eating and talking, I forgot to snap pictures.

typical ayam penyet menu

Erick also showed me around Orchard Road and we went to the Orchard Central. We also went to the rooftop but only stayed there for a while. As we were going down, I accidentally saw this shop!!!  :r

me and Erick

We went in. I expected the shop to have more gadgets, but I was a bit disappointed to see the limited display. They do however have these cute aprons, but as always, overpriced :P

wannabe alrite!!

After that we both walked to ION mall to meet Claire. Erick hangs around while waiting to meet his girlfriend. At first Claire wanted to treat me to this fine tea shop, TWG, but the queue was so long we decided to hang out at Starbuck in the end.  We spoke about work, career progression, SG common issues (GE around the corner..) and many more things. It’s good to catch up with her, she walked me back to the hotel and that was pretty much what I did that day.

the tea we didn't get to taste

the china we didn't get to use :P

the ever sweet Claire

I normally do not make new friends that often, but with Claire and Erick, it feels right. I now officially have one Indonesian and one Singaporean friend 8) (tu pon nak kecoh…)

~Hakuna Matata~

means no worries for the rest of your life...

*please be warned, this post contains loads of picca :)
After 2.5 exhausting days of meeting, I get to unwind on Saturday. I have already booked a ticket to USS 2 weeks back, and made a point to be the earliest to get there, I knew there will be a lot of people due to the long weekend. When I got out from the hotel at 9am, it was drizzling and halfway to Vivo City, it was raining cats and dogs.

Universal Studio...here I come :)

Luckily when I got to USS, the rain stopped, but the floor is still wet though. The crowd was building up at the entrance, these people must have been there since 6am I guess  :P 



I definitely wants to go there..far..far..away....

I only went for the Battlestar Galactica ride and it was fun!! The rest of the time I went in and out the shows. Shrek 4D is highly recommended!! I wish I could go for second round, but the queue was too long. USS is a smaller than I thought it would be. Definitely Genting has more rides and easily we can spend the whole day there. 

Only one for me today

I did some browsing through the overpriced gift shop, and then I decided to call it a day and head back to hotel. 

After lunch, I went out on a mosque hunt. At first I wanted to go to Masjid Jamae, in Chinatown, but since my timing is quite limited, I detour to Masjid Sultan in Arab Street area. The masjid is clean and very well kept. The ablution area is nice, comes with steel rail to place your feet, which is very convenient. 

From the front entrance

Cantik kan? ceria betul tempat wudhuk..

After that, I made way to the Esplanade, just to check out how does the ‘durian’ looked up close.

duri-durian...

After not more than 15 minutes there, I made way to Marina Bay Sands. Long lines of people waiting to get to the Skypark. The interior of the hotel is magnificent, with 3 towers, made up to one roof. The lowest rate, I was told is ~SGD 400, that is close to RM1K for one freaking nite!!

View from bottom

I was looking up most of the time!!

We made our way to the Skypark FOC (tourist have to pay SGD 20 to get to rooftop), complimentary of a friend who works there :) 

View from the top. That odd looking structure is an art and science museum, I did not went in there..

Singapore Flyer

This friend of mine actually works at the Marina Bay Sands Casino, I was actually offered to enter the casino, but I declined. I was taken to the viewing area of the whole casino. They have the first floor for commoners to gamble, entry for tourists are free, but PR and SG citizens have to pay SGD100 for entrance.  And up in the exclusive 2^nd and 3^rd floor sits the high rollers in their respective gambling room. I was told they have to actually commit to a minimum amount of SGD 100K to start gambling…(dah terbayang a comfortable town house – a little bit outside KL) 

Whats next? I was given a complimentary ticket to watch The Lion King Theater at Sands Theater. :D

I don't think I can afford this on my own, World Cup ticket, yeah!!!

I was seated on the 7-8^th row from the stage (freaking awesome!!!) and see who I spotted just two rows away. 

Very african feeling

Dom was playing with gadgets most of the time, kinda similar with Marion in dieya's post

 The theatre was great, stage works was exceptional. I like the young Simba and the young Nala’s voice was mesmerizing. The show starts slightly after 8pm and finished around 10.30pm. 

The cast, I was warned after taking this shot :P

After taking some night shots of those modern architectural of SG, I took a bus and head back to hotel. 

Reflection

I simply lovveee this picture

Dan pasti ibu-ibu di luar penasaran deh, siapa temannya yang udah bawa aku jalan-jalan di atas bumbung, pakai kasi tiket teater lagi….ya orangnya tidak lain dan tidak bukan, chowok yang bikin kontroversi semenjak dari post yang lalu…So dieya, another gambar berukuran poskad for your eyes only ;)

With the host, he made me feel so short!!! and mind you I am 160 cm++

He is single but not so much available, jadi, udah ya gosipinnya ibu-ibu? ;) He’s being nice for old time’s sake.