Asia Wanderer

Entertaining or Torturing

2011-12-25T05:28:00.000-08:00

Monkeys, in this case, in Jakarta are trained to entertain tourists. However, my friend and I were not really entertained. It was a nice afternoon in Mini Indonesia park. Everything was perfect but just before we were about to leave we saw this show and couldn't just walk away without expressing our feeling about this scene.

I don't have to be a mother of this street monkey to feel sympathy. It's so obvious that he's not happy to be chained.

UK media also covered the story this year. Read more from the link below.
Shocking truth of how monkeys are tortured for "entertainment" in Indonesia.

Makassar - When nothing makes sense

2011-12-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

At the airport, it took me one hour at the custom. ONE HOUR for doing nothing wrong but for doing thing that doesn’t make sense.

Until today I still don’t know which object in my bag look so suspicious but this object showed in the baggage xray machine and the officer asked me to open my bag and search for that object.

The conversation went like this
Officer: [looking at my passport] are you coming from Thailand?
Me: No. I took a flight from Singapore.
Officer: Why? But your passport is Thailand.
Me: I’m Thai but I work and live in Singapore.
Officer: [still disbelieve] what company are you working for?
Me: [showing him my Singapore employment pass and my company ID card]
Officer: It’s not a Thai company.
Me: No, it’s European company [questioning myself why my profile is so complicated]
Officer: How many days you will be here?
Me: 4 days
Officer: FOUR? [isn't it too long?] What is your plan to do in 4 days?
Me: Well actually I don't have a plan. [he should read my blog to understand my travel behavior better. no plan is a good plan]
Officer: What? So why are you coming to Makassar.
Me: To visit a friend.
Officer: Your friend lives here?
Me: No. He works in the north of Sulawesi.
Officer: But why don't you meet your friend there?
Me: [hmm he is right.] Well that city is too far.
Officer: What city?
Me: Luwuk
Officer: What? Where?
Me: [Who is the Indonesian here? If you don’t know how can I know?] Ah may be I didn’t pronounce it correctly. You know Luwak [don't ring a bell?] or Luwok [no?] … Luwuk ah Luwuk [dahhh]
Older officer: Ah Luwuk hahaha really?
Me: [i know] really
…....
And the conversation went on and on and he kept searching my bag hoping to find something out of nothing … then he found a bag of 200 capsules of black pepper from BKK
…....
Officer: What is this? [smelling it]
Me: Slimming pill
Officer: Huh look at you! where to slim?
Me: [smile … I take it as a compliment] trust me I have too much fat
…....
After having fun chatting and looking at my personal stuff and tasting my muesli he finally let me go. But I know deep in this heart he still couldn’t believe that a Thai who works in Singapore for a European company would like to meet a friend, who works in an unknown place, in a non-tourist city like Makassar instead of Bali or Lombok without any hidden agenda!

Makassar Airport (UPG) The high light of the city

Saturday morning my friend who came from the unknown land was craving for 'good food' and for the fact that the hotel breakfast doesn't have whole wheat bread so ... I had to leave two beautiful fried eggs behind and went to a bigger and nicer hotel. fine. When we arrived the staff was greeting us in Bahasar (they thought I'm Indonesian) and I assumed she asked how many people so I answered 'two' and walked to the table with confidence. Even though she looked a bit surprise but what else she should ask? It's normal right? Then they came to serve tea and coffee and we enjoyed healthy food a lot. Nobody came to ask for room number or anything. My friend asked if we should call for a bill as nobody cared to ask the room number. I said 'don't worry I think I told them the room number already. Two!'

Later in a day we found 2 Dunkin Donuts and 1 KFC plus one big supermarket near the hotel. I booked a hotel near the ocean and food outlets. Just in case the communication went wrong I could get some snacks from those shops. However, my Bahasar was still acceptable. From the last trip in Jogja I learned 5 words to survive: Nasi (rice), Goreng (fried), Ayam (chicken), Kamping (mutton) and Mie (noodle). Mix the words to get the food you want. The word order is similar to Thai. Therefore, instead of trying the famous seafood, I always ended up with nasi goreng. I had a feeling that if I order fish they will ask me what kind of fish and I could not answer and they would give me the pricey especially-for-tourist fish.

Beach road

In the afternoon, when the sun was not too shiny, we decided to visit the one and only tourist attraction in the city, the 16th century Dutch Fort Rotterdam. IT WAS CLOSED!

What now? Looking left and right and left and right … just keep walking then. We found China town, some more nicer hotels, Holland bakery, a small garden, a post office. At the end I think my friend and I became a local attraction (objects that attract the local) as they hardly saw any tourist from oversea. [Man... you have to trust in your city and make it happen one day you know!]

Holland Bakery

Sunday morning I had a little walk along the beach road, flee market was just over. I found a group of local students who were looking for a foreigner to practice their English. They said I should go out of town. Nobody stays in town. Nice things are out of town, out like 7-drive, to the paradise on earth. So I decided to have a massage at the hotel.

Sunday Market

Monday morning my friend left I was alone and still couldn't decide what to do. I walked to the beach front to take some pictures. It was difficult to decide what picture I should take as the scenery was very common (to me at least). I stopped at a local restaurant called ‘Sentosa’. This restaurant is a perfect place to avoid communication failure. The system is to grab a menu together with paper and pen from the cashier then write down what you want n give the order to one of the girls who are walking around. After we finish our food, just go to the cashier and pay. No verbal communication needed. So I took my time reading the menu and using the mini phrase book to translate it.

Sentosa self-service restaurant

And this is what I ordered. Mi Bakso and Es Kelapa - Beef noodle and coconut juice with ice.

Lonely Planet Phrase - a gift from my Indonesian friend

And this is what I got, meat ball noodle and coconut in syrup with ice. Very close ;-)

On a hot Monday morning like this, this little girl was lingering at my table (the nearest table to the front door), holding a plastic cup in her hand. She would approach customers who were walking through the door and ask for some money. She should have been in school on Monday.

At Makassar airport departure hall gate 7, one and only departure gate for all international flights, I was approached by a ground staff of Garuda, 'Miss are you on SIN flight?' 'Yes' 'We are now ready for boarding.' ... 'For passengers to KUL, please wait for a few more minutes.' ... Wow the most personalized boarding service I have ever had in my life! :))

Siena Day 2 – Let’s get lost!

2011-08-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

‘Today must be a better day’ – my simple plan for Day 2. OK before we take off I need to write about the lovely B&B I stayed first. I found Fonte dei Tufi through Trip Advisor. It got very good review from the users both from trip advisor and booking.com. For sure it’s not a luxury hotel but if you want to feel the countryside, this is it. There are two sisters who are running the business. The elder sister is in her last phrase of pregnancy. The younger one is the one who picked me up from another B&B. She also gave this hopeless girl the city map and explained the bus routes. Both of them are very helpful and friendly.

I came down around 8 to have breakfast. The blue sky was so blue. The sun was so bright and shining. The wind was lazily blowing. It was the day that the warm sun was fighting against cold breeze. I won this battle. I took my breakfast to the backyard to enjoy it in a nice weather.

Now walking to the bus stop, never be afraid to try again, this time I would try bus no. 54 which was a mini bus looping in the city. One bus was approaching according to the bus schedule this should be the one but in front of the bus it didn’t show no. 54 but A xxx with a name of a place. Huh what should I do? Should I get lost again? No not this time. But since there were only 2 buses, one was clearly no. 3 then another one must be 54. The only way to find out was to take it!

The bus was heading to the south gate where I got off yesterday. But this time it went through the gate going up the hill, passing small café and shops. I held the map firmly and kept looking between the street and the map. My finger was pointing along the map like a manual GPS. Today I won't get lost! Ten minutes later the bus stopped at a small square. Something told me I should jump off at this point.

With the map in my hand, I kept on walking up the hill through a small alley, passing a few shops that just half opened. I came out of the alley and, like this picture just falling into my face, I found this magnificent cathedral. So contemporary with black and white decoration but filled with details. It’s the famous Duomo di Siena. Unfortunately, it was too early to get in and I had long schedule for a day so … I promise I will come back.

Around the Duomo there were several passages which I was not sure which way to choose, you know what, let’s forget about the map. Fold it (with difficulty) and stuck it back in the bag. Let’s explore the city without plan, without thinking. Many times my brain fights with my hearts and brain normally wins. But no not today.

I followed the signed that pointed to Il Campo or the half-moon square. Again there were several streets connected to the square. So I started walking up one street and walked back to the square, then selected another street, walked up and back, out and in. By doing this I could see things that were hidden from the tourist. I found some nice places and felt like I owned the spot.

One street led me to the same bus stop I got off from Florence. This bus stop is called piazza Gramsci or La Lizza. I crossed a street toward the old Fort and I found a bus stop for bus no.3. So actually instead of walking around the moon the right bus stop that could have taken me to the hotel was just right there behind me!!! SMART!

This fort has a huge park inside in the upper level. Not so many people visited but some came for jogging or simply relaxing on a bench. Lavender bushes were harassed by bees. Seemed like they had a big party all over. I wanted to sit down and relax but the view below was so temping.

I saw one café and just realized it was time for lunch. I took some more pictures and walked down to café.

Now let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Bee Party

View from above

Inside the fort filled with lavender scent

Will go down and sit at that red table soon

Here I am. A cafe with red table and magnificent view

Siena is unreal!

So unreal!

Lots of cafe along the street

Can I call this street food?

A Chinese restaurant in Siena

To-die-for ice cream!!

My melone piccolo ;-)

My ...hmm well.. snack I would say. This is the most freindly restaurant I had been to so far. Maybe because I tried to talked to them all the time in Italian. I found this place by chance but now pinned it on the map and will eat here again when I visit Siena next time. Seriously I was not hungry just wanted to eat everything on the my savour list.

Do not touch but taking picture is ok right?

One stop shopping: pasta, bisciotti, spices and fresh fruit

Interesting...

I think it was 6 hours of walking. Actually I still wanted to eat pasta with truffle but up to this point I was too tired and decided to take a bus back to the hotel. Oh yeah I mastered the bus system here. No more getting lost. Met a granny on the bus. She touched my arm and made a round shape with her hand around her face and she said to me 'bellissima' Hope she didn't mean 'Go and wash your face if you wanna be pretty' :P

At 6pm I couldn't stop thinking about truffle. My posh stomach was weeping. OK OK let's go back to town. While waiting for the bus no. 54, the bus no. 3 came. The driver stopped but I said no. He said why. I said it's not the bus I want to take. He said why not? Ermmm huh ehhh?!? Other passenger beamed at me. OK OK anyway it's the same direction.

I got off at the south gate (again) and waiting for the mini bus. The driver came out from the bus and started a conversation with me. Something like 'there's a famous university inside. go learn some italian. stay here. come back again.' Then he left with the bus going down the hill. The same moment the bus no. 54 was passing the stop WITHOUT me in it. Oh no!!!! Walk again sweety.

Porta Tufi or the south gate of Siena, the bus stop that I spent most of the time puzzling what's goin go on with my life?!

And at the end of the street I found 'La Taverna di San Giuseppe' - a Michelin Starred restaurant that serves fresh truffle! But all table were reserved. Look so desperate, the owner gave me a table that reserved for 8pm. Got it, I'll be quick. My wallet didn't allow me to have full course dinner anyway.

Chronical of greed - never feel hungry just want to eat!

- enough for day 2 -

Siena Day 1 - The Lost Champion

2011-08-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

OK Siena is not in Asia. It’s in Italy. At least it’s as hot as in Asia ;-)

Why Siena? I just came across this name when I was searching for a city to visit in Europe. The key words are Shengen, wine, countryside, relax, and maybe Tuscany.

Siena is a small city in Tuscany .. that’s all I know at the time I planned the trip. I got myself a guide book about Florence and Toscana and Italian Phrase book with CD as a start. I knew a little of Italian, spent 2 years in Uni learning the language but now all I could say is ciao!

The trip was made in between the two meetings I had in Germany. I prepared a big bag for Germany and a small bag for Italy. I put the map, guidebook and bus schedule in my laptop bag. I left the big bag in Germany and I left the laptop bag in the big bag. So I left to Italy without any map, guidebook and bus schedule. All I had was me with a little confidence about the language and orientation.

On board Lufthansa Regional I knew what I would get as a ‘snack’. Must be something hard and cold. Well it was better than I thought. This time was chicken wrap. While other passengers were still puzzling what had been put in their hand, I already finished it. Arriving at Florence airport around noon, I rushed to the toilette. The Ladies’ was full, as usual, I rushed to a handicap restroom. What unusual was there was an old man inside the room with the door unlock. I shut the door, turned around and was about to walk away. The grandpa came out and said ‘Prego’ (welcome) … oh at least he didn’t say it when he was still in the room.

There is no airport in Siena. Normally people go to either Florence or Pisa then take a bus or train to Siena. I chose Florence. And from Florence airport I had to take a bus to the train station (had to because it was 3 times cheaper than a cab) and then I continued with a regional bus to Siena. It doesn’t sound so complicated and the regional bus station is quite close the train station according to Trip Advisor. But I forgot that the train station was so huge with spaghetti tracks. Yeah it was near but near which side? I had to ask around 3 times until I found it, yes I found it!

I bought the tickets for Rapide hoping it means rapid or express. The ride was around 1 hour plus. I planned to enjoy the sun and scene of mountain and river and on and on, but when the bus went into a dark tunnel I didn’t see any light afterward.

I woke up again and found myself already in Siena. Beautiful clay color. Can't wait to get off and walk around. Local people started to get off the bus and at the end of line I also got off. Now … challenging part … how to get to the hotel. I remembered I should take bus no. 3 or 54 but I could not find a bus stop around that area with these 2 bus numbers! I went in to a Tabacco shop to buy a map and bus ticket. The shop keeper said ‘Merci’ .. so now I’m French or what?!

I would say either the map was bad or my sense of direction was bad or both, I still couldn’t find first of all where I was and then where I had to go. Completely numb but not hopeless, I decided to walk to the direction where most people walked to. Let’s go with the flow. Good strategy, I found the center of the town called ‘Il Campo’. It’s a city square but has the shape of half moon.

An hour later I still couldn’t figure it out how to get to the hotel. Should I take a cab? Nah that’s too easy. Let’s walk a bit more. ... And here we are, after walking around the moon,… a bus stop with bus no. 3!!! But wait it looks like it’s the wrong direction. My logic was to cross the road then it’s the right direction. Hmm feel so smart all of the sudden.

Here comes the bus! My lovely bus no. 3. Let’s get going. See I don’t need a cab. Alright yeah but where should I get off?! Oh shoot it was not a part of my smart plan. Looking at the map again I remembered the hotel was near the south gate. OK let’s go to the gate and walk around a bit I’m sure I can find it. On the map there was a big line cross the gate. Yeah the hotel must be somewhere there on that big street.

The bus stopped at the south gate which was the last stop. My plan to walk along the big street was scratched as the big line on the map was actually the city wall!! And it’s not the Great China Wall so we can’t walk on it.

Sitting at the bus stop for awhile thinking what to do next. Oh I forgot to tell you that the gate is on top of the hill. It’s not fun to walk up and down with baggage. Anyway I started to walk down to the church and ask people if they knew the hotel. Actually I saw a sign of B&B way down the hill. I hope it’s not that one. But the guy said it’s way down the hill and probably was that one. OK I started to walk down, at least the weather was nice. But then I reached the point where there was no pavement. Streets were getting smaller which was not safe to walk. And I just realized why walk, I could take my lovely bus no. 3 down the hill again.

Older and smarter, I asked the bus driver to take me to the place. This was not the first time I bothered bus driver in Europe with no shame. One time in Frankfurt airport, second time in Raunheim (a small city near Frankfurt airport) and third time now here in Siena. None of them could speak English, none of me could speak their language. Somehow we understood each other and they always begins the conversation with ‘Senorita or Signorina’ and ends with a big relief sigh when I get off.

Well well well now I was in front of the B&B. It didn’t look like in the picture at all. Something wasn’t right here. Of course again I went to the wrong place. The lady who owns the B&B said there were two B&B in the area and people got confused. She told me the place I aimed to go was a little bit down like one kilometer down from here. Oh dear do you have a room for me to stay and I will continue tomorrow?!? No no no be positve girl I had to find the place and I had to find it quick before sunset.

Unexpectedly the lady told me actually she knew the owner of that B&B and she would make a phone call to ask them to pick me up. Am I hearing it right? How nice! I was a complete stranger but she gave me help without hesitation.

OK here we are. Fonte dei Tufi B&B with a small little sign in front say ‘Chambers, Zimmer’

Almost one day had gone just for getting from Frankfurt to Siena. Therefore I crowned myself a Champion of Getting Lost!

It's in her hands now.

2011-07-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

Just came across an article in The Economist about the landslide victory of Yingluck.
"The principal reason for this welcome anticlimax was the margin of victory, so large that no one could argue with it."
And I'm not writing this article to argue with it.

If the result of this election represents the need of the majority of Thai people, it just makes my heart sink.

"As prime minister, Mr Thaksin championed the cause of the rural poor, mainly in the north. He introduced various effective and popular anti-poverty programmes, among them subsidised universal health care and a microcredit scheme for farmers."

This is what I mean. Our leader is trying to solve the problem with more problems. I'm not an economist but microcredit doesn't sound good to me. One person is giving out the money to make more money. Another person is getting the money to have more debt if he doesn't know how to manage it, like giving a child a gun.

I know PT's supporters are not stupid but they love to hear when the new leader promised them wealth (in a short-term) while another party has been trying to revive the household economy concept for rural area and create a bond between people and their homeland as a long-term approach.

I believe the true leader should make the fundamental of the country strong. The fundamental of the country is its people. The fundamental of people is the sense of self sufficiency. Make us feel secure inside not only outside. Everyone should know their duty and understand their role n their share to the society. The basic things that got lost on the way of plastic world.

Read a full story here.

A Tribute to Korea

2011-06-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

written on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 12:26am

It’s been the hell of six months of non-stop n stressful work, not to mention lots of tension on private life, but today I will stop complaining but writing something nice about Korea!

After the intensive traveling across the continents in the past few months, this afternoon when I was back to Seoul, I felt ‘yes, this is the right place to rest and heal the wound’.

I still can’t speak Korean, don’t have friend, and have no time to travel around but the last trip to Germany made me feel lucky to work and live here. I used to say Koreans are working too hard and too fast and now they still work so fast and so hard like we’re gonna die tomorrow … but the difference is now they think before they act. Isn’t it a paradise to work with people who are highly motivated, can come up with a good plan and execute it so fast and so effective? I was not surprised to see KR on the Best Demonstrated Practice slides and I will relay this message to my team to keep their spirit up high at all time.

Hey, and the best thing is life is not all about work. Since my try-to-hide drinking talent has been revealed, my colleagues are taking me out on Friday night and whenever we have a chance ;-) I had lots of fun on my birthday and karaoke day and barbeque day and now I start to like any ordinary day.

On the bad day that I missed all the flights back to BKK, I temporarily lost the energy to catch the bus back to town. It was 9 pm at Incheon airport, one and a half hour away from the city, heavy traffic, raining. I made some phone calls just to cool me down including a few calls to my KR colleagues. I asked them to come over to my place and have a nice Sunday together. I cooked some Thai food which was approved by SungYoon as very delicious! She also brought me milk pudding and a bottle of Soju (she knows me too well). She said actually she’s been waiting for my invitation as it’s not their culture to ask people who have higher rank in Korean rigid hierarchy (sorry can't help complaining a bit :P) to visit their house or spend a private time with. And it was a nice and relaxing, and emotional Sunday with lots of warm feeling which I’ve been looking for.

It reminds me of Pod (Modern Dog)’s song ‘Something’ – ‘Something you ignore may be after all the thing you vitally need. Just like you are breathing even you don’t know you are.’ Will you wait until you lost the air to realize the value of it? I won’t. And just now that I realized how lucky I am to be in this place, I will spend the rest of my days in Korea like everyday is the last day!

3 simple reasons why i LOVE Hongdae

2011-06-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

Written on Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 8:33am

1. Feel like home

Hongdae is a private university area but at night you will be amazed by hundreds of clubs, wine bars, restaurants, boutiques, karaoke, whatever entertainment you can think of. It's kinda mix of da hip Thonglor - Ekamai and da raw Khoasan road in Bangkok. And you can meet nice bunch of university students, yuppies and young foreigners (expat and tourists).

2. Feel young

Last month a university student asked for my phone number. Maybe it was so dark in da pub so he misjudged my age. Of course I din give him as i dun wanna have 3 kids LOL According to my korean friend it was such an insult for a guy not getting a girl number ... but i did it in his favor. Imagine wat his friend would say 'dude u dating ajuma (auntie)?!? hahaha

3. Feel extremely young

And last night even I think it's too much but .. n i c e .. I was with 3 friends in a chicken and beer restaurant and we ordered 4 beer ... then the waitress came back with 3 beer and refused ... repeat ... r e f u s e d ... to serve me beer she tot i'm underage. C o m e o n !! how old she think i am?!? should i hate her or love her?!?! but one thing i know for sure i love korean make-up. BB Magic is a real magic LOL

The last thing Japan ever want is ...me... ?!?

2011-06-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

May 29, 2011

When I arrived, it was raining, pouring and then it became a typhoon! My very first time in Tokyo and I only had one day to look around. And yes there was a typhoon - CNN called that day 'The last thing Japan ever want' .. phewww I thought they were talking about me!

I arrived at 6am at Haneda airport. My friend told me to take a monorail to Hammamusucho station then take a shuttle bus to the hotel. The monorail was easy to manage and they had a signage and announcement also in English and Korean. I didn't know learning Korean can be useful outside Korea :P

Then as I expected, I couldn't check in before noon according to the hotel policy. (Don't worry I won't argue I have learned to follow the rules from Singapore.) The hotel staff asked me if I had an umbrella in case I wanted to go out. Of course I had but excuse me ... it was raining cats and dogs .... a normal umbrella wouldn't hold ... even beach or pool umbrella I still had my doubt.

So I took the time to study Tokyo map and plan some routes to explore a few areas when the rain stopped. Maybe Roppongi, Shibuya,Harajuku, Ginza. Ten o'clock the rain didn't seem to stop, maybe Shibuya and Roppongi. Eleven o'clock almost fell sleep in the hotel lobby, same amount of rain, well at this point it would be great just to have my room!

........

After taking a nap, I started to look at the map again as I was so hungry. I thought Seoul Metro was massive and complicated ... but Tokyo metro make it a child play. Check it out by yourself here. Tokyo Metro Map
OK with my limited sense of direction, I decided to just go to Shibuya (that I had to make one transfer already huuuu)

........

At Shibuya, I was so hungry and was looking for super local restaurant just to challenge myself with unknown zone. But before I had a reward there was something I had to pay first. Literally pay at Uniqlo :P ... it's a girl's weakness I know

Walking around I felt so much like I was in Seoul ... the crazy rain, the smell in the metro, tipsy guys with a smell of alcohol from their breathe. However I have to say 'same same but different'

Let's have a look

Food Ticket Machine:

For those who never use, it's a vending machine for ordering food: insert the money, press the menu you wanna order, get the ticket and give to the chef.

In Korea, everything is in Korean but I always have friends to help with and enjoy food together.
In Japan, everything is in Japanese. can't read a word, no friend, all alone. All I could do was just trying my luck!
And this is what I got ... not too bad right?

Don't know how the machine look like? Click here

How to walk in a metro station:

Tokyo: 'Do not rush'
Seoul: 'Do not stop' or don't even think of slowing down. People will keep pushing you even when no one can move. Seriously.

Silent mode:
Japan: Turn off the sound of a phone when you are in a metro.
Korea: Really?

That's it for half a day :)

사실은 한국사람 아니예요 - Sashiruen Hankuksaram Aniyaeyo - Actually I’m not Korean ;-)

2011-05-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

"안녕하세요, 안 녹는 아이크림 있어요? - Anyounghaseyo, annoknuen ice-cream isseyo?" It was a question of a small little girl to a young lady behind an ice cream bar. I didn’t know the meaning but my guess was she wants non-fat ice cream. So on Sunday afternoon while I was having coffee & cake with my two colleagues, I asked them the real meaning and how to pronounce the ‘non-fat’ word as it might be useful when I order food. …. There was an awkward silence before one of them answer. "Erm… actually it means 'Can I have the ice-cream that can’t melt? Because she wants to give it to her friend to enjoy during the trip, as he is leaving to a faraway place')…."

It was just a few days after I told them I’d decided to move to Singapore. The decision was hard but telling them was even harder. There was a feeling I couldn’t explain why it was such a tough decision. Most of my friends said it was such a nice move, nice job and nice place why my reaction was so weird. ‘You will have an easier life, be closer to your family what else do you need?’ … hmm maybe it’s not what I need but what I miss.

My first few months in Korea were full of meetings. I met so many talented Korean people and they seemed to work in one company for a long time. I asked why they didn’t change the job or it was because of the current job market situation. They said not really but it was something called Joeng (정). I said ah it was like loyalty? No they said. It was something like that but much more than that. So I said it was like loyalty plus passion? They said maybe but you can’t describe this word with words. So I tried again … it’s like loyalty plus passion and you have to be a little stupid not to move on. They were laughing and said if I were Korean I would understand.

After one and a half year I think I finally feel it. Right when I got to know about the job opportunity in Singapore, something really cold struck me. I knew it was the right decision and it was something I was longing for but the soulful bond has been created unintentionally. There were some unique characters of Korean people that create this unique business etiquette. And I feel so honored to understand it. I’ve learned that Korean people love to be competitive but as a team, not as a soloist. It’s safer to be one of little shinning stars among others on the same sky than a lonely shooting star. They usually say ‘We’ even they mean ‘I’. Not because they don't want to take their own responsiblity but whatever decision they made, it came from 'we-all-agreed' decision. I’ve learned that many Koreans work for their boss not for a company. When Jeong is deep, staff tends to change a job when the boss has gone. The country has changed so fast day by day but its people are not really accepting the change especially our parents’ generation, who are over 50, who experienced the war. I know deep inside they are bleeding.

Once I was among Koreans when they cheered their team during the World Cup, the place and the crowd gave me ‘we are one’ vibe. When I eat traditional Korean food that Ajuma (married woman) like or when I talk in Korean with the right expression at the right moment, many people think I’m Korean. For example the cashier at the mart always asks two questions; do you need a plastic bag? .. and do you have a member card? … my questions are always yes … no. Until one day she switched the questions but I didn’t switch the answers so I said Sashiruen Hankuksaram Aniyaeyo. ;-)

Small Observation From a Trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2011-05-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

1. Love has a power to create and destroy in one night

This simple rule has been proven and shown in many legends and histories. Same rule applies for Prambanan Temples. Since I had not enough money to hire a local guide, I was lucky to meet a student who wanted to practice her English and tell me this story. The story begins with a prince who had a super natural power. He came to this land and killed an evil king but wanted to marry his princess daughter. Of course the princess didn't want to but couldn't say no directly. She told him she would marry him if he could built 1000 statues in 'one night' (hoping he couldn't). Unfortunately the man had a magical power and call demon spirits for help. When he finished the 999th statue, the princess woke up her people in the palace and order them to so their regular routines as if it's the morning time. The prince was very disappointed that he couldn't finish it and later very devastated to find out he was fooled by the princess.

He cursed the princess to become the 1000th statue and her statue is also at Prambanan temple. I had no chance to see it as that part of temple was closed due to the damage caused by the earthquake.

2. My brain doesn't function well in the morning

Come to think of it, the price for the local guide was not that expensive. It's 75,000 IDR or 11 SGD or 6 EUR or 280 THB hmm.... that's why this Singha was laughing at me!

3. It's called 'document'

The second temple I visited was so high up in the mountain. I needed to wake up at 5am and start the trip from 6.

The scenery along the way was so green and refreshing. On the slope there was a huge area for rice field. The driver asked me in one word 'do-coo-men?' ... what?! wait I have a strong sense of Asian-English I should know what he meant. Then he stopped the car and asked me again with the same word. Ahhh he means 'document'!

Yes it was THAT beautiful till the simple word like taking picture didn't deserve it.

4. When people say don't, I say do

The itinerary I created was quite different from the tour-brochure one. I really want to visit Cetho and Sukuh temples which are 3-hour drive from Jogja. Cetho is located over 1km above the sea level, where Sukuh is a few hundred meters below Cetho. Most of the tourists didn't make it to Cetho temple as it required more effort and time ... but as I said I do what people don't and here I am.

After documenting enough of tea plantation the driver dropped me at the entrance of Cetho temple. The cloud was very heavy and ready to rain in every minute. I climbed to the top of the temple and found many statues included ShivaLinga which is the symbol of fertility. Lucky me but not so lucky for the temple as there were just a few tourists on that day. Anyway I almost got the whole temple for myself.

5. Right decision

But ... no it's not enough. I decided to climb a bit more to see what's behind the temple. My logic is as long as there's a path for people to walk, there must be more to offer. And yes I found a sign '(right) Puri Saraswati' (left) Candi Kethek'. Now time to choose ... actually I went left to see more temples (Candi = temple) but the path was very narrow, near the cliff and too adventurous under the pouring rain. I walked back to sign and now chose the right.

And it was a good choice. I found the statue of Saraswati goddess right in the middle of the forest, rising from the mother earth ... so unbelievably beautiful. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge (art and music) in Hinduism and Buddhism.

How to get there: From Singapore you can get Air Asia flight non-stop to JOG or take Lufthansa (LH) from SIN to JKT and connect from JKT to JOG by Air Asia (in case you want to experience JKT for a day or two)
Taxi is cheap but you have to insist on using the meter otherwise you may end up paying double or triple.

Accommodation: Best hotel with reasonable price is Phoenix Hotel. It's so unique and really beautiful. With promotion price it's only 1700 THB a night (approx 75 SGD). The hotel staff is very helpful and friendly.
Read more here from Trip Advisor
Check the price with Accor or Agoda.

Tips: Try to remember some bahasa indonesian words for food to enjoy local or street food ;-)