SINGAPORE 2004 Part 2

This trip of mine was so long ago, so, I can't remember everything happened but what I've got in my pics & clips gallery. However, my colleague didn't like taking photo much on that day (he's loving it by now, I'll show you later). So, please feel free to leave your comments to share your experiences.

You can also find part 1 of this series here..

**@ the heart of Singapore**

On my last day @ Singapore, we decided to find the original Merlion, the famous symbol and the must visit place of Singapore. It's located just off the eastern shore near the commercial zone. We travelled, again, by MRT to the nearest station. The nearby location are good for walking. Even the bright sunshine, it was not too hot for a walk and for taking some good pics. Handsome guy in the first picture is my colleague. Again, I revealed my colleague in the last part...I may do it faster next time ^^

++MERLION++

Finding the Merlion is not that easy for those who go there on foot. We lost a few times before getting to the destination. The VOMITING Merlion is old and if compared to the other attractions, it's uncomparable due to its small size. Only one thing to keep this tourist attraction alive is that it's the Singapore national symbol, I think. On the other side of the Merlion, you can see the Esplanade Theatre, the building with 'DURIAN' shape. I wondered whether it contains durian smell, if so, I'm the first to regret entering the building ;)

++The Raffles Place and Singapore River++

After visiting the Merlion, I and my colleague travelled back to the inner land for a little and started to find places for gathering more photographes. Finally, we arrived at the Raffles place. Raffles is the name of the founder of modern Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles. From his far-sighted eyes, Singapore is the great economy hub in Asia.

'Raffles Place is the financial heart of Singapore. It is located within the Downtown Core and the Central Area and, as such, is home to the some of the tallest buildings and landmarks in Singapore. It is situated south of the mouth of the Singapore River.' (From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles_Place)

Started from a bridge that cross over the Singapore River to the Statue of Sir Stamford Raffles. 'The Durian' is located here, too. There're many strange statues. See them below.

++Before the end of the comfort Trip++

Since I can't see any stray dogs or cats in Singapore since I arrived, I felt quite strange because they're everywhere in Thailand (Some foreigners in Thailand call stray dogs as 'Soi Dog' because they live, normally as a gang in that Soi). Finally, I found this cute cat sleeping near the Singapore River. If you carefully look at it's ear, you'll see the stamp. This might be the way the Singaporians is using to control pets and animals. The stamp might be as a marked of implanted microchip...

This trip of mine was comfortable with a lot of good experiences there, unlike the Indonesia trip. But I think you don't expect me to have trouble everywhere I visit, right?

'Till the next trip...

SINGAPORE 2004 Part 1

Hi, all. Welcome to my another series. This time it's Singapore, my first time abroad (by plane). Although it was on the year 2004, there are many points and pics to share with you. I'll try to shorten this trip into 2 parts.

**FIRST DAY @ SENTOSA**

It's like the dream!!!, I thought.
After working for 2 years, my boss decided to send me abroad for training and it's the ISPE Singapore, at that time, who gave one complimentary seat in their Conference, which worth more than 1,200 SGD, encouraged my organisation to send 2 people in such conference: Mr. Praphon, my senior colleagues, and I.
My trip was started on 16/4/2547 morning, I and my colleague catched the TG plane (at that time...from Don Muang Intl.) and arrived at Changi airport at about 1.30 p.m.

 (credit: wikitravel.org)
++Singapore Changi International Airport (SIN)++
(credit:WIKIPEDIA; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Singapore_Changi_Airport%2C_Control_Tower_2%2C_Dec_05.JPG)
The Changi airport was quite new at that time, it was fully equipped with modern facilities. Do you ever visited the Singapore Changi International Airport? It would be helpful if you can share with me and others by posting your comments.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR or SGD or S$ is the official currency in Singapore. The rate is 1.4395 SGD per 1 USD (reference: DBS Singapore, 27.10.2007). The rate is not much difference between each exchange point and many currencies have good exchange rate there...no worry about having to carry USD into Singapore.
We took taxi to our hotel, Grand Plaza Parkroyal, near the city hall area. It costed us approx. 17 SGD. After checking in, we're so hungry, so we hurried to the Raffles City Shopping Centre for a luncheon (around 5-6 SGD in fast food area). Sorry, no photo ^^
After the lunch, we agreed to visit Singapore's ultimate tourist attraction ++Sentosa++ on that day.
Sentosa is the popular island resort in Singapore, visited by millions of people every year. We took the MRT and the cable car to reach the island.

The sea between Singapore mainland and Sentosa, although there is a sea port there, the water was very nice, as you can see from the picture above.
We arrived the Sentosa with ease and then took some times looking at the island's map and planning our 6-hour trip. It was not possible for us to go to every interesting spot even some of them are very interesting, such as, the Underwater World.
At last, we decided to have a full walk course, starting from the station through the theme park to the big Merlion statue, then have a look around the front of the island. We walked 'till it's begin to dark. There're many beautiful scenaries there, some of them are in my pictures below.

Even most of the things in Sentosa is man-made, I also wandered how beautiful it is. In my point of view, the Sentosa shows the creation power of mankind whose destructive power was proved long ago.
In the evening, I and my colleague went to the musical fountain to see the water and laser show. I tried to record a video clip of them but because it was too dark...the video is of s.c.uk quality (Do you have night vision goggle for camera?)
The show was in English. I, who understood only half of the story, felt okay about it since the story is not heavy for a comfort sit & rest & watch after the long walk but my colleague didn't think so. He started losing his patient and asked me to leave.
So, we left the musical garden at about 8 p.m., travelled back to the mainland by the same cable car. The view of the night is completely different from the day-scene.


**CHINA TOWN & HINDI TEMPLE**
On the next day, we've the workshop in the afternoon, so, it's means a half-day trip again. We decided to visit the China town where has not much interesting places to go in the morning. We spent our time walking around streets and roads, as well as many almost lost ;). There's only one thing to be speculated at that moring, let's look at this picture and try to find out why I think it is different;

I know you may see the different as well as I did. Firstly, this Small Mobile Enterprise (can I shorten it to SME?...^^) is licensed. Another thing is that he wears glove!!!
I found a Hindi temple not far from the China town. It's crowded...'seems like there is an event there' I thought. We're right, there's a music play there and everyone was listening with their full interest. I've a picture and a clip and they can describe the event more than my 1000 words ^^



'Till next part...

JAKARTA 2005 Part 5

Phew...sorry to keep all of you for so long...it takes me sometimes to finish this trip off...

You can find sooner parts here --> Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

**HAPPY FRIDAY...ONCE MORE**

I, my colleagues, Joyce, Togi, Kadariah and class from many countries, has arrived at the SeaWorld comfortably in Blue Bird Taxis. It was a nice & large place, full of well designed facilities. The SeaWorld has much more than showing sea animals. It has many premises and parks for recreation and other activities. At that moment, I don't know exactly why this place is called SeaWorld.

Here is the front of the building...

Here is the place for visiting underwater animals. The entrance fee wasn't too costly. As you may know that Indonesia has a lot of strange but fantastic fish, sharks, turtles, and other water creatures due to its archipelagic landscape. Oceans and seas here are the best home for them. Inside the building, we found a huge amount of interest fish and other water creatures. Some of them I recognised their shape but not their size because it was so big!!

This place is claimed to be larger than Singapore's Underwater World but I havn't visit the Singapore's Underwater World so...can't agree nor disagree.

The place didn't object you to take photos but since the light was dim, my photos are awful...but don't worry...there is one left for you ^^

From the beautiful SeaWorld, we tried to discover more about the SeaWorld area. So, we left the group which is full of shopaholic ladies and start a new walking trip again...

We, then, have discovered that this huge place is not called SeaWorld. Thanks to the Wikipedia for revealing it's name which I already forgot.

This place is called 'Taman Impian Jaya Ancol' (Ancol Dreamland).

According to the Wikipedia, the Ancol Dreamland is "an integral part of Ancol Bay City, a popular resort destination located along Jakarta's waterfront, Indonesia. Opened in 1966, it's currently the largest integrated tourism area in South East Asia. Boasting an international championship golf course, a theme park, world-class hotels and other recreational facilities, it's the most popular destination of its kind in the region". The SeaWorld is only one part of the Ancol Dreamland complex. More information on Ancol Dreamland on Wikipedia is here

After spending some times on the Dreamland map, we agreed to find the way to the seafront. Because we still didn't see any glimse of jakarta sea and it's not too far in the map.

Again, we're wrong. The real distance is not so far but we found a long fence which we can't walk through. This S.C.U.K fence made our walk longer to one quick-walk hour and that might be more than 1 hour to reach the seafront. I'm soaked and my legs are tired.

The seafront is okay for its valuable as 'once at Jakarta sea'. There was almost no wind. I think it's the time to reveal 3 of my colleagues ^^, Mr. Aphichai, Mr. Seteep, and Mr. Sombat. Can you believe that they can walk in the same length and speed as me for many days? They're incredible, aren't they?

+++Now, what's next!!!+++

It seemed like we didn't think about returning route...but we agreed of no more walking in this huge area. Luckily, we found one Blue Bird Taxi nearby. The driver was sleeping. 'OH...what a nice place to sleep!' I thought.

We woke him up (Hey, you're my only hope...get up...don't sleep *0*) and ask him whether he can bring us to Mangga Dua. This dude didn't understand our English (or Tinglish), so we spotted the location in our life-saving map. Firstly, he tried to deal with us about the cost (As I said in part 4 that even in the Blue Bird Group, you've to make sure the driver will use the meter before getting on the car) but we treat him by saying 'NO'. After we tried to walk away, he then agreed to use the meter.

'GOOD, man!!'

I arrived at Mangga Dua shopping centre named 'ITC Mangga Dua' at about 5 p.m. The centre was full of fashion stuffs, e.g., clothes&garments, shoes, bags. The centre was enormous, many wings, many levels, many shops. I thought that if women get in here, they won't be anywhere else for days. However, we're all men, so, just walk&explore was enough ^^. We ended up in the same restaurant, Hoka Hoka Bento, because we needed a load of good food that day, so tired, so hungry, don't need to risk trying new thing now...

After finishing the dinner, my legs feel a bit better. We're about to walk for a bit more but, surprisingly, most shops were start closing. It's only 6 o'clock and I don't know why they close so early 'cause in Bangkok, these type of mall close at 9 or 10. We, then, have to leave.

This ITC Mangga Dua is not far from TransJakarta's 'KOTA STASION' (Kota Station) but we've no stamina left for a half-hour walk. So, we decided to take 'small car' to kota. The front of ITC was crowded and it's not possible to find a Blue Bird Taxi because there's some gangs there asking for money from every car that received passenger. I hate them because they made us wait 30 minutes for that 'small car'.

The small car charged us 1000Rp each to reach Kota station. The fare can represent its quality. The small car brought us to the WRONG DIRECTION in a given traffic flow!!!

+++NOOOO........PLEASEEEEE, I DON'T WANNA DIE +++

We reached Kota station safely. Took the old comfortable TransJakarta back to the hotel. That night, I slept as a dead log...

**BACK HOME**

I and my colleagues left early next morning. We decided to use a Silver Bird Taxi from hotel to the Airport. The Silver Bird is more luxurious than Blue Bird ones but it costs you more. We decided to use it instead of 2 Blue Bird Taxis because of our luggages.

We arrived the airport early, so, we'd some times to look around. It is a nice airport as I firstly said. Let's the pictures say...

Waiting....and waiting...oh, our plane has come...I's so happy.

BYE BYE Jakarta and BYE BYE for you all...So glad that I can finish the series.

'Till next trip...

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JAKARTA 2005 Part 4

Welcome to part 4 of this series...let's see what's next...you can also find sooner parts here: part 1; part 2; part 3

**THURSDAY ALONG THE ROAD**

Thanks to our richer guide for yesterday experience. As a result from your efforts, we were more aware of the local officers :) Today we planned to discover some interesting attractions along the TransJakarta route.

Before leaving our beloved hotel, let's look once more on my Ambhara Hotel...

We finished the class late because we've decided to finish half day on Friday. Right after the class finished, we catched TransJakarta to our destination...

It was almost dark so only a few pictures that I can share with you...

Here is the largest fountain on the road that I could find during the TransJakarta route. It has a fine statue on its centre. I'm sorry but I don't know the name of this place.

We went through a department store and a theatre near the fountain...Just windows shopping...(because everyone love Windows shopping, that's why Bill Gate is the richest man on Earth...:D)...almost everything is the same as of those good stores in Bangkok. To be frank, I never enjoy exploring department stores abroad. It might be because I have a lot of great department stores in my country.

We walked for a distance of 1 TransJakarta station and we reached the yesterday department store. We brought souvenoirs here because it offered good bargain. The picture is taken opposite the store

My dinner, again, with my 3 colleagues, was at the basement of that store. We found some good food with good price there. My set is around 11,000Rp
That's enough for my easy Thursday...tired of the walk...

++NOTE++

I planned to finished my Jakarta trip in 5 parts but there're a lot of things to put in here. So, to make it fit, my Friday will start on this part...

**HAPPY FRIDAY**

It was the last training day and the training lasted only half day. After finished everything including receiving of Certificate, the Indonesian colleagues kindly arranged a trip to 'SEA WORLD' for us. Before we left the hotel, rain poured...

OH..NO..IT CAN'T BE TODAY...F-C-U-K-ING RAIN...In the rain, you can see, what we called in Thailand, Tuk-Tuk in Indonesia version.

We travelled to the 'SEA WORLD' by taxis arranged by our indonesian colleagues...

TAXI IN JAKARTA...

I miss this most important thing because I often use TransJakarta but this is the first thing that you should know before going to Jakarta because there are a lot of tourist-trap taxis. All taxis have meter...but they normally don't use it... especially when tourist get in.

The only taxis that can be trust will have the logo 'BLUE BIRD GROUP' on their wind screen.

The Blue Bird Group Taxis are divided into 3 classes;

Golden Bird: price are expensive...I never tried one but I assumed that it shouldbe very luxury

Silver Bird: Normal hotel Taxi, if you use hotel's service to find one, they are medium size europe cars, price is between the Golden and the Blue

Blue Bird: normal taxi, can find them everywhere

Becareful!! Many taxis want to disguise their car to look like the Blue Bird Group...look at the cars' front (on wind screen) the BLUE BIRD GROUP should be on it

Even in the good group, there are some bad guys. Check with the driver whether he use meter every time before jumping into the car.

The last part will be updated soon...