If I've been a little quiet lately, it's because I've been busy stuffing my face. While I was back home with my parents, I stuffed my face full of local fruits. I ate lots of mangosteens and langsats while I was home. It's not that we can't get this stuff in Jakarta, we can. But I don't know where to get it cheap and I'm not going to pay some supermarket thousands of rupiah for fruits which I know cost a fraction of the price tag.
It was Dad's birthday on the Sunday and we'd gone out for dinner the night before. There were seven (and a half) of us - my parents, my two younger brothers, my two cousins, me (and Little Monkey) - and I think I over-estimated the amount of food. We ended up ordering herbal duck, salted roasted chicken, steamed fish, tofu, mee suah, vegetables... and satay to boot. Gawd. Nearly felt like my tummy was going to burst ala that infamous scene from Aliens after dinner.
On Sunday, I managed to hitch a ride up to KL with an old buddy. Her bro-in-law2b was driving his wife2b and her back to KL and they kindly offered me a ride. Thank you very much! And the best part was they stopped off in Seremban for eats. Yum, yum. It was the famous Seremban beef noodles which I'd never tried before and it was delicious.
Dear Hubby was waiting for me in KL when I arrived together with my bro-in-law. BIL is now living in Malaysia, having ditched the cold of the UK for the time being. We celebrated our little family reunion that night with a meal in one of my favourite ever places to eat - Suzy's Corner!!!
Suzy's is a mamak shop that's popular with both the locals and expats. It serves your usual roti canai, thosai, naan, teh tarik etc along with a very good steak and nasi lemak. There's also other stalls - the satay man, the otak-otak and a pasta outfit which I've never tried. To get there, go along Jalan Ampang towards Gleneagles Ampang. Keep to your left after you've passed Gleneagles and take the left at the traffic lights at the foot of the flyover. By the time you reach the traffic lights, you will see Suzy's tucked into a, er... corner on your left. There is a small lane to the left right after you pass the traffic lights, so go slow and watch for it. There's parking within Suzy's or further along down the lane. I've forgotten the name of the building just behind Suzy's... it's that pointy grey building. I always think it should be called Ampang Point because it's all pointy but Ampang Point is opposite. That's why I can never remember its name!
I looooove the nasi lemak here. I'd been dreaming of it ever since I knew I was coming home to KL. On the other hand, Dear Hubby had been dreaming of the steaks. We were regulars when we used to live in KL and the head waiter recognised us immediately. He also saw right away there was something different about me and asked with a smile, "How many months along are you?" When I told him I was about six months along, he immediately told me I should not have my usual teh ais (nono, I wasn't going to anyway) and suggested some warm barley for me. How kind! Hehe.
The nasi lemak was every bit as good as I remembered it. This is what I miss most about KL - being able to just go out and sit outside at some cheap stall and eat food that won't give me the runnies. Suzy's does look dodgy from a cleanliness point of view but we've never had a problem and have brought countless expat friends there who never had any probs either. It was nice to look out at roads that weren't clogged with traffic all the time and to have streetlights lighting the lanes so you don't feel that scared walking about.
I was very clear about my holiday objectives this time. I knew I had only a limited amount of time but oh! so much food, so I focused on what I could eat and made sure I ate them all. Hehe.
Despite all the fun I've had, I'm looking forward to returning to Jakarta this Sunday. Our house is finally ready and we'll be moving in next Monday... woohoo!!! Finally - a place to call home! Part of our frustrations stemmed from the fact that we'd felt a bit "floaty" all this while with only a hotel suite to call home. It's not a lot of fun to be living in a strange country without all your familiar stuff around to comfort you. Yes it's nice to live in a hotel where housekeeping and laundry are taken care of but there's really no place like home.
So I'm going to spend my last weekend eating and shopping as much as I can and then back to Jakarta to make us a new home! And I hope to get my first visitors sometime in September, we'll probably spend most of August trying to sort things out, buying new furniture to fit the place and the Top Monkey Hotel should be open for business come September!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tips for pregnant mums who are flying
Having made some plane trips while I'm pregnant, I've learnt some things.
Dads-to-be can help out by:
- Always go for a check-up before you fly and if your doctor okays you to fly, ask him for a letter that states how far along you are in your pregnancy, your estimated due date and your state of health. I've discovered that once I looked obviously pregnant, airlines required me to show the letter and to sign a document that absolves them of any liabilities in the case of injury to me and/or the baby. It doesn't matter that their fine print says you are okay to fly until so-and-so week. Some overzealous ground staff will insist on seeing your letter anyway and may bar you from flying if you don't have one.
- Sit close to the toilets and use the disabled toilet if you can, especially when you're getting big. You don't want to bump your little bump into things if there's turbulence.
- Bring your own snacks. While I found the meals on my flights to be agreeable to my changed tastebuds, I found that their serving times did not match my hunger pangs. I was glad for the muesli bars I brought along on our Canada trip.
- Wear panty liners and bring extras. This is in case the line for the bathroom is looooooooong and well, you know you leak more when you're pregnant! Don't be afraid to ask to go to the front of the line if you really can't hold it. People were actually offering to let me go in front when they saw me get up for the loo.
- Wear compression socks to avoid DVT. Pregnant women are at a higher risk for developing DVT.
- Exercise while on the plane. I never did it when I wasn't pregnant but I do now! I get up to walk up and down, do leg exercises when seated or I simply stand next to my seat and stretch. Don't worry about people giving you funny looks. I'd rather have funny looks than DVT and cramps later on.
Dads-to-be can help out by:
- giving back rubs when we're sore
- getting down on your knees to help us tie our shoelaces. It's hard to tie something we can't quite see/reach comfortably. My husband dropped to his knees in the middle of Soekarno-Hatta airport to tie up my shoelaces and I'm sure everyone else thought he was about to propose with a giant diamond ring! LOL
- helping us put on our compression socks. They're bloody difficult to put on because of their compression factor and when you have a bump, it gets even harder. Dear Hubby huffed and puffed mightily while helping me on with mine
- clueing on quickly when we hiss, "I need the bathroom NOW!" and scrambling out of the seat to let us get out
- hassling the stewards on our behalf to ensure we're always supplied with drinks to keep us hydrated
- giving us portions of your meal, knowing we eat more than you do at this stage (thank you, my Dear Hubby for giving me half of some of his meals on our flight to Canada)
- offering a comforting shoulder for us to nap on in those terribly uncomfy airplane seats
Monday, July 21, 2008
Getting Around: Air Asia from Jakarta to KL
I'm home in Malaysia! Back for a quick trip to see Mum and Dad and to celebrate Dad's birthday this weekend. I booked me a flight on Air Asia from Jakarta to KL. I've flown before on Air Asia from KL to Phuket for a family holiday last year and I was pleasantly surprised. The planes were on time and clean and service was friendly. So when I needed a flight back to KL, I didn't hesitate to check out Air Asia again.
It was a two-hour flight departing from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta. This is what I always do when travelling from Soekarno-Hatta and I need the washroom: I always bring my own loo roll in my carry-on, I always roll up the cuff of my jeans and I always wear closed-toe shoes, preferably waterproof. The reason is Soekarno-Hatta has some of the filthiest toilets I've ever seen in my entire life. The toilet floor is sometimes submerged in water and I really don't want to know where that water came from. Toilet paper is non-existent as well (I've been told you have to ask for it from the toilet attendants) but I simply prefer to bring my own supply. For those who've never been there, Soekarno-Hatta reminds me of a worse Subang. There.
My foreign resident departure tax was almost the price of my plane ticket. Each time I leave Indonesia, I get slapped with a Rp1 million tax (approx US$100). I also have to pay the usual airport tax of Rp100,000 (approx RM30+). The airport tax applies to all departures and is payable at the check-in counter. The Rp1 mill whammy is only for us foreigners who reside in Indonesia and is payable at the Bank Mandiri counter. Wah liao... very expensive for me to leave the archipelago lei...
I was so pleased when we boarded the plane on time. The plane looked new (or maybe just painted new!) and it was clean. It was an 830am flight and we were off and on the runway on the dot. The flight was the usual but I like boring flights. Who on earth enjoys drama in mid-air anyway? I mean, I'm a huge fan of the air crash disasters show on telly where they show you the investigations behind air crashes but I've no wish to star in the show.
And guess what? We actually landed 20 minutes early at the LCCT. Woohoo! I practically leapt off the plane, I was that happy to be home. Immigration was a breeze as they have a separate counter for Malaysian passports and I was greeted by a friendly Immigration officer. Wah! Thumbs up for him!
The only bummer was waiting for luggage. I totally forgot the baggage carousel was next to the duty free shops and nearly walked out while trying to look for it. When I realised I was heading for an exit sign, I made an abrupt U-turn. Haha... me blur... Our bags took about 20 minutes to arrive. Tut-tut... not so good, Air Asia. And why is it that the owner of the first bag to appear is never around? It was a brown suitcase that was still making its lonesome rounds on the carousel by the time I pulled my bag off a good ten minutes later.
My first meal on Malaysian soil was of course... McDonald's? Hey, it was convenient, I had a cab to catch back to my hometown and I wanted something that I could eat in the car without spilling everywhere. Given a choice, I would have plumped for a nasi lemak or something. But a McD Value Meal it was. A funny thing happened to me in the line. An Indonesian lady was behind me and she was asking me about the various Value Meal options. So I explained to her how it worked and I automatically used words I'd learnt from my short months in Jakarta. As I turned to leave, she said thank you to me and asked me if I was Indonesian. Hehe... nono... and I still sound far from Indonesian!
My cab arrived about ten minutes later and I had to laugh when I saw what the driver had in his boot. It was durians! I sms-ed Dear Hubby right away, telling him I was so glad he wasn't coming home with me this time because he would have fainted there and then from the aroma. I've got to go air my bags out... if there's even a whiff of durian on them, Dear Hubby is not going to let me back into the house.
I knew I was home in Malaysia when the taxi driver said admiringly to me in Malay, "Wow, you speak very good Malay for a Chinese! I can't tell from your accent that you're not Malay!" We here in Malaysia are so used to this race thing... almost everything I know about my life here has been coloured by race, including the language you speak. In Indonesia, everyone expects me to know B. Indonesia (a close cousin of the Malay language we speak in Malaysia), Chinese or not.
So there you go. A very pleasant uneventful flight on board Air Asia. I guess I've been lucky with them, I've not had the plane delays that some people have experienced. If you book early or during the promo periods, you can get real bargains. So highly recommended for the short hops around the region. I'm not sure I would fly them to the UK or Australia though!
It was a two-hour flight departing from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta. This is what I always do when travelling from Soekarno-Hatta and I need the washroom: I always bring my own loo roll in my carry-on, I always roll up the cuff of my jeans and I always wear closed-toe shoes, preferably waterproof. The reason is Soekarno-Hatta has some of the filthiest toilets I've ever seen in my entire life. The toilet floor is sometimes submerged in water and I really don't want to know where that water came from. Toilet paper is non-existent as well (I've been told you have to ask for it from the toilet attendants) but I simply prefer to bring my own supply. For those who've never been there, Soekarno-Hatta reminds me of a worse Subang. There.
My foreign resident departure tax was almost the price of my plane ticket. Each time I leave Indonesia, I get slapped with a Rp1 million tax (approx US$100). I also have to pay the usual airport tax of Rp100,000 (approx RM30+). The airport tax applies to all departures and is payable at the check-in counter. The Rp1 mill whammy is only for us foreigners who reside in Indonesia and is payable at the Bank Mandiri counter. Wah liao... very expensive for me to leave the archipelago lei...
I was so pleased when we boarded the plane on time. The plane looked new (or maybe just painted new!) and it was clean. It was an 830am flight and we were off and on the runway on the dot. The flight was the usual but I like boring flights. Who on earth enjoys drama in mid-air anyway? I mean, I'm a huge fan of the air crash disasters show on telly where they show you the investigations behind air crashes but I've no wish to star in the show.
And guess what? We actually landed 20 minutes early at the LCCT. Woohoo! I practically leapt off the plane, I was that happy to be home. Immigration was a breeze as they have a separate counter for Malaysian passports and I was greeted by a friendly Immigration officer. Wah! Thumbs up for him!
The only bummer was waiting for luggage. I totally forgot the baggage carousel was next to the duty free shops and nearly walked out while trying to look for it. When I realised I was heading for an exit sign, I made an abrupt U-turn. Haha... me blur... Our bags took about 20 minutes to arrive. Tut-tut... not so good, Air Asia. And why is it that the owner of the first bag to appear is never around? It was a brown suitcase that was still making its lonesome rounds on the carousel by the time I pulled my bag off a good ten minutes later.
My first meal on Malaysian soil was of course... McDonald's? Hey, it was convenient, I had a cab to catch back to my hometown and I wanted something that I could eat in the car without spilling everywhere. Given a choice, I would have plumped for a nasi lemak or something. But a McD Value Meal it was. A funny thing happened to me in the line. An Indonesian lady was behind me and she was asking me about the various Value Meal options. So I explained to her how it worked and I automatically used words I'd learnt from my short months in Jakarta. As I turned to leave, she said thank you to me and asked me if I was Indonesian. Hehe... nono... and I still sound far from Indonesian!
My cab arrived about ten minutes later and I had to laugh when I saw what the driver had in his boot. It was durians! I sms-ed Dear Hubby right away, telling him I was so glad he wasn't coming home with me this time because he would have fainted there and then from the aroma. I've got to go air my bags out... if there's even a whiff of durian on them, Dear Hubby is not going to let me back into the house.
I knew I was home in Malaysia when the taxi driver said admiringly to me in Malay, "Wow, you speak very good Malay for a Chinese! I can't tell from your accent that you're not Malay!" We here in Malaysia are so used to this race thing... almost everything I know about my life here has been coloured by race, including the language you speak. In Indonesia, everyone expects me to know B. Indonesia (a close cousin of the Malay language we speak in Malaysia), Chinese or not.
So there you go. A very pleasant uneventful flight on board Air Asia. I guess I've been lucky with them, I've not had the plane delays that some people have experienced. If you book early or during the promo periods, you can get real bargains. So highly recommended for the short hops around the region. I'm not sure I would fly them to the UK or Australia though!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mars and Venus on babies
This is absolute proof that the male and female brains work in VERY different ways. When I got back yesterday from the doctor's check-up, I immediately emailed Dear Hubby the latest scan I got of the baby (he'd flown back to KL for a one-day meeting), gushing over how cute the baby looked in the womb. This is the first time we've gotten a cute picture, he usually looks like some weird alien in his scans. Here it is... see... cute, right? I love the way his little fist is curled up next to his face.
I'd also gotten scans of other bits of our baby but I didn't email those on to the hubby as I thought I'd show it to him when he came home. When he arrived home last night from KL, I showed him all the scans the doctor gave me and started telling him enthusiastically about the latest updates. But was he listening? Noooooo... because all his attention was focused on the last scan which showed our baby's bottom and his wee-wee. The proud papa pointed to the pic, "Looks like he's got a big one! That's my son! What a boy!"
I give up.
I'd also gotten scans of other bits of our baby but I didn't email those on to the hubby as I thought I'd show it to him when he came home. When he arrived home last night from KL, I showed him all the scans the doctor gave me and started telling him enthusiastically about the latest updates. But was he listening? Noooooo... because all his attention was focused on the last scan which showed our baby's bottom and his wee-wee. The proud papa pointed to the pic, "Looks like he's got a big one! That's my son! What a boy!"
I give up.
Healthcare in Jakarta: Rumah Sakit Pondok Indah
We moved to Jakarta when I was about 16 weeks pregnant and the first thing I did before coming over was to start searching for a doctor. On my first recon trip over, I got hold of a map of Jakarta and looked up where we were living. There were also expat forums that I'd consulted and one forum had a mum raving about the care she got in Rumah Sakit Pondok Indah (RSPI). I looked it up in the map and it wasn't too far from where we would be living, so I gave it a try.
Now, the word "Rumah Sakit" doesn't exactly inspire confidence in me. This is because that is the old word for hospitals back home in Malaysia and all it does is conjure up images of wooden buildings and an era where the X-ray machine was cutting edge. One visit to RSPI was enough to dispel all my silliness.
RSPI is a private hospital and it's very similar to the Gleneagles and Pantai chain of hospitals that we're used to back home in Malaysia. For those who do not speak B. Indonesia, don't worry, most of the staff can speak English. The hospital is clean, looks well organised, well run and er... priced accordingly. I believe you get what you pay for though and I'm more than happy to pay to ensure competent care for the birth of our first baby.
I've been going there for my monthly check-ups and I have to say I'm quite satisfied with the competence of the staff as well as the level of technology that they have on hand. For example, my doctor here has a far more advanced ultrasound machine compared to my similarly priced gynae back in Gleneagles Ampang. He's competent enough for me and will meticulously check all of Little Monkey's key measurements at each visit. For mums-to-be, be sure to pick a doctor you are comfortable with, someone you don't feel awkward with if you have to ask questions. It's your choice, don't feel afraid to change doctors if you are not comfy with the initial doctor you've seen.
Today, I made a visit to the delivery rooms and maternity wards to have a look at what I could expect come November as I expect to deliver the baby here. The nurse was kind enough to give me a tour and answered any questions I had. Even though we had a slight language problem (I didn't know pre-natal classes here were called "Senam Hamil", lit. pregnancy exercise, I thought it was pre-natal yoga or something!), I could tell that she knew what she was talking about. She told me that the hospital arranges for breastfeeding and babycare classes for mothers and I was very relieved to hear that because I know I'm going to need help. There's also pre-natal classes but they'll only start when I'm past 30 weeks. She also assured me that if I had a problem, I could call the hospital at any time. I can imagine myself calling now, "Help! I can't get his arm into his babygro, what do I do???"
The delivery room was spotless and brightly lit. The nursery where they bring the newborn for the initial check looked the same and the nurses sitting there gave me a smile and wave when I poked my head in... after my belly of course... my belly now leads the way when I walk. I'm really glad to see the staff were competent and attentive and that they had classes for mums and babies so that I can learn more about taking care of the baby and make some friends at the same time.
I then took a walk down to Customer Service where I was greeted pleasantly by a Mrs Christine. I had questions to ask about the baby's birth registration. As we're both foreign residents, we'll have to get the baby's birth registered at the British Embassy (Malaysian mums can't pass on Malaysian citizenship if they give birth on foreign soil) and I was anxious to find out about the paperwork and fees involved. Just as I'd guessed, RSPI has an agent that will handle all the civil registration for the birth as they are used to having foreign residents giving birth there. We'll still have to get the British Embassy registration done by ourselves but I'm sure we can ask the RSPI agents if they know any agents who can do that for us. Getting official paperwork done in Indonesia can be tricky for foreigners who don't speak the language or know who to contact, so it's usually done via agents. They get it all done without hassle for a fee and it's money well spent.
I also got a list of charges for the delivery and stay. They have a variety of packages to suit your budget. Some examples given below for a normal delivery and a 3-night stay, these are approximate charges and do not include extras like an epidural, external consultation and paed's fees:
Charges are different for an assisted birth as well as a C-section. I generally assume the exchange rate to be Rp10,000 to RM3, although the rupiah has strengthened lately, and multiply accordingly. Don't be freaked out by the millions... when you live in Indonesia, you start to adjust to all the zeroes. I don't know what the corresponding charges are in KL, perhaps someone who knows could just let me know so that I can do a comparison?
Some expat families opt to have their babies delivered in Singapore/Perth and there are plenty of ads and packages that cater for that option. However, I feel that the doctor that I'm seeing is good enough, I have confidence that he knows what to do and from what I've seen of the hospital, I think they know what to do and how to handle my baby if he has any problems.
To be honest, Dear Hubby and I had a discussion on whether I should return to Malaysia for the delivery, more because he thought I would want to have my family around post-delivery. The problem was I would to fly home much earlier as airlines generally don't let you fly past 36 weeks and then I'd be staying put in Malaysia for at least one month before I am willing to travel back to Jakarta. I couldn't see myself depriving my husband of his son or my son of his father for that long, so we decided to stay put in Jakarta.
Well, the way I see it... Indonesia has a population of what.. 235 million? (July 2007 est, source here) You'd think some doctor somewhere in the archipelago would know something about childbirth! Thumbs up to RSPI, I would recommend it to people who are moving to Jakarta and are looking for a hospital that reminds them of Gleneagles, Pantai etc.
For more information on RSPI, please click here.
P/s Please don't tell me snakes get in here when it floods too, like it does in Eastern Promise! :))
Now, the word "Rumah Sakit" doesn't exactly inspire confidence in me. This is because that is the old word for hospitals back home in Malaysia and all it does is conjure up images of wooden buildings and an era where the X-ray machine was cutting edge. One visit to RSPI was enough to dispel all my silliness.
RSPI is a private hospital and it's very similar to the Gleneagles and Pantai chain of hospitals that we're used to back home in Malaysia. For those who do not speak B. Indonesia, don't worry, most of the staff can speak English. The hospital is clean, looks well organised, well run and er... priced accordingly. I believe you get what you pay for though and I'm more than happy to pay to ensure competent care for the birth of our first baby.
I've been going there for my monthly check-ups and I have to say I'm quite satisfied with the competence of the staff as well as the level of technology that they have on hand. For example, my doctor here has a far more advanced ultrasound machine compared to my similarly priced gynae back in Gleneagles Ampang. He's competent enough for me and will meticulously check all of Little Monkey's key measurements at each visit. For mums-to-be, be sure to pick a doctor you are comfortable with, someone you don't feel awkward with if you have to ask questions. It's your choice, don't feel afraid to change doctors if you are not comfy with the initial doctor you've seen.
Today, I made a visit to the delivery rooms and maternity wards to have a look at what I could expect come November as I expect to deliver the baby here. The nurse was kind enough to give me a tour and answered any questions I had. Even though we had a slight language problem (I didn't know pre-natal classes here were called "Senam Hamil", lit. pregnancy exercise, I thought it was pre-natal yoga or something!), I could tell that she knew what she was talking about. She told me that the hospital arranges for breastfeeding and babycare classes for mothers and I was very relieved to hear that because I know I'm going to need help. There's also pre-natal classes but they'll only start when I'm past 30 weeks. She also assured me that if I had a problem, I could call the hospital at any time. I can imagine myself calling now, "Help! I can't get his arm into his babygro, what do I do???"
The delivery room was spotless and brightly lit. The nursery where they bring the newborn for the initial check looked the same and the nurses sitting there gave me a smile and wave when I poked my head in... after my belly of course... my belly now leads the way when I walk. I'm really glad to see the staff were competent and attentive and that they had classes for mums and babies so that I can learn more about taking care of the baby and make some friends at the same time.
I then took a walk down to Customer Service where I was greeted pleasantly by a Mrs Christine. I had questions to ask about the baby's birth registration. As we're both foreign residents, we'll have to get the baby's birth registered at the British Embassy (Malaysian mums can't pass on Malaysian citizenship if they give birth on foreign soil) and I was anxious to find out about the paperwork and fees involved. Just as I'd guessed, RSPI has an agent that will handle all the civil registration for the birth as they are used to having foreign residents giving birth there. We'll still have to get the British Embassy registration done by ourselves but I'm sure we can ask the RSPI agents if they know any agents who can do that for us. Getting official paperwork done in Indonesia can be tricky for foreigners who don't speak the language or know who to contact, so it's usually done via agents. They get it all done without hassle for a fee and it's money well spent.
I also got a list of charges for the delivery and stay. They have a variety of packages to suit your budget. Some examples given below for a normal delivery and a 3-night stay, these are approximate charges and do not include extras like an epidural, external consultation and paed's fees:
- Class C (6 patients to a room): Rp6.8 million
- Class A (1 patient to a room): Rp10.1 million
- VIP room (1 patient + foldout bed for dad staying over): Rp13.4 million
- Suite (1 patient + dining suite + spare bed): Rp22.2 million
Charges are different for an assisted birth as well as a C-section. I generally assume the exchange rate to be Rp10,000 to RM3, although the rupiah has strengthened lately, and multiply accordingly. Don't be freaked out by the millions... when you live in Indonesia, you start to adjust to all the zeroes. I don't know what the corresponding charges are in KL, perhaps someone who knows could just let me know so that I can do a comparison?
Some expat families opt to have their babies delivered in Singapore/Perth and there are plenty of ads and packages that cater for that option. However, I feel that the doctor that I'm seeing is good enough, I have confidence that he knows what to do and from what I've seen of the hospital, I think they know what to do and how to handle my baby if he has any problems.
To be honest, Dear Hubby and I had a discussion on whether I should return to Malaysia for the delivery, more because he thought I would want to have my family around post-delivery. The problem was I would to fly home much earlier as airlines generally don't let you fly past 36 weeks and then I'd be staying put in Malaysia for at least one month before I am willing to travel back to Jakarta. I couldn't see myself depriving my husband of his son or my son of his father for that long, so we decided to stay put in Jakarta.
Well, the way I see it... Indonesia has a population of what.. 235 million? (July 2007 est, source here) You'd think some doctor somewhere in the archipelago would know something about childbirth! Thumbs up to RSPI, I would recommend it to people who are moving to Jakarta and are looking for a hospital that reminds them of Gleneagles, Pantai etc.
For more information on RSPI, please click here.
P/s Please don't tell me snakes get in here when it floods too, like it does in Eastern Promise! :))
Monday, July 14, 2008
A suit fit for a Little Monkey
Look what I found at Mothercare, Pondok Indah Mall! *claps hands with glee* A Little Monkey suit for... my own Little Monkey! Maybe I should get a matching shirt made for Dear Hubby that says "Top Monkey".
Sunday, July 13, 2008
A good news day
I'm happy today because...
- My bestest-westest fwen from Uni has just been offered a job in Penang at better pay than his current job! He went for the interview the week we were in Balikpapan and he's just got the news that he's been offered the position! Way to go!!!
- Our house is almost ready!!! The old tenants have moved out and the landlord is now doing the touch-ups and minor repairs that the house needs. Guess the house should be ready by Aug.
- Our shipment from KL is coming! It was originally scheduled to only ship out in August and we were disappointed because it meant we would have a house with no furniture. But Dear Hubby managed to get them to ship it out on 17 July which means it should arrive and clear customs by Aug. Home sweet home at last.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Eating out in Jakarta: Eastern Promise, Kemang
This is one of my favourite places to eat in Jakarta. The hubby and I adore Indian food and we were semi-regulars at a place back home in KL called Passage to India. It's located on Jln Tun Razak and is the most delicious Indian food I've ever had. Be warned though - it is a bit pricey, so we usually only eat there when we know we can put it on the company account, hehe.
Indian food isn't as common here in Jakarta as they don't have the sizeable Indian community that we do in Malaysia and they certainly do not have our mamak shops where you can indulge in your banana leaf rice to your heart's content. However, someone took Dear Hubby to Eastern Promise quite early on in his stay here in Jakarta and he was just delighted with it.
Eastern Promise has two parts to it. One is a pub that's frequented by expats. On Friday evenings, they have something called the Pressure Cooker Hour (or something like that...) It's free beer for everyone in the pub from 5-6pm. The only catch is no one is allowed to leave or to to the loo. The moment someone does that, the free beer is over and everyone has to start paying up.
The other bit is a restaurant, located behind the pub. There is also an open air area behind where a band plays on Fridays, I think. Eastern Promise does quite good chicken, beef and lamb curries as well as your standard pub fare of pies and bangers and mash. They also do an all-day breakfast which we haven't tried yet because we always go for the curries. The curries usually come with saffron rice and a plain naan. If you fancy other types of naan, just ask them to sub it in your set. There's also a pool table there if you fancy a game or two. For the homesick Brits, you can get copies of the Guardian here to read while you wait for your meal.
We were there last night with two of Dear Hubby's work colleagues. One of them had never been there before and thoroughly enjoyed his meat pie and 1/4 of my Kyber Masala Curry. We ordered two pitchers of beer and each pitcher was enough to fill 6 pint mugs. I stuck with Coke and water of course, I've been off alcohol for 22 weeks now save for very small sips every now and then.
P told us a story about the pub last night at dinner that had my skin crawling. He said that it's common knowledge that when Kemang area floods (as it will when the rains are heavy), the snakes take refuge in the pub. His source were a group of his friends, all expats, who were none too pleased to be trapped inside a pub with snakes. YIKES. So you can imagine my reaction when the staff came out with powerful torches and started peeking under the seats sometime towards the end of our meal. I paled, "Are they looking for snakes? Do you think you guys can carry me out?" Dear Hubby took a look at my pregnant figure and shook his head regretfully, "I don't think so, babe..." Well, as it turned out... no snakes... for this time!
The place is easy enough to find. If you're headed towards Kemang via the Kemchicks end, Eastern Promise will be on your left, opposite an ABN-Ambro branch. It's usually packed on Fri nights and the weekends, so get there early. I have to say it's not the best Indian I've ever had, but it's decent enough. Our meal for four last night which included two pitchers of beer cost Rp500,000 (approx RM150, I'm just assuming an exchange rate of Rp10,000 to RM3). Pretty good price, I would say if you compare it to Passage to India... but of course it's much more expensive compared to just a street mamak.
Give the place a try... we're open to invites if you want company!
Indian food isn't as common here in Jakarta as they don't have the sizeable Indian community that we do in Malaysia and they certainly do not have our mamak shops where you can indulge in your banana leaf rice to your heart's content. However, someone took Dear Hubby to Eastern Promise quite early on in his stay here in Jakarta and he was just delighted with it.
Eastern Promise has two parts to it. One is a pub that's frequented by expats. On Friday evenings, they have something called the Pressure Cooker Hour (or something like that...) It's free beer for everyone in the pub from 5-6pm. The only catch is no one is allowed to leave or to to the loo. The moment someone does that, the free beer is over and everyone has to start paying up.
The other bit is a restaurant, located behind the pub. There is also an open air area behind where a band plays on Fridays, I think. Eastern Promise does quite good chicken, beef and lamb curries as well as your standard pub fare of pies and bangers and mash. They also do an all-day breakfast which we haven't tried yet because we always go for the curries. The curries usually come with saffron rice and a plain naan. If you fancy other types of naan, just ask them to sub it in your set. There's also a pool table there if you fancy a game or two. For the homesick Brits, you can get copies of the Guardian here to read while you wait for your meal.
We were there last night with two of Dear Hubby's work colleagues. One of them had never been there before and thoroughly enjoyed his meat pie and 1/4 of my Kyber Masala Curry. We ordered two pitchers of beer and each pitcher was enough to fill 6 pint mugs. I stuck with Coke and water of course, I've been off alcohol for 22 weeks now save for very small sips every now and then.
P told us a story about the pub last night at dinner that had my skin crawling. He said that it's common knowledge that when Kemang area floods (as it will when the rains are heavy), the snakes take refuge in the pub. His source were a group of his friends, all expats, who were none too pleased to be trapped inside a pub with snakes. YIKES. So you can imagine my reaction when the staff came out with powerful torches and started peeking under the seats sometime towards the end of our meal. I paled, "Are they looking for snakes? Do you think you guys can carry me out?" Dear Hubby took a look at my pregnant figure and shook his head regretfully, "I don't think so, babe..." Well, as it turned out... no snakes... for this time!
The place is easy enough to find. If you're headed towards Kemang via the Kemchicks end, Eastern Promise will be on your left, opposite an ABN-Ambro branch. It's usually packed on Fri nights and the weekends, so get there early. I have to say it's not the best Indian I've ever had, but it's decent enough. Our meal for four last night which included two pitchers of beer cost Rp500,000 (approx RM150, I'm just assuming an exchange rate of Rp10,000 to RM3). Pretty good price, I would say if you compare it to Passage to India... but of course it's much more expensive compared to just a street mamak.
Give the place a try... we're open to invites if you want company!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Bye-bye Canada... *sniff, sniff* but... *Arnie voice* we'll be back!
We spent our last few days in Canada just chilling out in Comox. I really liked the place. Back when I was single, I thought I'd die in a place that didn't have at least 5 shopping malls and a big modern bookstore. But now that I'm married and am expecting a little boy, my priorities have changed when it comes to picking a place to live. I'm thinking more of education and prospects for my little one, I'm thinking of how safe the place can be and whether he'll be able to get out on his bike and go riding for fun as I did as a child. Comox is a small town and when I see tons of kids out playing footie, riding bikes or skateboarding and looking healthy and bright, I thought it would be a great place to raise our little one. Plus, Mt Washington is just half an hour away and we can take him snowboarding in the winter. Dear Hubby enjoys snowboarding, I've already declared I want to learn and if we're doing it, the little one's coming along!
We stayed in a friend's family cabin just along the beach. It's so cool to have the beach as your backyard! (Click here for a view of the backyard) The only disadvantage is that in the winter, the waves crashing up on the beach erodes your property and I saw many people who've had to reinforce their backyards with stone walls to stop the erosion.
We visited all of Dear Hubby's old friends and caught up on the news. At the Everetts, we got to sample grilled elk! God, it was delicious!!! Len is a hunter and the family doesn't buy any meat because he hunts enough to feed them all year long. His freezer is like a safari - it has elk, deer, moose, wild salmon... stuff you don't exactly find at the butcher's. I thought Len was just fascinating, he's so skillful that he goes hunting for deer with bow and arrow and at the same time, he sits on the board of some Canadian animal conservation programme. Len is no killer. He clearly respects nature and his skill is used just to feed his family, just as generations of men before him did.
It was summertime, so everyone had their barbies out and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the McMahons', hummingbirds joined us... not on the barbie! They had a bird feeder out and we enjoyed seeing those speedy birds zoom in and out. They're highly territorial, one red bird was fiercely fighting everyone else away. It was great just sitting outdoors where it's not too hot/cold and sipping drinks, the barbie's on and the view is of Mt Washington.
We spent quite a bit of time at the McMahons'. You see, the cabin had no satellite tv and we were desperate to catch the Euro 2008 matches which were usually on at 11am. LOL So we'd turn up, watch perhaps one half and then say our goodbyes. Dear Hubby took me up to Mt Washington but we couldn't go up to the summit before the ski rides weren't functioning yet. Still, I had a lot of fun because there was snow on the ground and I jumped right in to play. Hey... I don't know when's the next time I get to see snow as our trips tend to be in the summer/spring, so I'd better make the most of it while I can!
We took walks down to Comox Harbour where I stupidly dropped one of Dear Hubby's precious filters down to the rocks and he had to climb down and get it. I clutched the camera very tightly to my chest after that. We also made day trips to Courtenay, a neighbouring town where we bought yet another bag of cherries for me and other groceries. Dear Hubby was very stern this time, strictly rationing my daily intake of cherries saying that I would be sick on cherries if he didn't do it. I hate it when he's right.
What a beautiful part of the world this is. BC has a pretty mild climate compared with the interiors of Canada, so it's a lot easier to live in. I really like Canadians too, they're friendly, they're open, they're polite and they're really nice! Plus Canadian lads are really good-looking! (Canadian lasses are just as smashing!) Most of them were tall, lean and looked like they'd benefited from a lifetime of hiking and climbing. When I think about most of the UK lads I saw (white, pasty, with a defensive, dour look from under their hoodies like they'd been grumpy from standing too long in the dole line), I think I'd rather raise my little boy as a Canuck.
It was with deep regret that we packed up and left Comox on Sunday morning. Sigh... But then, there's the promise of a Bill Frisell concert that night in Vancouver for us, so I was pretty excited. But guess what??? He cancelled!!! I was so depressed, I'd been really looking forward to seeing him and we'd actually extended our trip by a day to catch him. Poop. So instead of enjoying his concert, we took a drive through Stanley Park . The more I see of healthy Canadians biking and jogging in parks, the more I want to live here.
Anyway, our last day in Vancouver wasn't all spoiled. We got to spend the afternoon going up Grouse Mt. Here I go again, going up cable cars to mountains! But this cable car was pretty big and stable and I had no problems at all. Up at the summit, there was.. yep.. snow. LOL I've never seen this stuff in my life and in the past two weeks, I've seen more than I ever thought I would. Grouse Mt is also home to two grizzly bears who were rescued by the park rangers. I think one was injured and the other was orphaned, so the park raised them and now they're the star attractions. Up close, you realise what a big powerful animal this is, just look at those claws! Yikes. Don't wanna be meeting one in the campsite.
The next day, we packed everything up and said our reluctant goodbyes. The good news is, there's every indication Dear Hubby wants to return, perhaps in the winter when Little Monkey is old enough to walk and be strapped onto a snowboard. Hehe.
The 18hr flight back to Singapore wasn't too bad and we sat next to a volunteer teacher who was on her way to Uganda for a 10-month voluntary stint at a school there. She told us that she picked the cheapest flight she could find and has another 22 hours more of flight time before she reaches Uganda. Made me feel small for whining about my 18-hr flight!
Bye Canada... I really enjoyed it. It was a pretty expensive holiday but I have to say, we had so much fun and now we've got lots of great memories. I'm really looking forward to bringing my little boy back there!
Our thanks to: the MacDonald family, the Everett family, the McMahon family, the Clement family, the Martin family and all the kind Canadians who made our stay so enjoyable, especially those two skateboarders who stopped for me at the traffic light in downtown Vancouver even though they had right of way, thanks guys!
Me at 21 weeks preggers on Comox Beach:
Me in front of Douglas firs in Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island. We stopped here on our way to Comox. Behind me is an 800-year-old fir that's still standing and growing. I'm 5'4", so I think the diameter of the trunk must have been at least 60ft. Don't ask me how high it was, I have no idea.. my neck couldn't crane enough for me to see!
We stayed in a friend's family cabin just along the beach. It's so cool to have the beach as your backyard! (Click here for a view of the backyard) The only disadvantage is that in the winter, the waves crashing up on the beach erodes your property and I saw many people who've had to reinforce their backyards with stone walls to stop the erosion.
We visited all of Dear Hubby's old friends and caught up on the news. At the Everetts, we got to sample grilled elk! God, it was delicious!!! Len is a hunter and the family doesn't buy any meat because he hunts enough to feed them all year long. His freezer is like a safari - it has elk, deer, moose, wild salmon... stuff you don't exactly find at the butcher's. I thought Len was just fascinating, he's so skillful that he goes hunting for deer with bow and arrow and at the same time, he sits on the board of some Canadian animal conservation programme. Len is no killer. He clearly respects nature and his skill is used just to feed his family, just as generations of men before him did.
It was summertime, so everyone had their barbies out and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the McMahons', hummingbirds joined us... not on the barbie! They had a bird feeder out and we enjoyed seeing those speedy birds zoom in and out. They're highly territorial, one red bird was fiercely fighting everyone else away. It was great just sitting outdoors where it's not too hot/cold and sipping drinks, the barbie's on and the view is of Mt Washington.
We spent quite a bit of time at the McMahons'. You see, the cabin had no satellite tv and we were desperate to catch the Euro 2008 matches which were usually on at 11am. LOL So we'd turn up, watch perhaps one half and then say our goodbyes. Dear Hubby took me up to Mt Washington but we couldn't go up to the summit before the ski rides weren't functioning yet. Still, I had a lot of fun because there was snow on the ground and I jumped right in to play. Hey... I don't know when's the next time I get to see snow as our trips tend to be in the summer/spring, so I'd better make the most of it while I can!
We took walks down to Comox Harbour where I stupidly dropped one of Dear Hubby's precious filters down to the rocks and he had to climb down and get it. I clutched the camera very tightly to my chest after that. We also made day trips to Courtenay, a neighbouring town where we bought yet another bag of cherries for me and other groceries. Dear Hubby was very stern this time, strictly rationing my daily intake of cherries saying that I would be sick on cherries if he didn't do it. I hate it when he's right.
What a beautiful part of the world this is. BC has a pretty mild climate compared with the interiors of Canada, so it's a lot easier to live in. I really like Canadians too, they're friendly, they're open, they're polite and they're really nice! Plus Canadian lads are really good-looking! (Canadian lasses are just as smashing!) Most of them were tall, lean and looked like they'd benefited from a lifetime of hiking and climbing. When I think about most of the UK lads I saw (white, pasty, with a defensive, dour look from under their hoodies like they'd been grumpy from standing too long in the dole line), I think I'd rather raise my little boy as a Canuck.
It was with deep regret that we packed up and left Comox on Sunday morning. Sigh... But then, there's the promise of a Bill Frisell concert that night in Vancouver for us, so I was pretty excited. But guess what??? He cancelled!!! I was so depressed, I'd been really looking forward to seeing him and we'd actually extended our trip by a day to catch him. Poop. So instead of enjoying his concert, we took a drive through Stanley Park . The more I see of healthy Canadians biking and jogging in parks, the more I want to live here.
Anyway, our last day in Vancouver wasn't all spoiled. We got to spend the afternoon going up Grouse Mt. Here I go again, going up cable cars to mountains! But this cable car was pretty big and stable and I had no problems at all. Up at the summit, there was.. yep.. snow. LOL I've never seen this stuff in my life and in the past two weeks, I've seen more than I ever thought I would. Grouse Mt is also home to two grizzly bears who were rescued by the park rangers. I think one was injured and the other was orphaned, so the park raised them and now they're the star attractions. Up close, you realise what a big powerful animal this is, just look at those claws! Yikes. Don't wanna be meeting one in the campsite.
The next day, we packed everything up and said our reluctant goodbyes. The good news is, there's every indication Dear Hubby wants to return, perhaps in the winter when Little Monkey is old enough to walk and be strapped onto a snowboard. Hehe.
The 18hr flight back to Singapore wasn't too bad and we sat next to a volunteer teacher who was on her way to Uganda for a 10-month voluntary stint at a school there. She told us that she picked the cheapest flight she could find and has another 22 hours more of flight time before she reaches Uganda. Made me feel small for whining about my 18-hr flight!
Bye Canada... I really enjoyed it. It was a pretty expensive holiday but I have to say, we had so much fun and now we've got lots of great memories. I'm really looking forward to bringing my little boy back there!
Our thanks to: the MacDonald family, the Everett family, the McMahon family, the Clement family, the Martin family and all the kind Canadians who made our stay so enjoyable, especially those two skateboarders who stopped for me at the traffic light in downtown Vancouver even though they had right of way, thanks guys!
Me at 21 weeks preggers on Comox Beach:
Me in front of Douglas firs in Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island. We stopped here on our way to Comox. Behind me is an 800-year-old fir that's still standing and growing. I'm 5'4", so I think the diameter of the trunk must have been at least 60ft. Don't ask me how high it was, I have no idea.. my neck couldn't crane enough for me to see!
Day 7-9 in Canada: Travelling back to British Columbia
It's time to say goodbye to Alberta and we packed up this morning and waved goodbye to the Martins. The longer I'm in this country, the more I realise how much I enjoy it. It's civilised, people are friendly and polite and drivers don't try to knock you down. Okay, so there is a risk you'll be mauled by a bear sometimes.
We decided to break up our drive into two days especially as we were going to detour to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake first. Both these lakes have a strange torquoise colour, a result of what is known as rock flour. Glaciers grind the rocks into a very fine dust that is then deposited in the lakes. The refraction of the light off the rock flour gives the lakes its beautiful colour. See, I was never any good at geography/geology before I came to Canada but I sure learnt a lot from all the info the Parks put up on their trails. And you remember the facts that you read because you see the stuff right in front of you, it's not just a dry textbook.
After about 4 hours on the road, we stopped for the night in Salmon Arm. As you may have guessed, there's a lot of salmon to be caught there! The next morning, we woke up bright and early and set out for White Rock. White Rock is a little seaside resort town on the US-Canada border. We arrived about 2pm and went for a wander along the main seaside drive, sharing an ice-cream cone on the way. It cost C$2.50 and had two ginormous scoops of ice-cream balanced on an equally ginormous cone. I love N. American portions when it comes to stuff like ice-creams!
White Rock was really postcard-pretty. If Patong Beach were run by Canadians, it'd probably look like the main drive in White Rock. We walked from one end of the promenade to the other on the beach and passed by lots of people just out enjoying the summer sun. At the end is a white rock. It's put there by the city council so that graduating high school seniors get to leave their mark there for a year. Then they re-spray the whole thing for the next year's students. While we were there, some kids were climbing the rock. One little boy shouted down, "Dad! There's a lot of dirty words up here! There's the... uh... S-H word and the, uh... F-U word!" All the adults close by just cracked up at that.
We spent the night with some friends who live just a street behind the main promenade. This was also the first time I'd eaten fresh cherries. Dear Hubby bought me a bagful and it only cost C$5! I think the bag must have contained 1lb of cherries. They were all gone by next morning, happily digesting in my tum. We left early to catch the 1030am ferry across to Vancouver Island. The trip is about an hour as we were going to get off at Victoria and spend the night there.
The ferry was large, comfy and served great meals in the cafeteria. We spent most of our trip out on the deck, enjoying the sun and the scenery. I could tell Dear Hubby was getting really excited because he so loves Vancouver Island, he always says it's like coming home. I didn't know I would share his sentiments by the time we had to leave for Asia again.
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, a seaside town brimming with music, arts and lots of cool, good-looking Canucks. We spent the day walking about town. Dear Hubby pointed out an arbutus tree to me. It's very pretty but very strange... it has very little bark and its trunk is in shades of red!
We stopped by the harbour to watch a street performer doing her stripping and disappearing act and then wandered on to another street where we stopped again to appreciate a student band playing under the trees. Lovely, lovely place.
Dinner that night was at a seafood restaurant near the harbour. Our waiter was a good-looking, articulate Canadian lad in his mid 20's who was in his last year of his Maths course and was thinking of going on to do law. I don't know why exactly but all the wait staff we've seen in this trip were pretty good-looking! After dinner, about 9+pm, we took a walk around the harbour and Dear Hubby got this shot.
The next morning, we woke up early and had our breakfast in... Tim's! Yes! Bagels and coffee! I love their bagels, they were of the right size and they were generous with their cream cheese. After filling up, we set out on our drive to Tofino. Tofino is on the west coast of the island and faces the Pacific Ocean. It was absolutely freezing on the beach but I guess it's just me because there were people out there with their surfboards. God. They're crazy. Granted, they were in wetsuits but did they have any idea how cold it was??? We spent the night in Tofino in a cedar cabin (pic here) and bought a roast chicken and salad for our dinner. Oh... and earlier in the day, we stopped by Roy Henry Vickers art gallery and picked up an art piece for our new home in Jakarta. Vickers is a famous Canadian artist of mixed British-First Nations ancestry and Dear Hubby has been a long admirer. As we were leaving, I saw a piece that instantly reminded me of Little Monkey - this one! Dear Hubby came over, took a look at it, asked me if I liked it and when I nodded, he bought it for me. Awww... so sweet, thanks baby!
The next morning would be a drive to Comox Valley on the east side of the island. That would be the last leg of our holiday and our plan was to spend about 5 days there just lazing about and doing nothing.
It's been the awesome-est holiday we've ever had together.
We decided to break up our drive into two days especially as we were going to detour to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake first. Both these lakes have a strange torquoise colour, a result of what is known as rock flour. Glaciers grind the rocks into a very fine dust that is then deposited in the lakes. The refraction of the light off the rock flour gives the lakes its beautiful colour. See, I was never any good at geography/geology before I came to Canada but I sure learnt a lot from all the info the Parks put up on their trails. And you remember the facts that you read because you see the stuff right in front of you, it's not just a dry textbook.
After about 4 hours on the road, we stopped for the night in Salmon Arm. As you may have guessed, there's a lot of salmon to be caught there! The next morning, we woke up bright and early and set out for White Rock. White Rock is a little seaside resort town on the US-Canada border. We arrived about 2pm and went for a wander along the main seaside drive, sharing an ice-cream cone on the way. It cost C$2.50 and had two ginormous scoops of ice-cream balanced on an equally ginormous cone. I love N. American portions when it comes to stuff like ice-creams!
White Rock was really postcard-pretty. If Patong Beach were run by Canadians, it'd probably look like the main drive in White Rock. We walked from one end of the promenade to the other on the beach and passed by lots of people just out enjoying the summer sun. At the end is a white rock. It's put there by the city council so that graduating high school seniors get to leave their mark there for a year. Then they re-spray the whole thing for the next year's students. While we were there, some kids were climbing the rock. One little boy shouted down, "Dad! There's a lot of dirty words up here! There's the... uh... S-H word and the, uh... F-U word!" All the adults close by just cracked up at that.
We spent the night with some friends who live just a street behind the main promenade. This was also the first time I'd eaten fresh cherries. Dear Hubby bought me a bagful and it only cost C$5! I think the bag must have contained 1lb of cherries. They were all gone by next morning, happily digesting in my tum. We left early to catch the 1030am ferry across to Vancouver Island. The trip is about an hour as we were going to get off at Victoria and spend the night there.
The ferry was large, comfy and served great meals in the cafeteria. We spent most of our trip out on the deck, enjoying the sun and the scenery. I could tell Dear Hubby was getting really excited because he so loves Vancouver Island, he always says it's like coming home. I didn't know I would share his sentiments by the time we had to leave for Asia again.
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, a seaside town brimming with music, arts and lots of cool, good-looking Canucks. We spent the day walking about town. Dear Hubby pointed out an arbutus tree to me. It's very pretty but very strange... it has very little bark and its trunk is in shades of red!
We stopped by the harbour to watch a street performer doing her stripping and disappearing act and then wandered on to another street where we stopped again to appreciate a student band playing under the trees. Lovely, lovely place.
Dinner that night was at a seafood restaurant near the harbour. Our waiter was a good-looking, articulate Canadian lad in his mid 20's who was in his last year of his Maths course and was thinking of going on to do law. I don't know why exactly but all the wait staff we've seen in this trip were pretty good-looking! After dinner, about 9+pm, we took a walk around the harbour and Dear Hubby got this shot.
The next morning, we woke up early and had our breakfast in... Tim's! Yes! Bagels and coffee! I love their bagels, they were of the right size and they were generous with their cream cheese. After filling up, we set out on our drive to Tofino. Tofino is on the west coast of the island and faces the Pacific Ocean. It was absolutely freezing on the beach but I guess it's just me because there were people out there with their surfboards. God. They're crazy. Granted, they were in wetsuits but did they have any idea how cold it was??? We spent the night in Tofino in a cedar cabin (pic here) and bought a roast chicken and salad for our dinner. Oh... and earlier in the day, we stopped by Roy Henry Vickers art gallery and picked up an art piece for our new home in Jakarta. Vickers is a famous Canadian artist of mixed British-First Nations ancestry and Dear Hubby has been a long admirer. As we were leaving, I saw a piece that instantly reminded me of Little Monkey - this one! Dear Hubby came over, took a look at it, asked me if I liked it and when I nodded, he bought it for me. Awww... so sweet, thanks baby!
The next morning would be a drive to Comox Valley on the east side of the island. That would be the last leg of our holiday and our plan was to spend about 5 days there just lazing about and doing nothing.
It's been the awesome-est holiday we've ever had together.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Back in Jakarta... phew
Okay. I'm tired of airplanes and airports. We flew back from Balikpapan on Sat afternoon. The Sepinggan airport in Balikpapan is just one of those provincial airports where you have to walk out to your aircraft. Ever flew from Terengganu airport? I have. Same difference. Same filthy loos too!
Last night, two guys from Dear Hubby's office flew in and we four had dinner. We went back to Ocean's where we'd gone to before and it hadn't impressed me much. But guess what? This time, the food was great! We ordered a red snapper in Bangkok sauce. I haven't a clue what Bangkok sauce is but it was delicious. For starters, we had spring rolls and some triangles of prawn cake-bread combo that was deep-fried and then covered with sesame seeds. Wowza! Even the seafood fried rice tasted better this time round. Maybe it was because the waiters gave us some sambal. I didn't know they had sambal the first time round. Ooh, I love chilli! It makes all the differences in a meal!
Somehow, there was less space to squeeze into for going home in the car... I wonder why...
Yesterday, the driver took me on a tour of Balikpapan Baru (lit. New Balikpapan). It's a new area of town, comprising mainly of shophouses and housing areas, built about 4 years ago. While I was taking in the sights, I was caught by surprise to see a banner advertising houses in Vancouver. ??? I didn't know there was a market for that here! Later, I realised that the new, posh housing areas were named after world cities. Imagine my initial surprise when we turned onto a road and I saw road signs for Paris, Amsterdam, Vancouver and Kyoto!
Balikpapan Baru is... hmm... how shall I put it? It looks like Disneyland crossed with Taipan USJ. See what I mean? I went to the shopping center there which is called, appropriately enough, Fantasy Mall.
All in all, I'm glad to be back in Jakarta where there is at least some place for me to spend my money. When we first arrived in Balikpapan, Dear Hubby handed me Rp1 mill in case I saw anything I wanted. All I spent all week was perhaps Rp200,000+ for some fruit juice for me, crisps and cookies for him, fruit and a large bottle of water. The rest of the money remained in my purse because there was simply nothing for me to buy! Dear Hubby is now wondering if we should move to Balikpapan since this will mean MEGA savings for him... hmm.. clever plot...
Still, I do like Balikpapan. It's just nice to have the beach and sand and sea breeze for a change.
Some other pics from Balikpapan:
Last night, two guys from Dear Hubby's office flew in and we four had dinner. We went back to Ocean's where we'd gone to before and it hadn't impressed me much. But guess what? This time, the food was great! We ordered a red snapper in Bangkok sauce. I haven't a clue what Bangkok sauce is but it was delicious. For starters, we had spring rolls and some triangles of prawn cake-bread combo that was deep-fried and then covered with sesame seeds. Wowza! Even the seafood fried rice tasted better this time round. Maybe it was because the waiters gave us some sambal. I didn't know they had sambal the first time round. Ooh, I love chilli! It makes all the differences in a meal!
Somehow, there was less space to squeeze into for going home in the car... I wonder why...
Yesterday, the driver took me on a tour of Balikpapan Baru (lit. New Balikpapan). It's a new area of town, comprising mainly of shophouses and housing areas, built about 4 years ago. While I was taking in the sights, I was caught by surprise to see a banner advertising houses in Vancouver. ??? I didn't know there was a market for that here! Later, I realised that the new, posh housing areas were named after world cities. Imagine my initial surprise when we turned onto a road and I saw road signs for Paris, Amsterdam, Vancouver and Kyoto!
Balikpapan Baru is... hmm... how shall I put it? It looks like Disneyland crossed with Taipan USJ. See what I mean? I went to the shopping center there which is called, appropriately enough, Fantasy Mall.
All in all, I'm glad to be back in Jakarta where there is at least some place for me to spend my money. When we first arrived in Balikpapan, Dear Hubby handed me Rp1 mill in case I saw anything I wanted. All I spent all week was perhaps Rp200,000+ for some fruit juice for me, crisps and cookies for him, fruit and a large bottle of water. The rest of the money remained in my purse because there was simply nothing for me to buy! Dear Hubby is now wondering if we should move to Balikpapan since this will mean MEGA savings for him... hmm.. clever plot...
Still, I do like Balikpapan. It's just nice to have the beach and sand and sea breeze for a change.
Some other pics from Balikpapan:
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Greetings from Balikpapan!
As I've mentioned in an earlier post about my so-called jet-setting lifestyle, I jetted from Jakarta to Balikpapan just this Monday. I've told some friends I'm a budget jet-setter.
We put up in a hotel called Le Grandeur. I'm normally very wary of establishments with pseudo-Frenchy type names but this hotel was actually quite okay. Balikpapan is situated along the Straits of Makassar and the hotel faces the beach. I didn't fancy playing in the water though, the water was a suspicious browny colour and Dear Hubby had said wryly that Balikpapan is quite the industrial town, so I didn't want to take any chances.
The hotel serves an excellent breakfast buffet and I've been happily eating my fair share daily. Two nights ago, we tried the in-house seafood restaurant called The Beach and I thoroughly enjoyed our lemon and garlic flavoured grilled tiger prawns, kangkong belacan and seafood fried rice, all spiced with generous helping of sambal. I suffered the ill effects of too much chilli the next day but it was worth it all.
Otherwise, the food I've had so far wasn't very good. We've had mostly seafood but I guess we've been ordering the wrong stuff because none of it tastes particularly delicious to me. Last night, we gave in to Dear Hubby's craving for meat and went to a seafood-steak placed called Bondy's. While the steaks weren't too bad, they didn't taste like... steak? I don't know how to describe it. It's like they were marinated with the wrong sauce or something. We are now looking forward to going home to Jakarta on Saturday and gorging ourselves at our fave restaurant, Gourmet Garage.
I like the town itself though. I was taken on a tour of Balikpapan by the company driver on Wed. There is a little shopping centre where you can shop for your groceries at the local Hero supermart and clothes at Matahari. Right opposite that is a KFC if you want something else than fishy stuff to eat. Turn right at the traffic lights opposite the shopping centre and the road takes you to Pizza Hut and Bondy's. It ends at the harbour.
If you don't turn at the traffic lights, you'll go past a monument dedicated to the East Kalimantan freedom fighters who gave their lives in the struggle again the Dutch. Sad to say while the monument itself was magnificent, there was rubbish strewn all over the place. Right next to that is an excellent seafood restaurant or so I'm told. Continue down the road and you'll go past the HQ of Pertamina, the state oil company, on your right and the harbour on your left. You can take a ferry to Jakarta from the harbour, it's an 8-hr ride.
Why do I like Balikpapan? Well, since it's right on the coast, there's always a sea breeze blowing and it keeps the air in the town fresh. You can actually see stuff, it's not covered in smog as it usually is in Jakarta and in KL. I like my al fresco mamak dining in KL and I've missed that since moving to Jakarta where you simply can't eat out due to the pollution. So it was pretty nice to be able to sit out under the stars and eat your meal. The only downside is the night sea breeze is so strong, food gets cold real quick!
I'll be going out today to Balikpapan Baru. The driver told me that the area I'm in is the old town and there's a newer bit. Life here moves at a much slower pace here and I'm told most of the activities for expats are either going to the bars (not my thing) or doing the nature bit; they have a world-renowed orangutan conservation society here.
Dear Hubby asked me what "Balikpapan" means. I said I didn't know but literally, it means "behind the plank". Thanks to Wikipedia, I've found out the legend behind the name. A folk story tells of how a local king threw his newborn daughter into the sea to protect her against his enemies. The baby was tied beneath some planks which were discovered by a fisherman. Ta-dah!
Our driver tells me the symbol of his town is the bear. How about that? I've just come back from bear country in Canada and arrived in yet another bear country!
We put up in a hotel called Le Grandeur. I'm normally very wary of establishments with pseudo-Frenchy type names but this hotel was actually quite okay. Balikpapan is situated along the Straits of Makassar and the hotel faces the beach. I didn't fancy playing in the water though, the water was a suspicious browny colour and Dear Hubby had said wryly that Balikpapan is quite the industrial town, so I didn't want to take any chances.
The hotel serves an excellent breakfast buffet and I've been happily eating my fair share daily. Two nights ago, we tried the in-house seafood restaurant called The Beach and I thoroughly enjoyed our lemon and garlic flavoured grilled tiger prawns, kangkong belacan and seafood fried rice, all spiced with generous helping of sambal. I suffered the ill effects of too much chilli the next day but it was worth it all.
Otherwise, the food I've had so far wasn't very good. We've had mostly seafood but I guess we've been ordering the wrong stuff because none of it tastes particularly delicious to me. Last night, we gave in to Dear Hubby's craving for meat and went to a seafood-steak placed called Bondy's. While the steaks weren't too bad, they didn't taste like... steak? I don't know how to describe it. It's like they were marinated with the wrong sauce or something. We are now looking forward to going home to Jakarta on Saturday and gorging ourselves at our fave restaurant, Gourmet Garage.
I like the town itself though. I was taken on a tour of Balikpapan by the company driver on Wed. There is a little shopping centre where you can shop for your groceries at the local Hero supermart and clothes at Matahari. Right opposite that is a KFC if you want something else than fishy stuff to eat. Turn right at the traffic lights opposite the shopping centre and the road takes you to Pizza Hut and Bondy's. It ends at the harbour.
If you don't turn at the traffic lights, you'll go past a monument dedicated to the East Kalimantan freedom fighters who gave their lives in the struggle again the Dutch. Sad to say while the monument itself was magnificent, there was rubbish strewn all over the place. Right next to that is an excellent seafood restaurant or so I'm told. Continue down the road and you'll go past the HQ of Pertamina, the state oil company, on your right and the harbour on your left. You can take a ferry to Jakarta from the harbour, it's an 8-hr ride.
Why do I like Balikpapan? Well, since it's right on the coast, there's always a sea breeze blowing and it keeps the air in the town fresh. You can actually see stuff, it's not covered in smog as it usually is in Jakarta and in KL. I like my al fresco mamak dining in KL and I've missed that since moving to Jakarta where you simply can't eat out due to the pollution. So it was pretty nice to be able to sit out under the stars and eat your meal. The only downside is the night sea breeze is so strong, food gets cold real quick!
I'll be going out today to Balikpapan Baru. The driver told me that the area I'm in is the old town and there's a newer bit. Life here moves at a much slower pace here and I'm told most of the activities for expats are either going to the bars (not my thing) or doing the nature bit; they have a world-renowed orangutan conservation society here.
Dear Hubby asked me what "Balikpapan" means. I said I didn't know but literally, it means "behind the plank". Thanks to Wikipedia, I've found out the legend behind the name. A folk story tells of how a local king threw his newborn daughter into the sea to protect her against his enemies. The baby was tied beneath some planks which were discovered by a fisherman. Ta-dah!
Our driver tells me the symbol of his town is the bear. How about that? I've just come back from bear country in Canada and arrived in yet another bear country!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Day 6 in Canada: Banff, Mt Sulphur and steaks in Cochrane
We'd arrived in Cochrane, Alberta about 6pm the night before. Dear Hubby has an old friend living in Cochrane and they offered to put us up for two nights. Thank you to the Martin family! Their house was GORGEOUS. It was two-storey unit with a basement suite. When I saw the basement suite, I thought it made a lot of sense. It had a bathroom, bedroom and a living area. Guests could come and go quietly without waking the rest of the family.
I could barely crawl out of bed this morning because I was just exhausted. The main reason for my tiredness was that the bed wasn't really big enough for us two. Or let me put it this way - it was big enough but wasn't big enough to contain a 6ft 2in guy who insists on sleeping in a diagonal position and a 5ft 4in lass who was trying her best all night to push him over and not fall out of the bed at the same time.
All the same, the mention of climbing mountains was enough to wake me up. We hopped into the car and headed for Banff which is an hour away. I kept a sharp eye out for wildlife as our hosts had told us how they'd seen coyotes walking at the lake just outside their house and how bears would sometimes raid the bins in town.
We saw three bears during the entire Canada trip. The last bear encounter was the funniest. We were on some highway and when we spotted the usual mass of cars parked by the roadside, we knew there was a wild animal sighting. And lucky us! Even though we were at the end of the queue of cars, the bear started heading our way! So Dear Hubby hurriedly fixed up the zoom lens on his big DSLR and handed it to me, telling me to get a shot since the bear was on my side of the road. I stuck my head out of the window and peered through the lens. There's the bear! His head was down and he was munching away at some grasses. Clickclickclickclick! went the shutter loudly in quick succession and to my horror, the bear heard it, lifted his head and looked right at me. I froze in terror, "Oh god.. he's going to charge! I'm dead meat!" Looking through the zoom lens, the bear looked about five inches away from my nose (WAH LIAO EH!!!!!! SO CLOSE!!! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!) and my immediate reaction was to duck my head back into the car where I then discovered the bear was... a good 20ft away at least in reality. Silly me. As for the bear, he had already gone back to his munching and had forgotten all about this amateur in the car.
When we arrived at Banff, Dear Hubby drove straight through the town to the gondola terminal. He promised we would take a wander through the town later. The most important bit was to get to the summit of Mt Sulphur while the weather was good. As we paid up, I looked doubtfully up at the mountain. It seemed rather... high? Like Rocky Mountain High high? What am I doing going up mountains and bridges when I'm terrified of heights anyway???
The ride up to the summit took about 8 minutes I think. It was a very LONG 8 minutes. It didn't help that Dear Hubby kept moving about in the gondola as he tried to get the best shots of the valley below. This made the gondola sway gently and had me clutching the rails in terror. The gondola terminal at the top displayed flags of all its international visitors. Of course I looked for our flag and there it is! Jalur Gemilang! Hello, my flag! Apa khabar?
The mountain has a walkway leading to the very pinnacle of the mountain. If you're going, be sure to dress warm. When we got there, it was bright and sunny. By the time we descended, it was snowing! Wear a cap or something, it's very windy up there and you don't want your hair obscuring your view. Bring a camera and keep an eye out for the wildlife. We saw plenty of birds (I could only identify the raven) and alpine squirrels.
There was snow everywhere. Snow on the trees, snow on the ground, snow on the walkway and when we looked up, we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. Even though there were plenty of people up there, it was pretty quiet. I guess everyone was like me - awed into silence. I looked at those mountains and I felt... humbled. Humbled by the power of Nature. Man has built some pretty impressive structures but they all pale in comparison to what Nature can do.
We took a leisurely walk, stopping to read the various info plaques along the way. We even stopped to say hello to a little snowman that someone had built on a bench!
Quite close to the top, a little alpine squirrel ran out from the rocks and guess what? He came to me! I was so excited! "Ooh, you love me! You really, really love me!" I stood very still so as not to scare him off as he scampered about near me for a bit and finally went off to search for some food.
When we reached the peak, I really wanted to yodel. Really. Just to see what it was like and if it would echo back. But I didn't. We could see the clouds moving in and decided it was time to get a move on. Lightning always strikes at the highest point and up on the peak, I couldn't see anything else higher than us, so er... better get going!
As we came down, the weather swiftly turned from sunny to cold and grey and something started falling out of the sky. What was it? Dear Hubby had to tell me gently, "It's snow, babe." WOOHOO! Snow! On me! In June! I was sooooo excited I nearly fell on me bum. Behind me was an equally excited (or naive) lad who shouted out to his pals, "Guys, it's SNOWING!!!" Guess who sang Jingle Bells as we walked back towards the gondola terminal?
The gondola ride down wasn't as bad as going up. I found it helped to focus on Dear Hubby's face and just keep chatting away about anything in my mind. We drove back into town and took a walk about. As Banff is a tourist town, most of the shops sold souvenirs. It's very clean and well laid out and so very colourful! We popped into a shop for some lunch. We've learnt now that a single Canadian portion is enough to feed two of us, so we ordered ONE spag meatball, ONE garlic bread and two drinks. And it still was too much! So we went for a walk along the lake to work off the excess calories.
I fell asleep on the drive back. Not a good idea because the sun was shining in one direction so when we got back, I looked like Harvey Twoface from Batman. One side of my face was redder than the other. Sigh. We took the Martins out for dinner at a steak place to say thank you for their hospitality. Alberta steak is supposed to be excellent and mine certainly was!
The next day, we hopped back into our car, said our goodbyes and started the long journey back towards Vancouver. That's half of our holiday gone liao... I really don't want it to end so quickly! I love Canada!
I could barely crawl out of bed this morning because I was just exhausted. The main reason for my tiredness was that the bed wasn't really big enough for us two. Or let me put it this way - it was big enough but wasn't big enough to contain a 6ft 2in guy who insists on sleeping in a diagonal position and a 5ft 4in lass who was trying her best all night to push him over and not fall out of the bed at the same time.
All the same, the mention of climbing mountains was enough to wake me up. We hopped into the car and headed for Banff which is an hour away. I kept a sharp eye out for wildlife as our hosts had told us how they'd seen coyotes walking at the lake just outside their house and how bears would sometimes raid the bins in town.
We saw three bears during the entire Canada trip. The last bear encounter was the funniest. We were on some highway and when we spotted the usual mass of cars parked by the roadside, we knew there was a wild animal sighting. And lucky us! Even though we were at the end of the queue of cars, the bear started heading our way! So Dear Hubby hurriedly fixed up the zoom lens on his big DSLR and handed it to me, telling me to get a shot since the bear was on my side of the road. I stuck my head out of the window and peered through the lens. There's the bear! His head was down and he was munching away at some grasses. Clickclickclickclick! went the shutter loudly in quick succession and to my horror, the bear heard it, lifted his head and looked right at me. I froze in terror, "Oh god.. he's going to charge! I'm dead meat!" Looking through the zoom lens, the bear looked about five inches away from my nose (WAH LIAO EH!!!!!! SO CLOSE!!! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!) and my immediate reaction was to duck my head back into the car where I then discovered the bear was... a good 20ft away at least in reality. Silly me. As for the bear, he had already gone back to his munching and had forgotten all about this amateur in the car.
When we arrived at Banff, Dear Hubby drove straight through the town to the gondola terminal. He promised we would take a wander through the town later. The most important bit was to get to the summit of Mt Sulphur while the weather was good. As we paid up, I looked doubtfully up at the mountain. It seemed rather... high? Like Rocky Mountain High high? What am I doing going up mountains and bridges when I'm terrified of heights anyway???
The ride up to the summit took about 8 minutes I think. It was a very LONG 8 minutes. It didn't help that Dear Hubby kept moving about in the gondola as he tried to get the best shots of the valley below. This made the gondola sway gently and had me clutching the rails in terror. The gondola terminal at the top displayed flags of all its international visitors. Of course I looked for our flag and there it is! Jalur Gemilang! Hello, my flag! Apa khabar?
The mountain has a walkway leading to the very pinnacle of the mountain. If you're going, be sure to dress warm. When we got there, it was bright and sunny. By the time we descended, it was snowing! Wear a cap or something, it's very windy up there and you don't want your hair obscuring your view. Bring a camera and keep an eye out for the wildlife. We saw plenty of birds (I could only identify the raven) and alpine squirrels.
There was snow everywhere. Snow on the trees, snow on the ground, snow on the walkway and when we looked up, we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. Even though there were plenty of people up there, it was pretty quiet. I guess everyone was like me - awed into silence. I looked at those mountains and I felt... humbled. Humbled by the power of Nature. Man has built some pretty impressive structures but they all pale in comparison to what Nature can do.
We took a leisurely walk, stopping to read the various info plaques along the way. We even stopped to say hello to a little snowman that someone had built on a bench!
Quite close to the top, a little alpine squirrel ran out from the rocks and guess what? He came to me! I was so excited! "Ooh, you love me! You really, really love me!" I stood very still so as not to scare him off as he scampered about near me for a bit and finally went off to search for some food.
When we reached the peak, I really wanted to yodel. Really. Just to see what it was like and if it would echo back. But I didn't. We could see the clouds moving in and decided it was time to get a move on. Lightning always strikes at the highest point and up on the peak, I couldn't see anything else higher than us, so er... better get going!
As we came down, the weather swiftly turned from sunny to cold and grey and something started falling out of the sky. What was it? Dear Hubby had to tell me gently, "It's snow, babe." WOOHOO! Snow! On me! In June! I was sooooo excited I nearly fell on me bum. Behind me was an equally excited (or naive) lad who shouted out to his pals, "Guys, it's SNOWING!!!" Guess who sang Jingle Bells as we walked back towards the gondola terminal?
The gondola ride down wasn't as bad as going up. I found it helped to focus on Dear Hubby's face and just keep chatting away about anything in my mind. We drove back into town and took a walk about. As Banff is a tourist town, most of the shops sold souvenirs. It's very clean and well laid out and so very colourful! We popped into a shop for some lunch. We've learnt now that a single Canadian portion is enough to feed two of us, so we ordered ONE spag meatball, ONE garlic bread and two drinks. And it still was too much! So we went for a walk along the lake to work off the excess calories.
I fell asleep on the drive back. Not a good idea because the sun was shining in one direction so when we got back, I looked like Harvey Twoface from Batman. One side of my face was redder than the other. Sigh. We took the Martins out for dinner at a steak place to say thank you for their hospitality. Alberta steak is supposed to be excellent and mine certainly was!
The next day, we hopped back into our car, said our goodbyes and started the long journey back towards Vancouver. That's half of our holiday gone liao... I really don't want it to end so quickly! I love Canada!
More pics from Canada
LMAO Look at the expression on my face. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the expression of something who knows that she has just made the biggest bloody mistake of her life because...
...despite her fear of heights, she's going to have to walk across this bridge. TWICE!!! (Capilano Suspension Bridge, Capilano Park, North Van)
Is this what enlightenment looks like? If memory serves me correctly, this shot was taken while we were driving towards Tofino, Vancouver Island. Dear Hubby spotted it and hurriedly pulled over before rushing out with his camera.
EDIT, 04 JULY: Guess my memory's failing. This shot was actually taken while we were on our way to Salmon Arm.
Chairs in the back garden of the cabin in Comox, Vancouver Island. This cabin belongs to a friend and it's used as a holiday home by the family. It's got a log fire and if you walk out to the back garden and go down some stone steps, you're right on the beach where you can pick up some driftwood for your fire. Since no one was using it, he very kindly offered us a place to stay in Comox. We spent about 4-5 days just lazing about in the cabin and that was really nice, many thanks to the MacDonald family. Dear Hubby used to live in Comox and he took me around to introduce me (and Little Monkey) to his old friends. Comox was the place where I finally got to sample some REAL Canadian cuisine - a friend served us grilled elk for dinner and it was delicious!
Me craning my neck trying to see past the Douglas firs and hemlocks in the forest. (Capilano Park, North Van)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Some pictures from Canada
Sorry for the wrongly spaced pics. I've tried and tried to fix it but Blogger won't let me.
Tofino, Vancouver Island
We decided to splurge out on this cabin because we fell in love with it when we saw it. It was a one-bedroom cabin made entirely out of cedar and looked out to the Pacific Ocean. It cost C$150 for one night but we decided it would be worth it and it was!
View of the Canadian Rockies from the road. The drive was long and hard but the scenery made up for it.
Capilano Suspension Bridge, North Vancouver
This is one of the funniest pics of the whole holiday. This is me just about to get started on walking across the bridge and I'm trying to get a pic. But I can't because I'm swaying and shaking so much! Haha!
Columbia Icefield
Pic taken at the start of the hike up to the glacier. It was BLOODY worth all the huffing and puffing!
Jasper, Alberta
View of street in Jasper. Wouldn't you like to live in this town with the Canadian Rockies as your backyard?
Tofino, Vancouver Island
We decided to splurge out on this cabin because we fell in love with it when we saw it. It was a one-bedroom cabin made entirely out of cedar and looked out to the Pacific Ocean. It cost C$150 for one night but we decided it would be worth it and it was!
View of the Canadian Rockies from the road. The drive was long and hard but the scenery made up for it.
Capilano Suspension Bridge, North Vancouver
This is one of the funniest pics of the whole holiday. This is me just about to get started on walking across the bridge and I'm trying to get a pic. But I can't because I'm swaying and shaking so much! Haha!
Columbia Icefield
Pic taken at the start of the hike up to the glacier. It was BLOODY worth all the huffing and puffing!
Jasper, Alberta
View of street in Jasper. Wouldn't you like to live in this town with the Canadian Rockies as your backyard?
Day 5 in Canada: I'm on a glacier!!!
This morning, we got up early and walked around Jasper for a bit. It was crisp and cold, the skies were a bright blue and I couldn't stop gawking at the Rockies. Jasper is really a very small resort town, I found it absolutely charming myself.
We grabbed a quick breakfast at Subway's. A sub at Subway's is our standard fare during our travels. They're much cheaper than a full meal at a restaurant, they're quite nutritious and they can be very filling.
During this trip, I was introduced to a Canadian institution - Tim Hortons. It's a Canadian chain which started out by selling donuts and coffee to the morning crowd. Started by an ex-NHL player, the chain grew and grew and now it offers a lovely soup and bagel breakfast as well. I suppose it is to Canucks what mamak stalls are to us Malaysians. There is a Timmie in every town and village and I loved our meals there. I told Dear Hubby that if I should moan "Tim.... Tim..." in my sleep from now on, he shouldn't get too worked up because I'm just lusting for the donuts.
After breakfast, we hopped back into our car. Destination Cochrane, Alberta. But before that... the glacier! We drove down south on the Icefields Parkway. Yes, it's as cold as the name sounds. But did I care? No! I'd been checking out brochures before we left and was pretty disappointed to find out that it would cost something like C$95 for a ride out onto the glacier in a erm... I dunno what you call it.. snow explorer truck? Oh well, the website calls it a Snocoach. Wow. That's pretty expensive.
But Dear Hubby obviously knew other ways of getting out onto the glacier. We drove up to this bit where you could actually walk up to the foot of the glacier! Awesome or what! I was out of the car the moment we parked, all excited and ready to go. It didn't matter that I was dead close to freezing my fingers off. I pulled my toque tighter on my head, zipped up my jacket and took Dear Hubby's hand as we headed up the gentle hill before the glacier.
The walk was mostly up gravel and rock. There were streams everywhere and I dipped my fingers into one. Brrr... cold! No wonder, it was water from the melting glacier. Some bits of the trail were snow and me, being a tropical baby, had no idea that snow can just give way under your weight. I sank up to my calves in snow in some bits and I thought, Hmm... just like ais kacang!
I had to take a wee break to catch my breath. Hey, if you had to lug a 19-week-old baby in your belly up that hill, you'd take a break too! The trail has markers that show where the glacier used to be in previous years, going back to the 1800's. It's quite scary to see how much the glacier had retreated and if that wasn't a lesson for global warming, I don't know what else is.
When we finally got to the foot of the glacier, there was a rope there with a sign that said DO NOT CROSS. Well, I hadn't flown 18hours and hiked up that hill and froze to death just to be stopped by some rope and sign, so I followed Dear Hubby and ducked under the rope. I don't even know why the rope is there because everyone else was doing the same.
And there I am - I'm standing on a glacier!!! Woohoo!!! If I were a lad, I'm sure I would have written my name in pee on the snow. :)) We saw others hike further up the glacier but I didn't want to risk the trip, not with our Little One dependent on me to keep him safe. So we just stayed at the foot and took pictures of us on the ice.
The walk downhill from the glacier was a great deal easier and slower. I'd been so eager to get on the glacier I must have really zoomed up the hill. When we got back to our car, I looked back at the glacier and I couldn't believe that we'd gone that far. I'm so stoked I got to stand on a glacier. You don't think that it's possible, right.. glaciers are supposed to be high up and cold and one just doesn't go, "Hey, you wanna hike up to a glacier?" Well, in Columbia Icefield Parkway, you can do just that. All you need is a car to get you there, money to pay for the park access ticket and your legs.
I was on a high for the rest of the way. We would be driving past Banff to stay with friends in Cochrane for the night. The plan was to come back to visit Banff the next day. One more night in Cochrane and we would point our car westwards again and head back to Vancouver. We're almost halfway through the holiday and I'm having the greatest time of my life.
We grabbed a quick breakfast at Subway's. A sub at Subway's is our standard fare during our travels. They're much cheaper than a full meal at a restaurant, they're quite nutritious and they can be very filling.
During this trip, I was introduced to a Canadian institution - Tim Hortons. It's a Canadian chain which started out by selling donuts and coffee to the morning crowd. Started by an ex-NHL player, the chain grew and grew and now it offers a lovely soup and bagel breakfast as well. I suppose it is to Canucks what mamak stalls are to us Malaysians. There is a Timmie in every town and village and I loved our meals there. I told Dear Hubby that if I should moan "Tim.... Tim..." in my sleep from now on, he shouldn't get too worked up because I'm just lusting for the donuts.
After breakfast, we hopped back into our car. Destination Cochrane, Alberta. But before that... the glacier! We drove down south on the Icefields Parkway. Yes, it's as cold as the name sounds. But did I care? No! I'd been checking out brochures before we left and was pretty disappointed to find out that it would cost something like C$95 for a ride out onto the glacier in a erm... I dunno what you call it.. snow explorer truck? Oh well, the website calls it a Snocoach. Wow. That's pretty expensive.
But Dear Hubby obviously knew other ways of getting out onto the glacier. We drove up to this bit where you could actually walk up to the foot of the glacier! Awesome or what! I was out of the car the moment we parked, all excited and ready to go. It didn't matter that I was dead close to freezing my fingers off. I pulled my toque tighter on my head, zipped up my jacket and took Dear Hubby's hand as we headed up the gentle hill before the glacier.
The walk was mostly up gravel and rock. There were streams everywhere and I dipped my fingers into one. Brrr... cold! No wonder, it was water from the melting glacier. Some bits of the trail were snow and me, being a tropical baby, had no idea that snow can just give way under your weight. I sank up to my calves in snow in some bits and I thought, Hmm... just like ais kacang!
I had to take a wee break to catch my breath. Hey, if you had to lug a 19-week-old baby in your belly up that hill, you'd take a break too! The trail has markers that show where the glacier used to be in previous years, going back to the 1800's. It's quite scary to see how much the glacier had retreated and if that wasn't a lesson for global warming, I don't know what else is.
When we finally got to the foot of the glacier, there was a rope there with a sign that said DO NOT CROSS. Well, I hadn't flown 18hours and hiked up that hill and froze to death just to be stopped by some rope and sign, so I followed Dear Hubby and ducked under the rope. I don't even know why the rope is there because everyone else was doing the same.
And there I am - I'm standing on a glacier!!! Woohoo!!! If I were a lad, I'm sure I would have written my name in pee on the snow. :)) We saw others hike further up the glacier but I didn't want to risk the trip, not with our Little One dependent on me to keep him safe. So we just stayed at the foot and took pictures of us on the ice.
The walk downhill from the glacier was a great deal easier and slower. I'd been so eager to get on the glacier I must have really zoomed up the hill. When we got back to our car, I looked back at the glacier and I couldn't believe that we'd gone that far. I'm so stoked I got to stand on a glacier. You don't think that it's possible, right.. glaciers are supposed to be high up and cold and one just doesn't go, "Hey, you wanna hike up to a glacier?" Well, in Columbia Icefield Parkway, you can do just that. All you need is a car to get you there, money to pay for the park access ticket and your legs.
I was on a high for the rest of the way. We would be driving past Banff to stay with friends in Cochrane for the night. The plan was to come back to visit Banff the next day. One more night in Cochrane and we would point our car westwards again and head back to Vancouver. We're almost halfway through the holiday and I'm having the greatest time of my life.
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