Forever 28~

It has been quite some time I didn’t visit to Singapore. I think my previous visit to Singapore was about 10 years ago. My friend invited me to go to Singapore last September. Since he owns an apartment in Singapore and he has accommodation for me, I happily accepted his invitation.

I took TigerAirway from LCCT to Singapore Changi Airport. Apparently there is budget terminal in Changi Airport as well. The flight is about 1 hour 15 minutes, by the time we reached, it was about 12am. Then, we took taxi to my friend’s house. It is doubled charged for mid-night taxi service, but we didn’t have other alternative.
The taxi driver was very helpful. He is Malay but he spoke English with us most of the time. He patiently find my friend’s place for us and wished us have nice trip. I seldom have chance to take taxi in Malaysia but I heard a lot of complaints about taxi drivers in Malaysia.
That was my first good impression about Singapore after many years…

Taman Negara (National Park) Malaysia is one of the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. It is located in Pahang state and about 3-4 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. One of the destinations for our company trips this year was Taman Negara. I’ve never been to this place before, hence I chose to go this time!

We stayed at Rainforest Resort Taman Negara. Before I went, my colleagues told me don’t have high expectation towards this resort. But, I’ve never thought it would be that bad!

On the first day, there were few rooms encountered water shortage problem. We were wetted with river water after the activity, and when we back to resort, there is water shortage problem! See?

At night, I was about to go to bed. But, too bad the basin tap had no water to flow out! I had to wait and wait for very small water supply to come and brush my teeth. I couldn’t go to other colleague’s room to brush because it was raining. My feet would get wetted after all. Then, when I came back to room, I have no water to clean my feet as well! See? How embarrassed was it!

As the people run the resort, you should have to make sure the resort can accommodate or cater for big number of visitors come for holiday. Otherwise just don’t get the project! The water shortage was because of their internal problem. I was so disappointed with Rainforest Resort Taman Negara. It wasn’t a pleasant stay!

I joined the company trip to Kuala Rompin this year. It is located at the border of Johor and Pahang state. We were staying at SummerSet Resort for two nights.

We departed on Friday morning from Petaling Jaya. It took us around six hours to arrive the resort. It was because of the traffic at small road. There were few trucks blocking our way and the bus driver couldn’t over take.

I would rather said it was a team building session for my three-day-two-night trip to Kuala Rompin. The SummerSet Resort is actually being isolated from the town. We were staying in the resort all the time and participated the activities prepared by the organizing committee. The exciting activities that I had participated during the trip were paintball, swamp peat, water rafting, scary jungle night walk, horse riding, treasure hunt, beach volleyball and beach soccer! That’s the reason I felt exhausted after coming back from staff trip and the next day I have to work!

Anyway, I enjoyed this company trip very much. I knew new friends during staff trip. I believe this is one of the purposes of having staff trip every year~!

I had expensive food in Bali. This is because all the restaurants that I entered were by the main road. These restaurants are mainly target at Caucasians where most of them are loaded. Averagely, I spent about Rp30,000 – Rp 40,000 per meal.

There are few kind of food that you should try in Bali. Firstly is Babi Guling at Ibu Oka, Ubud. You can see a lot of people are having this special food in the restaurant. I was alone there, since that was too crowded, I shared a same table with other French tourists. Secondly is the Satey babi at Warung Made, Kuta. But that day I didn’t have Satey babi because I would like to have a decent lunch. I couldn’t eat too much.

Another few special dishes that I didn’t have are Smoke Duck at Dirty Duck Restaurant (Ubud) and seafood at Jimbaran. I didn’t have time to enjoy the Smoke Duck, for Jimbaran seafood, it is for couple to enjoy their romantic dinner with great sunset. I was alone there, so I didn’t plan to go there of course.

Ironically, the cheapest meal that I had in Bali was the meal that I ordered in Sorgawi Bali hotel. It cost me Rp23,000 for a fried rice and Coke. I used to spent about Rp30,000 for a plate of fried rice in a restaurant in Kuta. But, those ‘forumers’ told me I could go to eat at warung at alley, that’s much cheaper (Rp8,000 for fried rice).

As a conclusion, I don’t really like food in Bali. I prefer food in Bangkok.

I strongly recommend you go for SPA in Ubud if you are in Bali. The price is reasonable with great ambient. On my third day in Bali, I hired a driver bring me to Sukawati and around the Ubud. It was a whole day trip indeed!

I went to Verona Spa in Ubud. I spend Rp 150,000 (around RM55) for two hours SPA. It is inclusive of body scrub, massage, treatment, and flower bath. I like the environment where it actually facing the paddy field. While I was enjoying flower bath, I could see children were playing in the paddy field. But, that’s quite a distance, they wouldn’t see you of course.

Honestly speaking, their massage and body scrub were not that good compared to what I did at TrueSpa. Anyway, that was the most enjoyable moment for me in Bali!