First of all, Macau.
What stuck in mind? One word, casinos. They're not all located on a strip like in Vegas (I've never been to Vegas but that's what I imagined them to be) though. Macau is divided into three major islands; Macau, Taipa and Coloane, which are connected by man-made bridges and the casinos are mostly located in Macau and Taipa. Coloane is more like the quieter side of the three.
All the casinos are built inside unified complexes, huge ones, which houses the casinos, hotel rooms, food courts and shops.
I stayed in The Venetian, which was built to emulate Venice, as you may have guessed. The resemblance is uncanny! They have St Mark's Square, the canals, the gondolas, Ponte Rialto. The only differences are the air-conditioning and when I was in Venice I don't remember seeing outdoor food courts and Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry and Chanel shops when walking from the Rialto Bridge through the escalator to St Mark's Square. Oh the water was crystal clear and didn't smell. *sarcastic rant ends here*
My friend took me around and showed me some other casino hotels; Wynn, MGM Grand and Galaxy. They're alright. She also took me to the Ruins of St Paul's Church. It was cool on many levels. I was told that they actually tried rebuilding the church ten times and every single time, it burned down. Maybe God doesn't like a church being built in a casino-infested territory? So after the tenth time, they stopped trying to rebuild the church but the facade never got burned down. It is now the symbol of Macau. Amen.
Food? The most famous snack is Lord Stow's Bakery's egg tart and I swear it was the best egg tart I've ever tasted. I'm not usually a fan of egg tarts but I was hooked on this one. My friend also took me to a Chinese Macanese restaurant for dinner and so I don't forget, the name of the place is Cafe Litoral, located really close to Galaxy. If you do want to go in the weekends, book ahead. It's pretty popular.
Ferry ride to and from Hong Kong was effortless. It took an hour each way though.
One more thing, the currency is Macau Pataca, abbreviated MOP. Where did the 'O' come from though? Shouldn't it be MCP or MPT or MPC? Here's the thing, HK$ is received everywhere in Macau (usually with a 1:1 exchange rate) but the MOP is only good in Macau. You can exchange it for HK$ but they will charge currency exchange rates. Cheeky! So make sure you spend all your Patacas before going back to Hong Kong.
So I was back in Hong Kong.
Note to self: don't visit Hong Kong (and Macau) in winter for photography. White skies and foggy days.
The whole MTR experience was awesome. First of all, the tap card system works. The Octopus Card works very well, it's cheap and you can even use it to shop in 7 Elevens. Trains run on time and I never not get 3G. Sometimes it would turn to 2G but most of the time anywhere underground I'd still get 3G. My only complaint is that the gates are too small for me with my sling bag on the side, but again I am considered XL in Hong Kong. Oh, and whenever you're on the escalator anywhere, the lazy line (my line) is on the right hand side, and they have this fascination of holding the handrails, so make sure you hold on tight.
I think my hotel has all-day housekeeping in action. No matter what time of day I past through the corridors, I'd always find their carts lurking around.
I met Bruce Lee at the Avenue of the Stars. It was just a statue but I met him, and fortunately he didn't kick my ass.
A Symphony of Lights is on every night at 8PM. Yes it's free. Come early, the promenade fills up really quickly.
The trip to Lantau Island was definitely memorable, not so much in a good way but still memorable. I started quite late that day and didn't expect it to be raining. MTR ride took about a half hour then it took me some time to figure out where the bus stop was. I asked somebody inside but was only told it was outside. Some help huh? The bus ride was an hour but didn't feel that long, maybe it was the winding road so we kept on turning all the time. When I got to the Tian Tan Buddha (it was big, no, huge!) it was raining hard and I was forced to buy an umbrella. Then it was challenging. On one hand I had to hold an umbrella and on the other hand I had to hold my camera because I couldn't just let my camera hang around to get wet not to mention taking photos and zooming in and out. I think I spent maybe an hour and a half at the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. So I got to the bus stop only to have to wait for another half hour because the current bus was full. Then it was another hour back to Tung Chung and another half hour back to Tsim Sha Tsui.
I also went temple-hopping. Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin - Tin Hau - Man Mo. The first one, a lot of fortune telling from a chim (bamboo stick shaken out of the box). The second was quite small and I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, so I stepped outside and snapped the inside. The last one was, for me, the most impressive and the hardest for me to find even though I have the power of Google Maps in my hands. It had millions (ok I'm exaggerating, but there was a lot) of coiling incense inside and I snapped like there's no tomorrow. Tried the beef brisket noodle soup at Kau Kee as recommended by a friend. I will come back again someday to try it with rice noodles and the curry one.
A visit to The Peak was disappointing. It was foggy! The Peak Tram was cool though. On the way back, it went backwards at a 45-degree angle.
I also spent some time just wandering around in Central and at one point I was just walking to the Ferry Terminal because I thought I might be able to get a glimpse of the junk boat with the red sails and everything. I was quite tired at that point and was standing at an intersection waiting for the red light to turn green when I turned to the left. The new Apple Store! Once the red light turned green, I went to the middle of the road, snapped it, and walked away just in time before the light turned red again. So I got to the Central Pier and wanted to have a look at the junk boat but couldn't find it, then I went up to the observation deck and I was at the ferry pier going to Tsim Sha Tsui which is where I was staying. So I tapped my Octopus Card and a minute later I was crossing the peninsula and reached my hotel in 10 minutes instead of walking all the way back to the MTR station.
Also explored the markets (not really). Flower market, bird market and goldfish market. All in Mong Kok. I really liked the bird market, the other two were so so.
What I loved most of all: Hong Kong's dusk, the crowds, the food (which I eat a lot of them in Melbourne, especially the congee and wonton noodles), the neon lights and the old Shanghai feel.
I'll come back again someday, some summer days.
Photos are online at my Flickr and also, if you want to have a look at some photos from my recent Bali trip, click here.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, February 06, 2012
more travels
I haven't blogged and posted my recent trip to Bali. Not because I don't want to but because I didn't really like how the photos turned out to be.
On the upside, I will be flying to Hong Kong and Macau this coming weekend, so hopefully the photos would turn out to be awesome.
Stay tuned.
On the upside, I will be flying to Hong Kong and Macau this coming weekend, so hopefully the photos would turn out to be awesome.
Stay tuned.
Friday, December 30, 2011
a day in jakarta
This won't be a long post.
I am now bloated since I've had six meals the whole day.
Why? Because I caught up with three different friends in three different malls. But if I only caught up with three friends in three different places shouldn't that make three meals only?
OK, here goes.
I woke up in the morning and had a bowl of chicken noodle for breakfast (yes, you can have chicken noodle for breakfast in Indonesia, same goes for nasi goreng or whatever food you think you can only have for lunch or dinner).
Then when I went to the first catch up, we went and ordered two kaya toasts, two soft boiled eggs and a cup of coffee, aah yes, coffee.
After the semi brunch, we actually went to another restaurant inside the same mall and I ordered pasta. This particular restaurant actually stated that customers could buy their menus (yes, you read that right) if you want. Apparently this is to deter people from actually stealing menus from the restaurant. Weird? I thought so too. Do people actually eat menus? I don't know.
3.30PM, I arrived at the next mall for the second catch up and ordered a dark waffle with ice cream. This was shared with a friend (so I could also share the sin of my gluttony).
Then by 6PM, I already sat down at a ramen restaurant in yet another mall and slurped dry a bowl of ramen. Had an overpriced bottle of Erdinger afterwards (double the price I used to pay dammit! Rip off!) but as my friend told me, twice the price thrice the fun right? Then I went home.
So finally at home, I also had a little bit of rice with rawon soup.
And as I said above, I am now bloated and my tummy is also somehow filled with lots of wind.
Note to self: This can never happen again, ever. And also, taxis are, at the moment, my best means of transportation in Jakarta. They're cheap, well air-conditioned and I can avoid looking for parking which can waste a lot of time, seriously. When it's not raining though, motorbikes are you best friends.
Alright, bedtime.
Monday, December 26, 2011
my strike continues
Well, well, well, apparently my-things-always-go-wrong-when-trying-to-fly-off-of-Melbourne stories reveals a new chapter tonight and this is how the story goes.
The night was breezy. I could still see the clouds floating beneath the starless night sky. I was in a taxi on my way to the airport. The driver was South Asian and the car smelled. It wasn't too bad that it was unbearable but it was enough to keep my snifflers alert all the time. I tried to occupy my mind with something, anything, and it worked, for a while, but then the frequent sound of the wiper wiping away all the water droplets falling on the windscreen brought me back to reality.
I hung on.
Just before we got on the freeway to the airport the driver told me that he's out of gas and needed to fuel up. I didn't mind since I've already checked in my flight online and just needed to grab my boarding pass and drop my luggage.
So he kept on driving and I minded my own business when I realised we were moving slower than we could have. The driver had turned on the hazard lights and we were moving slower and slower until he pulled over and stopped.
The taxi was out of gas, but the driver told me the petrol station wasn't far away. I was OK with that.
Then he started the engine again and accelerated slowly. We were gonna make it for sure. The petrol station was just two red lights away.
Then comes the uphill. It wasn't that steep that I never really paid attention to it myself when I'm driving but for a two ton steel box with a few drips of gas to burn, it was an uphill we could not climb. The engine died a second time.
He tried starting the car a few times and surprisingly managed to overcome the seemingly high obstacle until we reached the first red light. The engine died again.
I thought the driver turned the engine off on purpose to conserve gas but that wasn't the case. He tried starting the car again and again to no avail. I suggested turning off the aircon in hopes to be able to shed some of the gas necessity of working the car again. He did. It didn't help. And this makes me hate cars with gas (instead of petrol) more than before since I was pretty sure that there was no way you could tell if the tank is close to empty, or could this be just the driver's discretion?
Anyway he tried time after time after time. It just didn't want to start. The gas tank was empty. He apologised and I said it was alright. Nothing dramatic right? So we sat there in the middle of the road with the hazard lights on.
Luckily we were close to Crown Casino and the taxi driver managed to call another taxi passing by. I paid him what I owed and transferred to the other taxi. Poor guy.
After that it was smooth sailing, taxi didn't smell either.
The airport was packed, and I mean jam packed like if you put Disneyland ride queues side to side in a small space. Immigration was the same, like the ride queues without a fastpass. And somebody farted in the queue! @#$%#$%^$%^&*&^%!! Everbody seemed to be going to Bangkok. The Hangover part 2?
Funny, the queue for my flight dispersed straight away the moment they announced they were boarding by row numbers. All the while I was watching from the sidelines. Huge hand carries anyone?
And so I'm signing off now, my flight's ready to depart and the next place I want to head off to is dreamland. Not the beach in Bali, but you know, sleep.
The night was breezy. I could still see the clouds floating beneath the starless night sky. I was in a taxi on my way to the airport. The driver was South Asian and the car smelled. It wasn't too bad that it was unbearable but it was enough to keep my snifflers alert all the time. I tried to occupy my mind with something, anything, and it worked, for a while, but then the frequent sound of the wiper wiping away all the water droplets falling on the windscreen brought me back to reality.
I hung on.
Just before we got on the freeway to the airport the driver told me that he's out of gas and needed to fuel up. I didn't mind since I've already checked in my flight online and just needed to grab my boarding pass and drop my luggage.
So he kept on driving and I minded my own business when I realised we were moving slower than we could have. The driver had turned on the hazard lights and we were moving slower and slower until he pulled over and stopped.
The taxi was out of gas, but the driver told me the petrol station wasn't far away. I was OK with that.
Then he started the engine again and accelerated slowly. We were gonna make it for sure. The petrol station was just two red lights away.
Then comes the uphill. It wasn't that steep that I never really paid attention to it myself when I'm driving but for a two ton steel box with a few drips of gas to burn, it was an uphill we could not climb. The engine died a second time.
He tried starting the car a few times and surprisingly managed to overcome the seemingly high obstacle until we reached the first red light. The engine died again.
I thought the driver turned the engine off on purpose to conserve gas but that wasn't the case. He tried starting the car again and again to no avail. I suggested turning off the aircon in hopes to be able to shed some of the gas necessity of working the car again. He did. It didn't help. And this makes me hate cars with gas (instead of petrol) more than before since I was pretty sure that there was no way you could tell if the tank is close to empty, or could this be just the driver's discretion?
Anyway he tried time after time after time. It just didn't want to start. The gas tank was empty. He apologised and I said it was alright. Nothing dramatic right? So we sat there in the middle of the road with the hazard lights on.
Luckily we were close to Crown Casino and the taxi driver managed to call another taxi passing by. I paid him what I owed and transferred to the other taxi. Poor guy.
After that it was smooth sailing, taxi didn't smell either.
The airport was packed, and I mean jam packed like if you put Disneyland ride queues side to side in a small space. Immigration was the same, like the ride queues without a fastpass. And somebody farted in the queue! @#$%#$%^$%^&*&^%!! Everbody seemed to be going to Bangkok. The Hangover part 2?
Funny, the queue for my flight dispersed straight away the moment they announced they were boarding by row numbers. All the while I was watching from the sidelines. Huge hand carries anyone?
And so I'm signing off now, my flight's ready to depart and the next place I want to head off to is dreamland. Not the beach in Bali, but you know, sleep.
Monday, November 28, 2011
How time flew by
OK, ever since I posted all my so called artsy fartsy rants to my Tumblr, this blog has only been a space for me to update whoever's out there reading it on my travels but this time I'm going to try to recap of what's been going on since the Europe Trip in June.
I visited Surabaya for a week in August during the Ramadan and I can tell you now that it's not the best time to visit. A lot of the traditional and hawker food stalls are closed and not a lot of restaurants sell alcohol and if they do they have to do it discreetly. Bummer.
Not much have been going on in life afterwards.
I sold my Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace head and matching cabinet and gotten myself a Marshall YJM100 head and at the moment I'm still looking to sell my Mesa Boogie Mark IV Combo. Any takers? No new effects, no new guitars (well it's too much already), just trying to downsize (yeah right).
No new camera gear although if the newly rumoured Nikon D800 comes out with a built in GPS, I may be getting it and sell my current D700.
Haven't been taking as much photos as I wanted to after the Europe Trip so not a lot of updates on my Flickr. There's only the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle bit.
No new LEGO sets though I had my eye on a couple. Worried of where I'm going to put them once they're done.
Sold my iPhone 4 after upgrading to 4S. Apple has made my dreams come true with the keyboard shortcuts. Still waiting for that battery drain fix though (I now own a car charger since owning the 4S). No biggie.
My couple friend who went to Japan with me last year had a baby in October. Congrats to the both of you, you are now the proud parents of baby X and just like a doctor's beeper, he now controls your lives (just kidding).
Miss mis/adventure wonderland left for Tokyo in search for a better career (and lots of better food…and alcohol) and won't be back for at least six months starting mid November 2011. All the best of luck for the job and food/alcohol search and of course your mis/adventures when you're in Tokyo as well!
I've been playing badminton twice a week now. I had my right foot checked by a physio and have had to wear an ankle brace whenever I play ever since but I might have injured my left one now. Might need to get it checked out too.
Christmas trip back to Jakarta is coming up soon. I have to renew my ID hence the trip back. Will be spending four days in Bali so I'm quite looking forward to it.
I'm also planning on another trip to Morocco, Jordan and Turkey for April. Will see how that goes. A prospective travel buddy is in order and will be discussing the trip in Jakarta and hopefully we can get everything sorted out late Jan/early Feb.
I found out that if you hold an Indonesian passport, you are exempt from having to have a visa to enter Morocco and you can get visa-on-arrivals for Jordan and Turkey but I might apply for the Jordan and Turkey tourist visas ahead though since I wouldn't want to waste time queuing for them just in case the queue is long. Now, if only the Indonesian government can make some kind of agreement with more countries in the world to eliminate tourist visa requirements, that would be super (European Schengen visa, I'm talking about you specifically, gaaaah the horror).
That's about everything I guess…oh also I've finished reading Inheritance. The ending made me feel so so sad.
There, all major events since June up till now summed up.
I visited Surabaya for a week in August during the Ramadan and I can tell you now that it's not the best time to visit. A lot of the traditional and hawker food stalls are closed and not a lot of restaurants sell alcohol and if they do they have to do it discreetly. Bummer.
Not much have been going on in life afterwards.
I sold my Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace head and matching cabinet and gotten myself a Marshall YJM100 head and at the moment I'm still looking to sell my Mesa Boogie Mark IV Combo. Any takers? No new effects, no new guitars (well it's too much already), just trying to downsize (yeah right).
No new camera gear although if the newly rumoured Nikon D800 comes out with a built in GPS, I may be getting it and sell my current D700.
Haven't been taking as much photos as I wanted to after the Europe Trip so not a lot of updates on my Flickr. There's only the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle bit.
No new LEGO sets though I had my eye on a couple. Worried of where I'm going to put them once they're done.
Sold my iPhone 4 after upgrading to 4S. Apple has made my dreams come true with the keyboard shortcuts. Still waiting for that battery drain fix though (I now own a car charger since owning the 4S). No biggie.
My couple friend who went to Japan with me last year had a baby in October. Congrats to the both of you, you are now the proud parents of baby X and just like a doctor's beeper, he now controls your lives (just kidding).
Miss mis/adventure wonderland left for Tokyo in search for a better career (and lots of better food…and alcohol) and won't be back for at least six months starting mid November 2011. All the best of luck for the job and food/alcohol search and of course your mis/adventures when you're in Tokyo as well!
I've been playing badminton twice a week now. I had my right foot checked by a physio and have had to wear an ankle brace whenever I play ever since but I might have injured my left one now. Might need to get it checked out too.
Christmas trip back to Jakarta is coming up soon. I have to renew my ID hence the trip back. Will be spending four days in Bali so I'm quite looking forward to it.
I'm also planning on another trip to Morocco, Jordan and Turkey for April. Will see how that goes. A prospective travel buddy is in order and will be discussing the trip in Jakarta and hopefully we can get everything sorted out late Jan/early Feb.
I found out that if you hold an Indonesian passport, you are exempt from having to have a visa to enter Morocco and you can get visa-on-arrivals for Jordan and Turkey but I might apply for the Jordan and Turkey tourist visas ahead though since I wouldn't want to waste time queuing for them just in case the queue is long. Now, if only the Indonesian government can make some kind of agreement with more countries in the world to eliminate tourist visa requirements, that would be super (European Schengen visa, I'm talking about you specifically, gaaaah the horror).
That's about everything I guess…oh also I've finished reading Inheritance. The ending made me feel so so sad.
There, all major events since June up till now summed up.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Europe trip - Jun 2011
Europe trip was awesome bla bla bla don't feel like writing about it even after settling down and about to fly on another mini holiday.
Maybe some other time when I really feel like it.
Alright I'll do it now, might as well right?
London felt a lot like Melbourne, or should that be the other way around, whatever, but I didn't feel like I left Melbourne at all. Still curious with Pret though. Oh, when we first arrived at Goodge St station, people were queuing for the two elevators. We couldn't be bothered and took the circular stairs. Boy was that a hasty and wrong decision (but can you blame us for being tired from the fourteen hour flight and just wanted to check-in to the hotel?). The stairway was over two hundred steps. Congrats and welcome to London.
Paris, first of the three attempted theft/scams, right after we got off the Eurostar and got on the train at Gare du Nord. Responsible parties: a group of three young girls. Uncool. Relaxing on the stairs in front of the Sacre Coeur with buskers entertaining us though, was cool. Eiffel tower, so so, but when we did the Paris by night tour, that's when the madame really shone. She was colourful, the lights, the sky, the bridges, the river, the everything.
Amsterdam, in my opinion, was the best city I visited on this trip. The canals, the bikes, the bike lanes, Indonesian food, Suriname fried rice (best meal I had on the trip), the red light district, everybody spoke English, windmills, boat hotels and a real plus for not having the annoying company of thiefs or scammers. Beautiful.
Venice, I thought was ok at first, you know, the gondolas (for €100 per ride, oh c'mon), the canals, the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, St Marco, everything was right until the next day when I woke up with my body full of bug bites. I will never go back to Venice again, this I swear. PS: this oath is only valid until I feel like going to Venice again or someone would somehow pay for my trip to Venice then all is forgiven.
Florence was a nice city, I think, we didn't spend much time in Florence since we went straight to Pisa (trust me there's nothing in Pisa except if you like seeing people posing like they're trying to support the weight of the leaning tower, talk about your big time waster) after checking in then straight to Cinque Terre. Supposedly beautiful but we couldn't get to the really nice parts because they were closed. Aaah the beauty of travel. The Vespa Tour was definitely a breather. The countryside of Tuscany (we went to Chianti) was beautiful and my feet got a well-deserved rest from all the walking for the past ten days.
Rome, the second of the three attempted theft/scams, again right after we got to Termini station from Florence and got on to the train going to our rented apartment. Responsible parties: a group of three gypsy mums. Merda. Spaghetti was the size of hokkien noodles and pizzas were beautiful, thin based, just the way I like it. Coffee was molto delizioso.
Madrid. I had very little recollection of Madrid. The ones I remember were Zara, trying to buy a new electric adapter, a flamenco show, Zara aaaaaaand...Zara again.
Valencia, the last attempted scam. I was by myself and it wasn't until the scammer asked me to input my credit card pin into his phone that I realised they had scammed me. And it actually almost worked if I did input it in. The City of Arts and Science made it all go away though. I loved spending time in the Oceanographic. I felt so calm in there.
Barcelona, the last city on the trip. Gaudi, Gaudi and Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. The international airport needs a redesign though. Who on earth decided to put the stores before the immigration and not after? Who? Who? Spent the last hour and a half in the airport waiting in McDonald's because we couldn't walk around into the stores anymore. Muchas gracias flawed airport design! Mierda!
So that was it. Inspiring? Definitely, especially the Eurorail train rides, definitely the way to travel Europe if you have the time. Tiring? You betcha, after all, a lot of the time we had to carry our backpacks and we had to be alert the whole time and that by itself made the trip far less enjoyable. I didn't whip out my camera as much as I would like to and it's not Southeast Asia, this continent runs on Euros baby, and that was harsh on the bank account.
Until next time…I hope. Oh and pics are, as usual, up on my Flickr
Maybe some other time when I really feel like it.
Alright I'll do it now, might as well right?
London felt a lot like Melbourne, or should that be the other way around, whatever, but I didn't feel like I left Melbourne at all. Still curious with Pret though. Oh, when we first arrived at Goodge St station, people were queuing for the two elevators. We couldn't be bothered and took the circular stairs. Boy was that a hasty and wrong decision (but can you blame us for being tired from the fourteen hour flight and just wanted to check-in to the hotel?). The stairway was over two hundred steps. Congrats and welcome to London.
Paris, first of the three attempted theft/scams, right after we got off the Eurostar and got on the train at Gare du Nord. Responsible parties: a group of three young girls. Uncool. Relaxing on the stairs in front of the Sacre Coeur with buskers entertaining us though, was cool. Eiffel tower, so so, but when we did the Paris by night tour, that's when the madame really shone. She was colourful, the lights, the sky, the bridges, the river, the everything.
Amsterdam, in my opinion, was the best city I visited on this trip. The canals, the bikes, the bike lanes, Indonesian food, Suriname fried rice (best meal I had on the trip), the red light district, everybody spoke English, windmills, boat hotels and a real plus for not having the annoying company of thiefs or scammers. Beautiful.
Venice, I thought was ok at first, you know, the gondolas (for €100 per ride, oh c'mon), the canals, the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, St Marco, everything was right until the next day when I woke up with my body full of bug bites. I will never go back to Venice again, this I swear. PS: this oath is only valid until I feel like going to Venice again or someone would somehow pay for my trip to Venice then all is forgiven.
Florence was a nice city, I think, we didn't spend much time in Florence since we went straight to Pisa (trust me there's nothing in Pisa except if you like seeing people posing like they're trying to support the weight of the leaning tower, talk about your big time waster) after checking in then straight to Cinque Terre. Supposedly beautiful but we couldn't get to the really nice parts because they were closed. Aaah the beauty of travel. The Vespa Tour was definitely a breather. The countryside of Tuscany (we went to Chianti) was beautiful and my feet got a well-deserved rest from all the walking for the past ten days.
Rome, the second of the three attempted theft/scams, again right after we got to Termini station from Florence and got on to the train going to our rented apartment. Responsible parties: a group of three gypsy mums. Merda. Spaghetti was the size of hokkien noodles and pizzas were beautiful, thin based, just the way I like it. Coffee was molto delizioso.
Madrid. I had very little recollection of Madrid. The ones I remember were Zara, trying to buy a new electric adapter, a flamenco show, Zara aaaaaaand...Zara again.
Valencia, the last attempted scam. I was by myself and it wasn't until the scammer asked me to input my credit card pin into his phone that I realised they had scammed me. And it actually almost worked if I did input it in. The City of Arts and Science made it all go away though. I loved spending time in the Oceanographic. I felt so calm in there.
Barcelona, the last city on the trip. Gaudi, Gaudi and Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. The international airport needs a redesign though. Who on earth decided to put the stores before the immigration and not after? Who? Who? Spent the last hour and a half in the airport waiting in McDonald's because we couldn't walk around into the stores anymore. Muchas gracias flawed airport design! Mierda!
So that was it. Inspiring? Definitely, especially the Eurorail train rides, definitely the way to travel Europe if you have the time. Tiring? You betcha, after all, a lot of the time we had to carry our backpacks and we had to be alert the whole time and that by itself made the trip far less enjoyable. I didn't whip out my camera as much as I would like to and it's not Southeast Asia, this continent runs on Euros baby, and that was harsh on the bank account.
Until next time…I hope. Oh and pics are, as usual, up on my Flickr
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Europe trip preparation
Getting the visas
Notice that I needed not only one visa but two. Allow me to elaborate on this seemingly simple matter.
The itinerary is London (2), Paris (3), Amsterdam (4), Venice (1), Florence (2), Rome (3), Madrid (3) and Barcelona (2). Note that the numbers in brackets indicate the days I'll be spending there. Then I'm stopping over at KL for two nights and Singapore for three nights.
All the flights, trains and hotels were already booked by the end of Feb so all the documents I need for my visa applications are mostly ready and here is where the drama begins.
I filled in the online UK visa application, made an appointment for my biometric data to be taken and sent my application in the mail early March. I got my passport back by Monday the following week. How fast was that. Then I flicked quickly to see the visa sticker they stuck on my passport.
They had my name wrong.
Even on my visa application I already typed that my full name is on page five of my passport, they still had my name wrong.
Oh boy.
So I gave them a call (at a premium rate of $3.50 a minute mind you) and asked them what they could do about it. They told me they'd get back to me as soon as possible to fix the matter and this is where things started to get really draggy.
I had to wait three working days for them to text me saying "give us a call" so I gave them a call only to have to tell them again the problem I had which I already told them at the first place. The only response I got this time was that they were going to tell me what to do in the next couple of days. OK, so I waited a couple more days and they asked me to call them again. This time they told me to send my passport page which contained my full name and to wait for them to contact me again. So, after a couple more days they finally told me to send my passport back to them and so I did. I waited for maybe almost two weeks for my passport to come back to me and it had to be Easter by that time as well. I felt mentally tired just waiting for my passport.
So it finally arrived and I quickly checked my name on the visa sticker again.
It was correct. Cool.
So for my next visa application, which is for the Schengen zone, I had to apply for it in the embassy of which country I will be spending the most time in, so in my case it was Italy and I had to book an appointment online just to lodge my visa application (which I think is just ridiculous, but hey, to each his own right?). I didn't have any appointments set up since the earliest appointment I could get was for mid-Jun and my flight would be by the end of May. Impossible right?
So my friend told me to try and apply the Schengen visa at the Spanish Consulate General. I did try it but they said I had to apply for it at Italy's unless I change my travel plans and spend more time in Spain.
Fair enough.
So I went to the Italian Consulate General only to be disappointed as I thought they weren't really helpful at all. They asked whether I had an appointment or not, I did not. They said go and make an appointment so I explained about my flight and the appointment availability. Then they told me to send them an email or give them a call (I was already there!!! Why!!!) to which I replied that I sent an email the previous week to which nobody replied and I called as well but I couldn't get through to anyone since I only heard recorded messages and the call was disconnected after the recorded message was finished. So they told me to send them another email telling them it was urgent. By this time my patience were running really low and I told them again about my flight arrangements. Besides I was already there, why couldn't they just help me out a bit anyway only to be replied that if I had no appointments they wouldn't accept my visa application.
*swear word here*
So I left. I went back to the city and changed a bit of my travel plans in an internet cafe then submitted my visa application to the Spanish Consulate General. They accepted. I was told to give them a call in two weeks and if within those two weeks they needed more documentations from me, they would give me a call. They did not.
I have both visas now but it was just mentally really tiring for me. I think at some point I had a thought of cancelling the trip or just to go somewhere else where applying for a visa wasn't such a pain in my ass (hint: maybe back to Japan even with the radiation and all that).
So at the moment I have all my documents ready to go and I'll be flying in a week!!! My excitement had slowly started coming back.
I wish I could hold a dual citizenship, be an Aussie citizen but still retain my Indonesian citizenship as well. That would certainly make travel life a lot more easier.
Packing
Aaaaaah, the hardest part of the trip. What to pack. This will be my first time backpacking and if that wasn't a challenge enough for me, I'd still have to bring along my camera and laptop. And up to this point all I have packed is nothing. Seriously, nothing. I'd have to start packing little by little starting tomorrow and when I say little by little I mean literally small amounts of top and pants. I do not want to break my back just yet.
More updates soon.
Notice that I needed not only one visa but two. Allow me to elaborate on this seemingly simple matter.
The itinerary is London (2), Paris (3), Amsterdam (4), Venice (1), Florence (2), Rome (3), Madrid (3) and Barcelona (2). Note that the numbers in brackets indicate the days I'll be spending there. Then I'm stopping over at KL for two nights and Singapore for three nights.
All the flights, trains and hotels were already booked by the end of Feb so all the documents I need for my visa applications are mostly ready and here is where the drama begins.
I filled in the online UK visa application, made an appointment for my biometric data to be taken and sent my application in the mail early March. I got my passport back by Monday the following week. How fast was that. Then I flicked quickly to see the visa sticker they stuck on my passport.
They had my name wrong.
Even on my visa application I already typed that my full name is on page five of my passport, they still had my name wrong.
Oh boy.
So I gave them a call (at a premium rate of $3.50 a minute mind you) and asked them what they could do about it. They told me they'd get back to me as soon as possible to fix the matter and this is where things started to get really draggy.
I had to wait three working days for them to text me saying "give us a call" so I gave them a call only to have to tell them again the problem I had which I already told them at the first place. The only response I got this time was that they were going to tell me what to do in the next couple of days. OK, so I waited a couple more days and they asked me to call them again. This time they told me to send my passport page which contained my full name and to wait for them to contact me again. So, after a couple more days they finally told me to send my passport back to them and so I did. I waited for maybe almost two weeks for my passport to come back to me and it had to be Easter by that time as well. I felt mentally tired just waiting for my passport.
So it finally arrived and I quickly checked my name on the visa sticker again.
It was correct. Cool.
So for my next visa application, which is for the Schengen zone, I had to apply for it in the embassy of which country I will be spending the most time in, so in my case it was Italy and I had to book an appointment online just to lodge my visa application (which I think is just ridiculous, but hey, to each his own right?). I didn't have any appointments set up since the earliest appointment I could get was for mid-Jun and my flight would be by the end of May. Impossible right?
So my friend told me to try and apply the Schengen visa at the Spanish Consulate General. I did try it but they said I had to apply for it at Italy's unless I change my travel plans and spend more time in Spain.
Fair enough.
So I went to the Italian Consulate General only to be disappointed as I thought they weren't really helpful at all. They asked whether I had an appointment or not, I did not. They said go and make an appointment so I explained about my flight and the appointment availability. Then they told me to send them an email or give them a call (I was already there!!! Why!!!) to which I replied that I sent an email the previous week to which nobody replied and I called as well but I couldn't get through to anyone since I only heard recorded messages and the call was disconnected after the recorded message was finished. So they told me to send them another email telling them it was urgent. By this time my patience were running really low and I told them again about my flight arrangements. Besides I was already there, why couldn't they just help me out a bit anyway only to be replied that if I had no appointments they wouldn't accept my visa application.
*swear word here*
So I left. I went back to the city and changed a bit of my travel plans in an internet cafe then submitted my visa application to the Spanish Consulate General. They accepted. I was told to give them a call in two weeks and if within those two weeks they needed more documentations from me, they would give me a call. They did not.
I have both visas now but it was just mentally really tiring for me. I think at some point I had a thought of cancelling the trip or just to go somewhere else where applying for a visa wasn't such a pain in my ass (hint: maybe back to Japan even with the radiation and all that).
So at the moment I have all my documents ready to go and I'll be flying in a week!!! My excitement had slowly started coming back.
I wish I could hold a dual citizenship, be an Aussie citizen but still retain my Indonesian citizenship as well. That would certainly make travel life a lot more easier.
Packing
Aaaaaah, the hardest part of the trip. What to pack. This will be my first time backpacking and if that wasn't a challenge enough for me, I'd still have to bring along my camera and laptop. And up to this point all I have packed is nothing. Seriously, nothing. I'd have to start packing little by little starting tomorrow and when I say little by little I mean literally small amounts of top and pants. I do not want to break my back just yet.
More updates soon.
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