I sprained my ankle

Went gym a day after I got back from China and fell down when walking down the stairs after gym.

Initially, i thought it was okay and went to play some pool. The next morning, it was hurting so much and swollen.

Went to a chinese physician and had my ankle all bandaged up.

My Second China Trip

My Second China Trip with the company. As the meeting is starting on Monday, I flew to Shanghai on Sunday morning.

The immigration was terrible.I waited for more than an hour just to clear the immigration and it took another hour to get to the hotel from the airport. After checking in and resting for a while, I headed out to this Teppanyaki restaurant next to the hotel. It costs RMB150 per pax and the food is free flow. It was really good and I love the beef teppanyaki.

After that, I brought my vendor who came from Singapore with me and who was in China for the first time to the Bund and Nanjing Road.

Met up with two other Netherlands guys from my vendor company on Monday and brought them to Xin Tian Di and had dinner at the Din Tai Fung. The dinner was not cheap. It costs like RMB620 for the 4 of us.

The next morning we started early as we need to go to the Suzhou Plant and it was a 2 hours drive from Shanghai. When we reached there, we start off the meeting with a tour of the factory and understanding how the production works etc.

The site manager took us for lunch at Yang Yang Jiao Zi Guan and the lunch was nice. We tried this fish that was only found in the River Hwang. For dinner, I brought them to Guan Jian Jie and had dinner in this "Pink-lighted" restaurant. The food was pretty good and it was really cheap. It was only 170RMB for the 4 of us. Next, we proceed to Haagen Dazs for ice-cream and then had some coffee before ending the day with a glass of mai tai for me at the hotel lounge.

The next morning I went and bought 2 boxes of Moon cakes from the Hotel and it has the normal white lotus flavour as well as the XO flavour mooncake. After that the company driver took me from the hotel to the Shanghai airport where I departed to go back Singapore.

Beautiful Bali

After talking so much about Bali then came the bombings and bird flu and tsunami, we finally decided to go ahead with the trip.

We will be spending 4 nights in Bali - 2 nights in Ubud and 2 nights in Kuta.

Tried to get the SQ tickets but after being on the waiting list for such a long time, we decided to go with Garuda. It was a bad choice. We need to transit in Jakarta airport and the flight was delayed for 2 hours. There was absolutely nothing in the Jakarta airport. Just sit around and do nothing.

The flight was scheduled to reach Denpasar at 2.20pm but we touched down only at 4.30pm. It was an hour's drive to the Ubud resort. We will be staying at the Tegal Sari Accomodation. http://www.tegalsari-ubud.com/

Wanted to book the Duplex but it was taken so we took the next best one which is the super deluxe room. Was pleasantly surprised at the hospitality of the staff. Our room is situated right at the end of the whole place. The room was clean and neat,much to my surprised. That's our unit, first one from the left.

Look at the people working on the padi fields just right in front of our accomodation. Cool,isn't it?









Take a look at the pictures. There's even a sitting area, isn't it spacious?









We went to this famous diner called Dirty Duck Diner. The place is nice. There are a lot of pavilions surrounded by little ponds and stone sculptures. Tried their famous crispy duck. It was nice but the portion was a little small. I tried their rice wine drink with barley but it tasted horrible. I ordered another coke instead. The picture shows the surroundings of the diner.









The meal was not cheap. Costs about the same back home. Took a leisure walk back to the Hotel after the dinner. Started the next day with breakfast at the hotel. Philip took the Mie Goreng while I took the pancakes. It was not bad especially the Mie Goreng. We scheduled a spa session for today at the Ubud Sari Health Resort. http://www.ubudsari.com/index.html

We took a package that comprises of Traditional Bali Massage, Candlenut body scrub, Flower Bath, Steam Bath, Jacuzzi and finally Bali Facial. It costed us US$33 each. Was that cheap or what? The environment was nice. It was set in nature surroundings. The ginger tea served by the resort was very nice too considering the fact that ginger was never my favourite.

After the spa and feeling rejuvenated, we decided to walk back to the hotel while enjoying the various sights and shopping along the way. Outside the spa, a stone carving of monkeys was in progress. Look at the picture. Pretty amazing,isn't it?

Ubud is famous for its arts and cultural activities. We walked into Ubud Market and you can find stone carvings and various oil paintings etc. We bought 3 oil paintings in total and continued on our way to the Ubud Palace. There's basically nothing much in the palace but interestingly, there are people living there. Besides the palace, there is this stall that sides suckling pig or Babi Guling. It's supposed to be a famous stall but as we saw the queue quite long and I wasn't sure if I could take roadside stall. We decided to give it a miss which we realised later that it was clean and good. Well, an excuse to go back Bali again. Hahaha.

We stopped by at one restaurant for lunch and I had Nasi Goreng while Hubby had Nasi Campur. I loved the Nasi Goreng in Bali. Really tasted good. In the evening, we went to the Bali Kacak Dance. I realised that I have actually seen it before in Singapore WOMAD. Some pictures of the Kacak Dance.

3rd day in Ubud and it's time for us to say farewell to Ubud and contiune our journey to Kuta. The journey from Ubud to Kuta takes another hour as well as Kuta is pretty near the airport. The hotel we stayed in Kuta is called Ramayana Resort and Spa. http://www.ramayanahotel.com/

The hotel looks nice from the exterior and even on the way to the room. But the room sucked. Pardon my language. It was run down and old and falling apart. Never will I stay there ever again.

Ventured outside after checking in for lunch. Had lunch at this asian restaurant. No nasi goreng but it's ok. Hahaha. Walked along the street and went into this huge shopping center. Nothing interesting. Just another shopping center kind.

In the evening, we went to HRC for dinner. The portion for the food was huge and we can't finish it. Bought some stuff from the store and walked back to the hotel.

We went for another spa session again. This time the place is called Secret Garden. http://www.secretgarden-bali.com/. This time round we had java lulur scrub, followed by a massage, Flower Bath, Facial, Mani and Pedi and ending with a hair cut. All these for about 620,000Rp for both.

After the spa, we walked to the beach. The beach is not crowded at all.

We had lunch at McDonald's which is pretty standard and normal.

For dinner, we went to another famous restaurant called Made Warung which is opend by a Balinese and her dutch husband. Guess what I had? Nasi Goreng. There's a long queue and we had to wait for some time before getting a seat. After dinner, we walked back and stopped for Haagen Dazs ice-cream. It's expensive. We bought some chips and Bintang beer from a convenience store outside the hotel.

The next morning after breakfast, we checked out around lunch time and did some last minute shopping for sourvenirs. We took the hotel's transport to the airport and as we need to do a transit at Jakarta, the driver took us to the domestic airport. The counter personnel told us we need to go to the international airport and we had to walk to the international airport. Thank God, it's not that far.

So it's goodbye Bali. The airport in Bali had so many stores,unlike the one in Jakarta which is pathetic. It was a relaxing and interesting trip. Will definitely go back again....for my Nasi Goreng and the Babi Guling that I missed. I must also remember to buy back some pre-packed Nasi Goreng mix as well. Hahaha.