ke eropah kita

zachba's itinerary in bumi eropah

kuala lumpur, MALAYSIA
(oct 25, 2010 - monday)

• depart for FCO on MH 0014 STD 2345 (check in 2245> take cab from house to ERL B.T Selatan 2100> get ready 2000> final packing to be done before 1930> call cab at 1930)

roma, ITALIA
(oct 26, 2010 - tuesday)

• arrive FCO  at 0605

• board the leonardo express from fiumicino to roma termini (aim for the that departs at 0736 and arrive at Termini at 0807). Ticket Euro15

• from roma termini board metro to colosseo station

• room check in at via monte oppio 1, 00184 roma (christian tel: +39-06-4818788 +39-349-5654606)

• straightaway to colosseum. entrance fee is EUR15.50 (note that colosseum closes at 1600)

• off to piazza di spagna near via condotti, via borgognona and via frattina for the spanish steps, the longest and widest staircase in europe  (italian name = scalinata della trinità dei monti)

• contact christian after office hour and meet at piazza di spagna

    >> buy Yamasay    

    >> buy Intimissi 

    >> buy Dirk Bikkenberg 

(oct 27, 2010 - wednesday)

• off to vatican city and st peter's basilica

• visit the castel of sant'angelo, if time permits

• visit hard rock cafe (via vittorio veneto 62 a/b, rome 00187)

(oct 28, 2010 - thursday)

• depart for MUC on AZ 432 STD 0855 (check in 0755> check out from hotel 0600> get up 0500)

münchen, DEUTSCHLAND
(oct 28, 2010 - thursday)

• arrive MUC at 1035

• get citytourcard single 1 tag innenraum for the train valid for a day. (EUR9.80)

• board schnellbahn train (s-bahn S-1 blue line) from MUC to marientplatz City Centre. Distance is 16 stations away for 50 minutes.

• change to underground U-2 red line bound for messesstad ost  stop at sendlinger tor. distance 3 stations. (http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/objects/download/schnellbahnnetz_2010_english.pdf)

• check in at am sendlinger tor. (oberanger 47, altstadt-,lehel, münchen, 80331 +49 (0) 89 23 07 69 73)

• visit hard rock cafe (platzl 1, 80331 munich. U3,6, bus 52, S 1-8 marienplatz, tram 19 kammerspiele)

• go to maximilianstrasse / residenzstrasse / theatinerstrasse  for some shopping.

• free and easy in munich.

(oct 29, 2010 - friday)

• depart for TXL on LH 222 STD 1435 (check in 1335> check out from hotel 1100> get up 1000)

(oct 29, 2010 - friday)

• arrive TXL  at 1540
• get citytourcard AB 48 for the train valid for a day (EUR15.90)
• from airport board bus X9 to zoologischer garten then change to subway U2 to wittenbergplatz (station is 500m away from hotel)
• check in at motel one berlin am kadewe (an der urania 12/14, 10787 berlin tel: +49/30/23631290 )
• check out kadewe (kaufhaus des westens), the biggest department store in continental europe
• visit hard rock cafe. (kurfürstendamm 224, 10719 berlin)
• free and easy in berlin.

(oct 30 2010 - saturday)

• call michael

    >> visit brandenburg gate and berlin wall.
    >> visit checkpoint charlie, a crossing point between east and west berlin during the 
        cold war.
    >> visit straße des 17. juni - the largest flea market in berlin between ernst-reuter-
        haus and s-bahn: tiergarten.

(oct 31 2010 - sunday)

• depart for CDG on AF 1435 STD 0955 (check in 0855> check out from hotel 0700> get up 0600)

paris, FRANCE
(oct 31 2010 - sunday - nov 3, 2010 - wednesday)

• arrive CDG  at 1140
• hurrah hurray with christian 

****ok this is just my rough plans in europe. did i miss something?

walking down to the street of sydney part 2

bondi beach,sydney

aku suka pantai yang bersih. pada aku, duduk hang out di pantai sangatlah menenangkan sambil-sambil cuci mata. so, when i was at sydney for 2 weeks, aku decided to visit one of the very famous beach kat sydney, iaitu bondi beach! dan pic kat atas tu bukan lah skandal mahupun ex-boyfriend aku masa kat sana, mamat aussie tu one of the surfer yang dok busy surfing kat bondi, dan dia mmg je sangat pandai surfing ye! so, bila aku nampak dia nak naik ke pantai, aku tegur and said hi and asked him to be in the picture with me..guess what? dia replied "cool mate!" sila pronounce dalam slang aussie untuk mendapat kesan yg lebih mendalam. so, again who says aussies ni racist?

for a first timer yang nak ke bondi beach, it's very easy to get there wherby you can take public bus from any sydney town (bas mcm rapid kl tu) and make sure before naik bas. silalah beli tiket di mana2 7-eleven yang berdekatan. i think is about aud3 something one way from oxford street. jangan risau, bas tu akan stop exactly depan bondi dan u'oll boleh je berkelah di sana riang ria. bila nak balik to sydney, sila naik ikut bas yang sama. bondi beach yang femesh dengan surfers, guys yang badan 'vass' not forget to mentioned 'beach patrol' yang mmg la hensem tahap dewa ke 182..haha!! (cont.)

walking down to the street of sydney

Sydney Opera House

hello to all junkies..im back! in order to support usaha-usaha moorni cik seth kita towards travel junkies, so aku post satu entry untuk y'all. sah-sah aku kena rajin contribute idea and experiences since aku sangat2 free now kann!..haha. ye, pic kat atas tu adalah aku - taken by sham - one of buddy yang suka travel jugak. actually that was in year 2008 with another 2 of my friends yang kaki travel. 1st of al, lawa tak topi yg aku pakai tu? fyi, itu dari butik fcuk kat area opera house tu. asalnya aku beli baju je, tapi sebab girls yang jual tu very sweet, di tambah selling skill dia yang sangat2 bagus towards asian tourist macam aku sangatlahhhhhh...mengagumkan! i was given the stereotype thinking before fly to aussie whereby the aussies ni dikatakan bit racist dengan asians. well i guess not all kot, so far experience aku kat sana, everybody treat others very nicely. anyway, since aku kat high school lagi aku memang gila dengan quicksilver and mooks (recently). so traveling to sydney rasa macam pegi berjudi kat las vegas. just imagine, aku spent about almost aud500 for quicksilver and aud250 for mooks sepanjang 2 weeks in australia. tapi kawan2, bear in mind, masa aku travel year 2008, forex was damn cheap whereby aud1= rm2.20! mcm tak percaya kan? compared to now i guess about rm3 kot, to aud1. (cont.)

 *penulis blog nak zzzz..dah jam 1.25 am



tribute to the travel junkies!

salut les amis, les mots ne peuvant secrire le mieux au sujet de notre voyage a krabi recemment, donc je me suis fait un diaporama, hommage a tous les accros de voyage! profitez-en..!

*hi guys, there's nothing much that i can say for our trip to krabi. it's awesome! no words can best describe about the trip so i made myself this slide show for u guys to see. enjoy it.

aaron a. lee

KRABI - POST MORTEM (4)

day 1 (p.m)
september 25, 2010
lcct> krabi airport> the beach boutique resort

from left: juls, sha & i, obviously trying to hide the excitement.

'miracle waters'

one's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. tersemat kemas kata² si

henry miller di dalam otak aku.

ke mana pun aku pergi, aku pasti tempat itu punya sesuatu yang tersembunyi. and junkies² like us, only dream of leaving a trail to an undiscovered path. and that undiscovered path, doesn't necessarily have to do with the beach or the food or the people there. and in my case, it's the realisation on the greatness of simplicity and the contentment of sharing experiences in our unique way.

***

at 13:35, aaron, sara, sha, julie, k.lee and myself, were on board of the skybus. as we took off, we checked out the air asia's catalogue and what a terrible mistake that was. i have a real motion sickness, so that caused me to develop this nasty rut feeling in the tummy. the entire one hour journey in the plane wasn't exactly exciting as i battle not to vomit. the straight chair only adds on to my sickness. regardless, i still enjoyed the nasi ayam and gossiping with the girls. 

***

the tunnel to main krabi airport lounge.

perasaan dapat menjejakkan kaki ke tanah suci krabi tatkala itu terasa seperti mimpi. 'ini kerja tuhan' aku bilang. dalam beratus ribu yang ditahan akibat tidak membayar ptptn, aku pula dapat lepas ke sini. and i haven't paid them since 2007. tak ke miracle namanya tu?

krabi airport wasn't exactly the most impressive airport, but i couldn't care less. airport memainkan peranan paling minima dalam journey aku kali ni. syurga sedang menanti aku di belakang bangunan² hodoh dan memualkan ini.

sementera menunggu zac tiba (yakni 2 jam kemudian), aku dan julie sempat meninjau-ninjau agencies yang ada. dan kami bertemu dengan 2 wanita thai yang pada aku sangat berbudi bahasa. maaf, aku terlupa nama kedua-dua mereka, tapi yang penting, aku simpan sampul surat di mana mereka tuliskan nama dan nombor telefon. aku gam kemas di dalam journal aku. di situ, kami sempat menempah 7 tiket island hopping dan 2 nights stay di ao nang, instead of spending all 3 days at the beach boutique resort. akibat research yang minima, kami baru tahu sebenarnya the beach resort itu adalah sangat jauh dari pantai sebenar krabi.

and what we thought was the biggest mistake of this trip, turns out to be the best thing that completes our vacation. i name this, my favorite mistake.

(finally reached the beach in 'krabi-post mortem 5')

KRABI - THE POST MORTEM (3)

day 1 (a.m-p.m)
september 25, 2010
kl sentral > lcct > krabi airport > the beach boutique resort

'just let me get there'
when i think of kl sentral, i think 'lost'. hundreds of strangers wandering, just as lost as i am, trying to figure out where they are heading to next.

with only rm400 in my wallet, and only another rmxxx to last me till payday, i shivered at the idea of having to convert all of the cash to thai baht.

"would like to convert 400 ringgit to thai baht please.."

the indian man at the counter showed me the receipt. he was telling me that to get 4,000THB, i must pay RM414 instead. being somewhat a rusty traveler, my mind just failed to capture what he meant. not until he repeated  'you need to add on another rm14' for the third time that i finally got what was the big deal. feeling stupid, is an understatement. not wanting to embarrass myself any further, i quickly paid the extra and before he lifted up his head, i was already gone.

i met the rest at mcd and soon after, we head off to lcct via the transit bus. total spending to date = rm218.50 (rm206 flight ticket+rm2 lrt ticket to klsentral+rm2.50 mcd hasbrown+rm8 ticket to lcct).

it took us only about an hour to get to lcct. as we head nearer to lcct, my mind slowly decaying with horrible thoughts of me getting into the same bus again and head back to sentral, only this time, i'll be alone.

***

there were at least 3 main passport check points that we had to go through. the first was at the luggage check in. to calm my nerves, i excused myself from the flock to be with saemporna. the only thing that always ease the load.

as i approached the luggage check in counter, my head was fighting hard. one is imagining me in that stupid bus heading home alone. and the other image was the rest and i, just playing under the sun at krabi. i forced the latter image to remain.

god bless. first check, lepas!

from there, we moved on to the escalator. at the escalator, there were only 2 cops just having a glance at our boarding passes. no passport involved. i wasn't at ease yet, because i heard someone said, 'passport machine kat atas!'.

                                                     krabi at dawn.

camera by sha.photo by luna.

if i can open my skull, you'll see that my head at this point is just crashing.

so, there i was watching juls, inserting her passport into the machine. i saw green light on the lcd screen. she passed. my turn. i swear, the last time i was this terrified was when i wanted to take my spm results. it wasn't funny.

my passport inserted to the slot. wait. wait. my face appeared. my name appeared. scanned my thumbprints. wait for it. wait..and..

oh hell yeah baby, i'm through!


finally, i was certain about krabi.

(more of day 1, next monday)

KRABI - THE POST MORTEM (2)

day 1 (a.m-p.m)
september 25, 2010
lrt damai > kl sentral > lcct > krabi airport

'this is it'

if there is one thing you must know about me is that i took risks. all my life, i've always done things that most don't even think of. i'm not saying i'm better (or maybe i am), but without taking chances, i won't even come out from the house.

if you don't know it yet, i'm a full figured woman (gemuk). that alone is enough to prison myself at home. but guess what i did - i took the chance. everyday is a challenge. i take chances everytime i wear that stylish outfit or speak my mind because here (in our country especially), you'll never know how people are going to react. and trust me, i've got the worst reaction before. passing tables in restaurants and hearing people giggled behind me. those judgmental stares and revolting name calling. you name it.

risk, it works in the weirdest way. it is that point where your head and heart fighting each other to make a decision. in your head, it lists down all the pros and cons. but in your heart, it'll always choose the path that usually is against all odds. its tough. but trust me, if you brave it'll be so worth it.

nowadays, people don't call me names anymore. in fact i received more compliments than i ever had. i thanked them all sincerely. i'm humbled by these wishes said by people who understands the novelty of beauty, while others still search for beauty in all the wrong places.

my krabi trip involved a major risk. well, i won't die if i didn't go really. but i could have troubled my friends and ended up loosing them. and that's worse than dying.

but i took the risk anyway. because i'm nuts and edge is my middle name!

***

it took the three of us - juls, k.lee and i - just 10 minutes to kl sentral from damai lrt, where we met the rest of the flock of fabulous people - aaron, sara, shasha. zac wasn't there since, unlike us, he traveled via mas airlines. mas doesn't travel direct to krabi, so zac had to transit at bangkok.

(to be continued - in a different blog add!)

KRABI - THE POST MORTEM

for juls, zac, k.lee, sara, aar & sha

who surpassed every man made rules about how to live 

and stay grounded to the concept of having fun.

day 1 (a.m)

september 25, 2010
gurney heights > kl sentral > lcct > krabi airport

'how my guts knocked over the contemplative thinking'

the day before this date, i said to myself "there's no way you can go with that amount of cash in your bank account." and not to mention the whole ptptn scare of barring its debt defaulters from going abroad, should they failed to do repayment. i was scared.and even more than that, i was actually terrified by this whole trip.

i couldn't sleep that night. the idea of it all scared me so much, that i had to snooze at 10:00pm but ended waking up at the earliest dawn of 3:00am.

"fuck this shit. am not goin!". then the other worry slips into my head - how the heck should i tell this to the rest without them feeling like cursing to nose?

so i did what every man and woman like me does when they're in dipshit. lit up that wonder stick and puff it all out. 2 minutes later, i saw that light. at the end of the tunnel, ya know?

"fuck this fucking shit, am goin! it is now, or never maurice!"

you see, only a smoker would understand how smoking can do wonders.

so there i was. staying up till 8 am. took out all my clothes and lay it all on the floors and bed. and i had a good stare for like another hour. it was only at 9am that i really started packing. and juls was going to pick me up at 10:30am.

i didn't take my bath that morning.

(tomorrow's entry on day 1 'this is it!' - of passport checks and world class prentention)