hendrikch.com - Hendrik Christian Blog on Daily Life

So, my flight was delayed (re-timed to put in their official terms) to 11PM. Thankfully, no further delay to the flight. Flying alone is easy, but flying with my sister with two babies, 11 bags and boxes to watch out for, totaling 66kg is another matter altogether.

However, bringing babies to flights means special VIP service. After we checked in at the counter at Changi Airport Terminal 1, we were escorted to the crew lane at the immigration counter, bypassing at least a dozen people queuing at the usual lines. We were given front-most seats, 1A, 1B, and 1C. Get any more forward, you need to sit with the pilots already :P.

One and half hour later, we arrived at Jakarta. Carrying out from the aircraft a 15-kg toddler on your right hand with backpack on your back, and your left hand carrying another 10-kg suitcase, I think I get the preview on how it feels to be a father hahaha….

At Jakarta immigration, we were again approached by the officer-in-charge and was asked to the “special” lane again. No queue again, wonderful. Wish I could have that more often.

Soon after, we all reached home for a well-deserved rest. I woke up this morning, my left arm aching, probably due to bringing heavy stuff the night before. It’s a wonderful eye-opening experience traveling with babies nonetheless

I’ll be flying back to Jakarta on Thursday for slightly over a week. My flight was supposed to take off at 9PM, but then I received an email two days ago, saying that they have changed the flight schedule to 11 PM now

With having a much better Internet connection at home now, I should be able to connect more often than a year back when I had to use 56K modem.

I’m finally back to Singapore after almost three weeks of holiday in Jakarta. It was amazing how many people you can meet in the same flight as you. Out of 45 seats of the first section in my SQ flight, I knew 8 of them, wow !!! Holiday in Jakarta was well …. like holiday, wake up later, eat, shopping, going around, and all those holiday-mood activities. Of course, those are not all. I actually spent most of my time in either my parent’s or my bro-in-law’s offices. To be the technician. “I think this computer infected by virus, can you help to clean it up?“, “Hey, I plugged in this thumbdrive to this computer, and then to that computer, and that computer got infected by virus too“, or “I can’t turn this computer on, any idea why?“, or “Can you reinstall Windows to this machine?“. You get the idea. There was this nasty virus infected all machines in my bro-in-law’s office, which antivirus were unable to even detect, let alone clean it. I believe, it’s one of those Made in Indonesia virus. I managed to clean them, of course

As I stay in Kelapa Gading area, the mall that I would visit would be Mall Kelapa Gading (MKG). Last year, they only had MKG 1, 2, and 3. This time round, the is MKG 5, skipping unlucky “4″. When I got a Singapore acquaintance who came, I brought him to MKG. I parked my car at MKG 5, then we walked from MKG 5, to 3, 2, 1, all the way to La Piazza, and back. I’m not sure the distance, but it could have been easily 3 kms of window-shopping walk. What could have been better than having Bakmi GM noodles, J.CO. donuts, and ice-kacang-like deserts after that?

The tasty Bakmi GM

 
J.CO. donuts, all very sinful …

sluuuurrrrrrppppppppp ……… 

I also went to Mall Taman Anggrek, and the new Mall Serpong. Mall Serpong was developed by the same developer who built Mall Kelapa Gading. As such, maybe it is not surprising to find similarities in those two.

The first one was taken from Mall Kelapa Gading while the latter was taken in Mall Serpong, over 50km away from Mall Kelapa Gading. Spot the differences hehe…

I was told off by the security guard that I couldn’t take a picture of this shopping mall from its front, but I can take anywhere else. Strange, what’s so special about the front-part eh?

You’ll also find The biggest stationery store in Indonesia, that’s how a store in Mall Serpong entered itself into Indonesia’s Museum of Record (aka MURI). It’s definitely spacious, but I feel the space could be better used.

The store is big enough that they have a dedicated activity centre for kids, just to keep them busy while adults go shopping.

My niece who certainly starting to get very talkative, and kay-poh, just like me … :p

The following day, early in the morning, we woke up and head to Sydney Airport on our way to Gold Coast. About three hours later of flight and taxi, we arrived in Cavill Ave at Surfers Paradise, that’s the heart of the centre of Gold Coast. Simply put, we stayed in the best possible location in Gold Coast. We checked in our luggage, and then we walked around Surfers Paradise, its beach, the shopping mall around, the entertainment there (Hard Rock Cafe was just opposite us), foods (they say their fish and chips is a must try), etc etc. As we walked around, we went into Raptis Plaza and saw this huge replica of sculpture of David by Michaelangelo. It was one of the replica around the world as mentioned by Wikipedia.

David by Michaelangelo and Hard Rock Cafe


Ambience in Surfers Paradise at night

The next morning, we woke up at 5.10 AM, and reached the beach about 5.20 AM, hoping to catch the sunrise. As it turns out, the sun has “risen” for quite a while by time we reached there. The day was spent around Surfers Paradise, as well as scouting for cheapest tickets available for the theme parks. The cheapest we found was $58 each, discounted from the original $62 had we buy directly in the theme park. Well, $4 discount times 4 people is $16, quite a substantial amount after all.

Not contented with not catching the sunrise the day before, this time, we all *kiasu* and woke up at 3.30 AM. In short, we woke up, turned off the alarm clock and continue sleeping :p We woke up around 8 AM to prepare to go to Movie World. We reached Movie World around 10.15 AM, 15 minutes “late” from the time the theme park opens, and without further ado, I headed directly to their latest thrill-ride rollercoaster, Superman Escape. When you enter the queue, you are strongly encouraged and actually asked to leave all belongings outside, every single thing in your pockets, mobile phone, camera, coins, including sunglasses, even my glasses. They call it MRT (Metropolis Rapid Transit) and during the ride, we would have experienced +4.5G and -1G. I think “G” here means gravitational unit, but not sure how it meant to real life. Fifty minutes later, I got my turn, in first seat in front !!! Exactly where I wanted to seat. The thrill lasts, well, about two minutes or so :p

Superman Escape in Movie World

After the ride, we walked up the main road, and saw this Austin’s Power performing on the road. We then entered our next adventure, Shrek 4D. It’s a story of how Shrek rescue the princess in “real” 3D as you need to wear a special glasses. You sat on a chair that will move you up down left right depending on the scene in the movie. That was nothing special. The surprise came when they added some additional tricks to spice up the movie. As the donkey sneezed towards you, you’ll feel water being sprinkled upon you. It was not illusion, it was real. As they enter a forest with lots of spiders in it, you’ll feel some “spiders” tickling over your legs. so on and so on. I’d better don’t spoil the rest

Shrek 4D Adventure, presented in Ogre-Vision and Looney Tunes Village

Next up is the Looney Tunes village, where we say Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Daffy Duck, and the rest of the gang. As we walked out the village, we saw crowd was standing around the big screen on the main street. It was the Scooby Doo gang performing their usual ghost-hunting mission. It was creative with lots of fun and great music. Immediately after that, we rushed to catch Police Academy stunt show. To me, besides Superman Escape, this was simply the best show in Movie World, with live stunts and actions, real explosions (the last one was so big and hot that you can feel the heat almost 100 metres away), superb driving skills with either all four wheels intact on the ground, or only two on the side, or even the back two was enough. I thought they only did it in movie hehe… There are some surprises along the way of the story that I shall not reveal here As part of the Police Academy stunt show, it was fitting that they recruited some cadets from the audiences. A total of four persons were picked from the audiences to be part of their show.

Policy Academy crazy, fun, explosive stunt show

The day was followed by a parade of every single characters under the Warner Bros, from Looney Tunes, Austin Power, Shrek, Batman, Scooby Doo, Flash, etc. We ended the day by visiting the Wild Wild West corner and official Matrix exhibition.

Did I miss anything else? hmmmm….

The fourth day in Gold Coast, we walked around to find a car to rent. We ended up renting a Hyundai Getz from Hertz. My mom drove to Brisbane, I drove back from Brisbane. We were heavily reliant on the road sign besides the road and highway to help us reach Brisbane. We had no map, no clue, and no one to guide. Fortunately, we reached Brisbane, safe and sound, without being chased by police haha… We managed to find the central of Brisbane which is Queens St. It took us three big rounds in and out of the city before we could find a parking spot in Adelaide St. We had lunch there.

Queens Plaza in Queens St in Brisbane in Queensland. They do love their queen so much

As we walked around George St, we saw this man painting using spray cans usually used by those kids to draw on the wall. With only spray cans, papers, and any round shapes commonly found around us, he painted (sprayed rather) wonderful spray-paintings. My dad was impressed that he bought one for $60. It’s truly an amazing work of art. We left about 3 PM from Brisbane, and we got lost. We simply couldn’t find direction back to Gold Coast, we guessed, asked around, but we were lost. Road closures around Brisbane certainly worsen the situation. Thankfully, one hour later, we found our way to the highway that leads back to Gold Coast. Since we had a bit of time left before we were to return the car by 6 PM, we stopped by Dream World and took pictures. We reached Surfers Paradise and returned the car by 5.30 PM. No time to return the car in full tank already. They charged expensive price per litre, but we can we do?

I wonder where my dad hang this painting at home

The week we went there was Indy week.Indy is a car race event that is held every year in Gold Coast. No wonder Surfers Paradise was crowded, several major roads were closed as they were used for the race track. The following morning was our last day there, and so we forced ourself to wake up at 3.30 AM to catch the sunrise. We reached the beach 3.45 AM and what we saw? Pitch black sky. Not until 4.30 AM could we see the sky gets brighter. And the sun rose about 5.06 AM. What a wait that was, but it was a worthy wait as the scenery we saw was simply amazing. That made me appreciate God’s creation more. Again, we spent our day in Surfers Paradise, catching the crowd who were going to Indy race. Some words drawn up in the sky was great. The pilot was so accurate in drawing out those letters.

We headed to Gold Coast Coolangatta airport in the evening to head back to Melbourne.

One thing that we have noticed by now is how expensive the food and taxi here are. At minimum, we could only find $7 at its cheapest, $5 for a piece of bread and ham, $3 for mineral water, about $50 of taxi fare on average, and I can continue, but you get the idea. This reminded me of one conversation with my brother few years back about his apartment rental.

Me: How much is your rental there?
Bro: About $150.
Me: *thinking* “$180 times 1.2 is about $200.“ That’s quite a good price eh?
Bro: That’s per week.
Me: *gasp*

Back to Sydney, we stayed in one of my far-uncle’s house. Had lunch in Indonesian-area, then to Westfield shopping mall. There I knew about David Jones, Coles, and many other big department stores and supermarkets. And yes, things there are expensive. To get an idea, it’s about twice the price in Singapore I felt. At night, we went to Chinatown area in George St, before headed to Sydney Opera House, arguably the icon of Sydney.

Me in front of Sydney Opera House

Sydney night skyline


Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge at night from distance

Saturday morning, we went to the largest temple in Australia, built by some monk who also built the largest temple in North America (near Los Angeles) and largest temple in Africa (somewhere in South Africa) respectively. It was about 1.5 hours drive to Wollongong city from Sydney.

Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Australia

Me with two little “monks”

And I ended my day in front of TV watching Man Utd won 3-1 against Wigan. Entertaining match it was.

Watching with such a big TV is really a luxury

Next, we went to Market City, near George St, and Paddy’s Market below it. See it this way, Market City is a shopping mall, and Paddy’s Market, located just below it (more like carpark area), is like a warehouse that sell similar if not the same items as what Market City shops have at 50% or less price, of course minus of all the luxury of air-con environment, cleanliness, etc. I met Andre (who moved from Avanade Singapore to Avanade Sydney) there after his Sunday service. Not contented with night photos of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, we took bus to Circular Quay, then walked to Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and yes, we took lots and lots of photos there. Every single angle of Opera House, hahaha… joking.

In front of Paddy’s Market

Posing in front of Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge

Monday, we took cab to Cockle Bay besides Darling Harbour. We walked pass the recently-opened Sydney Wildlife World (only opened for two weeks by the time we were there according to the cab driver) and Sydney Aquarium. We had lunch there (their fish and chips was good. Their tartare sauce even better) then we took one-hour cruise ride from Matilda cruise which took us around from Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, Shark Island, Watson’s Bay, and Taronga Zoo, and back to Darling Harbour. It costed $29 each person, allowed you to took that one-hour cruise, with the option of alighting at every stop, and embarked on the next cruise that came along. It’s a bargain, highly recommended.

Everyone in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge


Sydney Opera House *again*

They said Fish and Chips is a must try. After this lunch, I say, die die must try

Sydney Aquarium and Grandma’s 74th birthday cake

From there, we headed back to Paddy’s Market again to find that it was closed. Apparently, Paddy’s Market is only open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Public Holidays. Unfortunately, that day was Monday. We ended up in Market City eventually. That day happened to be my grandma’s 74th birthday. Since not every year we get to celebrate her birthday in Sydney, haha… so we decided to get her a cake and surprise her

More Sydney photos in my Flickr.

I headed to Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday evening, 10th October 2006. I rushed back after work, had quick bath, then rushed to Changi Airport. I was in 9pm flight Singapore time, and reached Melbourne 6am local time (which is 4 am Singapore time). This round of trip, I went with my parents plus my grandma. We went from Melbourne Tullamarine Airport and reached my brother’s apartment 40+ minutes away. It could have been faster had the cab driver knew that Queens Rd and Queens St are in two different parts of the city altogether. We spent our morning there resting and sleeping. After all, we could hardly get a sleep on the plane. The stewardess were very nice in giving us meal after meal during those short seven hours flight, thus depriving us of our most precious sleeping time. Once, I asked for alcoholic drink, and the steward’s reply was “How old are you?” *sigh*

Beautiful sunrise seen from the plane

After that, we headed to our rented apartment, put our luggages, then went for lunch. We then walked around Bourke St (which is supposed to be the centre of Melbourne city centres), spend the day there and back to our apartment after dinner. In the evening, we went to Crown Casino, an entertainment centre cum casino. When I walked confidently into the casino, I was *again* stopped at the entrance to the casino by the security guard, who said “Your ID please?” I know I know, I do look young :p

Before entering Crown Casino

After casino, we went out to see fire show. There are about ten “chimneys” near Crown casino that will “light up” at every hour from 8 PM onwards. Each chimney will light up one by one from one end to the other, followed by two at one go, then three at one go. Finally, all chimneys will light up together, creating a spectacular view.

They call it pigeon roaster because during the day, pigeons like to rest there. hehe…

 
 
 
 

Night views near Crown Casino in Melbourne

The next day, we went around Bourke St again, went into Myer department store, and shopped around. When we went down into its underground, my Samsung D520 lost its signal. “Fine, it’s underground“, I thought. One hour later, we went out and back to our apartment, but my Samsung phone never regained its consciousness of signal, kept showing “Searching …”, “Limited Service” all the time, no matter how many times I turned it off and back on, or any SIM card I swapped into it. This is the second case of Samsung phone that lost its signal-awareness this year that I knew, and because of this, Samsung will go down into my blacklisted brand of phone. YMMV though. That’s Your Mileage May Vary if you don’t know that. In the evening, we went to my brother’s graduation ceremony at Monash University - Clayton campus.

Having gelato in Swanston St. *nyum*

Friday the 13th, we took cab to Hotel Bakpak, from where we took Airport Shuttle at $18 each to Melbourne - Avalon airport. It would have cost at least $100 had we took taxi from our place. It’s that far. An hour or so of flight later, we reached Sydney, yaaayyyy…..

I was finally back from Australia last night! Hope everyone’s are okay here As usual, still sorting out through all photos and videos taken. This time round, the empty 40 GB hard drive I brought there came back full :p