the TRIP

SERIOUSLY???!!!!! is this some kind of a joke!????!!!! gosh, my astro is really killiing me. i tot i woke up early to catch the second hour of amazing race and i switched on the astro to find 'sorry service currenlty not available'. its not freaking raining, neither is it windy, why is there no signal!!! i am sooo pissed off. fine, i tot giving it till 12pm so i can watch csi cos i can still watch the replay for amazing race tonite. and indeed, i just watched csi and antm. so continuing down my tv list today, was af! the replay since i was watching af every alternate 3 seconds which spoils my mood. and GUESS WHAT!!!! services currently not available??? really....seriously....am i being sabotage???? am i the only one having this problem??? all my shows are being wat interupted...eversince astro upgrades it to measat 3. wats the point for me subsrcibing astro which is much more expenisve compared to other cable tv just to find its service unavailable? and wats the point of having a replay of a show if the replay cant be watched by a customer due to a lousy signal????


ok ok gotta calm down, now for my sis, is this post on the trip!!! and also for my frens who always wanted to know hows it like in ptk, indo. helping you out with pix to picture it since telling you mite be hard to get the idea.

on april 1, sunday, my mum and i went back to pontianak, kalimantan barat, indonesia to attend my cousins engagement party. well, she is gonna get married in september and will only hold her marriage party over at australia, so i called this party as a wedding party too. board the plane at 10.20am and reached ptk at 9.50am, of cos, indo time.

by the time we reached the hotel, it was about 10.30am. guess wat, i got to watch my amazing race there, but half way, cos the party was at 12pm. off we went to gajahmada restaurant, valentio's parents partially ownes the place, and makan time. 8 dishes = sharks fin soup, 4 fried dishes comprises with he keng (prawn), hoi cho (crab), butter prawn and squid, stew sea cucumber wth mushroom chix, steamed fish, ginseng chix, marinated duck, kerabu salad, clam with cabbage. dessert was cold longan! din manage to get the pix though, pai seh la.

after the lunch, pix taking time. after that, went back to our hotel, where after a while, my dad went to visit my uncle at the hopsital. my uncle has been admitted about a week ago, remmeber when i was left alone at home??? cos my dad went back and my mum too. so left my mum and i at the hotel, of course, i enjoyed my axn and nap a lil while.

here are some pix i took during the party. din take much though since i too wanted to be in the pix. so sis gotta wait for cousin dian to send to us next week. be patient.....

(above) on the left is my cousin, dian and her husband-to-be, fran. and on the left is my other cousin, danny and me. (below) a view of the banquet taken from upstairs. and thats my aunt after a makeover, i mean she never puts on make-up, my mum and me again! also cake cutting ceremony plus a pix perfect for the big family!

in the evening, after shower and all, bout 6pm, we all went to visit my uncle since i was back, should pay him a visit rite? lingered around at the hospital, and boy i gotta tell you, things are different there and elsewhere's hospital. about 8pm plus, my aunt came to pick us up at the hospital and had dinner. or should i say supper. we had kway teow, got char kway teow, boon kway teow which means its a lil more wet then char and kway teow soup. all with beef. of course, side dish, plates of satays which were diffferent from asia's or any other satay stalls available here. only thing asia cafe has its uniqueness is its lamb!!! hard to find here. and food wraps up the nite.

on monday, april 2nd, after breakfast, my dad went to the hospital to settle my uncles discharge papers whereas my mum and i went out early to shop for groceries....yup, supermarket was just next to our hotel, so just had to walk. then by 11am plus, my aunt and cousin came over and we went out for lunch and shopping at the ayani hypermart. believe it or not, ptk actually has a few malls and it kinda sucks for kuching not to have one yet. hopefully the spring opens quick. at nite, we went to eat at nelayan restaurant with my aunts family. lets just say that my aunt and us are much closer!!! and this time i did a few pix during dinner.

(above) lunch time, had lontong and pecel with of course, as you can see, kerupuk rakyat. my fav keroppok ever, its kerinting in shape and i just cant find it here in malaysia. the dishes are somewat a lil dif from those here in malaysia in terms of taste and presentation plus style. on the rite, its a pix of my mum, aunt, my cousin and i during dinner at nelayan restaurant.

(below) and here comes some of the food we had, steamed fish in teochew style, fried suid and soft shell crab, tumis kangkung and paku, asam pedas fish and not in the pix, padang crab and botox...hard to find these stuff here.

so on wed, april 3rd, my mum and i came back home first while my dad stays for two more days till my uncle is fully alrite. and so here are some more random pix...some blurry, movin pix were taken when i was in the car on my way to the airport.

in pontianak, there are houses, big houses like these......mostly OKB people, short form of orang kaya baru....and apparently those living in there are MAIDS!!! However......

they gotta tolerate with small roads heading to their houses like this........take a closer look

when building houses, it may look scary, unsafe, like the left pix.....but wat comes out from it, is just like the pix on the rite, Gajahmade restaurant, where the party took place. heres the thing, builing houses in indo, is easy cos you dun need all the approval of qs, op, extension letters and all. you buy a land, build a house, ten year later, add another storey or two.....you just do it with no worries!

talking about creativity, ppl there can produce stuff you never would expected.....these chairs are made from old tyres, trust me its heavy....and it sure will last long

on the roads of pontianak, there are sights of kampungs like these......still using wells for waters and rivers as source of water....

but theres also the modern world. on the left, is the mall i was saying, ayani hypermart, like midvalley that type. and on the rite, its the governors office. note that its actually huge, the area i mean, and the construction and architecture is traditional malay which i find it really interecting as not much of these can be found in malaysia. i would say most buildings of government offices like police, health and museums are structured like that.

typical sights, primary school kids walking on the road.....

people selling newspaper, magazines, even drinks and sorry to say some beggars on the roads too...you know when you stop at the traffic light....

beca....traditional transportcan still be found in pontianak, on the same roads as other motor vehicles and also ppl selling stuff at the road side.

talking about food.....hm.....everytime before we go back kuching, my mum and i would go to the nearby houses located near out hotel to buy traditional kuih-muih...

on the left, its the normal kelupun we can find in malaysia. but the cute thing is, its soooo tiny compared to those sold here. and indeed they also have the one made from potato. the gula melaka inside it is purely gula melaka and not mix with the coconut. when you bite it, the gula melaka will just squirt out filling your mouth with the sweetness

and on the rite, is otak-otak. well, i know malaysia's otak-otak is red in colour because of the spice. but for indonesian otak-otak, theres two types i just found out. one of it is traditional fish made, and boy i tell you , after eating it, your mouth just smells fishy. and on the pix, is otak-otak udang, and this is the first time i have tried it, of course the name says it, theres a whole prawn inserted in the otak-otak, so fresh it smells all prawny. sadly, does allergic cant touch it!

heres two more types of traditional kuih which i dun think can be found here. on the left is putu songkok and on the rite, selabi. Putu Songkok, is normally made of glutinous rice, pulut and covered with coconut plus died fried coconut. when eating, gula melaka is poured over and boy the taste is sweet and salty. concept is like thai;s mango glutinous rice with santan. SELABI, according to my dad is a traditional malay food??? and i dunno wat its made off and how. all i know its lovely. probably made out of tepung beras, poured over with light santan. i can tell eatting two of it can be really filling.

grocery shopping, i always buy tid-bits, i dun think i can get these tid-bits here. silver queen, my dad fav choco ang beng-beng is def MY NO.1 CHOCO. and the kunyit asam and jahe wangi, they are sweets....plus the cigarettes look a like sweet is mint. used to eat it when i was like a lil kid. and on the rite, justea is drink from malaysia. but wat i wanna point out is the choco milk!!! the size of it i mean, its sooo cute, tiny, thats why i put the justea beside it to compare the height. the frisian flag or susu bendera milk choco contains only 110ml if not mistaken and there are sooo many types of milks and tid bits back there. i would say the varities are more in indo than malaysia, as malaysia cares of the health and consumer rites on the food quality. thats why most indo food are delicious because of the taste which may be full of XXTTRAASSS, extra sugar, msg, salt!!

and this is a type of condensed milk, chocolate flavour and sure you cant find it in malaysia. choco flavoured condensed milk.....we buy a lot of this for our avocado juice. not to mention, we also buy back the avocados and make avocado juice ourselves.

that wraps up everything. bear with me for those who thinks the pix are kinda random. signing off - ping -