Bandung aftermath

Last day in Bandung... Had breakfast at the hotel, some of the girls bought last minute souvenirs from the sellers in front of our hotel...

We stopped at Amanda Bakery to buy Brownies Kukus Amanda before heading off to the airport. Sooo many choices to pick from, me and sis decided to go for Original Brownies, Blueberry and Marble .


Our stuff? I tell you... has grown and beranak-pinak... From one bag to many-many bags.... But it was worth it :)

Goodbye bandung...
Goodbye pasar baru...
Goodbye Factory Outlets....
**Goodbye money (too)!

Until next time :)

Shopaholic in Bandung day 3

Third day... Our day trip to Ciwidey! Okay, at first I pronounced it "Cidiwey" and another supir corrected me. Hehehe.. They sounded alike, don't they???

We were supposed to start our journey at 8.30 am, my aunt at first even insisted Pak Tedy to come at 7.30 (like we could wake up that early!), but since 7ish is macet time, we followed his advice to start our journey at 8.30am.

BUT... read the title above! It's shopaholic in bandung. So it implies that the day didn't start without some shopping. The girls sempat borong souvenirs stuff like t-shirts, keychains, bags in front of the hotel! Hehehe, we're all girls, and without guys who can stop us? Heheheh...

Start our journey around 9am from city of bandung heading south to the town of Ciwidey... Yeay, white crater (Kawah Putih) here we come! We had to go through some kg road, like below to get there... It was an opportunity to see the other side of Bandung rather than the ol' shops.

We even passed few horse carriages along the way... Didn't get the chance to ride them tho...

Stadion Jalak Harupat (below)

Passed by beautiful view of paddy field... They're really utilizing their lands!

Finally after 2 hours plus in the car, we got to the entrance of the famous White Crater. The Wisata Kawah Putih.

When we got out of our car, it was coooold, and I forgot to bring my jacket even! I think it must've been around 15 degrees over there. They have stalls selling belerang (eh, what's that in english?), hats, scarfs and jackets. It was misty and the environment looks very serene...

We had to walk about 100 meters down to see this beautiful view... Don't you think it's kinda mystique?

View from the stairs

Jagung Bakar

Around 1 pm, we went off to our next destionation, strawberry farm. The strawberries are red ripe and big too. Also, they are very very cheap! You can get 1 kg of strawberries for the price of RP35,000 which is equivalent to RM12. Ain't that cheap???

Our picking for the day

Me and my sis with our empty basket

Lots of strawberry plants

Plantation view. Beautiful...

After paying for our strawberries, we headed to the city specifically Ciba Duyut for some 'tas dan sepatu' equals to 'more handbags & shoes'! We also took the time to buy some kerepek locally made, and good thing was I can try the kerepek before buying them... They sell the famous pisang salai, kerepek tempe, dodol, and also oncom which is made from ground nuts (kacang tanah) mixed with other stuff. If you're here, don't forget to try my favorite the popiah goreng. It's small popiah wraps with dried prawn fillings (they taste a bit sweet- and yummy)... No, we didn't go buy any tas nor sepatu (surprising!!!). The choices were quite limited, plus we were surrounded by locals trying to sell us MORE souvenirs. Even some tried to get us buying a Sumpit and a small Gendang (sorry didn't know the exact name). Hmmmm... And why would I need that???

Went to get "forgotten items" at pasar baru again but only for an hour (or was it two?)! Actually me and sis getting some gifts for future kenduri bergunting of a niece. This time, my millions of rupiah had finished- all magically disappeared in exchange for a FULL bag.

Dinner at Restorant Ayam Goreng Suharti. Very exclusive place yet with reasonable price.... This time Pak Tedy joined me and the girls for dinner unlike previous meals (I wonder doesn't he feel hungry from all that waiting while us shopping?)
One favorite dish of the night. It was actually ayam kampung goreng. BUT... it was steamed for FOUR hours first to make its meat tender... After that, it was fried with flour+egg. I just realized that ayam kampung doesn't have that "chicken smell" after being told by Pak Tedy. Ehemm, Pak Tedy shared his recipe of ayam goreng complete with the instructions ;) One fine day when I'm rajin enough, maybe I can cook this sundanese dish...

Shopping finale. Last night in Bandung :)

Shopaholic in Bandung day 2

Second day... I woke up the 'late-st' among all the girls in the room. I was on vacation, of course I wanted to sleep in as long as possible. We went down for breakfast at the hotel lobby. Ehemmm... But the hotel is only two floors, so basically we went downstairs to have breakfast. The breakfast wasn't anything fancy, it was just simple nasi kuning+egg, mee hoon, and bread accompanied with super-strong indonesian coffee and (chrysanthemum scented) tea.

While waiting for our supir, we were ambushed by all the sellers trying to get us buying souvenirs ranged from keychains, t-shirts, bags, pens and other stuff. If you DON'T want to buy from them, DO NOT TOUCH any of the items. They will follow you everywhere until you buy from them.

Second day itinerary was supposed to go to Ciwidey where the kawah putih is located. But.... there was an election held that day, so we might encounter the famous indonesian 'macet'/jammed on the way. So, we figured we might as well postpone Ciwidey plan to 3rd day.

So the plan was to go back to pasar baru to get whatever we "forgot" last time...

Inside pasar baru

Blouses - I got mom's blouse here

Lunch at Pak Chi Met - Ikan Bakar Gurame set with rice

Kebaya Sulam... pretty sulam, i bought the purple-type only brown-ish color.

After lunch, we decided to 'recharge' at the hotel, bringing back again pleeeeeenty of shopping bags. It's more than the first day!

(below) Half day of shopping.. hmmm.. shopaholic? guilty as charged =D

We asked the nice supir to come and pick us up 2 hours after he dropped us off. We ended up taking nap and waking up at 4.30-ish. Then 5 o'clock went straight to jalan alun-alun where the king's mall is located. Our supir warned us to be careful with our belonging as there might be 'pencopet'/pickpocket along there. After that I was holding on to my millions of rupiah in my bag!

Some of the shops were closing when we got there, but still... we got to grab few stuff, some cottons,chiffons, pants, tops and flower girl dresses while we were there... Gesek(swipe)... gesek all we can... hehehehe...

We promised each other we'd meet at the front of the mall around 8pm before heading to dinner. When we wanted to drop off our shopping bags in the car, we saw Pak Tedy was checking out clothes in front of an FO. I didn't even get to see name of the FO. Apparently he was checking out the kids clothes. We took the chance to buy some also. Since I was still holding my shopping bags at that time, browsing was not easy, but Pak Tedy nicely offered to take the bags to the car. Heheh, how nice of him. Only then, browsing/shopping became easy...

After a tiring day of shopping, we were brought to Restoran Simpang Raya to have a feast of the famous indonesian nasi padang. We were served many dishes of nasi padang: meat, fish, begedil, veges, chicken and some I can't remember. It was already 8.30ish when we had dinner, I think we were feeling full from all of our shopping. So, some of the dishes were not even touched, but personally for me, i prefer the sundanese meal rather than nasi padang (is this jawa?). Few dishes were prepared with coconut milk (santan) which made it too heavy. The price for second day dinner was quite reasonable, if I can remember correctly it was about RP160k ~rm56 (including juices) for 6 persons :)

Nasi padang for dinner @ Restoran Simpang Raya

After dinner, went back to the h0tel. Before sleeping, compare barang-barang (in case if anything left off somewhere..heheheh).. then went off to bed because we had Ciwidey waiting the next day :)

Shopaholic in Bandung Day 1

Woke up crankily at 6 am in the morning because we need to check in for our early flight to bandung at 7am. 6am in peninsular time is super-early ok, it's like 5am in kk, it was still dark when we left the house. But I was surprised when I saw plenty of cars already on the road at 6.30 in the morning! Talk about traffic jam.

Flight to bandung takes about 2 hours, and the time difference is an hour. We got there around 10.00am local time which was 11am Malaysian time. My neck was already felt a-bit-strained after sitting on the-very-straight-not-posturepedic-seats of AA. After getting our (almost empty) luggage, I went out and saw a man holding a paper with my name on it. Luckily I wasn't called 'Ibu Rozaidah'. Hahahaha... We were brought to our hotel which is a renovated guest house named Petradissa Hotel. The hotel actually looks like a guest house rather than a hotel, it's quite small, but the inside is pretty nice and the room is quite clean too and not forgetting price is reasonable.

Our supir(driver) is Pak Tedy, a gentle man who's driving an Avanza, just nice to fit the 6 of us. We were informed that our hotel was still not ready then, but we decided to just leave our luggage at the lobby and head straight to the famous Bandung pasar baru.

Pasar Baru

The pasar baru is a 8 floors pasar (6 'lantai'/floors and 'dasar 1'/basement 1 and 'dasar 2'/basement 2) full with everything-you-need-inside. From telekong, women blouse to kiddie clothes to kain kebaya sulam, kain lace, kad kawin. I even got the time to peek at the folders of kad kawin, pretty-pretty designs... Ehemmmm... brides of 2009, please take note.

Pretty laces ehemmm especially for future brides ;)

We spent mostly on first and second floor women blouses/textile shop, even checking out the pretty laces, which I even persuaded to get a pink lace for 2 metres. Now where am I gonna wear my pink lace? Too over for raya? But the collections of lace memang soooooo pretty, I think if I'm a bride, I would want to have 10 pasangs of baju sanding after seeing all those lace. Not that I know the exact-price, but after having experience accompanying mom to maya textile in kl, I must say that the lace are sold cheaper too.

overly sulam telekung

Some of the women blouses also sold in pasar baru too, BUT they're not all the boring mommy style. Some are pretty fashionable for young people and good thing about it is you can bargain the price down. Although, I must say that Indonesian women are quite small in size, if you're wearing malaysian medium-size, you might found out that you fit into their large/x-large size. So, now resolution must be, have to be skinny to fit into small-indonesian size.

tudung shop in pasar baru

Oooh, and another thing, don't worry about having to climb 8 floors of shops. They have escalators and elevator here. But note of advice, please take the elevator if you want to go straight to lantai 6 where the foodcourt was. In our experience, we took the escalator to go to 6th floor, and we stopped for at least half an hour every floor just to check out the shops that we saw! Also, good news for smokers/bapa-bapa who are waiting for their wives but not-so-good-news for me and others, you can smoke in pasar baru. Imagine in a crowded arcade shops full with people, then got people smoking while you imagining your wedding dress in your head, added with weird-smell-of-air-freshener . Hmmm... Not a good combination. But maybe you'll forget about all those while shopping eh?

Handbag shop in pasar baru

Finally stopped for lunch and we were already too hungry from all the shopping cardio. We went to a recommended stall, Pak Chi Met which is famous for its ikan bakar. I like the ikan bakar, it's a bit sweet and crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. I think it's called ikan gurame? But this is just for me, since sis didn't think the fish suitable for her throat.

RP60,000 for lunch: ikan bakar, ayam goreng, sotong bakar, and udang bakar for 4 persons approximately rm21

After lunch, we went back to our shopping in pasar baru until it closed at 5-ish....

Our avanza was already full with our stuff at the back. Imagine 6 girls shopping in 8 floors of pasar baru. Crazy i tell you... Even after spending about 5 hours in pasar baru, we still feel we didn't get all the stuff we wanted. That was why we intended to go again the second day:) - "banyak barang tertinggal" was our excuse ... hehehehe

***Sorry I didn't take a lot of pictures in pasar baru, too lazy to take out my super-bulky d70 from my backpack. And for FOs, cannot take pictures inside :

Happening Factory Outlet

After getting out from pasar baru, our supir brought us to another place which bandung is famous for, its Factory Outlets. We went to Happening, Summit and Terminal Tas. They have all the branded items at discounted price. But the kiddies clothes, sooooo cute and cheap.... Lana, you gotta go to happening & summit, they have cute tops for little seth! I didn't get many things in the FOs since they already turned off the aircond (maybe because they were closing?). It was hot and stuffy, so I just got cute little tops for little kiddies.

Factory Outlet, nice huh?

Initially our supir wanted to take us to a restaurant, but when we got there it was already closing. All of us decided to go western and went for mcDonalds . We were walkingshopping the whole day, we deserve some big Macs!

Went back to hotel at 10 (11 malaysia), I was already sleepy/headach-y/nauseated by then... But do check out our shopping, it took away my nauseousness.. hahahah...

first day of shopping! Crazy kan? it's like we were deprived from shopping for a year!

kl day 1 & day 2

KL Day 1 (Saturday)
Aesya kindly picked me up at the airport and we went back to her abode, and met with her cute little pumpkin pie, Alesya. She's grown so much since the last time I met her. Afternoon, stayed at home and later at night, went out to buy some food at pasar malam and dinner.

KL Day 2 (Sunday)
In the morning, I was busy checking out Aesya's latest gadget, her Nikon D40. Ayyyy, envy me... I also took the time testing out her 18-55 mm lens. We gotta get new lenses for our toys! Around 11am, went to check out the gardens Mid Valley which looks cool with its wood panel and sofa in the middle. Hmmm, but how come there are more people walking outside than total people inside the stores. Ehemmmm, shops in the gardens are more to high-end brands.

Later in the afternoon, she dropped me off at Universiti Station, then I took the lrt to Kelana Jaya station to meet mel :) No going out in the afternoon, it's about time for some girl talk ;)

Evening, met my sister and aunt who just got to kl, then stayed at my aunt place for the night because we had super-early flight the next day...

Home sweet home...

I'm home!!! With bags full with stuff and a big hole in my pocket... lana, hellotz, & little haiqal , you're gonna love bandung! Shopping galore!!!

Will update about my trip soon.. Need to catch up on google reader, tv shows(finally coming back after writer's strike) and unpacking/trying out clothes session not forgetting sleep deficit ;)

Until then... enjoy your sunday :)

dont ....

Hey y'all..

I'll be away for a week for a shopaholic extra-curricular.. Yeay! So until then, no updates....

Don't miss me while i'm gone ;)

you know you love me ;)

yummy soap

I've got few pictures in my camera that I haven't transfer to my pc. Too lazy eh...

But I've got this in my mailbox.



Alaaaa...the soaps look yummy-lah..! And I found out they have cappuccino & vanilla flavor too! Hmmm, can soap's fragrance be called flavor?

Here's description from the website:

Cappuccino & Vanilla Soap

"This 4 oz cappuccino bar will give you a morning boost, and help you start your day off feeling energized. The bottom layer is coffee scented and full of ground espresso beans and brown sugar to help scrub away your dry flaky skin without the oily residue. It will leave your skin feeling fresh and clean. The top "frothy" layer has a subtle vanilla scent and a rich creamy lather. This bar is perfect on a busy morning when you don't have a lot of time but still want the super soft feel you get from exfoliating."

birthday wish

Happy Birthday sis!
May you blessed with wonderful things in life!

**cake is blueberry cake from uncle biscuit in damai

laziness strike

I've become so lazy to write nowadays. Even my sp*nsored posts rating has gone down. Haih, how to get more money like this? Hmmm, I guess I just have to be patient and more creative in the future.

Right now, I am excited for my shopping trip to Bandung which is less than a week! Will singgah KL and meet friends before flying off to Bdg. Two more days for this week, and then I'll be off from work for a week, hence the super-laziness..

Until then, I have to sort-out my life-in-transition. Hopefully all goes well..

(not) all american breakfast

I bought ingredients for pancake weeks ago from Merdeka Supermarket, yet too lazy to do it. Merdeka Supermarket is another supermarket that sells a lot of imported products (especially food) other than Tong Hing. I found out they also sell my-back-then coffee, Folgers!

This pancake is soooo easy to make, basically just mix the mix with water and cook it on a non-stick pan. (I didn't do this, mom did)

Pour maple syrup on your just-cooked-pancake

voila.... breakfast is ready

and have this with a cuppa of coffee...

World revolves around who?

Remember my post on selfish people? Here's another cathartic post on the same subject...

I know sometimes people can get kecik hati, frustrated or even angry when I don't pick up their calls or reply their sms immediately. Technology doesn't mean you're supposed to stick to your handphone/laptop 24x7. I wonder if handphone is supposed to be for my convenience or other people convenience. Because of handphone, work can call you and disturb your long-awaited-supposedly-relaxing vacation. Because of your handphone, people can call you and ask you to go somewhere and pick up stuff on your way home (or office). Because of handphone also hmmmm people can treat you like a walking atm bank. Another example, it's a good thing that with online banking you can pay your bills online, transfer money if you need to, and check your statements (and reconcile with quicken!). But also inconvenience if people treat you like a walking atm.

Example of selfish people...
"Bank in money NOW!"
"Pick me up NOW!"
"Do this ammendment NOW!"
"Buy this NOW"
"Pay this NOW"
"Reply email NOW"

Sigh... I wonder lah what's wrong with these people. They have this mindset thinking that the world revolves around them...

Steal (not splurges ok...)

I iz having writers' block... But I have to write more to gain more popularity and get more advert offer! Note to all, all payperp*st will be tagged as "general". How do I get more advert offer? Josie said, I have to be patient, but mmmm being a taurus, we just can't wait! It's all about instant gratification. Eheheheh...

I know I shouldn't have shopped at all this month since I need to have budget for my upcoming trip. But women and shopping mmmm can they be separated? Erkkk..

So here are some my latest steal...

A single cream/offwhite padded pillowcase from whimsy fabric. This might be better suited if I've got a white bed white with white chest drawer in my room. Remind to self, I've got to paint my room red this year! This is a waaaay long overdue project of mine.Finally my comfy sandal search is over when I got this. This would be perfect as my beach sandal/travel sandal and lazy sandal. It's super-comfy and yet stylish at the same time.


I have obsession over red things nowadays... After I've got my red patent bag last year, I'm looking to add red into my collection. So, I got a red Envirosax bag as my groceries aka shopping bag. It can be rolled to a small roll, and just toss it in my handbag. Mmmm, I don't know if I want to bring this to pasar, and put all the sayur inside tho... Too sayang, eheheh...
Finally... went cloth diaper shopping in various colors and fabric for little nieces (supporting the go-green and frugal project)

cutelittlenieces (ignore the blue-eye-makeup)

***********

Work-talk:-
Would you rather do many-many simple tasks in the office such as copying from one-cell to another cell and putting decimals on hundreds of files which could take days or ONE challenging project? Maybe people never get enough, too-much-work complain busy then when too-little-work also complain boring. Then how? Article from the star, "When good people leave" states that clever executives want challenges which could drive them to excellence because a little flaw that they have is they get bored easily. So it depends on how bosses get the best out of their employees. When you expect your staff to do the same thing year after year with "no escape clause", they will leave no matter what you pay. Market will bear the cost of excellent...

Dream-talk:-
Whenever I think or worry too much about something, somehow that dilemma chased me in my sleep. Surprisingly I get free-therapy in my dream while americans are paying hundreds for an hour talk-therapy. Well not that I remembered my dream much...

Daily-Planner-talk:-
I've become sooo lazy to go out nowadays, I just want to stay at home and curl in bed. Sometimes I have to schedule (see how un-fun this seems) drinks/outings/exercise in my daily planner. I'd rather stay at parent's home during weekends brushing up my domestic sleeping skills. During graduation dinner, they had a guessing game where the juniors would give a description of a senior and everybody had to guess. And guess what my description was? Person A:"Hey, are you free this weekend?" Guess-Who(me): "I'm not sure, I have to check my planner first". Obsessive? Not at that stage yet. Eheheh... Reminder: yoga class is in today's daily planner

Ceh... Writer's block konon, didn't realize this post could be this long :D

Diaper cake iz here

Finally, after weeks of gathering baby items, my diaper cake is finally ready!

Yea, I know... I know... It's doesn't exactly look like the ones I've posted before. If there's no financial strain, I already put expensive baby bottles, lamaze toys and elmo's beanie. But I just work on what I have, and voila.....

Before

After (1)

After (2)

Business Venture

After few online cloth diapers shopping for my little nieces, I’m seriously thinking about online business idea. Right now, I’m looking around for shopping cart software solution. Most probably I won’t be making my own products because I don’t quite have the skills. I can’t bake cute little cupcakes nor sew beautiful dresses. But I love to shop especially online! I remember back in college, sometimes it felt like a competition to see who got packages the most every day. Every week, there must be packages from gap, forever 21, and other online shops! Knowing how addictive online shopping can be, maybe venturing into online business is not a bad idea after all.

So, most probably the best strategy is to find marketable items, buy them with dealer’s/discount price, and sell them online! With so many ecommerce software to choose from, who knows what to pick? I probably will ask more experienced online businessmen/businesswomen for their opinion.

are you a safe driver?

BBrother got into an accident today, no injuries thankfully! He was driving on the main road heading to our house, then all the sudden this lorry came out of a junction very fast and ended up squashing right front of the wira. Luckily it was the right front that got smashed, not the driver's section. Then the lorry driver started to accuse that he drove out of the junction first (he didn't get this: Main road drivers always drive straight, cars from junction stop and look left and right if there are cars!). If a person starting to get very defensive of their actions, and started accusing without any reasons, don't you think they're trying to hide something? After the police traffic got there, and did measurement on the road (brake/tyre marks), finally they concluded that it was the lorry driver's fault. Booo-hooo... So, if someone close to you got into an accident, would you get noisy about the wreck and recklessness or would you be thankful that nobody is hurt?

I learn that being a safe driver not only to drive carefully, but to stay away from all the reckless drivers. It's crazy how you see a person's behavior could change 180 degrees in a messy traffic jammed area. I think the amont of people with road rage in kk has increased quite significantly also...Driving in kk for nearly 3 years also taught me some tricks to survive on the road.

Here are some of them:-
- If you want to merge to another lane, as usual people don't want to give you away. The trick is to cut/merge in front of a car that can cut in/merge in before you.
- Right lane doesn't necessarily the fastest lane. Sometimes the leftmost lane could get you past a traffic light faster than the rightmost lane. E.g. If you're from putatan/kepayan, at the 4 junctions traffic light at tg aru, go to the leftmost lane to go past the traffic light in 1 red light or at most 2. The middle and right most lane always the ones with more cars hence slower! This also true for sutera harbor traffic light.
- Bring a friend to accompany you if you want to go to kg air/gaya street/segama area during peak hours. You would be VERY lucky if you get a parking within 10 minutes driving around. The average time spent looking for parking there I'd say, around 30 minutes or could reach till an hour.

So if you've got any tricks, do share!

*I jokingly mentioned I want to be a SAHM. Eh, but if got no children nor hubby, I think it'll be Stay at Home Menganggur . Eheheh..
**I can't believe I survived what, four months?? without daily tv-shows! This must be some kind of record! Btw, can you smell mcDreamy from afar?

yoga my way

Yesterday, I went to my second yoga class of 2008. It is held at Likas Sports Complex every Monday and Wednesday. It is said that one benefit of doing yoga is you become more aware of your body and breathing. Some yoga poses also could benefit your body, for example certain poses might help you massage internal organs etc.

So... last night we started doing some of the proprietery movements of yoga. The seated positions are ok for me, they are more like stretching my body in a natural way. But there was one pose that I found soooo funny. Note: Everybody is soooo serious while doing yoga, nobody talks nor smiles. The pose was sim-HAHS-anna (lion pose). We had to sit crossleg with palms on our knees. Inhale, and while exhaling, open our eyes as big as possible, stick our tongue out, and splay our fingers like a lion. Hahahahahha. I tried very hard not to laugh, but can't. But still I can control, ended up giggling. Hihihihi... And what makes it funny is looking at other people sooo seriously doing their pose! I wish I had my eyes closed that time.

Gawd... I still laugh thinking about this. Now imagine yourself doing this? I bet you'd laugh out loud too!