Arif’s Blog

If ever you feel bored with all the high rise building in Singapore. You still has a chance to escape those boredom and winding down at a decent beach. Yes, Singapore actually has beaches (albeit it is hand-made !!).

There are 3 decent beaches in Sentosa Island (southern part of Singapore), They are Palawan, Siloso and Tanjong Beach. On weekends, the beach is quite crowded with ordinary Singaporean who would like to enjoy themselves with the natural scenery which is quite hard to find nowadays in modern Singapore.

The beaches is pale in comparison with some of the best beaches I ever been (such as Kuta Beach, Seminyak Beach, Legian Beach, all in Bali coincidentally !!), but nevertheless they are the best you can got near here. It’s quite decent and clean actually, the best part is the transportation is good and it’s easy to find food in that area.

Well, almost 5 months I’ve been in this red-dot country. I say things to do at weekend, because at weekdays, practically nothing can be done except work..work..and work..  - I come home after 9 daily consistently :(( -

Oke here’s my favorite list :

1. Go to the nearest kopi-tiam, order either Mie Siam, Roti Thossai Massala, or Kaya-Toast, for the drink, order Ice Lemon Tea (Home Made not the can one), or Kopi Milk or Teh Tarik. Enjoy it while reading the Saturday Newspaper and sightseeing all those kind of people wondering around you

2. Go to Orchard or Vivo City. Catch the latest movie (my fave place at the cathay or GV-Vivo). If it’s orchard don’t miss a chance to go to Lucky Plaza to eat lunch of one of Indonesian eateries there (Ayam Bakar Ojolali, RM Minang, Restorant Surabaya, etc)

3. Go to the nearest library. Go to newspaper corner, and browsing the Jakarta Post or Kompas edition. Go to Galileo cafe to get Ice Capucinno while browsing several books you’d like to borrow.

4. Go Clubbing !! MOS (Ministry of Sound) at Clarke Quay or several other establishments at Tanjong Pagar area is recommended. Buy a glass (or if you feel like it a jug !!) of Long Island Tea (a glass cost around $18 when the jug cost around $60). After your head is spinning around, u still can catch a late night stack by ordering mee goreng at the nearest mamak stall

Oke these are all my favorite weekend list to do !! I will add more along the way !!

FYI, guys, I have moved to Singapore since 19 Feb 2007. This time I try to travel through Batam, fly Air Asia at 11.20 for only Rp 260.000 total, catch the cab right away to Batam Centre cost me around Rp 70.000. And at 15.30 I boarded the ferry to Batam (www.batamfast.com) only cost me SGD 15, journey take one and half hour.

The HDB Apartment is quite easy to find because it’s located next to Clementi Sports Hall. The place where I play badminton couple times. The apartment itself is surprisingly quite nice, more than I expected to tell the truth. It’s furnished with bed,AC,TV,Stove,and water heater and it’s quite clean as well. It’s easy to find food because the place is near Clementi Market.

These past 2 days have been the most haziest day here since I’ve been to KL for over a year. Lots of newspaper articles direct or indirectly blame (or even the word condemn perhaps more exact) Jakarta inaction (or lack of it) for this smoky day. Actually it’s not that bad loh, I hardly be bothered by it, infact actually it is kind of nice because ’suasananya kayak mendung’ so the air is a bit cool and the sun also doesn’t radiate your skin harshly. But just like what Ebit G. Ade said (famous indonesian country singer) that ‘Mendung bukan selalu pertanda akan segera turun hujan’, for person that has allergy or rather sensitive to smoky air, this situation really tortured them.

I wonder if perhaps this shitty things has to menimpa Jakarta first then ‘Para Pembesar’ there would take action immediately.

Nowadays, the ‘Davinci Code’ phrase returns back into top of list. But now instead of the book (well actually as a matter of fact, the book also makes it return to top of Best-Seller Bookstore shelves), it is the movie which many people predicts will become the best blockbuster movie of this year.

I have put ‘Davinci Code’ book as one of my ‘Must Read’ list for so long. Since many of my friends in Indo have already purchased the book. I figured it out I just borrow the book from one of them and read it. As always, my habit of procrastinate my ‘to-do’ list makes that plan only a plan until now. Then the opening day of ‘Davinci Code’ movie looms over the horizon, and since I supposed it will be more fun to read the book first before watching the movie, and also out of fear of being bullied with constant spoiler about the story plot, I decided to go to Kinokuniya and spare my 35 Ringgit money to purchase the book.

As soon as I start to read a few chapters, the book captivate me very quickly. The author (Dan Brown) is really smart to combine all those historical fact,suspense,traveller places,religious knowledge to produce one of the most best-seller fiction book in this new millenium. Two thumbs up for this book !! And I can’t wait to see the movie which has opened its premier this week.

The news about Suharto amnesty from President SBY, Zinedine Zidane retirement from Real Madrid, and Road to World Cup in Berlin, brings back memory of series of event occured 6 years ago precisely in this month. My statement above will bring some frowned eyes from many people, why Suharto have anything to do with Zidane ?? Actually almost nothing !! But the demise of Suharto’s era at May 1998, happened coincidentally with the rise of new soccer star, Zinedine Zidane at that time. And also one month after Suharto being toppled from his thrown. The greatest event held periodically in the history of man-kind, FIFA world cup commenced. Precisely at the same month with this year World Cup in Germany.

RE-FOR-MA-SI….UN-TUK RAK-YAT..those slogan, chanting over and over again by ‘mahasiswa’, is the buzzword of the day. I still remember, myself, being part of the anonymous crowd, hang out daily in the front of ITB Campus. Listening to various kind of people, prominent and not so-prominent one, speak out their frustation and anger to the government of current situation. One particular orator I always eager to watch is Pak Harry Roesli. He managed to entertain the crowd with his political joke and sarkastic comment.

I can’t recall other time where I sing our national anthem wholeheartedly, it’s happening during the historical march to Gedung Sate Bandung, the following day after 6 students got shoot and murdered by ’security apparatus’. I put my hand across my chest while singing ‘Indonesia Raya’, almost broken with tears of sadness and anger, but also full of determination that this corrupted leader must be replaced and this sad incident just signified ‘the point of no return’. We marched along Jalan Dago toward lapangan Gazebo. And when we reach there, I just can’t believe my eyes, thousands of people already occupied the field (some estimation even mentioned close to 100.00O people),it is once in the lifetime experience to see that historical sight infront of your eyes. To be continued…

On this occasion of Vesak Day Holiday in Malaysia, I decided to do a bit of traveling by visiting Pulau Ketam. It is a small island located about 40 KM west of KL. What so special of this island ? People said that this island resembled the last chinese fishing village in Semenanjung Malaya. Also the seafood is very cheap and delicious. I don’t know about the former claim, but surely I can proof myself about the later one, can’t I ? So here I am, embarking in my first journey outside of KL. Thankfully I don’t have to go there by myself, I manage to find 3 other adventurous soul to accompany me in this journey, Pa Ato, Willim, and Surya, all are my Jatis colleagues. First of all we have to go to KL Sentral Station where we can ride a KTM Komuter train to go to Port Klang. From where we can go by jetty to Pulau Ketam. The train journey is quite an experience itself. KTM Komuter is train used to connect KL to several small city/suburb surrounding it (Klang, Shah Alam, Seremban, to name a few), much like KRL Jabotabek in Jakarta. The train itself is quite comfort, air-con is running fully, along the way, we starting to see all those ‘kampong houses’, mostly are made of wood, and it is raised above the ground, much like Traditional Houses in Sumatra Area (’Rumah Panggung’). The Journey took almost an hour becoz of many stops along the way. From the Klang Station, it just a throw of the stone to reach the Jetty port. The jetty leave every 30 minutes to the island and only cost 6 RM, quite a bargain considering it is air-con and very fast. The journey took us through all those swampy mangrove island and since we are inside the aircon cabin we couldn’t really feel the fresh sea air. By the time we got to the island, our stomach are already screaming for the food. We rushed to find the seafood restaurant to alleviate our hunger ASAP.

Once we see a group of restaurant, we chose the busiest one yet still have an empty table for us. We order Chili Crab (a must considering the name of the island, Pulau Ketam, actually is a malay word for crab), deep fried sotong, mixed vegetables and a steamed teochew style Bawal Fish. As soon as the food arrives, we found that most of the claim about the food is true (except ‘the very cheap’ tag !!). But it’s not too bad actually, it only cost around 80 RM for all of those food, served for 4 people, so each person contribute only 20 RM. After a very satisfying lunch, we go on foot to explore the island further. We just realized that almost all houses or concrete building never built on top of the land directly, that’s because when the high tide (’air pasang’) flooding the island, almost 75% of the land there will be submerged with the water !! and other interesting thing, most houses doesn’t have a proper sanitazion system such as septi-tank, in their toilet, all human disposal will go to the ground (or perhaps more appropriate, sand) directly. I guess they figure it out that the high tide will wash the dropping anyway so why need the expensive septi-tank when the nature already took care of it !!.

We explore the island by means of a small pathway made of concrete, the village itself is bounded by forest. Well, it’s not actually a forest like usual forest, they are consist of small mangrove trees, floating on top of water,more like bushes in fact, just checkout the photo at the left. Around 5 PM we decided to go back to the jetty port, and catch our ride back to the mainland. It’s a very exhaustive journey but we got to see many things as well. So it’s worth every buck of your penny !!

Supir Teksi di KL, bener2x one of the kind deh !! Banyak pengalaman yg lucu2x,aneh2x dan berbeda kalau kita menggunakan taksi di KL dibandingkan di Indonesia (terutama Jakarta).

Sebenarnya sebagai salah satu mode transportasi di KL, teksi disini bisa digolongkan cukup murah, tarif buka pintu cuma RM 2.0 dan setiap 1 KM cuma menghabiskan kurang lebih RM 0.5

Yang unik di sini, 90% taksi2x disini masih menggunakan Proton Saga model paling lawas (pertama kali dikeluarkan tahun 1985), tadinya aku kira berarti teksi2x tsb berarti telah berumur sktar minimal 15 thn-an lebih. Pada suatu saat aku pernah menggunakan teksi model yg sama tp kondisinya masih mulus, kursinya masih baru, juga body luarnya masih mengkilat. Aku tadinya bingung jg, niat banget supir taksi di sini utk me-refurbished teksi lamanya. Tp ternyata aku baru tau kalo teksi tsb bener2x masih baru. Agaknya Proton masih memproduksi mobil generasi pertamanya khusus utk Teksi, hmm..gila jg bayangin ampir 20 taun berarti ada mobil yg dengan setia diproduksi dgn model/karoseri yg sama. Kalo di Indo mungkin model Mitsubishi L-300 gitu kali, terakhir2x modelnya masih gitu2x aja. Tp mobil tsb banyakan dipake buat transportasi barang (mobil box,ngangkut sayuran) ato kalo buat angkutan manusia jg paling utk angkutan buat kalangan bawah (angkutan pedesaan,antar kota kecil kecamatan,dsb). Tapi untuk Teksi ?? lha wong teksi di Jkt aja yg merk Timor aja yg notabene modelnya keluaran 90-an akhir udah ngga begitu dilirik calon penumpang lagi.

Anehnya juga, kalau di Jakarta supir Taksi banyak yg emoh ngangkut penumpang kalau tujuannya terlalu dekat, tp kalau di KL justru sebaliknya, ada beberapa supir taksi yg pas disetop langsung melengos kalau tujuan kita agak di luar pusat KL. Alasannya sich kayaknya karena mereka bakal susah nyari penumpang pas balik ke KL-nya kalau tujuannya out of nowhere, rese banget khan !!

Ada satu tips lagi utk Warga Indonesia yg lagi berada di KL, jangan sekali2x menaiki taksi dan full diisi berempat semua kapasitas kursinya !! Bisa-bisa di-setop oleh polisi diraja Malaysia dan ditanya semua kelengkapan surat2xnya, minimal passport mesti dibawa. Kalau tidak siap2x saja dibawa ke Balai Polis karena dituduh sebagai ‘Orang Kosong’ (istilah sini utk Imigran Gelap).

Salah satu kawan kerjaku ada yg pernah bermasalah dgn polisi gara2x tidak membawa passport. Walhasil 100 Ringgit melayang dalam rangka menyuap polisi tsb. Dia sedang bersama teman2x kerjaku yg lain baru pulang dari tempat kerja naik taksi dan dipenuhi berempat, ternyata menurut polisi itu sendiri, taksi kalau dinaikin full berempat biasanya isinya foreigner (yg notabene banyakan org Indo-nya).

Okey, so this would be another blog of mine (I recalled it’s been 2 or 3 blogs created so far bearing my name). Why I put more hope in this version ? because how tightly coupled this blog to friendster, which I checked regularly once a day, so hopefully it makes me updated this blog once a day too (quite high hopes I supposed, but this would be my G&O/Goal and Objectives for this year !!)

For first posting I would try to discuss something familiar to anyone, food !! Just yesterday afternoon I try quite exotic cuisine rarely found in Indonesia for my lunch, Central Asian Food !! To be exact it is ‘gado-gado’ of several areas i.e : Kazakshtan, Uzbekistan, Tajkistan, and so forth (mind my speeling if it’s wrong).

I try something called Pov(lov ??) rice. It is something similar to ‘Nasi Kebuli’ combined with some ‘vegetable salad’ (tasted like to content of mexican food tachos or nachos without the meat) and a piece of bread similar to Roti Naan of India. I must say the taste is so..so. Not very tasty, the size is quite generous though (guarantee to make you full if you can finish it until the last bite).

Fortunately to make up for dissapointing lunch, we’re (me, Boy and Pa Ato, both are my work colleagues in Firium) headed to Kampung Bahru Market and overthere we sample the delicacy of durian fruit !! Hmm..it must be the best durian taste I’ve ever had in God knows how many years..!! The flesh is very mushy and sweet, perhaps because the durian is break open right infront of our eyes. 2 Durians only cost around 13 RM (just multiply it with Rp 2500) and it’s more than enough for three of us. I hardly can walk back to the office because my stomach are quite full with all those exotic foods (I don’t think even Uzbek people ever taste their Pov rice combined with Durian as its dessert !!)

So guys if you happens to stop by in Kualalumpur, don’t forget to head down to Kampung Bahru Market to taste this Malaysian Duren !!