Last day meeting scheduled to end before lunch time. My friend and I planned to spend whole afternoon on Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and have Peking duck dinner. The day was beautiful, and albeit it was cold - the sky was so clear and we had sun shine. Such a lovely day for outdoor walk. So after a lavish lunch, we bid farewell to our Chinese colleagues and went separate ways.

We then realized that with the absence of our Singaporean colleague, my friend and I were facing challenge in understanding mandarin and being understood by Chinese. For direction, we had asked the Hotel people to write -in mandarin alphabets -places we wanted to visit. Plus, the Hotel provided us cards consist of favorite places to be visited. I thanked whoever has the brilliant idea.

So after going around changing some money, my friend and I went to the Forbidden City. It was truly beautiful and amazing. As I walked through the century old pavement going to the inner palace, my mind went to the ancient Emperors, Empress, soldiers, concubines or whoever walked through the same pattern. I tried to imagine how their life was spent behind these walls and beautiful building with such a huge country to govern. What did they feel, what was their thinking, are they afraid of the wars or are they so proud of them selves? My mind goes to their beautiful dresses, hair style and other things I used to saw in the movies or read in books. The place was so picturesque, it look as if it jumped out of a post card.

We visited almost all of the palaces including the concubines’ palaces where we read how they lived. To be honest, it was pretty degrading. Those poor girls were chosen when they were still 13 -17 years old. Being lined up for the Emperor to choose. Their pictures showed that they still had their chubby cheeks and innocent faces when they were brought to the palace for round of selection. It really moved my heart. And the fact that later on they were segregated through caste, and their food ransomed accordingly made me feel a bit sad. I am so glad that I did not born into one of them. If I did, I probably had tried so hard to be the least Emperor’s favorite so I would be expelled from the palace. Returned to my family. Funnily, the Emperor’s main concubine was not pretty at all. Her picture was so different than what I thought how a concubine should look. Her face even a bit round and she was a bit…ehm…fat! Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why on earth would I judge an Emperor like that. She must be so good in the art of love making. Ehm. Yup, pretty degrading I must say. Say No to polygamist.

We soon forgot our emotional moment as liberated women and happily took pictures here and there. And as the sun started to disappear, we took a cab to go to Tiananmen Square. The place was closing as we arrived there, so we did not manage to go inside the garden. Soldiers are everywhere. And I love soldiers. I like seeing men looking so ready for battle, so serious in their uniform and so masculinely manly. I felt adrenaline rush kicked in as I wanted…no, let me repeat, I am DYING to have my picture taken with them. My friend looked at me in annoyance. She seriously thought that I was such an embarrassment. Can you like something else? She asked me. Something that will not get us to jail for insulting China army? But I did not care. I was in Beijing and I wanted to have my picture taken with a red soldier. Period.

So, completely neglecting my friend who was cowarding behind, ready to dash out at first sign of trouble, I mustered my courage and approached one of them. My pick up line was asking for a direction of a Pecking Duck restaurant. He did not know. Then I asked him point blankly whether he would mind having a picture with me? He looked a bit frightful and as I studied him closely, I could see how young he was. Probably not more than 25. Being stationed in this cold weather. He said no. So I asked again, politer this time and with my best smile plastered on my face, whether it’s ok to take picture. He either really did not want to or did not understand my question, he still said no. At this time my friend was nearly burst with laughter and I was heart broken. I tried one more time with my sweetest pleading voice and he still said NO with frightened face. I could hear his thought “What is this crazy pink woman want from me?” and I could see my friend held back her laughter by pulling up her shawl to cover her mouth. She sounded like yelping in pain. Or had asthma attack. I finally gave up and walked away with my evil friend laughing her head off. Ah soldier, you broke my heart. Screw you.

So, to mend a broken heart, with the help from my Chinese colleague in talking to the taxi driver, we managed to find the Peking Duck Restaurant by our selves. The place was really beautiful. Again, the language was the difficulties. I kept on calling my Chinese colleague for translation. And for simple sentence, I kept on texting a good friend of mine who is a Chinese descendent. It’s funny to think that I never thought that this good friend of mine was a Chinese descendent although it was quite obvious for others. I have always been quite ‘blind’ towards other gender and race. I could talk easily to anybody who speak Indonesian or English regardless their gender or race. It never matter to me. However, this time I cursed this gift. Had I realized that, I would have asked him for sentences ever since I was in Indonesia. And now, I had to rely on his text and the way I said it. Fortunately it worked! So I thanked him profusely.

The Chinese waiter who attended us was beautiful girl. I impolitely admire her beauty with my friend in Indonesian language. She kept on talking to us and I kept on saying “Wo pu tung hanyu”. According to my good friend, it supposed to mean “I don’t speak Chinese.” At first she was smiling with her nice pouty lips and tried another word. Mesmerized by her beauty, I said the same thing over and over, “Wo pu tung hanyu.” And my friend whispered to me, “She spoke in English, you moron!” Ah! Why did not I realize that? She spoke English in Chinese accent and I did not catch it. I still thought that she spoke in Chinese! Alamak! I nearly fell off my chair holding back laughter. Dui bu qui, mei-mei. I did not mean to.

Other than that, the duck was devilishly finger-licking delicious! I had to stop. I always eat a lot when I am depressed. And being turn down by a Chinese soldier depressed me big time. Anyhow, I reminded my self that this trip supposed to be a knowledge gain trip, and not weight gain! We finally left that beautiful restaurant and went to Silk Market again!

This time, some of the seller recognize us. So they saved their sweet nothings for other buyer. We returned to the hotel tired and fulfilled. It was close to an orgasm. Minus the soldier, of course.

We flew back the day after when we, again, had another pit of laughter with my friend as we watched Mamma Mia on the plane. I started study math again for my examination so our laughter died down for a while. But it was a good trip indeed. Xie xie.

The End

We spent all morning in a very cheerful knowledge sharing meeting, meeting other HR fellows has always brought up battle stories. Tee hee.

In the afternoon we were taken to (Thank God) a normal Sezchuan Restaurant for lunch. This time, I truly could enjoy the food. I got to know my colleagues better too as we shared our age and weight (!!) around the table. I was happy to find that I was not the oldest nor the heaviest among the crowd. All of my Chinese colleagues are females. And they all seemed to be so slim and pretty. Their skin seemed so milky smooth and freckles free. I felt like ugly duckling among them. It was amazing to find that all of them actually older than they look. I had a good time with them with a lot of laughter and HR types jokes - whatever that means. We had another good meeting, fire drill, followed by another meeting until 6 pm. Questions pouring in like waterfall and I was flabbergasted by their good questions. My boss did not exaggerate when he said that China HR were smart women.

In the evening, my friend and I went to the Silk Market again. We are getting real good in bargaining hence we found it quite addicting to compete on how low could we negotiate. We managed to emptied our wallet traded by cute things and I started asking my friend to loan me some money. Embarrassing, I know. But what can I say? I was a slave of Chinese product.

To be continued

The training went on as planned. My mind was still divided between Indonesia and China. I prayed that calibration meeting run smoothly.

During the day, as opposed to cold sandwich, this time we were taken to what seemed to be famous Beijing restaurant. But the food was quite…ehm…too exotic for me. I barely could swallow it. Plus there was strange smell hanging in the air which I suspected was pork smell. As a Moslem, I do not eat pork and I grew up without it. I found the smell of it was sickening and the sight of it made me want to vomit. I felt nauseated throughout the meals but managed to look relax. After series of pork intestines and other exotic stuff, I was so glad when they brought what looks to me to be a plate of chocolate pudding.

But when I expressed my happiness (Is that chocolate pudding? Yay!), they were all laughing at me and asked me to guess what it actually was. I started to feel my stomach knotted again into another wave of panic attack. I knew what that was. It was blood. Frozen coagulated blood. In Indonesia, we called it marus. Shiny dark red blood served like pudding. We suppose to dip it into our soup. Will it dissolve in our soup? I dare not to ask nor try. Keeping the food inside my stomach has already a fight. Let alone being a vampire. No matter how much I love vampires, blood pudding was a liiiitle bit too much for simple girl like me. I was so happy when the lunch was finally over. Needless to say, I threw up right after we arrived back in the office. The rest of the afternoon went vividly with me battling hunger and sickness. I should have asked for bread and butter. I run to Starbucks to buy pastry at the first opportunity.

In the evening, we went to Silk Market and took revenge of the seller. Now come to think of it, the goods were varied more than Yashou Market and the prices were amazing! I managed to start buying things for my friends and family. And afterward, we went to normal restaurant and eat fried egg happily.

To be continued

We met our Asia Pacific colleagues and started the training right away. And to be honest, my mind was divided into another major thing happening in my country, which is the salary calibration meeting preparation. So I did my best to focus but I could not help my mind wondering whether everything is all right back home. Lunch consist of cold sandwich, but it was okay.

In the evening, we and our three other colleagues from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam went to Yashou Market where we were successfully “robbed” by the local seller. We were so stupidly happy to be able to bargain from RMB 400 something to RMB 100, only to find that in three shops away the starting price was RMB 35! Aaaarghhh!

I felt like killing the Chinese lady! But anyway, we were then vow to our selves that we will start the negotiation from 10% of the original price. We came from the land of negotiation! We returned to the hotel with plan for vengeance. The sellers were looking for enemies. Robbing innocent visitors like us. But before that, we managed to finish a devilishly finger-licking delicious crispy fried duck! Tee hee.

To be continued

Do you know Forgetful Jones? A cartoon character in Sesame Street. Well, that’s the LEAST what my travel companion is. After loosing her passport, she still managed to give me few surprised. First, she have not prepare fiscal and airport tax money. She thought that she would withdraw it from the ATM machine in the airport with her new card WHICH HAS NOT YET ACTIVATED. So she ended up paying by her self. That’s forget # 1. Or ignorance to be precised. Unbelievable.

Forget # 2, she lost her ticket. As I walked confidently to the check in counter, I looked behind and was a little bit panic for not finding her. Apparently she was still outside, frantically search for ticket in her backpack. Fortunately, she has a thoughtful-well prepared-human behavior observer friend, which is me, who has anticipated that this would happen. I had printed an extra for her. I have also printed an extra hotel reservation as I was under the assumption that she would lost it as well. Fortunately she did not.

Forget # 3, she left her winter jacket at home. Oh well, there’s nothing I could do about it, could I? If she had frostbite, Company will still cover the medical cost. And she could always buy a coat using the winter clothes allowance provided by the Company. Yay! We have reason to shop!

Forget # 4, she left our souvenirs for our Beijing colleagues on our connecting flight! I was nearly fainted when I heard that. I just left her to the toilet, thus I forgot to remind her, and she left it underneath the seat. Fortunately the competent Cathay’s crew found it and fetched it for us when we about to board the plane in Hong Kong. Phiew…

So after couple of hours transit in Hong Kong, lots of laughter and jokes, we happily arrived in Beijing at 8 pm. Once we got off the plane, I could feel the cold air biting my skin. It was so cold and I still kept my winter jacket in the luggage, so we half running to the luggage belt, partially to get our winter coats as soon as possible, partially to keep our selves warm and stop our tooth from chattering.

We met the driver not long after. And soon I realized that they drive on the wrong side of the road in this country. I keep on getting the feeling that the other cars will hit me anytime soon. Fortunately we arrived safely in the hotel.

Around 10 pm, I was already in bed when I thought I heard the door bell ring. I peeped through the hole and nobody was outside. I returned to bed and thought that I must be dreaming. I heard the door bell again. I peeped again, still nobody. I started to feel foolish as well as frightened. This is not haunted hotel, is this? Could it be TV? And the door bell rang again. This time I jumped out of bed and opened the door so fast to catch whoever did that. I am not afraid of anything including Chinese spirits, ghosts or whoever. I probably would only faint. Still nobody. My heart has started pounding louder, and when I was about to close the door my friend appeared from nowhere! Apparently it was her. Press the bell and went away looking for emergency stairs (!!) like there was no better reason. She apparently forgot to bring toothpaste and afraid of melamine so she would like to borrow my toothpaste. Haiyaaa…can you not call before?? I felt like in a haunted motel. She was laughing her head off and so was I. This place was not haunted anyway…good night everybody…

To be continued

In my previous company, whenever I am travelled - most of the times I have always travelled alone. And the flight has always been a bit boring where I spent in either eating and watching movies or took sleeping pills so I could awake refresh and jetlag free in my destination. My days in foreign country typically spent by all day meetings and tried to fine tune with my foreign colleagues. And if I did not take leave during the journey, the travelling was normally limited to airport – hotel and office. And as you can imagine, I need to keep proper behavior at all hours. Boring.

Therefore, I was ecstatic when I knew that for my upcoming Beijing trip for training and meetings, I will be traveling with a friend who is a happy person by nature. She accompanied me to Offshore for 5 days before and it was hilarious and fun, so I was looking forward traveling with her again.

On the down side, this joyful friend also has weaknesses. She seemed to be followed by a series of bad luck and..ehm..was not quite good in preparation. Realizing that, I took over the leg work. From the itinerary, agenda and initiating formalities, I took the lead in the process so she was only need to piggy-ride me. Safe? No.

A series of unfortunate events seemed to persistently follow her. It begun when she (for God knows why) brought her passport to Bali and lost it there. I mean, Bali is domestic, isn’t it? Why on earth did she bring her passport there in the first place? To make it worst, she realized it only two weeks before we suppose to depart. Whereas to get the invitation letter from Beijing, our China Office will need three weeks to process. Therefore, I had prepared my self to travel alone (again).

Fortunately, due to rigorous praying and persistent calling, the invitation letter finished sooner than usual. So 4 days before we depart, she managed to get her visa sorted. So off we went to Beijing excitedly and I managed to capture some golden moments in following travel notes…

To be continued

Beware: Rambling and hyperbolic comments ahead. Anything wrote below should not be used against me in court, canteen nor office corridor.

I just returned from 24 hours trip to Batam and it was lovely. It’s always lovely to be able going out of the office and see some real Engineering work under the sun by the sea.

A very nice and yet bossy ..I mean…fatherly Offshore Manager invited me to come with him to Batam to have a site visit to McDermott fabrication yard to see our latest CPP development. The magnificent North Belut. It’s beautiful giant and its waiting to be sailed away by middle of next year. I don’t think I will ever stop marveling on how it works. How they put one deck over another like a stack of lego. Just like giant toy.

We arrived early in the morning, and soon we had two Apprentices took us around, showing us things. Impressive young lads! I barely could suppress a grin whilst my chest swelling with pride when the choleric Manager complimented them. Coming from him, it’s a big deal. And I am secretly pleased to see the OIM let them take the lead and answer question only when it was directed to him. The OIM deliberately exposed these Apprentices to the Manager and took a step back. Good OIM.

An hour later, after so much going up and down, I started to feel the safety shoes biting my legs. Aw shoot, I forgot to wear long socks! So I started to wobbling instead of walking and soon I was left behind. And sweat pouring out from every pores. It’s like a sauna. One of the Apprentice patiently waiting for me, making sure that this old lady did not fell on her bum. Thank God the site visit was about to end and there was cold water waiting for us at the office. I asked for band aid and hoping that it will not be recorded as First Aid Case.

I had 2 presentations afterwards. In which both of them went well. The Field Leaders took an active role in explaining the difficult subject. So it was good. We are going hand in hand and I am happy to see how relax they seem around their leaders. They threw jokes and we had good laugh, so it was good and satisfying!

At night, the kind hearted Manager who also a Padang’s food fans took me, the Apprentices and the Field Leaders for a dinner. We went to…Sederhana Padang Restaurant! Yay!! After pizza for lunch, Sederhana was like an oasis to me. Being the only female around, I got the honor to start first. Which was a mistake. Because I took rice so little as a start, and soon the rest of the gentlemen politely seemed to follow my portion. Which is a fatal flaw, because then the rice bowl was rested next to the Manager and whilst I shamelessly kept on adding, the rest of the gentlemen were not as thick skinned as I am. There was an awkward moment when they stop to think and I could sense the change in them…what the hell moment…and they are adding the rice as well…hahaha…altogether we nearly emptied the table and had a good laugh over our gluttony.

We then left to buy some local cookies for our friends in the office, and…at exactly 8 pm I have reached the hotel again. Somehow, it was managed that we returned at 8 pm when the boss said, “OK, it’s been a long day. We had to go reach the hotel at 8 pm so we can have proper rest.” No further discussion let alone offer for a karaoke. Moreover, an hour earlier than the normal curfew. It’s kinda out of habit for me to be back in the hotel so early when I traveled so I got teased by the guys but…ehm…I think I have learned my lesson well from my last trip in Batam so I’d better comply this time. So I obediently returned to my room and tended my blister feet. Not long after that, I snored the night away. So tired. It has been a one fine day.

We are three weeks away into production. Meaning: in 3 weeks, the gas from beneath the ocean will be pumped into our pipes and it will either be processed or flared. Yay!

I flew to Gresik again last Wednesday to meet my colleagues and I was so happy to see the On Shore Production Facilities look more and more like the real Gas Plant. There are more and more Operations people walking around in their safety gear, checking this and that. I still could see goats (!!) wondering around though, but soon there will be fences around the plant and it will be restricted even for human. We should wear full safety gear (not only hard hat, boots and safety glasses) and get the Plant Manager approval before we could enter that area. Hence, before that happened, I made time to walk around the plant to admire this massive engineering. It remained me of an episode of Mega Structures but of course, this is nothing compared to any of it. But yet, it is real and within my reach.

I also met some of the Project Engineers as well and had a good laugh. As Operations people has started taking over the plant, most of them had been moved to another temporary office to work on the second phase of the project, which is the Oil Production Facilities. I imagine what it feels like to give up a baby you have grown so fondly to another department to run it. Ah, now I am being romantic! I do have this soft spot for engineers for I secretly admired them for being able to work under such an extreme pressure and temperatures (to me, at least!) and still able to come up with something as beautiful as this plant. I have always have soft spot for them and that’s why I always go easier on them. Discrimination. Discrimination. Discrimination. Oh well, what can I say? I love engineering to the bones.

I was down to Gresik again last week with a colleague of mine and this time we stayed at non-star hotel for the fun of it as oppose to staying in five stars hotel we used to stay. Some people in the office thought that it was a crazy and unnecessary decision, but I guess we just want to expand our comfort zone. Prove our selves that we can live in any given situation. However, I secretly called the hotel and when I found out that they do not provide hair dryer I packed my own. I can live in any given situation with good hair.

When we left Jakarta, the timing could not be any better. It was during the Isobel storm that caused our rig crew evacuated the weekend before, one commercial flight missing and 4 boats capsizing. I could see a lot of people citing prayer during the flight. The flight it self was quite bumpy but in general it was not too bad.

We arrived in Saptanawa Hotel couple of hours before midnight. The condition was as expected. Lots of mosquitoes, no hot water, the towel was rags, the bed was dusty and the toilet smelled funny. I felt like in a Fear Factor episodes. But the Hotel staff was very nice. They helped me put the mosquito repellent, boiled some water for me to clean my self, change the towel and bedsheet in the speed of light but there was nothing they can do about the toilet other than putting more mothballs. It was liveable. Later on I realised that we were the only women staying in that hotel! The rest are rough necks and operators from other oil service companies operating in that area. During breakfast, we were surrounded by men in their colorful safety gear. They were looking at us in wonder. Or maybe they were looking at my pink outfits in wonder.

The trip it self was a success. We had whole day meeting with our colleague in Gresik and met a lot of new employees that I knew only the name. It was always nice to put name with a face and it was really heartening to see how the project goes. What used to be a half done building now look more and more like a real On Shore Production Facilities. The administration building is ready and couple months from now, we will be producing gas and making real money!

The jewel of the trip was actually when we managed to visit Mermaids. It’s the name of our rig. She was towed back last weekend due to Isobel Storm that hit the Java Sea. And whilst she anchored in the Surabaya shorebase, we managed to get approval to board her. It was really exciting. We had lavish lunch there and one of our colleague took us anywhere. Up and down. Back and forth.

I went back in the afternoon all by my self. The flight was still under the threat of Isobel Storm. But Thank God everything was a okay. The sky was clear and there were fluffy white cloudes here and there. There was no sign of the scary gray cloud until I landed safely. I will try to post some pictures later.

Had I not miss my family so much I would have had enjoyed my time in London more. The fact that I missed Mika’s 5th birthday apparently bothered me more than I care to admit. And for the first time during so many trips, I miss home more than ever.

Don’t get me wrong, I do miss home whenever I am travel. But the excitement of seeing and experience new things usually worth it. But this time it’s different. I felt sad. I felt that I was missed out. I knew that my kind hubby said that it’s just a celebration. It’s only clapping hand and blowing candle. No big deal. We love our children wherever we are. But to me, 5th (as well as 1st) birthday is a big deal. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that…

Apart from this continuous melancholy feeling, the trip was good. The meeting was brain provoking and it was always nice to meet your colleagues from overseas (and share stories, and gossiping, and shopping, and eating…)

In short, I arrived on Wednesday morning and we checked in directly into the hotel. Upon taking shower, we went directly to the new office and had 2.5 days working session and meeting. The new office was nice and I did meet some old colleagues when they worked in the region. Later on Thursday, we went up to the Eye of London and had nice dinner at the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

I was quite surprise that I felt so much in tune with London this time (even that I did not have a map with me this time - thanks to Chandra who dashed out to Batam without passing it to me). Perhaps because it was summer and that it was my second trip. The weather was nice. Not too hot. Not too cold. It’s airy and it’s sunny. No jumper. No gloves. It was nice. I jumped in and out tube with my colleagues Siti and Hani. Walked through Oxford Street looking for rice and halal food. And had one helluva time shopping around. It was July 7, a year after a suicide bombing in Aldgate tube station, so we also spent 2 minutes quiet time in the afternoon to commemorate the victims. I had goosebumps thinking on how fragile life is nomatter who you are or where you are. It always was and it always will be.

I also meet up with the good old (but still young) Indonesian friends in London again. I met up with Djatu and Dedy at Piccadily Circus and after some really serious shopping where we nearly emptied the Lily White, we went to see Benny, Grace, little William, Lucy and Ronald at a restaurant in China Town. The food was super duper delicious and the atmosphere was good. I laughed a lot and eat a lot more. Had I not been too proud I would have licked the plate. And then Djatu and Dedy took me back to the hotel to collect the goodies. We chatted until 1:30 am before they left. I slept right away but nevertheless, it was a troubled sleep. I woke up 4 hours later and spent almost good 45 minutes on the phone with hubby. I was happy to find that everything was all right. The kids were healthy and our new baby sitter seemed able to coup with Pascal. Thank God.

Few hours later, I checked out from the hotel and went to Lucy and Ronald’s place to dump my luggage. And afterwards, Ronald took me for a walk to Marble Arch whilst Lucy continue her “morning rest” ;).

It was one of the nicest day I ever had in London. The sun was warm, the temperature was cool, the wind breeze gently, the street was quiet and the walk was pleasant. I walked through the Oxford Street again all by my self. Enjoying the athmosphere and once again marvel at the different languages spoken around me. I did some final shopping before my feet gave in. I rested my tired butt on the bench watching the hustle and bustle of people walking around in their “more open” outfit. More open then when it was in Spring. It was a real eye openner how considerable amount of skin was flaunting (and dangling) in front of you.

In the afternoon I met up with Lucy and Ronald again at Busaba. It’s a Thai Restaurant in Bird Street. Again, it was combination of nice food and right athmosphere. I love it. It was my 3rd time to Busaba and I love it even more. Djatu and her friends joined us an hour later. But by that time we had finished our lunch and my eyes felt so heavy so we returned to Lucy’s place. We stopped by to had a bite of ice cream (which was delicious!) before continuing our walk.

I had a catnap at Lucy’s not long after Djatu arrived. Benny and Grace arrived when I was asleep. They went to see theatre to celebrate Benny’s birthday and the computer at the theatre was broken. So the show was cancelled. We were speculating that Benny is jinxed but I am not at the liberty to comment as I never witness any of those unfortunate events.

After that short sleep I felt a bit more fresh. So I had cold shower, took some pictures again and dashed to the airport. The company sent me a very flashy mercedez bens with a chatty driver. So it was very interesting to hear him sharing stories about some company VIP “secret life”. It was so bizarre I found it difficult to be true. Anyway…here I am sipping latte in Kris Lounge, 16 hours to go to my warm and comfy bed…I can’t wait.

I returned from Bangkok with blistered feet and contented stomach. Blistered feet from too many walking around the sky walk. Contented stomach from too many good food. Have I tell you that I am a big fan of Thai food? I love it so much I think I was close in a situation to embarrasing my self. They are so good and tasty I really had to stop my self not to lick the plate.

My colleagues there were such a big help in satisfying this gastronomical need. On my first day, Pannaporn, Sang and Jet took me to a restaurant at Paragorn Siam. It was within walking distance from our office, through the sky walk. It was sort of pedestrian walk beneath the monorail way. The walk was pleasant as the height kept us from the car fume but the temperature was very humid. I was sweaty and with every step got more and more starving. I was so hungry as I could not eat any food on the plane the night before and I had breakfast in a hurry. So I had tom yam soup along with other food I did not know what the names were. Didn’t really matter. All I knew it was beef, fish and also ice cream. Yummy! I wobbled back to the office all sweat from the food as well as the humidity.

Second day, Pannaporn, Chotima and Jet took me to different Thai restaurant in a place I could not remember what the name was. Again, it was through sky walk and it was another series of good food. I guess food is a big thing in Thai just like in Indonesia. In the office all I saw was food and food and food everywhere. A very delicious shrimp crackers to cak kwee. I even spotted a very yummy looking pourage. Gosh, I think I could live in this place! When my stomach fit the taste, everything else would be secondary.

Anyway, when I weighed my self this morning, I was in shock to find that I had gained 2 kg only in 2 days! My, my…I guess it’s time for me to return to my daily portion. Urgh!

I have only been waiting in Changi for 10 minutes waiting for my connecting flight to Jakarta and I am as sleepy as ever. The soft thick carpet looked so inviting for me to stretch my self.

Ah…4 more hours to my comfy bed to rest my head.