London First Day

Terundur sehari, April 28, akhirnya kita tiba juga di Heathrow Airport, London. Pengawasannya lumayan ketat. Begitu keluar dari pesawat udah langsung minta passport utk diperliatkan (belum di imigrasinya loh). Pas di imigrasi juga pasti satu2 ditanya ngapain ke inggris, berapa lama dll. Ngeliat pada per kelompok pas ditanya, so kita juga bertiga bareng menuju ke counter yg sama. Toh ntar nanya juga sama jawabannya juga sama, kalo bertiga khan lebih cepat. hemat waktu gitu loh.
Begitu selesai, nuker traveler cek ke cash di amex. Rate inggris gila2an. Dibandingkan di jepang ya. kalo indo seh gw kurang tau. Rate resmi waktu itu sktr 208, tapi di money exchange london ada yg sampe 230. Paling murah juga 220 kali. Belum biaya komisinya. So kita lebih memilih traveler cek, ratenya lebih bagus (210.72 + 1% fee)dan lebih aman. Anyway, kayanya rate yg paling bagus tuh di Mark n Spencer. Ga kena biaya juga.
Kita naek Heathrow Express ke Paddington station dulu trus sambung underground. Tapi gebleknya salah naek train. ternyata underground di london lumayan rumit. walau linenya sama tapi mesti liat tujuan akhirnya. cara liatnya pun ga ngerti. akhirnya nanya orang, dan kebetulan orang tuh ke arah yg sama, kita naek train yg sama menuju victoria station.
B&B kita di Central House Hotel sekitar victoria station. Dari peta seh dekat. tapi kalo bawa koper jauh juga --; nyari2 kok ga dapat. akhirnya ada sepasang cewe & cowo dari polandia ngasih tau kira2 ada dimana hotelnya dan bener2 nganterin sampe di depan hotel. padahal mereka juga baru sampe hari itu juga buat weekend holiday. sempet curiga nih orang kok baek banget. emang susah orang sekarang, kalo dibaekin malah curiga hehehe. coba di indo, udah mikir ini orang jangan2 minta tips hahahah
Karena udah malam, kita nyari makan di sktr b&b. kita memilih makan fish n chip. Katanya kalo dah di inggris fish n chip adalah salah satu makanan wajib. Padahal yg cuman ikan goreng ama kentang goreng hehehe. Di london kita cuman sekali ini aja makan fish n chip. porsinya gede bo. Untung kita cuman pesan 2 porsi untuk bertiga. itupun ga habis.
Besok paginya sarapan pagi, sangking enaknya sampe sejam kita di breakfast room hahhaha Skedul kita keliling London. Awal menuju St. James Park, terus jalan kaki ke Buckingham Palace. Tujuan seh mau liat Changing The Guard Performance, so ngikutin anjuran, datang sejam sebelum. Emang benar, sejam sebelum udah rame ama pengunjung dari manca negara. Setelah foto2 kita nunggu di tangga. karena ga ngapain2 semakin nunggu semakin merasa dingin. anehnya ada yg pake coat tebal, ada juga yg cuman pake t-shirt. malah ada satu cewe yg pake lengan panjang malah ngelepasin bajunya dan hanya pake tank top. aneh ^^;
15 menit sebelum performance di mulai, muncul mobil police. kirain dah mau mulai, ehhhh malah dikasih pengumuman kalo hari itu ga ada performace. disuruh pulang... Kenapa juga ga dikasih papan pengumuman gitu ya supaya kita tau dari awal. So friends, yg mau nonton performance, confirm dulu gitu via telpon.
Lanjut ke Piccadilly Circus n Chinatown. Piccadilly Circus tempat shopping yg paling rame. Chinatown juga ada di sini. Katanya disini ga aman so kudu hati2. Dan benar, teman gw ampir kecopet, backpacknya udah kebuka gitu. tapi teman gw udah sadar kalo tasnya kepegang trus langsung manggil gua yg lagi jalan di depan. trus pencopetnya sadar, bukannya lari tapi jalan anteng gitu loh. kita juga bingung mau ngapain gitu trus biarin pencopetnya pergi... pencopetnya cewe muda. kayanya sih orang eropa selatan gitu.
Karena udah di chinatown, kita makan chinese food. Kirain kalo chinese food porsinya ga gede, kita mesen 3 porsi. Ternyata kita salah. Porsinya gede bo! Akhirnya so pasti ga abis...
Lanjut ke British Museum n London Bridge. Pengennya seh naek cruise tapi udah ga sempet. So disappointed... akhirnya lanjut ke St. Paul Cathedral.sangking gedenya juga ga bisa foto2. dan juga lagi renovation.... -_- Karena teman gw, V merasa ga enakan badan, akhirnya kita pulang dulu ke hotel. V udah ga kuat makan malam dan memilih istirahat di hotel. So gw n M makan malam di sekitar Victoria station. Kebetulan ketemu menu yg ada yorkshire pudding, my favorite. hehehe Berdua cuman makan 1 porsi. Yorkshire puddingnya di negara asal ternyata kecil. Ga segeda yg dulu gw makan di Lawry's. Dengan malu2 minta tambahan puddingnya lagi, eh dikasih dua gratis. hehehe

Air China

Our flight to Beijing was not arrived at scheduled. We were going to Beijing by flying through upon Qingdao but at that time there was China air military exercise in Qingdao so the plane couldn't fly through. And the worst thing is Air China didn't have enough fuel to take another route to Beijing. At last, the plane landed at Incheon Airport, Seoul for adding fuel. We had to wait for 2 hours till the military exercise finished. We couldn't go out from plane at that time as we couldn't know when the exercise will be finished. All we could do only wait and wait. We asked a stewardess what will happen as we have to take plane to London after arrived at Beijing and we don't have enough time anymore. Guess what she told me, “since this plane is late, another plane will be late also.” Unbelievable!!! How can she say such irresponsible words!!

Well, I think not all Air China stewardess like that. We asked another stewardess, and she asked our flight number to London and checked for us. She told us they couldn't check flight condition in Beijing but we might have to stay a night at Beijing. And it really happened... But still it’s a hard long way to transit hotel in Beijing.

After took 6 hours, finally we arrived at Beijing (normally it only take 3 hours). Only 2 trainees were in charge for transit guest. No Japanese, no English, only Chinese language available. Hahaha it’s not a problem for me though but it really a big problem to another guest which are mostly Japanese and some English. But!! Although I can understand Chinese, the problem was the 2 trainees only told us to wait. They didn’t tell us whether we will be arranged a hotel or we have to change our ticket or not. Since I can speak Chinese, I’d been told that I can arrange by myself by going to Air China sales office. (after that the one of the 2 trainee have to guide some business class guest to somewhere, I don’t know where was it, but finally only 1 trainee in charge for transit guest with a troubled face. Oh God! We were more troubled!!!)

We found kinda Air China information desk (we thought it’s the sales office that they told us) and still, we been told “Please wait” … While waiting, I do some translation job. And also, there was a helpful Singaporean girl tried to translate in Japanese n English as well. She’s really a helpful girl. Still worried for the unknown ppls even though had been told that she could go to her next flight to Hong Kong. I told her there is me, I’ll translate for them but at the end I left them (forgive me cause I still have my friends waiting for me and we’d been told that we can go to the hotel at that time. There was nothing I can do …. -_- )

Of course the information desk we found wasn’t the sales office. After waiting for a while and after yelling to them “till when we have to wait!!!!” (I think I almost lost my voice yelling them), we were guided to immigration section. They asked us to going through the immigration section. When I asked the trainee how I enter China since I don’t have a China Visa. She really didn’t understand about that. Still, took time at there for arguments. Unbelievable!! Finally immigration office told us that they can issue 1 day transit visa for us and we can enter China without any worries.

After out from the immigration section, we went to find the sales office. At first, we found the Air China information desk (again) we been told that they will arrange a hotel and asked us to wait at the lower ground. We only 5 persons at that time (the other guests maybe still wait at the immigration section). But after went to the lower ground, we felt fishy about it. How can the Air China staff know we are the delay passengers since we were mixed with another ppls around airport.

So that, I tried to find the sales office again. I found a sales desk but later found it was domestic sales desk. Been told where is the international sales desk, not by the Air China Staff but by a hotel staff who tried to find some customer. He told me that Air China won’t arrange hotel for us cause it was not Air China fault. It was out of Air China control. He guided me to the international sales desk but at that time I only have my own ticket. I have to back to my friends at lower ground and get them ticket for changing flight date. I told him that don’t waste time with us cause we still not sure if we will be arrange a hotel or not. But he still keep tailing us till he asked the Air China Staff in information desk and been told that we will be arranged a hotel. I was worried with such person. You know that a sales person very persistent to offer a customer. But seems like he just a good person. (^_^)

At that time we met another passengers whom guided by the staff to the international sales desk. I took my friend’s ticket at once and went to front line (hehehe kiasu mah) After flight date been changed (at the next day we found the date didn’t changed!!!) 5 persons of us been guided to the hotel as first group. The rest of passengers still queue in line for changing their ticket. (It was the time that I left them for translation. Again, so sorry…. -_-) We arrived at hotel at 7 pm. Can you imagine all of this took 3 hours?!?! Already tired before depart to London…….

Next day, again met a bed temper Air China staff in check-in counter. She found there were no our records in their system and told us that our flight were yesterday. After explained to her what happened yesterday, she left the counter. I think she went to check for it. She went with a fierce face. She made us felt that we bring trouble to her. Huh! Who care~ It’s not our fault!!

She came back and tell us that they still have vacant seat so she will arrange seat for us. She still in her fierce face…(We did hope that there was no seat so that we could take business seat for free hehehe) I asked her to arrange 3 seat together for us but I saw our seats number were not correct. It was in one line but we will be separated by one seat or maybe by aisle. Hmm.. how to say, kinda the number is 23G, 23H, and 23K. I went to complain to her, and after found its wrong, without say anything, she gave me a new boarding pass. But at that time the seat was 22H, 22J, 22K.. Felt strange why there is no 22I, she yelled to me that THERE IN NO 22I!! …… I couldn’t believe her till she showed me her computer. Indeed… no “I” lane for the flight… hehehe sorry lor :P

The meal on flight was ok but the white wine… awful hahaha be careful. But the meal for London – Beijing route was really awful. My 2 friends didn’t touch the meal after had a taste of it. I finished it though hehehe It was bad but still can be eaten for my standard. I am not so fussy with taste. Indonesian taste standard lower than Japanese mah :P Anyway I just got trauma with their white wine. The red wine was ok.

Lastly, Air China problem was in London-Beijing route. In such hot day, I think the temperature in plane was 30deg C. The cooler was break down and would not go properly until the planes take off. Crazy flight….

Is it our fault to take a cheap flight? T_T

UK Trip

Too many happening in this time trip... I think it was the worst trip i had. (its doesn't mean that my trip was absolutely teribble ^^;) Well, gonna to tell you what happened...

1. Flight to Beijing was delayed so we had to stay a night at Beijing. We lost 1 day for UK (T_T) Beside that, Air China staff really awful.... Well... will tell you next... long story...
2. We already paid B&B in London for 4 night in lowest price so we couldn't got the refund. Plus, this B&B's heater got problem, the service was bad.
3. One of my friend got fever so that we have to take care of her and couldn't going far from London. We were planning go to Southern England at that time. (It can be said that we lost another 1 day..) Thanks God it didn't take long. She was alright on the next day.
4. Me too, got sore throat after she get well. We were not in good condition. Maybe cause the bad weather in London??
5. We were told that there is no Changing-the-Guard Performance in Buckingham Palace after 1,5 hours waiting in coldness.... brrrr....
6. We had bought Britrail Pass & Heritage Pass in advance. For losing 2 days, I think we had lost some value from the pass (didn't calculate it though ^^;)

Ok ok, no the 7th. otherwise it will realy a terrible trip ^^;
We had good times too! Especially at Ni-nachan's house in Scotland. Really made us felt "Home Sweet Home" (not our home though hehe). Thank you Ni-nachan!!!

UK!! Here I Come~~

Besok berangkat!!! yay~~
My schedule
4/27 - 4/30 London & Southern England
5/1 - 5/3 Scotland
5/4 - 5/5 London
5/6 Beijing
5/7 back to Japan

I'm Back!!

Saya kembali lagi ke blog setelah kesibukan sebulan ini. Dari ngurusin adek gw yg baru datang ke jepang buat sekolah plus kedatangan ortu buat jalan2 sekalian ngeliat tempat tinggal adek gw di kyoto. Hari ini baru ngantarin ke airport dan pulang ke rumah beres2.
Tadinya udah males aja pulang. Di rumah yg tadinya rame jadi sepi, ga ada tv (dicolong ama adek gw hahaha), komputer rusak (power switchnya rusak). Tapi bagus juga, berkat ga ada tv ama komputer, akhirnya gw beres2 rumah.
Ini barusan selesai, iseng2 ngeluarin notebook gw lagi mau liat lagi gimana supaya switchnya bisa dibenerin. Switchnya itu udah lari dari posisi sebenarnya n ga mau kembali lagi, tapi gw liat ada tombol dalamnya, akhirnya gw teken pake obeng, nyala juga! hehehe (kalo ga ngerti cuekin aja ya, gw juga bingung gimana mau ceritanya hahaha) pokoknya akhirnya gw bisa nyalain komputer n ngisi blog! hihihi
P.S. Sakura lagi mekar euy!!

Next Journey

Fixed! next journey is United Kingdom!! Tadinya bingung mau ke Spain apa ke UK, tapi berhubung dapat tiket murahnya cuman bisa ke UK, so lebih milih yg lebih murah dong.
Rencananya kalo ke Spain, naek Thai Airways, stop over di Bangkok n Roma. 104,000 yen + fuel surcharge n tax etc 35,000yen. Kalo ke UK transit di Beijing naek Air China 55,000 yen + fuel surcharge n tax etc 25,000yen. Duh kapan neh fuel surcharge di hapus, benar2 sengsara neh kantong gw dg fuel surchage ini......... --" Anyway, see the difference between flying to Spain n UK.... 2 kali lipat bo!!
Ntar berangkat tgl 27 April pulang tgl 7 Mei. Siap2 sibuk deh bulan April nanti, soalnya kantor gw baru mulai libur tuh tgl 3 Mei, berarti gw mesti kelarin dulu kerjaan gw sebelum cuti tambah lagi bonyok mau datang ntar awal April, dalam arti gw mesti ngambil cuti juga. Yoshi! Ganbarimashou~~

Transit in Seoul

Sesampe di Incheon, beli tiket bus 8000won menuju Sejong Hotel. Trus telpon ke tempat penginapan minta dijemput nantinya di Sejong Hotel. Tempat penginapannya Seoul Tower Ville
Ini tempatnya seperti weekly manshion, kamarnya udah termasuk dapur segala. Sebenarnya teman gw udah datang duluan ke Korea sejak 3 hari yg lalu, so gw datang bergabung ama dia.
Begitu sampe, tuker baju yg hangatan kita menuju ke Seoul Tower. Trus lanjut ke Myeong Dong nyari makan. Karena udah malam, toko2 rata2 udah tutup. Kita makan oden di warung dekat jalan n beli kimbab, sambil makan sambil jalan ^^;
Besok paginya makan bubur di Myeong Dong trus jalan2 (baca: shopping) sekitar sini. Yg di borong sih rata2 make-up titipan soalnya murah2 banget disini. Ada Missha, The Face Shop, Etude yg bisa 2 kali lipat harganya baek di Indo maupun di Jepang.... Pokoknya borong dah di sini hahaha
Pulangnya tas2 kita udah dibawain ama orang penginapan ke Sejong Hotel, so kita ga perlu balek lagi ke penginapan. Gila tuh kalo pulang ke penginapan mesti manjat2 tangga lagi, cape bo!Trus dari Sejong Hotel naek bus menuju airport.
So this is my end journey for new year and will write again my next journey for golden week hehehe

Last day in OZ

Pagi2 dijemput lagi ama bus gede menuju ke airport Coolangatta, Gold Coast. Kali ini udah dikasih tau ama bus operatornya dijemput jam berapa, so ga bakal telat lagi ke airport --" Airport Gold Coast kecil banget, untuk menuju ke pesawat pun pake jalan kaki. Kalo yg tau airport di Batam, nah airport di sini lebih kecil lagi dibanding yg di Batam.
Sesampe di Sydney, jalan2 di city n ke supermarket Woolworths belanja sedikit oleh2. Katanya sih nih supermarket termasuk supermarket gede di Sydney, sampe di guide book gw aja ada. Trus juga beli ice cream yg terkenal di sini buat terakhir kali, Gelatissimo :)
Malamnya clubbing n ke karaoke lagi. Iya, LAGI!! hehehe Gak tau dah ke berapa kali gw ke karaoke dan setiap kali ke tempat yang sama, sampe dibilang ama pelayannya "datang lagi?" hahaha Btw, nama karaokenya Echopoint. Di sini tempat karaoke favorit-nya S karena ada system DAM yg sama ama jepang, so lagu2 jepangnya complit sampe yg terbaru. Kebetulan hari ini kita2 difoto ama staffnya dan fotonya ada di homepagenya tuh hihihi (find out urself ok)
Clubbingnya di Star Bar, ex Planet Hollywood. Globe trade mark Planet Hollywood masih ada, cuman namanya dah diganti jadi Star Bar. Untuk masuk club di OZ kayanya lumayan strict, mesti kasih liat ID ato Passport. Pas ke sini udah rada malam... hmm mestinya bilangnya udah pagi :P Ga tau karena udah penuh ato gimana, banyak yg ga dikasih masuk. Tapi ga berapa lama ada yg bisa masuk, so kita juga ikut2an masuk.
Tadinya rencana ga tidur biar paginya ga telat lagi ke airport, ternyata gw ketiduran juga hehehe Bangunnya juga udah rada mepet waktunya akhirnya naek taxi ke airport. So nice that airport sydney begitu dekat dari city. Coba di osaka, bisa bangkrut gw naek taxi ke airport --"
Btw, ini pertama kali dan terakhir kali gw naek taxi di OZ hahaha
Tiba waktunya mesti say sayonara ama S (gonna miss you!!) S, gw tunggu di jepang ya :)
Kali ini bukan gw yg telat tapi pesawatnya yg telat --" Mana cash AUD gw dah diganti semua ke yen, ga ada duit buat beli minum.... terpaksa nahan haus sampe naek ke pesawat. Kira2 telatnya 1jam-an lebih deh. Pas pulang ini seat penuh semua, sama sekali ga ada tempat buat berbaringan :(

2nd & 3rd day in Gold Coast

Di sini selaen tempat buat nge-beach, terkenal juga buat theme park. Theme parknya banyak banget, ada Movie World, Dreamworld, Water World bla bla bla .... Sampe ada tiket pass murah kalo elo emang berniat kunjungi 3 theme park selama lu di Gold Coast. We are not such theme-park-maniac tho hehehe. Kita cuman ke Movie World di hari kedua dan Dream World di hari ketiga. So kita beli tiketnya per park di airport. Lumayan, lebih murah dikit. Dan dengan freedom pass kita dijemput di depan backpackers. Jemputnya pake bus gede ^^;

-Warner Bross Movie World-
Gw agak kaget kalo teman2 japanese gw ga begitu kenal ama character Looney Tunes padahal beken gitu ya ^^;
Pagi2 belon sarapan udah berangkat, akhirnya sarapan dulu di Warner Bros. Abis sarapan keliling2 park yg ternyata ga gede2 amat. Foto ama Sylverster n Bugs Bunny + Wile (bayar bo!) Maunya fotonya bareng Tweety tapi ketinggalan *hiks*
Di sini cuman ada satu ride yg serem - ESCAPE-nya Superman **kaga berani hehehe** cukup foto aja :P Gw ampir ilang sunglasses gw di sini (jadi ingat sunglasses gw yg ilang di Dufan ToT) tapi untung banget pas gw sadar sunglasses ilang di area Batman, langsung gw ke Lost n Found dan I FOUND IT!!! (Thanks to who had found my sunglasses!!!)
Karena kecilnya park ini, setelah nonton parade looney tunes, kita cancel-in jemputan bus dan pulang lebih awal pake bus biasa.
Kita mampir dulu di Harbour Outlet Shopping Mall yg tentunya buat shopping hehehe. Sayangnya sini tutupnya cepat banget, jam 7 udah tutup semua (ini kalo pas kamis, hari biasa tutup jam 5!)
So mau ga mau, balek lagi ke Surfers and have our most most valuable SEAFOOD DINNER!!! in Seafood Mania :D~~~ Sebenarnya kita milih makan disini karena kita ada voucher diskon, tapi sampe selesai makan dan dah keluar dari tuh resto baru ingat kalo kita punya voucher (!gelo banget...) Setelah dari sini lanjut lagi ke Irish Bar.... trus bobo! ^^;

-Dreamworld -
Sama seperti hari sebelumnya, dijemput ama bus gede trus sarapan dulu di sini ^^;
Disini gede banget, ke sana-sini bisa naek train kecilnya, terbagi beberapa section dengan berbagai ride-nya. Tapi kita malah cepat banget udahan, soalnya kaga sanggup naek semua ridenya yg...syerem syerem .... Abis naek The Claw kapok dah hahaha
Eniwei, tujuan utama ke sini seh gw mau foto gendong Koala hihihi Bela2in bayar lah :P
soalnya ga semua tempat yg ada Koala bisa digendong loh. Di sini salah satu tempat yg bisa gendong Koala, dan kalo ga salah hanya di bagian timur australia yg koalanya bisa digendong. bagian laen koalanya serem2 kali ya hehehe (gw ga tau loh, ini cuman nebak2 aja hihihi)

Pulangnya ke Surfers lagi, makan Pancakes in Paradise terus bersantai ria di Pantai. Sorenya karaoke lagi (see how do we like karaoke hahaha) trus setelah pusing2 mau dinner dimana (karena mahal2 semua ToT) akhirnya kita milih makan di Billy Baxter's. Kenapa makan di sini karena tiba2 hujan gede dan ini tempat yg paling dekat tanpa harus basah2 ^^; Untungnya ini hujan ga lama, begitu selesai makan hujannya juga reda dan bisa pulang ke backpackers dengan aman.