3 Young Contemporaries

It was my first art encounter since I moved to KL. It was at the Valentine Wille Art Gallery in Bangsar Baru. The title was "3 Young Contemporaries", catering 3 young contemporary artists from Indonesia [Ariadhitya Pramuhendra], Philippines [Patricia Eustaquio] and Thailand [Tawan Wattuya].

I was actually invited by Goro, my long lost friend, because it's always feel good to meet old friends in a strange land. So, we went to have early dinner at the Nirvana Restaurant near the gallery. I've been there once and they serve the best "banana leaf". I never like bitter-cod, but I love their fried bitter-cod. Maybe because it's not so bitter. They really cook it in the right way.

After dinner, we went back to the gallery. It was still empty. So, we took the liberty to take as much pictures as we wanted! I found Hendra's paintings were interesting. He's so narcist laaah... All the models in his paintings were himself. I wonder why... Maybe he couldn't get other people to show perfect expressions that he needs to capture. What I like about Hendra's and Patricia's works were that they came in black and white. Very strong black and white. I think it's magical.

My second trip to Manila [it was only for a ONE and a HALF DAY MEETING]

This is crazy! I was on my way to KLIA by KLIA Express and I was thinking "This is crazy". Why? "Because I have just arrived from Bangkok last night, and now I'm on my way to KLIA again for the trip to Manila. And even crazier because I will be there only for one and half day!"

I have to fly to Manila because I need to discuss my draft of strategic planning with my convener. There's no way that I can do it over the teleconference. So, I was proposing for her to come 2 or 3 days earlier before the Strat Plan Meeting, but she can't. So, I have to make all the efforts to fly. I never like Manila. It's so polluted. And it happened again... Everyone was talking to me in Tagalog. Regardless my apology about not able to speak Tagalog. One lady at the taxi counter was even scolding me for not speaking in Tagalog, "Why are you not speaking Tagalog? You are a Filipina, no?". So, again, they were thinking that I was the obnoxious Filipina who live abroad for quite some time and doesn't want to speak Tagalog anymore. Oh man...

So, since I was so stressed and exhausted, I decided to pamper myself before I went back to KL. Luckily, there was a salon next to my hotel. So, after I checked out, I went there and had pedicure and a nice creambath. The price was mush cheaper than KL. For the whole treatment I only paid around US$10. My goodness! You will never get that in KL. Never!

So, I finished at around 11.30 AM and hailed a taxi to get me to NAIA [Ninoy Aquino International Airport]. It was Sunday. No traffic. I felt so good.... until I saw the line in front of the Malaysia Airlines check in counter.

The line was soooo long. It took me 1,5 hour to get myself checked in. After that I had to queue for the airport tax payment. And after that another long queue for the immigration. So, I was starting to queue in front of MAS counter at 12 PM and finally managed to get myself into the boarding area at 2.45 PM. Can you imagine that? Bloody two and a half hour!!!! That airport does not have a good system at all!

My fifth trip to Bangkok

This is my fifth trip to Bangkok and I'm excited. Not because the venue, but because I'm going to meet a lot of friends. Old friends... Friends from other countries, friends from Indonesia [so, I can ask them to bring home some things for me!].

As usual, the trip I made is never a holiday trip... It's, once again, a working trip. I'm going to attend the IPPF Workshop. They had been changing the venue for several times and finally settled it down in Bangkok.

I took the afternoon flight, around 12 PM and arrived in Svarnabhumi Airport at around 2.30 PM. It's always good to land at some place you're familiar with. However, the weather was sooo hot! Even the taxi driver said that it was too hot for him. It was around 34 degree Celcius outside. Thank God they put us in a nice hotel called Windsor Suites Hotel at Sukhumvit Soi 20.

The first thing that I do after I unpack was finding Rachel's room. She promised me to bring my bangles! And I found out that she actually brought the whole collection of "The Ethical SLut".... my God! So, I ended up getting myself a nice big purple belt. I never like purple. It's not my favorite color. But this purple was soooo nice! I couldn't resist myself! So, I took it anyway....

We went to MBK afterwards. I was trying to get a backpack for myself but I couldn't find a suitable one. Rachel, on the other hand, came back with a bag of 5 tops!!! Hwahahaha! It's always like that. When you said you're just accompanying, you're ended up being the one who shops! After having such a wonderful shopping time, we decided to pamper ourselves with nice Japanese food. I'm not going to save money for myself this time because I don't have to bring home so many souvenirs as usual [Thank GOD!!!!]. I didn't plan to shop for myself either. I have planned to pamper myself with good food and good massage! So, we went to Fuji Restaurant and had some Gyouza, Chirashi Sushi, Enoki Roll, Okonomiyaki and green tea. We were so happy that we can hang out together again.

Isn't it a nice place to eat....? The food was horrible, though... >:P