My 2010 Bali Trip in September

Yippieeee!! Before the end of Year 2010, I think I better blog something on my Bali trip keke. My trip started from 15th Sept till 21st Sept.

On 15th Sept:
AA flight delayed :(
We actually bought 3.50pm flight but it delayed till 4.50pm. So, we reached Denpasar, Bali Airport @ about 9.25pm.

posing while waiting

Met my lovely cousin sis at Bali Airport (since we took different flight, haha). Our driver came and fetched us from Airport to Fatyogi Cottages at Poppies Lane 1. After checking in our stuffs in the hotel room, went out to have our simple dinner.

We were too hungry to walk around so we just had our dinner @ Bali Agung Restaurant, right in front of the hotel. The food was nice and we could feel the Balinese taste, yummy!! :P

see, yummy not?? hehe
me and cousin sis

alled up our driver (Pak Gede) and arranged for Kintamani tour before going to bed.

–The End of our 1st day-

On 16th Sept:
Pak Gede sent his driver to bring us to Kintamani. His name is Pak Made. Personally I don't think he was really a great driver. He just loved to talk crap and only brought us to expensive places haha. We went to Batubulan, Tohpati and alot of places. We visited wood carving places, batik producing shop, kopi Luwak farm, art & painting shop and Pura Tirta Empul temple. Then we reached Kintamani to have our lunch.

*so many things to buy....

in the car~

We had our lunch for Rp. 88000/person incld. taxes... After Kintamani, we went to Ubud market for some shopping. Wow, we can really bought a lot of stuffs @ Ubud market haha.. All you need is your special bargaining skill! The tour started early morning at 9.00am until 8.00pm.

We paid Rp. 350 000 for the day trip for petrol, supir and transport Daihatsu Xenia. We paid for all the entrance fees and parking fees.

Pura Tirta Empul temple - Rp. 50000, parking Rp. 5000
Kintamani - Rp. 5000, transport Rp. 2000

At night, we had dinner at their local stall. We found a Babi Guling stall nearby our hotel, so we gave it a try.
Babi Guling - Rp. 15000
Frestea - Rp. 3000
Yummy, but a bit spicy for me haha!

Then, walked around at Kuta area... The night life here was really happening. We went for 1 hr body massage @ Soma massage which cost Rp. 85,000…

waiting for our turn

babi guling stall; see the babi head??

–The End of our 2nd day-

On 17th Sept:

We plan to go for a free and easy day, just walked around Kuta area. Visited Hard Rock Bali shop since we have a Hard Rock fan together. Bought quite a lot of stuffs from the shops around Kuta area, bargained for 80%-90% discount.

For reference;

Normal T-shirt: Rp 12000 – 15000
A bit good quality T-shirt: Rp 25000 - Rp 40000
Knitted hat: Rp 30000 (bargained from Rp. 250000)
Small Painting with frame: Rp. 35000 - Rp 45000 (bargained for quite long to get that price)
Wood carving Mask: Rp. 20000 - Rp 25000
Rangga (Barong mask): Rp 20000 - Rp 25000
Bali Ashtray: Rp 25000
Bali Keychains (colorful type): Rp 10000 (for a pack of 5)

After that, we went to Kuta Beach for sun-bathing. Pretty hot on that day and had sun-burnt.. Yucks!! Henna temporary tattoo for only Rp 20000..

sun-bathing.. hehe

In the evening, we went to Tanah Lot for sunset view, but unfortunately we can't really had a nice sunset view. Just walked around the sunset area. We saw a sign stated "Holy Snake". If you want to see the so-called "Holy Snake", you need to give some donations. We saw a guy wanted to look at the snake and gave a donation of Rp 1000. He was scolded a guy who was taking care of the donations. Haha, so funny. Donations but Angry if pay less. Why don't they just specify the amount to pay? :P

Took lots of pictures at Tanah Lot, bought some sea shells. You can get one palm size shell for Rp 18000 - Rp 25000. About 7.30pm, we went back to our hotel. Walked around Kuta area and had Bakso Sapi and Lalapan as our dinner. Yummy!! We need to wait for about 15minutes to get our food. Really lots of ppl Q'ing at the stall.

Bakso Sapi with Rice - Rp. 7500
Soto Sapi with Rice - Rp. 7500
Nasi Lalapan - Rp. 12000
Frestea - Rp. 3000

–The End of our 3rd day-

On 18th Sept:

Booked White water rafting at Telaga Waja River. Pak Gede asked his worker to fetch us at 8.30am from hotel. We managed to get Rp 190000/person for water rafting package. Quite nice but not that adventurous.. Haha. The best part is the 4m jump!! Our rafting guide is nice and always chit-chat with us...

here starts my rafting journey :)

After rafting, had our buffet lunch.. Not bad.. Bought our rafting picture for Rp. 25000. Yah, for memory so we just buy 1 each.

At night, our driver was so nice that he offered to bring us to Jimbaran for dinner without any charges. (Haha, maybe he can get commission from the restaurant?? hmm). He recommended Aroma Restaurant, average price with fresh and nice seafood. We gave it a rating of 4.5/5. For 3 people, we spent about Rp. 724000. Really full to the maximum! We ordered Crabs, squids, fish, prawns, mussels, seafood soup, vege, fruit juices, young coconut, bintang beer.

* with two lengluis :P

* tadaaaa~ our food finished dy...

The environment was really nice and cooling! After dinner, went back and sleep peacefully throughout the night... Our driver's name is Gede (but not the boss). It’s a relaxing and romantic place. You must come here with your beloved ones!

–The End of our 4th day-

On 19th Sept:

Pak Gede called to ask what our plan was. We told him that we planned to rent a car to drive from Kuta - Ubud. We planned to rent Suzuki Jimmy from Pak Gede. He charged us for Rp. 100000/day. I think this should be quite a good price as it was a peak season in Bali. Then he offered to have Suzuki Katana with driver and petrol for only Rp. 250000. To save our hassle, we agreed and he gave us Pak Nyoman. Pak Nyoman was seriously friendly and nice. He brought us to Bebek Bengil @ Ubud for lunch.

Bebek Bengil: Rp 72000 (A MUST try food)

After lunch, we went to Bedugul and Candi Kuning Market, art and fruit market. Try Kelinchi (rabbit) satay, taste nice 10 sticks for Rp. 10000. The bought peach and strawberry, 1 box of strawberry costs Rp. 7500 :P

Then we went to a resting area and took some pictures there. We also tried fishing at the lake.. Rp. 5000 unlimited fishing.. Got some tiny little zebra fishes.. Then, we went to Ubud again to buy some carving and paintings. We became better in bargaining with the locals.. :P

For dinner, we went to Naughty Nuri’s for the spare ribs. Taste really nice! Another MUST try food in Bali.

Spare Ribs: Rp. 70000
Fruit juice: Rp 9000

Had a nice and memorable day. Pak Nyoman was good and he always explained to us about Bali culture and the also told us the bombing story. Surprisingly, in the morning he bought newspaper for us to read in the car so that we dont get bored. He also helped us to pay all the parking fees although we should be paying for that. He was really nice and friendly. Highly recommended to everyone.

On 20th Sept:
At first I planned to shop at Sukawati but we were very tired. Moreover, it was a rainy day, so we just spent our last day in Kuta area. Walked around and checked our shopping list! Haha Packed and prepare to go back to Malaysia tomorrow morning @ 6AM!!

It was an exciting trip and everything was great!

My Bali trip expenses:
Flight Ticket: RM145 (return ticket+tax)
Hotel for 3: Rp 1,800,000 (RM 213/person for 6 nights.. guess it was a great deal!)
1st Day (food): Rp 25,000
2nd Day (Kintamani tour): Rp. 542,000 (tour+meal+shopping)
3rd Day (Kuta area + Tanah Lot): Rp. 135,500
4th Day (Water Rafting+Jimbaran+shopping): Rp. 709,000
5th Day (Bedugul+meal+shopping): Rp. 370,500
6th Day (Airport+tax): Rp. 40,000

Total Spent: Rp. 2,422,000 = ~ RM 848.00 (excl. flight)

Total All-in-All: RM993 (incld. Flight ticket for 6 days trip to Bali!)

* Our conversion rate is Rp: 10000 = Rm3.50

More pictures will be uploaded in my FaceBook.. Hehe...

The Busiest Week in My Life

The busiest week in my life? Or this is just the beginning part? Yucksss, this whole week was damn busy and terrible!

I was assigned to be the coordinator for Mod 7 CI shutdown for 3 Plant Changes (PCs). 1 mechanical PC, 2 instrument PCs. As usual, followed up schedule, attended meetings, answered to the people why we are not meeting the schedule as per planned, monitored contractors CLOSELY, communicated with work supervisors ALL the times… Owh, and many more…

Ya, now I know it’s not that easy to monitor a project especially to ensure everything is on schedule. There will be something happened in between to delay the work like no transportation, equipment are not inspected, contractors started work late, weather, ALARMsss to stop work and etc.

Among the highlights throughout the whole Mod 7 CI were;

Tuesday:
Project started. Contractor reached late on site due to transportation problem. Called up the boss and finally they started work at 9.00 AM (supposed to be 7 AM). Site preparation not ready yet. That’s terrible. Our work supervisor had to help them run around MLNG to get permits and prepare everything. That’s for the sake of meeting schedule or else …

Wednesday:
Second day, everything seemed to be better today. The worst thing is the electrical tools inspection dates were found to be expired. Work supervisors had to bring the tools to our workshop to re-inspect again. For today, we were quite lucky as only removing gratings and some cutting jobs to be carried out.

Thursday:
Today we started the welding job. Early in the morning, (not a very good day) we heard ALARM! Owh gosh, fire happened at Module 5 vessel stack. I heard it was about leaking of regen gas that caused the fire. All work stopped until 10.15AM. Then when contractors were just about to start work, we heard another ALARM again at 11.30AM until lunch time. Basically the whole morning, did nothing, nothing, nothing. Tadaaa.. here comes the schedule! Planned completed job: 45%, actual completed job: 32%. The answer was rather simple; mainly due to ALARM! And mitigation plan? To ask contractors to work during silence hour, meaning to work on extended hours until the welding job completed. Wuuuuu, x-Ray was carried out at night about 12AM! Luckily! Thursday, I had to rush to Parkcity for our 1PDD dinner. I was the emcee! Again! But luckily, there’s one work supervisor who can help to monitor the work closely on site.

Friday:
Pray for the result to pass!!! Tadaaa, at 8AM, my work supervisor told me that the RT results all 3 welding joints passed! Fuhh, that’s a great achievement! Prepared work permit and requested TES/3 for MPI in the morning and all passed. Then, I went for morning meeting to inform them that pneumatic test will be carried out later in the afternoon. Guess what!! Asset owner disagreed on pneumatic test and asked us to carryout hydrotest! WHAT??!@#$%^&*()_ We prepared JSA, permits and everything for pneumatic and now you told us HYDROTEST? Shit! I had to explain to asset owner all the reasons (hopefully I got them right haha). Even after the meeting, called up my work supervisor to explain in details. BUT to our disappointment, NO! We must carry out hydrotest for safety reason. 

GOSH! Contractor had prepared all pneumatic test equipment and now we asked them to change in 2 hours?? Haihhh… It’s a bad day. Then, after 15 minutes, I got a call from HUN PIN. He told us that Asset owner agreed to let us carry out pneumatic test (after his visit to that line) but only during silence hour. AGAIN!! >.< Had to call up contractor again and let them know. We felt like being fooled!@#$%^&*()_ hmmmmm…

Pneumatic test at 4.30PM. All equipment are prepared and the test started at 5.00PM. The pressure was increasing until 12 barg and it stopped. It remained constant at 12 barg for 1 hour!! Not a good indication again! And our N2 supply for the test is running low. (contractor prepared only 2 bottles!) Mitigation plan: I called up Warehouse rep. who was on standby duty, requested for N2 supply. Luckily she was in a good mood and willing to help us. Our work supervisor went to mechanical workshop to borrow a new pressure regulator. We suspected the regulator prepared by contractor was spoilt. Hahaha… after worked hard to help contractor to prepare all the necessary equipment and supply, we continued the test, the pressure gone up!! Thank God! Waited until about 9.15 PM to reach 74 barg. Fuh… Let the pressure maintained for 30minutes. Yeah, pressure test completed at 9.45 PM. Finally, I can go back and sleep!

I missed Douglas open house. *sad* Had dinner at 10PM @ KFC… Haha

Saturday:
Final day! I planned to finish up everything today to make sure we handover back to OPS by today (then we are ahead of 1 day). Pushed hard for contractor to finish up the job. Keke… If we didn’t monitor them, they will work lazily. So, I had to stay at site at all times to make sure all work were completed. My wish came true! Work completed at 5.10PM. Carried out joint site visit with OPS and signed off Permits at 5.20PM! Yeah, tonight can have a great sleep! Huhu… Sunday is only for major housekeeping and demob activities.

OPS given schedule:
Tuesday 7AM – Sunday 6PM

Our work:
Tuesday 9AM – Saturday 5.20PM Woooohooooooooooooooooo!!!

Really appreciate my work supervisors for their dedication and hard work! Of course busiest doesn’t mean only because of this s/d. In between I had to present QC Tender Plan paper, meeting for other PCs and etc… whole body felt pain ady now >.<

My Yummy Last Weekend

Hmm, let me talk about last weekend (27th March 2010). I went for Breakthrough to Success course in New World Hotel from 23rd - 25th March 2010. There, I saw Edwin, HunPin and other lots of friends. Then, out of sudden, we chatted about Setlee, Mechi queen is here ady at Bintulu. Then out of the sudden, Edwin said "Ooo, you cooked and ajak Setlee makan, didn't ajak me" huhu.. What should I reply neh?

Then, ok, since I am a generous and kind-hearted girl, I told Edwin and Hunpin I am going to cook this coming weekend (27th March 2010).. Guess what?? Hmm, I will cook the Penang fav's Hokkien Bihun.. Again, Hokkien Bihun (haha not MEE, as I dislike MEE :P)

It's just a small and simple perhaps 'UTPians-Bintulu' gathering at my house with Hokkien Bihun as lunch. We have Roy, Edwin, Setlee, Hunpin, Jalen, Jeremy and me!

Some of the ingredients:
1 - Bihun of course
2 - Prawns (small-medium size)
3 - Chickens (drumstick and wings)
4 - Vege - kangkong
5 - Boiled egg (half)
5 - fried onions (yummy)
6 - chillies
7 - sambal prawn paste

Additional ingredients: maybe SWEAT?? hhahahha

Some comments would be:
Roy: Waa if got BIG prawns sure damn nice (Yupe, I know that.. Nx time you sponsor PRAWNS ya)

Not enough spicy though.. Although it looks super duper RED, but still not very spicy. Alright, I never know non-Penangites can eat HOT and SPICY food...