Tiger charges for bags

Singapore - Tiger Airways, the budget airline partly owned by Singapore Airlines will charge passengers for check-in baggage after May 29. Tiger Air will charge S$5 per passenger per flight for a 15kg check-in bag. Travellers will be entitled to 7kg of free cabin baggage.

Free flow chips and soft drinks...

Kuala Lumpur - Upon smooth arrival, too the KL express to Le Meridien Hotel. I like this Hotel because it's centrally located and service is good too. I had a meeting with my channel partners at Chili's restaurant @ Mid Valley Shopping Mall and for a special Chili price you can have FREE flow of soft drinks and taco chips. We had lots and lots of soft drinks and chips, that when dinner time came - I was so bloated that did not really enjoy my food.
Dinner was at a famous Chinese restaurant located at Cititel Hotel Mid Valley.

Got home 2hrs earlier...

Jakarta - Yudi met me again at 8am and he is very punctual. A business ethics very rare in Indonesia where time is like 'rubber'. Sometimes called 'rubber-time'. We had breakfast and quickly caught the shuttle bus to the ICT exhibition. Today is Saturday and the expected crowds will be public, I decided to change to an earlier flight. I tried calling the night before but SQ hot line was busy for hours but in the morning I manage to change to a 5pm departure instead of 7.05pm. The ICT Exhibition was very quiet and many of the booths at the Singapore Pavilion had already packed and gone home. Around the time to leave the exhibition, Yudi gave me a lift back to the hotel in time to change the 2pm limousine booking to the airport.

ICT Indonesia 2008

Jakarta - Yudi and I arranged to meet for breakfast, so I set my alarm at 7am. Enough time for bathe and change for breakfast meeting at 7.30am. The breakfast spread was wide - eggs cooked to your requirements, porridge, sauggages (chicken and beef) and etc.. There are no pork served as Indonesia is a Muslim country. After a hearty breakfast we have to catch the free shuttle bus to the ICT exhibition area. Yudi advised me to have a heavy breakfast because there weren't any good food in and around the exhibition area. The shuttle bus pick-up was at the next hotel - Orchardz Hotel - it was just a 5 minutes walk. At few minutes past 9.30am, the shuttle bus left the Orchardz Hotel. Coming out at the entrance of the Hotel, the bus needed to make a U-turn - it was so strange to see the bus driver assistant getting off the bus and stopping the traffic. This action stopped both sides of the road for a good 10 minutes. The cars were backed up for as far as the eye can see as it was the morning peak traffic. The exhibition called ICT Expo 2008, was located at the old Jakarta airport. This technology exhibition occupied just one hall and I managed to visit all the booths in under 30 minutes. This is the 3rd day of exhibition and the crowds poured in only in the afternoon. There were many enquiries and overall it was a good exhibition. We were afraid that there might be another protest demonstrations around Jakarta on petrol price hikes but luckily it did not happen. In the evening, Yudi took me and another new friend - Lee, to Restaurant Seafood 21 located across the road of Mangga Dua Square (huge departmental store). We had one dish of crabs cooked with pepper and another cooked Padang sauce. The crabs tasted not fresh thus spoiled the dishes. The prawns (Udang) were giant and we had that BBQ - it was tasty. Squid (Cumi) was fried with flour (Tepung). Kangung (a popular vegetable in SE Asia) fried with Balachan but it came with Bean paste sauce. Overall, it's not one that I would recommend to friends. Total damage = S$48.

Night flight into Jakarta

Jakarta - I flew the last flight into Jakarta and arrived at 7.20pm. In just 1hr 40 minutes, I arrived Jakarta. The clearance of immigration was slow as the area was crowded maybe due to planes arriving at the same time. I booked the Golden bird limo for Rp 360,000 - it was a Mercedes limo that took me to the Hotel. This time I am staying at Sheraton Media Hotel & Towers @ Jl. Gunung Sahari 3 - approximately US$86 per night. This is a 5 star hotel but the facade of the Hotel is old and badly need refurbishing. It is a pity that it is part of Sheraton chain of hotels, you would expect that being 5-star and Sheraton that is would have some high standards. The room is sizable but old, the bathroom needs renovating as the tiles were blacked with algae between the tiles.

Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East Park

Singapore - Today, is a public holiday - Vesak Day, a buddhist holiday. I checked the National Parks website and found this park that is close to my home, so I took my family there for some fun. Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East Park (This park is just behind Ang Mo Kio MRT station and was built on the site of a former rubber estate. It was new and exciting to my children because they get to see Rubber trees, Nutmeg trees and Cinnamon trees. This is a small park of 5ha.

My youngest on the roller blade and the 2nd on the bike

An unsual see-saw

The bark of the cinnamon tree is used as spice

Having coffee in a church

Seoul - Young Jin arrived at Ramada Seoul Hotel for a 10am meeting with Kevin Chae. Kevin' used to work with me but now he is the boss of his own company is called Gingos Technology. For lunch, we adjourned to a small restaurant that serve home cooked meals for Won5,000 (approximately S$7.40) per person. There were about 7 simple dishes - pork slices of chili dish, dish of steam egg, soup and the rest of the dishes had lots of chillies and spices.

We went to a church for coffee and tea latte. I love tea so I had tea Latte.

I and Kevin having coffee and tea in a Christian Church

It was a busy trip after this meeting it was off to another meeting and then back to Hotel to catch the Limo Bus to the airport.

Whilst on the way to the Hotel, Young Jin and I were caught in a heavy traffic jam. As I looked out of the window I could see the Ramada hotel so I told Young Jin that we will alight here and walk over to Ramada hotel. It was in fact faster walking to the hotel where we alighted. I booked the 4.05pm bus but the bus only arrive at 4.35pm. I had ample time because my flight was 7.45pm.

Flea market in Seoul - Hwanghak-dong

Seoul - Met Young Jin at 9am and we adjourned to our 1st meeting. The meeting ended on a good note and we went for lunch at this quaint restaurant. This was the same restaurant that I went to on 19 Mar this year. The food is good and very homely so the customer brought me back again.

I read in a travel magazine that it would be interesting to visit one of Seoul's popular flea market called "Hwanghak-dong". It is still within Seoul metropolitan area. There are many 2nd hand goods being sold and the nice thing is that the Korean shop keepers do not harass or hawk their goods as you walk by.

Rows and rows of old, 2nd hand and sometimes interesting trinkets, like this funny sign board.

My 59th trip to Seoul

Seoul - About an hour into Seoul, the flight was a bit rough. But throughout the trip it was smooth. I watch the "Jumper" and the Mandarin movie "Warlords". The warlords was great with good actors - Jet Li and Andy Lau. The "Jumper" movie was a total waste of time.

Upon arrival, I rented a phone, booked a Limo Bus to Ramada Seoul Hotel. I was fortunate to catch the 3:40pm bus on time and therefore need not have to wait so long. It took just 1hr to reach the Hotel. Ramada Seoul Hotel upgraded me to the Executive floor - nothing really special. On the my previous trip, the upgraded me to a suite - wow! that was really special.

Compared to other good class hotel, their prices are reasonable at Won135,000 (S$200) per night. Ramada Seoul Hotel is very central and in the Gangnam district. Similar hotels in this district are charging over Won200,000 per night.