Packing...Packing...Drama??!!

The thing I hate the most before travelling is PACKING!! I really like to wait until the last minute coz I know I'll travel as light as possible. So, I don't think I need more time to do it. Anyway, thanxs to Neo for helping me packing it hehehehe.

Now, I'm in KL coz I need to catch early morning flight to Delhi to start my journey. There's a drama happened when my brother pick me up from LCCT just now. On the way back home, the car suddenly stop moving and can't restart. Since we use 'jalan dalam' going back home, so we stuck in kinda of middle of nowhere and it's really dark and scary hehehe coz it's already 11PM. We have to call mechanic at to repair it and thank god there's one. The problem was the timing belt kinda weary. Fortunately, we're able to reach home by 12.30AM.

I wanna sleep now coz I need to wake up at 5AM tomorrow for the flight. I hope I don't any car problem again. Ill definitely ask my brother to use another car to send me tomorrow. This is my last entry for this month coz I'll be travelling until 31 May 08. See you guys with my travelogue next month. Ciao....

Farewell Guga, Farewell.. A Tribute

Hi again. Since I got nothing to write these past few days. So I decided to bid farewell to my all time favourite tennis player i.e Gustave Kuerten a.k.a Guga. I really adore his style of play and I took up tennis coz of him. That was after he won his first Roland Garros title i.e way back in 1997.



Unfortunately he'll be retiring this year and Roland Garros starting 26 May - 8 June 08 will be his last tournament. I wish him the best even though it's quite unlikely he'll get past the first round. Unfortunately I might not get to see his last match coz I'll still be travelling during that time unless he goes far into the tournament. Since Roland Garros is his first tournament & Grand Slam title, it's fitting that he'll end it there. By the way, he won the tournament THREE times already.



Of all his matches, i think the best he played was during 2000 Master Cup in Lisbao (Lisbon). Then he beat Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras on an indoor court (which is not his favourite surface) to claim the title and finished the year as the No.1 player in the world in 2000. Anyway, I wish him all the best and tennis world will lost such a great personality on court. Farewell......

One Night In KK... and

Hi everyone, I'm in KK since yesterday until tomorrow. I just wanna share with you guys that last night I had quite a good dinner with Kak Linda and Kak Piah at a very unexpected place. The place is hot and crampy. I need a bucket coz I sweat so much heehe. One thing for sure it's NOT the place for some of my friends esp Fadli the ultimate DIVO (jangan marah....) hehehe. It's a 'warong' at Pasar Filipin. I decided to join them coz it's just in front of Le Meridien Hotel where I stay in KK and Neo also recommend the place to me before. It just that I don't have geng to go makan there until last night. The food is surprisingly quite good given the condition of the place. I even tried the algea and it's really good. Thank you Kak Linda for the dinner and the experience heheeh.


After dinner, I went back to the hotel and watched Tennis Rome Masters Series on Star Sports. To my surprise and every tennis fans in the world that one of my all time favourite player i.e Rafael Nadal (Rafa) lost for the SECOND time in 105 matches on his favourite CLAY surface. I'm kinda shocked that Juan Carlos Ferrero(JCF) finally beat him on clay. I'm not that sad coz I like both players though. It's good to see JCF (former Roland Garros champion) get back to form after just a moderate performance these past four years. Maybe playing 3 weeks in a row is too much too handle for Rafa (after crowned champion at Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open) in weeks before. I guess it's a blessing in disguise for Rafa to get some rest before defending his Roland Garros title for the forth year in a row. Too bad I'll miss the first week of Roland Garros action coz I'll still be travelling. Anyway, I hope Rafa will win his first Hamburg Masters starting next week.

Behind The Scene

First, I wanna let you guys know that at last I finished reading 'Life Of Pi' by Yann Martel. It was really good towards the end of the story and really made me believe that the whole thing really happen and real. No wonder it won 2002 Man Booker Prize.

Now, I just wanna share 'behind the scene' of my India & Bhutan trip. It fun to travel but I nearly crack up my head to find the best route with the cheapest possible way to do it esp when I wanna travel to remote/exotic/unexplore places like I mentioned in my previous post. First, I have to know what I wanna see and do before I can map out my journey. Trust me, the excitement end there. The reason I choose Delhi was it connects well with KL and Paro (Bhutan). Also, I got to see one of Seven Wonder i.e Taj Mahal. That was easy but to get the cheapest ticket out of Delhi to Bagdogra (the nearest airport to Darjeeling) was quite a challange coz Air Deccan offers the cheapest domestic ticket in India but NONE of Malaysian travel agents can book me on Air Deccan. Even worst, their website limits the usage of outside India credit card tansaction. So, I can't buy the ticket online from their website. After much web searching, I found out that travelocity india website offers Air Deccan ticket. SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTION!!!. I'm so happy about it coz other airlines offer double that what Air Deccan offers for that one way ticket to Bagdogra. Then planning for Derjeeling-Pelling-Gangtok was quite smooth.

On Bhutan side, there are a few Bhutan government regulation that foreigners have to follow. Travel in Bhutan is not cheap. That's why I decided to spent ONLY 5 nights there. First, you must be guided to enter Bhutan. Foreigners can't roam the country unattended. After much web searching, I found this one Bhutanese agent that can accomodate me with my itinerary. Second, all foreigners HAVE to fly (at least one way) by the Royal Druk Air (the ONLY carrier fly in and out of Bhutan). The ticket is not cheap either and that's why I choose to enter by land (Phuentsholing) then fly out from Paro to Delhi by Druk Air. Third, credit card transaction is almost non-existent in Bhutan except at luxury hotels (they only have 2-3 such hotels). So, I have to wire down the money for Druk Air flight ticket and all the travelling charges to them. But I can't wire directly to Bhutan National Bank. I have to use third party banks (ONLY 3 banks listed). The problem was, Malaysian banks are sooooo incompetent and they can't/reluctant to do it that way. The most stupid comment they gave me was 'Are you sure it is a country coz they never heard of it and Bhutan sounds FUNNY'. It shows that how ignorant some Malaysians are even how educated they can be. Then, I have to make a call all the way to Bhutan to clarify the matter and they decided I can pay them there either by CASH or US Travellers cheque but they prefer CASH. What?!! I can't be carrying lots of USD while travelling esp in India. There are a few more Bhutan government regulations BUT it'll take million pages to write everything down heheheh.

There are a few more obstacle and uncertainty for me in planning this trip esp on Bhutan side. I almost cancel the trip coz it takes a lot out of me. Even until now, there are a few uncertainties. It'll be much easier if I just appoint an agent to do everything for me OR I just join in pre-arranged tours BUT I'll not have the satisfaction of travelling and it might cost more and definitely LESS fun. For me, the satisfaction of travelling is the crank 'your head' up while I'm planning and searching for everything needed and a successful execution of the plan. I hope everything work as what I plan or at least almost as what I plan. Now, I can't wait for the journey to begin.

Visa

At last, today I got my Indian visa. Now, I can't wait for the journey to begin. Actually, India was never on my travel list this year but China lost is India gain la... My original plan was to travel Tibet-Beijing by train (the highest railway track in the world) but unfortunately riot mushroom in Tibet and most part of Tibet is closed and restricted for tourists. There's no point to spend so much money for nothing to see. So I decided to switch my travel plan to Bhutan.

After a thorough research, I found out that Bhutan can ONLY be reach from 6 cities (Bangkok, Delhi, Kolkatta, Dhaka, Khatmandu and Bodhgaya) by air and ONLY one land entry i.e through Phuentsholing. Among the six cities, I'm only interested in Bangkok or Delhi but since I just got back from Bangkok in March 08 so I decided to start a journey from Delhi-Agra-Bagdogra-Darjeeling-Sikkim (Gangtok & Pelling)-Bhutan (through Phuentsholing-Thimpu-Punakha-Paro)-Delhi on 16-31 May 08. I hope can cover all the places within the 16 days period. It looks and sound too much to cover but I might just drop a few destinations if time doesn't permit.


The only thing that I didn't get yet is a Travel Permit to enter Sikkim. Sikkim is the smallest state in India and foreigners need a travel permit to enter the state. I think I'll have to get it in Darjeeling when I arrive there coz the India High Commission in Malaysia didn't issue the Sikkim Travel Permit. Since it's a last minute switch of plan, it's quite a hassle to find out the info about each destination, their requirement and try to get everything booked in time. As what i found out, Bhutan is very strict country to visit and they only allow around 7,000 - 10,000 tourist a year entering their country and they just open their country for foreigners since 1974. They have a few standard and procedure that we have to follow but I think it'll be worth the hassle. From their point of view, it's good way to protect/preserve their country unique culture and tradition i.e Land Of the Dragon 'The Last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom'. I'll be lucky if can meet one of the 'Trulku' while climbing Tiger's Nest Temple (one of the scared temple in Bhutan) hehehe. I'll let you know the hassle that I've gone through in my next post.

Virgin

Hi everyone,
Today is a Labor Day and for the first time ever in my life I'm writing a journal/diary/blog/travelogue etc...
It's kind of I've broken the virginity of it and as provocative as it sound comes my first post hehehe..

I'll try to write every journey in my life that I think will be interesting to share either it's happy, sad and anger etc.... It's kind of weird for me to begin coz I really don't have many things to say hehehe... and now after started writing still I don't many things to say... I hope I'll get better in my next post.

I'm not going to do much today coz it's a holiday and most probably I'll play tennis (if it's not raining) from 3-5 pm. It's part of my training and preparation for Borneo Games in June. I'll play the single for Sabah team. This will be my third time representing Sabah Tennis team for Borneo Games. So far, my record is 2-1 in a single match and I hope to contribute the point for the team again this year.

I think I'll try to finish up the book that I'm reading now titled Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It has been two months since I read it heheheh but still haven't finish reading it. The story is interesting but not really engaging unlike the previous book that I read i.e The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. That book really suck you into the storyline but unfortunately the ending was kind of predictable... But still it's a good read.

I'm going for lunch now. Til then........