Long weekend in Medan

The idea came up when I teased my niece, saying that I'd take her mom with me on a trip and leave her alone at home. Hmmm, kinda cruel to tease a 3.5 years old girl like that. She wants her mom close to her everywhere she goes.. You can imagine how difficult it will be to train her being away from her mom.

To make long story short, I asked my sister to come with me to Medan, our home town, bring her two kids and husband, so our grandmother will be able to see her great grand children while she's still alive. Too bad my brother-in-law wasn't able to take his annual leave.
I booked plane ticket online. Air Asia sent me an e-mail, they were having promotions and if I'm lucky to hit the right date, the price will be very cheap.
The ticket to Medan wasn't available at low price on my chosen date, but it will be for the ticket for Jakarta. So for departure, I booked Mandala Airlines ticket.
Total cost for two adults, one infant, and one baby was around IDR 2.3 million only!
It was a month before we left.

The trip to Medan was alright, even though we couldn't get the same seat row. My sister wasn't allowed to sit in front, while I had first row seat with my niece. You can guess, my niece can't sit still. She kept looking for her mom. So I took turn with my sis to hold the baby while my sister was sitting in front. The baby didn't cry at all in the plane. Good boy, Eza.

We didn't go to recreation places, as the objective of this trip was to settle some personal matters.

Es Campur, Medan's dessert

Clam Satay, Medan's snack

Pekanbaru Trip, for exhibition

On May 5-8, 2009, I was in Pekanbaru for attending an exhibition at General Surgeon Conference. Pekanbaru is the capital city of Riau Province.
The venue was at Hotel Gran Labersa, while my hotel was quite far from the venue.
My distributor team stayed at Ibis Hotel. We scattered because the venue was full.

I bought dinner for the team on the last night in Pekanbaru. It was Padang restaurant but the main menu is spicy grilled fish. Yummy.... For six people, I only spent IDR 195,000 and we were full!

My Malacca trip, Day 3

APRIL 19, 2009

On the last day of O.R. nurse event, we had a team building program, which was also very interesting because it turned out that the organizer organized a cooking competition for ten groups, each consist of three persons.
Tho hotel chef demonstrated how to cook two local dishes, and the participants must make the same.
Indonesian teams came out at 3rd and 4th runner up.

After the wrap up, the guests checked out, the van picked them up. I was hoping that the van will run well. After lunch, I fell asleep for one hour! Felt tired already while we still have another two days to go.

We spent the rest of the day discussing about Branding and new product launch program.
Dinner was in the hotel, continued with meeting with Indonesian team.

My Malacca trip, Day 2

APRIL 18, 2009

We continued the lecture and other sessions (e.g. the forming of O.R. nurse association).
One interesting session was about personal development lecture about creating image by grooming ourselves. The institution which gave the lecture gave a make over to four of my Malaysian colleagues.

The dinner was held in the ballroom, started by our 100th anniversary of stapling technology. I was one of the stapler displayer who moved around the ballroom carrying one model of old generation stapler.
After dinner, we had karaoke for awhile, followed by sightseeing in Jonker Walk area. It's a night market opens only during weekends.

My Malacca trip, Day 1

It's been awhile since my visit to Malaysia.

Last weekend I had a chance to visit Malaysia again. But this time I stayed in Malacca.
Malacca is located on the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia facing the Straits of Malacca, about 147 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur between the states of Negeri Sembilan and Johor.


APRIL 17, 2009
I flew by Air Asia (yeah..... my Vice President's favorite), flight no. QZ 7562 from Jakarta.
I and my colleague accompanied ten O.R. nurses for ASEAN O.R. nurse meeting (April 17-19, 2009). The event would be followed by our sales training (April 20) and midyear review meeting (April 21).

We landed in Kuala Lumpur at around 10.30 AM local time. Usually Air Asia land at KLIA, but it's been shifted to new aiport, LCCT (Lower Cost Carrier Terminal). It's small but still have shops and cafes.
We were picked up by two vans. Malacca is 1.5 - 2 hours away from the airport.
Unfortunately, the engine of the van that I was riding was over heated and it just stopped just after 15 minutes we went out the airport!
So the driver called his office to get replacement and he also called up the other van. The other van turned around and went to us. My driver said it would take 40 minutes to get the replacement. It was a hot afternoon and we were in toll way.


We decided to go in to the other van, moved all of our luggage to its trunk, although the driver it wouldn't fit. But we did! We were crimping inside, but at least we were moving.
The driver played house music and rap music, what worsen it was that it was in Mandarin!

After 1.5 hours, we stopped at a resting point, the engine was at border level of heat. The driver had lunch, while the rest bought some drinks. I and my colleague bought drinking water for our guests. Not long, the replacement van came so we moved again to the new van.
On our way to hotel, we saw a car accident in front of us.

Finally, we arrived at Avillion Legacy Melaka Hotel.
As the Team Coordinator, I made sure hotel check-in of our group members and distributed the gimmicks. After got refreshed, we went to the ballroom and the event started.
Tonight's dinner was at Portuguese village settlement. They performed traditional Portuguese dance and song. Roasted oyster with butter and garlic was soooo yummy!