Sate Senayan in FX

I don't know if I've mentioned this somewhere in my blog but I'm a terrible terrible blogger when it comes to food. Mainly because I don't really take any picture of the food before I dig in and totally spoilt the presentation and then decided it is so good but a bit too late to take a nice picture. So whenever I'm travelling, I tried to make it a point now to take some pictures before attacking the food.

Back to my recent business trip in Jakarta, I was kind of bored eating the same deli food over and over again. So the day before I left, I decided to try a restaurant located in FX Mall called Sate Senayan. I thought, OK, lets tried how good is sate in Indonesia.

OMG, the few dishes that we ordered are definitely to me A+. It is so good in fact we came back for lunch the next day just before we leave for airport. The Soto Ayam A+, the sate A+, the tahu bakar A+. I gotta say that if you want to try out some local food in Jakarta, this is a good start. Centrally located in the FX Mall in Senayan, it is clean, comfortable and nice.

Location : Jakarta, Indonesia.

Thumbs up for Harris FX Senayan

Last month I spent a week in Jakarta for business. Tried very hard to go to Kelapa Sunda but my travelling partner refused to. So in the end, I caved in my hotel room. The last visit to Jakarta, I found the FX Senayan very appealing and since my trade show is in JCC Senayan, I booked into the Harris in FX.

This is the exterior picture of the building.

I was assigned into a room on the 45th floor and boy the view is fantastic. Harris is actually located on top of a very uber-trendy mall in Senayan. So although I paid the rate of USD90++ without breakfast, there is no problem at all. There are Starbucks, DeliFrance and House of Muffin, all suits my breakfast need.

I really seldom writes about the hotel that I stayed in unless it is very good or very bad. For Harris in FX, I must say it is a thumbs up. The hotel is similar to Ibis concept but I find the room bigger. It is very clean, very trendy and guess what ... they provide FREE WIFI! That is double thumbs up.

Most hotels provides cable tv nowadays but in Harris, they also provide the Star World, AXN and E! channel. I feel so at home and didn't missed any of my shows.

This one earns like 10,000 points from me. Essential oil in the room ... OMG, how cool is that. The room smells so calm and relaxing, almost like I'm in a spa.

All in all, if you are in Jakarta for whatever reason, staying in Harris FX is the best choice. Location - good, Hotel - good, Food - good, Price - good.

Location : Jakarta, Indonesia (Oct 2011)

Logos Hope, the Floating Bookshop

Have you heard of MV Doulos before? Well if you haven't, then you can continue to read this. If you have , then just skip to the photos. See MV Doulos is the oldest ship in the world that is still working. I fondly remember it as the floating book shop. I visited it when I was really young. Basically it is run by a group of missionary to spread the word of Jesus. In 2009, the MV Doulos is no longer allowed to sail anymore as there was apparently some ruling against it. We don't want it to sink with the crews right? So now it is park somewhere in a harbour in Singapore and probably serves as a floating restaurant.

So, in replaced of MV Doulos is the MV Logos Hope. It serves with the same idea, sail around the world and stop at each country as a floating book shop.



So I brought my 5 year old son to Logos Hope for the experience of going inside such a big ship and of course to hear the word of Jesus.

I don't remember that we were entertained during my school days when I was in Doulos but we were entertained with a short play by the crew on "Secret Treasure" play. Guess you'll know that the secret treasure is not gold or diamond but the most important book in the world, the Bible. Why treasure? Because it gives you the secret to eternity life! Ah, I like that concept. Brilliant!

And of course after the show, the kids get to take a picture with the crew.

After the play, we proceed to the book fair. Didn't managed to take any picture because it was so crowded. And then as we head out of the book fair, we walk through a maze of pictures ... hmmm, its the Prodigal Son's story, well the modern version of it.

And of course the kids get to turn some steering as if they are driving the ship.

Or to take silly pictures such as these ones. Take your pick, captain or diver?

Docked in Pulau Indah, Klang, Malaysia in October 2011

Happy 11.11.11 everyone!

Fremantle Part III - everything else that's FREO

This is Part III / final part on Fremantle and so I'm just gonna lump everything else that is FREO about Fremantle that I managed to catch myself. [FREO is the shortform of Fremantle]. To begin which, its just simply the beautiful sights of the historical town of Fremantle.


To understand a little bit more about a certain place, you need to understand a little bit about the historical facts as well. Now about Western Australia, do you know that Australia start of as a place where they dump convicts to? OK OK, let me rephrase ... Australia predominantly settled by convicts.

So the first permanent building in Western Australia is actually a prison called Round House which was built in 1831. Can you believe that? I mean have you ever imagine that the first building you build in a brand new city while playing Cityville or SimCity is a prison? Funnily weird yes?

Now, when the town is fast growing, with convicts that is, so much so that there is 3 convicts to 1 free man, the round house prison is obviously overcrowded. So they need to build a larger prison to accomodate the convicts and so the Fremantle Prison comes into the picture.

The Fremantle Prison is a must visit site in Fremantle. And if you are not faint hearted, you should follow one or all of their guided tours with themes such as the Great Escape Tour, the Tunnel Tour or the Spooky Torchlight Tour. Each tour took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Unfortunately my 5 year old son was totally scared (by the fact that I told him this is the jail the police will bring him to if he is naughty) we skipped. 

If you skip the tour which you have to pay, you can still walk into the front portion of the prison with some galleries and mock up prison room and visitation room for us to view. Awesome!

The final mentioned of Fremantle hot spots is this Maritime Museum and Shipwreck Gallery. Nothing to shout about but cool to see they pull out a big part of a huge ship that was sunk under the ocean.

Just two last photos of me and my son posing away in the some heritage remnants and buildings of Fremantle.

Location : Perth, Western Australia.
Date of travel : September 2011 (Spring)