Warning: This is going to be my geekiest, un-cool post ever.



In the past few weeks, I have been strangely intrigued by Agnes Monica's career as a singer. The first time I heard about her releasing a single, which was 'Indah', I was very skeptical. I think it was 1999, and when I finally managed to get a hold of the song. I was mildly surprised that although the song was the regular insta-pop, it did stuck in my head and I found myself transferring the file to my MD player.

For some reason, I hate "smart" kids, hahaha, or I guess you can call them talented. For example, Shirley Temple or in the Indonesian entertainment industry there's a plethora of them from the ones whose career is hinged on their cuteness (read: Joshua) to the ones that can actually sing like Sherina. But anyway, I never like them. Maybe it's jealousy that they are obviously more successful than I am, maybe I just hate kids, I don't know.
Agnes Monica started her career as a child star, which then graduated to become the host of children show called "Tralala, Trilili" in which she kept grinning and saying "tralala..... trilili...." in a high-pitched voice over and over and over again. So I wasn't very interested when I heard about her plan to enter the music industry.

Then my friend came back from Indonesia with her debut album (as an adult, because she had a few children records already). The title? '... and the story goes...' Huh? Why in the world the title had to be in English? While the photography in the album are very cute street : wire fences, punk hairdo, torn fabrics.... yet perfect makeup and flawless complexion. Basically I felt she was trying too hard to be cool. Then I listened to the album. I wasn't a fan. Her voice is not what I would have expect from looking at her and I suppose I was guilty of pre-judging her even before listening to her music. So the first album didn't do it for me, although... the star power behind the production did impress me. It has pretty much the who's who in the Indonesian music industry, from hitmakers such as Melly and Dewiq to popstar stalwarts like Titi DJ and Dhani (Yes! Dhani from Dewa... arguably the most obnoxious yet talented musician in Indonesia).

I might not be impressed with her, but my 200 million fellow countrymen and women sure did, judging from the album sales and her ever-presence in the media. Videos after videos were made for songs from the album. We don't have singles in Indonesia, so radios and TV stations are actually free to choose whatever song they deemed "single-material" but nowadays the rule of thumb is "new video = new single."

Second Album: "Agnes all muscular in a tank top with pink-tipped punk hairdo and dark skin looking down on you." The caption says, "Whaddup A'.....?!" OK, if the first album got me questioning the linguistic value of the title, this one just made me sick. I was in Indonesia when I first saw the album. I was like, what is she trying to do? I mean, she should just accept it that there's no way someone like her could get street cred... though I guess the same thing could be said of Justin Timberlake when he hadn't brought sexy back. Did I buy the CD? Are you kidding me? If i remember correctly, i think I summoned up a tirade against Indonesian celebrities and snobs who desperately peppered their speech with as much English vocabulary as possible.

Again, the album was a smash. They sold loads of them and videos after videos were made for the songs. During this time, YouTube came along and so I took out a few hours a week just to scour it for Indonesian music videos. What I found out was that AgMon fans has a very good internet presence, thus pretty much all her videos are online. This is when I started to get somewhat interested in her. One thing for sure though, all her videos are done by Indonesia's small but amazing pool of directors. From pioneer Rizal Mantovani to the up and coming Abimael Gandy. Sure enough, all her videos are great and they offer such a range of her style, music and looks.

I'm such a sucker for good music videos. I think the one that started this all was 'Tanpa Kekasihku' because the copy on YouTube had her commenting about the production of the video. Of course she spoke in Indonesian with English words all over the place and that just annoyed me like crazy. So in my negative drive to find more evidence about her anglicizing her speech, I watched all the other interviews she had... and some concerts too. I actually then found out that yes, she does use a lot of English... but I somehow notice she does that less. In the more recent interviews she spoke in Indonesian the whole time except for certain terms... which I suppose the Indonesian word would just be a loanword. Maybe she really has become more comfortable speaking in her mother tongue or I'm just a hypocrite - now that I like her, I tolerate her more. ^_^ Who knows!

But after watching her interviews, I actually became in awe of her. The drive she has to be successful and it seems that on every interview either she or the interviewer would say something about her plans to go international. Well, true that nowadays among Indonesian musicians it is such trend to "go international," but then nothing was ever heard about it anymore. Reza made a record with Masaki Ueda (a well-known Japanese artist but not current... it would be the equivalent of say... Lily Allen did a record with Garth Brooks, I don't think that would do much good for either of them). Nevertheless, she doesn't look like she "wants" to go international, it looks more like she "will" go international no matter how. Judging from her efforts to do so, I definitely applaud her. A small yet pivotal role in a Taiwanese drama, fluency in English, a total involvement in her album arts, videos... she has all the signs of an up-and-coming star.

And then, just yesterday, I was browsing around at Anggun's forum, reading articles about her on Indonesian newspapers and apparently, she approves of AgMon. Hahaha... I'm such a loser, now that she said AgMon is good, I got a sense of validation for becoming a fan. ^_^ Isn't it crazy how people does this? Hmm maybe not people, just people with no life, hahaha. Well but then I notice that all this time, my reservations about Agnes Monica has never been her voice... I think it's more of her packaging. Man, I'm so bad... I'm guilty of the same fault that plagued the American music industry.

Then this video show up. The video before this was 'Tak Ada Logika' which was rumored to be the most expensive video ever made in Indonesia. It was amazing, but this, 'Cinta di Ujung Jalan' is just 'Wow!' You can say all the Memoirs of a Geisha reference you want, but I think the similarities only goes as far as they both features the Japanese Entertainers because the storyline is different. I think this is the video that really made me think of her to be of 'Export Quality."


Cinta di Ujung Jalan
Love at the End of the Road

setiap tetes air mataku
every drop of my tears
telah kuberikan untuk kisahku
i've given for my story
mengerti tapi tak dimengerti
[i] understand but [i'm] not understood
cintaku tlah diujung jalan
my love is at the end of the road

setiap kata dari bibirku
every word from my lips
kadang tak sama dalam hatiku
doesn't always match that in my heart
tersenyum dalam hati menangis
[i'm] smiling [but] crying inside
cintaku tlah diujung jalan
my love is at the end of the road

aku sangat mengenalmu
i know you so well
aku juga cintaimu..
i also love you
tapi kau tak pernah ada pengertian
but you never understand [me]
ku senang, ku sedih
[whether] i'm happy [or] sad
kau tak mau tahu
you don't want to know

aku sangat mengenalmu
i knew you so well
dulu kau tak begitu
you weren't like that before
kau bintang di hatiku
you're the star in my heart
jadilah yang kumau
please be the one i wish for
ku senang, ku sedih
[when] i'm happy [or] sad
kau ada denganku
you're here with me

ku mengerti kau apa adanya
i understand you the way you are
begitupun yang kumau darimu
that is what i expect from you too
kau tahu rasanya diabaikan
you know how it feels to be ignored
cintaku telah diujung jalan
my love is at the end of the road


Check out the live performance of the song.

Labels: people

Finally finished my new template made from scratch. Hehe, I guess it's not as easy as I thought it would be to incorporate Blogger's variables. Even now, there are certain tags in it that I'm not even sure what the function is. Maybe I'll rotate the header image later.. when I have more time. For now, it's time to do my Christmas shopping and list-making ^_^ \/

PS. I think the color I use for the link tags are a bit girlish too. Hmm.., let's hope Arnold doesn't read my blog, or he'll call me a 'girlie man.'

Labels: maintenance

Last weekend saw two of my friends turned a year older: Eunice and Octa. Such a coincidence that the only Virginians among my close friends have birthdays within hours of each other. Eunice on the fourteenth and Sunday the fifteenth was Octa's day. Naturally, we tried to plan some kind of special celebration that would be special for both of them while including each of them while we're doing the other's.

So here's the plan: On Saturday the fourteenth, we went to Café Asia in Washington, DC to have dinner with her. Well, all twelve of us and her (^_^). Myra and I were planning to arrive much earlier so that we can ask the restaurant to keep the cake in their fridge. But it turned out we made it there just on time. Luckily, we beat Eunice & Octa by a few seconds. Yeah. I even tried to make them take the long way when they asked for directions taking the metro, but it turned out they're getting smarter, hahaha, so it was really pure luck that they didn't get to the restaurant before we did.

The food was good, the company was better, the cake was sublime :) We got her the Neil's Hat Trick from our official gourmandises supplier: cakelove. So we did the happy-birthday-singing, wish-making, candle-blowing, cake-cutting, and filling ourselves with sugar and cream. The night is young and so are we (or some of us still, hahaha).

On to the next destination: K Street Lounge. To Octa, we were there celebrating Eunice's birthday because according to Myra and Devmann she wanted to party at K Street. I like it there and it was such a nice group of people. We had fun, we even danced! and I think Eunice and I drank too much. Just a tad bit too much, hehehe. Let's see: Lemon Drop, Tequila, Tequila Sunrise, Washington Apple, French Martini. See? Not that many and most of them... okay, okay, all of them were girlie drinks anyway. I don't know, I think it was the humongous portion of the gway teo that did it.

It's Sunday! Happy Birthday Octa! Sorry for making you gulp that shotglass of Bailey's. I wanted to put milk in it, but the bartender didn't have any, so... at least I tried *grin* We then all left the club, supposedly going home. Oh, our number kinda swelled a bit with Andrew & Patrice joining us afterwards. Well, as we were walking home, we decided to hang at a cafe for a bit to wind down, or so we made Octa think. Hehehe, probably you suspected it already, didn't you Octa?

It was almost one a.m., DC is not known for its after-hours cafe scene and we kinda needed a spot that can accomodate all fifteen of us. Au Pied Bistro it was then. There, Myra, Nia, Devmann, and I came in last with Octa's wishes-adorned cupcakes. We brought in the candle-lit cupcakes and everybody sang Happy Birthday. The bistro was empty so it was nice, felt like it was our own place. Oh? Why was Devmann with us? 'Twas because I needed him to drive. The moment I got out of the car I was like, "Uh oh, I don't feel so well." And so the alcohol poisoning started to kick in.

While everybody was chitchatting at the cafe, I was semi-permanently passing out on my chair *oops* I can't believe it. I felt so bad, hehehe.. Luckily I didn't forget to pay, LOL. But no hangover when I woke, so it was all good.

Happy Birthday Octa and Eunice!

Finally... my Sunlight Copper laptop is on its way home... all the way from China, hahaha. So on September 25th, the laptop departed Shanghai at 21:25... it made good speed, since it reached Louisville, Kentucky by 01:21 the next day. But those fried-chicken-munching, grits-devouring Kentucky people left my laptop and they didn't found out about until 06:04. I guess at six in the morning, right after they had grits for breakfast, somebody stumbled upon this rectangular box by the loading dock and upon closer inspection, hmm... maybe this should've gone out with the 3AM truck?
It's 11 now, and who knows what's going on with my Sunlight Copper M100?

Here's the exact wording on UPS Tracking Page:
« LOUISVILLE, KY, US 09/26/2006 6:04 A.M. THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY CAUSING THIS DELAY »

With the amount of time I spend at the dentist's office, I should just write a biography, or a dentography of my experience. So the latest installment of my dento-journal: my first root canal. Sans anesthesia ! What an experience it was.
Well, I guess this morning was not a full root canal since it was partially done 3 weeks ago. But back then, I was already on the chair for more than an hour, so he decided to just pull out the material near the surface and put me on antibiotics to stop any infection. This morning I came back and he finished it. In and out of my tooth that little file go.

What's with the torture techniques? Well, normally people get numbed for a root canal procedure, but since my case is unique, I got special treatment. I really should donate my body for the advancement of science, who knows what else is weird about it.
A little back story: I had a diskectomy a couple years ago due to disk herniation. The symptoms I had would mean that the herniation occurred on two levels, but that turned out to not be the condition when he went in. It turned out that 2 of my nerve roots came out on one level (so the other vertebrae had nothing coming through of it).
And so it turned out yet again, my tooth was not exactly normal. First, the root itself was going sideways instead of straight up. To add to that, as the dentist was working on it, he found out that I had two canals going up that tooth that finally merged again up there. So he didn't numb my gum because he needed to know where he was in the canal and since I didn't want to be exposed to a continuous burst of potentially carcinogenic x-ray, the only way he could know that is from my reaction out of the shooting pain that comes everytime he plucked some nerve roots out of my tooth.

After the procedure, he told me that now it should be fine. Well, not really, in a couple of weeks I have to go back to get a gingivectomy because the decay has gone below the gum. But he said if that tooth ever become infected again, I had to get it removed and removing it would be another challenge do to the root that was pushed down by my sinus. Man.. see what I'm saying? I really should go into textbooks and get royalty out of it.

Jay Zhou's latest single, 千里之外 [qian li zhi wai: beyond a thousand miles]. I think Jay should patent his slow songs, hahaha... 'cause if you listen carefully, you'll notice that all his slow-to-midtempo songs are pretty much the same. From 龙卷风 to 髮如雪, it's like he got a this golden formula. Tweak it a bit here and there, voilà a new hit single!

As much as I would complain on how similar each song is to the other, I still like all of them. A fact that makes me even surer of Jay Zhou's Golden Hit Formula.

Yeah so the much-planned, not-so-much-finalized trip to Ocean City finally took place this past Labor Day weekend. After endless Reply All's on our e-mailboxes, we finally decided to split up into two groups. One goes up north to Maine and another goes east to Ocean City. We've actually been planning to go to the beach since so long ago, I started to get skeptical if it was going to happen, actually. But finally the hotel got booked, the people got tallied, and Ocean City.. here we come.

Brrr! Stupid Ernesto! You just have to strike right when the 250million Americans are on a long weekend don't you? The Friday before our trip started, the hurricane hit the Mid-Atlantic region pummeling the Chesapeake Bay and our Atlantic Coast with wind and water. I guess at least we didn't have to drive in that condition, because it was really awful.

Even though we didn't have to drive through a storm, it wasn't exactly happy weather either. It was very gloomy, everyone was wearing their sweaters which kinda ironic considering our destination. When we got to the beach, the weather was still just as chilly. It was quite an interesting sight though, it felt like watching a black and white film because the sky was so gray, it was windy, and everyone was huddled up. It was almost romantic if the boardwalk was not covered in sand leftover from the previous night's storm. For those of you who knows Ocean City, the answer is yes, that Jesus sand sculpture and the Last Supper sand painting were still there. I'm not sure if they were rebuilt or some miraculous event had saved them. My money is on the former though.

Fortunately, the following days were so much better. Plenty of sunshine and warmth, just like a beach town supposed to be. We ate and ate and ate. Oh, we did exercise a bit, some dodgeball here, some volleyball there and plenty of Dance Dance Revolution, LOL.







Two Sutandios and a Soetandyo walking on the boardwalk. While we applaud Nonik's bravado in wearing that super thin cardigan and shorts by the beach with the mercury hovering under 60F (windchill not calculated yet), maybe it would be wiser to put something warmer for the time being. You know, just so nobody would lose a toe or two due to frostbite.







The Pacific Sunwear Ad on the Teen National Geographic Magazine.
On him: White hooded sweatshirt with green logo, brown cargo shorts, yellow & green flip-flops. All by American Eagle.
On her: Red sweatshirt by Levi's, jean shorts by Wet Seal, white sandals (models own).






Devmann did some research before we went to Ocean City and Fish Tails was one of the supposedly good places to eat at. And it was! OK, so it wasn't to die for but it was good seafood, everything was fresh. Their plus point though, was the atmosphere. Most of the restaurant was outside, by the bay, on sand while the bar and the kitchen were under the roof. Plus this awesome lizard swinging lounge right across from the bar.




On Sunday night, we decided to play at the Fun Fair on the Boardwalk. I can't remember the last time I went to a Fun Fair... maybe high school? Well, it was so much fun being kids again :) Eating caramel popcorn, getting on a roller coaster that such a rip-off and no Fun Fair trip would be complete without a Ferris Wheel ride.

It's Friday, August the 19th. What does that mean? Nothing actually, except for the thousands of hopeful premeds taking the dreaded MCAT. On this day, Thoai, Lisa, and Tu Anh all took it. And being the party people that we are, of course we couldn't miss this chance for a party. So the plan was set for a night out in Philly right after the exam followed by a chill-down period on Sunday.

Thoai and I got to Philly around 8 and we went directly for dinner at Pho Xe Lua in Chinatown with Minh, Lisa, and Tu Anh. We all then meet up with Minh & Thoai's friends at Old City. Actually it's more like a gathering than a meetup since there was so many groups of friends. At the most, each person only knows 3 other people and so we spent the first hour trying to get everyone introduced to everyone.

Old City was crazy that night. I don't know, maybe we weren't the only one with the Post MCAT Bash idea? Whatever the reason was, 2nd Street was so full with people that it was hard enough to walk let alone march in a group of 20. The 5-block radius from Old City was practically jammed, no one could get out nor in. We ended up walking from Independence Mall.

Maybe it was a happening night for some people, but apparently it was too happening for us. The first club we tried to get in refused to allow Tu Anh because her driver's license expired a week before. OK, so I get it, expired ID's are invalid ID's, but clubs check ID's not because minors are not allowed in bars but because they don't want the hassle of checking each person who's getting drink their ID. And the purpose was to check her age anyway... it's not like she got younger since her ID expired ?!?! So we moved on. The next club was OK with the expired ID but it was too small. Halfway through our group, the bouncer was like, "sorry, it's too full." And so again we moved on to the third club which turned out to have a strict dresscode regarding... sneakers! It was crazy... I could just imagine the soft mattress and the fluffy pillow at our hotel room ^_^
But fourth time's a charm I guess... cause we all got in to this bouncer-less club. At the end, it was fun... like always, it's the people you're with, not where you at that matters.

We woke up at 9 in the morning on Sunday because Minh decided that if she's awake then everyone has got to be awake too. After spending some time at the jacuzzi, we headed out to Atlantic City for a day at the beach. Even though it began with the Tragedy of the Missing Pencil Case, it was a nice day. The sun was sunny, the wind was breezy, and the sea was... hmmm... full of water? ^_^

It's always nice hanging out with you guys!

My sister-in-law just sent me some pictures of my niece with my dad playing micro-basketball. Hehehe, so cute :)







Opa: Little Ia... what are you doing there?








Ia: Uh... is grandpa blind or something? Obviously, I'm slam dunking!





Opa: No, no, Ia... that's not how you do it. Let's do it step by step. OK, first you stand at least 3 steps away. Then, you aim the ball...
Ia: Oh my...
FYI: My dad is big on doing things by the book. He even bought a book on how to google! Hehehe.








Ia: Hmphh... it's not like I need coaching. Look at me... I'm good already!

I was on the elliptical this morning when this video came on. For the four minutes this video was on-screen, I could not peel my eyes of the LCD display. Totally love, love the the whole concept and Janet looked unbelievably out-of-this-world. The make-up, the hairdo, the get-up, the fabrics, the colors, I couldn't even pick what was my favorite part. Hehehe, even Nelly looked decent in this vid, they didn't shoot too much of his bling which would've overcrowded the whole scene.

I don't know what is wrong with MTV. Well it's either they blacklisted Janet or they're just mad that perhaps Janet's camp decided to premiere the vid on BET instead? But for a music television with MTV's caliber, it's really an embarassment that they still haven't got this vid on rotation. Read GIANT Magazine's conspiration theory.

La Fête

Hung out with new friends this weekend. I think I'm getting old for this kind of nonstop partying. The celebration was for Minh's medschool acceptance, Lisa's & Tu Anh's belated birthdays, Thoai's paper getting published, us meeting each other, and whatever else we could think of. It's amazing how much more reasons we could find to celebrate under the influence.... of Blood Orange Italian Soda! Isn't that right Tu Anh?

Around noon the girls arrived in Baltimore with what looked like enough food for a whole army. I guess they never thought that two guys would manage to hold a party for seven people!! Well, I think we did quite well, Thoai & me, if I may say so myself. Though the flowers were all him, hehee... don't ever leave me with living plants, they tend to go towards the white light sooner than their normal lifespan. It was a finger food party with nothing from the Coca-Cola nor the Pepsi Company, nor the Frito-Lay. Instead we had Italian Sodas and rosé wine. For food, we ordered a platter of sushi rolls, a shrimp cocktail, mini-quiches, spring rolls, bruschettas, and many more. We were planning to have chocolate-dipped strawberries, but couldn't find the right cocoa so we just bought this chocolate sauce and just have people dip their own strawberries fondue-style. To end the party we had the superfabulous Hazelnut Meringue Cake from Pasta Plus. Yum! With the official drink of Summer: Rosé Champagne.

I guess once the bottle popped, some really fun time began. We watched that Overseas Vietnamese Variety Show a.k.a Paris By Night. No, this is an actual variety show not porn shot with night vision! Got into arguments on whether Vietnamese and Cantonese sound alike ... I know, we're such geeks. Hahaha, since I instigated the whole thing, I guess I'm the father geek.

Annapolis

We went to Annapolis afterwards. The original idea was to kayak and eat loads of crabs. But as we go round and round the harbor area, we couldn't find a single kayak rental place. The only promising lead turned out to be this desolate ship dock. After waiting out the rain that suddenly just fell in the middle of a hot, sunny day, we took the Miss Anne boat tour around the Severn River. Now Tu Anh, I'm still waiting for that cookout party we're supposed to have at your riverfront property!

Off the boat, we wanted some crabs! The ship's captain pointed us to this place called Cantler's. Thanks to Google SMS, we found the address & phone number. The supposedly famous restaurant was located on the other side of the harbor, and we kinda had to drive into these wooded area. I think the Philly peeps thought we were gonna dump them in the river, hehehe.

Cantler's!! We finally made it. That place was packed, seemed like everybody in Maryland was there for crabs. Even the governor was there. Hmpff! I bet he didn't have to wait for an hour and half like we did! Thankfully the wait wasn't too bad due to the creative ways Koreans can amuse themselves. So Lisa taught us about this bip-bidibidip game which was just plain whack! It was basically a game of self-control. There were three poses and as the main player sang bip-bidibidip, he/she'll take a pose and the one watching her had to make a different pose. Sound simple, but it's amazing how your reflex would just follow what's in front of you. I think it's the bip-bidibidip thing that kinda hypnotize you! I think we were too hot and embarassed to play that, except for Minh. And there they went at it to the amusement of us all and a few other groups around us :) Thanks for the entertainment guys!

"Minh! Table for Six!" They finally called. Yay!! So we went in, ordered, groaned while waiting for the food, and became real silent as we cracked and munched on the crabs. We got two dozens of them, which means each of us got four crabs. Crazy. I think I had enough crabs for a while now. I have definitely seen enough crab's insides for my lifetime!

fur nightclub

Time for bed? Of course not! Off we went to freshen up at our respective homes in Baltimore, Laurel, and College Park, then we all met up at my place to leave for the fur nightclub in DC. Woo hoo! I've been meaning to check out this place for some time now but something always happened and the plan never fell through.

I think it is safe to say, that was the best night club I've ever been to in DC. The crowd was a good mix, not too Asian, not too White, and not too Black either. Pretty much everyone was represented there and I didn't notice a single majority group so it was really nice. Everybody was just there to have a good time, no rude people or you know those obnoxious asses that seemed to go to clubs just to get wasted and somehown managed to get into a fight.

The music was good too! But I'm not a big fan of R&B so that might be why I thought it was good because they play different kind of music instead of the usual diet of 50 followed by Eminem followed by DMX and other acronyms & abbreviations where nobody actually sang or no music was actually played except for heavy bass and some guy talking. The reggae period was a bit much though, I give you that. But all in all, we had a really good time. I think Minh had a really, really good time especially towards the last hour when all her shots finally got in her head. Hahaha. I'm still contemplating whether we should put the pictures of us in discriminating poses here. Perhaps not, I still wanna be friends with these people. Hmm maybe just one.

So we partied until the club closed which was around four, I think. A mandatory stop at Plato's Diner for some post-dancing snack and we went home.

Live Life Like a Rock Star

My cell rang early in the morning, oh I meant early in the day since we got in at early in the morning already. It was Thoai.
"Good Morning!"
*Grumble*Grumble*"Hmmmh? Mornin'"
"I got into an accident last night."
"WHAT?"
"I hit a car and my car's at the lot now."
"WHAT?"
So apparently as they drove back, Thoai hit a parked car just a few blocks from home. No, no, it was not a DUI, more like sleepiness added to bizarre Baltimore traffic. So in Balto right, you must never take the leftmost lane or rightmost, because you never know if in the next block they would suddenly decide that lane is parking area when it is not in the block before. This would sound normal if they didn't do it like every 5 blocks. "A Rock Star Night" according to Thoai. You go out, you party, you slam your car. Where are the PEOPLE mag people?

It's cool down time in hot 100F DC now. After circling the Chinatown gate for like 20 times, we decided to park at a lot. I thought it was gonna be expensive, but turned out the weekend rate was only like 5 bucks a day or something. Hahaha, I should have listened to those out-of-towners. Sorry guys, but don't you just love my cafe mocha hot hot song? Which... was Japanese thank you, not Indonesian.

So we walked around the Metro Center - Chinatown area for awhile. Benetton, H&M, Urban, and all that. We had lunch at that little noodle shop on 6th & H Streets. The best place for Chinese noodle soups. They make their own noodle and you can even see them as they make it at the front of the store behind large windows.

What a great weekend. Now I'm deadbeat. Time for sleep. Shoo!

Key West

We're going back to Miami today to fly back the next day. We could have stayed for another night here and drive straight to the airport on Tuesday but we didn't want to cut it too close. We did the the city yesteday, so we're doing the beaches today.


The hotel concierge told us that the best beach in the area would be the Fort Zachary State Park in the southern part of the city. And yup, it was a nice one. We definitely had more fun here than at the Miami beach. The sand wasn't as smooth as in Miami but that only made the water clearer. We could even see small tropical fishes swimming by near the rock formations. We spent hours there. I definitely worked on a tan, and some carcinogenic sunburn.

I totally loved the atmosphere, it was so nice. People were so relaxed. There were a lot of families but thankfully no crying babies :p As I was just lying around in the sun, I saw this cute kid. He was looking for shells I suspect, but he was so intent in his search. So serious. Everytime the water recedes after the wave crashed, he'd be scrutinizing the sand for something.

There was one thing that kinda disturbed me though. Right next to us, there was this couple that could only be called, white trash. Add sunburn to the already leathery skin due to smoke, plus beer bellies, you get two very unattractive people. It was interesting to see how you can actually see the effects of all the bad habits that they are doing at that very moment. They must've been lying the sun for hours without any sun protection, hence the orange skin. The leathery skin proved to be cause by their chainsmoking while they keep gulping on cans of beer at this beach that supposed to be alcohol-free. The things that people do to themselves!

Fort Lauderdale

We decided to drive straight to Fort Lauderdale instead of staying overnight in Miami. We figured it would be easier the following day to go to the airport since FLL is only 15 minutes away from downtown Fort Lauderdale. So we walked around Las Olas again and had a small dinner before we went to the hotel.

« Beep » « Beep » Shower, and we dashed to the airport to catch Harry's flight at 11AM. *Sigh* I hate when vacation ends.

South Beach

According to most guidebooks, SoBe owes its comeback to a German photographer who found out just how nice the sunrise is there. Naturally, I planned to see it. So I asked the hotel manager the night before, "What time is sunrise tomorrow?" I wasn't sure he would know, so I expected him to look for the newspaper or at least a slight hesitation remembering the day's sunrise. But no, he immediately responded, "Seven AM." I was a bit unsure, but I did ask him, I didn't want to be those people who ask for things but doubt the people they asked.

« Beep » « Beep » My cell woke me up at 6:50 AM. I waited for a few minutes to see if my travelmates were joining me. [6:57] I guess not. So I went out and I had to blink a few times as my eyes tried to get adjusted to the LIGHT! What the hell? The sun had definitely risen for at least an hour! I knew 7AM couldn't be when the sun rises in the summer! Oh well, the day was cloudy anyway so it wasn't like I would've been able to see the sun rose in the horizon. But I decided to go to the beach still. It was nice and quiet. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you that I love big bustling cities, but beaches? I like 'em quiet and idyllic. There were a few people jogging, one early swimmer, and this group of youngsters at the lifeguard post. Seemed like the spent the night there... very nostalgic. Hahaha.. I talk like I grew up in Santa Monica while Bandung is actually in the mountains. So I sat there and kinda soak up the atmosphere. I think that was the moment when I felt, "Aaahh... I'm on vacation!"

About a half-hour later I went back to the hotel for breakfast and after we checked-out, we headed for the beach. The day was definitely getting hot. It was obvious why Summer is Miami's low season. The air was so humid and clouds filled the sky. Not the most comfortable weather to be in. Luckily our hotel was only a block away from the beach so we only had to endure it for a bit before we can jump into the Atlantic waters. We swam & lied around in the sun for about an hour before we got hungry and went looking for food.

David's Cafe had good things said about the Cuban eatery, so we walked to 11th Street. Hmm... turns out they were renovating, but they have a branch a few blocks up north at Lincoln Road Mall. We didn't feel like trekking all the way up, so we stopped by Española Way to see this crêperie, but Harry was not in the mood for crêpes that day. Realizing there were no other decent, cheap restaurant in the area that was open at noon, we walked up to the other David's Cafe. Well, it was well worth it, I finally got my Cuban Sandwich and my cafecito.. yay! I don't know what is it with these Cuban restaurants in Miami, but they really need to invest on decoration. David's Cafe looked like a blue-walled room with tables and chairs. Period. It looked like a makeshift dining hall with autographed pictures of Latin celebrities on the blue wall. Well, as long as the food was good.

Key West

I know it's geeky, but as I drove along the Busway on Route 1, I can't help thinking that this is the same road that would take me home in Maryland. One day, I'm gonna do a Route 1 tour, from Key West up to Bangor, Maine. That should be fine... hmmm, maybe I can write a book, hahaha. Yeah... I do a lot of wishful thinkings.

After what seemed like days we finally got to the final stretch before the southernmost point of the States, the Seven-Mile Bridge. As we drove on the newly constructed bridge, the original was just a few hundred feet to our north. Made from steel instead of concrete like the new one, the abandoned bridge looked desolate yet seemed like it handled the natural elements quite well. Of course it was rusty, but considering how old it was, I'm amazed the structure still exists at all.

Benvenidos à Cayo Hueso! Also known as, Key West. There are plenty of theories regarding the name but there's one I like best: A false Anglo-Spanish cognate of the word Cayo Hueso which translates literally to Bone Island. Legend has it that human bones were found when the first explorers came to the island.

After checking-in, we went to the Old Town area, to Mallory Square. We LOVED Key West instantly. The square is an open area right by the sea where at sundown street performers show their stuff (think flame throwers instead of watercolor names in quasi-Chinese writing) and street art vendors dotted the plaza, plus lemonade & conch fritters stall galore. It was really fun watching the performances, while gulping on home-made lemonades and stuffing ourselves with conch fritters. Jane and I were eyeing this cheese plates made from flattened liquor bottles but at thirty bucks a pop, it was a bit overpriced, we think. So we devised a psychologically-sound strategy to get the lady lower the price for us. The plan was for us to hover around, act mildly interested while trying to look friendly and wait until the stand is quiet before making the offer. Well, we finally got the lady by herself but she was one tough seller, so we ended up skipping the artwork. I don't know about Jane but I'm not that dissapointed actually, I'm a total impulse shopper :)

Oh, another great activity at Mallory Square was watching the sun sets behind this leafy island while ships crosses the horizon. It was really nice, rayon-verte nice.

A few hours late we got hungry and after walking through the main nightlife area, Duval Street, we couldn't find any restaurants we would want to eat at so I checked the guidebook and we decided to go to Mangia, Mangia, an Italian restaurant a few blocks northeast of the Old Town. Well the walk was definitely worth it and it wasn't a bad walk either. The restaurant was located in the residential area so we passed all these summer homes. We had fun planning our retirement and which Bahamas-style two-storey vacation house we'd build.

We finally got to the restaurant about twenty minutes later, just a few minutes before they closed, but the place was packed! It was a really nice restaurant with really good food and really, really nice atmosphere. We got the window table overlooking the street. What a perfect way to end the day.

Fort Lauderdale

Instead of flying into MIA, we opted for the budget-friendlier FLL. I expected Fort Lauderdale to be a tiny city with nobody but old folks and perhaps a handful of sunbathers looking for a quieter scene. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong, it turns out that Fort Lauderdale would be able to stand on its own as a vacation spot. Yes, it doesn't have any of Miami's glitz and glam but what it has is a sense of familiarity. This city-by-the-sea is populated by vacationers instead of tourists, so the atmosphere is more laidback and people look like they're here to relax instead of to show off their freshly lipo-ed tummies.

But don't get me wrong, the city is not dead by all means after dark. The local shops and restaurants that line up Las Olas Boulevard is a welcome respite from the regular fares that USA, Inc. offers. Well, okay, granted, there was the Cheesecake Factory there but that's it.

The next morning, when our vacation officially started, we made a pit stop at Urban Brew, this little cafe at the newly-revitalized downtown area called Himmarshee. We were actually looking for a cafe called Two Street Garage, but apparently a change of management/owner lead the name change. I loved the coffee and the Aztec-industrial décor was a nice touch albeit it did kinda remind me a bit - just a little bit - of Chipotles.

South Beach

After noon, we drove down to Miami, passing multiple malls and strip malls. From the upscale ones like Bal Harbor to Linens-n-Things. I guess there's no escaping American Capitalism. At around four we got to Ocean Drive. Oh my, South Beach was such a change after the idyllic Fort Lauderdale. The street was literally packed with people and we got stuck in a bonafide traffic jam there. A vacation indeed. I don't know what the big deal was about. I didn't see much hot girls or guys around and the beaches are not better than Fort Lauderdale's, if not worse because it was so packed.

We decided to wait until tomorrow for the beach since we didn't feel like going out in the heat at that moment. So, we went to Miami City to see what's it about and boy, now that was a dissapointment. The big let down. The city was practically a ghost town. Then we went to Calle Ocho which supposedly was the heart of Little Havana. No argument about that, the place was definitely Cuban but I expected more alley than asphalt. If Calle Ocho was the heart of Little Havana then Cubans-in-Exile have very cold hearts indeed. The place was desolate and I didn't feel any warmth that I had expected something Cuban. I felt like I'm in Chino instead of Miami. But luckily, the fabled restaurant Versailles was as good as everyone said it would be. Though if they could change the décor from Chinese Resto chic to something Latin, that would be great!

I guess it's a combination of things, but nothing seemed to go right in Miami. Another dissapointment was our hotel, the Parisian. Well, I guess we got what we paid for? A hundred bucks for a bathroom with a hole in the wall, carpeting that looked like it has witnessed the last five presidents, pillows that was hardly were thick enough for a cihuahua to lay on, and the ultimate extra: blonde hair on the sheet.

Luckily Lincoln Street Mall saved the day from a total dissapointment. Later that night we decided to walk around. At first we planned to go to Ocean Drive but I don't know why but that place kinda put us off. So we ended up going to Lincoln Street, a 5-block open-space, pedestrian mall with Isamu Noguchi concrete & water artworks all over it. Me gusta mucho. And the crowd was nice too, what I expected from Miami. I guess this is where the real Miamians hang? I still need to verify that... hehehe, I need to amped up my Miami connections.

Agus - I think - first came up with the idea of going to Berkeley Springs for a spa day. LOL. Agus.... of all people, I never would've expected that.

So there we went to this little town known as the budget-friendly spa resort in the DC area. I was expecting onsen-style hot springs, where we all would sit in a pool of fresh hot water in the mountains. But turns out that it was more like a dip in the bath tub. They did channel the water fresh from the hot springs though and value wise that was a pretty good deal for a massage and hot soak. But will I come back? Hmm... we'll see.

Regardless of the actual spa experience though, it was a nice weekend with the guys (and girls too). We played ping pong until 2 in the morning when someone who doesn't eat much (but often) squeaked, "I'm hungry." *grin* Don't hit me Pat... I was talking about Nia... hehehe and if by any chance Nia is reading this blog too, just replace your name with Patrice's okay? So there were we, Benny, Nia, Patrice, and me in my car plus Andrew, Agus, Devmann, and Hadi in Henry's car. Where did we go? Where else but the dependable Golden Arch? Trans fat at the break of dawn under flourescent lights at the parking lot. Nothing could beat that surely?