mal-lanka trip part 2

As I was unable to proceed with the long trip to east cost of Sri Lanka; I would need to split up from the group and headed back home after 5 days. The children with be accompanied me on the return trip as they would have to return for the school opening.

After the Colombo tour, Ving’s cough had worsen. Yun had noted with diarrhea complicated with low grade fever. Ving’s worsening cough had raised the issue if she was able to proceed to the east coast. She was worried about the expenses but I told her not to worry as I had bought the frequent flyer option and could change the flight as I wish. The final straw came on D-2 days of return when Ving’s artificial crown of her right lower molar came off. I told her that this was the sign for her to back off. I changed the flight and apologized to the east coast group that Ving was unable to join the trip.

On the day of departure, Yun had developed high grade fever and I had barely enough antipyretic to get the temperature down.

We were fortunately to get onto the plane and have a safe passage transiting in KLIA2.

After arriving back to our home, everyone had developed fever. I started tamiflu for all of the patients(including me) early and the fever had subsided on D2…..

It was a daring trip initially; starting from the ticket booking. I had done 5 bookings with different date and destination. The cross checking of passenger details had worn me off. The anxiety of making sure everything is in order is truly an agony for me. Ving’ cough however did not get better. She had told me that she had realized that no one in the family is comparable to my level of tolerance. She had given up the feeling of travelling with me to the more secluded part of the world….. Some trip, I would need to go alone in the future. 

mal-lanka trip , part 1

After the Osaka trip….we were supposed to gear up for another trip to south Asia. I was reluctant to leave my house after the new year trip. Ving had however got an invitation to have a trip to the east coast part of Sri Lanka. The trip was 2 weeks in length and I was unable to apply for such a long leave. After some negotiation and compromise, we had reached an agreement to materialize the plan.
The trip had separated into 3 stage, 1st stage was to visit my in law in Malaysia; as my mother in law condition had deteriorated over times. The 2ndstage was to join the church group in KLIA for a flight to Sri Lanka. The 3rd stage was to return with Xian and Yun before the 2 days early of the group Sri Lanka trip.
The prep stage was a tedious one for me. I had to book numerous tickets with different travel dates for 9 persons. The input of personal details had really haunted me for few days. As it was Air Asia we are flying with and any error will lead to a long and tiring emailing event and possible extra payment.
I had tried to book a car with the HAWK late as I was tied up with some hazardous shift. However HAWK was out of Innova when I logged on to their website 1 month prior to the travelling. I had no choice but to try my luck with AVIS. As a VISA holder, the AVIS provided a good discount price for car rental over the world. I had tried to book it before but unfortunately the discounted price was still more expensive than the HAWK. I was lucky this time, the price was cheaper and later when I arrived at KLIA2, the pick up process was smoother than the HAWK. I took me less than 20 minutes to buckled up and drive out from the parking.
The travel was not smooth as everyone was confident and attempted to do last minutes packing. We were almost late for the flight on the travel date. I had come back from a streak of consecutive night shifts and have to assist and supervised their packing. I hit dream land prior to the take off and woke up 40mintues before the arrival.
This time, I was able to use the autogate and passed without difficulty with my new passport. All of our baggages had arrived safely and we met my in law in less than 40 minutes on arrival.
Surprisingly, we were given a new generation Innova. Bigger space and more pickup.
After picking up the car, we had proceeded to picked up a friend from Taiwan in Putrajaya. She is a church member and also an investor who bought some property in Nilai. She had come to Malaysia few days before the Sri Lanka trip.
The route to Putra Jaya was a little packed and we had arrived at Setia Aman by 9:00pm for a late dinner in a local Sri Melur Mamak Store. I found that those people staying around Putrajaya were the lucky one, the google map had led a route which does not need to pay up any TOL!!!
I had good night sleep that night after walloping a bunch of Mamak store food….
I visited Lem on D2 at his new clinic near Dataran Sunway. His clinic is readied to go pending for license. I admired his guts to set up his clinic in this hazardous period of GP flooding. I would have opted to work under supervision for specialist gazettement.
We had done a few shopping rounds and visited my father in law shrine in Klang.
Living expenses around Klang valley had shot sky high. A decent breakfast cost RM8-10 (drinks and meals).
After 2 days of wandering around Klang valley, we were readied for our Sri Lanka trip….
It really disturbed me as we would be heading to KLIA during rush hours. We would joining a group church members in KLIA. They however were on a very rush scheduled. AirAsia does not offer a fly-thru from KHH to CMB. They would need to check out on arrival and check in again. The window was barely 2.5hrs….
With grace, even with the delay of flight from KHH, we were still able to get the 25 members dropped their baggage in time and enjoyed a smooth trip.

Nipponbashi apartment....

The service apartment we stayed in Osaka was just opposite Dotonbori. There is a MRT station just 10 seconds away from the front door. There is no service counter in the apartment. All communication is done with e-mail!!!. Imaging if you are trapped in the lift and you would need to email the hotel management to help you!

It is a one room one dining + kitchen unit. There are two double queen beds in the room. 1 dining room with a fully equipped kitchen. The bathroom is even equipped with a washing machine (you don’t need to buy any washing powder, provided!…).

During our stay there we had bought some food from the 7-11 and we were able to re-heat it and boil some water. It also comes with a compliment mobile wifi.

Very strategic location and good bargain price….

a short trip to O city

Although Xian had fully recovered but I was still nervous when he coughed….However few days after his recovery. I had gotten an undeniable offer. A friend working in a travel agency had told me that she had some very cheap air ticket to Osaka. A few tourists had backed out last minute prior to the journey and there were a few tickets to spare. The price was extremely low after communicating with Xian and Yun about their leave…I had taken the offer.

It was a short journey as Xian and Yun was still schooling despite of the summer holiday. Luckily Monday and Friday is half day and they felt that it was acceptable to absence for the class.

Choice of lodging was limited as the journey starts in less than 1 week. 4 persons room, nearby MRT had truly restricted my selection. I had however got a 1 star rated lodging which had 8-9/10 rating on booking.com. Since it was a short trip, I had crossed out Universal studio on my list.

Everything was in havoc as I had a very short time to prepare for the trip. I had gotten a mobile wifi machine and some MRT and airport transport ticket via the net. Not much time to think and I just grabbed whatever I could.

We were able to hit the airport on time and arrived at the Osaka airport. It was a low cost carrier and it had landed at the T2 and we would need to travel to T1 for to pick up the ticket and the airport rail.

The arrival was late in the evening and we had grabbed some chinese bao( penglai bao store) at the airport. It was tasty temporary pacified our hunger. I had planned to have our dinner at YiLan Ramen near the hotel we stayed. The service apartment I had rented was just a street across Dotonburi. We started our journey at 8:40pm. We had eaten our dinner at the YiLan Ramen. It was one of its kind but not really my type of food. We had roved around Dotonburi and SinShaibashi before we retreated to our room.

Ving was not feeling well on D2 morning and three of us had gone to breakfast by ourselves. We had visited a UCC breakfast around the corner for breakfast. The initial plan was to visit Tensogaku(premier castle) on D2 but Xian wanted to see if we could get a Nintendo Switch from the local store. We had found that there was a lucky draw for purchasing at the Big Camera store on that day. The registration started at 10 and draw done at 11. We had taken a slow tour around the area and joined the queue at 9:30am. It was a long queue roughly about 600 peoples turned up to draw for 10 machines.

After the draw, Ving was still not feeling well. We had changed our plan and headed toward the Tsutenkaku and Tianwang temple. It was a long hike for us. Xian and Yuan had enjoyed the trip as I allowed them to try their luck on gacha machine along our journey.

We had tried various food shops which recommended by Takagi Naoko in her book during our walk. It was a long walk of 3km before we could get onto the MRT. With our sore leg, we had to take rest for 2 hrs before we go for our dinner at 7pm. Ving was much better that night and we had a good shopping tour along Dotonbori and Shinshibashi.  

Xian was a little bit upset as our name was not listed on the Big Camera lucky draw.

D3 was a shopping tour day for Ving. We had also gone to a few gaming shop trying to get a Switch.

The night ended late even though we need to get up early for a noon flight back home.

There are lots of smoker in Japan and most of the Izakaya allow smoking. We had wanted to try out some Izakaya food but were unable to do so.

It was a new experience for all of us, short trip which was very compact. Tasty food and walk till you cramp road trip. Everyone had returned with loads of stuffs…except me.

Well, we are looking forward to another trip in the future.