Kilkenny is a small city, 3 hours from Dublin by bus with around 9000 population (2006). First beside Dublin I’d like to go to Galway but somehow every times I did reservation  hotel/ bed n’ breakfast  in Galway, its always full book. So I turned to Kilkenny. At least I know about Kilkenny beer and had a thought that perhaps Trey Parker and Matt Stone created Kenny character in South Park after base on this Kilkenny city (I mean the name hehe…).

We arrived at Kilkenny around 1pm. Helen, the owner of Pinecrest bed n’ breakfast which I book by email said I can call her when I arrived in bus stop so she can pick us up. But unfortunately that day she has problem with her phone so we couldn’t contact her. And the worst was that the address of Pinecrest is without house number (its common in Kilkenny). Its only mention, Pinecrest – Bishop Meadow, Kilkenny. So daniel and I quite dazzled and puzzled.

But people in bus station were nice, the information guy, the ticket guy, the guys who just standing outside tried to help us as much as they could. So finally we got clue and moved forward to Pinecrest. We walked. No public transport in Kilkenny cos its bloody small city. So yes…we walked with those big bags.

Helen’s son greeted us nicely. We had hot coffee, cookies and nice room. Pinecrest is much-much better than our B n’ B in Dublin. Minutes later, Helen and husband, Liam came from shopping and we had chit-chat with them. It was very nice to meet them. And Liam, of course showed Daniel some stunning Irish Bar.

John Cleere Bar is one of them. It’s a red color bar with Irish music. The bar looked solemn from outside but its fun inside. The two bartender were friendly and it was quite a lot tourist in the bar. All of them, including us, like to listen to irish music and sing along together (no, not me :p).

Somehow I couldn’t  find Kilkenny beer there. I asked the bartender and she said, beside more expensive than other brands, Kilkenny also taste ugly. Hm, well…

We stayed 2 days in Kilkenny. Kilkenny is small city with rich heritages to visit. Cathedral St. Canice is my favorite. But Kilkenny Castle, St Mary Cathedral also stunning. Walking around the city also enjoyable. When I'm in Dublin I feel like tourist, when I’m in Germany I feel like stranger…but when I’m in Kilkenny, I feel like home!

Definitely will visit again one-day :)

Pics: Parliament street at night, Irish breakfast at Pinecrest and Kilkenny Courthouse

Finally I’m back fresh again after got jet lag. Yesterday arrived at Jakarta at 2pm and after ate a huge portion of nasi padang (damn yum yum!) I fall asleep at 8pm at my beloved bed. But at 11pm I awoke and couldn’t sleep again till 04.30 after had eat for sahur.

From Muscat to Jakarta, its only passenger in the plane; me, Gwen (a French girl who will get married with Indonesian badminton player this December), 4 foreigners guy and the rest are TKW. The good thing was that each person can have two or three seats for themselves but the bad things were; it was turbulence the whole way from Muscat to Jakarta, so we really 8 hours had to keep the seat belt. It almost made all people got airsick

Another the bad thing, and this is the worst thing, I guess…are the group of TKW. They are nice, always smile and looked so happy to back home again. But well…I noticed, every times TKW on the plane, the toilet always bloody dirty and the floor under their seats always full of garbage.

I think before they went to abroad for work, they would get a kind of education how to live and work abroad as maid. What for do and for don’t. But maybe the organization that sent them to abroad forgot to teach them how’s the manners on the plane. When the plane took off and landing, it’s always difficult (very difficult!) for air attendant to make them fold the table, used the seat belt, close the window, etc. Even one of the stewardesses spoke bahasa, it wasn’t really help. Most of the TKW were stubborn. They opened again the seat belt when the air attendance away. Opened the table, close the window…euh! Only watched them make me stress already. No wonder if the air attendance face suddenly turned to ugly when they saw the group came the plain hehe…

My weekend was superb. Went for resorts hopping around west of Jakarta with friends.

Started from Apartment Taman Anggrek Sunday 7.30 am. Our first destination was The Bay Villas at Tanjung Lesung. We were there for took a break for rest our legs and lunch. A welcome dance cheered us after the 3.5 hours trip from Jakarta. The hotel is nice but I don’t know it was quite quiet. But hm…they have cool honeymoon package :) One thing little bit annoying for us was the lunch menu at that time was not so good. Couldn’t eat a lot and went away from Bay Villas with still hungry stomach.

After had a rest for around 2 hours, we departed to Umang Island. It took another 2 hours till we arrived to the small seaport to cross to Umang Island with traditional ship (jukung). The area around the seaport was almost nothing. After a boring view all the way there, it’s really hard to get a great cookies or even battery alkaline for my cam. Quite disappointing cos it supposed to be lots of needs from people who like to cross to the Umang Island resort.

With jukung ship, it only took 5 minutes to cross the sea to Umang Island. And when we landed…Phew! It was awesome! Right away after took a welcome drink and some snacks, me and Rika jumped to the sea for snorkeling. We were lucky cos even its almost dark but we can see the corals cos it wasn’t so deep. The corals was much better than in Nusa Dua, but the water, in Nusa Dua is much much clean!

We stayed in this island for a night. The view is ace, the environment is awesome, the crews are cool and the food was superb. After snorkeling and swimming (sometimes it’s necessary to break doctor’s rules when it’s urgent!) we went for dinner and blended to another group that had company gathering there for karaoke and joget dangdut. (Excuse me, but beside outbound activities and karaoke, no other entertainment here! And I don’t call spa as an entertainment!)

Around 10pm I already jumped to bed. Bloody tired! But…hm...somehow I couldn’t sleep well. The wind was so heavy there and it so noisy….and the horror of tsunami was playing around in my head even all people of the resort told us the area is safe for tsunami and stuffs like that.

So finally I woke up too early. Enjoyed the awesome sunrise, swim a little bit and walked around to take pictures. There was a strange feeling when I wandering in a small island, which owned by a private! Hui!!! When I bought a hi fi system, somebody else bought an island! Damn!

But seriously, the island was dazzling. It’s not that big so we can walk around to all the part of the island and finish it less than one hour without run. And they have yummi honey moon package as well :) The bad thing is only one; it’s too far from Jakarta. And we only can go there with car through the difficult boring street (off the record: I often got car sick, but not this weekend :)) With same kind of resort, I can fly to Bali only for 1.5 hours! But, yes of course, the resort is not in a private island like Umang :)

Left Umang Island at Monday 11.30am and we reached the next destination; Mutiara Carita resort for lunch at 2pm. I think this destination was the greatest one. Same facilities and views as Umang, even closer from Jakarta! (but yeah, not in private island) And…and…the food was really really really awesome! Point 9 from total 10! :D I think I can delete The Villas Bay and Umang from my honeymoon list and add this Mutiara Carita :)

If in Umang Island we met the owner, in Mutiara Carita we met some managers and they’re nice! They took us to traditional fish market around the beach. But we were not that lucky. Not much fish we can see there. So after sightseeing around on that 11-hectare resort, we drove again and stopped again for coffee break in Lippo Carita Resort. (Awh...do not protest! We were doing resorts hopping! Of course a lot of resorts we had to visit! :)) The funny one was that Mutiara Carita and Lippo Carita is not that far but we already wanted to have snacks :p

In Lippo Carita Resort, besides having coffee and some snacks, we jumped to the water again for banana boat and jet ski. Whoa! Totally wet and fun! Without this water sport, Lippo Carita resort will be damn boring I guess. It’s just a looong condominium all along the beach with flat architecture.

At 5.30 pm we started to leave the place. The journey must end. We went home with salty lips, dark skins (I didn’t overcome my ugly skin from last Bali trip! And now add more problem! Huii!!), rasta hair and a believe that all beaches around west Java are fine and safe. We talked a lot with all resorts crews and they convince us that (even the meteorology organization said so) maybe yeah there were (or will be) earthquake but no tsunami. We should have a happy feeling about that. People will keep coming to the beach and people who already live there won’t live with tsunami horror lingering them.

With happy feeling I arrived Jakarta :)

Saturday now.

Still have 2 days more of holiday.

I was quite 'busy' during my holiday since last Thursday. Wednesday night went to Cinnabar with some colleagues and continue to Nu China. Thursday morning, still hangover but rushy went to Mangga Dua by TransJakarta with Ana and Theo. It's my second time go with TransJakarta and it was still fun! :)) And its my first time to go to Mangga Dua. Euh..Bloody crowded and pretty tiring. Why people love to shop there eh?

Thursday night met some olds friends in Jl. Jaksa till morning. Then miss Beth damn exhausted on Friday...But couldn't stay at home cos I had appointment with my sister. Went there with 2 big pans of pizza to overcome her madness cos I always canceled my appointment with her before hehehe...At my sister, after said hello to everybody then I fall asleep in d couch. Not that bad, 2 hours and I'm fit again!

Tonight will go out to celebrate Ewi's b'day. Hmm..I didn't buy anything for her yet. Hmm....Apa ya...hmm......