Everyday Spa in Bandung + Hotel California

Compared to the last time we went to visit Bandung, there are now SO many new spa/massage places there. My brother took us to a new spa place once that his friends had recommended and hubby and I had a 1,5 hour massage. The place was clean, but nothing fancy. The massage was good, though we didn't know what my brother had booked, so turned out in the beginning the masseuse stood up and hold onto the railing and used her feet to massage us. That was quite surprising because I hadn't expected that. It cost about 160,000 IDR for 1,5 hour. 

The only bad thing was that the one who took care of hubby didn't speak much English, so sometimes when she had to leave the booth to wash her hands, she didn't tell hubby anything, so hubby was a bit confused at times. So she didn't ask hubby if he wanted to shower or not, whereas I just went and have a shower.

The next time around I went back to Everyday Spa, the spa where my mom and I went to years back. This time I went to the main branch in Jalan Aceh and because we went there on a workday, I hadn't booked beforehand as I was sure they would have some spots for us. They did have some spots for us right away, but the couple room was unfortunately occupied. The cost was 190,000 IDR for 1,5 hour. 

They had separate sections for men and female and they also asked if hubby wanted a masseur or a masseuse. We only had to wait about 15 minutes for them to prepare everything. They washed our feet first, then gave us slippers and guided us to our own booth. The place was better than the other spa and this time hubby's masseuse spoke English very well, so he felt that it was more satisfactory to have the massage there. 

So after two satisfactory experiences, I'd highly recommend Everyday Spa for people who want to enjoy a nice massage in Bandung. And I think the price isn't that bad, either. So next time we're in Bandung again, I'll definitely go back there.

Here's the spa site: Everyday Spa

Here's a photo of the view from our room in Hotel California from the sixth floor: 

I also had a massage at the hotel we stayed in at that time, Hotel California. Actually the original plan was to go back to Everyday Spa, but hubby wasn't feeling well, so I booked an hour massage there and the masseuse came to our room. The massage was good, but I felt that it's still better to go to a spa place to have a massage rather than your own hotel room because the ambience is just totally different. 

Speaking of hotels, we stayed in two different hotels in Bandung. The first one was D'Best Hotel and the second one was Hotel California. In the beginning we weren't actually planning to stay at D'Best Hotel, but hubby and I had trouble sleeping in my parents' place because of the heat.

We had good experiences with both hotels, though for D'Best Hotel I forgot to ask for a non-smoking room, so the room we had kinda smelled like cigarette smoke. In Hotel California, all the rooms are thankfully non-smoking ones, so no more smell. 

Both hotels provide breakfast, though Hotel California provides many more breakfast choices (well, of course, the hotel room is more expensive than D'Best Hotel). They even have waffles and bubur ketan hitam/bubur sumsum (different for different days) and one day I could even eat Kupat Tahu there, so I was really happy eating there ha ha ha ha...At D'Best Hotel, what I like is the fact that they have gorengan at breakfast he he he he he...

The last night in Bandung, we didn't feel like going out anymore, so we had dinner at Hotel California's restaurant and the food was brilliant. Even hubby complimented his chicken steak (and the sauce). The price was a bit more expensive than in normal restaurants, but it was worth it because the taste was great and it was convenient. 

Here are two photos of our last dinner in Bandung:

After Holiday Cold

The reason I've been silent lately was because we went on our winter holiday and then I caught some cold when I got back. Plus I promised myself to stay away from the internet as much as possible during our holiday. 

We went for a week to Tenerife with my mother-in-law this time. It was the first time going there for us, though she had gone there before. We went to the north side, which was greener and less hot. Well, it wasn't that hot there yet because it's not high season yet, but still much warmer than here he he he...The temperature was probably around 16-23'C. 

I'm not going to write long here yet, because my head still feels weird, but here are some photos. We stayed in an area called Puerto de la Cruz on the northern side of Tenerife Island. I liked the fact that it was green there considering the fact that there's still piles of snow here and we still can't see any grass yet. Flowers were blooming so beautifully over there already. Here's a map of the island. Puerto de la Cruz is on the top middle part (click to view a bigger version).

Here's a pic of me with some HUGE flowers near our hotel.

Here's some pics of our hotel Apartamentos Casablanca. We stayed on the fourth floor. I must say it's a pretty good place to people watch from there he he...We were all always amazed at the fact that at 8 am in the morning when the pool was open, there were always a group of people swimming already, though it was still cool and the sun wasn't even shining on the pool area yet. Amazing! We didn't end up swimming at all - partly because it wasn't that hot yet and partly because R2 got sick there as well. He had a cold and fever and for one whole day he stayed up in the hotel room to get some rest. 

I ended up going to the supermarket to cook him some chicken soup for his resting day so that he didn't have to go anywhere. Luckily the hotel room was an apartment and it has a kitchen, so it was easy for me to cook.

The list of activities for guests. There's a green bowling competition every week as well as an aerobic session.

OK, I'm going to take it easy and rest some more. I'll blog-hop and blog some more about our holiday later on. I'm glad I still have some days off before going to work, so I have time to rest and try to get better.

Bulgarian Trip #1

Going back to work after holiday is never easy. This time was especially tough 'coz I started working again by doing something completely new, something that I had received some training prior my holiday but never really got any chance to have some real practice yet. I was a bit worried about it, but thankfully my coworkers helped me, so I wasn't completely lost. Still the first day was tough and my body was very sore after the first shift was over ha ha...The second day went better and I'm thankful that today was a free day 'coz I have two weekend shifts. :-D

Anyway, let me share a few photos of our Bulgarian trip. As I had stated before, we were pretty lazy travellers this time, so we didn't really roam too much. Here are some of the things I bought:

1. A fleece jacket.
2. A pair of jeans at around €20 (at least I don't have to shorten them - in Finland I can get them cheap on a discount as well, but more often than not I have to shorten them and shortening a pair of jeans the last time around cost €10/pair).
3. A pair of relaxing pants.
4. A few types of body butter that cost double in Finland. I LOVE body butter!!!
5. A pair of polarized sunglasses at €18. 
6. Half a dozen bottles of chili sauce (local and Indonesian brand LOL!!!), emperor's rice AKA ketan hitam, Indomie (Indonesian instant noodles), and chocolate. 

We had a full-body massage twice at the hotel we stayed in (it's called Relax Holiday Complex & Spa). It was GREAT. :-D The bad thing was that there was only one masseuse, so we couldn't have the treatment side-by-side, but it's still cheap compared to the same kind of treatment in Finland (in Finland it can cost double). It cost around €30/person/hour.

I also tried billiard for the first time in my life (it cost around €2/game) he he...they had a pool table and a gym and sauna and Turkish bath in the basement floor, but we only tried billiard a few times. I laughed so much the first time I tried billiard 'coz I often miss hitting the white ball ROFL ROFL ROFL...but it was fun anyway!

Here are some pics:

Arttu's first taste of local beer on the beach nearest our hotel. We decided not to stay in a hotel directly across the beach, so in order to reach the beach (esp. the central part of Sunny Beach), we had to walk a few kilometres. I ordered a glass of fresh orange juice in the bar below that cost only €1. :-D VERY cheap!!!

Below is a sneak peek of one of the 5-star hotel along the main part of Sunny Beach. If you wonder why the photo angle is strange, it's because I didn't dare get inside the area 'coz there was a guard standing in front of the gate, so I only took pictures from above the bushes on top of the gate surrounding the hotel.

Me trying billiard for the first time in my life. Yep, that pillar next to me was quite annoying indeed he he he...

This car was parked in the yard of the nearest Zora supermarket. :-D

Found this butterfly while walking towards the beach area...

Posing in front of this Buddha statue in front of the Chinese resto. We tried eating there once and the food was quite good, but rather pricy. No wonder the place never looked full! However, the service was VERY VERY quick!!! We ordered two dishes and in about 5 minutes we could start eating already (even though I did hear the cook prepare the dishes in the kitchen). The fastest service ever in our entire time in Bulgaria!

I just thought the colours looked nice 'coz it's rare to find buildings with this colour in Finland he he...

While walking towards the beach from our hotel, look what happened below!!! We ran out of sidewalk!!! But just keep on walking...the first time around I felt a bit giddy walking there 'coz I was a bit afraid a car might hit me or something he he he...

 

A half moon and a full moon. The first beach photo was taken in the middle of the centre of Sunny Beach, whereas the second one was taken nearer our hotel at the end of Sunny Beach (actually closer to Sveti Vlas area).

We also went to an Indian restaurant once, which was again very empty. Why? I suppose it was quite expensive, as well. In my opinion, the food was OK, even though R2 thought it was great, but I think I've had better Indian food. I can't stop remembering the lovely Indian food we had in Vienna or in a small resto in Helsinki he he...

R2 swimming...the water was cool! :-D

OK, I think this is enough for now. I'll continue sharing some more photos later on. Have a blessed and relaxing weekend, people! I'll have a busy weekend at work ha ha ha...

Back from Vienna

Hi, people! Had a great time in Vienna and then when we got back, I had to work 2 days straight, so haven't had time to do anything much. I didn't use the internet at all during our trip to Vienna, so when I got back my mailbox was flooded ha ha ha...

Anyway, the weather in Vienna was around 14-20'C during the day while we were there, but it could still drop down to 8-13'C during the night. One day it rained for hours (light rain), but on other days it didn't rain. The last full day we spent there was the hottest ever. There were almost no clouds in the sky and it got up to perhaps 20'C. We got some tan after spending hours in the sun. One of the highlights of the trip was that I could meet my Hungarian friend who was in Sodankylä for a year as a volunteer worker. The last time we met was probably 3 years ago at least he he...R2 knows her, too, so it was fun having lunch with our acquaintance. Plus she got to tell us some places and shopping street that she frequented. :-D

We stayed in Adagio Wien Zentrum and we found that it was a really nice hotel/apartment with a small kitchenette, a fridge, a microwave, coffee maker, etc. etc. etc. As per someone's recommendation in tripadvisor, I requested a room on a higher floor, facing the river and they manage to get us just that even though the management couldn't really promise us that when I sent my email (we stayed on the 8th floor).

We got a bit confused when we were in the lift, though...here's what the panel looked like:

So we went in and tried to press on 8, but couldn't find it, so had to read the panel first before we realized that D = 8 HA HA HA...and when we tried getting back down to the lobby, we also had the same problem 'coz we tried to find 0 in the panel, but turned out we had to press E.

Here are some pics of the room and the shower:

Here are the views from our room windows (I could open the windows and sit on the ledge to take pics HA HA HA HA HA...).

I aimed my camera to the right side of the window, then the left side, then the middle part. The white building with a dome on top is an observatory.

Notice the lit up rooms in the observatory pic above? In the evenings they held some kind of dancing lessons or exercise lessons there 'coz I've seen dancing women as well as some women doing stretches on mats. :-D

Here's a view of the hotel lobby (photo taken while we waited for our cab to drive us back to the airport):

One bad thing about staying in Vienna is that we couldn't watch any movies or TV series 'coz everything was dubbed in German, except some BBC channels and some news channels. Doh!!!

Here's a pic of me with flowers right outside the hotel. I was SO SO SO happy to be able to see so many blooming flowers around me ha ha ha ha ha...

Our conclusion after Vienna trip, though, is that we still LOVE Budapest more than Vienna. We feel that Budapest is a nicer place - plus cheaper, too!!!!(click on Budapest to read about our trip there last year) Plus we could still watch movies or TV series at night after we got back from roaming around the city ha ha ha ha...but anyway, we're THANKFUL to be able to go on this holiday and we've made many more travel memories together. I'm gonna share more photos later in several posts.

GAAAHHHHH!!!!

I don't know why I feel that there have been SO many things to do lately that I don't even know anymore which I should do first he he he...

To make a new passport, I need some photos. I did go to a photo studio in Bandung, but I wasn't sure that the Indo Embassy would accept those photos 'coz they're the standardized Indonesian passport photos and the Indo Embassy told me that they wanted the kind of photos that the Finnish government accepts as passport photos. Good thing was that I got a CD with my photo in it, so I only had to print out some photos according to the Finnish passport photo guideline.

The problem was printing them. First of all, here there are no studios where you can print passport photos from a CD. So I had to measure the photo carefully and then make several copies and then send them online to be printed by a photo company. The first time I sent them a jpg file, I realized I had made a mistake 'coz I ordered the wrong photo size. So I had to redo the whole thing and then picked the right photo size.

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Why did I go to such length just to print some photos? Of course there is a local photo service where I can get 4 passport photos right away, but they cost at least €15 (yep, for just 4 bloody pieces of passport photos).

Anyway, enough about the photos...soon I'll have to type up a letter, asking the Indo Embassy to renew my passport and then I have to bring a copy of our marriage certificate, too. Today I ordered Helsinki Card online (only for one day) - we can pick up the card from one of their agents (I think we'll just pick them up from the airport) and we can go take the airport bus to our hotel (fortunately the airport bus passes through the hotel 'coz there's a bus stop behind it). We have to pay €5,90 per person.

So these days I've also been browsing through the kinds of museums or attractions that we can visit 'coz by having Helsinki Card, we can get discounts to many tourist attractions - sometimes we don't even have to pay to get inside many museums. :-)))) The only museum I've been to when I was in Helsinki was Ateneum Museum . Back in 2004 there were modern art collections in the museum.

Photo taken from here

I almost got lost when I tried to find the museum back then, you know? I'm such a lousy map reader hi hi hi...I actually went to the opposite direction to where the museum was supposed to be. I kept walking and walking until I realized I was in an area where there couldn't possibly be museums hi hi hi hi hi...it's hard to describe, but I just knew I was far away from where a museum could be, so I went back and I kept walking and walking and finally I found it hi hi hi...

That was also why I let R2 read the map when we went to Singapore. I just followed him wherever he told me to go HA HA HA HA HA...like a good sheep following its shepherd HI HI HI HI HI...

Ahem...OK, enough rambling, time to blog-hop a bit.

P.S. We'll be staying in Scandic Continental Helsinki. The hotel has a swimming pool, so I'm gonna bring my swimsuit with me HO HO HO HO HO HO...I wanna swim 'coz I swam only once when I was in Bandung ('coz it rained a lot after the first week).

Adjusting to Training

Hi, fellas! I've been pretty tired these past two days. As a matter of fact, I'm going to take a nap soon after publishing this post. I'm gonna catch up with you people this weekend, OK? After my nice holiday in Rhodes and being at home for a month, I need time to adjust with this 8-hour work schedule.

The first day at work I did a 5-hour cleaning job of the hotel (there was a short break in between and also a lunch break) and after that I was told to read the company's brochure. After I was done reading the brochure, I had nothing else to do. So it was a bit boring at the end of the day.

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I thought I was going to have some physical pain today from the cleaning job, but nothing except the fact that I hit the sack at around 9.45 pm already (I fell asleep in just a few seconds - at least it felt like it HA HA HA...). On second thought, maybe it didn't hurt at all 'coz I mostly dusted instead of changing the sheets and other stuff.

Today was a MUCH MORE interesting workday as I got to edit some travel brochures and also check the typos and check the prices and everything else to make them look good and helpful for the customers. There are some missing info, which I've told the boss, so I'm not done doing this yet.

Not sure why (I'm not on my PMS, just finished my period), but I'm TOTALLY WHACKED. Just want to sleeeppppp for 12 hours hi hi hi hi...Hubby teased me by singing, "Sleepyhead, sleepyheaddd...you are a sleepyhead..."

So this sleepyhead is going to sleep now. Just wanna let you know how it goes. Oh, yeah, I'm sure there'll be more cleaning days later on when the main worker there gets a long summer holiday. At least it'll be good for my program to lose some weight. I've gained 6 kgs since I moved to Finland 2 years and 4 months ago and so far I've lost one kg. Don't wanna gain more weight 'coz that means I have to buy new clothes - I'd rather save money to buy a plane ticket to Indo rather than buy new clothes he he...

OK, nap time!!! Take care, everybody! Until this weekend!