Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 4th May, 2011

Today's weather;

A surprise update, I'm sitting inside the Starbucks at Denpasar, Bali airport, waiting for my flight to Phuket in another 4 hours, so perfect timing for an update.

Samui has a nice blue sky and it's looking once more like a hot day ahead. Current temp at 7am is 26.8C

Yesterday saw also a nice day on Samui, sunny and hot with a max temp of 31.4C

Mataran airport on Lombok, Indonesia at 7am this morning

This morning at 5.30am I left Gili Air, with a 45 minute taxi ride ahead of me upon arriving on Lombok, to deliver me at Mataran airport on Lombok for a 30 minute flight to Denpasar airport on Bali. Here I'm currently waiting to catch my homebound flight! Around 8pm I should touch down at Samui airport! It's going to be a long day!

The IDC on Gili Air has been successfully completed and the candidates are waiting for a PADI IE to start 10th May. I'll be back on Gili Air in mid June for another IDC. Can't wait!

Camille

How To Commute From EDSA To Buildings Inside Ortigas Center

The sign in front of jeepneys that ply the route from the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue to different buildings inside Ortigas Center CBD is 'Robinson's Galleria-Ortigas Complex'. The exact location where you can ride this jeep is in front of Galleria Corporate Center, the tall building connected to Robinson's Galleria Mall. Wait for a jeep to pass by at the corner of Galleria Corporate Center. This jeepney passes through the one way service road around Robinson's Galleria Mall from Ortigas Complex to its Terminal along Ortigas Avenue. The terminal is a long walk so commuters ride at Galleria Corporate Center and then they transfer to another jeepney at the terminal in going to Ortigas Center Complex.

From top-right clockwise: Orient Square, Wynsum Corporate Plaza, Discovery Suites, and JMT Corporate Condominium stand next to each other in this photo of Ortigas Center. Jeepneys with "Robinson's Galleria Ortigas Center Complex" sign passes through their location.

'Robinson's Galleria-Ortigas Complex' jeepney route is a loop within Ortigas Center CBD that serves passengers from EDSA-Ortigas bus loading and unloading zone. So if you're traveling by bus in EDSA from either north (e.g. Monumento, Cubao, Fairview, Novaliches, Malanday, Valenzuela) or south (e.g. Baclaran, NAIA 1-2-3, Pasay, Alabang, Sucat, Bicutan, Pacita, Muntinlupa, Magallanes, Makati) of Metro Manila, all you need to do is get off the bus at Robinson's Galleria (just make sure you're riding a bus with "Ortigas Ilalim" sign and not "Ortigas Ibabaw") , ride this jeep, transfer to another jeep at the terminal and get off at the area in Ortigas Center Complex near to the building of your destination. Riding a jeep from Galleria Corporate Center in EDSA to its terminal is FREE. Just get off the jeep and get in another jeep located to the front of the terminal. Minimum fare applies.

This post is a second part of series of articles on how to get to buildings located inside Ortigas Center CBD. Our first post entitled Walking Directions From MRT Station To Ortigas Center Buildings shares to you fastest way to reach some buildings from MRT-3 Ortigas Station. You can also read the third part of this series which explains how to commute to the buildings located to the southern side of Ortigas Center from MRT Shaw, click HERE. Meanwhile, the fourth chapter will give you walking directions from MRT Shaw to some important institutions nearer to the train station, i.e. San Properties Centre, EDSA Shangri-la Hotel, St. Francis Twin Towers, St. Francis of Assisi Church, etc., click HERE.

Ortigas Station is a long walk from jeepney route going to Ortigas Complex. I presume the time it takes to walk from MRT Ortigas Station to loading area of the jeepney plus the waiting time while the jeepney is being filled up is longer than the time it takes to walk from MRT-3 Ortigas Station to some of the buildings in Ortigas Center Complex. To find out the buildings that are walking distance from MRT-3 Ortigas Station, go to Walking Directions From MRT Station To Ortigas Center Buildings or click here.

Now, if you're riding a bus and you get off at Ortigas Avenue, riding a jeepney in going to the location of a building inside Ortigas Center CBD is not quixotic. This is also true if you're riding a bus or jeepney or even taxi from Quiapo, Greenhills, San Juan, SM City Santa Mesa, Legarda, Gilmore, Ronac Arts Center, Ever Gotesco Ortigas, Libis, Antipolo, Taytay, etc. All you need to do is alight at unloading area along Ortigas Avenue in Robinson's Galleria, then ride the jeep at its terminal nearby.

Even so, there's no need to ride a jeep if you're going to any building located outside the opposite end of Robinsons Galleria such as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Robinson's Equitable Tower, Mega Plaza, AIC Burgundy, AIC Grande Tower, Corinthian Executive Regency, AIC Gold Tower, Greenhills Christian Fellowship and East of Galleria. These buidlings are just short walk away from the second main entrance of Robinson's Galleria located at the opposite end of the mall which is in ADB Avenue. Just enter the mall at EDSA main entrance, walk towards the opposite end of the mall, exit the mall at ADB main entrance and go towards the building of your destination.

Here's the route and direction of 'Robinson's Galleria-Ortigas Complex' jeepney from its terminal to different areas in Ortigas Center Complex where you can get off to go to your building destination.

To make it easier for you to determine when and where to get off the jeep, the buildings are listed in order of their locations along the route of 'Robinson's Galleria-Ortigas Complex' jeepney. Not all buildings have their photos taken.



From the terminal, the jeep enters Ortigas Center Complex by turning right onto F. Ortigas Jr Road formerly known as Emerald Avenue.



It will cross Sapphire Road where Ortigas Building and AIC Gold Tower is located. These buildings are walking distance from Robinson's Galleria.



The jeep will turn left on Garnet Road. Grand Emerald Tower is at the corner of Garnet and F Ortigas Jr formerly Emerald Avenue.

Next building to Grand Emerald Tower, along F. Ortigas Jr Road is Jollibee Plaza, followed by Padilla Building.





Along Garnet Road to the right, first stop is back entrance of PLDT. Followed by back entrances of Strata 2000 and Ortigas Center Post Office, respectively. Garnet Road is the back door of most buildings along F. Ortigas Jr Road formerly known as Emerald Avenue. If you're going to the main entrances of the buildings located along F. Ortigas Jr Road formerly Emerald Avenue, get off the jeep at the corner of Garnet Road and F. Ortigas Jr Road and walk your way to those buildings.





To the left of Garnet Road opposite Ortigas Center Post Office is Onyx Road, a T intersection. Get off at Onyx Road to go to Unionbank Plaza, Parc Chateau Condominium - corner of Garnet and Onyx, Horizon Codominium - along Sapphire and Onyx Road, Suntree Tower - next to Horizon Condominium, and the back of Millenium Place - next to Suntree.




After the jeep stops at Onyx Road, it continues on Garnet Road up to the corner of Garnet and Julia Vargas Avenue. To the right of Garnet Road from Ortigas Center Post Office located respectively are: back entrances of Emerald Mansion, Raffles Corporate Center, Prestige building and Taipan Place. The jeep stops at the corner of Garnet Road and Julia Vargas Avenue, opposite Centerpoint Building. It stands there for a while to wait for passengers leaving Ortigas Complex.






If you're going to One Corporate Center or Antel Global Corporate Center, get off at Centerpoint Building, corner of Julia Vargas Avenue and Garnet Road. The two buildings stand to your left if you're facing Julia Vargas. One Corporate Center is situated at the corner of Meralco Avenue and Julia Vargas Avenue. Next to it is the Antel Global. Just walk your way to Caltex, then walk across Julia Vargas.




From Garnet Road the jeep will turn right onto Julia Vargas. It will pass by T-intersection to the right. This intersection is F. Ortigas Jr Road formerly Emerald Avenue where the main entrances of the buildings and different coffee shops, fast food chains, food court and convenient stores are located. Among them are Jollibee, KFC, Greenwhich, Chowking, Starbucks, Figaro, Lasapin Food Court (also accessible through back door along Garnet Road), 7-11, etc.


There's pedestrian overpass at Julia Vargas and F. Ortigas Jr Road. If you're going to Tektite Towers or Octagon Building where Teleperformance and Sony Philippines are located, get off at T-intersection of Julia Vargas and F. Ortigas Jr Road.






Use the footbridge and get across Julia Vargas Avenue. Located at the foot of the overpass, opposite of F. Ortigas Jr Road alaong Julia Vargas is Amberland Plaza. Next to it is Parc Royale Condomium, followed by Nobleland Ventures.



Use the walkway located to the right of Amberland Plaza to get to Tektite Towers, located at the back of Amberland Plaza and Parc Royale. You need to pass through another walkway at the middle of a large parking lot behind Parc Royale to get to Exchange Road where Tektite Towers are located. Octagon Building can also be reached by using this direction. Just walk towards the building.




After F. Ortigas Jr Road, the jeep will turn right onto Ruby Road where El Pueblo is located to the left corner. El Pueblo is a commercial area where fast food chains, cafes, restaurants and bars are located. There's a McDonald's here. Along Ruby Road, to the right, are back entrances of buildings located along west side of F. Ortigas Jr Road formerly known as Emereal Avenue.




First building is Agustin 1, followed by The Orient Square, then Emerald Building. Fourth is Wynsum Corporate Plaza. Next is Hanston Building. Followed by Strata 100. To the left of Ruby Road, next to El Pueblo is a T-intersection which bends to the right. This street is called Topaz Road where after it bends THE JMT Building is located to its left, followed by Discovery Suites, then Anson's and lastly the Malayan Plaza.



Buildings along Ruby Road are nearer to the ones along Topaz Road, as what you see in our main photo from which Wynsum and Orient Square looked nearer to The JMT and Discovery Suites as if they're all situated along opposite sides of one street.



From Ruby Road, the jeep will turn left on Opal Road, the next T-intersection to the left of Ruby Road. Opposite Opal, to the right of Ruby Road is the Ortigas Park where Coffeebean is also located. It is important to note, that you can get to Ortigas Park faster if you get off the jeep at the corner of F. Ortigas Road and Garnet Road, just before the jeep turn left. Walk along F. Ortigas west side until you reach Ortigas Park. In Opal Road, the jeepney will turn right onto ADB Avenue on its way to Robinson's Galleria and the Bus Bay located in front of Robinson's Galleria EDSA entrance. At the corner of Opal and ADB is Yamaha Y-Zone. And along ADB Avenue's east side is the Joy Nostalg, next to Volvo Ortigas.




Unionbank Plaza, Onyx Road cor Sapphire



Jeepney Stop in front Centerpoint Bldg



One Corporate Center



Antel Global



Tektite Towers



Octagon Bldg



El Pueblo



From top  right: Orient Square, Wynsum, Discovery, JMT



Ortigas Park



Joy Nostalg

Below is the Route Map of Robinson's Galleria Ortigas Complex Jeepney that gives you clear view of how the jeepney traverses the locations of the buildings we've just discussed on this chapter.

Discover few simple ways not to miss new and upcoming articles on commuting and driving directions to lots of places in Metro Manila. Click HERE

Route Map of Robinson's Galleria Ortigas Complex Jeepney

Sri Phang Nga National Park

Last week we took a trip for a night to Khao Sok National Park, staying again at the Cliff and River Jungle Resort which has become one of our favourite places to relax for a couple of days. Khao Sok is well known for hiking, boat trips, rafting, elephant treks, bird spotting and more. I admit that we just head to the hotel pool to chill out and eat in the very nice restaurant. We have done a boat trip on Chiew Lan Reservoir before and would like to do that again sometime, but we'll skip the hiking and white water!

On the drive back from Khao Sok to Phuket the road goes via Takua Pa, a small town which is not far north of Khao Lak with all it's hotels. Just before reaching Takua Pa the road splits north towards Ranong, and it's along this road that you find Sri Phang Nga National Park. It's about 30km from Takua Pa heading towards Kuraburi which is about the only major town between Takua Pa and Ranong. We'd decided to check the park out on the recommendation of a friend who'd posted some nice photos on Facebook of rivers and a pool full of fish - and she told us you can jump in with the fish! Sounded interesting enough for a 30km detour. Sri Phang Nga National Park was easy enough to find, very well signposted and good roads, though the road that led to the park from the main highway was quite narrow in places. I did for a minute or two wonder if we'd wasted our time!

Sri Phang Nga Entrance

The park entrance was very tidy and well kept. We were charged only 100 Baht for the whole family to come in. Plenty of parking and we could see a small restaurant, plus we found some very clean bathrooms (with big mosquitoes!). There was also a large grassy camping area and some national park huts to sleep in too. Looked good and we had not seen any rivers or fish yet! And it was quiet. We saw a few other cars, a couple of people. I had read that Sri Phang Nga was quiet. Seems to be true. We like quiet! Now, at the main entrance/restaurant, a sign said that the nearest waterfall and the fish pool was 1.5km away. We reeled in horror at the prospect of such a hike! Luckily you can drive that far along a bumpy dirt road. At the end of that track we found a few more cars, a little river full of fish and some young girls selling fish food at 20 Baht per bag. We went directly to the nearest water and started throwing food to the fish. I decided that I could wade in the shallow water - cool and refreshing on such a hot day. We already decided that next time we're coming ready for a swim! OK, so lots of fish, cool water .. I threw food around my legs and the fish swarmed - very tickly! I encouraged the kids to do the same.

Fish tickling my legs

I then noticed a "NO WADING" sign right by the river. Oops! A little further away was a deeper pond with a "NO SWIMMING" sign. Hang on.. our friend had told us that you can swim here... So we went for a little walk. A sign pointed to Tamnang Waterfall only 500m. Let's try this way. We walked through the jungle, rather like a walk at Kathu Waterfall or Ton Sai Waterfall in Phuket.

Walking at Sri Phang Nga

Tamnang waterfall (according to the official national park website) is 63 meters high. Not sure it looked that high, but anyway .. taller than any Phuket waterfall! I was impressed and happy to find only 3 other people at the falls, all wading in the water. I got the feeling they had been very happy to be the only 3 people there... we came along and shattered their peace! They left soon after we arrived.. which meant that we had Tamnang waterfall to ourselves :)

Tamnang Waterfall

Now, downriver from the waterfall, there were pools where fish were swimming, and in the main pool under the falls, the fish were everywhere. The water was fresh, cool and clear. Yes, next time we'll come with swimming clothes. Well, my dear wife took the plunge anyway. A bra is the same as a bikini? Well, if nobody else is around, yes. I was happy paddling.. well actually it was a hot day and I should have just leapt fully clothed into the pool, but I am not so anarchic! Me and the kids just carried on feeding the fish.

Fish at the waterfall

Tamnang Waterfall

We had our own private waterfall! The other waterfalls at Sri Phang Nga are a bit more of a hike (not far actually, just 2 - 3km). Next time maybe we'll be ready for a hike and a swim. This was a bit of a discovery. Kids loved it. They do like a bit of nature! Having the fish swimming all around us was cool... with that slight hint of danger - will they perhaps decide to bite me? Kids were unsure until dad was already in the water surrounded by fish.

Boy and Fish

After half an hour at Tamnang waterfall, we got this kind of "we could stay here all day" feeling, except we were on the way home, and to drive home would take about 3 hours. Back at the main entrance, we ate at the restaurant, cheap and tasty Thai food, and asked about the accommodation and were told its just 420 Baht per night to book a hut with 4 beds (no aircon!) or 600 Baht at the weekend. We'd not try to visit as a day trip, a bit too far, though if someone was staying in Khao Lak, a day trip would be easy. Next time we'll stay overnight and go throw ourselves into a pool full of fish for the day! Happy to have found Sri Phang Nga and we'll plan a weekend trip sometime in the near future.

Related Links ...

Sri Phang Nga National Park official website
Khao Lak Hotels - less than an hour to drive to Sri Phang Nga from Khao Lak.
Khao Sok - Cliff and River Resort - about an hour to drive from here to Sri Phang Nga

Monday, May 2, 2011

Welcome to may 2011

Welcome to may 2011

It's time to welcome another month, May 2011. A little bit later than usual, but work and limited internet connection on Gili Air in Indonesia where I am right now didn't allow to post until now.

Usually May is a bit of a mixed bag, plenty of sunshine but also rain and sometimes even some storms. This year the start is very promising though with nice, sunny days. Hopefully we can keep this going for the remainder of the month.

If you're planning to visit Samui in the near future, don't forget to visit my Koh Samui hotel recommendation blog or my Thailand hotel recommendation blog for your hotel bookings.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 3rd May, 2011

Today's weather;

Samui is having another sunny morning. Current temp at 7am is 27.5C

Yesterday saw a very hot day on Samui, max temp reached 32.2C

Tomorrow I will be travelling back to Samui, where I should arrive around 8pm. My travel day will start at 4.30am, so I'm not sure if I will be able to update this blog tomorrow.

Teluk Nara on Lombok, a freighter boat in front of the harbor, where we dived yesterday

Gili Air is still nice and relaxed, a situation that hopefully won't change too soon, since it seems that the Gili islands are seriously gaining in popularity! Get your seats early if you still want to enjoy the island(s) before t gets really busy here.
This morning it drizzled a bit and yesterday we saw a sunny morning, some rain during the afternoon and more sunshine after the rain!
My work is completed, the IDC is in the bag and yesterday we had some fantastic dives.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 2nd May, 2011

Today's weather;

Due to a very busy morning, during which I had to prepare for dives and needed to teach, the daily update doesn't come until now. Samui had a lovely warm day with a current temp at 4pm of 30.8C

Yesterday saw a warm and sunny day with some rain again during the night. Samui's max temp reached 30.6C

Gili Trawangan, the big 'Gili' island, as seen from our dive boat, here I completed my Advanced Open Water diver course 16 years ago

Gili Air was hot and sunny in the morning with some rain during the early afternoon, and more sunshine after it. Yesterday saw a nice morning with a rainy afternoon. Max temp is daily around 32-33C

Camille

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Another visit to Bar Banyan, Johor Bahru.

Visited the Bar Banyan (N1.46569 E103.74381) after sometime...you can refer my previous visit here. The Bar is located along Jalan Abdul Samad of Johor Bahru.

This time the Bar surprised us with the Totally new Look! It expended and renovated with Nice Decoration! At first, the dining area became much more comfort and spacious. But I'm yet to taste the food, will do it soon. :)

Bar Banyan dining area.

You can have your dinner here and some beer after the meal in the Beautiful Bar.

Once we stepped in to the Bar area, the attractive decoration appeared just in front of us! The area is Cool and Relax...

Soft music was playing to provide relax environment...it's one of the enjoyment with beer after a hectic day...

The Pool table area is wide and comfort enough. Wanna have a game? :)

At the second session (which is extended area), it's a low sitting area. Where you can rest yourself on the comfortable sofa with low lighting.

The second session of the Bar

I like the 'Bird Cage' lighting very much!

Beside the 'Bird Cage', there were also some other special & unique lighting in the Bar...

The Unique lighting in the Bar

We appreciated the Owner - Mr Fann who put in his effort to create such a Beautiful & Relax area within Johor Bahru. Another good reason for us to visit this Bar is...the area won't be over crowded and noisy! Well, at least after many times in our visit. And I called Bar Banyan is One of the Beautiful Bar in JB.

After the drinking area, let me share some photos of the Bar Counter...

The Decorative Bar Counter of Bar Banyan


The Friendly Bartender...

The beer and hard liquor

The Bar serve beer, liquor and wine. They have a special wine room for customers who want to keep their wine in the Bar. Beside the nice environment, the staffs are friendly too!
Visit it and have a mug or two if you happen in the area. :)

This is one of the Cool hangout place in Johor Bahru area and also one of my Favorite Bar!

The Location Map of Bar Banyan at Johor Bahru.