A Quick Hop

A bit of a change this weekend with an overnight trip down south to Singapore on Friday. Great that I would be back on Saturday evening and would have the Sunday to chill.

I was at the hospital early that morning to clear a few things before Anita dropped me at KL Sentral for early lunch. The journey to KLIA was tight as the train was full. Most of the passengers however went on to KLIA2. My flight was only half full.

Didn't pack muchThe train to KLIA was packedDelayed ...The schedule for the rest of today and tomorrow looked full. I would go straight to the conference venue from the airport, then to attend the faculty dinner before my pickup back to the hotel at 9.30 pm. I would only check myself in then.

It would be an early start tomorrow. Pickup would be at 7.30. My talk would be after the coffee break in the morning before being taken straight to airport for a 7pm flight.

En routeWaiting for my pick-up from the airport ...What should I do on Sunday then? There is a hifi show in town. Maybe I'll go to that ...

The Light Penang

Light literally translated as “lampu” in Malay. And one of the famous British Captain who had ruled Penang in the past was Sir Francis Light. I was struggling to figure out if the hotel we stayed when we were in Seberang Jaya the other weekend was named after the famous captain.

But instead it was because the hotel was owned by the Pelita Group, a famous nasi kandar chain. And “pelita” could also be translated as “light”.

Enough about the name, the hotel proved to be better than I expected. Despite being three years old, everything felt brand new. The room service we ordered as well as the breakfast selection was also delightful. The hotel had full range of services including gym, pool and spa. There was also a convention taking place the morning we were there, and I was sure they had a good confererence package to go along with it as well.

We stayed on the 15th floor, a nice room, great shower and confortable bed. The breakfast was also better than I expected with selection of local and international food. We ended up spending almost an hour an a half killing time that morning, checking on the news and just browsing the net.

We would definitely recommend this hotel and would plan to stay here again should we need to come back to Seberang Perai. Unfortunately, we had already made plans for our Raya trip to Penang and would be staying across on the island side.

The Meeting

ASH stood for American Society of Haematology. Every winter, they have a big meeting - the last one I attended was in Atlanta in 2012. But travelling across the globe was not really my cup of tea especially with the thought of entering the United States. I was lucky to be flown in Business Class on my last visit. I couldn’t see myself travelling otherwise. The journey would be unbearable.

Luckily, every year, ASH came to Asia-Pacific. The update meeting was held in Brisbane 2 years back and this time around it was in Bali - hence my trip. They also held a trainee workshop from the day before the meeting started. The meeting proper lasted for a day and a half.

The talks were generally great but the question and answer session were rather long with many long-winded questions from the audience. I was well into my second day as I wrote this entry and was planning our travel to the airport for the flight back. We decided to take a cab straight to the airport but the worry would be that we would get jibbed again by the cabby.

Grand Hyatt Bali

Sprawling landscape with somewhat disappointing beach. That more or less summed up the place. Definitely a place to just chill with the nice room. Anita would've loved it if she could come along.

The whole complex was big. We could easily get lost walking around the compound. The signage was also not the best.

For the first evening, we decided to stay in and have dinner at the hotel rather than take a taxi out of town. Nusa Dua is a rather protected cocoon. The are more than 10 hotels with tight security coming in and out of the area. I was sure it was for the safety of tourists. Traveling into town from the hotel was rather problematic logistically. They even have their own retail area within Nusa Dua.

The dinner was at a Balinese restaurant at the hotel. They even had a cultural show to boot. Food was nothing special however.

Breakfast was a similarly standard fair. They had a couple of outlets doing breakfast and we tried both. The one by the pool - called Salsa Verde - was better.

Since the program was tight, I didn't really get to enjoy the facilities. But that didn't stop me from getting a 10 hour sleep the evening I arrived. It had been a while since I had such lay in. More information are at the hotel website.

Settling into Bali

It wasn't the most pleasant of flights. I was sure that if Anita came along, she would not have enjoyed it. It was bumpy and since it was a connecting flight with a group from Bangladesh, the flight was full.

There were no delays however although I arrived too late to check-in at KL Sentral. Took the ERL and by the time everything was cleared, the gate for the flight was already about to open.

We arrived in Bali 3 hours later. The queue for immigration was long but the authority there organiser it very well. By the time I picked my bags, our transport to the hotel had been waiting for us.

It took about half an hour to transfer to the hotel and after checking in, it was time for the beach ...