Monday, September 29, 2014

Garuda Indonesia Golf Challenge September 2014 - Final Game at Bumi Serpong Damai Indah

The second and final game in the GIGC Tournament was played at the Damai Indah Bumi Serpong Golf Course. As usual the organisation was faultless.

While waiting for the bus to leave the hotel in the morning, pakdokter checked out a hawker stall just down the road next to Hotel Neo. His 'apam balik' ( a kind of crepe with peanut and butter ) was thick, soft and sweet. It costs 2500 rupiah each ( RM0.75) - really cheap.


 fresh 'apam balik' being made as you order


 caddies at Damai Indah Bumi Serpong

 a lovely Jack Nicklaus design golf course

 but it was a tough course to play for pakdokter!

RSGC Buayas Abang man and Thomas were among the winners
for the 2 day competition
Abang Man was 4th best nett and Thomas 3rd best nett
The winner was a golfer from KLGCC
 who returned a gross score of 73 and 75
and will get a free package to Bali in January 2015

GIGC September - Day 1 @ Bogor Raya Golf Course

The Day 1 Competition Golf was held at the Bogor Raya Golf Course. We left the hotel after breakfast and with police outriders we made it to the golf course in just over one hour. As at Imperial Golf the day before we were welcomed by the caddies upon our arrival and the golf bags were quickly set out to the respective buggies efficiently in the shortest of time. The flight composition were arranged by the organisers - so we did not have the luxury of playing amongst ourselves. However pakdokter was put in a flight with Abnag an from RSGC with 2 golfers who came from Penang. As these two golfers do not belong to any golf clubs and have no NHS cards ( National Handicapping System) - they were allocated a handicap of 0. Pakdokter was not sure whether they qualified for the Challenge or were just playing a 'social golf' game. 

After the game we were entertained to a buffet lunch at the club restaurant. As we had a free afternoon, many of us took the opportunity to go for a round of 'massage' to treat and rejuvenate our tired body.



 official photographer's picture of RSGC Buaya flight at Imperial Golf Club

 After checking in at Hotel Neo at Mangga Dua
we walked to Jimbaran Bali Seafood Restaurant for dinner
this was after the practise game at Imperial

 Bogor Raya Golf Course

 the Bogor Raya clun-house from the golf course

 pakdokter's caddy @ Bogor Raya

 this hawker sells 'bakso' ( beef balls) at one of the tee boxes

 delicious but spicy beef balls

 buffet lunch at the club-house


 group photograph at Bogor Raya

a close-up of pakdokter by the official photographer @ Bogor Raya

Practise Round at Imperial Karawaci Golf Club

As reported earlier the police outriders helped us to travel smoothly from the airport to the Imperial Golf Club. Upon arrivals the caddies queued at the arrival lobby to cheer and welcome us. Our lunch as per our orders in the bus was ready at the restaurant. What an organisation!

The caddies all wore vests that bore the name of the golfer she caddied for. It was like taking part in a professional golf competition. Impressive.




 pretty caddies all in a row

 RSGC Buaya pakHalim must be a regular here - the waitresses all know him!

 nasi timbel - a set lunch of Javanese dishes

 pakdokter, Rain, Thomas and Abang Man

pakdokter with  pakdokter's caddy







Garuda Golf Challenge September 2014

Garuda Airlines since early this year has been organising this golf competition for Malaysian golfers in their effort to promote golf tourism to Indonesia. Three qualifying rounds had been organised in April, May and June and after the Ramadan break another four qualifying rounds were planned for August, September, October and November. The Grand Finale will be held in Bali in January 2015 and all winners of the qualifying rounds will be fully sponsored by Garuda to the event.

This is also a 'value-for-money' golf package. An all-expense-inclusive package ( airfare, 3 rounds of golf, 3 nights of hotel stay, all land transfers and many attractive prizes to be won) only came to about RM2000 for a single-occupancy participant. The surprise was that most of the meals were also thrown in although these were not mentioned in the original invitation.

Naturally this tournament has received great response. The qualifying rounds have received nothing less than 60 participants with the October event having already registered a full-house of 120 golfers!

The September event which pakdokter and some RSGC Buayas signed up for had 80 golfers.

We were put on the 8am Garuda flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta.  Upon arrival 3 buses were waiting to ferry us to the golf course for a practise round. A  truck loaded our golf bags - golf bag covers and golf bags  were all tagged to facilitate the smooth running of the golf games. It was a good first impression at how well the event was organised.

On the bus to the golf course we were surprised by the provision of police outriders to facilitate our journey from the airport to the golf course. As such we were able to move smoothly through the infamous Jakarta 'macet' ( traffic jam). To save time 2 girls came around to take our orders for lunch at the club so that by the time we reached the golf club, our lunch will be ready for us so that we will not be delayed for the booked tee-off times. What an organisation.

Bravo Garuda!



 the truck that transported our golf bags

 80 golf bags being tagged for the golf event and ready to be transported

 3 comfortable buses to ferry 80 golfers

 lunch orders on the bus - sup buntut a popular order

ice-cold coffee on the bus

Friday, September 26, 2014

Casa Luna

Casa Luna is located along the main street of Ubud. The owner of this restaurant also owns the Indus Restaurant located along another main street of Ubud and these two restaurants are venues of some of the sessions in the Ubud Writers Festival which are annually held in October.

Pakdokter attended this Festival in 2011 and found that this is probably one of the best Writers Festival in Asia besides the Jaipur Literature Festival which is held in the month of January.

Casa Luna also have live jazz bands on some nights and when we came here it was already fully booked downstairs where the performance was. We again chose local dishes for dinner - a seafood salad, a fish  curry and brown rice with sauteed morning glory vegetable. The dessert was like the Malaysian 'pengat pisang' with ice cream.

We had a wonderful week in Ubud, Bali - the Kayumanis Resort was a lovely place for our special occasion and we thoroughly enjoyed a few sessions of treatments at the Kayumanis Spa.







Restaurant Ibu Rai


Bali is one place where one observes many religious activities throughout the day. In the resort the staff were seen to observe their prayers and offerings at the resort's own little 'candi' ( temple or altar) several times a day. On two of the nights that we ventured out to Ubud town for dinner, we observed long processions with musical accompaniments heading to one of the main candi in the town.






We ventured out off the main street towards the Monkey Forest district and came across this restaurant if my memory is correct is called Ibu Rai. We were early enough to secure a table as while waiting for our dishes the restaurants quickly became crowded with tourists. Definitely one of the recommended ones in tourist books and brochures. We decided to stick to local Balinese dishes like the gado-gado ( salad) and bebek goreng ( roasted duck). We also shared a dessert dish which was a crepe with banana fillings.







 the gado gado salad


 the bebek goreng

 a grilled fish dish

banana crepes with ice cream