I hope that was I ! I saw that,too. I think he is an interpretor? no idea In fact I wanted to follow him to the bus...but it's impossible:crying:
Nope, the pair u were talking about is Tony(US)/Chandra(INA). They are the champion of japan open recently, but I believe they didn't go to china open. The pair u saw in the pic is Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan (INA).
badMania, did you invite all these players to badminton central? do they know about badminton central? do they read badminton central?
I did show them badminton central website. Kido was especially interested in finding out whether there are some pics of him. I helped him to save the pic taken in the China Open 2006 Final (prize presentation ceremony) into Alvent's laptop. All of us laughed when I read out the post about why Luluk/Alvent lost to Fu/Cai on Sat, esp the part when one of you wrote "...because Luluk played bad" Unfortunately, most of them didn't have a good command of English. So, reading the posts in badminton central would be a tough task for them I have to translate what those posts mean to them, like when it was written "Kido is a flying predator", etc.
Is KIdo THAT vain???? well, I guess he was proud of that achievement, and I was so happy that Fu/Cai lost, not a big Indon supporter, but anyone against China will do!!
badmania, You can speak Indonesia. Can u tell me what is the name of the Indonesian restauratn in GZ? Thanks
Because Tony has already retired long time ago from the Indonesia's national team. He is now working in the US.
Part II of my adventure in GZ Okay...let me now continue.... The bus journey to the Ramada hotel took about 10-15 mins and I had a nice chat with Ko Herry IP. Meanwhile, Kido and Hendra were busy with their SMSes Back at the hotel, we went up straight to the rooms. Kido and Hendra stayed together, Luluk was with Alvent, Ko Herry and Taufik had 2 other separate rooms. I was introduced to Luluk and then Alvent. They chatted a while about the game between Kido/Hendra and Fu/Cai. Then, I asked them whether they would like to have local Chinese food. Since Indonesians generally can take spicy foods, I decided to bring them to a Shicuanese restaurant near the hotel. Kido and Hendra took showers first while I went with Ko Herry to his room. We chatted on several topics, including the situation in PBSI, about Tony and Candra and some non-badminton stuffs. It was really nice chatting with Ko Herry. It was time for dinner and before we went off, I showed them the badminton central website on Luluk's computer. They looked very interested and wanted to know what fans have to say about them. Shortly after, we boarded 2 taxis to the restaurant (Tao Ran Ju). I booked a room with tv and ordered 4 dishes: fish (1.5 pound), rabbit, chicken, and vegetables. It turned out that some of them couldn't bear the Shichuanese food. They were perspiring and kept asking for Coke Only me, Ko Herry, Alvent, and later on Kido were not "complaining" about the spicyness of our food So, it was not a surprise that the vegetable dish became the favorite dish (because it was not even spicy!). To me, the best dish was undoubtedly the fish! It was so fresh and we really finished everything up! The bill was very reasonable too, each person paid less than USD 10 on average (which included the room fee). After the dinner, we went back to the hotel. Alvent, Kido, and Hendra decided to buy some snacks at the nearby convenience shop. Meanwhile, we also bumped into the Chinese team. It turned out that they were having celebration dinner at the restaurant. Zheng Bo was around in the lobby when we came in and we had a short chat with him. He was a nice guy and friendly. Later on, Ko Herry mentioned that all the Chinese doubles players were in general very friendly with the INA players. That includes Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun. After the short chat with Zheng Bo, we all went up back to the rooms. The game between Liverpool and Manchester United were on TV and most of us were watching. I went to watch in Kido and Hendra's room, together with Luluk. All of us were supporting MU Ko Herry went back to his room, while Alvent was busy downloading songs into his Nano. Taufik popped in while we were watching and I introduced myself to him He stayed for a while in Kido and Hendra's room, flipping over the car magazine that the players bought before coming to China. He was staying together with his wife and they had dinner with some Indonesian Consulate officers at Pandan, the restaurant me and my friend had lunch at before watching the match All of us had a nice time watching the game and chatting in between. So, I roughly got to know them better in the short time we had. After the game, we went to Alvent's room and I showed them the badminton central website again. I also told them that they can even download their own games, but, download speed might be slow They seemed to be quite interested! Kido even said that he wanted to watch he HK Open Final game between him and Hendra vs CTF/LWW! Soon enough, it was 11pm at night. I decided to stay over at GZ. Ko Herry was gracious enough to have offered the spare bed in his room (double beds). I had a short chat with Ko Herry again before I decided to sleep. The next morning, a phone call by Hendra woke me up. It was 7:30am and the INA players were ready to go to the airport. They said goodbye to Ko Herry, who would be going back to Jakarta in the afternoon. We continued to sleep until 9am. Ko Herry decided to do some last minute shopping for his wife and kids at Beijing Road, so, I waved goodbye to him. It was definitely a very unforgettable day for me, getting to know the INA players and Ko Herry. I already have their contact numbers and I will definitely see them again next time! I might even pop by Cipayung when I return back to JKT end of this year or January next year!
Hahahaha, that sound so funny from our side too. Maybe they could pick up some badminton tips from us as well. Glad Luluk laughed instead of getting angry, like hitting u in the name of badmintoncentral I wonder if they watch videos of their or competitor games back home. If not, downloading the videos and watch them would see themselves for any improvement.
They actually have their own video camera for recording their games and their opponents games. They usually do the video reviews in the morning or evening.
Thanks for sharing rest of experience.. ..badMania, thanks for sharing the rest of your adventure with them to us (sorry again for snipping rest of post for brevity)..it surely sounds like fun, nonetheless Just have a few of "curiousity" questions if you don't mind sharing: 1. When you had some time in your initial conversation with ko Herry(ie. abt current PBSI situation, Tony & Candra), what did you ask him and what did he have to say abt it... 2. (I know i've met/chatted with him before) But when you met up with Taufik, what was your first and last impression of him?? Was he inviting and open to chatting or more reserved, kept more to himself??.. 3. Reading that (Hendra and Luluk) couldn't take the Shicuanese dishes(boy, they must be thanking you for ordering that vege dish), and i myself haven't tried it myself, but how would you compare the "spicyness" to an Indonesian-regional dish?? Is it spicier than say a Padang dish??(sorry guys, if you some of you don't know what it is).. ..BTW, are all the foods in that restaurant spicy, without any exceptions??.. Last, after reading thru, i get the impression that it was truly a lucky day for you, esp. when you got a "free" accommodation and stayed with ko Herry at the hotel..and then were able to get their contaq infos as well...hehehe
badMania, thanks for sharing with us, it surely was an unforgetable experience. it seems like they were all very friendly to you, especially ko henry. i'm also curious about what taufik said to you after you introduced yourself ... wow, it seems like taufik was threated a little differently, he and his wife went to dinner with indonesian consulat officer, i'm wondering why hendra, markis, luluk, alvent, and ko henry didn't join the dinner with taufik and his wife
Well..Taufik didn't really talk to me after I introduced myself. I only asked him "how is GZ?". He merely replied "okay" So, to answer Chris's question, I found Taufik slightly less open to strangers compared to the other players. Taufik is more well-known to Indonesians, so, it's natural that he will be treated differently
To answer each of your questions: 1. Ko Herry was quite open about discussions of PBSI. We talked abt Joko's resignation, the difference in the Sutiyoso era vs earlier ones. He also mentioned that coach was entitled to some bonus each time their players win titles in the previous era. Nowadays, there's no more such things! That's why if you remember the game between Candra/Sigit vs Eriksen/Hansen (IMHO, the best game last year), you can see that Ko Herry was very delighted when the INA pair won! That was because he can also share a certain percentage of the total prize money (which was USD 18,000). We also talked about Candra and Tony's current situation. Candra is doing quite well (not convenient for me to disclose here what he's exactly involved in). They were very close to Ko Herry, that was why he was willing to coach them in the Korea Open Final. 3. If you have eaten Shichuanese food, you will also understand that the degree of spicyness is very different from Indo's food. It's called "Ma La" (I don't know how to translate in either Indonesian or English). It can be spicier than Padang's style. Imagine having fish boiled in a big bowl of chillies! Most of the food in Shichuanese style are very very spicy. The one I ordered is of medium level ("Zhong La")....not the extremely spicy level ("Te La")! So, I leave u guys to wonder how spicy is the extremely spicy level
haha, thanks for sharing, Badmania! I am really interested in what Candra is involved in.. and Sigit..haha I am also curious about Hendra Did you have a talk with him? Is he talkative? or always silent??
Good to hear that you are able to share rooms with the players. I used to do that.. even now sometimes. Just can't stand the smell of sweat and their shirt hanging around the room. Hehehe.. neat freak.