Malaysian Visit Brazil Experience

*This entry is written by Azman

I was transferred to Mech Design about 3 years ago. This new place is still in Sony but totally different environment and work culture. But here I was still doing boring design stuff until recently my boss told me that I have a new job assignment that requires me to travel frequently. Although normally I always refused to travel since I have Miki in the house, this time I have to say yes because it sounds interesting.

My first task is to have a tour to the American continents in March 2013. First, South America..then North America. Actually the first plan required me to travel to Europe as well,however, the plan was canceled due to overlap of schedule.

So, my first destination was Manaus, Brazil. It is situated in the middle of the famous Amazon forest and at the bank of Amazon river. No VISA is required to visit Brazil. However, we need yellow fever vaccination.

I flown with Emirates Airline from KL to Sao Paolo, Brazil. KL to Dubai took 6 hours flight, then transit 5 hours at Dubai. Before continuing with Dubai to Sao Paolo, a long journey of another 15 hours flight.

Once arrived Sao Paolo airport (GRU), I only have 2 and half hours transit. During this time, I know that I am in big trouble because the immigration is very slow. The room is small, we need to queue very close to each other up until the escalator. After I was done with immigration process, I only had 45 minutes left to get my luggage and check-in with next flight to Manaus.

It is a crazy 45 minutes, I ran around Sao Paolo airport with my luggage to find GOL airlines office. After check-in, I ran again to find boarding gate. Once arrived, airport staff told me that the last shuttle bus just left the gate. We went outside and I can see the bus moving. Then, the guy screamed and asked me to chase the bus. Luckily I managed to catch the bus. It was quite a drama.

Finally, after 4 hours flight, I arrived at Manaus airport at midnight. The airport is quite small and no aircond!! I arrived later at the hotel at around 2am. It was a very tiring 35 hours journey..and to make it worst…I need to go to work after only 3 hours of sleep.

In Brazil, I stayed at Sleep Inn Hotel. It is situated about 45 minutes by car from the airport. Near the hotel, you can find a mall called Studio 5. It is a typical Brazillian mall with deejay, disco lamps and dancing space. Every weekend night, this mall will turn into a huge night club. Young Brazilian will start gathering, dancing and partying as early as 8pm until early morning.

The weather is almost like Malaysia. During my stay, it was raining season. So, the temperature is a little bit lower. They told me, please don’t come between June to September, because it is very very hot and dry.

My first day in Brazil is quite nice.

I took my Breakfast at Sleep Inn Hotel cafe and it was a really good experience. Almost everything served with native fruits and nuts. Since I was not sure how they should be served and eaten, I googled about it first before I prepare my meal.
So, for breakfast, I have Bread with tucuma fruit slice and Brazilian nut that tastes strange but delicious.

Tucuma is a native fruit that looks like buah pinang in size and colour.It has a unique mild sweet flavour.

For dessert, they have banana with cinnamon and also banana in caramel that taste super delicious.

While for drink, I tried a fresh Amazon guarana with acai berry juice. However, its taste very bad. So, I changed to Manaus coffee and sweet guarana juice.

Banana with cinnamon – delicious!

Banana in caramel – also delicious!

During lunch time, I was brought to nasi campur restaurant at Studio 5. It was the same as our normal nasi campur, we need to queue, put our own rice and choose our own side dish. However, payment is much different. At this restaurant, you need to pay based on your meal weight!! Argghhh…even plate and rice only could cost you about 10 ringgit!!

It was hard to believe that my simple lunch (rice with fish fillet) could finally cost me about 40 ringgit.

At night, my Brazilian colleagues, Mr.Rodrigo & Mr. Kazuma brought me and my boss to a nice café, Cachacaria do Dede.
It is very typical for Brazilian to hang out and have beer and cachaça at this kind of café until midnight while watching live football.