Jb trip!

I'm so so so tired but I'm in a mood to blog about my trip to jb today. So this will be a chop chop entry. =P

Jie, Eric and I took leave today to accompany mum into jb to buy new year goodies. Mum says they are cheaper there and she goes in every year to get her CNY supplies.

I had some random stuff I wanted to buy along with the CNY goodies so I got Eric to come along to be our bodyguard heehee.

We had a jap lunch where I ordered cold soba. It came with a quail's egg and I poured it onto my noodles before dipping into the sauce and it was super yummy!! I'm so suaku, to have never tried it this way before.

I bought $100 worth of stuff from their watsons store. Some items prices are on par with that in Singapore so I didn't bother getting those, but there were a couple of products that were so cheap omg I cannot believe that it's just 1 hours drive from home.

Eric brought me to Optical 88 to try on some sunglasses as they were having 40% off storewide. This is probably the 5th shop we've been to and I finally found a pair of sunnies that I really liked and fit me well. To be honest, I didn't really see the need for a new pair sunglasses. But Eric insisted as we are going to the mountains in Europe and there would be a lot of glare from the snow. So since he wanted me to have the protection, he went and bought me the sunglasses. Isn't he the best?!? =D

After all the shopping I brought everyone to taman sri tebrau to have seafood dinner! Sadly, we had quite a bad experience there. :( Whilst the food was not bad, mum wasn't a fan. And one of the servers came right behind me with a hot plate without warning and I moved into the plate without realising it, thurs burning my elbow. :( it hurt the whole evening and is still hurting like mad. :( and to top it off, the guy charged us extra for CNY surcharge without telling us beforehand. The whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth and I wonder if I ever want to go back again. :/

Overall, it was still a pretty productive day and I'm really happy with my purchases. (: not to mention my oh-so-chio sunnies from my love. I am sucha lucky girl. (:

Snapshots in Vietnam

It's our last morning here.. It's a bittersweet feeling to finally be on our way home.

Just throwing a few pictures I took with my phone, some already uploaded through instagram.. (:

My first manicure ever.. I was a little surprised that they were all the same design but it's so pretty nonetheless.. A lot of effort went into designing each and every nail.

My first craving for salad here... Caesar's salad in Joma's cafe..

Eric really liked this cafe just 30m away from our hostel. (:

We occasionally splurged on dinner.. ~US$10 which is ex for Vietnam, but cheap for Singapore.

No pictures in my phone of Halong Bay, but many taken in Sa Pa.. coz there were so many wifi spots. =P

Lovely cafe called "The Hill Station" in Sa Pa. I loved the hot chocolate and carrot cake! (:

The cafe...

Up on the mountains, we thought there would be nothing to do, but we found this "one and only bar" with free wifi! (; And I ordered apple rice wine, eric ordered 2x baileys.. And it totalled only US$10. Really cheap compared to the prices back home..

Us..

We spent one night at Auberg Hotel with a really nice view of Sa Pa's surrounding mountains.. (:

And the cutest little white kitten that will forever hold a place in my heart. (:

one more night in Victori'a Hotel where I'm "Mrs Chan"...

Luxurious bedroom (:

check out the embossed bedsheet!

cold foggy night in Sa Pa..

Yummy pastry for breakfast! =D

That's all I have in my phone. Hope I have time to do up decent blog entries for this trip. (:

I'm coming homeeeeeeeeeee~!

Vietnam part 2 [delayed post]

On yet another sleeper train back from Sa Pa to Hanoi. I can't say our sleeper train experience this time round is any better than the previous trip. When we left Hanoi for Sa Pa, we were in the same cabin with a peaceful and kindly Vietnamese couple who kept mostly to themselves and even offered us some snacks before promptly going to sleep.

This time round, we had two separate local travellers, one male one female, who each came into the cabin with another Vietnamese who was probably sending them off. I don't know much about the culture here, but I personally found it a little offensive they would talk so loudly and and stare at us the whole time.. And even coming over and sitting on our beds, placing their hands and feet everywhere, so that they could face each other and talk amongst themselves.

Not my most fond experience. :/

Anyway, I'm really glad to finally be leaving Sa Pa. It was a beautiful place but it's always misty, with loads of rain and cold.

You know, going to Sa Pa, I had no idea what Eric signed us up for.. Eric told me I needed shoes, and that we would be walking to paddy fields. I was like "Huh paddy fields? Will my shoes get wet?" To which he assured it me it would not. So I packed my f21 boots that I wore to trekking in Australia.

Boy, not only did my boots get wet. They went swimming in mud.

We trekked 9km on our very first day. The pace was really quick, ground was really muddy, and I barely had time or energy to look around and enjoy the view. There I was thinking I run ~9km at least once a week.. Trekking that distance should be easy peasy. Boy oh boy I was the last person for every leg of our journey.

Imagine terraces of paddy fields stretching far and wide, and how does one get to the other side? No, we won't go up and around it.. Let's trek along the edge of each terrace, risk falling into one, oh and yea soak our shoes in mud. Thankfully, my boots were very good boots and kept my feet dry throughout the whole journey. But to be honest, the trek sucked big time. I hated it so much.. the disgusting mud, the breakneck pace.. I didn't even have time to enjoy the scenery! :( 

Oh and ya, the one day we were supposed to have an easy trek where we could wear slippers, I decided to be conservative and wear sports shoes instead of boots. Bloody hell easy trek my foot! It was so slippery, still muddy, I slipped and fell and landed on my tailbone.. :( it was so painful I couldn't move and teared like a big baby with everyone else watching. Eric had to literally pick me off the ground as I was pretty much paralysed with pain. Even lying flat on my back as I am now, I can feel the bruised area. :(

The whole experience was not completely horrible though.

The trek was made so much more bearable by the people we trekked with. We met a group of Swedish, a Mexican staying in Austria, an Italian + Czech couple, a Taiwanese, and two Australian girls. This group of oddballs really made the trip so much more bearable. The Mexican has half past six English, and every sentence is peppered with German words. It's hilarious to watch this guy. And his favourite phrase to anything you propose to him is "neinnnnnnnn", dragging out his rejection to whatever you said. The Australian girls were really sweet and it just feels nice to be around them. The Italian and Czech pair were really friendly and the group as a whole just really bonded to the point we've added every one on Facebook hahah. One memorable thing about this group of people that really touched me was how they would all chip in to help clean up the mess after we were done eating our meals. I mean, people are paid to do it for us right? But they still help stack the plates together and wipe the table. (:

Eric extended our trip by one more day after all the trekking to stay at the Victoria Hotel in Sa Pa. it's supposedly to be the most upz hotel there with the best view. We were really excited.

It was a wet and tiring walk to the hotel. I was so so so tired from the three days' trek.

The hotel was very cosy with nice big fireplaces but it seemed more unfriendly than the one we stayed previously. They had a pool table in the main lobby which I lost 3 games total to Eric. ;/

They also had a sauna, steam room, and heated pool that was free for all guests. Eric forgot to tell me about the pool so we didn't use it as we didn't pack any swimwear. I used the sauna and their shower facilities today and I felt really pampered heehee. The place smelled wonderful and the staff were very helpful. (they also had a water dispenser where we filled our bottles so we wouldn't have to buy anymore for the rest of the trip! =P)

We had mist and rain all day yesterday and today. It was such a pity we did not manage even a glimpse of the view from the hotel that we booked this hotel for. Visibility was so bad yesterday we could not see ~10m ahead of us in the fog that we got lost going back to the hotel at 6pm! It was dark by then.

Our afternoons to ourselves were mostly spent drinking coffee in two cafes owned by two Norwegians. We got to listen to relaxing English music (a first in Vietnam), and drink westernised coffee, plus play a couple of board games. I taught Eric how to play Backgammon and managed to beat him in a game of chess by pure luck! So he and I are even as he won three games of pool and I won three board games. 

I have some good memories of our experience in Sa Pa, but a lot of painful ones too. I am soooooo happy to be going back to Hanoi.

Sian the idiot is shouting into the phone again and it's already lights out in the cabin. What an ass! >_<

Gold Coast Day 3

It was a bright and sunny day on our third day there, perfect weather to go to the first of the theme parks - White Water World (referred to as www henceforth for easy blogging)! Days 3 & 4 were blocked out for www and dream world respectively.

We had originally aimed to reach the theme park when it opened by 10am, but first we were late, and second we got stuck on the highway due to a 4 car pileup. It was pretty cool being in a foreign land and we were like "shit how come now still got peak hour jam?" -checks twitter- "oh there's been an accident just before exit 57!" -looks up- we just passed exit 59 en route to 57. =P

We ended up reaching the theme park around 11.30am. =S But it wasn't so bad as the theme park turned out to be pretty deserted. I guess nobody is really interested in water rides in the middle of winter.. Even if you have the Australian sun to contend with.

We tried the Super Tubes Hydrocoaster first. It was one of the bigger and scarier rides to start with. Since we had bags, cameras and all, we had to take turns on all the rides. 3 of us went first, and it was soooo good, we came back and chased our parents off to ride it as well. I have not seen my parents in swimwear in eons, and it felt really good to see them get all wet and laughing and enjoying themselves despite the cold weather hahaha. =D

We tried another 3 rides before stopping for lunch.. We were so hungry! I think it's coz our bodies had to work harder to keep warm in the cold. Especially when we were all wet it takes even more energy!

Lunch was overall very ordinary except for the fact that THEY SOLD CHURROS THERE ZOMGGG~!

Best lunch everrr hahahaha!

We completed the remaining 2 rides in quick order, before going over to dream world to complete the 2 wet rides there. After all, we were already in swim wear and all wet.. Doesn't make sense to come back the next day dressed for dry rides and get wet again right?

We saw this super chio tiger cub and took a picture with it. Dammit if you see the picture.. my eyes were closed.. ;"(

Sadly the wet rides in dream world were so-so only and we left soon after.

We got back around 4+ and decided to try the heated pool. I mean i've never swam anywhere in winter before, not to mention a heated pool so we excitedly rushed down to the pool. 

To our surprise, it was freezing cold! We weren't so easily thwarted though. We had chatted with some other guests the previous day whilst in the lift, and they had just come back from swimming at 9pm from the heated pool. I mean they couldn't have been so garang to go and swim in the cold pool, in the middle of winter at night right?!

After some exploration, we found this teeny tiny pool in a stuffy room with super blurry windows. Not exactly an inviting place, but we could feel the heat in the room. =D

After a day of cold water rides and even colder winds, the pool was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Even better was the Jacuzzi! We just nua-ed there a good half an hour before going back when the sun was setting. 

We washed up, went downstairs to get a little shopping done before meeting Dion & Tiffany for dinner. They were bringing us to the only Ramen place in Gold coast and needless to say, it wasn't very good since it was the only ramen place around.

That's all for day 3! (:

woohoo~ I got my blogging mojo back heehee. I have been very unmotivated to blog for quite a while (1 blog entry for august!) and I'd rather spend my time sleeping or dating my super handsome bf hurhur. =P

Gold Coast day 2!

I'm suffering from the I-have-too-much-to-write-so-I'm-not-blogging syndrome. Lol! Seriously, I have way too much to say about everything that we did in Gold Coast.

As we were so tired after our flight, not to mention the minor 2 hour jet lag, we were unable to get up bright and early to go to the Arts & Crafts market at Kurrawa Park, Broad beach.

We had yummy home made eggs & bacon, toast and baked beans for breakfast. It was the start of many home made breakfasts to come (which I would grow sick of by end of our trip).

The Arts & Craft market was interesting at first, with so many things atypical of your usual fare on sale. Most commonly spotted were shops selling handmade scents, soaps & candles. Apparently it's a lucrative business there. Other interesting shops included the fudge shop (which Jie bought 3 diff flavours at $4.50 apiece!), leather accessories (where Tricia and I got 3 for $20 :D), and really cuteee butterfly decorations! ♥

After the Arts & Craft market, we went straight to Harbourtown to get our outlet shopping onzz heehee. We stopped by Optus and topped up Tom's sim card, as well as get another card for dad to download data on his ipad.. And suddenly we were connected to the rest of the world! =D The stupid hotel charges a bomb for only 2GB of wired data. So stupid right?! Especially in this era of readily accessible free wifi.

We first grabbed a quick meal in Habourtown.There was a restaurant selling Western Lunch specials for $8.90 only! We shared 3-4 sets I think. The portions are huge in Australia... And after lunch it was 1.5 hrs of shopping to cover the WHOLE Harbourtown area. Seriously not enough time. I picked up a map and went circle-circle-cross-cross on the places that I wanted to go, and the places that I would give a miss.

All in all, my shopping was not so successful. I bought biscuits from Crabtree & Evelyn and one top for A$9 from esprit. (I didn't bring enough clothes so i desperately needed a spare top!) And it was time to go.. :(

We were headed for SpringBrook National Park. Mum, however, elected to stay and have Tiffany send her back later at night. It was a such a long drive there! And we were stuck behind this slow poke with no chance of overtaking him! >_<

After asking for directions and getting additional maps from the local fudge store, we finally made it to the "Best of All Lookout". You'd think they could come up with a more interesting name right?!The view was pretty spectacular and we could see really really far! I have no sense of estimation of distance so really really far basically is the farthest description I can think of heh.

As it was winter, the sun would set really early and dad wanted to make it back before dark. He didn't want to get lost in a foreign land in the dark. So we only managed to go to 2 lookouts before rushing back to Surfers Paradise. =/

We got Dion & Tiffany to bring us to this place called "Peter's Fish Market". Eric had researched gold coast already and found a lot of good reviews of this place. Tricia and I opted for the simple Fish & Chips, and mum and dad ordered those mixed sets + a lot of fresh cold prawns. Unfortunately, I didn't think the food was any fantastic. The oysters though, were gooooood. We had to pay 60cents for an additional lemon coz they gave only 1 tiny slice for 12 oysters. So ngeow right zzz..

My blog entries are getting shorter and shorter coz I've forgotten most of what happened hahah. May eventually do a few quick summaries then upload the pictures. Like i said.. Shit loads of pictures. X_X

I'M GOING AUSTRALIA!!!

I can't believe I will be in Australia in just 3 weeks!!! =D

And on a trip with the family no less.. We haven't gone on such a trip in 6 years.. =/ I hope we don't kill each other eeps.. 

So anyway.. We'll be flying into Gold Coast via Scoot.. We each have like 25kg of luggage! My mum is super kiasu can! 

We need to plan what to do where to go in Winter/Spring in Gold Coast ASAP! And most importantly, plan my wardrobe wahahaha! I bought a pair boots last year from f21 that I haven't had the chance to wear. I'm sooooo going to bring that pair to Australia with me! (:

Will end this with a picture of ride called Cyclone at Dreamworld Gold Coast! 

*bounces up and down excitedly*

Birthday Getaway Day 2!

We ended up sleeping really late the night before coz we watched LOTR's The Two Towers lol.
It's my favourite movie of the series.. (:

Sadly that meant not getting enough sleep before I was dragged out of bed to go for a morning swim. =x

It was a beautiful morning.. Not too sunny, the air was crisp and cool.. (: And most importantly, it was peaceful..

Eric is camera shy in his swimwear lol.

We swam a bit and took a couple of pictures in the pool. This is my favourite one! (:

We followed the mama peahen and her peachick again hahah. =D

We went back to the room shortly to prepare for breakfast.
We wanted to get there early enough lest we miss all the good food. =X

Eric in the lift.. (:

We had breakfast at The Knolls.. It's supposed to be $45++ per pax eeps.

The food was really good though.. The highlight for me were the coconuts hahah. EVERYBODY took one each! And it's those young coconuts, so the juice is really sweet and the meat came off very easily! =D

They had prawn porridge with alot of liao.. =P

Japanese sushi and appetizers..

The Fruit corner..with more exotic fruit selections like dragonfruit and jackfruit!

Cooked food corner..

A whole lot of sinful pastries..

Muesli bars.. (which we tabao-ed back heehee)

They packed yoghurt, fruit and cereal into these cute little glasses! I wanted to take one of everything..

 

And they had this beautiful honeycomb just dripping there.. I don't know what we're supposed to eat with the honey..

The view..

They even came around distributing small meals. With a selection of 3 types of meals.. Eggs Benidict, Nasi Lemak & Laksa,

I was soooooo excited for the eggs ben. It wasn't as nice as expected though.. They used truffle oil which i guess was supposed to make the dish more exotic but I feel that it spoiled the taste of the dish. hai.. =(

Here's an ugly pic of my laksa.. hahah I almost forgot to take a picture of this one!

The nasi lemak was good, but Eric polished it off before i remembered to take a picture.. haha

Here we are.. pigging out on breakfast =D

I really enjoyed my stay at Capella. The service and the food was impeccable. AND it's nice to just get away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. It's pretty isloated and hence a very peaceful place to be. Eric and I are making plans to go back there again! haha..

Thankiew my dear Eric for the wonderful birthday. It was short, but very sweet and I really enjoyed myself! ❤!!

The Knolls1 The Knolls, Capella Hotel, Sentosa Island
Singapore 098297
Tel: +65 6591 5046
Open Daily from 7am-11pm

Birthday Getaway Day 1!

I had the best birthday everrrr this year.

Eric booked a room at Capella and we got upgraded to a suite (I think it was because it was my bday) :D

anyway more abt my hotel stay later..

We met at vivo for lunch first.. We had dim sum lunch at Tung Lok. The food was quite good.

Me.. It felt way too early to be up even tho it was lunchtime.

Eric ordering the food.

Cucumber appetiser!

Eric's favourite dish.. Sui yoke..

Duck porridge w salted & century egg. The salted egg taste was too strong..

I didn't particularly like this dish.

Har gao.. this was super good!

Some exotic truffle siewmai with scallop.

Egg tarts! Super yummy

Xlbs were so-so only. =(

Some fancy fried yam & pumpkin dish..

After lunch, we walked around a bit before driving into Sentosa. If you booked a hotel room in Sentosa, you just need to present your reservation at the gantry to go in for free. :D

We were served drinks (I think peach tea) as we were waiting for them to process our check in..

The lobby has a rustic vibe to it but it was a very pleasant atmosphere.

We were then shown to our room and boy was it HUGE. We had an actual living room.

The super spacious bedroom..

Look at the bathroom!

And even a balcony!

Super nice.. And it was here that Eric gave me my birthday presents!! (:

A Skagen watch! =D

Initially, he kept asking me if I knew what the present was.. I think he expected me to recognise the brand.. Which i did.. but I had no idea what they sold hahah.

Here's the pic from my phone. (=

More pics of the room...

Fruit Platter...

The awesome view..

We went for a walk soon after. (=

I like this picture taken at Bob's Bar! =D

The pool is SOOooo peaceful!

A peahen and her chick (2nd pic is eric chasing the peahen heehee)

We explored the Library next.. I LOVEEEEE THEIR LIBRARY!

There were so many yummy snacks and english tea served in pretty china. (=

The spreads..

My favourite is the chashew cookie!

damn happy. =D

We soon left Capella to check out Victoria's Secret at Resorts World. It was SO disappointing. They only sold panties and fragrances. Makes you even wonder why they bother opening a store here in Singapore..

Anyway here we are waiting at the bus stop for the sentosa bus.

So ulu.. No cars lol.

At hard rock hotel.

We eventually decided on dinner at hard rock cafe.. We were still pretty full from tea so we shared an appetiser an main course. (:

Random picture of the menu.. They serve char kuay teow here.. O_o

My favourite potato skins!! :D damn yummy!

NY strip steak.. 12oz..340g eeps. We were so full by the end of it!

Happy us! <3

Soon it was back to the lovely Capella...

We chilled at Bob's bar for ~1 hr enjoying the good music and the ultra comfy day bed.

The band here is super awesome.. The singer has this gravelly voice that sounds like Bryan Adams! =D

And that's all for the first day! :D I was so tired at the end of it and it was so shiok to just fall into the über big and comfy bed at the end of the day :D

Ending this post with a pic of the view from Capella at night...