Last Day in Tokyo, Japan Trip (Day 15)

10th January 2015, Tuesday

Origami Display

Ahhh....tonight have to fly back to Singapore, last day to enjoy the cold weather and good food in Japan. Since we didn't plan any activities today, so we woke up and did out check out first. Then we headed out to Hakusan station to help my brother to buy his origami book. We walked to the metro line from Shin-Nohombashi station and we passed by a shopping mall like Istean under the station. Many people were actually outside the doors for it to open. We waited for a while and the doors opened, we went in to take a look. We were at the food level, so there were a lot of food, all looking so nice to eat. We spent there like almost half an hour before we dragged ourselves out of the place..hahhaa...Then we went to take the metro to Hakusan station and tried to find the origami shop named Origami House. It was located on the 2nd level of the shops opposite the street. So we went up to get the book and there were some origami displays by the experts but photography is not allowed.

After i got the book, we went down to Tokyo station to get the brum cakes as there was still time. We didn't managed to find the shop which we bought when we were going to Nikko. But we saw the same cakes inside Istean, so we went and bought the cakes we wanted. After buying the cakes, we rushed back to the same food market in the shopping mall in the station. And then we went back to the hotel to pack our stuffs into the luggage. By the time we left the hotel, we had already missed the airport express train. As the airport express train platform and the platform we alighted were the same, so we were thinking whether we can just board the airport train without getting a new seats reservation. We were walking along the platform to see the cars color but all were green cars. We actually waited until the next express train came but we don't dare to board it still. So my friend went to check with the train staff and she came back saying we need to do seat reservations. So i went up to the JR office alone to get the new seats reservations for the next coming train which was at around 3 plus. For the Narita Express Train, there were a total of 12 cars and the train will arrive in 2 sections. First cars 7 to 12 will arrive and then cars 1 to 6 will arrive and they join together in the platform. Both of the car front (where they were joined) will opened up too.

Naita Express Train

Train Seats

Our Last Sashimi Meal

Oysters Rice..Sinful!!

We boarded when the train came, it was really spacious to sit and so comfortable too. So we took our lunch out to eat while the train traveled to the airport. It was around 1 hour and 30 mins plus ride and the train stopped on terminal 2 first, so passengers need to know which terminal to alight not to alight on the wrong terminal. After we reached the terminal, there was security check before we entered the airport. We went to shop around in the airport as it was still early for check-in. I bought a fleece jacket for my brother and a neck cushion from Muji for my dad. Then i also bought some green tea powder for my little sister. My friend bought a postcard to send to her sister in Germany. Then we went to check-in our luggage and continued walking around in the airport. We also still bought a couple of snacks and a few boxes of Royce chocolate. There was even a small Japanese restaurant on the way to the gates, where we went in to have our last bite on the nice sushi and sashimi. Then we went into our gate and boarded the plane to fly back to Singapore. And this ended our Japan trip.....will go back visit Japan some day again... ^_^

Manila, Philippines Trip (Day 1)

My TCC Breakfast for Flight Day

24th July 2014, Thursday
Many things happened after my last trip, all my friends left the company and i got a new job due to "retrenchment" but i gained new colleagues in the new company. Lately got to know a new friend from Philippines in the new company, who invited me to go visit Philippines and her hometown. So, why not? Since i need a break from the stupid and boring work, so i agreed to go along. And then my friend booked the air tickets and planned the whole itinerary, even ordered a whole roast pig back at her hometown for our arrival. Oh well, it seems damn long to wait until our flight day and finally it came!! Time to fly away!! We met at the airport @ around 7 plus, and then we checked in our luggage. My friend gave me a Nike cap when we were having breakfast...hehehe....Then we went to our gate to board our plane. Our flight time is 9.35 am, and off we go.

Condo Building

We reached Manila @ around 1 plus in the afternoon. After we arrived, my friend went to draw some cash out for our expenses for the trip. Later we went out to meet her brother (Joseph), who was picking us up. In the airport, the waiting areas were indicated by the starting letter of their surnames. Eg: if the surname is starting with M, then u will need to go to the F-M areas to wait (something like that). This is something interesting...hahaa....Then suddenly, there was a super loud thunder sound, i thought it was going to have typhoon soon (as got reports of typhoons in Philippines earlier in the previous weeks). Then we met up with my friend's brother, and we went to take public bus to their condo building. The bus was like our coach buses, full with people and the ticket man walked in the bus to collect $ and issued the bus tickets. The ride was $25 peso per pax, and it took us like almost an hour to reach our destination due to the traffic jam. The vehicles really didn't move much on the jam, it is how bad people were saying the traffic jams in Manila....kekekee....After the ride in the bus, we reached our stop but we still need to walk a short distance to the condo. My friend was cautioning me to carry my bag infront instead of at the back...

Half Chicken with 3 different sauces

The condo building looks very nice from outside, looks like our HDB buildings. But the space inside was much smaller than our Singapore flats. When i walked in, can see the kitchen on the left side and there were 2 bunk beds. There was another room with 1 bunk bed and the toilet. The flat size was really small. Anyway, we put our luggage there and rested for awhile and we went out for lunch. We went to the mall nearby, and it was amazing that the security guards in the mall were doing bags inspection on people who were going into the mall (And is every shopping mall in Philippines). We went lunch in Max's Restaurant. It's the restaurant where it is selling the carmel bars (which was always brought back by my ex-colleagues previously). Ohh...the fried chicken was nice, crispy and tender. My friend don't let me drink the iced water from the restaurant, so she got her brother to get mineral water from the supermarket..heheee....The whole meal cost like $724 peso, which is like around $21 sgd..

Flan & Ube Turon

After the nice lunch, we went for dessert in Adobe Connection. We ordered Flan Turon and Ube Turon. It was a small triangular shape snack, not a bad snack....hehehee....Then we took a cab to Fiesta Market (along the way, past by the streets and saw tall buildings in the old and new CBD areas), there, are some small stalls selling the local products  from different parts of Philippines. After the viewing of the market, we walked to a shopping mall called SM Aura. It was owned by Philippines's biggest mall developer, SM Prime Holdings. So there were alot of shopping malls under SM around Philippines. This is just one of them, it was a big mall with all the branded shops in it but there wasn't packed with people. There, we walked around while waiting for my friend's sister-in-law to come meet us after work. My friend wanted to buy me a new basketball but we cannot bring it back to Singapore as the ball cannot be inflated to stuff in the luggage....so sadz....

Pork Knuckles

Then my friend's sister-in-law came and we went to phone service provider to get a data SIM card. And waited to top up the prepaid card, i got abit bored and was going to sleep mode soon. Me and my friend went down to the supermarket first to get some stuffs while her sister-in-law was helping us to top up the data card. Then later we all met up in the supermarket, after that we went for dinner @ Elias in Bonifacio High Street. There looked like got a lot of restaurants and shops in the area but didn't managed to walk along the streets to see. Dinner was nice but i was not even hungry for dinner.
But still, ate the rice and dishes but very slowly. My friend was telling her brother that i can finish up the rice very fast in Singapore but don't know what happened, i was like eating so slow in Philippines...hahahaha....

Different types of intestines to bbq

After dinner, it was already like 8 plus and we need to get ready to catch our bus to Baiguo later. So we took cab back to a food market (just behind the condo), which was only opened on Wednesday and Thursday (i think). There were alot of stalls selling different food and drinks but i was still too full to eat anything. I got a mango juice instead, the juice was very thick and can really taste the mango in it. We sat down and ate fishballs while my friend's sister-in-law went back to her office to take her stuffs back. Later we walked back to the condo and had shower, i almost falling asleep on the bed. Joseph and his wife were sleeping already while my friend unpacked some of her stuffs out from her backpack. And we waited until 11 plus and woke Joseph up to bring us to the bus terminal. We took cab to the bus terminal and we boarded the bus when we arrived. There was a lady steward onboard the bus who gave us a bottle of mineral water and a cake. And she also collected $ and issued us our tickets. After that, it was lights out and with that, it was about 4 hours ride to Baiguo.

LegoLand Again!!

View from our room

Went Legoland again from 24th Nov to 25th Nov. This time, mi and my friends bought tickets from Gamrket. It was a 2D1N package with coach and legoland admission included and we paid $118 for each person. We all met at the pick-up point, which was at near Ang Mo Kio MRT station. Then the bus left for Woodlands Checkpoint. There was abit of jam from Woodlands Checkpoint to JB Checkpoint, but we still managed to reach the hotel at around 4pm. The hotel we stayed was KSL Resort, it was stated as 5-star hotel but it wasn't that fantastic. The lifts are super slow, although there are 4 lifts running. We didn't managed to get connecting rooms for our stay though. Anyway, we went to the shopping mall beside the hotel and bought our movie tickets for the night - Rise of the Guardians 3D (It costs only RM$18 each, for a 3d movie).

 Then we walked around to look for some snacks, as i am started to feel hungry. We got durian puffs, which is not so nice to eat and pizza in a cone, which is nicer and ice-cream. After that, we got some taiwan snacks, which is also not so tasty. Then we went for a walk around in the mall, and back to the hotel to rest for awhile before our dinner - Chez Papa Restaurant. Later, we took cab down to the restaurant. Ohh!! It was a cozy place (looks like those European restaurants, though there are lizards sound), where they had put 3 Christmas trees inside and cute stuffed toys are hang on the trees. Then when we sat down, the waitress took their daily specials white chalk board menu and placed beside our table and placed another small size menu on our table.

Creme Brulee (Ymmy!)

We ordered Escargots, Mushroom soups, Mussels, Goose liver (Foie Gras), Codfish and Seafood Baked Rice. For the desserts, we ordered Cream Brulee and Faming banana. The mussels dish is not nice, it kind of got over-cooked. The best we liked are the Escargots, Goose meant and Cream Brulee (Yummy Yummy!). The waitress also kept forgetting our plain water, we had to ask for it 3 or 4 times. I almost died of thirst! lol....but overall, the experience is good. Will go back for the Escargots and Creme Brulee again if got the chance. ^_^
After the nice dinner, we got a cab back to our hotel and we rested while waiting for our night movie to start. We saw lightning flashing down from our hotel room, and so we spent about 15 to 20 mins standing at the window, to try taking lightning photos...hahhaa...the photo didn't work out well, but we did saw some cool lightning flashing down. After which, we went for our movie. It was a nice movie..and i enjoyed it.

Next morning came, and we went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It was packed with people and there wasn't any available table. We had to wait for it, luckily we managed to get hold of a table and had our breakfast. It wasn't that wahh for their breakfast...but anyway, we had and prepare to check-out the hotel and make our way down to Legoland.

Queue in LegoLand

We reached Legoland at around 10am, and we saw a super long queue of people waiting to get in. We went for the queue and we went in. We went to deposit our bags and went to look around in the lego shop.Next, we went to Lego City and went into a playground, where we played there for a while.
We took the fire engine ride, where we need to 'exercise' to make the vehicle to move and 'pump' the water out to put out the fire.lol....tiring sia....Next, we walked down to Adventureland, where mi and 1 of my friend went for the water roller coaster. My other 2 friends said wanted to help us take photos, so we went to queue for the ride. When mi and my friend were on the ride, i was asking my friend y cannot see my the other 2 friends. Hahaha....We saw them only after we had done with the roller coaster ride.They 2 were so stunned that we had actually finished the ride, they had went to buy some drinks and missed our photo-taking. The ride really got mi and my friend wet, my pants was so wet when i came out of the ride.lol....

After that, we walked to the 4D movie, where we caught one of the lego shows - Clutch Power. It was fun sitting inside and watching it. It was also cooling inside with all the effects. hohoho.....
After that, we went in to build and test. It was a place where you can build your own car and buildings and test it out. We spent some time inside, to play with the lego and to enjoy the aircon.
Then, we walked down to the game stalls, where we played some games. My friend got an angry bird home.hohoho...Then, we went for the dragon roller coaster ride..Hahhahaha....After that, we went to have our lunch.

Singapore Flyer (Lego Form)

After lunch, we went to take the lego express train ride. We waited for awhile, and we got abit sleepy while waiting.lol...it started to drizzle too. Finally, we got aboard. It was a super bored ride, which really can make you sleep. After that, we walked down to Miniland to see their miniatures. My friends took out the 'plastic bags' raincoats and wore (really looks like having a super big plastic bags covered on them...hahaha). After walking around, we decided that to go catch another 4D show as our last stop but it was super queue when we got there. So we decided to go do our lego shopping instead. We each bought a Lego Christmas choo choo train (RM$29.90) back to play. After that, we went to wait for our bus to pick us up to go back to Singapore.


Places went:
KSL Shopping Mall
Chez Papa Restaurant

Hotel Stayed:
KSL Resort 

Malacca Food Trip 2011

Christ Church Melaka

Day 1
Went to Malacca again, this time a food trip from 24th June to 26 June. Went with SY, QY, PW and April for a 2D2N trip. We met at office's lobby at 5.45pm and we took cab down to Kovan Hub. Pw's bag was like weighing a few kg, i think (so heavy for a 2D trip... lol). We had our dinner at the hawker centre there and bought some breads. Then we left from Kovan Hub bus interchange on Friday evening (7pm). The coach seats was abit cramped, kekeke....April was sitting with Qy and i am sitting with Pw. It took us 1 hour to reach Tuas Checkpoint, then we passed Singapore Customs and went to Malaysia Customs. No jam there, we had our fingerprints there too when we were at Malaysia customs. Then after that, it's a long ride to Malacca.

Finally, we alighted at our destination, the bus terminal @ Malacca Central. It was already about 12 plus, then we called up Sy to come pick us up. We waited for about 5 mins, Sy appeared with his grandma's car (kekeke....). Then he drove us to Bayview hotel for check-in, we arrived at the hotel and all were amazed by the hotel's lobby....lol.We got a double and a twin rooms instead of 2 twins rooms. Qy doesn't want to sleep on double bed, so Pw and April shared the double room while mi, Qy and Sy shared the twins room. Anyway our rooms are connecting rooms, so we can run to each other's rooms. We went up to check out our rooms then, the TV in my room was not working. So i had to go to the other room to watch... : P
The hotel auntie bought us the extra pillow and towel and she was panting for breathe...hahaha....then later Pw called the room service to request for another set of toiletries. The same auntie came back with it, but she was speaking in malay with a not-so-nice attitude. But we can't understand, so Qy asked April to help translate. But she didn't say anything to us when the auntie was niaming. She just told us that she is charging for the extra set of toiletries if we want. So we told the auntie, we don't want instead. After she left, April told the auntie was actually not happy that we didn't ask her to bring the 1st time she came up. Then Qy said maybe that auntie was the only 1 working in the hotel...hahahaa...

Later we all had our bath and chatted, cracked jokes until 3am plus (i think). Finally all kept quiet and went to bed to prepare for the next full day journey.

Day 2
Woke up at 8 plus with the ground wet, after a heavy rain during the night. We each prepared ourselves, then we left the hotel at 9.15 am. First stop, Kok Keong Restoran. There, we had yam rice pork Soup for our breakfast. It was not bad...Next, we went down to the Martime Museum, which was a Portuguese sunk ship.Next we walked down to the Quayside, where we saw the Malacca River Cruise and the fortress wall which was used to defend Malacca. There was a very big wheel too. We were trying to have a group photo on the fortress wall too...kekeke...so much fun when we were trying to climb on the walls...After that we were walking to Christ church side..Sy suddenly went and lay on the ground to take a water reflection photo of the christ church, Qy was asking Pw quick take out $ and put it where Sy was lying, then Qy will take a photo of it...kekeke...So Sy got a nice photo of his Christ Church and we got a nice photo of him on the ground...Hahahaa....We spent some time at Chirst Church there and we went to have a look at the museums on top (*secret..there was a photo on Sy super gay which Qy took for him in the museum.....a must to see it....). And we went up to Malacca hill (i think) to see the leftover walls of St Paul's church. By 1 plus, we were all hungry, so we headed down to Amy's Heritage Nyonya Cuisine to have our lunch.We ordered 5 dishes there (Vege in Coconut Curry, Asaam Fish, Tofu,Chap Chye, Ayam buah keluak and white rice), nicer than Nonya Nancy Kitchen.But there was a strong fish smell in Asaam fish dish. After that, we went for shopping cos we were all sweating and wanted to find a place with aircon to cool down..hohoho....

We arrived at Dataran Pahlawan Mega Mall as our shopping place. There, we walked past a bra shop and men's underwear shop (next to each other). So April made a joke that we gals will go in the bra shop and Sy will go to the men's underwear shop, which Pw added that Sy to show us when he try out the underwears...then Sy asked Pw whether wan to have a fashion show....hahaha. Then we went for our shopping while Sy went to look for our next food destination which is somewhere in the mall. Qy bought shoes while April bought clothes, then we walked around and went up to Nadeje. Woo...it was having a queue there and needed around 1 hour to get a table. So Sy left his contact number and we went for A&W first for a cooling root beer float, curly fries and waffles. (Sy don't get why we were so into A&W.....lol...think Qy was super pleased that she got to eat her waffles and root beer float). When we are almost done eating, table in Nadeje was ready for us. So we went up to have mille crepes...It was super nice...we ordered 5 flavors (Chocolate Banana, Original, Cheese, Rum & Raisin and don't know what Malacca)...the chocolate banana crepe was only having banana taste and no choco taste. Preferred the what Malacca and the original de....When we were having the Rum & Raisin crepe, Sy went and ask whether it can be kept long for their crepe cos Pw suggested Sy to bring back for us. When he came back, the Rum & Raisin crepe was left with only 2 small pieces...hahaha...he was so shocked that we ate up the crepe so fast and he was left with only that...kekeke.....

After the nice tasty crepes, we walked over to Hotel Equatorial opposite as Qy and Sy were having 'feeeeling'....with the toilets...kekeke....After that, we went for Malacca Boat Ride..it was $10RM per person for the ride. Didn't enjoy the ride, it was packed with people and you can't reali see when sitting inside of the boat. And there is no guide to tell you the buildings or bridges that we passing, there was a audio guide playing and it was played in Malay for the 1st half of the ride. On the 2nd half of the ride, the audio guide was speaking in Malay and English.Those sitting near the sides were being splashed by the river waters....hohoho....and April was the one of us who genna the most....Sy was calling out to the ang mo passerby wherever the boat passed by...sometimes April oso joined in, the 2 of them super high.....lol...
After the ride, we went back to the hotel for a while, to charge Sy's camera battery. Then we went down to Portuguese Settlement for our Portuguese dinner. While walking to the dinner place, there was a cart selling Portuguese snacks..Don't know what is it called, anyway it looked like pandan chicken and chicken pie. Sy bought to try....(nobody wants to eat it again after trying...lol)
We spent abit of time searching for the place that we wanted to eat dinner, it was called San Pedro. To our surprise, there was almost no one eating in there, only 1 table of people. (Don't know it is too late, reaching their closing time or something else). Sy was searching on the net for reviews, but we still went in and try since we had already reached the place. So we ordered baked fish, Cldebal, Kang Kong and rice.Outside, it was like a small hut but inside, it was old and looked like it might collapse anytime ...lol....we waited for some time and our food came. It was quite disappointed on the food, other than spicy, there is nothing special in the food...even the rice is abit overcooked....After the dinner, we went down to Jonker street to walk around...sad..can't find the egg tarts there...we walked from 1 end to the other end and walked back again. Then we went down to queue for satay celup @ Capitol Satay. It is similar to Lok Lok but it was dipped in peanut sauce to cook. We had to queue for almost an hour for a table as the place is famous...finally we got our table, we went for the lok lok...it was charged by per stick, 1 stick $0.80rm. The shop staff had on the fire so strong that the sauce looked like a volcano, waiting to erupt soon....lol....I don't reali enjoy it, don't find the peanut sauce nice too...Sy was the one enjoying it the most, well, he was looking forward to it...kekeke.....

After that, we were sooooo happy to go back to the hotel for our showers (sweaty and sticky the whole day). Qy and Sy were 'fighting' to chong the toilet to the first one to shower...lol....We all had our bath and did our accounts for the day, Qy and Sy went to sleep first, while mi, Pw and April watched 'Drag me to hell' movie...but was unable to finish it as we were too sleepy liao....lol

Day 3
Today we all woke up late...we lazed on the bed until 8 plus...April was unable to get up...kekeke...she was the last one to drag herself up for shower....(Qy was calling for her to wake up and i was pulling the blanket...lol) 1st stop of the day, we went to Donald & Lily for breakfast. There was a man walked up to us and asked us for $5rm, he said it was for him to take care of the car....-_-" But anyway we gave him $5 to "take care" of the car while we are away. Then we just headed down to the makan place, there, we ordered nasi ayam pongteh (their special for the day), mee siam and nyonya laska. Sy was thinking to eat cendol there too...lol...After eating, Sy said he wanted to go inside to take a look...April commented that Sy might come back with a bowl of cendol...Qy can't hear it clearly, so she asked April what did she say...April said the same sentence again, but Qy interprets it as Sy wanted to borrow $10......Pw and mi broke into laughter.....(Joke of the day....hahaha...think Qy got problems understanding what april is saying....lol)
After breakfast, we went down to San Shu Gong (@ Jonker Street) to buy bians back....After shopping, we went back to hotel for check-out. After check-out, we went down to Malacca river for a short walk, where we took photos of Church of St Francis Xavier and Qy & Pw's "wedding" photo....hohoho....When we were walking back to the car park, we passed by a ice-cream shop called icily..Since we were feeling hot, we tried the ice-cream.Fresh fruits are being used to blend as ice cream......quite interesting...we bought 2 cups, and had 3 furits mixed for each cup. After the ice cream, it was our lunch time and we headed down to Bei Zhan Restaurant.....It was a very big chinese restaurant wo....there was a promotion that order 5 dishes and 1 dessert for $100rm....so we went for that promotion and ordered the dishes (chicken, soft shell crab, prawns with salted eggs, dou miao, sweet & sour pork and agar agar for dessert)......it was delicious, i like the soft shell crab and prawns with salted eggs...yum yum....After the delicious meal, Sy wanted to go for coconut shake but it was too far away and we don't have time left...so we went to Jonker Street again for cendol and asaam laska...There was a jam in Jonker street, so we alighted first to find a table in Jonker 88 while Sy went to park his car. Pw and April went and queue for the cendol while i and qy went inside to find table. After awhile, Pw came looking for us, asking us whether wan to order 1st as it was going to be the their turn soon. When we had decided not to order 1st, April appeared with 5 bowls of cendol.....-_-"

Luckily we managed to get a table, but Qy and i don't eat cendol so we shared a bowl just to clear 1 bowl....hohoho...Sy wanted durian cendol, so he took 1 bowl and asked to add durian...Later Sy went and ordered laska...Qy added in the last bowl of cendo (half of it) into Sy's unfinished cendol so as to let him eat up the last bowl without his knowledge....kekeke....he certainly didn't suspect anything when he came back....
After eating, we went and walked Jonker Street again...Pw and Qy each bought something for themselves...then we had to leave to take our coach back to Singapore....sad sad...When we reached the bus counter, Pw realised that our coach actually leaves at 5.30pm instead of 5.00pm....lol...so we ended up having another 45 mins left to pass. So we called up Sy again for kopi, anyway he had forgotten to take back his mum's hp from Pw...kekeke.....We went to Mac for drinks while waiting for him...And our April was so absent-minded...She went to buy mac ice-cream cone and she came back to the table with her change, without her ice cream. -_-".......After the last kopi session @ Mac, we said bye-bye to Sy and went to our bus...i like the coach bus (Star Express) back to Singapore...massage seat and there was much more space....
We left Malacca @ ard 5.45pm and reach tuas checkpoint ard 10 plus..there was a bit of jam....but it was still ok....finally we reached Golden Mile Complex @ ard 11 plus, and we had our dinner at the nearby food centre....After dinner, we all went home, which marked the end of our food trip.....

Hotel Stayed: Bayview Hotel


Places of Interest:
Martime Museum
Christ Church
History Museum
Statue of Zheng He
St Paul's Church
Dataran Pahlawan Mega Mall
Malacca River
Church of St Francis Xavier
Jonker Street

Makan Places:

Kok Keong Restoran

Amy's Heritage Nyonya Cuisine

A&W

Nadeje

San Pedro

Capitol Satay

Donald & Lily

icily

Bei Zhan Restaurant

Jonker 88

Penang Trip

Day 1
Went to Penang from 8th April to 10th April 2011. i met with my friends @ Changi Airport T1 for check-in and our lunch. We went by Air Asia flight, they had changed the flight time to 2 plus instead of 1.50 pm. (delayed, -_-"). Anyway we reached at Penang @ around 3 plus, then we went to book a taxi from the airport. The charge from airport to our hotel is $44.70RM and we were wondering how come it was so exp...Then we saw on the receipt, it was stated 'Limo Service'. We thought that the cab was reali a limo car, but when we went outside to broad the cab. To our horror, it was a normal old taxi...(faintz.... Later then we know from another cab driver that the taxi company at the airport there is stopping the taxis from outside to pick up customers from the airport. Other cabs from outside are not allowed to pick up customers from the airport, they can only drop customers off. Only cabs from the taxi booking counter are allowed to pick up customer from airport, so they have charged it around this rate.) After we checked in our hotel, the room was soooo 'heritage' until we don't know what to say. The floor was not reali cleaned and the TV......is a 12 or 14" size with no much programme. And there are ants around....(Hairs not cleared in the shower everyday, got xiao qiang outside, heng ah..and lizard making noise at night). Luckily there was no insects crawling ard while we were sleeping..Anyway we left our bags in the room and went for the Toys Museum. We took a cab from our hotel to the museum...It was a disappointment there. 1st, we were charged $20RM for the entrance fee and 2nd, there was no maintenance on the toys. The toys are not displayed properly, some already fell inside the shelves and the toys look so cramped inside the shelves.There are different types of toys from Disney, Kungfu Panda, Batman, Ultraman, Xiao Ding Dang, Aliens, Voltron, Gundam and many more.

After half an hour, we left the museum and walked down to Paradise Beach Resort, to walk down to the beach. There are water skiing service and the hotel guests are suntanning. After that, we left and crossed the road to buy some drinks. We decided not to take cab down to Gurney Drive Hawker Centre, and the next bus is like 30 mins later. So we decided to try walk down from the toys museum to the Hawker Centre.We started to walk from 5 plus, and we walked until 7pm, where we stopped at a hawker centre (Viva Local Food Haven) to eat something. We had Satay, Char Kway Teow, Fried Chicken and Gan Cao He Fen (Yum yum...). After that, we continued our journey (by walking) down to Gurney Drive Hawker Drive for our 2nd round of dinner. We walked until 8.30 pm and we still haven't reached the hawker centre, so we gave up and waited patiently for the bus to come. Finally the bus came and we boarded the bus, the bus fare is only $1.40Rm per pax (super cheap than cab). But the funny part was the Gurney Drive Hawker Centre is just 1 bus stop away, we got off at the next stop..lol. We found a table and starting to order food... we had asam laksa, rojak,and ma chee. Next, we went down to Gurney Plaza for shopping, where i saw waffles with ice cream...(I wanted to eat...but my friends are too full to eat..) After that, we are just too lazy to take bus back to the hotel and we just took cab back to the hotel.

Day 2
Woke up at 7 plus, we got ready and went for our breakfast. We had nasi lemark for breakfast provided by the hotel (Not tat good.....faintz). After that, we crossed over the road outside the hotel and went and bought tao sai piah (Him Heang brand). Then we returned to hotel to put down the piah, we went to take a cab to the blue mansion (Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion). But we had reached 1 hr early for the 11pm tour, so we just walked around the streets to pass time 1st. We passed by Hainan Temple, Love lane, Goddess of Mercy Temple, St George's Church. Then we walked back to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion again for the 11 pm tour. The entrance fee is $2RM and there are 3 guided tours, 11am, 1.30pm and 3.00pm and the tour lasted for an hour. The mansion is built in 1890s and the outside of the mansion is blue color and there are 38 rooms inside (16 of which are let out as hotel stay). The The lanterns in the main hall are hanging upstairs, from what the guide had told us is that before Cheong Fatt Tze left home to start out his fortune, his uncle made a bet with him. If he was to make a fortune, his uncle will hang the lanterns upstairs (which Cheong Fatt Tze reali did made his fortune). When the mansion was first taken over by Laurence Loh Architects, the mansion was in a very bad shape as it was rented out and there were more than 100 people. They took 7 years to restore the mansion back to the original stage. All the furniture are being sold away and the current furniture placed inside the mansion are not originally from the mansion.Cheong Fatt Tze had 8 wives and only 3 of the wives (forget which no) live in the mansion. The guide had told us the feng shui of the mansion. The mansion was built in the way that it is sitting off the 'back of the dragon'. And in front of the mansion, it is facing the sea and it is facing a mountain (Penang Hill) at the back of the mansion. (It is very interesting to learn on the feng shui on how the mansion was built). Cheong Fatt Tze had built windows of western (vernacular timber louvre windows) and chinese style (Butterfly-shaped on the walls). There are 7 staircases, each with 28 steps around the house.In the center courtyard,there are 8 pillars instead of the normal 4 pillars. Under each of the pillars,cheong fatt tze had placed gold chinese coin for feng shui purpose. And in the center of the courtyard,the guide told us that it was the heart of feng shui of the mansion.There is 'chi' coming out of below of the mansion if we are to stand there and do tai chi early in the morning (hohoho....).After the guide introduced to the lower floor of the mansion,then we went to the upper level.Up there, we were shown the bedroom.There are Decorative Mosaic Porcelain Works (Chien Nien) in the balcony on the upper level. It was done by putting the glass pieces from rice bowls and they are done beautifully.After that,we are brought to the gift shop there (there was a fluffy cat lying lazily at the mansion, very ke ai...). Anyway after the tour,we took a bus down to Penang Hill but we were told by the bus driver that funicular train service is not ready yet (soo sad.....). So we just took the bus down to Ke Lok Si Temple,which it took like...2 hours? hahahaa...got traffic jam along the road.....Finally we reached the temple,by then we were hungry.We ate laska and wanton noodles at the coffeeshop there before climbing up to the temple.After that,we walked up the temple,along the way,there are alot of stalls selling souvenirs and t-shirts.

We reached the temple and we walked around the temple, There was a gaint Guan Yin status standing on top,we needed to pay to take the lift up to see the status and admission fee is also required to go up the pavilion.My 2 friends paid to go to the pavilion but didn't manage to climb up cos they are too lazy to climb (Kekeke....).I climbed up myself but i didn't climb to the top (damn,i thought it was the last floor when i reached on a level that doesn't have anything inside...actually there are 1 or 2 more floors).After that, we went down to Gurney Plaza again to walk around the mall. My friend bought clothes and i had curly fries from A&W for before dinner snack.By 7pm,we are all hungry and made our way down to Gurney Drive Hawker Centre.We ordered Sotong with kang kong,Char Kway Teow,Otak,Fried Oyster,pancakes and fruit juices.After finishing the food,we took our drinks and moved to the stalls in front. But when we were to put down our drinks on the table,the assistant from the drink stall chased us away,saying we cannot bring drinks from other stalls and drink there.So we went abit further down the tables,the same man chased us away...pek chey...spolit our mood,caused me cannot eat satay and indian rojak.Anyway i bought a popiah and finished it.
After that, we walked back to the mall and we saw Lin Fan (Penang Singer) having new album signature session outside Gurney Plaza. We watched abit,then we went inside the mall again to buy mineral water.But we bought waffles with chocolate,yum yum.....

After that,we went back to the hotel.On the way back,the cab driver told us the green house coffeeshop sells good hokkien mee and it only opens during the night.So we decided to eat for supper later.We went back to hotel 1st and use the wi-fi for chatting.Then my friend asked mi to go buy supper back but in the end we went over to the coffeeshop.We ordered a bowl of prawns noodles and white chicken,i wanted to try the bak kut teh 1 but my friends are too full. (hohoho.....).Then we went back to hotel to zzzz...but i was woken up by the noise of lizard,made mi wake up every hour...so noisy..didnt't get much sleep in the end.

Day 3
Woke up for breakfast, and after that,we went back to our hotel room to bath and packed our stuffs.We checked out at 10am and headed to the airport for our flight back to Singapore.Then we just hand around at the airport and waited for our flight.The flight timing was changed too from 12pm to 12.30pm.Anyway we boarded our plane and went to Singapore.That's the end of our Penang Trip.


Hotel Stayed: 1926 Heritage Hotel

Places visited:
1. Toys Musuem
2. Paradise Beach Resort
3. Bypass by Island Plaza
4. Gurney Plaza
5. Gurney Road Hawker Centre

Seoul, Korea Trip

Viewing of North Korea

Day 1
Went to Seoul, Korea from 17th Feb to 23rd Feb 2011. We met up @ 5.45am in the morning and made our way to Changi Airport T1. Then we checked in our luggage and waited for our plane to KL. We took AirAsia airline, we waited in the airport until 8.55am. Then our plane took off to KL, and reached there around 9 plus. Then we went to the KL Plaza Premium Lounge in the budget terminal, in there, we had shower, lunch and waited for our next plane to Seoul.  We started to make our way to the gate at around 12 plus, then i got delayed in the Malaysian Customs. I asked my friend to go ahead 1st to clear the checkpoint, by the time i was done with the checkpoint, i was unable to find my friend after the checkpoint (Don't know ware she went, 吓死我). Finally i saw her already inside the gate,waiting for me. Then we went up to the plane, which took us 6 hours plus to Seoul.  We played monopoly card game on the plane (My friend kept winning...lol), ate our dinner and slept on and off on the plane. Finally we reached Seoul, and the temperature was like below 0 degree (Shiok!!). Then we collected our luggages and tried to make our way to our hotel. It was located in Dongdaemum (East Gate) area, where all the fashion shopping malls are located. Then we checked in our hotel, then we went out nearby for a walk and tried on the food sold by the roadside stalls (yummy!!). Then we went down to coffee bean and bought hot chocolate drinks, after which we went back to our hotel to rest.

Day 2
Woke up in late morning which we prepared to go the Gyeongbokgung Palace. But we went down to the hotel lobby to settle the data roam first, which took us 2 hours. By the time we reached the palace, it was already 2 plus in the afternoon. But we still managed to go for the mandarian guided tour, so we waited for the guided tour. There was a changing of guards performance at around 3pm, were unable to watch it due to the guided tour (My friend "很凶地" called mi to go liao..hohohoho). Then we went around the palace, guided by the tour guide. The palace was very big and there were alot of interesting things inside. The guide took around 1 hour plus, then we went to the museum cafe for a small snack (which was our breakfast and lunch). It was nice, then i took a nap while my friend chatted on her phone. By the time we left, it was past 5pm and we was not able to go to the palace museum, as the last admission was 5pm. But we still went in to take a peek inside the museum displays. Then we left at around 6 plus, which the sky was already getting dark and the temperature was getting lower. Then we made our way to Jogyesa temple, which was @ Anguk station. The monks were chanting in the hall, so we just see the surroundings of the temple (Anyway it was kind of dark, as there was no street lights outside the temple). Then we went to have our dinner, we had bibimbap (with no beef, only vegetables..hohoho). It was nice with all the side dishes, and were very full. Then we went back to our hotel to rest (as we were going to have our DMZ tour the next day).

Day 3
Woke up early to prepare to go to our DMZ tour. We left hotel at around 6 plus and made our way down to Samgakji station. We had problem finding the USO office from the station. In the end, we took cab down to the place (Luckily, we still managed to find the office, thanks to my friend's GPS, which she used it to guide the cab driver). By then, it was already almost 7.30am, luckily, the bus waited for those latecomers. And so, we managed to go for the tour (which was worth it, eye-opening too).  The bus left at 7.45 am and we were on our way to the DMZ zone. There was a checkpoint that the US army was required to check on our identifies before we can go in. The tour was guided by US army, so our guide was a new soldier who was just posted there. He introduced to us on the JSA area and the meeting place, where South and North Korea was divided (so the conference room was also divided by half, and was determined by the doors on South and North Korea side to determine who get to use the room for their own meetings). There are 2 villages located at that area too, one was called Freedom village (in South korea) and another was Peace Village (in North Korea). There was also a flagpole war between South and North Korea. South Korea had placed a flag up on their area, North Korea responded by placing a much higher flag pole, which was 160m tall, the world 2nd highest flagpole. There was an incident called Axe Murder Incident, which was quite an incident where 3 US soldiers were up against more than 20 North Koreans soldiers, all because of a poplar tree.

After which, we made our way to the 3rd tunnel. There were total of 4 tunnels, which the south koreans found out, and they opened the 3rd tunnel to public for visiting. We had to walk a super steep walkway down to the tunnel. Then we just walked to the end of the tunnel, to see 3 small windows which can see across to the other side of the tunnel. Then we made our way back up to the walkway, we had to climb up the steep steep slope, it was tiring. By the time we reached, we were both sweating and the temperature outside was like still below 10 degree (Had to take off our thick sweaters to cool down, hohooho...).  After that, we went to the observatory to have a better view of North Korea. At there, we were only allowed to take photos from a yellow box drawn on the ground. Then we had our lunch at their canteen there,and then we went down to Dorasan Station.
There, we took a look around of the train station before making our way back to Seoul. After reaching Seoul, we made our way to Myeong-dong for shopping and dinner. There were alot of shops and stalls selling clothes,food,etc. There were people selling hugs for free too, you just have to walk up to them and they will hug you for free..Kekekeke..... When we were at the hotel, we got a call from the ski tour agent to inform us that there will be maintenance going on in the ski area on monday. So she requested us to change to the next day instead. So we went ahead with the plan, to go skiing the next day. And so we went to bed to prepare for the next day.

Day 4
Went up early morning to prepare for our skiing tour. The tour van came and picked us up at our hotel at 8am. Then we went to a nearby hotel to pick another 4 persons that had joined the same tour. The tour guide's name is Summer. She is very funny, told us alot of jokes along the way. The other group of friends are also super funny, they also chatted and told jokes with the guide. We headed down to the ski place, where we rented the ski equipment before we drove up to the mountain. Halfway up, the ski rental shop had forget to pass us our gloves, so we u-turned back to the shop to get them. Then when we were on the way, my friend found that her gloves were of the same side. Kekeke......thgt we need to u-turn back to the shop again, but the guide called up the shop and 'scolded' them for the mistake. In the end, they brought the correct gloves up for my friend. Then we started to try out to ski in the beginner's slope. We both had our fall there, twice. Both of us fell at the same time before we went off, and we couldn't get up on our feet. Luckily there was a kind lady who pulled us up. Kekeke......We also tried to make a snowman (which doesn't even have the shape of the snowman) there.  We played until 12.30pm, then we went to pick the 4 ladies from the ski sled area (which was meant for small children). Then we went down the mountain to have our lunch. We had BBQ chicken, it was so yummy (Best meal of the whole trip). After the yummy lunch, we headed to Nami Island where Winter Sonta (korea drama) was filmed. But we didn't managed to walk the whole island due to time constraint. We took the ferry back, then waited for our guide to pick us up and went to a Ginseng factory. At there, they explained to us when the ginseng can be cooked. There was a total of 6 years, by the age of 2, ginseng can be used to make Ginseng Chicken Soup.
By 4 or 5 plus, we reached back our hotel. My friend stayed in the lobby for internet accessing and i went back to our room. I fell asleep while watching tv in the room, ke lian my friend, cannot come in to our room while i slept (hohoho...). In the end, she took another key from the reception to come in. And i was awoken by the opening of the door when she came in. Then we decided to go down to Seoul Tower for night viewing of Seoul. We went to have our dinner @ TwoTwo Fried Chicken, but by the time we finished our dinner, it was reali getting late. So we dropped our plan of going to the tower and went back to our hotel instead for early resting.

Day 5
Went up abit late today, since the previous 2 days we had been waking up early for the tours. Today we went up to Seoul Tower. We found the Namsan cable car building and went to buy tickets for cable car ride up to Seoul Tower. Everyone was being squeezed into the cable car and being brought up to the tower. On top of the tower, we still need to buy admission tickets to the Observatory and the teddy bear museum. Plus, we paid for our lunch at the top of the tower @ Han Cook. After that, we went to the teddy bear museum first. It was quite small, with all the teddy bear miniatures display in it. Then we went up to the tower observatory to have a 360 degrees view of Seoul. Audio guides are available at the tower to help you identify the places down below (but seriously, it was hard to see the buildings even with the audio guide was explaining the different building standing). After that, we went for our lunch. It was buffet-style for the side dishes and we were required to order only 1 main dish for each.
(Lunch was at around 2 plus or 3, why we always eat meals very late de?)
After lunch, we went down to Namsangol Hanok Village, which was someware near Namsan area (which i don't know ware). We went to a bus stop and took bus no. 2 down, it was 2 bus stops away. Then from the bus stop, we walked a short distance to the entrance of the village. We walked around to see the traditional houses of Korea, there were a spot for traditional Korea games too. After that, we headed to watch JUMP performance. We went down to the metro station and headed to the Korea Tourism Organization Office and queried for the directions. While i was asking for directions, my friend called her mum using the free international phone there (3 mins free). Later we called back to our office and disturbed our office friends. Kekekee......
Then we walked down to JUMP theater, bought our tickets and bought our food @ the coffee bean there. After that, we went for the show. It was a (around) 90 mins performance and it was funny. I bought their program book and had it autographed by the cast (^-^, happy happy). After the show, we went to cheonggyecheon stream walk walk, and the fashion malls around our hotel. Then we ended our day.

Day 6
Today was the last day in Seoul, we went for shopping in Namdaemum Market. At there, we walked around the streets, then we walked to the central post office to buy some stamps for posting postcards back. After that, we had lunch at a small shop @ Namdaemum Market. It was just selling soup noodles there. After that, we went to buy some seaweeds and candies to bring back..... Then we went back to our hotel 1st, after which we went to walk Cerestar shopping mall. It was sooo empty inside, the shopping levels were only up to level 6 and it was a 20 plus high building (weird....). After that, we headed down to the airport, which we had to take the metro down to Seoul station. At there, we had our light dinner first before taking the airport express train down to the airport. Upon reaching the airport, did our check-in, then my friend wrote her postcards and sent. Then we went around to see if there is any restaurants opening. Then later, we took the airport shuttle train to our gate. And so, we left Seoul and we arrived back in Singapore @ Noon the following day (which we also spent the whole morning in KL budget airport, doing nothing except sleep. And the KL-SG plane still delayed some more).

The Seoul Metro can be very confusing when you first take, because there are 14 different lines. And there are alot of different exits and staircases (the lifts are 'hidden', need to try finding). You will need to go from different stairs to get to the correct platform and if you need to decide the platform first before tapping your card, make sure you watch out for the direction that you want to go. (Encountered once, we had to walk until the next line platform so that we can get to the opposite platform)

Hotel Stayed: EastGate Tower
Places visited:
1. Dongdaemum (East Gate)
2.  Gyeongbokgung Palace
3. Jogyesa temple
4. Anguk Street
5. DMZ - JSA, 3rd tunnel, Observatory, Dorasan Station
6. Myeong-dong
7. Ski Place (don't know where it is)
8. Nami Island
9. Ginseng factory 
10. Seoul Tower
11. Teddy Bear Museum
12.  Namsangol Hanok Village
13. JUMP Theater
14.  Namdaemum Market
15. Central Post Office
16. Cerestar Shopping Mall
17. Cheonggyecheon Stream
  
Complete Photo Album: Click here
 

Malacca Trip 2010

Went to Malacca from 17th Jul to 18th Jul with my friends. We met at 8 am at Golden Mile Tower, had our breakfast and boarded the coach bus to head for Malaysia, Malacca. It was a 4 plus hours ride there, we reached Malacca around 1 plus. We alighted at Hotel Equatorial entrance, and took a cab to the Baba House at Jonker Street.

Luckily one of our rooms is ready, so we put all our bags in that room. Next, we headed to Jonker 88 shop, which is famous for its laska. There are so many people inside, all the tables are fully packed. We waited for awhile and we manged to get a table after 5 mins (which was super lucky). We ordered a plate of fish cakes, 4 bowls of laska (4 of us) and 2 chendol and 1 ice kacang. The laska so quite nice and tasty, super spicy.

After that, we headed down the streets of Jonker Street. There are alot of shops along the streets, selling cute items, rattan stuffs, and many others. Then we slowly walked down to the Chris Church, which is the oldest church built in Malacca. After that, we walked back to Jonker Street again and we went to the Baba Nonya Heritage Museum (where the tv series, 'Little Nonya' was filmed). The entrance fee is $8 RM and it was a guided tour inside the house. It was a big house with 2 storey high, all the bedrooms are located upstairs and the dining room, kitchen, relatives' room, guests' room are located downstairs. It was a half an hour tour, but think there are alot of mosquito inside, cos we all came out with at least one bite. Hohohoho...........
After that, we went back to the hotel cos one of my friends wanted to have a shower (Weather too hooooot).

After that, we headed down to the Nonya Nancy's Kitchen Restaurant for our dinner. We ordered popian, fried rice, vegetables, fried egg with prawns, chicken and a soup. The only food which is nice is the fried egg with prawns and popian , the rest, not really that nice. The total bill was $60.50 ringgits. Anyway we all ate until very full. Later we headed down to the streets again, this time there are small stalls being set up along the whole Jonker street. There are alot of stalls selling watches, shoes, clothings and more food.

There are alot of people coming out to walk the streets too, it was packed. We walked until 8 plus, then we went back to the hotel again, to put our bags down (too heavy to carry around, lol). There, we rested until 9 plus, then we went out again to buy our supper. We bought taiwan hotdogs,fried noodles,bbq clams and lala, dim sum, otak, egg tarts (i like it,heheee) and ate in our hotel room. After all the good food, we went to bed and rested for the day.

The next day, we woke up at 7.30 am and got ready by 9 am. We headed down the Baba Cafe and had a light breakfast. Then we headed down to Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant to try the chicken rice ball. The rice was too sticky and not nice to eat. The chicken is still ok, not too bad. We bought 6 pieces of durain puffs on our way back to the hotel. The durain inside the puff was quite watery, but still it got the smell and the puff was quite crispy. After that, we headed back to the hotel to check out. We waited for the cab after checking out and headed down to the Mega Mall, next to the Hotel Equatorial.

It was a super big mall, but on the 1st level up, it was like our shopping mall. But on the basement, there are more small shops, packed together and there are more people shopping downstairs. We had our lunch at the A&W fast food. The order taker was so blur, gave us more than what we ordered. Later we headed back to Hotel Equatorial Entrance, to board our bus back to Singapore.

Reached Singapore at 7pm and we had our dinner at the Golden Mile Hawker Centre. I had chicken rice ($3), and my friends had carrot cake, hokkien mee and claypot chicken rice. After that, we all headed home.

Hotel Stayed: The Baba House

Places Visited:
Jonker Street
Chris Church
The Baba Nonya Heritage Museum
Mahkota Parade Shopping Mall