Europe 2nd Trip - Rome, Italy (Day 4)

28th Oct 2013, Monday, Sunny

Today is the last day in Naples and we are going back to Rome for a 3 days' stay. We woke up at around 6 plus and got ready for the day. We packed our luggage and went upstairs for our breakfast (Still love the croissant and the triangular pantry there - it was known as sfogliatelle...... ^_^....nice nice). After the wonderful breakfast, we made our way back to our room and collected our luggage, later went down to do the check-out. Then we got the hotel staff to help us get us a cab to drive us down to the train station. After 5 to 10 mins, the cab arrived and we said goodbye to the hotel staff (who were all very helpful and pleasant during our stay).

Our Queue Number

When we arrived at the train station, we went to the tickets reservation office to make our train reservation. It was a group of people waiting in the queue too..luckily it wasn't as crowded as in Rome. But we were targeting for the next coming train, so i was left to wait in the office and my friends went to the platform with our luggage first (so once i am done with the reservations, we can just board the train). After a 10 mins wait, i finally got my turn and got the reservations done. I rushed out the platform and caught with my friends and we boarded the train. It was a 1 hour plus ride to Rome. So we just rested on the train while the train left Naples to Rome. We reached Rome train station at 11 plus (we wanted to deposit our luggage at the train station first, but the queue was super long) and then we got on a cab to head down to the hotel (it was like 5 mins ride from the station to hotel). The hotel name is Target Inn and the lift is inside a cage, where you need to open the cage and then go into the lift and the door is with spring, which it will spring back at you. Anyway, the lift is not big too, and so we need to go up separately due to our luggage. Then we deposited our luggage at the hotel as it was still early for check in. After that, we made our way down to see the catacombs. We had to take the metro down and then changed to the bus...oh god, the metro and the bus really took a long time to come. We took the bus to go along the Appian way, and the road was still with rocks and the road was quite small, there wasn't any road for pedestrians to walk with the cars zooming by.

San Sebastiano Catacombs

Finally, we reached the place to see the catacombs, which is along Appian Way. There were 2 catacombs places there, the one we wanted to go is not opened yet, so we went to the smaller one - San Sebastiano Catacombs. We made it for the English guided tour, so we went down to see. It was quite small and dark, and saw some coffins spaces and graves inside. The guide was speaking too fast and the accent was a bit hard to understand..but can still make out some of the things she was explaining. Then she showed us the grave of Sebastian which was later moved away to St. Peter's Basilica. Later we were also shown that there were 3 rooms that were dug further deep in, these can be used for generations to generations if the area were bought. Then she explained on the vases used as urn and the paintings on the ground and the walls. Then she showed us the dinning place inside and told us that the church which was built by Constantine on top of the catacombs. After this, the whole tour is done, which lasted us like 15 to 20 mins inside. The tour ended in the basilica where we were allowed to take photos around, but there was going to be a funeral going on soon, so we were allowed like 5 mins or so walking around. After this, we went to the souvenir shop where we got some postcards and stamps to send back home.

Twin Churches of Rome

After this, we rested for awhile on a bench outside...stupid shoulders aching.....Then we took the bus down to the other catacombs (which is bigger) - Catacombs of San Callisto. When we reached there, the English guided tour is about to start. One of my friend went ahead and bought her ticket first, the other friend doesn't want to go in so i stayed outside with her while we waited for the friend who went in. While waiting, we walked around the catacombs, there was a path towards some private houses. So we just strolled along that road and enjoyed the breeze and blue sky and white clouds...saw some geese at one of the houses too, i went up to try to take some photos of them while my friend was busy texting on her phone...hohoho...We had some chocolate too while waiting, we waited at least half an hour or more, then my friend appeared again. After the wait, we made our way back to the metro station, where we saw the ruins building on Palatine Hill. After that, we took the metro to the start for Doice Vita Stroll and Heart of Rome Walk. But the starting point for Heart of Rome walk was further, so we went ahead with Doice Vita Stroll. When we came out of the metro station, it was just a normal street and when we turned behind a shop, we saw the Piazza del Popolo, it was so grand...really made you 'wow' there....it was so spectacular! There was an Egyptian obelisk standing in the center of the Piazza, and it was brought over from Egypt. And nearby the obelisk, was a fountain with some lion-like statues. But some kids were just sitting on the statues and riding them around. On the far end of both sides of the Piazza, were Fontana del Nettuno and another statue (not sure what is is....). And you can see the twin churches (Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto) standing in front of the Piazza.

Crucifixion of St. Peter (Taken from web)

At the side before we made our way to the Piazza, there stood the church of Santa Maria Del Popolo. It was quite a big church and there were a lot of beautiful paintings inside, and there were 2 great paintings (by an Italian painter - Caravaggio) hidden inside the church, which required to insert coin just to on the light to see them and no photo-taking is allowed. The 2 masterpieces were Crucifixion of St. Peter & Conversion of Saul (St. Paul). We stayed inside for a while, then there was a guy who inserted the coin to light up the 2 masterpieces chamber. Once the coin was inserted, everyone just rushed into the chamber to see the 2 masterpieces. It was super cool...the paintings were so real (almost can see the image popping out)....After the amazing viewing of the 2 grand masterpieces, we headed out to walk over the the Piazza and onto the streets of Rome. There were a lot of shops for shopping and the buses which were going around the streets were small type and it looked cute..hahhaa.....There was even a Ferrari shop around there....(saw a Ferrari F1 car in italy...kekeke).....After some shopping around, we were hungry and then we decided to go down to a 200 years old restaurant - L'Enoteca Antica di Via della Croce.

Tiramisu

The place has a nice ambiance and there was paintings on the walls too. We ordered a lamb shank, spaghetti, cheese platter, cod fish dish and tiramisu as the dessert. The food was nice, i like the lamb shank, the fried potato (as the side) and the cod fish. Most of all, i love the tiramisu!! We ordered their creme brulee at first but they run out of it. So we ordered tiramisu instead, and it was a good choice. I almost wanted to lick the whole plate but cannot...hehehe....but i was using my spoon to lick the remaining.... :P.....It was soooooo nice!!! I had a happy dinner there...hahahaa....and it costs us euro $75 (including the tax and tip). After dinner, we went to the opposite shop which was selling chocolates and gelato. There was a table showing their beautiful packages too, and one of our friend was already snapping her camera away on their food. Mi and my other friend felt kind of bad if we don't buy something from them and the staff was already asking us what do we want to get. So we went ahead and got a small cone of peppermint ice cream. It wasn't so good as expected and it costs euro $2.50 for a single scoop, it was just ok. After this, we continued our way down to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. It was a short walk down the streets, when we reached, we were standing on the opposite of the street, looking at the monument. And in the center, it was a big roundabout for the cars....But it was quite dark when we arrived and i can't see the statues on top of the Emmanuel. It also holds the tomb of the unknown soldier, who was chosen from the among 11 unknown remains from WWI war.

Roman Ancient Forum (Night View)

After the viewing of the Emmanuel, we made our way down to continue the walk.We walked past to a church which doesn't look so grand from the outside (Santa Maria in Aracoeli) with a very high stairs, besides it, was the stairs up to Capitoline Hill. By the time we walked until here, we were all tired from the walking and we still had to climb the stairs up..hohoho.....There were 2 great big statues standing on top of the both sides of the stairs...and opposite the Capitoline hill is the Theatre of Marcellus (which we later knew about during our segway tour) and it was the first amphitheater built before the Colosseum. Anyway, we climbed up the stairs to the Piazza del Campidoglio. My friends took a break on top of the stairs while i went in to explore around. Inside there, stood the statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and the statue of She-wolf with the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus (which both were explained by our segway guide too). We were unable to find the grand staircase, which was mentioned in Rick Steve's book. After a short stay there, we made our way down to the bus stop, but the bus we wanted doesn't come and while waiting, we saw 2 tour groups coming and went up to Capitoline Hill too and they seem like doesn't come back down. One of my friend doesn't want to give up looking for the grand staircase, so we went up again. This time, we walked further into the square and at the right side of the Piazza, there was a road downhill (it just looks like a normal road that is going downhill, who will expect at side of the road.....) it would turned out to be the view of the Roman Ancient Forum. It was lighted with few lights, but it was beautiful in the night too (although i will prefer to take the photos of it during the daytime).....

After taking some photos there, we made our way back to the bus stop and stood there and waited for at least an hour for the bus back to hotel. We were so happy the bus came, and were able to go back to the hotel to rest after a long day of walking (we were in need of water this day too....all run out of water...hahhaa).

Hotel Stayed:
Target Inn

Places Visited:
San Sebastiano Catacombs
Catacombs of San Callisto
Piazza del Popolo
Church of Santa Maria Del Popolo
Victor Emmanuel Monument
Capitoline Hill
Roman Ancient Forum

Europe 2nd Trip - Pompeii, Italy (Day 3)

27th Oct 2013, Sunday, Cloudy

Rooftop Garden

Today we are going to visit the city of Pompeii, had to give up hiking Mount Vesuvius cos both of my friends were tired from yesterday's walking. So we woke up at 5 or 6 am plus, then prepared for breakfast. Ooo...the breakfast area was on a rooftop garden, it was so cooling to have breakfast there and can see the blue blue sky. They even have a small area for table tennis. The croissants were great too and there was a cute triangular pantry that we all love it when we had it the first time. I tried the yogurt too, it was apricot flavor. I love the red orange juice too, it was in red color..different from the normal orange color. It was nice!! And the ham was nice to go with the bread.

Metro Tickets

After we had the wonderful breakfast, we made our way out to Pompeii. We had to buy our metro tickets from the ticket machine, which was 'hiding' in a corner. It's a ticket for 90 mins, and gosh, the metro was damn slow..We took like almost an hour just to reach the main train station to take the circumvesuviana train. By the time we reached there and got our tickets, it was like 10 plus to 11 am. There were a lot of people taking the train too, we made our way down to the platform to catch our train. We had to wait for another 15 mins or so for our train. Finally, our train arrived and we all boarded, it was packed with people. There was no available seats, so we stood near to the door. Luckily, there were some seats empty after a few stations, we were able to sit down (legs tired from all the standing...hohoho). Along the way, was able to see Mount Vesuvius, it was so beautiful. After the long ride, we finally reached the station of Pompeii. There was a tourist guide counter just in front of the station and the staff were trying to get people to buy their tickets for their guided walk. We just went in straight to the main counter (which was at the entrance of the city) and got our tickets.

Steep road to enter the city

Here is a brief introduction on Pompeii:
Pompeii was an ancient Roman city that was once prosperous during its time. There were gladiators fighting in the theater and the people were still using horse chariots. But all these were gone after the city was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Now what is left are the ruins that you can see in the visit and try to understand how the people had lived at that time.

When you first passed the entrance, there was this very steep road that you need to walk up to enter the main city (which is the city gate). One of my friends went on her own, listening to the audio guide (which we downloaded from Rick Steve) whereas mi and another friend, we went in walking with the guide taken from the book. The road of the city were all built with big stones (basically, you can see 1 stone and 1 stone as the road, not like our normal road that were built with tar). I had to jump from stone to stone to walk around...hohoho...One of my friends had a fall when we were walking up to enter the city (hurt her ankle but luckily, it wasn't too serious...). Anyway, she continued on her walk, and mi and my another friend continued ours. The road really wasn't easy to walk around, had to jump from rock to rock. The city was super big and amazing....we tried to follow the self guided tour and went and see those highlighted sites. And there was this 3 bigger and higher stones on the road, they were used to let pedestrians to walk around the streets when the streets were filled with water (used for washing the streets). As we walked further in, there was a big main square, where the temple of Jupiter and the city hall stood. Then we went to see the Basilica and the fish and produce market. Inside the fish & produce market, there was a display of plastic molds of Pompeiians who were caught in the disaster. Behind the molds display, was a wall of pictures that was kept preserved. We walked abit further in the market, there was display of actual mummies of the Pompeiians. 

Stoves made of marbles (Fast Food Joint)

After some time, mi and my friend just got tired and hungry. We bought a slice of pizza and ate before we continued our journey again. I saw my friend when we were just continued walking, i asked my friend, "Isn't that person look familiar?"...hohoho....
Next, we continued walking down the streets and saw the fast food joint, where we can see the stoves made out of marble. Then we just continued walking and we ended up on a stairs that lead us to a higher ground that we had a high view of the city of Pompeii. We took some photos there and headed back down to the city again. We ended up at the House of Tragic Poet. Next, we walked till the House of the Faun, this house was the biggest house in the whole city of Pompeii. But 1 side of the house was closed off, there was a big complete picture (which was showing the battle of Alexandra, the original is currently displayed in the National Archeological Museum) on the floor at the courtyard. Then we continued walking on the streets again, we ended up at the theater, which we caught with our friend. We took a moment to sit around at the theater, i climbed all the way up to the top. And from there, you can actually see Mount Vesuvius at the left side. Too bad, it was too cloudy, the clouds were covering the volcano..not able to take a clear shot of it.

Seafood Pasta

Then we left to see the biggest house again (as my friend had not seen it), mi and the other friend tried to find the 2000 years old lead pipes. It was caged at one of back alley, it wasn't very noticeable. But it was definitely old lead pipes..hohohoho....Then my friend brought us to the public bath, the entrance was very dark, as it was getting dark. We went in and take a look, it was dark inside, with no much light. And there was a black dog sleeping inside too, can't even see it. The bath was further inside, it was soooo big. By the time we finished walking, it was already 5 plus and the sun had already set, it was getting dark.So we made our way back to Naples train station. The train back to Naples was also packed with people and while we were on the train, there was a group of teenagers, shouting around the train and were very anxious. Later, we saw some of them were running out the 1st station and some of them were running in to the train. There was like a big commotion but they were all speaking in Italian...don't understand, so got no idea what was happening. When the train reached to the 2nd or 3rd station, we saw the teenagers ran out of the train and some were suddenly got caught by police, who were waiting at the station and they were in full amour. Hahhaa...one of the teenagers was still sitting beside my friend, she kept joked that she seated side by side with a criminal (Forget whether is the one seated beside got caught by the police...hahhaa...). After this commotion, we just waited for our train to reach Naples train station...like long journey back...Then we headed down to a restaurant nearby Naples train station area to have our dinner. The restaurant name is called
La Cantina dei Mille. We had a pizza and pasta (my friend ordered another pasta too cos they were too hungry), free bread were given too..but the bread was hard as rock...hahhaa..my friend knocked the bread on the table, and it sounded like taking a stone and knocking on the table...so funny...

I don't find the food bad, it's just salty for me to accept (the seafood was fresh and the prawns really smell nice). Anyway, i ate a little and as we were paying, the boss gave us his namecard and wanted us to give feedback on tripadvisor...kekeke.....Then we made our way back to hotel. The metro really cannot make it, we had to wait and wait for it to come.
Finally, we reached our hotel and we can rest for the day...yeah!! (Too bad, didn't even have time to shop around the streets near our hotel, there is a Disney store there too...)

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tolendo

Places Visited:
Pompeii

Europe 2nd Trip - Naples, Italy (Day 1 & Day 2)

25th Oct 2013, Friday, Sunny

Supper on Swiss Air

Finally!!Going to Italy and Swiss...we got the air tickets from January and had waited for 10 months for it.Most of my colleagues and friends had already went for trips and came back...And i waited pretty much too long for it...all my excitement were gone....but finally our turn came...i am going with 2 of my working friends...

I got sick on the day itself and had to see doctor to take mc and rest. We met at the airport at 7.30pm and another friend even turned up with her boyfriend to send us off...hohoho (really surprised but i was happy to see her)....We checked in our lugguage and had dinner at Seafood Paradise before heading in to the gate.
We went in around 9 plus and off we go,to board the plane.It was a long journey to Zurich...i was seated beside one of my colleague and another ang mo..both their legs needs so much space,until i don't even have much space for myself.I had to bring up my legs,after some time,i got legs cramp...hahaa...

We saw a bit of flashing lightnings on the plane,had supper and breakfast too.It was super cold on the plane,i felt my nose was going to drop off already....and i was having blocked nose and coughing too...The guy was bleeding on his nose suddenly when we were having breakfast.He turned to ask me for tissue,i got a shock when he asked with his blood dripping....and then he went to toilet to clean up.Then we just napped for a while before the plane touched down to Zurich airport.

26th Oct 2013, Saturday,Sunny

View from transfer flight

When we arrived at airport,we made our way to take the transfer plane to Rome. We had to pass swiss customs and then to the gate and waited for our plane.It was a short ride from Zurich to Rome.There were lsser people onboard the plane too and was spacious...Anyway,we reached Rome airport.Then we went down to collect our Roma Passes and headed down to Termini train station.We took the airport transfer train...it was about 40 to 45 mins ride...Once we reached,we went to look for the Trenitalia ticket office to make our train reservation.There's alot of people waiting in queue...My advise:Get all your train reservations done at once if you don't to waste time standing outside the office to wait.There was no chairs to sit too,everyone was just standing around waiting for their numbers to be called.

While i was waiting for my turn,my friends went upstairs to get data sim cards (for $20 euro). They also waited for quite some time for their turn. Finally,we got our data sim cards n train reservation done.Then we headed down to the platform to board our train to Naples. When we wanted to board the train,a guy "helped" mi and one of my friends to get our luggage up the train...and he asked for tip from us once he put our luggage down (the other friend went further in the train on her own liao)....so we gt no choice but to give him a $10 as tip (no small change too)...he wasn't going to leave without some $. Then later we know,there are some people just trying to be helpful but they will ask from you $ for their so-called help. Anyway, we just went in with our luggage (as it was placed abit far from our seats) and sat down (my 2 friends helped to carry my luggage up in the upper storage as there was no space near the seats area and mine was the smallest and lightest. hohoho...a lady sitting besides us was laughing at us when both my friends were trying to bring down my luggage when we reached our stop....the 1st class coaches are really comfortable and got free drinks and snacks too (for high speed trains)....better than 2nd class coaches....

We reached Naples at around afternoon, we had to drag our luggage from the train station to the hotel. It was tiring, had to carry them up the stairs and down the stairs again, then dragged them to the hotel and the metro trains are so slow and we had to change 3 times to get to the hotel. We decided that for the rest of the hotels, we will take cab down (too tiring..hahhaaa). Oo...did i mentioned that the metro tickets had to be bought from a tabacci shop? Apparently, these shops are the ones selling metro tickets around italy (except Venice, as far as for the places we went). We managed to reach the hotel safe and sound and did the check-in. The hotel name is Hotel Toledo. The lift was so small and it was in rectangle shape, it can't fit the 3 of us plus our luggage. So the hotel owner told us to go up with 1 of the luggage first and then he will bring up the remaining 2. The room was setup with 2 single beds and 1 slightly bigger bed. The toilet was quite small, and it only allow a person to stand in. So we put down our luggage in our room and rested for awhile.Then we made our way down to the National Archaeological Museum. We chose to walk down from the hotel, and we saw a parade of people doing riot on the street, there was a lot of police standing by. It was a 10 mins walk to the museum from the hotel, there were a lot of shops along the way too. Finally, we reached the museum and got our tickets to go in. It was super big and there were a lot of statues inside (with heads, without heads, etc). 

Farnese Hercules

Above is the famous statue of Farnese Hercules resting on his club and he is holding a golden apple behind his back. The description for this statue is: Hercules is back from all the fighting and the traveling around the world. He is leaning weakly on his club, which is draped with his lion skin and he had returned with his prize, the golden apples of gods (which is shown on his hand behind his back). But after all this, he was told he had to return the golden apples and descend to Hell itself as the final task.

Toro Farnese

And there was another famous large statue called Toro Farnese, which was craved out with 1 whole piece of marble and there was a story on it. This is the story behind it: Once upon an ancient Greek time, there was a King named King Lycus, who was bewitched by a woman called Dirce. He abandoned his wife, Antiope who was pregnant at that time. The wife later gave birth to 2 twin boys, who grew up and killed their dad and tied Dirce to the horns of the bull to be bashed against a mountain.





After the viewing of these famous statues on the ground floor, we went upstairs to see the secret room. The stairs to upper levels were so grand too (those circular shape type), there was a lion statue standing in the middle of the stairs and there were 3 statues standing behind the lower stairs. But before we went to the secret room, we went into the great hall of Sundial with paintings hanging on both sides of the grand hall. It was the home of Farnese Atlante (a statue of Atlas carrying a globe on his shoulders), but at the wall of both sides hang beautiful paintings which are collection from Farnese. They look so real with the colors and there was a round clock at the end of the hall....Then we just sat there and rested for awhile. It was so relaxing to just sit there and watched into the great hall. There's even horoscope icon printed on the ground, like a chart form. It was said that when the sun shines into the hall, it will shine on the horoscope icon (something like that...not sure on the whole function). After this, we walked to the other side of the museum, which contains the pompeiian mosalcs and its ware the secret room is. There were a lot of displays to see (too much to be captured on camera, go for yourself to see them...hohoho..). After seeing the secret room, we went down to the souvenir shop to browse around. After the visit, we made our way down to have some pizza, which is famous in Naples (it was so dark outside and it was only like 5 or 6 plus). 

Pizza Margherita

When we reached there, the restaurant was just getting open for business (lucky us). The restaurant name is Gino Sorbillo. The restaurant was 2-Storey high and we managed to grab a table on the upper level. Everyone was eager to place their orders and the staffs were busy attending to every table. We got the menu and ordered 2 pizzas and soft drinks for us. The pizzas were so big and with thin thin crust (bigger than Singapore ones) and they tasted nice (except i find them salty, if not salty, it will be great for me but my 2 friends they love it.). When I saw the locals there, they all ordered 1 big pizza for 1 pax and they can finish them by themselves (they were not even sharing), and they still look so skinny after the big portion. But for us, we can't even finish the 2 pizzas we ordered (hohoho...wonder whether the staff was laughing at us when we left).

It was packed with people when we left the restaurant and there was a super long queue waiting outside, then we walked back to our hotel to rest for the day. Bought a pack of roasted chestnut back to hotel too (it wasn't that nice, it was dried and had the burnt taste, although the chestnuts are bigger than Singapore type). Tired day with all the dragging and climbing of stairs with luggage and the sweating. Missed to do the self-guided walk mentioned in Rick Steve's book: A Slice of Neapolitan Life.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Toledo

Places Visited:
National Archaeological Museum, Naples

A visit back to Haw Par Villa

Haw Par Villa

Wah...i remembered the first time i went to Haw Par Villa was like 20 plus years ago. That time, my dad brought mi and my sister there,along with my grandma. What i  remembered clearly was the boat ride that will bring u tour along the 10 levels of Hell and it show you which are the bad deeds and the punishments for each levels (which will really make you chill and make you have nightmares), and at the end of the tour, which was the most exciting part, was the ride down from high level and splash onto the water when it reached the ground (like roller coaster). Now, the boat ride was gone and the park is like a dead town, even the pond looks dirty with algae. But i still find it creepy to just to walk in to see the 10 levels of Hell......

Now the entrance to the Gates of Hell looks like this. Once you walk in, you will see statues of the punishments in each level and there will be explanation to let you know what are the bad deeds done to deserve it. For example: don't think that paying taxes or rent is a small matter, it is also considered one of the bad deeds here and you will be punished in the 5th level. There is even a self-reflection mirror. You can try looking at it to see what you had done in this lifetime.....

10 Levels of Hell Entrance (Ox Head & Horse Face Guards)

Around the park, there are some old statues of characters from Journey to the West and Madam White Snake. And there are also gods statues like Fu Lu Shou, Ji Gong, Eight Immortals.

Madam White Snake

Fu Lu Shou

Master Tripitaka

 

You can also see statues holding with Tiger Palm Oil.

Cute Tiger with Tiger Palm Oil

 There is even a legendary car with a tiger head in front, which was displayed in the garage there.

"Tiger Car"

There are also 4 super big tombstones, which are the graves for the Aw brothers who founded this park and their parents.

One of the Aw memorial

There wasn't no maintenance done on this park too, and it is going to demolish anytime, which is a sad thing. Cos it is a nice place to walk again in the future. Do visit back before it is demolish.....

And remember

The bad will always get its retribution (It's just the matter of when)

Art of Bricks Exhibition

T-Rex made out of Lego Bricks

Had went to see the art of bricks exhibition on 3rd Feb 2013 at MBS. It was an exhibit on arts built using lego bricks by Nathan Saway. There was about 4 or 5 rooms showing different master pieces, they were very impressive. The one i like best is the whole T-Rex skeleton built with the lego bricks, it was soooo nice just by looking at it and in the room, it was projected with other dinosaurs' shadow images. There was even a photo ID booth made of bricks...

This definitely is a exhibition not to be missed. ^_^

2 Days' JB Chi Chi Trip

Kimdo BBQ @ City Square

Went to JB with 2 of my friends from 16th to 17th March 2013 for a yum yum tour. We met up at 11am at Kranji MRT station. Then we queued up for bus 170, it was a super super long queue...we waited for at least half an hour before we can board the bus. Crowded bus..we finally arrived at Woodlands Custom..past through Customs, it was long long queue again for the buses to cross over to JB customs. Can't even see which queue is for which bus, everyone was just queuing in all the lines and it was super hot too. Finally we got to board the bus and travel over to JB customs...At JB customs, everyone was rushing to queue at the counters....After we cleared the customs, we were free to find nice and yummy food around JB. First, i brought my 2 friends to a BBQ stall in City Square, called Kimdo BBQ as starter snacks. It sells nice and good BBQ food, like bbq chicken wings, bbq sotong, mushrooms and many others. After that, they bought some cooling tea from Share Tea. Then we walked around in City Square as we were not hungry yet for lunch.

One of our dishes @ Teck Sing Restaurant

After walking around in City Square, we took a cab down to our destination for lunch - Teck Sing Restaurant at Taman Sentosa, where we had a nice herbal paper baked chicken (whole), a whole fish and a plate of vegetables and each of us had a lime plum drink. The meal only cost us RM$77.30...and the food was nice...the chicken was very tender and the herbal taste was not so good, which i like it..kekeke...After the meal, we walked down to find a cab to go to our hotel for a night's stay - KSL Resort. It was the same hotel we stayed previously, when we came over with a Legoland trip. When we got the hotel lobby, it was packed with people. There was a long queue waiting to check in for individuals and a separate queue for tour group check-in. It was horrible, we noticed that there was some notice at the counters, saying that they were doing some system upgrade and there may be some delay. Ya, some delay...it wasn't a 15 mins delay...it was 2 hours' delay!! We just stood there and waited to check-in..the queue wasn't even moving at all....so I went off to KSL shopping centre to get our movie tixs for the night while my friends waited at the queue. When i came back, they were still queuing...-_-"...And as the check-in queue got longer, people started to get frustrated..people were started to complain...even when they got the turn to check-in, people were shouting angrily...due to the long wait...and some guests who had checked-in came down and scolded the staff, that there were already people checked-in the same room..Finally it's our turn, the staff who attended us took our booking paper and disappeared for at least 10 or 15 mins...the lady beside us was also complaining to us, saying that the staff had told her that there wasn't any room available for her now and will call her once they have the available room for her...She was so angry...after the long wait, the staff still can tell her no room and she had also booked a triple room. (which was same with us)...She told the staff off angrily and asked them to get her a room now.

Our super yummy dinner @ Chez Papa

Finally, the staff who attended us came back..my friend asked him whether he went up the levels to check whether there is available rooms...That guy was still joking with us, saying that there were no rooms for us. I think my friends were going to throw tables at him already...all of us were already tired of standing there...for 2 hours..and he still had the mood to joke with us...Finally we done with our check-in and went up to our room. It was located at the last room of the level, and when we entered, there was no ac...it was like not even on...so we tried to set to the lowest level...but after some time, we still found the ac wasn't strong enough. Anyway, we were all too tired and hot to do anything. We just found ourselves a place to sit and rest, watched tv...kekeke...We sat until it was time for dinner...ohh!!Creme Brulee!!...We took a cab from the hotel down to the resturant - Chez Papa. It was located at Taman Maju Jaya and it was a french restaurant with a nice homely feel. We ordered 2 a dozen escargot, 1 bowl of mushroom soup, Lamb Shank, Chez Papa Sampler, Foie Gras and of course, creme brulee (1 for us each..kekee)...and their baguette which was complimentary was also yummy too!! I had a super nice dinner there, the staffs were also friendly..they had their special dishes written on a white board and they will show it to every table during order taking...So happy to have my dinner there... :P

After the fantastic dinner, we went back to our hotel to rest and shower before our late night movie. When we came back to the hotel, the ac was still not cold enough...so we called up the housekeeping to come help us check..Anyway it doesn't help much...haiz...we just took turns to shower....When it's time for the movie, we made our way down to the cinema in KSL shopping centre...The movie we were going to watch is "Princess and the 7 Kungfu Masters (笑功震武林)"..it was a hongkong movie, released recently. One thing good to watch Hongkong movies in Malaysia (other than is cheap) is the movies are shown in canto, instead of Madarian. We had a super great laugh from the movie...It was a funny show and everyone was laughing so hard while watching it. After a good laugh, we walked back to the hotel and we saw there were people still queuing up to check-in...and it was already like 11 plus...Back to our room, we watched tv and one of my friends entered sleeping first...so mi and another friend continued watching...Later in the night, i heard there was sound coming from my left side and my right side (as i was sleeping in between the 2 of them)...hahahaa...the one sleeping on the same side as mi complained my hands were like ice...hahahaa...Anyway, i didn't sleep much, as usual....and we just slept and nua till 11am plus.....

Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh

We got up and got ready to go buy some snacks home. We went to walk around in KSL shopping centre and bought alot of snacks back..kekeke...By the time we done our shopping, it was already 1 plus. So we went back to the hotel to do our last packing and checked out the hotel..Again, it was a long wait to do check-out..-_-"....we waited at least half an hour or more, just to get to our turn..During our wait, we saw a lady having conflicts with the manager (looks like)...think there was some dispute on the amount needed to pay...not sure of the whole contents...but the lady got the manager to print at least 3 times on the receipt....luckily it was quite fast for us to do clearance..except for the long wait in queuing...Then we got on a cab to Taman Sentosa again, but this time it was for the famous bak kut teh - Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh. It was like a 5 mins ride from the hotel to the place, except there was a traffic light which felt like super long. Once reached there, we saw there was a queue that was like out of the place and the staff doesn't even attend to you. Anyhow, i walked in to see whether there was any empty table where we can sit. Luckily we got a empty table after some time. We ordered a 2-pax bak kut teh, 1 salted vegetable, 1 you tiao and a ma you ji...The ma you ji was nice, it would be better with frog's legs...kekeke...Like the sauce too...Don't really find the bak kut teh nice...it was herbal style...but doesn't taste nice (to me lah)....the salted vegetable was nice too...My friends like the ma you chi sauce so much they just put the you tiao in it....hahahaa......

After the meal, we made our way down to City Square to cross over back to Singapore. We took AC-7 bus which ended the ride at Yishun Interchange from Woodlands Checkpoint for a flat ride of RM$2. After we reached Yishun, we went separately back home which ended our JB trip.....Kekeke.....

Places went:
City Square
KSL Shopping Centre
Teck Sing Restaurant
Chez Papa
Shoon Huat Bak Kut Teh

Hotel Stayed:
KSL Resort

Batam Trip 2

Day 1 - 11th Jan 2013

Harbourfront 1

Went Batam Trip with my xiao gu, uncle and grandma from 11th Jan to 12th Jan 2013 (My xiao gu bought the voucher deal online - 2D1N). I met up with them at Harbourfront Ferry Terminal at 7am (soooo early....sleepy....) and went to collect out ferry tickets. When we got our immigration cards, the DOB and names were printed wrongly. So we had to wait for them to re-print the cards again. Then we went to have our breakfast at Toast Box, after that we went to take our ferry. We reached Batam (Harbour Bay Terminal) at around 9am, the terminal was super empty...then we got out to find our day tour guide. The guide's name is Louise, he eh...looks really sissy for a guy. My grandma still asked mi whether the guide is a guy or a lady...hohoho...Then the guide gave us our return ferry tickets and told us to board the bus first. The bus was a old model type, like those old old school buses, and the seats are super cramped and the walkway also super cramped. Luckily mi and my grandma are very quite thin, we can squeeze into 1 row. But my xiao gu and uncle had to sit on separate rows, cos too cramped for them. There was a couple, the husband was quite big sized, he had to squeeze into the seats with his wife...After everyone had boarded, we set off to the 1st attraction - Batam Chocolate House. The guide was speaking in 2 languages, Malay and Mandarin, cos he said his English cannot make it. Anyway there were Malays in our group too. There was a young Malay couple with a super cute baby sitting at the end of the bus...the baby really cute...We bought a few chocolate back, and my grandma got to talk to another elder from our bus...and was chatting happily...

Mi Le Fu

After the chocolate house, we went to Mi Le Fu Temple (Maha  Vihara Duta Maitreya). The temple was quite large and there were 3  levels. And there were alot of cute Mi Le Fu statues around the  temple...you see the Mi Le Fu holding microphone, music  instruments...etc....inside the temple, there were also quite a few  Budhha statues, even have Wen Shu Bodhisattva. But the temple  looks like newly built....There was a guy who keep talking to my  grandma, then after that, switched to talk to my uncle and he really  keep talking...like trying to get people to join their temple....We  were the last ones to go up the bus... :P....The Malay groups didn't  went down and the other family of 6..doesn't seems like to be  coming for sight-seeing....After this, we made our way down to a  Polo Ralph Lauren Outlet for some shopping. But when we looked at the prices, not so cheap leh...even after discount...anyway also nothing to buy after seeing the prices...hahahaa...My grandma ended up talking to the same elderly again there...and we got her up the bus when she started to tell her sad story again....After this, the guide brought us a house where layer cakes are made..but the bus can only stop along the main road and we had to walk in to the house. It is called Diana Layer Cakes. Basically he brought us there, then let us try on the layer cakes and u tell him how many boxes and what flavor you want, and the guide will take down all the orders and help us make orders.The cakes will be given after the cakes are delivery to him later in the afternoon. After tasting the layer cakes, we went down to Otak Otak Factory. It was a small shop which sells alot of different flavors of otak...ohh!!..the otaks are nice...i like their sotong otak...really got sotong inside...and the otak putih..it's a white colored otak (like fish cake), which you need to dip in a sauce..very nice to eat...We bought 25 sticks for SGD$9.....After the otak tasting, we made our way to have our lunch...all hungry....The lunch place is the same place which i went the 1st time i came to Batam...except the show is not included here..The guide made it optional for us...So when we arrived, the guide first brought us to walk through the shop to buy coffee powder....Then we went to the restaurant to have our lunch...My xiao gu and uncle got the super big coconuts...they said it was sour....kekeke...The food were the same as the previous time i came....But this time we were seated with the family of 6...Wah...when they sat down with all the goods bought from the provision shop there, they started to scope whatever food that was on the table....(Machiam a bunch of hungry ghosts just got released out..). We can't even turned the lazy daisy to our side to get the food......But we still managed to get food to eat...Then they were complaining on the coconuts tasting sour and no flesh inside..and the fish was abit stink....Bought slippers for my grandma too (She wore a pair of 'open-mouthed' shoes to Batam...faintz..).

Miniature Houses

 After lunch, the guide bought us to Yong Heng Food Trading  Shop. It was a provision food like that..brought 2 bottle of metos  for my grandma (She kept wanting to pay for it when she doesn't  have any rupies on her..haiz...). Then after this, the guide brought  us to the golden bench where the paint ball, miniature houses and  the go kart were...So the guide told us to go around on our own  when we reached there..Then we went to see the miniature  houses...and walked 1 round inside...i tried to take some photos  for my grandma to keep her happy. Then we went to Golden  Factory Outlet, it was beside the Go Kart circuit. So we just went  to walk walk and at the same time, had some aircon...There was  selling clothes too, Polo Ralph...i bought a cap for myself...  kekeke... :)....After here, the guide brought us the batik factory (the same place i bought souvenirs last time). I bought souvenirs at the same place again this time..hahaha...Then we crossed over the 1st Factory Outlet to shop again...Luckily this time, the massage place is not nearby here..so we don't have to wait here  doing nothing for those people going for massage. After spending some time here, the guide brought us to a shopping mall - Plaza Top 100. The massage place was also nearby here, so the guide brought those who are going massage to the massage place and those who are not, will spend their time in the shopping mall (which was what we did). So we went around shopping in the mall, bought a proper shoes for my grandma and went shopping for some maggi mee in the supermarket there...got their ABC chilli sauce too....Had some snacks at Texas Chicken and it was raining at the time...Later after this, we went to Batam City Square for shopping again...We just walked around the place and had our dinner there..Ayam penyet with our otaks...After that, we went to a sports shop where mi and my xiao gu bought a pair of shoes there...very cheap (less than SGD$20)...kekeke...Then...finally is back to the hotel.....so tiring....When we reached the hotel, the lobby was super big..But the staff told us that they were doing cleaning on their water tanks, so due to this, the shower water may come out yellow and stinky (for hot water)..So ok...then we went up to our room level...wah!! the lift lobby there was super big and there were at least 2 long corridors to walk to the rooms (and there were alot of oil paintings around the hotel too)....but when we entered our room...it was small and no bathtub (i was expecting a big room and maybe got bathtub...but don't have). But luckily the hot water in my room was not yellowish and doesn't have stinky smell (My xiao gu's room shower was having the stinky smell)...So after shower, we went down to main lobby and explore (their swimming pool and gym were at level 6, and got lions with wings statues as decoration), at the same time use their wifi....there was live singing too with piano..so we just sat there and listened...then we went back up to rest for the day...

Day 2 - 12th Dec 2012
Whole night cannot sleep...due to my grandma can't sleep..she was walking around the room and the room is not so big..she walked from the bed to the door and to the toliet, then from the toilet to her bed again..and she was doing her packing...packed finished and then took out her clothes and packed again. Then she suddenly told me she was hungry, cannot sleep..So i woke up to make her coffee and she ate her bread (which she brought from home yesterday morning). Then i on tv to let her watch too and she was telling me her 'stories' again (my grandma so cute)....Woke up at 8am anyway, and got ready to leave. And also trying to convince my grandma to go take shower. Then we went down to have our breakfast provided by the hotel. Not very fantastic...so-so...The guide will come to pick us to the ferry terminal at around 12pm, so we had some free time to spare. After breakfast, mi and my grandma went up to our room..i just wanted to nua in the room, my xiao gu went walking around the hotel...i ended up sleeping on the bed while my grandma packing her clothes again..hahaha....

By noon, we went down to check-out our rooms..and waited for the tour guide to come fetch us..Then after that, we boarded the bus. The bus this time was slightly bigger but not very clean..kind of itch when sitting on the seats...then the bus went along the way to fetch other passengers from other hotels too. Then we alighted on Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal and we got to stay there for 2 hours...there is nothing to shop there..there was a shopping mall beside it but it was empty..not many shops inside...But i still brought my grandma walk around the mall and my xiao gu and uncle stayed to look after our bags (Grandma complaining again...). So we passed the time there and went to take our ferry back to Singapore. When we reached Singapore, we went to Vivo City to have our dinner. We went to 黑社会 (Bosses Restaurant), we got a set meal which was having 6 dishes. The food is quite nice..not bad...kekeke...but my grandma started grumble again throughout the dinner and our way back..and it got worse...haiz...After that, my uncle brought me home. Luckily i got a Sunday for resting...


Places visited:
1. Batam Chocolate House
2.  Maha  Vihara Duta Maitreya
3.  Polo Ralph Lauren Outlet
4.  Diana Layer Cakes
5.  Otak Otak Factory
6. Golden Prawn 933
7.  Yong Heng Food Trading  Shop
8. Miniature Houses/Go Kart/Golden Factory Outlet
9. Batik factory/ 1st Factory Outlet
10. Plaza Top 100 Shopping Mall
11. Batam City Square
12. Harbour Bay Shopping Mall

Hotel Stayed:
Harmoni One Hotel