Finally Weekend coming up

Blessings of the Day: "My project is ending soon! hurray! This Friday will be officially completed!!!!"

Nirwana Hotel Resort

 I really procrastinate long enough. Once again, I decided to book the trip 2 days before this weekend and going to Bintan for a 2D1N. Just to get away and enjoy. So I am looking forward this weekend. Is like no more computer, email and work. Just really purely devoted to rest and relax.

I have never been to Bintan. So i am pretty excited. I have done some research online and found most of them were pretty exp.  But there were a few food place I can consider checking them out.

しんこんりょこう Shinkonryokou 新婚旅行 Day 5 & 6

Day 5 - our last day in Japan we went Tsukiji Fish Market, Roppongi & Jiyugaoka.

Check out our photos and write up here.

しんこんりょこう Shinkonryokou 新婚旅行 Day 3 & 4

Day 3: Mt Fuji & Lake Kawaguchi
Day 4: Tokyo Tower

Read here

しんこんりょこう Shinkonryokou 新婚旅行 Day 1 & 2

Blessings of the Day:



One of the most enjoyable trip I had with KG so far.

Check out our trip here where I blogged about our Tokyo Trip @ FB instead.

3 more weeks to our ... HONEYMOON

Blessings of the Day: Guo Da Li was a success. Thank God! Thank Dad & Mom! Thanks to KG, Aunty and T.

I think I am more excited for our honeymoon than our big day. haha.

Finally after weeks of researching, we decided that we will book this ryokan.

秀峰閣湖月 Shuhoukaku Kogetsu
Website: http://www.kogetu.com

OpenKitchenConcept recommended me to go to Fuji Five Lakes, Lake Kawaguchi instead of Hakone to experience osen and ryokan stay. There were quite a number of ryokans and I was hoping to find one that allows me to view Mt Fuji when we soak in osen/hot springs, to stay in a traditional japanese style room and to try their authentic Japanese food where we usually watch in Japan Hour. I was also quite "greedy" I hope to even catch Mt Fuji view in our room.

It was no joke to search for a Ryokan. For alot of times I really felt giving up and just intend do a day trip to Mt Fuji and Hakone and return back to Tokyo. Ryokan are really not cheap. But if you count in 2 meals for 2 pax, it works out quite a good average. Since is 1 night and I had already save quite a fair bit from the Tokyo lodgings, I shall not complain and spurge. haha.

After about a few months (yes a few months) I was quite pleased with what I had chose and told KG about it. As usual the guy just said anything. In this ryokan, we can view Mt Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi from all rooms, gardens and open-air baths. I think that to us is the biggest highlight. The drawback was is quite a distance from the bus station so hopefully I can arrange for a shuttle bus or private car transport to pick us up. Despite the not so accessible location, there are actually a couple of museum near the ryokan. One of which is a Music Forest and I had already saw some interesting photos online. That will keep us occupied :)

As I've been searching like crazy, i realized I really need to force myself to go through Japanese website using Google Translation. That experience is hilarious. I felt I was reading some kind of gibberish language. Haha.

I drop an email to the ryokan to request if there are any shuttle bus to pick us up from the bus station. After sending, I got an automatic reply in Japanese of course. I decided to use Google Translation to translate and see what it says.

1週間たっても当館からの返信がない場合は、
メールの事故で当館まで届いていない場合もございます。
お手数ですがinfo@kogetu.com まで再度お問い合せください。

If there is no reply from the hotel even after a week,
Some in the hotel when the accident have not received the email.
Cross your fingers please contact info@kogetu.com up again.

Oh i can't wait for this trip! :))

Long waited trip - Patty & Happy @ KL Day 1

Blessing of the day: I learn my lesson. Never will i ever going to be last min.. ever again. God help me to be a good stewardship of your time given to me.

This is the first time I attempt to write my travel write up on the actual day. While memories are still fresh and hot, I realize is quite exciting to do this way to reflect and recall what had happen during the day. Of course I am like a walking zombie right now even as i type this entry as for the past 2 nights, it was less than 4 hours of sleep! Well due to my incompetent and last minute work, i gonna make sure, this will not going to happen again. Never!

Patty and I had been planning for our get together trip for several occasions and every time we fail to carry out. It is either run out of money or not a good time to travel. We both are the biggest procrastinator on earth. Let me count, we probably had tried to plan and travel to places like Langkawi, Perth and what else?? Countless...

So is finally KL because first the air tickets are dirt cheap. With all tax in, we are only paying about $45 for a return air ticket + out from Changi T1! Ok nothing exciting to shout about as we had been to KL several occasions but I guess we been hoping to travel together as we known each other since 2005 as online msn buddy mates. Traveling Patty will be fun!

Time is a factor so thus explain our 3D2N but short trip also means less money spent. The both of us are food lovers and we probably spent more time looking @ food than shopping. haha.

On the eve of our trip, we both were rushing like for deadlines, Patty on her assignment and me on my projects. It was also the first time we only started packing our bag 4 hours before our flight. My dad was kind and sweet enough to send the both of us to the airport. *thanks dad!*

Upon checking in, we both went to have lunch @ Toast Box. That's when i realized I had not eaten anything since I woke up. Curry chicken was yummy perhaps I was too hungry and anything will be yummy. A pleasant surprise awaits us as we saw Tommy Emmanuel! haha Ray's favourite guitarist! keke like 2 small girls, we took photos with him but forgot to got him to play a song and his autograph. Haha.

Just about 40mins more before we would board our plane, the both of us saw a promotion that gives away free complimentary 10 min head and neck massage :P We were quite excited and asked if was really true and tada it was! :P

Finally we board the plane and to our "surprise" we had to sit separately apparently it was a full flight to KL and so we two took the opportunity to "snooze" 1 hour before we reach KL finally. When we were there, we took the sky bus by Air Asia which cost about RM9 per pax and head to KL Sentral. From there we made our way via LRT and reached Hotel Equatorial.

We tried to ask for a free upgrade but apparently I think the guy didn't get my hint. But we did get a "lovely" view of the twin towers from our room. hahaa Patty was trying so hard not to laugh @ me for making such a ridiculous request. We were pretty satisfied with the room and the bed was such a comfortable one.

Patty's friend brought us to Pavilion to have dinner. It was both our first time even though I knew it existed last year and I didn't have a chance to go. It was another big mall but it had a alfresco opening dining concept which is pretty hip and happening. I was hoping to get dinner @ Mdm Kwan in KLCC and tada there was one in Pavilion! So finally I got to eat their signature dish - Nasi Bojari is a type of indonesian tri-coloured rice that comes with assam prawns, beef rendang and deep fried chicken drumsticks. Yummy! We also ordered a chinese dish hor fun with rice vermicelli. It was something unusual for Singaporeans and the order turned out great! 3 girls shared the 2 dishes as the portion was quite huge for us and we were saving our stomach for desserts. We tried the Chendol as well it was not bad but i thought my Malacca trip this year in June was nicer than the one @ Mdm Kwan. Nonetheless, it was a yum yum!

After dinner, we jalan in the big mall and by then, patty and i could hardly open our eyes. We were totally exhausted and I slept almost immediately the moment my head touched the pillow. It was a good 9.5 hours of sleep after 2 exhausting late nights at work.

Wedding #5 - しんこんりょこう

Blessings of the Day: Finally the little ones said he is willingly to walk down the aisle as the page boy and the little cute niece as the flower girl.. Sigh they are just so funny :)

We are flying to Japan for our しんこんりょこう (Pronounced as Shinkonryokou also means 新婚旅行) 6 days via ANA! Tickets bought at a good price of $570 per person including tax.

Quite a good bargain. It is a pity that we couldn't take SQ (due to the timing) otherwise the flight would have been A380 nevertheless ANA is not too bad either! So what do I look forward most?

• Mt Fuji
  
• Tokyo Tower
• DisneySea
• Ryokan: Japanese Traditional Guesthouse and wearing the outfit Yukata and deep into cool Osen, natural hotspring!
• 6 hours cycling tour around Tokyo
  
• Food: Ramen, Bento, Sushi and whatever is edible and yummy!

Yokohama Ramen Museum

*happy*

Christmas Day @ T3

Reporting LIVE from T3 Departure Gate B3 :)

Can't wait to mai dong xi chi dong xi!

I HEART SQ WAHAHAHA

Going to the land of 买东西吃东西

hahahaha i am going going going to

买东西吃东西
买东西吃东西
买东西吃东西
买东西吃东西
买东西吃东西



shd i go disneyland?? *ponder very hard*

Saigon

I am coming into the heart and soul of Vietnam - Ho Chin Minh!

The getaway

Blessings of the Day: Feeling quite good and healthy after exercising for about 3 weeks. I still fell sick though due to dehydration. Exercising is my top priority these days and I always look forward to a great time of sweating it out. Look more fit (at least when I stare into my reflection). Weather is super hot, got to really drink more water.

Had the opportunity to go back to KL for a short break after 3 years since I visited the place. Surprise my memory serves me well and most of the time I can navigate the group around KL pretty well. Though is only 3D2N which only granted me 1.5 Day of shopping, it was a relaxing trip.

After 3 years I managed to try out the Aeroline which I missed the other time. The bus was not too bad and perhaps I thought I might have overrate it somehow. I was told 5 Stars would be a better choice of course more expensive. But the thought of the bus reached our hotel at the door step, the convenience was too good to be resisted. ConcordeHotel was one of my selected choice followed by Corus. However location won us over. Standard did drop compare to the other time when I stayed. Particularly the service was terrible but I was reminded to be patient and treat the staffs with patience. Both left and right the corus folks were kena scolded by of course I supposed Singaporeans (Since it was national weekend). My heart nearly dropped when they almost couldn't find my bookings. Again patience and sincerity was the key to receive good service. The guy named Abe who served us was really kind enough and I thought how maybe he seen his other colleagues got slashing from the customers was probably thanking in his heart he got such a nice customer like me. Haha. The room arrangements took abit more time than expected, but at least I was grateful he was willingly to meet my minimum requirements. Anything else extras were bonuses and I guess I too must appreciate his hard work. Thanks Abe!

We went to Suria KLCC for first thing to get - A&Ws. Chicken Wings were soso, Onion Rings were HUMONGOUS! Waffles were good (too bad I didn't 1 for myself), Root Beers were my top favourite.

After that the group split up and agreed to come back by dinner time. Kg and I roamed around and I could see he was pretty excited to be in KL. I got myself a nice basic tee from MNG. Then I somehow got abit overheated and became very thirsty. Kept flying to Cold Storage to buy mineral water. I drank at least 3 bottles in 2 hours I thought. Got myself cinnamon buns since Saints Cinnamon extinct in Singapore. What else did we do? We walked for at least 2.5 hours before dinner time strikes.

After doing some groundwork online, I brought the group to Mdm Kwan for dinner. Like me, they all seem to be overheated too and ordered our own individual food. The food were really good btw. I got myself chicken rice - too bad for the small portion otherwise it was excellent! Kg got himself dumpling soups and it was really good. All local food by Mdm Kwan were really good. Although pricey but at least I knew we were eating authentic Malaysian food.

My chicken Rice

Jem & Kel - some kind of spicy noodles.. can't remember...

Fried Guo Tiao - KK's

The healthy folks - KG & Mandy's order

We walked around and went out of KLCC and tried to take various shots with the Petronas Twin Towers behind us. The challenge? BEND DOWN ALL THE WAYS and point ur camera up and take the pictures. The whole outdoors of KLCC looks abit worrying with many teenagers and adults smoking away, skating and chatting. Out of nowhere came 3 police cars, I thought it really freaked Kg out abit. Kg was trying to hurry the group back to the shopping mall. Poor Kg was really stressed and he only stop worrying when the whole group was finally back in the KLCC.


We caught a 3D movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was an interesting show and I thought it was better than "Mummy 3" Well it was better because at least Brendan Fraser was performing more in "Journey" than in "Mummy" plus it was a 3D show. It cost us RM17 to catch this show. Pricey again - but worth it.

Next morning, we head to opposite coffeeshop to have our first local breakfast. We had their teh or teh tarik (Don't look like teh tarik to me though cos it should have foam but none found). A malay young guy took our orders but due to poor communication, he nearly got our order wrong. I might end up having 4 marsala thosai. The breakfast was filling for some. Their local mee rebus were different from SG and the thosai as well. Mandy got a good choice of Mee Goreng. The breakfast for 6 of us came up to around RM35+ plus. Quite affordable.

Since @ KLCC, the group didn't really get to shop much, I brought them to Bukit Bintang. Mandy made quite a good planning that we would shop at Times Square and meet up for lunch before we all proceed to Sungei Wang and BB Plaza. Hoho I went mad at Times Square cos I got a pair of sandals, beach shorts, a Body Glove polo tee and work dress from G200 @ 70% OFF! I always thought Times Square would be like another Suntec City as this was what I saw the last time round. Hurray to Mandy.

@ Lunch time, the group looked quite tired from all the walking and plus sadly we did not find the mini lobster noodles shop and the food center that was recommended was not really looking good and appealing. It looks old and most of the shops were closed. So based on one of my friend blog, we tried out Mdm Wang @ Sungei Wang. Initially Jem wanted to eat Japanese food but the teppanyaki didn't quite look appealing and the customers also looked bored in the shop. So we moved to Mdm Wong's cafe instead.

Jem's Order - mei qai kou rou



My teh - nice cup



Kel's order - cant remember the name again...



Mandy's rendang order.



That's mine - stired fried seafood udon



KK's order. I cant remember also.. lol What that?

Similar to Mdm Kwan, they served Malaysian authentic food. I ordered stirred fried udon. It was good and cheap to eat there. Then after we shopped more and actually both Kg and myself was abit overwhelmed by all the mini shops. It was like forever you could never finish shopping in Sungei Wang. As SW and Bukit Bintang Plaza was linked we checked out the other building.

Surprisingly, there weren't much stuffs either. Just about to give up and returned to the mini maze of shops, we suddenly found this very nicely bright and open spaced .... FISH SPA! Kg and I wanted to try foot massage but we couldn't found any. Most looked like "black shops" to us. Haha, at least BB Fish Spa looked professional and you could see exactly who are the people using the fish spa. It resembled like a Japanese room and it was surrounded with a 50cm deep water filled with fishes or guppies of course. Kg was surprisingly ONz all of the sudden and said OKOK we go try together! Paid RM38 for 30 mins each pax. I thought it was all in the name of the fun experience plus is in KL! How cool was that! So we washed our smelly feet in case the poor fishes were dead in our feet. (haha, you get my joke? No? erm nvm)

Seriously when i saw all the fishes - i WAS CHICKENED OUT! I took my own sweet time to insert my pig trotters in. Most of the fishes would usually swim away first. I got really freaked out whenever the fishes came near me. The fishes were not really guppies size at all. They were as long as mine last finger as fat as my thumb. Kg was quite excited and just put them in. And the next thing........

I think you got to watch the video and you know what I mean... lol cos you got to experience "LIVE" since you were not there like me. I tried to add subtitles in to let you see... give me maybe about 1 working week to upload the video up. haha..

The "pathetic" look on my face. I was trying hard not to laugh so much. Kg was more relaxed after his torture.

So it took me at least 15 mins to laugh finish and settled down. By the time I thought there were at least 50 fishes each chewing my foot dead skins away. It looked very very gross seriously but FUN at the same time! The business quite easy to survive leh. No need to buy fish food just give them eat smelly feet. Haha. By the end of the fish spa, Kg kept saying OHHH looked how white my feet had become.. Hmmmm I don't know but I guessed it looked smoother after all. What a fishy experience.

Next we met up and head to Chinatown. I was quite disappointed with the chinatown trip. First the gui lin gao that I had 3 years back - standard dropped slightly. That wasn't the main disappointment for me at least. It was a Chinese confectionery shop in Chinatown. Anyway when I returned from KL, I was greatly upset (and even had a nightmare about it [why must I always have nightmare whenever i go overseas]) and wrote a review at Tripadvisor.com. So you can read the not so nice review over there instead of my blog. So after getting all the local food products, we returned back to KLCC for dinner since KK wasn't feeling too well and plus the group was feeling abit uncomfortable. Chinatown seem to become slightly more messy compare the last time. Just before sunset, we went back.

During the afternoon, we couldn't get our stomach filled with Japanese food, we had dinner @ Sake Sushi instead. Sake was slightly cheaper in KL than in SG. For the first time I ordered Salmon Don. Friends who knew I don't particular like sashimi. What I liked was the fragrant vinegar japanese rice. I thought I could have 2 bowls of the rice and would return feeling contented. hehehe.

Here are mine and kg purchases for the trip.

The next day just before we set off back, we had breakfast at the same coffeeshop again. This time we ordered their prata too. THEIR PRATA SO NICE!!!! I liked!!!! It was so different from SG. Their plain prata were "teared" up before serving. The best thing was it was sweet and I could eat it plain without sugar. I also had bee hoon goreng. *Drools even when I think of it now*

Drool My BEEHOON GORENG!!!!





Egg Roti



Gorsong Roti Drools X 10

Back on Aeroline, we "flew" back home and feeling quite happy and contented with all the mini shopping cum eating trip. Hopefully the next road trip will be Penang and Ipoh. :)

Friendship, Travelling and God

Blessings of the Day: The Lord's eternal love and grace never fail to amaze me. Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that save a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now i see.

Somehow i lost the gift of blogging. Don't feel like writing don't feel like doing anything. I seem to switch from online writing to my own personal journal. I think the privacy of writing one's own words in a book is much more better than online. But I still like to record down my trip in Australia which is nearly a month ago. But instead of going day by day, I think I will jot down the significant events in the journey that has left a deep impression in my heart.

The Rocks

Chinatown

Pastor said he was going to beautify the pasta

Prawns in VSOP & homemade wonton

Joan: I Love Mashed Potatoes

We are at Hyde Park

Beautiful Blue Mountains

We had such a wonderful time of fellowship. Pastor and Janet were two very wonderful couple who took good care of us throughout the 4 days. Their warm hospitality helped me and Keegan got in settled very quickly. Every meal, whenever we said grace, we always thank God for the wonderful couple who had ministered deeply in our lives. Pastor took time and showed us his artworks that he had done in school. Every piece of art work he had painted, reflects strongly his passion and the love for Christ. We couldn't help but felt very touched and inspired. A few times, for some funny and weird thoughts, I would ask Keegan "Do you think we come at the wrong time and we shouldn't have disturb them?" Keegan would assured me that I was thinking too much and surely enough, Janet dropped me an email after we left by telling us that they were very happy to see us after so long. The most enjoyable time with the couple was every single meal we had together. We cooked and enjoyed one another company. Pastor was a fantastic tour guide and we were so amazed. Everywhere corner he turned, he rattled off non stop about the point we were at. We jokingly said he should apply to be a tour guide and he could bring people around. Without them, it was impossible to visit all highlights by ourselves. After 4 days of intensive travelling in and out of Sydney, I think Sydney wasn't that hard to explore after all.

Posing with our new Kola friend

Together in Blue Mountains

With the artist - that his painting behind us

When we travelled to Brisbane, I must admit I felt a little bit lost. I wished I had spend the whole week in Sydney instead to spend more time with Pastor and Janet. They had took so good care of us and suddenly we are on our own. Joan even shared with me "PY, i feel so stressed" "Why???" "I scared I am not a good host and a good tour guide!"

Joan with her best friend, Fish & Chips

We decided to enroll to Hogwarts School

But tata both Joan and I were so wrong. Firstly, I felt excited cos finally we could explore Brisbane on our own without driving around. Travelling using the public transport. In Sydney, we hardly had the chance as Pastor and Janet would drive us around. Joan on the other hand displayed a new her. She brought us around to the town to get our next few days groceries for breakfast and dinner. She brought us to her life group (aka to singapore cell group) and to town to eat fish and chips and to catch a movie. When we looked at her room - which was a garage by the way. I suddenly felt like hugging this sister in Christ of mine. Witnessing how she came to Australia on her own to study and live here, this was certainly not easy i thought. I began to ask her how did she feel when she first came here. She recalled "Shoot! This is for real. I am in Australia! Every night, I would cry myself to sleep. I missed home." It took her 6 months to really get to know her life group members well before she start to open up. I told her - "I admire you Joan. I can never do it if i come here to study" She had proved herself and had really grown up. Before she went to Australia for her studies, she was a very mature girl. Now she became even stronger and more mature. She learned to cook on her own, chores, get her own groceries, getting to know people in church and to study. Joan is a girl whom I had felt that she played quite an important role in my life. As a young christian back then, she was the first friend whom I get to know in Bethel. I thought she was same age as me, later i knew she was 4 years younger than me. Her constant encouragements always perks me up and encouraged to go on and not give up. Her faith with the Lord were always so strong and close. Joan i said was a woman of God. Needless to say, Pastor and Janet are also my good friends who had mentored me during the first few years of my christian walk. The trip hold many good memories with them.

Hot Thick Chocolate *yummy* too bad too full and we only manage half a cup

Our strawberries ice-cream

Through this trip, we got to know Nelson better too. He is also another one of the funny BB guy. This guy once said "Tell me all your secrets. Secrets are safe in Brisbane" Thank you for being such a wonderful friend who offered to drive us around and visit those places. Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast will be impossible without your help.

At the beatiful King Cross Beach

It was also my first trip with Keegan to such a far place. Many of my friends thought we were on honeymoon trip. Haha but of course not . Looking back, Keegan shared this with me: "I never expect to go such a far place with you. But it was really fun and enjoyable travelling with you." It was a very challenging time to plan the trip with Keegan. Working together to plan this was quite a test to our relationship. But I was glad we pulled it off.

Keegan & Me

God is great. Through this trip we learnt so many things about His word through the two different churches we attended over there. In Sydney church, we learned about not to be a snob. Whether you are rich or poor - we are all the same before the Lord. In Brisbane church, we learned about the funding your own ministry and in the season of waiting - which is between the season of sowing the seeds and season of reaping the harvest. These are all valuable lessons that we had brought back. We realized even when we moved from places to places, God's hands were with us and always teaching us new things everyday.

This had to be one my best trip i ever had. Friends, Fellowship, Fun and God.