les étoiles sont avec moi

2012-02-12T15:54:00.001+08:00

2012-01-08T00:39:00.001+08:00

colleague's bday lunch treat

Wicked musical @ MBS

2012-01-03T00:09:00.002+08:00

Bought tix to watch Wicked with Christine, Cindy and her friend. Sharon was supposed to join but she couldnt make it.

This is actually my first time watching a musical, usually i think they are a tad too expensive to shell out over $100 to watch..but this time round Cindy had staff discount (20%) so decided to get tix! We got the tix for Christmas eve ;D

Cindy and me took a pic before we headed out lol.

I bought this new yellow mustard cardigan from Gmarket @_@ i love the cardi, i wore it to work and my colleagues said it was nice hehe..

We had dinner at TWG @ MBS. So atas the place haha, i ordered wagayu beef with fries and a iced lychee tea with rose flavour. The burger was ok only, but the tea was super yummy! Total bill came up to around $45 per pax!

Christine outside the Grand theatre

The musical was pretty good, we sat on the 2nd floor about 5th row from the front. Initially i was thinking whether need to bring binoculars in case we couldnt see the stage properly but it was pretty ok actually. Couldnt really see the facial expressions clearly but still can see most of the action on stage. Their singing was so good, im amazed at the vocal range of the female leads (both good and bad witches!)

Wicked memorabilia

Didnt see anything nice though so didnt get anything..

Cindy brought us to the LV island store nearby, its gigantic! The store looks very nice haha..

I took this shot of MBS against the dark night sky, i think its a very well taken beautiful shot given that i used my iphone to take the pic! lol at least, it looks nice in my own opinion..

laser lights

Abercrombie is open!

2012-01-02T23:41:00.001+08:00

We checked out the new a&f store, it was quite hapz. Got abercrombie guy models standing at door to greet u and u can take a Polaroid shot with a topless model (guy of cuz what were u thinking?! lol). When u go in, it's like a club where its dark with cool music playing and heavy perfume smell..

The prices are crazy though, $110 for a polo tee or denim shorts, $130 for sweater..it costs so much cheaper in the US, I cant wait for chance to go to the US and buy loads of stuff there like VS and hollister and abercrombie..

hair rebonding time again

2012-01-02T23:38:00.001+08:00

Did my hair rebonding at gataomo @ far east plaza. Got the $68 deal which included either perm or rebonding, free treatment but no hair cut ;( wanted to perm my hair like those korean hairstyles with only curl in at the end but the hair salon said cant do it so sad..Had to top up another $38 for cut so cut it at another salon after that lol

oh yes I finally managed to change my hair parting! Wanted to change from left to right parting for long time alr but couldnt so took this chance during the rebonding to do it :p

Receipe for winter melon soup

2011-12-27T19:33:00.003+08:00

I love to drink chinese traditional soup, any kind of soup except bitter gourd soup.

Got this recipe for winter melon soup, must try out one of these days lol.

Boil dried cuttlefish (cut to small pieces) with pork ribs with water for 1 hour. Slow cook.
Add winter melon and boil for another hour.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

2011-12-03T16:41:00.006+08:00

Excerpt from Hector And The Search For Happiness, By Francois Lelord:

Making comparisons can spoil your happiness
Happiness often comes when you least expect it
Many people see happiness only in their future
Many people think happiness comes from having more money or power
Sometimes happiness comes from not knowing the full story
Happiness is taking a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains
It's a mistake to think happiness is the goal
Happiness is being with the people you love
Happiness is know your family lacks for nothing
Happiness is doing a job you love
Happiness is having a home and garden of your own
it's harder to be happy in a country run by bad people
Happiness is feeling useful to others
Happiness is being loved for exactly who you are
People are kinder to a child who smiles (very important)
Happiness comes when you are feeling truly alive
Happiness is knowing how to celebrate
Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love
The sun and the sea make everybody happy
Happiness is a certain way of seeing things
Rivalry poisons happiness
Women care more about man about making people happy

2011-11-27T22:57:00.001+08:00

2011-11-26T20:06:00.002+08:00

office dinner @ rice table

birthday celebrations

We went to the new Abercrombie & Fitch store in orchard. Had to queue about 10 mins to get in. love the place!!

Prices are quite steep though, their cardigans were selling at $130-300 plus, t-shirts from $58 and shorts for $110! men's polo tee for $130 *gulp*

2011-11-22T19:39:00.001+08:00

I am so tired with everything. Work sucks and recently I just feel so unhappy. Sigh. God if u are listening, pls give me strength.

2011-11-16T19:39:00.001+08:00

pple nowadays are simply so rude! where are their manners? don't think just becuz we provide services doesnt mean u are superior and we have to just suck it up. sheesh, being in service delivery sucks..

steamboat lunch with work colleagues

2011-11-07T16:25:00.001+08:00

2011-10-29T18:00:00.006+08:00

Went to watch In Time yesterday, the movie stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.

The idea of everybody having a time clock on your wrist that shows you the hours and minutes you have left in your life is terrifying yet fascinating at the same time. The movie was pretty good but i think they could have made the details a tad more believable, like the concept of transferring time from one person to another by just grabbing each other's wrist. Hmm then everybody can go around grabbing each other's time to steal their time so they can live longer.

Amanda Seyfried looks so gorgeous here with her short sassy bob and black dress, she looks so much better in this movie than in the Mama Mia movie, think she lost alot of weight, she looked uber skinny in the movie *envy*..Justin Timberlake looks cute as usual, no surprises lol. Mmmm they look pretty good together ;p

2011-10-24T23:05:00.005+08:00

So irritated, the nursing home is increasing the fees by another S$300 making it close to 2.2k a month we have to pay. And why? Because our very clever govt decided to increase the foreign worker levy thereby increasing the cost of employing the staff.

The standard response of the govt for any problem is to increase the levy. Whether it is to solve parking problems, "control" the traffic on the road by planting ERP gantries everywhere or imposing maid levies to moderate demand for maids in Singapore. I mean i knew this along but now that it is impacting me directly, i can really feel the pain.

If you want to increase levies to control the foreign worker population in Singapore, I can understand that. But why should this be applied to the elderly care sector? Is it fair? If you increase the cost of employing foreign staff at the homes, who will suffer? Do you think the nursing homes will absorb the fee increase? Obviously the costs will be passed on to the residents/families.

It was a tough decision for us to place dad at a nursing home already, and having to cope with paying the nursing home fees between myself and my sister. If we had a choice, do you really think that we want to place our parent at a home? We tried employing maid after maid, but they kept quitting and we keep having issues after issues. I can still remember the time when dad was discharged from the hospital after the stroke (where it took more than half a day to wait for a C class ward after he suffered from the stroke and they did nothing at A&E ward), he couldnt control his bowel movements and kept walking around and soiling the house. I remember my bro and I waking up in the middle of the night when we heard a loud crash because my dad tried to walk to the toilet himself and fell down in the toilet with his pants soiled. And we had to wash the soiled bedsheets, his clothes, clean up the mess and everything in the middle of the night. I remember crying because i felt so helpless and didnt know what to do. I remember we tried to put dad in daycare during the day and in the end, they didnt want to take dad anymore because they said that he smelled. And when i rushed home after work, i saw that the house was in a mess because he tried to feed himself and dirtied himself and everywhere. I mean what more could we have done? Its not a choice that we have to place him in the nursing home where he can get the appropriate care which he needs and which we are not able to provide at home.

Now with the fee increase, its really unfair that we have to suffer and who goes away laughing to the bank with all the $? The increased levy doesnt go to the home, obviously you know who the $ goes to (together with all the millions of revenue from taxes from income tax, ERP charges, maid levies etc). And what do they do with all the $ taken from Singaporeans? They threaten to withhold upgrading if you dont vote for them, pay millions a year to all the ministers and president and resurface the roads over and over again (at the same spot no less).

Wonderful. So much for a world class government, one that does not care about the citizens and their costs of living.

2011-10-19T18:23:00.001+08:00

Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Mitju warehouse sale

2011-10-17T10:21:00.001+08:00

Went to the Mitju warehouse sale @ the scape last fri with my colleagues.

So happy with my purchases, got 3 pairs at $33!

Here's my haul:

2011-10-08T19:28:00.004+08:00

Christy & Yandao's wedding - 1.10.11

Was the jiemei for Christy together with Eunice and Steph and Christy's other friends + her sister. Christy asked a tailor to make custom made jiemei dresses for us. Initially the dresses didnt came out as expected but with some last min impromptu alteration, they looked much better lol.

Christy's nephew is very cute, haha he looks so impish here..

jiemeis looking on while the xiong dis play the games

Bride & Groom @ Mandarin Orchard

Birthday celebration for Giselle (which happened to fall on the same day as the wedding day!)

With my nicely blown hair after we went to Eunice's regular hair salon to do our hair..

Wedding Dinner Reception

Christy's nephew used my iphone to take the photos thats why they are so blur lol..

Smitten + holland v

2011-10-08T19:00:00.006+08:00

Recently an old school friend opened her own coffee & tea bar called Smitten at Robertson Quay. It received good reviews from the press so we were very happy for her and her husband who are running the cafe together.

Christine, Shimin, Sha and I decided to drop by to visit Smitten to lend some support!

We had dinner first at this small Japanese restaurant nearby at Robertson Quay. The decor is quite quaint, looks like a small jap book cafe cuz in a corner was some bookshelves lined with many japanese books.

The food was ok only though, I ordered some japanese curry rice.

Next stop: Smitten

Holland Village

Had ice cream with Cindy at Cold Rock Creamery at Holland V the other day. We ordered the strawberry shortcake special, really yummy! but their prices really a tad overpriced imo..

After that, we felt like having some beer and munchies and hopped to another cafe nearby at Holland V for some grub. There's alot of newly opened chic looking cafes and restaurants in holland v, it gives a nice cool vibe..gives a feeling almost akin to the indie culture at the hongdae area in Seoul..

Bro's birthday dinner at park royal hotel beach road

2011-09-18T12:15:00.001+08:00

Celebrated di's birthday at park royal hotel plaza brasserie, they have a Seafood Galore dinner buffet promotion where u can order a wide variety of fish and seafood (mussels, bamboo clams etc) and they are cooked on the spot by their chefs.

You can also choose the style in which it's cooked (Hong Kong, Teo Chew, Nonya, Thai Lime and Chilli, Sweet and Sour or Black Bean style). For $45++ per person for dinner from Mon-Thurs, it sounded like pretty ok so we decided to give it a try.

More about the Seafood Galore buffet @ Plaza Brassiere

Different types of fish to choose from: Mullet, Black Tilapa, Sea Bream etc

We ordered the black tilapia in Thai style and sea bream in Teochew sauce

Black Tilapia with Thai Sauce

Sea Bream Teochew style

This was my favourite, the fish was very fresh and tastes like good old home cooked food that you get at home. The sauce is very light and appetitizing.

With my bro

Before

After

Oysters, salmon and roast duck. The oysters are freshly shucked at the oyster bar by the chefs.

mum looking happy digging into the oysters

Overall, the buffet was pretty decent. I think the freshness of the seafood makes it value for money plus with the UOB promo for 1 dines for free for 3 paying adults, it works up to abut $160 for 4 adults nett.

But the dessert selection wasn't so great, they only had some choc fondue, fruits, bread pudding which i like usually but theirs didnt taste very good, and some cake pastries. Also, they only have hot drinks and no soft drinks/juices included in the buffet. If you are going for the buffet, just concentrate on the catch of the day promotion for the fish and seafood ;D

2011-09-14T20:31:00.001+08:00

Just had a phone interview and I think i bombed it :(

Massage at Spa Rael @ Goodwood Park Hotel

2011-09-11T14:24:00.000+08:00

Spa Rael @ Goodwood Park Hotel

Bought a groupon deal recently for a massage at Spa Rael. It's located at Goodwood Park hotel so thought it was a pretty good deal to try out since its only $42 for a spa massage at a nice hotel, compared to other deals where its at some shopping center and the price is around the same range.

$42 for 60 min Imperial Detoxifying Oil Massage (Worth $240) + $200 Facial Voucher at Spa Rael

22 Scotts Road, Goodwood Park Hotel
Singapore 228221
http://www.sparael.com.sg

Spa Rael presented by groupon.sg

$42 for 60 min Imperial Detoxifying Oil Massage (Worth $240) + $200 Facial Voucher at Spa Rael

Spending a day at a spa is a serene experience outshined only by dancing in the summer rain or sliding down a mountain of edible jelly. Discover serenity without soggy shoes and gelatin stuck in your hair with today's Groupon: for $42, you get a 60 minute Imperial Detoxifying Oil Massage (worth $240) and $200 facial voucher at Spa Rael.

Within the confines of lush surroundings, a sanctuary where senses are awakened and pampered presents itself in the opulent Spa Rael. Spa Rael is a meticulously and elegantly crafted oasis composed of 18 spa suites which gives pleasure seekers a space for privacy and peace of mind. Just the thought of being in the 6,000 sq. ft of pure botanical beauty is relaxing enough, how much more once you experience the Imperial Detoxifying Oil Massage. The use of essential oils on the muscles and joints, combined with deep rhythmic, rolling and stretching movements in the massage, produce relaxing effects like reflexology for the entire body. This inherently nourishing method to improve general well-being, coupled with its luxurious environs makes Spa Rael a popular choice with customers from all around the area. Use the $200 facial voucher towards any of Spa Rael's facial treatments on your next visit.

Pictures from the groupon deal website.

Christine also bought the massage deal with me and we made an appointment to go for the massage yesterday. Our appointment was at 2.30pm and we were there early so had a light lunch and then headed to the spa for the massage.

Its not really inside the hotel inside if you are wondering, it's located at the side near the carpark and together with the chinese restaurant.

Waiting area, they use Natura Bissé products (I read from their website that Natura Bissé has been the chosen skincare for the ‘Oscars’ awards ceremony where celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Kate Hudson). So i guess their products must be pretty good since the celebrities also use it? lol

We filled in some questionnaire before we started the massage, I chose the medium to firm massage and to concentrate on the upper shoulders and back area.

Room where I had my massage, its actually pretty big but somehow my iphone camera cant capture it haha..

Hollister Haul

2011-09-03T11:27:00.000+08:00

Just got my 2nd shipment of my Hollister stuff yesterday, i <3 Hollister!

My haul:

Salt Creek

$19.50

$15

60% cotton/40% polyester, Supersoft, iconic Hollister logo applique, self fabric interior neck taping, Vintage Hollister Wash, Classic Fit, Imported

Hollister Super Skinny

$49.50

$24.75

99% cotton/1% spandex, rich dark color, seagull embroidery at right coin pocket, iconic back pocket stitching, wear cuffed for an updated look, Rinse, Imported

Hollister Rolling Hills

$30

100% cotton, hand-done destruction, seagull embroidery at right coin pocket, rolled cuffs with raw edged hems, iconic back pocket stitching, Vintage Destroyed Medium Wash, Mid-Rise Short Short Fit, Imported. Shown In Destroyed Medium Wash

We ordered the stuff from the Hollister website through the borderlinx website cuz they dont ship directly to Singapore and you need a US address. I think with all the shipping included, my buys will come up to about $100 plus..*oOps*..And that's not including my other buy from gmarket korea which has also just arrived and I'll get that next week. But i'm still so tempted to get more stuff from Hollister, its like darn it im hooked haha..The quality is soo good, i tried on the tee and its super comfy. The jeans is a little tight but it fits really well. AND omg the shorts are so pretty! i super love all the stuff. And most importantly, they were all on sale!

So why online shopping? Cuz its so cheap compared to shopping in Singapore, the quality is much better and plus importantly, you cant get it here.

Like for example, in my first buy from Hollister, I bought the Hollister skinny jeans @ US$24.75 which came up to about S$41 WITH shipping and handling charges included. I mean, you cant even get a decent pair of jeans at this price in Singapore! I'm not sure even if a pair of Giordano jeans are cheaper than S$40 haha. This goes the same for my korean buys, I can get a Korean dress of really good quality (with inside lining and everything) at around S$40-S$60 online from Gmarket Korea, if you go to the shops selling Korean clothes in Far East Plaza or other places in Singapore, the same dress retails at more than S$100 onwards. I am not kidding!

So yeah, after shopping online, its hard to go back to shopping in Singapore again. I mean sure, i still buy clothes from shops here like Mng, but i think about 60% of my wardrobe stuff are all bought from overseas either on my holidays or online lol.

Tips for buying Hollister jeans: If you are interested in buying Hollister jeans online, and you're not sure of the sizing, here are some references which may be useful.

I usually wear UK 8 or waist 26 jeans. On their website, they say size 3 is for waist 25-26 so I bought a size 3 for the skinny jeans. While it fits, i think it would be even better if it was a tad smaller so i bought size 1 for the super skinny jeans (which is for waist 24-25). For the length, they have short (S) ,regular (R) and Long (L) for jeans. I'm 161 cm tall, and short(S) fits me perfectly (no need to alter the hem). So the jeans size i bought was 3S and then 1S.

For the cut, they have super skinny, skinny, boot and jeggings.

I bought skinny jeans are like slim straight cut jeans, and the super skinny are well, super skinny lol. boot cut is slightly more flared from knee onwards and In case you've never heard of jeggings, they have the look of jeans (with the buttons, belt hoops and all) but feel like leggings. They are like super skinny but very expandable (they have lots of spandex) so they can really stretch. From the online reviews i've seen, i heard the hollister jeggings are pretty popular too cuz they are very comfortable and have an amazing fit.

2011-08-24T22:43:00.004+08:00

Just updated our wedding blog with pics!;D

i know...super delayed rite..given that it was on 1 Jan this year, but ok lah, better late then never lol.

Random post

2011-08-21T13:38:00.005+08:00

Beerfest 2011

My gelish manicure

Paid $28 for groupon deal to do gelish manicure at Ka Wa Yi, a nail salon near AMK hub.

Gelish is the latest nail fad here, its getting very popular cuz it can last about 3 weeks long and not as damaging as gel nails! Mine lasted pretty long, but after that my nails looked abit unhealthy =( cannot do too often i guess..

Oh yah im crazy about deals now, i keep checking the groupon and deals.com.sg app on my Iphone for beauty deals for facials, manicures and massages lol.

Art masterpiece - painted by Cindy (with help from me haha)

isnt it amazing? we can be pablo picasso, or monet already hahaha..yah right..anyway its a paint by numbers thingy, you just need to follow the numbering for the paint colour and voila, you have a masterpiece in your hands ^^

Lunch @ Lucky Plaza with my colleagues

Random pix taken on bus with Cindy

are you left or right brained?

2011-08-14T12:22:00.001+08:00

took this brain test using of the apps, the results quite spot on!

LINEAR. SEQUENTIAL. SYMBOLIC. LOGICAL. VERBAL. REALITY BASED. If you have a Left Hemisphere Dominance, you process information in a linear and logical manner, from part to whole. You are probably a list-maker: you enjoy making master schedules and a daily planning, and take pleasure in checking the tasks off when they are accomplished. Likewise, learning things in sequence is relatively easy for you: you have no trouble following a conversation, you are good at following directions and pay special attention to details. You are comfortable too with symbols, which involve linguistic and mathematical endeavors: you have no trouble expressing yourself in words, you are a good speller and you feel comfortable with assignments involving reasoning and analyzing. You adjust well to changes in your environment, adapt well to rules and have no trouble following them: In fact, if there are no rules, you will probably make them up to follow!

2011-08-14T10:59:00.006+08:00

Just watched this sweet romantic comedy online called Leap Year.

Its pretty nice to watch if you just wanna watch a light hearted comedy. The storyline is abit cliche but what i really liked about the move was the Irish landscape, in fact it makes me wanna visit the countryside in Ireland haha.

If you wanna watch it online for free, here's the link: Leap Year

Shopping in Singapore has just become better

2011-08-11T22:42:00.007+08:00

FINALLY I can do some serious shopping in Singapore!!

H&M

Now i don't have to wait till i visit Jie in Switzerland to be able to buy H&M clothes ;D (ok i know i can get H&M stuff at HK/Tokyo/Seoul but im not going there again anytime soon this year!)

Abercrombie & Fitch

The famous preppy store from the US is finally hitting our peasant shores here in Singapore. Took the above pic when i was in Orchard the other day.

A&F coming to Singapore.

I heard their stores in the US are pretty cool, like you have the models standing outside the stores looking hot and you can take a polaroid with them if you want.

For me, i think i'll be happy just to check out their stuff. Previously the only time i could get my hands on Abercrombie stuff was online (i've seen those fake A&F stuff sold in Bugis before really awful looking!). Hopefully it wont be super expensive and poor old me can afford to buy at least one item from the store when i visit o.O

Oh yes, i cant wait to get my hands on this Hollister jeans which I bought online cuz they were having 50% of all jeans. The usual price was USD 49 i think and it was going for USD 25. Of course not yet including shipping cost to sg.

shucks now to think of it, i have spent quite a lot recently on online shopping including my haul from gmarket and tabao.

Hmmm ok I better stop shopping for a while!

Seoul Summer Trip

2011-08-09T12:09:00.018+08:00

Another post on travel! This time, its off to Seoul with Limin ^^

Have always wanted to go on a shopping trip to Seoul, so when Limin told me she was going on a business trip i jumped at the chance! The plan was to join her after her event was over, so i booked myself a plane ticket and made reservations for our hotel.

I chose Asiana airlines cuz it was ranked #1 on Skytrax, but i regretted it a little because i realized to my horror that there were no individual entertainment screens! instead there was a big screen shared by the passengers..luckily i had this chick lit book which my sis had sent me and I brought along, so phew it really helped me to pass the time on the 6 hour + flight.

(Note: on my return flight i was so scared of the thought of having no movies to watch that i bought a book just in case. And guess what? they had the individual entertainment screen finally!)

food served on Asiana airlines, not very nice though..

My colleague said that it was a good idea to stay at Myeongdong area, so i narrowed down the choices to Metro Hotel or Ibis Seoul Myeongdong hotel as both are right smack in the middle of the shopping area and super convenient. I wanted to book Metro hotel because it was more affordable plus they had free breakfast..but becuz i booked pretty last min, there were no more rooms left ;( so i booked Ibis hotel instead.

Limin was supposed to join me from the hotel where she was staying at for work (think it was Sheraton). We met up and checked into the hotel at the lobby (the lobby is not the ground floor which was pretty weird)

our hotel room - its pretty small but quite cozy. not much amenities though, just the basic bed, wardrobe, a small desk and the toilet. There is no bath tub, only a standing shower.

Do you know in Korea its pretty common for hotels not to provide toiletries?? you have to buy them from a vending machine (or bring your own)..luckily i brought my own stuff cuz i heard about it previously but can be quite a surprise if you are used to being provided with hotel toiletries..

vending machine selling toothbrushes, tooth paste, shower gel etc

After we checked in, we immediately hit the shops for shopping!

Ice cream sold along the streets, the locals love it. I kept seeing pple buy the ice cream haha.

Limin and I went to this salon (Red Club) where they did manicures and facials. Limin had her nails done while I had a pampering facial that was so good i felt my face was so "boing" and supple after the facial! too bad this effect only lasted a couple of days but it was good while it lasted lol.

We were a little hungry so decided to stop for lunch. Chose this cafe nearby cuz the inside decor looked interesting.

side dishes

i love this flask of water that the restaurants/cafes there always put at your dining table, its very handy and you dont have to keep asking the staff to refill your glass of water. They should have this in Singapore!

Noon Square, there's a H&M outlet there.

But my favourite shopping mall is still Migliore!! It's a wholesale fashion mall with many small shops selling clothes at wholesale prices. I think i bought 70% of my clothes from there. They have 1 at Myeongdong area (smaller one) and another at Dongdaemun which is much larger and much more shops.

Food, food and more food!

street food, they sell this spicy looking rice cakes and skewered sticks

potato that is twirled round a long stick and fried. Tastes just like potato chips!

Tried ginseng chicken soup at one of the restaurants in Myeongdong, it was pretty good!

But the portion was so huge, both of us couldn't finish it. The staff even asked us if we wanted to take away so we felt abit bad for wasting the food but we didnt really fancy the idea of carrying the soup with us around while we were shopping lol.

Breakfast @ Krispy's Kreme

Found a Krispy Kreme near our hotel. The donuts and coffee at Krispy Kreme's were soo good, we had breakfast twice during our trip there.

my hazelnut latte with green tea pistachio doughnut..yummy!

this cheese stick sold at Lotteria (fast food store) is amazingly yummy! look at the cheese oozing out.

Healthy breakfast @ Smoothie King.

Their wraps are full of veggies (limin didnt really like it) and very little meat. Their prices are also on the high side, needless to say we only tried once and never went back haha.

Isnt this animated thing cool? I created them using a photo software called Photoscape ;)

Took a train to the Ewha and Hongdae area.

billboards on the train station

Went to visit the Coffee Prince cafe, the place where they filmed the famous korean drama Coffee Prince. Its in the hongdae area, we had a bit of problem finding the place and had to keep asking the locals for directions a couple of times. Finally we found it and realized that we had actually passed by it on the opposite street lol.

Famous Coffee Prince cafe emblem

Limin looks cute here!

we bought some drinks at the cafe, it was very pricey and we didnt think the drinks would be really good since it was a tourist place but we were wrong! the drinks were very refreshing!

The Hongdae area has a very arty and bohemian feeling, abit like our holland village but much more happening. Alot of students hang out in the Hongdae area cuz its near the Seoul universities.

passed by this cool cafe which had this red beetle parked right inside the cafe.

nice drawing on the table

Sightseeing - Korea House

Korea House

we asked the korean lady dressed in traditional costume if we could take pics with her she said no ;( so i secretly snapped pics of her when she wasnt looking LOL.

nice architecture

btw limin's entire outfit for the day was bought from Seoul the day before haha. The lime green top and the blue jeans! She wasted no time in wearing them hee

we spotted these really scary looking silver bugs!! never seen before silver bugs, i promise you they are silver in colour!!

this effect is cool rite ;D

cute!!^^

Okay, time to 'fess up. we wanted to visit the Namsangol folk village, so we took a cab to the place. He dropped us off somewhere nearby and told us we had to walk up ourselves cuz its out of bounds to cars. so we thought ok, we'll explore the place ourselves.

We found this korean looking building and though, oh okay this is Namsangol. So we walked around, explored the place and took pics. Then we thought oh okay, this place is quite small. Not sure what the fuss is. THEN we realized, oh shites..maybe this is not Namsangol. And true enough, we realized this is only the Korea House. The Namsangol folk village was actually behind the hill further behind lol.

Ok lah, we consoled ourselves by saying it should be the same type of korean houses hahaha

OK BACK TO SHOPPING!! Dongdaemun

Went to Doota and Migliore for some serious shopping. Bought lots and lots of stuff. Including this nice white jacket which we both bought!

Had lunch - ramyeon noodles

Spotted so many small cafes called Isaac (limin said we had to take the pics and show them to my brother LOL)

Also popped by a hair salon at Dongdaemun while waiting for Doota to open and had a blow dry. I decided to have a trim too and i asked them to curl up my hair at the ends. (Saw many korean girls with their hair also done like this, dunno how they mange to do it themselves or maybe they just go salon everyday?)

And i super love the effect!!

Seoul Station

I wanted to buy food stuff like citron tea to bring back to Singapore but we couldnt find any supermarkets in Myeongdong area, only small convenience shops (its really weird, how do pple get their groceries in Seoul??) so we had to go to take a cab to Seoul Station where Lotte Mart was at.

different types of watermelons sold at the supermarket

never seen so many fish tied up like this before so had to take a pic!

i think some hydroponics, they seem to be growing veggies inside Lotte Mart. How cute can you get? even their signs are so cute!

they had a cosmetic area inside Lotte Mart, bought Crack nail polish for Cindy from The Face Shop.

The salesgirl tried it out on my nail, cool rite?? the black nail polish is the crack polish, you have to apply a base coat first (preferable a striking colour like hot pink or yellow) so the effect will be nice. Then you apply the crack polish over it, and in a few seconds, it starts cracking!

huge bag of food stuff - bought citron tea, hot choc, cold noodles, instant noodles etc

On our last night in Seoul, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice BBQ dinner in Myeongdong.

Chose this korean bbq restaurant which was an excellent choice!! The beef was so duper delicious and tender and the staff keeps cooking it on the hot plate for us. We didnt have to lift a finger, she just kept flipping the meat over to make sure it was cooked nicely and even trimmed away some charred edges and then placed the beef in a plate for us to eat! How awesome is that rite??

Comes with so many free side dishes that can be refilled. we ordered soju and i got really red after that hahaha

The next morning, we decided to find another place to have brekkie at instead of the usual Krispy Kreme. Decide to eat at Dunkin Donuts, which was another good choice cuz their muffin with cheese and bacon was to die for!

check this out. Why cant Dunkin Donuts serve breakfast sets like this in Singapore?? They only serve boring donuts at the Dunkin Donus in Singapore!!

my super cute drink o.O

Was a great trip, i have never bought so much stuff before during a shopping trip. Not even during our HK trip last year during summer. My shopping haul included 7-8 dresses, many tops (cant count), jeans, shorts and 3 skirts for work. Not including the stuff i bought for Kelvin and the food items. And all super good quality, most of them made in Korea.I think i sort of burst my budget (spent over $1k plus in total including food and transport) but it was worth it.

The Seoul trip was too short so im definitely coming back to Seoul soon!!

2011-08-07T14:50:00.003+08:00

Darn it.

They approved the increase in transport fares by SMRT and SBS. I knew it lor, i was just telling my colleague the other day that we can predict what the govt will do. They will say its inevitable that the prices go up to cover their "increase in costs" however they will just approve maybe a small % increase and not the full amount so they appear not so bad to the public and throw in a few freebies/incentives for the elderly or students or something.

True enough....they increased it by 1%, and made it sound like so good..they didnt approve the full 2.8% that was requested. (See news) I think i can become a politician liao..

Pls lah...You try taking the bus and mrts everyday, want to vomit blood. You find yourself practically staring at pple's armits or vice versa if they are shorter than you when you are standing inside the MRT. That is, if you manage to even squeeze into the train in the first place. Usually you have to wait a few trains before you can board the MRT nowadays. My colleague was just joking the other day that she felt she almost got fed milk by this woman whose chest was right in her face (and wearing a low cut top) cuz it was so darn crowded.

if you look back 5 years ago, Singapore didnt used to be so crowded all the time when you took the public transportation. I rem i could even sometimes board the train and get a seat..now you are lucky if you can even board the first MRT that arrives at the platform. And why? of course you know the answer why if you are a Singaporean.

If they wanna increase prices, fine..but at least for goodness sake they shd at least try to improve the quality of the transportation services! (at least put on a show can anot?)

Japan Honeymoon - Part V (last part!)

2011-07-24T15:01:00.016+08:00

Tokyo stay at Annex Katsutaro Ryokan

Booked 2 nights stay at Annex Katsutaro Ryokan for the last leg of our Japan honeymoon. It was highly rated on Tripadvisor and thought to give it a try.

It took us quite a long walk to get there from the Nippori station and because we had our 2 large suitcases with us, it was quite a challenge climbing up the hill with our luggage in tow. Finally we got there after what seemed like 15-20 mins.

(pic of the Annex Katsutaro ryokan in the day)

The location of the ryokan was in a quiet neighborhood. We checked in late at night and were taken to our room. It was pretty big by japanese standards.

hallway to the room

futon beds

the futon beds are pretty comfy, but because it was winter it was freezing cold. it didnt help that the room didnt come with a heater. It made the stay somewhat not very enjoyable..

toilet - simple and functional but not much toiletries..

The following pics damn funny....we decided to take some pics of ourselves in the yukatas, check out Kelvin's poses and expression..priceless LOL..

what is Kelvin doing??

*check out the evil stare*

*happy child*

ok my turn..

^^

together!

For dinner, we bought bento sets from a nearby takeaway food stall, it was discounted and the food was pretty alrite!

for cat lovers

old school barber

The next day, we did some shopping at Shibuya.

The famous Hachiko statue @ Shibuya

streets of Shibuya

Did some shopping at 109 building in Shibuya..see the pretty white and black Cecil McBee bag? that's a free bag carrier to put your purchase in! Its just amazing the attention they devote to packaging in Japan..

cute red bus near our hotel

love the blue blue sky..I always wonder, why are the skies so gorgeous overseas compared to Singapore?? its like the skies in Singapore are always full of clouds, so yucky...

Back to Singapore!

Haneda airport. This airport is amazing man..

Restaurants and souvenir shops at Haneda airport.

The airport even has an observatory area! *see the sky.. i am not exaggerating, it is really nicer compared to sg rite??*

so cute!! Kelvin bought me a small squeaky keychain, its hanging on my bag now haha

For all the hello kitty lovers out there, eat your heart out lol

hello kitty cuttlefish anyone??

Couldnt resist getting this! If you watched the animation Kiki's Delivery Service (Studio Ghibli) before, this is Jiji the black cat from the show. The paws and legs are magnetic so it can hang from anywhere!

this is from another Ghibli animation Ponyo..but kinda creepy looking frankly haha

Grabbing a quick bite after checking in..the hot dog is not cheap hor!!

Love the toilets in Japan, i wish i could bring back one to Singapore to use lol..

Ok finally the end of my super long post on our Japan honeymoon trip.

i need to lose weight!

2011-07-10T16:54:00.001+08:00

shites this is it, I need to lose weight.. I'm going on a diet starting tmrw! no more carbs for lunch and dinner and soup only.

Japan Honeymoon - Osaka and Kyoto - Part IV

2011-06-26T14:23:00.021+08:00

Side trip to Kyoto and Osaka

We booked a 4 days/3 nights shinkansen train/hotel package for Kyoto and Osaka through JTB Sunrise Tours.

The package we chose was 81,200yen for 2 pax for staying at New Miyako Hotel in Kyoto and Hotel Granvia in Osaka. It was actually a 3D/2N pkg but we extended 1 night in Kyoto

See our tour itinerary details

We departed from Tokyo on the shinkansen to Kyoto as the first stop. Made our way to Tokyo central station.

At the train station

The Japanese are so polite pple, they even have train ladies at the platforms bowing as you board the trains..like a scene from the old movies in the 50sl!

Our Hikari train that took us to Kyoto/Osaka.

Onboard the train, we ordered this pork cutlet sandwich cuz i was hungry haha. We also bought our favourite hot lemon drink.

Kyoto (京都)

New Miyako Hotel

Didnt take us long to find the hotel when we arrived at Kyoto. Its just located a few mins walk away (opposite the train station)

Hotel lobby

They upgraded us to a nicer room which was nice ;)

Kyoto is lovely, it has so many historical sites and temples that look very grand.

some castle i forgot the name..we wanted to go in but it was closed so could only take pics outside =((

Gion area (Kyoto's most famous geisha district)

Gion is Kyoto's most famous geisha district, located in the city center around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain

From: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3902.html

kelvin bought this ear muff thingy from a convenience store to protect his poor ears which were freezing lol..he practically wore it throughout the remainder of our trip hahaha

Note: if you are wondering why sometimes we have such blur/sleepy looks on our faces in the photos, its becuz its mind numbingly cold and to take a picture of anything involves taking off our gloves (and exposing our hands to the bitter freezing wind) and bravely smiling in the cold.

i think this is a famous shop in Gion cuz this image of the dog pulling the boy's pants down is so familiar!

shops along gion

these hot drinks were our life savers in the freezing cold!

Dinner time! went to the famous ramen street at Kyoto Ramen Koji where they sell all the famous ramen in Kyoto. Kyoto Ramen Koji is on 10th floor at Isetan which is a department store at Kyoto station.

mmm yummy i love the tamago

going back to the hotel

Back at the hotel, i found this interesting vending room where they have all sorts of vending machines selling hot food, drinks and even ice-cream. No wonder they call Japan the land of vending machines lol.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺 Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

The next day, we went to visit one of the must see tourist attractions in Kyoto, the Kinkaku-ji. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Read more about Kinkaku-ji

Finally..the star attraction..

The glorious golden pavillion!

Compare this with the below picture..

Painted photograph of Kinkaku in 1885

Amazing right?? In 1984, the coating of Japanese lacquer was found a little decayed, and a new coating as well as gilding with gold-leaf, much thicker than the original coatings was completed in 1987 (from wiki).

i know..so many pics of the golden pavillion rite...

haha..but then again, how many times in your life do you get to see so much gold on a building rite PLUS its a UNESCO world heritage site! ;D

wishing stones? saw many 1 yen coins haha..

looks like a shrine..

For lunch, we went to a nearby small jap cafe and had curry omelet rice. yummy!

**Random**

Red Torii - Interesting fact: Torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred.

Beard papa's - i love this snack!! *Its like a light pastry with cold custard inside..i bought it a few times during the Japan trip

act cool haha

This pic should make u smile ;D

(",)

Next stop: Osaka

After spending 2 nites in Kyoto, we took the bullet train to Osaka our next stop.

Shin-Osaka station

Our hotel was the Hotel Granvia Osaka, found the hotel pretty easily (it was very near the JR station).

Saw this very cute Christmas display near the hotel

We arrived very early in the morning and it wasnt time to check in yet so we put our luggage with the front desk and went to explore the city.

Did some prior research on interesting places to visit in Osaka and found out about the "Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum". Took us some time to find it and after asking around a few times (it was quite difficult cuz the local pple really dont speak much English at all!), we finally found the place.

Statue of Momofuku Ando who invented the world’s first instant noodle product,

history wall of instant noodles made over the years

The“Chicken Ramen”was invented after hours of research using common tools in a small shack which the founder had constructed in the backyard of his house in Ikeda.

life sized noodle cup!

Packaging of the instant noodles sold in the past - super old school

The founder developed freeze dried instant noodles which could be eaten in space!!

Ok here comes the really fun bit: At this special ramen museum in Osaka, you can make your very own instant noodle cup and bring it back with you! How amazing and cool is that??@!\

There are a few steps to this process of making your instant noodles:

Our very own Kelvin will show us the demonstration of the steps muahahaha

1. Purchase a cup at the vending machine

2. Wash your hands

3. Design your cup - You can design your cup as you like (markers are provided)

Kelvin's football design - i was quite amazed by his artwork, the chick he drew was so cute haha

my cup design: black/pink polka dotted with a little cute chicken

4. Set the noodles

5. Choose your favourite soup base and ingredient toppings

i chose SiO flavoured base!

6. Seal the cup and shrink wrap it

the arrow is like pointing directly at my cup (so special rite haha) - here, the staff is helping me to seal the cup

7. Pump air into the packaging

8. Ta dah! - Your very own uniquely designed special instant noodles!

Here are the details of the ramen museum if you are interested:

Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum
Address: 8-25 Masumi-cho, Ikeda-shi, Osaka
Access: 5 min walk from Ikeda station (Hankyu Takarazuka Line)
Opening hours:

9:30am - 4pm, close on Tuesdays
Admission: free
http://www.nissin-noodles.com/pamphlet_e.pdf

Shopping at Shinsai bashi street (Dōtonbori)
Dōtonbori (道頓堀) is one of the principal tourist destinations in Osaka Japan. It is a single street, running alongside the Dōtonbori canal between the Dōtonboribashi Bridge and the Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba ward of Osaka. Dōtonbori is famous for its historic theaters (all gone now), its shops and restaurants, and its many neon and mechanized signs , including snack/candy manufacturer Glico's giant electronic display of a runner crossing the finish line. (Wikipedia)

anime figurines

this one very fierce lol

Osaka - The billboard city.

Osaka is famous for having many huge neon signs displayed in the

Neon signs - found everywhere in the Dōtonbori area

The famous Glico giant electronic display of a runner crossing the finish line

Kani Doraku: A crab restaurant, easily identified by its giant moving crab billboard.

This six and a half meter crab is on the front of the crab restaurant Kani Doraku. It is mechanized, being able to move its arms and eyestalks. Built in 1960, this mechanical billboard soon spawned imitations, including a squid that puffs steam and oni (demons) that light up at night. (Wiki)

Too bad there was this white sign was plastered against the crab ;(

A popular takoyaki stand.

There was a long queue, had to line up and wait in the cold to get my hands on the takoyaki. Kelvin was so cold he refused to stand with me in the queue ;/ But for the sake of the famous takoyaki, i bravely stood in the cold.

finally got my hands on the takoyaki

yummy!

Finally made our way to the hotel after a long day.

Our hotel room @ Hotel Granvia -they gave us a pretty big room and even presented us with a pair of complimentary chopsticks courtesy of the hotel which was very nice of them.

hotel amenities

view from our room

It was a short stay in Osaka since it was only for 1 nite, but it was pretty fun especially at the ramen museum.

Time to go back to Tokyo!

We took the train back from Osaka to Tokyo station, the view was super man.

Me thinks this is Mt Fuji!

Japan Honeymoon - Kelvin's Car stuff - Part III

2011-06-26T13:46:00.006+08:00

(Warning: This blog post is only for guys interested in car stuff..if not you might find it very boring and can skip this part lol)

Kelvin was so excited about going to find car stuff in Tokyo as most of the car modifications and accessories are from Japan.

Took the train to Ogikubo area first to find Spoon stuff..

Initially we got lost but eventually found our way to the Spoon shop (Kelvin did research on the net and found the shop was there)..

BUT was quite disappointing cuz it looked like a office place and only a workshop below where there were a few cars..well at least he got to see this nice car that was being modded there lol..better than nothing!

Since we were in the area, we walked ard to see if there were other car stuff to see..true enough, we spotted a "Type One" workshop (i think they are another car mod brand based on my very limited knowledge of car stuff)

Superautobacs shop - East Cloud

We took a really long (and expensive) train ride to find this megastore that sells car accessories.

Kelvin was so hyped up about visiting the superautobacs store..but i think it didnt live up to his expectations, i think he was expecting more lol..but ok lah, he managed to buy a honda civic magazine which costs much more in sg ;)

Japan Honeymoon - Tokyo Disneyland - Part II

2011-06-25T10:25:00.004+08:00

Tokyo Metropolitan Building

Early in the morning, we took a stroll to the Tokyo Metropolitan building nearby our hotel to view the city from one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo.

Kelvin trying to act cool..limin saw this pic and said he looked like he was "bio-ing" girls

View from the main observatory at Tokyo Metropolitan building. the scenery was abit dull though all buildings and very grayish..

souvenir shop selling all sorts of knick knacks for tourists at high prices..we didnt buy anything hahaha..

After that we headed to a ramen restaurant for lunch nearby. There was a long queue (and all local Japanese) so figured the food must be pretty good lol.

The menu was in japanese but i managed to figure the words for egg "tamago" and ramen and ordered that.

Outside our Keio Plaza hotel waiting for the shuttle bus to arrive to bring us to Tokyo Disney Sea. The hotel has this free shuttle service which makes it very convenient for hotel guests to travel to Tokyo Disney Land and Disney Sea. If not, we need to take the trains and its quite far!

Onboard the bus, they played videos of the Tokyo Disney Resort which makes u excited to want to get there and start taking all the park rides~

Finally, we saw Tokyo Disney Resort!

So cute the monorail, love the red colour. It takes you from the Disney land hotels to Disney Sea and Disney Land.

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse welcoming us to Tokyo Disney Resort ^^

Bought the entrance tickets for Tokyo Disney Sea, we chose to go Disney Sea instead cuz the rides are not so kiddish and more thrilling. Cant rem how much exactly but it was not cheap lol. And because it was winter, the park closed early! So i think we only had 4-5 hours to explore the park.

Posing at the entrance with our tix

When we walked in, the first thing we saw was this earth globe in the center of a water fountain.

Then we saw Daisy Duck (accompanied by lots of tourists trying to get her attraction so they could take pics with her)!!

My first time seeing Daisy Duck character, i was quite excited lol.

5 mins later, we saw her boyfriend Donald Duck!!

The kids looked so happy and kept wanting to take turns to hold Donald Duck's hands. The small girl looked like a mini version of a trendy teenager in Harajuku or Shibuya, check out the red ribbon in her hair and fab fur trimmed white puffy jacket, striped scarf with black stockings and booties.

kawaii ne~

Brightly coloured balloons anyone?

Crowd gathered to view the main attraction, a action filled musical story with lots of fireworks, music, dancing etc. Sounds great except that everything was in Japanese so we didnt understand a word what was happening hahaha..

The dancers were all so animated and concentrated on their performance, admire their professionalism.

Saw some gorgeous field of flowers in the park.

European styled buildings inside the theme park

Saw this swarm of Japanese people surrounding Daisy Duck trying to take pics with her

We wanted to take pic with Daisy Duck too but gave up cuz they were simply too many pple liao lol.

Our next aim: Scrooge McDuck!

This two girls approached us to take pics of them with Scrooge McDuck. One thing i must say is that the japanese girls really love soft toys and cute stuff! they wear ribbons or all sorts of stuff on their hair, clothes and decorate their bags with soft toys!

I was amazed by this bag pack decorated with so many soft toys (most of them chipmunk and friends) that i had to take this pic.

candid shot taken of us trying to take pic with Scrooge

Ta-dah! finally one pic taken with a Disney character hee ^^

We went to take the Tower of Terror, that was very fun and scary ride. When you go inside, there is this "mad" monkey that keeps laughing and screeching and suddenly it disappears.

Then you go inside this place where there are rows of seats like in a cinema with seat buckles. Then when you sit down and all secured, you feel this sensation where u are going up the lift and then suddenly it drops from the highest floor all the way down!! Damn thrilling the ride, only minus point is that the ride was too short! it was over in a few mins..

We walked around the park, looking for more exciting rides..

Oh no, everybody better get out of the way before i ram you down with my horrible driving skills lol..

This scene looks straight from a fairy story book with the huge commanding castle and pirate ship with ship mast and flag.

do u see the big volcano in the background??

close up of the gigantic ship

We were hungry and bought this Churros as a snack to munch on, super yummy esp when its so cold in winter!

Arabian area

We went to view the Arabian themed Magic Lamp performance

Inside, there was some snake talking in japanese and then it disappeared and we went into this theatre where there was a magic show performance with some genies and stuff..the whole time we didnt know what they were talking about (even though i learned basic jap) i could only catch simple words..

in fact, everything in Tokyo Disney Sea was in Japanese (announcements, signs etc). If only they had an english commentary sometimes for non japanese tourists, that would make it so much better!

With our 3D glasses

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

can you see me and Kelvin at far right corner?? we were too skint to buy the pic so we secretly took a pic hahaha (other jap tourists did that too lol)

Soon, it got dark and it was closing time. The announcements started and we headed to the souvenir shops to buy last minute gifts before leaving.

And guess what? our shuttle bus that was supposed to bring us back to the hotel wasn't due to arrive till 2 hours later so we had to wait for the bus. And it started drizzling so it became super cold and we felt so cold and miserable. Luckily I then thought of going to one of the nearby disneysea hotels to escape the coldness. We went to the hotel lobby which looked like European style with the painted ceiling and gold splendor.

Mickey mouse cookies! we ate a few cuz by the time we were starving and havent had dinner yet..

FINALLY it was time for the hotel shuttle bus to arrive and bring us back to the hotel.

Felt so good to be back in the hotel safe and warm ^^

Our dinner: Instant noodles

check out the huge piece of inari (beancurd skin)!!

free bag from japanese mag

Japan Honeymoon trip - Part I

2011-05-22T16:10:00.010+08:00

Japan Honeymoon trip - Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka/Tokyo

Ok i know its been ages since i updated my blog.

Finally i have started on my epic journey to upload pics from our Japan honeymoon in Jan. So now is May so it took me 4 months. BUT you know what they say, better late then never hahaha..so here comes Part I (out of dunno how many parts lol)

Onboard the ANA flight to Tokyo for our honeymoon ^o^

Breakfast meal served on the flight, pancakes with sausages, pototos, veggies with fruits and orange juice and miso soup. The bun was so hard, i didnt even touch it.

Tokyo Loves You!

Finally arrived at Narita Airport. we took the airport limo bus to Keio Plaza. The room wasnt ready when we arrived so we walked around for a while. It was freezing cold!! after a bit, we decided to wait at the hotel lobby till we could check in.

There was a small exhibition at the hotel ground floor area showcasing some tiny figurines and minatures.

Finally, we were able to check in. Wasnt particularly happy with the hotel staff at the reception area, he was so unfriendly looking and didnt show any warmth or enthusiasm at all when serving us. We told him it was our honeymoon and he did

Our hotel room - business exec room.

Was quite disappointed, dunno why..it just looked like a normal room (the toiletries was very disappointing and the carpet looked a little old and stained). maybe i expected more since it was Keio Plaza Tokyo and i heard good reviews abt the place and had too high expectations.

Rested for a while (took a short nap) and then it was dark so fast! we headed out to explore Harajuku.

Harajuku

I came here with Sharon before and it looked pretty much the same. Except cuz we went at night, we didnt see any pple dressing up in cosplay costumes haha.

Walked around, there was a big Laforet sale and there were massive crowds that went there to shop! i realize that Japanese love to shop, all the shops that we went it was packed with pple shopping..i cant understand why the japanese economy is not doing well leh since the locals are supporting the local economy by buying so many retail products.. hmmm..

look at the amount of pple, i kept seeing pple carrying many shopping bags with the Laforet sign.

Didnt manage to find anything nice for myself though..

Bought this yummy crepe made with strawberries and whipped cream. Delicious!

i love crepes hee..

After that we headed back to Shinjuku to have our dinner. We didnt know where to go so went to this jap restaurant near our hotel which looked nice.

sake

fav beef sukiyaki

**Guess what?**

Keio Plaza hotel upgraded us to a better room after I gave my feedback form to the front desk.

Our new room!

me love loccitane toiletries!@

Taiwan Trip Jan 2011 - Part IV (Xinbeitou, Flora Expo)

2011-04-20T10:39:00.000+08:00

Beitou

In the last leg in our Taiwan trip, we went to Beitou which is known for its hot springs.

Beitou has become a famous hot spring tourist area since the time during Japanese Colonization. With valuable hot spring resources, historic buildings, rich traditional culture, professional huge hospitals, and sensitive ecological environments of Guangdu(關渡) and Yangmingshan(陽明山) nearby, Beitou is a perfect tourist district fusing tradition and Modernity.

http://www.taipeisprings.org.tw/english/beitou/accent.htm

We took the MRT to Beitou station and transferred to a special train which runs to Xinbeitou station. It was pretty easy getting there.

At the Xinbeitou station.

Cute interactive screen in the special train going to Xinbeitou

When we got out of the station, we were abit lost on which direction to go towards. Didnt look like a very happening place, more like a housing neighbourhood. We just followed some other tourists and sure enough, we were headed towards the right direction.

Not sure what this is, looked like either a huge restaurant or something.

Beitou Hot Spring Museum

Built in 1913, the Beitou Hot Spring Museum was originally the Beitou Public Bathhouse, the largest bathhouse in the East Asia at the time. Now it serves to recount Beitou’s hot spring history. The whole building resembles an English country house. It marks the beginning of Beitou’s hot spring era. On display are historical relics and documents, which tell stories of the sulfur mining, the hot spring and Taiwanese films, providing the public a window to Beitou.

Class Three National Historic Site
Address：2 Zhongshan Rd.
Open Hours：Tue. ~Sun. 09:00~17:00；Close Monday and Holidays
TEL：02-28939981~5

link: http://www.taipeisprings.org.tw/english/scenic/hotspring-museum.htm

Posing outside the museum lol

looks like an English countryside house

Jie with the red slippers which we have to change into when we entered the museum

Mum looks so cute grinning in this pic with Jie haha

Old public bath

Japanese style screens like those you see in the movies

Di and momo trying to look like ninjas??

beautiful stained glass window

I heart Sakuras! (even if these are fake ones hahahaha)

i love this pic ;D

After leaving the hot spring museum, we went to look for a hotel where we could bathe in the hot spring water.

We found this hotel (forgot the name) nearby and decided to rent it for a few hours. It was definitely NOT cheap though, when we told mum the price she baulked. She said it was too expensive, she wanted somewhere that is outdoors and cheap. So she told us she'll explore the area herself and decided to go somewhere nearby to find her own hot spring lol.

Inside the room, we bought lots of snacks like tao kua simmered in some brown sauce and corns and tea eggs with what else, milk tea!

The hot spring bath where we are supposed to soak in. After soaking in it with Jie for a short while, i felt kinda light headed and dizzy. must be the sulphur or something! but after that i really felt very relaxed. Shiok sia haha..

Thermal Valley

Located beside Beitou Hot Spring Park, Thermal Valley is one of the sources supplying the area’s hot springs. The sulfuric steam that blankets the valley year-round gives the valley a frightening quality, giving rise to nicknames like “Ghost Lake.” The springs here have the highest temperatures of any in the Datunshan volcano group. With its surreal sulfuric atmosphere, it’s no wonder Thermal Valley was considered one of the “12 great sights of Taiwan” during the Period of Japanese Occupation!

The “Beitou rocks” (aka Hokutolite or Anglesobarite) in Thermal Valley contain the radioactive element radium. Out of the many thousands of minerals existing in the world, they are the only ones named after a place in Taiwan, and can be found in only two places: Beitou and Tamagawa, Japan. In recent years, the “Beitou Rock Conservation Area” has been established to ensure the protection of these natural rarities. Thus, when visiting Thermal Valley, you not only get to experience “hell” but also gain insight into some rare radioactive rocks!

Water temperature in Thermal Valley’s hot springs ranges from 80-100℃. The sodium carbonate springs tend to be corrosive, and have come to be known as “Green sulfur springs” and “Sulfur heads.” Visitors used to boil eggs in the hot springs, but the practice has since been prohibited—not only to protect the water quality but to keep tourists from falling in and boiling themselves!

http://www.taipeitravel.net/user/Article.aspx?Lang=2&SNo=04003981

When u walk in, the strong sulphur smell hits you. Its like rotten eggs smell lol.

Clear blue water

Taipei Flora Expo 2010

The 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition (2010 Flora Expo) opened on November 6, 2010 and will run until April 25, 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. It is garden festival recognized by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH / IAHP) and is categorized as an A2B1 horticulture exposition. It will be the first such internationally recognized exposition to take place in Taiwan, and the seventh of its kind to take place in Asia.It is located near Yuanshan Station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_International_Flora_Exposition

I accompanied Mum to the Flora Expo after Beitou. The place is gigantic, i think we only managed to explore less than half of the areas.

There was also a food section which featured all the fruits and food produced by Taiwan.

Bananas

Different varieties of rice

Giant Pumpkin!

watermelon, i didnt know they were grown this way lol

Posing in front of some fruits hahaha

Corns anybody?

This peanuts display is cute

bamboo

err not sure what this is, some LED display of flowers??

Rainbow colored landscape of flowers

Surrounded by a sea of white flowers (dunno what is the name of the flower, im such a noob lol)

This is the cute decorated bus stations which brings you to different sections within the flora expo.

Mum and Me!

Can you see what this is? Its a whale!

This small girl sure knows how to pose lor muahaha

Ok after all the flowers, we went to famous Shilin Night market to meet up with Jie.

Shilin Night Market

actually frankly, shilin night market was a disappointment. its mostly only snacks and food stuff like those you see in pasar malams in singapore (although the food is much nicer than those in SG). And some games like those you find at fun fairs where you throw darts or balls to hit the targets to win some stuffed toys..

There wasnt much items to buy for clothes, they looked kinda cheap quality but we did get some stockings. We had dinner at this popular bak kut teh shop, the queue was so long so we figured the food shd be pretty good!

the queue moved pretty fast, i think we got a table within 20 mins or so.

we ordered different soups to try, the smell of the herbal soup is very strong i think we are not very used to it. the lu rou fan was really good though!

look at this tempting bowl of rice topped with the sauce and veggies....

herbal soup

Me tucking into my dinner..yummy!

Wonstar hotel at Ximending

Pictures of the Wonstar hotel, the room is pretty nice.

big toilet with a separate bath tub and standing shower area.

decor is very much nicer than the rainbow hotel we stayed at on the first couple of days.

Spent the last day shopping with Jie for last minute clothes, we passed by this nail salon and decided to get our nails done since it was super cheap and we didnt have much to do anyway.

ta dah, me with my painted nails lol.

Ok the end of my super long post on my taiwan trip. I really had a great time with my family and once in a while, i'll think back about the fun time we had during the trip. even if there were the occasional inevitable arguments and fights, i think overall it was still a very memorable trip for me since its been so long since we all went on a family trip together. It made us closer after the trip somehow!

Taiwan Trip Jan 2011 - Part III (Northcoast tour - Yehliu, Jiufen, Keelung)

2011-03-27T11:23:00.026+08:00

Next stop on our Taiwan tour was to Jiufen.

Getting ready at the hotel to leave for Jiufen.

Initially we wanted to get there by taking train/bus cuz based on our research, it wasnt very hard to get there. But we had our reservations since we had our luggage with us and there were 5 of us.

Along came mum to our "rescue". She was talking to this MPV taxi driver who was outside the Rainbow hotel and found out that he could drive us up to Jiufen at a very reasonable rate. Plus, he would stop at other tourist attractions along the way like Keelung and Jinguashi. So since it was more convenient, we decided last minute to take his taxi up to Jiufen.

Inside the cab

Along the way, we passed by the coast area and saw like the most big-ass waves I have ever saw in my entire life!

Check out the huge waves, i think they will just swallow you whole if you are in the sea..scary!

The taxi driver was this uncle, he's very nice. Along the way, he explained where we were passing by, sort of like a tour guide lol. He stopped at this scenic point so we could get down and take some pics.

It was freezing cold outside, as you can see we were all wrapped up and still shivering.

Group pic ^^

After that, the driver said he'll take us to Yehliu to see rock formations and also stop to have seafood lunch there.

Yehliu Geopark

Taken from Wikipedia:

Yehliu (Chinese: 野柳; pinyin: Yěliǔ) is a cape on the north coast of Taiwan in the town of Wanli between Taipei and Keelung.

The cape, known by geologists as the Yehliu Promontory, forms part of the Taliao Miocene Formation. It stretches approximately 1,700 meters into the ocean and was formed as geological forces pushed Datun Mountain (大屯山) out of the sea

A distinctive feature of the cape is the hoodoo stones that dot its surface. These shapes can be viewed at the Yeliu Geopark operated by the North Coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area Administration. A number of rock formations have been given imaginative names based on their shapes. The most well-known is the "The Queen's Head" (女王頭), an iconic image in Taiwan and an unofficial emblem for the town of Wanli. Other formations include "The Fairy Shoe", "The Bee Hive", "The Ginger Rocks" and "The Sea Candles."

'
Yeliu Geopark

Took some pics of the tv outside showing a presentation slide of rock formations taken at Yehliu. The pictures were like amazing whoever shot them, must be in summer though.

Needless to say, the actual pics we took are nothing like the ones on the tv haha.

The moment we stepped into the geopark, we sort of regretted it. You know why?

because...

IT WAS FREAKING MIND NUMBING COLD!!!!

The wind was like super strong and walking against the wind was literally a huge challenge, you feel like this large force pushing against you, making it hard to walk. Even if you bring in an umbrella, its useless cuz the wind is so strong. We saw lots of broken umbrellas in dustbins inside haha.

My bro had to borrow my scarf to wrap his head in it cuz he was so cold.

My sister had to put up her jacket hood with the thick fur to protect herself from the wind.

Mum bought this yellow raincoat from outside the entrance, we thought we didnt have to buy it cuz we wouldnt need it. guess we were wrong lol.

A stone statue featuring Lin Tien -chen, a fisherman who died saving a tourist's life on the afternoon of March 18, 1964, stands in the middle of the promontory. Lines from Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman's Streams in the Desert, inscribed on the back of the pedestal, honor his bravery:

The most sacred souls often exist in unimposing men. Their holy and immaculate inner lives evoke a tender, invisible lotus, hidden in a secretive place at a crystal-clear pond.

Do you see the huge wave crashing into the rocks behind me??

Seafood lunch nearby one of the local restaurants nearby.

Jie tucking in to the seafood

The seafood was very fresh and worth the $

After the very filling and satisfying lunch, we continued our journey up to Jiufen.

On the way up, the driver stopped at this waterfall for us to take some pics.

This is apparently a very famous tourist attraction where everybody who goes up to jiufen must take a pic here haha. Syn Min was looking at my pics and said that her mum also took a pic at the same spot!

Jiufen

We booked a B&B place to stay for 2 nights at Jiufen, at Windsor B&B. Windsor has different 館 to choose from, the one we chose was this one:

涵館3

單日房價	2人	4人
平日	3,200元	4,400元
假日	3,980元	5,180元

Two queen sized beds side by side

Living room area where it doubles up at night as a sleeping area for extra bed

outside balcony area, its supposed to be a place where you can sit and enjoy the view. but it was too cold so nobody sat there at all during our stay haha.

Bathroom area, the tub area is for bathing

dining area

The 館 was abit disappointing though, the pics of the place in the Windsor website looked much better in real life lol.

Its like not very well maintained and when at one point in time during our stay, the bathroom got flooded and we had to call the Windsor to come fix the problem. Plus it was like super cold, like got this drafty feeling inside and the door cant keep out the wind. We even went to ask them if they had a heater cuz it was so damn cold but they said they didnt have one there ;( So no choice, we had to sleep in the cold.

Keelung Night Market

The driver drove me, mum and bro down to the Keelung night market to take a look since we had nothing much to do haha.

We bought lots of night snacks for dinner, like oyster omelet, fried mushrooms, some other grilled seafood etc.

There were also some stalls selling clothes at Keelung and I bought a long sleeve blue top to keep myself warm.

Breakfast at the Windsor B&B cafe

I love the breakfast set, its this very healthy set including fresh fruits, sandwich with ham and hot cup of milk tea. I absolutely love the milk tea, it was so nice i requested for refill 3 times!

the whole place looks quite arty and jazzy.

View of Jiufen from the cafe

After breakfast, mum went to ask the Windsor B&B counter whether there was another place we could move to cuz we couldnt take the cold.

Wah heng ah, they really had another place that was vacant and had a better view somemore, we needed to top up abit (i think ard SGD 20). But it was well worth the top up, when they brought us to the other 館 we were like wahh, its so much better (as you can see from the followings pics!). Best of all, it came with a heater!!

Living room area

Antique looking cupboard, they stored the linen inside.

Sleeping area

Chilling out at the comfy sofa

camwhoring again lol.

Toilet

After checking-in, we decided to explore the streets in Jiufen.

Preparing to go out armed with all our brollies.

Saw this chihuahua along the street, have you ever seen such a fat chihuahua?? Must be obese from eating all the good food there lol.

Took this pic of a litter of cats curled up in a box, huddling together to keep warm from the cold!

Shop selling all kinds of kitty stuff lol.

We had lunch at this very "famous" food stall selling all kinds of meat balls.

See the walls fully plastered with pictures of the lady boss taken with famous taiwan celebrities like Jolin Tsai, Jacky Wu and other hosts. me thinks the boss is a tad narcissistic hahaha

Took a quick snapshot of this woman sitting near the cashier having her meal. If im not wrong, this is the lady boss in person!

Ordered the mixed set which comes with shark meat, fishball and some other meat ball. Actually the food only ok lah, not as great as expected. A little over hyped in my opinion lol.

There was this super cute doggy near the cashier counter, it looks like a soft toy lor!

Streets selling food, snacks and souvenirs at Jiufen.

We bought mochi from this shop there, OMG it tastes so good!! The mochi is freshly made and have all kinds of fillings you can choose from, chocolate, strawberry, mango, blueberry etc.

It kept raining through our stay at Jiufen, as u can see all the umbrellas..

One of the stall owners told us an interesting fact. Due to the location of jiufen (near the mountain top and facing a certain direction), out of 365 days in the year, it rains almost 360 days there.

ah mei cafe, wasted we wanted to go there but in the end didnt. the food there supposed to be quite good!

The next day, we returned back to Taipei. Going back to Taipei city, we were greeted by the sunny skies which was much welcome after all the non stop rain at Jiufen!

pretty artistic shot dont u think? the sunshine peeking out from the clouds

Upon arrival in Taipei, we checked in at the Wonstar Hotel at Zhonghua Road.

Lunch at this jap restaurants in Ximending, the food was pretty yummy and prices very reasonable. In fact, i would say most of the food in Taipei are very cheap compare to Singapore ;/

Momo and jie deciding what to order from menu

Mmm my favourite sashimi!!

Assortment of sushi, this wasn't so good though

Bento set with grilled salmon

2011-03-19T10:38:00.003+08:00

Happy birthday to me.

I wish i was happier though. It somehow feels nothing is going right in my life and i dont know what I want to do with my life. In my work, I really feel demotivated and with the recent news, I really think its unfair. I feel so tempted to just throw in my resignation letter, take time off before finding a new job. But with all my financial commitments, its so difficult for me to do so. What if i dont find something better, what if I become jobless for a long time or get a much lower salary, what if the new colleagues are horrible to me..so many ifs..

I'm also so worried about dad''s situation at the home, even though i know i shouldnt be..i know the staff at the home said that the mgmt will inform us in advance about the plans for the home and we don't need to do anything now, but what if the decision is to transfer the residents to their other branches? their other branches may not have the space and also are not very near to us, which makes it difficult for us to visit dad often. And his dentures problem is worrying me as well, everytime we visit him and bring him food, i see his dentures falling down when he bites, i feel bad that we're not taking good care of dad..when i called a few dentists and they all said that it takes 4-5 times to make the dentures, it seems like such a difficult task to coordinate. And the dental clinics were all not very helpful, i cant believe the one at amk said that if its too troublesome then dont come..i was so pissed when i heard what the man said..I really hope that the only option which mum mentioned will work, cuz if not i really dunno what to do man..

all this makes me feel frustrated with the health care facilities here in Singapore, they are just so ill equipped to fit the needs of the ageing society. I was looking for dental options online and they have like mobile dentists in other countries, where they can bring dental care to the bedside of people who are not mobile and no access to medical or dental facilities. Its like how come nobody thought of providing dental facilities to the nursing homes in Singapore, dont the residents at the homes also need dental care? especially since they are mostly elderly people who are limited to their wheelchairs and not easy to get around..

Im also worried about our housing loan thing, i dont know if hdb will really approve our appeal. and it just frustrates me to know that the government is not enough to help the middle class people with their housing needs.

All this is weighing down on me and i feel i cant breathe. I feel really down and i know nobody can help me but myself..God, can you please tell me what i should do and make things go right?

Powerful quake, tsunami kills hundreds in Japan

2011-03-13T15:36:00.004+08:00

Powerful quake, tsunami kills hundreds in Japan

By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Malcolm Foster, Associated Press – Fri Mar 11, 6:59 pm

TOKYO – For more than two terrifying, seemingly endless minutes Friday, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan shook apart homes and buildings, cracked open highways and unnerved even those who have learned to live with swaying skyscrapers. Then came a devastating tsunami that slammed into northeastern Japan and killed hundreds of people.

The violent wall of water swept away houses, cars and ships. Fires burned out of control. Power to a cooling system at a nuclear power plant was knocked out, forcing thousands to flee. A boat was caught in the vortex of a whirlpool at sea.

The death toll rose steadily throughout the day, but the true extent of the disaster was not known because roads to the worst-hit areas were washed away or blocked by debris and airports were closed.

After dawn Saturday, the scale of destruction became clearer.

Aerial scenes of the town of Ofunato showed homes and warehouses in ruins. Sludge and high water spread over acres of land, with people seeking refuge on roofs of partially submerged buildings. At one school, a large white "SOS" had been spelled out in English.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said an initial assessment found "enormous damage," adding that the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the hardest-hit region.

President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier is already in Japan and a second was on its way. A U.S. ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he added.

The entire Pacific had been put on alert — including coastal areas of South America, Canada and Alaska — but waves were not as bad as expected.

The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake struck at 2:46 p.m. local time and was the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s. It ranked as the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, scientists said.

The quake shook dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coast and tall buildings swayed in Tokyo, hundreds of miles from the epicenter. Prime Minister Naoto Kan was attending a parliamentary session at the time.

"I thought I was going to die," said Tokyo marketing employee Koto Fujikawa. "It felt like the whole structure was collapsing."

Fujikawa, 28, was riding a monorail when the quake hit and had to later pick her way along narrow, elevated tracks to the nearest station.

Minutes later, the earthquake unleashed a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami along the northeastern coast of Japan near the coastal city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture. The quake was followed for hours by aftershocks. The U.S. Geological Survey said 124 were detected off Japan's main island of Honshu, 111 of them of magnitude 5.0 or greater.

Large fishing boats and other vessels rode the high waves ashore, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping power lines along the way. A fleet of partially submerged cars bobbed in the water. Ships anchored in ports crashed against each other.

The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path inland before reversing direction and carrying the cars, homes and other debris out to sea. Flames shot from some of the homes, apparently from burst gas pipes.

Waves of muddy waters flowed over farms near Sendai, carrying buildings, some of them ablaze. Drivers attempted to flee. The tarmac at Sendai's airport was inundated with thick, muddy debris that included cars, trucks, buses and even light planes.

Highways to the worst-hit coastal areas buckled. Telephone lines snapped. Train service was suspended in northeastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serves 10 million people a day. Untold numbers of people were stranded in stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.

Police said 200-300 bodies were found in Sendai, although the official casualty toll was 185 killed, 741 missing and 948 injured.

A ship with 80 dock workers was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi. All on the ship was believed to be safe, although the vessel had sprung a leak and was taking on some water, Japan's coast guard said.

In the coastal town of Minami-soma, about 1,800 houses were destroyed or ravaged, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said. Fire burned well past dark in a large section of Kesennuma, a city of 70,000 people in Miyagi.

A resident in Miyagi prefecture who had been stranded on his roof, surrounded by water, mud and fallen trees, was rescued by a Self-Defense Force helicopter Saturday morning, TV video showed.

Officials declared the first-ever state of emergency at a Japanese nuclear power plant and ordered evacuations after the earthquake knocked out power to a cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi facility near the city of Onahama, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. They said radiation levels inside the facility had surged to 1,000 times more than normal.

Some radiation had seeped outside the plant, the nuclear safety agency said early Saturday, prompting calls for more evacuations of the area. Some 3,000 people have already been urged to leave their homes.

The Defense Ministry said it had sent dozens of troops trained to deal with chemical disasters to the plant in case of a radiation leak.

An American working at the facility said the whole building shook and debris fell from the ceiling. Danny Eudy, 52, a technician employed by Texas-based Atlantic Plant Maintenance, and his colleagues escaped the building just as the tsunami hit, his wife told The Associated Press.

"He walked through so much glass that his feet were cut. It slowed him down," said Pineville, Louisiana, resident Janie Eudy, who spoke to her husband by phone after the quake.

The group watched homes and vehicles carried away in the wave and found their hotel mostly destroyed when they reached it.

A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in the city of Ichihara and burned out of control with 100-foot (30-meter) flames whipping into the sky.

Also in Miyagi prefecture, a fire broke out in a turbine building of a nuclear power plant, but it was later extinguished, said Tohoku Electric Power Co.

Japanese automakers Toyota, Nissan and Honda halted production at some assembly plants in areas hit by the quake. One worker was killed and more than 30 injured after being crushed by a collapsing wall at a Honda Motor Co. research facility in northeastern Tochigi prefecture, the company said.

Jesse Johnson, a native of Nevada who lives in Chiba, north of Tokyo, was eating at a sushi restaurant with his wife when the quake hit.

"At first it didn't feel unusual, but then it went on and on. So I got myself and my wife under the table," he told the AP. "I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and I've never felt anything like this before. The aftershocks keep coming. It's gotten to the point where I don't know whether it's me shaking or an earthquake."

Tokyo was brought to a near standstill. Tens of thousands of people were stranded with the rail network down, and the streets were jammed with cars, buses and trucks trying to get out of the city.

The city set up 33 shelters in city hall, on university campuses and in government offices, but many planned to spend the night at 24-hour cafes, hotels and offices.

NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.

Jefferies International Ltd., a global investment banking group, estimated overall losses of about $10 billion.

The tsunami hit Hawaii before dawn Friday, with most damage coming on the Big Island. The waves covered beachfront roads and rushed into hotels. One house was picked up and carried out to sea. Low-lying areas in Maui were flooded by 7-foot waves.

On the U.S. mainland, marinas and harbors in California and Oregon bore the brunt of the damage, estimated by authorities to be in the millions of dollars. Boats crashed into each other in marines and some vessels were washed out to sea.

Rescue crews were searching for a man who was swept away in northern California while taking pictures. Two people with him tried to rescue him, although they were able to return to shore.

Thousands fled homes in Indonesia after officials warned of a tsunami up to 6 feet (2 meters) high, but waves of only 4 inches (10 centimeters) were measured. No big waves came to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, either.

Islands across the South Pacific were hit by bigger-than-normal waves, but no major damage was reported. Surges up to 26 inches (66 centimeters) high were reported in American Samoa, Nauru, Saipan and at the far northern tip of New Zealand.

In Tonga, water flooded houses in the low-lying Ha'apai islands early Saturday, police said. Thousands in the capital, Nuku'alofa, sought refuge at the king's residence on higher ground, Radio Tonga said.

The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off Japan's east coast, the USGS said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. Several quakes hit the same region in recent days, including one measured at magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday that caused no damage.

"The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, USGS scientist Brian Atwater told The Associated Press.

Early Saturday, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck the central, mountainous part of Japan — far from the original quake's epicenter. It was not immediately clear if that temblor was related to the others.

Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 in Kanto that killed 143,000 people in 1923, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.

The news about the Japanese earthquake is super scary, saw the scene of water engulfing vehicles and houses in japan and pple trapped on top of their roofs in their houses. Apparently it's the largest earthquake recorded in Japan history.

I can't imagine how it must feel for the Japanese people who are affected, seeing their houses being swept away by the waves or not being able to get hold of their loved ones. but I think whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, this may be a blessing in disguise and who knows? It may help to boost the japan economy in the aftermath of the disaster.

Taiwan Trip Jan 2011 - Part II (Wu Lai, Taipei)

2011-03-05T20:07:00.024+08:00

Day 2:

The driver who picked us up from the airport had offered his services to bring us out and the price he quoted for half day was pretty reasonable so we decided to engage his services. We wanted to take a short half day trip to outside of Taipei city, we asked around and decided to take a trip to Wulai which is like an aboriginal place where they have some waterfall and tribal stuff.

We had some time in the morning before the driver arrived so went to walk around Ximending first.

my fav milk tea shop at ximending, went there almost every day to buy hot milk tea.

btw I came to Taipei thinking i'm going to buy bubble milk tea every day, turned out everyday i bought hot milk tea cuz it was freezing cold during the whole trip! And i tell u, hot milk tea is freakingly delicious when the weather is so cold and when you take a sip, its like heaven ahhh.

Famous Ah Zhong mian xian. Didnt try it though cuz i didnt really like the da zhang mian xian after trying it the night before at Shida night market, scared of the smell of the da zhang haha.

Tried some dumplings which my bro tried and said it was very very good. And true enough, it was very very good haha.

Wulai 烏來

Wikipedia: Wulai District is a rural district in southern New Taipei City in northern Republic of China (Taiwan). It sits near the border with Taipei and is famous for its hot springs. The name of the town derives from the Atayal phrase qilux ulay meaning "hot and poisonous"

Aboriginal shops along the main street

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When we reached Wulai, we saw the cascading waterfall with the pretty autumn leaves. It was so scenic that i took more than 20 pics of it haha.

me and jie

so gay! lol

i love this pic of our family, we look so happy ;D

a girl dressed in traditional aboriginal outfit

i love my grey big eyes contact lens which my bro bought for us from bangkok

nice pic of jie and momo

my bro loves dogs, he always pets them..not like me, im scared of them hahaha

veggies on sale, they have so much variety compared to the veggies in singapore..or maybe the grass is always greener on the other side? lol

stall selling taiwan sausages

mum bought one to try, i took a sneak bite. it was goood!

hot spring eggs

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall - 国立中正纪念堂

This is a famous monument erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China

A large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek dominates the main hall. The figure is shown smiling, seated and wearing traditional Chinese dress. Inscribed on the wall above and behind the seated figure are the Chinese characters for Ethics, Democracy, and Science. Inscriptions on the side walls read The purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity and The meaning of life is to create and sustain subsequent lives in the universe.

Taipei 101

Went to the Taipei 101 Observatory, its supposed to be the most famous (and tallest) building in Taipei. It wasnt easy to get there though, we took the Taipei Metro to Taipei City Hall station and then took the shuttle bus to Taipei 101.

Mum didnt wanna go with us cuz she said there the stuff at Taipei 101 was very high end so she wanted to walk around the hotel area in Ximending. We were kinda worried but in the end decided she would be ok cuz its not very dangerous in general in Taipei lol.

The view from the top floor observatory, not very clear though cuz it was kinda foggy after a while..

Tuned Mass Damper

Suspended from the 92nd to the 88th floor, the pendulum sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. Its sphere, the largest damper sphere in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates, each with a height of 125 mm (4.92 in) being welded together to form a 5.5 m (18 ft) diameter sphere.

Taipei 101 mascots: Damper Baby - Cool Black

Some futuristic stuff on the floor, dont really know what it is though. it just keeps changing images lol.

My bro loves to pose hahaha

My attempt *ahem*

There was a coral exhibition area near to the observatory and saw these items carved from coral.

owl , this is quite cool

dragon - mythical creature in chinese history

pandas, so cute!

Ok lah, the Taipei 101 building was ok only..nothing much to see and frankly not worth the price cuz the tickets are not very cheap haha..after that we headed back to Ximending for the night.

we were hungry so decided to have KFC for dinner.

we were finishing our KFC dinner when we spied my mum downstairs, so i went down to find her haha. She was looking at some street stall selling fruits. She didnt buy much stuff, actually she was quite cute lah..think she was content with just looking around and seeing all the stuff in Ximending.

Passed by this 4D movie theatre at Ximending, i read from this girl's blog not worth the $ at all so didnt even think of trying.

Oh yes, did i mention that I LOVE Taiwanese street food snacks??!!

During our stay in Taipei, almost every night we look forward to buying all the street food back to the hotel to eat keke

These small street stalls line the small roads inside the Ximending area, but quite funny..everytime some police patrol the area, there will be someone watching out and they will yell then suddenly all the hawkers will run away pushing their carts hurriedly.

fried mushrooms and hot dog

We were buying some grilled mushrooms when suddenly the police came and the hawker ran away with our food..then we were like oh no! then luckily somebody told us to stay there cuz they'll come back, and true enough less than 2 mins later, the hawker came back with our food after the police left and handed us our grilled mushrooms ^0^.

Grilled corn

Jie and momo posing for the camera with their golden grilled corn cobs. Its so tasty i tell u, they spread some yummy sauce over the grilled corn and when you take a bite, its like wowwww.

grilled sticks

this pic of my bro reminds of pirates of the carribean movie, dunno why lol

2011-03-02T08:06:00.001+08:00

feeling blue...

les étoiles sont avec moi

Wicked musical @ MBS

Abercrombie is open!

hair rebonding time again

Receipe for winter melon soup

steamboat lunch with work colleagues

Mitju warehouse sale

Smitten + holland v

Bro's birthday dinner at park royal hotel beach road

Massage at Spa Rael @ Goodwood Park Hotel

$42 for 60 min Imperial Detoxifying Oil Massage (Worth $240) + $200 Facial Voucher at Spa Rael

$42 for 60 min Imperial Detoxifying Oil Massage (Worth $240) + $200 Facial Voucher at Spa Rael

Hollister Haul

Salt Creek

$19.50

$15

Hollister Super Skinny

$49.50

$24.75

Hollister Rolling Hills

$30

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