Fondue of Life

Hong Kong Disneyland

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Back to complete my Hong Kong travelogue. Had been deviating a little in my few previous posts but I was just too excited to share about those celebrations and my diving trip *wink*. Anyhoos, to refresh, click on both links below to read previous Hong Kong posts. :)
Hong Kong Part 1
Hong Kong Part 2

On our 3rd day in the land of glorious dim sum (Hong Kong), we decided to spend it at Hong Kong Disneyland. It was a tough choice really, choosing between two of Hong Kong's most renowned theme parks; the Ocean Park and the Disneyland, but after some consideration, we decided to go for the latter. This was my second time to the Disneyland, my first being to the Tokyo Disneyland in 2008, but all the same, I was just as excited. I don't know about you, but there's just something about Disneyland that constantly makes me happy. Perhaps it's just the simple fact that I enjoy watching lots of Walt Disney movies or just love lots of the Disney quotes so much so that going to Disneyland always felt magical.

Many had commented that the Hong Kong Disneyland is really small etc and indeed it is true, after comparing it to the Tokyo one in my case, but Disneyland being Disneyland, they still have Mickey, Minnie and the rest of the Disney characters, the characteristic "themed lands" such as Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Main street U.S.A, Grizzly Gulch (equivalent to the Frontierland) that was just recently opened in July and even an Asia exclusive, the Toy Story Land that can only be found in Hong Kong Disneyland (the only other counterpart is in France). They have a few themed lands, rides and attractions lesser but most of the main and popular ones are also there. And of course, being Hong Kong, it's a Disneyland filled with casts that speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

The Disney themed Disneyland MTR has to be the cutest with it's distinctive Mickey's ear windows making even adults felt like kids in it

Interiorly, they also have all these Mickey's ear hand rings on top of many Disney figurines placed all around the MTR

Can't wait to explore the rest of the place already! Even the cold and wet weather could not dampen my spirit of excitement. No matter what number of age I'm, I still love Walt Disney, I still love the magical feeling they always evoke and I still love day dreaming about their fantasy world. I'm still a kid at heart you know (the fact that my 4S cover is Walt Disney is pretty self-explanatory,no? *hehe*)

A really tiny and quite distorted Mickey flower arrangement

Be prepare as you enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy leaving behind today

Bling Mickey's ear

Main Street U.S.A where the main gift and souvenir shops are usually located

Instead of their usual parade, the Disney crew (Winnie the Pooh and gang, Tinkerbell, Snow White and their gang, the Toy Story gang and lastly the Chipmunks) decided to dance, meet and greet all their delightful fans in the rainy day express as it was raining pretty much still that day

One of the hallmark castle of Disneyland at the centre entryway- the Sleeping Beauty Castle (instead of the Cinderella Castle here), where beyond it, be amaze by all your 'Once Upon A Time' storybook fantasies. It's just kind of a pity that despite being to two Disneyland, I still did not manage to try out all the rides in this land especially the ever popular 'Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' because the queue for that ride always exceeds 45 minutes waiting time

The most famous and recognizable mouse of all time, the Mickey Mouse; definitely one of the oldest, timeless and well-loved cartoon character

The oh-so pretty and cute love interest of Mickey's, the equally popular Minnie Mouse ♥

The yellow cuddly honey bear- Winnie the Pooh

Donald Duck Hong Kong style

Although we were in Hong Kong, all of us were having cravings for Japanese food that day so we all went Japanese for lunch. The very appealing Mickey's ear sushi rice

Seriously, they do try to make everything as Mickey themed as possible. Even the fruits are not spared; the Mickey's ear water melon

Tonkatsu ramen

After a filling lunch, with renewed energy and finally, the weather God decided to show us some love by stopping the rain. I'm pretty much surprised that there are actually so many people around in spite of the bad weather. And because there are so many people on almost every rides, we actually skipped a vast majority of rides that day and idly spent the rest of our afternoon just walking around, soaking in the magical vibe of Disneyland.

Hoping to chance upon some luck at the 'luckiest little town in the West'. This is the newest themed land to be added to HK Disneyland, just recently open in July this year

The geysers valley

I want to carry that gold nugget home pretty please

The Big Grizzly Mountain roller coaster that goes backwards

Bracing myself for the Big Grizzly Mountain

The very animated and vibrant Lion King show

There's even the fire loops

And the entire Lion King crew of course... Hakuna Matata :)

The one and only in Asia- the Toy Story Land, being the only one among the Asia's Disneyland. Based on Pixar's amazing Toy Story movies, any fans of the Toy Story sequels will definitely love it here. I'm quite a big fan of the Toy Story series especially the third one so meeting Woody, Buzz and the rest of Andy's toys at their playland certainly put me on cloud nine

The prominent U-shaped RC racer shuttle coaster that whips one up and over the U-shaped rails as it launches back and forth sending it's riders on a dizzy ride. I was so tempted to give it a go but gave up in the end as there were just too many people queuing for the ride and we were running out of time

This is probably the smallest among all the other themed lands but I just love how colourful and vivid the whole toyland is

The Toy Soldier parachute drop that contrary to it's scary outlook; lifting it's riders to the sky and then dropping them, is not as scary as they really do I reckon. They move so slowly up and down that all their riders will get to parachute down at a really slow pace that releases more serotonin than activating the adrenaline hormones

Mr Slinky taking it's riders round and round as it goes round and round chasing it's own tail

The huge board of alphabet letters

My fav Toy Story characters- say hello to Woody and Jessie ♥

Now, who's that strong lady that can single-handedly lifts up the planet of Tomorrowland? :p Tomorrrowland is definitely my favourite land of all, futuristic and pretty at night with it's glowing neon lights but mainly because my all time no.1 favourite ride in the whole of Disneyland is located here

Me and mum on the Astro Orbitor together. Such precious moment ♥

To infinity and beyond!

I loveeeee this ride! This is my favourite and the best ride in the whole of Disneyland imho. I can go on it over and over without feeling tired or sick of it. And the best part, being a single rider means skipping an entire 30 minutes or more of queue and getting into the ride in less than 5 minutes waiting time. Sweet being a single rider at times, no?

Inside the Space Mountain, one gets onto the steel roller coaster aka the 'rocket' before being zoom off into the darkness at high velocity accelerating as it goes with music, strobe lights flashes, swirling galaxies, thousands of blinking and colourful stars, novas, asteroids and other cosmological bodies spins in and vanishes as our rocket made it's turns and dips. I personally find the whole ride very fun and enjoyable and the fact that the tracts are barely visible in the dark and couple with all those futuristic music, flashing lights, brilliant stars, galaxies right above our head and whats not certainly gives off the illusion of not-knowing-what-to-expect and doubles the excitement ♥

Duffy bears

Probably the only reason why so many people stayed till 9pm was to catch the nightly 10 minutes or so fireworks display gorgeously lighting up the sky above the Sleeping Beauty Castle. We all just watched in awe as bursts of fireworks glitter away and end our day at Disneyland with such a lovely treat to the eyes

One last look at the symbolic and dear Sleeping Beauty Castle at night

In spite of it being a rainy and wet day at the Disneyland, we definitely had a great time there. It was just as magical visiting this magical kids heaven with the parents as it makes you really feel like a kid (albeit a giant one) excited to be surrounded by so many familiar and well-loved Disney characters and stroybooks dreams. Disneyland rides and attractions are ever so gentle they will never gives you those chill down the spine and let your heart do all those gymnastic stunts going on them. The furthest they go to making their rides "scary" is going at high speed or falling from height at a super slow speed so unless you are acrophobia, you will have nothing to worry about. Nonetheless, I still find their rides just as fun as aside from the degree of thrill and excitement they still have in them, they are all such happy rides.

Some of my most favourite rides from the Disneyland are definitely the Space Mountain, It's A Small World, the Big Grizzly Mountain similar to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion where they uses the cool hologram concept (unfortunately the Haunted Mansion is not available at Hong Kong Disneyland). Well, seriously I think both kids and adults alike will definitely enjoy and love the Disneyland, with it always giving off such happy, vibrant and stress-free vibe. :)

Diving Perhentian Island

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:09:00 +0000

Revisited the super gorgeous paradise Perhentian early last month, a few days after my birthday. My first visit there was in 2010 (click here to read previous post and see beautiful pictures) and since then, Perhentian Island has always hold the top spot as my most favourite place in Malaysia. I mean seriously, if oozing, sinful chocolate lava cake is my no.1 comfort food, Long Beach Perhentian Kecil is my no.1 comfort destination locally.

We decided to take the long drive up instead of flying because we were diving Perhentian Island this time round so we couldn't afford the flight interval time (from our last dive). I was super excited to revisit the island again because I had missed it so much and this time round, we would be diving instead! It was definitely a nostalgic drive up Turtle Land (oh, how I missed using that term. haha!) and as HT said it, I don't think I had ever enjoyed the scenery along that part of the east coast so much.

Despite it quite being the monsoon season already, it was still gorgeously sunny at Perhentian. For the three days we were there, the sun gave us absolutely generous amount of vitamin D, tanning us at the same time making me at least three times tanner than I already am (not that I'm complaining). The sky was perfectly blue with white fluffy clouds floating in the distance during the day and dotted with bright blinking stars at night, the sea water still as crystal clear as before you just want to soak in them forever and those soft, warm, white sand so gentle to your feet you will want to walk in them forever too. I'm honestly not exaggerating. That is how beautiful and mesmerizing Perhentian is, although I will have to admit the amount of garbage gathered had increased significantly from my last visit. The Long Beach is one of the only remaining gem that is clear of dead corals and that's one of the reason I loooooveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it so much.

Just the thought of the place sends me gush of happiness already

The Long Beach at 8 in the morning, the best time to camwhore because there are just so few people around it's almost like your own private beach

I wish I had a bikini body like that! Haha! Got the shirt from Bangkok

When we were not diving, we just sit around the beach and chill as clear, lukewarm water bathe our feet and stunning view feed our eyes

The island is so so so gorgeous I can't help putting in a few more pictures of it

We bought the dive package from Turtle Bay Divers during the MIDE at only RM 450 per person that includes accomodation, equipment rental and a dive master

♥

Such is bliss - spending the evening washing away all tiredness by soaking in warm, clear sea water as the last rays of sun glows through the sky watching ships and boats passed far away in the horizon

Between dives

Dive sites around Perhentian Island. We did a total of 6 dives in 3 days- diving Batu Layar, D' Lagoon, the Pinnacle aka Temple of the Sea, Terumbu Tiga, Shark Point and Sugar Wreck; one of the few wreck dive site allowed for open water divers and it was very exciting diving around the wreck site as it is more challenging and sort of our first wreck dive

HT, Sandra and I post-dive

More alluring views of the island to delight the eyes

Seriously, I'm no pro at taking underwater pictures, but the underwater world is just too captivating I cannot resist trying to take pictures of those charming sea creatures as well. I simply love the feeling of diving (minus the equalizing part)- the feeling of being able to swim slowly deep in the sea surrounded by the vast marine life, blending in with those pretty and cute yet some potentially dangerous sea fishes and hearing nothing but just the music of the sea. And of course, unlike snorkeling, with diving I really got to know those unique sea creatures better as we also learn their names and learn to identify them.

This dive trip had certainly been rewarding even though we missed the whale shark that actually came by the day before. None the less, we managed to spot some really interesting and exquisite tropical marine life like the bamboo shark, coral catshark, blue spotted stingray, Jenkin's Whipray, white-eyed moray eel, zebra lionfish, scorpion fish, indian ocean walkman, starry pufferfish, black-spotted pufferfish, reticulated pufferfish (but no, all the pufferfishes did not blow up like how I had imagine them to be), yellow boxfish juvenile, shaded batfish, humphead parrotfish, barracudas, porcupinefish, turtles and my beloved western clownfish among others. Honestly, maybe if I had not take up medicine, I might just be doing marine biology. hehe!

The entire school of yellowtail barracuda in the background (not clearly seen here though unfortunately)

Diving Perhentian Island 2012

With the rest of the dive buddies

The absolutely cuteeeee Western clownfishes. They get two pics because they are my favourite fish ♥

The school of yellowtail barracudas

Say hello to the Starry Pufferfish

This shy fella trying to hide itself is the black botched porcupinefish

The blue-spotted stingray

The really huge Jenkin's whipray that was moving really fast too

The very pretty blue ringed angelfish

The yellow boxfish juvenile

The orange-banded coralfish

Another of my favourite- the very pretty rainbow parrot fish

Another family of the parrot fish

A Nudibranch - the Funeral Juveno

Another colourful Nudibranch- Phyllidia varicosa

The very well camouflaged Indian Ocean Walkman!

Try identifying the Indian Ocean Walkman here. Seriously they are so cleverly camouflaged

The smooth flutemouth

The hermit crab

Top view of the hermit crab

Saw a few green sea turtles but only managed to get one good shot of this green sea turtle with the shark suckers

Bidding the infreakingsanely beautiful little paradise goodbye

Since we were in Turtle Land, took the opportunity to buy some keropok lekor from one of Turtle Land (Kuala Terengganu) most famous keropok lekor stall. It's RM 5 for 20 keropok lekor! Other than the fried one, this stall also sells the steam one which I don't quite fancy and they are actually coming up with a new cheese flavour one (which we had the liberty to try but imho there's not much cheese), so a fusion of cheese keropok lekor next time?

As I had said before, the fruit juices of Kuala Terengganu are the best in the whole Malaysia. Nowhere else can you get such huge, pure and concentrated fruit juices at such cheap price (like only RM 3 per glass) and the most unique part is in fact, there are famous for their mix fruit juices so try that if you ever drop by Turtle Land!

This time round, we stayed at D' Rock Garden also on the Long Beach which like it's name indicates, located on the rocks so we get to enjoy beautiful seaview scenery even from our rooms. But the downside being, it is quite a climb to get to our chalets so unless one is absolutely physically fit, if not it can be quite tiring especially after a long day of diving. None the less, it is one of the more affordable chalets (as long as you don't mind basic type of accomodation) and it is on the Long Beach side so I still get to enjoy my favourite part of Perhentian without having to walk across the island or being terrorize by monitor lizards.

Although it was a very short and pretty packed getaway (back to back diving), but being able to spend even a little time secluded on that piece of little paradise just enjoying the pure bliss of waking up to the sound of crashing waves and being greeted by warm, glowing sun, crystal clear water, white soft sand, cool sea breeze, pleasant smell of the salty sea and the bluest sky away from the hectic world is the definite perfect stress-buster. I can't think of a better way to relax an afternoon away other than to just practice the art of doing nothing by a superbly attractive beach, taking in the surrounding with some soothing music, ice-cold milkshake and perhaps a good read or a good sleep under one of those umbrellas (which we now had to rent at RM 10). Not forgetting, the dives itself were already worth the drive up and down JB-KT.

Perhaps just a little community message - let's just all remember to keep the beach and island clean! The reason it is so beautiful and awesomely gorgeous now is because it is still fairly clean so let's all be responsible tourists and maintained it as a paradise as it is now. If not, I for one will definitely be heart-broken to know that my no.1 comfort destination is ruin by garbages from over-tourism.

Seriously, I'm so missing this piece of little paradise now. Anyone, transport me back there now, pretty please? ♥ :)

Singapore : East Coast Park with the Girlfriends

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:26:00 +0000

Last weekend was definitely an awesome one. Had been doing some planning with some of my girlfriends and after much discussions, we finally decided to have a sleepover and spent some girls time at the East Coast Park, Singapore. So, me and Chloe drove into Singapore after I knocked off and met up with the rest of the babes at our chalet (the Goldkist Beach Resort).

Seriously, with all the weekend traffic across the causeway, we finally got to our chalet at about 9pm and almost everyone else at every other chalets were BBQ-ing! The BBQ ~~stench~~ aroma was so thick one could easily locate the Goldkist just by sniffing the air. But yes, that's what most people do at the East Coast park; BBQ, picnic, cycling, roller blading and hanging out by the beach. We, however did not do the BBQ as we thought it was too much of a hassle to prepare the food and stuff since we didn't had the time beforehand either.

Our very basic chalet where we spent the whole night spilling and sharing sweet sweet secrets :p

It was also SY's birthday so had a mini celebration with the pretty babe

The stripey duo with the same hair color!

We spent Sunday morning cycling around the park. It was definitely some very good Sunday morning exercise. Yes, you heard me right, I was cycling too! I didn't thought I could do the cycling initially so Tong and I actually rented the duol bike where we cycled together lovingly

And then, with encouragement from the babes, I decided to hop onto one of the bicycle and voila, I could cycle after all! I mean I always had the fear of faling off the bike, not being able to balance etc but honestly, it was really really fun being able to pedal on two wheels

And the best part was, cycling along the beach was really awesome as the mild sea breeze blow against our face and we got to enjoy nice, peaceful sea view with ship containers dotting the horizon

Just me and my girlfriends

After spending the whole morning and afternoon at the East Coast, we finally decided to move somewhere near the city centre for some desserts before heading back home. With the weather being really hot and warm lately (so unlike of the monsoon), it just makes me craves for desserts much. I'm so addicted to desserts these days. At last, we found ourselves at Shokudo Japanese coffee house at Bugis Junction for some really delicious and refreshing Japanese desserts. They have other Japanese food aside from desserts but our main focus there was on those mouth watering sweet tooth satisfier. What I love the most about the Japanese desserts are their abundant usage and combination of red beans, macha ice cream and mochi.

The mountain of mango kakigori- fresh mango slush ice with Konnyaku jelly. Honestly this is so much larger than what was illustrated. You know how most illustrations are usually larger than the real thing but this is the direct opposite

The black sesame ice cream with Japanese red bean, mochi and slush ice underneath

The cheesecakes are so good. They are like a compact lot of cheese that is filling and tantalizing at the same time

Nothing can beat these drinks of yuzu (pomelo) and strawberry yogurt smoothie to quench the dry throat on a hot day. Seriously, I totally wouldn't mind something a little sourish yet still naturally sweet on a hot hot day. I'm much in love with yogurt drinks these days, talking about trying to be sinfully healthy *haha*!

Although it was just a short weekend together, it was certainly some quality time spent together with the girlfriends just chillaxing away from the city centre. And of course, at times, some girls gossip, relaxing cycling, nice sea breeze and awesome desserts are all we need to keep us happy. :)

Shokudo Japanese Coffee Shop,

Bugis Junction,

200, Victoria Street #01-53

Tel : +65-6338 9216

The Bierhaus, Johor Bahru

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:20:00 +0000

In recent years, there are more and more variety of culinaries mushrooming in Johor Bahru and the German cuisine is among those in the bandwagon.

Well, to celebrate me turning sweet "16" last week, me and a few of my friends from back in uni decided to meet up and go German for dinner sometime last week. And like the Mediterranean restaurant, there aren't many German restaurant in Johor Bahru. The Bierhaus is probably one of the more well-known one around town. The first Bierhaus opened their doors to all German pork and beer fans at Daiman Bowl in Taman Johor Jaya a few years back followed by their second branch at Taman Sentosa (the one we went last week). I had been to both outlets and I personally like the Taman Sentosa branch better simply because it is more spacious and closer to my home.

Being a German restaurant, of course aside from the variety of beer, you can expect lots of pork on their menu too. From the signature-must-try pork knuckle to pork sausages to pork pepperoni pizza and pork lasagna, German pork fans will surely be swarm by porky happiness.

The signature pork knuckle that is a must try. Crispy and tender, it is huge enough for 5-6 adults to share

The other signature dish, the six variety of German pork sausages. This, imho is not as good as the pork knuckle though. In fact, I find some of the pork sausage too salty and some too bland

Pork pepperoni pizza. A definite refreshing twist to our usual pizza but aside from the fact that it's pork pepperoni, I find the pizza pretty average

Pork chop - Pretty good especially when eaten with the sauce

Lamb shank - I'm never a fan of the lamb but I did tried a small bite of it and the mutton taste is definitely strong

Minced pork spaghetti- this too is just pretty much average

Pork lasagna- I find their lasagna pretty disappointing actually as firstly it took really a long time to come (but that's understandable as it takes time to bake). Secondly, the lasagna itself is kinda whimsy thin and the sauce doesn't complement the pork and lasagna well

The awesome friends. Thank you guys :)

Overall, I rate the Bierhaus a 6.5/10. It's definitely a nice place to chill and unwind with friends over some good pork knuckle, beer (for all beer fans) and light background music after a long day. But seriously, aside from their pork knuckle, there's really nothing much to shout about the other dishes. While they don't taste bad, they are not superbly delicious either, perhaps just justifiable to satisfy the cravings for all JBrians German food fan. Nonetheless, a few of my friends actually think that their pork sausages are good too. So I guess I'll leave you to judge for yourself as one man meat is another man poison, no? :)

The Bierhaus,

299-299A, Jalan Sutera,

Taman Sentosa,

80150 Johor Bahru,

Johor

Tel : 07- 333 3723

PS : This is not an advertorial or paid review. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only, hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrimination in taste or opinion. :)

Turning 16 at Sweetwater Bar and Bistro

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:45:00 +0000

I turned '16' last week! It was definitely amazing turning another year younger and wiser, especially when one is surrounded by equally amazing people who showers me with much love. Since I was working in the day, we decided to have a little celebration over a nice dinner. And we decided to go Mediterranean this time round. It's still literally Western cuisine but with a touch of classic Mediterranean recipes through the likes of Spain, Italy, France, Morocco, Greece and Turkey. There aren't many Mediterranean restaurants in Johor Bahru, but one of the more reputable one that I know of is the Sweetwater Bar and Bistro.

The birthday girl :)

Basket of fresh, hot bread served on the house to start off our meal

My choice of the night- Salmone alla griglia char. Awesomely thick and succulent grilled salmon with butternut squash, honey and raspberry vinaigrette

HT's rotisserie young duckling seasoned with dry marinate and served moist with a crispy skin, red cabbage salad and drizzled with orange sauce. It was defnitely a tantalizing blend of tender, soft meat on the inside and crispy skin on the outside

Sis's tender spring chicken spit cooked with oyster mushrooms and confit of potato. The spring chicken is cook to perfect tenderness and the potato so soft. The potato is not too buttery nor creamy, just nice simply

Mum's moroccan chicken with kalamata olives, preserved lemon and coriander served with saffron rice. Another very flavorful and delectable dish

Dad's linguine with clams. I'm not much a fan of clams but dad said they are pretty good and fresh too

A pizza Mare e Monti from the fire wood oven to share- totally love the combination of mozarrella, tiger prawns, aspragus, tomato and mushroom. The only minus point was the overly baked crust edges that was slightly burnt, otherwise this traditional pizza is surely much applauded

This time round, we didn't had the desserts from Sweetwater as we were all saving spaces for my super yummy birthday cake ♥

My new love from Secret Recipe - the chocolate berries cheesecake. It's so delish and good that I can't resist helpings after helpings of it. The superb combination of a little sourish sweet berries topping and chocolate bottom

The lovelies ♥

With so much of yummy food and cake, it's no wonder I'm growing in width again. #dilemmaofagirl Overall, I rate Sweetwater a sweet 8/10. The food are delish with the portion just nice for one, not too large and not too small either. The ambience too is welcoming and romantic with an open kitchen concept. Nonetheless, food there is kinda pricey but I felt still worth it for the quality and service. It was really comfortable dining there and definitely a very relax and enjoyable dinner to spend a birthday evening. :)

Sweetwater Bar and Bistro (Mediterranean Restaurant),
116, Jalan Serampang,
Taman Pelangi,
80400 Johor Bahru,
Johor, Malaysia
Tel : 607-331 4349
Website : http://www.sweetwaterrestaurant.info

PS : This is not a paid advertorial or review. All opinions are based on yours truly point of view only hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrimination in taste or opinion. :)

Singapore - Of Delicious Ramen and Sinfully Good Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:56:00 +0000

HT and I like to try to have a date night at least once a month. It can be anything from a simple good meal at any of our local favourite joint to splurging at some atas restaurant, but the point is at least once a month, we get dressed up and go out on a date. Hence, over Merdeka (National) Day, as we both had our day off for the week, we decided to drive into Singapore and satisfied ourselves with some really delicious food.

My all new 'I-Love-London' passport cover, ironically bought in Hong Kong for only HKD 20 (about RM 8). I really love it's cute design ♥

Outfit for the day
High-low dress - Hong Kong
Necklace - Forever 21
Watch - Fossil
Bracelet - Taiwan
Bag - Burberry Blue label
Wedge - Charles and Keith

One of my all time favourite food is definitely the Japanese food (I guess by now anyone who knows me long enough or who have been following this blog will have realize) and among the Japanese food, the ramen is definitely on the top of the list. Like seriously, give me a bowl of ramen at anytime of the day and I almost surely cannot resist it.

Thus, we decided to pay Ippudo Ramen, one of Japan's renowned ramen restaurant a visit. Having two branches here in Singapore (one at Mandarin Gallery along Orchard road and the other at UE Square), we went to the one at Mandarin Gallery. If you haven't heard of it, this ramen restaurant is so popular since their opening in 2009 that at every lunch or dinner time, there are definitely queues of people waiting to dine in their restaurant. We were there at about 6 pm, shortly before the dinner rush begun, so we managed to get a table without having to wait or queue.

The spicy shrimp mayo - these lightly battered deep fried juicy prawns dip in slighly spicy mayonnaise is one good appetizer

The 5-kinds Cheese Jaga Balls - tantalizing little potato cheese balls in five different flavours that unfortunately all tasted pretty much the same to us. I felt that these cheese balls have more potato than cheese in them

Can't wait to tug into the hearty bowl of ramen!

One of the best original tonkotsu I have tried, the Shiromaru Motoaji- The broth itself, being a little creamy but still delicate have a distinctive strong but seriously aromatic pork bone taste that in combination with their springy, self-made thin noodles and luscious, glimmering piece of rosu chashu (pork loin) have this bowl of classic Hakata-style ramen sent delightful shivers down the palate with every mouthful

The Akamaru Shinaji - This more refined, modern style ramen has broth more enhanced with miso paste and garlic oil serves together with the pork belly also sends mouthful of delightful shivers down the palate for those who enjoy a twist of garlic frangrance to their tonkotsu and a little more fat in their buta

The distinguish noodles. You can choose to have your noodles done soft, medium or hard but my personal favourite is the soft kind

Add ons such as the gorgeous tamago, pork belly, tender pork cubes or a combination of all named the Akamaru Special (a combo of tamago, bamboo shoots and pork cubes) are also available

Unlike many Japanese ramen restaurant, Ippudo with it's warm, slightly dim lightings has a more classy and vibrant vibe

Aside from a whole other variety of ramens that we didn't got to try, they do have other Japanese appetizers and side dishes such as the gyoza, pork bun and rice dishes. However, they do not have sushi rolls though.

Well, the only thing I didn't like about Ippudo is the lack of privacy. Everyone are seated so closely together it's almost the same as sharing tables and it can get really awkward when you can hear the entire conversation of diners around you and vice versa. I mean seriously, with the tables being all so close by, it's literally more of an eat-and-go restaurant rather than one that you might want to bring your first date to.

Nonetheless, the ramens being the spotlight are definitely heavenly enough, making it worthy going all the way to Singapore just to have a taste of it. :)

Ippudo Ramen Restaurant @ Mandarin Gallery,
333A, Orchard Road,
#04-02/03/04
Singapore 238867
Tel : +65- 6235 2797

The evening traffic at Orchard Road on a Friday

Despite the very delicious ramen, I was having very strong cravings for some real good chocolate (read : lava cake), hence after a little shopping at the nearby malls, we proceeded to one of my favourite chocolate bar, the Max Brenner (click to read my previous post on Max Brenner) for some late night sinful indulgence. Seriously, it is really the place to be for all chocolate lovers.

Just being in that place smelling the sweet aroma of chocolate released my endorphins already

The Melting Chocolate Truffle Heart Cake and shake served with vanilla ice cream, strawberry and a miniature iced milk chocolate shot is one of the BEST lava cake ever

The chocolate rich cake filled with lushful and enticing chocolate also comes with a bottle of free flow chocolate that we could add on for a truly sinful chocolate love affair. There's just no way anyone will not feel happy finishing up that piece of oozing, tantalizing, mouth-watering lava cake (best eaten with the vanilla ice cream), at least I know this is definitely my no.1 comfort food. Just looking and thinking of it makes me drown in some degree of happiness already

Oh, the chocolate,oh chocolate! Yum to the max ♥

The Suckao - Do-it-yourself chocolate shot

So one gets to mix the milk with as much of the chocolate chips as they prefer and HT's one was one rich, concentrated wicked shot of dark chocolate

I decided to tone down all those divine dark chocolate with a cup of strawberry white chocolate smoothie blending pure white chocolate truffle, yogurt and fresh strawberries. The sourish sweet combinaton is certainly a perfect finish for the sugar rush

All those sinful, divine, lusty, tempting chocolate definitely makes me a happy happy girl ♥ (trust me, I don't usually take so many duck lip pictures)

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar,

8 Raffles Avenue,

#01-06/08, Esplanade Mall,

Singapore 039892

Tel : +65- 6235 9556

The Singapore skyline from the Esplanade

It was a perfect date night, with all the chocolate partially responsible for the serotonin surge that surely elevated my mood. Speaking of how good food can keep one happy too. JB, can we have an Ippudo and Max Brenner too pretty please? There's just too many Taiwanese and HK dessert shops around JB, I need a good chocolate bar too.

Seriously, when life is so good and if anyone tries to ruin it for you just because they are sour grapes like that, forget about them and treat yourself with these savoury ramen and end your day by balancing it with this perfect chocolate truffle heart cake instead. A definite love to spend with the love one. ♥ :)

PS : This is not an advertorial or paid review. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only, hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrimination in taste or opinion. :)

Ajisai Japanese Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:29:00 +0000

My love for Japanese food have brought me constantly searching for new good Japanese restaurants around. I'm more than willing to try out any Japanese food outlets even if they are just vaguely recommended. So, me family decided to try out Ajisai (coincidentally right beside Rosmarino) for dad's birthday dinner last night. The restaurant, being two-storey is divided into the smoking and non-smoking floor and the non-smoking floor was packed on a Saturday night but fortunately for us, we still managed to get a room all to ourselves.

Our food took a while to come but I figured that's because the whole restaurant was filled with people. Hence, you can imagine how famished we were by the time our food finally arrived.

The avocado and tempura prawn sushi roll

Soft shell crab sushi roll

Grilled asparagus and bacon roll in teriyaki sauce ♥

This is called the tofu tosa age - it is similar to the agedashi tofu except that they are deep fried till crispy brown and served with dried shaved bonito flakes

The stir fried eggplants and prawns with chilli sauce. However, the chilli sauce tasted more like sweet and sour sauce instead. Nonetheless, it's a very refreshing appetizer and the eggplants are really good

Seafood okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) - every mouthful makes you craves for more ♥

Tonkotsu ramen. Instead of the usual tonkotsu ramen in soup (which they also have), this is the dry version where we can either eat the ramen the dry style which I wouldn't recommend or eat it the cha soba way, dipping each spoonful into the flavorful soup before putting them into the mouth

Shioyaki udon- it's basically fried udon with pork and cabbages topped with bonito flakes

The seafood teppanyaki soba which is very good too. Very flavorful indeed

Oyako don - the don set consisting of chicken with scrambled eggs on rice, pickles, fruits and soup. Sadly, their rice is not as good as their noodles. The rice are way too sticky and clumpy and the chicken is rather bland tasting

Shira Tama Macha Ice - green tea ice cream with red bean and mochi. They should have made the red bean less watery and more concentrated. It would have taste much better that way imho

With daddy ♥

Overall, the food are not bad especially the okonomiyaki, eggplants with prawns, tofu and the noodles that I really like. But their rice dishes such as the don and even for the sushi are a tad too sticky for my liking. It's as though they didn't have enough time to wait for the rice to cook properly and there's still a lot of water in the rice if you know what I mean. Most of their dishes are very flavorful weighing more to the salty side. The other downside of Ajisai is the fact that they do not provide sweet sauce foc (they charge RM 3 for every small plateful of the sweet sauce). How sad is that since most of their food are all on the salty side, the normal salty soy sauce will only makes thing worse and we couldn't even have the sweet sauce to balance up the taste. I mean you can request but it's too ridiculous to pay RM 3 for sauce just like how I boycott restaurants that charge for their sambal or chilli sauce. And despite having a room all to ourselves, the walls between the rooms are either simply too thin or people are just talking extremely loud as we can hear all conversation and noise from the group of customers dining next to us crystal clear which is kinda disturbing. Nonetheless, for the good part of their food, large portion and reasonable price, I think they do deserves a 7/10. :)

Ajisai Japanese Restaurant Sdn Bhd,
63, Jalan Kuning 2,
Taman Pelangi
80400 Johor Bahru
Johor
Tel :07-3315458

PS : This is not a paid advertorial or review. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrepancy in taste or opinion. :)

Food Republique, Johor Bahru

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:19:00 +0000

One of the advantage of working under the shift system is undeniably a better quality of life for the housemen. Thanks to the shift system, we now have more time to spend outside of work; meeting up with friends and family for meals after or before work so much so I don't think the complain of 'not-enough-family/friends-time' existed anymore. Of course, sacrifices still had to be made, you can't meet up with people all the time, but you are seriously not all that socially deprived anymore. Hence, before Mich goes MIA back in KL till God knows when, I managed to catch her over dinner last Friday at one of my favourite beef burger restaurant in town, Food Republique.

It's honestly nothing related with the high end Singapore food court chain, Food Republic that can also be found at Pavilion KL, but rather this is Food Repulique with the 'que' (that's what Mich had initially thought it is, the high end food court chain). I'm not much of a fan of beef, more so after the beef noodle incident in Guangzhou, but I just cannot resist good beef especially when they have bacon and cheese in them. :)

Appetizers to share- 6 pieces of fried polenta

The inside of the polenta- It is actually Italian corn meal fried to perfection

In case you are not a fan of beef, the pan fried milk fish served with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted mix vegetables is an excellent alternative too. It has a pretty aromatic buttery sweet taste that would had make it really yum if not for it being a tad too oily

Joyce's decided to go for the more subtle char grilled double cheesy cheese burger which have a piece of juicy char grilled beef patty melted with extra ceddar cheese sandwiched between two fluffy toasted buns

Me, on the other hand ate of course what I went there for- the char grilled caramelized cheesy bacon cheese burger. That juicy piece of tender and succulent beef with melted cheese bathed over it and sinfully delicious bacon to top it is simply excellent. I'm craving for it like now!

The interior of the restaurant, quite a cosy ambience with extremely helpful staffs around

Mich, me, Joycie

Seriously it's such simple bliss to be able to spend an evening after work gossiping with another two of my longest friends over a huge plate of yummy beef burger that kept my tummy happy too. All of their beef burgers are served with half of a fresh sweet corn or lettuces and fries. The whole plate of beef burger is so large/filling that we couldn't even make room for desserts. That was why I probably suffered from indigestion till the next morning. But despite enjoying their beef burger so much, I'm still not a fan of beef and yes, the phobia towards beef is still there. Nonetheless, if you don't take beef, they have other non-beef items such as the pan-fried butter fish that tasted quite good too. :)

Food Republique,
72 Jalan Kuning (behind Pelangi Leisure Mall),
80400 Johor Bahru
Johor
Tel : 07-3311718

PS : This is not a paid advertorial/ review. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only. Hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrepancy in taste or opinion. :)

Hong Kong - Meeting The Celebrities

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:53:00 +0000

Yes, up close and personal with some of the most popular, celebrated and fabulous movie stars, music icons, royals, world-renowned athletes, national heroes and even historical person. Meet almost 100 of them, from Hong Kong and Asian superstars to glamorous Hollywood megastars to all the other A-lists celebrities and legendary icons of all time welcoming visitors with their most signature pose at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong. Located at the Peak Galleria, it was the most fun thing to do when I was there at the Peak (very foggy and hazy so much so it dashed any hope of embracing the scenic view of Hong Kong from the Peak).

One of my fav Hong Kong's iconic martial artist of all time, Bruce Lee

Our very own diva Dato' Michelle Yeoh is there too

International superstar Jackie Chan, known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing and innovative stunts in his movies, especially the action comedies is one of the first few celebrities to greet visitors at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong. No one is actually allow to take pictures of Jackie even from a distance except the photography crew of Madame Tussauds themselves but I managed to steal this one precious shot

The genius behind the founding of the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum all around the world - wax sculptor Marie Tussaud herself

One of the most suave four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong music and film industry, Andy Lau. This is certainly a younger figure of him. Nonetheless, I think he has one of the best looking nose around. He is one unique figure made of silicone instead of wax and you can actually feel his heartbeat as you go close to his heart. Aww!

Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou also known for his role in the Hollywood movie Green Lantern

Going on a date with Louis Koo. Seriously, I find his boyish smile and perfectly bronze skin really attractive ♥

British heartthrob Rob Pattinson. Certainly a very pretty and charming face to look at

Being Spidey

This is the most un-alike wax figure imho. This is suppose to be a romantic bicycle ride with one of another Hong Kong four Heavenly Kings, Leon Lai but his face looks too distorted there

Sexy and talented Johnny Depp well-known for comical and eccentric role as the Captain Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka and Mad Hatter

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" with the timeless beauty and graceful Audrey Hepburn

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip

The late Princess Diana. She's like one of my favourite humanitarian of all time; kind, elegant, gorgeous and definitely missed

Taking the calls at the oval office with President Barrack Obama

Mum waving hi with the President of China himself, Hu Jintao!

Father of Modern Physics, Albert Einstein. His most famous physic equation that I remembers most clearly is E= MC2

Mahatma Gandhi- One of the most modest and humble leader that led India to it's independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom around the world

Where art thou, William Shakespeare?

One of the most influential and talented artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso

Playing basketball with Yao Ming is sure a challenge as he is one super tall guy

King of Rock and Roll of all time, Elvis Presley

Despite his much controversial personal life, I can't deny the King of Pop is one legendary singer with his signature moonwalk dance and evergreen classics such as Billie Jean, Black or White, Thriller, Beat It and Heal the World

The woman with her eccentric and bold fashion choice - Lady Gaga

A good time at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong

We certainly had a fun morning at the Peak not only meeting and went picture frenzy with these celebrities, or rather their wax figurines, we also had a great time touching, hugging, tickling, dancing and even kissing them (some people really do) and there they all are, warmly appreciating and tolerating everybody antics without even batting as much as an eyelash. These wax figurines are so alike it actually gave me goosebumps. It's really amazing to see even the look and expression on the wax figures are captured so similarly to their real counterparts. Consisting more than a third Asians (Hong Kong) celebrities and well-known figures, I guess that's what distinguish Madame Tussauds Hong Kong from the rest of it's branches around the world. :)

Hong Kong - The View, The Shopping, The Stars and The Most Densely Populated City

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:35:00 +0000

It's almost three weeks now since I came back from Hong Kong and I finally found time to be blogging about it. I was there near the end of July and it was a bad timing indeed. Hong Kong weather had been most unfriendly to me; intermittent downpour and strong winds four out of the five days I was there. Occasionally, the sun would peep shyly behind heavily clouded Hong Kong but for most times, it was heavy downpour so much so I even rejoiced when it drizzled instead of rain. I really really dislike traveling when it is raining (forget about dancing in the rain seriously) mainly for the fact that it is so uncomfortable to be walking around and the worst part is, all the pictures, especially scenery shots would turn out horrendous! All shots taken during rainy days looked just like the weather itself - gloomy, grayish, dull and foggy. The rain was so potong stim I didn't even had much mood to take pictures (or dress up as a matter of fact).

It was at the height of the Typhoon Vicente the morning I flew to Hong Kong. I was so worried our flight would canceled initially. I mean, honestly after all the hassle of applying leaves bla bla bla, it would be so heart breaking if I can't fly to Hong Kong and got stuck back here in JB instead.

The three sleepyheads at the airport early in the morning. Yes seriously, I think I woke up at some unGodly 3 or 4 am just to make it to the airport in time only to find out my flight had gotten delayed by an hour. None the less, we were still very excited that our flight was not canceled and taking the chance after all

However, our flight to Hong Kong wasn't as smooth sailing as we had hoped it would be. It was some 3-4 hours flight from Singapore to Hong Kong but due to impermissible weather condition, our flight was forced to make a detour to the Guangzhou airport leaving all of us on board stranded for like another 3-4 hours on the plane. We were told to wait inside the plane obediently until further plans were given to the Captain. Seriously, the wait was quite an agony because every minute that ticked by was time wasted; we had wasted more than half a day in the plane instead of walking around Hong Kong already. Thankfully, Typhoon Vicente finally had some sense to move into other countries towards late afternoon and our flight was allowed once again to land at the Hong Kong International Airport towards the evening.

The most entertaining thing to do while waiting restlessly was well, camwhoring :p

As we stayed at the Mongkok area, the most convenient way to get there was by the airport bus A21. They have the MTR but considering the fact that we would had to carry our luggages up and down the stairs in the train stations, the bus sounded like a more feasible option. The bus ride was about 45 minutes to an hour and the best part was, Hong Kong airport buses have free wifi in them!

Free wifi that runs at a pretty fast speed too

Ask anyone who had been to Hong Kong and 99% of them will complain about the size of their hotel/guesthouse room, especially for those located at popular locations. Our guesthouse (Oi Suen) was no exception. Located at Mongkok, one of the most bustling city, the width of our room was only about the length of my arms widespread measured end-to-end (so much so you wonder if they are made for the Lilliput citizens) and there's just sufficient spaces to miraculously fit beds for 3 people, an ensuite bathroom and a tiny cabinet. But despite the stingy size, they managed to keep it clean and adequate with the air con, hot shower and good wifi in rooms. It is also very very strategically located, right at the heart and core of Hong Kong's most heavily populated city along Argyle Street, with the Mongkok MTR, Argyle Shopping Centre, Ladies Market, Fa Yuen Market, Nathan Road and plenty of yummy food in the vicinity all within 5-10 minutes walk. For the convenience and beauty of the location itself, it was no wonder we had to pay so much a night for a room so tiny.

The one day MTR tourist passes. For only HKD 55 each, it gave us unlimited access to rides on the MTR for the day

The aftermath of Typhoon Vicente still seen at some parts of the city

Despite the weather being gloomy and all, as it wasn't raining, we decided to try our luck at The Peak, hoping to catch a glimpse of Hong Kong's spectacular city view from Hong Kong Island highest mountain. There are several ways to get to The Peak but the most scenic and historical way will be by the Peak Tram.

The Peak Tram Lower Terminus is located at Garden Road which is about 15 minutes walk from Central MTR station and between the prominent Bank of China and the Cheung Kong centre

Finally at the Peak Tram Lower Terminus

The historical peak tram- operating since 1888 which means it is more than a century old already! It was a pretty enjoyable ride up with the tram with lush natural wonders and cool air accompanying us all the way up to The Peak

It was a disappoiting day trying to catch a glimpse of the metropolitan at The Peak. The fog was so thick so much so it covered up the entire view of Hong Kong city from the Sky Terrace. We barely could appreciate any stunning view aside from thick fog floating wickedly around. None the less, there were a few moments when the fog clears up a little before the next wave blown in and we could make out the view below but really, it was the most sad and unappealing bird's eye view ever. I had watched sufficient Hong Kong dramas and movies to know how breathtaking the view from the Peak could be, so the weather was just being a total brat making our view at the Peak a let down that day

Probably one of the most un-breathtaking view of Hong Kong from the Peak (the pic had been quite heavily photoshopped to remove as much fog as possible). The only fun thing we did at the Peak was visiting the Madame Tussauds wax museum but I will save that to blog about next time

The Peak Tram - available at every 15 minutes interval

After leaving The Peak, our next destination was the Times Square shopping mall at Causeway Bay. I mean, seriously it was raining cats and dogs by the time we left the Peak, hence since any walking in the outdoor wasn't feasible, we thought of just checking out one of Hong Kong's major shopping mall in comfort, away from the windy, rainy outdoor. Almost all the tenants of the mall are international designer brand names from the higher ends one like Bally, Gucci, Burberry, Chanel and Mikimoto to more mid range ones like Zara, FCUK or Paul Smith that can also be found back home here (save a few like Samantha Thavasa and Vivienne Westwood). As soon as the heavy downpour turned into a drizzle, we left the mall to explore some nearby streets in hope to stumble upon some good food to fill our rumbling tummies.

Samantha Thavasa - all bright and bling up with their signature bear hanging from their bags is the first shop to greet all shoppers who enters the mall from exit A1 of the Causeway Bay MTR station

Despite HK's land restriction, the Times Square is one of HK's largest shopping mall with 9 stories of shops and two towers of office complexes

Walking along Yun Ping Road of Causeway Bay, another street filled with more designer shops and buildings. Seriously, with rents in the shopping areas of Causeway Bay ranking second highest in the world (slightly behind New York's Fifth Avenue), they are surely the more upmarket side of HK filled with a lot of trendy working-class young adult and the more affluent community

Louis Vuitton inside the Lee Gardens, another posh, classy high end mall located along Hysan Avenue of Causeway Bay

A whole building belonging to Cartier

Aside from having a feel of where the more rich and posh side of HK shops, we also tried what is recommended as one of the best fish ball noodles in HK by a local travel magazine at Causeway Bay. Yes, apparently aside from the more well-known dim sum, HK porridge and wan tan noodles, the Hong Kies do love fish ball noodles pretty a lot too. Located along the East Canal Road (the road on the left from Times Square main lobby), the Kong Chai Kee established their first ever fish ball noodles branch there. They also claimed to be among the few restaurants in the island to have their own family-run factory that produces home-made fish balls the Chiu Chow style with 20 years history.

A bowl of hot, piping home made fish ball noodle on a cold day was simply heavenly. While the fish balls were bouncy and soft, they do lack a tad bit of fish taste imho. I found them not too bad but not too impressible as well

It was still raining by the time we left Causeway Bay and head to the Victoria Harbour and the Avenue of Stars. Funnily enough, it was like deja vu being at the Victoria Harbour, standing right before the parade of vessels and skyline of skyscrapers superimposed over the ridges behind although it was really just my first time there. I guess all the HK dramas and movies once again brought back that sense of familiarization. Even with the dull grayish sky as background, the view was pretty amazing, so it's easy to imagine how stunning the panaromic night view and skyline must-be, especially when the Symphony of Light comes alive at night. We unfortunately did not stay late enough to enjoy the night view or the Symphony of Light as the rain only got heavier as night falls and on rainy days, the Symphony of Light performance will also be cancel anyways.

The view at Victoria Harbour

The Avenue of Stars (modeled after Hollywood Walk of Fame) is located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront, honoring some of the most famous people of the Hong Kong film industry in the past decades. Just remember to look down as you walk, as you excitedly look for the hand prints and signatures of some of your most favourite Hong Kong artiste deeply engraved onto their individual 'plate' on the pavement

Who do you think I'm most excited to look for here?

I love this pic. So cute :)

Lights, camera, action

Martial artist and one of HK most legendary artiste - a statue of Bruce Lee at the Avenue of Stars

The most popular 'plate' - the plate of Jackie Chan. Seriously, every single minute, there are people queuing to take pictures with his plate

My hand is like only 1/3 of Jackie Chan's? I have got quite small hands. Haha

Ok, maybe 2/3 of his hand size :p

Among some other notable stars that had their hand prints there are like Jet Li, the Four Heavenly Kings (Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai), Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Stephen Chow, Chow Yun Fatt, the Hui brothers (Sam and Michael Hui), director John Woo and even our very own Michelle Yeoh! But out of the 100 plus list of stars they have there, they actually do NOT have Raymond Lam or Louis Koo!! Like why? They are both like my favourite Hong Kong stars and it was quite a bummer I couldn't find their names there :(

The Hong Kies super love dogs too I realized. I can easily see Filipino maids bringing their dogs out for walks especially in the morning. This pomeranian had the luxury of going around in a baby's pram

This super fat and fluffy chow chow is only like 1 month old. Such a poser too. He is so super duper cute I want to kidnap him home can

Mongkok - the most densely populated city in the world in fact (according to the Guinness World of Records) where they still preserves the traditional characteristics of HK with the array of markets, small shops and food stalls that are fast disappearing in rapidly developing Hong Kong. It is where more affordable, trendy and fashionable shopping, a mixture of old and new multi-storey buildings, brightly painted and lit huge signboards sticking out everywhere and good, yummy food can be found in abundant. It must be pretty crazy to live in Mongkok, having to squeeze your way through your daily life with thousands more of people; from lala teenagers to stylishly dressed men in blazers and ties and women in classy working suits at every corner of the district all the time

Argyle Street- one of the busiest street in Mongkok

The Argyle Shopping Centre located less than 5 minutes walk from my guesthouse! Such bliss. They sell a lot of Korean/ Japan/ Bangkok style boutique clothes as compared to Hong Kong style and they are having summer sales when I was there so I managed to get quite a bit of good shopping from there. It's just that I kinda noticed a lot of their items are similar to those that I saw in Bangkok recently. Sometimes I'm just confused as to whether it's the Korean/ Jap/ HK style that Bangkok sells or the Korean/ Jap/ Bangkok style that HK sells if that makes sense

There are a few entrances to Argyle shopping centre and another one of them is directly opposite the exit D1 or D2 of the Mongkok MTR station

Among some of the stuff selling at Argyle shopping centre

Good news for Sasa fans. Sasa is everywhere in Hong Kong. You can find literally find one Sasa every few metres apart. And the best thing is, Sasa in Hong Kong is actually really cheap. It's like 1 set of Dolly Wink falsies is only RM 42 in HK and they are selling for RM 55 in Malaysia and 1 bottle of DKNY 'Be Delicious' perfume for RM 130-150 in Sasa HK *regret mode*

Mongkok on a rainy night

My sis doesn't want to show her face here that's why it is pixelated

Busy Mongkok traffic

Fa Yuen Street market

At the Ladies (or also known as Tung Choi Street) market. I got the dress from Argyle mall for only HKD 80. Such a steal!

As it was raining so frequently, the umbrella quickly became my best friend throughout my trip. They are actually selling these fanciful umbrellas pretty cheap at the Ladies Market. We managed to find one stall that sold us these fanciful, cute umbrellas for HKD 30 (about RM 12) one

A whole lot of funky, cute and humorous luggage tags sold at HKD 20 (after bargaining) one. Almost same price as those similar luggage tags sold at the Platinum Mall in Bangkok. I just couldn't resist temptations like that, buying all those totally unnecessary but irresistibly adorable knick knacks

Other stalls around Ladies Market

Blending in at the hustling streets of Mongkok

The famous Nathan Road

Brightly painted (and lit at night) huge signboards sticking out are a trademark of this district

You know you are in Mongkok when you see these many signboards

Finally, on our last day in Hong Kong- a sunny day with the sun gently warming up the city

My whole recent trip to Hong Kong can be akin to eating stinky tofu really. We started out pretty rough and I didn't fancy the whole city much initially; so packed with people, so many traffic, so hectic, so busy and so cosmopolitan. Furthermore, the wet and damp weather didn't help much. But like the stinky tofu, (you know once you decided to bypass the smell and slowly savour it's real taste) once we starts savouring the flavours of the city in more depth, we realized beyond those sea of people, fast pace lifestyle, tall skyscrapers and mad traffic, Hong Kong has plenty of precious gems hidden waiting to be explore and to love as well. So, my impression towards the whole city pretty much shifted from the negative side to the positive side of the spectrum over the five days I was there. I will blog more about what to love or what gems of theirs actually changed my impression about this city in my coming posts, so till then, stay tuned and have a good Hari Raya weekend. :)

Rosmarino

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Rumoured to be among the best Italian restaurants in Johor Bahru, we decided to celebrate HT's birthday going Italian and checked it out last night. My previous attempts to dine there had always been futile, having to miss dining there each time after finding out that they were full house for the night (Yes, their business is just so good like that especially during peak hours, so if you don't call to reserve in advance, there are high chances you won't be able to get a table walking in).

Hence, I was pretty delighted when they announced that they had a table for us despite walking in once again to find it fully packed. I know, I should had called to reserve in advance, but in JB, we are still pretty fortunate to be able to get tables even at popular restaurants without reservation most of the time, thus it slipped my mind once again to call and made reservations. Thankfully, it had passed dinner time and some diners were already leaving so we had our table this time round. Located previously at Taman Sri Setia (the start/end point of the current EDL near the Malaysian checkpoint), they had moved to Taman Pelangi for quite a while now and they are bustling with people more than ever.

Everything in their menu has an Italian name but fret not if you are as illiterate to Italian as I'm because below it will be the description of the dish in English. They also have a 'special menu' section where they have a lists of dishes that they change every weekly or monthly so they will have refreshing dishes even for returning customers.

The signature crema di funghi- authentic home cooked mushroom soup to start the night

Bruschetta Al Pomodoro E Basilico- Almost perfect char grilled bread (minus some of the edges that was over grilled) topped with fresh tomatoes and garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and herbs

Melanzane Al Forno Alla Parmigiana - baked eggplants with mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce and basil.

Individually, this is how the baked eggplant looks like. This was actually my least favourite dish of the night. They are more to the bland side and I thought the eggplants were a bit too watery and not cheesy enough

Any visit to an Italian restaurant will not be complete without a pizza. This is the Pizza All Rucola E Prosciutto D Anitra which in English simply means pizza with tomato, mozzarella, tomatoes, rocket and smoked duck breast. I love how the thin crust is so crispy to perfection and the smoked duck was heavenly to be eaten together. The downside though was that there were too few slices of the smoked duck and cheese! Seriously I realized they don't exactly bathed their food in abundant cheese as most of their food are simply not cheesy enough but mum really likes it because she says it's healthier with less cheese. T_T

Linguine All' Aragosta - Linguine with baby lobster, garlic, chilli, extra virgin olive oil and fresh tomatoe. This is a cross between a sourish sweet taste and tinge of spiciness. I also love the freshness of the baby lobster

Spaghetti Alle Vongole E Vino Bianco - Spaghetti with fresh clams, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and a splashed of white wine. The clams were really as fresh as their name indicates and the splash of white wine was definitely delightful to the palate

Risotto Al Nero Di Seppia E Polpa Di Granchio- Italian rice cooked with black squid ink (hence explaining the black color of the rice) and fresh crab meat

Grilled salmon fillet with brocoli, mustard sauce and potatoes. The salmon fillet was nicely done making each bite more tantalizing than before

Cranberry and raspberry sparkling fruit drink

Lastly, the birthday cake for desert. I was so excited when I first saw this fruit pavlova at Lavender the other day. I mean seriously, it is very difficult to look for pavlova in JB. In fact, I don't think I ever saw any place selling them before until recently. The verdict? The crust is pretty crispy alright but the inside is not as soft and light as it should have really been. It kinda have too much cream on the inside. But overall, it's passable with the fruits and crispy crust covering up for the cream and at least, it is available to satisfy my pavlova craves

The birthday boy ♥

Overall, the food at Rosmarino wasn't disappointing. It is pretty good Italian food (I rate 8/10) but as a cheeseaholic, I wish they had a tee wee bit more of cheese in my pizza instead. None the less, I still love their pizza; very flavorful and authentic, pastas, salmon and the mushroom soup. Besides, they have very good service and a nice, relax, comfortable ambience which adds on to their plus points. It is a little pricey to dine there but I think worth it for an enjoyable dinner. Now at least I found another place to head to whenever I craves for authentic thin crust, flavorful pizzas and pastas. And I personally do recommend to call and reserve in advance especially for big groups or peak hours to avoid disappointment of not having tables. :)

Rosmarino Italian Restaurant Sdn Bhd
65, Jalan Kuning 2,
Taman Pelangi,
80400 Johor Bahru
Tel : 07-3339033
Closed on Monday

PS : This is not an advertorial or paid review. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only, hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrimination in taste or opinion. :)

Bangkok 2012- Shop, Eat and Plenty of Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:32:00 +0000

I'm currently on my end-of-posting break which means it had came to an end of my wonderful surgical days. I just got back from Hong Kong the day before but no, I'm not blogging about Hong Kong just yet. Instead, I will finish up from where I last left - Bangkok. I was there with a bunch of friends earlier this month and that marks my 4th revisit to the city. Seriously, I found myself succumbing to the temptations of this hectic, crazy and sinful city all too easily, so much so it's like a yearly affair now I fly to it to satisfy my shopping, massage and Thai food craves. (In case you are interested, you can read about all my previous Bangkok stories here)

In all honesty, Bangkok shopping is getting more expensive by the year. I'm not sure about the rest of the stuff but women clothes and accessories prices are definitely escalating from each of my visit. None the less, they are still cheap (as compared to when buying the exact same item in our country) and most importantly fashionable. If boutique style clothes; both on and offline is your cup of tea, then Bangkok is definitely a city you would not want to miss as most of our local boutiques clothes are all source from Bangkok, hence when buying them in Bangkok, you only pay 1/3 or even lesser than buying them locally.

None the less, some words of advise though, as someone who is consider pretty lean by many, I find most Bangkok girls even skinnier than myself as most of their clothes are made extra small even though they are so called free size. Buying from most markets also means 'no trying' and that means you will have to take the risk of the clothes misfitting and of course,you will need to compromise on the quality and material in most cases. While they are certainly not top grade material or anything but most of my clothes bought from Bangkok have not shrink after multiple washes. (Then again, many clothes these days even from so-called brand names are of poor quality and materials too)

Flying Air Asia to Bangkok on a Sunday morning

Stayed at the Siam Swana hotel this time round. Compared to the rest of the previous hotels that I had stayed, I had to say this is the best overall. It is very strategically located at the heart of Bangkok shopping heaven, the Pratunam district (just 5 minutes walk to the nearest BTS station; Ratchathewi station and 15-20 minutes walk to Platinum fashion mall and Pratunam market), clean, reasonably price and has extremely good wifi in their rooms. The only downsides are perhaps the fact that the rooms are windowless (so might be a problem to those who are claustrophobic but I suppose you can request for windows room) and the lack of elevators but their hotel staffs are more than willing to help with your luggage so that settles it

People, people, people everywhere especially at crowd favourites like the Chatuchak weekend market

A shot from the overhead pedestrian bridge at the Mo Chit station, the nearest BTS station to Chatuchak

No matter how many times I had been to Bangkok, I never got tired of going to the Chatuchak market. Thus, all my flights to Bangkok certainly had at least one of the weekends in them. Popular among both locals and foreigners alike and open only on the weekend, the market boost to have a cocktail of stalls spread over a land as huge as 20 football fields (about 15,000 hectares). As compared to my visits to Chatuchak in 2008 and 2009, the Chatuchak market now (in fact even when I was there last year itself) is a revamped version, with the market now literally divided into two parts; the front half especially the first few rows are now converted to boutique like shops with air-condition, English music and some with even their own labels and the rest of the market still remaining as they are, pasar-malam-like-make-shift stalls and shops.

Of course with the upgrade also means more costly maintenance and thus, more expensive clothes and accessories. No doubt the clothes might look better and it's more comfortable to shop at these upgraded shops but with prices easily doubling their other counterparts in the market and the fact that they do not entertain bargaining (like most will tell you the prices displayed are fix), it felt like a tourist trap to me shopping amidst them. I still prefer those non-upgraded pasar-malam-like-make-shift-stalls and shops with no air-con or English music that allows bargaining and where you have to hunt for your treasures. I mean seriously, when I go to a market to shop, I don't expect to be paying anything more than RM 50 for a piece of clothes. Anyways prices of ladies clothes and I do mean those in-trend ones around Chatuchak have always been around RM 20-30 but as I said the prices are escalating year by year and now at those upgraded boutique style shops, ladies clothes can go up to like RM 60-70 a piece. Too much for market quality clothes that can't be tried imho.

At one of the entrances into Chatuchak. There are like multiple entrances into the market and each rightfully numbered. It is also highly advisable to at least have a map of the Chatuchak market in hand (you can dl it nowadays) so you can navigate yourself through all the various sections (aside from the clothes section, they also have the men clothes, food, pets, plants, households etc sections) of the market without getting completely lost

Another entrance that will lead you to another section of the market

Street performers are commonly seen at the market

The upgraded boutique like shops in Chatuchak these days

Had a feel of shopping in Bangsar instead of Chatuchak at this part of the market

Even some of the inner row of stalls are converted to shop-like

While many ladies fashion shops are repetitive throughout the market or similar, there's this one particular shop that sells a whole variant of Bearbrick (the collectible toy designed by Jap company) T-shirts; from Bearbrick Ironman to Bearbrick Spongebob to Bearbrick Starbucks, they have it all

As we only had like half a day in the market, I spent it all mainly at the ladies section only. Honestly, I think you really will need at least 2 entire days to cover the entire market

Fried salted eggs. While they look so yum, they are so arteries clogging as well

Aside from having many people, many food, many massage centres, many ladyboys and many everything else, Bangkok city has many many markets too to quench the needs of all the shopaholics. The king of it is no doubt the Chatuchak, having a whole lot of variety of designs and choices and being one of the best places to look for real bargains. The other markets are generally pretty small, with not much variety and choices and most of them sells everything that can be found at Chatuchak itself at an even more expensive prices. Personally, aside from Chatuchak, my next favourite market is the Pratunam market. It is more to a wholesale market, so the more you buy, the cheaper you get.

But ever since I discover the treasures of Platinum Fashion Mall, which is the mall opposite of Pratunam market, it took over both Chatuchak and Pratunam as my favourite retail paradise in Bangkok. This is another MUST-go whenever I dropped by Bangkok. Just shopping at both Chatuchak and Platinum is actually enough to satisfy my Bangkok shopping craves. It is a wholesale 6th storey mall with about 4 floors dedicated entirely to the ladies, half a floor or something like that to the men, 2 floors for ladies accessories and a food court. And like the Pratunam market, the more you buy, the cheaper you get so it's the best place to go shopping with your bunch of girlfriends, sisters, mother or in desperate need, approach the other people shopping in the same shop as you do and offer to share with them so that every one of you gets to enjoy the wholesale prices.

Refreshed and recharged for another day of shopping! With only like half a floor dedicated to the men, I bet guys won't quite fancy this mall too much

I'm so in love with their ear docks. I mean seriously they have so many gorgeous and cute ear docks from the blings to non-blings one, I wish I can buy them all. I was actually hoping to find those super bling up or pearl up iphone casing but while they do sell them, their prices are actually similar to our country. So disappointing! I was quite expecting them to sell at half of our prices instead

Shops after shops filled with ladies clothes, shoes, handbags, hats, accessories etc to make you broke at the end of the day

I think the Thai food at their food court are somewhat only mediocre. Nothing much to shout about. The only reason to eat there will be due to the convenience. This is the best stuff there imho. It is actually some stuffed vegetables and mince meat in between eggs. Quite unique and worth the try

Thailand's Ronald McDonald greeting customers with the traditional 'wai' gesture

The food street right in front of Platinum mall where you can expect to find plenty of super yummy local street snacks at very cheap prices

Among some of my fav- the grilled squid. The best part was after grilling the squid to perfection, it is served with their very own special sauce that is very very spicy but you know it's that kind of thing that despite knowing how spicy it is and how it makes your stomach burn, it just taste so good when eating them the aftermath was worth it

Deceiving innocent looking squids that one must not missed (just prepare bottles of water when eating this)

Stuffed crabs! Unlike our famous east coast stuffed crabs (read about them here and here), their stuffed crabs are like super cheap. It's like 3 for 100 baht or something but the funny part was as I was trying to ask if we could only buy one as we want to keep our stomach for more food, the uncle couldn't understand me and in the end, he charged me only 50 baht for 5 stuffed crabs! XD Their stuffed crabs are served with some sort of caramel-ish sweet sauce and it's compactly filled with crab meat and pork. Totally delicious can

Deep fried Thai fishcakes served with some sourish spicy sauce that is so awesomely delicious as well

These unattractive looking stuff are actually pork sausages that are very good as well we took two helpings of it

The mini sausages that are just as good

The palm nuts - I didn't quite like this. It has some sort of funny taste to me

The Thailand bak chang - has palm nuts in them too

Some of the other food that can be found at the food street

Frozen strawberry yogurt drink - it is like half yogurt and half strawberry ice blended. Super perfect after all the gluttony. I love this a lot too

Aside from all those normal yummy food, the Thai people do like to eat bugs too I guess. There is this one particular stall that sells all sorts of deep fried creepy crawlies and the lead star of them all are none other than the scorpions which warrant the most attention. Eating cricket is one thing, but eating scorpion will be like a whole new level especially when scorpions are larger and much much harder

Other crepy crawlies and bugs are like the silk worms, crickets, cockroaches, some sort of larvaes and baby frogs

After my last bug eating experience in Cambodia, I never thought I would ever eat another bug. After all, I had only tried that one cricket for experience sake so I'm not exactly keen for any more bugs eating adventure but somehow they managed to persuade me to eat another silkworm. I know, speaking of peer pressure. Yes, that thing in my hand is a silkworm that I finally ate in one mouthful. In all honestly, it doesn't taste so bad mainly because they were deep fried to such crunchiness and as long as their intestines are not overloaded with faeces, they don't taste as bad as many might have thought

Try guessing what this is

They are actually cockroaches- flying, annoying and even terrorizing to some! If you notice hard enough, those are their heads. Honestly, no matter how much persuasion, I don't think I can ever take my bugs any more than 1 cm so the cockroaches are definitely out of the question. KS was the only one brave enough to swallow the entire cockroach but despite him saying it doesn't taste too bad, it still isn't convincing enough for me

Another must must must drink in Bangkok is their Thai coconut. Truthfully, where else can you find juicy, sweet Thailand coconut for only 10 baht one (like about RM 1 only). Well, even though the Thai coconuts are sold at 25 baht each at Chatuchak or maybe more at other popular tourist spots, but we found one humble stall very near our hotel that sells them for only 10 baht each!

Juicy coconuts that must not be missed as well

Bangkok night scene

The ladyboys

Visited the Grand Palace again. And again, we all decided against buying the tickets so we could only hang around the outside compound area

Tuk-tuk - these days tuk-tuks are no longer cheaper alternatives to cabs (you need to bargain for the prices if not it will be some exorbitant ridiculous amount) but rather as most of their drivers are so 'super skillful' they know how to turn and squeeze among Bangkok crazy traffic pretty efficiently saving you a lot of time

Massage - cheap and authentic bone-breaking Thai massage is a must too in this metropolitan. Like we only paid 250 baht for a 60 minutes full body Thai massage, a fraction of what local massage places charge

For once, I was actually glad that Air Asia is so notorious in delaying their flights. Well, our flight back from Bangkok actually got delayed by an hour as it was pouring heavily just prior to it taking off and had my KL-JB flight took off on time, I would had definitely miss it but coincidentally enough, my KL- JB flight was delayed as well so in the end no flights were missed

A Nikon USB flash drive for only 170 baht! A real steal

Among some of my shopping hauls. Seriously, these are like super super little compared to my previous shopping hauls but maybe it's because the current trend is not exactly my kind of tea so I don't want to waste money buying clothes that I know I'm only going to wear once. Well, I'm so proud of myself really for having such good impulse control. *wink*

I'm truly more attracted by their accessories this time round

It was a short 3 days 2 nights getaway but certainly good enough to fulfil my retail needs and Thai food craves. Besides, it is always good to be able to get a break away from work and experience some different cultures. I guess with budget airlines constantly churning out cheap flight tickets to Bangkok, this crazy, hectic and sinful metropolitan will continue to tempt me for more revisits, well at least until someday the prices of their clothes significantly increased so much so it isn't worth it anymore to specially fly there to shop. Bangkok 2012 certainly filled me with very different memories but all the same, it was still a very nice and enjoyable trip. Till then, so long Bangkok! :)

Cabbages and Condoms

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:08:00 +0000

Is really the name of a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. But, no, it doesn't serve condoms as meals although their food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy. Instead, this quirky and interesting restaurant is established by the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand's largest NGO founded in 1974 to promote family planning. They geniusly uses condoms in a fun, amusing and creative manner to overcome the taboo and reluctance to promote issues such as safe sex, family planning and HIV/AIDS.

As I had said before, as we Asians live in a more conservative society, we are generally very shy when it comes to buying and using condoms. Seriously, I'm not encouraging certainly random or pre-marital sex just because one uses condoms but I'm just saying condom is one of the cheapest, simplest and effective contraceptive that can not only prevent unwanted pregnancy but more importantly, STIs and HIV/AIDS. And in a country like Thailand where incidence of HIV/AIDS is one of the highest in the world, such a themed restaurant certainly makes discussing such topics more comfortable and less awkward.

So, really why the bizarre name? The name came from the founder of PDA belief that for any family planning programme to be successful, birth control should be as accepted and accessible as buying vegetables from the market and cabbages are one of those daily vegetables that the Thais buy a lot conveniently. In Cabbages and Condoms, you can practically see condoms everywhere; as their decos, on statues and even as a take home gift.

We took the BTS to Asoke station (then follow Exit 2) and walked straight ahead for about 10-15 minutes before we located the restaurant. It wasn't that hard to find the restaurant and since it is a pretty popular one too among both locals and foreigners alike, you can just ask any local for directions in case you are really lost.

Entrance to the condom-themed-restaurant

A statue of Tiger Woods completed with his golf club and one of his hot model were the first to greet all patrons to the restaurant. There's even a sign that says 'Did you use them Tiger?' haha! Brilliant indeed

Santa and his bride in full condoms suit. Even Santa's beard is made of condoms. And if you look hard, the studs on Santa's belt are actually made up of OC pills. Really have to hand it to them

Santa and his bride had a little boy who likes Liverpool. And coincidentally, Louis was wearing the same Liverpool jersey! Talk about jinxing :p

Every details are made up of colourful condoms and rows of OC pills

The condom ship

Even their lamps are made up of condoms

The al fresco dining area that is beautifully surrounded by lighted trees. It gives off a pretty romantic vibe

They also have the closed air conditioned dining area for those who loves to cool down from the heat outside

Aside from feasting on their entertaining and cute condom themed decos and statues, our main purpose there was of course to feed our stomach with good Thai food. Their menu lists are so extensive it got us dizzied with choices.

Appetizer- These purplish flower like thingy caught our attention from the menu so we decided to give a try. It is actually steamed minced chicken with onion wrapped in dough topped with shallots. The whole thing has a very strong and fragrant onion taste so unless you dislike onions, this is in fact worth trying

This was recommended by their waitress - Thai hot and sour glass noodle salad with shrimp and chicken. Their glass noodle is very unlike ours. Instead of thin glass noodle, theirs is fat and thick. None the less, I find this salad very appetizing. It is spicy (but still tolerable) and a tad too sour but I kinda like it

One of Thailand's signature dish - the Kai Hor Bai Teoy or simply deep fried chicken wrapped in pandanus leaf, served with special sauce. Honestly, I think I had tasted better ones back home because the pandan smell in these are not as strong as it should had been

Pineapple fried rice. Seriously, they should serve it in a pineapple to simply complete the look. Perhaps they lost the pineapple at Bikini Bottom #lame :p

Another of Thailand's signature - Green curry with chicken and round egg plant. The green curry is really really good. I totally love it

The all time must try in Thailand - The Tom Yam Goong

Desserts - my fav part of a meal. The mango sticky rice. The thing about mango sticky rice is that I always find that I get sick of it fast like after a few mouthfuls perhaps because it is always overly sweet but the one at Cabbages and Condoms is just right. The sticky rice isn't made too sweet and the mildly sourish mango goes perfect with the rice

This is one of my fav all time Thai's dessert - the boiled red pea nut, jujube, lotus seed and coconut jelly in syrup served cold. Satisfying

The girls

Some souvenirs for sale

Notice the yellow arrows? Republican or democrat size!! Hahahaha!

At the end of our meal, each of us were given condoms instead of the usual mints. A little souvenir to remind everyone the importance of staying safe. haha! Well, usually when I visit Bangkok, I love eating from their typical hole-in-the-wall restaurants with the locals, the more locals the better because those are the places where you get some of the best food at cheap prices but I was glad to have visited Cabbages and Condoms this time round. While it is not exactly cheap to dine there (our total bill came up to about RM 180) but it is definitely an interesting experience. It surely is a witty and fun restaurant with pretty good Thai food (I rate them 7.5/10) that is worth visiting. Besides, proceeds from the restaurant and the handicrafts are used to fund development and social welfare activities of PDA, thus all the more reason to drop by the next time you are in Bangkok. :)

Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant,
8 Sukhumvit 12,
10110 Bangkok
Tel : 662-229-4610
http://www.pda.or.th/restaurant

PS : This is not a paid advertorial or review. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only, hence yours truly is not responsible for any discrimination in taste or opinion. :)

Vietnam : Ho Chi Minh City Wrap Up

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:16:00 +0000

The last of my Vietnam travelogue. Which means it has also come to an end of my first leg of backpacking South East Asia. *nostalgic mode*

In case you had missed my previous Vietnam posts, you can still read it from the links below :
1) Vietnam : Surviving the HCMC Traffic
2) Vietnam : Ben Thanh market
3) Vietnam : Cao Dai
4) Vietnam : I Fired An AK 47 (Cu Chi Tunnel)
5) Vietnam : Pho pho

Ho Chi Minh City have quite a few major architecture landmarks that has become part of it's heritage and continues to develop with modern high rise buildings. Fortunately for us, some of these architecture landmarks are within walking distance from our guesthouse (located in the Pham Ngu Lao area aka the backpackers district) and thus, we decided to start our 3rd day in the city with a walking tour. Furthermore, their close proximity to one another mades the walking tour even more feasible. Honestly, I like walking tours because it's the easiest and not to forget, cheapest way to explore a city. Hence, with only a local map in hand, we navigated ourselves to our first landmark, the Reunification Palace (previously known as Independence Palace). As ironic as it is, but it's like I had visited almost every other palace in every other country except the Malaysia one.

Frontview of the Reunification Palace. Built in 1966, it was the former presidential palace; the home and workplace for the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was also the site of the end of the Vietnam War during the Fall of Saigon. These days, it is open to tourists and tourists had to pay an entrance fee of 15 dong. It is also only open from 7.30 am to 11 am and 1.00-4.00 pm so don't go during their break time, else you wouldn't be able to enter the palace

The various rooms in the palace - Among them are the President's Office in the Hall, the banquet chamber, the meeting room, the old war room, the rooftop with helicopter and the movie room. Yes, the palace has their very own movie room so Mr. President or his delegates can have private movie time on their own

Our second landmark - the beautiful Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral is the city's main church. The unique thing about this cathedral is that all of it's original building material were imported from France

The side of the cathedral

It has two bell towers, reaching a height of 58 meters. It is a very popular wedding photography spots for the local couples. There were at least 5 couples doing their wedding shots there that day

Our third landmark was located just within minutes from the cathedral, the popular Central post office of Saigon with it's gothic architectural style

The inner deco of the post office. So pretty, no?

Sending a post home from the gorgeous post office. Actually it has become sort of my habit to send postcards home whenever I travel. In a way, I will get to keep the stamp (I still love collecting them overseas stamps) and still stay in touch with love ones back home

One of the modern high rise building in the city. You know the economy of a country is actually doing quite well when they can have brands like Versace in their malls

Our fourth landmark was the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Building. This French colonial style building is not open to the public or tourists so we can only admire it's beauty from the outside

A statute of the namesake in the park in front of the building

Before we can go any further with our walking tour, it started pouring heavily. Speaking of the weather being a wet blanket. And so, we aborted any further walking (I dislike walking in mad heavy rain) and hopped into a cab instead to Cho Lon, the Chinatown of Ho Chi Minh City. With no specific idea of where in Chinatown to go in mind, we found ourselves soon at the Binh Tay market (previously known as the Cho Lon market) at the central of Cho Lon. We took the local public bus back from Cho Lon (the bus station is just right next to the market) later on and despite it being some 45 minutes ride, the bus ticket only costs us RM 1.

The Binh Tay market is located in a Chinese style building with reddish-brownish roof and a central yellow clock. The Chinese facade of the market reflects the Chinese influence that Chinese culture had in that area

As compared to Ben Thanh, the Binh Tay market does more wholesale making the market stock with goods and sells more household items and body care products. Apparels and souvenirs in contrast are sold less there

The Trung Nguyen ice coffee. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but being in Vietnam, aside from the pho, another must-try is their local coffee. The Vietnamese coffee is something that is worldwide famous and it will be quite a shame to have drop by the country without tasting their coffee. And since the Trung Nguyen seems pretty famous there, I made an exception and tried it too. I'm not a coffee connoisseur, but I can tell you their coffee is definitely sweet, rich and aromatic

Doing manicure, pedicures and nail art by the street/park is also a very common practice in HCMC

We only got half a day on our last day in the city, so we decided to search around our nearby area for a good place for lunch, somewhere we can sit in and enjoy our meal as we take in the daily life of the locals. In a city filled with many excellent high end restaurants, we were spoilt for choice of where to go, but we finally picked the Temple Club which is located at the Ton That Thiep district. Since we fell head over heels with the Temple Club in Cambodia, we were automatically elected and more inclined towards the Temple Club in HCMC too when we saw the lists of restaurants from the Lonely Planet. I'm not sure if both the Temple Club are of the same chain, but it sure is a cosy, fine and gorgeous restaurant on it's own.

It has a very narrow entrance though and we actually walked past it twice without seeing it until a kind local who understood us finally showed us the way, so you really got to watch out for it. Located on the 2nd floor of a colonial-era villa, we had to past a lantern lit corridor leading up a flight of stairs to a stunning interior that looks like an old temple, with exposed brick walls, antique throw rugs, lush colonial-ish art decos using much wood and masonry, Buddhist tapestries and statuary that definitely throws you back to a tranquil ancient retro Chinese age

The restaurant is divided into three main sections; the comfortable and posh lounge where customers can relax and chat soaking in the comfortable atmosphere away from the noisy streets of the city, the Chinese bar and the dining area itself

I could had just sat there the whole day

Another cup of Vietnamese coffee served the Vietnamese style - the dark roast coffee brewed with a small metal French drip filter

It's for HT of course! haha. Those who enjoy thick and sweet coffee will really quite enjoy the Vietnamese coffee

The bar and dining area

We got ourselves a window seat so we can people watch as we dine

I love their copper cutleries

Appetizer - the Temple Club platter set that consists of traditional home made spring rolls, hue style spring rolls, fresh shrimp and pork salad roll and pork spring rolls wrapped in seaweed

They are best eaten with the sauce that came with them. The spring rolls are all so fresh and yummy they made me drool even like right now

I know this looks like tom yam but it is actually hot and sour fish vermicelli noodle soup that is more sourish than spicy. This too was good

Pork spare rib with orange sauce. This is a little sour because of the orange sauce but it is a pretty unique dish and definitely worth trying

Home made hue cake in secret sauce. I love their hue cake too, not too sweet yet not too bland

Our lunch came up to a total of about RM 80. Kinda pricey for a meal in HCMC but definitely cheaper than eating at high end restaurants in our country. haha! Besides, the food are pretty good (I rate them 8/10) and with such a nice ambience and interior, it is truly worth visiting.

Saying goodbye at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport

We spent a total of like 4 days in Vietnam after crossing border from Cambodia. Personally, I didn't quite like HCMC, perhaps because of the distasteful first impression, or perhaps because it is just too noisy. But overall, we still had a pretty good time experiencing the various food and especially admiring the beauty of the art deco and paintwork of the delicate Vietnamese. It was definitely a very wonderful experience though backpacking through Cambodia and Vietnam, experiencing the change in culture, lifestyle and history from one place to another. And the best part, food especially were so cheap we could pamper ourselves silly with plenty of good food. However, shopping for clothes (other than their T-shirts which are very cheap too) is definitely not the thing to do in both countries but there are so many other attractive and tempting souvenirs and arts that can make you broke as well. I can't wait to blog about my second leg of traveling through SEA from Laos to Thailand already, so do stay tuned for more SEA posts. :)

Pho Pho

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:36:00 +0000

I shall complete on my Vietnam travelogue first before I blogged about anywhere else, my recent Bangkok trip included.

Well, one of the must-try food in Vietnam is definitely the PHO. The pho is basically Vietnamese noodle soup served most of the time with beef or sometimes chicken. However, unlike our local noodle soup, the Vietnamese pho has noodles made of rice flour served with Asian basil, herbs (saw tooth and rice paddy), cilantro, thinly sliced green onion, lime and bean sprouts. Their soup too are more brownish as compared to the clearer colour soup noodles we have here.

The pho is very common and popular that you can actually find them easily anywhere in Vietnam. From the cheap hole-in-the-wall to the expensive haute restaurant type ones. The first pho restaurant that we went to was only about 10 minutes walk from our guesthouse. It's a very classical and famous hole-in-the-wall type of pho restaurant that serves hot, tasty pho at cheap prices.

The inner street of Ho Chi Minh City

The humble stall that goes by the name Pho Bo 94 (Pho Bo basically means beef noodle)

Bean sprouts, lime and culantro are provided on each table so diners can choose to add in these additional ingredients to garnish their noodles

Hot, piping bowl of pho bo; well done beef and beef balls. Yes, you can actually choose how done you want your beef to be as well, whether it's rare or well done. You can also choose to serve the beef noodle with soft tendons or have it stew in curry instead. I had mine well-done as I can't really take rare done beef

This is beef noodle soup, rare done with soft tendons

We tried two pho restaurants altogether during our entire trip in Ho Chi Minh City. The second pho restaurant that we went was actually a chain of small pho restaurants around HCMC but the branch near the Ben Thanh market shot to fame after former US president Bill Clinton and his entourage visited the restaurant in year 2000. Since then, the slogan of the restaurant have been 'Pho for the Prseident'.

The Pho 2000 branch that Bill Clinton and his entourage stopped by for lunch

Displaying proudly arond the walls of the restaurant are fading newspaper clippings and pictures of the former president having lunch at the restaurant in 2000

Fresh, refreshing, cool papaya juice. The same thing Bill Clinton had during his previous visit

Grilled pork rice. Just in case you are not a fan of pho, you can also try their grilled pork rice which is very good too

Another bowl of hot piping Pho Bo

We never managed to try the pho ga (chicken) as the real local pho usually goes with the bo instead. But in case you don't take meat, there's also the vegetarian pho. Personally, between both restaurants, I actually like the typical hole-in-the-wall, Pho Bo 94 better. Both restaurants have very good tasting springy and chewy rice flour noodles and soft, tender beef but I find the broth of the former sweeter and more flavorful. However, at Pho 2000, there is a more generous amount of beef and better eating environment with English and Vietnamese menu to cater to the Westerners, proper chairs and tables. So, now you know where to go pho-ing next time? *wink* :)

I Fired An AK 47!

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:41:00 +0000

A real AK 47 rifle at the Cu Chi (pronounced Gu Chi more than' Cu chi') tunnels in Vietnam! On our second day in Vietnam, after our detour to the Tay Ninh Holy See temple to witness the Cao Dai ceremony, we went to the Cu Chi tunnels, which were built during the Vietnam War. Like it's name, it is really an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located at the Cu Chi district in Ho Chi Minh City. So really, what's so special about a series of connecting underground tunnels?

During the Vietnam war, these tunnels, built cleverly by the Viet Cong (a South Vietnamese communist controlled common front) guerrillas were used by them as hiding spots during combat as well as serving as communication and supply routes, food, hospital and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrillas fighters. The tunnel system were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces and helped achieve ultimate military success. (source from Wikipedia)

Life in the tunnels were definitely tough back then. Can you imagine having to live most of your time underground with limited air, water and food source, having poisonous animals like snakes and centipedes around and in an environment with poor sanitation and hygiene? Not forgetting, you would only be able to come out mostly at night to scavenge for supplies, tend to crops or fight enemies. But marvelously enough, the Viet Cong's managed to navigate their way through the dark and narrow complex tunnels and even successfully created a whole new living environment underground, with section of the tunnels divided off as schools, kitchens, bedrooms, living halls etc despite rampant sickness that kills most of the people at that time, second to battle wounds. The tunnels were often rigged with well camouflaged explosive booby traps and punji stake pits with effective trap doors and air filtration system so it was extremely hazardous to the enemies trying to search for the tunnels and rendering the American technology ineffective in trying to uncover them.

Me with my AK 47 rifle at the shooting range

Learning how to handle the rifle

And bang! Despite the head piece that supposedly protects our ears, the sound of the firing rifle was deafening! Seriously for the next few minutes after I fired all my bullets, all I heard was just the 'bang bang bang' and nothing else. On top of that, you really got to stabilized that rifle well if not the rebound force would jolt you backwards

Other than the AK 47, visitors can select from a variety of other Vietnam war era guns to fire at the shooting range. Of course, all these are charge separately from the entrance fee and for like 5 or 10 bullets for the AK 47 per person, we paid like RM 50

There was a guide that brought us through the jungle showing us where the booby traps and punji stake pits are so we don't get ourselves injured accidentally (although these traps are now identified and the area sealed off) while narrating away the history of the Vietnam war, the role and life in the tunnels. We also got to experience the tunnels although it was just a short part of it and the particular section had been made wider and taller to accomodate Western tourists mainly. None the less, despite the renovation in making it wider and taller, the tunnel is still quite narrow to walk through and surely not favourable for those claustrophobic.

The entrance into the tunnel had been modified to be much wider than it originally was. It was raining cats and dogs that day. Thankfully, they had raincoats for sale and HT hid his entire camera bag beneath his raincoat making him looked pregnant in the picture. Haha!

Crawling into the Cu Chi tunnel

The various booby traps and punji stake pits found around the tunnel

Another booby trap with bamboo spikes

This is one of the original entrance into the tunnels. Note how small it is. I doubt even bigger Asians can fit in there

The Viet Cong guerrilla statues

They even sell the clothes that were commonly wore during the war time

These are real people making the rubber shoes (100% rubber from tyres) that were worn during the war time too

Anyone interested in rubber shoes?

The various missile sizes

At the end of our tour around the tunnel, we were served tapioca for tea break. The tapiocas were their staple food during the war time

Although it was raining heavily that day, it was a very thrilling and deafening experience at the Cu Chi tunnels. It wasn't too scary walking through the tunnels in groups and in the day but I can't imagine walking through them in the dark and all alone! Scary can even just thinking about it. Well, I had included a short clip of us walking through a small part of the tunnel system, so enjoy and see for yourself how dark it can get and despite it only being a short distance, I could already feel the air diminishing down in the tunnel, so really I shuddered to imagine how the Viet Cong guerrillas and their families endured those difficult and fearful times hiding in the tunnels all day long, day after day, month after month. How sad isn't that of wars; causing thousands of innocent people life difficult and fearful.

Ship Village Seafood Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:16:00 +0000

A deviation from my SEA travelogue. Yesterday, I did a day trip to Batu Pahat (about 1-1 1/2 hour from Johor Bahru) with some of my colleagues and bosses. Our purpose there was to attend a seminar on upper GI, which was held at the Katerina Hotel. Since it was organized by the Surgical Department of Hospital Batu Pahat, of course the whole focus was on the surgical management part of some of the upper GI diseases. But aside from the purpose of attending the seminar, our next purpose was of course to also 'jalan-jalan cari makan' in Batu Pahat. :)

Honestly, after seeking Uncle Google's opinion about good food in Batu Pahat, we gathered that Batu Pahat is supposedly famous for two main cuisine - Beriani rice and salted (egg) crabs. Since we could only choose one between the two for dinner, we finally decided to go for the seafood. And once again, Uncle Google told us that the most talked about or best seafood restaurant in Batu Pahat is the Ship Village Seafood Restaurant.

Since none of us were familiar with Batu Pahat, we consulted Google Map for directions and while Google Map managed to lead us onto Jalan Minyak Beku (where the restaurant is located), we had a pretty hard time finding the exact location for the restaurant. It surprised me that for a supposedly well-known restaurant like that they do not have signboards on the roadside that point towards it's location. We kinda got lost somewhere inside Jln Minyak Beku trying to locate it until fortunately we met a kind passer-by who gave us the directions to the restaurant. The road leading to Ship Village is actually the last junction on the left along the long stretch of Jln Minyak Beku and the restaurant itself is located near the famous temple for their giant araipama (which according to local believe, if you can touch the fishes, you will strike rich). You can also try looking out for signboard that point towards 'SRJK Chong Hwa Batu Pahat' too as they are located along the same road.

In the midst of being lost, we found ourselves at the ferry terminal

Alas, we finally found the restaurant! Notice how small their signboard is. And it is not even placed outside. Only after you go deep inside in search of the restaurant, you can see it. You can't park directly in front of the restaurant but worry not, just follow the flow of cars to see where the car park is and it is a short 5 minutes walk to the restaurant from the car park

Our initial purpose there was for the salted crabs but upon entering the restaurant, it immediately hit us that the Ship Village is more like a seafood restaurant that caters mainly to tourists instead of locals. And after realizing that they sell their crabs at RM 70/75 per kg, we decided to skip the crabs altogether. After all, I can get the exact same crabs at a price much lower than them in some of the seafood restaurant in JB itself, what's more I had tasted really good salted crabs before too, so the whole idea of paying 'tourists' prices doesn't entice me at all, doesn't matter if they are the best in Batu Pahat anot.

Instead, we decided to treat ourselves to the other seafood such as the slipper lobster and stingray (their next most popular food).

Kam-heong slipper lobsters. I find this the most delicious dish. It's sufficiently flavorful and a tad spicy. Totally recommended. RM 35

Steam stingray - another of their specialty. The secret with steaming stingray is that the stingrays have to be really fresh. If not, they will have a strong fishy taste. Thankfully, their stingrays are fresh so this is actually quite good if you can accept stingrays being steamed instead of the usual grilled

The other dishes that we ordered. The deep fried calamari rings and sambal kang kung were pretty normal and their fried egg with oysters was a total disappointment. I mean seriously, the fried egg with oysters was just as it's name implied- just eggs being fried and dotted with minimal mini oysters. I don't take oysters but the oysters on the eggs are so mini that I almost don't feel anything even eating them. Personally, I think fried oyster eggs at hawker centres are at least 10 times better than that

It is called Ship Village because the restaurant is literally on a ship

Minyak Beku at low tide

Our total bill came up to RM 90. Pricey if you ask me. I think this restaurant is seriously too overrated. It's really just pretty average seafood (trust me, I had tasted much better) and the fact that it is pricey makes things worse. Perhaps they are really the best in Batu Pahat but I only rate it 6-6.5/10. The good thing about the restaurant though is that they have very very fast service, beating even McDonald's in term of speed. The dishes were served within minutes one after another. And located by the Straits of Malacca makes it a good spot to eat with nice view of the sunset at dusk. Otherwise, perhaps just go for the Beriani rice the next time. :)

Ship Village Seafood Retaurant
No 68 Kg Segenting, Jalan Minyak Beku
83000 Batu Pahat, Johor
Tel 07-4287184

Disclaimer : This is an unpaid review/ advertorial. All opinions are based on yours truly POV only. Hence,yours truly is not responsible for any discrepancy in taste or opinions. :)

Cao Dai

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:30:00 +0000

On our second day in Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to do a day trip to the famous Cu Chi tunnel, located about 2 hours drive away from the city. However, as it turned out, the tour company that we booked our day trip with suggested we visit the Tay Ninh Holy See temple too since the temple and the tunnel are located along the same way. Well, but what actually convinced us to pay another USD 6 for a detour to the temple was the fact that it's no usual temple. The Tay Ninh Holy See is a temple for the Cao Daists, the third largest religion in Vietnam.

Yeah, so what exactly is the Cao Dai religion? (As far as I understand, Cao Dai is kinda like 1Religion, where believers of the world religions principle is to find peace with each other and harmony in the world) None the less, as stated on their website,

The noble effort of CaoDai is to unite all of humanity through a common vision of the Supreme Being, whatever our minor differences, in order to promote peace and understanding throughout the world. CaoDai does not seek to create a gray world, where all religions are exactly the same, only to create a more tolerant world, where all can see each other as sisters and brothers from a common divine source reaching out to a common divine destiny realizing peace within and without.

Cao Dai is a universal faith with the principle that all religions have one same divine origin and one same ethic. They draw ethical perception from the Confucianism, theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism and organizational hierrachy includes a pope, cardinals, bishops, priests etc from the Roman Catholicism. Their diversity of saints includes Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo and Sun Yat Sen among others. Their God is the Divine Eye, represented in a triangle.

At 12 in the afternoon daily, the priests and worshippers will come together for their daily ceremony/ prayer which lasts about 30 minutes. Hence, the temple was super packed with tourists right before noon, lining the balcony of their second floor with the hope of catching a glimpse of the unique Cao Dai ceremony.

The Tay Ninh Holy See temple. Cao Dai actually means 'high tower'

The Divine Eye, in a triangle. It is a left eye because God is Yang and Yang is the left side

At 12pm sharp, the priests dressed in yellow, red and blue and their worshippers in white slowly entered the temple

Prayer time

The Divine Eye on the altar

The live band playing the music for the prayer ceremony

Below is a short video of the Cao Dai ceremony. Enjoy! :)

Ben Thanh Market

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:18:00 +0000

After twelve odd hours of bus journey, stuck in a seat large enough only to allow room for the knees and with a toilet built perhaps for the dwarfs from Snow White (amazingly enough there is a toilet on the bus albeit it being really tiny and curtainless!!), we finally crossed border and arrived at Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). As mentioned earlier, the first thing that struck us was the obvious crazy and noisy traffic. It was raining most of the time while we were at HCMC and the first day of our arrival was no exception. Perhaps that was part of the contributing factor of why I didn't enjoy backpacking HCMC as much as Cambodia. I just hate it when it rains especially when I'm traveling a lot on foot.

At the Vietnam border

Our first destination in HCMC was the Ben Thanh market aka Cho Ben Thanh, the most popular market and landmark in the center of the city. At the Ben Thanh market, you can find all sorts of extremely gorgeous local handicrafts mostly hand-drewn or make up of egg shells and seashells, souvenirs, textiles, bags, apparels, footwear, the ao dai (traditional Vietnamnese costume) and local food. The market opens until about 7-8pm daily which then after, taken over by the night market just right beside the main building. From our guesthouse, it was about 15-20 minutes walk to the market.

It is said that the stall keepers at Ben Thanh market actually colour code their customers. Depending on what kind of shopper one is (the hardcore bargainer, the extremely difficult or the easy ones), different plastic bags colour are actually indicative of the type of shopper you are so they can forewarn their fellow colleagues at the market about you and perhaps they will then deal with you in a different manner.

As with most markets in this world especially one that is famous among tourists, the rule of thumb is always to bargain. The initial quoted prices are always mark up so the usual practice will be to bargain until an agreeable amount is reach between both party. None the less, the practice that is more common in HCMC will be for customers to offer their final prices and as long as it's reasonable (the stall onwer still profits while the customer happy with the prices), the deal will be on. And since most of the stalls are pretty repetitive and can also be found at the night market when the day one closes, one can compare the prices between stalls and make your deal with the stall that is most humble and willing to negotiate a good price. Honestly, I find most stall owners at the Ben Thanh market quite arrogant. Well since the market is not that huge itself (can finish it in like 3-4 hours unless you are an extremely slow shopper), it is easy to compare and return to any stall anytime.

The vantage point of getting the perfect shot of the market is from the roundabout opposite the market

Interior of the market

Vietnamnese hats anyone?

Local handicrafts that are just so quaint

The Saigon lady statues

Hand drewn and egg shells wooden bracelet

Pretty hand drewn jewellery/ multi purpose boxes. I find them so beautiful I actually bought a few home

The array of hand drewn, egg shells and sea shells handicrafts. I find them really pretty and irresistable that I had strong impulsed to grab just one of each especially the egg and apple shape ones (which I had no idea what to use them for seriously)

They also come in the form of bowls and plates. So appetizing already just looking at their lovely apperance

Old school paintings

Vintage, classic souvenirs

Aside from the varieties of well-known Vietnam coffee, they also sells a whole other varieties of coffee such as the Blue Mountain coffee

While the day market do have hawker stalls, I find the hawker stalls at the night market more attractive. They are always bustling with people and I think we were there almost every other night for supper (as we always had dinner elsewhere first) trying out different stalls each time. A lot of stalls looks and smells good so we were really spoilt for choice. The night market is significantly smaller than the day one and most items can also be found inside Ben Thanh but the prices offered were surely cheaper. Besides, the stall owners of the night market were more approachable and friendly.

The busy night market

Jewelleries and clothes makes up the bulk of the night market. However, I'm not really interested in the clothes (girls apparels) in Vietnam because they were mainly imported look-alikes from China or Taiwan and sold at pretty expensive prices (Imagine a dress from the night market still needs RM 50 even after bargaining, so not worth imho)

On the contrary, I find myself absolutely attracted by their various hand drewn, egg shells and sea shells handicrafts - from bracelets to tissue boxes to jewellery boxes to lamps to vases to plates and bowls to wine holders and paintings. They are all just so delicate, stunning and unique I'm madly in love with them

We couldn't resist the beauty of the paintings that we ended up buying 2 sets of the paintings home

The cute 'Good Morning Vietnam, Same Same But Different, Tin Tin, Saigon' and beer T-shirts that can be get at a best price of 3 for RM 15 :)

The Vietnamnese spring rolls that are a refreshing option from the usual fried ones. Wrapped in rice paper, they are made up of either boiled or grilled pork, fresh shrimps, rice vermicelli and vegetable; served cold and to be eaten together with a mixture of sauces and peanut. Well to be honest though, I don't quite fancy the Vietnamnese spring rolls, just not my roll of popiah I guess

BBq-ed pork balls and pork meat

Grilled beef baguette

Grilled slipper lobster that was fresh and cheap at the night market

Mini fried spring rolls

Egg wrapover - something similar to pattaya except inside are boiled pork slices, shrimps and bean sprouts

At the Ben Thanh night hawker

The Ben Thanh market (both day and night) were one of our most frequented place during our trip to HCMC because despite some of their arrogant attitude, they are really one of the best places to look for souvenirs and local stuff. And you can still get very good prices if you did your survey and know how to bargain your way through. Just don't offer an overly low price as remember, they too need to make a living so as long as it's something reasonable, you can strike a deal. But be beware of people shoving services to you (such as shoe polishing) despite your refusal. You can refused their sevices but they would insist on doing their thing haphazardly and worst part was, upon completion of the service, demanded exaggerated fees. If you refused to pay, you might earn a scowl or as much as a scolding! So rude and dishonest imho. It's as good as being a cheat to me. It's people like that that ruin the image of a place. Otherwise, have fun shopping for those gorgeous handicrafts and souvenirs and sampling local cuisine at the Cho Ben Thanh while at Ho Chi Minh City. :)

Surviving the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:01:00 +0000

The first most noticeable thing about Ho Chi Minh City (still fondly known by their old name, Saigon) is definitely their crazy, noisy traffic. Motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks, trishaws and pedestrians seemed to come together in all directions, criss-crossing and zig-zagging across each other.

There is almost never a moment of silence on the street, although much worse at rush hour which actually seems to be like forever. Be prepared to entertain your ears with a series of music composed of multitude sound of honks, roar of engines and booming exhaust pipes.

Fun fact : As of 2008, there are more than 3 million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City!


The crazy Ho Chi Minh city traffic at night

Seriously, it definitely takes a lot of skill and courage to cross a road in Ho Chi Minh city, to make it out of the stream of motorcycles, buses, trucks, cars and whats not alive in one piece when you finally emerged at the other side of the road.

The secret to surviving such an insane traffic is honestly to JUST KEEP WALKING, else you will be stuck eternally just looking at passing vehicles. And better still in groups of people, while holding on to each other. Yes, as suicidal as it may sound, your journey to the other side only began once you pluck up sufficient courage to take that first step on the road. And once you set foot on the road, continue walking while motorcycles, cars, buses and trucks gradually slowed down and even stopped allowing you to complete your all important mission of crossing the street. It's unlike our country where pedestrians stop for vehicles, in HCMC, vehicles do actually stop for pedestrians.

None the less, while most of the motorcyclists and drivers in Ho Chi Minh City are understanding and considerate enough to slow down and prioritize pedestrians, there are handfuls that drives as though on a racing track so do be very careful as well and don't ever take for granted that it's always 'pedestrians first, vehicles later'.

Just to get a glimpse of the crazy, noisy HCM traffic, I had included a vid below, taken at about 8 pm at the popular Ben Thanh market. This was seriously how their daily traffic condition is like everyday. But well, now that you had learnt the secret to surviving their traffic, you can brace yourself to cross their street successfully next time. :)

Pub Street

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Cambodia post!

The very last to wrap up my entire Cambodia travelogue. The Pub Street is one of my favourite street in Siem Reap as it is so conveniently accessible (only about 10 minutes walk from where we stayed) and there's such a wide range of eating and drinking options available at mostly really reasonable prices; one can get a very good meal there for less than USD 10. Located at the Old Market area, the place is vibrant and alive at night and just as happening in the day. On hot afternoons especially, when I feel lazy to go anywhere else, it was simply bliss to just chill at one of the restaurants around there, enjoying a cup of cold milkshake while people watching.

The Cambodian food can be divided into those that can only be found in restaurants and those that can only be found right up from the hot wok of a hawker stall at their unassuming alleys. At Pub Street, the food are mainly restaurants type that seems to target tourists. Hence, the street could be over touristy for some as mainly only tourists hang around there and half of the restaurants around actually served international or American food as well instead of just local Angkor dishes. Another point to note is that, not all of the restaurants there are own by the local people. Again almost half are own by foreigners actually, and the other half either by the Cambodians or collaboration between a Cambodian and a foreigner.

But worry not if you are a pro for supporting the local industry and is worry that you might accidentally walk into one own by the foreigner as almost all the restaurants here have signage that magnify their ownership, their various awards achieved (if any) and even their recommendation in the Lonely Planet!

My favourite restaurant on this street was the Temple Club and there was a bakery called Blue Pumpkin that sold everything for only USD 1.00 after 8pm each night, so as you can probably guessed, we were their regulars after 8pm each night and to top it, their breads and buns are pretty good too.

The alleyway near the north part of the street are filled mainly with bars and pubs while the southern side are more saturated with bustling restaurants

Only after dusk, the street is close entirely to pedestrians

The Temple Club - our favourite restaurant in Siem Reap. Contrary to it's name, the emphasis there is very much on food as opposed to drinking. We picked that restaurant because aside from having free Apsara shows for customers to watch while enjoying dinner, they have very nice ambience and good food. I think we were one of the few rare Asians there. We were surrounded by so many angmohs that it didn't felt like we were in Cambodia at all

Their entrance have designs that mimic the famous Angkor temples

The upstairs of the restaurant. The only other 2 Asians around (I never meant to catch that lady in her most unglam pose seriously).

The Apsara dance began

Samlor Majew Greung - a soup with pork ribs, morning glory, tamarind and basil, garlic and Khmer spices. A combination of sweet sourish with a tad spicy which definitely opens up appetitie

Stir fried cucumbers with shrimps

The Temple set consisting of Amok fish (fish cooked in their Cambodian curry paste),
Cambodian spices beef and fresh spring rolls. But as I had mentioned earlier, the Amok fishes in Phnom Penh is still the best especially the one I ate at Rong Doeung

A view of Pub Street from Temple Club. We only paid like USD 15 for a meal for 2 that night

The Cambodian cinema. Yes, there's no multiplex cinemas or any cinema at all for that matter in Cambodia. They only have shops like this where people gathered to watch movies/ videos together. So old school

We spent our last day in Siem Reap exploring the Old Market area basically. We went to the Old Market which didn't attracted me much, chilled and ate at the restaurants at Pub Street, walked the other streets perpendicular and parallel to it and pampered ourselves with a massage.

The restaurant of our choice that day - the Angkor Palm. Note the red arrow; the 'Recommended by Lonely Planet' sign on their signage. Seriously, competition must be very strong there for all of them to have let their reputation made known huge on their signage itself

Warm and cosy interior of the Angkor Palm

Milkshakes are another must-try in Cambodia because they are SO CHEAP. One glass of thick concentrated yummy milkshake only cost USD 1 in Siem Reap. It was so worth it to drink milkshake there that I drank milkshake almost all the time I was there. My favourite is the banana milkshake

As recommended by Lonely Planet, the Angkor platter consisting of fresh spring rolls (notice how their spring rolls are made up of translucent shiny skin), mango salad, local spare ribs porks deliciously roasted with honey and spicy sauce, fish amok, homemade green chicken curry, cha ta kuong which is stir fried water spinach with oyster sauce; all served with steam rice and dessert.

Overall, it was all pretty good. We enjoyed the dishes but all these restaurants also makes me realized while they are certainly not the best restaurants around to sample true local taste, they are a safe choice because they are agreeable to be above average and at the same time reasonably price.

There's a lot of tuk tuks hanging around the area awaiting customers. Just a word of caution, beware of some of the tuk tuk drivers as they tend to overcharged customers (well I learnt that in their opinion, all tourists are 'rich', doesn't matter if you are the backpackers or those luxurious ones, anyone who can travel are rich to them). So it's best to roughly enquire about the price first from your hostels/ guesthouses/hotels, then negotiate the price with the tuk tuk drivers before hopping onto the tuk tuk. And real licenced tuk tuk drivers in Cambodia are required to wear a vest like the one Sophea constantly wore actually. Those without are most likely the dubious ones

After lunch, we spent our time walking around the other streets in the area and we came across one massage shop that offered us full body, foot and shoulder massage for USD 4 per person. It was a real bargain so we went for it. I'm always afraid of those dodgy massage centres but that one was a clean one with no dodgy business.

Starting with the foot massage

The little boy was so cute, being the only faithful customer adoring the tricks of the street performer so intensely

This managed to draw the attention of more people. A floating glass? hmm

Fish massages were very popular back then and there's plenty of make shift pools fish massages around

Aside from eating, drinking, massage, temple hopping and enjoying performances at the cultural village, one very noteworthy thing to do in Siem Reap is donating blood. Seriously, a lot of hospitals in Siem Reap are in severe shortage of blood (although that happens anywhere in this world I believe) but it seems the hospitals in Siem Reap are in an even critical shortage. And right around the Pub Street area, the Kantha Bopha hospital is available to those interested to donate blood.

The Siem Reap hostel. At USD 8 per night for their dorm, I have to say it's extremely comfortable, safe and clean to stay there. Their beds are soft and comfortable, the toilets and rooms clean and they have a safety lock right below each of our bed to store our luggages. There's also a swimming pool and a cosy common area. Internet are available for free but at really slow speed. But honestly, you can't blame their slow speed, not especially after the creative people of Siem Reap hostel have notices put up that read 'Sorry for the slow speed. We are a backward country hence our internet is also backward.'

Since our bus to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam only left at 12 midnight, the nice people of the Siem Reap Hostel not only allowed us to store our luggages for free, but they allowed us to extend our check out time to 6pm free of charge, so we could at least have a proper and good shower before departing. I will definitely go back to the Siem Reap Hostel if I visits Siem Reap again.

We had our last Cambodian meal (dinner) at one of the Mexican theme restaurant around Pub Street, which also served Cambodian food. Honestly, I do really missed the Cambodian food. I think Cambodian food are really unique. They are a combo of a tad sour, sweet and spicy that is flavourful enough to keep your palates happy. It's really a pity we do not have any Cambodian restaurants at all here in Malaysia.

Pork ribs rice . Succulent, juicy pork ribs in Cambodian spices that was so good it makes me drool just thinking about it

Cambodian fishes with rice. The Cambodians eat more fish than any other meat because fresh fishes are so easily and abundantly available in their country

Chumriep Leah Cambodia! I definitely miss you.

We spent a total of like 8 days in Cambodia, exploring the two most major city in the country; from history rich Phnom Penh to world-renowned heritage site Siem Reap. None the less, if you are planning to cross border from Cambodia to Vietnam like us, the more time savvy way is to travel from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh then out to Ho Chi Minh instead (because Phnom Penh is located closer to the border between Cambodia and HCMC, Vietnam). 8 days might sound like a pretty long time to some but in fact, I was glad we took 8 days because we could really absorbed and enjoy the local culture and way of life at a very relaxing pace. The Cambodians are also such a humble bunch of people who even said 'Thank you' with a smile to their customers despite you asking for discounts and still refusing to make a purchase thereafter (such thing will never happen in countries like Thailand and Vietnam, or even Malaysia for that matter).

It is true that Cambodia is still pretty much behind time, their current condition is pretty much like our country 30 years ago, no thanks to the Khmer Rouge regime. But well, they are certainly catching up fast and I truly believe they will be on par as the rest of us in no time. Aside from their delicious food, cheap milkshakes and magnificent architecture of the Angkor temples, I was truly touched by the humbleness and friendliness of their people that makes our entire stay in their country a very pleasant and good one. Cambodia is easily my favourite country in South East Asia because there's so much to the country that had left me with very emotional, inspiring and beautiful memories.

And once again, I really want to thank Napich for bringing us around Phnom Penh, allowing us to savour authentic Cambodian dishes and life just like the locals. For those of you that are itching to go Cambodia but still hesitating, I will say go ahead and book your flights now. If history, heritage, culture, charity (volunteering) and a little (or alot, depends on how you look at it) party is what you are looking for, you will definitely not regret visiting Cambodia. :)

Cambodian Cultural Village

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:34:00 +0000

Cambodia post!

So, what else is there to do/visit in Siem Reap aside from the much acclaimed Angkor temples? Well, honestly although Siem Reap is well known for their gorgeous ancient Angkor temples, but in case you are no fan of the Angkor temples or you just felt so templed out you want to go somewhere that is not temple related, the Cambodian Cultural Village is an attractive alternative. The Cambodian Cultural Village is a gigantic melting pot of Cambodian culture where one will get to enjoy various traditional Cambodian dances and ceremonies all right at the heart of Siem Reap. But of course, I still think anyone who drops by Siem Reap without at least leaving their footprints at the Angkor Wat is commiting a huge travel sin.

The cultural village starts their performances at 11 am daily but there will be a long lunch break in between after the first performance (and nearby there's no tourist attraction or any shopping spots) hence Sophea suggested that we go only after the lunch break so that we can then enjoy a series of performances straight.

Hence, after a good local breakfast, we decided to stop by one of the school more in the outskirts of the town and pay the children there a visit. Sophea told us that the best way to give out/donate things to the people is by giving it to them personally instead of donating cash and belongings to some of the larger, established NGOs as he claimed that some of these NGOs only pockets the money and did not use them as how they were meant for; to help the local community.

The school that we went to is an one session one and as it was near to lunch time when we were there, almost all the kids were out of the classroom ; running around, jumping, chasing each other and playing games- without the presence of any teachers or any adults to be exact. It was like the whole school was only filled with laugher from children, no teachers, no adults to restrict their playing time. And of course it was a perfect timing for us to distribute our little gifts and to mingle with them.

At 2pm sharp, all of them scurried back to their classrooms and waited for their teacher obediently

While they were shy at first, they warmed up to us pretty fast and soon were fighting to pose in front of the camera

The older girls - age between 13-15. Well, in Cambodia there is no compulsory age to start school like our country, so the 13 and 15 years olds can be found studying the same syllables

The school

After the short school detour, we moved on to the cultural village. There is an entrance fee of USD 11 but I think it is totally worth it as they really take efforts in making each performance as entertaining as possible with their elaborate costumes and make ups, graceful dance steps and good acting skill. Each performance lasts about 30 minutes and for some performances, they have different shows for different days.

Entrance to the cultural village

The first performance was in their mini theater. I know this very much looked like a rice harvesting kinda performance but it was in fact a dance show entitled 'The Immortal Life of Khmer Soul'

The lead actress/ dancer in the dance show

The hallmark hay hut that can be seen in the countryside of Cambodia

A miniature of the floating villages that I had visited on the Tonle Sap lake

Our next stop was to the 'Billionaire House' where a Khmer Wedding Ceremony took place. According to the narrator, this kind of Khmer wedding ceremony are usually only affordable by the rich and famous such as billionaires or the royalties. The normal Khmer wedding ceremony is of course much less extravagant than the one performed.

The bride and her parents before the arrival of the groom. The eating bananas by the bride's father is seriously part of the wedding ceremony

The groom arrived. And in case you wonder why does the groom looked so un-Cambodianish, that's because he was a random audience picked to be part of this performance

The unsuspecting groom learning how to behave like a real Khmer groom got everyone laughing

There was this one part where they sprinkled rice as part of a blessing over the newly wed. The experience bride knew how to keep her eyes low whilst the groom excitingly looked straight and got his eyes stung by the showering rice

So after the rice sprinkling and some prayers and blessings, the groom got to take his bride for a walk while holding on to the cape of her wedding dress. I know sounds so weird that it's the cape and not the veil

More people from the audience floor being invited to joined in their dance after the wedding ceremony and HT was one of them

The gigantic laughing icon that can be found around the cultural village

Do we look the same? :)

Then, we moved on to the Chinese Village to watch their Chinese dances and even the Chinese lion dance

The butterfly couple

The familiar lion dance and 'big-head' doll

The fourth performance that we watched that day was the 'Peacock Dance'. It has nothing to do with Katy Perry's Peacock song, their Peacock Dance is more cultural inclined and even involved some acrobatic movements. The guy of attraction between the two ladies is the peacock hunter. And like the wedding ceremony, they invited a lady from the audience to take part in this performance

The nimble 'snakes'

The peacocks

The queen peacock

Part of the crew to our next show- 'Choosing Fiance'. Yes, it was really interesting and light-hearted to watch the Cambodian men compete to get the hand of the charming lady

A : Choose me
B : Nah, come on, me
C : Shussh the both of you, it's me of course!

But their lady decided to go for a Korean audience instead! Awww.

The ceremony to their engagement

There was always some time between each performances, so we also got the chance to walk around the cultural village and look at their other replicas and miniatures of famous landmarks around Cambodia. This is the big theater with a replica of the Angkor Wat as it's backdrop. Only during Fridays, Sats and Suns, they will have a performance here at night

A very energetic Khantremming dance

Our last show of the day was the 'Rice Praying'. Like many Asian countries, rice is a staple Cambodian food, so some tribes in Cambodia have a rice praying ceremony at the beginning of the rice season to ask for good harvest.

The rice praying crew

It was definitely good spending a whole day absorbing in their performances and ceremonies, taking break from temples hopping and temples visiting. I really like how they work at their best to make their performances entertaining and how multi-talented the performers are. If you are vigilant enough, you would had noticed a lot of the performers were repetitive, which means they need to know not only one but multiple dances. And of course, having a cultural village is an excellent idea to make it convenient for tourists especially to learn and understand more about the various local cultures and ceremonies. :)

Phnom Bakheng

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Cambodia post! In fact, this will be the very last of the Angkor temples we visited at the Angkor Archaeological Park. So don't get temple out just yet! Phnom Bakheng is a famous hilltop temple where hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of people flock daily to catch one of the best sun set in Angkor (or in the early morning to catch the sun rise) with the view of the Tonle Sap lake and a distant Angkor Wat in the jungle.

I know the Angkor temples took quite a big chunk of my previous blog posts but in case you had missed out, you can read all about our Angkor temple hopping below (just click on them) :
1) Angkor Wat Sunset
2) Angkor Wat
3) Banteay Srei
4) Ta Prohm
5) Bayon Temple
6) Banteay Samre, Pre Rup and the South Gate

According to Sophea, our driver + guide + photographer + friend, it is best to reach there early to get a good spot. We arrived at the foot of Bakheng at around 5.30 pm but there were already a super huge crowd around. Since it is a hilltop temple, it only means one will need to climb a 'little' before they will reach the hilltop. There are actually two ways to ascend to the hilltop; one via climbing/walking up the immediate steep slopes and the other by the tourist elephants.

Like a child, I was most attracted to the elephant ride. Besides, after a whole day of climbing up and down various temples, it sounded like a better idea to be fetch up the hill than to climb. The elephants are fitted with a seat on their back, like a howdah except they are not as grand with the canopy and railings and driven by a mahout which gently guide them up and down the hill. A ride up the hill by the elephant costs USD 20 and a similar ride down costs much lesser at USD 15. We were given a number and waited about 20 minutes before it was finally our turn to get onto the good old elephant.

At the foot of Bakheng

The path up the hill

Good old boy that swayed left and ride slowly and steadily up the steep slope to Bakheng

None the less, there are still steps to climb to reach the summit to enjoy the overall view and sun set. Due to the large amount of tourists, most part of the temple was actually pretty run down and some already closed off to access

At the summit with hundreds of others awaiting the sun set

Most of the spots with the view of Tonle Sap and Angkor Wat in the distant had been filled up with barely space to squeeze in anymore so I find myself a nice cool spot facing the back of the temple to relax first while waiting for the golden ball to goes down

Characteristic small doorways of the Angkor temples

The view of the lush jungle of Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and Tonle Sap lake far off

The cloud was really mean that day, directly trolling right in front of the golden ball of the sun as it goes down the horizon. Everyone just refused to leave, hoping the dark cloud would be blown away towards the end so we could all still enjoy the last bit of sun set but even in the end, the cloud stayed right in front of the sun all the time leaving everyone with a very disappointed sun set. Just not our luck that day I suppose

By the time we got down from Bakheng, it was already 7 plus-ish at night and of course, Sophea brought us straight to dinner at one buffet restaurant along the way where we only paid USD 6 while the other tourists paid USD 12. For USD 6, we got a huge selection of international and local buffet and cultural dance performance. We managed to pay only USD 6 because we have an awesome guide, Sophea. The usual tourist paid UDS 12 because half of what they paid were actually tips for their drivers who brought them there (of course without them knowing that!) and Sophea were honest to us about that and returned us each the USD 6 that was supposedly his tips. we were truly touched by his honesty.

After the buffet, we then went back to the town centre where the night market is situated and walked around the Angkor Night market, which is a pretty small market where they have more phototostated Lonely Planets at even more expensive prices than those sold at Phnom Penh (that's why get your Lonely Planets in Phnom Penh instead of Siem Reap).

Lonely Planets at prices a fraction of the originals

It was certainly a long day, right up from even before sunrise, temple hopping from the majestic Angkor Wat to the beauty in red Banteay Srei to the exotic Ta Phrom, made famous by the movie Tomb Raider to the gorgeous multitudes of faces Bayon to my first elephant ride up Bakheng, all the Angkor temples are certainly testimonials to the skilled and amazing architecture and carvings of the Khmer dating back as early as the 7th century. I find each of the temple there really special, each with their own appeal and interesting history. I was definitely blown away and pretty much impressed and in love with the ruins of the temples; so beautiful, mysterious and standing in grandeur with their intricate and unique carvings. It could get very hot especially in the mid day, so don't forget sunscreens and light clothes when visiting the Angkor temples. The Angkor temples are definitely a must visit rich archaeological and historical site not to be miss by anyone visiting Siem Reap! :)

Obtaining My Open Water Diving Licence

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:15:00 +0000

The PADI open water diving licence to be exact. Which means I can now officially dive until a depth of 18 meters or 60 feet! :)

I just came back from Tioman Island again last week with more sun kissed skin. I was there at the end of March (click to read post) and was back there again sooner than I thought. But my purpose there this time though was to complete my open water diving course.

Learning to dive and to obtain a diving licence have always been something I had wanted to do for a looooong time but there were always some limitations somewhere. I have always love doing water sports so diving is like my ultimate aim. There's no specific reason to why now, it's more to now is a good time because we finally managed to find time together.

The usual way of obtaining an open water diving licence, which is the most basic and the first step anyone will have to take before they can proceed to further advanced diving courses will be to spend like 3-4 days on an island, doing the theory part, both the confined water dives (where you learn to breath and float in shallow water so you be confident enough to then go into deeper water) and open water dives altogether.

But well with work and everything, it's not that easy to sometimes apply for 4 days off straight in a row. So, the good thing was I found this diving centre in JB that allowed us to complete our confined water dives first in JB itself before we proceed to the island and stay there for another 2-3 days to complete our open water dives and theory. And the most flexible part is, we can actually do all of these at different times according to when we are free.

And so, my journey into becoming an open water diver begins actually at the beginning of this month when I had two days off and I used them to learn my confined water dives in a swimming pool at a sports centre near my workplace. I don't actually mind doing it in a swimming pool because that's like the very first time where we actually breath and float underwater and I feel quite safe being in a pool. *laugh*. Only about 2 weeks after completing our confined water dives, we went on to Tioman for our open water dives. In fact, I'm beginning to feel glad for the fact that Tioman Island is actually so big that they are divided into several villages and that it is such a close getaway from JB city.

We departed for Mersing at one of the most unGodly hour, at 4.00 am and managed to reach the Mersing jetty in 2 hours time. Our boat to Tioman Island left at 6.30 am but by the time we reached Kg Salang, the north tip of Tioman, it was already almost 8.00 am.

Since we stayed at Paya Beach Resort at Kg Paya the previous time, we decided this time to stay at Kg Salang instead. One of my boss recommended that Salang is the most beautiful part of Tioman Island and it's one of the best places to stay in Tioman, so I was keen to see the place for myself

Salang Pusaka Resort- where we stayed. The room I stayed in was like a super basic room with just a bed, a simple mirror, a dressing table and a rather dim light. But amazingly enough, they have a refrigerator, air conditioner and water heater. The rooms are not sparkly clean but clean enough. The down side of this place though were the fact that my room had this musky smell (which gradually resolved fortunately) and that the walls are super thin. So even though we had individual chalets, I can hear clearly what my neighbours were talking if they forgot to keep their voices low

We spent our first two days diving basically, doing two dives on the first day and another two on the seond day. We swam to our spots, around the Salang House Reef which were about 50 meters from the shore for our first two dives. My first ever dive in an open sea was only to a depth of about 7 meter but honestly, my heart was pounding with a cocktail of excitement, partial nervousness and thrill as I made my descend to the seabed. And as pressure increases, my ears started to hurt and for a second I was almost sure my ear drums were going to rupture. But luckily, Mark (my dive master) was there to remind us to equalize constantly and that certainly save me from potentially losing my hearing for good.

Our last two dives were even more exciting because we got to do boat dives (where we learnt how to roll backwards into the sea!) at Fan Canyon and Soyah Island; we dived to a depth of 18 metres and 15 metres respectively. I was really relieved that I can at last equalize and control my buoyancy ( that's how divers get to go so close to corals, fishes, seabed etc without touching them) properly by the end of all my dives.

Pre-diving

Resting between dives with my dive gears

Our diving centre

We in our wetsuits

Strike a starfish jump

After dive with Mark, our fun-loving and cool dive master

The only thing I seriously dislike about boat diving is the sea sick part. I don't usually get sea sick, not when boats are moving, no matter fast or slow but they gotta keep moving but if they remain static at a spot rocking left and right while the waves hit against them, my vestibular system starts going haywire and that's it - sea sick :(

After my first boat dive, I got sea sick real bad and it was really disgusting. Thank god after a rest and my vestibular system readjusted on land, the second boat dive was so much better.

We had to study these too. Of course you will want to read it actually because it is your life that you are putting on line while diving, so if you don't read, you don't know and that will endangers your own life underwater

One of the things we do when not diving - hanging out at the dive centre using their wifi (trust me, wifi is extremely precious on islands so you don't get them at much places plus Digi totally died on us so it was good we had a spot to go online for free) and reading, a good time to be reading the manual *hehe*

Sunset. The sky was a beautiful mixture of colors as the golden ball of the sun sunk into the horizon

Just for fun, the exact sunset but this taken with the D90 instead

Salang at night

Salang at night is definitely more happening than Paya, almost like a mini Perhentian or Redang. While Paya goes total quiet after dark, Salang still have restaurants open and places to chill.

We tried this restaurant on our first night. They have a nice setting where you can have your meals by the beach and soothing beach songs playing but the food is so-so only. Their roasted chicken is my best recommendation here

On our second night, we ate at the restaurant at Salang Pusaka instead. They have movies playing every night too and they were playing Blood Diamond (a really good movie btw if you have never watch it) that night

We ate mainly from the bbq-ed corner there and honestly, I think their bbq-ed fishes are pretty good and the prices reasonable too

The rest of our time were spent just strolling the beach and absorbing the relaxing, stress-free atmosphere

Those chalets on the hills there were actually abandon hotel chalets. They looked so pretty from afar and we had thought they were opened initially until another of our dive friend told us the place is as abandon as it can be now and perhaps even haunted

AJ, another dive master based at Tioman

New found friends

Panaromic shot of Salang, Tioman Island

Officially divers on the 19th - with Mark, Fiona and their handsome little boy Keane at their dive centre in JB

One last pic of a lengzhai - A sulky Keane (still looking so cute, just like me *hahaha* kidding. Our similarity being I used to sulk when taking pics as a kid too)

Salang is definitely a prettier part of Tioman with more activities. I can't say for sure it is the prettiest until I'm done with all the villages but the water is clearer and bluer and they have white sands on this part of the island that I really love. But their accomodation is not as luxurious though, more suitable for backpackers alike. The one thing that I prolly don't quite like about Salang are their abundant monitor lizards but as long as they don't terrorize me, I'm fine with them sunbathing and joy swimming within their own community.

Diving can get pretty exhausting especially when you are carrying some 20 kg oxygen tank at your back. Of course, it is also a dangerous sport/ hobby (not forgetting expensive); just imagine all the risks you can get while diving; burst ear drums, sudden malfunctions of equipments, strong currents, narcossis etc. But the returns definitely outweigh the risks which makes diving worth it. It was simply amazing swimming 18 meters below water with all the fishes truly swimming with me, gliding past the rest of the underwater livings, with Nemos aka clownfishes being only about 2 cm from your nose you can literally smell them, looking above me only to find more circles of fishes right on top of me and listened to the sound and movement of the sea creatures. That kind of experience and euphoric feeling is something only can be felt through diving. I totally love diving and I certainly look forward to be doing my next dive already. :)

Got Shot, Bruised, Down and Dirty

noreply@blogger.com (Allison) — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Yes, only in a game of paintball, you find people who pay to get shoot, bruised, pain and down and dirty - all in the name of fun of course.

Last Sunday, the 3 most chilled departments in my hospital decided to get together and have some fun under the sun shooting each other out at one of the paintball field in Johor Bahru. It was certainly cool to have specialists, MOs, HOs and MAs coming together as one to play. The field we went to was in Desa Tebrau and it was seriously cheap to play there. For 500 pellets and 4 games, we only paid RM 85 per person! So cheap can. The last I played, I paid RM 200 for 200 pellets and 2 games at a field smaller and the environment less exciting than this. The Desa Tebrau centre have both jungle field and speedball field so we were really jungle-aware playing in the jungle; camouflaging, hiding and shooting among trees and getting real muddy and dirty. We also played at the speedball field and like it's name, it was all about speed and there's less stamina and energy needed, more to just shooting your hearts out.

My first time playing paintball was in KL but this was definitely a much more bruised, aggresive and painful game. And surely one of the best stay-awake recipe especially for those who post call or post night shift. I was working the whole night before and barely got to sleep and usually that means going into lalaland till the very next working shift but I managed to stay rightfully awake (and pretty much concentrated) for the game. I guessed when adrenaline runs, the sleep centre automatically gets suppressed.

The speedball field

Essential helmets

There are huts line up for players to rest in between games

Safety briefing by the marshall

We can also rent these army like clothes from them at RM 10. Definitely a good investment because our underlying clothes were kept clean

Surgical team

Spot me among everyone. Bravo if you spot me on first time. haha!

Post-game - at the end of 4 very exhilarating, painful and sweaty games

I certainly ended up with quite a few lovebites, and pretty huge ones I must say all thanks to the game and i'm not kidding when I say the pellets can be deadly. Even when shot from a distance, it can cause sufficient pain, bruises and swelling so NEVER take it for granted and shoot anyone in near range. I'm suffering from all the post-game consequences right now, nursing in sore muscles, painful limbs and ugly bruises, but then again, if you ask me for another game (just not right now), I believe I will still give it a yes. *haha*. Well, although it paints us as much as much as it pains us, it was still a very exciting and thrilling game. :)