South East Asia is an area where I neglected as I am always eager to conquer the far away lands but forgot the beauty that is near home.
This time, we set off to Hanoi, on the quest to slowly visit the New7Wonders of Nature.
We have done Jeju Island and Table Mountain only.
Day 1 We took the airport transport arranged by the hotel at USD18 for 4 seater car as we read about the various taxi scams in Hanoi. Day 1 was spent mainly walking around the old quarters and it was a really hot and humid day. Luckily I brought the portable fan along.
St. Joseph’s Cathedral.Old quarter.Had one of the best meal for this trip in Cau Go restaurant.
Day 2 Supposed to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum but my outfit was inappropriate (shoulders have to be covered. unfortunately it was the longest outfit I brought) and had to give it a miss as I did not want to spend money to buy a shawl. The queue was also terribly long and we are glad that we give it a miss cause we later read that people queue on average 2 hours to enter for a 1 min time in the mausoleum! The bags had to be locked in the locker so imagine 2 hours without water! The mausoluem closed at 11am so even if you are queuing halfway, the door will still be closed at 11am sharp.
We went for the Ho Chi Minh museum instead and it was so boring. The artifacts are only in Vietnamese. Not worth a visit. Even the locals seem not interested. I would rather read up the history online.
Ho Chi Minh Museum
one pillar pagoda, walking distance from the museum.
Hoa Lo prison, worth a visit.
At night, we walked around the lake and this time the weather was much better and enjoyable! We also visited the night market again. The items are very similar to Singapore’s pasar malam so I did not make any purchase. We also visited the Thang Long water puppet show as this is a dying tradition which we could not watch in Singapore anymore.
Day 3 To Halong Bay, the highlight of this trip.
Halong Bay and Baitulong bay are so calming. We didn’t have any connection to the world and it feels so good to disconnect 🙂
Day 4
Visit to the cave, nothing fanciful as we have visited more grand caves in South Africa and Ipoh.
Making spring roll on boardOn the sundeck relaxing.
Day 5
The Malaysian couple we met on the cruise told us that the Women’s Musuem is much more interesting so we decided to give it a visit since we woke up early. Indeed, I like it much more than the Ho Chi Minh museum, and is very impressed by the tenacity of the Vietnamese women. Respect. I find the permanent exhibits very interesting, the marriage, the remarkable women in the past who fought against the French colony, Americans etc, and also the history of the Ao Dai.
We booked a grab car to go to the airport. In this short stay, we find that the grab taxi or grab car is a convenient way to get around Hanoi, as we do not need to bargain with the driver, no need to communicate on the address and most importantly, no need to fear of being scammed. So thankful for the invention of data plan and grab app!
This is my third time to Hong Kong and W’s fourth time! So I wasn’t particularly excited especially since HK is too similar to Singapore except when we get to meet relatives and friends.
Day 1 was spent travelling to our hotel, The Kimberley Hotel , getting a dinner and early rest. Our hotel was in a really central location and easily accessible via the airport coach bus. We decided to take the bus instead of airport express as it is cheaper and we do not need to change line. The bus drops near Kimberley Road.
The airport coach bus we took was A21 which cost HKD33 per pax and you can use the Octopus Card. There are designated spaces for luggages and if you carry big luggage like me, it is advisable to be early so you do not need to lift the luggage up if there is not enough space at the bottom tier.
Day 2
Caught up with my grandaunt and her family. Met her twice (once in HK 3 years back and once in SG 2 years back) and am so glad to see her healthy and strong 🙂
Hope to visit her again soon!
In the evening, I met with Ho Ho who brought me to this Korean restaurant, Kimchee Korean BBQ in Tsim Sha Tsui. I was still very full and could not eat much. Nonetheless, I feel so happy to be able to catch up with Ho Ho, one of my best friends from Denmark and meeting up with him makes me feel that time really flies! It has been 6 years and many of us are already settling down, settled down and some are even parents! Wish you all the best Ho Ho! 🙂
Caught up with my dad’s cousin and his family in the morning. I visited them 3 years ago in HK as well. Glad to see them doing well 🙂
As for lunch, I went to meet Fannie, someone whom I met in Harbin when travelling alone. Met Fannie again when she came to Singapore earlier this year and here we are in Hong Kong. Always so happy to be able to meet up friends despite living in different parts of the world.
We had our lunch in Barista Caffe, which was rather hard to find as it was located in a small hotel. But trust your GPS! Always good to get a local prepaid SIM card 🙂 I really enjoyed my pasta but the portion was huge and I could not finish. The set lunch was affordable at only HKD65.
Barista Caffe
Address: Hong Kong, 尖沙咀亞士厘道18號東亞中心3樓
Phone: +852 2511 0998
Hours: 8am to 6.30pm (weekdays), 12 to 6.30pm (Saturdays). Closed on Sundays.
We had dinner at Lei Garden in Mongkok.
Day 4
Disneyland Hong Kong is very accessible by the MTR! We took about 40 minutes to reach from Tsim Sha Tsui.
I brought my minnie mouse ear which I bought in Tokyo as I did not want to waste money to buy new ears haha.
Sleeping beauty. She really looked like a doll. Pretty mum and cute baby 🙂 Wish I can be as pretty as her after giving birth!Woody really looks fake here!
Love the Christmas theme Disney!
We went back to Tsim Sha Tsui and W wanted to try the Itacho Sushi here.
Verdict: Singapore’s Itacho is better and cheaper! The 40cents sushi was not 40cents here, sushi tasted the same but the udon used here is the thin noodle which I did not like. I like my udon to be thick and QQ. The bill was about SGD30+ each here but usually I eat less than SGD25 in Singapore due to the 40cents sushi.
Day 5 The weather looks good and we decided to hike up Lantau Peak! We took bus 11 to Pak Kung Au from Tung Chung bus terminal. As there is no bell to press, you have to alert the driver to stop at Pak Kung Au. The bus ride was 20 minutes and you can use Octopus card to pay. They do not return change for cash payment. Monday to Saturday is about HKD11 while Sunday is almost double the price which I am not sure why. Bus 23 also passes by Pak Kung Au but the queue was longer and we presumed that was because bus 23 goes to the Lantau Peak while bus 11 goes to Tai O village.
We have to cross to the other side to start the hike to Lantau Peak, otherwise on the side where we alighted will be towards the Sunset Peak. As we wanted to end at the Big Buddha, we had to take the Lantau Peak.
Fluffy clouds
It wasn’t as easy as I thought. The steps were pretty steep!
Finally reached after 1.5 hours!
But we have another 45 minutes to go before reaching the Big Buddha!
At the peak, we couldn’t see the Big Buddha at all. How is it possible to reach within 45 minutes, we wonder?
Coming down towards Ngong Ping was even steeper!
Soon after this point, we spotted the Big Buddha but it seemed so far away! 30 minutes seems impossible as it was mountains away from where we stood!
Can you spot the Big Buddha? There wasn’t anyone around to ask but we thought since there is only one way down and we have to go down nonetheless, we shall just go ahead.
And then we saw this in 30 minutes and we thought yes we are on track! The Wisdom Path.
Big Buddha.
We walked around the Big Buddha but did not visit the Po Lin Monastery as we need to hurry over to Tai O Village. We did not have any lunch yet as we gobbled down a sausage (HKD22) and bean curd (HKD15) sold around the Big Buddha. The bean curd and sausage were surprisingly good though rather expensive!
Many souvenir shops on the way to the Ngong Ping bus terminal and cable car station. Always a tourist trap! Kyoto’s kiyomizu dera has similar shops too. From Ngong Ping, we caught bus 21 that says to Tai O Village and we reached in about 30 minutes. Again it is best to use Octopus Card as they do not return any change. The fare was HKD6.30 and we were lucky to have caught this bus as at this point of writing, I realised the frequency of the bus is hourly!
Once we reached Tai O village, there was this guy who was selling boat tickets to go around the village and claims that it was the last boat for the day. The boat ride took us around the fishing village, and out in the sea a while to see any potential dolphins which we did not. After the ride, we crossed a bridge and came across another boat company which sells ticket at HKD20 instead of HKD25 which we took! We felt cheated but luckily it was only a little more expensive. So for future tourists, please walk a little more to take the cheaper boat ride (which I believe goes to the same attractions).
Tai O village was a good break from the crowded cosmopolitan Hong Kong.
Tried this Tai O Donut which was quite tasty! Apparently this is quite famous in Tai O.
And I love my crispy egg waffle (鸡蛋仔). Better than Singapore’s waffle.
We had a good dinner at 威尼斯酒家 where the boss was super friendly and we really like how the villagers dine together in the restaurant. We felt like we were part of the Tai O family! The food was of generous servings and affordable. We caught bus 11 back to Tung Chung where W wanted to buy the New Balance sneakers we saw earlier in the day at the Citygate Outlets. Unfortunately that day happens to be their Christmas party celebration for their staff and New Balance closed early! In the end, W still scored a good deal with his Timberland bermudas while I almost bought this Furla metropolis bag which was going at about SGD380 only. So tempted!
Day 6
We made a day trip to Macau, which happens to be a public holiday for Macau. Hence the ferry ticket was slighly more expensive. We took the Turbojet Ferry to Macau, which had a longer queue than the Cotai Ferry.
After purchasing our tickets, we realised that Cotai Ferry has promotion for return tickets for birthday month which was around HKD100 cheaper! Unfortuantely we already purchased our tickets. The good thing is, Turbojet’s Macau Terminal is nearer to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.
Senado Square.
Reminds us of Spain.
Ruins of St. Paul’s.
The fake Eiffel Tower costs about HKD100+ to enter which we felt is totally not worth it.
The casinos were very beautiful at night! We took a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal where we purchased Cotai ferry as this terminal has Cotai ferry only.
Day 7 On our last day, we decided to try Yi Dian Xin which was highly recommended by my brother. Indeed, it did not disappoint us!
The shop opens at 11am and we reached at 11.15am where there was a queue formed already!
We waited for about 20 minutes and the food was definitely worth the wait! The bill was about SGD15 per person and we ordered 9 dishes of dim sum.
We head over to Sham Shui Po as my brother wanted to get some Dragonball toys.
A michelin star dessert shop.
Before we leave Hong Kong, we bought some Jenny Bakery and Hang Heungwife cake (I think it is better than Wing Wah) for our family, friends and colleagues. Our Kimberley hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui is really convenient as we get everything we need at a walking distance! If our shopping gets heavy, we can just unload back in the hotel 🙂
Do take note that there are a lot of Jenny Bakery imitations in Tsim Sha Tsui so make sure to go to the authentic one! Jenny Bakery
I was very into Jpop during my teenage years and have been wanting to visit Japan since a decade ago! Now that I am finally financial independent, my dream came true!
Day 1
I could not believe that I am in Japan! =D
Couldn’t sleep on the overnight plane and feeling very lethargic yet eager to explore Tokyo!
We took very long to find this place, Tatsunoya Ramen!
It was definitely worth our effort! The noodle, the soup, the chashu, the egg, everything was just perfect!
We bought lots of thermal wear, some scarves and gloves from Shinjuku Uniqlo. Uniqlo Japan was so much cheaper mainly because 1. it is from Japan 2. yen is very weak now. SGD1 can change for Yen85 3. massive sale 4. we get tax refund!
The staff was so polite, he bowed to every single customer who took the discount voucher from him.
We were walking around Shinjuku area and saw it was some kind of public holiday in Japan today and Uniqlo was having massive sale!
As for dinner, I wanted to try yakitori and we went to this yakitori place which rejected us because we are foreigners. Some Japanese are really xenophobic! The staff even pointed to us the sign outside that says “only Japanese allowed” which we did not see when we entered. It was so upsetting as this place totally destroyed my perfect impression of Japan. But W cheered me up and we went to look for other yakitori place 🙂 So we walked around our hotel and found this.
The yakitori was average but at least the staff were kind to us!
Day 2 We visited the Meiji Shrine near Harajuku.
It was a pretty long walk from the metro station to the shrine so please do not wear heels ladies!
So lucky to witness a traditional wedding ceremony!
Adorable Japanese kids 🙂
Made from vegetables!
Since Meiji Shrine is near Harajuku, we hop over and tried some Gindako takoyaki for lunch! It was as good as the ones in Ion!
Bought some cosmetics in Harajuku. Thank you W for carrying!
At night we went to the Shibuya crossing and shopped at Shibuya 109! Shibuya 109 is the trendy mall for teenage girls and I have always wanted to visit this mall after seeing the numerous features on the Japanese magazines!
But dream and reality do have some gaps. The clothes in 109 were really expensive and since they were selling winter wear, I decided not to get any. The free wifi was very good though 🙂
Tried creme brulee at the L’Occitane Cafe, where we rested our feet and watched the busy shibuya crossing. I love the creme brulee =D
Kaminarimon gate to the Sensoji Temple. This place was crowded with tourists.
We decided to try the rickshaw though it was not very cheap (SGD30+) but we just want to give it a try!
Our rickshaw puller is an undergraduate and he says this job gives him extra allowance and is better paying than other jobs. He seems to be interested to learn English and says that finding jobs in Japan is getting more competitive nowadays.
Although it was very crowded, I still like this place a lot.
W really love his food a lot!
Many souvenir shops.
We dropped by this random place and had the best tempura udon ever! I’m not an udon fan but this literally changed my perception of udon. The udon was QQ and the tempura prawn was fresh and not oily! The tempura flour was not thick but just nice. This set was also affordable at around 1300yen.
It seems like any food stalls in Japan are good. The worse is only mediocre but we never encounter any bad ones despite not doing our research!
We then head over to Akihabara as I wanted to get some Dragonballs for my brother. Akihabara is the place for manga stuff and electronics!
Brother would love this!
Lots of toys catching machines which W love!
Our itinerary is really packed, and after Akihabara we head over to Ginza, which by then W was so exhausted and went for a massage while I shopped alone 😦
But I soon realised that Ginza is just like Orchard Road, full of branded shops which I cannot afford.
So we went over to Tonkatsu Maisen Tokyo Daimaru for our tonkatsu!
The tonkatsu was comparable to our Ma Maison in Mandarin Gallery. In fact I like our sesame sauce (they do not have in this Tokyo outlet) but Tokyo’s cutlet is fluffier and softer.
Tonkatsu Maisen Tokyo Daimaru Address: Japan, 〒100-6701 Tokyo, Chiyoda, Marunouchi, 1−9−1, 大丸東京店 Daimaru Tokyo Phone: +81 3-6638-6871 Hours: 11am–11pm
Day 4
Last day in Tokyo so we had a hard time deciding between Disneyland or Disneysea. In the end we decided on Disneysea as it is the one and only in the world.
We bought something silly since it was my first time in Disney! The day was cold despite the sun and W’s silly hat really kept his head warm! Good buy!
We had sushi dinner in a restaurant near Disneyland and it turned out to be very good! Did not take any photos as we were busy chatting with the chef.
Day 5
We took a bus to Mount Fuji, Kawaguchiko station which was about 2 hour ride. From the Kawaguchiko station, we took a cab to our Hotel New Century.
It was dinner time when we reached Kawaguchiko and as it was a small town, there was nothing much to do but to eat and sleep at night. We walked down to this restaurant near our hotel and I’m not kidding, anything we order in Japan was just so good!
Very happy with our food!
We were given yukata where we tried on and went to the onsen in the hotel. There wasn’t anyone as it was pretty late and I had the whole public onsen to myself! 🙂
The next day, we set off to see Mt Fuji and to go to the town area.
Not forgetting the 11 course breakfast prepared by the hotel! Heavenly!
The peak was covered by the cloud when we set off. They say that Mt Fuji is a shy mountain.
However, the cloud started to clear and we could see the peak of Mt Fuji!
It was a long but scenic walk to kawaguchiko town. We saw some people rowing boats and we really wanted to do that but we did not have enough time. We promised to come back to Mt Fuji again as we really like the quaint town and the beautiful scenery.
Some local markets in the town.
We spent the late afternoon and evening taking bullet train to Osaka for the last part of our trip. Time really flies when you are travelling! We stayed in Daiwa Roynet Hotel Osaka which was really small but was a clean business hotel. It was on promotion when we got it so each night cost only about SGD60+. The hotels in Osaka seems to be cheaper than in Kyoto and since we had big luggages, we decided to stay in Osaka and do day trips to Kyoto.
Day 6
We joined a free English walking tour in the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
W caught some toys in Kyoto and we had to carry around the palace.
We went to this tonkatsu place which sells pretty good tonkatsu but not as good as the one in Daimaru Tokyo.
We had to grind the sesame ourselves.
Lots of shopping here!
Very expensive sushi and from the display, we thought it was the price for two pieces (but only one came!) Luckily we only ordered 2 plates as we were still full from the tonkatsu.
Day 7
We went to look for my Japanese friends who stayed in my house last time. We visited Osaka castle together 🙂
With Kusumi san and Ayami san.
View from the castle.
The famous Dotonbori street. Bought a small piece of the crab but didn’t find it fantastic.
The gyoza was delicious!
And so we concluded the trip with all these food, skincare and cosmetics!
After W’s CFA, we took a coach bus to Ipoh. W could sleep all the way as he was exhausted from the late night studying but I couldn’t sleep at all on the bus 😦 So the next morning I was walking like a zombie 😦 We stayed in Wei Kang’s grandfather’s house in Ipoh which is so huge and beautiful 🙂 Visited the famous Ipoh cave which can be pretty dark and slippery inside.
The next day, we drove up to Cameron Highlands. Yeah to the start of our adventure!
So many daisies and first time seeing duo colour daisies. So pretty!
Tough driving up the mountain. Needs a lot of concentration and skill! Good job WK!
More Gerbera Daisies again 🙂
Such a pleasant and peaceful place to just chill and rest.
We stayed overnight for one night and the next day we went to the Lost World of Tambun.
It was so much fun with Xiao Ben 🙂
Lost World of Tambun
Address: 2, Persiaran Lagun Sunway 1, Sunway City Ipoh, 31150 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
It is my life-long dream to visit Japan, and now that I am based in Shanghai for my internship, travelling to Japan is nearer and cheaper.
Unfortunately, Japan was hit by the Tohoku earthquake in March and many people advised me not to visit Japan at the moment. Despite my strong desire to go ahead, I could not find any travel partners and hence decided to visit South Korea instead.
Our apartment in Shanghai is next to the Longyang metro station, which means we can access the airport easily via the Maglev, which takes about 7 minutes to the airport.
However, I made a huge costly mistake by trying to save the Maglev ticket (approx SGD 8) and took the normal metro (approx SGD 1.5 to 2) to the airport instead. I underestimated the time needed to travel on the metro, which was about 1 hour 5 minutes for the metro ride only. We still need to walk a distance from the metro station to the airport check-in counter 😦
When we reached the airport, it was about 45 minutes ahead of the departure time but the check-in counter refused to let us in despite not having any checked in baggages. We had to pay about SGD100+ per person to change the flight to the next day, as China Southern airlines only fly to Seoul from Shanghai once a day.
We also had to pay the hostel fees for the night we missed as it was too late to cancel 😦
It was my first time missing a flight. Lesson learnt indeed.
Day 1
We spent our first day walking around Myeongdong which W really got bored because the shops sell mainly women stuff. From women fashion to women skincare and cosmetics.
The busy Myeongdong shopping street where you can find lots of Korean skincare shop at every corner.
Street food along Myeongdong. We love street food!
Day 2
In the day, we walked around Itaewon which has a lot of cool cafes but I find that the shopping is not to my liking.
They have a lot of tourism ambassadors which can speak in multiple languages to help tourists navigate around Itaewon 🙂 At night, we went to the shopping malls at Dongdaemun which sells cheaper clothes than Myeongdong! My favourite mall is this mall 2 am (hope I remember the name correctly) as it sells chic clothes at cheap prices.
The malls at Dongdaemun close pretty late, passed midnight. Some closes earlier some closes as late as 5 am.
There are also some wholesale shopping mall but they only sell in bulk.
I only bought one chiffon blouse as most of the items can be found in Shanghai at more than half the price. If I were to come from Singapore, I might go crazy in Seoul but coming from Shanghai where I have Taobao and Qipulu, there really isn’t anything that interest me much in Seoul’s shopping.
Day 3
We visited this Global StarCraft II League (GSL) as W is really interested in gaming and stuff! It was a live broadcast and quite an eye opening experience.
Interview with the gamers after they ended the game.
It was evening after the game ended and as we strolled back to the metro station, we chanced upon this Korean BBQ buffet that was going for only 10 000 won per person! The quality of the meat was pretty good and because the food was so good, we forgot to take photos 🙂
Day 4
The next day, we went to the Everland! We had a hard time deciding between Lotte World or Everland but according to friends who visited both, they said that Everland is slightly better.
We took bus 5002 from Yangjae station and the bus ride was about 45 minutes. There were quite a number of teenagers taking the same bus to Everland.
So happy at the Everland! It is much much better than Dinoland in China Changzhou.
We like how it is not crowded and there are essentially no queue to the rides!
After the T-Express ride, I got really sick and nauseous. Not sure if it was the ride, the BBQ buffet that I ate. I am not a roller coaster person so I didn’t know why I tried this one of the world’s fastest roller coaster ride. One thing for sure, never ride after a full stomach!
It was definitely a thrilling ride for me!
Didn’t know they have sea animals performances.
Parades 🙂
Day 5 We were told to try this Ginseng Chicken from Tosokchon near the Imperial Palace. I’m gad we went before our flight as it is the BEST Ginseng Chicken ever!!!
We ordered the Tosokchon Samyetang (Ginseng Chicken) each. The portion is pretty huge for me as there are a lot of glutinous rice underneath the chicken. The soup was heavenly!
Patrons have to remove shoes as it is indoor seating on the floor.
We did not have to queue as we went pretty early, around 11 am. When we left the restaurant after 12pm, we saw a long queue!
Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken
Address: 5 Jahamun-ro 5-gil, Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Exit 2 at Gyeongbokgong station and just walk straight for about 150 m. Turn left at the first alley.
This South Korea trip turns out to be fun and I didn’t know that it is such a technologically advanced country! While Singapore is having the 3G hype, S. Korea is having 4G network already! I also noticed how their houses are password/ thumbprint locked, not requiring to carry any keys with them 🙂
mamakeng.com 
