4D2N in Hat Yai

Before I start anything about my Thailand trip, I'm going to say that packaged tour is definitely not for me... To be sitting in a coach filled with other strangers throughout the trip was quite a terrible experience for me.. Furthermore, our tour leader and Thailand tour guide were not up to standard... making the trip even more chaotic.. The only good thing about this trip is that this is the first time going overseas with my family members..

Read about the coach package here!
Accommodation
We stayed in Asian Hotel in Hat Yai for 2 nights. Breakfast buffet is available.The rooms looked rather old and the two elevators were small-sized. Hair dryer can be requested. Overall still acceptable for a night's rest. Wifi is available; get the ID and password from the operator. Air conditioning is not adjustable. My room was carpeted and my mother's room was not.
The only issue I have with the hotel is they requested my mother who was staying with my brother and little sister to go back up to their room (we were already assembled in the lobby) to pull the beds apart. Not sure if this is the protocol for hotels, but it just seems weird to me that your housekeeping team is unable to pull apart the beds; even if we were not supposed to join them together in the first place.

Places of interest

We went to some temple along the road...

Then we went to Magic Eye; Thailand's version of Trickeye. You need to take off your shoes at the entrance before heading in! Costs 300baht for adults and 200baht for children. This was quite fun, but that might be due to my family going in inside first before anyone else and we had the whole place to ourselves at first! :D

Forgot to take a photo of the stall! This chicken is the best chicken I have eaten! It's within walking distance from Asian Hotel, near to where MacDonald is located. It's a stall located along the street!

Finger licking good!

The next day, we went to another temple up a hill..

And then we went to an ice dome improperly attired! Our legs went freezing!

We also went to the floating market, but it was pouring when we went there T.T no photos and no boats selling stuffs..

Lastly, let's look at the awesome coconut ice creams I had in Hat Yai!

Coconut and yam ice cream with bread, peanuts, sweet potato bits, attap chee and glutinous rice!

Coconut ice cream with real coconut pieces, bread, peanuts, sweet potato bits, attap chee and glutinous rice!

That's all about my Thailand trip!

To Hat Yai, Thailand

Going to Thailand in December! This will be my first trip with my family to another country, other than Malaysia! Just that my dad will not be going though.. It's a 4D2N trip by bus to Hat Yai from Malacca! The cost for this tour is RM350 for adult and RM250 for child without bed. So around S$140 for adults, quite affordable.

The package includes:

• 2 nights hotel stay 
• 2 breakfast, 1 lunch & 1 dinner
• 40 seater coach
• Guide

The first day we reach Hat Yai, we will be visiting some temples and the floating market. Then the second day will be free and easy and we can visit malls to do some shopping before heading back to Malacca.

When mentioning Thailand, I think that Bangkok is a more popular tourist destination. Hat Yai is located at southern Thailand, nearer to Malaysia border, hence a coach tour from Malaysia. This city is still popular to both Malaysians and Singaporeans though!

Will post about the trip once I'm back! Since it's a packaged tour, not much to say before going for the trip itself!

The Escape Artist: Injustice

UPDATE: As of 19/10/15, this room has been replaced with Injustice: Liberation!

Went to The Escape Artist (TEA) at Prinsep Street to play their Injustice room. The outlet is located along the shophouses where Strictly Pancakes is situated. You need to turn right into a walkway to enter Escape Artist.

I have made an online booking to reserve a slot of Injustice room. Payment is made when you go down to TEA. After making payment, you keep all your belongings into the lockers provided. After which, you will be brought to the location of your room! A phone will be provided to you. It is for you to call their staffs if you require tips to escape the room. We definitely require it!

This room is recommended for 6-10 pax, but only 3 of us went. During the online booking, you can only select minimum number of 6 people attending. However, you only need to pay the specific number of people playing on the actual day.

Description for Injustice: 

Framed and sentenced to death for a crime you didn’t commit.

This is your last window of opportunity before your meeting with the hangman. Will you surrender to fate, or take destiny into your own hands?

For Injustice, you are locked in a jail and need to escape within 50mins during the change in guards. The puzzles can be solved except for 1. I do not think that without the hint from the staff, one would not be able to logically solve the puzzle to unlock the code for that lock. It was a fun and exciting experience. We were so engrossed in solving the puzzles that when another group playing the escape room besides ours knocked on the walls, we were shocked by it ;D

The staffs were very friendly and helpful and even recommended us to try another room as Injustice might be a bit tough for 3 players. But the other room is Level 13.5 and I'm scared of haunted/spooky stuffs! I have read that some Escape Rooms combine you with other people if your group does not meet the minimum number. I am glad that TEA does not operate this way!

Hope to visit their Bukit Timah branch someday for more escaping fun!

My 5D4N Hong Kong trip!

I'm back from my Hong Kong trip! The self-proclaimed shopping and food paradise is only possible if you know where to go! Read about my pre-Hong Kong post here!

Our first day shopping was not successful as the places we went to sells branded items only! So i will be listing the highlights of my trips and where you SHOULD go to shop for cheap stuffs!

A copy of the MTR map. We used the octopus card for transportation. It works like Singapore's ez-link card. Just top up the card and you can tap in and out of the train stations. It applies to buses as well. It simply offer ease of convenience when using HK transportation system.

Highlights

The Victoria's Peak
We went at night and it was quite chilly despite it being summer! We queued to get the peak tram up! It was quite a long queue..

We finally see the tram!

 The night view of Hong Kong!

There are a lot of restaurants and shops at Victoria's Peak. Madame Tussauds is located there as well, but we didn't visit it! Anyways, i think it's a worthwhile experience to ride the tram! You really feel the gravity on it while it goes up the slope! :D

Getting there: Walking distance from Central Station exit J2.

Ocean Park
We reached ocean park before it opens to purchase the tickets!

It was an ok experience. Since we reached there early, we managed to avoid a lot of queues for the rides. My favourite ride is...

Hair Raiser coaster!

It's actually not as thrilling as the roller coaster in USS but the tracks goes up to a hill so when the car goes down, you see the sea alllll the waaaay up there! Wahh! 

The other coaster there was not a good experience for me. My head jerked against the safety vest and my ears became red after that :/

This head jerker..

We watched a dophin show!

This is a aquarium, with sharks and stingrays!

Panda! 

Getting there: Take bus 629 from Admiralty station. It goes directly to ocean park!

Disneyland Hong Kong

This is my first trip to disneyland and it has drawn me to visit other disneylands as well! At Sunny Bay station where you change train to HK disneyland, we are greeted by Mickey Mouse themed train!

Mickey handrails!

Mickey actually moves up and down! *surfing!*

We watched the flights of fantasy parade as well!

Two of my favourite rides are Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars and Space Riders! Awesome ride experience! The coasters in disneyland are generally not towards the super thilling rides, so you can't expect that 'high'. But these two were fun! If you like to immerse yourself with a themed experience, i would recommend mystic manor and winnie the pooh ride! You follow a story plot and move around with various scenes!    

Getting there: Go to Sunny Bay Station and transfer towards Disneyland

Argyle Centre Shopping Mall @ Mongkok (旺角中心)
This is the place to go if you are looking for cheap clothes, bags and shoes! I highly recommend this place! Clothes range from 40-60HKD and they are of acceptable quality! I bought 4 dresses, 1 skirt and 1 jacket! Furthermore, it is already very affordable and you don't need to waste time and energy in haggling for prices, which you MUST do so at ladies market.

Getting there: Alight at Mongkok station exit B1. It is just across Fife Street.

Ladies Market @ Mongkok

The place where haggling is a must as vendors highly mark up their prices for tourists. It might be more than 3 times the rate! My friend bought a monopod for 85HKD afyer much haggling and the original rate given by the vendor was close to 200HKD, if i didn't remember wrongly. After checking the rate with our HK friend, apparently it is possible to get a monopod around 60plus HKD. 

However, this place is worth a visit to take a look at the local culture. Besides, there are other places you can go in Mongkok, just don't shop at ladies market unless you are up for some fierce haggling.

Getting there: Alight at Mongkok station exit E2 and walk along Nathan Road towards Shan Tung Street.

Yuan Lang Lao Po Bing (元朗老婆饼)

One of the well-known lao po bing in HK. I'm not actually a fan of lao po bing, but i bought some back to Singapore as souvenirs! They have a branch in Mongkok and they sell a variety of other snacks too! 

Getting there: Can't remember the exact direction, but you exit from E2, Walk along Nathan Road. You need to turn left into one of the road and it's located somewhere there. Ask the locals! They directed us there as well!

Hotel Review

As i previously mentioned, we booked Lodgewood hotel located in Mongkok. It is around 7mins walk from Mongkok station exit A2. Some pictures of the interior of the room.

There's a glass panel dividing the beds and toilet. There is a curtain that you can draw to close the glass panel.

Overall, i think this hotel is good. Good location with friendly staffs! Not that expensive as well! It is considered a rather new hotel so it is advisable to bring the hotel's name card out with you in case you want to take a cab. Taxi drivers may not know this hotel by its name!

Food Reviews

Our first breakfast in HK! The noodles is damn good! The soup base is rather bland however. This is located nearer to Prince Edward Station. I order the beef with satay sauce! Reasonably price.

We ate at the cafe ocean when we went to ocean park. The food is very flavourful! I ordered sliced pork with tofu under their claypot section. The menu is not too expensive considering that it is located in a theme park as compared to Singapore's restaurants within a theme park. When we went there, it was Halloween themed. Waiters were dressed up like chinese vampire, thankfully without the makeup on their faces. Incense were placed on the tables. We felt uncomfortable by it and moved the incense to another empty table.

Yeah! We ate HK's Tim Ho Wan! Similar to Singapore, they do not really have a huge variety of dim sum. Quoted from my friend, it is around 20% nicer than Singapore's outlets. Their po luo bao... Delicious! We ordered so much that our food needs to be stacked!

In disneyland, we ate at the starliner diner. Most restaurants there display their food sold outside their shops. I ate the grilled chicken breast. If you like tomato sauce, this is the dish for you! The rice is shaped in Mickey mouse! We only ate at this restaurant as our HK friend told us that the rest of the restaurants are not very nice. 

Itinerary

Our plan to macau was cancelled as we do not have enough time! Our final itinerary was: 

1st day (Touch-down): shopping at Hong Kong Island, visit victoria peak at night
2nd day: Ocean Park
3rd day: HK Disneyland
4th day: Shopping around Mongkok (Argyle Centre, Ladies Market and buying lao po bing)
5th day: Back to Singapore

That's the end of my Hong Kong post! Waiting for next year's Japan trip already!

pre-HONG KONG; heading to airport tonight!

First trip to Hong Kong and we planned for a 5D4N trip! I personally feel that it's too short, considering that we are planning a day trip to Macau as well. I can't speak Cantonese though :/ So here's what we have done before our actual trip to Hong Kong!

Flight
Ticket were bought in May during one of Scoot's promo. We managed to get flybag at $221 per pax (inclusive of seat selection). We will be departing at 1.50am tomorrow morning for a 4hrs flight! Hope I will get some shut-eye before I reached! :/ Previous midnight flight experience tells me that I will find it difficult to sleep in-flight.

Hotel
We booked Lodgewood by L'hotel Mongkok Hong Kong through booking.com website in June. This booking was done by my friend. It costs about $288 per pax for 4 nights.

Itinerary
Our itinerary is rather simple. And it goes like this:
1st day (Touch-down): shopping at Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Shui, visit victoria peak at night
2nd day: Ocean Park
3rd day: HK Disneyland
4th day: Day trip to Macau
5th day: Back to Singapore
and not to forget, eating dim sum and whatever available foodssss. Yum!

I will post more about my HK trip once I'm back or if I have time while in Hong Kong!

P.S. Finally! A post about my trip! Felt like it's been soooo looong since I travelled..

COLOUR RUN

Joined the colour run yesterday! By the time we reached harbourfront station, there were 2 colour run volunteers holding up signages and telling us to take the shuttle bus at the bus interchange.. when we reached the interchange though, the queue was horrendously long! Took 1 hour to finally reach sentosa beach station.. Made me wonder if the queue for sentosa express is as bad...

Anyways, when we reached there, we were lucky it didn't rain.. cause we heard thunder while at the bus interchange.. however, there were lack of directional signage and volunteers to direct us to the baggage area.. there was 1 volunteer who just told the runners to go to the starting point when the baggage area was waaaay at another area. Another issue is that the way to the baggage area involves cutting through the running route. Hence that path is sometimes blocked for runners to run, making putting and retrieving our bags a hassle.

During the 'run', everybody was walking. So even if you wanted to run, it was near impossible as some of the path are rather narrow and the 'runners' are all blocking the path as well. Another disappointing fact about the run was that i had expected volunteers to be spraying the runners with the powder.

Pic searched from Google

Instead, we have to powder ourselves.. Either by rolling or sitting on the powdered floor or spraying one another ourselves. These resulted in powder areas being blocked by runners squatting down to get the powder or runners rolling on the floor. 

Pic searched from Google

AND THE MOST SADDENING PART IS AFTER THE RUN WE DID NOT GET OUR PACK OF COLOURED POWDER!!!!!!!!!! T.T (no purple or yellow powder for us!)

We were also a bit lost on what we are supposed to do after completing the run as well. Then we slowly made our way back to the baggage area to get our bags after being blow dry and blinded by the colour powder and wind.

Overall, i still think it was a worthwhile experience, but you won't be seeing me joining colour run again!

Trickeye museum @ RWS

Went to trickeye museum last sunday but was too lazy to blog about it.. better late than never though! Sooo...

You should know that this trickeye musuem originates from south korea! They have their own trickeye musuems there! Hope i get a chance to go to the trickeye museum in korea next time!

I read up abit on trickeye museum opened at RWS and apparently the queue to enter can take up to 90min during their peak hours! So i decided to go early in the morning when it opens to avoid the crowds! When we went there at around 10 plus, there was no queue! There are no toilets inside the museum though, so you need to walk to the nearest toilet to release yourself before entering!

Overall the mueseum is rather fun and exciting, allowing you to interact with the art pieces and do whatever weird and funny poses you have! But the space is rather small. The art pieces are near one another and to take a picture, you might intrude into another art piece or knock onto someone else posing and taking pictures(oops!). Also, you need to wait for others to finish taking their pictures before you can take yours and there are people who take quite some time before they are done. Well, i still liked the experience and photos in the end! Worth a trip and remember to avoid the peak hours!

Some silly photos below!

Save me! :O

Racing all the way!

Pardon me! >.<

Ah! My love!♡.♡

Good bye cruel world! 

First post!

1st August 2014, 1st blog post, 1st post using mobile

Decided to start blogging again! Should have loads of free time on my hands soon since i just finished my last class yesterday! Left with my exams then it's graduation!! YEAH!

My main purpose of this blog will be to talk about my overseas trips! Always excited for my trips and the upcoming Hong Kong trip is 50 days away!!
Also booking my accommodation for my japan trip later after work! Nearly booked finished everything and totally prepared for japan's cherry blossoms already!