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A short trip up north...

Went for a short trip up north for with the missus last week. We have been really busy the past year, and figured a little time to rest and recharge would be good. Hopefully this is the start of more trips to come ;-)

Our destination this time round is the lovely island of Palau-Pinang.

Our first view of the place upon touching down at the airport, a short 1 hour+ journey via Jetstar


Our hotel for the duration of our stay, HardRock Hotel@ Ferringhi Beach, which was only opened last month.


The view from our balcony... pool facing and sea facing. Well, if this had been a condo unit in Sg East Coast, the cost, thanks to the view, would have been astronomical.


The hotel logo being formed by clever lighting arrangement at the front lobby

Breakfast @ the hotel's King's Club. Basically, we were treated like royalty for the 3 days that we were there.


We also visited some of the the area's tourist attractions, like Penang Hill and Kek Lok Si Temple. Penang Hill is accessed via a tram that takes half an hour exactly to bring you up to the hilltop. Up there, you have mainly colonial houses, and of course a splendid view of the city, like this below...



One of Penang's greatest attractions is the local food - Char Kuay Teow and Penang Laksa merely just 2 of the local dishes that are famous all over.

Chendol, sold from a stall along a small road just off Penang Road, and reputed to be the best in Penang.


We also tried out some Nonya cuisine, influenced more by its proximity to Thailand - which is supposedly a little different from those in Malacca and Singapore, which has more Indonesian influence.

Penang isn't really known for its shopping, but one of the must-see shopping malls at the island is probably Plaza Gurney. IMHO, it's a little run-of-the mill, feeling like the typical suburban malls we have back in Sg.

The other shopping mall is visited is Queensbay Mall - probably 3-4 times bigger than Plaza Gurney. This is located close to the airport and we only visited it on the last day, after checking out of the hotel, prior to going to the airport. On hindsight, we should have allocated more time here, we were there for slightly less than 2 hours, and in between buying things at a couple shops, I think we covered no more than a quarter of the whole shopping area.

Another place to look out for in the future should be the newly completed Penang TimesSquare. We passed by the place and it is still quite empty. However, when it is fully occupied, it should be a shopping experience as well.

Basically this trip serves to revive the travelling bug in us, and we can't wait for the next trip already...

Working too hard... can be deadly

A wake-up call to all of us doomed to unfinished work and endless OTs... life doesn't end just bec you did not finish your work... similarly, in the same vein, work won't end just bec you have kicked the bucket...

Chinese New Year - Reunion Dinner 2009

CNY is here again, and with it the reunion dinner, prbably the most anticipated event on the calendar, as this is the one time that EVERYONE will crowd into my grandparents' flat and have fun. Besides the Lohei itself, the cousins always have a shot taken with grandma in the past years. This year, our traditional shot features 2 new additions - Chloe and Zayden, and as a bonus, grandpa is in the photo this year. Leeling managed to delay him from meeting his card kakies long enough for us to take this picture below.

Here's a video of the Lohei preparations and the actual thingy


Incidentally Jasmine's birthday is on the following day, so we took the opportunity to celebrate for her as well.

My Japan Trip - Day 4 (Free & Easy @ Osaka)

The 4th day of my Japan experience is OTOT - Own Time Own Target. The girls have already gotten it planned out way in advance - what to buy, where to go, and how to get there. It would take a herculean effort to keep these bunch of girls away from their Fancl, agnès b , Burberrys and what not.

We started soon after breakfast at the hotel, and after a brief trip to the nearby Daimaru, took the local subway to Nipponbashi to take a walk through their local market, and get some local snacks. We then proceeded to Takashimaya nearby where they purchased their Fancl products and I finally found what I sought to buy from the beggining - a crystal pendant from Swarovski Crystal for the missus.

No rest for the restless.... we then headed to Shinsaibashi, home to more shopping areas. The girls raided shops selling Sanrio and Disney soft toys, stationary, merchandise, and clothes, as well as shops that sell bags, wallets, etc. Their endless energy and insatiable hunger for more shopping was just incredible, and scary even.... haha maybe that is only cos my missus never ever had a "shop till you drop or the shops run out of goods, whichever comes first" moment.

Finally, the shops closed (thank heavens!!!) and this bunch of weary but mostly happy shoppers went back to the hotel. Dinner was some stuff bought from the local convenience store... edible, simple, but most impt, budget, cos they still need to conserve funds for the next 2 days to help boost the japanese economy... haha. We all squeezed into Mag's room and had our 团圆饭 and one more group pic before yours truly flies back to Singapore.

In all, everyone enjoyed this trip. It provided a nice break from work, and at the same time, the gang got to bond with one another further, and we have also gotten to know some of our colleagues better. Already looking fwd to another trip with this bunch of people soon.

My Japan Trip - Day 3 (Universal Studios)

Today, we went to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!!!! Need I say more...

Well, maybe just some thoughts lah....
Apart from the long queues at the rides (we queued for nearly 2 hours for the Spiderman 4D ride, and close to an hour for the Roller-coaster, but man that was really fun and wort the wait...), and costly merchandise (a Hello Kitty baby jumper will cost over 40 dollars), and focus on non-Warner Bros characters (not much merchandise for say Loony Tunes cartoon characters, but plenty of HELLO KITTY stuff.... Hello, are we at Sanrio Land by mistake??), the place was quite all right... more a place for kids and girls who are still in love with Hello Kitty and the like.

So I dun think i will be going to another Universal Studios for now, at least not till Chloe discovers the wonders of Hello Kitty... ha.

My Japan Trip - Day 2 (Kyoto)

For day 2, we are going to Kyoto, another couple hours drive away from Osaka. The day's main event is visiting historical sites, meaning, yes, more temples... haha. Two of three sites we visited were Kiyomizu Temple and Kinkakuji, two landmark destinations for tourists. Coupled with some shopping time at the local shops leading to Kiyomizu Temple, the 3 places took up almost the whole day.

We proceed to Gion for dinner and some free time to explore. This site is said to be a nightlife area where one can even see geishas. Well, I dunno if we went to the wrong parts of Gion, but where we went, it seemed like a normal street, with hardly any geishas to be seen, let alone a prominent nightspot.

Oh did I mention that makan here is really not cheap? Dinner in many places typically cost around 3000-4000+ yen (that's like appx 50+ SGD) per meal.... finally found a makan place which was much more affordable - ard 1000plus yen, and along the way, we were schooled by a friendly eldery Japanese couple on how to drink sake *Drink slowly*...

That's not the end of the day's event. After going back to Osaka, some of us went for karaoke and sang all the way into the early morning. Seeing some of our colleagues' amusing antics and dancing - people you normally wouldn't associate with such madcap behaviour - ha, that's something memorable to savour.