Splendid Sapa!

we reached lao cai station at 530 am. 

i arranged a pick up for us at lao cai station. the pick up cost 6 usd per person, that includes a bus ride to sapa (takes about one hour) and breakfast at graceful hotel. 

so after our breakfast and a quick wash up, we wait for our guide to come to graceful hotel to pick us up. our sapa trekking tour is arranged with Sapa Sisters. you can google sapa sisters and they have their own website. i requested for Little Chi to be our guide because chio outdoor enthusiast recommended her. 

you can choose what kind of trek you want to do. the difficult one or the easy one. so we went for the difficult one first. and it was really difficult. super siong. if i can sum up the trek in eight chinese words, it will be: 翻山越岭 跋山涉水

yes it was that siong. and because it rained the day before so the tracks were very muddy and slippery. and both of us slipped and fell a few times. 

what made the trekking better was the magnificient scenery that beholds us. 

and it was really so siong that we told little chi that we will go for the easy trek after lunch. hahahahaha. and then we also realised that she was 5 months pregnant. #OMG

we had a home stay at one of the houses in Gaia Village. the home stay provides basic necessities such as slippers, blankets, towels. dinner and breakfast was included too. it was a very simple home, with a lot of beds for the numerous tourists, but thank goodness there were only two other tourists. mr tsg said that the home stay reminds him of a military camp in thailand. hahahahaha. 

ta da! that's our home stay. i think it looks more like massage parlour. hahahahaha. 

the awesome view from the balcony. 

sapa is quite cooling. in the day is about 25 to 28 degree celsius. at night is about 20 to 22. 

and we are reaching the conclusion of the vietnam trip! 

fanxipan express

the most common way to get to sapa is to take the overnight train. 

we chose the fanxipan express. 

do take note of the following:

1) one cabin have 4 beds. each bed cost USD40. so if you are travelling in a group of 4, not an issue. if you are travelling in a pair, and want to have some privacy, you can buy all the 4 beds so that you can have one cabin for yourself, which means each person must pay USD80. if you are a solo traveller, then you #GG, because you either share the cabin with 3 strangers, or you pay USD160 for the whole cabin. if i am the solo traveller i will choose the former. 

2) the train station is in a mess, with no proper signs guiding you to the correct train. so it will be better if you have a local to bring you personally to your own cabin. normally the agency that you buy tickets from will help to arrange a guy to do that. if you are totally on your own, then please be careful because you may get scammed. i have a friend who passed her ticket receipt to a local, then the local ran off with the receipt and arrived with her train tickets, but asked for 200,000 dong (about 13 sing dollars) then he will hand over the train tickets. 

3) make yourself as tired as possible before going into the train. for example don't take nap, don't drink coffee, go drink a few cups of rice wine, etc. so that you can sleep soundly on the train even if the train was a bit rocky and noisy. i slept very well from hanoi to sapa, but did not sleep that well from sapa to hanoi. 

ok that's about it, presenting to you the pics of the train! 

ta da! this is how the train cabin looks like. each person is provided with a pillow, a blanket, a pair of slippers, a small bag of crackers, a bottle of mineral water and a toothbrush with toothpaste. hot drinks such as tea and coffee are also complimentary, and you can get these hot beverages from the fanxipan staff in your carriage. 

the train exterior

here's us inside our cabin! we do not want to share the cabin with 2 strangers so we paid extra 40 usd each. 

天眼

finished another hk drama! i finished 15 episodes in vietnam and the last 5 episodes in sg! 

#feelingawesome

halong bay

halong bay is a UNESCO world heritage site, and is a four hour bus ride from hanoi. 

most tourists will choose to explore halong bay on board a cruise for 2D1N, and that's exactly what i did. the cruise that i chose is Fantasea, because my colleague went to halong bay in jan recommended this cruise to me. 

Fantasea will pick tourists up from their hotel, if the hotel is located within hanoi old quarter. jw marriott is not within hanoi old quarter, so we had to check out early from marriott and take a cab to Puku Cafe, that is open 24 hours, and is located within hanoi old quarter. 

puku cafe! quite a laid back place. 

fried rice for breakfast. must eat full full so that i do not get hungry during the 4 hour bus journey. but this fried rice not that nice. mr tsg's eggs benedict is nicer. 

the pick up at various hotels will take place within 745 am to 815 am, depending on the number of tourists. we finished picking up 19 tourists and we embark on our 4 hour journey! halfway through the journey we will have a 30 min stopover for us to use the washrooms, buy snacks and drinks, buy vietnamese products. as we are approaching halong bay, we are being brought to this pearl centre to see how the vietnamese people extract the pearls, and after that to their pearl jewellery shop, which i think is totally unnecessary and a total waste of time, and i included that feedback in their survey form at the end of the halong bay cruise. 

and finally we reach halong city at about 1240 pm. we have to take a small bump boat from the harbour to our cruise (the small bump boat is like those kind at pulau ubin or hatyai). finally checked in our rooms and then we had lunch on the cruise! food on the cruise was not bad. will have vegetables, seafood, pork, chicken and fruits. however drinks are not included on this cruise so you have to pay extra money to purchase drinks. 

check out our room! hee hee. not too bad! each person is 105 usd, including the cruise, 2 lunch 1 dinner 1 breakfast, the tour guide, entrance fees to sung sot cave and tip top island, and kayaking. 

the cruise has 3 levels: 1st level is the bedrooms, 2nd level is the dining room, and 3rd level is the deck where we can chill, drink halong beer, 晒衣服, and view the magnificient scenery of halong bay. 

after lunch our first destination is sung sot cave!

the cave was really amazing. pictures dun do justice to it. you must go there and see for yourself!

after sung sot cave was kayaking. and after kayaking it was our free time to do whatever we want. so of course i went to take photos on the deck. hahaha.

the cruise will be parked stationary in the middle of halong bay, so that tourists can sleep well. i slept very well indeed and woke up the next morning to admire the magnificient halong bay scenery once again!

and so basically that sums up halong bay. if you like to have a 3D2N tour, the second night will be at a hotel at cat ba island. if i am not wrong, the chio outdoor enthusiast did the 3D2N halong bay tour. 

halong bay done, sapa next! 

POTD

i wanna share some pics with my readers. these works are done by Nguyen Quang Huy, a freelance artist from Vietnam (coincidentally i just came back from there!), whereby he combined daily objects (such as matchbox, paper clip, vegetables, 风油, etc) together with drawings of superheroes. 

the final outcome was amazing!

hanoi day 1

we took vietnam airlines to hanoi. my colleague was feeling apprehensive about vietnam airlines, because he heard from another colleague that the ministry blacklisted this airline. thank goodness the flight was ok, and the flight meal was not too bad. 

the highlight for day 1 is actually jw marriott, the hotel that we are staying at! 

open concept bathtub! dun play play!

the pool. a bit small though. haha. 

love the architecture of the hotel, that symbolises a dragon!

the hotel has its own lake!

dinner was at one of the restaurants opposite our hotel. it was a very interesting experience, as we walk in and dunno what to expect. we dun speak vietnamese, and the staff dun speak english. the menu was in vietnamese and there were no pictures. thank goodness the boss knows a bit of english, and he said 2 words: pho? chicken?

and ta da, that settles it, and we nod our heads, and gave up the thumbs up sign to the boss. hahahaha. 

that's the restaurant! very popular!

the food taste good! although it was a bit too salty. but nevertheless we were both satisfied. hahahaha. 

and we slept early tonight because we must wake up early tmr morning to embark on a 4 hour journey to halong bay! 

sunday post

yesterday night was cake overdose with darling and her parents. we discovered a cool bakery at sembawang called Baker's Brew Studio, all thanks to jiawen who uploaded a photo of the ondeh ondeh cheesecake that she bought, and i asked her where she got it, and the next thing that happened is making a trip down to Baker's Brew Studio! 

(pictures taken from Baker's Brew Studio website)

paddle pop cheesecake! 

ondeh ondeh cheesecake! 

earl grey lavendar cake

we also had the lemon passionfruit! all cakes are nice, but i highly recommend you to share them. if you have the whole slice of cake by yourself it is a bit too jerlat. 

today darling's mum prepared dumplings! always love the dumplings made by her. inside there's generous servings of scallops that she bought from Tai O last dec during our hk trip. 

tomorrow i am going to vietnam, for 7D6N! will update the blog once i am back! 

JCI Mauritius The Outstanding Young Person Award 2015

i will like to extend my heartiest congratulations to my good friend xuehong for being nominated for the JCI Mauritius Outstanding Young Person Award 2015! his nomination is certainly well deserved for the exceptional work that he has done in the arts, and bringing the arts from Singapore (where he established himself) back to his home town. this is certainly contributing back to his nation and also to the community that he belonged. 

do like his photo that is on facebook and leave a comment for him! 

here's the link: 
https://www.facebook.com/jcimauritiustoyp2015/photos/a.1380736242254560.1073741829.1379187892409395/1405679289760255/?type=1

alternatively you can type JCI Mauritius The Outstanding Young Person Award 2015, find his photo and then like it. :)

batam 3D2N

back from an awesome batam 3D2N trip!

this was my 4th time here, and honestly there is nothing much you can do at batam, but i am more than willing to escape singapore just for a short getaway. and the best thing is to have a short getaway with the person you love the most, who is none other than my darling.

besides having darling with me, the other things that i like most about this trip are:

1. the buffet breakfast at batam holiday inn (not say super fantastic, but is more than decent)

2. the massage at tea tree spa (always a place to pay a visit to when i stay at batam holiday inn). darling and i took the 1 hour head and shoulders massage, and it was so so so so good. it costs around S$42 for that 1 hour of awesome massage.

3. having a wonderful guide, William, to bring us around batam (his email address is williamoei1@gmail.com ). he is really a super nice guy. not only he drove us around, he also help us order the kueh lapis at batam layer cakes, gave us recommendations on where to eat for lunch, and even let us change our sg currency with him at a good rate of 1 sing to 9600 rupiah when we were running out of rupiah and all money changers were closed at that time.

4. the little niece who entertained us throughout the 3D2N. she always will come into our room and climb up onto our bed and roll around the bed with shrieks of laughter.

here are some advice from me:

1. before you buy stuff from the Chocolate House, make sure you only buy those that are only available at the Chocolate House, and not available at supermarkets, for example their signature tiramisu chocolates. chocolates that are available at supermarkets cost two times cheaper than the same type of chocolates at Chocolate House.

2. if you want to buy kueh lapis, but from Batam Layer Cake! it is so much nicer than Layers (the one with purple packaging). i prefer Batam Layer Cake because has many flavours - original, cheese, cinnamon, pandan, mocha, coffee, prune. secondly, and also because when i received the kueh lapis, they are still WARM, and when i open the box, the aroma came into my noses and omg i felt like i was in mocha and pandan heaven. 

3. if you want to go try golden prawn for seafood, there are two side by side. one is golden prawn 555, the other one is golden prawn 933. go for the golden prawn 555. but honestly speaking, dun go for both. go for sei enam seafood restaurant! the seafood is good, and has gathered alot of positive reviews on tripadvisor! 

4. go to 1st Factory Outlet! the clothes and shoes there are cheap. William told us that these are original goods from the actual brands that are made in indonesia, but because they got slight defects, so they are not being sold by the actual brands. famous brands include fred perry, armani, tokyo superdry, nike, adidas, and many many more. we spent like 1 hour at that factory outlet! 

on the ferry to batam! it has been a long time since we wore the harvard tees!

sunset taken from delima seafood restaurant. everytime go batam, everytime will eat at delima. delima is not say very delicious, but we rather eat here than at the expensive restaurants at holiday inn. delima is just five min walk away from holiday inn. 

ta da! the famous batam layer cakes!

our dinner at sei enam! both the food and service were really good! i give it a 8 out of 10 for the overall experience!

dont you think the niece looks super cute in that minnie mouse outfit? :D

down the slide! the niece is really a super active kid. always hyper and always full of energy. 

next stop, vietnam, with my colleague, mr tsg!

saturday post

it was quite a spectacular opening ceremony. i love the video segments, and the portion when our singapore sports legends (c kunalan, ang peng siong and jocelin yeo, etc) were shown recognition by running into the stadium in the gold colour track suits. 

on a solemn note, my heart is with those students and teachers who are still missing at kota kinabalu. the latest update was that the death toll is expected to rise to 17. 

tomorrow i am going to batam with darling and her family. i am sick with sore throat and cough. darling is down with fever. the niece xx has running nose. darling's sister and mum are also sick. let's hope we all can recover fully tomorrow so that we can enjoy our trip.  

wednesday post

yesterday was one of my happiest moments because i cooked for my parents! 

on monday night they only reach home at 12 am because they were stuck in the malaysia customs for 4 hours. and the respectable thing about both of them is that when they finally cleared woodlands checkpoint, they didnt want to take a taxi. they insist on taking mrt back home. luckily my younger sister was with them and she asked her husband to come to buona vista to pick everyone up and send my parents back home. very thankful that she was with them throughout the KL trip. 

they only slept at about 1 am and the next day they have to wake up at 530 am to go to work. then when they come back they still must cook dinner. so i decided. i decided to do the cooking, and so i msged my dad and he said ok. and off i went to buy the groceries! 

the dish i prepared for them is the cod fish with potatoes, tomatoes and sweet peas. is quite easy to prepare, and i prepared this with darling 3 times already. although i still feel a bit lost when she is not by my side. 

and so the dish is done, and both parents tried it. 

me: (pointing to the dish) 爸爸， 还 ok 吗？

dad: hmm, ok! (followed by a 哈哈)

mum: 真的太好吃了！我把全部汤喝到完! 

feeling super happy that my parents love it. :)

today i was filling in our chinese names in the marriage vows document. i naturally wrote darling as 许月婷 and then as i was filling in, i suddenly got a shock. is it this 婷? or is it the 亭亭玉立 的 亭? 

i know darling will be disappointed that i forgot her chinese character but i still have to ask her. and true enough, my natural instinct is right, it is 婷. and also true enough, she was disappointed. #OHohhhhhhhh

i apologised to her, and promised to write her a love letter in chinese. it has been ages since i wrote her name in chinese and hence that's why i was unsure. 

so anyway, i will start with this love sentence first:

我愿化身石桥，受五百年风吹，受五百年日晒，受五百年雨打，只愿你能从桥上走过。

monday post

yessss june hols is here! 

love this gula melaka pandan cake from joe & dough cafe! joe & dough cafe is at leisure park kallang!

supported netball singapore, where they played against thailand and recorded a convincing victory. appreciate our classmate chen huifen for coming out just to say hi to us, when she is swarmed by all her fans. cheers to our strong friendship!