Thailand - Bangkok

Bangkok again! Kaixin booked a cheap deal from Expedia which covered both air tickets and hotel accommodation. The hotel we are staying is Venice Suite Hotel, as the name suggest, is along the river canal, near Chit Lom - Pratunam area. We arrived close to mid-night on the first night and went to sleep upon reach.

Day 1: Woke at for hotel breakfast then went back to nap again. Woke close to noon time and brought Kaixin to Thong Lor for the famous Pad Thai near the hotel I stayed during training, Salil Hotel. I literately had the best Oyster Omelette I ever had.

Walked towards Purr Cat Cafe only to realize the Cafe was already closed month ago. We then traveled to Terminal 21 for some shopping, and of course, mandatory Honey Toast from After You Cafe.

In the evening, we took BTS back to Chit Lom and went back hotel for brisk rest, then walked to Central World for some night market dinner. The street food outside Central World was rather disappointing as most of the food there wasn't really freshly made and was cold.

At night, we walked to Soi 19 at Pratunam for some massage. I did body massage and Kaixin had feet massage.

Day 2: Didn't sleep very well and woke close to noon this time. Went straight to famous chicken rice stall for some chicken rice, and then finished off with Wanton Mee. Afternoon was spent shopping in Platinum Mall and enjoying 1-for-1 frappocino at Starbucks.

In the late afternoon, we took BTS to National Stadium and went about another round of shopping at MBK mall. We then traveled back to hotel for brief rest and head out for dinner.

Dinner was much better this time, we settled down at Neon night market which was right opposite our hotel. We had banana crepe, big grilled fish, giant clams, and eventually mango sticky rice after resting our bellies.

I went to massage alone this time as Kaixin was tired. Dad neck, shoulder, and back massage at iSabah, one of the pretty famous massage place at Soi 19.

Day 3: Woke for quick hotel breakfast, and went back to rest and pack up. The highlight of the day was our quick 30 minute massage at boarding area to clear our remaining Thai Bahts. The chill at Bangkok ended too quickly and we wished it was 2 10 days longer.

Taiwan - Taipei

Arrived at Taoyuan Airport late at night, and took shuttle bus to Taipei. Had a quick glimpse of Ximending and arrived at our hotel - Design at Ximen Hotel. The location is perfect, right at the heart of Ximending vibe.

Day 1 (Sun) - Taipei City
We woke late as planned. After a quick Taiwanese breakfast, we headed off to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. There's generally nothing much to see there. For lunch we queued awhile for a famous 卤肉饭. Following lunch we drifted by President Office Building and walked back to our hotel, as the sun was way too hot.

Woke from nap in the evening and took train to 象山 for some climbing and night view. The steepness of the hill made the climb really tiring, but we made our way up (halfway up).

For dinner we decided to visit 师大夜市 since its along the way.
Food for the night:

1. 盐酥鸡 - the meat was dry
2. 蚵仔煎 - fantastic
3. 羊肉串 - great
4. 猪血臭豆腐锅 - spicy
5. 大肠面线 - fantastic
6. 肉羹汤 - alright







Day 2 (Mon)- 淡水
Day trip day to 淡水. Woke at almost 11 again and bought 永和豆浆 breakfast back for Kaixin and I. Had 汤包，油条， 豆浆 they were all great.

Moved out at noon and took metro to 淡水. Had the best street food in Taiwan during lunch - 炸花枝!!! The meat was so tender.

Spent the rest of the afternoon strolling along the river and watching the sunset. We didn't go the famous jetty though as it's not walkable by foot.

We left 淡水 in the evening and went back to hotel for quick rest, before heading to nearby 建宏牛肉面 for dinner. The noodle was pretty good too.

Night time was of course spent chilling in hotel room watching free movies!

Day 3 (Tue)- Taipei City
Slack day! Woke up close to noon and went to meet Kaixin's ex-colleague for lunch. Instead of eating DinTaiFung as planned, he decided to bring us to 高记 next door as the queue was way shorter. The 生煎包 and 小笼包 were fantastic.

We took Metro to Taipei 101 in the afternoon. It was pretty boring there since we didn't pay to go to the top. In the evening, we visited our second night market - 辽宁夜市.
Food:
1. 蚵仔煎 - Good
2. 卤大肠 - Kaixin's fav
3. 炸鸡翅 - Crispy
4. 炸臭豆腐 - Nice

Day 4 (Wed)- 九份
Day (half-day) trip to 九份！But before that, of course mandatory 永和豆浆 breakfast to start the day. Had {insert food}. Took train to 瑞芳 station then transferred to a bus which brought us to 黄金瀑布, our first destination.

Took bus to 九份 in the afternoon. Had lunch and a great time walking around enjoying the scenic place. The small drizzle added to the 烟雨江南 atmosphere there.

We took a direct bus back to Taipei in the evening and alighted at 饶河夜市.
Food:
1. 胡椒饼 (打包) - amazing
2. 羊肉串 - Kaixin ate
3. 麻吉 （打包）
4. 豪大鸡扒 - bought at Ximending

Day 5 (Thur) - 阳明山
Woke up close to noon, and bought 永和豆浆 for breakfast. Today we have decided to go 阳明山 for some hike. Took bus to the base of the mountain, and trekked up quite a bit to the visitor center. Afterwards, we had a brief trek up before I decided to give up and take shuttle bus instead. The bus took us all the way up to the mountain top, where the scenery was absolutely great.

2 photos taken within minutes of each other, can you believe this

Took bus back to Shilin night market and met up with Chensin and his gf for dinner. Shilin is pretty overrated to me, way too crowded and commercialized, and hard to navigate.
Food:
1. 烤牛肉 - Cs bought and tried 2 piece, decent
2. 胡椒饼 - not as authentic as 饶河
3. 大肠包小肠 - AMAZING
4. 羊肉串 - Kaixin ate
5. 炸牛奶 - finally found what I've been looking for!
6. 九龙城奶盖 - fav milk tea in taiwan
7. 花枝羹 - soso

Day 6 (Fri) - Taipei City, rainy day
For once a rainy day during our stay. Woke up for 永和豆浆 and went back to slack. We intended to cycle by the river but it was spoiled by the bad weather. In the late afternoon, we headed to 五分埔shopping district. The place was soso, with cheap and lower-end clothes. In the evening, we met up with Kaixin's exchange friends near 台北大学. They brought us around their campus. It's pretty much as big as NTU and the cycling routes remind me of my exchange in UCD.

Day 7 (Sat) - 十份
Woke up at noon and instantly decided to go 宜兰 . First had our mandatory 永和豆浆 breakfast consisting of 汤包 and 煎饼. We then went to 台北车站 only to found out that the tickets to 宜兰 has sold out. We thus switched to alternative plan of going 十份. We took train to 瑞芳 station again, and first took a cab which brought as to 八斗子渔场. We had a brief hike there.

Tiring and hot hike

We then took another cab to 十份. Unfortunately, the waterfall was closed as it was 5pm by then.. Feeling disappointed, we strolled to 十份老街 to 放天灯. The overall  experience is great, just as what we saw on TV.

Crowded place

Took train back to 瑞芳, then back to Taipei where we alighted as 饶河夜市, to have our night market finale.
Food:
1. 胡椒饼 - authentic
2. 猪血臭豆腐汤 - soso
3. 羊肉串 - great
4. 烤虾和螃蟹 - very average
5. 烤鸡腿肉 - not bad la
Sadly I couldn't find my 鸡包饭 and 考牛奶, and was too full for 大肠包小肠.

Day 8 - Home Sweet Home
Ready (not ready) to go back to work.

Indonesia - Bali

First time to Bali!

Embarked on company's annual team-building trip to Bali on AirAsia on a Friday night. We reached Bali at almost midnight and checked-in and settled down in our hotel rooms at almost 2am. It was too late to sleep anyway so some of us ended up having supper and chit chat until 4am. Barely got to sleep that night as my roommate was a ridiculous snorer.

Day 2:

Team-building day. Woke up close to noon and skipped buffet breakfast as lunch will be buffet too.

Gathered at lobby at 1.30pm to proceed to team-building activities at the beach. The sun was crazy hot but the weather was actually reasonable. Team-building concluded with a variety of team games like tug-o-war, water-gun, sumo-wrestling and sand bowling.

We were given some time to wash-up before gathering to move out for company dinner. Bus-ride to dinner took us almost 1.5 hours due to the insane traffic in Bali, roads are simply too narrow for the amount of cars. Dinner was arranged at the top of a mountain with cool breeze. The food was underwhelming though, or Bali food in generally, dislike it.

After a long bus ride back to hotel, everyone split up to massage, drinking or rest.

Day 3:
Joined some of my colleagues for day-trip, that lasted from 10am to 7pm (could have been a lot shorter if not for the traffic). Visited several key landmarks such as the rice plantation, temple, holy water, volcano sunset, and orange picking. Food once again, was pretty suck.

Day 4:

Home-sweet-home.

Korea - Seoul

First time to Korea!! It was tiring flight over as we booked overnight flight via Vietnam Airlines to get the budget flight. Headed to the airport straight from work and boarded the 8.30pm flight. Stopped over about 3 hours at Ho Chi Minh City Airport before taking the midnight flight to Seoul.

We reached Seoul at 6 am in the morning and took airport Limousine to our hotel area - Hotel Aropa. Our hotel was located near the City Hall mrt station and within walking distance to Myeong Dong. The hotel didn't have extra room for us to check-in early. Thus we had no choice but to leave our luggage at the hotel and head to the Dunkin Donuts cafe beside Deoksugung and wait for its 11am change of guards. The change of guards was alright, nothing spectacular.

We then walked to Namdaemun market to experience how street markets in Seoul is like. After taking a brief rest back in our hotel lobby at peak of noon, we then walked to a nearby pretty famous Chicken Soup restaurant to try this must-try food. The Chicken Soup was really good. I liked the glutinous rice more than the chicken actually. Finally, check-in! We were exhausted as we didn't sleep for the entire night and headed straight for bed.


Woke up and it's alright 6pm, feeling dis-oriented. Next activity will be going to Myeong Dong for some shopping and street food. Myeong Dong is a happening place with lots and lots of delicious street foods. Too bad our belly weren't large enough to engulf everything.


Day 2 (Sunday):

Woke up close to noon to further catch up on sleep debt, feeling dis-oriented and giddy again. Today is a rainy day, lousy day for trip. We first took train to Anguk mrt station for Insadong. Insadong is a day-time chillax area with a lot of local food, stores and cafe. We went to one of the traditional Korea restaurants and was served with over 20 small dishes of good food. Feeling bloated, we slowly walked to Gyeongbokgung for its change of guards. As the change of guards ended, rain started to pour and we didn't have umbrellas with us. Thinking that going back to Anguk mrt was almost as far as walking back hotel, we braved our way back in the rain.

As expected, we slept through again, waking, only to be woken up by downpour noise at night. Ate some simple dinner right down our hotel, and bought an umbrella at the 7-11. As we slept way too much today, we decided to go Myeong Dong for some late night stroll again. By then the rain had kind of died down and more bearable.


Day 3 (Monday):

Once again, didn't wake up for hotel breakfirst. We headed straight towards Insadong again, but this time by foot. We realized that you can practically walk to everywhere in Seoul as the city is that small and clusters. On the way to Insadong, we passed by the CBD area and saw some really cheap and nice Korea food. Had the queue with the lunch time crowd but it was totally worth it. We then took the early afternoon to stroll around Insadong as we left there hastily yesterday.

We then continue to head to Hanok Bukchon Village to visit this mandatory landmark.

Before we left, we even tried on traditional Korea costume for some photos. In the evening, we continued our journey towards Namsam Park and Mural Village. This time the walk was pretty long and it took us more than half an hour to get there. Namsam Park required a lot of climbing but it was really worth it and probably the best place we visited throughout our trip. The view was amazing up there.

Namsan Park, my favourite place in Seoul

As the sky gradually turned down, we took a quick stroll around the Mural Village before walking further East to Dongdaemun. With our tummies grumbling, had dinner at some looks great but soso Korea BBQ restaurant for dinner. Took mrt back to Myeongdong for yet another night stroll before ending the fulfilling day.


Day 4 (Tuesday):

Finally woke up for breakfast, but the food kind of sucked. After that we went back to sleep. Woke up again at noon and we head out to Cheongbokgung. Unfortunately, you have to pay for the tour in order to enter the secret garden so we decided to skip it.

Ate lunch at the CBD restaurant again because it's that cheap and good haha. After that, we took mrt (finally) to Erwa Woman University for a quick tour of the campus. The afternoon was then concluded with some shopping for clothes at Erwa Street Market.

Erwa Women University, boring place

After taking a brief rest back at our hotel, we headed to Namsam Tower in the evening with the hope of some great night views. The view at the top really exceeded my expectations, it was amazing.

The best night view I have ever seen. Considering I have been too quite a few including the famous Hokkaido night view, this is quite an amazing statement say

Day 5 (Wednesday):

Woke up early to change money to pay for wedding photoshoot. It was an absolute disaster as we could not find a single ATM (including Citibank, Stan Chart) which allows you to withdraw money from an overseas ATM card. This gruesome search wasted us close to 3 hours, until we had no choice but to hastily checkout and take mrt to Gangnam.

Trip to Gangnam was pretty long, almost 1 hour MRT ride. We gave our last attempt at withdrawing in Hansan Bank at Gangnam, and to our surprise, it worked! Left with little time to reach HelloMuse for appointment, we grabbed some quick food from 7-11 and cabbed over.

Ate famous raw crab for dinner, very nice but expensive. Chill out at night in Gangnam, no street food!!!

Day 6 (Thursday):

Wake at 6+am for photoshoot. Tiring day. We ate dinner at some BBQ place beside our hotel. Supposed to sleep early for photoshoot next day but ended up sleeping late again.

Day 7 (Friday):

Chill day. Woke at noon as expected and headed for Korean Fried Chicken. It was FANTASTIC, omg, Singapore needs this badly.

Best fried chicken in Seoul

Went back for nap again and woke up late in the afternoon. Evening was spent shopping at Express Bus Terminal Underground shopping center, followed by short stroll along the Hanyang River.

A pretty boring place, we ran out of ideas

Went Gangnam at night and ate the famous Korean Fried Chicken there but this time it was soso...

Final night in Seoul, getting mentally prepared to go to work.


Day 8 (Saturday)

Home sweet home.

Thailand - Bangkok

Back to Bangkok!
This trip was supposed to be during the Christmas break but we started booking tickets too late and could only find cheap deals after new year. Went straight from countdown Airbnb to airport and took the 11am flight to Bangkok. Arrived in Bangkok and settled down at our Boutique Hotel in the early afternoon. Our hotel is situated at the prime area of Pratunam district.

We headed to Platinum shopping mall for lunch and allowed Kaixin to have a quick peep of her shopping paradise and had our lunch. We then walked back to our hotel for a short afternoon nap before heading to Platinum mall for shopping. Dinner was intended to be at the famous street food area outside Central World, but the stalls were all gone due to New Year celebrations. In the end I brought Kaixin to Nana for cheap local seafood instead.

We ended the night with brief tour of Siam Square, Siam Paragon and Central World.

Day 2:
Breakfast was pretty bad as expected. Started the day with casual stroll around Pratunam market, continued by more shopping in Platinum Mall.

For lunch, we decided to take cab to Khao San to look for good Pad Thai and visit the Grand Palace. We had Pad Thai at a cheap roadside stall though, as the most famous Pad Thai which was a little out of the way.

Walked from Khao San to Grand Palace and the route was shorter than expected, took us around 20 minutes or so.

After leaving the Grand Palace, we had a brief stroll to the river before getting a cab back to hotel. Ran out of idea for dinner on just the 2nd night! In the end, we settled for seafood again at a hawker our hotel. Night activity is visiting the skybar at Central World, the breeze was really good.

Had our long awaited Mango Sticky Rice for supper, and had feet massage to end the night.

Day 3:
More shopping at Platinum Mall in the morning. We went to nearby popular chicken rice stall for lunch and it was really dirt cheap. In the afternoon, went to Kaixin's long-awaited After You café for the famous butter toast. We waited 1 hour for seats but it was totally worth it, would definitely eat again. We then strolled to MBK mall for more shopping. As we weren't so hungry from the café food, only had some casual dinner along MBK street food place. We then walked all the way back to Pratunam area which took us more than half an hour.

We had spa at night and had Mango Sticky Rice again for supper. haha. This concludes our 4D3N trip to Bangkok, memorable experience :)

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

2nd Phase of my job training is at Kuala Lumpur (2nd to 25th November). This is only my 2nd time going to KL and I have never even been to twin towers.

Took Airasia flight to KL and arrived at Eastin Hotel in the evening. Eastin Hotel is located at Petaling Jaya which is not exactly in KL city, a little remote and empty. The hotel is definitely an upgrade over Salil back in Bangkok but the gain is cancelled off by the poor location. The hotel room is as expected big and nice, and more importantly, with proper working table.

Below is the view from my room window, looking like a village.

One big problem is our meals. There is hardly any food other than a few Malay style hawkers which generally consisted of the same menu. The hotel breakfast was awesome as expected, with a much greater variety than Salil Hotel. I was however hampered by toothache since before going to KL and was only able to bite on one side of my mouth. Thus I could hardly enjoy any food out there. The timing couldn't get any worse.

Lessons would end at 4+ on most of the days so it was very tempting to go out in the evening...until we saw how bad the peak hour traffic was. On the first Friday, we finally managed to head out to Bukit Bintang, a popular tourist district, with a few of our CAPAP seniors. We arrived at this street in Bukit Bintang called Jalan Alor, which is filled with seafood restaurants. Ordered a lot of dishes and the best dish was fried squid.

On the first Saturday, we went to KLCC where the twin towers are. After a bit of brief roaming around the shopping malls, we headed to the garden below the twin towers. I couldn' capture the entire twin towers with my phone camera and this was the furthest I can get without crossing the road.

10th November is Deepavali and there's no work!! Didn't make full use of the day though as I slept through almost all the way until afternoon. In the evening, I decided to be active and join some of the other CAPAPS for dinner at KLCC. The dinner was soso but I was rewarded with good night view of the twin towers.

Batu Caves is one of the only interesting landmarks around KL's vicinity thus it was a no-brainer to go there. On our 2nd weekend, I decided to go there alone as most of the other CAPAPs were in Malacca. I took cab to KL central and transferred a train which brought me to Batu Caves in 30 minutes.

 View from below

View from above

View from the inside

It was a pretty decent half-day trip. I took train back to KL central in the late afternoon and it started pouring. As there isn't much food back at the hotel, I decided to roam around the shopping malls and have dinner in KL central. Below is a photo of KL streets after the rain.

On our final Friday in KL, there was this SPEED day event at some convention center that was really far. As it seemed to be a really boring day there, I sneaked off not long after reaching. The place had a huge shopping mall and some nice scenery though.

Finally was able to go up the Siemens building on the exam day. The scenery is quite good too.

Had my up and downs this trip, due to tooth problems and some late night work. It was still rare experience though, having the opportunity to stay in a hotel for an extended period of time. KL isn't a place like Bangkok with a lot to offer for tourists but no doubt still worth going.