Category: Travel

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Las Vegas 20-22 Dec 2010

Ever since I step foot in the US, I have been going to Vegas once every yr.. :X

1st time in 2008 > coincidentally, same date as the above
2nd time in 2009 > super duper warm… went with my family
3rd time in 2010 > which is what I’m blogging about now!

Travelling during the December period is HORRIBLE!! Planes are likely to be delayed… it’s crowded at the checkpoint… weather is bad.. oh well.. Anyway, we won’t have gone Vegas BUT BH discovered a great deal on round trip air tix + hotel for only US$11/person!! wah… even cheaper than watching movie every day from 20-22 DEC .. so we decided to just go ahead 🙂

We find ourselves looking forward to this trip, though we’ve been to vegas before.. haha… you know.. just relax.. and enjoy… “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!” It was really nice to revisit Vegas – like we get to try out or go to other casinos which we didn’t get to go the last time.

Welcome to Vegas!





It was a super wet Vegas trip… Raining day and night.. not complaining coz it’s better than snowing?! We bought tix for LOVE – The Beatles inspired Cirque Du Soleil .. The rain seriously dampen my mood… luckily, we stayed at Harrah’s which opposite of The Mirage








Bought drink so that we can get the sourvenir cup!





Picture at Ceasar’s Palace – This lady who helped us with the pic, need photography lesson!


Dinner at Max Brenner’s. We are not chocolate fans… but we just wanted to try something which was not available in Seattle








Me with Alice cup! Yum! Know why it's called 'Alice' ??



The bill came in this box! So cute!



The next day, we explored the new casinos

1) The Cosmopolitian – which have HUGE and beautiful chandeliers





I like this shot… heh.. nice feel.. and I have no idea y!



Blowing bubbles! So dreamy!



surrounded by dogs!



2) Aria – gives me the SG’s MBS feel
HUGE PRADA BOUTIQUE :O



This is a resturant!



Grab your LV!



Next stop is Bellagio .. well.. they have similar X’mas deco every yr.. haha








Last but not least… Bellagio at night… It was toooo cold and rainy.. so we took a quick shot and left. The performance was only 5 mins ( 1 song)!! how weird.. I rem it being longer.. at least 3 songs!





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This time round we bought “Buffet of Buffets” day pass – so u pay US$40 and you can eat at 7 different casinos for 1 day! Dinner buffet at Planet Hollywood was the BEST.. BUT we lined up for 2 hrs before we can get a table! Lines at buffets were crazy! I wonder if it’s the holiday season or the promo.. haha.. anyway, I feel so guilty for having buffets for 3 meals!! :X We are so not going to buy the day pass for buffets the next time round – we rather spend the queuing time for other stuff.. hahaha..

That’s all about the Vegas trip.. wonder when’s our next holiday…

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Seoul + Jeju Nov 2010

Let’s just say… we will not b visiting Seoul for a long time

Once again, BH planned the itinerary while I asked ard and got many response from helpful friends with regards to places of interest. The itinerary was basically “paper talk strategy/soldier” ( translate to chinese) – we didn’t follow it.. Basically, we did whatever we felt like doing everyday.. haha

As for shopping, it’s NOTHING like Gmarket 🙁 Boo… I thnk Gmarket shopping is even better… so… we didn’t buy much…

ok fine..Maybe it was just me – I don’t watch Korean drama.. the only Korean drama which I watched + completed watching is the Korean F4: Boys Before Flowers. That’s y I didn’t appreciate the place as much as others 🙁 NO! I’m not saying Korea is not fun BUT rather..I am not FUN enough for Korea

Places we went ( just pictures – can’t rem the name of the places)

A palace near to downtown area… it’s interesting to see the contrast between urban buildings and ancient palace





Joined a DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) Tour

Below shows picture explaining abt the 3rd tunnel, can’t tk photo of the real thing BUT the walk down was very steep and slippery! If u r tall, u will need to bend your back for the whole journey!! hehe.. good to be short!








N seoul Tower > Not a good day to go 🙁 It was foggy and we didn’t see a thing





The statue right in front of the palace





Free chocolates given by our Doulos Hotel on our last day. Nice hotel, reasonable price with free breakfast. We had a great stay BUT there was only 1 girl at the front desk who cld speak better English..





Hangang River fountain show – the timing on the website is not accurate. Luckily, we were early!! we managed to listen and see this for abt 10mins before it ends





The walk to see this bridge water fountain was tortuous! We walked a super far + it was sooo cold!! Not fun!

Finally flew to Jeju after 5 days in Seoul.. we had a whole lot of luggage so we had no choice but to deposit some of our items at Gimpo airport storage room (paid US$45 for 2 days, 2 luggage)

First view of the sunset outside our hotel. It was cold and v windy!





Diana intro. a local guide to bring us sightseeing BUT we called him and he was booked for the day. Sob! had no choice but to join the tour which our hotel had contact with

so.. the tour had 10 tourist and out of the 10… 6 were singaporeans! haha.. so interesting! maybe it was a blessing in disguise.. we thought our trip to Korea was screwed up.. BUT at least we made friends!!

So the tour brought us to Sunrise peak – beautiful place!








Pic below shows the House of Female Divers from the peak





walked down nearer to the coast and saw…….





a kind man offered to treat us to the LIVE seafood he bought.. haha.. but we rejected him.. it’s toooooooo RAW

There was suppose to be a performance BUT we missed it because our tour needs to go on.. sigh!

The rest of the tour was not worth mentioning.. until the last part of the tour, we went to a cave Lava tube and we walked a distance in the dark & wet column to see the ‘crystallised’ lava ! Pls pardon me if I use the wrong terms. This lava tube is BETTER than the one in Hawaii, Big Island

Here’s a picture of us with the lava





Ended the night by having dinner with our new found Singaporean Tour mates 🙂 It wouldn’t have been enjoyable if we haven’t met them!

This ends my Korea trip entry! And I am so gonna join a tour if I am going to Korea next time!

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Parting is such sweet sorrow

I think the quote above is sooooooo overused by me.. but.. parting was indeed sweet sorrow!Sweet as in BH and I can’t wait to be back to our usual routine but on the other hand, we’ll miss our family and friends

Our families met up at Dian Xiao Er T3 for dinner. My sis rushed down from work – there was some screw up with her company’s shuttle bus so she took a cab down ( which was v ex considering it’s peak hr!) I was v touched! If you know my sis..  she’s quite good at entertaining guests! I know that it must be super weird for her to talk and entertain my in-laws ( who are quiet pple) BUT she did it awefully well! I mean.. it’ll be soooo weird if the dinner table is very quiet! At least for my family, it’s nv quiet when we are together and food is always MORE than enuff.. that’s what I miss abt home.. my home!

I had a wonderful time catching up with my family in SG, even when my sis is working shifts , and is hardly ard during weekends. I guess we mk up on her off days. This time she drove us ard instead of I drive her ard 🙂 She’s grown up!!! 

Erm.. with BH’s family – it was ok..no offence but i don’t feel comfy with his family some how.. their family is very much more reserved.. v v different from my family! I sure hope that MY OWN family is the open type – you know.. those talk alot and laugh out loud type… I attended BH’s extended family’s dinner and I thought of getting to know his relatives personally – his cousins actually said ” iyah.. no need to know our names.. just call us no. 1 , no. 2 and no. 3″ I was like WTF??!! I was being friendly… it’s so different from my own family 🙁

ok.. so.. finally, it was time for us to go into the gate.. i gave my family and dear friends a tight hug.. thanked BH’s mum for buying stuff for us .. held back my tears.. u know.. i’m quite a emotional person.. ohh.. my mum looked so tearful!! 🙁  Crossed the customs, waved our goodbyes.. till 6 mths later!

Bye SG, Hello Tofu-land!

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Marina Barrage

My dad kindly brought us + Bambi to Marina Barrage one sunday.. just to have a look

It’s a pretty place and lotsa open spaces for Bambi to ‘bulldoze’ around.. haha

We saw alot of security guards ard… and later MM Lee arrived!

Can u spot him above??

Alot of kites!

Shall stop here today.. heh.. think I blogged like 10 entries in 1 go!

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Marina Bay Sands

It’s amazing how much Singapore had changed since we left 🙂

Together with YM, BH and I went to explore MBS – we were suppose to go for this Light Festival thingy .. HOwever, we just don’t see it? haha.. it was fun nevertheless!








No joke.. we collaborated and caught a HUGE fish





I still think MBS looks lopsided. Then again, why would u wanna have a hotdog on top of 3 joss sticks?? heh


Pretty flower blooming in the evening sky


I have to note down that it was extremely hot and humid that day! No breeze at all! We cannot take it.. so we took the taxi home. haha..

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Saying HI to Bambi

For real! That’s the first thing I did when I reached home 🙂





I think I said ‘Bambi NO!!’ at least a thousand times!! haha… so adorable and friendly BUT we won’t wanna have our own.. too much of commitment!

Glad that Bambi likes the Ducky we bought her… now I miss her… 🙁

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The journey to SG

13 Oct

We set off from our Seattle apt en route to SG. I was going home with a very heavy heart ( as you can read from my previous entries)

Reached the airport – tried to checked in to only realised that our luggages were overloaded. Sigh.. like some maniacs, we tried to repack our luggages to even out the load. Mental note: For US flights , 2 check-in baggages (<= 23KG) for each person. Cabin luggage <= 17KG Ok.. so with alot of F-words, we managed to checked in our luggage w/o paying the overload charge. Thank God! We took Asiana from SEA > ICN. It was an uncomfy flight as I have no idea why it was so hot and stuffy!!! BH was pretty upset that the entertainment system were not on-demand

After abt 10 hrs, we reached ICN. Asiana arranged for a FREE layover hotel ( include airport transfers + meals) as our next flight was the next afternoon..nono.. we are not on business class.. It’s just a service Asiana provide! Not bad I would say!

Bi-bim-bab served on the flight





Free stay at Hotel – not the BEST hotel BUT good enough





Free day tour at Dragon Palace Temple





Flight to ICN > SEA was way better. At least the entertainment system was on demand. haha…

when we reached SG – our family were waving frantically at us at the arrival terminal while we waited for our luggage. Now I know how animals in the zoo felt ( esp. the polar bears)

The best thing… the feud between my sis and I disappeared when we shared a Chocolate Ice Blended from Coffee Beans. haha..

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Hawaii – Day 4 (Final day!)

We booked a Morning Wildlife Cruise which starts at 7.30am! once again, it’s a super early start as the drive to the pier was 1hr!!! So we reached the place, hop on to the cruise. It was our 1st time snorkeling! I have NEVER snorkeled before! Prior to booking this tour, we asked the person if it was alright for newbies and they assured us that it’s alright as long as we know how to swim… so we trusted them

So..the snorkelling gear is not easy to get used to! boo! both of us had difficulties getting used to the gears 🙁 So we end up holding our breath and swimming to see the creatures! ok.. the water was super deep as well.. quite scary for pple who are snorkeling for the first time. My advice.. DO NOT JOIN THIS TOUR IF YOU ARE NEW TO SNORKELING – rent/buy snorkel gears and go snorkel at shark cove instead!!

Shark Cove (North Shore area):

Back to snorkeling – we were very fortunate to have very friendly crew to ‘look after’ us.. haha.. so we managed to see these creatures! It was sooooo amazing to see sea turtles, surgeonfish right before your eyes! My only regret is I can’t snorkel properly! There’s always next time.. and it’s not too late to learn!!

(Pictures taken by film waterproof camera so not very clear)

We were supposed to see dolphins but no luck 🙁

Right after the snorkeling trip, we headed to North Shore. Stopped by this sign to take a picture 🙂

then had shaved ice at Matsumoto

and fed a thirsty sea turtle .. haha

Do you know that LOST is filmed in North Shore?

Looks familiar?

We ended the day with a walk along Waikiki beach and saw the beautiful sunset…

As though it wasn’t romantic enuough… we had dinner at Hula Grill. It was beach front dinning, facing the beach! The view is spectacular and ambience is super romantic in my opinion.

Food was great, in fact BETTER ( and 1/2 the price of Alan Wong’s)!! My fave is the Pineapple Creme Brulee!! iyoh.. so sinful!!! :X On top of that, there was live music and singing. wah… it was so romantic… seriously, i think this is the MOST romantic trip BH had planned!!! 😀 If you are listening to my mixpod, 1 of the songs we heard was ‘Just the way you are’ in the slower version. I didn’t like the song initially BUT maybe it’s the slower version + the ambience, BH and I felt that the song is super nice now! (Btw, BH came home and practise the song on guitar! hahaha)

well… so that’s all about our short getaway in Hawaii – just like in LOST ” We need to go back, Kate..” 

Another beautiful picture of Honolulu from the skies

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Hawaii – Day 3 (On a diet, stay at home!)

Just when I thought Loco Moco was the most poisonous food I had eaten… Leonard’s Bakery is just as bad .. and the worst thing is… I LOVE Leonard’s Bakery 🙁 Ok.. so the bakery have hotdog bread/buns like what we see in SG bakery. To us, this is super rare! We don’t see this kinda buns in often here.. so we bought. We had nv tasted such delicious buns for 2 yrs (the time which are are away from SG)!

Besides the buns, they also have Hawaii Doughnuts = Malasadas. Super nice! When we bought them, it was still warm…yums! and now u know y there’s such a LONG Q! They are good really!

Right after the sinful breakfast, we drove to Pearl Habour

Entrance is FREE! and you get to tk a boat to see the USS Arizona memorial at the other side of the habour. It was interesting to see a piece of history right before you. I think I would have Ace my History in O-levels if I managed to visit this place then!

 That’s us with the remains of the anchor from USS Arizona

After a fast trip to Pearl Habour, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Centre (PCC), which was a long drive away. I had a quick nap in the car as BH drove… sheesh… I feel so bad but I was super tired from rushing to place to place + waking up extra early and sleeping late every night. Luckily, BH can tahan but I know he was tired too! I mean.. that’s y i hate roadtrips.. I rather us join a tour so that both of us can enjoy – let other pple do the work… oh well..

If it’s your FIRST time to Hawaii, do visit the PCC – you will learn more about the different polynesian natives and their cultures. It’s interesting! However, the pt of the PCC is the Lu’au which is a Hawaiian dinner. Lu’au is not only about food but also dance and live music. I am not a pork person BUT there was this particular Hawaiian Pork dish which mks my mouth waters, think it’s Kalau Pig (bottom left picture). It’s yums!

We were also given a Lei  – wreath of flowers draped around the neck upon arriving at the dinning hall. It’s quite cool! haha.. i felt like a VIP

AFter dinner, there was a musical entitled HA at the cultural centre. The lu’au and the musical were the main attractions of the centre. However, the songs were mostly Hawaiian ( though there’s some english narration) – which we didn’t understand. I mean.. the only 2 Hawaii words I knew was ‘Aloha’ and ‘Mahalo’ so it didn’t have much meaning to us. On top of that, we were both exhausted and the drive back to Honolulu was long. So we watched 1/2 the musical and left during their interval. However, both us felt the the production and the effects of the musical was impactful! The musical was good! If only we had more time….

Overall, the dining experience was nice BUT I won’t go back there again. It’s very touristy and things were very expensive!

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Hawaii – Day 2 (My wildest dreams came true)

6eptember ( US timing) we woke up bright and early and made our way to the airport.  Today we are heading to Hilo ( The Big Island)

As we left Honolulu, we not only saw the beautiful clear waters BUT also the Diamond Head Monument which we climbed.

Once we reached Hilo, we went for breakfast at Ken’s – it’s a Hawaiian kind of Denny’s/ IHOP

I love the coffee which I later found out that it’s Kona coffee ( Kona is in Big Island)  Nice! Bought 2 packets of coffee powder home. We had Macadamia nut pancakes and the poisonous Loco Moco .I love LOCO MOCO > super nice!! BUT super high in calories.. I only had 2 mouthfuls and I feel so guilty until NOW 🙁

AFter breakfast, we visited Akaka Falls

then drove to the Volcanoes National Park

Us in front of Pacific Ocean

Arc behind me made by the water/lava? I was holding onto my cap, fearing that it will fly away.. haha

You really see the smoke from the volcano

AND

haha.. so just as I was fooling ard and taking photos…BH and I stopped in front of Mauna Loa, world’s largest active volcano

BH set up the tripod so that we could take a picture together… then suddenly… he knelt down.. took out a box…. and……

AG: ” ehh.. u kuku ah!”
BH: ” Would you marry me again? I wish our love would be like this active volcano, always burning..”
AG: *staring at the ring and OMG in my heart* “YES YES!”

soooooooo cheesy…probably the most cheesy yet original proposal line I heard! BUT I was super happy!!! 😀 He was so sincere .. the very thought that he don’t need to do this again but he did brings a tear to my eyes! For once ( in many blue moons), I felt that I marry the right man and reconfirmed that BH is super duper nice to me!

To think that I was saying how I don’t want to rem how BH proposed to me? haha.. now I wanna rem how he re-propose to me 🙂 awww… it felt like my wildest dream just came true !!! can’t believe that BH can be this romantic!

The precious ( ring size was wrong but he didn’t have time to resize it.. how can I not forgive him.. wahaha)

Right after the romantic proposal, we needed to leave so that we could catch our flight back to Honolulu. By right, we should b able to see lava flowing from the volcano BUT it wasn’t dark enough, so we can’t see anything. Both of us were quite disapted.. So we told ourselves that we will  go back again 🙂

On the plane back to Honolulu, we saw orange lava-like glow frm the skies.. haha.. not sure if it’s lava BUT we convinced ourselves that it’s lava. haha

What a lovely day! hehe.. active volcano!! keep burning!