Category: Travel

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Hola Barca! (10th April – 13 April)

Finally down to blogging about our trip 🙂

Our 1st destination was Barcelona.. I ALWAYS wanted to go to Barcelona.. I saw many amazing pictures of this place and I wanted to put these pictures in my head into reality

well, our flight was at 7am so we need to reach the airport at about 5am. That’s very early BUT we are extremely thankful to Julius who sent us to the airport on a MONDAY w/o complains!! Thank you!!

We checked in and the lady at the counter was like ” You guys are going to Barcelona! ” haha.. I don’t know why BUT I felt like I was in a dream!! OMG!!! Are we really really going to Barcelona??!! I mean.. the name itself sounds so exotic already!! I know I know.. alot of people had been to Barcelona… BUT it’s finally me turn!!! I was ecstatic!! I tried not to think about the million things which will mk me upset… I’m just gonna be really happy.. and very happy!! I looked over to BH and smiled.. I am not going on this adventure alone.. I am going with my fave person! A sudden joy and bliss filled me/us – we are gonna enjoy these beautiful sights together!

The flight (American Airlines) was really really uncomfortable. The food was really bad. The whole time.. I can’t wait to just land at BCN and enjoy our trip! I was also thankful that we didn’t pay full fare for the air tix, in fact (and I am very proud of it) WE ONLY PAID US$50/pax! 😀 It’s really cheap for a long haul flight!

When we land, the first thing we saw was FCBarcelona store… haha.. then we left the airport via Aerobus

We stayed at a hotel Hesperia Carlit – You can read my review on tripadvisor here

The first place we went –

Admission fee: FREE!!!! (If you want to visit museums inside the park, you need to pay)

This is one of the BEST attraction ever because the view is stunning and it is FREE ADMISSION! We went there 2X during our stay 🙂 love it so much! IF you don’t wanna take a ‘group picture’ with a whole bunch of strangers, GO EARLY!! We stood at a good ‘spot’ and took a zillion pics to get the above pic of us with the lizard.. haha.. this lizard is super popular!

And yes… I feel that Barcelona is ALL ABOUT GAUDI! If you see something nice… It gotta be Gaudi! No doubt about it!!! hehe

Next –

Admission fee: $15 euros/pax ( able to get discount if you buy the tourist pass, which we didn’t)

We didn’t plan to go into La Pedrera.. Just that we had nothing better to do..haha.. so we decided that since we are here, might as well go up. You know what??In my humble opinion, THIS IS THE BEST PAID ATTRACTION! Once you enter the rooftop, it’s like you are in another world, Gaudi’s world… and the rooftop is something which you can’t see on the street level. No wonder it’s part of UNESCO World Hertiage Site. The weather was super nice too… it’s such a perfect day.. The pictures really don’t do justice to this place.. It’s really cool!!! well, there’s other exhibits below this rooftop and it’s pretty interesting!

Example:

Don’t think that this is just a’twin’ chair BUT much thought had been put into the design. It’s meant to mk conversations easier w/o turning the head much! How cool!!! I want this chair can! No surprise who designed it right? hahaha…

Like all other attractions, GO EARLY! We are glad we did because after we left, there’s a LONG line to buy tickets… and the pretty place was flooded with people! *gasps*

A MUST-SEE in Barcelona –

Admission fee: $16 euros/pax (includes the climb up to tower – lots of stairs!!)

This place is a BIG WOW! I mean… It’s sooo HUGE… the designs are so intricate and precious! As usual, it’s VERY CROWDED. We reached at 9am BUT lined up for about 1/2 hr to get tickets

A dinner treat at Restaurant 7 Portes–

This is a posh restaurant. Let’s just say super posh! Do dress up! we went there because of August’s recommendation. Prior to that, we saw the menu and the prices were affordable + great reviews on tripadvsior! why not!

The thing about me is.. I always want to save $ so BH got quite upset with me as he felt that we should just enjoy ourselves when we are on a holiday ‘Money is not an issue’ in his words. Ok, at first I ordered only 1 entree (Paella w seafood) BUT after the server gave us a weird look, we ordered another entree (Cod fish) Right.. we also ordered 2 glasses of muscat.

Let me show you the restaurant’s super cool toilet! Wave your hand to bring the toilet seat out!

haha.. I later realised that this is a handicap’s toilet.. :X

Back to where I stopped ~~~

While we happily wait for the food… the server brought us a bottle of wine. We were like ‘did we order this?’ BUT we kept quiet because BH did ask the server about wine, so we thought he misunderstood us

Anyhow, we finish the food… BUT the bottle of wine was VERY HARD to stomach.. I mean.. at home, we need to finish a bottle in 2 occasions. To finish 1 bottle of wine for dinner by the 2 of us… was near impossible. We took our time.. and finally finished it… The bill came and……

They did not charge the wine! The server managed the orders wrongly! If I knew, I won’t have finish the wine!! grrr.. BH still paid for the wine by giving the cost of it as tips. Luckily, the wine only cost $10 euros! ( We felt that it’s cheap for a bottle of wine in a restaurant! It would have cost more in the states)

If you are wondering… because of the wine.. (I didn’t get drunk) I got a BAD hangover.. OMG.. the next day, we were flying to Paris early and I have a bad headache + I felt like vomiting!!! sigh..and we forgot to bring the medicine pouch which I packed!!! gosh… after a long while….I finally vomited at Barcelona airport before boarding the plane (thank God!) and felt better after… phew…

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Overall, Barcelona is a GREAT place.. Public transport is VERY convenient! The trains are like the MRT in Singapore. No.. THEY ARE THE MRTs in Singapore.. the kind you take in NE lines… clean and new! OMG!! So who followed who?? haha… At the end of 3 days, I was tired of not understanding spanish and eating pastries ( I love pastries… but it’s too much!!)… I was really craving American food!!! hahaha….

The next post… PARIS~~~

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Flightless bird

I think I just had the BEST Thanksgiving week ever 🙂

We watched Breaking Dawn, which I had been waiting for A THOUSAND YEARS. hahaha… nah… just to get this clear. I like Twilight series not because of the actors/actresses BUT I like the story, esp Edward’s personality. Well, I enjoyed the movie BUT BH obviously didn’t. hahaha… I love the soundtrack too… found so many good songs for wedding… OMG!! So romantic! I wanna get married again!! I rem how BH and I can’t think of any good songs during 6eptember .. now my whole head is filled with ideas… sigh…. I only blame myself for NOT putting my wedding as priority then. Then again, it’s not the wedding day that counts.. it’s what’s after 🙂

BH also had his 1 week break so we made plans for a small road trip. This time, we have Justin and Alina to join us. It was fun to travel together. haha… like double dating.. heh… The last time we travelled with another couple was like at least 8 years ago ( with Ben and Adeline) well.. glad we had ‘fresh meat’ to join us! The bad part of he trip was it was raining heavily the whole time – The good AWESOME and AMAZING company made up for it! 😀 Thank you!

We went to Kennedy School for dinner on 1st night. It’s something like Old School in Singapore ( which I haven’t gone) It was quite an experience for us.. and kinda creepy too! hehe





The next day, we went to Tilamook cheese factory and visited the Haystack on Cannon Beach





It was a nerve-wrecking trip along the Oregon coast as WE WERE RUNNING OUT OF PETROL. There’s no petrol kiosk nearby!!! OMG… the needle on the petrol guage was below the empty line and the ‘warning lights’ were on ( Petrol Kisok was 10 miles away) !!! Just as the GPS shuts down…. we found the petrol kiosk . Phew!!! Reminder: Top-up petrol b4 driving along the coast esp on a rainy day!

Just as we thought that was gonna be the ‘highlight’ of the trip…. our GPS directed us up a ferry as we made our way back to Portland!





It was quite an adventure as none of us had seen such a small ferry over a lake! haha… it was like a floating platform which could take about 4-6 cars! How interesting!

We had a fruitful trip , not much pictures as it was raining the whole time!!! :/
We would love to go for another trip together soon!!!

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The next day was Thanksgiving Party at Dave and Jo’s home. haha.. it was nice to meet everyone again… we played Mafia, which is a super fun party game and I am such a bad mafia.. always get caught :/

I had a great week that it was so weird to have BH and I having dinner at home.. haha.. too quiet… It had been too noisy the past week.. hehe

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NYC – Day 6 (Last day)

8 September

Contary to the day before, it was extremely sunny… and I forgot to bring my sunglasses 🙁

We managed to do some last minute sightseeing at the Fashion District ( it was fashion week!!) , Wall street. And of course, Ground 0 – coincidentally it’s near the 10 years anniversary of 911, there were many media pple around. I’m not sure if it’s me or the atmosphere at Ground 0 was really solemn and everyone just have an air of sadness around them 🙁 It was depressing. Even though 10 years had passed, memories were still very fresh






New York stock exchange –

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I thought that the best part of our trip was Brooklyn Bridge. The view is spectacular. We walked the whole length of the bridge ( took about 1 hr) then took the train to Empire State Building








I seriously think that the Empire state building (ESB) is overrated. I mean.. IF I were to choose 1 observation deck ( Top of the rock or ESB), I will choose Top of the Rock! To get up to ESB, we lined up for about 1 hr!!! It was very crowded and we needed to go thru’ security checks. When we finally got on the observation deck, it was flooded! I can’t even find a spot to stand! In the end, we lined up for 1 hr but observed the view for a mere 10-15mins? Horrible experience!

The best part about ESB is Chipotle which was right next to it… I simply love the naked burrito! haha… yummy!! I was telling BH that I could eat that everyday!! 😀

After which we headed to the airport for our flight back to Seattle. We were extremely happy to be back… Seattle just feels right .. for us 🙂 The journey back was only 4.5 hrs , even the pilot said that it was ‘record breaking’ .. haha.. amazing!

Overall, I enjoyed this trip because NYC is really a nice place , take away the crowds, the litter and the rude pple. haha…Bh did a very good job in navigating this time – I’m happy with his tour. heh… he booked tix way in advanced and planned the route. I think we didn’t get lost ( though the subways are kinda confusing at times) I think I’m done with NYC for now… I’m really looking forward for our next major trip next yr… which we booked already!!! 😀

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NYC – Day 5 ☂

7 September

Actually this NYC trip is really tiring.. either that or we are getting old. Haha.. By the 5th day, we r exhausted from my early mornings and late nights 🙁 Anyhow, we still make it a point to wake up EARLY so that we can be on Good Morning America (GMA) – morning show which we watch everyday… haha… I think I’m very lucky, because the KARDASHIANS were on the show and I get to see them live!!! 😀 I was so excited!!!








Haha… we came back home and watched ourselves on GMA here It was so funny to see ourselves on TV, esp me waving like a maniac! haha… luckily none of my friends could see me.. hehe.. Fun experience!

Next, we headed to Flushing Meadows for US OPEN

Rem I told you there’s weird pple on the subway? haha… This is one of the funny incidents. So there was this asian lady on the train. She was talking really loudly on the phone. She kept repeating ‘No’ for at least 30 times then she said ‘No, I’m no sleepy’ for another X no. of times. OMG! I don’t know why but it’s so funny… so I started to giggle… then the pple surrounding me start giggling , one lady even laughed out loud. BH quickly got me to cover myself with my hoodie – he was afraid tt I will kenna bash. haha.. anyhow.. i need to demo to you then u will know that it’s funny.. haha… now thinking of it.. it still mks me laugh… wahahaha… “I no sleepy!!!!”

Luckily we reached the stadium fast enough… else I think it’ll die from controlling my laugher. haha…





Watched Nadal vs Muller for 17 mins then match was suspended due to the rain!!! We hang around the area until evening then left when the organisers declared that the match for the day will be cancelled. Bh was very disapted. The more heartpain thing was we paid $100+ for the tix!





As we were feeling quite sore that we wasted time and money … BH received an email that the amt we paid for the US OPEN TICKETS will be REFUNDED!!! yayness!! In fact, it had been refunded already 🙂 Lucky us! Great organisers!

Our last dinner at NYC was at Serendipity3 – which I get to know from 1 of the episode of ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ The food was so-so. The must try is FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE – very poisonous but super nice! The server is not too friendly… maybe it’s just new yorkers… they are not very friendly? hmmm..no offence BUT I have a feeling that the worst americans resides in NYC!




Just as we were enjoying dinner, the doctor’s office called and informed me about the lab results. Oh well.. I got worried and I didn’t feel too happy after that 🙁 Now I can only pray that things will get better when I see Dr Le next week.

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NYC – Day 4 ☂

6eptember

Times flies! It’s our 3rd wedding anniversary! Though we know each other for a long time… we are still learning new things about each other every day! haha.. So glad to spend this day overseas with BH – I wonder how would it be like next yr… I’m just very happy that we are together now.. and I hope that we will NEVER get tired of each other 🙂

It was a rainy day.. sianz.. see the umbrella on the tittle of this post? haha.. Got this cute symbol from my cousin, Demi on Facebook. the point is…it’s very sianz to travel in the rain..so most of the time I’m carrying an umbrella in the pictures.. luckily, most of our activities planned were indoors ( we gave Central Park a miss)

We headed to American Museum of Natural History





It was crowded with lots of kids! Anyway, I was super excited to see the dinosaurs!





and you can have the hands-on experience to look for dino bones! 😀 It’s fun!






Dino bones overload… I’m starting to wonder if they are even real??!!!

This museum is HUGE! It’s like a cultural centre + Zoo + Aquarium. haha… they are many figurines of animals/insects which looks very real! :O I think kids in NY nv really need to go to the zoo.. hehe… I love the whale, it’s HUGE!!!



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Headed to the New York Public Library next. It’s really nice.. with a ‘Harry Potter’ feel





Noticed my change in attire? I was underdressed for the cold, wet weather.. so I bought a pair of leggings and a sweater from H&M to change into. I was tempted to buy a pair of Hunter Rainboots too.. haha.. I see many NYers wearing them.. so cool!


Next stop….





Then it was finally time for WICKED! BH and I were looking forward to this musical ever since we heard ‘Defying gravity’ on Glee





We enjoyed the musical very much… I thought that it was very touching and I teared 🙁 I think I also saw BH tearing at the corner of my eyes.. heh… You need to watch it if u go to Broadway 😀

Ended the night with dinner at Totto Ramen Waited 45mins for our seats in the cold and wet weather. I was quite relieved to have a hot bowl of delicious ramen after a long wait. We felt that the ramen broth is delicious BUT the amt we paid for was ex, considering that there’s only 2 pcs of meat? It was authentic ramen nevertheless, better than what we can get here in Seattle 🙂


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NYC – Day 3

September 5

Woke up super early hoping to get into a morning show Live with Regis and Kelly We watched R&R every morning and thought that it will be fun to see them live. Travelled to the studio to only realised that they don’t do any filming on Labour Day (US holiday) Oh well… we were disappointed so we snapped some pictures of the surroundings ( They have a nice wall deco at this subway station)




Then we headed to somewhere nice for breakfast – Penelope Love the website – it has a classic rustic feel just like the resturant itself.





Food was reasonably priced considering that the serving was HUGE ( to me) and the set included Mimosa, which is a Champagne cocktail. haha… so it’s the first time I have Champagne for breakfast… what a luxury!

Then we cannot control ourselves and went… SHOPPING?!!





Finally visited the Kardashian’s store DASH. I didn’t see of them in the store.. neither did I buy anything.. it’s just too expensive.. :X





We went up to Top Of the Rock for the view…It was a pretty sight.. we were supposed to see sunset BUT it was too cloudy? A sign of rainy days ahead…

Met up with Keying and Zim for dinner at Inakaya for dinner. We finally get to try the NY resturant week menu… It was a great experience as they made mochi on the spot.. very authentic Japanese resturant. Too bad.. our camera is out of batt.. no pictures 🙁

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NYC – Day 2

September 4

Bright and sunny day at NYC – wah.. so hot! Ok, here’s the part about NYC. The moment you step outside , you can smell a bad stench – the kind that will mk you vomit. The roads are also badly littered. It’s not a nice sight at all… and very different from WA state ( which is not exactly v clean , at least not as dirty)





Anyhow, Times Sq in the morning is very quiet. The night before, we noticed a lot of tourist taking pics with the policeman. Haha.. we found it so weird and funny that a policeman is a photo icon! haha.. oh well.. we took picture with the police station sign, just as bad right :X hehehe.

The real subway…. OMG! It’s seriously HOT… there no aircon and the HOT air is trapped underground… booo…. and the stench and weird pple… erm… worst than SG.. BUT it’s the fastest and most convenient way to get around

Took the train to South Ferry to see Statue of liberty. PLEASE GO EARLY! we reached at 8.45am and it was crowded already. Mind you, we need to go thru’ security checks, so it will take up sometime






Ok.. it’s kinda hard to have a good view on the cruise. It is just filled with people.. and everyone were like Meerkats – trying to take a picture. I kinda gave up… and played Wordament instead.

At Liberty Island, it was beautiful 🙂 I was really glad that I saw Statue of Liberty in real life after so long!!





Then I was busy completing the activity book so that I could earn a priceless and FREE souvenir at Liberty island. Ever since I first started at Mt Rainier, I have been collecting them at every National Park I go





The ranger is really nice to let me wear his hat and gave me a little ceromony 😀

After which we left Liberty Island (skipped Ellis Island) and went to Chinatown and Little Italy.. you know.. doing the usual touristy stuff..





The highlight of the night was meeting Keying and Zim for dinner then went to their super cool home and played with Sam 🙂 haha… I think I missed Bambi so much that I called Sam Bambi several times.. hehehe… paiseh..





We so need a dog man… haha..

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NYC – Day 1

One thing that BH and I love is travelling. haha.. whether we like travelling with each other or not… that’s another story. Haha… ever since I am on NPL, we or rather I make it a point to plan our vacations early so that we can take advantage of the early bird deals. For our NYC trip, AA (American Airlines) sent BH a voucher for BOGO air tix to any of the 50 states in US. There are many places we could go… BUT we thought that since we have this voucher, going to NYC mks the most sense (more value for money). We booked the tix and the fare came up to be about US$350 RT per person , w/o any transit in between.

3 September

We set off *NOT TOO EARLY* We realised that we kinda calculated the time wrongly… so we rushed to the airport. More haste, less speed. We took the wrong freeway and needed to detour. Trying to keep calm… we managed to reached the airport just in time. phew… we even had time to buy breakfast, just that no time to eat.

Flight to JFK took about 5hrs… From the plane, we can already see that NYC is filled with a whole lot of skyscrappers… very urbanised.. kinda like SG?





Reached the airport and took the train to our hotel. It was easy to find and relatively near the subway. We stayed at Four Points Sherton Midtown Times Square BH managed to get us 5 nights for FREE by redeeming his points. The hotel was very clean and nice. Just that the toilet design wasn’t that good – I feel that their shower area needed a curb to stop water from flowing out when showering. Shan’t complain much since it’s free. haha…

Without much ado, we put down our barang and headed out for dinner at Taboon Initially, BH planned for seafood dinner BUT due to my infection, I got to stay off seafood for a while. Sob… well.. I like Mediterranean food too 🙂 It was a hearty dinner (NOT the best) BUT we were disapted that they don’t have the New York Resturant Week menu on a Saturday





After dinner, we head to Times Square. OMG! It’s very crowded and touristy





Then we ended our day.. haha.. too tired from the early morning’s flight and trying to get used to the time difference

I know.. the first day isn’t too exciting… haha.. it will get better.. really 😀

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Mini-roadtrip to Portland, OR

It was Alvin’s last week over here. We decided to rent a bigger car and embarked on a mini-roadtrip. It is always nicer to travel with friends than just having the both of us 🙂 oh well… Pictures below are courtesy of Alvin and WQ.

Alvin drove most of the time to Portland and in Portland.. while BH drove us home.haha.. we are kinda convinced that a SUV isn’t our type of car as it’s heavy and bulky… and fuel inefficient! ok.. so where we went?

The trip there already tks up 3hrs!! After lunch, it was already abt 2.30pm??!! how fast time flies… we made out way to the Nike Headquarters… it’s the REAL headquarters! I didn’t even know that it was in Portland. The place was HUGE and quiet… because… it’s a saturday? we wanted to view the exhibits BUT the musuem was not open 🙁 sigh….

some pictures…














After which, we headed to Multnomah Falls. The waterfall is stunning… it was HUGE and magnificent – we felt that it was better than those we saw in Hawaii :X





Us with waterfall... Pardon the wet and messy hair.. it was raining + the water was splashing from the falls.. that's y!



Last but not least, a picture of all of us with the Jeep 🙂





BH and I won’t have done this w/o u guys 🙂 Thank you all for mking it happen! Amazing trip and we all had fun!!

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Escape to Vancouver, BC

The weather in Redmond or rather WA had been quite weird. It cld rain, hail, snow and become sunny all in 1 day. Just last week, I was trapped in a hail! Boo… no fun… it hurts so badly that I thought my whole face was bleeding… wah… the wind.. so so chilly & strong…I thought i cld b blown me away… scary weather…

anyhow.. as part of Alvin’s last 2nd week over here, we made a road trip to Vancouver. It’s about 2.5 hrs drive. The weather that weekend was super!


BH and I at Vancouver customs



At Vancouver, we met up with 2 more Singaporeans for dim sum.. I think that’s the BIGGEST group of Singaporeans we have ever been with by date!


Thanks Alvin for the pic! haha... think the most excited pple in the pic r BH and me? 😀



Sight-seeing at Stanley Park.. a nice pic of us 🙂 so nice that I made it into a fridge magnet – oh well… just for in case I need to go back to teach.. I can put the magnet at my workplace 🙁





Ransacked BH’s camera and spotted a nice pic of me and my sophia





Then we went sightseeing at English Bay.. WQ took a candid photo of us.. haha…quite cool I would say








Had sashimi at Sumurai Sushi Sashimi were generously HUGE, fresh and cheap! I felt like a polar bear after the meal.. haha

After a ‘polar bear’ dinner, we headed home…. and I spotted this….


Don't play play.... STEVE NASH fittness centre!


It’s sad that after u made friends.. u realised that your friends are going home 1 by 1 .. and the next person is gonna be me…

That’s all… I’m kinda nursing a cold now… my nose feels funny… had some Dayquil – supposed to be non-drowsy.. but I feel light headed 🙁