wanderlust

Day 5: Port Dickson (Malaysia) - Singapore

2011-11-03T21:22:00.006+08:00

We had our breakfast outdoor, overlooking the yachts.

Breakfast was served in this colonial building

Outdoor seating area

The berth

We had a quick swim after the breakfast. Baby was very excited :)

Super excited!

That's all for now. Hopefully will travel again soon!

Day 4: Port Dickson

2011-11-02T10:45:00.011+08:00

According to my research from the internet, the only place to do snorkelling in Port Dickson was at the Blue Lagoon. I wasn't very sure myself either because there wasn't much info about it, so the only way to find out was to drive there.

Blue Lagoon
We couldn't find any speedboat to bring us to snorkel, the beach was completely deserted on that day. So while we waited at the beach, hubby swam out to the sea to check it out. Half an hour later he returned and said that there wasn't a single fish in sight. Hahaha.. lucky I didn't go. :P

Blue Lagoon

Cape Rachado National Park
Nearby the Blue Lagoon is the Cape Rachado National Park. We paid RM 1 entrance fee and walked into the forest. After about 20 min walking uphill, we saw the lighthouse.

Cape Rachado National Park

The lighthouse

The lighthouse was off limits, guarded by the military officers but we could walk around the perimeter and had a view from up here.

View from the lighthouse

Thistle Hotel
On our way back to the hotel we made a stop at Thistle Hotel. It is one of the nicest hotels at Port Dickson. I asked hubby to drive in to check it out. Who knows we visit Port Dickson again next time. :)

A huge pool

Day 5 >>

Day 3: Malacca - Port Dickson

2011-11-01T21:03:00.006+08:00

I was glad that we finally checked out from that lousy hotel. Crossed my fingers that the next one would be a lot better. :)

We had our lunch at Da Gu wanton noodles before driving up to Port Dickson. I usually don't like a wanton noodles but this one was good. Thumbs up!

Da Gu wanton noodles, the noodles was notably thicker than the usual ones.

Avillion Admiral Cove Hotel, Port Dickson
Our room was superb! Just look at the photos. :) And it was only SGD 75 per night!

Avillion Admiral Cove

Fantastic ocean view from our room.

Twin beds, a double bed would be nicer though.

She was happy with her bed.

A daybed

What I love most about the room is the separator. We could completely close the glass panel for more privacy. This separator really saved us one more room. :P

The glass panel

Small dining area and study desk

A small pantry, great for family traveling with kids.

The kids pool

The swimming pool

Our dinner was at a Chinese seafood restaurant (forgive me.. it is the first time I forget a restaurant name) but the address is Batu 10 (Mile 10) Jalan Pantai. Just look for a corner shophouse next to Weng Yin restaurant.

Baby Kailan

Cereal prawns

Baked crabs (the local called it kam heong style)

Everything was great, this meal cost about SGD 35.

Day 4 >>

Day 2: Malacca

2011-10-31T10:06:00.004+08:00

Tesco Malacca
Today was our designated shopping day. We went to Tesco hypermart and bought lots of stuff. The baby's milk was 30% cheaper in Malaysia and we bought 4 cans. I also bought many US made food items like baby food and cereal bars. They were also much cheaper here than in Singapore. Another must buy items were contact lenses, I bought enough supply to last me for half a year.

Shopping at Tesco

Restoran Ole Sayang
After Tesco, we had our lunch at this Peranakan Restaurant. It was very crowded during lunch hour. Hmm...the food must be good. :)

Inside the restaurant

Waiting for food....

Itik Tim (Duck with salted vegetable soup)

Chicken Pongteh

Mixed vegetables in Nyonya style

Otak Otak

Ice Chendol

The food wasn't fantastic, it had a funny taste that we weren't used to. We only liked the otak otak and the ice chendol. What a pity :(

Medan Ikan Bakar at Muara Sungai Duyung
In the evening we drove about 4 km out of Malacca to a fishing village and had our seafood dinner here. Ironically, our best meal was actually outside of Malacca hehehe..

A fishing village

Stir fry vegetables

0.5 kg fried prawns with garlic

We had a 1 kg seabass that was done in two ways. I love their fried fish in three flavour sauce (i.e. sweet, sour, and spicy). It was very very nice.

Fried fish in three flavour sauce

Grilled seabass

Total bill was about SGD 30 for 3 adults.

Day 3 >>

Day 1: Singapore - Malacca (Malaysia)

2011-10-30T12:28:00.021+08:00

Since the baby was born, our travel objectives had changed significantly. We used to take long holidays to travel "Amazing Race" style: visited faraway countries and explored as many places as possible. But now we don't have such luxury. We are happy just to be able to get away for a few days doing nothing. :)

Hallmark Leisure Hotel, Malacca
I booked two bedrooms, a double bed for us and a twin for the baby and our helper. Both rooms were in bad shape. The furniture was worn out, the carpet was dirty and stained, and the room was dark even with the lights on. The breakfast was bad too. It is easily one of the worst hotel I ever stayed. But since it was cheap, I shouldn't complain too much. :P

Looks quite alright here, thanks to my photography skills :D

Kedai Kopi Chung Wah
We arrived in Malacca just in time for lunch. Before noon time, a queue had already started forming in front of the coffee shop.

The interior

Rice ball station

Hainanese chicken

I had 3 plates of these. :D

The chili was awesome.

The hainanese chicken here was pretty good, but the winner goes to those rice balls. I couldn't stop eating them with chili. :)

Jonker Street
It's a tourist street in Malacca selling souvenirs and local food products.

Hard Rock cafe in Malacca. At first I thought it was fake!

Jonker 88
Time for a teabreak.

An old Peranakan style cafe

Ice chendol, looks good huh? :)

Sago with coconut milk and gula melaka.

Assam Laksa was HOT.

Malacca river

Christchurch
The landmark of Malacca.

Milk time!

Trishaw ride, anyone??

Porta de Santiago

We went back to Jonker street in the evening and the night market had already been setup.

Night market

Teo Soon Long Chan
We had our dinner at this famous Teochew eating place. The food was ok but the service was bad. The older staffs had attitude problem.

I didn't take many photos here, only the one that I recommended.

Ngoh hiang was the best I ever tried.

Day 1 >>

Day 3: Desaru (Malaysia) - Singapore

2011-07-18T17:11:00.000+08:00

The breakfast at the hotel is always sumptuous, we don't even need to have lunch afterwards. :D

Our typical breakfast. From left to right: nasi lemak and condiments, stir fried kway teow, rendang chicken, hash brown, baked beans and many more...

Teratai Coffee House where we had our breakfast

Yipee...

After checking out, we drove back to JB and dropped by Tesco for groceries before returning to Singapore.

Since this trip was a success, next time we would try to go somewhere further. ;)

Day 2: Desaru

2011-07-17T16:37:00.004+08:00

Three of us went for a swim in the morning. The mini water park was fun enough for little kids.

The swimming pool

Another swimming pool at the water park

Big coconut splash

Having fun with slides

In the late afternoon, we went for a drive to other beaches nearby. These beaches are mostly frequented by locals.

Tanjong Balau

Batu Layar
This beach has pretty impressive rocks. Nice place for photography.

Baby with grandma

Next, we drove another half an hour to Sungai Rengit. This is where the most famous seafood restaurant located. It is a must try when you come here.

Jade Garden Seafood Restaurant

Lobsters!!

This was what we ordered:

Stir fried ostrich meat with ginger and spring onion

Stir fried kailan

And here comes the highlight of this trip: 1 kg of lobster! It's RM 90/kg. My mom said it was a rare occasion that we could (afford to) order 1 kg of lobster hehehe... quite true :)

Fried lobster with salted egg yolk

1 kg black pepper crab at RM 35/kg.

Everything was pretty good except the crab dish. The crab meat was fine, but the way they cook it wasn't good enough. This dinner cost about RM 180 for 4 persons.

Day 3 >>

Day 1: Singapore - Desaru (Malaysia)

2011-07-16T12:49:00.007+08:00

Finally we went for holiday!! It had been more than a year since the babymoon trip to Bali last year and I had been dreaming about this day to come much too often. :)

Since now there's a baby on board, our holiday destination is much restricted. It can't be too hectic, the destination must not be too far and it must be cheap (because we plan to bring our helper and if unfortunately the holiday is ruined I won't feel heart pain hehe...)

So for baby first trip, the choice fell on Desaru which fulfilled all my criteria. It is an easy drive from Singapore, the road trip is now even shorter with the newly opened Senai - Desaru (E22) highway. We could also bring as much baby stuff as we need and the room rate is cheap! More on that later.

Saturday morning was usually the busiest at the Woodlands Checkpoint. So after consulting the real-time traffic report, we decided to start the journey in the afternoon instead. When we reached the Checkpoint, the traffic jam wasn't that bad after all. It only took us about half an hour to reach the other side. From Johor Bahru, we drove about 15 minutes to E22 highway and it took another 30 minutes to Desaru. Easy breezy...

Senai-Desaru expressway (E22)

1.7 km bridge, just opened in June 2011

Lotus Desaru Resort
Our group had 4 adults and 1 infant (mom came with us), so I booked a two bedroom suite for 2 nights which cost RM 756 (SGD 305). I made a reservation at marimari.com which gave us a non peak rate, this was about RM400 cheaper than the rate provided by the hotel itself. It was a pure luck to find this website hehe..

There are as much as 18 blocks in this resort.

We stayed at block F level 2.

Block F is next to the water park, perfect for family with kids. The next best are blocks that located nearest to the beach.

Dining and living room

Pantry

Master bedroom

Bathroom in master bedroom

Second room

Complimentary baby cot

Another shower room

The beach

After leaving baby with grandma, we walked further along the beach. Love the quietness here.

Dinner was a headache, we drove nearby but couldn't find anything to eat. Only found some shabby places which we dare not to try, so in the end we had our dinner at the hotel.

That's all for Day One.

Day 2 >>

Labrador Nature Reserve

2011-07-02T22:36:00.008+08:00

The promenade

Red beacon

Overlooking the condominium "Reflections at Keppel Bay"

Baby's day out

Marina Barrage

2010-12-19T17:21:00.002+08:00

A great place for flying kites with the view of Singapore skyscrapers.

Baby enjoyed the outing.

Singapore Flyer

Punggol Beach and Marina Country Club

2010-12-05T14:23:00.002+08:00

Punggol Beach
Located at North East end of Singapore, we could see Malaysia from here.

Punggol Beach

We saw policemen patrolling at the beach, I guess they were on lookout for illegal immigrants swimming in from Johor Bahru hehe..

Johor Bahru at the other side.

We only stayed for a while here, then continued to Marina Country Club nearby.

Marina Country Club

Parking yachts, doesn't look like Singapore huh??

Johor Bahru again

Rainbow

At dusk

Baby first outing

2010-09-12T13:43:00.005+08:00

Lower Peirce Reservoir Park

The kids love to fish

Upper Peirce Reservoir Park

Mischievous look

Day 5: Bali (Indonesia) - Singapore

2010-05-10T15:43:00.006+08:00

Our flight was late at night, so we still had plenty of time to relax. Woke up pretty late, we had our breakfast then swam at the swimming pool. In the afternoon my nephew brought us two packets of Balinese nasi campur. This was from the famous Warung Wardani in Denpasar.

The nasi campur was really delicious...especially after a swim.

From left to right: beef satay, fish satay, beef jerky, prawn crackers (rempeyek udang), spicy chicken, long beans and half boiled egg.

After that we took a nap and only went to the Seminyak beach around 4pm. He wanted to play body surf so we hired one board for him and a beach lounge chair for me.

He had so much fun playing with the waves, the last time he played body surf was 10 years ago when we were in Gold Coast, Australia. I was pretty contented too just sitting there and enjoying my surroundings, brought a lot of snacks to keep me entertained. ;)

At dusk

We had our dinner at Goodys in front of the beach. The pizza here was just average compared to the one we had at Zanzibar few days ago.

Seafood pizza

BBQ Chicken pizza

By the way, we met Irene Ang (Mrs. Phua Chu Kang) at the airport. She was queuing in front of us at the check-in counter with a group of friends. I didn't really notice her at first, because she was pretty slim. :P After heard her talking with her friends for quite sometime, I realized it was her!

Bye bye Bali!! Thanks for the wonderful holiday baby...

Day 4: Bali (Tanah Lot, Jimbaran)

2010-05-09T20:58:00.007+08:00

My cousin drove us to Tanah Lot in the late afternoon. It was an hour drive from Seminyak and we were lucky that we didn't encounter any traffic jam. Saw many tourist buses in drove at the entrance, not surprising because Tanah Lot is the number one tourist attraction in Bali.

Tanah Lot

Souvenir shops along the way to the temple.

Look carefully, it's Ballibong!

Care to take photo with a giant snake?

Pura Batu Bolong
This temple is just a short walking distance from the famous Tanah Lot, but I never heard of it at all. The scenery here was pretty nice too, I wonder why it wasn't as famous.

Pura Batu Bolong

Pura Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot Temple at a distance

Three of us

Enjoying the scenery while sipping coconut juice :)

Sepia mode

At dusk, too bad no sunset for us. :(

Jimbaran Beach
I didn't expect that having dinner here could be so romantic. I was pretty excited when I saw that the tables were set up on the beach and with candle light. Awwww...

We had our dinner at Roman Cafe, but the next door Ramayana was pretty crowded too.

Seafood dinner at Jimbaran beach, must include this in the itinerary.

Totally in love with the ambience here. I could hear the ocean waves, felt the soft sands under my feet and as a bonus, we saw some fireworks too. Wow!

A failed attempt to capture the fireworks hehe..

The food was great too, this was the best meal we had in Bali!

Many types of condiments to go with our seafood.

Stir fried kangkung was yummy.

We ordered a 1.3 kg fish and it was very fresh. Thumbs up!

Huge prawns were nicely grilled.

Black pepper crab, not as good as the other two.

Total bill of this meal was about SGD 40 for three persons, and we were very satisfied. Burp!

Just a word of precaution, heard from my cousin that the weighing scale of many restaurants here was rigged or at the end of the bill they charged a 21% service charge. So asked necessary questions and checked out the situation before getting too excited.

Day 5 >>

Day 3: Bali (Babi Guling, GWK, Uluwatu, Blue Point, Seminyak)

2010-05-08T13:12:00.006+08:00

My cousin picked us up at noon from Hyatt. Straight away he asked us what we wanted to eat for lunch. Without further hesitation, I said Babi Guling. This is the most famous dish from Bali, of course we should give it a try. :)

So he brought us to this place not very far from Nusa Dua. It was a warung, a pretty shabby eating place and if not without recommendation I wouldn't dare to eat here for hygienic reasons. But he said this place is quite famous for its babi guling, they sold out 4 roasted pigs per day.

Babi Guling Pak Ketut Dobiel
He ordered for us the Babi Guling special. On first look, it was pretty scary especially the organs. Hmm.. I could only identify the intestines. The rest I rather don't ask. :P

The best part of babi guling was the crispy skin, next was the meat. The organs didn't taste weird as it had all been fried. The satay was just alright.

Babi Guling special

The soup didn't look appetizing to me so I didn't had much. But hubby said the soup was pretty nice hehhe...

Babi Guling soup

I guess once is enough hehehe...

Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park
After lunch we went to GWK Park. The main attraction of this park is the huge GWK statue which has not been completed.

Wisnu statue

Head of Garuda

These two statues are part of the bigger statue. He told us that these were the only two things completed in the span of 10 years. Not bad we thought, until we saw the prototype.

The artist impression of GWK statue. If completed, this will be higher than the Statue of Liberty.

Oh my, it is a very ambitious project hehehe... We estimated it would take another 100 years to finish this, just like the never completed Gaudi church in Barcelona.

View from GWK park.

Personally I don't think this place worth to come, it's a tourist trap.

Uluwatu
When my cousin warned us that the monkey here was very naughty, we didn't take it seriously. Anyway we had been to a lot of places with monkeys and they were quite alright. After all the precautions we took, his hat was still snatched by the monkey in less than 30 minutes!

Tips: Don't wear any jewelery, hats, accessories, and glasses, hold tightly to your bag and camera. Use the stick to hit the ground loudly or make big movements so that the monkey won't come near you.

Naughty Uluwatu residence

We were pretty impressed with the scenery here, definitely must come.

Uluwatu cliff

The sarong matched my dress color. :)

The Blue Point
Not very far from Uluwatu was the Blue Point. This place was famous for the big waves, a favourite with surfers.

The Blue Point

Blue Point - Bali Surfers Paradise

Niramaya Bali
Jalan Arjuna, Gang Raja No. 3
Seminyak

We were staying at his villa for two nights. I was pretty impressed after I toured around the place. It was clean, very cosy and quiet, just nice for a relaxing holiday. The villa has 6 units with 2 one-bedroom units and 4 two-bedroom units, all overlooking the swimming pool. Each unit is equipped with bath tub, pantry and small living room, so it's bigger than the usual hotel room. Free Wi-fi, cable TV, and use of bicycles.

The two-bedroom villas

Swimming pool

One-bedroom quarter, we stayed on the first floor.

Our bedroom

Pantry equipped with fridge and microwave.

Study desk and LCD TV

Two bedroom unit

Bigger living room with dining table

Pantry

Balcony

Master bedroom

Second bedroom

Bath tub

Let me know if you are interested in staying here or you could go to http://www.niramaya-bali.com

We took a rest, freshened up and then walked to Seminyak beach in the evening. It took us about 10 minutes to the beach and along the way there were many shops selling clothes and accessories.

Seminyak beach

Wedding on the beach

Zanzibar Restaurant
Located just across the beach, we had our dinner here.

Wood fire ham and mushroom pizza. Very nice!

Fisherman catch

This restaurant was pretty upscale but the price was reasonable. Much much cheaper than those in Nusa Dua.

Kuta Square
At night, he drove us to Legian and Kuta Square for sightseeing. We had a fabulous supper there. :)

Cafe Dulang
The banana pancake with icecream is too die for. The best pancake I ever had.

Banana pancake

Just can't get enough of coconut juice

Day 4 >>

Day 2: Bali (Tour around Hyatt Nusa Dua)

2010-05-07T12:25:00.015+08:00

This was our laziest holiday ever. The plan was just to relax, relax and relax. :) We woke up pretty late, almost time for lunch and went out to explore our surroundings before going for lunch.

Had a quick breakfast at the balcony.

Our balcony is overlooking the lotus pond.

After breakfast, we went down to explore the resort.

A Balinese Villa

Nampu, a very expensive Japanese restaurant.

Ocean view rooms

It's a short walk to the beach.

Fish in the pond.

Hyatt has its own private beach... very nice.

A clear blue sky

Lagoon Pool

Water slides

Toddler pool

A covered Balinese pool, great if you want to avoid the sun. :)

Hotel lobby

Great place to hang out, err... probably late in the evening.

The lobby is overlooking the ocean too.

Bali Collection
Yeah, we were back again. The restaurants in Hyatt are too expensive, the price is double or triple than what we paid for our dinner yesterday.

Shops in Bali Collection

Many restaurants have menu in Russian.

One thing about all the restaurants here, they are all alfresco style (which means no aircon!!).

Had our lunch here.

You will appreciate a cool welcome drink and wet towel in this kind of weather.

My watermelon juice

After yesterday bad experience, we decided to order nasi goreng (fried rice). This won't go wrong heheh...

Back to hotel after lunch, the best place to be was actually inside the room with full aircon. Ah...
Few hours later, we had a bottle of wine and chocolate fondue delivered to our room, complimentary for Platinum members.

A bottle of wine and strawberries with whipped cream and melted chocolate.

It's a Bali wine! How could one grow grapes in a tropical country?

How I lovvveeeeeeeeeeee the daybed :)

Went for a swim in the late afternoon. The water slide was pretty fun, we tried it a few times. :)

Fun with water slide

The pools are interconnected, so from the water slide pool we started swimming to the lagoon pool. We encountered some big rocks, swam under the bridges, and then took a short slide down to the lagoon pool. It was fun.

The rocks made me feel like swimming in the sea but without the currents hehe..

Swam under the bridge.

Finally, the lagoon pool.

For dinner, we took a cab out of Nusa Dua to a restaurant that was pretty popular on the internet.

Waroeng Kampoeng
Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai No. 123

The kampung interior

Saw many locals here and some tourists that came with their guide. It's a good sign.

We had a wonderful meal in Bali for the first time hehe...

Coconut juice

Es teler (mixed ice with avocado, jackfruit and lots of condensed milk)

Mixed vegetables

The prawns (more like shrimps) was pathetic.

A huge fried gurame fish in sweet and sour sauce.

Halfway through our meal, hubby suddenly realized he dropped his blackberry on the cab. Oh no.. we quickly made a call to the hotel because they called the cab for us. After recovered from the shock and thinking straight, we thought of trying to call to his handphone directly. And thank God, the driver picked up our call and told us that he would bring it back to the restaurant. Not long after, he came and we thanked him for his kindness and gave him some tips. What a kind Balinese soul! I thought it's gone liao...

And guess what, the total bill for our dinner was just Rp. 65,000 (SGD 10)! The cab fare from Hyatt was Rp. 32,000 (SGD 5) each way. So it is more or less the same as what we paid in Bali Collection but with much better food.

Salsa Bar
This must be my most favourite place in the resort. Perched on the roof top, with a night full of stars and my favourite latin jazz playing on the background, we lied on the sun deck and enjoyed our supposedly welcome drink. 100% romantic!

Salsa Bar

The bar

We stayed here for a few hours enjoying the cool ocean breeze while looking at the stars... I never see so much stars in my whole life. :P

My fruit punch (mixed of watermelon, pineapple, and orange juice)

Hubby was enjoying himself.

It was a great day indeed, we had a great fun at the resort! Tomorrow onwards we were going to explore the real Bali.

Day 3 >>

Day 1: Singapore - Bali (Indonesia)

2010-05-06T15:57:00.016+08:00

I have been telling myself that no more travelling after returning from Seoul except for the Medan trip to satisfy my cravings. But then I realized that our Qatar mileage points is going to expire this year. So in order not to waste it, I just have to do it one more time. It was difficult to schedule just a few days with him because he is basically flying out every week. Thanks to hubby for trying so hard to make this babymoon happens despite of his hectic schedule. :)

The best thing about this trip is almost everything is free hehehe... (Who says there's no free lunch in this world? That's because you don't do your homework!) For the air tickets, we paid SGD 120 per person for taxes and we also redeemed 2 nights from our Hyatt Gold Passport. It is such a good value to redeem the points in Bali because the hotel is only in category 1. Singapore is in category 4, which requires 3 times more. And then my cousin also offered us to stay at his hotel for a few days, so that's another good news. :D

Qatar Airlines
Last time my impression of Qatar was pretty good, and this time too (except for the customer service). I'm quite impressed with the interior, it was comparable to SQ but with much cheaper fares. For business class, SQ is still better because it features the flat bed. But for economy, Qatar wins as I feel the seat is more spacious and the LCD is a touch screen too. The bad thing about the entertainment system is there are too much advertisements, I could hardly finish my movie because of 10 min ads in the beginning and at the end of our 2-hour flight.

Oryx, Qatar entertainment system

We reached Bali in the evening, took a cab to Nusa Dua which cost Rp. 95,000 (SGD 15) which was pretty steep for Indonesian standard of living. If you expect Bali to be a cheap place for holiday, you are totally wrong.

Nusa Dua is the complex of many luxury resorts. Once we entered the area we had to go through many security checkpoints. Remembering of the bomb incidents in Bali, I'm glad they have these procedures especially in those places frequented by the Westerners.

Grand Hyatt Nusa Dua
There are 2 Hyatt hotels in Bali, after checking the review I decided on the one in Nusa Dua. The other one is in Sanur and the room looks a bit old and too rustic for our taste.

I was pretty excited when we finally reached our hotel. Oh my, the lobby was huge, it was my first time staying in such a big resort. :P From the lobby we had to walk about 7 minutes to our room, no wonder we were given a map and escorted to our room. I could easily lost in this jungle.

Grand King room

It has a peek-a-boo bathroom. Did you see him?

Shower room

Bath tub, did you see him again?

The best thing in this room must be this daybed! Told hubby we'll sleep one night on the bed and another night here. It's just so cute. :D

Bali Collection
Located just across the road from Hyatt, it is a shopping complex with Sogo, surfing shops, clothings, souvenirs shops and many restaurants.

We had our dinner here, after speaking Indonesian to the waiter we were given a 30% discount hehehe... The price here was very very steep, and to make it worse, the food wasn't good either. This place was totally a tourist trap, if it wasn't so late, we would go out of Nusa Dua to find our dinner. So that's the biggest problem staying in Nusa Dua, not much choices of food, everything is expensive and they mainly cater for Westerners.

Garlic bread as starter

Bebek betutu, Balinese food. It has a lot of spices but still feel bland.

Nyat nyatan, Balinese curry with seafood. The color of the curry looked yummy, but it was tasteless. Blah!!

Now it makes me wonder, is it supposed to taste like that? I never had Balinese food before so I couldn't judge.

Day 2 >>

Resorts World Sentosa

2010-03-31T21:24:00.008+08:00

Many of the shops and attractions in Resorts World have not opened their doors yet, so many people either came for the Universal Studios or the Casino. But not for us, we just want to to tour around the resort to see how it looks like. :)

Universal Studios
The second one in Asia after Japan.

A visit with parents

The main gate

Inside the theme park

A friendly Woody Woodpecker

Hershey's chocolate, just outside the Universal Studios.

A whole section of Reese's

My favourite Reese's peanut butter cup

Lake of Dreams

Festive Walk

And not far from the Festive Walk is the Merlion.

Hotel Michael, one of the six hotels in Resorts World.

Botero fat statues

Crockfords Tower
Have you heard a hotel that could only be stayed by invitation only? This is the one.

The chandeliers

Another cool chandeliers in Crockfords Tower

The Galleria
Luxury shopping area

The Galleria

Finally, Victoria's Secret is in Singapore.

Swarovski crystal pillar

Festive Hotel

Did you notice that I took many photos of the chandelier? They were all very interesting.

Salvador Dali's elephant statue

Another chandelier

And lastly, the casino which I could not enter. Singaporeans could only be allowed to enter the casino by paying a levy of $100 for 24 hours visit.

Casino entrance manned by a security guard.

Medan (Save the best for last: snacks and desserts)

2010-03-04T22:11:00.008+08:00

Teabreak that as big as the lunch itself.

Bakmi Guangzhou at Palladium Mall

Tau Kua He Ci (dry tofu with prawn crackers) at Jalan Yose Rizal

A few metres away from the tau kua he ci shop, there's a shop selling very nice mee rebus, es campur and chendol.

Mee rebus at Jalan Yose Rizal

Es campur (mixed ice)

Chendol with very fragrant gula melaka, I prefer this than es campur.

And we had otah and bought back some lemper ayam.

Nelayan Dim Sum Restaurant
Always crowded, the only dim sum restaurant that has a lot of branches.

Prawn salad fritters

Leng Hong Kian

Sate Padang
If you ever come to Medan, this is the one thing you must not missed. I have been stuffing myself silly with this since I was a kid. (Thank God I only go back once in a while. :D) My record is 20 sticks of satay, 1 rice cake and I clean up the gravy too. :D I actually don't like mutton, and this is the only one that I eat. The mutton satay doesn't have any mutton smell at all.

But since this time I wasn't allowed to eat any mutton, having the rice cakes with gravy is better than nothing. :|

Sate Padang Ajo at Jalan Lahat

de Waroeng at Cambridge Mall
Coincidentally met up with some old friends here.

With friends

Bubur sum sum (Indonesian rice pudding)

Chai bao (steamed vegetables dumpling)

Lupis (glutinous rice with gula melaka)

Muah Chee from Pasar Ramai

I love the muah chee here, it had some rough sugar that added to its crispiness.

Bolu Gulung Meranti
The most famous swiss roll in Medan. I don't really find it fantastic, but they are quite generous in fillings.

It's a huge roll.

Overloaded with cheese! I have to throw away most of it, it's pretty scary to eat that much of cheese.

Tape ubi (fermented cassava)

Serabi (thin and crispy pancake made from rice flour and coconut milk)

Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for about 350 years, risolles and croquettes are one of the Dutch snacks that are popular until now.

Risolles and croquette from Gogo at Jalan Mojopahit

Soybean curd, particularly love the gravy which is made from ginger and gula melaka. It is very fragrant and has a spicy taste.

Es Teler 77, more ingredients than the one in Singapore especially the avocados.

Fountain Ice Cream Parlour
My favourite place for ice cream. Cheap and good, the price is around $2-3 per glass.

Having sundaes with friends.

One more.

Buttercup at Cambridge Mall
Overpriced bubble milk tea.

Not nice either. :(

Gelato Bar at Jalan Pattimura
Cool place to hang around..

Our gelatos

That's all from Medan. Other than hunting for food, I didn't do any sightseeings. Actually not much things to do in the city itself except visiting the malls.

Medan (Eating Out)

2010-03-03T20:57:00.004+08:00

Before I went back home, I had made a list of things that I craved for. And here they are, together with many of them that are not in my list too. :) As you will see later, the problem with all these photos are the lack of food presentation. In a small city like Medan, nobody cares about food presentation. Taste is all that matters.

Fried Kwetiau
This is my number one favorite food, I can't find this kind of frying style in Singapore, the closest one I could have here is the Penang style.

Kwetiau Ateng at Jalan Sumatera

Fried kwetiau with fish fillet at Jalan Kutacane, looking at this again made me drooling.

Kwetiau Ateng is the most famous fried kwetiau in Medan with many branches. Between this and the one at Jalan Kutacane, I still prefer the latter. When I was young, I had this for dinner almost every other week. :)

Wonton noodles
The Medan style wonton noodle doesn't emphasize on the wonton (dumplings). Eventhough they are called wonton noodles, sometimes there isn't any wonton in sight. The most important factor of a good wonton noodles is the type of noodles and the kind of meat. I never like wonton noodles in Singapore, the only one that could make it is the Koo Kee noodles or Kolo mee which originated from Malaysia.

Mie Tiongsim at Jalan Bogor

Mie Lindung at Jalan Singa

Mie Tiongsim is the most famous in Medan, but between these two I prefer Mie Lindung. I love mince meat, and they gave me such a generous amount. They also gave a lot of sinful fried pork lard (those in black) which I threw away.

Roasted Pork
Naruto three different types of pork: char siew, roasted pork and sausage. My favourite was char siew with a lot of burnts all around. Sinful but yummy...

Naruto roasted pork with rice at Jalan Gedeh

Texas Fried Chicken
This is better than KFC!

Texas Fried Chicken, only available in Indonesia.

Merdeka Walk
Alfresco sitting food court in the heart of the city.

Merdeka Walk

I had the Jalan Lebong gu bak wan (beef ball soup) in Merdeka Walk. It was such a disappointment, cause I like the beef balls and they gave me two only with the rest of stuffs that I don't like.

Beef ball soup with kwetiau and bee hoon

Cabe Rawit food court at Sun Plaza

Lunch with old friends

Martabak telur

This is one of my favourite supper when I was young. But since I wouldn't dare to buy from the street vendor anymore, I'm happy to find this in food court.

M & R restaurant at Jalan Taruma
Overall the food is pretty good here, my favourite is the home made tofu and the fried gurame fish.

Very nice home made tofu. I finished most of them. :)

Fried gurame fish in thai style.

Deer meat in black pepper sauce. Too spicy and salty.

Sweet and sour chicken, just average.

Mixed vegetables

Jittlada Thai Restaurant at Cambridge Mall
A pretty expensive restaurant with great ambience. The food is pretty good, but I think it is the ambience that gives them a big plus.

Thai fish cake

Very tender beef curry, our favourite that night.

Sweet and sour chicken

Mixed vegetables

Mangoes with sticky rice. Eventhough the mangoes look pale, they were very sweet.

Dimsum Ayong at Jalan Babura
I love the dimsum here, it is as good as the Cantonese dimsum that we have in Singapore with much cheaper price. It cost about SGD 2 per plate.

Great plain fried kwetiau. Try to believe it. :)

Shrimp dumplings

My favourite Leng hong kian (dragon and phoenix dumplings). This kind of dimsum is only available in Medan.

Chee cheong fun

Fried shrimp dumplings

A huge lo mai kai (glutinous rice dumplings) with generous meats and salted eggs.

Snacks and Desserts >>

Medan (Heavy weight breakfast)

2010-03-02T15:26:00.005+08:00

I usually have two pieces of white bread with jam or not eating at all in the morning. But for Medanese, these are what they called a true breakfast.

Fried beehoon with eggs at Pasar Ramai

Wonton noodles nearby my house

Nasi lemak with satay at Pasar Ramai

Fried kwetiau with eggs at Jalan Gedeh

Fried kwetiau with eggs at Pasar Ramai.

Lontong sayur at Pasar Ramai

Fried plain bee hoon at Pasar Ramai

As you could see, almost all my breakfast came from Pasar Ramai, the wet market near my house. And after a heavy breakfast at 9 am, I only ate very little for lunch. But then around 3-4pm, I would be hungry again and that was the time to find my teabreak. :D

Eating Out (Lunch/Dinner) >>

Singapore - Medan (Mom's cooking)

2010-03-01T14:23:00.001+08:00

I had been craving for my home town food since I was in Korea. So after spending a few weeks in Singapore, I flied back to Medan to hunt those foods that I used to have when I was young. The other mission was to learn some new dishes from mom. I was so sick of my own cooking that I didn't want to cook anymore! Poor hubby hehe...

I was being pampered like a princess at home. Everyday I will have two glasses of freshly squeezed juice readily on the fridge. And I just need to tell mom what I would like to eat and she and her wonderful helper will prepare the dishes.

These are some of the dishes that specially prepared for me, don't ask me how to cook all these. I only learn some easy ones. :P

Crabs with salted soy beans (tauco)

Mince meat and mushroom wrapped in sea cucumber

Fried pork in sweet soy sauce, this is not burnt!

Tofu with mince meat and mushroom

Shark fin soup

Stir fried bamboo shoot with snow peas

Fried pomfret with wood ear fungus (木耳)

Chicken steamed in sesame oil, salt and ginger. The chicken essence is nutritious.

Beef tendon in radish soup

Spicy lala

Braised pig trotters

Pecel (steamed vegetables and peanut crackers/rempeyek)

With home made peanut sauce from my relative in Surabaya.

Fried black pomfret in tamarind (assam jawa)

Fried prawns

Pig stomach with salted vegetables

Steamed mince meat with salted fish

Snacks and desserts
Our helper, Atik loves to make snacks and desserts. All these were prepared by her.

Kolak (banana and sweet potato in coconut milk and gula jawa) How I love this!! As you see, I only eat the bananas hahaha...

Steamed banana (pisang kapok) ... I could eat at least 5 in one sitting. :)

Fried nian gao (chinese new year cake) wrapped in wonton's skin

Unlimited supplies of prawn crackers. We never run out of crackers at home. :D

Life is really good in Medan. I don't have to lift a finger to do any housework. We have a chauffeur that brings us everywhere and helpers for our domestic chores. And a masseuse will come every week to our home to do massage. The only problem in Medan is the power failure that haunts us now and then. But lucky for me, it improved significantly when I was there, my friends said that the PLN (like PUB in Singapore) was scared of me haha...

Mom's bonsai

Orchid at our garden

Eating out (Breakfast) >>

Day 195: Goodbye Korea

2010-02-01T19:46:00.010+08:00

I had a wonderful time in Seoul, feeling grateful that I could stay for so long and experience everything Korea had to offer. At the same time I'm excited to go back to Singapore, have been craving for hawker food for quite sometime. Yeah... :P

Incheon Airport
I couldn't believe that we packed so much things as we just did the packing in one night anyway. In total we had two big and two small suitcases and the total weight was 80 kg! Luckily hubby has some perks, so no problem for the extra kilos, great!

Asiana Lounge
We took an SQ flight, but SQ doesn't have their own lounge in Incheon Airport, so we used the facilities of Asiana Lounge. My buffet meal starts now...

Asiana Lounge

It was the same lounge as my last trip, click here for more photos.

Nachos, peanuts and dips

Crab meat porridge, not much meat insight.

Pretty good roast chicken

Baked potato with garlic

After finished eating, it was time to board the plane. The eating continues...

Hubby was very kind to give me his seat again. This could be my last business class seat as I don't foresee a lot of travelling in the future. :(

Business class section

Settling down comfortably.

The stewardess passed me the menu book for the welcome drink. I ordered a glass of warm water.

The menu

Hmm... which main should I get?

After the plane was in the air, I was offered another welcome drink.

My second welcome drink, ice Milo.

Time to watch a movie.

I was watching Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx while having my dinner.

Chicken satay for starter. The starter never change.

Table setup.

Smoked duck breast, foie grass, ham, egg plant and other stuff.

Hubby told me that I'm very lucky, I have foie gras every time I'm on business class. So far he only had foie gras once. He was super jealous lah.. :P

I only ate a quarter of the foie gras, it never occur to me that I should tell the stewardess to bring this to the economy hahaha...

Grilled salmon fillet with ratatouille

The salmon fillet was huge, I only finished 1/3.

Dark chocolate with citrus compote

As usual after the desserts, the stewardess will offer fruits, cheese platter and chocolates. I stopped after the ice cream, had been eating nonstop since I arrived in airport. :P

After dinner, I went to look for him in the economy. When I saw how narrow the seat was in the economy, it reminded me again that I should be grateful and have to enjoy this moment to the fullest hahaha... The stewardess noticed that I went to look for him and told me that hubby could join me in business class shortly before landing so that we could leave together. Nice ...

The lights were off. It's time to convert the seat to bed. My favourite!!

Happy camper...

Watched an old movie, In the Mood for Love starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.

After this movie, I just tried to have a quiet time and sleep.

Changi Airport Terminal 3

And finally, I am in Singapore again after 7 months away. Home sweet home :)

Day 180: Seoul - Bearstown Ski Resort - Seoul

2010-01-16T16:10:00.005+08:00

Bearstown Ski Resort is one of the nearest ski resort from Seoul. Only one and a half hour drive from Seoul, the resort provides a free daily shuttle bus from Jonggak subway station which is just a short walk from where we stay. Awesome!

Waiting for the shuttle bus in front of Bosingak Belfry.

Bearstown Ski Resort
We reached the resort around 9.30 am and we were definitely not the very first few to arrive. The car park was already full with cars.

Queue to buy ski lift tickets, ski and sled rentals.

The lift for sledding slope.

A long queue at the lift station, it was faster to walk.

A very long sledding runway. Shiok!!

During lunch time, the queue at the ski lift was diminishing so we rode it once.

Open air cable car

My newest winter hat. :)

View of the surroundings.

Frozen stream.

After lunch we went to check out the ski slopes.

Many slopes to choose from.

Snowboarding

We definitely don't know how to ski. Hubby rented the ski equipments to try out skiing and also used them as props for photos. :P

He did try for a couple of hours, but it was pretty scary. He really didn't know how to control or brake.

After playing just for a few hours, we were exhausted. Went back to Seoul with the shuttle bus at 5pm. A day trip should be more than enough if you don't know how to ski.

Day 195 >>

Day 168: Seoul (The heaviest snow since 1937)

2010-01-04T18:00:00.003+08:00

Started snowing in the early morning and lasted until 3pm, the snow was at least 25 cm deep. Glad that I was here to experience this.

Taken at 9.30 am.

2 hours later.

After it stopped snowing, my neighbour together with her kids and I went up to the Fraser rooftop. This place is actually a small golf driving range.

We had this whole place to ourselves!

The snow was so deep, covering almost half my legs.. we had so much fun playing here. :)

Namsan Tower

I really felt I was already in a ski resort. :P

And we had the breathtaking view from 22nd floor.

Seoul covered in snow.

Day 180 >>

Day 166: Seoul (The ugly side of snow)

2010-01-02T16:21:00.001+08:00

Snow isn't always pure, white and pretty. It only stays pretty for a day and then it becomes a disaster for everyone.

The pretty snow that we always see on the media.

Insadong, the day after.

Unmelted snow

Muddy waters

Disgusting...

The road was so slippery, it took me twice the amount of time to go from point A to B. I think those that hated snow the most must be the cleaners. They really have to work extra hard to keep their properties clean from our muddy shoes.

Day 168 >>

Day 162: Seoul (A quiet birthday)

2009-12-29T17:33:00.007+08:00

This year birthday was very low profile compared to the last few years. It was my turn to cut the cake.

Cool packaging

Raspberry cake

Not an ordinary plastic knife.

Why nobody think of this? Usually we frantically look for matches when celebrating birthday in office.

Din Tai Fung
First time we went to the Taiwanese franchise restaurant in Seoul. It is located in Myeongdong, the shopping district.

Instructions on the back of chopstick cover of how to eat xiao long bao. :D

Xiao long bao

Only the first few bites were good. The food here was so oily!!

Oily soup

Meat bun, the skin was good but not the meat.

Soup was quite bland and oily. :(

We ordered too many, and took away the fried rice.

The fried rice was so oily too, I could see a layer of oil at the bottom of the container after I took out the fried rice.

It was a disappointment, don't come here.

Pho Hoa
This time we tried the Vietnamese franchise restaurant. Both dishes were fine.

Pad thai

Beef noodles soup

This beef noodles soup was very good, much better than the other Pho restaurant that we tried a few months back. At least the noodle here is quite authentic compared to Pho Bay. The soup was very tasty too, I could finished the whole bowl with no soup left. :)

Day 166 >>

Day 160: Seoul (It snowed again)

2009-12-27T13:27:00.004+08:00

This was the second snowing after a week of freezing weather hovering around -10. I had been thinking that this wasn't fun at all, we got all the cold weather but it never snow. Felt being shortchanged hehehe...

This time the snow fall was longer, it was falling all over afternoon. As a result, our balcony was all covered by snow. Nice...

All white

View of our neighbour apartment. The snow was still falling and they had started to clear it up. Of course, it's a wasted effort.

At night, we went for dinner at Insadong after a snow fight in front of Fraser. :)

Get set!

Go!!

Fraser shuttle bus covered in snow.

Look what I did. ;)

Insadong looked different in snow. I was very excited, walking hand in hand in snow really felt so romantic hehehe... :P

Insadong in snow.

Someone built a snowman with Nescafe cup.

Leaves covered in snow.

Day 162 >>

Day 152: Seoul (Gwanghwamun Square ice skating rink)

2009-12-19T12:39:00.009+08:00

The Gwanghwamun Square is converted into three ice skating rinks during this winter season. That's the good thing about living in a four-season country, every season we could participate in different kind of activities, life is definitely more colorful. :)

The ice skating rink opened in mid December and will last until end of February. And the most shocking thing is it only costs 1,000 won (SGD 1.2) for one hour session including the rental of the skates!! Even his Korean colleagues are in shock when they heard this. Korea is da best!

Since it's so affordable, hubby is determined to learn how to skate before this winter ends. :D I don't know how to skate either, but I usually pretty bad in all sports so I'm not very optimistic hehehe...

Gwanghwamun Square
We braved the freezing weather of -13 and walked all the way here from Insadong.

Crazy Haechi in bikini

The tickets for the next few sessions were sold out and the earliest available was the 7pm session. So we bought the tickets and heading back home.

Ice skating rink

The kids were pretty good.

Gwanghwamun Square at night

Christmas lights

The ticket booth and skates rental on the left, lockers room on the right.

We changed the size of the skates for a few times before it fit properly. It was so difficult to walk with the skates and the distance from the locker room to the rink was quite a distance.

Christmas tree in front of the ice skating rink.

The staffs were cleaning the rink before our session started.

I was quite scared and hold on tight to the barrier when I went in. Oh no.. it was so slippery. How am I going to move? My arms were sore holding on to the barrier and I did that for two rounds. But after that, I had the courage to let go. By the end of the session, I could confidently walk without holding on and I had not fallen once yet. :)

Hubby improved quite a lot because he was more aggressive and as a result he fell so many times. Just like the saying "no pain no gain"...

Since we improved quite a bit, we decided to get tickets for the next session. So we bought the tickets, went for our dinner and came back an hour later.

It was a mistake to go for the second session, our ankles were already hurt when we put in the skates again. I only managed to play for half an hour since it hurt so much. So I took the camera out and started taking pictures.

Hubby in action.

Not bad, after only two hours of learning.

I still couldn't slide, walked like a penguin :P

Day 160 >>

Day 151: Seoul (The irresistible galbijim - braised short ribs)

2009-12-18T21:00:00.004+08:00

His Singapore colleagues told us that Galbijim is the best Korean food that they ever had in Korea. We went to check out the restaurant, and when we saw the picture we were a bit skeptical. The restaurant was a few doors away from Starbucks Insadong, it was the same place we had the cold buckwheat noodles sometime ago, and we didn't like the noodles at all.

So one day when we didn't know what else to eat, we went there again and ordered the galbijim. We ordered a small pot for two of us, but when the dish came, wow...it was a lot!!

Galbijim

It didn't look very appetising, but when we had our first bite, we were totally converted. The meat was so tender and the sweet and spicy flavour was all over our mouth.

The rib was huge!!

We thought we couldn't finish it and prepared to tapao back. But in no time, all gone!! We didn't spare the gravy either, it was so good that we cleaned it out completely until we could see the bottom of the pot. :P

8 huge ribs

Galbijim was a bit on a high side, our small pot cost 30,000 won (SGD 37) and I think we were just overly excited that we could finish it all. The size should be good for three people in normal situation. :)

Galbijim stands at number two of my favourite Korean food, my number one is still the tteokbokki at Samcheongdong.

Day 152 >>

Day 150: Seoul (The birthday boy)

2009-12-17T20:08:00.007+08:00

Striked midnight, I took the cake out for him to cut. :) Bought the cake from Dunkin Donuts, it was actually a Christmas cake. Two weeks before Christmas, it was hard to find other type of cakes, all the cake shops here were just selling Christmas themed cakes. All the cake designs were very cute, I was looking at them for a good 20 minutes before I made up my mind. :P

A cute cake

Close up view of the cake

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to hubby, happy birthday to you!!

What a glutton!

Woke up late in the morning and then we had lunch at Outback Steakhouse. We tried the Singapore Outback long long time ago and it was a big disappointment. Here in Seoul, Outback branches are everywhere, so we think of giving it a try. It's our first time having Western food in Korea since we came half a year ago. :D

Outback Steakhouse

Outback signature bushman bread and butter.

The bushman bread was very nice, even without the butter. But you have to try the butter, it was soft, creamy and sweet, very different from the butter I know. Err... and then we asked for more bread. :P

We ordered for two set of steaks which came with two side dishes, drink and soup.

Mango and strawberry sparkling

Creamy mushroom soup

The mushroom soup was very nice too. So far so good...

Ribeye steak with vegetables and coconut onion rings.

Sirloin steak with vegetables and baked sweet potato.

We had two different type of steaks to share and both were pretty good. The meat was a good size for guys, but it was too big for me to finish it all by myself.

The bill wasn't very expensive, we paid close to SGD 60 for two persons. I remembered it was much more than that when we went to Outback Singapore, and that was a good six or seven years ago.

Day 151 >>

Day 143: Seoul (Myeongdong Ginseng chicken soup)

2009-12-10T13:53:00.004+08:00

We had a farewell lunch for a friend who returned to Canada for good. So we went to Myeongdong for our lunch, and what's best to represent Korea other than the samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup). :P

This shop was on the second floor, located in a small alley next to the Post Office Tower. It is quite easy to find this shop, they have a big signboard written ginseng chicken soup (參雞湯) in Chinese characters.

Knew about this place from hubby, he said the samgyetang here was pretty good and he ate here quite often with his colleagues. So when I told him to bring me here, he said no, not anymore. Too often for him.

Friends

The side dishes

The chicken gizzard was very nice. Even if I usually don't eat this kind of stuff.

They gave us a small bottle of ginseng wine and I poured some to the soup. It made the soup tastier.

Samgyetang

The black chicken meat was not as tender as the normal ones. But according to Chinese, it is more nutritious. Well, it's your choice. :)

Samgyetang with black chicken

I couldn't finish mine, it was very nice but it's just too big bowl for myself.

Day 150 >>

Day 141: Seoul (First snow of the year)

2009-12-08T13:26:00.005+08:00

We had the first snow in the early December. I was so happy seeing snow for the first time after such a long time. My neighbour and I quickly went down and took some photos. :)

The snowflakes were huge, that's why it looked so dense. It only lasted for 30 minutes all in all.

Outside our apartment

It was heavy but didn't last very long.

Still not enough to cover the whole ground.

Yay, we had fun!!

I took this picture from my apartment window. I was amazed that the snow fall could be so exact!!

The snow formed square boxes on the ground. Amazing!

Day 143 >>

Day 17: Tokyo (Japan) - Seoul (South Korea)

2009-11-29T12:15:00.006+08:00

Haneda Airport
A very small airport, feel like the budget type. :P

Haneda Airport

Other than those few fridge magnets from every city, we didn't shop at all during our whole trip, so we bought our favourite Royce chocolate from the airport duty free. In Japan, they have more varieties than in Singapore and of course cheaper.

Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky

And a small pack of green tea Kit Kat. Only available in Japan.

They have an airport lounge too, but not much things to eat here. It was very bare minimum. :(

The airport lounge

The Asiana flight that we took was pretty new, the TV was a touch screen. Cool!

Touch screen TV

Just tap the screen to navigate. Much much easier to use.

And a pretty good headphone. Wow!! Usually this kind of headphone only available for business class passengers.

They served a pretty good meal too.

Sweet and sour fish with rice. Yummy!!

Back in Seoul after a 2 hours flight. Well, that's all from our Japan trip... :)

Day 16: Tokyo - Mt Fuji area - Tokyo

2009-11-28T10:33:00.007+08:00

Mt Fuji was our last excursion in Japan before we returned to Seoul the next day. Took the Keio bus from Shinjuku to Lake Kawaguchi in the early morning which is about 2 hours from Tokyo.

Shinjuku

Lake Kawaguchi
Once we reached the bus terminal, we transferred to the local bus that took us to Lake Kawaguchi.

Sightseeing with retro bus

The bus pass is a postcard. Nice.. :)

Lake Kawaguchi

Fishing on the lake

Then we took the bus further up to Ohishi Park and we saw Mt Fuji. Well, only the foot of Mt Fuji that could be seen, the peak was already covered by clouds. Very disappointing. :((

Mt Fuji covered by the clouds.

Luckily we took quite a decent picture of Mt Fuji when we were on shinkansen from Osaka to Yokohama.

Mt Fuji from shinkansen

We hopped on to the bus again and stopped at Nagasaki Park.

Drown in autumn leaves

Ducks swimming on the lake, slope of Mt Fuji on the background.

Since there was nothing else to do here, we decided to go back to Tokyo early. Luckily we could still change our return bus time.

Dinner at Shinjuku station

Braised pork porridge

Shrimp dumpling porridge

The porridge were pretty good but it wasn't very fulfilling. And then we spotted another sushi standing bar. :D

¥100 for each

Salmon

Ikura (salmon roe)

Anago (conger eel)

Bincho maguro

Chutoro (tuna belly)

The tuna belly was much cheaper in Japan than in Singapore. This chutoro cost the same price as the normal maguro, so it was a no brainer to order this instead.

Amaebi (sweet shrimp)

Yaki samon (grilled salmon)

Those sushi were as excellent as the one we had in Shibuya. We had 20+ between us and now we could leave Japan happily. :D

Day 17 >>

Day 15: Tokyo (Tsukiji market, Odaiba and finally, a mouth watering sushi)

2009-11-27T14:02:00.011+08:00

Tsukiji Market
The best time to explore Tsukiji Market is in the early morning, 5am to be exact when they start the tuna auction. But we are not an early riser, so this is definitely out. The next best thing to do is to try out the fresh sashimi from the small eating places around the market.

Tsukiji Market entrance

Tsukiji Market

We reached there around 11pm, most fishmongers had already cleaned up their stalls and closed for the day.

The seafood products were stored in styrofoam boxes.

Huge fish head

The official transportation inside the fish market.

Long queues were already formed outside these eating places, and it was not even noon yet.

Queued for about 20 minutes.

It was difficult to decide.

That's what we were going to order, salmon and tuna belly (toro) don.

I took this photo quickly because they don't allow photography inside.

Inside the eating place.

Oh so disappointed that I wasn't be able to capture our huge slices of raw fish. We had 7 huge slices of tuna belly and salmon (equivalent to 14 slices of Singapore size!). They were absolutely heavenly and this time they did melt in our mouth. We usually don't like tuna, but for tuna belly it is a different story altogether.

After the fish market, we went back to our hotel to take a nap. :P

Odaiba

Odaiba station

Ferris wheel

Venus Fort
A shopping mall in Odaiba. It was quite similar to Las Vegas Caesar Palace but smaller in size.

The sky would change color according to time.

Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge and giant Christmas Tree

Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower

Rainbow Bridge and Statue of Liberty. Don't worry, this is still Tokyo. :)

Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and Statue of Liberty.

So which combination is your favourite?

Statue of Liberty

Shibuya
We went back to Shibuya because I liked Shibuya so much.

Harajuku girl in Shibuya station

Shibuya alley

While we tried to find what to eat for dinner, we saw this sushi standing bar. Hmm... sounded interesting. Actually we were thinking of having a Burger King next door, luckily no!

¥75 (SGD 1.15) for each sushi. Pretty cheap for Japanese standard.

The sushi chefs at work.

It's a full house.

As the name suggested, we had to stand while eating.

First round

Yaki samon mayo (slighly burned salmon with mayo)

Samon (salmon)

Ebi mayo (slighly burned shrimp with mayo)

The big chunk of avocado really felt very fresh.

I just couldn't express how happy I was while having these sushi. They were really so good beyond words. Looking at these pictures again while writing this blog, definitely makes me hungry. :D

Round two

Anago (slightly burned conger). This is much better than unagi.

Yaki geso mayo (slightly burned squid legs)

Third round we ordered those that we had earlier plus a few new ones.

Slightly burned salmon

Amaebi (sweet shrimp)

After many below standard Japanese foods, at last we were able to taste the excellent sushi and standing for an hour was really nothing compared to what we had.

And the good thing is it only cost us about SGD 45 for 32 pieces of sushi. If we had it in a restaurant, it would definitely burn a big hole in our pocket.

Day 16 >>

Day 14: Tokyo (Imperial Palace, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown)

2009-11-26T11:12:00.007+08:00

Toyoko Inn Asakusabashi Kosaten
This Toyoko Inn is very new, only about 6 months old. Eventhough they try to market it that every Toyoko Inn is the same, actually it's not. Do read the fine print about the facilities and the kind of breakfast provided on its website.

Us in Toyoko Inn pyjamas. Now we have a complete photos of the pyjamas from this trip. :)

So far, this is the best breakfast we had in Toyoko Inn.

Tokyo Imperial Palace
We booked in advance for the tour inside the palace. The Tokyo Imperial Palace is about 15 minutes walk from the Tokyo Station.

Walking to the Imperial Palace

This time our tour group was even bigger than the one we joined in Kyoto. I estimated there were about 200 people and most of them were Japanese. To our disappointment, the tour was conducted in Japanese and we were only given the audio guide. :(

The Imperial Palace tour

Fujimi-yagura, the watch tower

The Imperial Household Agency Building

Kyuden Totei Plaza where the royal family will appear on special occasions like Emperor's Birthday to meet the commoners.

A Japanese garden

Nijubashi bridge

Tokyo skyscrapers

Police car with royal family logo

The tour wasn't enjoyable at all. The guide was explaining everything in Japanese, so when the rest of people laughed, we were very blurred hehehe... Anyway, most of the buildings in the palace are quite modern, not like those in Kyoto Imperial Palace where they still maintain the traditional buildings.

Outside the Imperial Palace East Garden

Roppongi Hills
It is a big complex of many office buildings, cinema, museum, shopping mall, and residential area. I guess it is one of the most desirable address in Tokyo. I looked in envy at those residential apartments, must be pretty cool to stay here. :P

Rose garden

Tokyo Tower

Maman, the big spider invaded Roppongi.

The same spider was also sighted in Ottawa, Canada.

Interior of the building

Christmas decorations

Asahi TV station

With doraemon :)

And exactly at 5pm, all the glittering lights were up.

The christmas illuminations were sponsored by Samsung mobile.

Keyakizaka, where all the luxury shops are located.

Tokyo Tower in the background

The office buildings in Roppongi Hills

Mohri garden

Maman under the moonlight

We had a bento dinner at Roppongi Hills.

The bentos were pretty cheap and nice. We saw a lot of office workers eating here.

After this we went to Tokyo Midtown nearby. Another big shopping mall cum office building.

Roppongi, outside the Roppongi Hills

Tokyo Midtown

This tree has hundreds of tiny Santa Clauses. Wow..

Very creative...

Illuminations at Tokyo Midtown

This is the best Christmas illuminations I've ever seen.

Millions of lights were laid on the big grass field and every few minutes the lights were illuminated like the cosmos field. It was so beautiful that my jaw dropped for a while. :P

Too bad I recorded it using my camera and it didn't look as nice as the original. :(

Day 15 >>

Day 13: Nikko - Tokyo

2009-11-25T15:00:00.007+08:00

We woke up to a great breakfast in the morning. It was prepared freshly for us when we came down to the breakfast area.

Bacon omelette

Finished our breakfast, packed our thing and left our luggage at the reception. We were going back to Tokyo later in the evening.

What a great clear sunny day...

Ryuzu Waterfalls

One last thing to complete the Japan experience is to relax in hotsprings. We asked the hotel and they recommended this spa for us.

Yashio-no-yu spa

It wasn't easy to go to this place without our own car. We were supposed to take a bus from one of the appointed bus stops but the bus left when we reached there. The next bus was only an hour later so we walked about 1km in a deserted road.

Halfway through there, a man stopped by his car and asked us whether we wanted to go to that spa. We said yes, and he told us the spa was closed for the day. :(

Anyway, we were almost there so we continued walking. And it's true, the spa was closed. Oh no I didn't want to walk another 1 km back. So we did what we never do before, hitchhiking. :P

We hitchhiked with an old couple who also came for the spa. The Japanese couple didn't speak much English but we managed to ask whether we could get a ride and whether they could dropped us somewhere central.

Ah.... what a nice feeling to ride in a car hehehe... Finally they dropped us near Shinkyo bridge, and we said "Arigato gozaimashita" with heads bowed deeply to show our appreciation. :P

Shinkyo Bridge
The most famous bridge in Nikko.

River under the bridge

We had lunch at a restaurant nearby the bridge.

A cute cup

My curry rice was yummy.

Hubby had ramen

After meal, we explored some Nikko temples. They were all located in one area, not very far from the Shinkyo bridge.

Fallen maple leaves

Many sky high trees at the temples

Toshogu Shrine

Toshogu Shrine was a bit different from the rest of temples we saw so far. The temple was decorated in many bright colors.

Toshogu Shrine

Rinnoji Temple

After those temples, we basically finished our sightseeings in Nikko. It was still pretty early, so we tried one more time to find a hotspring to visit.

We went back to Nikko station and asked the officer at the tourist info. She gave us a list of spa, and many of them were pretty far from here. Only the small ones were quite close but we didn't want to go to a small spa. So in the end we chose a medium size spa that didn't look very far but the transportation wasn't easy. She told us to take a public bus in front of the station but the bus service wasn't very frequent and its service ended at around 5pm so we might need to get our own transportation from the spa.

Not very ideal, but anyway we went to the bus stop and waited. Then I checked out another bus stop a few metres away and asked an old lady who was waiting there. She told me that the spa we wanted to go have an hourly shuttle bus and she was waiting for that too. What a lousy tourist officer!

So we went with the shuttle bus and the ride took about 20 minutes. Actually the spa is also a hotel and its location is very secluded. All we saw were just trees and not even a single car passed by us. It was definitely safer to go with the shuttle bus. :P

Ooedo Onsen Nikko Kirifuri
The spa entry fee was ¥700 (SGD 11). The male and female baths were separated so we went our separate ways and agreed to meet up after one hour.

I wasn't sure what to do when I went into the changing room. Saw mostly middle aged ladies and they all stripped down everything. Oh well, just follow hahahaha...

Then I have to shower, the spa provided each shower booth with a pail and a small bench for us to sit. It was quite weird having shower while sitting down.

After shower, I slowly dipped into the hot bath. This was really hot, had to do it very slowly until I could dip in totally.

After about ten minutes, I went to the outdoor area bath. I was surprised when I saw a young boy about 5 years old in that pool! Anyway, he was just there for a while and left soon after. The outdoor bath was more popular, it just felt so nice to dip into a hot bath in a cool weather and to make it sound more romantic, we bathed under the moonlight. :D

After a few minutes, I came out from the bath and enjoyed the scenery surrounding us. My body didn't feel cold at all, so I just walked around in the outdoor. (Just hope that nobody had a powerful telescope :P) I repeated this a few times and then it's time to go back. We were both very excited when we met again hehehe... Hubby was enjoying himself too, but he said this is more like a girl thing and he bet all the guys there must have followed their wives. :D

The view from the spa

How I love Nikko, this place worth another visit in the future.

Day 14 >>

Day 12: Tokyo - Nikko

2009-11-24T16:06:00.001+08:00

Nikko
We reached Nikko in the afternoon after about 2 hours of Tobu train ride from Asakusa Tokyo. Left the luggage at our hotel near Nikko station, we straight away took the Tobu bus to Lake Chuzenji.

Lake Chuzenji
The journey to Lake Chuzenji took about half an hour and the scenery was impressive. The bus went through the Irohazaka winding road and we could see ourselves getting higher up the mountains with the scary cliffs surrounding us. If only we arrive a few weeks earlier, I could imagine the autumn colors in Nikko is nothing less than spectacular. And as for now, no single leaf left on the trees. :(

Once the bus completed the winding road path, we could see the Lake Chuzenji in view. I just couldn't imagine there could be a lake waiting for us up here.

Before we went to explore Lake Chuzenji, we had a quick lunch near the lake.

Monkey in action

Kegon Waterfalls
The biggest watefalls in Nikko.

About 100 metres in height, one of Japan most famous waterfalls.

The thunderous roar

Lake Chuzenji
The largest lake in Nikko.

Lake Chuzenji

The weather was so cold up here, we were the only two people exploring the lake!

Swan boats

More swan boats

They were everywhere

From here we took the bus again to Yudaki waterfalls.

The bus stop at nowhere and we had to cross this forest to the waterfalls.

It had already snowed at the mountains.

Yudaki Waterfalls

This picture doesn't do justice. It is much bigger than this, check out the video.

From here we took the steps next to the waterfalls up to Lake Yunoko.

It was only 400 metres up, but I was still breathless.

Went upstream

Lake Yunoko
We were greeted with such a beautiful sight once we arrived.

So beautiful and peaceful around here.

Lake Yunoko is less commercial than Lake Chuzenji, no swan boats here.

Lake Yunoko was the highest point we went up to. The day was getting dark so it's time to head back to Nikko, on our way back we stopped at Senjogahara marshland.

Senjogahara marshland

It felt mysterious around here.

I don't want to be here when it's dark.

Senjogahara marshland

Arrived at the station, it was time to look for our dinner but not much choices here. Luckily we spotted a big supermarket just one block away from where we stayed.

Bought our dinner from the supermarket and heading back to hotel to check in.

Viva Nikko Hotel

Tatami mat room with western style beds.

Our room was pretty big, probably 1.5 time bigger than our ryokan stay in Kyoto.

Check out the huge unagi, it cost less than SGD 10.

We had a feast in the room, had some sashimi, bento rice with crab leg meats, and huge unagi. :)

Day 13 >>

Day 11: Tokyo (Ameyoko, Asakusa, Akihabara, Tokyo Tower, Ginza, Tokyo Station)

2009-11-23T12:20:00.006+08:00

Ameyoko
A market in Ueno selling Japanese stuffs and cheap snacks. This is similar to Namdaemun Market in Seoul.

Ameyoko

Fresh seafood

Very long fish

Japanese snacks and crackers

We had our sushi buffet here, only ¥1050 per person.

Queueing for my sushi

Since we didn't know how to read Japanese, we ordered systematically. :D

First round, everything on the upper left.

First round

Second round, everything on the upper right.

Second round

Third round, everything on the bottom half.

Third round

Third round

The sushi was just average, I still hadn't found the one that melted in my mouth yet. :(

Asakusa
This is where the Sensoji Temple located. You won't be able to find the Kyoto temple peacefulness here.

Kaminarimon Gate (Thunder Gate)
Famous for its huge red lantern.

No visit to Tokyo is complete without this photo. :P

A kimono girl in front of Kaminarimon Gate

A wedding couple in a rickshaw.

The souvenir shops are lined up from the Kaminarimon Gate to the Hozomon Gate.

Very very crowded

Temple second gate, Hozomon.

Huge slippers

Hmm... it doesn't look like 2500 kg

Akihabara
Hubby was angry when he knew this place wasn't in our itinerary. I was actually quite surprised that he knew about this place hahaha...

Akihabara, the electronic town. Now you know why it's not in the itinerary. :D

We saw many girls dressed like Lolita here than in Harajuku. Those girls were distributing pamphlets or brochure to shoppers and they didn't like us to take photo of them.

Yodobashi Akiba, the biggest electronic store in Akhibara, a 9 storey building full of gadgets.

Hubby was very excited here, I told him if you don't want to buy anything don't let me walk the whole building, we need to conserve energy.

Every floor was as crowded as this.

The good thing here is we could try almost everything. I was pretty excited too when I tried those paparazzi kind of camera. The quality is so damn good but in terms of handiness,I still prefer my small camera. It is so uncomfortable to carry such a bulky camera everywhere.

Tokyo Tower

A reflection of Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower, similar to Eiffel Tower but much smaller in size.

Ginza
Another luxury shopping district.

Ginza shopping street

Wako, the Ginza landmark building.

Mikimoto Christmas tree

Tokyo Station

Don't apply makeup on the train!

Miffy Christmas tree

We went to Tokyo Station just to buy our train tickets to Nikko tomorrow. Tokyo station was huge and the office where they supposed to sell the Tobu tickets was so far away. So we tried our luck in JTB when we saw one. Luckily they were selling it too. What a relief..

Day 12 >>

Day 10: Tokyo (Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku)

2009-11-22T23:18:00.012+08:00

Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park

There were a couple of weddings held at the shrine. Ah...now I know how the Japanese wedding kimono looks like.

A wedding couple

Having a family portrait taken

Another wedding couple

Many of the guests came in their kimonos too. But the adult kimonos were not as interesting as the kids one.

The arrival of little princes and princesses

I love this dress!

She looks like the Olsen twins when they were very young.

Kawaii ne

Don't think they would want to wear kimono again when they are teenagers. That's when the Harajuku fashion enters.

Harajuku
The center of Japanese teenagers fashion.

Harajuku Station

Takeshita Dori

Harajuku style

A bit disappointed not seeing many cosplay kids hanging around in Harajuku. We searched for them high and low for an hour and gave up. :(

Not very far from Harajuku is the Omotesando where all the luxury shops are located.

Omotesando

Met some bulldog lovers walking their dogs in Omotesando.

Japanese are dog lovers

Louis Vuitton Christmas Tree

Omotesando Hills
This shopping mall isn't very big, but it is so tastefully designed and decorated.

Omotesando Hills

Chandelier at the entrance

Their christmas tree was indeed a show stopper. A three-storey high tree full of crystals.

The most bling christmas tree I've ever seen.

Spotted a wildboar

A wildboar inspired car. Cute right?

We had lunch nearby at Crayon House, an organic restaurant.

Crayon House

It was a buffet style lunch, only cost about ¥1000 per person. Because it was so cheap and organic some more, we had to queue for about half an hour even at 3pm.

Brown rice, miso soup, curry, grill fish, salad, tofu, and fried chicken.

I love it so much and thinking of coming back again. Hubby hated it so much until he lao sai hahaha... really I wasn't kidding.

From here, we walked to Shibuya. I wouldn't recommend to walk all the way from Omotesando, it was actually pretty far.

Shibuya
I told hubby, "What! Is this Shibuya? So ugly!"

Our first sight of Shibuya.

Then we tried to find the Hachiko statue which was on the other side of the Shibuya station.

Hachiko, the faithful dog.

Read all about the sad story of Hachiko here.

And we saw all these shopping malls. This is more like it. :)

The surroundings of Shibuya Junction

Waiting to cross the road.

The traffic light turns green every few minutes and every time it does, hundreds of people crossing it. Amazing.

Busiest pedestrian crossing I've ever seen.

We did cross the road a few times just to get the feel of it hehehe...

Vibrant Shibuya

I love to be in Shibuya not because of the shopping malls. It was the same feeling I had in Times Square, New York. Happy enough just to people watch and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office
Located in Shinjuku, this building is 48 floors high and has the observatory floor on 45th floor. The only free observatory in Tokyo. :D

Tokyo at night.

Tokyo Tower

And surprise....this skycraper is also the home for the homeless.

Homeless people

Queuing for winter clothes

From here we walked back to Shinjuku JR South Terrace for a glimpse of the christmas lights.
Tokyo christmas illuminations is really the best I've ever seen. They really spent a lot of effort and money to come up with cool decorations. More to come on later posts.

The colors of pyramid would change by pressing a button located at the center of the pyramid. Many people queued up just to do that.

Day 11 >>

Day 9: Yokohama - Kamakura - Tokyo

2009-11-21T16:31:00.001+08:00

Kamakura
This little town is only about half an hour train ride from Yokohama. We reached there in the afternoon and the train station had already overflowed with people. Since we dragged our luggage along, we had to find a large locker to deposit them before starting our sightseeings. Lockers were not many in a small station like Kamakura, and with the crowd madness like this, of course none of the lockers were available.

So the only way is to drag it along with us to see the Big Buddha. Well, anyway this is not the first time for us. :P

Took Enoden train to Hase station

Luckily we could find a locker in Hase. So not so bad after all.

See the crowd

There were many souvenir and snack shops along the way to Big Buddha.

Freshly made rice crackers

A giant rice cracker

The Big Buddha
It isn't a very big Buddha after all, the one at Mount Sorak is at least two times bigger.

Big Buddha

Buddha slippers

We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. The chinese food in Japan was actually pretty good.

Seafood fried rice

And to our surprise, they had kong bak pao (pork belly slices with bun). We ordered some and they were excellent.

Kong bak pao

Other than the Big Buddha, there's nothing else to see in Kamakura. It's just not worth the hassle to come all the way here for this. We should have just skipped it and go directly to Tokyo.

We reached Tokyo in the evening, and straight away check in to Toyoko Inn.

Toyoko Inn Otsuka-eki Kitaguchi no. 1
This Toyoko Inn is the worst I ever stayed. The building is so old and it reminds me of cheap US highway motels. Not only that, the breakfast variety is equally bad. Others usually provide miso soup, rice balls, salad, some Japanese side dishes and bread. What they have here is only bread and coffee/tea, not even some orange juice.

And the room rate here is more expensive than all my previous stays. Yes, I know this is Tokyo, but the other Toyoko Inn (Asakusabashi Kosaten) that we are going to stay on the later part of the trip has the same rate and it is a brand new hotel.

Not a good day after all. :(

Day 10 >>

Day 8: Osaka - Yokohama

2009-11-20T13:21:00.009+08:00

The journey by shinkansen is supposed to take 1.5 hours only, but ours took 3.5 hours because it was the slowest shinkansen. :P Actually both the fastest and the slowest run at about 300 km/h , the difference is only on the number of stops it made. The fastest shinkansen only stops at limited stations, but the slowest one stops at all shinkansen stations. But never mind, for just 2 hours it saved us about 30%.

Our shinkansen tickets, Puratto Kodama

Shinkansen in Japan, KTX in Korea, Eurostar between London, Paris and Brussels, they all refer to bullet train.

Airplane like interior

This is my childhood chewing gum. It was a luxury at that time. :P

The train passed by Mt Fuji. Everybody was frantically taking pictures.

Mt Fuji

Sheraton Yokohama Bay
This was the only luxury hotel we stayed on this trip. So the plan was to stay longer in a hotel room than sightseeings hehehe... By the way, Yokohama isn't a very big city so it is easily covered in half a day.

The chandelier at the lobby

Christmas decorations

We booked the room with some SPG points + USD 60 only. Our room was supposed to be on low floor but they sort of 'upgraded' us to a higher floor room.

SPG floor

Lift lobby

So nice! It was a luxury to have a room this big in Japan. If not for the twin bed, everything would be perfect.

Complete toiletries

And the view... awwwww

Yokohama Bay

Yokohama Bay Bridge

After checking in, we quickly started our sightseeings. In November, the sky turned dark at around 5pm, so we didn't have much time left.

We took the Akaikutsu, a sightseeing bus around the bay area.

Queen's Square Christmas tree

Ferris wheel

Yokohama Chinatown
The biggest Chinatown in Japan.

A crowded Chinatown

Most restaurants were decorated very nicely.

Old Shanghai feeling.

How I missed the dimsum. Surprisingly the bbq pork bun here was as authentic as those in Hong Kong or Singapore. The Chinese bun in Korea just couldn't make it.

The bun prices

Eating a steaming hot bun in a cold weather. Shiok...

At ¥250 (SGD 4) each

This Chinatown has the most gates I ever know.

A busily decorated Chinese temple

Not very far from the Chinatown is the Harbour View Park.

Yokohama Bay Bridge at night

From there, we took the bus to Osanbashi Pier.

View of Yokohama at night

We had our dinner at a shopping mall near Sheraton.

Unagi don + soba

Tempura don + soba

My tempura sucks... After so many bad experience, it is confirmed that finding a good Japanese restaurant in Japan is difficult. The worst thing is it is expensive too. Not like in Korea, everything is so cheap and good! After 8 days in Japan, we were longing to have our favourite BBQ meat in Korea.

Before the trip, I heard a lot about how good the Japanese food in Japan. We actually love Japanese food and have it at least once a week while we were in Singapore. Our weekend was never without sushi! So this trip is supposed to be about food, food and food.

I guess people are watching too much Japan Hour on TV. The Japanese are very good in presentation, so when you see nice things and the host said "Oishiii" it is pretty convincing.

Enough complaining :P

Back to our hotel for an early night.

View from our room

How I love their pyjamas. The material was very soft, probably made of Egyptian cottons.

He's in grey and mine in pink!

Day 9 >>

Day 7: Kyoto - Osaka

2009-11-19T16:21:00.004+08:00

We woke up late in the morning and felt so refreshed. The thin futon was so comfy, the blanket was fluffy, it was as good as the five-star hotel bed!

Today we were going to visit a few more shrines and off to Osaka.

Fushimi Inari
Also known as a fox shrine. The attraction of this shrine is the lineup of hundreds of torii gate. These gates also appear in the movie Memoirs of Geisha.

A baby fox with bib.

Mostly everything is in orange color.

Many faces of fox

Hundreds of torii gates

Tunnel of torii gates

Left or right?

I suspect these are the name of donators.

Missing torii

Mini torii gates for lesser amount of donation. :P

Tofukuji Temple

Beautiful foliage from the entrance

The white paint is used to prevent termites.

Kamigamo Shrine

Sake barrels in a shrine?? Hmm....

Not sure what this is all about.

Sand cones

A small canal running through the shrine complex.

Shimogamo Shrine

In just four days, we had visited 10 temples and 7 shrines. Holy cow!

Went back to ryokan to get our luggage. The owner walked us to the street and kept bowing by saying "Arigato gozaimashita". After walking for quite a distance, we looked back and he was still there! So we tried to walk faster, he must have gone in only after we were out of his sight. What a truly Japanese hospitality!

Osaka
The only thing left to do in Osaka was to try the local dish, okonomiyaki. So we went to Dotonbori for President Chibo.

The crowd at Dotonburi

President Chibo since 1967, famous for okonomiyaki.

The restaurant looked upscale with all the dim lights. We were ushered to one of the four teppanyaki tables.

Chef at work

It was quite entertaining to look at the chef preparing our food. His moves were so smooth.

Almost done

Yamaimoyaki (porkbelly, squid, shrimp, and Japanese herb)

Okonomiyaki with shrimp

The food presentation was very good, but the taste was quite disappointing. It was either we didn't like okonomiyaki or he didn't do a good job. And it was pretty expensive too. :(

Day 8 >>

Day 6: Kyoto

2009-11-18T20:28:00.011+08:00

Arashiyama, about 40 minutes bus ride from Kyoto is absolutely gorgeous during autumn. Easily accessible and so near to Kyoto, it's a very popular getaway for the local.

Togetsukyo bridge

Oi river

Mount Arashiyama as a backdrop.

Take a boat tour along the river.

Tenryuji Temple

A red car under red maple leaves.

Japanese rock garden

Another not to be missed is to walk into the bamboo grooves.

Bamboo grooves

Torii gate of Nonomiya shrine against the foliage.

These two maiko really made my day. I had been praying these few days for a chance to see them in person. A trip to Japan will not be completed without this photo. :P

My favourite photo of all time. :)

We had lunch at the roadside just outside the bamboo grooves.

Soba noodles and saba fish

Yam cake covered with sesame paste on the sides. After all sides are done, they will stamp the cake with their own brand.

The final product

After lunch, we went back to Kyoto and visited more temples. :P

Ninnaji Temple

Ryoanji Temple
Personally I think this temple has the best autumn foliage in Kyoto. (Second favourite after Nanzenji Temple)

Started to open my mouth waaaaaa.... :D

Sunlight came through the moss garden.

Close up look of the moss.

Needless to say, it's beautiful!

Kinkakuji (Temple of the Golden Pavillion)
The Golden Pavillion was a breath of fresh air for all the temple buildings that we had seen so far.

The entrance ticket of Kinkakuji

The Golden Pavillion and its reflecting pond.

Throw your coins to the bowl for good luck. (Of course I don't believe it!!)

We moved out from Toyoko Inn and stayed for a night at Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) for a change. No visit to Japan will complete without this too. :D

And don't think this kind of inn in cheap, it is the most expensive accommodation that I ever pay in my travelling years hehehe...

Matsubaya Ryokan

Breakfast area cum living room

Our room is a 6-tatami size room (means the room could fit 6 tatami mats).

6-tatami mat room

TV at the corner

Sipping a cup of hot green tea completes the whole experience.

Japanese crackers

A modern toilet

After resting for a while, we went to Kyoto station again for our dinner.

Giant christmas tree in Kyoto Station

Hubby ordered a chiraishi don + ramen set.

My mouth watering chirashi don

This time the raw fish was up to standard, we were absolutely satisfied. :)

Back to the ryokan for a night.

Yukata was provided during the stay.

One last photo before going to bed.

And one last thing to do before going to bed.

Preparing our own bed! What a chore heheheh...

Meeting the maiko and staying at ryokan really completes our Japanese experience. Mission accomplished!

Day 7 >>

Day 5: Kyoto

2009-11-17T18:04:00.009+08:00

This wasn't our lucky day for sightseeing. It rained the whole day and night. :(

Path of Philosophy
We supposed to think deeply when walking along this path. With an umbrella on one hand, camera on the other and have to avoid the muddy pools, it was mission impossible. :P

Path of Philosophy

Honenin Temple
Since the rain kept pouring, we took a refuge in this temple and just sat there for a very long time. Oh how I love to go there again in a rainy day. Definitely my best temple experience.

Rock garden

Chionin Temple
A very big temple, pretty average.

Maruyama Park
A very nice park between Chionin Temple and Yasaka Shrine.

Yasaka Shrine

Queue to ring the bell.

I don't know what this is. A prayer maybe.

Close up look of the papers.

We had a quick lunch at Nakao, a Japanese fast food restaurant similar to Yoshinoya. The meal was average.

Custard pudding

After lunch we started to walk towards Kiyomizudera. More temples along the way!

Japanese style houses

I couldn't remember the shrine name. It is next to Kodaiji Temple.

Roll these steel tubes while saying your prayer.

Actually after visiting so many temples, we were supposed to be bored to death. But amazingly it never happened! In fact, we really enjoyed walking around the temples. It felt so serene and peaceful.

Kiyomizudera Pagoda, we were pretty close right now.

Shopping street towards Kiyomizudera.

This shop is selling Totoro merchandise.

The chinese characters are so cute.

Totoro

Other Totoro characters

80% of the shops along this street are selling Japanese rice cakes in various kinds.

One of the biggest store in the area.

A very busy store.

Must try this in Kyoto. Very nice.

The sesame flavour is my favourite.

Pretty candies

Kiyomizudera Temple
It's the most touristy temple in Kyoto.

Gion
We went to Gion in a hope to meet a Maiko or Geisha.

Some Gion restaurants will have Maiko serving the customers.

Only saw a Maiko lantern. :(

The cheapest wagyu beef is about SGD 160.

We returned to Kyoto station for our dinner.

Kyoto Tower

Went to a shopping mall called Porta, it has many Japanese restaurants at the basement.

I love this shop!! Similar to Daiso with nicer stuffs.

This is the reason why...

¥300(SGD 4.5) will be exactly 3 coins but ¥315 is not.

We had our dinner here.

Great ramen, the soup was so thick.

He ordered a set of ramen and fried rice.

Day 6 >>

Day 4: Kyoto

2009-11-16T16:30:00.010+08:00

Kyoto is one of the most important destination in our trip. I allocate 4 days just for Kyoto alone and plan it such that it coincides with the peak of autumn foliage. And what we are going to do here is simply temple hopping! Not that I am very interested in temples but Kyoto's most gorgeous autumn colors are usually found around the area.

Nijo Castle
Even the promotional brochure didn't look interesting. So we just took photos from outside and left.

Main entrance

This is the building they put in the brochure. Must be the best looking one though. :P

Honganji Temple
The temple is huge but architecture and foliage wise isn't very impressive.

The lotus fountain and the main gate of Honganji.

Stone lantern and the main gate

Feed the doves

Dragon spurting out water

Main temple building

The interior

Opposite the temple, there's a small island dividing the road. I had more fun here than the temple earlier. :P

Fallen ginkgo leaves.

A Japanese style house across the road.

From here we took the subway to Nanzenji Temple.

Foliage along the way to Nanzenji temple.

Nanzenji Temple
Finally, my first favourite temple for autumn foliage.

Nanzenji Temple

Isn't it superb?

Girls in kimono

Main temple building

Decorative roofs

See the colors. My mouth was wide open most of the time. :P

These red maple leaves are very close to the ground. It 'floats'.

Close up look of the maple leaves.

The temples in Kyoto are usually surrounded by the mountains or hills.

Sightseeing in style.

Next, lunch at Coco curry house. They have a few branches in Seoul and it's my favourite eating place.

Tori karaage in curry.

Beef steak in curry.

Kyoto Imperial Palace
The only way to see the Imperial Palace is through the guided tour. Need to book in advance.

It's a huge group!

Roof made of cypress bark.

Arranging the rocks. This is not exactly a Japanese rock garden, but same concept.

Model of cypress bark roof, hiwada.

The bark is arranged layer by layer and secured with bamboo nails.

See how long it takes to make the roof this big! And it only lasts for 30 years.

Shishinden, the most important building in the palace and is used for important ceremonies such as enthronement.

The ugliest building in the palace with a rusty aluminium roof. It is a warehouse. :)

Oikeniwa Garden

Japanese garden is all about nature. The trees represent the mountains, water is the ocean and pebbles are the shore.

He sketched to keep the memories alive while the rest of us took pictures.

Gonaitei garden

Nishiki Market
A traditional market selling a lot of Japanese stuffs.

Nishiki market

Cute sweets

Fish eggs

This shop is all about fortune cats.

Red bean desserts soak in water!

Took a break in a cafe.

Ice cream and mini donuts. Yum!

Usually there is a shrine near the market and Nishiki market is no exception.

Lanterns

More lanterns

Red lanterns

Day 5 >>

Day 3: Osaka - Himeji - Nara - Kyoto

2009-11-15T11:29:00.008+08:00

This day was the most hectic day of our whole trip. The plan was to take the train to Himeji which was about an hour ride to the west of Osaka, then followed by another 2-hour ride to Nara. From Nara, it was another 1-hour ride to Kyoto where we stayed overnight. This is also the only day when we need to use JR pass.

Check out my Hello Kitty mask. :)

Himeji

The bus stop sign of Himeji Castle shuttle bus.

That's our bus.

The castle moat.

Himeji Castle

We walked around the castle and took pictures of it from different angles.

From here we took a 2-hour ride train to Nara.

Took each other pictures. I love their clothings, very fashionable!

Why the fish is upside down?

Nara
Love this town especially the deer park. They roam freely around the park and the temple ground.

Nara Deer Park

Surrounded by deer

Nice place for a picnic if not for the deer shit everywhere, hahaha...

Trying to read map. :)

What would you like to have?

Kasuga Taisha Shrine
It is famous for the line up of hundreds stone lanterns from the deer park to the shrine.

Stone lanterns

More lanterns

The shrine

A girl in kimono.

Kofukuji Temple

Five storey pagoda

Sarusawa-ike Pond

In the evening we walked along the Sanjodori street where all the souvenir shops and restaurants located. The souvenir shops were selling everything related to deer. So cute!

Sanjodori street

Christmas decoration

Very cute and not cheap!

Sushi alike candies

Bento box candies.

This shop was having a little demonstration on how to make the mochi. Very entertaining... :)

The end product. Yummy!

We had dinner at a small cafe called Pinocchio. Very nice ambience with jazz music in the background.

Omu rice

Pizza

Pinocchio said thank you.

And from here, we took our last train of the day to Kyoto.

Day 4 >>