Secret Recipe , Kota Kinabalu , Sabah.

Today was spent lazing around the city with Mary, Leslie and Shaun who came visiting all the way from NZ! The last time we met was 2 years ago, back in KL? Time really flies , good and bad to this. I'm only back today just for a short post, thus its picture time!

had carrot slice from Secret Recipe ;)

that places got some real good cakes worth trying or if you're seeking for a place to chill on a lazy afternoon.

Till Then.

Bangkok, Thailand - 2012.

First day upon reaching, we headed to Chatuchak market which is a place where they always sells cheap  and reasonably priced goods and a heaven for affordable food :D went there to shop for a bit since its the weekend and Chatuchak only opens during the weekend, managed to try the unique foods available there aka that's the pink color pressured ice-cream from Japan, but its also available in Singapore since I saw it there :). It pops out the moment you cut the tube and it keeps flowing out non-stop until you see a small plastic tube inside; and the sweet potato balls was so tangy I love em' so much. I did not enjoy the white color coconut dessert as the taste of the coconut , very really different. More like a roast coconut dessert and imagine how weird the taste would be as coconut is supposed to be all sweet and milky but adding a roast burnt taste to it is totally, killing it. 


As for dinner, we researched on the internet that one of the best place that offers good authentic Thailand food is Cabbages & ; Condoms. I know as cliche as it can be for its name, this place actually offers really awesome and authentic thai food compared to those I've tried before. This place was built because it supposed to be a restaurant which serves food with a motive of educating the younger generations of practicing safe sex thus they actually sells various sex related souvenirs and also offering condoms instead of mints to the guests. They even have human size figurines all around this place with condoms covering them as added presentation. Oh, totally must try out their food here, especially the Grilled Pork Neck was our favorite among the rest. Price wise, it is quite reasonable for a restaurant. Highly recommended place to be and I will always go back there if I have the chance to someday.


On the second day, we headed to the Southern bus terminal to explore the floating market in Thailand. The most famous floating market which is the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market was a merely 2.5 hours journey away from Bangkok city itself. The ticket costs us approximately RM20 (200 baht) per person both ways.


Upon reaching Damnoen Saduak, the bus driver dropped us off at a place where you can charter a boat to explore the floating market. We paid about RM80 for 2 person (800 baht) as we chartered the entire boat to ourselves for about an hour after bargaining. The price was higher but it is advisable to bargain as much as you can and be there as early as 9am to get to explore the place at its best as anything later than that will delay your journey as there will be more boats and jams along the river. Well, what we experienced there was basically seeing people selling fruits and clothes on board the little small boats and tasting food but some things here are overpriced as it is a tourist visiting area, thus always remember to bargain each time you want to purchase anything- even food items! Oh, you can also pay in RM if you ran out of thai baht because their money changer is really limited.  I love how colorful everything is over there, totally an eye opening experience and we tried the fish noodle and the famous glutinous rice and mango. I really enjoyed eating the mini sized coconut pancake served on a banana boat leaf, and it was cheap! RM 2 (20 baht) for 8 pieces :D and saddest and yet funny thing was we ran out of cash by the time we needed to pay for a bowl of RM 5 (50 baht) noodle just because we did not change and expect to use so much more thus we got freaked out for a little bit there until we found the money changers, and luckily a bank at such remote area :D never imagine that we can be that broke during the second day of our trip but nevertheless that's what  makes this trip more fun and memorable.

We took so much of the public transports available there that I think we actually took every single transport available there in just four days. Since we headed to Damnoen Saduak earlier in the day for a half day visit, we came back to exploring the street markets nearby our hotel by the road side which sell delicious yet super cheap food for our dinner. Our favorite got to be the bird egg and soy sauce pancake roll  which was only RM2 (20 baht) for about 6 pieces. As an additional things, we got pork legs and some vegetables and other stuffs from the food stalls that cost us only about RM10 (100 baht). Unbelievable. 


Later in the evening, we walked merely 5 minutes to a nearby mall which has a unique theme - Haunted Mansion 7. Actually this place was newly opened, and a disappointment to me because I was hoping for it to be a huge shopping mall but it was actually just a factory size mall with a haunted house and some arcade games, restaurants with few clothes boutiques in it. However, since the theme made it unique and special so we end up taking lots of haunted scary pictures and no, we did not went into the haunted house because I was a chicken  girl with no guts :D the boyfriend thought we should head to the pub and get us some alcohol drinks and by then I will be daring enough to go in but heck no, I was still the same before drinking and then we left. Oh well, teehee.

The very next day, we headed to the Sai Tai Mai bus terminal and purchased our ticket to Hua Hin. Interestingly, our cab driver dropped us off at the wrong bus terminal and we end up paying extra cab fare to get to the right bus terminal. It got our mood really down because it was annoying how the people there doesn't understand English.  We went to the nearest 7-11 and bought our breakfast to be consume during the trip. Those croissants and puffs are fresh and relatively cheap we had like 4 pieces each. Our bus moved around 9am and we reached Hua Hin after a 3.5 hours ride. This time, we were really lucky because we do not know where the bus will stop so I was just keeping an eye all the time on our whereabouts while the boyfriend was asleep. At one point, I woke up and was looking coincidentally at the place we wanted to visit and immediately we alight. We visited Plearnwan, which was located just right beside the opposite road .

Plearnwan is a place with an old vintage theme to it. What a good place to relive the old times.It's like a small shopping areas featuring lots of vintage items and of course in a unique setting. Seeing shops that sells old vintage items mixed with the relatively modern items,  and the things there instantly brings us back to the fond memories as a little kid buying cheap snacks from the little van who visits our neighborhood, and also having stalls that sells candies and bubble pop bottles and more; we couldn't help but was so amazed that some things still exists since our childhood and being sold there.

Food was unique but not exactly reasonable. It is a tourist place after all. We had fish noodles that costs RM5 (50 baht) and the round rice ball thingy that is not-so-nice and I loved that blue and transparent white wrapped up dim sum kinda thing, don't know what they called it in Thailand but its filling was the sweet peanut sauce which was to die for and it only costs RM2 (20 baht)! They had this little ferries wheel that we thought we could sit on but it was closed since forever. Oh, and if you're looking for souvenirs this place offers a variety of unique souvenirs such as the dried / fried chili items like the soft shell baby crabs that we bought or sweet items like coconut candies that tasted like candle wax to me :/

Later in the evening, we were supposed to get a ride back to Bangkok. So we waited by the road side to get a tuk tuk because there were no cabs to the bus station and we couldn't get any until we walked for about 10 minutes to a place where there is a police guarding some house and sought help. He flagged us a tuk tuk within minutes and managed to ask the driver to drop us at the bus station. The bus station is actually an old shop which has only a counter for selling tickets and a few rows of chairs to sit. It's kinda creepy if you ask me but at this point, we totally bought it seeing its a small town , what to expect? I forgot how much was the tickets but I know we ran out of cash as we overspent at Hua Hin buying souvenirs and food tasting again :p  had to wait till about 8pm till the money changer reopens. Again reminder; keeping to your budget is important! Since we had like 2 hours to spare while waiting for the money changer to reopen, we end up exploring what Hua Hin night market has to offer. It was like a night market selling what Chatuchak sells, at a higher price as it is a tourist destination after all. Had awesome dinner at one of the shops there, very hearty authentic thai meal yet again, it was really cheap and delicious. I finally get to try out my Nutella crepe cake which I wanted to try out since earlier of this year when I was in France but didn't get to because I got freaked out when the person before me's crepe cake got burnt right in front of our eyes , and I don't trust them to make my crepe cake anymore. However, this did not disappoint at all,  tasted fan-ta-bu-lous and it only costs RM3.50 (350 baht)!

There's the handmade heart shape lollipop and the handmade wooden key-chain the boyfriend got us as a souvenir for ourselves from Hua Hin. He got me the bubble pop thingy too so I can blow bubbles, just like a kid again ;D

On the last day, we signed up for tours visit to various temples around Bangkok city. Our driver came to the hotel and fetched us to the first temple we went to which was the Wat Traimit Wittayaram, and met up with our tour guide. I couldn't recall her name. She was a friendly lady, quite talkative and a very curious type of person, but she was very informative.Wat Traimit Wittayaram attracts tourists because of its Golden Buddha which is the largest golden Buddha image in the world and it was made with pure gold weighing 5 tonnes!  She took us to Wat Pho which is the largest temple in Bangkok to witness the famed gold plated reclining Buddha measured 46 meters long and covered in gold leaf. Another uniqueness of the Buddha is that its legs are made of mother of pearls. Really unique and interesting to look at it just right in front of your eyes. Did a little donation as we are grateful for the things we have and how smoothly our holidays end up at the temple where the boyfriend bought me a bowl of coins and asked me to toss it into the stretch long of bowls along our way and recite what I'm thankful for. It was fun. There was this 12 animals donation box too, and we don't know what is it for but we donated to our animal sign anyways - the Snake.

Korean Hanbook

wearing the hanbook was more tougher than I thought.

Because of its length.

nevertheless,

it was fun.

xx

Sennheiser - Early Christmas :D

Look what came in today :)

an early Christmas present from the Boyfriend :D

According to him,

he has been wanting to get me one since forever because the Apple earphone I used previously has no mic,

and it absorbs all the noisy background sound so its kinda annoying.

It got me wondered how he stand the noise all these while. 

I can't even stand annoying sound more than 2 seconds.

Oh well :)

we both are happy after trying it out this afternoon through all the annoying updates from my parts,

finally it works well and improved the sound quality :D

thankyousomuch! :)

xx 

On a totally unrelated note,

revamped my blog with a simple layout and banner today.

Determined to start blogging again but perhaps not too soon,

we shall see.

Till Then.

Forlino Restaurant Sunday Brunch @ One Fullerton, Singapore

That Sunday morning was a lovely laid-back Sunday and also the day we bid each other adios. Just perfect to how I would want to spend my weekends, just chilling and relaxing even if it meant just doing something simple. Bryan and I had breakfast at Burger King. No idea why we had burger king that morning, but just merely after 1 hour of burger king we had brunch at Forlino with my sister and Alan. Imagine how much we both can eat!

Forlino is a classic Italian fine dining restaurant that is located at One Fullerton, or better known as the Fullerton Hotel Building just across Marina Bay Sands which has the most awesome-st view of the iconic Esplanade building, Singapore City Center and of course the Singapore Flyer. 

The Forlino restaurant seats only 80 persons and it's chef Patron Mario Caramella is the pioneer to his signature style of cuisine which combines classical Italian flavors and ingredients with contemporary presentations and modern cooking techniques. He focuses on bringing the  "timeless" appeal of his homeland cooking to the world.  - by means food that undergone intense preparation and of highest quality and to be partaken only on special occasions as an integral to a memorable meal.

Indeed, the food did not disappoint at all. 

First to serve on the table was, 

this bread on our side plate.

I love how the texture looked like, golden and crispy yet fresh, bread.

next came our main courses , which consists of 

 Pan Roasted Halibut Filet with Fennel and Citrus Sauce

I had this and to me the first impression when I looked at it its just like a piece of salted fish being served on my platter but do not let it underestimate its specialty. The Halibut Filet was pan roasted until it has the texture of golden yellow crisp and yet the flesh was still soft and easy in the mouth.

Crisp Duck Leg with Caramelized Shallots and Marsala Wine Sauce

Had bites of the Crisp Duck Leg and the meat was unimaginably soft and tender its so easy to eat and of course the sauce matches the duck leg perfectly as wine sauce are always a good match to meat items.

Wagyu Beef Cheek with Red Wine and Aromatic Potato Mash

Among all the main course, I would highlight the Wagyu beef and reckon is it the best among all that we ordered. Bryan gave me pieces of it and it was our first time having it and I seriously had not idea how tender was a wagyu beef until I got to try it myself and now I truly understand why cows are treated so well just so they are able to produce super tender yet juicy meat. Not to mention, how the marble fats doesn't even give you the goo-ey feeling when you chew it. Now I understand why people would pay such a high price just for such a small piece of this heavenly meat to be serve on their platter.

For desserts, we had their signature dessert which is the 

Molten Lava Chocolate Cake with Banana Gelato and Rum Sauce

I cannot help it with I see the chocolate melts out of its shell like a lava and quickly put it into my mouth as I felt the warm chocolate melting on my tongue. To mix with the Banana Gelato which tasted like vanilla and the rum sauce just explains why this is their signature dessert.

Chiacchiere was served with coffee and tea after that :)

That's us with our happy-filled-tummy smile.

Until Then.

Largest Observation Wheel - The Singapore Flyer, Singapore

Bryan came down for just a short visit/transit last Saturday. That night we headed to the largest observation wheel in the world - The Singapore Flyer , seriously it is bigger than the London Eye. The view up there was superb breathtaking. Tickets can be purchased online or via the booth counter available there and opt to print it yourself or collect it there. It costs $29.50 per person and we were given a $16 food voucher to use at the food court "Food Trail", thus we decided to just have dinner there after our ride . Since we went up around 9pm, the queue was considered short :/ and the ride took us 30 minutes for a complete circle. The nearest MRT station to get there would be Promenade which is at the yellow line and then you'll have to exit at exit A.

The tickets.

Pictures taken before the flight.

Few pictures taken during the flight.

The view was superbly amazing, and of course the experience of being up there was so different compared to being on the Eye of Malaysia. The observation wheel was more solid build and no one should be afraid of getting up there because its very safe :P ( exception unless if you're afraid of heights teehee). I remembered feeling a little scared going up on the Eye of Malaysia but not this :S

Food Trail's Sugar Cane with Sliced Lemon drink, Fried Oyster Omelette, and Bak Kut Teh. Well, basically this place has a lot of local Chinese foods and it has the theme of the 1920's ambiance to it. Perfect for people who loves to reminisce back to things in the past.  Though it's a bit pricier but that just cause its a tourist attraction area. 

Till Then (:

1 year and 1 month.

and still counting (:

seeing him tomorrow after 3 months (:

*current mood : listening to helium hearts, after shower. had apple for dessert and now contemplating if I should watch another movie.

caught Friends with Benefits ft J.Timberlake and Mila Kunis. Love it.

Till Then.

A New Week, More Challenges Ahead.

Hello there peeps,

just a short update before the real super long update about my France trip.

Well,

it's been a week since I got back from France and basically all I did this entire week is

unpack, pack, clean, procrastinate,upload some photos ( a lot more to go) ,clean ( even though its not really done yet) , and solving the major headache since I got home.

The maintenance of this stupid apartment.

Finally after a week everything is okay now and..

I would love to blog more but I don't think I should considering that I have more important things to do now,

which I have yet to start on, 

so I should really focus on that and slowly take my time to update this blog.

Classes are resuming tomorrow! 56 more days to go, 56 more days of stress!

Till Then.

A Little Bit Of Everything...

got this from Mary during her trip to Penang recently,

it's actually the rice art thingy inside the dolphin with my name on it (:

the deliciously cushion soft pineapple tart which is famous in Taipei from Denise and

Home made macaroons by my classmate.

I seriously can't wait to try the macaroons in France. Hope I get the chance to.

my super-uber tired going to collapse soon face and his usual hyper face.

Till Then.

Gadgets - Instax Cheki

Hello everyone!

Happy Chinese New Year,

It's been a while since I've last updated my blog because I was caught up with a lot of activities in between

since it's the Chinese New Year holidays that I was back home for more than a week plus,

and going outstation.

Lots to do during the holidays and now I'm finally back.

Basically, 

today is like the last day to the first week of my resumed classes.

Anyways,

got home a week + ago and finally got to open my long awaited parcel!

It was there since a month ago, but couldn't get it in time cause I left on the day it arrived my house! :(

It's my x'mas gift from him (:

I love it and I've been contemplating whether to get one for a while now,
he kept telling me not to but in the end it came as a x'mas gift surprise :)

the limited edition instax, cheki!

few of the instax pictures taken during Chinese New Year with the family!

hmm,

guess that's all for today,

will update about my Chinese New Year break soon.

Busy period now!

Till Then!

Up and About..

Woo, so it's been a while since I actually updated again.

I've been out pretty often lately during weekends, with Leslie and Mary.

Basically, we're just doing a little shoppings around the malls here and back in kl.

this pics was 2 weeks back I guess, gosh I'm craving for Nandos.

Oh yeah I've managed to met up with Loh and Kelvin two days back, 

though it was just a short night having dinner and visiting the old place - Jaafar later on,

we had a great time catching up, well since everyone is pretty busy now.

I heard some rubbish stories from one of them too about the negative rumors that was spread by someone idiotic to strangers & strangers spread to other strangers, that's how sucky it is.

*Says: long gone to your own dramas boy.

* Now I realised, didn't take pictures with them for some time now!

Aside from that ; 

managed to watch a few more movies: 

Just Wright

BrilliantLove

HappyThankYouMorePlease

The Girlfriend's Boyfriend

I think I love Just Wright & I; The Girlfriend's Boyfriend more but the story line was a tad bit confusing & unexpected.

Put them all aside,

I should be really busy with my internship placement application now,

my coming Chinese New Year break and trip,

and the damn Dissertation due on April 22! Why is it so friggin early?

Anyways,

look out for my next update soon I guess.

Till Then.

Kota Kinabalu - Rasa Nyonya , Atmosphere , KL - SS15

Spent my first week of new year, 

well the night before coming back to KL spent my night having dinner with my parents at Rasa Nyonya

Its been a while since I've been there,
I remembered my parents used to take us here almost every weekend few years back.

We had the local Nyonya dishes and everything still tastes the same as before.

The fish is always fresh, and that night I tried out their recommended Sago Melaka dessert,

with chucks of papaya and nata de coco and jelly base, too bad it was too sweet to my liking.

After shopping a while at Tong Hing, I then headed to @tmosphere to catch up with my high school mates who came back from UK and also who is now a raising blogger,
 who started out blogging back in Form 4?
 If I remembered correctly :P

and of course, Denise :)

Picture courtesy of Chan

Well, this few days back, I had my classes resumed. 

5 more months of studies to be exact, which will pass by really fast.

Especially when I only have 3 days of classes a week, not to say I'm very free,
it means that I have more workload to do :(

So far I'm kinda enjoying my classes, but I knew it won't be easy either.

Currently, I'm really stressed out because I have so much things to worry about for these 5 months.

Anyways, I met up with Loh for dinner few days back.

Poor guy now is really sick, and he just came back from New Zealand.

Then we went to buy lingerie for his girlfriend, because he was too shy to go alone :P

last 30 minutes before pyramid closes, this is what he decided to get,
roughly on his mind he had this idea anyway.

Then, two nights back it was a laid-back Friday.

Technically, it always has been.

Spent the night hanging out with Mary and Leslie again,

it's been a while so we headed to Asia Cafe for dinner.

We had a lot of food :/ each one of us end up ordering one extra side dishes,

these are just a few. Amazing how we can eat so much :/

and then we went to McDonalds for supper.

Time passed by so quickly when you're enjoying, just chit-chatting away :)

Well, gotta go meet them up again now.

Will continue update real soon :)

Till Then.

Kota Kinabalu - Christmas 2011 - Sailor's Cafe , Boutique Cupcakes , Gaya Sport Restaurant , Old Town Cafe

While everyone is busy doing a recap for what happened this entire year,

I am just gonna do a quick recap of the more happening things that happened for the past one week :)

Basically, it was on Christmas night,

we were invited to dad's friend's Christmas open house since we were going to have a planned family dinner the next day, thus we all decided to attend the party.

Apparently, it was not too bad :)

That night a lot happened. 

We had really delicious traditional christmas dinner prepared by a chef who worked at various hotels 

before such as Palace Hotel, Sutera Harbour and Shangri-La.

Currently, the chef is working for Tong Hing thus the food prepared was really, up to expectation.

Food like grilled lamb, turkey, mashed, pastas, cakes, red wines and etcs, the usuals.

Later on, santa made its appearance on a motorcycle and everyone was suprised especially the kids,

they actually ran to him to get their presents it was so funny.

Also, that night I learnt a new card game, called Crazy Fish War :p 

A card that my sis bought and it was simpler than Monopoly Deal but easy to play with so we played it to spend the night.

The next day was spent at a new restaurant that we tried out, Sailor's Cafe and it was our first time there.

I've heard of a few recommendations online and also from friends and relatives,

thus decided to try it out in order to celebrate our family Christmas dinner and my parent's (early) anniversary as we all won't be here.

The ambiance of the entire restaurant was really cosy, with a huge christmas tree decorated using teddy bears, pictures of the owner( ex sailor) journey to a lot of places and also a gift shop so you can actually buy your last minute gifts there :)

Apparently this shop was opened only 4 months + ago as off today, it's doing quite well,

thank god for early reservations, it was fully booked that night and a lot of people couldn't get their table and left instead.

Our food which tasted not bad at all,

pastas, fries,lamb shoulders, steak, ostrich burger, cajun chicken with rice

everything was not bad ;)

and priced reasonably.

Drinks - Fresh juices , Root Bear Float and 

Lychee something ;P

After dinner, we dropped by Boutique Cupcakes so I could take my pre-ordered cupcakes for dessert and also it was a surprise for my parents.

Decorated the dining table and everything, parents were really surprised and they looked really happy that night.

Look at the presentations, awesome no? :)

After two days of having western food for dinner, we decided to go for seafood dinner the next day instead of Little Italy,

Thus we went to our favourite seafood restaurant which is the Gaya Sport Restaurant and ordered the few usual dishes.
It was my first time trying their Tom Yam steam fish and it was different than I thought it was.
The herbs made the fish tasted really fragrant and yet its not spicy :)

and lastly,

thats the awesome fried dumplings that we had during dinner after mass ! 

it was real good ;)

Happy New Year 2011 !

Till Then!

Kota Kinabalu - Esprit Fashion Show and Canon Ixus 130!

Approximately 2 weeks ago, my mum and I was invited to the opening of Esprit at Suria Sabah.

Thus we went and have a look at the new shop there, there were a lot more choices of clothes compared to the other outlets, which leads to me getting myself a new dress for Chinese New Year :) early I know but it was something different, laces and all. Not exactly priced at its best though but heck, since it was the opening,

we're entitled for extra 25% on top of 10% off member's discount just for that night.

well if you know me well enough, you'll notice that 70% of the clothes I'm wearing everyday is from this shop,

and like some of you have always commented and asked where did I get my clothes from, its from Esprit :)

Anyways, that night, there was a fashion show for their newest clothes this season,

there were some winter jackets fashion because its winter season now, like duhhh.. and a few casual wears which in my opinion, some were really pretty and some was just plain normal.

and recently, dad got me a new point to shoot camera, as we got a really great deal off a camera fair held 3 weeks ago, and its time because DSLR is too heavy to carry around for my daily use and to fix the stabilizer issue for my sony camera would cost me at least RM400, if its fixable thus getting this camera seems like the wiser thing to do now.

If you haven't notice, pictures from the few previous posts was actually taken with this camera, 

and so far I'm loving what it can do. 

Totally loving it ! 

exactly this same color and one of its new feature was it comes with the fish eye lens ,

which I've yet to try, will try it on pretty soon I guess :)

I shall stop here,

next update coming up real soon! 

Wait for it!