Day 4 in the Land of Oz

Wah, trying to get as many posts up as I can before my holiday ends. And school is starting tomorrow! So much inertia in me I wonder how I am going to cope with work.

Anyway on Day 4, we woke up to gloomy weather again. Nonetheless, we decided to go ahead as planned and proceeded to Bondi beach, in the hope that Bondi is quite far away and perhaps weather will improve. But before Bondi, we had Krispy Kremes for breakfast! We didn't want to eat so many initially, but because buy half a dozen got discount, we ended up having 3 each! A little too much I would say...

Sugar overdose for breakfast.

Unfortunately, weather didn't clear up when we reached Bondi. It was really cold and windy and my ears hurt from the cold. I guess Yiwen must have been too hopeful because he went in T-shirt and berms and didn't bring a jacket! Almost caught a cold even! There were a few tourists on the beach and they were all so covered up!

Trying to look cheerful in spite of the weather haha

Finally accepted the fact that weather wasn't going to get better.

We took a bus back from the beach to Bondi Junction, and there was this huge shopping centre! We chanced upon Harvey Norman and found out that the iPods and cameras were much cheaper than in Singapore. But we were apprehensive about buying, so didn't buy. But the next day, we decided to buy so we had to hunt down a Harvey Norman near our hotel and ended up buying 1 camera and 2 iPod Nanos!

The huge shopping mall at Bondi Junction

Having lunch at the food court... Expensive Chinese food!

Well, we had planned to do shopping and sightseeing around the city centre on the day, so following Bondi, we went to Town Hall (very near our hotel) and Queen Victoria Building. Queen Victoria Building is another huge mall. But we didn't really buy anything there...

Town Hall

I think this picture looks as in I'm studying in some overseas uni

Cathedral next to Town Hall, I can't rem the name now...

Does this picture give you the feeling it's supposed to be summer?

Queen Victoria Building

After dinner, we went back to Sydney Opera House because we die die also want to take night shots of the place! It's really a test of our non-existence photography skills and we ended up with many blurred shots. I've picked the nicer ones for the blog!

Opera House from far

I like this photo because of the "feel"...

Harbour bridge lit up at night

It was supposed to be our last night in Sydney, but it turned out that we were held back for another night. Read the next post for details!

Day 3 in the Land of Oz

Alright, Carine is taking over the blogging. Main reason is because I'm still on holiday (last few days though sob) and Yiwen is working. Maybe you guys can judge who blogs better. So on day 3 of our trip, we joined a day tour that brought us to Featherdale to see animals, Blue Mountains and Olympic Park. Pretty fun, but I felt it was a bit too rushed. Didn't have enough time to enjoy the beautiful scenery and snap enough photos! But the tour guide Steve was entertaining. Oh there were several Singaporeans on the tour with us, so it didn't feel too lonely for us! In fact, they intro-ed us to some places to visit and they turned out pretty good!

First stop of the day - Featherdale

Seeing koala bears for the first time!

Haha the koala bear was too busy eating to bother with us...

Well, I was quite scared of the animals running around me! Didn't dare to go too close to take pics with them! But this photo was not well taken, because the animals were facing the camera with their butts.

Following which, the coach took us to the famous Blue Mountains! I can't remember why it was called Blue Mountains liao. We did some walking and sightseeing loh. Not bad lah the scenery spots we were brought to.

This is some famous waterfall. Everyone posed for a picture there.

Another spot the guide recommended for photo taking

Three Sisters from Echo Point! Apparently, there used to be seven sisters!

Yiwen in the skyway. There were 3 things we took: skyway, railway and cableway. The rides were so short (I think we spent more time waiting) but the scenery was quite good.

We paid AUD$25 each for the 3 rides. Not cheap, but everyone tells me must try leh.

The lunch we had. The tour guide gave us an option of kiosk or cafe. We were tired of cafe food, so we opted for kiosk, but never did we know that the kiosk had no place to sit and eat. We found some tables and benches outside but there were so many flies! In the end, we ate our take-aways outside the toilet! And inside the box was kangaroo meat!

I think this is the steepest railway or something...

Three Sisters again.

We took the railway down, then walked through some rainforest to take cable car up.

The view from the cable car

After that, the tour guide brought us to a candy store in the nearby town before we went to Sublime Point. So we walked down many steps to this lookout point.




Very cute one, after we finished the walk, we had coffee and tea and biscuits! The guide provided one loh. As you can tell from the pictures, the weather changed from bright and sunny to dark and gloomy. And just as we finished our snacks, it rained.

The final stop was Olympic Park, which we stayed for a really short while. Oh we experienced some form of racism there too, with kids calling us names. By then, the weather was very bad and we were really cold from the rain and the wind.


From here, we took a cruise back to Sydney harbour. We wished that the weather would be better when we got back to Sydney harbour but you can tell from the photos that it didn't. So we took pictures of the bridge and opera house in gloomy weather. It felt as though we were there in Winter and in Summer (see Day 2 photos for better comparison). You will also see that we pile on more clothes than in Day 2 haha.




We wanted to take some night shots of Sydney harbour. While waiting for the rain to stop and for the sun to set, we had dinner at this place with a garden feel. Food took very long to be served as usual. But it was good, otherwise Lonely Planet wouldn't recommend it.

After dinner, the rain did not stop, but I was very brave so I insisted on taking photos. Yiwen had no choice but to shield me and the camera with his umbrella.



Haha in the end, the photos didn't turn out nice at all and these were the 2 nicest and clearest liao. How to have steady hands when I was so freaking cold right?

Day 2 in the Land of Oz!

Yes after a protracted leave of absence to herald in the new year, i am back with the adventures. We were so shagged out by the first day due to the long flight and all that we went for a nice sleep. Like erm, 9-10 hrs of sleep. On a holiday. Yup. Thats the fantastic thing about free and easy cos your time is your own. Anyways the best mode of transport in Sydney is on foot. The train system, though extensive, is exorbitant. I think a 2 stop ride costs about AUD $1.80. Wah lao i go Boon Lay from Pasir Ris costs S$1.84 niah. But really, the best way to enjoy Sydney is on foot as you explore the architecture and enjoy the weather. Although in the middle of summer, but the wind from dunno where means you don't really feel the humidity. Thats why lazy ol' us decided to walk!

When we were there, we would keep hearing a story, about this particular convict who was sentenced to work on one of the islands surrounding Sydney. He apparently remarked to one of his captors that "My, you have a most beautiful harbour." I believe i read it from a brochure, heard it from a tour guide, and a park ranger separately. Oh, and the person next to me in the toilet cubicle too.

But truth be told, Sydney harbour, and the surrounding area, is really most beautiful. It is quite obvious what Singapore was trying to do with Clarke Quay, but I have to say, no fight man!

Our first stop was Circular Quay! I can't really remember the name of this place haa haa, but its actually a library. So we of cos did not spend much time there. Like, less than 5 mins. We're not very cultural people.

Another famous building. Again, we din go in.

OH MY GOD. SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE!! YES!! We practically went SOH-crazy. You will not guess how many days (and nights) we spent at SOH. But when you witness the place first-hand, its really quite breath-taking. We took pictures at it from many angles, but you seem to still get the same view from each angle. I can't explain it also.

Cadman's Cottage. The oldest residential place in Sydney. But there's nothing inside 'cept pipes and holes in the ground.

Another angle of SOH! Told you we went crazy liao.

More give me more!!

The Sydney Harbor Bridge! Another thing we went crazy over!

This whole area is actually known as The Rocks. Cool name eh.

The Rocks is actually a stretch of prime shopping. And thus all we could do there was pose for photos.

We took a ferry! Yup another popular mode of transport in Sydney is the ferry. Cos the main water thoroughfare runs through most of the happening spots in Sydney, some people actually commute by ferry to their office around the harbour, and back home. Thats one hell of a way to beat rush hour.

Us at Fort Denison! Its some heritage site near the Sydney Harbour, and it costs like 27 AUD per person to go there by ferry and for a guided tour. Erm, in our humble opinion, not worth going. Had a good tour guide, but the place is simply a rock on the sea. You can spit from one end and land it on the other. And they had the usual cannons and gunpowder sacks lor.

Me firing a cannon.

And the next stop on our packed itinerary for the day was Pylon Lookout! You see, you can either choose to pay up to AUD 200 bucks to do the Bridge Climb, or you can pay 7 bucks to climb the Pylon Lookout, and get essentially the same view. The Choice is Yours.

I was hungry.

There was an eclipse when we finally reached the Opera House.

I have to say though, we both look so coooooolllll.

The sun came through. But truth be told, i think the Opera House actually looks better from a distance. Haa haa. That reminds me of the saying: yan kan hua hong hong, jing kan hua shen cong.

To round off our overwhelmingly packed day, we wanted to walk to this Government House thingy near the Opera House (Everything good in Sydney is near the Opera House or the Harbour one lor)

...But closed liao. So we take photos from outside only. This picture is of some conservatory, not the Government House though. Needless to say, I was shagged out by then. I believe we lost 10 kg each from walking that day.

We walked all the way to Martin Place to take the train back. My friend Damien had actually told us we can walk to the Opera House from our hotel in the city centre, but he obviously over-estimated our stamina.

We had dinner at this nice cafe near our hotel! Yummy pasta and risotti! Even the waiters and waitresses in Australia are so warm and friendly. This particular waitress insisted, after the 3rd time i called her "Excuse me!" that i call her by her name. Which i have obviously forgotten now.

Day 1 in the Land of Oz

Yup the good stuff starts now. As with all trips, you start with the mode of transport. The only way to fly, in our humble opinion, is the ubiquitous SQ. The only airline we had ever contemplated, and the only airline anyone should contemplate flying.

I used to be a frequent budget flyer, (i just love the feeling of squeezing into my little seat and have my butt firmly wedged between the seat handles....shiok ah!)

But after experiencing the thrill of flying with the kebaya-clad maidens, you will never want to fly budget again....Granted, they are a bit more expensive than the rest (the airline, not the maidens), but they are worth every cent. Case in point, we once booked a flight to hong kong, but cos we booked too late, we din get the flight we wanted. So two days before our flight, we went down to the SQ office at Paragon, and politely, cutely, handsomely asked the staff whether there was any way they could push us up to the flight we wanted.

And she did!

For no extra cost!

WOO HOO!!

SINGAPORE AIRLINE WAN SUI!!!

Oh and they did something fantastic for us during this trip too! but this one tell later.

Ok wait. I just remembered the food. Think must discount liao. Cos they din have what i wanted for breakfast and I had to make do with some smelly noodles.

Us at the airport. Looking fugly in specs. Bo bian, 7 hour flight. Our seats were alright, service was ok, stewardesses weren't that hot though. Sadded. That led to our rather protracted discussion (while the plane was making its infinite rounds on the runway while preparing to take off) about the general slide in 'standards' of the stewardesses. I think Carine did mention that even she could be one. I of course agreed. haa haa.

Anyways, the most eventful part of the flight (apart from me watching Tony Leung and Takeshi trying to one-up one another, and Lin Chiling's rather pitiful attempt at acting) was when we finally landed at Sydney Airport.

As i was contemplating how best to siam smelling the armpits of the huge angmohs as they reached out for their luggage, there was a sudden "ding dong". Then the chilling annoucement:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please do not panic. Simply put on the oxygen masks that will be dropping before you. Please put on the masks before putting it on for your child or any other passengers. Again, please do not panic."

Well of cos we did. There was a visible gasp, and everyone started staring at everyone else. I was desperately trying to recall the safety video screened earlier, only to remember that i was busy trying to choose between lin chiling and selma blair for my inflight entertainment later.

Anyhoo, although i am sure the worst possible scenario was running through everyone's mind at that time, no one actually panicked. I of cos remained supremely calm. After a few painful minutes, the captain's voice came on to announce that someone had activated the wrong button, therefore activating the announcement.

Yup. What a way to arrive in Sydney.

Carine with 2 luggages!!! No lar, one is mine. The ugly one is hers. Although I was made to carry it most of the time....sigh...

The CityRail which we took from the airport to the city central, where our hotel was. About AUD $15 (which is SGD $15, hee hee). I guess the train was the fastest way to get around in Sydney, but they're also quite expensive lar. And they are quite dirty too, with the vandalism and all.

The location of our hotel!

Picture of the streets near our hotel. That line you see is for the monorail, which we din have a chance to sit lar.

After a short break in the hotel, and to put on our contact lenses so we dun look like old fogies, we went out! And our first stop - Chinatown! Haa haa! Everytime chinese people go to angmoh country, we will surely whack the chinatown one. Dunno why lar. But the Chinatown in Sydney is really nothing to crow about. Its mainly just a stretch of shophouses selling thrift clothes and knick knacks lor.

Another part of Chinatown!

Paddy's Market! Its a famous flea market kinda thing. But the day we went it was closed lar. So we take picture lor. Cos take picture is free one. There's a factory outlet-ish shopping mall in Chinatown too, in the same building as Paddy's Market. You can tell from our enthusiastic blogging about this place that it wasn't the most fun place in the world. Haa haa.

Our first meal in Sydney. Oporto's Burgers! Its like Burger King, 'cept lousier. The meat was dry, and the sauce was rather too exotic for my taste. Anyhoo, we had had quite nice weather as we were strolling through the streets of Chinatown. But around the time we started to eat, we could already see ominous gloomy clouds in the sky. We started to joke, haa haa won't rain one lar, Sydney summer lei! Where got rain one!....then....

Rain.

More Rain. Being the garang seasoned travellers that we were, we had brought along my tiny umbrella, and our jackets. So braving the rain, we chiongded to Darling Harbour! Sydney's other not-so-famous harbour!

Rain's out, sun's in!

Darling Harbour has a fantastic view of the Sydney CBD. Its mainly a chill-out area, and its also where the Sydney Wildlife Park and Sydney Aquarium are found. Quite a touristy spot, as evidenced by the ample number of japanese tourists we saw there.

The main shopping centre at Darling Harbour. Again a touristy place, and how do we know? They were selling 'Australia' T-shirts and Jackets. And Koala bears too.

The view from the other side.

We damn shag ah! Our flight was a midnight one, so we din actually sleep much, having had to wake up at 5 am Singapore time (and 8 am Sydney time) for breakfast on the plane. Hence the need for a caffeine boost. Oh and Carine wasn't posing actually. Haa haaa.

Darlings at Darling Harbour! (Carine's caption, not mine! Hee)

Yes the sun's out good and proper now.

King Street Wharf! Yes i know u can read.

A secluded part of the wharf. In Sydney, people can actually dock their boats and yachts at these harbours, which are next to the City. So you can practically get off work, and walk right to your yacht from your office.

Handsome and Cool.

Pretty and Cute. Yes we are bhb.

Us on the Darling Harbour Bridge! At least i think thats what it is....i can't remember liao..haa haa...

A highly-recommended restaurant! Conveniently located in the mega shopping centre. We shared a pizza and Quesadilas, i think. The portions were huge! Man if u eat in Australia, you have to expect portions 1 and half times more than Singapore. It was a challenge, even for me.

Yes me the pig.

And the crowning glory of our dinner, the eponymous pancake! We had chocolate pancake with ice cream i think. Sibei shiok. But also blardy filling.

The night view of Darling Harbour. As i commented to Carine, it looks exactly like Raffles Place. I think all CBDs are the same lar. Stiflingly boring.

End of first day! I was freaking shagged out and i think i started snoring even before my head hit the pillow.

Travelling in the Land of Oz

Hello folks! Carine and I have decided to revive this blog, simply because this trip is so interesting and eventful that we buay tahan must let everyone know ah!!

Well to be honest, not everything on this trip went smoothly, but it was still an experience to savour. Our furthest trip ever (7 hours ah!!), first trip to an angmoh country, first trip where our income was slightly more flexible.... Oh and it was also Carine's first time in Australia, and although i had been there before, it was a cool 14 years ago, so my memory of the place was limited to the topless babe i saw in Bali during our brief stopover on the way back to Singapore. This kind of thing very hard to forget one. And its not because i'm a hum sup lo hor.

Anyways, when we decided to plan for the trip, we did the usual Singaporean thing and plowed through the various travel fairs and roadshows for trips to australia. But in the end, we decided that free and easy was the way to go! Honestly, nothing beats going on a trip unencumbered by kiasu aunties, screaming kids, and the "oh you have twenty minutes here. Please be back on the bus by... if not everyone has to wait for you and then our itineray will be pushed back lei. So must be considerate ok?" And so your experience of that particular place would simply be limited to how much strength you have to squeeze past the above-mentioned aunties to squeeze yourself into the scenic spots for some random photo-taking. What is perhaps the best part of going free and easy is the fact that your time is your own, and you can choose to do whatever you want, whenever you want. And if u encounter bad weather, u can simply change your schedule around! (And we needed plenty of that in our time in australia....)

Thus was born the idea of planning for our most ambitious trip ever! It was a labour of love that took many months, only because our schedules were so hectically crazy that we hardly found time to plan together lar. Booking the flights and hotels was easy peasy, just go online and surf the numerous travel websites or forums and you will be able to get a good idea of where to stay for any budget.

Planning the itinerary was the rather more difficult task. Cos hor, Sydney and Gold Coast (oh yes, thats where we wanted to go!) are quite huge places, so deciding which spots to visit involved a lot of reading and checking with friends to obtain their unbiased views of certain 'recommended' spots (as recommended by Lonely Planet and the likes). You shouldn't belive everything Lonely Planet says, like for instance they recommended that we visit this house, and we did. And it was really a house. Thats all. A very old and small house.

But i must confess, Carine did most of the planning of the itinerary lar. She's much better at doing this kind of thing. I provided the very helpful input of things like "i want to see the beach", or "i want to go movieworld." Yup.

In my defence however, I did provide the brute strength in lifting our combined luggages, and always being the first-to-go-into-hotel-room-to-see-whether-got-ghost person.

Anyhoo, read on to the next post for the good stuff! Hopefully i can finish writing before the brutal reality of work descends upon me.

Day 5

We met Jill on our last day in Hong Kong! She brought us to Mongkok to eat dim sum! It was soooo goooood! Better than what we had on Day 3 man. Then she brought us around to shop and walk in the area and even helped us find wife biscuits!

Happy to see Jill!

We chanced upon Krisy Kreme. Yum yum!

We had this awesome durian dessert. It was so so good!

Our luggages were barely half-full when we left Singapore. You can imagine how much stuff we bought...

We bumped into Yuncai at the airport when we were about to leave!

Bumping into Yuncai was a real surprise. Imagine the chances of meeting someone you know in a foreign land. I was waiting outside a dining place for Yiwen when I saw him walk past me! For a moment, I couldn't remember if I was in Hong Kong or Singapore. So I called out to him, he was so shocked to see us! Anyway we told him of places he could go in Hong Kong since he just landed haha.

So we had a safe and comfortable journey home. Except that I ate too much my stomach hurt. Haha. Overall, enjoyed ourselves a lot. I think it was a good break from work!

Till the next trip then! And I don't know when that will be.

Day 4

It rained again when we woke up on Day 4! We were wondering if we should still go Lantau Island. But after the same greasy breakfast as Day 2, it started to clear up a bit and we decided to give it a shot! Thankfully we made that decision, because when we got to Tung Chung (where we took the cable car) it wasn't raining! And we found a hidden treasure there... will elaborate later :)

This was the cable car ride to Lantau Island. It was about 25 minutes, but the view was simply amazing. My photos don't do the view any justice. Really got to see it for yourself!

I like this photo! We like very excited to be in the cable car!

The view of Tung Chung Bay

Airport

We got to Ngong Ping Village! That's the Tian Tan Buddha statue in the background.

Got to the bottom of the flight of stairs, yes we climbed all the way up. The steps were slippery because it just rained.

Finally reached the top! Can see the whole village from there!

Following which, we went to Po Lin monastery

Had a vegetarian lunch at the monastery

On the way back, it got very cloudy... couldn't enjoy the view much.

Shopping at the outlets! Yiwen bought most of the stuff!

The reason why we ended up shopping a lot was because we stumbled upon Citygate and inside the shopping mall were all factory outlets! Like Esprit, Armani, Polo Ralph! We didn't expect to find those stores, but we did and we couldn't stop shopping! Really a lot of discounts!

We wanted to go the Peak in the evening and join in the anniversary celebrations. However, the tram tickets were all snapped up early in the day and we were rather disappointed. Oh wells, we were tired out so decided to call it a day. Tired from the shopping haha!

Day 3

Although we had planned an itinerary, we weren't sure of the order in which we should visit the places we wanted to. Well, that was because we were real tired after going Macau and weren't sure if we should go to Lantau Island on Day 3 as planned. Didn't want to tired tired go then never enjoy the place. Also there was this anniversary thing up at the Peak on our last night and we were thinking if we should go. But it turned out that on Day 3, when we woke up, it was raining! So it became quite clear that we should not go to Lantau Island! Spent the day eating and shopping instead!

We finally had a chance to eat dim sum... yum!

Went to Causeway Bay. Sogo was having a big sale so we bought quite a bit of stuff.

So funny! The brand name is my birth date!

After shopping, we went to Yee Shun to eat steamed milk and egg. Yah you see my face I was quite scared of eating it. But turned out quite good!

After more shopping at Causeway Bay (you see Yiwen's shopping bags), we went to Tsim Sha Tsui!

Avenue of Stars, with a very nice view. But it was quite cloudy lah, so pictures didn't turn out that nice...

This Yiwen trying to "act" in front of the camera

A picture to show that we have indeed been there

Later in the evening, the view was even more fantastic! We stayed for the "Symphony of Lights" but it didn't turn out to be as good as we expected.

Later we wandered along the streets, ate dinner and walked along Temple Street back to our hotel. Since our hotel was like very near Temple Street, we went there like every night!

Day 2

After a greasy breakfast, we headed for Macau! I have never been there before so I was quite interested to go and see the place for myself! Oh we took an hour to clear customs btw because there were just too many people! Many with luggages so I presumed they were staying a night there or so...

Here was where we bought the ferry tickets

First stop - The Venetian. It was such a cool and nice hotel I tell you! I wish I were staying there!

Yiwen posing

The canal inside the hotel. Can take gondola even!

This fantastic shop which sells Hello Kitty apparel! I was so excited to see it!

In front of the ruins of St Paul's

Senado Square

Then we went up the Macau Tower!

It was scary because the floor has like glass panels and when you look down you feel like you are going to fall through!

Macau tower from far

Final stop of the day in Macau! It is actually a theme park lah.

Roman Amphitheatre

Back in Hong Kong, where we finally ate Xu Liu Shan. Lucky for us, there was a shop just opposite our hotel :)

I think we manage to cover many spots in Macau, considering we were there for about 7 hours. We took cab mostly, since it was cheap and convenient. And in case you are wondering why I put up mostly pictures of Yiwen, that's because I'm the better camera man lah hehe...

Hong Kong Trip - Day 1

Okay, time to blog about our Hong Kong trip! Have been back for close to a month! If you realized, we never really completed blogging about the adventures of our previous trips haha. I guess photos will suffice? Well, we booked our trip like 1 week before departure because I took very long to confirm my free days. Haha but it wasn't that rush lah since the planning wasn't too chim. We wanted to book the 11am flight at first, but we procrastinated and when we finally got down to booking, there was no more 11am flights! But then because I was smart haha, we booked the later flight and at the same time, put ourselves on the waiting list for the earlier flight! And just a few days before we depart, we got put on the 11am flight because there were seats! So yah no loss eh. SQ is really very good. Plus we didn't get to sit together at first when we checked in! But since SQ is so good, the person helped us to get seats together! Wow we were really thankful!

Didn't really do much the first day because by the time we landed and put down our luggages (we brought 2 big bags that were not full but they came back full haha) it was like 5 or 6pm. So we went shopping in Mongkok! After dinner, continued to walk along Ladies' Market. Quite a happy day cos we got cheap clothes!

Excited about our SQ flight!

The shopping centre Shifeng calls paradise hehe...

First meal in Hong Kong!

The name of the street says it all!

Day 2 in Phuket

Now after the sunniness of Day 1, we had thought "come on lar, we can't be that suey rite? Can't possibly wake up to our 2nd day in Phuket with the rain still pouring down rite?

It just can't be.

And so, when i woke up bright and early on Saturday (having booked a day tour to Phi Phi Island for 50 Sing bucks) I drew the curtains with great anticipation.

And i saw gloomy clouds, and cascading rain.

SIAN AH!

Nevertheless, we refused to let the weather get us down. Though the Hotel staff did get us down. Now i know the importance of good service and how it really makes a holiday feel so much better. When we were in Japan, the level of service there was really immaculate. U feel like a King (literally for me, see the pictures in Japan below) and all the Arigatos and Shumimaseis make u feel damn shiok, even while u're coughing up the exorbitant prices for that little piece of sushi.

But at Royal Palm Resortel, i guess service wasn't the most important class the staff had to attend.

The coach was coming to pick us up at 700 am, and we knew the hotel breakfast was supposed to start at 630. So we promptly went down at 630 for the typical American breakfast. The restaurant light wasn't lit when we went down, which was an ominous sign to say the least. When we approached the staff there, they curtly told us they weren't open until 730 today. Bewildered, we went to ask the Hotel counter staff, who promptly pointed at a little A4 sheet of paper stuck onto the desk, which we were supposed to have spotted with our eagle-eyed vision and read the night before. Apparently they had some hotel function which ended late (like that is our problem) and therefore the breakfast would start later.

I was indignant to say the least, and the rain hadn't made my mood any better. So i stormed (or rather piaked in my slippers) back to the restaurant to ask the staff whether we could eat first.

And i tell u hor, they simply ignored our presence lor! Like i would go:

"Erm we have to leave for a day trip soon. Can we eat something first? Anything would do..."

And i said this because we could see the trays with food inside already. Though i dunno since when lar...

Generic staff reply: "auehghuiajglkjgfdd" then walk away.

Cos he actualy juz turned to his friend, mumbled the above, and turned away from us.

Power lar. I so wanted to take the hot dogs which i could see but not eat, and bitch slap them.

Anyways we decided to do something with the time, so we went back to Patong beach, which was slightly nicer since the rain wasn't as heavy. Talk about small comforts.

I like this picture best. Describes our wu nai.

Yes i know its not much, but we very happy le. Anyways after tat unhappy episode, the hotel staff finally told us to just go in and eat so we finally barged into the restaurant, seated our asses down, and started munching on food. The restaurant staff pretended we were invisible so we felt like 2 beggars eating for free like that lor.

Now to go phi phi island, we needed to drive for abt an hour to the jetty to take a boat to the island lar. Rain pelted down on the bus, while waiting for the boat, on the boat, and on to the smaller boat we had to transfer to for our snorkelling part of the trip. Yes rain was our one constant friend.

On the boat. Which was something like our army fastcraft (u know, the one u take to Tekong) except its bigger. Oh and the word fastcraft is a misnomer, its not fast at all.

One of the islands, phi phi ley. Phi phi island is actually divided into 2 islands, tho i can't remember the other one liao.

Yes we braved the rain to take photos. But the water is nice lar, very green. Emerald actually.

Nope this is not a spoilt picture. This is an actual picture of the sky.

Us on the smaller boat. After snorkelling in the rain!

Couldn't take picture of us while snorkelling rite? Damn freaking cold cos the wind was blowing in and there wasn't much shelter from that in the small boat. But the water was really damn shiok, and well worth the trip lar. The fishes were aplenty, and they were not afraid of humans at all. They can swim straight for u lor. And bite u when u get in their way. My ahem parts also got bitten. But the fishes and corals were amazing lar.

Nah picture to prove we did land on phi phi. I lazy to rotate the picture lar.

Our Phuket Adventure!

Like i mentioned in the entry on my blog, our little stint in Phuket didn't turn out exactly the way we envisioned, but it was still a whole lot of fun! Weather notwithstanding, the very fact that we were away from the realities of NIE and PLC, of dreary work and lectures and tutorials, and familial responsibilities made it a memorable trip nonetheless.

And of course, most importantly, that we were there together lar.

But advancing from where i stopped, the sight of the East-coast-like Patong beach did dampen our enthusiasm. I mean, i had this image in my head when i landed in Phuket lor

Sian.

But, given the eternal optimists that we were, we endeavoured to brave the rain (which would later turn into a typical, tropical downpour) and walked down the streets of Patong Beach. This world famous stretch of beach is famous not just for the pristine quality of the sand or the water, but for the shopping you can actually do just across from the beach. Essentially, the entire place is like a huge pasar malam, where you get stalls after stalls of vendors selling fake shirts, fake watches, fake DVDs, fake shorts, fake gold, aiyah fake everything lar. What the tour agency we booked with trumpeted about our hotel was the proximity to the beach, and the fact that it was in the centre of the pasar malam. Ok lar, that part was true, cos once you step out of the hotel, you get an Indian accosting you with "Sir want to buy shirt? Good quality, best price!"

The scene right outside our hotel. Oh and did i mention the fresh dose of CO2 u get the moment u step out of the hotel? Yum!

Our first meal in Phuket! I had fried rice i think, but it tasted more like mui fan

Carine and her long-awaited Pad Thai. Tasted too peanutty for my taste. Oh and the Tom Yam soup was rather bland. But authentic Thai Tom Yam ok!

Streets of Phuket. Oh and Carine decided to be artistic and took this slanted photo. Artistic meh?

Eh course we were so bored of being accosted in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean by the vendors asking us to buy stuff, we went to the high class shopping centre. Its called Jungceylon( i think) and its damn atas ok! Got City Chain, Giordano all this lor! (Eh wait, Giordano...hmm...) Oh, and i dunno what is the significance of the elephant.

Indochine is opening there lor! So atas!

Random shot of the place. But observe that the floor is still wet. And again, note the fact that i was in SUNNY PHUKET (as their adverts and promos always claims) Sigh...

Another random shot of us. Actually we were resting here because we were making an important decision. Which was...

Guess what i'm doing?

Yes i am. Yes. A Pedicure. Me.

But its Carine's fault! She wanted to get a manicure and pedicure! So I do with her lor. But actually, for my FIRST (and probably last) pedicure, quite shiok lar. I mean, you get someone to cut yur nail, polish the ends, scrape off all the dead skin accumulated over the past 25 years, and a foot massage, what more can a guy want? Oh, and did i mention, he/she's a Ah-Qua.

End-Product

So i decided, what the hell, i'm on holiday! Must pamper myself! So i went for a MANLY MAN'S FACIAL lor. Only 359 ma (thats less than 20 dollars) so i was like, what the hell. Felt a little weird, but uncomfortableness was dispelled upon discovering that almost every customer there was male. But pain lei! Dunno how the girls take it. Got steamed, then they forcefully pluck out my blackheads lor. Carine said I look much better after that. Handsome already.


Took this picture on a stretch of pubs and bars. This is where Phuket at night really comes alive. Phuket is famous (or perhaps notorious) for its vibrant, and colorful night life, and here we found out why. In almost every pub, you would see an old ang-moh, sitting with some Thai girl dressed in an oh-so-tight-its-almost-illegal dress, and his hands would be roaming liberally around his young Asian friend. After observing this for the umpteenth time, I have made the conclusion that Thailand is truly a friendly country. They even take pains to ensure that lonely, old, ang moh men do not have to explore the island on their own; and instead, send these lovely (from certain angles, best from the back) girls to accompany them on their trip. So thoughtful!

But quite scary lar, so we din venture into any of the clubs. We guai gia one.

Dinner! Notice we drink Pepsi and Sprite at every meal. Cos the water there is salty lor. Even the bath water. Eeeks.

Ok end of Day 1. More coming up.

DAY 9 + 10

Oops, I kinda forgot that I didn't upload all my Japan photos. Yeah it has been 3 months already, but it's okay lah, I will upload pictures of the last 2 days of my stay in Japan!

At Ginza in the morning

Our typical lunch - fast food! Had lotsa problems reading the menu and placing an order...

Outside the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace... quite nice!

I think it's some ruins behind me haha

Roppongi!

Tokyo Tower as seen from Roppongi Hills

After Roppongi, we took this cool train across the waters to reach Odaiba! Supposed to be romantic place... but it was a bit too cold lah haha...

Sunset in Tokyo, pretty!

The famous Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower!

Our only nice meal in Tokyo at Red Lobster! Food was good, though portions a bit small...

At night, when the bridge and tower were both lighted!

Day 10 - Tsujiki fish market in the morning!

Fresh sashimi! Yum yum.

After that, we bummed around somemore, bought more sovenirs before our flight back home! A memorable grad trip for us!