Most memorable for me

back to the work routine.

The withdrawal symptoms were harder to overcome this time round. I missed the days where I wake up to a new unknown everyday.. just key in the location and let it bring us to the place.

My deepest impression of USA. That's a common question from friends and colleagues since we really went to quite a few places in 3 weeks.

The most vivid memory I had of the trip would be in LA. We googled and keyed in what we thought was the best viewing location for the hollywood sign. The driving route was along narrow roads, windy and pretty hilly along the houses of rich people. We couldn't make out actually where was our next turn. I remembered carefully maneuvering up the windy curves and listening to B's instructions on directions.

Then somewhere, we drove though some tall, bushy trees and when we were out of the shade, the hollywood sign was right smacked there, just like in postcards. And we just gawked and squealed in excitement like little gals, exclaiming that this must be the BEST view ever. The sky was blue and the sun lit up our faces. Just the right amount for a kodak moment. Don't ask me why but that feeling was just unspeakable.

SMAB's back

I'm back!

As you can tell from the ungodly timing of this post, I am suffering from jetlag. I'm so bloody awake now. Will be going to work later and I hope the withdrawal symptoms will not be too severe.

photos still pending. I really wonder if my cranky laptop can take the huge load and processing.

GREAT trip. Weather has been very kind throughout the 3 weeks with picturesque blue skies when required. We have managed to avoid crowds in many of our activities as well and that's important coz I'm allergic to crowds. Our dear GPS performed so well and got us to where we wanted to go.

Greatest achievement for me was to get everyone safe and sound back to Singapore. Unfamiliar roads, left hand drive and long driving time. Daunting even for the best driver. Total driving distance = 4000km

This is really the trip of our lives. so far. Amazing. Can't find a better way to mark our 30th. :)

white xmas 2010

~ snow greeted us on 24 Dec morning when we visit Tian Men Mountain~

i'm back. Must be weak at adapting to foreign air, water and food coz I'm suffering from fever and diarrhea again. Just like after hokkaido and vietnam and my last trip to jiuzhaigou in 2005.

took 882 pics this round which is really little in my records coz the weather was so cold that I felt so lazy to take out my heavy camera most of the time. moral of the story is to bring along a dummy especially if you're expecting snow and cold weather. The really cool part was that I spent a white christmas this year. first time!

The tour group was pretty fun as most of them were singles as this was an unofficial trip organised by this freelance tour guide who is also in charge of arranging trips for singles under MCYS. Was looking for a place to go and was recommended by my colleague that he's a great and fun tour guide and though I'm engaged, I'm still considered single so I can join! yippee.

No families with noisy kids, no elderly. Cool. haha.

The next part of my hols starts now as I start sorting my pictures.

A date with Super Star.... Virgo.

Thanks to my papa san's complimentary balcony class room that I got to relieve the secondary school days where my parents brought me on cruise so often. With all the buffet onboard and the really minimal physical activities, it was difficult not to be in TAF club in sec school. Ya, there's really nothing much to do on cruise. Now that I've tried much better food, the free buffet onboard was really not impressive at all. Well, I kept telling myself that I've got to see it in the positive light that it's really a rest and relax thingy and I shouldn't be expecting much.

R&R not really for me. I want stuff to excite me and keep me occupied. Not to mention that the activities onboard were the more family-friendly ones = boring. Ok, I'll maintain my stand till when I have kids.

And not to mention all the kiasu aunties who were cutting queues all the way from check in to rushing for elevators to getting into the restaurants to piling their plates with food at the buffet line. Really irks me out.

Spent quality time with my folks though, despite having the romantic experience of sleeping on the deck for a few hours till it got abit chilly as I really couldn't appreciate the symphony of snores they were performing throughout the 2 nights. Being a light sleeper SUCKS big time. I wanna snore and irritate people toO! ES actually brought pillows and comforter up onto the deck lor..haha.

Spent the last 1.5 days catching up on sleep and my essay. YAY. Yep. Having said that, I have to announce that the long weekend is officially over mochi san.

It's a brand new..short week ahead. yay.

Viet Trip 12 - 20 Jun 2010

Viet Trip came and went. Thinking back, I really enjoyed it. It's my first backpacking trip which we tried to get around on our own. The food poisoning and weather seemed to dominate the bulk of my viet trip tale. It was not until I browsed through the pictures that I suddenly remembered what I saw and enjoyed.

~ Ham Rong Mountain @ Sapa was beautiful. The view was therapeutic though the continuous and steep stairs nearly killed us.~

~ Halong Bay wasn't as cool as it was supposed to be. Hanoi has 4 seasons and Jun happens to be the hottest in Hanoi. Hottest in 500 yrs we heard from the guide. Global warming... sighz~

~ the rice terraces were amazing. city dwellers like us become toads in wells when exposed to wonders of simple nature, gawking at how the rice terraces formed intricate and interesting patterns..~

~ loved the silhouette of the mountains in Halong Bay.~

I might go back to viet. probably in Dec when it's more cooling to visit the more scenic Hue, Da Nang, Mui Ne and all.

Pre-quel to Vietnam post

Hellos from Sapa.

We just spent 2 days in Ho Chi Minh and it's our 1st day in Sapa today. Took the overnight train and naz is just taking a snooze now to make up for lost and disrupted sleep. But I'm awake! The trekking and working out perked me up and yep, finally I can get to use the comp coz he's snoozing.

Talk about using comp.. for this developing country, I'm getting free wireless everywhere. From the smallest cafe to hotels.. free wifi is the norm. Ironically, the airport is the only place with no free wifi, with only a few internet kiosks around. Yep, so ES is happy that he gets to check his mails and do his research for his copyrighting assignments. He's like on a business trip, always on the comp doing that thing he do.

We're glad to have survived the crazy scooteriffic traffic in HCM. There's no traffic system and vehicles can just cut and go ANY direction they like, perpetually honking to signal that they're running amok . Rule of the thumb, just walk in normal pace...slowly, steadily, not too fast, not too slow and just look straight, avoiding any direct eye contact with the mob of oncoming traffic.

The pollution is umimaginable. Our friend fell sick from the weather and the pollution.

Sapa's air is MUCH fresher for sure and yep, I wanna breathe that all in.

Batam 19-20 Dec 2009

Back from a short batam getaway. Accompanied ES there on his company's family trip. Never really liked batam coz there's really nothing much to do or see. It's a small island, smaller than singapore. Since it was an organised tour, no harm just bobbing in the small touristy mini van, taking in the sights, food and shopping.

I will greatly recommend Holiday Inn Batam though. The service there was amazing. It's newer than Harris too. Me and ES were looking around for an empty sun chair to leave our towels for a swim as all the chairs were occupied. Before we knew it, one of the service staff approached us with a huge wooden chair for us to leave our things. Thumbs up for being so observant and so pro-active!!

Blogger should really make uploading of pics easier. I can only upload 8MB pics at any one time and it's difficult to keep to it since our cams are usually 10 or 12MP now.

~ the very smart trained monkey who was soliciting tips after his performance.~

~ as me and ES opted out of the massage, we had 3 hours to burn in the mall which we spent on ktv-ing! The free drink sucks! But it was cheap though. We paid 60,000RP for 2 pax for 2 hrs. That equates to about $9 for 2 pax in total. ~

~ starking resemblence to this hut.~

~ batam's famous guanyin temple~

函馆の夜景

Okaerinasai mochi san.

Okay. It's been 3 days since I was back from romantic Hokkaido. Just as I bid sayonara to Hokkaido, the 2nd part of my holidays started, sorting of photos.

It's an extension of my holidays. I enjoy looking through the pics and sorting them, trashing the rubbish shots and salvaging some of the gonecase ones.

My deepest impression of the whole trip was Hakodate (函馆). The night view was awesome and breathtaking. Never seen anything like this before.

More photos will be up soon. Once I sort the 1600 pics..which will take some time as I'm pretty unproductive after holidays.

HK getaway 1 - 4 May

The short getaway was really short. It was fun though with all the shopping and eating, shopping and eating... We walked till our legs felt like they were somewhere else. Eating was normal due to the sad fact that our stomachs are not expandable. sigh. wished I could eat more! Took like 300 pics and didn't regret bringing my SLR along. Was hesitant coz it weighed a ton and our main aim was to shop!

Well, had a bit of quarantine commotion coz of the kiasee decision of an incapable leader. crazy. will never yield to the evil forces of stupid people. Frankly, just waiting for the time where I can expose the dumb deeds of the evil force...please grant me my wish!

Well, some of the better shots I took! Trigger happy mochi is happy-ING.

~ near St Paul's ruins at macau. Nice portuguese architecture.~

~ a wedding couple having their photoshoot. Perfect angle for my photo!~

~ Gotta thank Matt for her patience while waiting for me to take shots like this. I was virtually lying on the ground. haha only flaw is that woman's head on the trishaw!! I shall clone it away!~

~ the Macau Taipa Birdge when we were reaching macau. This shot was taken from the ferry. Lucky not much glass reflection.~

~ the beautiful Macau Taipa bridge has a really subtle nice curvature. ~

~ swine swine go away.. come again another day.. little children want to play~

~ at the busy night streets of Mong Kok~

~ this apple shop really caught my attention though I think the lightings in HK really waste a lot of electricity?~

gotta go prepare for potluck later! yipppee!

South Africa 2-10 Oct 2008

been swamped with work since i was back. that's the price to pay when we go on holiday. Well, I tell myself that work can never finish and I have my whole life to work my guts out..so. no point lamenting and take everything one and a time.

Sometimes I really miss times at call centre. Work was just work.. no backlog after holidays..no work to bring home after official working hours. Great work-life balance which alot of companies these days are ranting about but never achieve. When I earn enough money to feed me a lifetime, I probably will go back to taking calls.

just did tooth crowning coz my tooth filling in my back molar was too incorrigibly huge. busted 500 bucks on it and yes. I shudder at the thought of seeing my credit card bill. Trip and all. *shudders*

anyway, have loaded most of pics in facebook but not much description there..prefer to blog it down.

With the blink of an eye, my long awaited trip has ended..for a week liao. Wth. what's wrong with time????! sigh.

When's my next holiday mochi san? Love going on holidays. Life seems all meaningful again whenever I'm in touch with nature and immersed in the wonders of the universe, different cultures and unique intriguing sights of every country. I need this type of luxurious rejuvenation on a regular basis. It's worth every buck.

~sunrise at MABULA GAME RESERVE.. couldn't take my eyes off the rays that were shimmering in the sky.. though not that obvious when captured on the camera..~

~ Buffalo. One of the Big Fives of South Africa. The other four are Elephant, Lions Leopard and Rhino~
~ Cast of SA trip: Sharon san, mochi san, Omelette (aka wee siong...omelette is a christian name we gave him coz he kept eating omelette!), junyi san.~

~ sharon san got potential to be construction worker for my company..haha..no la..it was a 5.30am game drive. we were following so close to the land rover infront that the sand and dust were swept conveniently onto our faces.. we were virtually eating sand. and to stop talking, at least for me, was quite impossible. So we had our starter before our breakfast~

~ the huge rhinos! one of our best takeaways and one of the best shots I've taken of the big five!

~say cheese..wishing ourselves luck for more animal spotting..~

~ 1st try at horse riding...fun!~

~simba! kawai ne.~
~very tamed young lion. 1 year plus I think. still harmless.~

~ both me and sharon san totally enjoyed the ride.. though we dun get to spot animals every minute and there can be dry spells, we amused ourselves and tortured the rest by our singing.~

~ concluded that deers are camera sensitive and photogenic animals..~

~ best shot I could get of a whale sighting from the bumpy coach.. sugoi.~

~ think it's my fave shot for this whole trip. totally cute.~

~wine tasting. looked like i was enjoying it? I poured almost everything away except for the dessert wine which was sweet and nice. ~

~fastest animal on earth...cheetahss. The weather was blaxing hot and all the animals were taking shelter under the shade..~

~some expensive residential area ...can't remember the name though.. a real good place to retire..sit by the sea and watch whales everyday..~

~beaming rays from the sun again..awesome.~

~fatty seals lazing on the rocks. They call this seal island. They distracted me quite a bit but I still fell seasick after that.

~ i was there!~
~a parting shot at Cape Point~

~beautiful coastal landscape of capetown.~

~candid shots by sharon san.. didn't expect the pecking to be so violent. hence...~

~magnificant shot of the table mountain. It is common belief that if there are clouds over the mountain, it means it will rain soon.~

~ a shot at signal hill~