Forty Hands x Plain Vanilla Bakery,

Met up with this group of poly friends for brunch last Friday @ Forty Hands. I've been telling ze Boyf that I wna visit this cafe since a long time but we always didn't have the time to go until now. Just that it's me with my friends instead.

Forty Hands is located at Yong Siak Rd in Tiong Bahru area. It's actually very near where my relatives are staying! Not too late to know. Anyway, it was rlly crowded when we arrived (during lunchtime) but we managed to get a table fast. Also, the place is very small and has a very narrow walkway for the people to walk in.

Proceeded to the counter for our order and here's what we had:

Salmon Hash @ $18

The Big Bang - Pork @ $16

Eggs Cocotte @ $16

We felt a bit cheated esp the Twinny and Peiying who ordered The Big Bang, pork and beef respectively, because the portion wasn't big at all (according to the two girls). I didn't ask about the taste of their Big Bang though. Adrian ordered Egg Cocotte which is consists of 2 poached eggs and mushrooms (these are the 2 that I can rmb) and 2 slices of bread while I ordered Salmon Hash. For my case, I could count the number of salmon CUBES I had. Yeap, the salmons are cut into shapes of squares in the bowl. Despite the few cubes I had, the taste of the salmons were rlly nice. Just the type of cooked salmon that I like. Neither rough (for texture) nor hard (to chew). What's best is, mine has skinny fries!

I like my fries to be skinny instead of those thick fat ones. Reason being, skinny fries can be crispier than fat ones. I like it when it becomes just a lil soggy. So, I'll be munching away if the truffle fries we order as a side dish comes in skinny kind.

We left Forty Hands and proceeded to the shop opposite: Books Actually. It's a very cosy store that sells all kinds of books. From fictions to non-fictions, from history of Singapore to books that teach Singlish (if I'm not wrong), from tote bags to stationery. Basically, almost all that you can think of.

The below three photos are taken using my phone, hence the bad quality. 

Remember this?

Walked a lil further down the street and we saw Plain Vanilla Bakery! Another one from my list down!! But I will definitely go back agn bcos I didn't try their cupcakes (I was too full from my Salmon Hash).

The two girls with their cupcakes and drinks while Adrian and I ordered just drinks. My tea was tasteless, as what Twinny had guessed. According to Peiying, salted caramel cupcake is awesome! Plain Vanilla is rlly a nice place to chill, and not forgetting to snap some photos, because we stayed there for almost 2hrs (or more). Time flew too quickly. 

It was my first time out with Peiying and Adrian but definitely not the last time. I had a great time going out with the 3 of them!

*

Quite sad that my 3 weeks of break will be ending in one week's time. School has been sucking my body battery. 1 month more to the submission of individual assignment and I'm not even 1/4 done with it yet. I can't wait for uni to be over!! 

I Love Korea - 나는 한국을 사랑합니다,

Annyeong!! The title of this posts explains everything! One should rlly travel to Korea (if you haven't). It's rlly quite an eye-opener to me! Their culture, their people, the places, the stations (you will know why later), etc! It's a 16-days trip with Baby to Seoul > Busan > Jeju Island > Seoul. We had transits at Taipei before reaching our destinations via Scoot airline.

Many people were surprised by the number of days for visiting Korea but seriously, IT'S NOT ENOUGH AT ALL! It's never enough. At first, when we were planning our itinerary we thought the time was more than enough for us to rest and visit the places we wanted but NO. I miss Korea in every ways now and I can't wait to fly back there soon. It's rlly a shopping heaven for girls (note to all ladies!) and a lil hell for the guys bcos Zac had to help me carry my stuffs. I'm rlly blessed to have him as my boyfriend because of the way he took care of me throughout this trip. Did I mention that I fell sick during this trip? It was quite mood dampening as we couldn't have too much of Kbbq cus of me.

To prepare for this trip, we had our own itinerary. Of cus, we did some research and found some online itinerary as reference. We also went down to the Korean Tourism Board @ Korea Plaza for further reference and information. 

Anyway, here's a bit of the itinerary for our trip:

Day 0: Scoot to ICN Airport via TPE and reached at about 11PM. We reached our apt at 12plus almost 1AM.

Day 1 here: A visit to Changdeokgung, Secret Garden and Bukchon Hanok Village. Dessert: Dalsuda (Korean Dessert Cafe). Dinner: Tosokchon Samgaetang.

Day 2 here: Bought our KTX tix @ Seoul station and headed to Lotte World and Myeongdong. Dinner: Jungsungbon Shabu Suki.

Day 3 - 5 Tourist Attractions here
Day 3 - 5 Food Food
Day 3: Seoul > Busan via Korail KTX. Lunch: Lotteria. Visited Bexco and Shinsegae Department Store and Haeundae Beach.

Day 4 : Gamcheon Culture Village, Seomyeon (Underground shopping mall).

Day 5: Jagalchi Market > Gukje Market > Bupyeong Market > Taejongdae Park. Lunch: Mama Katsu.

Day 6 here: Busan > Jeju Island via Jeju Air. Black Pork Street > Jungang Underground Shopping Centre.

Day 7 here: Glass Castle > O'Sulloc > Teddy Bear Museum > Cheonjeyeon waterfalls > Arang Jeoul Food Street.

Day 8 here: Jeju Mini Mini Land, Trick Art Museum, Seongeup Folk Village, Jeju Folk Village Museum, Mysterious Road. Lunch: a "ramen" coffeeshop. Dinner: ramen place near our hotel. (Thought it was our last day in Jeju)

Day 9 here: The Ma Park (first horse riding experience), Hello Kitty Island.

Day 10 here: Jeju Island > Seoul via Jeju Air to Gimpo Intl Airport. Hongdae Flea Market, Hongik Univ. Desser: Hello Kitty Cafe @ Hongdae. Dinper: Korean restaurant (bibimbap and tofu stew)

Day 11 - 13 here
Day 11: Bupyeong (but wasted trip). Garusu-gil, Myeongdong (where I went crazy).

Day 12: Nami Island @ Gapyeong Stn. Lunch: Di Matteo (pasta). Dongdaemun

Day 13: Petite France @ Cheongpyeong Stn > Myeongdong > N Seoul Tower.

Day 14 - 16 here
Day 14: Bupyeong. Dessert: Healing Cafe 616. Gangnam.

Day 15: Brunch: Air Cafe. Itaewon, Myeongdong > Noon Sq. > Itaewon. Dinner: Maple Tree House

Day 16: Brkfast: Bread & Co. Hongdae > Ewha Womans univ. Scoot back to SIN via TPE.

“Once you've got wanderlust in your blood, you've got it for life.”  - Paul Morrison

I can't wait to update a proper one but school has been sucking up my energy mentally and physically. Goodbye!

Back down the Memory Lane - Malacca Trip,

This post happens because I'm too bored at home.

I realised that I didn't post anything about my Malacca trip at all. Shall update about it now while I can still rmb almost 90% of it!

This took place in May last year when I was still having my internship. I rmb that my Supervisor said that he would have given me off day on the day I left so that it wouldn't be rush for me. Le sigh, I didn't knw that we could take leaves during internship. Me being one coward, didn't dare to ask for it as well because I was afraid that it will affect my results. But, I requested one later for my party chalet in July that year.

Well, anyway, it was a Friday and my trip took place in the evening time. Just imagine, having work in the daytime and not regretted not taking your bags for the trip for work and you gotta rush back home from Marymount and down to Kovan for the bus coach. A bonus: it was raining heavily during that evening. So blessed that Dad fetched me from work and down to the bus interchange even though it meant that he had to rush.

The evidence of rushing down from work.

It was a 6-hours bus ride when it was supposed to be only a 4-hrs ride. I think it's due to the heavy traffic at the custom and also it was the start of a wkend! So we reached our bus terminal at 1am and took a cab to our hotel: Hatten Hotel Melaka. Look at the interior design of the room! It's freaking big for 2. There's even 2 television sets and a sofa. Look at the bathroom!!! I rmb vividly that I went "OMG! THIS ROOM IS SUPER NICE!" Oh yes, this is also a pretty new hotel. I rated it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

P.S.: Photos taken with both of my old LX 5 and iPhone 4 so the qualities aren't as good as the current camera.

Pool view from our room

Settled down and ended our first night on Friday. It was a 2D2N trip anyway...

Prepared the next morning and went to the places we wanted to explore. Actually not so. I didn't take part in the planning of the itinerary so I just followed wherever they led. I rmb going to a very old church which required us to climb many flights of stairs. I almost wanted to give up halfway. We also went to Jonker Street. This is the place we stayed the longest because we headed there in the daytime, went back hotel to put our things and rest for awhile before heading back for some night walk at the same place. They sell different things during daytime and night time so it's best to go there twice. Oh, I became chaotar on this day too bcos the scorching was being merciless that I could barely open my eyes. I even applied sunblock, wore my shades and cap but no, who would have knew all these weren't enough at all!

Down to Jonker Street where we started by having a bowl of ice kachang each to quench our thirst and heat.

It's a pity that we didn't enter San Shu Gong at all due to time constraint. I heard that it's a must-enter when one goes to Malacca. Probably the next trip to Malacca, I will.

Jonker Street:

Passing by...

I rmb that we were each carrying very heavy things but I forgot what they were. I guess one of those was this that we were carrying...

This sweet yet tasty drink comes in a carton of 6. I was fascinated by the design of the bottle and Sylvia was telling me, "I'll share with you if you wna buy." So, in the end we bought a carton and got 3 each.  They also have this Ding Cha selling bbtea. As usual, I ordered mine to be chocolate ice blend. Not sure if it turned out nice  but at least it quenched a lil of our thirst once again.

Yay, finally it was night time and we headed down to Jonker Street once again for dinz. We walked all the way to the end of the street and settled our dinz at a recommended tzi char coffeeshop (according to one of the girls).

I'm very sure that we ordered more than this but I couldn't find the photos in my folder. So yeaps, only meefen presented. HAHAH!

Then, it's time for smth that I love: STREET FOOD!

I was amazed by this cute lil thing called egg ice cream. And fried ice cream which I bought before noticing the egg ice cream. But me being a glutton, I decided to buy the egg ice cream as well and share the fried ice cream with the girls. HAHAH!

Then it was the first time trying sugar-coated haws which 冰糖葫芦 in Chinese. It was also my first time trying this and wow! It was nice but it contains high sugar level so, one is enough! I chose grapes to be the choice of the fruit inside.

Black ball

Fast forwarding to the next day, which was also the last day of our trip...

The sisters went for a swim while Sylvia and I just roamed arnd. These are the views from the pool. There's even a small bar counter at the pool side for you to relax and drink after a swim. 

Checked out of our hotel and took cab to another hotel for the coach. But before that, we had our lunch at a Peranakan restaurant.

Then it was time for us to board the bus back home. While passing by the custom, look what we saw!

A RAINBOW!

Not forgetting SG Flyer

This was the aftermath of staying under the sun for the whole day on the 2nd day in Malacca... Just focus on my shoulder. My colleagues even commented on how dark I've gotten when I was back the following Monday. It took me quite some time to get back to the skin tone I used to have... Or maybe, not.

My face was sharper back then...

Counting down: less than 1 day to the start of uni life. T_T Ok bye!

BKK Day 4: Back to Reality,

BKK Day 4:

It was the last day of our trip and seriously I thought it wasn't enough because one should spend at least 5 days in BKK! Started our morning by packing a bit of our things into the luggages before going for brunch at a coffeeshop nearby. I always have trouble packing my own things.

Walked back the the place just beside our hotel to shop - Pratunam. It's a pity that we didn't manage to wake up super early to walk the whole place but I was contented with my purchases after the 4 days of shopping in BKK. Again, it's a very confusing place so I wouldn't recommend walking alone without your friends by your side (if you're like me who is easy to get lost in your own world!). Anyway, it's a wholesale market so you might wna buy more and get a lower price for each clothing you buy in that store.

Booked a cab for the 7 of us to the airport. The boot of the cab was so full that I was afraid that the luggages would fall on Martin and I because we were sitting at the back. Checked in our luggages and also ourselves and went for dunch (lunch + dinz) @ a Japanese restaurant that cost a bomb.

AND THEN THE MAIN LEAD....

YUMMYLICIOUS!

Then it was time to bid goodbye to the land of smiles - Bangkok...

I will be back soon! So, wait for me :)

That's my overall buys in BKK. This is considered little but the most among my friends. Hahah! So during this 4D3N trip, I brought only 500 SGD (without any credit cards or extra SGD to change) and it wasn't enough for me. I had to limit myself and budget my loots by quite a lot. So, if you're going for a 4 days trip in BKK, I think it's better if you bring like 700 SGD there. HAHAH, just in case!!! I'll make sure that it will be at least a 5-days trip for my next BKK trip. /Le sigh!/

Anyway, I didn't purchase any shoes at all in this country unlike the previous trips with friends. The bases of the shoes are all super hard and I don't think it's worth spending my money if they are gna hurt my feet. The clothing in BKK are rlly cheap but that's if you don't mind the qualities of some. During my Korea trip, I've brought mostly the tops I bought in BKK and only one set from SG.

Speaking of Korea, I can't wait to sort out the photos alrdy! Goodbye :)