Returning to Melaka... Again

Took a short break to Melaka. Did the same things over again because there is nothing much to do in Melake. Visited the same old A Famosa, St Paul church, red house & Maritime Museum.

Ate the same chendol, muah chi & laksa. Strolled along Jonker Walk & had drink at San Shu Gong. Very predictable. Anyway a good trip always ends with good movie. Yup.. We watched RIO. Very colourful.

A good guide always tells great story. Heard this story about the cross on the crab shell. St Xavier once sailed in a boat and he met with heavy thunderstorm. He prayed. Unfortunately his favorite rosary & crucifix dropped into sea. Sad.... After a period of time, while walking along the beach he saw a crab carrying his rosary. To his delight, he blessed the crab with the crucifix & that's how the crab got it's remarkable cross on the shell.

巴黎? No... Is 巴厘

We travelled again! This time got cheap flight tickets to Bali. Our travelling principle is always to use minimum money for maximum enjoyment. My initial plan was to have SPA, water sport, and a relaxing Balinese style accommodation. I heard they are quite value-for-money in Bali. Due to limited fund, we chose a modern style apartment located near Kuta Beach, AP Suites & Apartment.

Bali, located in the west of Java Island, where Jarkata is. It's about 8 times the size of Singapore populated with ~3.9 mil people. Unlike other parts of Indonesia, majority of the locals here are Hindu. So we could see Hinduism element reflected in cultural pieces, souvenirs & building decoration.

Day 1
Touch down at DPS. Check-in in the afternoon. Roam around the busy street under the hot sun. Did a bit of shopping in Matahari, a departmental store. Looked for dinner place.

There are many foreign familiar restaurant around. After much consideration, we settle with Bubba Gump. The staff here are more lively than those in Japan. Nothing comes without a price. The bill here is also bigger than what we had in Japan.

Day 2
No drivers available. So we have to venture Bali by ourselves. First spot, the beach, Kuta Beach. There are many surfer babes & hunks on the water.

Panaroid Mun is scared of Tsunami so we only hang around & watch them surfing from afar. Along the beach vendor touting & trying to lure you into doing manicure, pedicure or hair plaiting.

Service is cheap as long as you bargain. Just bargain for anything, everything. Today is a shopping day although the shopping street is not very great. Also catching up with Bubba Gump picture taking frenzy. Dinner at some Warung... forgot the name. The locals recommended for tourist but I was not really impressed by the food.

Day 3
Hotel helped us to get a local driver. He brought to do everything a normal tourist does in Bali. We visited hindu temple, volcano Gunung Batur, picturesque Tegalalang rice terrace, cultural Ubud.

Temple. Need to wrap this cloth.



Gunung Api Batur

Telalang... It is big and very er... green

 During the journey, we witness a wedding ceremony. Decoration is quite eleborated.

Besides we also tasted Kopi Luwak & famous Ibu Oka Babi Guling. Even my Indonesian colleague likes this roast pig. Definitely must try.

Kopi Luwak and some other interesting drinks

Dinner at Jimbaran. Supposedly good but we are really disappointed. All food basically cooked in 1 and only 1 way, GRILL. Prawns, fish & meat taste absolutely the same. And they are not cheap.

Day 4
Nothing much to do other than snapping a few more shots... Pack up and catch my flight back in SIN. Spent all IDR but forced to change somemore SGD at DPS airport for airport TAX payable at airport only. Not included in airfare, weird. IDR150,000 per pax which is SGD25. I was sceptical but have to comply. True enough the regulation is posted in IATA website so we are not cheated.

In-flight food

I am still hungry

Places Ung Wanted to Bring Me To - Overseas

1. Japan - Accomplished in Jan 2011
2. NZ/ Australia/ Tasmania
3. Korea - 2014
4. Taiwan/ Taipei - Accomplished in Aug 2011
5. Bali - Accomplished in Mar 2011
6. Shenzhen/ Macau/ Guangzhou Δ - delayed perpetually due to pollution
7. Shanghai/ Suzhou/ Hangzhou - Mac 2012
8. USA/ Niagara Fall/ Grand Canyon

Lately i have been thinking many places i could revisit together with our baby. I think i will start with nearby places like langkawi and brunei. Followed by places like perth which is family friendly and i could drive around. 

Japan Trip Epic (Part #3)

2 Feb 2011 (Wed)
Itinerary today is pretty simple. We took Tokaido line to Yokohama. Meeting my Japanese boss, TK, at Shin Yokohoma and he'll bring us around. The way local people travel locally. While waiting at Shin Yokohama station, we had our breakfast, Onigiri, rice ball. Onigiri is so popular that can be found in at 7-11 and many other convenient store.

TK drove us for an hour plus to a volcanic place called Owakudani (大涌谷, lit. "Great Boiling Valley"). The famous thing to do, besides taking pictures, is to eat black egg (Kuro-Tamago). The black colour on the shell is produced by Hydrogen Sulfide. According to legend, eating 1 kuro-tamago will extend our life by 7 years. However 1 person can only eat up to 2.5 eggs to extend maximum of 17.5 years of life. Eating the whole third egg is believed to be detrimental.

Later we had traditional japanese lunch at a fishing village, Manazuru. The next destination was Tenzan Onsen (Heavenly Mountain hot spring). The surrounding was cold so soaking in hot water was very relaxing.

That night we went back to Yokohama meeting another colleague, Sharad, for dinner. We were served with traditional indian dinner and we were so full for the whole day.

3 Feb 2011 (Thu)
Last day of our stay in Japan. Extended our check out time till 3pm for free. Ung said we are value customers who stayed for 4 nights so they are willing to extend. There is nothing much we can do for half a day except for spending our remaining ¥. The easiest way to spend money is to buy sovenir.

We took train all the way to Disneyland (take Keiyō Line to Maihama Station) without entering to the park. We just bought some mickey mouse merchandise then lepak outside and took the Disneyland monorail.

At 12pm, we rush back to Shinagawa for lunch. The lunch on weekdays is quite affordable. Set meal for ~¥1,000. Good food is available almost everywhere. Even a bowl of ¥290 soba taste good and edible. Unlike Singapore. It's so hard to find cheap & good food in Singapore.

After exploring the other side of Shinagawa station, we really need to leave this place. We spent our last penny in Narita Airport. As I always say, Uni Qlo is everywhere. I was right about that. There is a branch at the Airport. If not for Uni Qlo, we would be able to finish all our ¥. I started to wear the new clothes back in Singapore. Cool...

7 hours flight brought us back to hot & humid Singapore. We had Megamind and RED on our way back.

We kinda miss the humidity here. The dry weather in Japan was driving us crazy because we need to drink water & apply moisturiser cream very often. Maybe the next time returning to Japan will be in autumn between Aug - Oct. Someday... I'll be back!

Japan Trip Epic (Part #2)

31 Jan 2011 (Mon)
The best way to see Tokyo is by train so we got ourselves Tokunai Pass ¥730. It is a day-pass on JR trains within designated zone. So we woke up early to maximise the value of Tokunai Pass.

By the time we reach the first destination, Yurakucho, it was only 9am. Everything is still closed. Tourist Information Center opens at 10am, JTB opens at 11am. We can only sit around and study our map. After sitting around meaninglessly for 10-20 minutes, we decided to move on to our next destination, Ueno. There are parks and zoo, which turned out to be closed for some reasons. It was again a lot of walking. Very tiring.
We give up and moved on to Akihabara. This place is supposedly the most famous electronic street. 1 whole building of electronic goods. We lepak here till afternoon. Walked too much so decided to take time-off back in hotel. Our hotel provides Green Cleaning Service option. We will be given a ¥500 voucher per day by taking up this option. Am I advertising for the hotel? By the way the hotel is nice and costs ¥13000 per night

Next destination was Shibuya. Shibuya is a shopping area where youngsters hang out. Many fashion outlet, drugs store around where cheap skincare product or cosmestic can be found here. The cross junction is crazy. Not only that pedestrian can cross to oppsite side of the road, diagonally crossing is also allowed. So we see many heads moving in all direction.

From Shibuya, we walked.... to Harujuku Sta.

Taking train in Japan is an enjoyable journey because the train is so quiet. No rowdy students, nobody rushed for seats, no dim sum dolly repeated jingles. Only announcement.


1 Feb 2011 (Tue)
Tokunai pass yesterday and Toei+Metro pass next. This is another 1-Day pass that allows unlimited use of Toei subway & metro. Today we started from Takanawadai Sta. to Tsukiji Market in the east. The market is very busy but well organised. Although it is a wet market, the floor is generally clean.

After strolling around the wet market, we head to the nearby restaurant for authentic sushi sashimi. If ou spent some time, you'll find cheap and good food in Tsukiji Market. The first one or the most crowded one is usually not the best in terms of value-for-money. I bought strawberries & strawberry daifuku. They are sweet.

We went to Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace, Tokyo Dome & Shinjuku.

Ung have long planned to go Tokyo Dome eventhough there is no baseball game on that day. He only wanted to eat Bubba Gump. We thought the pronounciation is "Boo-Ba" Gump. My US colleague corrected me. He said it is pronounced as "Bub-ble" Gump... So embarrassing. Anyway, the food was good. Lunch is usually more value-for-money. Maybe they just want to attract lunch crowd.