USA hauls

A few friends have been asking me the amount of make up items I hauled during my USA trip and my honest opinion is 'not much'. I left most of my make up shopping to my last stop in San Francisco which is a huge mistake. I don't see any Sephora and the brands that I was keen to get stuffs from such as Tom Ford has only perfumes and lipsticks. Not to mention that the 8.75% of refundable tax is quite a put off so.......

Other than Frivole which I purchased from San Francisco Airport, below are the make up hauls I got from airport and drugstores. The variety of drugstore brands such as Revlon, Covergirl, Maybelline etc is really good there. The range of shades available just made me green with envy.

A memento for my USA trip, I decided to get some Pandora charms for my bangle. Added a Statue of Liberty charm (representing USA) and 2 flower clippers so that the charms will not go all over the place when I wear it.

As I got the job offer that I wanted towards the end of this trip, I decided to splurge on myself by getting a Hermes clic clac in white. So in love with this baby, simple and chic! I heard that Singapore is retailing this at about S$1k and I paid US$610 at San Francisco airport. That's really some savings there.

A lot of other stuffs were bought in Las Vegas premium outlets, and miscellaneous places such as M&M's World and the stuffs are here inside my messy luggage. Don't worry peeps, I finally got down to unpacking it last weekend after 3 weeks. Lol!!

My long awaited USA trip

Hello peeps! So sorry for the long long silence. I have been away for a holiday to USA (yeah!!) and was also busy settling stuffs on my upcoming new job and minor renovation stuffs at home. But I'm back now and sure will pick up my blogging momentum once again.

Let's talk a bit about my trip, shall we? :) Me and BC have been talking about going for a holiday to USA for the longest time and it has never materialise. Finally this year, we managed to block out our calender, apply our leave away from work and book this holiday. Our holiday destination is none other than the popular Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. :) I shall leave you with some of my favourite pictures from this trip for your viewing pleasure.

Morning in downtown LA

MacDonald's egg white mcmuffin. Singapore should have this!

Forest Gump at Madame Tussauds

Moses!

You cannot miss this view!

Santa Monica Beach

Hoover Dam (taken during helicopter ride to Grand Canyon)

Amazing landscape

Finally reached Grand Canyon

Las Vegas shopping strip

You cannot miss Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

I have truly enjoyed myself during this trip (except for the 17 hours flight) which gives me butt and back ache. As both me and BC don't drive, we do not have the privilege of renting a car and driving around. We rely mainly on hop on hop off passes and cabs. We have met extremely nice and friendly drivers who gave us tips on where to go to get good deals and also had fair share of terrible drivers who  asked for more tips or even gave us a disgusting look when they feel the tips we gave is not good enough. Well, I'm on holiday so who gives a s**t about them, LOL.

I strongly recommending checking out The Cheesecake Factory, IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and Fisherman's Wharf. The food are amazing and the thought of thinking of them just makes me hungry once again.

My only regret from this trip is that our tour to Alcatraz Island was cancelled due to the US government shut down. I was really looking forward to it and dammit..... it was called off. :(

Would I go back again? You bet but probably not until a few years later. My next destination has got to be Europe or London first! :)

I miss Tokyo

Influenced by J pop and dramas when I was much younger, I have always wanted to go Japan for a holiday and experience how is the country like. Years after years, this plan has been shelved time and again due to other commitments and finally in April 2013, the trip to Japan materialised.

As we are travelling free and easy, we decided to just stick with 1 city so that we can have an easier time planning. We had to choose Tokyo, of course!

We had a lot of fun in Tokyo and with the company of V, who has been to Tokyo multiple times to bring us around in some places, it was a different experience altogether. Joining a tour does bring us to nice tourist attractions but it will be tough to feel the culture of the country.

Japanese are very clean and organised thus their streets are always clean. They take pride in doing the best in whatever they do and it is evident even in daily tasks. 

 Clean streets of Ikebukuro

Recycling is very common in Japan and it's a lifestyle that trashes are sorted into recyclable and non-recyclable ones. Wherever we go for meals, we will be expected to clear our own trays and clear the food and non recyclable stuffs separately from the paper cups and bottles.

Check out the bags of cans for recycling!

Have you been so annoyed with commuters on the bus or trains who talked non stop on their mobile phones throughout the whole journey? I know I am thus I really appreciate trains and buses in Japan announcing to passengers to refrain from using their mobile phones so that they will not disturb other passengers. That is really thoughtful!

Despite us going to Tokyo after the cherry blossom seasons, we were lucky to still be able to see some sakuras during our Mt Fuji day tour. They are really beautiful.

 I need not elaborate further that Japanese food are yummy and since I am a fan of Japanese food, anything goes for me! Starbucks is a must though. Haha.

The buildings in Tokyo are very close together and when night comes and lights light up the building, it can be quite beautiful. Somehow, I just don't find the buildings in Singapore to amaze me that much, hahaha. Bias me....

For cat lovers, you cannot miss going the cat cafes there! We went to one in Ikebukuro and the kitties there are gorgeous!

I need not say further that shopping is great there and I truly enjoyed myself. In fact, we have intention to head back to Tokyo next year around the same time as there are still a lot of places in Tokyo that we have yet to explored. :)

Back from Tokyo

Sorry for the week long silence as I have been away. This time, I am off to Tokyo for holiday and it was a super good break! Had fun exploring the city, shopped a lot (lol!!), unwind and relax quite a fair bit too. Appreciate if you will be patient with me while I sort out the pictures and blogging posts. In the meantime, I will leave you with my favourite pic of the sakuras I took in Tokyo :)

Bintan holiday

Friends who know me will know that I hardly go for holidays. Other than the fact that I have 4 fur kids at home (1 of which has special needs), the idea of forking out a sum of money to travel also gives me heartache, lol.

But when BC told me that he badly needs a break away from Singapore and his work, we found some deals on Groupon which works out quite ok for us. The resort is not high end like Angsana or Nirwana but it's fine with us since we have never been to Bintan before.

The deal we bought from Groupon was 2D1N stay at Bintan Cabana Beach Resort and the ride from the ferry terminal is long at approximately an hour. In fact the child of this family in the same van as us heading towards the resort asked 'Mummy, uncle driving us back to Singapore??' I almost laughed out when I heard it so yes, the trip was that long.

The resort is not fantastic but decent and the staffs there are all very friendly. Unfortunately, there are no recreational activities available in the resort BUT we can take the shuttle bus to their sister resort, Bintan Agro Beach Resort (15mins ride away) for water sports and all. Me and BC are not water sports people so we ended up enjoying the sea breeze, watching movie on our iPad and having massages. It's definitely a good chance to get away from the crowd and especially work.

Unfortunately for us, the food sucks. I would have no complaints if they can serve nice traditional Indonesian food there but they had to attempt to serve Chinese or English cuisine cooked using Indonesian way which makes the food taste weird. Let me quote you an example. When we order oatmeal prawns in Singapore, the prawns and oatmeal are fried until nice and crispy right? Well..... When we ordered oatmeal squid at the resort, the dish came out wet! Yes, the oatmeal is wet and just like u soaking pork floss in porridge! Nonetheless, the best meal we had during our trip was the MacDonald's we had when we arrive back home, haha.

Even the food was bad, the whole experience I had at Bintan was still an enjoyable one. It's definitely a good break and we already are planning for another trip for year end! Yeah!! Before I end this post, here are some pics I took :)

Koh Samui

Here's some pics of the Koh Samui trip that I had last week with my company. We were staying at Anantara Resort. Quite a cozy and comfortable resort and the staffs were extremely polite.

A pic of the room that I am sharing with my fellow colleague..........

Damn........ the bathroom actually have 'windows' that can slide open!!! Quite weird to shower with a colleague in the room because from outside the bathroom, you can see a silhouette of a person showering! This resort is definitely more appropriate for couples or family.

The balcony is wide and cozy with bench and table. Definitely a nice place to sit down and have a drink and chat. You will b doing a HUGE favour to the mosquitoes there as well, they have definitely been well-fed by some of my colleagues! Hahaha.

The swimming pool looks almost like an infinity pool that overlook the beach. Not a very big pool so don't bother about swiming laps. It's more of a fun pool for people to soak themselves in.

I thought the beach looks normal, water is not very clear but definitely better than East Coast Park! Sand is not very fine also.

A nice view of the beach in the evening as me and my 2 fellow colleagues grabbed a mug of beer at one of the bars there.

I will be flying to Koh Samui tonight FOR WORK........ How exciting can that be??? Anyway, I am so not looking forward to this trip because I am rushing so much work and the days spent there can really be put to better use if I am in office and clearing my work for budget!!!

I will not be extending my trip as well as I have to come back to office on SATURDAY morning to work on the budget!!!!!

Nice view but I am not there for holiday :(

Nice resort, but I am there for WORK!

Nice garden but I don't think there will be anytime to enjoy it!!

Breakfast is the 1st meal of the day so how can I settle for something simple........ Opt for the Amercian breakfast on my last day of stay in Manila and came this...... Very very hearty!

Security Dogs

In my previous posting I mentioned security dogs in New World Hotel that I was staying in Manila, they are actually quite an obedient. Day shift is a male Jack Rusell and night shift is taken over by a black female dog which I do not know the breed. When I asked the security guard (who is from the K9 unit) if I can take picture of the dog, he gladly gave them a simple command of 'SIT' and they just stayed there while I snapped away on my iPhone. I left after giving them gentle strokes on their heads and they will look at me with they round watery eyes and immediately I missed my kitties already....... AWWWWWWWW.......

Manila

Initially when I knew that I have to come to Manila, the thought just sucks...... People have been telling me how dangerous it is (especially when people get kidnapped) and I should not be walking around all by myself. Lucky for me, the hotel that I am staying in (New World Hotel) at Makati City is good and comfortable. Security everywhere (hotels, shopping centres, offices etc) are really tight. When we arrived at the hotel, the hotel staff have to get their dog to sniff our luggage to make sure we were not carrying dangerous items like b**b and they also inspect our hand carry bags to ensure safety. In addition, all cars that drive into driveway of buildings will be stopped by security whereby the driver is requested to open the boot for inspection as well.

Views from hotel, office, greenerys at GreenBelt shopping centre & STARBUCKS!!!

Our colleagues in the Philippines office are very hospitable and really feed us like pigs...... They bring us out for lunches and dinners and ALWAYS over order...... We always have unfinished food that they will 'ta bao' back. One thing about the taste palate here is salty and sweet. For people who are health conscious like my boss totally could not get used to the food. And interestingly, it is so difficult to find good chinese food here, as simple as soup noodles is sooooo hard to find. However, I personally do like this dish called 'Sisig', which is basically stir fried pork meat (the portion that is near the ears) and some pig's intestine. It's spicy, salty and sourish (since we squeeze some lime juice over it before eating) and it goes very very well with rice.

Sisig

On my second day here, our colleagues brought us to this place called 'Greenhills'. It's basically an air-conditioned Chatuchak weekend market. A LOT of counterfeit goods were sold there..... bags, watches, jewelleries and bargaining is allowed! Accordingly to our colleagues, they also sell very nice pearls at cheaper prices than jewellery shops but I did not look at them since I have no intention to get them and I do not want to ask for the price for asking and end up not able to leave the stores as the shop owners will be dying to sell us something. However, I did buy a counterfeit Omega constellation watch (since I could not afford the real one) and fitflops. Cheap and good! Hahaha.

My hauls!