Bangkok-Nov 09

This month was pretty bad on my wallet, I actually went Bangkok, Bintan &Japan! Bangkok was booked half a year in advance to take advantage of the cheap Jetstar flights. Ching will be going with me, forsaking our husbands & Nicole (as she's having exams)

Night 1: We took the night flight & reached pretty late, it was almost 9 plus when we reached the hotel. Upon checking in, we roamed the streets around us, nothing to see before we went back to rest. We stayed the first 2 nights at our all time favourite Amari Watergate Hotel..buy 1 night & get 1 night free so really worth it. Damage: less than SGD40 per pax.

Day 1: We decided to make full use of the hotel's facilities & went swimmming, so freaking cold! There was an onsen look-alike in the female toilet for us to soak in..What bliss....We set off to Platinum Mall., just opposite our hotel. The minimum pieces to get wholesale price is 3. However, I realized that this time round, the price difference is not too great..Hmm, wonder if this is the result of too many tourists??
We smartened up this time round & lugged Ching's luggage to deposit our spoils. As usual, I was the sister who overbought again.. There were so many flowery dresses & my eyes nearly went flowery.. Next up is lunch at the foodcourt..We ate oyster ommelete & pig organ soup..our usual dishes. Before we knew it, it was night time already! Off we went to search for food..We chanced upon a roadside stall & sat down..Dunno why both of us forgot we had weak stomachs..it was the beginning of food poisoning..We ate baked fish (the person forgot our order initially) and sukiyaki soup.

Fish was rather plain but the dipping was great...

Day 2: We checked out & proceeded to Marriott Courtyard for the next 2 nights. Damage: Less than SGD35/pax. Before we did that. we went Platinum, City Square & Pratunam for last minute shopping as we are not coming back. Next, we went Chinatown for food! We chanced upon a fish maw soup by the roadside & attacked it..only $2 per bowl with overflowing fishmaw..yummy..

As usual, we went to the famous dogshit stall (pork floss lah) to stock up our tidbits..Dinner was at a restaurant.more of a roadside restaurant as the food was cooked outside..but we were sitted inside.It may had contributed to my food poisoning as well..

The amazing fishmaw+chicken soup

Dinner @ Chinatown

Tom Yum soup sucks!

After dinner, we proceeded to HealthLand for our BKK routine of massage. We took up a package as it was cheaper and because of this, we decided to come daily to use up the vouchers..imagine daily massage. This is what I call life! Back to the cozy hotel room..

Day 3: Time to brave Chatuchak market! Before that, we decided to go to this Victory  Monument train station for shopping. Well, at least this is the first time that I did something besides shopping in BKK..

Victory Monument

We braved the heat in Chatuchak. I was looking for pure essential oils & we stumbled on this place & I spent quite a bit on 2 bottles as well as a tangerine room spray. We just loitered around to see the nadicrafts & pet sections. Most of the clothes can be found from Pratunum so no point shopping at Chatuchak since it's more expensive..

Pet rabbits so cute...

Ching's stomach was giving her problems, so we returned to hotel early to rest before we venture out again for our massage. We had buffet steamboat conveyor belt for dinner. It was very cheap except that you had to finish your dinner in 1.5 hrs & the food was so-so..

Botanics was having annivsary sale with almost all their products going at buy 1 get 1 free..so you can imagine the number of toiletries that I bought. We went to another healthland spa for massage. This time, it was a super painful massage as I was having fever due to food poisoning, and the therapist kept pressing on my swollen lymph node at my neck area.

Day 4: Back to Chinatown wholesale area for shopping! We had lunch at our all-time favourite Chinese restaurant..

Yummy prawn dongfen that just soaks the gravy up.

Chnatown is the  best wholesale shopping for bags, jewellery, hairclips, shoes, etc..This is not a place to be missed. The shopping is spilit into categories..Some of the shops so-called wholesale numbers is actually 12! We saw a pair of shoes that we liked & were told that we had to buy the whole range of size 4 to size 9.

I am looking forward to next BKK trip, but cannot put on weight anymore as the clothes fit me just nice now..

Bintan Banyan Tree - Nov 09

I received a call from Kristina (one of my travel kakis) if I was keen to go to Bintan over the weekend..I was very excited as it meant Banyan Tree villa! Despite the fact that I was going Tokyo next week & just returned from Bangkok, I immediately agreed... We took the ferry @ Tanah Merah to Bintan around noon..I never realized that tix was so expensive -$60plus (2 way) on Penguin..Check out http://www.penguin.com.sg/pages.php?url=ferryservices

Upon reaching Bintan, we were whisked to Banyan Tree for check-in.There were free DVDs for rental & books for lazing on the beach. The buggy sent us to our room , I preened for pics around the villa before settling down with a glass of bubbly at the outdoor jaccuzi!

Before we knew it, it was almost 5pm..Time to leave our villa & proceed for dinner..We took a few pics at the swimming pool before we headed to Saffron for Thai-Indo fusion food..

Luckily there was 50% off otherwise it is super expensive..The food was interesting but perhaps not worth a second visit but presentation was pretty as expected..Although super full from the main course, we ordered dessert..coconut brulee & some dumpling cum icecream dish.

There was nothing else to do after dinner except to laze in bed, read a book & struggle to watch some DVD (i forgot the name) before falling asleep...Looking forward to Day 2..

Woke up & had coffee with cookie while gazing at the vast Indian Ocean...if only I did not need to return to work the next day..sigh..Next up, buffet breakfast at Tree Tops..We could choose the type of scrambled eggs we wanted (eg caviar) & unlimited flow of champagne!

Headed to the beach for more pictures..a waiter approached us with cold fruits..great service! I really stoned on the beach & realized that I was growing old..In the past, I would never regard lazing on the beach as a holiday. It has to be hectic & more hectic.

 

We went to Pasar Oleh-Oleh (Sun market)..This is a really lousy market that costs us $6 for transportatiom. There was absolutely nothing there! We proceeded for a massage ($20+) that was also so-so..followed by taking away nasi padang to eat at Banyan Tree. Soon, it was time to say goodbye & board the ferry back to S'pore.

Open Water Dive in Tioman-May 09

All along, I wanted to learn diving. However, this dream was never fulfilled as nobody jio. Peggie sms me the other day about open water diving & I thought why not? No leave needs to be taken as it is only a weekend trip. And diving should be chicken feet as I swim regularly & Lawrence says so. I was wrong...
Theory Test needs to be taken - I failed as I never studied and played too little cheat.
Practical at Outram Secondary School was horrible; the pool was flooded with so many people. I couldn't breathe through my mouth initially & then I could not take the bloody mask off my face. I was totally exhausted at the end of the day & seriously thought of cancelling the trip to Tioman. Due to the no $ back policy, I eventually still pressed on with the trip with Lawrence (he went for leisure dive) after going for another pool lesson to build my confidence.

Meeting point at Ghim Moh Road on Friday to take the private couch to Mersing (before we transferred to the ferry to cross to Tioman). We arrived approx  2am & had to wake up around 7am!
Peggie & Silvia (Peggie's friend) shared the bunk with us & had to tolerate Lawrence's snoring & grunting throughout the night..

I paired up with Silvia  for the open dive...It did not turn out too bad after all.. However there was one test on navigation using the compass. Those who know me well should be aware how directionless I can be (imagine I can get lost in Raffles Place ?). So learning how to navigate nearly fried my brain cells.

All in all, this trip was fantastic, despite my initial misgivings..I am actually looking forward to the next dive drip with Lawrence (although he chose the turtle over me when we paired up for the last dive, and he never noticed that I was drifting up..I will remember this forever! What a buddy!)

Kuala Lumpur-Aug 09 (National Day weekend)

Decided to go somewhere during the National Day weekend and thought of KL since I haven't been there since 2005. And it was the MegaSale, which means I can stock up on my Nose shoes..

My sister - Ching, decided to join with Samuel & Nicole. Bus-tickets from S'pore were sold out due to National Day, thus I booked online from  http://www.maraliner.com.my/ for the 9am bus from Larkin Teminal at JB.
Unfortunately I missed the bus & had to pay to take another bus (@MYR50!) for passagers who missed buses.
And this bus turned into Saribun before going in KL, there was a 1 hour jam just for this stopover.
This is the 2nd time going to KL that I had to buy 2 bus-tickets! (You will read about this once I post my blog about KL - Yr 2005). We swore that we will fly by plane next time!

We stayed at Renaissance Hotel (near the Bukit Nanas monorail) for 2 nights. There was a very huge swimming pool (which smelt of chlorine strongly..yucks!). Think it caused the colour of my Seafolly swimsuit to run..heartpain.

My precious niece, Nicole had blogged about this KL trip as well, so check out: http://hellgirlnic.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-kl-trip.html
Thanks Nicole for dilligently making notes..so that I can copy from you (evil san yiyi in action)

I bought a total of 7 pairs of shoes..5 of them from Nose as below..some are 50% off..real cheap!!

Teppanyaki lunch at Mid-Valley (my fav shopping mall)

Shopping Centers covered: Sungei Wang, Pavillion, Mid-Valley & Times Square. I missed One Utama this time round...

We bought durians & thought that can eat at Ching's hotel room - but there were no windows! We sneaked the durians to the swimming pool area and enjoyed the 3 boxes  from the supermart.

How the name of my blog was born

Musings of the Travelling Carrot.... You may wonder why it is called this way.
Oftentimes, we pay more than what an item or day trip is worth when we are on holiday.
We are in a foreign land & not familar with how things work there. Even though you know you are cheated at the time of payment, you still have to pay for fear that hooligans may jump out behind you, especially in third world countries. I have also been "cheated" in some countries. You travel & end up being a carrot for others to slaughter, i.e. travelling carrot.

However, if you do enough research before your holiday, your chances of being a travelling carrot will decrease. I hope my blog will help readers.

Bangkok - May 08

Bangkok is a country that is on my holiday list yearly, and for reasons none other than shopping!
I also go to massages at Healthland Spa (www.healthlandspa.com). If you are there with friends, it is worthwhile to get packages(3,500 Baht for 10 times) to share.

PS: I never bring a camera to BKK as my time is preoccupied with shopping.

Shopping places on my checklist:
1) Platinum. This is my favourite. I spend at least 1 full day there. An air-conditioned indoor area with 4-5 floors of shopping. It is a wholesale centre, i.e you have to buy at least 3 pieces from a shop to enjoy discounted pricing (make sure you travel with at least another kaki). The cheapest price for a top or skirt is around $8. You can see the same item selling for at least $30 plus in Far East. That explains why I almost never shop in S'pore. Most of my clothes are bought when I am on holiday.

2) Pratunam Market. The clothes are not so pretty compared to Platinum & it is less orderly. However, you can dig up good bargains if you have time.

3) City Square. This is opposite Platinum. I always go there to get my working skirts @ $8. The material is better than G2000.

4) Chatuchak weekend market. I do not spend too much time there as most of the items are sourced from Platinum/Pratunam. However, they have cheap & lovely furniture at the outskirts of the market.

Planning for a Europe Trip

I deliberated for many months if I should go Europe on a tour package with ASA or backpack instead. Eventually, I chose to backpack as I wanted to cover more grounds in a city. The typical tour package only brings you to the famous sights and it is a touch & go affair, which I absolutely hate.

Lessons learnt in my planning for Europe:

1) price of air-tickets increase closer to the date. It takes only 1 night for prices to jack up!

2) price of tour packages also increase closer to the date

3) with the above 2 points, pls plan holidays in advance

4) Swiss Pass goes a long way in Switzerland. Free museum passes & transport. It costs a huge bomb if you were to get point-to-point tickets there

5) Never get the Euro rail pass for Italy. I was cursing & swearing as I still had to wait in line to reserve tickets for the fast trains in Italy. Reservations are mandatory. Point-to-point tickets are the way to go. You need not queue & you can just pay at the self-service machine.

6) Stay in the youth hostels in Switzerland. It is cheap & well equipped with kitchens.

7) The walking distance from the train to hostel may be only 10 min in the guidebooks. But it actually takes 15-20 min when you walk! Bear in mind that the writer is an angmoh & has longer legs. Also, the books will not advise you that you have to walk up a hill! Although it is only 5-10 min more, time passes slowly when you have a 20 kg backpack.