Travelling Extravaganza - Seoul

This is, I believe to be the last travelling extravaganza I'd have until a few good months before I'll get to travel again *cross fingers*.

Though my eye was still under recovery then, I applied nail lacquers for the trip for vanity's sake and also to console myself not to keep thinking of my condition. With that, I took Color Club's Otherworldly from my nail lacquer stash & applied them onto my nails.

Seriously, I've bought it more than 3 months ago but I had no idea why I did not use it till now. Perhaps I was hoping the blue and the glitter will elevate my mood somehow. Nonetheless, the application for Otherworldly is very smooth and I only used 2 coats for this.

Being one who love Seoul, this trip wasn't very enjoyable to me due to one and annoying reason - my eye. As mentioned in my previous blog post 'Eye Infection Gone Bad', my eye's condition had gone terribly bad during my trip there. I was really thankful to my partners in Seoul who took such good care of me & even offered to bring me to an eye specialist just to get my eye checked. Without them, I'd have freaked out in a foreign land!

话说回来...although I did not truly enjoy my trip (physically), I did manage to do some retail therapy there, heh. My shopping desire in Seoul was pretty objective - Hair accessories, anti-dust caps if any and foot masks (since I'm allergic to most korean skincare products). My most extensive loot? Definitely the iPhone anti-dust caps and hair accessories! I basically had a serious overhaul on these 2!

iPhone anti-dust caps!
Some are giveaways, some for self-keeping of cos!

Hair accessories overhaul!
Some on the right were for my girl, the rest...MINE!

Honestly, I bought more than those...but somehow, due to my eye, I wasn't in the best of mood to take a lot of pictures and thus, these 2 were the only ones I took when I was in Seoul. When I came back from Seoul, I was literally focused on seeking a cure for my eye and didn't think of taking any other loot I've brought back from Seoul anymore. Am truly sorry I couldn't share the joy of Seoul's shopping haul for this time.

Let me get my eye fully recovered and I'm sure I'll be able to tune my mood back to normal & blog with more energy again!

Travelling Extravaganza - Taipei

As mentioned previously, I was travelling madly since Jan 2012 and after BKK, Taipei was my next destination for business trip.

Honestly speaking, I wasn't so upset being appointed to go to Taipei for this trip. Which woman will resist Taipei!? Though I am under a travel craze from company aspect, I was still pretty much happy to step my foot onto Taipei! After all, I could go shopping after work due to their night markets!

Let's get started on the yummy-licious part...FOOD! There are just too many delicious food all over Taipei, hehe! Here's some I've ordered and taken during my stay there. Most of them were my breakfast & lunch during the business appointments and etc.

银座拉面: Their katsu and rice sets are pretty nice but I heard from my colleagues who ordered ramen commented that the noodles weren't that good...

便所餐厅: What more can I say? Patronised this restaurant previously during my last trip & LOVE their hotpot, thus, couldn't resist but to drag my colleague along this time to let her try it out!

Ikari Coffee: This is a Americanised cafe serving Amercian style of breakfast. My FAVOURITE. Served delicious breakfast and won't hesitate to re-visit again if I go back there!

Dante's Coffee: Introduced this cafe to my colleagues for breakfast since there was one nearby our hotel. Again, they serve American style of breakfast thus, I love it to the max ^^.

集客人间茶馆: That would be the hotpot photo you see at the bottom of the photo above. Recommended and brought there by our partners. Very fresh and clean base soup with pork shabu shabu. Really hard not to like it when the weather's cold enough to make you enjoy it.

Another restaurant I will like to recommend will be the Kazu Cafe. This restaurant is located in an alley opposite of  师大夜市 (Shida night market) entrance. The ambiance of this restaurant gives their customers a very cozy and English-style of feel which really makes you feel at home. They serve a lot of varieties, especially OMUrice which is one of my favourite! And so, off I went to order. :D

Looks delicious right? This is an omelette rice served with minced meat. Frankly speaking, this dish is fantastic, but somehow, it wasn't stated what kind of meat it was and I tasted it to be like of beef (I can't take beef due to health issue), so I kind of took it aside and ate up the rest. Overall, it taste good!

Their choice of beverages are also amazing. Lots of choices to select and I chose a mango ice-blend. Sigh, I asked their waitress countless times to verify if this beverage contained milk. While she said no, it turned out they blended it with milk still, after a few rounds of clarification. TOTALLY WASTED!

Looks so nice but I couldn't drink it!

Given the fact that my 1st visit to Kazu Cafe was much of a good experience even though the ambiance and the food weren't so bad, I returned once again, this time, with my other 2 colleagues who wanted to visit Shida night market (I extended 2 more nights to shop) to taste other dishes. This time, I really LOOKED at their menu CAREFULLY!

Hahaha, ordered an omelette pork cutlet rice on my 2nd visit just to play safe. :D

Enough of food already. Now let's go to the LOOT I've gotten from Taipei. How can I leave them out ya? Be warned, below-mentioned are just some but not all of my loot!

The photo you are about to see is an incredible photo. Reason being.....the outfit you are going to see were all bought from Taipei and I wore it during the trip instantly, LOL!

Beret, coat, scarf, bag.
All from Taipei!

Hat-lookalike (a hairband) & sweater from Taipei

While browsing and walking around at Shin Kong shopping mall with my colleague during her last day of stay in Taipei, she commented why I still haven't bought a single Hello Kitty item. Truth be told, I was puzzled too. Alas, you really can't speak of the devil cause the devil will come to you naturally and speedily!

Hello Kitty watch from Sanrio!

See? End up I got myself a Hello Kitty watch (AUTHENTIC one OK!) just 20 minutes after my colleague made that comment to me. It was not intentional but I happened to be really looking for a watch and this Hello Kitty watch looks just too attractive to me ^^.

Apart from that, I've also bought a few items I feel really a catch as they are just too damn pretty and nice and affordable to begin with!

This owl ring is the prettiest ring out of my entire ring collection,
other than my skull ring :D

My 3rd skull bag! This time, it is bigger!

My 1st pair of boots!

I promised myself I wanted to get myself a pair of boots during my Taipei trip. I almost gave up the thought of buying until the very last night when we were browsing through 通化街 （通化夜市) Tonghua night market as our last shopping ground. The shop was selling all their shoes at 2 for 500NT which is less than 12 bucks per pair of shoes! Which dumbass won't grab them?

Mad and crazy travelling they seemed, but I gotta admit, I did enjoy them too. I always believe, a business trip may be tiring and stressing to some point but if you are able to make good out of it (Work is work, after work, PLAY), business trip can be fun too. :)

Oh yeah, once again, there is this one thing I can never forget about doing when I am in Taipei, especially in their airport. That will be........GODIVA Ice-blended! I can tell you, it tastes like heaven and you will NEVER love any other chocolate ice-blend anywhere else! Too bad I could only taste it in Taipei, somemore in their airport (within Departure hall).

My love. I wish I can drink it again!

I took a picture of myself when I returned to work after my trip full of Taipei loot on me. Since it is impossible for me to post ALL my loot from Taipei here, let me just post this here to close the loot chapter.

下回见! For my next post! :)

Travelling Extravaganza - Bangkok (BKK)

This is the beginning of my travel madness. But rather than calling it madness, I called it 'Extravaganza' instead since I do gain a little out of all these 'MADNESS'.

Alright, my post title says it all. My 1st trip of 2012 began with me touching base onto Bangkok (BKK). It was a freaking last minute notice (like 5 days notification...duh) and so, there I went to the all-so famous BKK for holiday, NOT! It's a BUSINESS Trip folks!

Casting aside the madness, let me get down to the more interesting and the 'not-so-dull' on-goings I had during my business trip in BKK. First, the hungry gang (that includes me) rushed off to a Japanese restaurant - FUMi Japanese Cuisine at Siam Paragon recommended by yours truly. Simple reason....good food, affordable price. Nuff said. 

FUMi's menu

There were so many choices within the menu (Oops, I forgot to snap the inside of the menu -_-"), my colleagues were pretty lost in deciding what they want...even though they were seriously famished!

Deciding, deciding, deciding...

Anyway, I ordered mine happily - A Teppanyaki Chicken Steak set (can't really remember its actual name) and I was even more happy to see my order arrived 1st!

What's in the set?
All you can see from the photo above except for the drink & chawanmushi!

In Singapore, ordering such a set may jolly well cost me around 18-23 bucks, depends where you eat of course. But here, in FUMi, this set only cost me not more than 11 bucks! So, if you are a tourist, or never mind, even a businessman/woman in BKK, try out this restaurant when you can!

If you are interested, here's the address to this affordable japanese restaurant:

Address:

FUMi Japanese Cuisine
Siam Paragon, 1st Floor,

Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

A little break from food, let's take a look at the hotel I'm residing during my stay in BKK. The hotel I'm residing at is named Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel. Hmm, this hotel is not exactly located at a very strategic area, not very near city though you can reach the city in less than 15 minutes and it is located on top of a hill. Quite a sight huh? What's more, a hospital is situated in front of the hotel, however, since the hotel is situated up on the hill, you can't really see the hospital...

Having said that, the hotel service and facilities aren't bad at all. The room is spacious, plenty of space for movement, a dressing table and their bathroom is of certain standard as well!

Twin room, very spacious!

Part of the bathroom. Clean & spacious!

What looked so profounding was this...

What is a BOTTLE OPENER doing in the bathroom!???????????

The restaurant where they serve their breakfast isn't shady either. The whole area is lit with warm lights and the full height windows really give the whole place a bright and natural glow.

Dining area

Food spread #1

Food Spread #2

My very own American style Breakfast :D

And here I go, my 1st and very own American style breakfast~

If you do not mind the location and prefers the comfort & service a hotel provides, you may want to find out more about Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel.

Frankly speaking, we didn't get to go to many places for this trip due to our meeting being held in the very hotel we were staying in. What we had was just a 3-hour OTOT at Siam Square and a dinner treat from our big boss somewhere in BKK, heh. During this dinner treat, I did spot something interesting which caught my eye ^^.....

A freaking BIG prawn that is about the size of my palm!

Not only that, I got to slurp authentic tomyum goong from BKK itself. I'm a happy woman ^^.

Yummy, spicy, delicious!

I also managed to taste Thailand's version of 'Char Kway Teow' - Pad Thai, which is absolutely delicious! Tried twice but only managed to snap the one I ordered at the airport....

I don't think it is right to leave BKK without tasting the most popular dessert of Thailand - Mango Sticky Rice! Seriously, the taste of it in Singapore versus BKK really makes a huge difference.

Since my blog is so commonly filled with shopping stuff and loot, I can't simply avoid posting my loot from BKK, can I? Sorry to disappoint some of you who may thought I shop BIG TIME in BKK but truth be told, what could I simply achieve in a 3-hour OTOT, right?

Hello Kitty portable fan for my baby girl~!

Sorry, both my baby girl and I are in such a Hello Kitty craze, it is hard for me not to get her something that is not in the form of Hello Kitty recently.

*Cough* Yes, my only 2 apparel loot gotten from BKK. Sounds pathetic but I really couldn't see any others that caught my eye. Most of them were either too small, too big or too...simple.

However, the best loot I've gotten from BKK would have to be this~

A pretty, big and bling bling skull ring!

This ring is currently my favourite ring of all. The quality is damn good and not to mention the skull is not creepy at all. I do like skulls but not really those creepy ones. I hope I can get some more of these good quality rings in BKK again when I re-visit!

That pretty much summed up my 1st travel extravaganza of the year. Next up, it will be Taipei (all women's shopping heaven), my 2nd travel extravaganza~