Restaurant | Shinji by Kanesaka

My first ever Omakase !!

Omakase (in Japanese restaurant) basically is a meal consisting of dishes selected by chef.

Basically Shinji by Kanesaka hold 2 Michelin stars

I am lucky enough to get to go to Raffles Hotel for Omakase

The set we ordered was Tsuki 月 (12 pieces)

I not sure I have all the sushi in here or not but I counted here got 13 pieces I think should be all 

I not really sure what I had already (so sad)

But I remember we have salmon belly, salmon, uni, be(prawn), sardine etc

The chef did the sushi one by one for us, I love the sushi rice here because the rice is warm !!

I never had sushi rice which is warm before

The chef is very 細心 also, because the ebi (prawn) is too big for me one mouth habis

so he will cut the sushi into two for me !!!

So sweet !!!!

The nearest to us is our chef of the day

His name is Keisuka Fukasawa 深澤 惠介

After we finished our meal, he will pass us his name card

So if we like his service, next time we can come by chef

If not particular about chef, I think they will random get a chef to serve the customer

I loved about their cake as well !!

Wish to get bigger piece or more for the cake !! Haha....

Lesson learn : the chopstick suppose to put in front of us horizontally, not at the side vertically

Hopefully next time I have chance to try other omakase and I want to blog more details and video more !!!

thanks for reading

xoxo

Quotes | 10 Quotes by Jim Rohn

• "To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract."
• "We can have more than we’ve got because we can become more than we are."
• "The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit."
• "Pity the man who inherits a million dollars and who isn’t a millionaire. Here’s what would be pitiful: If your income grew and you didn’t."
• The most important question to ask on the job is not “What am I getting?” The most important question to ask on the job is “What am I becoming?’”
• "It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development."
• "After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what’s important is not the million dollars; what’s important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire."
• "Income seldom exceeds personal development."
• "What you become directly influences what you get."
• "Values were meant to be costly. If it doesn’t cost much, we probably wouldn’t appreciate the value."

Of course, Jim Rohn definitely has more than 10 quotes which are very useful in life and in any other places.

Thanks for reading.

Xoxo

Half Marathon | Osim Sundown Marathon 2015

Princess First Half Marathon gave to Osim Sundown Marathon 2015.

The event started 04 July however Half Marathon and Full Marathon start midnight(basically it count 05 July)

The event held at F1 Pit Building. I arrived there around 10+ pm. Not that crowded, probably 5km and 10 km already finish or happening.

When I arrived, I saw the very pretty eye on singapore.

Haha.... have to take the before run with the wheel ^^

There were a lot of booth, so we just checked out one by one and I found ...

Tattoo spray and face painting booth. 

Of course I had to  get my face paint !!! 

It will so cool right ~

Tada.... actually she paint a red line in the middle of the face which is the nose area, but I found is a bit ugly + scary, so I wipe it off already !!

Now more cute hah ~~

There is a photo booth where you can take picture with their tools as well

You can have 3 pose because they printed for you in 3 photos

So if you pose once, your 3 pictures will be all same

But you can give to your friends for memory lah..haha...

Very obvious here who is the runner and who is not loh !!

To be honest, run in Singapore is really fun even I got blister on my foot.

Lesson learnt, don't run without socks !!!! It hurt so so bad ><

The scenery is very breath taking and some more we got the chance to run beside the beach

Hence, it was really very breezy ^^

A lot of people just chill, chit chat, paktoh, hold hand but not running loh.

I run and run and run until I cannot tahan my blister on my foot, I saw an ambulance.

So, went and ask for plaster or whatever can let me cover my blister so the shoes won't keep gosok my foot, but the guy told me plaster doesn't help cause it will fall.

I knew cause I had one but it dropped.

Then I asked him wrap a bit for me so it has something to protect, but the guy said after wrapped is very hard for me to run.

So I sit there bargain and discussed whether should wrap or should not wrap.

When I realise, time flies and there were few people waiting him to balut or put medicine I guess.

Siao liao~~

Then I continue run with a bit wrapping by myself (proud)

But half way the bandage keep dropping

and suddenly, I felt so so sleepy !!!

This is the most scary part.

Can you imagine when you feel sleepy and still have 10 km to run back !!!

One no good thing about running in the middle of the night

I had to conquer my sleepyness

So keep running.... 

Just keep running, walking, running....

After a decade later......

I finally arrive the finishing line la !!!!

Got my precious medal..

Hold tight tight and kiss..muacks muacks muacks...

Use my blister, my injured, my sleepyness, my tiredness to exchange this back

But, is so worth it !!!

Of course I had to take picture with my bao bei medal lah !!!

Same place, same pose !

Now can go back and sleep.

No more MRT, took cab home.

Finished showered and get ready to sleep was already 5 am !!!

Good morning ... Zzzzzzzz

Thanks for reading

xoxo

Restaurant | Favola @ Le Meridien

Favola located at Level 8 of Le Meridien Hotel. 

Favola means fable in Italian, it is Venetian, Italy cuisine. For more details and menu, you may check out their website. 

As usual, Italian restaurant will serve you with bread. However, I did not suggest eat too much leh. 

Cause once you eat too much of the bread then you will start feelling full, then how to enjoy the dinner later ? But their bread stick and the bun(right front) is super nice !!!!

Conchiglioni Marinara al Cartoccio, if you want other than conchiglioni, you have to mention to the waiter what kind of noodle you want. 

This is the pasta baked in a parcel with seafood in tangy tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and Parmesan cheese.

But I find conchiglioni also quite cute to eat ^^

Grilled salmon trout, pink peppercorn and pistachio crust with tapenade cream sauce. It comes with polenta cake and tomato fondue or truffle mashed potato.

The salmon looks small but it is quite filling after you eat them. 

Thats why, good protein always give you more filling hah !!!!

Nice environment, nice food just been seated near entrance so I feel a bit weird.

But I always a happy go lucky person, so as long as the food is nice, I can bear with the seat hah !!

thanks for reading

xoxo

Midori Traveler Notebook | Blue Edition

Finally is here !!!!!

My blue edition Midori Traveler Notebook 

I have been using Midori Traveler Notebook for awhile

Loving the size and the free spirit inserts of this journal

They don't normally come out other colours than brown and black

However, they do come out occasionally (rare) in different colour.

I checked online they did came out a light brown colour which was super nice

and this time is Blue Edition.

The real Blue Edition is as in picture, is a bit darker. Towards navy blue, but in real it is really really very pretty colour. 

From the midori website,

TRAVELER’S notebook will offer a Blue Edition, a limted color available only in 2015.
Our inspiration came from the indigo sky right before dawn, welcoming the first beam of sunlight. 
We chose a deep, dark blue, similar to that of blue-black ink, or indigo dye, not a bright and brilliant blue. 

Blue --- Picasso’s self-portrait from his “blue years”, carried a feeling of heavy anxiety and a firm determination. 
Blue --- the earth photographed from outer space, and a shot of deep marine blue taken by a deep sea diver --- has grandeur, beauty and calmness. 
Yves Klein, a French artist, invented his ideal color, a deep blue named “International Klein Blue.” Following that, he used no other color. He described blue as a deeply spiritual color that invites us into the infinity of the universe. 
Variations of blue evoke a diversity of images - youthful freshness, immaturity that accompanies it, melancholy and solitude, serenity, refinedness, eternity, and much more - depending on their degree of brightness and hue.
TRAVELER’S notebook Blue Edition comes clad in leather of a deep blue, which makes us think of new travels.

In addition to this Blue Edition, we will release new items created by collaboration between TRAVELER’S notebook and Pan Am, which once was the national flag carrier of the USA. The airliner used to have blue as its corporate color. These items will be nice when you customize your Blue Edition. 

* These are of limited availability. In case they are sold out or out of stock, we would appreciate your understanding.

The Blue Edition only come with Regular size. So, if you a midori super fans, remember to grab it before it run out of stock worldwide.

Updated Midori Traveler Notebook blogpost will be up soon. Stay tune ^^

Thanks for reading.

Xoxo

Haul | Bath and Body + Sephora

Passed by Bath and Body Works Nu Sentral when I stayed at Le Meridien(just opposite Nu Sentral) from 21st June to 25th June (Sunday to Thursday)

I saw sales, 50% off etc

So stepped in to check out and stepped out with......

Not only Bath and Body Works but also Sephora

Even though the things I bought from Sephora do not have sales but I need the products

Candle was 70% off I believe

But I did not just grab everything or anything in my eyes

I still need to smell one by one and make sure I like the scent only I get them

Total 5 candles I got :

Brazilian Blue Waters, Mango Dragon Fruits, Amazon Falls, 

Marshmallow Fireside, Tiki Beach

I still have my all time favourite Sweet Peas haven't finish so I haven't light them yet

These 4 body products are buy 3 free 1

I choose 3 body lotion and 1 shower gel

Body lotions: Sweet Pea, Endless Weekend and Love and Sunshine

Shower Gel : Sweet Pea (I really love sweet pea scent)

These 2 were 50% off from original price

The buy 3 free 1 has more choice of new arrival

Whereby the 50% off less choices cause maybe is old stock

I bought 2 body lotions: Country Chic and A Thousand Wishes

I quite like their lotion because it does not give me sticky feels

somemore all smells so so good

I can use different flavours according to my mood as well

and the bottle is not super big(although this is consider big bottle) so is quite easy to travel with 

But they do have travel size which is smaller as well

In sephora I bought 2 things

Laneige Water Sleeping mask and Clarsonic Cashmere Brush

I got a sample of Laneige water sleeping mask and I found is quite nice to use

So I decided to get a full size mask

Sephora having promotion where you buy a full size they free you another small one

So, why not ?!

Love my cashmere brush head for Clarsonic compare to normal brush head

I normally change the brush head every 3 months

But one downside is after putting this cashmere head brush I cant fit the clarsonic into the case already because the cashmere brush head is slightly longer than normal brush head.

But is not a big deal for me cause I still can travel with my clarsonic without putting it into the case

Thanks for reading

Xoxo

Typo | Hello Kitty

Typo/Cotton On sent me newsletter that they having new series which is HELLO KITTY !!!

So, I sucked by the HELLO KITTY, the cute stationery and the LIMITED EDITION.

When our eyes see SALES, LIMITED EDITION, WHILE STOCK LAST... 

I think I have to hurry up before everything gone right ????

I purchase everything for RM 255 because I want to get the FREE shipping in Malaysia. 

Different country has different FREE shipping policy. So you may check their website here. But make sure choose the correct country.

So, let me share with you all what I gotten from Typo !!!

Point It Out sticky flag

A5 Plan Ahead pad (is a daily desk planner)

Magnetic Bookmark set

To do list pad

Sticker book

A4 Plan Ahead pad (weekly desk planner)

Spinout Pen Pack (set of 3)

Novelty ruler 30cm (I forgot to check the length, I thought is normal short ruler)

Suck it up drink bottle (they also have pink colour)

A5 Spinout notebook (white and mint)

Work It out PK 5 (set of 5)

A4 Spinout notebook (multi hello kitty)

This is the notebook inside view

I love all the things I purchase and I really will them all. They still have many Hello Kitty stationery and stuffs in Typo. If you interested in Hello Kitty, you may check them out. 

Thanks for reading.

Xoxo

Happy Father's Day

Happy father's day to all the wonderful papa in the world.

I am not the only child for my dad but I am youngest child for him !!
Of course I did not say youngest must be the most pampered in the house. However, I did feel like ^^

Since young I felt that my dad is was a superHero and he still is.
If I can come out a book just to say how good is my dad, I will !!! Haha....

He is just an ordinary person but he is my Hero, my Idol, my Example.
He is kind hearted, cheerful, happy go lucky, teachable, hardworking, discipline, caring, lovely, friendly(sometimes too friendly).

I learned how to love travel and obsess travel because of him because since I small, he will drive me everywhere on Sunday. Even my mum did not want to follow, I will, and Yes, just me and my dad !!
He told me that, we have to go out to the world and see how other people lives, see other people culture, so we can learn ! That is so so true !! Hence now, if I have chance, I will travel, near or far.

I learned how to be positive from my dad. Anything for him also no problem. For me is, anything happen, then I will go to my dad, then everything will become no problem.

He is going to be 80 years young but he still keep learning, day day everyday. So, I did not see why we stop learning at anytime. What I mean learning does not mean we have to go to school, we can learn a lot of things. My dad learn computer, learn laptop, learn iPad, learn smart phone, learn Facebook, learn google, learn how to see stock online, he will learn anything if he possibly can. He told me he want to learn English and of course I encourage him to do so !!!!! Actually when I travel with him, I notice he actually can understand English, just he can express !!! How cool !!!

For him, I always a kid and I know I always is. How someone don't wish to grow up but I wish him don't grow old that fast. But he is strong man !!! Thanks to good Herbalife nutrition everyday, really! I really grateful he such a good student in this as even when he travel, he will pack his Herbalife himself enough for the whole trip !!! I am so touch and happy.

I know I cannot by his side every single day, thats why whenever I have time, I love to go back hometown. Whenever I have more time, I love to travel with them. I love to treasure my time with them, because it is precious for me. Don't take parents time for granted.

Now, I just wish him Happy, Healthy, Strong forever !!
Love you dad.

Travel | Halong Bay (29th May)

The second day in Halong Bay we been brought to visit a cave.

We travel there by small boat as well. From our cruise to here is about 2-3 minutes only. Super near !!

Sung Sot cave is one of the largest and most beautiful caves here. 

There is not a lot of steps and the cave basically is dry so no need to worry about slippery.

After climb up a few hundred steps, you will amaze by the view and forgot about how suffering  you were when climbing the stairs !!!! At this moment, I fall in love with the view !!

If it is not because of the tour guide, I would not notice so many hidden features in this cave !! 

1) Monkey

2) Old Man

What you see from this picture ??!! ><

Even inside the cave itself is so beautiful !! No wonder this is the most beautiful cave in Halong Bay. Although I never been to others ! Haha...

Who left his/her heart over here ???

Before we head down back to the boat, this is another side of the view on top. Is that beautiful, breath taking, amazing ?!!!! I definitely will travel back here again one day !!!

Before we leave, I wonder how the people on the boat sell their things. As I saw many small boats like this sell seafoods, junk food etc. When I observing, there is a guy beside me buying seafood from this boat. Then only I know they use the long stick with net to hold the seafood and pass to customer on top here. Then the customer will put money in the net for the seller. SMART and SPECIAL !! At least I never seen this before la....

Finish visiting the cave and is the only things we do for the next day. We headed back to our cruise for shower and brunch and the cruise will slowly cruise back to the jetty. 

All the cruises are not able to stop by the jetty, so always there is a small boat to transfer visitors from cruise to jetty, from cruise to caves, to visiting places etc.

Our driver waited us near the jetty, so is time to say bye bye to Halong Bay and headed back to Hanoi City (an oven place!).

*************************************************************

At night because is really too hot, so we decided to pay a walk to Hoan Kiem Lake nearby our hotel. Also can consider in front of our hotel. One of the reason I choose Meracus hotel, strategic location !!

The night view of the lake. However, there is no wind at all even we sit beside the lake, still super HOT !!!

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Hanoi. But we plan to do some shopping as mama want to buy Vietnamese Coffee !! 

Here come to the end of my travel to Hanoi and Halong Bay.

Hopefully next time I will have more interesting travel to share !!

thanks for reading.

Xoxo

Travel | Halong Bay (28th May)

From Hanoi city to Halong Bay is about 4 hours by car. One thing I decided to use driver instead taking public transport here and there is because I travel with my parents so is a lot easier to have a driver with us. 

Ha Long Bay, on Vietnam’s northeastern seacoast, is often considered one of the world’s most beautiful bays. In 1994 and 2000, UNESCO recognized Ha Long Bay as a World Heritage site for its remarkable landscape and geomorphology. It was also listed as one of the New7Wonders of Nature in 2011.

We got to use these small boats to transfer us to our cruise. Due to low season in Hanoi (because it is summer) so we won't see much tourist.

When we booked the driver, the company help us book the cruise together as well. Per person per night is about USD 135 included 4 meals (lunch and dinner on boarding day), breakfast and brunch on check out day. 

The cruise that we boarding name White Dolphin. There are so many cruises there, all by different different company. So when you google Cruise in Halong Bay, it will come out a lot of website for you to choose. Because this is our first time, so I let the person in charge to book whatever he think is nice for us.

When come to low season, one good thing is you be able to upgrade easily. I not sure what our room suppose it looks like, I just know our cabins is at downstair before upgrade, however due to low season, we can occupied the cabins upstairs which has own balcony itself(so I assume downstair is without balcony). The cruise has 10 cabins (cater for 20 people) and we have only 5 of us (my family with another couple), so it seems like a private cruise just for us !!! Awesome.

This is my first time stay in a room by myself !!! Is not scary and I feel the luxury, hahaha..... 

Love the balcony because when the cruise cruising, I can see the beautiful scene from my room !! How nice is that !!!

If you have chance to go to Halong Bay, you must contact or book this tour guide name Tú. He really the best tour guide I had ever met. He is funny, his english is so so good (at least I can understand well). After I came back from Vietnam, they request me to do review on TripAdvisor only I saw so many good review about him !!! We are lucky to have him as our 2 days tour guide.

They did arranged some activities for us as well. The first day we visited the fishing village in Halong. To visit the fishing village, we have to use the small boat like sampan.

For the tipping, each person just give them USD 1 will do. 

When we travel around the fashioning village, we can see the floating house over there. Nowadays there is no one live there for fishing, the people who left over and stay here is the people who rolling the boat. The rest of the people already moved to the city.

This is the formal primary school. Sadly they also need to move out as there is no teacher willing to come over here to teach them. But they still remain the classroom as museum for the tourist to visit.

We also pay a visit to the oyster farm. After visit the oyster farm and the good explanation from the tour guide, I finally know why pearl is so expensive. I am talking about good pearl real pearl. 

The original pearl is super small, not like the one we see in the market, big and beautiful. They need to cultivate the pearl.

First, they need to take the pearl and put into the oyster, and they also need to put in the mama membrane into the oyster as well. After that, they will put all the oysters into the water to cultivate the pearl. After 3 years, the pearl will become big. However, only 30% successful because some of the pearl will come out from the oyster and the oysters will die. From the 30%, maybe 10-20% out of this "survival" pearls is good pearls. Therefore, the real good pearl is so expensive !!!!!

But of course a lot of business will fake the pearl, because I not really know how to see a real pearl, so end up we buy nothing. haha....

Capture the moment from the deck of the cruise. Love the sunshine over here !! It is so beautiful. The weather here in Halong Bay is not as hot as in Hanoi City. 

Before dinner we had a learning session which is learn how to roll Vietnamese Spring Roll !! Is kinda fun to have traditional activities like this. The couple from Mexico are really nice as well !! (Thanks Tú help me capture the moment)

First time sleep alone in "hotel".

First time sleep on the cruise.

Hopefully won't have much sea motion ^^

Thanks for reading.

Xoxo

Travel | Hanoi City (27th May)

Today, the driver brought us to pay a respect in Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is preserved in the cooled, central hall of the mausoleum, which is protected by a military honour guard. The body lies in a glass case with dim lights. The mausoleum is closed occasionally while work is done to restore and preserve the body but is normally open daily from 09:00 to 12:00 to the public. Lines of visitors, including visiting foreign dignitaries, pay their respects at the mausoleum every day.

When we arrived the mausoleum, we have to leave our bags in a counter, you can bring your camera, wallet and phone with you, they will give you a "special bag" to put your stuffs in it. Your bag will be only can take back when you about to leave because besides the mausoleum  inside there also can visit Ho Chi Minh Palace and Museum. 

Before enter into the mausoleum  you have to put the "special bag" in another counter. They not allow you bring any camera in when entering but you can get back your gadget once you out from the mausoleum and continue visit the palace and the museum.

The One Pillar Pagoda is a historic Buddhist temple in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. It is regarded alongside the Perfume Temple, as one of Vietnam's two most iconic temples. The temple is built of wood on a single stone pillar 1.25 m in diameter, and it is designed to resemble a lotus blossom, which is a Buddhist symbol of purity, since a lotus blossoms in a muddy pond.

Ho Chi Museum is a museum dedicated to the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam's revolutionary struggle against foreign powers.

Because the weather is really super HOT, so we decided to try the very popular ice cream in Hanoi !!!

Trang Tien ice cream is famous for the wide variety of flavors including bean, chocolate, young glutinous rice, and milk, which are sweet and delicious. People can feel the ice cream melting in their mouth. Since its first appearance in 1958, Trang Tien ice cream has maintained its reputation thanks to the particular quality and flavors. Despite its fame, the price is very reasonable —everyone can enjoy it

I tried vanilla and chocolate but I did not eat the one come with packaging, instead, I tried the cone ice cream. For me the ice cream is so so, but since is so popular so can try it out when go over there. Maybe should try out their different flavours' ice cream. 

After that we headed to Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. This museum is focus on the 54 officially recognized ethnic groups in Vietnam. It is widely considered to be the finest modern museum in Vietnam and a tourist attraction in Hanoi.

We had a great time over in this Museum ^^

We had our dinner at Wrap & Roll. Their spring roll is variety, taste so so. But I don't really like their service. Sometimes when tourist pay money and take back the change, they don't really see exactly how much they take back because due to vietnamese dong is really too small. Like our dinner is 408,100 Dong and I paid 600,000. Surpassingly the change is 191,900 Dong, somehow they 900 behind just dissapear. But if they tell me upfront say that they don't have small change, I am Ok with it. But they pretend they don't know, so I had to take back even just 900 Dong. Maybe sometimes they just wish tourist will not count !!!

After dinner we went for Traditional Water Puppet show, is very near our hotel (should say just in front of our hotel!!). 

Water Puppet is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. Today's Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition.

Modern water puppetry is performed in a pool of water 4 meters square with the water surface being the stage. Performance today occurs on one of three venues—on traditional ponds in villages where a staging area has been set up, on portable tanks built for traveling performers, or in a specialized building where a pool stage has been constructed.

Up to 8 puppeteers stand behind a split-bamboo screen, decorated to resemble a temple facade, and control the puppets using long bamboo rods and string mechanism hidden beneath the water surface. The puppets are carved out of wood and often weigh up to 15 kg.

A fruitful day 2 trip ^^ 

Is time to rest and get ready to go Halong Bay tomorrow !!!!!!

Thanks for reading !

Xoxo