Bought our tickets to Paris

Have you experienced the delightfulness of finalizing travel plans and itineraries? I certainly did and have been feeling excited all week! T and I are planning for a trip to Paris and Madrid in April 2014! We'll be visiting family members, enjoying the cool spring and exploring old and new places! This time, we'll be flying via Finnair. It requires a transit at Helsinki, but the 2-way tickets cost SG$1000/pax. It was a fabulous deal! We'll be spending 3 weeks in Paris, 4 days in Madrid and hopefully 1 day in Helsinki.

I am not a Francophile, but I always wanted to visit France since I was a little girl. It started from my fetish over Disney's Beauty and the Beast. When I first visited Paris in 2010, the beauty, history, architecture and arts intrigued me. (That's 4 years ago! How time flies!) We took some time to browse throuhg the photographs while planning the itinerary. The pictures were excellent reminders of the great time that we had. I was relatively surprised by the sheer number of places we visited during the short trip! We visited some iconic places in Paris, slipped a day trip to Brussels, as well as a short visit to Bretagne.

This time, we hope to spend more time with our family members, visit a Pierre Hermé patisserie, be overwhelmed by majestic Sainte Chapelle cathedral and Versailles, relax at Jardin du Luxembourg and go shopping! In Madrid, we'll stay around Puerto del Sol, enjoy local cuisine at Mercado san Miguel, visit Bernabeu stadium, watch a Flamenco dance and hangout at Retiro park. 

Looking forward!

Pictures taken from our last trip in 2010

Centre Pompidou

Paris canal tour

Paris Science museum

Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral

Hotel de Ville

Eiffel tower

Arc de Triomph

Fountain at Tuileries

Sacre Coeur

Mona Lisa painting at Lourve

Château Amboise

Bretagne

Ouessant

Belgian waffle truck

The Grand place at Brussels, Belgium

Belgium chocolates!

Chinese New Year 2014

This CNY felt especially different for me and my husband's family. After the demise of his beloved grandmother, culture dictates that the family does not partake in festive celebrations. Despite that, we decided to resume with the reunion dinners with our respective families. The dinner get-togethers were perfectly cosy and enjoyable. Being a Hakka, I prepared the traditional hakka abacus seeds as well. (The recipe is chronologed here)

- 19 Jan, Sun with my Dad's extended family

- 26 Jan, Sun with my Mom's extended family

- 29 Jan, Wed with my husband's extended family

- 30 Jan, Thurs with my husband's immediate family members

The pictures below show the reunion dinner table setup at my mil's place. She is a very talented cook and prepared numerous delicacies for 9 of us. Needless to say, we had a great time catching up and bonding with our family members.

CNY table setting

Longan, white funges, red date dessert

Chap Chye

Fish maw soup

Yusheng

Yam ring

Peng chye

Khaolak (11-14 Jan 2014)

Update 2016: Monochrome Resort had since changed management and is now named "The Waters Khaolak by Katathani".


When you find a place that you love, you might be motivated to read all about it, google it, share about it and certainly make numerous visits. Khaolak is such a place for me. Almost everything about it appeals to me. The Andaman sea, the sunny weather, lush jungle tracks, local cuisine and sheer isolation is bliss.

My husband returned to the local school in Baan Namkem to volunteer for the Children's day program. We extended our stay in Khaolak after the event. (I joined him over the weekends) This time, we stayed at Monochrome Resort (SG$310 for 4D3N, twin-share room). It is relatively new. Barely opened for a year. Monochrome offers decent facilities and a nice Italian restaurant named Amici. The restaurant doubles as a breakfast dining area for guests as well. I love the al fresco setting but it was equally inviting for stray cats and birds. Our daily breakfast sessions included an unvited guest - an orange tabby that demanded for attention and food.

The pool in the centre of the resort

Concierge

Amici (Italian restaurant)

Orange tabby demanded for food

Sun beds

Welcome drink + wet towel

The room

The room

The room

Bathroom with rain shower

Bathroom

Since it was our third visit to Khaolak, we pretty much did what we always enjoy/do - dine at Enzo Japanese restaurant (for onsen eggs), visit Bang Niang market, have nightly massages, stroll along the beach front and observe a moment of silence at the tsunami memorial site.

This street was renamed 813 because of the police boat that drifted inland during the disaster.

Sakura shrimps

This post chronologs our experience of keeping Sakura shrimps. One evening, my husband returned home sharing enthusiastically about a shrimp tank he saw at a friend's place. After doing some online research, he decided to keep shrimps as well, despite their reputation for being 'challenging' to rear. And they prove to be difficult to keep!

The pH of the water has to be right, the water must not have any hint of chlorine and must be free of sediments, the temperature has to be appropriate, etc. Needless to say, it was difficult to maintain the optimum conditions in the tank! The shrimps died within a week. We were disappointed initially but decided to try again. The 2nd batch of shrimps lasted slightly longer than the first, though not for long. Our shrimping adventure was short-lived. The tank has been empty since, but my mother in law decided that it was a waste of electricity to keep the tank running without any living creature inside. So she returned with a bag of fishes one afternoon, and they have been surving well ever in our tank since then...

Waiting to transfer the shrimps to the tank

Transferring the shrimps to the tank

Little shrimps exploring the tank

Khaolak (8-11 Nov 2013)

One evening, T and I were discussing how we should celebrate his 30th birthday. We didn't want to splurge on a fancy vacation and wanted to visit a quiet destination. Finally, we decided to return to Khaolak, Thailand (the place where we had our honeymoon)

Via expedia.com, we obtained an excellent deal - flights and accommodation for approximately SG$350 nett. This time, flew via Airasia and stayed at Fanari Khaolak Resort. 

Fanari Khaolak was a 5 minutes walk to the beach and 10 minutes to Bang Niang market. The facilities in Fanari weren't great, but it has a convenient location and was relatively inexpensive. The other reason for choosing this place was because it was near Enzo Japanese Restaurant.

Khaolak with 'Gao luck' (pun intended)

Fanari Khaolak

Fanari Khaolak

Fanari Khaolak

Fanari Khaolak

As shallow as it might sound, Enzo Japanese Restaurant was the decicing factor for our trip. While planning for this holiday, we made a unanimous decision to return to Bang Niang because of this place. Enzo is owned and managed by Toshi-san. The restaurant offers exquisite Japanese cuisine made from both imported and local produce. The quality of the food is impeccably fresh and palatable.

Enzo Japanese Restaurant

Onsen egg (yums!)

Gyoza and Edamame

Yakitori

Fresh sashimi

Yasai and ebi tempura

Temari sushi

Handmade chocolate and mango ice cream

As a tradition, we returned to Bang Niang market to twist balloon sculptures for the children. The last time we went was more than a year ago, but we were surprised that some of them actually recognise us!

 

T sculpting balloons for a child

The only roti-prata stall at Bang Niang

Bang Niang market

Fried finger food - Bang Niang market

Dessert - Bang Niang market

Fresh fruits - Bang Niang market

 The fruit seller was actually slicing toddy palms at the back of his pick-up truck! Toddy palms (Hai-di-yeh) is one of our favourite food!

Fresh chicken - Bang Niang market

Fresh vegetables - Bang Naing market

During the trip, T and I also learnt how to ride a motorcycle with the help of a Thai instructor. In Singapore, you can only ride a bike if you have a Class 2 license. Obtaining that license is certainly on my bucket list!