TEFAF@Masstricht

Normally I will be depressed after our trip to Singapore
However, this year I didnt have much time to be depressed
Less than a week in France, 
I was to leave for 10 days to Masstricht, Holland to help the Redpencil at TEFAF
Redpencil is an organisation that aims to bring art therapy to families and children.
Basically it started when my classmate told me that Redpencil is looking for a coordinator in Paris
and i wrote to them that I will be interested to help but not as coordinator
because of my bad french
So, i started to be involved and they needed volunteers with this event, so I agreed to go

Apart from husband,
I think i really need to thank my boss
She is so nice to allow me to take leave again after my 1month leave to go Singapore
I still find it a little sad that the whole family is shifting to Africa soon

Although the org covers the transportation and hotel fees,
we were tasked to book our own train tickets
Due to the train strikes happening in Paris for 8-10Mar,
I only left paris on 10mar morning instead of the required 9 mar.
I was a little upset because i was coordinating with my supposed room mate but she wasnt so helpful
and I got the idea that she was a staff so i depended more on her
In the end, I will say the 10 days staying together definitely helped in understanding what happened
im so glad that we didnt hate each other and became friends instead

The TEFAF is located in a small city of Holland
and the worst is the exhibition hall is 10min drive from the center
and we are staying in the hotel beside the exhibition hall
There is basically nothing around, as in nothing
Our meals were either in the hotel or the exhibition hall 
which became very boring in a few days.
Since we were expected to be at our fundraising booth everyday from 11-7
We didnt have much life
Especially when we heard that shops closes at 6/7pm daily at the center
There were 2 evenings that we did had dinner elsewhere 
with the other staff of the organisation

I will say despite the hard work to ask for donations etcs
It is definitely an eye opener to be at TEFAF
where tickets are priced at 60eur/day and so far from the city,
I dont think I will ever go there on my own
Meeting different people from the world of private arts collectors and galleries
is also a new experience for me
everyday felt like im in a big musesum
and hope i dont accidently fall or spill water on any art piece.

Finally on thursday evening,
we went to the center for dinner and shopping!
I remembered it so well because thursdays are the only days that shops are opened till 9pm!
I desperately need to buy a pair of shoes
because i only have a pair of boots that i wore daily
and it was really stinky! 
Luckily, i managed to find a new pair of shoes
and we get to eat mcdonald for dinners!
I was so happy to eat unhealthy and cheap food 
than the same hotel menu everyday
Well, we did found a small kebab shop near hotel on our departure day
but its kinda too late
I quite like the look of the center
I think is time to look at planning a holiday to holland!!

By the 7th day, i got so tired of speaking and standing

that my energy level reduced drastically and i want to be home soon!

I was so happy on the last day but dreaded the near 5hours travel

which takes about 5 transfers for me to be home?!

I was happy to be home and i think I will have a rest before volunteering for so long again

last week in Singapore

After the husband left Singapore,
I practically did not have much plans for my last week
Basically is just meeting my friends at any slots they can do it
And spending my last day wandering around with my sister.
Times flies and it was time to leave...
Thank you everyone for making time to meet me
Im missing everyone so much!!!

Legoland

Without a car, it seems difficult for us to go to JB legoland
I was looking at groupon for some coach and entrance tickets bundle
So I invited my family to go with us
and surprisingly, everyone was available and off we go!
We set off at 8am on Saturday and was surprised that there was no traffic
and we arrived at legoland about 9am where all shops were still closed.
We managed to hold on the kids till the KFC opened at 945am for breakfast
I think the kids were happy disturbing an earthworm on the ground.

The weather was good
It was not too hot, cloudy with rain at times
And the park was quite empty that we took all the rides
and at times didnt even need to come down from the rides for the 2nd, 3rd etcs round.
So, i think we were really lucky to visit the park on that day!

I dont know is it im getting old or simply im not a fan of roller coasters
I was constantly asking my sis whether the ride was scary 
and regret taking the ride 
It didnt helped that the kids were much braver than me

The funniest part was the adults had to walk around the park in wet clothes
after my sis assured us that we wont be too wet after the water roller coaster
at least the kids had raincoats or extra clothes to change
while we just went to the toilets to squueze the excess water out of our clothes, haha

Since the adults were lazy and it was not our first trip to legoland,

It was easy to persuade the husband to take the kids rides with the kids

and i kept telling him that he wont have the chance to do so if there was no kids with him! haha

We managed to take a walk to look at the lego displays 

and catch the show before leaving the park at about 5pm

For dinner, brother decided to bring us to the korean bbq

which husband has been looking forward for so long

since i introduced him to watch Running man!

I dont think the service was fantastic but we did had a good time...

After dinner, we had some time to waste to avoid the traffic jam

So, we went to the nearby mall and hudband gets to try the korean ice cream with the kids

and wandered around the mall for a little while.

Sadly, we still got caught in the traffic jam and it took us about 2hours plus to be home

While in the car, we were entertained or entertained the kids with silly alphabets games

The next evening,

we had another family dinner of xiao long bao before i sent husband for his flight...

I think the legoland trip was great to help us bond with the kids

and for them to really warmed up to us

Sadly, by this time, it was time for us to leave Singapore soon...

Going Thailand - Part 8

Day 12 - Last day in Thailand (BKK)

Since the pratunam market opens at 5am
and my sis told me how she went at 6am for solo shopping
Google tell me the best time to go is 630-830
So, i was really prepared to wake up early and leave by 630am
Husband was game enough to join me for the last bit of shopping!
In the end, we only managed to leave the hotel at 650am
and reached the market at about 7.10am
Since it was our last day in BKK, i told husband that I will shop till 800am
So that we can still enjoy the rest of the day till the flight
In the end, i finished shopping by 815am
Not bad huh?

Anyway, in the beginning we found some cheap tee shirts i wanted easily
husband got 1 too and he regretted not getting more.
but thereafter, it felt like a stagnant shopping,
i found it too expensive (Remember we didnt had much cash)
or i need to force myself to buy more than 3pieces in the same shop
and nothing really interests me
I did forced myself to buy a dress for a higher price
because we were about to leave
Feeling a little depressed that i only bought so little.
While we were leaving, I went into a last shop
and bought 2 more tops 
So, it made me felt better that i shopped enough

We then went to grab macdonald breakfast and Ice thai milk tea back to hotel
Initially husband wanted to go for a swim or suana to benefit from the morning
End up, he just took a nap
I packed the bags and we prepared ourselves to check out
and take back our precious 1000baht deposit
And left our bags with the lobby

We walked a little in platinum mall
thinking to buy last minute sandals for husband
but didnt buy anything
While searching for a place for lunch
we strumbled to a big banner "No brunch in Singapore!"
So we got curious and went in for lunch
I think its call Soi 19
They only have wanton mee and stew pork rice
at fixed price of 100baht each!
Which i think its quite expensive, when our horfun the day before was 40baht

The portion was really small

I think can finish in 5 mouth

I will say the noodle is good but not really worth the hype and price

Oh the tiny white pieces in photo are crab meat

I forgot to take photo of the stew pork rice

but there was only fats and skin!

I feel very cheated and claimed the street stall pork rice was nicer

husband thinks this was nicer

Well, I dont know why they insisted so much about no brunch in Singapore

inside, there were many signboards writing the same

i guess i wont especially come back for it again...

After lunch, we decided to head to the airport via the citylink train

Despite the station looked close to the hotel,

we asked the bellboy for directions

I think he was trying to tell us a shortcut

we ended up walking through small busy streets

and some sort of slums for 20mins

before arriving at the station

and realising we walked so much that we arrived at the station before our designated station

well, at least the train depart from this station too.

Due to the hotel deposit,

husband felt rich in the airport and end up buying expensive airport's food

which we didnt really enjoyed

We reached singapore at about 10pm

and find it hard to resist the temptation to take a taxi home

So, we decided to cab home, haha

Bye bye Thailand!!

Going thailand - part 7

Day 11 - BKK d3

We were woken up at 6am
The train was supposed to arrive at 0710
But was late and only arrived at 0740
We wanted to get a meter taxi to hotel
But there was a long queue
And we gave in to take a tuktuk for 150bahts to our hotel
Which was near platinum mall and quite far from the train station

We ate the leftover food we bought for the train ride for breakfast
And took a meter taxi to the grand palace
While the taxi illegally turn out from our hotel
He got stopped by the traffic police and received a fine
He told us that it will costs him about 400bahts!!
He didn't asked us to pay or give him extra
But we paid him a little extra when we arrived and hoped it will help.
The ride was about 80bahts (yes we paid double for tuktuk) and we gave him 120bahts

The grand palace was very crowded with tourists
And I was shocked to hear a tour guide saying that it was Considered not too crowded!
It's like taking Mrt during peak hours
And we were shocked that it costs 500baht each for entrance fees!
They are very strict with dress code
That I'm glad we prepared a pants for husband
I guess the highlight was the temple that has an emerald Buddha
Because the other areas were relatively empty

We saw a lady wearing sleeveless dress and went to ask the guard for directions
Probably she took off her shawl because is too hot
I was shocked that the guard kept slapping her arms
And told her to cover up (in Chinese)
And not answered her questions
I think the physical contact was uncalled for
Then we saw a woman being dragged out aggressively from a temple
Oh well, people get cranky under the hot weather I guess
With the weather and crowd, I had to tell husband to leave after 1hr+

Since the famous sleeping Buddha was near,
We took a walk over
And it was much further than we expected
But we got to see the river on the way
And that made the husband happy

The sleeping Buddha entrance fees was 100baht which includes a bottle of water
Husband think it was a much pleasant visit
Than the grand palace but we didn't stayed long
Because im too hot and sweaty!!
Husband was getting tired too despite it was his goal to stay outside till 3pm, haha

We tried to find a metered taxi back
But they quoted us like 400bahts!
And insist they dont turn on meter at tourist areas
We walked like 5mins away
Stopped a metered taxi and he was fine with turning on the meter
And we reached hotel for 90bahts.

Lunch was a small local eatery near hotel
That served hainanese chicken rice and hor fun
I dont know was the hor fun that good or we were hungry or potion was small
We even ordered extra plate of hor fun!
We finally checked into our hotel,
again due to late booking, we didnt have much choice
and i wanted to be near the pratunam market
So we got a suite again! 
But this time we are located on the 20th floor
with a scary open balcony that always scare us to be standing there, haha
I find it too unsafe with just a short wall till a little above our waist

After our precious shower,
Husband wanted to rest but with platinum mall nearby like 5min walk
I know that time is precious!
I wanted to leave husband in the hotel and go shopping
But he decided to tag along
As I had very specific things that Im looking for
The shopping felt like a game for husband
To spot the certain fake brands that I wanted
Phew...lucky for me.

We finally returned to our room to rest in the evening
but end up watching a documentry on Channel news asia for 1hour
and it was time for us to go for dinner 
We have no idea what to eat 
even though there was a outdoor seafood stuff near hotel
I wanted to try the street beef noodles
but husband finally chose a thai/western bistro 
Food was so-so but we werent very hungry to begin with

Since most shopping malls were closed
I wanted to walked to the pratunam market to know how far is it from hotel
and how to go incase im the only one to be awake in the next morning
To our surprise, the pratunam market has a night market!
Apparently is a 24hours market, just that different parts are opened at different timing of the day
In addition, there was a special valentine's day night market in front of platinum mall
so we just spent some time window shopping.

Oh why are we window shopping?
Because we have no cash left haha
We didnt know that the hotel requires a 1000baht deposit
Since our cards are not credit cards, we only know it now,
we had to put the deposit in cash and till check out.
As its was our last night of trip, we really had only limited amount left.
Especially after the expensive grand palace visit in the day...
With another 1000bahts gone, i had to exchange my last 100sgd into baht
Which dont leave us much esp for shopping!
So; i would say we end up being quite tight shoppers, haha
luckily, we still managed to survive till the next day....