short trip in barcelona

Since I was away for holiday with in laws
last Oct when sis was in Geneva
we didnt get to meet up.
sis is here in Barcelona for the week
so I got her to extend her trip for extra day
and I went to meet her


on Thursday night after work
I went to the airport for my flight
its been so long that I took a flight alone
that I forgot how boring to take a plane alone
all went quickly since is within europe
and there was no custom check.
while I was nuaing and waiting to board
suddenly the gate changed
and it was a crazy crowd to move to new gate
the boarding was delayed too
we finally took off at 2100
instead of 2045


the last time I came barcelona
was for my prewedding trip with Aven
so I totally forgot how to get to city center
lucky sis hotel provided the clear info
we arrived slight late at 2240
and while I was panicking about long queues at customs
and finding the bus
I got out of the airport within 10mins
again, my peabrain forgot there is no customs
and I was seated in front rows


bus was just outside the terminal
so I got my ticket and off we go for the 30min bus ride
despite map provided by hotel and my own googlenap research,
a 3min walk from bus terminal to hotel
managed to become 20min walk
with my zero map reading skills and no wifi
thankfully Barcelona is a night city
and I had not much fear walking around lost.


after I finally arrived the hotel
so phone was off
so I had to ask the reception to call the room
and we finally met!
it was nearly midnight and we went to a nearby place for taps and sangaria
chatted till 3+ and felt asleep.


the next day was pretty much shopping at zara
shopping at Zara
and shopping at Zara..
there was so many Zara store
that you throw a stone and can hit a Zara store
it was truly a shopping trip!

as usual with my navigation skills
and no wifi
we managed to constant get lost..haha
we had paella for lunch
and did zero sightseeing
I think more than half the time
is me blabbing about my life in france
my poor sis must be full of my negativity..

crazily 2 women can spend a full day shopping
and finally tabo burger king for dinner and rest in the room
it was st patricks day
and the streets were full of excited youngsters
and sis fell asleep at 2200..
and I watched YouTube till 200.
must be old age, no energy go party.

the last day went pretty quick
with breakfast at hotel, check out
and taking the transfer car to airport
which we forgot that we are in different terminals
and need say bye much earlier than excited...

short, tiring but happy trip
can't wait to be back in sg for more time with everyone...

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....