USA Trip Day 1 - 4 Sep 2014 - Stonetown Galleria Mall

Wow finally The Epic Trip of Our Lives is here! It may not be the case for Mister since he grew up there, but I was pretty thrilled about this month-long trip to the States since it will be my very first foray outside of Asia. And honestly, how often do we get to indulge in one month of vacationing? Lucky us indeed :D

 First, let me indulge in good old Asian food of pork ribs soup, before I subject myself to Western food for a whole month! 

 Sunrise = Beginning of a new day, also a beautiful start to our journey (: 

Our 1 Month Journey in the Land of Liberty - USA Trip Itinerary

We have been planning this trip for an extremely long time!  Since both of us had never been on a month long holiday, just imagine how giddy we must had been :D  I was in between jobs and he had just completed his undergraduate studies so the timing was perfect! 

Departure from Singapore - 4 Sep 2014

Arrival back to Singapore - 5 Oct 2014

Total duration of the trip - 32 days

On the road / Travel days - 3 days

West Coast - 18 days (7 cities)

East Coast - 11 days (4 cities)

Phnom Penh Days (19, 20, 21, 22 Dec 2014)

Day 3 - 19 Dec

We only reached Phnom Penh around 2pm and were joined by a new tour guide.  I guess he heard the rumbling noises from our tummies as he immediately brought us to enjoy a late lunch at 230pm :D After a quick lunch, we started our Palace tour. At 330pm, it was pretty warm to be walking around. Fortunately for us, there were several shady places for us to seek shelter.  Its superb location on the bank of Tonle Sap River & Mekong river also ensured constant breeze to cool us down. 

Throne Hall (primary audience hall of the King, used for coronations & other official state functions) was the highlight as we could get a glimpse inside to witness the grandeur - trademark of any royal events.  Other notable buildings include pavilion to hold banquets, waiting room for the King before he mounts an elephant, repository to house royal regalia & presents from other heads of state.

Angkor City served as the capital of Cambodia till the 15th century.  Only after the defeat by Siam / Thailand, Phnom Penh became the new capital for Khmer Kingdom.  This current royal palace was constructed over a century ago to serve as an official residence of the royal family. 

Cambodia's Cultural Captial Siem Reap (17, 18, 19 Dec 2014)

Day 1 - Dec 17

Although we left Yangon around 10am on 17 Dec, we still had to transit in Bangkok and finally landed in Siem Reap only around 3pm.  Our tour company picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at the Angkor Paradise Hotel.  We decided to take a rest till 530pm or so to then head out for dinner and a bit of souvenir shopping at Pub Street.  As my mom was taking a nap, I chose to soak in the pool while reading up on all the attractions that Siem Reap has to offer.  We were all pleasantly surprised by a very cooling climate of Siem Reap! 

Tuk-tuk transported us from hotel to the lively Pub Street for 1 USD per person.  As "Amok" - curry cooked using thick coconut gravy, lemongrass, turmeric root, shallots, ginger and served on banana leaf- was considered national dish, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant aptly named Amok and ordered chicken Amok. Oh dear, we were not a fan, sadly.  Coconut milk was just too overwhelming for our taste-buds. I also ordered this platter called "Taste of Siem" to try a bit of everything.

First Visit to Cambodia with Mom

In Dec 2014, a few of my friends from the Junior College days were visiting me in Myanmar for 4 days 14-17 Dec.  Only after their trip was planned, I learnt of a trip to Cambodia from 17-22 Dec.  I had to accompany my mom and a few of her clients to attend a training course in Phnom Penh. Fortunately for my friends, the overlap between 2 trips was just 1 day! Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but feel bad to leave them alone on their own.  Like a mother hen, I was quite worried if they could find their way around, if they got cheated, if they managed to get to the airport on time for their flight and so on :D I can share more about Mister's Myanmar trips and my friends' trip in the future if you guys are interested. I also went on the most epic trip of my life in Sep & Oct 2014 to the States but as it was a month-long trip, there will be many posts and let me share about it at a later date too. For now, let us focus on Cambodia.

Angkor Wat - 8th Wonder of the World

NUS Gang in Cameron Highlands Day 2 (27 July 2014)

Although our hardworking friend had left around 6am to hike the Gunung Brinchang, the lazy us had a leisurely breakfast for a whole hour till 930am. The plan was for us to drive to the peak and meet our friend before continuing our sightseeing for the day which would cover Mossy Forest, BOH Tea Plantation, Time Tunnel Museum & Rose Centre, before ending the day with steamboat buffet.

NUS Gang in Cameron Highlands Day 1 (26 July 2014)

25 July 2014 was quite a memorable day for me as it marked the last day of working for my first employer.  The day passed by pretty fast with farewells and photo-taking and hand-over of my laptop.   I was still going to the yoga class at office gym during my lunch time on the last day! With my gym stuff, farewell presents, and other mementos, I really had tones of things to bring back home. When it was time to leave, I couldn't get myself to leave the office at 530 pm on the dot. It was so hard, like something was pulling me back.  Even though I had known it would be my last day at work for a while, I just couldn't help but feel so sad! 

So there I was, dreading to leave office for the last time T-T It was already past 6pm and my kind manager offered to drive me home with all my stuff as it was on her way! And I really needed that as I had not started packing at all for my Cameron Highlands trip! The initial plan was to leave Singapore around 10pm and it was already 7pm by the time I reached back to my room.  I had a quick dinner, packed haphazardly and took a nap for about 90 min. 

Then Mister arrived and we waited together for my friend's family to pick us up. We left my place around 11pm and fortunately for us, there was no queue at all at the Woodlands checkpoint, so we sailed through to Johor Bahru side. Our friend and Mister took turns driving through the night and we first experienced our holiday jam in the KL area, only around 5 am. 

Here is a shot of tea plantations, about 1 hour away from our Strawberry Park resort

Mr & Missy in Thailand

Hello everyone!

First of all, I'm so sorry for being MIA for the past 8 months! Life was hectic with some major changes happening to me.  My parents needed help and I wanted a change so the move to Yangon happened! I was having the so-called quarter life crisis and I needed to figure out what I want in life.  Plus, there was a big fuss about Myanmar being the last frontier and so forth. So why not see it for myself? 

With the slow internet speed back home & me settling into a new environment & constant travelling between me and Mister to maintain our long distance relationship , my blogging was put on hold for a while. 

Finally, I get to share about my Thailand trip which happened exactly a year ago! Such a long overdue post :D Better late than never yeah?

Can you believe Mister has never ever been to Thailand? Plus, we both love Thai food and I love love shopping there. So when Scoot has a promo to Bangkok, we snapped our tickets. 160 SGD for each return ticket with 15kg check-in luggage for Bangkok-Singapore. Quite a decent deal yeah? But a lot of people were surprised as it was at the height of protests and shootings in BKK's crowded areas. Mister's mom was trying to persuade us to cancel or postpone our trip till 10 days before our departure (6 March 2014). Fortunately for us, anti-government protestors decided to scale back their protests & vacate their rally sites just 3 days before our trip! Major PHEW! A sense of normality had returned and we were able to enjoy our trip to the max (:

Yes! Social Media is important in documenting all our exploits & trips & memories!

We both agreed that Scoot was the best budget flight we have ever tried. The planes were huge, there was decent leg room, the flight attendants were polite, there wasn't any delay and overall, it was a smooth flight ^-^

Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 1 - 19 Dec 2013

Nothing much happened on Day 1.

We left Singapore with an afternoon flight and landed in Yangon around 3 pm local time (after a 3-hour journey).  I don't really like taking early morning flights since I have this phobia of missing my flight if I can't wake up hehe :D

Mr & Missy in Myanmar

Have you guys read the news that Myanmar will be named as the World's Best Tourist Destination for 2014 by EU? 

[http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/myanmar-to-be-named-world-s-best-tourist-destination-114030900300_1.html]  

Mr & Missy in Bali Day 2

We were up at 7:30 am and I went for a swim before our breakfast. But someone felt the water was too cold for his liking and chose to continue lazing in bed! Hahaha

What is the use of a private pool if you don't swim in it yeah?

Mr & Missy in Bali Day 1

We were so very excited to be visiting this famed paradise - Bali!  Our flight departure time was 1020 am and we were done with check-in by 9 am.  It helped that we didn't have any check-in luggage. Since it was just a 3D2N trip, we were just going with our cabin luggage.  Besides, the focus is not on shopping, its more on sightseeing and relaxing.

Off we go!

Landed in Bali right on time around 1 pm!

Mr & Missy in Bali

Hotel stays should be a norm for people in Singapore, considering how much we love to travel. But staying at a private villa with a pool just for your own usage is not! We were very lucky to be blessed with a 2-night stay at the  Khayangan Dreams Villa Kerobokan for SGD 351 (Normal rate for 2 nights stay at a one-bedroom pool villa is about SGD 600).  Amazing 42% discount! So just to enjoy this pool villa stay, we planned our trip to Bali! 

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 14 (29 May 2013)

My last day in Korea T.T

We met at Sinchon only around 10 am to give me enough time to pack everything.  Then, we walked over to Slow Garden for brunch.  It's actually just 5 minute walk away form Yonsei's SK Global House and 3 minute walk away from Ewha Women University's back gate.  If you are in the area, you should consider going there! I love the cozy, comfortable atmosphere and food there was great!!!

Some selfies while waiting for our brunch

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 10 (25 May 2013)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, my dear readers!!!

I am so sorry for being MIA! Past few months were considered peak period for my company and so, work has been keeping me busy. By the time I came back from work, I was too exhausted. On top of work, I barely had time to blog with the visits from my dad, my mom and my sister, the planning of my own birthday party as well as a private celebration for Mister's birthday and a 11-day trip to Myanmar! I will really really try my best to blog regularly in 2014 :D For now, let's continue our Jeju journey!

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I had cramps through the night so I didn't have a proper rest & we ended up leaving our hotel quite late (around 830am). So to make up for the lost time, we decided to have a picnic lunch at one of the attractions in our list. Thus, our first stop was a traditional market (Seomun Market) to buy Korean picnic items such as Kimbab 김밥 (Korean rice roll with ingredients such as radish, Carrot, sausage, egg).  But it was so empty! Was it not a market day or were we too late? In any case, we didn't find any picnic food T.T BUT we found a pharmacy and bought painkiller pills for my cramp. They were such a lifesaver! It took about 30min for the pills to start working but it was more effective than Panadol Menstrual for me. 

Seomun Market

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 9 (24 May 2013)

SUPER EXCITED to be finally touring JEJU ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOOOOOOO

We left December Hotel around 8:30 am. Since the hotel was located in the central location of Jeju City, there was no problem with getting a cab to the airport. It was pretty near that cab fare was just 2,000-3,000 Won only. 

We had to take a shuttle bus from the airport to the car rental company's parking lot. As we we were walking to the shuttle bus, we saw cameramen getting ready to film at the airport! I wanted to stay around and see which celebrities will be filming but Mister reminded me about our packed schedule to see Jeju :( And I so very reluctantly got on to the shuttle bus which brought us to the parking lot of the KT Car Rental.

Mister was confirming our reservation and making payment. Did I mention that he booked a MINI COOPER for us??!!! I WAS HAPPY EXCITED AMAZED RESTLESS ECSTATIC EUPHORIC haha you get the idea. 

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 8 (23 May 2013)

We only met at 11am at Sinchon Subway station. We had such a late start today because we would be leaving for Jeju with 7:55pm flight and I needed to pack ALL my belongings, check out of my guesthouse and leave all my luggage at the reception before starting my day. 

Thursday is Mister's fast food day.  He is pretty strict with eating junk food so he allowed himself to eat fast food just ONCE a week.  As there is no Taco Bell in Singapore and he loves Mexican food, we had our lunch there.  I love my cheese quesadilla! 

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 7 (22 May 2013)

Mister came to Sinchon Station around 10:30am to bring me to his hostel so that we could eat lunch together. I planned to edit our trip photos and arrange them in chronological order while he attends his afternoon classes 1-3pm.

Along the road to SK Global House

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 6 (21 May 2013)

Since we couldn't take our Hanbok photos the day before, we had to go back to the Korean Tourism Organization at M plaza Level 5.  We reached there around 1030am and didn't have to wait long for our turn.  Each group is given 10 minutes to take photos. 

Mr & Missy in Korea Day 5 (20 May 2013)

The next day was Monday and Mister had to attend classes till 1pm. He came over to Sinchon Station around 1:15pm to meet me for lunch.  Since it was a bit warm, we decided to try cold noodles (Naeng Myeon  냉면) and dumpling (mandu 만두 )! 

Noodle in ice-cold water! Perfect summer food haha :D