ablessednuisance

A mermaid in the making!

2018-11-06T18:35:00.001+08:00

Yes, we are officially certified Open Water Divers! Advanced Diver next?

I think this comes as a huge shock to many of my closest friends because those who went to beach islands with me would have known how freaking terrified I was of fishes. The first time I went snorkeling, I had to get into the water at an area near the jetty that was SWARMED by huge fishes cos people nearby were throwing food at them. It took me so long to get into the water and swim about 50 meters to the floating platform where I cried and never got into the water again. My dad had to carry me back to the jetty so I don't have to touch the fishes again LOL. And since then, every single time I had to go snorkeling like touring the phi phi islands, I cried my eyes out. I could still remember my very traumatic experience, but this diving trip changed everything.

First off, the reason I decided to take it up was cos I really wanted to try something out of my comfort zone. And also, a really close ex-colleague of mine recently came back from diving in Bali and she was talking about her amazing experience and how much she loved the ocean. She even said that if she ever encountered a whale, she will tattoo it on her arms. She has convinced her boyfriend to take up the diving course so they could dive together someday. And I was telling Sam about it and he also mentioned that he hope to take it up someday too, it was something that he had wanted to do for awhile. And since I left my previous job, and had 3 weeks of free time, I decided to just go for it. I was quite excited too, while Sam was a little worried I might panic underwater. But I thought he's the best person to go with since he'll always lookout for me.

We signed up for SSI certification, Open Water Diver Course with Gill Divers. I only went with them cos my ex colleague said that was the store her boyfriend signed up with. So I thought since his course went smoothly, then it should be no problem for us too. And also all the prices regardless which store are roughly the same prices, and we paid about $650 each. My experience with Gill Divers is great, the responses are really quick, transactions were smooth, and everything was really clear in the emails. I experienced no problems at all.

The course was divided into 3 parts:

theory lesson + test
pool session
Tioman dive trip

Theory test is held every Tuesday at 7pm, so you can just come after work. Pool sessions are held every Sundays. And the dive trips are from Friday night to Sunday night. So if you're working, you actually don't have to take any leaves at all. I thought that was quite cool how they thought of the people who might be working. In case you're wondering, the theory test is not difficult, I doubt anyone can fail from that. Plus, they give lots of hints during the lesson so it's really quite impossible to fail. I don't think they will let you fail too after paying such a hefty sum. I got 47/50, and Sam ggot 49/50. I lost the stupid bet.

Then came our pool session, which is definitely the more exciting part. We gathered at Outram Secondary School. The pool is not very big, and we had to share among I think 20-30 other students altogether. I think the worst part of the pool session was starting it off with 8 laps, which I had to cheat if not I would have kept everyone waiting for another 10-20 minutes HAHA. We went through the necessary skills such as mask clearing, sharing air, weight belt removal and retrieval, BCD removal and retrieval, etc. I think everything went quite ok, but I super hate my weight belt. LOL, it makes me way too heavy for my legs to even support myself. And it doesn't help when I had to remove my BCD on the surface cos whenever I remove it with my weight belt on, I sink almost immediately and without help I will drown and die. HAHA, we passed our pool lesson with breeze, and anticipated the actual dive the following weekend.

On Friday evening, we gathered outside Outram Secondary School to take our attendance and check that all our equipment are working and of the right size. Then we hopped onto the coach that took us to Tuas checkpoint, then straight to Mersing jetty. We had a few rest points at the start, which I used every opportunity to clear my bladder cos me has a smol bladder and is very very bad at holding my pee. The last 3 hours was a no-break drive all the way to Mersing jetty, where we boarded our dive boat called Princess, all the way to Tioman. We arrived at around 2am at night, slept throughout the entire coach ride, and was freezing our ass off the entire boat ride LOL. Thankfully there's a marine toilet on the boat, so no need for holding my pee.

In case you're wondering where we stayed, we checked in at our beautiful Tioman Island Reef Resort, that we paid an ADDITIONAL AMOUNT OF $160 just so we get to sleep in the same room because the room allocations are initially 4 people per room, by gender. And we were, surprise, the only couple. Apparently diving is not usually a couple thing to do together. The first room we got, we weren't able to lock the door, heck we weren't even able to close it. Like a gentle breeze would have blown the door open in the middle of the night while we were asleep and we will probably wake up with bats in our room. So we changed to a second room, where everything was fine yknow. Water is a little brown in the toilet, killed two cockroaches first thing we got into the toilet, things like that. Yeah, I mean at least we were able to lock the door. I guess...

I thought it was definitely not worth the additional money paid on top of whatever we already paid for the course. I mean, it's SGD $160 sia, which means $80 per night. We could even have gotten a much nicer place to stay in Singapore with that price, let alone Malaysia right? I got over it quickly cos the money is paid anyway, and the thought of having the share the terrible room with three other girls I don't know kinda justify the money for me (not really I know, but ok).

We tried to sleep cos we had to report early in the morning for our first open water dive. I barely had any sleep cos the aircon was mad cold I had to sleep with my entire head covered. I didn't even dare to brave the cold to turn the aircon off so I woke Sam up to do it. HAHA

A little consolation for the shitty rooms we had to sleep in. The morning view was stunning. And breakfast at the resort wasn't terrible. There's a HUGE school of small fishes near the jetty, we usually just call them jetty fish. Occasionally another school of bigger fishes comes near to disturb them and the entire school of jetty fish make a small jump out of the water simultaneously. Super cute, but still looking at this huge school is very terrifying.

Our first diving site is at Tomok. Sam and I were in Open Water Diver Group 4 (OWD4), together with 4 other divers so that makes 8 of us, including our instructor and divemaster. We will have to complete a total of 4 dives to be officially open water divers certified. First two dives will generally be going through all the skills we learned during our pool session, and making sure we were able to do them in open water. Then the last two dives will be just swimming around and exploring!

The first dive was a little nerve wrecking cos we had to equip everything to the oxygen tank on our own, and there were about 10-15 people on the boat trying to do the same thing. It was quite chaotic. And I was super blur on what to do cos no way I can remember so many things hahaha. So I just copied whatever the person beside me was doing. Thankfully, OWD4, the group I was in has a few quite pro people. For instance, we have a swimming instructor who is currently working in the dive shop I signed up with, so he's very familiar with the equipment and stuff. Then we have this other dude who had prior experience diving, but just wanted to get the cert over and done with. HAHA, so I was in very safe hands. I got everything equipped, and put on my vest with the oxygen tank (my second least favorite part cos it is so freaking heavy). Sam is my diving buddy. And buddies were supposed to help each other get equipped. He usually help me put mine on first, but when I am fully equipped, I am not at all capable of helping him get equipped cos I can barely keep myself balanced. It is really super heavy, and bulky too. So Sam being super understanding and capable too, has no troubles getting equipped on his own, or with the help of the boat people.

So we took a giant stride and jumped into the water, and I took a little peep at the fishes underwater. I am a little scared...but I didn't really mind. I think I had too many things to think about so fishes weren't really my concern I guess. And they weren't big, and none of them were touching me too cos there weren't too many of them at the surface. Once everyone in OWD4 are in the open water, our instructor ran through a bit on the instructions and stuff. Then I realized my vest is making a sound...so I asked about it and they told my my vest was leaking air. GREAT LOL. My first dive in open water and scared of fishes, and now I have to manually blow air into my vest to stay afloat. HAHA, but it was a really minor problem cos we will be doing most of our exercises under water at 8m deep. I trusted my instructor, and my buddy to take care of me so I tried not to be too scared.

We first had to descend by deflating all the air in our BCD, and we will be descending slowly using a rope they tied to the coral at the bottom. We descended really slowly and had to constantly equalize cos the ears can hurt quite bad. Sam and I were the second pair to descend, and once we were at the bottom, we held on to the rope so we don't float away from the group. There were fishes underneath, duh. But it wasn't a lot, and the fishes were small. And they were so curious! When you're underwater, you can't speak. So all you have to entertain yourself while waiting for the other pairs to get to the bottom with us, were your eyes. So naturally I looked at the fishes. One of two of them tend to come quite close, like wondering what we're doing. And when we extend our hands to them, they just swim away. It's really cute. And you see some fishes you see in movies haha. Sam was quite worried I'll be scared, so I just kept signalling to him that I'm ok. I think he was really proud of me for not panicking. We went through all the things we learned during our pool session, the only difference is this is salt water. And unlike the pool, if something goes wrong, we can't shoot up to the surface immediately. So we have to deal with everything underwater. Salt water really stings the eyes, and when I had to do my mask removal exercise under water I think some salt water went into my nose. It's normal because you're trying to breath through your regulator in your mouth, but without the mask your nose is exposed to all the water. I tried not to choke, and quickly put my mask on and cleared the water. I was so glad I got through that without anything going wrong cos I was honestly quite worried. Luckily, it went smoothly for everyone in the group as well.

Also, I thought what really helped was the way I tied my hair. During my pool session, I had my hair in a bun and that really made me struggle to put my mask on after removing it. So during my open water dive I braided my hair so it wouldn't get caught. It made putting my mask on much easier. Anyway, the first dive was basically just going through all the exercises we did in the pool, sharing air, regulator retrieval etc.

Our dive duration is largely dependent on the the amount of air we have left in the tank. So 8 of us in the group, whoever reaches 50 bar of air first, means all of us have to go back to the boat. We usually start off with 200 bar of air in the tank. 100 bar of air usually last me about 30-40 minutes, but that's the amount of time it takes for guys to reach 50 bar cos they take up so much more air than girls. Not sure why haha. So I guess having a buddy with opposite gender is quite good too, cos if Sam runs low on air, I have plenty to share with him. After our first dive (each of our dives last about 30-40 minutes), we swam back to the boat. Here comes my absolute least favorite part...defying gravity and getting onto the boat with my heavy ass oxygen tank. Ugh. Worst part ever, the ladder hurts my feet so bad cos of how heavy the tank is weighing down on my body, and every time I'm on my last step onto the boat, where I have to support the rest of my weight with only ONE leg to be completely onto the boat, I always fall to the floor on my knees. And once I'm on the floor, not only does my knee hurt like a bitch, I also can't get up unless someone hold the tank up for me to lift some weight off my body. It's really too heavy for me, but it also sounds like I'm the only one complaining, so it's probably cos I am too weak. Growing up I am never good with giving piggy backs. If you jump onto my back out of the blue, I will fall. I've said to my friends many times not to try. I've also tried carrying many people, can't do it, only except my brother when he was super young maybe that's all. LOL

We had about 2 hour break, having lunch and taking a short rest before we went back for our second dive. Second dive we practiced neutral buoyancy mostly, because in order to actually swim around and dive you can't be on the floor all the time. We needed to be more buoyant. This can be done mostly through our breathing method. When we inhale, we have more air in our system, we will naturally float a bit, and sink when we exhale. Sam went before me, and he could do it perfectly without pumping any air. And then it's my turn, and I had to pump air into my vest 4 times before I am neutrally buoyant. I should just remove a weight on my weight belt. Once that's done, we went through some other exercises and since we had enough oxygen after the exercises, we could swim around the area to explore a bit. And that's when you see some people struggle a bit. HAHA, cos previously we had a rope at the bottom of the water to hold onto to stay at the bottom. Once we release we're on our own hahaha, some people couldn't sink. I was one of them that struggled to sink in the third dive cos air couldn't completely come out of my BCD. Previously my BCD was leaking air, so I had to change to another one which is size L, way too big for me. So I was having some trouble with it but it was all good once I got the hang of it.

During our third dive swimming around the water (at Renggis dive site), we managed to see a turtle eating a dead jelly fish! It was definitely the highlight of the trip. Later we even saw another big turtle swimming around. It might be the same turtle we're not very sure, but still excited hahaha. Before we went into the water to explore, our instructor has informed us of some hand signs she would use when she see certain animals, like sharks, turtle, triggerfish etc. Triggerfish apparently attacks people when we get too near to their territory, and our instructor informed us to swim away when she gives the hand sign. During our third dive, we did encounter triggerfish in which I swam away as fast as possible hahaha. It was really fun and the entire experience was so amazing. It felt like I was in a completely different world, probably how it would feel like if we went to outerspace. And the fishes were just minding their own business, you get to see them in their natural habitat. We even got to swim through schools of tiny fishes, and the way they gave way to us to avoid us was so beautiful! Just imagine a lot of small fishes surrounding you while you swim through it, and then they form back with their other fishes behind you. We get to swim wherever we want and fishes will just avoid contact with us naturally, so there was really nothing for me to be afraid of.

After the third dive, I was still itching for another dive but they said it was getting late and we had to return back to our resort. It was also during this time we realized there was another group of people who got to stay at a much nicer resort after paying a much higher price...they even get buffet lunch...I feel like I got scammed a little bit cos I did pay a lot more but still stayed in a shitty room with packet lunch onboard. But whatever, I said I got over it.

The next morning, we gathered super duper early in the morning at the jetty cos we will be leaving to go back to Singapore at 10am. We only had enough time to make one dive, so gotta enjoy it to the fullest. We didn't even have time to eat breakfast, and could only eat it breakfast/lunch after diving lol.

On our last dive on Sunday morning, I was one of the first in my group to jump into the water. I can't wait to explore the waters and really make full use of my time in the last dive. At this dive site, we saw a huge puffer fish! We also saw sea urchins hiding inside rocks, and an eel as well. Some guys from another group said they saw cuttlefish as well. We went all the way down to 11 meters underwater, and swam through many schools of fishes and encountered triggerfishes again hahaha. None of us got bitten though. We also swam to another part of the dive site where someone dropped a treadmill underwater. Not sure if it's for aesthetic purposes or what, but it had lots of barnacles on it, and some guys went to take photos with it. I skipped out on that, haha don't really want to touch it. There's also sort of like an obstacle course on the left, but not really, we're not really sure what to make of it but it's an interesting thing to see underwater aside from all the other fishes. hahaha

On our last dive, we managed to dive for a really long time and make full use of the oxygen in our tank, but of course not till it gets dangerous. There was one guy in our group that hit 70 bar in only the first 15 minutes LOL. Sometimes panicking can cause you to consume your air a lot faster, so he ended up having to share air with the instructor and divemaster, and we continued exploring as usual.

Sadly, we have to make our way back home after the last dive. I think the entire boat ride back to the resort I was just telling Sam, "omg it's so fun", "I never thought I'll love this so much", "I can't wait to dive again" and "I'm so glad you're my buddy". HAHA, I wouldn't wanna go for any dives without him, cos he's the best buddy ever. He's really good in the water too (even though his mask is too small and water constantly gets in, he stayed really calm and dealt with it) and always make sure I'm in his line of sight so nothing bad happens to me. I couldn't have done it with anyone else.

I was really sad the trip was coming to an end. I still remember before the first dive I told my instructor I'm quite scared of fishes. But after the trip, I kept telling her I'm so glad I decided to do this. Really, I can safely say this is one of the best decisions I've made in my life. I discovered something I really enjoy and love, and is quite good at too. I was really calm in the water, and was able to do everything as told. I also really enjoyed wandering around in the water and to think we only explored a tiny tiny tiny part of the massive waters. My instructor said usually after a dive, people have two reactions, either "omg I love it" or "omg I'm never doing this again". HAHAH, I'm so glad it's the former for me. The only thing is, this is quite an expensive hobby so I really gotta save more money to go on my next dive. I hope to get advanced diver certificate too! I think they get to try out night diving. It'll be quite cool. Of course, I have yet to encounter big big fishes, so I'm not sure how I'll feel about that. Or if there's a stingray or shark coming towards me, I'm not sure if I'll panic. But for now, diving is my new found hobby hehe.

I'll be back in the waters soon!

Hong Kong 2018

2018-10-31T01:29:00.001+08:00

I had lots of time to spare this October as I have just left my previous employment, and while waiting for my new job to start in November, I literally have nothing to do. And all my friends are not free to meet me cos they are working LOL. So I thought I should really use this time to travel again one more time this year, cos if I were to start my new job in November, I probably won't be able to travel for a good 6 months considering the probation period. Hence, for the month of October, I decided to make a trip to Hong Kong (and also take Open Water Diver Course, which will be in my next blog post).

I have been thinking of travelling to Hong Kong for the longest time cos everyone has been there and said so many things about this city. All I knew before going there was it is going to be very similar to Singapore, price and road signs and buildings etc. And that dim sum there is so much better than the ones I have tried so far in Singapore. Well, we shall see. Fatefully, my mom was super free in October cos she doesn't have much work schedule assigned to her. I contemplated a little on whether I should travel with my mom, or ask around some of my friends first, but I thought Hong Kong was quite a nice and easy country to travel with my mom. Plus, the tickets and accommodation was alright for me to give a treat to her. Also, no friends would have been free to travel with me anyway cos it was so last minute (I literally booked the trip a week before we flew). An alternative was to just travel to Melbourne to look for Pan (my best friend who is studying there at the moment) but the tickets were so expensive. Considering I only had 4 consecutive days to spare, it wasn't worth. I thought Hong Kong is perfect, since it's a small city and 4 days seem like a comfortable amount of time to spend there.

Maybe I should start with a little background information on my mom. HAHA. My mom and I are relatively similar in terms of our temperament - which in other words, it is not good. We are quite hot tempered and gets angry rather easily. We don't really agree on many things, and the tone of voice we use to speak can be rather rude, but unintentional. It causes lots of trouble cos sometimes people might be offended and we are left clueless on what's going on. Also, my mom and I have never traveled alone together before. We have traveled together as a family back to our hometown, but it's a little different because once we reach our kampung we don't necessarily hang out 24/7 for consecutive days you see. So I was rather nervous for this trip cos I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Also, my mom has traveled overseas (excluding our hometown) I think about 5 times or less. And she doesn't do much research on the country, and really doesn't know much about what's there to see or do. In other words, I'm the one planning the itinerary and she just follow as planned. Our itinerary was rather straightforward: Big Buddha, Ocean Park, Macau and Tsim Sha Tsui/Mong Kok for the 4 days we will be in Hong Kong. Easy peasy. I would do other things like hiking the Dragon's Back, but it's definitely not my mom's cup of tea. Since it is a break for me, I do not want a cramped itinerary as well. So the trip in general is quite chill.

Okay, so going right on to the trip. We booked a to and fro flight + hotel accommodation via Expedia for $444 each, which I thought was quite a steal. I'm not sure how much Hong Kong tickets usually cost, but I thought the amount I paid for was rather cheap. We took a morning flight and lands in Hong Kong at around 10am, and checked into our hotel (Dorsett Mongkok) at around 12pm or so. First off, it is incredibly easy to navigate in Hong Kong and their shuttle services are amazing. AND, I am an absolute direction idiot and completely rely on my trusty boyfriend for directions most of the time, so for me to say it's easy means it's really easy lah. Our journey from the airport to the hotel was super smooth. And to top it all with a cherry on top, the director of our hotel is a Singaporean! How awesome. He is super welcoming, and recommends us all the places to eat near the hotel. So we placed our luggage in the room, and head straight out for dim sum for lunch - our first meal in Hong Kong.

The food was really good, and we were so hungry we totally forgot to take any photos. But this dim sum place is called Ming Yuan located at New Lucky Plaza, nearby to Dorsett Mongkok Hotel. It is rather challenging to order in Hong Kong cos I could barely read the traditional chinese characters. And one useful thing my mom has to offer is her rather subpar Cantonese proficiency, but it was really better than nothing hahaha. The difference between the dim sum in Singapore and Hong Kong is probably the portion and the quality of ingredients, which also amounts to a higher price. We ordered about 7 dishes (waaaay too much for the two of us who have quite a small appetite), and it costed about $56? We couldn't finish the food, but we thought it was rather pricey.

We walked back to our hotel to freshen up and get ready to head out for the afternoon.

We decided to visit the Big Buddha, cos I thought it's something moms like LOL. I booked the Nyong Ping 360 cable car ride via Klook for almost half the original price because we visited after 2:30pm. The cable car closes at 6pm, and honestly we didn't spend a lot of time there as well. I'll say 2 hours max? Cos we really walked around and climbed the Buddha stairs and also took lots of photos. But I really will recommend everyone to go after 2:30pm cos you save about $20 on the cable car tickets. It is super worth!

The cable car is a 45 minutes ride, and my mom and I got the entire cable car to ourselves cos there was barely a queue. We also got the crystal floor cabin, which means the floor is completely transparent and we got to see everything underneath. It was really cool! My mom really loved it and she thought it's a really good deal considering the duration of the ride.

Upon alighting the cable car, you enter a city out of nowhere with free roaming cows. So naturally, there's a strong stench. My mom and I spent a lot of time wondering how they got the cows there. LOL and I forced my mom to take a photo with the cow. HAHA, she's quite sporting!!! I told her to touch the cow for a photo and she did, but then when I went back to look at the photo and zoomed in on her hand...I realized she completely had me fooled. She didn't touch the cow at all...

Yes, I made my mom climb 268 steps to the top to take nice photos of myself. She almost wanted to give up halfway, then we saw a really old 80-90 years old lady struggling to walk down the stairs, and I looked over at my mom. HAHAHA she laughed and just continued climbing. So we made it to the top! The view was really nice, except I thought that there will be more to see of the Buddha yknow. But we couldn't get to the very top cos it was cordoned off, what a bummer.

Being the first day of the trip, I thought maybe I'll be really glad to have my mom on this trip cos she takes great photos. But as the trip was nearing to the end, I finally concluded that this is just a lucky shot. HAHA

I really liked how the Po Lin Monastery looked! Also cos I just finished watching Yanxi Palace before I went on this trip, and this place looks like I'm about to bump into Fu Heng any moment? HAHAHAH

After the very little bit of walking we did, my mom was really tired so we sat down and had some beancurd at one of the eating area. I wanted to explore the Po Lin Monastery more, since I'm already there I might as well see everything there is. But my mom has a different mentality I guess. It feels like she just wanna take photo with the highlight which is the Big Buddha, then turn around and leave LOL.

We couldn't take any photos in the Po Lin Monastery, not sure why but there were some tourists snapping some shots anyway. I didn't, I don't know, maybe cos it did felt like quite a sacred place and I don't wanna be disrespectful. The rooms inside was quite interesting, and there is definitely a heavy atmosphere inside. Some rooms we weren't allowed to enter, one of them was the room filled with thousands (I think) of golden Buddha. How cool is that! The room just basically looks like it's filled with gold.

I take great shots, I know. So nearing around 5pm, we made our way back to the cable car to leave. We were quite tired from the early morning flight, but my mom didn't want to go back to the hotel yet. So we decided to check out Tsim Sha Tsui for some food and more sightseeing.

I googled around for some famous place to eat at, and Tsui Wah came up. So we headed there, which was only a few minutes walk away from the train station. The milk tea there is really famous, so that was what we had and I thought it tasted really good but my mom wasn't really impressed. She claimed that it's really easy to make. HAHA. We ordered the chicken wings and the chilli crispy noodle. The chicken wings were nice, but the noodles hmm, not really. I wasn't a fan of the sauce, which was really sweet and spicy. The prawns were nice and juicy, but I wish the sauce was different. It really wasn't a kind of taste I am used to or enjoy eating. Anyway, we ordered the dishes after googling for recommendations. But I thought Tsui Wah was really...quite underwhelming despite all the rave about it! Granted, we didn't try that much off the menu, but still nope for us. Sorry.

Following which, we walked around Tsim Sha Tsui looking for the Promenade, Victoria Harbor and the Avenue of Stars, and also the Bruce Lee Statue. Of which, we only found the Harbor. Later, we found out that the Avenue of Stars was under construction. What a pity. My mom was rather upset about it cos we walked around for so long, and nothing on the internet stated that it is closed for construction.

Following which, I think we headed back to our hotel at around 9-10pm. Before that, we walked around our hotel to get some food to snack on in the room. Their 7-11 is nothing much, but they have fruitips popsicle! But it really tasted like any other grape popsicle. We like to buy their breads and pastries at the bakeries. Mostly egg tarts, mango puddings and polo buns.

The next morning, we woke up and got ready pretty quick. We walked around our area to search for a place to eat. We settled for some very basic Hong Kong breakfast. I also noticed a bad thing about travelling with my mom is that she has such a small appetite, we don't get to try a lot of food when we go out cos we don't order much. For instance, this breakfast, she only ate a polo bun with milk tea. And I ordered an entire breakfast set, which includes the condensed milk bread, milk tea and a tomato soup noodle (that I couldn't finish).

We also noticed from walking around Hong Kong that at first glance, it does resemble Singapore. Like, the road signs, tall buildings, high ways etc. But the buildings are mostly in such poor condition and lacking maintenance. Also, there are very minor things that they failed to put into consideration, for instance installing their air-conditioners above the walking pavement, which results in water constantly dripping on the people walking along the pavement outside the street shops. Also, not sure if you noticed but in Singapore if you're driving on the highway, you won't notice the part of the HDB where people hang their clothes cos it's usually strategically placed so that it is out of plain sight. But for Hong Kong, it is literally out in the open. While you're travelling on the train or along the highway and you glance out the window, you'll literally see all the dirty laundry being hung out. You'll think it's a small thing that is quite dismissable, but I think it makes a huge impact. You may refer below for two photos for comparison between shops under buildings in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Photo from iStock
Shops under buildings in Hong Kong

Photo from https://followmywanders.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/uniquely-old-hdb-blocks-siglap-road/
Shops under buildings in Singapore

I hope it is clearer for you to see now that I have attached photos for comparison.

Also, comparing the people in Hong Kong and Singapore, I think the people in Hong Kong are not as friendly. It's sad to say, but the service in Hong Kong was not great. When we couldn't understand the menu, or asked for recommendations, they were often very annoyed to entertain us. Yes, there were a few nice ones that were kind enough to lend help when we asked for directions. But from my 4 days spent there, in general, this is the conclusion I came up with. My mom was the one that pointed this out actually, and I agreed.

Ok so back to the trip. After breakfast, we made our way to Ocean Park where we planned to spend the entire day there. But we ran through the entire area quite quickly because my mom is scared to take the rides. We only took one that sent us spinning, and my mom was just laughing throughout. There were also freaking lots of China people there. We really don't mind, except they are super loud like constantly yelling, comes in a huge ass crowd of people like you won't be able to cut through them until like 50 people has passed, and they spit everywhere ugh.

We spent a lot of time looking at the animals and the aquarium. We really liked it. It was also our first time seeing walruses. I never thought they are so cute! Yes, they are huge and super fat, but they are also very attention seeking so they kept coming to the surface to play and get our attention. It was really fun to watch the both of them play.

We took the train to get across the mountain to the other side, which was mostly rides that my mom doesn't take so I have no choice but to skip them. We also barely queued maybe cos we were early and it was a weekday. Then we took the cable car back down from the other side of the mountain to the entrance. I will suggest immediately going to the other side of the mountain when you arrive, cos when we got off the cable car, the queue was insane. And we saw that many of the people has to squeeze together in one car, which idk about you but I would have felt quite terrified and claustrophobic.

We got off the cable car and arrived in Old Hong Kong in Ocean Park. I really like the setting of this place. I can totally imagine some street fights happening between two food stall owners and stuff. HAHA. We sat down and ate some food, and walked around a little before deciding to leave Ocean Park. I think this place is interesting because it incorporates amusement park and zoo, which makes the money super well spent. And also caters a lot to people of all age groups. Like despite not taking any rides, we still spent several hours there. My mom and I spent about 4 hours there before deciding to leave.

We weren't really sure where to go cos we initially intended to spend the entire day in Ocean Park. So we decided to head back to Tsim Sha Tsui cos there were some Michelin star street food I wanted to try.

First off, we gotta try Cheung Hing Kee. They looked like xiao long bao, but the bottom are fried, and it is a lot bigger in size. The inside also has a lot more meat and soup. It is served really really hot so we had to eat super slowly and drink the soup carefully. I loved it! I really wanted to try the truffle flavor one too, but we had more food to try and I didn't wanna be too full.

Photo from https://www.misstamchiak.com/jenny-bakery-singapore/

While walking along the streets to our next destination, we also came across a lot of stores selling famous snacks in Hong Kong. One of my all time favorite is Jenny Bakery's butter cookies. It is soooo good. I first got to try it when my ex-colleague bought it to the office and I think I might have accidentally finished half the box HAHAHA.

Moving on, we walked over to Mammy's Pancakes! We got the one with porkfloss and it is so good. I know this seem like quite a simple street food, and Singapore and Malaysia sells it too (but I've never tried). And my taste buds aren't super sensitive and magical, but I thought it tasted good and my mom who was initially super skeptical (she didn't want to try it cos it is so common) couldn't stop eating it. Hahaha, we were really full when we bought it but I unknowingly finished eating the entire thing. Opps, it is quite addictive.

Following which, it was still pretty early so we decided to check out Mong Kok for a little bit. We haven't had the chance to shop since we got to Hong Kong, and it was definitely something we were both really looking forward to. However, I think the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok was rather disappointing? It was only a short stretch, spanning 3 stretches of road and all they sell is imitation designer bags, jades, basic electronics, I love HK tshirts, etc. There was no trendy wear or things you would expect to see in Taiwan Night Market or Bangkok Night Markets. I managed to buy 3 phone casings,

We continued walking around the area for a short while before heading back to our hotel via our hotel shuttle bus at Langham Place cos we have a really early day to Macau the following day.

I booked the earliest ferry to Macau, and the second latest ferry back to Hong Kong. Our hotel is awesome cos it provides shuttle services to the China Ferry Terminal, where we were going to take the ferry. It also has shuttle services to and fro Ladies' Market and other tourist attractions. Besides that, if we just wish to take a normal train, it is only about 5 minutes' walk away from Olympic Station.

We reached the China Ferry Terminal really early in the morning. I got a simple MacDonald's burger for breakfast. Their menu resembles Singapore's a lot. Except Hong Kong serves milk tea everywhere LOL. I don't think they serve tea without milk. I don't know, I've never tried ordering that.

Upon arriving at Macau Ouer Harbor, we took a free shuttle bus to Lisboa. We started walking around trying to find out way to Senado Square, but god damn the view was incredible. I super love how the floor look! It looks very old school, but also gives a kind of vintage trendy vibe. I'm not sure how to describe it haha. But anyway, the view was really nice.

After walking for really long cos we got super lost and had to ask a lot of people for directions, we finally arrived at Senado Square. The place is gorgeous! I mean, the photos explain it. We continued walking further into the streets to explore the area. There were a lot of places selling the famous Koi Kei egg tarts and also their famous snacks.

As we have spent several days before walking a lot, our legs and backs were aching really bad. So we looked for a place selling pork chop bun to sit down. Here, my mum and I could barely finish these two buns. LOL. And I think the pork chop buns are overrated. It tasted so...normal. Honestly, nothing impressive.

My face most of the time cos my mom keeps asking me to do stupid poses.

After eating, we continued walking further to explore the Ruins of St. Paul. It looks stunning, and the details on this piece of front wall was really nice from up close!

After taking enough photos, we walked towards the right side of the wall towards the museum. We thought the museum will be more chill and it will be air conditioned too. So we can take our time to slowly walk around there.

My mom gave up after awhile, and sat down to rest. But I explored the entire museum. I thought it was quite worth the price, cos we really got to see the history of Macau, and how it became the link between the East and the West. I really enjoyed it, plus the entrance fee was quite cheap if I remember correctly. Maybe less than $10.

We walked out of the area and chanced upon another tourist attraction - The Cathedral Church of Macau. It looked nice and we wanted to go in, but it stated that there was a mass going on. I figured my mom and I will probably be super clueless on what to do, so we didn't go in in the end.

By then, we were honestly quite bored and tired of sightseeing. So my mom and I decided to take a cab to Sands Casino to gamble. I know there are other casinos that have way lower bets, but my mom wanted to go to a famous one. And I think we had quite a lot of money to spare since shopping in Hong Kong didn't turn out quite as planned. My mom doesn't gamble much, so she wasn't really sure how to do it, but she tries. She likes to bet on the lowest possibility with the biggest win, which to me was a complete waste of money. Most tables have minimum bets of about $50 btw. I only changed $200, and played big small tables, and managed to win about $800 whoop whoop. I think we also lost track of the amount we were betting, hence were quite fearless. My mom lost all the money she changed hahaha.

We ended up gambling for about 4 hours, and decided to take an early ferry back to Hong Kong. I found out on the internet that I could take ferries earlier than the time I booked, but not later. So thankfully I booked the second latest flight, so basically we can return to Hong Kong almost anytime.

We did our own things in the hotel and ended up sleeping quite late. We actually had a lot of sleep during this trip, except for the first day right after our flight. For this night, we had to check out the next day at 1pm latest, and our flight was at 9pm at night.

To start off our last day in Hong Kong, we had dim sum again at New Lucky Plaza, but at a different restaurant. Service was terrible as usual, what's new. Our last day in Hong Kong is rather chill, because we have already finished exploring Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok earlier than expected. So I decided to bring my mom to another shopping area (according to the internet) - Causeway Bay. Hmm, but that area was rather disappointing too. It resembles Orchard a lot, and it's mostly high end shopping. I'm not sure what or where people actually shop in Hong Kong, but I didn't end up buying anything cos I wasn't very willing to spend too much on clothings. I ended up in my most trusted store - Uniqlo, and spent a bomb there but it was so worth it. I think I spent $180 for 11 clothings. It was quite good for me.

Then we wandered off to Jardine's Crescent which was a street market outside a wet market. Smell was not pleasant, but that is to be expected due to the location. I managed to buy 4 pairs of really cute ear rings, but the price was not cheap at all. I think I spent $60 in total for the ear rings LOL. Hong Kong shopping is disappointing! But then again, I didn't really know what to expect I guess.

The last day was quite easy, we walked around till we got a little tired cos our legs were so sore from walking for the past few days. So we headed back to our hotel. I stocked up a lot of mango pudding before we left for the airport. We had a lot of time to spare so we ended up looking for food at the airport, and shopping around.

A lot of times in Hong Kong, I wish Sam was with me because we got lost a lot more times than normal especially in Macau because we didn't have phone service, and my mom and I were both bad with directions. I mean, maybe I was the bad one and because she doesn't really take charge, we ended up getting lost. During the entire trip, my mom and I did not quarrel! What a surprise hahaha, but I think there were times we got on each others' nerves, but I guess we just kept quiet and let the moment pass. My mom was clueless about a lot of things which doesn't help when I need advice, and she is especially paranoid (which is good to be careful, but can be annoying when it is a bit over the top and unnecessary). She also doesn't have much opinions on anything, like what to eat and stuff, so I have to decide a lot of things. And she gets tired from walking quite easily, which is understandable, but which makes us miss out on quite a lot of good famous food and attractions.

But all in all, I'm quite glad I went on this trip with my mom. It was a chance to get to know her better. And to be honest, it wasn't difficult spending time with her for so many days. I discovered some of my mom's weird little quirks like not switching off all the lights in the hotel when she sleep, and also got to experience how terrible her snores were when she sleeps. She gets ready super fast which is such a joy. And she needs to pee as much as I do. HAHAH, Sam complains about it all the time. My mom also always have dry and wet tissues in her bag, which is amazing. And she always have some kind of snack or candy in her purse too. It was very easy settling money with her, cos it's either she pays or I pay. But she pays most of the time, cos she just happen to pull her wallet out faster. But since I covered most of the prebooked expenses, I guess maybe she's just trying to pay it back to me in her own way, which I definitely felt.

This 4 day trip took me longer to blog about than I expected, but that's all from me now! I can't wait to blog about my next entry which will be on my diving trip in Tioman!!! Stay tuned. :)

JAPAN 2018 / Not seeing is a flower

2018-06-03T15:55:00.003+08:00

Japan...finally. I have been living in a cave being a huge anime fan but never stepped foot in Japan. Japan has been on the top of my travel list for so long, and one reason why I never got around to visiting the country was always because of money, and also just the timing wasn't right and I couldn't find the right people to go along with me on this trip. I usually like to really splurge on a trip and not worry about having not enough money, so I definitely don't want to be on a tight budget or anything or else I'll feel like I'm missing out on a good food or something fun just because of money. So I needed to save a lot of money, which is easier for me now that I've been working a full time job for close to a year now. Also, I gotta go to Japan with someone who loves anime as much as I do, so the best person to go there with was Sam!!! HAHA, before meeting him I wouldn't consider myself to me an anime fan because the only anime I watched was One Piece. But he introduced me to so many others like Hero Academy (I love it), Tokyo Ghoul (yasssss, I walked through every tunnel in Japan and claim that there are ghouls fighting down there and that it's where Mado died I don't care), No Game No Life, Hunter x Hunter, Death Note, Shogugeki, Magi, Full Metal Alchemist and so many more I cannot possibly name everything. And like to everyone who thinks it is lame to like anime or whatever, omg trust me I thought the same like you too, then I started on the best anime of all time (One Piece) and I am a changed person every since. Also me liking anime doesn't mean I get off on hentai and do cosplay and shit, it's like how you like watching powerpuff girls, that's all. LOL

Also, I know I haven't been blogging for awhile, and it's because I really don't have the time to blog and found no significant reason to unless I really wish to remember certain things that happened, or certain feelings, which in this case I really wanna remember this magical trip to Japan, hence this blog post. Also, another reason was because since I started working and everything, I guess maybe I grew up (and became more boring lol) and I prefer to keep my personal life more private now, which is why all my social medias are on private now, and I don't really post much on there like before.

Sam and I got a real good deal by Singapore Airlines, so it only costed $670 for each of us to fly direct to and fro Tokyo and Singapore. But for this good deal, we booked the tickets like 3 months in advance which is absolutely torturing because imagine having to wait 3 damn months for such an anticipated trip. So I literally applied for leave 3 months before my actual trip and I have been crazy excited for 3 long months. God, torturing. Thankfully I didn't run out of excitement by the time the trip finally began. Our trip duration was 10 days, from 18 - 29 May. And I only used up 6 ALs hehe proud (cos 29 May was a PH, and I have one birthday leave in my birthday month).

OK so from Haneda Airport we took the train to our apartment in Shibuya. Directions, not my forte. That's why I have a boyfriend to navigate me around. Hehe, Sam is really good with directions, and very dependable, so I follow him everywhere, and occasionally when I'm feeling a little stubborn to follow him around, I lead him the wrong way and ended up having to apologise for a little brat. But he loves me for that.

Our Shibuya apartment was awesome. It's only a short 5 minutes walk from Shibuya station, Hachiko statue and we cross the Shibuya crossing every day (love the hype about this, literally you can find the shibuya crossing everywhere I'm not sure why only the one in shibuya is so famous). Also, wanna cry when I saw Hachiko because the movie made me cry so bad, and I could recognize the area from the movie...sheds a tear. I love the movie so much, any animal movies make me bawl my eyes out.

Also, our apartment has a great toilet bowl, which motivates me to shit thrice a day. Not even kidding, I eat so much in Japan I shit three times a day, and like sometimes when we were out exploring I need to shit. And also, our washing machine has a dryer function (awesome), saves us so much time, and super easy to use. We also have a balcony, god who doesn't love. Plus, when we went there eventho it was in the summer, it was freaking 16 degrees. God knows why and how, so my already dry skin was cracking like mad but we're still psychos who chill at the balcony watching people walk around the streets. Are we weird? The apartment building looks super new too, so like all the furnitures in the room itself looks really new. It's also like 1 minute walk from Club Harlem, a popular hiphop club. So like when the bouncer asked Sam to change out of his joggers, we were like yeah sure, and we were back a minute later. LOL no fuss. Super awesome location, I was so pleased with the apartment. Oh, but they only have one little mirror in the shower room, and the only full length mirror we used during our duration in Tokyo was in the apartment elevator LOL. So I ended up buying a compact mirror from Muji so I could do my make up while Sam showers in the morning.

You can check out our Shibya apartment via this link: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/23642159

It was pretty late when we landed in Tokyo, so by the time we got to our apartment it was near midnight, and we gotta have some food cos I was so excited to eat. We ate at Nanashi Ramen near our apartment, it was BOMB. But I didn't manage to finish it, the broth got too salty nearing the end and I never ever finish my bowl of ramen anyway it just always make me so full halfway (until I had Ichiran, but that story's for later). But the gyozas there...BOMB.

We walked around the streets, got some convenience store food like we always do to chill at our apartment later on.

It was after taking these photos that I realised my left brow was lighter than my right, but thankfully I keep a handy dandy eyebrow pencil in my bag specifically for instances like this (you never know when you need an eyebrow pencil). There was once in NUS, I went to class without my pens, but guess what I got an eyebrow pencil. LIFESAVER. Lol, I'm kidding, I didn't use my eyebrow pencil to write my notes, I ended up borrowing a pen from my friend, but it was still funny...at least to me. I actually think I'm a funny person, but nobody around me admits it cos they don't wanna feed my ego. HAHAHA c'mon friends.

OK I AM DIGRESSING. Back to the story...

Our official first day in Tokyo, we woke up pretty early in the morning and decided to have Luke's Lobster (which Sam didn't get to eat the last time he came). It was about I think 10-15 minutes walk from our apartment, which I thought was quite alright. And of course, we had to walk past cremia on our way to the stall so obviously we had to stop to get one cos have you tried cremia??? It's the best ice cream ever.

Ok then back to the original plan and we continued walking towards Luke's Lobster, we were like the first ones waiting there cos the stall wasn't even opened yet. And nope there wasn't any long queue or anything, maybe cos the hype died down? We're not really sure.

One lobster roll like this costed us close to $15 I think, and I'm not a food expert but I thought it tasted great. They were really generous with the lobster and I would buy a second roll, but we still have food plans later on. Btw, this is just a snack for us, and after this we made our way to Tsukiji Fish Market. LOL, my stomach was bursting.

We went to the Tsukiji Fish Market like around noon time, and yeah there were long queues at the most famous stalls, which idk about you but I'm definitely not joining the queues. So we settled for sushi place with no queue, just beside the famous one LOL. (Unfortunately I do not know the name of this stall, they weren't super famous cos they're quite new and small but I believe every stall in the fish market definitely sells great sushi according to the research I did.) They had omakase for about $50 per person, so that was what we had. It was so fun!!! The experience was very interactive, and god the sushi tasted sooooo good. I'm still craving for it right now, and we were actually planning to return to the fish market to have omakase one last time but we didn't have the time. I love it, if I ever return to Japan I am definitely coming back to the fish market. It was no doubt one of the best meals we had in Japan.

After our meal, which I was dying from cos I was super super full. I couldn't even finish the last few dishes cos I was really so full I was gonna puke eventho the food was really amazing hahaha. Our plan was to head to Harajuku by train from there, but we chanced upon this free shuttle van service that can take us there after stopping at Akihabara. I know this sounds so freaking shady hahaha, but the guide spoke chinese, and there were other Hong Kong tourists in the van too, plus I was with my boyfriend so we were fearless. HAHA, anyway so we actually wanted to go to Harajuku, but when the van made a turn into Akihabara I freaking fell in love. The place looked so amazing and interesting...I looked over to Sam and he's like ok I know you wanna get off here. HAHAHA, so that was what we did, we alighted at Akihabara instead and started walking around the place (but before that I had to find a toilet to take a shit first, typical me after an exploding meal but thank god toilets in Japan are all so clean I love it).

In Akiharaba, obviously we gotta check out some anime stores so that I can ogle at figurines that I will never ever buy but it makes me so happy to look at one of them and remember the exact scene from the show and it me it brings back lots of nostalgia and happiness. HAHA, I also always wanted to buy a Killua keychain but I realise Hunter x Hunter merchandise are really limited, is it just me? Does anyone else realise that too? Also of course, a lot of female characters in anime are heavily sexualised which weirds me out a lot cos when I watch the anime, they were just really innocent characters to me and it confuses me to see them in another light.

Ok then obviously we gotta check out the 7 storeys sex shop right, cos 1. it's 7 storeys, 2. it's a sex shop. Personally for me, I just really wanna know what do you actually have in there that can occupy 7 storeys. First thought when I went it, yeah pretty normal there's a lot of couples. But the higher level you go you just start to see really weird old men, like they can be at the DVD section and just watching free porn. LOL. Also, vibrators there were really cheap, it's like 500 yen, which is like $6? I got it for a few of my friends as souvenirs. C'mon, it's a better gift that mainstream perishables like Tokyo banana, I'm not sure why nobody got vibrators as gifts from Japan. #truth

Obviously gotta take some neoprints because there were so many arcade places right. Sam looks so freaking kawaii as a girl hahahahah.

Next stop, Harajuku baby. I really like the vibe of the whole place. It looks so suburban, countryside (not sure if it's the right choice of words but yeah that's all my limited vocabulary allows me to describe the place). Like I get why it's an attraction.

There was a line outside this store called Zaku Zaku, and Sam the foodie really wanted to try it so we joined the queue. We ordered one Croquant Chou stick and their soft serve ice cream in a cone. The chou stick basically just taste like cream puff to me, I think it tasted pretty normal but it really smells super good in the store. Sam loved it, I guess different people has different opinions. I'm glad I tried it tho. Ok then the ice cream cone, which tasted really good!!! Comparing it to cremia, cremia has better cone and eventho both were milk flavour the taste for some reason tasted different. I prefer cremia still, but I would say it's quite a close fight. If zaku has a better cone, it might be on par with cremia.

(I also find myself super psychotic to be able to remember the taste to such detail.)

We continued walking around the super crowded streets. There were many people queueing for crepes, but we weren't really feeling it. I mean...how different or good can crepe taste compared to the ones I've already tried, so we gave it a miss. Plus, we really already ate so much... LOL

For dinner, we headed to Shinjuku to have Ichiran. OK, everyone told me I have to try this and it's the best ramen ever. Tbh, I was quite doubtful cos as mentioned earlier in this post I hardly ever finish my bowl of ramen I usually just eat the meat and drink the soup, and then I can't finish it anymore. Sometimes I can't even finish the meat lol. So in my mind it's like how good can Ichiran be right. Ok then I tried Ichiran....GOD DAMN. Whattttt, I hate to say this and be like everyone else but Ichiran is really so good. I finished every thing, like I almost finished like all the soup too. Damn... guys it's really good no joke.

I was quite pleased we managed to explore so many places on this day. Also very thankful that Sam brings a backpack everyday so he always has water in his bag and he volunteers to keep my shopping loots in his bag. I know it's no big deal but little things like these makes me so happy and glad.

Our day 2 itinerary is something I've been looking forward to for the longest time...

ONE PIECE TOWER!!!

Obviously you can tell how excited I was, and btw the weather was freezing.

The best part of this entire magical place was definitely the live show. Seriously initially I was skeptical, plus gotta pay extra money on top of the entry tickets. Like do you know how hard it will be to mimic how jumpy and excited and retarded Luffy is, or how nonchalent and cool and handsome Zoro is, or how skinny and booby and pretty Nami is? But god damn...the show was on point. Like I believe Sam can vouch that I was smiling to my fullest and I was so freaking happy. It felt like I was watching my favourite anime in real life. Everything was perfect, and even Ace showed up...and other characters like Law, Doflamingo, Smoker, Tashigi, etc. God, so amazing I felt like crying serious

The worst generation never looked better.

After One Piece Tower, we headed to Ginza to shop a little bit before our dinner at 7pm in the area. I think we had almost two hours to shop, so definitely we gotta check out the 12 storeys high uniqlo here. And guess who spent over 200$ in the store LOL. And I know there's uniqlo in Singapore too, but duh 12 storeys definitely got more variety right. And I bought like 2 pants, and a men's jacket, and I think 6 blouses. So I thought the price was quite alright, we also didn't to get tax refund cos we the geniuses forgot our passports hahaha. But it's alright la, we bought it anyway. The shopping in the store was really intense tho, like my bag was so heavy, the fitting room queue was so long too and it was so crowded inside. And there's so many nice things omg hahaha. By the time we were done, we were ready to walk over for dinner which was quite a distance away.

I know it was only Day 2 then, but god I remember how achingly tired my legs were then. I just really wanted to sit down. Hahaha, we did take a little break on our way there to sit at Starbucks. Cos our pocket wifi for some reason wasn't working, so we needed wifi at Starbucks, and also I really needed to sit down omg.

We made a booking at Manten Sushi a month in advance. It's apparently a really famous omakase place, and the chef decides the menu, so we won't know what price it will actually amount to until the end of the meal. Exciting huh HAHA, also we were really willing to pay for food in this trip la. In case you're wondering, the bill amounted to about $60 per person, which I thought was quite alright. We had really premium food, that was completely different from what we had at the Tsukiji Fish Market. I think one of my favourite was the baby clam soup, so good. And in this trip is also the first time ever I tried sea urchin! Otherwise known as uni. I always see it everywhere and thought it looked interesting, but I could never imagine how it tasted and I tried it for the first time at the fish market, god I fell in love. It tasted so interesting and creamy and seafoodish. Idk how to describe it. We had it at Manten Sushi as well and they actually served us two variety. So both tasted different, one is supposed to be lighter and the other more fishy and heavier. Both Sam and I preferred different variety of it. Of all the sushi I ate, I never thought to fall in love with tuna! I have tried tuna in SG before, I mean it's nice but I was never really a fan. But damn the tuna sushi in Japan is so bomb I crave for it everyday, and it is by far my favourite dish at every single sushi place we eat at. It is so good! I'm so happy I discovered a new favourite food in Japan.

Following the very fulfilling dinner. we went to a convenience store to grab some snacks before resting in our apartment cos we have an early day tomorrow!

DisneySea!!!

I was going crazy excited about every single mascot I see. When we saw Clarice (I googled this) there were just a small crowd so we obviously really wanted a photo. But according to the staff following the mascots around we gotta get the attention of her first. Lol, we tried so hard even though we were so near her.

Also, Ms Popular Minnie Mouse had a long ass queue just waiting to take a photo with her. Insane. We also saw Pluto, but there were too many people around him haha.

DisneySea was so beautiful and the weather was amazing when I went. I don't think I even sweat a drop cos the weather was so cooling and it was still sunny. Just look at the sky gosh, it's gorgeous. And also I felt really awkward wearing shorts around like I don't see anyone else wearing shorts.

We also took some rides, but they weren't like super intense or anything. Quite chill, and Japanese babies are so freaking cute. Also, it was during the trip that we realised we messed up our itinerary...

So we made plans to go to Hakone the next day and we booked the Hakone pass via klook and everything, and turns out we were referring to our old itinerary all along and today was supposed to be the day we went to Hakone, instead of DisneySea. So we already made bookings for our Romancecar and everything...and the Hakone pass was like $60. Oh gosh, so total we wasted about close to $100 each cos the bookings for the car was like $26 or something. I was so upset with myself cos I was the one who planned the itinerary...and made all the bookings and I messed up so bad by referring to the wrong one. Sam was so calm, omg. He made everything better. This happening would have completely ruined the DisneySea experience for me if it weren't for his positivity. I kept blaming myself and he was just so cool about it omg it puzzles me how he's not even a little bit frustrated too. Cos I would have been!!!

We decided to just enjoy DisneySea first, then head back to our apartment to sort it out. But we are still gonna go ahead with our Hakone itinerary, by just rebooking everything.

After DisneySea, we decided to have Kobe beef in Kanteki Shibuya, near our apartment. The first place we wanted to go to was closed, so we decided to go to this one. They had a set for 2, which includes innards of the Kobe beef. The total amount we spent about $150 for the set, and we got to try many different body parts, such as tongue, arms, thighs, stomach, liver and so on I can't remember everything. I think the whole experience was interesting, but I won't say each part tasted amazing. Some of them were so chewy I had to swallow them whole. But when we asked for more instructions on how to eat it, the staff helped us cook it and it tasted amazing. So maybe we were cooking it wrongly I'm not really sure. Hahaha, but I thought the price was quite worth it for the experience since Kobe beef is all so hyped up about.

Then we went back to our apartment after a convenience store run. I also gotta share with you my favourite food from the convenience store in Japan...

I eat the orange jelly almost every single day, it's like my daily dose of fruits intake. Hahaha, yes the jelly is sweet, but not too overpowering it's like a really light snack. And for the sushi roll, we eat it almost every single day for breakfast cos it tastes so good. We usually eat about 2 each, Sam sometimes an eat 5 or more in a day LOL. It's not really filling enough to replace a meal, but it's a nice snack that doesn't need much preparations. Really yummy too. And for the soup, I super love it cos they have actual clams inside, but the soup just tastes like miso soup, which is really bomb too haha. Not all convenience store sells this, I got it from ministop which is also nearby my apartment.

When we got back to our apartment, we found out that our Hakone pass was valid for 2 days...freaking awesome cos the thought of wasting a $60 ticket each was heartbreaking. So all I had to do was to rebook the Romancecar, which is about $26 each. I mean still money wasted, but a lot better than the initial predicament we were in so I was still very grateful about it.

Our Hakone day was the one that required the most time planning because we gotta know what time each buses or trains leave so I had to do a lot of research about it. Mount Fuji and Hakone are really close by and there are so many things to see there. My first itinerary when I planned it the day was jam packed, but then I took into consideration that I had to overestimate all our travelling time just to be sure, so I removed a lot of attractions from the itinerary. Our main attraction that I really wanted to see was definitely Owakudani, which is a volcanic valley that resulted from a volcanic eruption from the Hakone volcano 3000 years ago. The way to get there required us to take a Romancecar for an hour or so, then catch another train, then a cable car, then a ropeway LOL. Quite tedious, but it's so worth it.

The yellow smoke you see are actually sulfur emissions from the vents and on some occasions this place is not available to tourists because probably emissions were too high and too dangerous, so you gotta check the schedule properly. On this day we went there, it will actually be closed the next day for awhile or something. Their website has all the information so you can check it out there.

Then you gotta try the black eggs there presumably to increase your lifespan by 5 years, which will be countered off by the fact that you're gonna be inhaling sulfuric gases all the while you're there. I think Sam and I were there busy admiring the scenery and taking lots of photos. We were high up in the mountains so the winds were crazy strong and it was really cold.

Behind us in this photo is Mount Fuji and Lash Ashinoko!!! It looks so amazing the view is so incredible and the entire journey here was so enjoyable. We took the ropeway again to another area and took a pirate ship across Lake Ashi. Gosh, the entire place is beautiful. I wish we had more time to explore other areas there, but that would make the itinerary way too packed but I really hope to come back to this place again, maybe get to stay in one of the ryokans and definitely visit Fuji-Q Highland. Or also go to the area where we get a closer view of Mount Fuji. They have two other beautiful lakes to explore there, I bet the view of Mount Fuji would be even more beautiful so I really hope I'll get the chance to come back again.

The sightseeing ship took us to Moto-Hakone, which Sam and I explored the place a little and also bought some souvenirs back. We then took the bus back to take our Romancecar to Shinjuku, then made our way to the apartment.

Actually this day tho enjoyable, nearing the end of the day I fell sick and it was such an ordeal cos all the clinics closes at 7pm. So we had to go to the hospital, but the first one we went to they didn't understand us at all and apparently all the available doctors were occupied with one patient, so I had to take a cab from Shinjuku to another hospital in Shibuya. Mind you, by train it's only 2 stops but the cab fare was almost $50. LOL....crazy I know but I was suffering so bad I really couldn't possibly take the train and walk. Finally, we arrived at another hospital, and waited for three hours before we finally got my medications. The bills amounted to almost $300 btw, but thank god for travel insurance. Then back to my apartment for a good rest.

This was quite a chill day for us cos the past few days has been a lot of walking and it definitely tired us out, plus eventho I was already feeling better than the night before I was still sick. But we thought we should really try udon in this trip! So we went to Kanda to try Kagawa Ichifuku, and they are famous for their curry udon. Damn I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. In fact, I was even really hungry before I got into the store cos I think we had cremia again before our meal, and I finished the entire bowl before Sam did. LOL omg I am salivating while reminiscing the taste of this curry udon. I ate really messily and that's the best way to eat anythng hahaha. Later on in this post I'm thinking of ranking all the food we had in this trip, we'll see.

Following that we explored Shibuya a little. I mean eventho we stayed in the area, each time we went back to the area it was always too late and everything was closed. So this time we went to check it out, and Sam being absolutely obsessed with Kobe beef got it on a stick. It costed about $20 just for that. God damn tho it tasted so great. The fats really melt in your mouth and tastes so good. Something that always lights Sam's face up is when he offers me food and I reject it LOL. He was even thinking of getting a second stick, but I gotta say it really tasted super good. Hahaha

This Kobe beef stick store (don't know the name) was just beside CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice, which is like a bubble tea store. The bubble tea store always has long queue, so this day we decided to just try it out, and the verdict: it sucks. But the long queue is probably cos this is the only store that sells bubble tea? It's not really big in Japan unlike Singapore where there's bubble tea stores everywhere.

Following that we went back to our apartment to rest and wait till we have enough stomach space for dinner hahaha. I think we watched a lot of movies and animes every night before we sleep.

It was raining really heavily by the time we decided to head out for dinner so we just hobo-ed it out and went out in our joggers and jacket and slippers LOL. We decided to have dinner at Motomura that sells really famous beef cutlet. I think we queued for about 30 minutes, and the store is so small only 11 people can fit inside at one time. We're not very sure why such a famous store doesn't wanna expand but well...not our business. The meal was amazing tho, eventho I couldn't finish cos I was quite full, but it was good!!! I like how they have many options for the sources, and how we get the experience to cook it on our own too! The meal was really fulfilling, and after that we went back to our apartment to pack as we will be heading to Osaka the next morning!

We packed and left the apartment early in the morning as we had to check out at 11am. My luggage is super huge and we were famished because we cleared all our food in the fridge. So we stopped by this place called Osaka Osho. And the food was so bomb omgosh. HAHAHA I feel like I'm reacting the same way for every food I eat in Japan, but I'm not kidding this omurice is so bomb. The gyoza was just alright cos I thought it was abit too charred. But this entire meal is really value for money. Btw, we didn't intentionally order so much because the rice, gyoza and chicken is actually a set, and I think one set costed like $12? I thought this meal was freaking awesome, and I guess from the photos progressively you can slowly see me gaining weight as well HAHAH

We started using our JR Pass on this day, and took the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka. When we finally arrived at Osaka, we accidentally took the wrong train that took us back to Kyoto LOL, silly. When we finally reached our apartment in Namba, it was about 6pm. Our apartment is about 7 minutes walk away from JR Namba station, and about 10 minutes walk from Dotonbori. The apartment was alright, I felt that it was a little far from the busy areas but it was still accessible and nice looking. Maybe after excessive walking the past few days I was just really tired to be walking so much hahaha. I dont know.

We checked out Dotonbori a little, obviously had to buy takoyaki, gyozas, 551 Horai's famous pork bun etc. We also bought the famous Rikuro's Chesecake, which I freaking love and was so tempted to buy it back to Singapore (we kept it for three days in our apartment and it still tasted freaking amazing). By the time we ate all these, I was also so freaking full. And Sam was still hungry and craving for Kobe beef omg. He is a pig. On the way back to our apartment, there's a lot of Kobe beef restaurant, so we went into one of it called Steak Sakura, cos I think they sold a small steak one for about $20. I was so full already but we had to order a steak each, but really Sam just ate both. I had a little, and yes it tasted really good. But I think the best Kobe meat we had so far is the one on a stick cos of all the fats hahaha.

The next day we woke up early (not really) for Universal Studios Japan! I know there definitely won't be enough time for us to go through everything inside but we are gonna try our best. Thankfully we are very good at entertaining ourselves like playing checkers against each other on our phones hahaha.

Lucky us, Woody and Winnie the woodpecker (I had to google this) were just walking around with no one hovering around them. Easy photo!

The entire walk through the forests towards the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, with the music playing in the background was absolutely magical. And then when we finally arrived at the gate, it was even more magical. I was in complete awe and crazy excitement.

I have been super excited to go to USJ because who else is a huge Harry Potter fan??? I grew up on this show, and I took all the pottermore quizzes and in case anyone is wondering the sorting hat decided my house is Ravenclaw, and Ollivander gave me unicorn hair wand, which means Voldemort is gonna kill me off like a piece of cake. And my petronas is a polar bear. Hahaha, I thought my petronas is not bad, I mean my friend's a salmon. HAHAHA I was actually quite upset that I got into Ravenclaw, cos it seemed quite boring? I'd rather be in Slytherin, I mean they value brotherhood, not too bad for me.

Anyway I got a keychain of all the four houses for my siblings and myself. Obviously my pampered baby brother got to pick first and he got gryffindor, xinlerk chose ravenclaw, xintien got hufflepuff and I got slytherin. Now the keychain hangs next to my chopper keychain with my new set of keys hehehe.

Obviously gotta try the butter beer which tasted surprisingly good!!! It tastes like buttery and sweet soda. We finished this little cup in less than 10 minutes while walking around LOL, it was really good and the buttery flavour was so distinct, yet not too overpowering. I thought the balance was great. Cos the only other butter beer kinda drink I tried was from Starbucks, and it was not great tbh.

I think we spent about 2 hours just in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter alone cos there's just too many things to see!!! Like I gotta see the Owl Post, the Ollivanders, Diagon Alley and duh the Hogwarts Castle!!! We took the castle ride which we had to wait for about 40 minutes, but the wait was so enjoyable because we got to explore the castle and there were so many things to see gosh!!! I can safely say I enjoyed waiting for the ride LOL. The ride was also absolutely terrifying cos imagine having the dragon so freaking close to your face and breathing out hot air, and the one that terrified me most was being so close to the huge ass spiders and I would have ran but I freaking strapped to the chair with no way of running out of my seat. I think most of the time my eyes were closed LOL, the dementors almost got me I swear.

That's all the photos I got in USJ cos I only care about Harry Potter. Hahaha, following that we went to explore other parts of USJ. But first, we were famished so we went to Amity Village (I think) to get food. Then headed to take the Jaws boat ride, which was awesome. I loved it! We also went to Jurassic World cos we're not leaving without taking the Flying Dinosaur ride. It was the first time I took a ride like that, cos we were facing down the entire time so it really felt like we were just free falling. And we couldn't really see where we're going so many turns and drops were really unexpected, also most of the time my hair was all over my face so HAHAHA.

We also took the Backdrop ride, which was absolutely freaking awesome. While queueing the ride actually closed for like 20 minutes, not sure why. But we continued queueing anyway, and many people in the queue left, which left us to wait for only 10 minutes before it was our turn cos the ride reopened hehe. The backdrop ride is really exciting cos obviously we don't know when we're gonna drop cos we were back facing it so it was super scary. At one point, the ride slowed down so we thought it's over but then it dropped LOL, that was really unexpected and scary but super fun we loved it!!!

We also queued really long for a minion ride that is super shitty and definitely not worth the wait, but well we took some really good rides so I guess it's alright.

Nearing the end of the day we were just kinda sick of waiting cos that was basically what we did the whole day, but I would say that USJ was definitely a lot more exciting than DisneySea. We went back to Osaka afterwards, where we had Ichiran for dinner. It was the perfect way to end the day, cos there was barely any queue for Ichiran and we definitely finished every single strand of ramen. LOL so good.

When we got back to our apartment we watched a movie before sleeping cos our next day is pretty chill.

Not sure what are all these buildings but it looked nice so we took a photo hahaha. Where the deers???

There are the deers...they are everywhere. And whenever I see them on my friend's instagrams they always looked so cute and adorable, but I never knew they were so smelly and that it was a struggle to not step on shit. I was so proud that I made it through the entire day without stepping on even a little bit of poo, but I really almost did. I swear to you, poo were everywhere. And when you walk past all these deers, you can sometimes see them pooping while walking. I mean I get it duh they're free roaming animals and you're in their home, but I just didn't expect this whenever I see people's cute instagram photos like why did no one talk about this? LOL it was just kinda unexpected to me.

The deers were alright, we did buy food to feed them but I got over their cuteness really quickly. I would say Mount Wakakusa was the real highlight of Nara Park. The view was absolutely breathtaking and the walk up was really beautiful (and tiring duh, but not very difficult so it was alright for me to wear platforms). We took our time to go up the hill and rested to play checkers for awhile at one of the resting points LOL, then when we made our way down we took another route to see another side of the Mountain. I would say this hike was really worth it, and yes even on the hills there were deers and LOTS of deer shit. ugh super annoying

We made our way back to Namba, Dotonbori for dinner. While waiting in this long ass line for sushi, we bought the street stall scallops (bomb) to snack on cos we were so hungry. AND THIS IS THE WORST SUSHI EVER I don't understand the queue outside... I was so mad that I even had to pay $20 for such trash food. Singapore's standing sushi bar tastes way better than this. Sam and I were really quite upset, and I'm not sure if we're the only ones to feel this way cos the business at this place was booming.

We left after having like 5 sushis, and went to have okonomiyaki instead.

We had the set meal for 2 at Chibo in Dotonbori. The set was quite worth it I think it was $20-$30 for like takoyaki, okonomiyaki, tempura and meat on sticks. I can't really remember. I thought the food was quite good but unfortunately we didn't finish it, I think the bad sushi killed our appetite. But we still gotta get some egg tarts from Lord Stow's Bakery cos it's so freaking yummy, and some takoyaki hehe. (and we wonder why we gained weight after Japan lol)

It was quite a chill night for us just bingeing on food and watching Stephen Chow's movies.

The next day was pretty chill for us too cos obviously we did so many things this trip and walked a lot, and definitely need a day of rest. But for dinner we decided to go out to get some sushi to make up for the disappointing sushi we had the previous day!

We did our research and decided to go to Junchan sushi, and damn. We were so satisfied. The sushi was amazing and we really wanted to come back here again but we also wanted to try other new food yknow. Damn, but this is great. And really worth the price too.

The next day we planned to head to Kyoto (for the second time, cos the first time we took the wrong train by accident which landed us in Kyoto for the first time). The schedule for the day is quite chill too cos all these places are open 24 hours. We just gotta be there in the day to catch the light so we get some good photos. Hahaha

It was not easy trying to get a photo cos there were so many people. And yeah the scenery is great but pretty straight forward. It was overall just a very chill day for us. We wish we got to explore more areas or food in Kyoto though. Maybe we'll go back again someday!

The left rice cake was not very impressive. It's just plain rice cake with sweet sauce. But the one on the right was really yummy!!!

We made our way back to Dotonbori later on and decided to try other food for dinner.

We literally walked around the area for about 40 minutes and eventually decided to try another ramen other than Ichiran. So we had Kamukura, which is quite a popular ramen place as well. Quite value for money cos the portion was huge and it has set meals too. I had more than half my bowl leftovers and gave most of my meat to Sam cos the portion was really so big. And it tasted really different compared to other ramens I've tried hahaha. I like it! The gyoza was alright. I think the famous Osaka Osho gyoza was better, or even 551 Horai was better. Those were my most favourite gyozas in Japan that I've tried so far.

We went back to our apartment to pack up our bags and we had to check out at 11am, and get to Tokyo in time for our flight at 5pm. So our schedule was quite packed, we didn't have time to walk around for one last meal or anything we just settled everything at the airport.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, we really got to see so many places, try so many food and also had so much fun. We also rested a lot so the whole trip was very balanced and not too over-tiring. I planned most of the itinerary, and Sam has been to most of the places before and he was still willing to go to the places a second time with me cos he felt that it will be a different experience with me hehe. He is also such an angel, I planned the itinerary and he is responsible for getting us there cos I'm a direction idiot.

We are currently on an intense weight loss regime to see who can attain our goal weight earlier hahaha.

Ok now here's my top 5 ranking for the meals I've tried in Japan so far (starting from the best):

Omakase @ Manten Sushi
Omakase @ Tsukuji Fish Market
Ichiran
Curry Udon @ Kagawa Ichifuku
Motomura Beef Cutlet

And here's my top 5 street food/snacks:

Kobe beef on stick
Cremia
Rikuro's Cheesecake
Gyozas from Osaka Osho/551 Horai
Tarami Orange Jelly

Sam’s ranking for meals

Omasake @ Manten Sushi
Omasake @ Tsukiji Fish Market
Ichiran
Motomura Beef Cutlet
Curry udon

Sam’s rankings for snacks/steeet food:

Beef on stick
Cremia
Luke lobster
Cheese cake
Takoyaki/gyoza 551

That's all from me. Bye!

"You are"

2016-12-27T03:37:00.002+08:00

Hey HAHA, I feel like I've been blogging so excessively this month but I really gotta remember this trip to Bangkok because I only get to meet my best friend twice every year (once when she comes by SG mid-year, and another time when I travel to Bangkok end of the year) and every moment we spend together is just so previous and valuable to me. This time, I actually intended to travel to Bangkok on my own, I've done it a few times to just have quality time with Pan. Also, if I were to go with someone to BKK, Pan and I just have too much to catch up on that my friend would definitely be left out. And Pan and I walks around holding arms, so...there's no room for a third person to be around HAHAHA. But anyway, Sam and Kimchi decided to tag along for two days, while I stay on a little longer to spend more time with my best friend hehe.

Also before you continue reading, I gotta warn you that the word of this entry is "bomb" and "ass" LOL and sometimes "bombass" cos I'm so fancy like that.

So Sam, Kimchi and I booked the same midnight flight to BKK and we met at the airport to have dinner around 8pm, then checked in early (for once in a really long time cos I'm seriously always late to a flight). We didn't get to sit together, not even near, in the plane, so we just did our own things. We touched down in BKK at around 1am, plus immigration, transport and all that stuff, we only reached our hotel at 3am. Pantita, Top and some of their friends came by the hotel cos we needed Pan to check us in (Pan's dad owns the hotel so we got to stay for free). It was so surreal to see Pan again I cannot possibly put those feelings into words. I think only people who have been in long distance relationships can understand. Our meet-ups are always filled with screams and long big hugs with tears almost welling up our eyes, and goodbyes are always just so damn sad. It feels as though time spent with her will never ever be enough for me. However, I gotta say though, that I think the distance between us actually strengthened our friendship a lot. I think that's rare, and that's what makes our friendship so special hehehe. Ok anyway I'm digressing. Basically once we got into our room, we got changed immediately into clubbing attire and took a cab straight to Insanity, which was the only club we knew that closes at 5am, while every other clubs close at 2am due to the whole mourning over the late King in BKK. I had friends in Insanity as well, so we just went over there to join my other friends.

This was the only photo I found from the night at Insanity and I have zero clue why I posed like that LOOOOL. Anyway, we reached Insanity only at around 3.30-4am and first thing we did was open a table and get a bottle (we basically do this every night cos it's so cheap over there and we just look like ballers every night LOL). And it was also at that moment I realised I came with the wrong friends cos I was with all my guy friends and no cute guy will have big enough balls to come near and talk to me. So the entire night I was both Sam's and Kimchi's girlfriend (cos I'm greedy as hell) to chase all them cougars away from our table. One of the girls even came to me and asked whether I wanted Sam or Kimchi and she will readily take the other HAHAHA. And I was like BOTH I LIKE THEM BOTH. Sorry guys, I tried but those girls were really too damn persistent. They seriously wouldn't leave our table. Despite me trying my very best, the boys still ended up complaining that I didn't save them enough. WALAO WHAT U WANT. Ok anyway, I think we finished our bottle in like half an hour. I was super ready to drink cos first night in BKK and excited as hell HAHA. The club closed at 5am and we went back to our hotel room to play Circle of Death and drink some more. Thanks Mingwei for finishing the my King's Cup that I didn't even touch. Yes, basically that was what happened upon touching down in Bangkok, like WTH it's not even our first day and we got so wrecked I can't.

I think we fell asleep at around 6am and the boys woke me up for 7-11 breakfast at 11am T_T. The plan was to go to Platinum Mall to do some shopping that day but I was so dead and hungover. The cab right to Platinum got me stuck in the toilet trying to puke for a good 10 minutes. Before shopping, we had some bomb ass wanton noodles (which I didn't get cos hungover and no appetite) according to Sam's recommendation nearby. Then I went off separate ways with the boys cos I am too paiseh to stop by and look at my girly clothes while they just stand there and judge my choices HAHA. I didn't get a lot of clothes though, I really just spent most of my time in the fitting room sleeping HAHAHA cos seriously I was that wrecked from the previous night. The boys called me not long later to meet them at Starbucks so we can head off to have dinner together.

We walked to Central World which is just nearby to grab some food. There happened to be a lot of food stalls set up outside Central World so we went in to check it out and got my favourite super bomb grilled salted fish. We just hobo-ed it out and started a trend of sitting in the middle of nowhere and pig out on our food. HAHAHA oh and btw yes I wore a long sleeve top and boyfriend jeans and didn't break even a drop of sweat at all the entire day (plus night) because the weather was so good. It's apparently like "winter" in BKK every end of the year.

This is me eating my harkow happily at MK Restaurant, evidently before I died from over-eating.

After pigging out and desperately digging out every little pieces of meat we could still find from the fish bones, we decided that we were hungry and went into the mall to get some real food. We settled for MK Restaurant cos we in BKK yo HAHA. And we absolutely overestimated our appetite cos we ordered way too much and were really just so freaking stuffed. I wish you could have been there to see Sam's defeated face at all the food he couldn't finish HAHAHAHHA it was so freaking hilarious like he's just "I give up" "I cannot already". We were also quite a nuisance everywhere we went cos we were so loud and making a fool out of everything. We were literally like kids in a mall. Anyway, right after our dinner which we tried really hard to finish eating all the food we ordered, we took a cab back to our hotel room, freshen up a little, drink a little and head to Demo club at Thonglor street. Demo is my favourite club in BKK ever I met so many friends there and sighs, just so much memories with my best friend there HAHA.

This is me...back at it again with the same head pose that I had no idea about LOL

This photo of Sam is the funniest thing ever I just can't HAHAHA

Yeah ok we took a lot of photos that night cos...IDK WHY EITHER LOL, but I'm glad we did!!! All the photos turned out so cute and funny and looking at them felt as though I could remember every single moment that happened that night...even though I obviously can't HAHA. I remember being best friends with the cleaner auntie at the toilet though (I swear it's a thing with me and cleaner aunties at clubs, like we just become instant besties for no reason). Her name is Jit, and she is so so sweet. She either always look so happy to see me or I'm always so drunk whenever I see her HAHAH. Anyway, we opened a table with a bottle of Jim Bean at Demo that night at the hiphop section. I remember very vividly how crazy it got when they started playing Juju on that beat HAHAH it was so sickkkk. Also, Pan probably knows everybody at Demo cos she just kept bringing people to our table and I love how she made sure everyone gotta know I'm her best friend. I also think the highlight of the night was that I met Andrew (my very cute BKK boyfriend HAHAHA I'm kidding, he has a girlfriend, he's just really really handsome)...and forgot to take a photo with him ugh so angry with myself for that. Anyway Sam died that night, and Pan lost her iPhone 7 so the night ended pretty early. We ended the night with some bombass pork on a stick with bombass sauce. Damn it was good, and we went back to our hotel room where Sam slept like a baby but still managed to wake up at 11am the next morning for his favourite 7-11 food LOL.

Oh here's a photo with Sam's half awake krunkkkkk face cos he's such a light sleeper. Also, Kimchi and I had the weirdest HTHT ever. I remember teaching him how to wash his face for a good 10 minutes in the toilet, and we also talked about armpits??? LOL what happened

Up early the following day to head to Chatuchak for more shoppinggggg. Also, this photo got everyone in hall calling me Sam's coco...thanks a lot bro. -_- I think my best buy from Chatuchak was probably my Paramore band tee cos Paramore's band tees are so freaking rare. I also got another dope band tee from ADTR!!! Band tees are my laziest outfits, I basically just wear them oversized like how I wore to Chatuchak, with shorts underneath and sneakers. I still look swag af and comfortable as hell HAHA. I also got some chiffon pants cos they're super comfortable. Ok, basically I'm super into comfy wear now and just try to wing it and look swaggy HAHA. I can't even be bothered to shave my pits now cos whenever I think about having to shave them, I'll just wear some sleeved top. I think being single for over a year killed my girliness...even more. I mean from the sorethroat I'm having now, I'm practically a guy lah. Oh I forgot to mention the bombass pork noodles we had at Chatuchak before we started shopping. Damn, it was so good. Also Kimchi and Sam got the same glasses I got from Platinum but in different colours so we're basically the swag team now. I told them we should do a squatting down photo and hashtag #squatgoals instead of the conventional #squadgoals but of course I am too lame and childish for them. Also showcased my bombass racist jokes to Kimchi that really needs to get on Sam and my level of racism. HAHAH I'm kidding I just really like racist jokes but I'm not a racist person c'mon.

Oh ya here's our swaggy glasses that the boys pressured me to bringing to a club...AT NIGHT LOL

#squad

Anyway we had dinner near Chatuchak and headed back to our hotel to get ready for another sickkkk night. This time we got table at the EDM side of Demo, but it's nowhere as good as the hiphop side so we shifted our stuff to squeeze at the hiphop side. It was really really crowded and we really didn't have as much fun as the first night. And three nights of drinking in a row is quite...crazy HAHA. We only managed half a bottle, and the club closes at 2am so still ended the night quite early. It was the boys' last night here so we headed over to Beam, that closes at 3am. We just danced for awhile that's all and decided to go for supper at Shakariki, which is a Japanese place that's open 24 hours, so duh perfect supper place.

Here's me looking all swaggy in this super elegant robe from @tool_shop on Instagram. I told Top I was cold and he gave me this robe to wear and look all stylish and shit. Sighs, this is what friends are for guys. I definitely got a lot of stares while waiting for a seat outside, and even wearing it inside, but too drunk to care sorry. Also, Top is the ultimate friend you can get cos he loves taking photos of his friends and you'll get bombass photos to update your instagram everyday man. Anyway this Japanese restaurant is really cool, like WE GOT TO MAKE OUR OWN TAKOYAKI HOW COOL IS THAT. I don't even like takoyaki but we just ordered it for fun HAHA. We ended up not being able to finish our food cos we literally just ordered for fun HAHAHA. We got back to the hotel later, and the boys packed their luggages and got a cab to the airport. Annnnnnd they're gone sighs, I woke up in the afternoon with no 7-11 breakfast in the room all alone. :(

Pan and I met around 4pm late afternoon and headed to JJ Green, which is like a hippy market near Chatuchak that sells more trendy stuff. And we bumped into Mario Maurer oh my goodness. I couldn't tell it was him at first and Pan was all so excited over it, so I went over and ask him if she can have a photo with him. It was only later that I realised he acted in First Love which was a movie I love so much and cried so much watching. Ok I did regret not getting a photo with him, but seriously guys he's not that tall and he didn't dress very well and he wasn't THAT cute in real life LOL ok that's all just to comfort myself. I did afterwards went on to text Sam and rant about how I didn't take a photo with him UGHHHHHH.

Anyway we just walked around and have random street food for dinner. I also tried Squid Eggs with Pan, it was...so weird. Kimchi Sam and I wanted to try it at Chatuchak but we got no balls to try it. It just sounds so gross right??? And it tasted squishy and like I don't know man. I'm definitely not an adventurous eater, like I don't even eat baby squid cos I'm scared to squish the head and the thought of it just really grosses me out like hell. I didn't enjoy it very much so I let Pan finish the rest for me HAHA. We just kept eating the entire day, and also I couldn't find a money changer so I didn't get to buy a lot of clothes at JJ Green, which actually nothing caught my eye anyway or maybe I'm just too tired to look around. We just kept circling around the same area and keep getting new accessories, especially earrings and studs. I started getting really into ear rings cos I realised my lobe piercings are still open after so long. I used to have like 9 piercings on my ear, cos yknow secondary school swaggy days, then I closed all of them together cos I was just so sick and tired of cleaning them and taking care of them every single day. Also, I always have my hair down after JC so noone can really see my ear anyway and there was no point in decorating my ear in fancy studs. So I only had my naval piercing until now, I got my lobe piercings back in action!!!!! HAHA

Gotta have selfies before we get food, while waiting for food, and when we finally got our food HAHA. Actually we look the same in all the photos LOL

Top came to join us with his friend, Stop, at JJ Green after awhile. We only walked for a really short while, and also died eating Mango Salad with raw crab cos it was so freaking spicy. Pan and I were tired from walking the entire night, so we headed back to the car. Pan went back to her condo to get some stuff back home, and in the meantime Top, Stop and I had a mini photoshoot session in her apartment LOL. As I said, Top is a really good friend to have for all his professional photography using his new iPhone 7.

I moved out of the hotel to stay at Pan's guesthouse for the remaining trip. Probably the only bad thing about staying at her house is that we have to eat breakfast at 9am every morning with her parents, and it's weird because they can't speak English so most of the time I just eat in silence. And also, it's way too early in the morning for my body to function.

Pan and I went to EmQuartier in the town area to get her simcard and all the lost phone stuff settled. And the toilet is so fancy we had to take some selfies there HAHA AND THIS IS ME AND MY PARAMORE BAND TEE I FREAKING LOVE IT HOW IS IT GUYS ARE U JEALOUS

We went to Audrey Cafe for late lunch cos I freaking love the food there, by that I mean all the food like the appetizers, the sides, the main dishes and the desserts damn they are all so bomb. Also, can we talk about the lighting there for awhile, it is so bomb as well???? Either that, or Pan's camera is the bombass one. HAHAHA I had more shots trying to look all fierce and sexy, but I can never do that. I can never do all those cool shots and look all fierce like I just end up looking so unnatural. I prefer doing laughing shots, especially now that my braces is gone I gotta smile with my teeth so much and blind everyone with my beautiful teeth hehe.

Oh anyway, back to Audrey Cafe. We ordered my favourite tomyum pasta with big ass shrimps, bread with liver paste and smoked salmon pizza. We finished every little bit of all that bombass food. Then we ordered thai tea rosti for dessert which was SOOOOO bomb as well omg. I cannot get enough of Audrey Cafe. I need that crab souffle so bad, and that tomyum pasta was really on some next level shit. SO GOOD I AM SALIVATING RIGHT NOW

After an extremely fulfilling meal, Pan and I went to rendezvous with Top and his friend that I actually follow on instagram but I forgot her name LOL. Thai names are kinda hard to remember except Pantita, Top and Andrew HAHAHA. Anyway we met up with them at TWG for another session of atas dining, and we were just chatting about boys and stuff cos we're all girls there duh. HAHA, but I didn't talk much I just kept eating cos they mostly spoke in thai and they just told me to say all the vulgarities when necessary and I did as I was told cos I was clueless af so I can't be blamed for any offence taken. HAHAH

Later we headed to Thayekamai bar to chill drink a little with some thai music that everyone was singing along to and I was literally the only one in the bar who doesn't know the freaking song. I only know one song, which was Happy Birthday cos they had to sing the song for some birthday girl in the bar LOL. After some chill drinks, we went to Demo on a Monday night to finish our bottle from the previous night. I think this is my only photo with Top so I gotta write him a simple note of appreciation. I only knew him for a year cos we first met last year when I came over to BKK, and he was so sweet to meet me every single day with Pan and bring me places to meet his friends and all that. And he is so freaking funny??? The way he frowns and whines, and his random remarks are just so out of the blue are freaking hilarious. I am so glad Pan has a friend like him to take care of her when I'm not around. But also, I think Top needs a friend like Pan to take care of him when he's drunk af which is like ALL the time I watch Pan's instastory and snapchat LOL. Ok I doubt Top will understand all of this, but I'll get Pan to translate it for him. THANK YOU TOP FOR SPENDING TIME WITH ME. I MISS YOU ALREADY!!!

Oh I digressed again. Anyway we went to Demo to finish our bottle yup. It was a lot quieter on a Monday but there was still a crowd, and in fact I think all the tables in the hiphop area was occupied LOL. The "chill night" we intended didn't happen, and we just kept downing one glass after another. And then my dear friends realised I'm running a fever and I was sitting down and blowing my nose with lots of tissues all around me. HAHA basically Pan and Top brought me back from Demo to go Food Land to get some medicine, and I went back to to Pan's place to rest early. I was quite bummed out to have the night end so early for us and that I got them so worried about me, but I think the rest of the group stayed to hang for awhile more. Anyway, we had to recharge a little from all that partying as well cos the next day was my last day in BKK.

Ok I was wearing my bomber jacket cos I was freezing in the car and I should really have taken them off for this shot with the cutie fox ugh. Nevermind. Anyway on my last day in BKK, Pan, Top and Stop brought me to the Animal Cafe and Restaurant which really took us quite a while to get there cos of the traffic. If you checked out my BKK post last year, I actually went to the Little Zoo Cafe but the Animal Cafe is really a lot better cos there were more animals, and we really get a lot more interactions with the animals. The owners were less strict with the people interacting the animals, and there were less supervision. OK which doesn't actually make it a good thing for the animals, but it's good for us cos we get lots of cute photos with the animals!!! And I actually don't think the animals were traumatised or anything, cos of course everyone who went there really likes animals, and the animals were so little and harmless anyone WHO COULD EVER HAVE THE HEART TO HURT THEM?!?!?

This animal I'm holding like a baby right here is called a Caracal and it is so lovable!!! Completely harmless and super easily fascinated with everything. It will also cuddle into your lap willingly and ugh just super cute I can't. Can we also talk about how exotic it is to be able to find such an animal in a cafe??? It was really exciting for all of us and we were so eager to take photos with them.

This animal right here is called a Serval. They are really active and doesn't like to be hugged but if you distract them the right way they will come onto your lap for like a few seconds, and at that time you should quickly get your friend to take lotsa cute photos for you. HAHA, but they won't cuddle into your lap like a cat or dog would. They will just try to find whatever that they were attracted to and just hop away after awhile. They are so beautiful!!! Also, look at that Caracal at the back biting a slipper HAHA. Omg it was really so fun at the Animal Cafe. I also came to a conclusion that it is the best therapy to get affection from cute little animals when you're feeling upset. If a cute Caracal cuddling in your lap doesn't make you smile or feel even a little bit happier, you have issues. HAHA ok I'm kidding. I just think...it'll really work wonders for me if I ever feel so sad. This is why I need a cat in my life ugh I MISS MY CAT!!!

Did you think that was all the animals they had??? NOOOOOOO, they have owls as well!!! They even had a huge snowy owl like the one in Harry Potter, but I was really too scared to get near it. I am actually not a fan of birds, like I just think they're so scary especially when they start flapping their wings. It's terrifying, and the snowy owl had HUGE feet it was crazy. Also, at one point it started flapping its wings and got really agitated (of course they had a rope tied to the feet so they don't fly away), and IT WAS HUGE I SWEAR LIKE IT WAS HALF MY BODY SIZE BUT WIDER. Crazy it was huge, so I didn't get a photo with the snowy owl, but THIS TINY LITTLE OWL THO!!! Look at it omg it is so adorable!!! And really so gentle, like it will bite your finger and play with you a little but it doesn't hurt at all. And it is SOOOOOO soft it's crazy, I just kept stroking it gently. Omg and I freaking love all the expressions it gives because its eyes are so huge and sometimes the brows frown a little and it looks angry HAHA SO CUTE!!!

Oh also I forgot to mention that they are also many cats at the Animal Cafe besides all these wild animal I took photos with.

Ok we left the Animal Cafe after that and had a mini photoshoot session outside the cafe because yknow all the gram and stuff. HAHAH

Ugh I miss Pan so much. Anyway, after Animal Cafe, we headed Siam so I can finish up my last minute shopping for make up and contact lenses. For anyone going to BKK, remember to stock up your make up supplies at Eve and Boy cos they sell the freaking cheapest make up ever. And their nail polishes are so bomb for only $1, and the colours are all so cute. Also, they sell NYX Lip Lingerie there!!! They even sell all the sephora brands like benefit and all that for a significantly lower price. They were selling Hoola Bronzer for 800baht if I remembered correctly. Anyway, I basically stocked up on my Maybelline mascara, Revlon foundation, Za eyebrow pencil, NYX finishing spray, liquid lippies from NYX, facial cleanser from Hada Labo and etc. I spent 3k baht there LOL. SO WORTH IT cos I just kept spamming all the mascaras. Also, what a waste that BKK doesn't carry maybelline age rewind concealer???

Then we went to some nearby contact lens store that was selling a pair for 100baht. All the contact lens store sell a pair for 100baht but not every store carries my eye degree, which is 400 and 300. So usually I just get a pair of 400 and another pair of 300 degree from the same design. I only get grey or brown lenses, and these lenses last for a month. And I got myself 6 pairs. And I still have lenses remaining from the previous BKK trip last year LOL. I basically have quite a supply of lenses lah, can't afford to not have them cos without them I iz blind. But seriously, it is so freaking cheap and I have tried lenses from Taiwan but BKK ones are still the best really.

After that we went to check out Ramintra Night Market which closes at 2am. Apparently it's the place to do your nails cos it is so freaking cheap. Just don't even bother doing your nails before going to BKK cos you can do it here for about half the price for sure. I did matte gelish nails for 300baht (12SGD), and apparently some stall owner we stopped by later told us we could have gotten it done for 200baht WHAAAATTTT. It's already so freaking cheap I really didn't mind getting cheated of that 100baht. LOL ok usually in SG I'll do gelish manicure and pedicure, and it'll cost $50, and that's the cheapest I could find already. But over there my friend did gelish manicure and pedicure for 800baht, which is like 32SGD??? It's ridiculously cheap please, don't say I never tell y'all about this ok. DO YOUR NAILS IN BKK!!! Just do acylic there as well, cos Pan did it for 1.3Kbaht which is just 50SGD??? GOD

We spent quite a long time queueing to get our nails then, and a long time getting our nails done itself. By the time we were done many stalls were already closing, but it didn't matter cos I didn't have a lot of money left anyway HAHA. We just walked around killing a bit of time and Pan and I went back to her place cos I gotta pack my luggage for my morning flight. Pan and I had a mini HTHT while she fell asleep and I was trying so hard to not fall asleep cos I didn't wanna miss my flight. Morning flight sucks so bad, and I was sick which just made it a whole lot worse. I made it anyway, sleeping like a baby in my uncomfortable seat cramped in between two male stranger. Luckily noone had to wake me up for me to give way to them to go to the washroom or anything so I had quite an uninterrupted sleep. From Changi Airport, I just cabbed back to hall and slept like a baby the entire day.

(I really like this photo so much despite the poor quality. I can literally feel myself hugging her just by looking at this photo and I miss her like mad already.)

I knew I had to go to BKK to find Pan no matter what, and I really didn't mind going alone cos I needed to see her and talk to her about all my heartfelt feelings. And I am so happy that by the end of the trip I got the assurance I needed from her. She is really so important to me. I can be completely unfiltered and myself when I'm with her, and our personality complements each other so well. We are never selfish with compliments of each other, as well as insults. Our friendship is completely transparent and I am so so lucky to have her. I know she is not one to be flowery with words, and she's not like me to be able to come out with a whole paragraph of words of appreciation of her. She's not that good with words, but she always show me with her actions and simple gestures and remarks how she appreciate me. And ugh, I just really love her so much. I am so lucky to have Pan in my life. Thank you for loving me since we were 10 years old. We literally grew up together and I think one thing that never changed was how close we were to each other. Despite the distance, despite the little time we talk to each other, despite all the little squabbles, and all the times I posted photos of you that you disapprove (you look fine really) HAHA. All our HTHT in bathtubs, and on the bed till we fall asleep with the lights on. Thank you for everything baby! I really love you so much!!!

Also here's a stupid photo edit by Kimchi to kill the sentimental feels a little bit. THIS IS SO FUNNY WTH??? A summary of our facial expressions this entire trip HAHA GOLD

In the name of love

2016-12-22T06:00:00.001+08:00

Hola people!!! I am currently typing this on the plane on my way to Bangkok cos I just had coffee and my seat is uncomfortable as hell so there's no way I'm falling asleep. Well, as promised (that I will start blogging more frequently now), here's another post about how much fun I've been having this holidays before I cramp everything in one entry and it ends up being too long and hard to digest like my previous post HAHA. The month of December is barely coming close to an end (like cmon, X'mas and New Years aren't even here yet) and I'm already having so much fun!!! Of course, fun is very subjective and everyone have fun in their own ways. So here's my kind of fun!!!

First week of December was all about Zoukout and I am a sucker for music festivals. I love the crowd, the atmosphere, the music, the air and everything about music festivals. It's always so hyped and crazy and I had so much fun!!! Prior to Zoukout I must admit I was pretty damn stressed about getting my tickets and all because previous years my friends and I have always managed to get free tickets and every year it's always a maybe whether we will be able to get them for free or not. This year was no different, but as always, everything turned out well in the end!!! First day of Zoukout was spent with just Maria and I chilling with lotsa champagne and vodka at the VIP tent. The crowd was manageable and it was relatively easier to find my friends and hang out with them for a bit. Of course, Marz and I had to head to the dancefloor for Hardwell and we joined James and Badai right at the very front. It was soooo crazy!!! We just made friends with everyone who were dancing like mad to every song and it was really so much fun.

VIP tent chilling with Marzie

Yes those are confetti in my cleavage LOL

How sweet of Badai to give up his bandana for me, and then bring an extra bandana for me on the second day cos he knows I'll ask for it HAHA

For all the drinks I consumed and the amount of energy I spent dancing like mad to every single Hardwell songs, I suffered major hangover the next day but nothing's gonna stop me from partying as hard (or even harder) for day 2 of Zoukout!!! Day 2 had a sick line up and we practically can't leave the dancefloor from 10pm onwards when Alan Walker starts spinning, cos Wiwek is next, then it's Zedd then Martin Garrix. But we missed most of Alan Walker cos we were stuck outside the entrance waiting for our tickets that was stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam at the Sentosa gateway. It was still fun even outside Zoukout LOL while Cynthia and I were just high and annoying everyone else with our nonsensical chattering as usual. We managed to squeeze through the insane crowd to somewhere sort of the front throughout Zedd and the plan was to stay there and get ready for Martin Garrix but of course...Xintien had to faint at such a sick timing HAHAHA. I'm kidding. I'm anemic as well and most prone to fainting in the family so I completely understood how Xintien was feeling. It was quite suffocating in such a crowded place as well and she probably didn't get enough air. Thank god for strong muscular Prince Charming Badai who was with us to carry her out of the crowd after she blacked out. Along the way many people thought she got dead drunk and all, but well I figured there was no point explaining cos I would have assumed the same for anyone who blacked out at a music festival HAHA. So just a clarification, no she didn't drink much and she wasn't drunk, she's just anemic. So after all that mess, we sat behind the crowd at a corner just chilling and enjoying Martin Garrix's set. I was fine just sitting outside, it's my second time seeing him anyway but daaaaaamn his set was sickkkkkk. It's ok, family first!!! HAHA

Sunday the next day was spent recovering from the insane weekend we had and both Xintien and I just skipped our visit to gramps place without even knowing we were supposed to visit them that day for dinner LOL.

Following few days for me was just intensive track and volleyball trainings and now it's Thursday and I'm on a plane to Bangkok till 21 December!!! I cannot wait to see my best friend, Pantita, there omg. Maybe I should do a blog entry about our friendship and dig out all the old photos of us. Hahaha omg that will actually be so interesting because we've been friends since primary school??? I should also remember to put a warning that I looked like shit many years back LOL. I'll find time to do it someday but probably not this month because my next entry will probably be on my entire Bangkok trip, and then there's X'mas shopping, X'mas Eve party and X'mas party on the day itself, and then there's New Years party omg WHERE GOT TIME!!! HAHA also not forgetting that in between all those days of fun, my semester results will be in and I also have to worry about bidding for my modules next semester and finally deciding if I wish to do Honor's year or not, and emailing companies to rush them for my job application results. Damn...I do have a lot of things to settle. I may not mention all of these on my social media but I AM A BUSY INDEPENDENT WOMAN OK!!! I wonder if I'll still be having fun like this when I finally enter the working world in the following years to come. Hmm ok no point worrying about the future, I should live in the "now".

I'll end my blog entry here. Look out for my next entry on my exciting Bangkok trip to reunite with my best friend and party till I drop all over again HAHA.

(Also, re-reading everything, I realise I sounded so excited in this entry LOL IDK WHY but i'll just leave it)

"I think reality is overrated"

2016-12-07T01:01:00.000+08:00

Hello once again to this neglected space and loyal readers here. I know I have been away for awhile, and this blog is slowly dying. I used to blog every single day 6 years back, then it slowly decreased to once a week, then once a month, then now it's barely even once every two months. Many things happened while I was away and you might have a slight idea if you're following me on my social media (Instagram and Twitter). I probably don't feel as inspired to blog about the things I used to anymore, or maybe blogging is just no longer a thing these days. Anyway, sorry for the short meaningless rant, but the point here is that I really hope to get back to blogging frequently now. Writing in this space has always been a way for me to document my experiences and keep those precious memories, and I enjoyed reading my old posts and reliving the moment all over again (and also realise how much I've grown). It's been close to 10 years in this blog and I really hope to keep this going. Also, I finally decided to include an archives drop menu at the bottom of my blog so that people can go check it out if they're interested. Some heads up, my earlier posts are lame and embarrassing as hell, so forgive me please.

Before I jump into all the things that I've been up to these few months, here's a little rant about growing up. I know I'm not the most mature adult out there, LOL because friends know I'm childish as hell. But like every other normal human being out there, I face setbacks and just a lot of unexpected shit that makes me stop and think and doubt my entire existence. Growing up, I realised how important it is to love and accept the person that I am. There are people that I invested so much on, with the silly mindset that our friendship is unbreakable and is bound to last a lifetime. I will always regret opening up to these people who eventually left. They didn't deserve to know me like that. They didn't deserve the time and effort I invested in them. I would have moved mountains for them, but they turned their backs like our friendship meant nothing at all. But I guess life is unexpected (will always be), and sometimes pain is part and parcel of life, and learning to let go will always always be so hard. I took a break for awhile in solitude a few months back to just reflect about the person that I am. Maybe there is something wrong with me yknow. It was impossible to fall asleep, hell, it even made me scared to make new friends because I felt as though no one deserved to have a shit friend like me and I'm also too scared to invest in someone new. It was a month of self-doubt until I finally turned to the people who had my back since many years back. The people who never questioned my decisions, never judge, and completely understood me. I don't know what I did to deserve them, but I really hope they know how much they mean to me. I wouldn't have been able to get out of that hell cycle of self-torment without them. Of course, this does not mean that I have nothing to improve on myself. I know I am too straightforward, and tend to say things on impulse without considering the feelings of others. I am also always late and can be really self-centered at times. These are the things that I have to try to change about myself, and I only ask for my friends to be patient with me in the mean time.

Ok I actually typed one entire long ass paragraph dedicated to my ex-friend in caps cos I was so agitated LOL but ok there's no point making this an angry post cos I'm over it (trying to get over it). I think I should move on to what this post should really be about.

These two paragraphs actually kinda summarised my two resolutions from this point on (not new years' resolutions cos they're so damn overrated LOL). Basically, I wanna try to blog more often, and I gotta learn to love myself as cliche as that sounds. Also in line with the second resolution, I really gotta choose my friends more wisely man. I mean, seriously, some people really didn't deserve the things I did for them.

Ok now seriously moving on the the things I've been up to since the last time I updated this space.

Life in Temasek Hall

I get asked about this a lot, like "why did I change hall" "how's temasek hall" "is there a difference" and so on, so here goes. To start, I was in Eusoff Hall for 1.5 years since Y1S2, and I recently shifted to Temasek Hall this semester which is just beside EH. I am currently in TH's Track and Volleyball team, and also got notified today that I'm now part of their Bash Committee!

Ok first of all, I changed hall because during the 1.5 years in EH, I was actually squatting for one whole year, which basically meant that the room I was staying in wasn't really under my name in the system cos I didn't have enough points to stay, so because of that I wasn't involved in hall activities at all. In fact, I was never involved in any of the EH activities even when I wasn't squatting because I didn't know how to go about doing it, and when I tried to contact the sports committees or the captains, they just seem to be unable (or reluctant LOL IDK) to help. Wait, I should do a disclaimer first that I am not trying to throw shade at EH (especially when I did mention in one of my blog entries before how much I enjoyed staying there, and my experience there is after all what made me still want to stay in hall, regardless EH or TH), I'm just speaking from my own experience ok. Ok where was I. Hmm, right, basically I didn't wanna continue squatting anymore, so I applied for TH with the help of some friends and managed to get master-listed for Track and Volleyball. Master's list basically meant that I must join these two sports when I enter TH, and have to attend 70% of their trainings. In essence, that's how I ended up in TH, cos they accepted me in and EH didn't.

Initially when I got into TH, I planned to phantom and just not participate in any hall activities besides the ones that I am master-listed in because I barely know anyone here. I only know Sam who is a good friend of Joel, and Jo made Sam promise to take care of me. HAHA, basically that's also how Sam and I became good friends. Thing is, obviously my plan to phantom kinda failed because Sam is really accommodating and he invites me to join him whenever he is off to do something in hall, like poker, dinner, night cycling and so on. I'm like his little bitch that tags along everywhere he goes HAHAHA. To add on, my neighbours are really so nice like they invite me to join them for dinner all the time. And they always help me out whenever I needed. And being the typical gossipy girls, we will sometimes just chat for 30-40 minutes along the corridor or by the bench at our level. I am seriously too lucky to have such nice and friendly neighbaes! We also played angel, mortal and devil in hall, and my beloved angel helped to decorate my room into a one piece paradise and give me random snack surprises in my room. I really love the wanted poster on my door with like my face kinda hidden so it kinda feels like I'm Usopp or Sanji HAHA. At the same time, I pranked my mortal like crazy throwing grass all around his room (his room was at the first storey so it was very acessible to nature HAHA) and messing up his wardrobe but also being very generous with the snacks after every pranks in case he gets mad. So first semester in, I feel very included into this homely community at TH even though I missed hall orientation from being away in summer exchange in Korea, and I am honestly very happy staying here.

Night cycling:

Cat Safari:

I signed up for this alone and didn't really know anyone who went there because I love cats so much HAHAHA.

I also played Inter-Block Games, and celebrated Lantern Festival with the people from my block. Oh, and I also went for Thrill Night (Halloween event in TH) and won myself a speaker cos I had the highest score in darts (had to put this in to show off a bit LOL).

So is there a difference between Eusoff and Temasek? My answer is definitely quite a stark difference. I'm not trying to say that Temasek is better in any way, I just feel that TH's environment really suit me a lot better, especially the people here are more welcoming I guess. Or maybe it's cos I'm not squatting anymore, so I get to interact with more people and really get to know them. But all in all, I'm very happy with my stay here. I probably won't have enough points to stay for the following year though, but I will stay if I manage to get master-listed again.

Ultra Singapore

Day 1:

I was psyched pre-ultra, extremely psyched during ultra and extremely depressed after ultra LOL. It was a mini getaway for me away from being an NUS student and mugging my ass off everyday, so I was definitely looking forward to this day like mad. I basically spent Day 1 of ultra with a hangover cos I went to zouk the previous night and obviously had too much to drink. I was supposed to just hang with the people in my hall but I bumped into Kamarul baby!!! We have never partied together and I haven't seen him in ages. So we partied together for the first time that night with his friends (who are bloody hilarious). Also, it's my first time actually in a like a legit mosh pit cos it drizzled a little earlier that day and the grass patches were muddy as hell, but the rave never stopped and people just continued dancing with muddy shoes. I freaking love it! Also, when I was in a cab to Marina Bay, you could feel the vibrations from the sound system at Ultra. It was super insane and it just made us more excited in the cab, like I just wanted to get out of the cab as soon as possible. Ok I can't recall much from Day 1 of Ultra, but I remembered having a really good time, and queuing super long for food HAHA.

Day 2:

My girls joined me on the second day of ultra at the VIPs and we had so much champagne to drink, hence my flushed face. I was more excited for Day 2 because of above and beyond!!! I swear I wanted to cry when they started spinning I love them so much. It's the kind of music that makes you feel every single word and beat from the song. Like I'll just close my eyes and wave my hands, and try to hold back my tears HAHA. I'm not kidding. Ugh, omg I would do anything to go back to that moment. Also kinda died when Axwell started spinning. Quite a pity Ingrosso didn't make it, but Axwell was sooo good. I swear I melted when he went down on one knee and proposed with a ring to Ultra Singapore. Kamarul just looked over to me and couldn't stop laughing. I actually enjoyed myself more dancing at the very back where it's not as crowded, so we have our space to go crazy and really rave like mad. HAHAH, also you make friends there and rave together so it's insanely fun. Everyone was just having so much fun, the atmosphere was insane. Damn it, now I really cannot wait for ZoukOut even though it can never match up to Ultra's standard.

Mayday Parade Concert

This is also one special day that I've been looking forward to for soooo long. In fact, a couple of friends from my block in hall were also attending Mayday Parade's concert, so we all kept counting down whenever we see each other. When the day finally came, it was one of the rare days I got ready super early and ended up being 3 hours early HAHA. The initial plan was to attend this concert with Jo, but turns out his brother was going as well, and Sam is going and his siblings as well. So we all hung out together like a happy family HAHAH. I knew most of the songs they played because I went to google their set list HAHA yeah I couldn't wait. Also, I got to get ready for the new songs that I wasn't really familiar with so that I can still sing out heart out along with Derek Sanders!!! SCREAMING OMG, cos he was soooo good. His voice is amazing, and it sounded exactly like how his record sounds like. It was awesome, even though the drummer wasn't present, and the song "Oh Well Oh Well" just sounds super weird without drums, but I really enjoyed myself still. Especially cos they played "Three Cheers for Five Years", which is my all time favourite song from Mayday Parade. The song is just so sad, and I feel it every single time I listen to this song. I swear the entire concert I was just mesmerised and smiling and enjoying every single moment before it was gone all too soon.

Singapore Fashion Week

Kenneth the idiot told me to get ready only an an hour before we were supposed to reach SFW venue for dinner, and I ended up wearing super lupsup, just head to toe dressed in black. My outfit was not cute, so we didn't take much pictures that night HAHA. Kenneth and I literally just went there for the free food LOOOOL. Anyway SFW was definitely a night to remember for me because we got treated like VIPs with photographers and videographers following us everywhere we go like we are some big shot. Also, the food was freaking amazing. We had like spanish octopus, sea urchin, oysters, and all the fancy stuff. It took us 3 hours to finish the entire meal course, and to be honest, I was full by the last appetiser dish. LOL

Also, we got chauffered from the dinner venue to National Gallery in a Range Rover, which was so sickkkk. Even when walking to the fashion show venue itself, all the photographers were everywhere around us which of course turned a lot of heads, and I bet people were just like who the hell are they I don't even know them HAHAHA and we aren't even anybody really, but we acted like we were cos we really got the celebrity treatment everywhere we went that night. We even had a manager attached to our group to tell us where to go, and to take photos everywhere like it was important that they have a photo of us cos we were VIPs. HAHAHA, it was also kinda embarrassing cos Kenneth and I were dressed so sloppily. But whatever, I had fun receiving all the celebrity treatment that night, and also mad respect to the real celebrities out there cos those papparazis are really everywhere man.

Quite bumped that I missed Halloween at Zouk for SFW, but I'm really glad I went SFW in the end because it was definitely a night to remember. We don't get treated like VIPs everyday!!!

Zouk's Finale Night

Zouk has been my go-to club for 4 years and I made so many friends there during this period of time. I could probably navigate myself around the place with my eyes closed. I understand that people might not like it because the music is always the same and stuff, but I really enjoyed the company I had there. It was always a fun night, especially on nights with guest DJs, or events like Halloween (favourite day ever), National Day, even Chinese New Year. They also have Mambo Night where they play all the old songs from my childhood, and Solid Gold which is just my favourite hiphop all night. Many of my fondest memories were made at this place, excluding all the memory loss caused by this place as well LOL.

I'm not sure how the new Zouk at Clarke Quay will be like. I definitely expect a lot of changes with the whole vibe, people and so on. It's just not the same to have Zouk so exclusive at a place where no other clubs are around, and have our usual meet up spot at the hot dog stand, LCD screen, carpark and so on. Dayum, many things are gonna be different. But I hope events nights and drinks will stay the same. Except now we probably cannot order special drinks anymore if the bartender changes. In fact, most of the staffs are not going over to the new Zouk. I will miss chitchatting with the cleaner auntie while waiting in line for a cubicle at the toilet. Sighs. Well, to look at the bright side, food is more accessible around Clarke Quay for sure, and we have many other clubs around when Zouk is full house HAHA. It's definitely not gonna be easy getting a cab though.

Anyway, back to what actually happened on the finale night at Zouk. As usual, I'm dressed super lupsup because you don't dress up at home do you? HAHA. We got our chops from beloved Wan after stopping outside winebar with our jug of long island tea for damn long just chatting with our friends. Also, stopping and chatting every single time we bump into a friend who are all at Zouk that night. We also decorated the wall outside Zouk (where they place all our confiscated stuff) with our names. Then popping lots of champagne bottles and downing lots of sour plum shots at members. After a long while, we headed out to wine bar where I met some friends to drink some more long island tea, and then right before my memory was completely wiped out I had a drink called the witch, which is basically just another killer drink at Zouk. LOL, I also will never forget the night Cynthia and I ordered Sun Special from Sun, and complained that it wasn't so strong so he gave us another one on the house, which really killed us so badly. Also the night that I drank so much (and in my drunk state I was still drinking so much and making everyone drink so much) that I can't remember shit, so my memory was based off whatever my friends told me, and apparently in my gone state my unconscious self still knew how to remove my make up and contact lens, shower and brush my teeth before heading to bed. The only problem was when I woke up the next morning, I was still drunk and I couldn't find where the hell I placed my contact lenses the previous night. HAHAHA it was hilarious. Damn. Thank you for the memories, Zouk. :') On to create more precious memories at the new Zouk!

Some more photos from random days:

Photo dedication to my dentist and assistant dentist for the 2.5 years of braces and the sweet outcome!

Back to school on the first day of Y3S1 with this babe (Isshani!)

Kenneth the smelly friend that comes over to my hall to study, and my hall friends thought he was a homeless guy cos he was asleep in our common lounge and I wasn't there to claim him as my friend HAHAHA

Lunch date with Tyler!

Halloween Horror Night at USS with Sam, Kimchi and Debbie (and their group of friends)!

Birthday dinner to celebrate my gramps birthday!

PS: my grandma is older than my granddad by one day HAHA SO CUTE!!!

Brought my baby brother out to play bowling and laser tag for his birthday!

Met up with half the group of friends I spent most of my Korea Summer Exchange with after finals at Holland Village!

Lunch date with my favourite lecture buddies in NUS and welcoming Jez back from her exchange!

Summer never ends

2016-08-14T19:01:00.000+08:00

Here I am back in Singapore after a long 1.5 months that flew by in a blink of an eye. I am saying this with a very heavy heart that has parts of it left in Korea. A part of me missed Singapore like crazy, and another part of me struggled with the fact that I was finally leaving Korea on the last day. It was difficult to bid goodbye to our airbnb apartment that has been our home for the past 6 weeks, difficult to attend the graduation ceremony surrounded by people hugging and crying, difficult to have our last meal (and bingsu) in Korea, difficult (physically) to get to Incheon Airport (because of our heavy luggages and having to transfer lines), and definitely difficult to return to our homes in SG and face the reality of starting school in 2 days. But yes, it's time to face the reality but please let me reminisce one last time in an attempt to write this blog post.

For those who didn't know, I was away in Seoul (Korea) for summer exchange in Korea University. I took up 3 modules there:

0900-1040 Physics in Living Systems (6 weeks)

1050-0120 Introduction to Marketing (4 weeks)

0200-430 American Foreign Policy (4 weeks)

I got Bs for all my modules which was good enough, considering the fact that I barely studied (cos nobody studies during summer school) and I wasn't vying for a scholarship. In Korea University, the passing grade is 70, so you need at least a C to pass, which to most people sounds crazy but I found the lecturers quite lenient. I mean, they'll be quite a sadist to let people fail their summer school. The difficult part though, was 70% attendance, especially for my morning classes, which I believe I did not meet the requirement, but there was only 6 students in my class so it was quite impossible for my professor to fail anyone in my opinion. Oh and school was from Monday to Thursday and I freaking love this system. Having that one additional weekend really made going to school less of a chore.

Jae, my first friend from Politics class!

Every morning, I wake up at 730(ish, sometimes 8) to get ready for school. I will make sure to check the temperature to decide what to wear that day, because the first 3 weeks were the monsoon season and the temperature dropped to about 24 degrees whenever it rains. The rain in Seoul lasts for days, so I'll make sure to wear leather shoes and jeans and sweater. But, if it doesn't rain the temperature is just like in Singapore. In fact, in the last week the temperature was 35 degrees and I almost died. Ok moving on, my apartment is in Dongmyo/Sindang and it takes me about 20-30minutes to get to school which is in Anam. Upon alighting at Anam, I'll go to 7-11 to get a tuna kimchi gimbap (sushi roll that surprisingly filling) and coffee for breakfast cos I can't stay awake for 9am classes without food. I only get to have lunch after my second class at 1:20pm, and I'll meet my friends at the next building. After class at 4:30pm, we meet at the smoking shed outside our lecture building and decide where to go that afternoon.

I figured I can't possibly make a record of my activities every single day by writing since I was there for 6 weeks and I did go out almost every single day, so that'll take forever to jot down but I did take snaps on my snapchat every day so stayed tuned to the end of this entry for a video compilation of my snaps during the trip. Sadly, I forgot to save some snaps from Carribean Bay and my hiking trip but well, both experiences were gold and kinda hard to erase from my mind anyway.

Ok I'll first talk about the interesting places I went to ok! Or at least places worth mentioning ah, cos I don't think I can list down every single place I went lol.

Myeongdong
OK not gonna say too much about this place because everyone knows about it. Best shopping area around for beauty products and also for the best food. Not the best place for guys to go unless you're looking for sports or shoe stuff, or planning to have a meal here, or go to a cat/dog cafe. The streets here are also lined with OVERPRICED street food that you probably can find elsewhere (for instance, Ehwa) for a fraction of the price.

Fried icecream yum!

I did go to Myeongdong a lot, in fact I think I came here most of the time when I had nothing planned because there's many things for you to see and eat here and also cos it's really near my place. I went to the dog and cat cafe here as well, basically I just followed the dog/cat mascots along the streets (you'll bump into them somehow).

OK here are some cat-obsessed selfies:

This cat is heterochromatic so I had every reason to be obsessed ok

Nessie and I being absolute cat lover spent quite a bomb there getting food and drinks for ourselves as well as for the cats...but for all their love and attention it was WORTH IT HAHA.

OK some warning, I think it's best not to enter the dog cafe that the dog mascot was promoting in Myeongdong. I am not sure if they all promote for the same one, but I guess you should go to Dog Cafe Perpet @ Apgujeong that I went on a separate occasion instead, or just go to the damn famous Bau House or something. This dog cafe that I went in Myeongdong was probably the worst I've seen...I mean dogs are dogs and they are cute no matter what but these dogs are not potty-trained, so they shit and pee...EVERYWHERE. It's quite a nasty sight and it honestly made me feel quite grossed out cos we were sitting on the floor, and the dogs are peeing and shitting all over the floor. The dogs were interactive all right, but there were some dogs we apparently had to stay away from because they get aggressive when irritated (or not, they're just always aggressive and we should stay away from them at all cost) which is just no fun. BOOOOOO

Also haha, this reaffirms my love for cats cos they are so much cleaner compared to dogs.

Dog Cafe Perpet @ Apgujeong

Ok this cat cafe was much much better compared to the one I went to in Myeongdong. Also, their dogs are so much cuter. They also separated the big dogs from the small dogs, so for those who are scared of dogs but wanna go to a dog cafe (people like me lol) they can just chill in the small dogs area. They have a puppy corgi and pomeranian!!! You just got to buy a drink to enter, and if you don't wish to enter, you can just chill outside, which is also filled with little dogs you can play with. Personally, the big dogs are just too active and scary for me. The small dogs are calmer and cuddler cos you can actually hug them! We spent an entire afternoon here being sluts to the dogs cos they took turns cuddling with each of us HAHAHA. Ok I'm kidding but if you have no idea what to do for an entire afternoon just go to a dog or cat cafe cos you can definitely spend a long time there without even realizing. Plus, all of us spent a long time trying to get the perfect cute shot with these cuties as well. I think these cafes are a must-visit in Seoul because they are so rare in SG!

Line Friends Store & Cafe

I know it's weird that this is one of the interesting places to name, especially for me who is not a fan of stuffed toys but really, just walk into one of these stores (they're everywhere). First of all, the place is massive. Second of all, the stuffed toys are massive. Third of all, they have a freaking cafe with buns in the shape of the characters?! I died inside cos I was just too overwhelmed by their cuteness. I swear my friends and I spent at least 30 minutes inside taking photos with all the stuffed toys. We were in complete awe. Also, not to mention, these stuffed toys are actually pretty famous in Korea so this is considered an attraction over there. Oh oh oh, and they have a photobooth!!!

Sinsa

Sinsa is an area near Gangnam (or part of, I'm not really sure), but basically you shop there. The clothes are not as cheap compared to Ehwa or Express Bus Terminal but you can find some local brands there or other high end brands at probably cheaper prices. My friends and I found Cheap Monday at 40% discount storewide, so a pair of jeans was 40$ wow! I didn't buy any though cos I have so many jeans already and I don't even wear jeans that often lol. Ok actually you can give this place a miss if you don't really have time cos I honestly didn't do much here anyway.

COEX Mall
This mall is massive, like probably about 4 times of Vivocity, or even more actually cos I didn't even manage to walk the entire area. But anyway, if you wanna get Stan Smith or some popular shoe model and you can't find your shoe sizes anyway, just go to COEX Mall cos there are so many stores that sells branded shoes and the stores are huge. And I got my Adidas Superstar at a 20% discount, which was the only store I know then (after walking around and checking prices at so many stores) that offered discount for that shoe model. I will definitely go back to this mall again the next time I'm in Seoul because I gotta finish walking the entire mall man. I got quite a bit of stuff after walking only one small section so I can't imagine what the entire mall actually have to offer.

Seven Luck Casino

Whoever has the sharper jawline wins more money?
LOL he win

Since you're in the Gangnam area, and probably have your passport with you to do tax refunds, you might as well head down to Seven Luck Casino just to check it out or maybe to really gamble. You gotta walk through COEX Mall to get there anyway. It was my first time entering a casino cos I just turned 21, and yes I did try to gamble and lost about 100$ pfft. Ok fine, but it was for experience. I think I prefer gambling for fun cos everything at the casino is way too serious for my liking. Like people actually get offended when you call for an additional card in blackjack and shit like nah man I can't deal with that I iz out. HAHA, and also you can sign up to become a member for free and get 10k won for the slot machine. With the member card, you get (I think) two free meals in the casino but you gotta play a game to activate the card but still better than nothing. I thought it was not bad lah. I mean considering the money I lost, at least the casino made sure I didn't starve to death on the streets and stuff. LOL

Express Bus Terminal
If you're around Sinsa or Gangnam area and you're done with whatever you're doing there, you might as well head down to the Express Bus Terminal since it's nearby. Or, if it's raining and you can't shop along the outdoor streets, then this is the best place to go for shopping. This place kinda reminds me of Platinum Mall in Bangkok. Anyway the clothes here (and phone casings) are like 5k-10k won, real cheap, but thing is I find all the clothes relatively similar here so I didn't bother walking the entire place. And also cos of all days I didn't bring enough money to shop that day LOL. If you're into Korean style of dressing then I think this place is good for all the cheap clothes you can get! Personally, I really like how comfortable Koreans dress, cos they are always wearing loose clothes and all but there are some conservative style of dressing that does not really appeal to me. For instance, wearing a shirt underneath a bralet HAHA it really just doesn't make sense to me but well everyone has different opinions.

Ehwa Womans University

LOL BB looking at his beancurd skin fishcake with so much love in his eyes. Not my fave though cos I'm not a fan of beancurd skin so I only took a bite.

For more shopping, you can head down to Ehwa Womans University (I googled to see if there was an 's' behind woman and there was ok I know it's wrong but that's how it's spelled there). I got my contact lenses from Ehwa, even their watsons sell contact lenses. The cheapest I found was 10k per pair cos they were selling it for 1 + 1 for 20k won. Anyway, I think Ehwa is the best place to pop by watsons or guardian cos the beauty products are cheaper compared to SG. Sometimes the difference in beauty products pricings make me feel that SG doesn't want us to be beautiful LOL (kidz but yeah). I think there's only one small street along Ehwa that actually sell clothes, and after walking for awhile you'll get quite lost because all the clothes look the same and you don't know if you've already entered this store or not HAHA it's quite funny.

Most importantly when you're in Ehwa, please try pork belly at Mister Bossam (I'll mention it later in this post about food).

Lotte Mart
This is a must-go place as well because this is where you'll be able to get all the Korean noodles and snacks to bring home! In fact, you can buy all the make up products here as well cos they are all of the same price anyway. The biggest advantage of buying all your stuff here is the immediate tax refund you'll be able to get on the spot. This means you don't even have to do tax refund at the airport anymore, which can be quite confusing and troublesome because you gotta keep all the receipts and fill in all the forms in the receipts and so on.The only disadvantage of shopping here is that they do not provide plastic bags so you'll have to pack all your shopping stuff into recycled boxes provided and carry it all the way home. Honestly, the boxes are quite a hassle to carry back home and we insisted on not taking the cab because it would mean we didn't save anything on tax refund at all. We died, and we were just so so glad we made it back home.

ok I'm done talking about all the shopping stuff (finally), and I will move on to sightseeing places!

Hangang River
Also known as Han River. Sadly, I only went to this place once in the night but either way this place is beautiful. I drove past this area several times when I was in the cab and every single time I was in complete awe. People usually do picnics along the river and under the bridge. I definitely want to do it the next time I come to Seoul. I love picnics! I also know that in the afternoon you get to rent bicycle or segway to ride along the river, which sounds super fun as well. The river is really beautiful!

Ok also, from what I heard from my Korean friend, many people commit suicide at the Han River. So along the river at the pavement on the highway, there are actually public telephones and motivational/encouraging quotes to prevent people from committing suicide. And because of this, Han River is also called 'The River of Hope'. In fact, when I left Han River the night I was there, my friend and I actually witnessed someone attempting to commit suicide there while we were driving past the highway and there was a police car present.

The night I was there, my friend and I did tarot (just for fun) for 15k won for the both of us. It's not cheap but well, we were bored and it was a good way to kill time. It was during the tarot I realised Koreans can actually write in Chinese characters but they can't speak Chinese? It's weird, I mean I know Chinese used to be their national language before the Korean war or something, but I didn't know they still learn to write in Chinese.

Gyeongbokgung Palace &
Gyeongbokgung Palace Folk Museum

I wanted to take so many more pictures but I made the wrong decision of going to Korea with only boys and they refuse to take pictures for me, which is damn lame but nevermind got over it because I'm a magnanimous person.

Ok to start, this palace is massive. Way to massive to finish exploring every room, which there was no need to as well because every room looked the same (because they are all freaking empty) and you can't enter them anyway. The only difference is probably the little plaque outside the room explaining the significance of this room and so on. The only interesting thing I found out about was probably the assassination of the queen or something like that.

The Palace Museum was interesting though, like I got to see the floor plan of the palace (which is damn insanely huge). And I also learned how Koreans get their make up products then - red beans. Yeah this explains their obsession with red bean related food products even up till now LOL. I won't say this is a must-go place, but honestly I find that it's worth a visit because it's beautiful but you probably won't spend an entire afternoon there unless you're super ambitious and insists on walking the entire palace (which I will wish you good luck to that). Oh ya, you also get to rent hanboks there and walk the entire palace in your hanboks (traditional Korean costume) so you can get the perfect insta shot! But of course I didn't do it...because the hanbok doesn't really go with my fashion style. LOL my friends tried persuading me to wear it but.. nah sorry no thanks.

BB and Yongli mocking my laughing candid shot

Bengs unite

I should also mention that if you exit the museum via the main entrance, there is a beautiful patch of grass that you can take really nice photos at! I did take some but they didn't turn out too nice cos it was already dark. But the palace looks beautiful from the outside at night as there were lights lining the entire palace, but also the lights ruin the shot in photos HAHA. Well, I guess some things are really just for your eyes to see and remember in the moment itself. We can't capture every golden moment, but we sure can remember them.

Korean War Museum

Outside this museum is the perfect place to take photos. The statues are really beautiful and carefully sculpted. If you stare at their faces long enough, I think you can see their story flash past in a second and feel your heart aching for a bit. Ok I'm being overdramatic but seriously, I think trying to feel myself in that situation then is the reason why I love history and looking at photos and portraits from the past. It's like, so old but been through so much. The same as looking at old people. Is it just me? HAHAH I'm not weird right.

Anyway I went to this War Museum twice, once with my friends and another time with my politics class. I should also just mention that the entire class is very pro-American because half the class were Americans and the other half were South Koreans, and I'm a little Singaporean here who never speaks up (because I know nothing about the history of America and also cos I'm literally the only one in class without an American accent). Ok back to the museum.

Besides these statues, there is also an entire area lined with war transport and machines which is super cool and perfect for taking photos. My friends and I have a typical vogue shot and normal shot. Forgive us but we gotta give the cool vibes la.

who win at dimples?

Ok that said, the museum itself (inside) was quite disappointing. I mean I did get more insights on the war and especially on North Korea but the interior wasn't as nice as I hoped I guess. I also felt like I already know most of the things from politics class so it was kinda boring for me. But still, the museum is huge and they have many different rooms to explore different aspects and timeline of the war so if one room was too boring or not as insightful for you, you can just move on to the next.

Hwaseong Fortress

Kenneth, Seo In, Vivian and I made it out of the house (the rest didn't cos we drank the previous night) one afternoon to make a road trip out of Seoul to Hwaseong Fortress! It was supposedly a 2 hour journey but I think it turned out much longer than that because this happens when you let a Singaporean drive in Korea. HAHA ok but still thankful that he drove because that means we girls don't have to worry about driving and can just gossip away the entire trip. My throat also felt a little sore after the trip cos guess whose been talking non-stop all the way LOL. Kenneth and Seo In were like Vivian and my parents cos they called the shots and worried about directions, while Vivian and I sat in the backseat completely oblivious to an incoming toll ahead. HAHA the road trip was really fun though, jamming to old songs and of course a thousand miles by Vanessa Carlton (cos white chicks).

Had to take photos by the castle because we made it bitches! I'll safely say that this castle definitely looks way better in the night than in the day. But of course, it can be quite tricky to get a good shot in the dark. Just to add, I won't say this is a must-go place as well because there's nothing much to do besides finding a nice spot to take photos, but I really enjoyed the road trip cos we had like a mini bonding session and a few good laughs. We didn't sleep during the journey at all! Also, we made sure to stock up a bit on water and snacks so we don't have to starve ourselves on the way back like we did on our way to the fortress.

Lotte World

Korea University kindly sponsored all the summer students free entry to Lotte World on one of the weekends so the entire school went. I was initially with Derrick and BB but they weren't as excited as I was cos they've been there before and they didn't really like it there. Whereas for me, it was my first time and I was super psyched. I mean, I'm always happy no matter which theme park I go to! Thankfully I have this bunch of friends that are just as excited as I was, but some of them a bit the xiao scared to take rides.

I'll say my favourite ride is Gyro Swing, which is a little bit like Viking Ship but it spins while going up and down, and of course it goes way way higher than that. Also, the ride was situated by a river so when it goes up, the view was amazing. I took the ride twice hehe. I also took Gyro Drop, which froze my heart for a solid 6 seconds when it went down, but there was only one drop so it was kinda easy to get over. We queued for French Revolution for about 2 hours and it was a complete waste of time, cos the roller coaster goes up but there are no freaking drops. It's a popular ride because I think that's the main ride at Lotte World, but nah it sucks. Thankful for the group of friends I went with that made queuing so much less torturous than it actually is.

Guess you can get our flow in photo-takings now - normal shot, cute shot, and vogue shot. HAHAH, we stayed at Lotte World the entire day and believe me, you'll want to because the castle lights up at night and it makes you feel like a pwincess. Or at least, that's what I felt even in baggy jeans and sneakers LOL. Best thing about the theme parks in Korea is that they close at 10pm instead of freaking USS in Singapore that closes at 7pm.

Caribbean Bay

Our initial plan for Caribbean Bay and Everland was to be on one of the weekends so we could book an airbnb nearby and conquer both theme parks in one weekend. Unfortunately, it rained on that particular weekend so we forwent our airbnb apartment and just went to Caribbean Bay and Everland separately. The journey to Everland is super super tedious. If you took the train it'll take about 2-3 hours. So the four of us just took a cab to Gangnam and took a bus that goes straight to Everland. This takes about 1-2 hours instead. You can go google about the different ways to get to Everland.

Ok back to the rides!!!

Caribbean Bay is probably the best water theme park I've been too. Like every other water theme parks, you get the tsunami pool and lazy river and all the very typical rides. The best ride there was probably Mega Storm, which is also the highlight ride there. The queue is super long, but if you go with the right company they can make the queuing process less tedious. And unlike water theme parks in Singapore or anywhere else I've been to, you don't have to carry the floats up many many flights of stairs at Caribbean Bay which is awesome. Also, at Caribbean Bay, I took the scariest ride I've ever taken - Aqualoop. There was zero queue at this ride, I think partly due to the very strict checks. You have to remove all your piercings, so I removed my belly stud. Like even the material of your bathing suit matters. Anyway only Derrick BB and I passed the checks and after reaching the top of the platform, we realized like "shit there's no queue". Basically each of us gets a cubicle, and the cubicle door closes then they will echo "3..2..1.." and the freaking floor opens up and you freefall for like 5 seconds before you hit the waterslide and like whizz through the tube. The speed of the ride is pretty fast if you ask me and water theme parks have always scared me more because there are no safety harnesses unlike normal theme parks. Swear I died after Aqualoop, T-express was nothing compared to this LOL.

If you do your research, there are actually a lot of things to explore at Caribbean Bay. If I'm not wrong there's an Aquatic Centre or something but we stayed outdoors most of the time because we went there for the rides. But overall it was a pretty chill day for us, we only took a few rides but it was a good day. Oh and most of the people there wear rash guard and tights, so if you show up in bikini you get a lot of stares, and eventually you'll feel uncomfortable lah or at least that was how I felt.

Everland

On the last day of our trip, Nessie and I woke up late but we made our way down to Everland anyway. We probably didn't explore the entire area considering the size of it, but we took the T-Express (highlight ride) twice so that was awesome. In case you didn't know, T-Express is a roller coaster that goes at a speed of 110 or something, and it has a 77 degrees drop. The ride is also super long, with many many drops!! Nessie and I sat at the front seat and we raised our hands at every drop it was insane and super fun, and we also had sore arms the next day HAHA.

Another super good ride that we accidentally ended up queuing for was the Amazon Forest. YOU HAVE TO GO FOR THIS. Basically you queue for a shuttle bus that goes into the tigers, lions, hyenas and bear exhibition. You get to be super close to the animals, like without the glass windows on the bus you can touch them and they will bite you and you die that kind of distance. I was freaking out the entire time cos we were so so close. Like a bear stood up right in front of me and it was huge. And we also saw baby lion cubs! This entire ride was amazing and I am so glad we bumped into this ride by pure luck. I'm sure there are many amazing rides at Everland as well but because we didn't have much time to spend there we didn't take every single ride there was. Anyway, I'll definitely come back to Everland again on my next trip.

Btw! For both Everland and Caribbean Bay, remember to bring your boarding pass cos there might be a discount for your tickets. Nessie and I only paid 30$ for our tickets to Everland, which I thought was pretty cheap. They offer a cheaper price if you enter the theme park after 5pm.

Noise Basement 2 (NB2)

NB2 is in Hongdae (Hongik University) which is probably my favourite area in Seoul, because you can find eat there, shop there and club there. Basically, your entire day's itinerary can be settled in Hongdae. Bonus, they have sulbing there and they sell the best bingsu around Seoul. Ok back to NB2.

If I should warn you first, this club is is small and squeezy and the toilet is filthy as hell. But for some strange reason, this club is the favourite for my friends and I. In my 6 weeks, I came here 3 times, and 2 of those 3 times were on consecutive nights HAHA. Oh and this club only plays Hip Hop music which is the best thing ever I love it. The entrance fee is 10k won on weekdays and 15k won on weekends. We tried to enter before 11pm thinking there might be free entrance, but apparently it's free for locals but foreigners strictly have to pay, which is damn ridiculous in my opinion but we paid anyway for all the clubs we entered. AND (BONUS) CLUBS OPEN TILL 10AM IN KOREA!!! So we clubbed till daylight every single time (unknowingly) and it feels like Zoukout! Pre-drinking in Seoul happens at the convenience store cos everyone just buys soju for 2$ and down the entire bottle cos we ain't wasting no time WE BLOODY PAID FOR ENTRANCE SO WE GOTTA GET OUR ASSES IN THE CLUB ASAP. Also trust me, one bottle's enough to get you there (I mean, provided you down the entire shit in one shot la). 3 bottles to be dead drunk if you ask me.

Oh ya, and you don't really have to dress up to enter the clubs. I wore a t-shirt dress with sneakers and I thought I looked quite dressed down but turns out the girls there just wear shorts and t-shirt and everyone wears sneakers there.

Ok on to how the guys are inside the club because everyone talks about how aggressive the guys are in the club in Korea amirite!!! So to answer this, yes the guys are aggressive, and every 5 minutes some random dude will have his hands on your shoulders or waist from behind you. Once you enter the club and going down the stairs, probably two or three dudes will block your way to offer a drink or give you some sweet compliments. While dancing, if some dude comes behind you just say no he'll just walk away casually, not even embarrassingly cos to him it's just "oh on to the next target". And if no guys come to you....you can try going to the guy!!! HAHAHAHAH they'll take you without hesitation no worries. Just make sure he's cute ok, because cute guys in Korea is seriously not hard to find. I think this is the best thing about clubbing overseas because no one will recognise you and stir shit that will mess up your reputation and all (that is if you even have one lol HAHAH ok kidding), I mean not that I did anything because half of Singapore was in Seoul when I was there, and also because I'm innocent as hell, but you get what I mean.

After clubbing we'll cab back home, and in case you're wondering cabs here are just as expensive as it is in Singapore. In fact, everything here is more expensive especially food and transport. The only exception is probably Korean beauty products, but other than that nah.

Octagon

ok photo was taken in SG but it was in a club so close enough HAHA

Octagon rank 5th in the world, one rank higher than Zouk Singapore, so duh we had to go check it out. First of all, it's huge, definitely bigger than zouk eventhough it only has two dancefloors. Basically one plays HipHop and the other plays EDM. And you gotta pay 5k won for the locker, on top of the 30k won entrance fee you paid to get in. It added up to quite a sum and all these didn't even include drinks or transport. Pfft, but ok the club was alright I guess you definitely get a lot more space to dance compared to zouk and the music is good. It's still not my favourite club though, NB2 was still better in my opinion HAHA. Oh also, octagon is located all the way at Gangnam which is pretty far for most people. If you take the train, you gotta climb up a hill, cos octagon is located on a hilltop so it'll suck a lot if you're wearing heels that night hahaha.

I also gotta mention that the first time I went to octagon, I misplaced my phone in the toilet and it ruined my entire night cos I ended up crying and going home. Of course I was no longer in a mood to party right. So I got home and continued crying and my friends came back at 5-6am saying that the club found my phone, and I woke Kenneth up to go back to octagon with me to retrieve my phone. LOL such a brother *crying eyes*. And yes I know I am too damn lucky.
The Fountain (Arcade Bar)

Favourite bar right here!!! The Fountain is located at Itaewon, which is an area that is famous among foreigners for their nightlife. I think during my 6 weeks in Seoul, I've been to the arcade bar 4 times cos I love it there. First of all they play awesome music, it's not all the recent top 100 hits kind. At some point, I remember vividly they were playing backstreet boys HAHA. Best thing about this arcade bar is definitely all the arcade games and cheap drinks. Basically you can get a bottle of beer for 3k won or you can get a glass of liquor for 5k won, and play pool, shoot basketball, arcade games or table soccer for free. There's also darts that you gotta pay 1k for 2 credits, which is about the same as it is in Singapore. I also don't think Koreans play darts very well LOL.

Anyway if you decide you don't like it at The Fountain, which is impossible because this bar looks so freaking gorgeous with all the lights and everything there is literally nothing to not like about this bar, but ok just maybe if you happen to not like it there, you're in Itaewon and you can easily hop into another bar or club nearby in the area. There are plenty of clubs and bars around. I also learned that anyone below the age of 19 are not even allowed to be in Itaewon, and that's why there are so many policemen and cars patrolling the area.

Seoraksan National Park

Seoraksan if I'm not wrong is the 2nd highest mountain in Korea, and the prettiest one. It runs 12km high and evidently we all look super ready to conquer the mountain. I was particularly excited as it was my first time climbing a mountain, I sort of didn't know what to expect and kinda underestimated the mountain I guess. As this hike was a little last minute and I didn't intend to do any sport-related activity here in Seoul, I had to buy sports shoes and attire the day before and also borrow a hiking bag from a friend. We woke up at around 5am in the morning and took the train to the bus interchange, where we will take a bus out of Seoul, and then take another bus again to the mountain before we actually start hiking. Obviously I didn't know shit about directions so I just followed the pack HAHA.

Here's a few of us having kimbap for lunch in all smiles, completely unaware of what we signed up for but it was also way too late to turn back now

Ok, so how did the hike go for us because I sounded so negative about it right. Basically we booked an accommodation at the peak of the mountain and the plan was to spend a day climbing up and the next day climbing down the mountain. We were rushing to climb the mountain cos we had to reach the accommodation by 6pm. However, while we were climbing up the mountain, the higher we went, more and more people coming down the mountain told us to turn back because it's gonna rain that night. And the rain here in Seoul lasts for days, and that means we would be stranded at the top of the mountain for days without shower and limited drinks and food. So we sat down and discussed at one of the pit stops. I wanted to go to the peak super badly but I was also exhausted at the same time and slowing the entire group down. But if we were to head to the peak, it is unlikely that we are able to head back down on the same day because we had no torchlight as we didn't plan to hike in the night. Each of us had different opinions. So at the 10km mark, we reached a temple where we stopped and rested for a bit. At that time it was 4pm and we were 2km away from the peak.

The boys said they were gonna run all the way up to the peak, which to me sounded absolutely insane because the way to the peak is a lot steeper from the way we came and I was already dying so I definitely couldn't run my way up. Seriously, the hike was insane I cried while climbing cos I wanted to give up so badly. I'm not even kidding and I am a sports player dude (a little ashamed to say that, tho I've been inactive for awhile but it means I'm not entirely unfit and stuff). Ok so basically what happened was the guys went up to the peak and the girls started making our way down and we would meet the boys at the starting point.

The hike down took way longer than expected and soon the sky began to go dark. Along the way, there were strangers who told us to just get accommodation on the mountain but we were quite suspicious cos they were all guys and we were all girls. I mean, ok Koreans are generally really nice and all, but we gotta meet the boys at the starting point anyway. The Koreans kept insisting it was dangerous for us but we went ahead anyway after buying a torchlight from them. We were walking really really fast hoping by sheer luck we will be able to make it back to the starting point before the entire forest becomes pitch black for us, but our hopes get crushed a little knowing we're a few kilometers away which would take hours to complete. Anyway yes, the sky eventually grew dark and the only source of light for the three of us was the torchlight and our iphone light (that was not strong enough but we didn't have a choice). The three of us girls encountered three animals along the way and I was scared out of my wits. I just wanted to cry so bad because I was tired and there are wild animals and we might die. I was really so scared but I couldn't say it out because I know the girls are scared too, and if I were to say it out I might scare them. It was pitch black in the entire forest and I was scared to dart my eyes into the darkness for fear of seeing something I shouldn't. Honestly, the entire experience was soooooo traumatic for me I think it'll take a long while before I can enter a forest for another hike.

Anyway yes finally we reached the starting point at the temple and we asked the guard if we could just take shelter in the temple because it was dark and there are wild animals around and it was starting to rain. He kept insisting no because the bus terminal is closed and apparently we had to hike down 7km to where we can actually get a cab. Upon hearing that I just bawled my eyes out and begged him to let us stay there. He was nice enough in the end and let us take shelter there, I think he could tell we were really traumatised and tired. He even gave us food and water in the end. We contacted the boys and told us where we were, and they got the coast guard to drive up to where we were and get us down. From there, we got a cab out of the mountain area and stayed the night at the nearest accommodation we could find. I barely spoke the entire time cos really, too traumatised I felt like crying talk about how scared I was.

This was the best view I could get without making it to the top.
\2km more up and I'll be above the clouds...damn

I'm just extremely thankful I'm alive and fat and well. It was a scary experience but well, a damn good story to tell I guess.

Brazillian Jujitsu @ Checkmat

I was extremely glad I managed to step out of my comfort zone and try out a new sport! Of course, I really wouldn't have done it without Kenneth cos he was the one who brought me into this sport, and my coach Minkyu for being so patient! I was initially quite hesitant to continue doing BJJ especially after Kenneth left Seoul, but I'm really glad I continued doing it cos I really learned so much. I honestly never thought I'll be into martial arts cos I've been a ball player all my life. Also, it was really cheap! I paid 80$ for a two weeks course, and there are classes every day. I didn't have a Gi so my coach loaned me one of his! Really, the people there are so nice. I couldn't understand most of what the coach was saying as well cos he can't converse in English very well but the students will translate and other people will explain things to me to make sure I understand the instructions and all. Damn it omg I miss my coach and the people there so much!!! Besides BJJ I also learned MMA that doesn't require the Gi. Basically I'm a pro now ok guys better stay away from me HAHHAA.

Omg yes we are finally moving on to food!!! I know this post is getting too damn long and I am also spending way too much time getting this entry done. Anyway I'm not putting the exact address to the places and everything cos I'm sure you can just google them if you wish to know more!

Meat-ing BBQ Buffet

I think this buffet has several outlets but we went to the one in Hongdae. You can find really good food in Hongdae because it's the best place in Seoul (ok I've said that alr HAHA but I love Hongdae!). This BBQ buffet costed each of us about 11k won only, and we could only stay for about 2 hours which was more than enough. I got full quite fast (as usual) but the meat was really nice and they came in quite a wide variety as well. Of course, as you can see from the pictures, this place is not a good representative of the tradition Korean BBQ but it's still a really good place for feeding large groups of people with huge appetite LOL.

There are many pork belly buffets around. My friends and I frequent this particular restaurant that serves pork belly only with free flow sides and it costs us only 10k won per person. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the restaurant is called, all I know is there are outlets in Mangwon, Myeongdong and Hongdae cos we went to all these outlets. The restaurant name was in Korean, and there was no way for me to remember it or even google about it. Opps sorry haha, but as I said there are so many pork belly buffets around. We tried many different kinds even those cooked over charcoal instead of just fire. Charcoal definitely taste so much better but they are also really expensive! Honestly, when I went to Korea I didn't even follow food recommendations. I just went to wherever looked cheap and nice and just explored new places on my own. So don't worry about not being able to find the best deal cos you're overseas and it's an adventure!!!

Sul-Bing

You haven't been to Korea if you haven't tried Bingsu at Sulbing Korean Dessert Cafe. This cafe is everywhere, and they sell bingsu at only 10k won in a huge portion. Usually 4 people share a bingsu, cos it comes in a very generous serving with ice cream, cheese cubes and multiple layers of fruits. I insisted on trying more different flavors but my friends are just too hooked onto blueberry cheese bingsu, which I admit is my favourite as well. It comes with yoghurt icecream, with milk shaved ice, many cheese cubes and a generous amount of blueberries. You can also ask for condensed milk (as if it's not sweet enough). Also I realized i have a stupid habit of blowing onto my spoon of ice (thinking it's hot soup) before eating it I have no freaking idea why but I unknowingly forget that I'm not supposed to be blowing on it?! Anyway yes, please do society a favor and stop eating bingsu in Singapore cos they are freaking overpriced and disgusting and go eat them in Korea instead.

Thx

11. Mister Bossam

Boiled pork belly

Roasted pork belly

A must-try when you're at Ehwa if not I feel so so sad for you because they serve the best pork belly in the world. I will not give up pork for anyone anymore because seriously this is just so good I don't know what kind of pork they use or how they boil or roast it but it is just so damn good. Anyway if you're deciding between the boiled or roasted one just get the boiled one, it tastes a lot better for some reason I have no idea why. I came to Mister Bossam twice because hehe too damn good. They have free flow side dishes as well, a bummer they don't serve kimchi but oh well. They also gave us a big bowl of cold noodles that tasted pretty good. Of course this entire meal for 4 girls is too much, but we finished every last piece of pork belly. Please try this when you're in Seoul and you can thank me later for the recommendation ok.

O'sulloc
I don't have a photo of their milk green tea paste but you have to get this eventhough it's a little expensive. It's about 8.5k won for a bottle of the milk green tea paste, which you basically just pair with bread or biscuit but promise you will have no regrets because it is so good. I first tried it at my friend's apartment cos me being a glutton I'm forever hungry and I asked for food. One bite, and I kept pestering them to tell me where they got this from. I initially planned to get so many bottles back to Singapore but it was really expensive so I only got one. Also if you're getting this, remember to check this into your luggage cos it's considered solid.

And also FYI, bread in Korea is so freaking expensive it pissed me off so bad. I'm a huge fan of bread like I love bread I need to eat it in the morning, but convenience stores don't even sell bread loafs for me to make my own sandwich and shit. If any convenience store happens to sell them, they'll cost about the same price as Paris Baguette so you might as well get it from paris instead.

Taco Bell
Yeah suaku me tried my first taco bell in Seoul and I freaking love it. Only got to try it once, but damn it was so good. Singapore please bring taco bell in!!! For those who have no clue at all, taco bell is basically fast mexican food. Wooooo what can be better than that right!!!!

Noh Chef & Pane Chicken

Lost count of the number of comments I got on snapchat for snapping this beautiful dish right here in slow motion while the waiter pulled the bread bowl apart. We went in a big group of 7 so we ordered other dishes as well, like carbonara chicken and fried chicken with fries. This entire meal was just an overload of chicken for us. I felt that having other non-chicken related dish would have balanced the meal out. Like somehow I was quite sick of chicken halfway through HAHA. We had this as a main course, but apparently to the koreans it's just a side dish to pair with beer.

'The Bomb' Pizza
I don't have a photo of this but you can check out my snap compilation for this bombz!!! Basically Korea has this crazy trend of setting their pizzas on fire and we tried it! Pizzas there taste very different compared to the ones in Singapore because they don't put the pizza sauce. But their pizza is really the bombz - always loaded with cheese and the bread is super tender and soft. They also always have some sauce that you can dip your pizza in!

Gamjatang (Pork Spine Soup)
My friends and I call this Kimchi Bak Kut Teh HAHA. Our favourite place to have this is in Mangwon, which opps I also forgot what the place is called but I remember how to go to this place. HAHAHA you'll find this around I'm sure. This is the best food to cure your hangover after a night out partying! I have no idea how to describe the taste of this food but it's just really so good, like kimchi bak kut teh. Try to imagine that. This will definitely be the first food I get when I return to Seoul again. We went back to the same outlet so many times that the people could remember us. And every single time we went there we were in sleeping clothes. Literally just wake up with a hangover, brush teeth and head out for this yummy soup HAHAH.

Jjajiangmyeon
We have this dish in SG as well but they serve a different kind in Korea, and I honestly prefer SG's one more! But anyway, it's one of the popular dishes in Korea so you gotta give it a try. I am honestly not sure which place sells good jjajiangmyeon, but if you're not that interested you can just get cup noodles from the convenience store just to try the flavour. Usually I can't finish one entire bowl cos it feels too gelat for me.

Also, since you're getting cup noodles from the convenience store, please get jjajambong cup noodles and cook them dry cos they are really the bombz. Nessie and I bought like a dozen back to SG and we ate it everyday when we were in Korea. OK since we're talking about convenience store food, I also really like the red bean icecream that comes in the shape of a fish. I usually buy three at one go cos they sell it for 2 + 1 LOL. I eat it almost every single day at home (no wonder I gained weight?!). I also like to get their greek yoghurt drink which they also sell for 2 + 1 as well. It's a good substitute to my coffee in the morning, cos drinking too much coffee is not good for my pearly white teeth!!! HAHA

Nippong Naeppong (Korean Italian Fusion Restaurant)

This place sells the best sweet potato pizza!!! Now I'm craving for it so badly. We got two sets that includes two pizzas and 6 pastas if I'm not wrong. We basically just tried a bit of each. Each pasta tasted like something familiar and foreign at the same time. It's like having kimchi and carbonara together, sounds weird but tastes surprisingly good. The entire meal only costed each of us 7k won so that was quite a deal. Pls try sweet potato pizza in Korea ok no regrets I promise it is really so damn good.

Budae Jigae (Army Stew)
This is also called Sausage Stew if I'm not mistaken and I was honestly not at all excited to try it because I don't really like sausages or hot dogs and stuff. But this turned out surprisingly good cos the soup is like kimchi soup! It's one of the famous delicacy in Korea so you might as well give it a shot. Make sure to find a good place though, cos some places doesn't sell very good sausage stew.

Dakgalbi (Stir-fried Chicken with Cheese and Ricecakes)
Gotta try this if you're in Korea and get into their entire chicken craze. Basically as the name suggest, it's chicken with cheese and ricecakes and glass noodle. After the meal, they'll add rice in and cook it all together to become a flavored fried rice but we were always too full to make it to that stage HAHA. They serve this everywhere actually, it's quite easy to find it. We frequent the one near our school in Anam.

Gwangjang Market
A cheaper alternative to Noryanjin Market, we tried raw beef salad, Korean pancake and live octopus at Gwangjang Market! Ok the raw beef salad was surprisingly good and I really liked the pancake as well but gotta choose wisely which stall you get it from cos some that I've tried is not as nice? I'm not sure if it's the same pancake or not LOL. The live octopus wasn't as scary as I thought, but it definitely wasn't yummy. There's no taste to it at all, all you taste is the soy sauce. It's just for the experience lah but yeah quite fun.

Omg am I finally done with my blog entry?! AHHHH, that took days I know this entry is not of very good quality cos I could barely remember the store name or exact address and whatsoever but it is just a little insight to what I've been up to during my 6 weeks of summer school. There are still many places that I did not mention in this blog post, because I didn't know how to describe the place and I obviously didn't take enough photos during the trip - a bad thing about travelling with boys. For instance, the photos just above this paragraph was taken at a restaurant in Hongdae that we simply just call it Raphael's because we met a super funny dude called Raphael the first time we went there. That day was definitely really memorable for everyone, as we entertained the drunk Raphael by making up every one of our names and personalities. Like for instance, I was Stacey from China. HAHAHA

There is also this place we went to drink at on one of our last few nights. We planned to go for some liquor buffet but this was the best place we could get. Basically you get one electronic device per table, and you just get a little basket to put all your alcohol in from the fridge and tap it on the cashier or something like that. We had soooo much drinks that night I swear everyone died. HAHA

All in all, this trip was definitely the best holiday I've ever had thus far. And gotta thank my bro - Kenneth - for dragging me to join his group of friends that has become my house mates for the following weekends. Really thankful for the unexpected friends I got to make, and everyone for being so welcoming. I had to be ready to stayover at their apartment everytime I hang out with them because they will guilt-trip me, and threaten me, and do everything within their ability to make sure I cab back home with them. Ugh HAHA

Also these two boys were my roommates for the trip and I guess I gotta thank them for dirtying the apartment cos I'm always the one cleaning up LOL they will kill me if they see this but ok still, thankful for these brothers for taking care of me the entire trip. Eventhough I didn't call them in cases of emergency cos there were none, but I know if I did they would come down for me in a heartbeat.

Damn ok enough of all the sentimental stuff this trip. I always knew going on exchange would be quite an experience, but I'm glad I finally got to really experience it for myself now. This is probably the best decision I've made in uni and I really thoroughly enjoyed my summer school. Korea University is exceptionally accommodating and always first to address any problems we encounter. Also, not to mention the campus is beautiful.

Ok this post is getting way too long. I'll end it here. If you have any questions for me regarding summer school or the places I went to in Seoul, or just anything at all, you can hit me up on the various social medias listed in my bio.

Cheers!

I'm sorry this post took so long to be up, but I tried my best to shorten this video as much as I can. I basically just compiled all the snaps I took during the trip so don't expect too much!

21st

2016-05-13T04:21:00.002+08:00

Now that I have both my finals (end of Year 2 woo!!) and all my birthday stuff out of the way, I thought I'll document everything that happened throughout this entire process (of course not the finals part cos lol who the hell talks about exams when you're done with them you just enjoy ok period).

First, I'll like to say that I may attend a lot of parties and all, but I'm really not the sort to actually hold a party. It's kind of an insecurity thing I guess, like I don't think anyone will actually care enough to come and I've never held a party I have no idea what kind of party I want, or how to go about doing it. And I think the fear that my party will not have a lot of people present is always at the back of my head. I was also very stressed over who to invite, because I want all my close friends and the people that I really care about to be there, but I'm not sure if they actually feel the same for me yknow? I was also really afraid to offend anyone if I didn't invite them or anything. It's really a lot of things, like if I invite a few people from hall, I feel like I have to invite just about everyone, or like I can't invite just a few teammates I'm close to I have to invite the entire team kinda thing. So over the invitations, I was really very confused and stressed out but I'm so fucking glad my party is over and I'm done with stressing over all these stupid things that's never crossed my mind prior to planning to hold a damn birthday party.

Ok second, money was also a big issue because I have an ideal super bomb party in mind but I'm really not willing to spend so much on my birthday. My birthday celebrations are usually very simple cheap thrills, like all I care about is having a good time, good company, lots of laughter, and honestly to pay thousand over dollars to have a good time sounds absolutely absurd to me. I mean, ok this is subjective, but to me it was really unnecessary because I can have a good time watching one piece on my laptop, or going shopping with my friends talking about cute guys or girls with terrible fashion sense, or even hitting the club and mimic bad dancings all night. And also holding this whole birthday party thing really made me feel super girly, and I'm sure many of my friends will agree like I look and dress like a girl and sometimes behave like kinda a girl but I'm not girly or cutesy or anything like that, and like the girly side of me insists I need a damn chio two-tier cake HAHAHA ok so on the cake, I did spend quite a lot of money but it was quite worth it cos the cake tasted really good as well. I mean, I did go down to the store and actually try the cake before deciding on the flavour I wanted. Cake wise, I was really very particular like if I'm gonna spend a bomb on you you better taste fucking heavenly and it did so yay!!!

I decided to hold my party at NSRCC because the place is super big and my dad is a SAFRA member so we managed to snag quite a good price. The place is two storeys, with two bedrooms and a toilet upstairs nothing fancy. The first level has a kitchen, dining area, toilet, huge living room and outdoor, and the entire place is air-conditioned. I had to book the venue about 2 or 3 months in advance and I got the cake a month in advance and left everything else to after my finals. Thankfully my finals ended a week before my actual party, that I meticulously planned for it for be on the last day of finals so every school student will be able to attend and that my army friends will be out of camp on the day. I did not get food catering because I think it's a waste of money, and I didn't wanna bbq as well cos there's always so much wastage of food and I feel I'm never full from bbq cos you gotta wait for the food to be cooked. So I got my mom to cook a few simple dishes, basically like beehoon, fried rice, fishballs, popcorn chicken and all that, and I ordered 12 boxes of pizza. I actually saved a lot on the food, considering the fact that there were still food left, which means everyone was well-fed HAHA.

I initially planned for everyone to wear black, and I'll wear white but because my relatives were gonna be there and my white dress would reveal my tattoo, I had to find a new dress at the last minute. In case anyone asks, it's just disrespectful to not attempt to cover my tattoos in front of my relatives and my parents will really appreciate my effort in trying to keep them hidden as well. I really really love the dress I got for myself in the end, it's a maxi dress with a slit at the front that is in glittery grey, and definitely something I can wear again in future. Oh and it's cheap too woo!!! SAVE MONEY!!!

Here's some photos with my family and relatives cos they turned out really nice!!!

HAHA omg I just realized my 10 year old bro is almost as tall as my ahma
and no points for guessing who we got the tall genes from

got my dimples from my gramps hehe

favourite child right here

prettiest daughter right here

I had to book two nights for my stay in NSRCC, so on the first night I got a few close friends to stay over to help me with the decorations (mostly is I just really need people to help me blow balloons la HAHAH cos I can't possibly blow ALL of them). I initially got a really nice cloth as the backdrop of my photo-taking area but the yellow lights made it look damn ugly so I used it as a table cloth in the end and did nothing much to the backdrop. I think it turned out fine in the end, I mean it was quite minimal effort also. I also made sure I didn't have all the nice cupcakes or nice looking food on my table there because I feel that nobody can touch it until I'm done taking all the photos cos the food will only be for aesthetic purposes, which is quite stupid to me cos I was more concerned about people not eating.

While preparing for the party itself, I was super stressed out about everything, from decorations to food and drinks and the friends coming. I was scared that I didn't have everything in order before my friends started arriving, I literally only went to get ready 15minutes before my party started and had to come down several times with like half my face done to greet my relatives and friends before running upstairs again to finish everything up. At the same time I was also super overwhelmed with text messages and phone calls from my friends asking about parking lots and apologising for not being able to make it and that they'll be late whatsoever. For this part, I am really super thankful to have Nessie settle everything nicely for me and really kept her cool when I was throwing tantrums and being so flustered about everything.

I had to entertain quite a few friends who made the effort to come down eventhough they were alone and awkward, but I am genuinely thankful for their presence. But I am also deeply apologetic for leaving mid-conversations to greet people who just arrived and introducing them to my relatives and parents and the food area. Also, omg I didn't eat at all during my party because (problem with having braces) I brushed my teeth before my party started and I couldn't risk having any food stuck in my teeth during photo-taking, but I had a really generous serving of my birthday cake cos it's super yummy omg. Oh, I was also super stressed when it was time for me to cut the cake cos at that time so many people decided it was a good time to arrive and then we had to take photos, but that is also the time many of my friends and relatives had to leave, so I had to rush a lot of photos with so many people looking around waiting for me to cut my super chio cake. And it was after the birthday song that I realized I didn't prepare a thank-you speech so I could have missed out many friends who helped me a lot and I was also super nervous like I was literally trembling LOL I have no idea why I think I was just damn tense about the whole party thing. I should have downed a few shots before the entire party started (note to self next time I hold a party, which is never).

this photo just really makes me feel like a princess hahah

I definitely relaxed a lot after the whole cake-cutting thing was over and when my relatives left. I just changed into comfy clothes and chilled with the few friends who stayed a little longer to hang with me. Throughout this entire party I'm really super thankful for the few friends who kept asking if I needed help, and offered to help me anyway eventhough I insisted there was no need to. Especially Tyler (who helped me with the photographs the entire night), she took half day off just for my party. And when I initially asked her for the favour, she agreed before I even told her what I needed from her. And Nessie who just followed me everywhere and really gave me a lot of advices about holding a party. And the few who stayed and helped me with everything, tolerating my stupid tantrums and pissy moments, and my mom for helping me with the food. I am just so extremely blessed and I felt very very loved that night.

NESSIE DA BAE

TYLER DA petite BAE

I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night and ok I will stop thanking everyone but I am just really really happy.

On the actual day of my birthday (my party was held in advance on 6 May, but my actual birthday is 11 May), Marz Nessie and I had a mini staycation for two nights! It was really simple, we just chilled by the pool and did some crazy stuffs haha shhhh. I didn't really have plans on my birthday since I alr had my party, but basically we did the usual clubbing and shit with the usual bunch of friends. Is it first time the birthday girl never die? HAHAHA

Right now, I am just super glad that I have one less thing to worry about and can focus on settling my whole korea summer school stuff and citizenship and passport and everything else. I really have so many things to do this holidays.

Ok I will end the post here it's alr 5am. T_T

Side note: my response to when people call me immature..."I'M 21 NOW!!! I AM A MATURE ADULT!!!"

OMG ALSO I AM SO HAPPY TO EVERYONE WHO CALLED ME PRINCESS PEI HAHAHA like my friends really played along with my event title on facebook and called me a princess in their instagram dedications to me THANK YOU!!! I truly felt like a princess hehe

Remember today

2016-02-12T21:10:00.000+08:00

Today is 12 February 2016, 2 days away from Valentine's Day. I honestly never thought too much about this day and never expected anything. I'm not the kind of girl who would write or buy cute and sweet stuff for my friends on the day like this, so I really didn't expect to receive anything. And also cause I've never received flowers or anything on this day from a friend, just maybe a simple note of appreciation, which was honestly thoughtful enough in my opinion.

On this day (or nearing this day) in Secondary School, The Cocoa Trees would come and sell chocolates and there would be booths set up selling flowers or song dedications and all that kind of stuff. I was never the one receiving tons of roses under the table, and walking out of school with a hand full of flowers and tons of envious eyes on her. I wasn't sad or anything I guess, cos I've never bought flowers for anyone either so I guess it's fair for me to not expect anything.

Pandora from Nessie for X'mas and rose for Vday hehe
I need a boyfriend like her

This morning I went out of the room to take a shower and walked back to the room with a rose outside the front door in hall. At one look I really didn't even bother bending down to find who the rose was for because I thought it's definitely for Nessie since we share the same room. Then I thought, but she just left the room so if it was hers she would have picked it up. So I picked the rose up and found that IT WAS FOR ME FROM HER HAHHAH. (sneaky sneaky) I was so so so so happy. It was my first time ever receiving a rose from a friend and I'm super grateful and touched and I just feel so appreciated. Like...SOMEONE LOVES ME HEHEHE. That left me in a pretty good mood the entire day, until I missed 2 buses and ended up being late for lecture.

Blue rose from Jezebel and huge polaroid photo taken with Jez and Isshani!

And upon reaching my friends who saved seats for me in the lecture theatre, Jez handed a blue rose to me. I was quite taken aback, and went like "For me? You give me?" and she just smiled and nod. And I was left feeling so so so happy all over again. I'm so happy!!! I feel so loved. THANK YOU JEZ!!! HEHE It's like I literally just told Nessie I've never received roses from a friend this morning and this afternoon I got another one! It's such a good day. Then after lecture, this cute guy was giving out free hugs and I just went for it. Why not make my day even better? HAHAHA.

Sunflower from Tyn!!!

Just when I thought my day honestly couldn't get any better, I walked into my next class and it was the first time in 2 years of studying in NUS that I've seen so many cute guys in one room. HAHAHAH basically if you're taking Bahasa Indonesia 1, take up traditional costumes as your project. Oh and girls, make sure you have long hair, the longer the better. Because I almost got paired with a cute guy for one of the costume except that bloody costume needed me to have long hair and I literally just chopped like 5 inches of my hair off less than a week ago. Sighs, but anyway I can't be too choosy with the costumes because I had no friends in class, and also cos I can't wear sleeveless costumes as my back tattoo would show, and also cos I have bloody short hair now. I never ever thought my new fabulous hair would limit my love life like this. HAHAHAH ok kidding.

Anyway during the class, that little problem couldn't bring my mood down at all cos I received a text from Nessie saying I got another flower in my room!!! It was from Tyn, super unexpected but that definitely makes it super super sweet and thoughtful at the same time. Today is a day I had no chance to feel upset about myself because I felt so appreciated and loved by my friends. Today is a day I genuinely love myself because of the love my beloved friends showered on me. I know it's silly how you think I'm going crazy and over-sentimental over three flowers I received on Valentine's Day, because you probably received tons of it every year or maybe you are already a very contented person. Well, that's really good for you because I was never as lucky to feel how you feel all the time.

There are days I really really hate myself over the smallest things ever. Making my friends upset would make me feel like the worst person on Earth. Sometimes I think I'm a horrible friend. Which is why people think I get over my head with compliments maybe. I get very happy when people compliment me. I know it's wrong of me to seek comfort in the words of others, but sometimes it's really that hard for me to love myself and be happy with how I am as a person. I think some people out there would be able to relate to me regarding this. Compliments come as quite a surprise to me, which is why I react in a way where I probably don't believe you because maybe you're fucking with me, or I just get really really happy.

Alright, I shall not digress. Today is a really good day for me and I forgot when was the last time I felt this genuinely happy. I am so grateful to have my friends around me, so so grateful.

PS: And also what makes me happy everyday is wearing this Pandora bracelet that Nessie got for me as my christmas gift last year, and the charm says "friends forever" hehehe. Cliche and cheesy I know, but I wear this reminder on my wrist every day and it makes me feel so secure (because I know I have a friend who always has my back) and happy. I LOVE YOU BB HEHE. I know many people think it's weird that Nessie and I are so different in terms of personalities yet we can be so close to each other. And yknow what, I think that's exactly why we're close because I am stubborn as hell and I need someone to give in to me HAHA. And also, I can never find a friend who dotes on me as much as she does. She is a "100%-will-marry-if-she-is-a-dude" friend. HAHAHA

Talk

2016-02-02T17:04:00.000+08:00

This is going to be a super random blog entry with random thoughts all over the place because there is just so much going on in my head right now I need a place to vent it all out. I don't need any answers, or maybe I do, I don't know. I kinda just feel like talking to someone who is mute and emotionless.

I had politics lecture this afternoon and it makes me question many things about the modern state. Basically it talks about why the modern state is how it is today and that we are acting in obedience to the state's demands not because we want to but due to many reasons, we find no need to go against it. There's the punishments for disobedience, benefits for being obedient, complying to state laws and regulations because our bodies and minds are habituated to since young, and also because it is human nature for us to think about individual benefits and for fear of individual costs outweighing the individual benefits for going against the state and trying to bring the system down we just choose not to. Ok it's confusing and I don't care if you understand what I'm trying to get at but it really makes me question fucking a lot of things in the modern state. And sometimes I want to disagree with the professor and then I'm just caught in this moment thinking how I am exactly the kind of people my prof has been talking about, those that have fallen into the false consciousness the state has set us up in. In other words just propaganda. And whenever I want to stand up for myself and the state I just feel like I'm one of these people that has fallen into the trap of the modern state. And I feel so perplexed. I am not stupid like what Karl Marx thinks of everyone who is not rebelling against the capitalist state. Sighs, deep thoughts. Anyway, politics lecture makes me feel like this every single time and I hate that my prof is right about this. And also, after knowing all these, am I supposed to do nothing about it? It's like I'm being educated about the right things to do for the betterment of the society and I'm just going like "yup that's the right thing to do and that's what I am supposed to do" but "nope I'm not going to do anything about it because... (basically all the things my prof said about why the state is as fucked up as it is right now because of the people and I am one of those people and I don't want to be and I'm not going to do anything about it)". Basically, the whole point is I am just thinking way too much into politics. It is very interesting tho, unless you're like me who feels too much about everything you'll be left questioning your existence and everything right now.

Like also, (lemme digress) there is also such thing called the deep web. Like now wikipedia and google and everything we are exposed to right now on the internet is merely like 10% of the whole internet network or whatever it's called. All these things that we have excess to is called the surface web. But there's something called the deep web, which is how the ISIS and Anonymous whatever do all the things they are doing right now. And it also contains many scary things that we will never have access to on the surface web, basically like child porn, or you can even find access to hiring assassins and all that kind of stuff. It's dangerous to venture into the deep web though, because once you're inside, you're really exposed. All your information like height and weight and credit card number or whatever will be exposed once you venture into it. It's more than just saved cookies or cache or whatever, basically the internet is more powerful than you can imagine. Yeah I recently discovered this scary thing (nope I did not venture into it cos I'm not an idiot eventhough it sounds pretty compelling but I might get killed the next second who knows right since so many people hate me lol ok just kidding)

Oh and also I was on Facebook recently and I saw this article about 10 things girls do that guys hate and how it just shows how childish and immature the girls who do all these things are. And whatever, that's not really the point but there are things that guys do that I absolutely loathe as well. I don't get why guys place their pride and ego so high up, it's just so fucking childish.

Like, if you dont understand something you can just ask? You dont have to know everything to be intelligent and you dont have to always be the smarter one. What's wrong with not knowing as long as you're willing to learn? I dont understand. Like if I understand something and you dont, you dont have to think so hard and come up with something that you're sure I have no idea about just to prove something. THERE IS NOTHING TO PROVE. GOD. And why do guys think girls are all about money. We don't want your god damn money for fuck's sake. Like really, if you paid for a $70 meal, get the fuck over it. If you didn't want to pay the entire bill you can just open your god damn mouth and ask to go dutch like what the fuck is your mouth for besides big talk about your nice car and how rich you are or what a good driver you are or how you have an enormous dick.

I am basically at this stage of sexual confusion because I am so deeply crushed by the male species that I want to put my faith in females but I can never fall in love with someone with a vagina. In simpler terms, I am very straight but I really don't want to be because guys suck. Nice guys are all taken or boring, and I don't like nice guys. And wild, adventurous and interesting guys are all douche bags. And tall muscular guys are either gay or love petite girls. #truth

Ok forget about boys and relationships because I get hurt by friends more than lovers ever do. I am such a tough girl but if I feel a friend giving up on me I just...cry and I just wanna walk away and fall into yet another state of depression and self-loathe. I'll keep thinking about what a bad friend I am, and then I wanna die so badly and just disappear. Yknow I really don't care about a lot of things, I am usually very oblivious simply because I don't care, then sometimes I think to myself, do I really not care or do I not care because I am trying to not care when I do. I don't know because if I really don't care then why do the shit people say about me affect me so much. I mean, let's be real, people say tons of shit about me and I just rub them off like it's nothing then late at night when I'm all alone I start to think if I met someone just like me would I have said the same shit about me? I think I try so hard to change the impression other people have of me but why does it matter. I have people telling my newly-made friends that I'm a slut and make out with random guys in public and had sex with tons of guys. And I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo affected I literally asked Vanessa like do I? When I know fairly well it's not true, then comes the self-doubts which really kills me. Sometimes I hate myself soooo much I really understand why lovers leave me and friends walk away from me. I am really not good enough, but who is really.

Why am I so easily replaced? Do people who left still think of me? It'll make me fucking happy to know it's a yes but what am I going to do with an answer like that? It's not like I'm gonna want you back after you've given up and walked away from me. But sometimes I do want you back, but what for if we both know fairly well you're not gonna make it into my future? But who knows if you'll make it into my future like if I don't do anything to get you back now then for sure duh you won't make it into my future, but if I do something now then it's a maybe. Isn't a maybe better than a damn no?

Why do I need affirmations like this, like people who left me saying they still think of me and miss me, to know that I actually left an impact in their lives and is not a bad person? I can do so much better than this.

Why do I have to shut up and nod in acceptance when people try to talk bullshit into me and make me understand their shit narrow-minded thinking and not the other way around. I don't want to do that? I dont want to lie to myself? It's not that I want everything to go my way but if you think your perspective makes sense and I think my perspective makes sense too then why do I have to listen to yours and you dont have to listen to mine? It's not fair?

Also I am deeply upset about how awful my braces hurt right now after tightening it yesterday morning and my mom brought me to drink fucking bittergourd soup as the last meal I could eat before my teeth starts to hurt do you feel my pain? Now I can't even bite on bread fuck.

I think I am done ranting.

Bye

Seize The Moment

2015-12-16T01:44:00.001+08:00

Just cos I'm having severe post-ZoukOut withdrawal symptoms right now - like I keep looking at all the photos my friends and I took during ZoukOut, and then at photos other people took of themselves during the event, and then still googling about ZoukOut outfits, basically planning what to wear for next year's festival, and constantly checking the day of the week and realising it's not a day to party yet, and also I haven't unpacked my bag I took to ZoukOut - I decided to write an entry about my amazing weekend.

This year's ZoukOut was a lot different from last year's for the three of us - Nessie, Marz and I. We planned a lot last year and everything went just alright. It wasn't bad but it definitely wasn't as much fun as this year. This year, there's five of us girls - Nessie, Marz, Cynthia, Xintien and I! We didn't plan anything at all, we literally created a whatsapp group with all of us inside just one day before ZoukOut, and we booked our hotel on the day of ZoukOut itself. HAHA everything was really impromptu and spontaneous. I love impromptu plans, but I also know perfectly well that they can either turn out fucking awesome, or a complete disaster.

On day 1 of ZoukOut itself, we booked 2 nights at Bay Hotel (outside Sentosa) in the afternoon for $600. We figured we really needed a hotel, but have yet to figure a way to get a cab in and out of the place since there were 5 of us but we thought we'll think of something when the time comes or so. So Nessie and I made out way to Vivocity to meet the girls for dinner at 6pm. On the way, her friend just offered to give us a room at Siloso Beach Resort for free cos they had a spare room. But we already booked Bay Hotel, so throughout the bus journey, Nessie was busy making phone calls to try to cancel our booking at Bay Hotel. In the end, she managed to cancel it with $50 cancellation fee, which was super worth it. So that was one good thing that happened at the very last minute cos with a room at Siloso Beach Resort, we don't have to cab anywhere which means we save tons of money as there were 5 of us and we had to take 2 cabs, and we also save fucking a lot of time as we don't have to queue for a cab. We can literally just walk to ZoukOut in 3 minutes from our room (Nessie timed herself).

So we checked into our room at Siloso Beach Resort and immediately started getting ready cos it was already 8pm (which means the party already started). By 9pm or so, we started drinking with Nessie's friends who gave the room to us. We played Circle of Death, and what made us died really quickly was the rule: whenever you drink, you have to drink half the glass. But nobody got the Ace card to cancel out the rule. Oh and waterfall killed us pretty badly too. Ok maybe not us, maybe it was just me. HAHA, but I just needed a little break from the alcohol. At 11pm, we went to get our tickets from our friend and then party!!!

Initially, we only managed to get 2 VIP passes from our friend. And we were all thinking of sneaking in and if it fails then we'll all chip in to get the remaining tickets. But at the very last minute, like in the midst of drinking, our friend managed to get 5 VIP passes for all of us. That was fucking amazing and everything went super well.

By the time we went in, we already had more than enough alcohol, but there were champagne for us at the table. I didn't drink much cos I'm not gonna make myself dead drunk before I go to the dance floor. If I want to make myself dead drunk there would be no reason for me to come to a music festival. One of us got really drunk though, and we got hungry so we thought we could walk to Macs to have some food and sober up a little on the way. At that time, it was 45 minutes before Tiesto was on.

That didn't work though. It took us like 30 minutes to walk to Macs and upon reaching, we literally gobbled down our food in 5minutes and made our way back to ZoukOut cos we didn't wanna miss Tiesto. Not gonna go much into the details but in the end we only caught 5 minutes of Tiesto and spent the remaining time in our room.

only 4 of us could squeeze uncomfortably on the bed so we all took turns to sleep. It wasn't a very good sleep anyway because Xintien fucking snores. Ok so basically everyone didn't have a good sleep cos everyone was snoring, but I swear I don't snore but everyone begs to differ so ok that's basically what happened. I got up at 2 or 3pm and went down to the pool to look for Nessie, and my phone died completely after because it got wet and I was the one who made it wet so I had noone else to blame sighs HAHA. I had no phone for the entire day, couldnt contact my friends, couldnt take any photos, couldnt snapchat :( But anyways, we made a few friends there at the pool and managed to get 2 crew passes from them to ZoukOut Day 2. Just what we needed, because we only managed to get 3 VIP passes for Day 2, and we were still looking around for 2 extra passes. That settled all the entry tickets, which is amazing. We went to have dinner with our new friends at around 6pm at Wavehouse, and after that I was frantically looking for uncooked rice to help salvage my phone. I managed to get fucking a lot of rice from the kitchen staff at our resort. I only asked for a bowl but they gave me an entire bag! That was really nice of them. I felt that they really empathised with my situation when i told them why I needed the rice. I was super super thankful eventhough the rice didn't help my phone one bit.

We rested for a bit more and got ready for Day 2 of ZoukOut. Joined Gabriel, Wei Ming, Abel, Keith and the rest again for pre drinking, and for the first time ever, I finished a game of Circle of Death. Hahah, which basically means someone got the last King card and had to finish the King's cup. But everyone who got the King card was quite nice, they just poured pure Jagermeister into the cup instead of mixing disgusting stuff inside haha. It was really scary to pick a card when all three King cards were out with only one left and Cynthia got it HAHA. The girls helped her out a little but she finished most of it. She's awesome la. We stayed there for a little while and headed to ZoukOut!

At Day 2 of ZoukOut, we stayed in the VIP tent most of the time cos we had so many friends there and it was actually pretty fun in the tent itself. There was enough space to dance, food and drinks. And the best part was when there was freaking ice cream going around?! HAHA and pizza oh my. I think we only went down to the dance floor during Andrew Rayel cos other times it was raining a little. Of course, even inside the tent we were freezing like crazy. Day 2 was amazing cos we made lots of new friends and met a lot of people. And we stayed right in front of Andrew Rayel during his entire set cos he was so fucking amazing. We were all tired but we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave cos he's THAT good oh my. I was quite glad we made it till daylight. We danced non-stop during the sun rise and ZoukOut in daylight is a completely different sight. It was really beautiful. After it all ended, we walked out to Macs to have breakfast with only $15 to feed all of us. And we all wanted milo and obviously we didnt have enough money. We were short of 20cents after much strategic mathematical calculation and planning with the cashier, and we just turned around to ask the people behind us for 20cents. HAHA we were that desperate for milo.

It was a really fun night, many things happened but none brought down our hype and excitement and our cravings for milo HAHA. We went back to our room and I was the first to crash and fall asleep. Woke up at 1pm to check out of our room and have dinner at Din Tai Fung. We ordered so much that the waiters were all so shocked and kept repeating our orders HAHA. After a very fulfilling meal, we all went separate ways and I sent my phone to repair straight away. I'm finally back with my phone that has a brand new lcd screen LOL cos it was completely screwed from the water. Goodbye $300...sighs

ZoukOut this year was honestly fucking amazing, I had the best time ever and I think we have a lot to thank Nessie for. She really went through a lot to make sure the night went well. Hehe thank you for everything bb. I LOVE YOU!

& that's a wrap for ZoukOut2015. Till next year!

Binge Travellers in Taiwan

2015-05-27T18:00:00.000+08:00

*read till the end for my video compilation of the snaps I took in Taiwan*

Before I begin to tell you all about my Taiwan trip, I just wanna let you know that the month of May has been too good to me so far. Besides the lack of sleep, which I totally did not mind, I had way too much fun. My schedules are packed, I always have things to do. I actually enjoy being busy, having plans one after another, especially when it's all fun activities that I look forward to. I haven't been making time for many of my friends, but promise I'll do so after my calendar clears up!

Pre-Taiwan activities include partying so hard at Hardwell with my girl. We had so much champagne and so much fun dancing. It was one of the best nights I've had. Except we made a wrong decision to head to zouk after that, and we really died there.

Then comes my 20th birthday (11 May)! I didn't really plan much for it, just met up with a few people and hang out. Some things didn't really go the way I envisioned, but still, it's a blessed birthday.

At Paddington's House of Pancakes

Right after my birthday (12 May), Nessie and I set off to Taiwan which we planned just a month before! I just sat down one day and said, "Let's go Taiwan in May" and we started booking our tickets and hotels. I fucking love how spontaneous and impromptu both of us are when it comes down to crazy decisions like this. I did enough research before the trip online, and with some friends so I had a rough idea where to go to shop and eat and stuffs. Of course, the more responsible out of the two of us (me) planned the itinerary. I saved a map of the MRT stations in Taiwan for reference. It helped me plan the itinerary a lot better.

The flight took about 4-5 hours and by the time we reached Taiwan (there's no time difference between SG and TW) it was about 9pm. Cabs in Taiwan are really expensive. Their meters jump 20 cents every 5 seconds, so we avoid taking the cab unless absolutely necessary. In total I think we only took the cab 4 times in Taiwan, including airport transfers. Once we reached our hotel (located in Banqiao), we were really excited to see our room cos we booked a really nice suite, or at least it looked nice in the photos, but it turns out to be really small. We were so disappointed, we went back to the counter to double check if they got us the right room but it was. We even contemplated getting another bigger room or changing hotel, but we decided to just stick to this cos we won't be able to get a refund for the room. Besides, the location of our hotel is pretty good. We are within walking distance from the MRT (I think they call it metro or something) and we have a night market within the area (too far to walk, but walkable), and Starbucks is just beside us and a few nice looking cafes. After we settled down, we headed out for Nan Ya Night Market to get some food and shopping.

We got there a little late so many stalls were already closing, but there's quite a few that are still opened so we continued walking around. First of all, we tried their Oyster Meesua! It's just a random stall by the side, don't think it's famous at all but it tasted so good. Their oysters are all so fresh, unlike the ones in SG.

Surprisingly, Taiwan is quite a big fan of One Piece and many other anime shows! I got myself the phone cover on the left. It was actually a really difficult choice for me because we (one piece fans) all know that the one on the right is the famous Luffy pose before fighting, but I didn't really like the background. I got the one on the left in the end and I love it!!! Don't think I'll be changing my phone cover for a long time hahaha.

We bought quite a bit of stuff at the night market but we were quite disappointed at the prices. I think shopping in Bangkok really spoiled us and we expected our shopping in Taiwan will be the same as in Bangkok. But nope, the things are about the same prices as SG. In fact, my phone cover costed about 20$ (400NTD). I got a good buy for the shoes though, got a white platforms and brown boot heels for 25$ (500NTD). We tried really hard to bargain, even made friends with the stall owner, use our charm and all (haha I kid, but yeah we really tried very hard). Then we went to check out Family Mart and Watsons for snacks and beauty products respectively. Taiwan's Family Mart sells One Piece drinks (they're that crazy over one piece ok), and they sell tea eggs omg we bought it every single time hahaha. We totally went crazy at Watsons because they have so many beauty brands that Singapore doesn't have. They are quite famous for their BB cushion foundation or something, but I didn't quite like the idea of the sponge so I didn't get it. Can't quite remember what we spent on but I spent more than 50$ (1000NTD) in Watsons alone. It was barely a day and I spent more than 4000NTD on the first day hahah. As I said, things in Taiwan were not cheap.

We went back to our hotel and was pretty pleased to learn that we get to watch blockbuster movies on the TV in our hotel room. First night and we watched Big Hero 6!!! Got to love Baymax!

We slept only when the sun was up, which was around 5-6am (pretty early compared to SG), so we only woke up around 2pm in the afternoon the next day. We went to have Yong Kang Beef Noodles (I researched and they said it's one of the best beef noodles in Taiwan so...) and it was really good! We just walked around the area and shopped for a bit. As I mentioned before, things in Taiwan are not cheap, but definitely greater in variety so we shopped anyway.

Starbucks in Taiwan sells Caramel Javachip! I always avoid javachip because they get stuck in my braces all the time and are a chore to remove, but I couldn't resist this! I would say, it didn't disappoint at all. It tastes as good as it sounds :) I'm sure the baristas in SG Starbucks would gladly customise this for customers who request for it.

Yong Kang Beef Noodles!

Took this shot while we were waiting for our bubble tea. In case you didn't know, Taiwan is so famous for their bubble tea and I think it's the pearls that makes it so special. Their pearls are all so soft unlike the ones in SG which takes forever for me to chew on and most of the time I just swallow them whole. Their milk tea is also so fresh! Or maybe the minor difference in taste makes it very refreshing.

There's just a lot of things to eat in Taiwan and we're full most of the time. All the street stalls sell amazing food and we can just grab it and go, and eat it on the way while shopping. Super convenient and easy.

Before coming to Taiwan, we asked a few friends if they've been here and one of our friend said this, "Everyone here either has a dog or a child, or both" and I cannot agree more HAHA. It's true! And most stores are pet friendly, even shopping malls! It's amazing.

After walking around Yong Kang street, we went to Shilin Night Market for some food. We were still pretty full when we got there, and we actually couldn't really find the food section so we walked around the night market and kept buying clothes and more clothes hahaha. We tried to refrain from buying clothes that we could get the same price for in SG and only got clothes that looked really nice and are really cheap. We found the food section of the night market at the end and of course we tried the famous big chicken cutlet there. It's also available in SG just way cheaper, and bigger I think? We spent way more than half our money away during the first two days, and walked way too much we were just dying for a massage but they were too expensive. OK, not too expensive but Bangkok has it way cheaper.

We slept in the morning again, and woke up 2 hours later cos I got insecure and thought there was a bug in the blanket, so I woke Nessie up to shake the blanket with me and insisted we change the sheets HAHAH. I'm usually not that troublesome, but if you read my previous blog post I mentioned something about finding a bee in my blanket in my hall room one day, so I think I got a little paranoid from then on. We were wide awake after shaking the blanket so we decided to just wake up and have breakfast in a cafe nearby provided by the hotel.

Western (top) and Chinese (bottom) breakfast set. Their tea is amazing, but what's new right. Teas are amazing in Taiwan lol.

We got changed after breakfast and planned our itinerary really carefully so that we don't spend too much the next few days, so we headed to the zoo! I think it was nice to experience the zoo in Taipei, which is definitely bigger than the one in SG. Animals there live in bigger exhibits, and there are definitely a lot more animals to see that we can't see in Singapore.

This is how Nessie looks like with no neck HAHAHA

The zoo closes really early at 5pm, so we left after spending about 4-5 hours there and headed to wufenpu for some shopping! Didn't manage to take any photos there but it looks a bit like Bugis street just that it's enclosed and air conditioned. I wished we came to wufenpu earlier cos things there are so bloody cheap. So many clothes were selling at just $5, which is about 100NTD, even shoes!!!

We didn't stay at wufenpu for long (sadly) because we were hungry and we didn't want to spend anymore money HAHA silly reasons but we really spent way too much the first two days, so we headed to Raohe Night Market within walking distance nearby. From my research online, many commented that Raohe Night Market is a lot better and bigger than Shilin Night Market. I kinda understood the reason why when I got there. They sell more variety of food, but I wouldn't say it's bigger or anything. It's just one entire stretch, we actually walked till the end and back, didn't take us very long. We were mainly scouting for food to bring back and enjoy our supper with blockbuster movies on our TV in the hotel room.

This mango dessert was everywhere and we couldn't give it a miss! We get to sit down comfortably in the middle of Raohe market and enjoy this as well, so why not. Fresh mangoes, softly shaved ice and mango icecream. It will take a lot for a mango lover like me to turn it down. We also got the Oyster Meesua from Raohe Market and it was amazing. Nessie preferred the one we had on the first night, but I liked this one a whole lot better even though it was about twice the price. We also tried the Fried Oyster Omelette? Didn't taste very nice as compared to the ones in SG, or maybe it's just my local taste preference. I was in love with their tutu kueh-ish cake with peanut and sugar filling (sorry I'm not sure what it's called). I had like 4 of them HAHA, ate Nessie's share as well cos it tasted too good. Not to forget their beef cubes there...it was the best thing ever. Taiwan is literally food heaven for me. I would go back there for the food anytime.

We had quite an early night because we got up so early and lasted the day with only 2 hours of sleep. And of course we started the next day late afternoon. We didn't really have plans for the day except to check out the clubbing scene at night.

This dress I was wearing costed me only 5$ from wufenpu.

We mainly just walked about Banqiao cos there was a shopping mall here. Settled for Din Tai Fung for lunch/dinner and explored places to take ootd shots before the night falls. We then headed to Zhongxiao Dunhua (if I'm not wrong) to check out Luxy. It's apparently one of the very famous clubs in Taiwan, basically like the Zouk of Singapore, but when we went there it was closed down temporarily. Quite upset, but we found another club to go to within the area. We settled for Roxy99 in the end and got followed by a creepy dude on our way there. I was so freaked out cos we walked into 7-11 hoping he'll just leave us alone, but he actually hid and waited for us outside. We finally managed to shake him off by dashing across the busy road with only 4-5 seconds left for pedestrians to cross. That dude was like the first unfriendly person we met in Taiwan. Other than him, the people in Taiwan are all so friendly and helpful. When asking for directions, they provide super detailed instructions and even tell us the fares we have to pay for buses and trains etc. When taking the railway train on one of the days, the officer on the platform made sure the security on the train tell us when to alight so we won't miss our stop. So nice right?!

Ok back to Roxy99. We reached there way too early but we didn't mind having a few drinks there and just chatting with the bartenders. We paid 500NTD each for the entrance fee but we could get 500NTD worth of drinks inside for free so it's kinda like we paid for the drinks. We got two shots of 151, and 2 housepour + mixer (basic drinks), but chatting with the bartenders got us unlimited trays of shots. I lost count how many trays we had but when we left there were still some drinks left. The bartenders also taught us some games they play in Taiwan and it was so fun!!!

Basically, whoever shakes a dice number 1 have to stack them up and whoever topples the stack have to drink.

The dance floor was really empty and quiet even past midnight, and we later found out it was because the club opens till 7am and their crowd comes in only at around 4pm. We went ahead to the dance floor around 2am and met a few really nice Taiwanese people. We got picked up by girls ok haha, they just pulled us and started chatting us up and dancing with us. Thank god we're chinese, if not it'll be so hard to communicate with the people there.

This dude is called Lee Kuan Yew and he had to flash his IC cos we didn't believe him.

We left Roxy99 at around 3-4am and took the cab back to our hotel. Surprisingly the cab fare was not too expensive, maybe it was because the roads were clear and there was no traffic that's why. We crashed the minute we got back and woke up late afternoon the next day again.

The next day, we had plans to head to jiufen, but the journey there was really long so by the time we got there, the sky was already dark. We still managed to catch a few open stores and ate the very famous peanut popiah icecream (SO GOOD). We didn't do much on this day either, just got to check our jiufen, the night scenery and some food. Then we took the railway train back to Banqiao (where we were staying) and decided to check out the Nan Ya Night Market again for some food for supper.

I got this cute checkered pinafore for $10 in one of the stores at the MRT station lol good buy or what

Back to our favourite store in Taiwan, we actually try to get the stall owner to give us a few more beef cubes lol it makes a difference ok

Food in this photo includes quail eggs, beef cubes with sea salt, baked potato with lots of cheese and sausage bits, some vege pancake (not nice but the little boy selling it was so cute I couldn't say no), ice jelly with fresh milk, and 1.3 litres cup of large milk tea with pearls. People in Taiwan call the black pearls frog eggs, lol I have no idea why they made it sound so gross and inedible but it didn't deter me from eating them anyway.

Woke up early the next day because it was our last day in Taiwan! Our plans for the last day is just to check our the One Piece exhibition located at the astronomical museum in Shilin. It wasn't exactly like how I expected it to be, it's just a show about astronomy with the One Piece casts explaining and all. The One Piece characters spoke in Chinese which was super weird and uncomfortable for me, I prefer them speaking in Japanese and I just read the subtitles. But well, we got to wear the One Piece character's costumes and it was thrilling enough for me HAHA. I was so excited omg. I honestly never thought I will one day become a fan of an anime show, that my sister took so long to convince me to watch. I must say, One Piece is one of the best shows I've ever watched and no regrets. I'm a proud One Piece fan right here.

After we were done with the One Piece show, we looked around the area for cat cafes that we could sit in and chill. Hmm, I really like cats but I think cats at cat cafes have really bad attitude, maybe because they're used to people wanting their attention and dying to pet or touch them whatever. But still, we stayed there for a good 2-3 hours doing just that HAHA.

Cat cafes are basically just cat brothels, and in that case, this was our hooker for the day.

We walked around the Shilin area for a bit after that. They have lots of cafes there and we settled for one of the many cute ones along the streets. The meal turned out to be quite pricey but at least their toilet bowl was really cool. HAHA

That basically summed up our Taiwan trip. We had too little money on the last day so Nessie just paid using her card and I returned her in SG dollars. In case anyone was wondering about the weather there, the first night we got there was pretty chilly and nice. But following days, it was really hot (not as hot as SG but yeah hot) because they were entering the summer season. Thankfully it didn't rain on any of the days while we were there.

Also, we got a SIM card for internet upon reaching Taoyuan Airport cos we know we can't live without it. And if you're wondering why we didn't just get one and use each other's hotspot so we could save a bit of money, I thank god we didn't do that cos we actually lost each other while boarding the MRT on one of the days wtf. We were right beside each other but as the doors were closing we went through different train doors and lost each other omg. How right? I have no fucking idea HAHA. I panicked at that moment, but looking back now it was pretty hilarious how we didn't notice we went different directions despite just being next to each other. The internet also helped us a lot in finding nice places near where we are by using GPS, which we rely a lot on.

A very true representation of our entire trip, but I didn't like the fact that the stoppers behind my front teeth could be seen.

Here is a very quick summary of our Taiwan trip, which basically consists of all the snaps we took while we were there. Nothing fancy, we didn't make any effort to take photos of our food or store names whatever.

I have many things going on this month so I'll probably have another blog entry up in a week or two. Sports Pre-camp just ended for me a few days back, and I am anticipating Pan's arrival tomorrow at midnight, and then it'll be Nessie's big 21st birthday party, followed by the actual Sports Camp!

I can't wait!!!

Nobody mapped oblivion, so I go growing roses in the disarray

2015-05-06T05:01:00.000+08:00

Year 1 in NUS officially ended for me last Saturday when my last final paper ended. I wanted to do a review of all the modules I took in my first year but the thought of it was too mentally strenuous for me hahah, sorry I just can't. If you wish to know how I'm doing/coping with my studies, I would say it's alright. I haven't been getting good grades though. I'm not sure if it's just me or science modules are relatively harder to score, so I'm trying to score in modules that require presentations and all. Speaking in public comes very naturally for me, so I guess that is one area I chose to focus on to (hopefully) pull my grades up a little. And the best thing about such modules is that they have no final exams, which is fucking awesome.

My Public Speaking class

Alright enough of all the school stuffs cos they're boring. I think I just want to sum up my experience in Year 1 of NUS. Semester 2 was definitely a lot more enjoyable for me as compared to Semester 1, mainly because I got to stay in hall and met so many new friends. Literally everyone in Eusoff Hall were so nice, I mean there were definitely gossips here and there, and they spread like fucking wild fire, but I haven't heard or encountered any backstabbing incidents or people being rude or making me so angry I had to shout at them or anything. I would say I'm relatively hot tempered, and I don't think anyone in hall has actually seen me really really angry before...yet. HAHA. The guys there are so helpful and never once turned me down when I asked them for help to kill the insects in my room (which is pretty often), or help me out with heavy stuffs. Having spent most of my days of Semester 2 in Eusoff Hall, I can literally call the friends there my family. It's like a homely community, where everyone watches One Piece, help each other with studies, go for meals together and the list goes on. Well, coming back to hall every night after work (late at night) felt really safe until there were several cases of peeping tom around, not just in our hall but in other halls as well apparently.

I think getting in hall is probably one of the best thing that happened for me this year because I got to experience living independently and being disciplined as I'm no longer under close scrutiny of my parents (not that they really supervise me anyway but still I don't have them nagging at me to study or eat or coming home early, having enough rest etc). I also spent a lot more money than I would have as compared to staying at home because I have to take care of all my meal expenses (hall provides breakfast and dinner, but I can't make it back in time for dinner most days), as well as daily necessities. Surprisingly, it wasn't a huge challenge for me to stay away from home but the change worked well for me and I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, with the new friends I made, I was more aware of what's going on in school and also more active in school activities. For instance, I signed up as a senior for Sports Camp 2015! I've always regretted not going for Sports Camp during Orientation in the first semester (I missed the deadline), but at least I get to experience Sports Camp from a different perspective as a senior this time. I am pretty excited about it, hopefully I get some cute and rabak freshies. Hehe.

Here's my house mates for Sports Camp:

In the first week when I got into hall, I overheard this girl talking to her friend while I was waiting for the shuttle bus in school. She mentioned how staying in hall makes her feel really restricted because school is the place she's spending most of her time in, and even though it's convenient and all she feels like it's boring or stressful even. Personally, I never felt that way actually, or maybe because I've only stayed in hall for one semester. After getting into hall, I actually head to Holland Village a lot more often to chill with my friends. Of course I hardly meet my friends from outside school because hall is just too far away from them, but I think it was not difficult for me to balance my time between friends, fun and studies. In fact, I actually studied a lot more as compared to when I was in Semester 1. I would attribute that largely to how hardworking the friends around me were, and that influenced me a bit and pushed me to study as much. I didn't join much activities in hall in Semester 2 though, because InterHouse Games (IHG) were over and they didn't have much activities going on around. IHG is apparently quite a big thing among halls and they take it a little too seriously. Haha, I'm serious.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the people I've been spending most of my time with in school:

Isshani and Jezebel are my favourite and most reliable lecture buddies!

The 3 musketeers?
Beckie and Nessie!

This is me without any make up on, don't laugh at my brows pls

I just realized that even though Nessie appears in my snaps (on Snapchat) almost every single day, we barely took any proper photos together while in hall. HAHA. I cannot be more grateful to have her in hall with me. Both of us were new to hall, and we're constantly meeting new people and making new friends in hall, but it's just a really nice feeling to know I have someone I'm absolutely comfortable with to ask for favours, like umm borrowing clothes, shoes etc. I was packing my room today to move back home during the semester break and we have tons of things left in each other's room haha. We are too lucky to have the same sizes for most of our things, but we'll be even luckier if we get to room together next semester omg it'll be so sick. I will make sure she doesn't paste hello kitty stickers on our front door. Also, Nessie and I had a lot more heart-to-heart talks while staying in hall together and we're almost inseparable now (I know we were clingy before this but the situation has worsened LOL). Most times when we are not together, we'll be texting and updating each other about our life hahaha. Many people may think or actually notice that both of us have very different characters, style and personalities, but we actually think very alike. This is the part where you comment "awww what a beautiful friendship". Thanks.

Besides studying, I also found the motivation to gym! Mainly because the gym at Utown is so nice and I get to swim at the mini infinity pool upstairs after gymming, and I have friends to gym with so we get to do certain exercises together. And they play EDM in the gym, so I like it. God I really love the feeling of having muscle aches after not working out for a long time, it feels like I'm been working really hard and my body is working its magic towards a Candice Swanepoel's figure. Ok I'm kidding but I hope you get what I mean. I'm not sure if I'll be gymming often now that I'm no longer in hall during the semester break, but hopefully I'll have the motivation to go for runs occasionally when I have the time. Clearly from the photos below, I haven't been working out so you may laugh at my flabby untoned tummy. It's ok go ahead, you have my permission to (cos I deactivated askfm so I won't be hearing all you bitches' comments about me hohoho).

More selfies of myself because this is my blog and I get to post whatever the hell I want (I hope you can't tell that the excuse is pathetic...I just really want to post these selfies of myself lah ok)

I think I look really weird when I try to smile with my mouth closed, so usually I just exaggerate it and look funny instead lol it works right? I can barely close my mouth without looking odd because of my braces. Damn I want to get my braces over and done with but the gaps just doesn't seem to be closing at all.

On a side note, this year has been amazing so far. Friends close to me would know that I used to be really fearful of animals, even dogs and cats. When I was really young, I got chased by my Aunt's full grown Chow Chow. It felt a lot like I got chased by a bear instead of a dog, so I was really traumatised from then on. I also got scratched by a cat when I was young so... However, despite my fears, I still found them really adorable and am definitely against animal abuse (they're just inhumane). I would say the first big step was stepping into Cuddles Cafe last year when Nessie was working for them. I was still quite fearful of the cats then. I do stroke them but never anywhere near their face for fear they might bite me or whatever. This year, I encountered many gentle pets that made me overcome my fears! While working at Three Crowns, this one particular regular customer will always bring his dog (Toby) and carry him in his arms like a little baby. He is rather inactive and doesn't react much, he just looks sleepy all the time so I was really generous with my pattings and kept stroking him all over. Then there is Cloudy (Nessie's pet cat) who is too adorable to resist!!! He is like a huge ball of fur. Similarly, he doesn't react much to people so I just kept stroking him and have grown to really like him!!! I also met Jerome's dog (Xiao Bai) during Chinese New Year visiting. He is super friendly and active and just too cute. I think all these friendly encounters with the pets slowly alleviated my fears of them, or at least until I meet an unfriendly one hahaha. I would say I definitely prefer cats more than dogs mostly because they're more chill and they feel a lot cleaner. Plus, my gramps just adopted a 5 months old kitten so my love for cats is growing...

My schedule for the month of May is already packed. I will be heading to Taiwan with Nessie next Tuesday, and then come back a day before the precamp for Sports Camp. The week after precamp will be the time when Pan comes back to Singapore for a week! Then the first week of June will be the actual Sports Camp! Hopefully I will have the time to update about all these exciting things that are gonna happen during my Semester break. I still look back at my secondary school days entries (check my archives) sometimes. Haha yes I laugh at them and you guys will probably laugh as well but those were good memories. I hope to keep this blog for a long long time.

Oh I received questions somewhere (can't remember where) requesting that I post my outfits for school. I would but I don't think I really dress up for school unless I have presentations in class. I also have limited clothes in hall so it's inevitable that I repeat some tops or bottoms or an entire outfit (but rarely an entire outfit). Basic clothes helped me a lot because they're not too striking and I can to mix and match them around to create different outfits. You really can never go wrong with basics.

All in all, I just wish to summarize my Year 1 in NUS and I'll say I've experienced positive change in the past year and am looking forward for Year 2! But first, let me enjoy my summer break hehe.

Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshake. Take their love.

2015-03-27T04:52:00.000+08:00

I was contemplating between watching One Piece or blogging and I chose blogging. Wow even I'm impressed with myself. I guess it's hard to leave this space for long after having been blogging for about 10 years (yes since primary school and I regretted deleting my old blog so much). Just have the urge to blog all of a sudden no idea why, maybe this feeling comes like my period...once a month LOL.

(Events are not written in chronological order)

God I have yet to even blog about Chinese New Year yet. It's the same routine every year, I wake up way too early in the morning, hmm except this year I actually managed to stay up so may my parents be blessed with longevity, and I try to be a vegetarian for half a day and failing miserably. I also went to visit a few of my friend's place and gambled a lot more than previous years.

In the midst of Chinese New Year, Xinlerk had her 21st birthday party which I helped out at. It was held at NSRCC and the place is really nice and so perfect for parties. It's two storeys high and the second level is just two bedrooms. We spent the first day decorating the whole place up, and the second day doing some last minute decoration before the guests arrive. The whole party was a success and I'm glad my sister enjoyed it. I literally curled more than 200 ribbons she better have enjoyed the damn party HAHA.

I think Xinlerk and I being two individuals of entirely different personas, I would want my 21st party (if I were to hold one) to be quite different from hers. There's definitely gonna be alcohol at the party and everyone's gonna be so fucking drunk, gonna have loud music, I'll maybe even rent a disco ball for fun HAHA. Her party was pretty chill and none of the guests stayed past 10pm. She even invited all our relatives. It was a really thoughtful gesture except I wasn't aware they were really gonna come and wore a dress that revealed my tattoo and I was too busy ensuring everything was going well that day to bother covering it up or anything (not that I have any idea how to as well lol). It's nothing, my relatives doesn't have any stereotypes towards tattoos or whatsoever, just they probably changed their impression of me being a total nerd when they heard that I'm studying Life Science in NUS.

March is the month of birthdays because literally all the important people in my life are born in March. Nessie and I had big plans for Maria's birthday and it was a super impromptu decision to book a trip out of the country for her instead of just having a staycation in Sentosa. We booked a 2D1N trip to Bintan, and settled everything within 3 days. The problem was getting her to bring her passport on the day itself. So we tricked her into saying we'll accompany her down to town to make her Visa for her Tokyo trip, and then we also had to trick her to meet us really early in the morning like 7am. So we lied that we booked a nice breakfast place at Sentosa HAHAHA. It was all so full of shit but she bought all of them!!! So so glad that she's surprised and enjoyed the trip. We had so much fun and being out of the country for just one day is so thrilling and relaxing. The air just smells different and the beach is so much more beautiful. Not to mention we got to see shooting stars and made wishes!!!

These aunties kept pestering us for photos. I swear they took like over 10 photos with us. I mean at first it's ok lah, but after awhile it's just kinda creepy cos we kept seeing them everywhere it's as though they were following us. Lol

Played Captain's Ball with a few of my friends in hall last weekend! It's literally the first legit exercise I've had in 1.5 years lol. There had to be 2 girls in the court at all times, and as you can see there are only 2 girls in our team so we couldn't rest at all. I was really dying and I can't defend the basketball girls for nuts. They used short passes and were too fast for me...I gave up halfway but thank god we still won in the end! We just played against each team and won all of them. There were only 4 teams in total including ours. We won ourselves one nalgene water bottle each!!!

Dinner at Cafe Mondo some time ago...

One of the days spent studying at YIH Starbucks. Being so far away from my homeground (Woodlands) and my favourite Starbucks (Woodlands Starbucks), I'm really glad I found another place that I enjoy coming back to time and again. I've been studying at YIH Starbucks about 3-4 times every week and I thoroughly enjoy being there. The ambience is nice and chilling and the baristas are like our friends now.

One of the nights I spent putting on fake eyelash cos I never knew how I looked in them. Chio or nah?

One of the days spent camwhoring in between experiments in lab sessions lol

A few days spent in town catching up with Marz then heading to Holland Village together for work. It's super awesome now cos we're working at the same area on the same days and at the same time every week. And our work place is along the same stretch so we can literally just walk over and say hi or whatever. And I think we look super cool when we split up to head over to our work places HAHAHAHA

FINALLY TRIED SHIOK MAKI AND I CANNOT GET OVER HOW GOOD THEIR WASABI WAS!!! My sushi is not complete without a dip in wasabi and having the taste run into my nose omg I love that feeling?! HAHAHA don't get me started on how good their salmon was...just don't...I'm hungry already

Oh look someone snapped a photo of me while walking lol love how my hair looks in this photo!!!

A few photos taken on Maria's birthday at Zouk and look who I bumped into. We chatted for about 30 minutes outside lol

Just wanna share with you guys my secret to happiness everyday...HAHAHA NICK BATEMAN FUCKING MARRY ME ALREADY YOU ARE SO PERFECT!!!

Alright it's currently 4:50AM and my brain has officially shut down for the night and I am incapable of continuing this blog entry because I need to sleep and wake up in 4 hours' time for lab later. I've been so deprived of sleep these days I literally just missed all my morning classes just yesterday.

Ok goodnight. I'll be back soon, after my finals end on 2 May.

PS: PAN IS COMING BACK TO SINGAPORE ON 26 MAY!!!!!! *squeals in excitement*

Is it 26 May yet? Damn

Adapting with changes

2015-02-22T04:08:00.000+08:00

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about this space yet. The semester started about two months ago and school has been merciless towards me, probably because my timetable for the previous semester was way too relaxed and now I'm suffering the wrath of a few crazy modules.

Also, I haven't gotten the chance to update about getting into Eusoff Hall! I was put on the waiting list for the first round of application and thankfully I got a spot! Unfortunately, Nessie didn't get in at the same time as me (she's in hall now though cos apparently there were still a few vacancies, some residents moved out early into Semester 2) so we didn't get to room together :( I got a nice room mate though except it's awkward to change in front of her, and she probably can't stand how long I take to get ready in the morning and have to leave the lights on, and I stay up till really late in the morning, and the list can go on forever because I want to room with Nessie. We tried negotiating to switch rooms but she refused. I guess I understand where she's coming from. Having to switch rooms meant she have to move all her stuffs out and not many people would be willing to do that. Hopefully, Nessie and I will get to room together next semester!

Hall life has been awesome for me so far. I managed to catch a lot more sleep than I would have if I stayed at home as I saved time on transport (and money too!). I definitely haven't been eating much since I got into hall cos they only provide breakfast and dinner, and most of the time I'm too lazy to go out to get lunch whenever I'm in my room. I also got to spend a lot more time with my school mates and made lots of new friends! The environment in Eusoff Hall is so inviting and friendly. I feel super welcomed here even though I'm new to the hall. I kinda envisioned lots of gossips and dramas, backstabbing and shit but nope, I haven't experienced any so far and the people in EH are awfully nice. I haven't been missing home too much except for my little brother. I'm hardly used to not seeing him everyday and getting to hug him whenever I want. Weekends are very precious to me as it's the only time in the week I get to spend time with my family. Also, I think time away from my family actually made me closer to them (strange but true). My parents and I are more tolerant towards each other as we know we barely get to see each other now, so most of the time when I get to see them we don't quarrel or raise our voices. It's a nice feeling actually.

Let me digress. Biggest struggle when staying in hall is having to divide all my favourite things, like make up products, clothes, shoes, undies, bra omg I hate it I want to wear them whenever I feel like it and I can't. Sometimes I don't know if I'm making the right decisions leaving these things at home when most of my days are spent in hall...but what if I need it when I get back home. Gosh, not sure if I'm the only one who feels this way but yeah. And forget about ironing clothes now ok, I have to do my own damn laundry, hang them and fold them once they're dry. AINT NOBODY GOT TIME TO IRON CLOTHES. I actually rewear my clothes several times before finally washing them. Like my jeans? I wore them for almost two months already HAHAH, seriously, I learnt a lot about rationing my clothes, energy and time after coming into hall. Not to forget I have to clean my own room once in a while (I do it about once a week, just cos there's too much hair everywhere) and change my bedsheets once a month.

So, getting into hall meant that I had to quit my job at Bojangles cos I'm no longer just a 5min walk away from there. I took a day off my first week in hall to walk around Holland Village (15min bus ride from Kent Ridge Terminal behind Eusoff Hall, or 3 MRT stops away from Kent Ridge) to see if I can get a job there. Marz and Nessie works there anyway so it'll be fun to see a familiar face during work and go out together after our shifts. I got a job at Three Crowns @ Holland Village and I really like working there. The people are friendly, they aren't strict on the attire and I get more tips compared to when I work at Bojangles. The pay there isn't that impressive though. I usually get to earn about 100$ a day at Bojangles (tips + bonuses) but I only get about 70$ per night at Three Crowns (including tips, they have no bonuses). And I don't have the luxury of getting straight cash after every shift anymore so the ATM is now my best friend. Recently I have a problem with the bartender there so I'm not sure if I'm gonna continue working there. Nothing annoys me more than being treated like a new comer. Going back to Bojangles is really tempting though, especially since I've been working there for almost 6 months and I'm so familiar with everything there, all the regular customers etc. Staying in hall makes me miss my home ground (Woodlands) like crazy. I even miss walking to Causeway Point from home to meet my Woodlands kakis for a meal or a movie. I also miss studying at Woodlands Starbucks, missing all the friendly baristas. Even though NUS has several really nice Starbucks outlets (the one in utown is especially chill for overnight studying), nothing beats Woodlands Starbucks lah. I can't wait to head there to study during this recess week!!!

With my boys (emcee on the left and DJ on the right)

TOSH ROCKKKK!

God I followed his youtube videos for so long. It actually took me several drinks to have the courage to approach him for a photo HAHA

Staycation at Hotel Jen

Been hitting the clubs pretty often these days, maybe because I no longer have to answer to my parents and worry about coming home smelling like alcohol and cigarettes anymore, and also it's a lot more convenient for me to head to clubs straight from my work place now. Just when my friends and I were thinking we might be getting sick of clubbing...HAHA I swear the clubs missed us (jk)!!! It's really nice to see familiar faces in the clubs ahhh feels like home to me.

trying really hard not to laugh cos I look like a samurai warrior here

I booked for a hair appointment a day before the eve of Chinese New Year and I finally finally got to even my hair out. I swear to God I will never ever bleach my hair again, it's so difficult to get the colors to be even I was really contemplating on chopping the entire thing off. When I first bleached it, I didn't expect it to be so yellow and gross. I can't believe I stuck with that hair for so long. And my many attempts of trying to even the colors out failed terribly. Hopefully this color lasts for a really long time cos after all, I went to quite a reputable hair salon (Toni&Guy). I paid only 20$ for the service cos an intern helped to do my hair.

The value of this moment lives in metaphor

2015-01-25T16:19:00.002+08:00

On Boxing Day, 26 Dec 2014, I set off from home to Changi Airport excitedly as I was finally going to see my best friend again! I booked a really long trip so I could spend as much time with her as possible and god knows how long I've been waiting for this day to come, but I guess no number of days can actually make me satisfied. 12 days flew way too quickly and we're back to a long distance friendship once again.

I touched down at DMK airport in Bangkok around 1am (Thailand time). I bought a 7 days internet plan at the airport for about 200 baht plus, which apparently was really worth it compared to buying from outside! So next time if any of you are coming here you should take note of this as you'll save time trying to find places that sells the sim card and save money as well. Pan couldn't come fetch us that late as his parents don't feel safe for her to drive so far out in that hour, so I took a cab to her place. It was a pretty long ride, and strangely the cab meter jumps a lot faster than normal cabs. So we ended up paying about 400baht including 50 baht surcharge (no idea what's that for).

We caught up for a bit when we arrived at her guest house, showered, got changed then headed to the theatre at her home for a movie. We watched The Bank Job that was based on a true story. It's about a bank robbery that actually fucking succeeded, meaning the bank robbers are filthy rich now and having the time of their life without any problems with the government or police. Fucking awesome movie and I was left in disbelief that it's actually a true story. We didn't do much that night but we did chatted a lot before we went to bed and prepare to wake up early the following day. The following day was a weekend and you know what that means....CHATUCHAK WEEKEND MARKET!!! It's literally my most favourite place to shop at in Bangkok.

Woke up bright and early in the morning the following day to conquer our day 1 of crazy shopping. I wore a sheer white top that was supposed to be long sleeved but I rolled up the sleeves. I was kinda expecting the weather to be chilly like last year but it was slightly warmer. It's still chilly though, especially early morning and at night. Shopping at Chatuchak was probably the only time I actually sweated while in Bangkok.

So Pan drove us to Hua Mak station and we took the train from there to Chatuchak Market.

Got a pineapple mojito for 50 baht omg, it's literally 2$ and it tastes so fucking good I don't even believe it

It was selling at 7 baby cacti for 100baht (4$)

After an entire day of crazy shopping, I got so fucking tired and restless that I was just laughing at every single stupid thing HAHA. In case any of you haven't been to chatuchak and is wondering how it's like, it's like an open outdoor market and it's huuuuuge. You can find lots of things that Singapore blogshops sell. The materials are all decent as well if you actually know how to look at clothings and stuff. That day, I spent about 100$ (2500 baht) on 4 shorts, 6 tops, 2 rompers, 2 bikinis and 1 pair of shoes. It's really fucking worth it.

I know it may not seem like it but I swear to god the police officer asked us for a photo. We found it super odd and weird, and Pan said she smelled alcohol on them. Tsk tsk

After shopping, we headed back to Hua Mak station where Pan drove us to a nice place for dinner, which I've been to last year! Except this year wasn't a very good experience for us. The food was good and all, and we also got a nice spot outdoors right at a corner that was peaceful and private. But the wind started getting stronger and many bees started flying into us and onto the table (none dropped into the food thank god). Then it started to drizzle a bit so we requested to shift indoors. While shifting, a bee actually flew into my hair and got stuck so I was trying to get it out and I think it stung my between my index and middle finger. God did it hurt like a mother fucker. My right palm was really red for awhile, but the staffs were really nice and applied some balm onto my hand. We continued eating indoors while many other customers who were initially seated outside scramble to find a seat indoors. We left after awhile.

Got back to Pan's place, showered and got changed then we headed to the theatre once more to catch A Million Ways To Die In The West. It was a fucking funny movie that delivers too much information but I guess that was what made it fucking hilarious. Two good movies in a row, and we were hoping the third one wouldn't spoil our good movies streak.

Woke up pretty late the third day as Pan had something on in the morning and also I just realized I only have one photo taken. In the background is how Pan's house look like from the outside. Every member in his family owns at least one car, so does Pan, damn. Had our breakfast that her maid prepared and we set off to Chatuchak once more to make full use of our valuable weekend HAHA. It was kinda rushed because Chatuchak closes pretty early in the evening. We got there and it was like speed shopping. I still managed to get a lot of stuff in the end. Not to mention I spent 1000baht alone in a bikini shop HAHA fuck.

We kinda forgot to have dinner outside maybe cos we were carrying so many shopping bags and were too lazy to carry them to an eating place. Also, we had quite a bit of street food along Chatuchak. OHHHHHH and I also walked fucking far just to get my banana pancake only to be served a banana pancake without fucking bananas. So all the auntie gave me was an empty pancake, with milk topping WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK RIGHT? I ranted about this on twitter that day but omg thinking about it now makes me fucking mad still. And she still had the fucking guts to charge us the same damn price, can you imagine my anger...hoping for a banana pancake only to get an empty pancake instead. WHO THE FUCK SELLS EMPTY PANCAKES AND WHO IN THE RIGHT MIND WOULD EVEN BUY IT FROM YOU YOU ASSHOLE AUNTY. I swear I almost set the booth on fire and wanted to throw the pancake at her so they can both burn together. God damn it, can't believe I actually paid for it but I couldn't stop whining throughout the trip back to Pan's place. So that left me really hungry when I reached her place and we decided to catch a movie at her theatre and order some delivery. We wanted to order Pizza from Pizza Company and guess what? WE WERE ONE FUCKING MINUTE LATE FOR DELIVERY. ONE FUCKING MINUTE walao you need to count until like that not tamade. So we ordered Macs instead and couldn't finish it in the end cos we ordered way too much but it was a good meal nonetheless. Except, we picked a fucking horrible movie to watch that left Pan sleeping 10 minutes into the movie. But I stayed awake throughout cos I have to know the fucking ending. I think the movie we watched was Machine Gun Preacher? It's about the KONY incident and how this dude helped the people there. I was expected some fucking plot twist or something but it never happened. It's based on a true story though that didn't make it any more exciting.

On the third day, we set off early afternoon to Terminal 21 for some shopping (again), food and movie!

First, we went to the same place we went last year for lunch @ Tai Thai Terminal 21! I swear to God this is my all time favourite place to eat at in Bangkok. The food is so nice, the ambience is amazing and the service is great. I actually got to customize the mojito myself and I ordered Pineapple one, which really didn't taste as great as the one I had in Chatuchak but still. The prices there are similar to Singapore prices, but I feel that it's really worth it. Their pizzas are fucking amazing, and come in many unique flavours that I doubt other places sell. They have chicken basil pizza (which we ordered), vongole, carbonara and all sorts of pasta flavoured pizzas. We also ordered a Prawn burger to try it out and thought it'll be more like a side but it turned out huge, and not looking like a burger but it was so fucking good as well omg I'm craving for it right now. I think the meal was definitely worth the price taking into account the beautiful place, the food and all the awesome photos we got to take hahaha.

Someone had to carry me onto this cute little red truck so I could have a photo with it hahaha

Was having serious craving for bananas after walking away from a cute 200baht banana cardigan that I'll probably never ever wear in this lifetime or the next but it's still fucking cute to me

Pan with her milk flavored icecream

To be honest, Terminal 21 didn't have much things that caught my eye. Most of them were too pricey and I remembered seeing the same item I got from Chatuchak being sold at a higher price there last year. So that kinda deterred me to buy things from there unless it's super cheap. I only managed to get a pair of hobo pants for 200baht.

After walking around for awhile we went to have some Thai food on the upper levels, then caught Night At The Museum 3. I cried so much at the movie omg it's just super sad that it's the last one ever. Exactly how I felt after watching 22 Jumpstreet cos it was so fucking good.

Such a cute little carton of thai milk tea I just had to take a photo with it haha, so whose cuter?
On a side note, Singapore needs to up their milk tea game man

Guess who went crazy at the family mart and cleared the shelves of potato snack?

On the 4th day, which was the day I slipped down the stairs at Pan's guest house (which resulted in a super huge blue black the next few days), we headed down to the town in Thailand, Siam. Our plan was to walk around Siam, Central World and Platinum. I guess we kinda spent way too much time at Central World shopping and eating Bon Chon that we didn't have much time to shop at Platinum. By the time we reached there (about 5-6pm), many shops were already closing so we decided to all split up and get our own things. It wasn't dangerous or anything since it's a shopping mall and it's pretty easy for us to find each other. Both of us were looking for the shoes section cos we both really wanted to buy shoes, and apparently we were in the wrong zone. Platinum has three zones, zone 1, 2 and 3. The shoes are in Zone 3 level 4. Damn so we missed the chance to get it cos all the shops were already closing. I managed to get some accessories that day from Platinum and that was it I guess.

Intense gossiping session while queuing for our turn at Bon Chon HAHA

Bon Chon chicken!

After that, we walked around the mall for a bit and I saw this perfect red dress for Chinese New Year but it doesn't cover my tattoos ugh fuck

Then we went to get ice cream from Emack & Bolio's

Ice cream with melted marshmallows and fruit loops. Apparently a very popular place to have ice cream in Bangkok but I was too full from Bon Chon

And while waiting for Pan to get her ice cream...

Then finally we made our way to Platinum (obviously too late cos it closes early evening)

Along the streets of Bangkok

After shopping for only about an hour at Platinum, we went to chill at Starbucks for a bit to plan what to do for the night and also have some really retarded "photoshoot" HAHA

Can't recall what happened before this shot was taken. Damn, we looked like we were laughing our asses off HAHA

After that, we went around looking for a place we could sit down, chill with drinks and shisha but Bangkok is super strict that period of time so we couldn't get shisha anywhere!

After we went back that day, I was busy packing my luggages as we were checking into Rembrandt hotel the very next day. It was New Years' Eve so Pan had plans with her family and couldn't join us, so I'll be meeting Marz and Callum who are coming to Bangkok (from Phuket) that day and make plans for NYE! And then we'll be flying to Koh Samui on separate flights as Pan on 2nd Jan, so we had to pack our hand carry as well. I swear the schedule was really complicated at first but I'm super glad everything went so well.

Oh and here's a photo of my bruise cos I feel a need to justify that the fall left a great impact on my thigh and ON MY LIFE. This bruise took the rest of the entire trip to heal completely god damn it.

So in the morning the very next day, Pan drove us to get some breakfast at On Lok Yun which I chanced upon on @dreachong's instagram. It looked so good and many bloggers were raving about it so I really wanted to try it. It took god damn long for us to get to the place cos the GPS told us to turn right on a one way street, which was impossible. So we circled around the area looking for the nearest parking lot and when we finally found it, it's already afternoon but oh well. We used the GPS to get to the place and I swear the place didn't look like what I was expecting it to look like. From the looks of the photo of the food you'd think it's some fancy place, but it looks just like the a bak kut teh shop in Malaysia hahaha. But let's not judge a book by its cover cos the food did turn out to be super amazing and we ordered two rounds of toast. They also served us many many free drinks, and the meal was really cheap!!!

All time favourite drink in Bangkok is Thai milk tea!!!

After our hearty breakfast meal, we had a mini street photoshoot cos the lighting was so damn good. HAHA

Later, Marz, Callum and I checked into our hotel at Rembrandt, which is quite a fancy hotel and it's within walking distance to Terminal 21 which is fucking awesome. We initially planned to go to Platinum again to really finish our shopping in Bangkok but all we did was laze around in bed and watch horror movies. We went out for dinner at a place nearby our hotel, then went back to get changed and head to Asiatique for New Year countdown!!!

It was fucking crowded at Asiatique and also not to mention I think we were a little late as there were actually plenty of shops there that sells really affordable clothings but they were all closed by the time we got there. And many people were already hogging all the good spots for the best fireworks view. Thank god we managed to squeeze through the crowd shamlessly and got quite a good view of the fireworks as well. They were amazing!!! I couldn't stop smiling while looking at them they just make me so incredibly happy.

After all the fireworks were done, we went to chill at a bar which sells really horrible tasting cocktails.

Here's Marz and Callum having their sweet little moment

Finally got to have my banana pancake there before we left!!!

We cabbed back after drinking and chilling for awhile. Also I think cos we drank a bit before we left our hotel and we had alcohol left so we didn't wanna waste money on anymore drinks outside. My New Year celebration wasn't anything fancy, but I am really grateful to have spent it with the people I absolutely adore.

The following day, we woke up bright and early and headed to Platinum for shopping!!! I know it's starting to sound boring isn't it, two days of chatuchak and another two days of platinum. Are there anymore interesting places to go in Bangkok? HAHA, the reason I go to Bangkok is for my bestfriend and to shop till I fucking drop haha. All of us kinda split and went separate ways to shop for different things. I spent about 3 hours walking only the first storey, and when I found out I've been missing out on the other levels, many shops were already closing HAHAHA. I bought soooo many things that a shop owner offered me a huge plastic bag to keep all my things. Thank god for that if not I really have no idea how I'm gonna survive carrying all those stuff together with my hand carry to the airport the very next day for Koh Samui.

Looking really upset at the shoe store cos all the pretty shoes I wanted didn't have my size. My shoe size isn't even out of stock, they didn't have shoes my size cos they must be thinking no one on earth have such a big feet. My shoe size is usually 39, but in Bangkok somehow my shoe size is 41? I have no idea why either.

After Platinum closed, we walked all the way back to Siam Paragon to have After You dessert which all the bloggers were raving about on Instagram again. HAHA it apparently has many nicer outlets but I just really wanted to try how good it was. The queue was super fucking long so we decided to pack take away, which also required us to wait a good 15 mins. By the time our food was ready, we got a seat so everything was perfect. The food still looked good anyway, and omg it tasted sooooo good as well. The toast on the left was filled with melted butter, can you imagine it's like magic in my mouth. I'm craving for it right now damn. It's definitely worth a try. And the toast was too much for me to eat all by myself. This set will probably be perfect for like three people?

We went back to the hotel after that (we didn't bother taking the trains anymore cos the cabs there were so fucking cheap anyway, they never amounted to more than 400 baht even when the journey takes more than 30mins and splitting the cost with your friends makes it even cheaper) and finished up our alcohol and had some cup noodles for supper from the family mart opposite our hotel. Later, we packed our bags to get ready for our domestic fight to Koh Samui. We took transfer flights, so we had to take a plane, then a bus and then a ferry to get to Koh Samui. The direct flight which only takes 1 hour compared to our 7 hour journey costs 4x more, so I guess ours was pretty worth it eventhough we spent more time travelling. The transfer process wasn't tedious as well, it's actually quite enjoyable for me cos it feels like I'm on a long backpacking trip haha.

FINALLY REACHED KOH SAMUI!!!

So Pan reached there way before we even set off from Bangkok, and she got to head to the beach and chill with her friends first. We were all gonna stay at her friend's hotel, Freehouse Bungalow, right behind Lawana Hotel. Her friend is called Mak (pronounced as Mek) and he's gay and he's so funny and cute I swear. By the time we reached the hotel, which is super far inside from the main road and it's a dark long eerie stretch (I was wondering for a while if it was actually the right way but it was), it was already past dinner time. All of us settled for some food at the hotel itself. The hotel sells super good food at very affordable price. Mak didn't want us to pay for the food since he owns the hotel but we felt bad since he's opening the hotel for business anyway and we got the room for free.

After food, we just lazed around in our room for awhile and Mak drove us to Ark Bar at Chaweng Beach for shisha. Ark Bar is amazing!!! It's my favourite beach club forever omg you get to have a table to yourself, sit down and chill with shisha and drinks (drinks were sold in mini buckets, 700baht, which is quite worth the price compared to Singapore but many places sell a lot cheaper), and when the music is good you just stand on the benches and dance away. The music is actually really good which was why when we first got into Ark Bar we were dying to get a drink and have a seat but we had to wait for someone to clear the tables.

The boys peeing in the sea HAHA

NUTELLA BANANA PANCAKE OMG BEST THING EVER

After Ark Bar, Pan was already puking her guts out and we were all drunk and tired so we headed back to our room to crash and get ready for our second day of adventure in Samui!

And behind the scenes of this selfie...

Callum and Marz on the hammock outside our room

Grilled salmon with basil leaves sauce at the hotel restaurant was so fucking good I had it twice

All time favourite drink in Samui is Coconut Shake!!! We drink it whenever we can HAHA

Our first aim of the day was to play Go-Kart right across the street from our hotel. It was 700baht for 10mins, which is about 15 laps according to them. We tried to bargain but it's a fixed price so we just took it. We had to get dressed in proper head gear, jacket and shoes and off we gooooo!!! It was so fucking thrilling and I'm so proud to say I didn't crash at all! Marz crashed a few times and toppled all the tyres at the border cos she didn't know she could brake hahaha, it was quite funny but she suffered several bruises. I started off braking at every turn cos I didn't wanna crash, but then I realized I wouldn't topple no matter how steep the turn was so I just kept accelerating all the way and racing all my friends. It was soooo fucking fun!!!! I'm dying to try it again omg.

that's me...

And that's Maria HAHAHA

Later we went to this place to shop around but everything was too pricey for us. Pan and I took a lot of photos there cos the place has really nice lightings and backdrops. Damn I can't remember what that place is called but it was kinda quiet when we went there cos it hasn't officially open yet. Mak's mom has a shop there and half the clothes there are all from Platinum and the people there sell them for about 400baht more omg.

Here are some really nice photos that we took...

fuck my blue black...this would have turn out to be a really nice photo

PAN IS SO FREAKING GORGEOUS OMG I LOVE THIS PHOTO OF HER

After that, we all went to a Volleyball outdoor court to play a few matches of volleyball. My skills are soooo rusty from an entire year of not playing volleyball and not even exercising haha. We played about 2-3 sets and we lost terribly hahaha. It was fun nonetheless.

We went back to our room to shower for a bit and get changed before heading to Hush! It's a bar before Ark Bar that we passed by the previous night cos they had very interesting cocktail names like Wet Pussy for 100baht and they had a one for one bucket offer before 12am so we really wanted to check it out.

our writings on the chalk wall at Hush!

We asked the lady at the hotel reception for a ride to the area and got to sit at the trunk of a lorry omg I was so excited about it HAHA I felt like standing up and waving my arms around like a crazy woman, or maybe do a Perks of Being A Wallflower scene where "in this moment, I swear we were infinite" HAHAHA. CHEY CHEY. When we reached Ark Bar, Marz and Callum managed to get the one for one bucket housepour right on the dot and by the time it was our turn the offer was over wtf super niao, count the time until like that. There wasn't even a lot of people queueing for drinks. We went ahead with the cocktail drinks anyway and got two buckets for 500 baht each. Wet Pussy tastes super good. A lot better than the long island tea which was too strong for my liking. Ark Bar closes at 2am so we quickly finished up our drinks and headed down to Ark Bar. Nobody wanted to finish the Long Island Tea so I downed it all and got so fucking drunk I didn't party at all at Ark Bar. Pan and I were both dead and puking out guts out. I even dropped my phone and Pan lost her slippers. Thankfully, Ark Bar's people are super honest and nice. My friend went to the counter to ask if they found an iphone 5 and the person said he'll return to us if we can unlock the phone and show a photo of us. Super grateful for their honesty and excellent service that we tipped them. Pan got her slippers back from the counter as well. Ark Bar is awesome!!!

Also, meet my new friend, Natalie, from Czech Republic.

We woke up hungover as hell the following afternoon and didn't get to do much except go out for lunch and head back to the room to get ready for Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan! We had lunch at Lawana Resort and everything there is one for one. So we ordered tom yum soup and pizza and 2 coconut shakes which all doubled in numbers haha. And it was really affordable too! Except I don't think the food was all that fantastic, except the coconut shake which was exceptionally good maybe because it's served in the coconut itself, and the food took a really long time to come.

With Mak

On the speedboat to Koh Phangan!

We got to choose between taking a speedboat or a ferry and we chose the speedboat instead. Many people said the speedboat is dangerous and overcrowded and expensive even though it takes only about 30mins to get to Koh Phangan compared to the Ferry which takes about an hour plus. Usual speedboat prices are around 2000baht but we only got it at 900baht which was a special price offered by the people at the hotel. Our speedboat service was from AngThong company if I remember correctly. Service was good and the people took really good care of us and the other passengers. The speedboat wasn't overcrowded at all and everyone got a seat and a life vest. The ride there we were super excited and just singing the school song and doing other random stuff, but we slept throughout the trip back HAHA we were all so drunk and tired by then.

First thing we saw when we got out of the speedboat was this fancy uv body art painting. I got some silly and weird paintings like the one on my neck that's supposed to attract cute boys to lick my neck (but they soon got ruined after me being so restless to wait for it to dry) and the weed on my arm.

The entrance fee for Full Moon Party was merely 100baht and we got this tag that can be removed easily to pass to your friends outside and get them in for free but it's really pointless since the entrance fee was already so cheap.

Koh Phangan is a really small island and they sell all sorts of things. It's like a mini street market. It's quite an interesting sight. We got a lot of food along the way before we started drinking. We didn't wanna get drunk before having the chance to explore the island so we just got a bucket each.

Alcohols were all sold like this at about 350 baht per bucket. They have an entire mini bottle of alcohol for you and two mixers which is bloody cheap omg. I told this dude to pose for a photo haha look at how spontaneous he is!

Yup we drink from mini pails like this

There were so many interesting things there I just had to take photos of them! The people there were all really nice and crazy as well I love it!!!

Some guy who sold us drinks gave us rose rings made of straws. How sweet!

I think what made Full Moon Party so crazy is because of all these dangerous stunts. I was really amazed and I tried the fire mambo thing! HAHA, I just wanted to join in the fun but I was really scared my hair would get burnt so I just fell and crawled my way out of the crowd after I went under it HAHA. It was soooo fun!!! Also the fire skipping rope is really dangerous shit. Once the rope swung to the crowd and Pan's hair got burnt.

Yup after wanting to try it for ages, and being afraid of what the result might be I finally tried it (for 300baht)! Thankfully all the lady said were good things. She will spread all the cards in a semi circle and I will have to choose 10 cards. After choosing, she'll read my palm and tell my fortune, then go on and explain the cards. She predicted I'm gonna have 3 kids in future, which I hope she's right or she's wrong cos I want more. HAHA and that I'm gonna marry a good husband who will bring money back for me. She also said that I try to save but my money is easily gone (true) and that I had a bad past relationship (spot on or what).

I had a lot of fun at Full Moon as you can tell from all the photos. I still prefer Ark Bar even though the music at Full Moon was crazy good and we had a lot of fun dancing and screaming out hearts out at the lyrics. The DJ was amazing. It wasn't like how I expected it to be. I guess I was expecting it to be like ZoukOut with crazy amount of people at the dance floor but Full Moon wasn't like that. They had different dance floors for different genres of music, and the dancefloor wasn't that big and crowded. I guess we went there a bit too early as we crashed at a bar around 12am for shisha and drinks. Had 2 shishas and a drink each for 6 of us and the bill amounted to only 700baht. Everything was crazy cheap!!

Later we went to catch our speedboat back to Samui which comes every hour sharp. We were at the jetty about 240am and the dude told us we might have to catch the next one as it might not fit all of us, which means we had to wait till 4am. THANK GOD we managed to squeeze into the speedboat that came at 3am cos I didn't think we could last another hour just standing there and waiting.

Last day in Samui was spent walking along Chaweng beach and finally getting a massage at a nice fancy shop for only 200baht, and then rushing off to Tesco to catch a thai movie called Iron Ladies. The first part of the movie that I watched years ago was definitely a lot better than this but it was still good and funny even though I had to read the subtitles for every single line.

Also we only realized on the very last day how cheap renting a bike and a car was. Renting a bike for an entire day was merely 250baht (10$) and a car was 1000baht (40$). It was super worth it in my opinion, but because we only realized it on the last day, we had no way to return the vehicle and we didn't rent it in the end.

After that, we went to Ark Bar for the very last time to just chill with shisha and drinks and music. Two caucasians came to join us awhile later and they were such an entertainment. Oh also, two caucasians who were obviously too high on drugs climbed up to a high platform (where the people perform fire tricks on) to dance and refuse to get down. They were then taken away by the police, which I'm pretty sure can be bribed to get them out of trouble.

Then we went back to our room to pack our bags as we have an early flight back to Bangkok to catch our flight back to SG (which we were almost late for cos of the damn Bangkok traffic).

I'm so sad to say this marks the end of my (almost) 2 weeks long vacation. Big thanks to Mak and his boyfriend, Um, for taking us around Samui. I will definitely come back here for Ark Bar and I will remember to rent a vehicle so we won't have to spend so much on transport there. Cabs there are a fucking rip off, it took us 200baht each to get to our hotel on the first day.

Oh and in case any of you are wondering, I stayed a total of 12 days in Thailand and spent 1000$ in total excluding the tickets and hotel. It was pretty good in my opinion considering the fact that I did 4 entire days of crazy shopping and my luggage was about 19kg+ at the end of the trip. Also, we made sure to check and compare the currency rates everywhere we go and we heard from a friend that the rates in Thailand is much better than in SG, my dad says the same as well. Chatuchak JJ Mall offers the best rate. Of course the rate doesn't really matter if you're changing just a small amount, but 1000$ was quite a lot so we definitely benefitted. The rate at JJ Mall was about 24.61 if I still remember correctly, and the rate everywhere else was about 24.4ish.

Also, it's just sadness all over again when I had to leave Pan. I wish I could stay longer. Having her by my side was so much better than talking to her through skype or any other platforms. I can never find a soul mate as true to me as she is and speaks her mind like she does. I love all the times we can just look at each other and know what both of us are thinking, then burst out laughing and have difficulties explaining to others what just happened.

Till we meet again, best friend.

2015, another chance for us to get it right

2015-01-12T01:13:00.001+08:00

I know I'm a little late with New Year greetings but still, Happy New Year!

Some people don't believe in New Year resolutions cos they feel that they never accomplish them anyway, or those resolutions just get forgotten before half the year is even over. In my opinion, it's always good to start the year off with some motivations. One year changes many many things, and you never know how much you'll grow in that span of time and unknowingly accomplish something, whether it's small or big. I think it's just nice to look back to my previous New Year blog post every year and look at what resolutions I made, and even though I never really kept them in my mind as a reminder, I think it somehow indicates how much I've grown. You can view my 2014 New Year post here. Ahh and I just realized I started off this blog post the exact same way I did last year, and that I'm not uploading my drafted post on BKK trip yet because Pan hasn't uploaded the photos we took using her dslr. I guess some things never change hahaha.

So last year, my New Year resolution was to be independent since I was getting into NUS and it's an entirely different and new environment for me. I guess yes, I became more independent, but not enough. In 2014, many things changed for me. I stopped taking allowance from my parents and started working once or twice every week while schooling to earn more allowance. I know some people told me that I shouldn't be stressing over money at this age since I'm still schooling and I can easily take money from my parents. When I started working part-time, I was still taking allowance from my parents. The allowance my parents gave me was not enough for me to survive the entire week, I don't know how my sisters does it but it wasn't enough for me to umm...live comfortably? HAHA I don't know how to put it but I can't afford having good food every single day, let alone save, it wasn't enough to even have 3 meals a day for a week to be honest. After working, I had more money and even had enough to save for an overseas trip that I paid all by myself (my parents gave me a bit of money so I could buy some stuff for them that was it). It took a while for me to stop taking allowance from my parents. It started off like, two weeks with one week's allowance, and then me taking from them only when I really need it, and then slowly I learnt to not get allowance from them at all. I'm coping fine now, just got to slowly work and save up the money that I've used on my overseas trip. I think part of this is kind of inspired by my friends who are not taking allowance from their parents anymore. Also, I like working and spending the money that I earned on my own. It makes me value money more, and learn how to save better.

In 2015, I still hope to be more independent, but in baby steps. I want to start paying for my own phone bills every month. My dad is always complaining about how we overuse our mobile data or exceeding the limited minutes of free calls we have and resulting in him paying a lot more than usual. I always just shook him aside and think that he's being a miser and naggy. I think that problems like this will always affect our parents, and we as kids will never understand that until that becomes our problem. I also hope that slowly as I become more independent, my parents can worry less about me and see that I've really grown.

I also mentioned in my 2014 New Year resolution blog entry that I wish to constantly remind myself to be happy. I think that this particular resolution was one that never left my mind. My roses tattoo on my upper back is actually also a physical reminder to myself of that. Of course that doesn't mean I didn't have any sad moments in 2014, but I wish to just keep them there and move on. Sometimes to be happy, it means making the hardest decisions, but if it makes you happy, it can't be the wrong decision you know? That's what I always feel. I like to ask myself sometimes "am I happy?" It may seem like a simple yes or no question, but when you ask yourself that, the memories that come flooding in aren't always the happy and sweet ones. After everything that happened in 2014, I would like to say that YES I AM HAPPY. My life is not perfect, but I am contented. I live my life with flaws that I embrace, problems that I eventually will solve and a heart I thought was broken but was actually stronger than I thought.

In 2015, I wish to be able to keep this up. I am allowed to be sad, but not for too long. When I am sad, I am allowed to cry as hard as I want, then I stop crying and get over it. Sometimes I cry without any reason at all, I just felt like crying. It just felt relieving to me hahahaha I believe I'm not the only one who feels the same.

Also, I haven't been exercising for the entire 2014 (omg saying this makes me feel utterly ashamed of myself). I think the only exercise I did was walking to the shopping mall from my place and back (it's just one bus stop away). I hope that in 2015, I will exercise more regularly and try to get toned. Not really hopeful about this resolution, and very reluctant to put this resolution down but I have to if not I'll become a blob of fats. I haven't been gaining too much weight I just think that my arms are getting really flabby and disgusting hahaha.

Alright I guess that's all for my resolutions this year. I prefer to keep it simple at just three of them. I can come up with an entire list but then I won't be able to actually focus on them. It'll feel like homework for me HAHA. I hope everyone is ready to take on 2015 just like I am and I hope this year will be good for all of us.

Here's a baby photo of me to remind myself that I used to look like a fat boy and be happy with what I look like now HAHA ok I'm just kidding

PS: tmr's my first day of school (no actually, in about 8 hours' time) maybe that's why I need this blog post as a motivation

Oh can I just digress for a bit because I am actually so excited for next semester to begin. I managed to successfully bid for LSM1202 Human Anatomy and I heard from my seniors that we will get to examine dead body parts (as in real life specimens and not any animated drawings on lecture notes anymore)!!! And also I made so many nice and reliable friends last semester from my LSM1103 Biodiversity practical group, I hope we will still keep in touch this coming semester. I also have lecture buddies for almost all my modules hehe so so excited. C'mon semester 2/2015, I'm ready for ya!!

First light in the morning as the last beat stops / ZoukOut

2014-12-17T21:03:00.000+08:00

Finally, the month I've been waiting the entire year for is here! Nessie, Marz and I have been making plans for ZoukOut for the longest time ever and it's gonna be Nessie's and my first time to the festival! I cannot express my excitement into words cos I've really been looking forward to this day for too long.

On Friday, I went to a nearby mama-shop in Woodlands to get a bottle of Smirnoff and Jose Cuervo while Nessie went to town to get some stuff and mixers. I got into a cab (which took bloody long to come cos it rained a little bit), drop by town to fetch Nessie and both of us headed to Mövenpick Heritage Hotel Sentosa to meet Marz and Callum. We got ready, Yang and Ryan came over for awhile, Marz and Callum went to have dinner, and then we played a few rounds of drinking games. We didn't drink much cos none of us wanna die before the party begins (duh we're here for the music).

We left our room at about 10pm or so cos we were too excited to check out how everything is like inside. We didn't get to go in straight away though. We sat outside for a long while cos we had to wait for our friends who didn't have the priority passes to queue up, and the queue is pretty crazy. When we finally went in, I was just hopping around in excitement. There were two stages, I think one is called the Moon stage while the other is called the Star stage. The Moon stage was where all the famous DJs from all over the world were spinning at, so the crowd was crazy. The Star stage was pretty empty, it's mostly the local DJs I think I'm not very sure and not very interested hahaha. If you were to check the schedule on your land yard you will see two separate line ups for the different stages, but really nobody gives a shit about what's going on at the Star stage HAHA. I just really wanted to see Nicky Romero, Above & Beyond and Steve Aoki for Day 1. The music was crazy good I had so much fun dancing and jamming to all the songs. I love how crazy the atmosphere is, and I love all the fire, the stage lights, the fireworks, the confetti!

Before Steve Aoki started his set, the crowd was chanting "WE WANT CAKE" and I really didn't get it. A guy also came up to me and said "Steve Aoki is spinning next. You wanna go get cake with me?". I was really confused until this dude told me that each time Steve Aoki spins, he'll throw a cake down at the audience. HAHA that didn't come off as very surprising to me because he was fucking crazy on stage and his stage lights were exceptionally pretty. He was soooo good. Halfway through his set, Nessie and I got tired and went to the back to find a place to sit and rest. But we got up soon after because he started playing Turbulence!!! One does not simply stay still when that song is playing hahaha I was jumping around like a mad monkey it was so much fun.

The fun-sized couple finally reunited

Before Nicky Romero started his set, Nessie and I went back to the room (got lost on the way for fucking long) to get some money to have Macs haha. We were seriously too hungry, and then back to partying! And after Steve Aoki, we went to meet our friend and he drove us all the way to Mount Faber, just for fun cos we weren't tired yet. After a really long while of chilling outside Sentosa (basically doing nothing just driving around and almost getting into several car accidents), we went back to the hotel only to receive the news that only two guests are allowed per room. Knowing us, we could have easily sneaked in, but the room didn't have enough space to accommodate all of us anyway so we packed our bags and went to stay at a resort for the night. We used hand soap to wash our hair and body, it was pretty pathetic HAHA.

We only got to sleep at around 8 or 9am, and we got up at 3pm to head back to Sentosa. Before that, we went to get some pizza and food. We crashed at Callum's place at Sentosa Cove to get ready and pre-drink. The lift goes straight up to his door, so he practically has a lift in the house. It's fucking cool HAHA and he has disco lights in the common toilet. Imagine when you're sad and you just want to sit some place quiet or cry in the shower, but there's the disco light and you start dancing like the 90s people HAHA fuck how does one feel sad in that toilet. I wanna have a disco light in my house next time too.

After eating, we wanted to get ready to play drinking games. I was being so nice to get tissue to wipe the balcony table and then BAM…guess who knocked her teeth into the fucking clean balcony glass door that looked like air to me. My lips swell immediately and not to mention I got a cut from my braces which made me start cursing and swearing about how much I hate braces. Also, to add on, I just went to the dentist to tighten my braces like two days ago so my teeth was already hurting in the very first place. So I started my Day 2 of ZoukOut looking ugly as hell cos I look like I have Jay Z lips, and it's also the reason why I didn't upload many pictures for Day 2.

Really contemplating if my lips look sexy or lip fillers gone wrong here HAHAHA

All these fireworks just for Martin Garrix!!! He looked so good even from afar. I really wanted to get a closer look but the crowd gets a lot crazier when you're near the front. On Day 1, Nessie and I tried to squeeze our way through from the front and a fight happened. We wanted to get out so badly but there was no way to continue walking or even exit the crowd it's super bad. So after that we just hung around at the back of the dance floor where it's more spacious. I also got quite pissed at some points because people just kept squeezing their way through in front of me and saying "excuse me excuse me" and I shot back "THERE'S NO SPACE TO EXCUSE YOU" honestly I was really enjoying the music and these people are ruining all my dance moves. HAHAHAHHA I'm kidding but seriously those annoying people need to die.

I got really tired very early in Day 2 and sadly did not last till first light haha damn. I honestly thought Day 1 was a lot more fun than Day 2 maybe cos the crowd in Day 2 was a lot crazier and I was more excited about the line up for Day 1. We went back to Sentosa Cove (Callum's place) to crash for a few hours before heading back home after that.

Overall, there were lots of hiccups during these few days and many things did not go the way I expected it to. I was really upset about a few things but that's aside from ZoukOut. ZoukOut was an amazing experience for me and I had so much fun dressing up with my girls. Also we took lots of narcissistic selfies that is not to be shared on social media cos they're so ridiculous HAHA. I hope next year's ZoukOut will be an even better experience for me!

Remembering only after having forgotten

2014-11-09T04:39:00.002+08:00

Hello again, neglected space.

Many things are going on for me right now. I'll be super busy studying for exams that will only end on 3 Dec, and I'll be working more often as well since I'm only left with my last week of school before Semester 2 starts next year, and also I'm trying to earn money for my long awaited overseas plan next month. Baby brother's birthday is coming, so is Christmas, then there's ZoukOut tickets that I've yet to settle and my accommodation for overseas trip. I need a rich man in my life HAHA. As busy as I may sound, I somehow always find time to have fun. In my friend's opinion, I'm having too much time and too much fun hahaha. I think I'm just super lucky to have chosen super slack modules this Semester, but it's gonna be hell for me next Semester so I might as well make full use of my time now.

I'll trace back time to the oldest interesting event (at least to me) that I've yet to blog about then work my way to the most recent event.

I NEED TO TALK TO YOU GUYS ABOUT FORMULA 1!!!

I know this event happened like two months ago but it was probably one of the best nights I've ever had this year. Ok maybe not, but without a doubt, it was one of the nights I really enjoyed myself and felt genuinely happy. So I was supposed to be at work that night, when my friend called and asked, "Xinpei can you paitao work?" I was like, "Why…" The moment he said that he had two free passes to Formula One, I was like "fuck yes?!?!" I was super grateful that he decided to call me along among all his other friends as well. And even more grateful that it changed my impression of the event itself. I was one of those Singaporeans who cared no shit about F1 even though it was pretty much the pride of Singapore. I didn't even know what it was about except racing cars and stuff. But having the chance to experience it real life was a totally different thing. The moment I stepped into the F1 Zone, I felt like I was in another country and we even turned to foreigners for directions. It was a legit carnival in fucking Singapore. Everyone was having fun and smiling and enjoying themselves and it took every ounce of me to refrain from getting the overpriced beers there that's served in fucking plastic cups. HAHA. I wasn't that interested in watching the cars race though, they were gone in less than 2 seconds and you can barely catch anything. I was in love with the atmosphere!!! After the event, we had our own post-F1 party with free drinks and food at one of the bars inside. I swore to myself that I'll come to F1 every other year. It's really a date to note down in my calendar now because I wouldn't wanna know how fun it's gonna be and have to miss it! I think I sound a little too excited hahaha. F1 was awesome I still look back to that day and remember how much fun I had.

I took Freshmen Seminar (FMS) Science of Color module this Semester and it was the best module ever. We basically do nothing in class except watch people present and our grade was dependent on our 20min long presentation (graded by our classmates) about any topic related to colors. My class only consisted of 12 people and I managed to got this module for 1 bid point only. I feel super super lucky because this module satisfies faculty requirement and has no final exam. Many of my classmates presented on very technical topics related to colors, and color psychology was the most popular. I was super scared that my topic will clash with others but thank god it didn't. I presented on the effects of colors on different types of people and talked about the blind (you'll be surprised how colors can actually affect the blind), autistic patients and chromophobe patients. I thought it was a rather untouched topic but also super interesting. One thing I disliked about this module was compulsory attendance and having missed one lesson, I had to do a report on another topic about colors. It was tedious and skimpy, but it'll do. But then again I thought my prof was reasonable about getting me to do a report just because I missed a lesson because if he had not done so, no one would have turned up for his lessons hahaha. My prof is super super cute and this module was honestly the only lesson that I look forward to every week. On our last lesson for this module, my prof bought Krispy Kreme donuts for all of us and insisted that it was an experiment but he just wanted us to eat it. He then went on to present about a donut story. HAHAHA god is it just me or the people around me are just so retarded and complementary to me sometimes. HAHA just kidding.

Talking about last lessons and how lucky I am this Semester, my LSM1103 Biodiversity lab group is the best ever. They were really my motivation to go for classes and practicals because I know I'll enjoy myself with them around. Our group is also super fortunate to get the best Teaching Assistant (TA) that is full of shit, funny and knowledgeable. We were able to learn a lot as a group from him and have fun at the same time. At one glance, our lab group (B09) is definitely the most bonded among all other groups, or maybe I'm just biased but I think it's true haha. These people also never failed to lend a helping hand to me in my studies and are always caring for me they're so super nice I get really touched sometimes. Like how I'm always about 20 mins late for class and they'll tell me what I missed and let me copy their notes and slowly explain to me whatever that I don't understand. And how they were afraid I might be late for our Changi Beach Practical and miss the bus, so they called me to make sure I knew how to get to the meeting area. I feel very blessed to have all of them as part of my lab group this Semester, I just hope my luck sticks around in Semester 2 as well.

Also, Changi Beach Practical wasn't as bad as I anticipated. A day before the trip, I was googling about it to see if I should give it a miss cos I heard we had to go into the water till chest level and get all dirty and shit. Princess Pei didn't wanna get dirty ok. So basically I just told them I'm on my period and apparently it was voluntary, like you can choose whether or not you want to get into the water, so it was okay. I definitely learnt a lot from the trip though, because I got to really see many practical specimens live. The trip also taught me how to identify organisms at first glance which helped in my practical test.

The trip to the Zoo was quite a wasted trip because it started pouring the moment we arrived at our first station and it didn't stop at all throughout. I was the only one in my group who brought a poncho and thank god I did because I think I was the most comfortable of everyone else and I was definitely the driest. HAHA we went home after walking in the rain to a few other stations to see the animals but it was really nothing much. I was just super captivated by the beauty of the cheetah because it looked so elegant.

You'll always see me around Woodlands Starbucks whenever I'm down to study, which is really quite often. Woodlands Starbucks still feels like home to me especially after having made friends with the baristas there. It's definitely my #1 favorite place to go when I have nothing to do. HAHA also cos free drinks but shh.

These are just photos from one of the very few rare days that I get to pamper myself by dressing up to town and probably do some shopping, and get nice cafe food. HAHA, honestly I can't really recall what happened on those days but these photos of me are nice so I'll just post them. I'm also super in need of shopping. Like I'm dying. I need more clothes with price tags still on, if you get what I mean. HAHA

#Krewella

What was supposed to be dinner at Holland Village with Marz and visiting Nessie at her work place at Harry's turned into an impromptu Friday clubbing night at Zouk Members. I was supper underdressed wearing this nude chiffon top and shorts with platforms that Nessie lent me. The night didn't go very well for me even though the music was sick as fuck cos my stomach was hurting all of a sudden. My stomach has been hurting like this for awhile now, the pain just comes at random times and it can be really extreme till the extent I can barely stand. No idea what's wrong with me, so far it only happened thrice. I want to see the doctor to know what's wrong but at the same time if it's something bad I kinda don't wish to know it? Do you feel me

Sunday beach outing with my girls! I love how my girls and I share the same love for beaches and just chilling in the sun with a cocktail and doing nothing. That day, we reached Sentosa just before the sun was about to set and spent only two hours on the beach but we still enjoyed ourselves very much. I like days like this. We will be back Sentosa! (Esp USS Battlestar Galactica!!!)

Halloween is always my favourite day of the year because I get to go out of my house looking ridiculous as hell and no one cares (also I kinda like getting a lot of attention HAHA). I always felt super super sad during those few years when I had to miss Halloween because of end of year examinations. This year I'm dressed up as a space babe/alien but everyone just thinks I'm a fucking cat woman or miley cyrus ugh. I'll do better next year hopefully. I really liked how I looked this Halloween though…

Marz Nessie and I had a one-day staycation at Marina Bay Sands on Halloween night. I can't describe how great Halloween was for me this year!!! Our initial plan was to club hop from Butter Factory to Attica then to Zouk but because we were running late we skipped Butter Factory and went straight to Clarke Quay where it was super super crowded but it was fun to see that many people dressed up as well. Also, those blinking red devils got to go man. Personally, I think the most creative Halloween idea was being a Sims character because you get to wear whatever the fuck you want as a Sim as long as you wear that green diamond thing on your head. It kinda annoys me how effortless but successful that idea was and how I put in so much effort for mine but still failed miserably. Like next year I'm just gonna wear a fucking eye-patch so I'm unmistakably a fucking pirate. We didn't manage to get into Attica as it was super super crowded, so we just walked around Clarke Quay for awhile then headed down to Zouk where the real party begins! The drinks, company (haha what do I mean company, I only have two friends) and music was so good that night. I really enjoyed myself! I wish everyday was Halloween!!!

Barely slept the night cos we wanted to wake up early to chill at the Skypool. The view was needless to say, magnificent except for the haze but it's alright. I liked how we're so high up HAHA. We also had a bit of drama with the receptionist as the three of us managed to get into the pool with only two room cards. But all was solved thanks to Nessie's ingenuity and me being her accomplice. HAHA

After that, we completed our day with a luxurious but super overrated meal at TWG. I liked how atas everything was but having tea and herbs in every main course was kinda annoying. My food looked really good but thumbs down for the taste. The tea was really good though. I think the next time I'm there, I better just stick to the tea. Oh and have I ever mentioned how I have super bad luck in trying out new food or flavors. I always pick the worst tasting cocktail, or the worst dish. Like I want to be adventurous and try new things but all these encounters just make me wanna play safe and have chicken rice. Ugh

To compensate for last week's hectic week of partying and pampering ourselves, we spent the following Friday studying overnight at Coffee Bean @ Holland Village, jamming to christmas carols and occasional upbeat songs like Bang Bang, Anaconda and so on. I believe everyone agrees that things always get funnier when it's 3am in the morning. So at that time, Nessie was talking about how she wants to change her Instagram and Twitter name from vxnnicole to vanlynnx or something. Eventually I decided I'll change my Instag and Twitter name too. All of us were bombing crazy names to each other that were so FUCKING hilarious we laughed till we cried.

Meowlaysa (Malaysia)

Xingapei (Singapore)

Obameow (Obama)

Phillipei (Phillipines)

Peiris Hilton (Paris Hilton)

Meowly Cyrus (Miley Cyrus)

HAHAHAHA these were the only few that I can remember but I swear there were a lot more funnier ones. God I love my girls.

That's all for this post. I'll try to put my posts up more regularly so I can get to describe how my day went in greater detail and not miss out any interesting stuffs. I can't wait to see my best friend in a months' time!!!

In my shoes

2014-09-14T21:30:00.001+08:00

I've just been away for a month and I realized I have too many things to blog about. I'm just gonna take it one at a time and talk about how university life has been for me so far. Some photos uploaded are taken during SOW.

I am currently into the 6th week of school and still working part-time at Bojangles. I would describe myself as the kind of student who is completely clueless about everything until someone tells me about it, which is the time when every fucking student already know about the news. For instance, I just found out that I have a one week recess break on my 7th week of school HAHA. I am super thankful of the friends I made during the two camps I went to, LSC and SOW, because they keep me informed about a lot of things. And also they keep me company during SOME lunch breaks so I won't have to starve or eat alone. Usually I'll buy snacks and eat alone in the library, I think it looks better than eating alone in the canteen. HAHA it's true but I have no idea why either. I am also super happy about my time-table and the modules I'm taking this semester because the workload (I realised) is generally lesser than most of my friends and I have a free day on thursday, and some fridays when I have no practicals. It's awesome, like on Week 5 I had no school on thursday and friday so it's like an extended weekend for me. It's awesome. But also, this means I have more heavy workload modules to take next semester. Some people are really struggling with ES1541, which is a compulsory module for the people in my course, but I failed to bid for it this semester.

Both Nessie and I are thinking of applying to hall together next semester. I'm thinking of King Edward, no particular preference actually we're still looking. We kinda wanna find a place that is in between Science and Arts school haha but all the halls are in between these two schools cos Arts and Science are at the extreme ends of the campus. Also, if we're staying in hall I'll quit my job at Bojangles and look for one at Holland Village (super near Kent Ridge), hopefully the pay will be a lot better. Not saying the pay at Bojangles isn't good. It's really good, but we have to share our tips so in that sense, the tips we earn at Bos is not a lot as compared to if you can keep the tips you get individually. But we get bonuses and incentives at Bos whenever we hit the target everyday, so it kinda adds up. What I really like about Bos is how relaxed it is at work and it really feels like family there. Quitting my job at Bos will be quite a pity and I will seriously miss everyone there. But that aside, I'm not leaving Bos anytime soon yet. Everything I'm talking about in this paragraph are just what we're hoping and expecting to happen next year. I honestly can't wait to move into hall so hopefully the application will be a success when the time comes. Oh and if we get into hall, we'll finally start exercising again and join some hall cca and stuff haha.

The first day of school was alright, I spent more time deciding on what I should wear on that day more than anything else, like packing my bag, or getting to school on time etc. In my opinion, university students are a lot more dressed down compared to polytechnic students. I think it's because most of the uni students stay in hall, so they don't really find a need to dress up and all, which is kinda true. Nessie and I are expecting ourselves to be like hobos attending lessons in school hahaha. Oh and I think Nessie will be the perfect roommate for me because I'm super used to sharing clothes with my sisters, and Nessie and I are of the same height and weight and shoe size. Even though our dressing sense not exactly the same lah but haha, yes we can definitely share our clothes. So far, I really enjoy dressing up for school and deciding what to wear everyday it makes me feel very good, and also I like the fact that I can just head over to Holland V after school and study at coffee bean or have dinner with Marz after she ends work, since she works at HV. (If Nessie and I get into hall next sem all three of us will be working at HV tgt isn't that awesome)

I don't print my notes, except for my Chemistry tutorial cos I can't possibly type down all the chemical formulas and shit. But other than that I do everything on my laptop. I just wanna try out to see how it's like for the first semester first, then I'll see how it goes and decide if I wanna print my notes for next sem modules. I realized that some of the lecture slides are really useless and printing them is such a waste of ink and paper and doing it online actually works just the same. So I carry my laptop everyday to school, except on fridays cos I only have lab on that day. Lab is soooo annoying because we have fixed dress codes. Like we have to wear long pants and covered shoes and I hate wearing jeans. I hardly ever wear jeans. I guess I'll just have to get used to that. I don't think I look horrible in jeans I'm just not used to having my legs covered I guess. Singapore is so bloody hot.

Into the 6th week of school, I've had two biology CA1 tests, lsm1103 and lsm1104. We had lsm1103 test first and all of us would agree that we studied way too hard for the test because the test turned out to be just 10 short answer questions. And by short answer, it's really short answer. Like the answers are mostly just one word. For example, name a structure of the bacteria that causes its motility. Ans: Flagellum. I think most of us finished the paper in at most 5 minutes, but we had to wait for another 25 minutes before we could leave the exam venue cos the paper was 30 minutes long. So for the lsm1104 test I didn't really study much, especially after I heard it's all gonna be MCQs. I merely read through everything in the lecture notes and that's all, I didn't memorise much. The test, sighs, didn't turn out as easy as I expected it to be eventhough they're all MCQs. I scored 11/20, but my friends scored the same so I guess it's alright? HAHA well, at least we passed right.

(I got bullied so badly during the camp by the boys. I might or might not have provoked it. HAHA)

I still get lost in school sometimes. In fact I only found out about the location of the Science Library in Week 4 of school HAHA. All my lectures are in the Science block so I haven't been to other parts of the campus ever since school started. I was really proud of myself when I managed to get to the multi-purpose hall on my own for the test for lsm1104. Umm regarding the food in NUS, I haven't tried much. I tried the Ayam Penyet (so good man so good but so fat man so fat), the salad at Platypus, chicken rice, subway, Just Acia. Yeap that's about it. Just Acia is really worth it, like they have free flow drinks and deserts, and NUS students have discounts. I think I spent $7.80 the last time I went. I usually just get red bull or a can of coffee from the drinks shop that's all. And I like to bring snacks from home to eat during lectures so I won't fall asleep. I wanna try bringing like a meal in the next time, sure it'll invite lots of stares but I think it's better than eating alone in the canteen right HAHA. I do have friends in NUS, just that Sheela's Nessie's and my timetable doesn't complement very well and it's quite hard to find time to meet each other esp when our schools are so far away. My time table dont complement very well with my camp mates either, but so far it hasn't posed a problem for me. I like having the time to study on my own in the library.

my camp mates made me pose for 200 points

(HAHA MODEL PLS)

I've driven to school once, cos I only had a 2 hour lecture that day and travelling to and fro home and school would have taken more than 2 hours already. Driving to school took a really long time too and since it was my first time I don't really know the way that well. It took me about 40 minutes? And I have to park so far away from my lecture theatre. I was seriously tempted to park at the staff parking lots, but nah got no balls man it's not my car. My mom still doesn't really trust me with the car, but I'm already getting quite used to driving. I drove to Lavender ICA building last Saturday with Xintien to collect our passports, and then down to my gramps place from there to pass them some stuffs, and then finally home. It was a safe journey haha but not exactly a smooth ride I am pretty reckless on the road, but hey still safe man.

These photos are taken from the SOW camp I attended nearing the starting of university. This camp is really good, and in my opinion more fun than the Life Science Camp I attended before this camp. They also help you throughout the modules bidding process. If I had not attended this camp I honestly would have zero clue how to bid for my own modules HAHA, this camp was a big help to me. My group had the perfect mix of people, with 10 guys, 10 girls and 10 seniors. I remembered having lots of fun during the camp, I mean, clearly you can tell from the photos. I also remember having severe lack of sleep cos we sleep so late in the night and wake up so damn early in the morning. I think the most we had was 4 hours of sleep a day? HAHA but it was fun nonetheless. I was super sporting during all the games man, except for secret pal that game sucks. My sp sucks.

I also went for Life's A Beach at Wavehouse a couple weeks back which turned out to be an international university exchange party. I didn't meet anyone from NUS, which I have no idea if that's something I should be thankful about or not. I met several people from NTU and JCU. This party was soooo crazy, music was awesome cos Yang was the DJ. There were so many angmohs there, and many of them were really desperate and horny. It was an experience, but seriously the dudes need to calm their dicks.

This Is Home, Truly

2014-08-12T01:44:00.001+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

(I did not wear any red shirt for National Day this year, very sad and very guilty about it, so I'm gonna put photos of me in red throughout this blog post. Please appreciate, I took really long to find these photos lol. I hardly wear red.)

I know I don't look like someone who is super patriotic or anything but the truth is, I really love Singapore a lot, despite all the complaints people have about her. Maybe it's because I was born in Malaysia and had lived there for quite some time before moving to Singapore permanently and became a citizen here. The environment in Singapore and Malaysia is completely different and I really prefer Singapore's a lot more.

My family has an apartment in Malaysia. We've encountered numerous burglary, water pipe problems, car smashing incidents and whatever. Opposite our apartment was a big grass patch where our old neighbour used to rear cows (our house is in JB, and yes I know right…cows). I also have a kampung at the far end of Malaysia (Pengkalan Hulu, don't think anybody know that place) which I still visit once a year but I haven't been there in 2 years. We go swimming in rivers while my uncle held onto a rifle to stand guard and make sure there isn't any water snakes. We fit 4 people on a motor bike and ride around the village, get into accidents, fell off the bikes, get chased by turkeys, steal chicken eggs, annoy our mental neighbour.

It was unsafe and even though I was too young to understand, I look back now and I know for sure I never want to go back to living in Malaysia permanently. I am not trying to make Malaysia seem like a bad place to live in, it's just that as compared to Singapore, I would choose Singapore hands-down. And I don't get why people complain so much about living here.

Whenever I go overseas, I fear for my own safety, I hold my purses tightly, afraid to walk alone in dark alleys, afraid that housekeeping in the hotel might steal stuffs from my luggage. I don't know, is it just me? I feel that things like this are really less prone to happen in Singapore. We can literally live with our doors unlocked and nothing will happen. Having said this, I wish to clarify that I am not someone who has never encountered unfortunate incidents in SG. I have, and I am saying that SG is still a wonderful place to live in.

People talk about SG's education system, how even degree holders can't get jobs. And my reaction was, you can't just be smart to fit to hold high positions!!! You definitely need more than that, any talents, any charisma, connections or what not. You are too naive to actually think that having a degree will secure your future. I would say that it is the first step to securing your future, but it is never a guarantee. I also understand that we, Singaporeans, study our asses off and some people think that that's fucked up like we spend so much time in school and when we go home, we have so much work to complete. I actually think that studying is a big part of my childhood, and I think that it doesn't affect my happiness. I enjoy studying. I am not a nerd or anything, but studying is actually really fun. You study with your friends, you find out the best way for you to study, you learn a lot at the same time. I still remember how I used to study for O'levels with my Sec School friends in RP, how we stayed overnight to study, the lessons we had in class. Those were all good memories. I know there was a point in time we were all stressed out about studies till we cried and all, but we all got through that. In future, we are gonna get so stressed out over work we'll cry, and we'll know that we can get through that.

Then people complain about everything being so bloody expensive in Singapore, which I agree. But I am willing to pay this much for everything, to get better pay and better standard of living. It all cancels out eventually. Whatever you're paying for now, you get back the benefits of it. You just never realize that because you're so used to having the benefits all around you. Electricity, portable water, pavements, shelters, street lamps. Sometimes we just need to stop, look around, and really appreciate our country. Singapore is amazing.

Of course I have no rights to say that SG is the BEST place to live in, simply cos I've never lived in all the countries in the world before. All I'm saying is that we really should stop complaining for once and appreciate all the good things SG has to offer instead of comparing what we don't have to countries that have more. There is no perfect country to live in, like how there is no perfect human in the world. No country can even achieve the 4 macroeconomic goals at the same time. If you're always gonna be bitter about what a horrible country you're living in, you're wasting your time being unhappy when you can be grateful and contented.

Throwback to National Day last year with these girls and favourite GP teacher. My last NDP celebration in school :'(

Come the white wine bitter sunlight

2014-07-08T04:37:00.003+08:00

Nessie Marz and I made an impromtu plan to hit the beach last week! We woke up really early in the morning and stayed there the entire day just chilling in the pool with drinks and pizzas. We went to check out Tanjong Beach Club (it was my first time there!) and it was really nice. Love the pool and sunbeds. We went into the pool after lazing around for a really long time and played Captain's Ball with a few guys who later bought us a bucket of 5 heinekens. HAHAHA

We decided to head down to Siloso Beach to check out the other beach clubs after awhile cos there were no cute guys to ogle at at Tanjong Beach Club lol. We took the tram in our bikinis and really invited a lot of stares (it was not comfortable). There are a lot of beach clubs at Siloso and we were just walking around aimlessly cos we couldn't settle with any of them hahaha. Went into Wave House but the pool was under maintenance. Such a bummer because there were actually cute guys there, damn. We finally settled with Mambo Beach Club and made friends with DJ Maverick!

DJ Maverick gave us his name card and offered to drive us down to Pump Room where he was gonna spin at later that night. He had his name printed on his fucking car wtf. We didn't have plans later that night so we agreed. WE GOT TO RIDE THE BEACH CART!!!! I would really love to drive it though but nah we couldn't. We had a table at Pump Room with free drinks hahaha, we didn't dance much cos we were sooooo fucking tired and left at midnight.

Sunset and my butt cheeks

HAHAHA MARZ

Ok yeah this about conclude my beach day with my girls. We agreed that we should really hit the beach more often I mean yeah we know the Sentosa's beach is really ugly and fake but it's super chill to just laze around in the clubs at noon. It'll be even better if there's an event at night since we were already dressed for the occasion hahaha.

This is gonna be complicated cos the dude in the top photo with Jon is also called Jon. So I'll just call him Jon, and call my Jon "B" ok lol

Also last week, B asked me over to Mo's house to have a drink with them and Jon. Of course I agreed because I was working both weekends and it was the only time I could spend time with Jon that week. We drank at their usual place, the playground. Mo and I thought we were gonna die first cos B was making all of us drink so fast as usual. We had beers and vodkas. But woah HAHAHAHAH, Mo and I survived while Jon and B died. Jon puked while talking midsentence, all over himself and in our private circle HAHAHAHHA, it was fucking funny I can laugh just by thinking about it omg. And B puked so much as well. Mo and I were just discussing about his complicated relationship while the two Jons puke to their death.

I kept telling Jon that it makes me fucking contented and pleased to see both my boyfriend and my bestfriend hanging out and he never understood how I felt until that night. It was the best feeling in the world to see Pan and Jon being good friends. It just warms my heart like omg I have the best of both worlds. They're my best of both worlds.

That night after we got the two Jons back to Mo's place, we managed to head out for supper with Marz Nessie and their friend. And I didn't wear my bra out. LOL Marz and Nessie stayed over together at Mo's place.

I woke up halfway to pee and I fell three times while on my way to the toilet and ended up sleeping in the toilet fuck my life all of them heard my fell in the toilet and none of them came to my rescue. The falls resulted in a lot of bruises on my arms, knees and even my chin cos I scraped it against the carpet on the floor in the toilet. And I wondered how Mo and I managed to get to the supper place the previous night lol.

Stupid Mo and his selfies on my phone

I swear they said "give a slutty pose"

That's me being a whiny little bitch

Last Monday to Thursday, I attended the Life Sciences Camp in NUS! I really didn't expect much from the camp because being the unlucky person that I am, I always get the most boring OG or OGLs LOL, but not this time omg. I was pretty pleased with my OG and my OGLs!!! My OG name was called "Slarts" HAHAHA, yes pun intended and because of that we had lots of super slutty and horny cheers. Super happy I got an indian OGL cos I LOVE INDIANS and also super love teasing them about their skin colour HAHAHA. Indians are amazing, rock on niggas.

First day of camp started off with all the ice breaker games, then some sports activities I guess. It was alright, I was just being a whiny little bitch sometimes.

My down syndome photobomb

(I had no time to smile)

Day 2 of camp was wet games! I was expecting to get wet, but not wet with food dye omg HAHA, all of us got really messy and gross but thank god everything could be washed off really easily. I also struggled a lot with the station where we had to slide on our butts and play rock paper scissors cos yours truly suck at rock paper scissors. I was literally out of breath after playing that game, and the worse part is I am currently recovering from an abrasion on my tail bone from too much sliding.

We had a game of Murderer at night for 3 hours and only slept at 5am omg HAHAHA. 3 hours of sleep to survive for the next day.

This is us being super silly cos a dude just walked into the door wearing matching shirts as us so we're acting like he's our homie HAHAHAHAH

"GOT SOMBALEHYA?"

I was trying to do the Harlem Shake don't judge

Amazing race was fun, and also a huge waste of money on transport lol. The most stupid games of all are the ones that bonded our OG. We played MRT games, Around The World In 80 Days and all that crap HAHA. Best game of all was still Murderer. All the other OGs were playing games like H2O and we're just playing the most lazy game of all that only requires sitting down and arguing.

We had BBQ for dinner that night and it was the worst BBQ experience in my entire life. We wasted three good packets of chicken wings, entirely untouched because the fire was weak and pathetic. Basically our dinner was just crabsticks and hotdogs.

Last day was spent at the beach playing Amazing Race all over again cos it rained in the morning, and then war games later in the afternoon. War games resulted in a lot of cat fights among girls, where I am also involved lol HAHA. It was fun though cos I'm so damn good at it (jk). I'm too lazy to describe the game lah, but my house didn't win oh well I had fun though.

MY INDIAN OGL AND I HAHA

We had night games every night but they weren't really fun I don't know maybe I'm just being unparticipative and lazy ok HAHA, I would much rather sit down and listen to music and sleep or something. We wake up too early each day and sleep too late at night so everyday is just fucking tiring and I was exhausted. This camp also made me realize that NUS food rocks omg I can't wait to eat there everyday when school starts.

Also, this camp made me not wanna live in halls anymore cos I hate the shower cubicles. Living there will feel like camping everyday. I would rather live in the residential areas but that's 3x the price of halls. I think I'll just live at home HAHAH

This post is mostly just photos cos I'm so tired and lazy, my work just ended and I can't wait for Bali trip next week omg

Fight and make up, kiss and make out

2014-06-23T23:11:00.003+08:00

Just in case some of you have yet to watch the new video I uploaded of me putting on make up for Jon! I gotta admit my boyfriend is pretty fucking sporting. HAHA, he's the best.

I haven't been able to update my blog to talk about the things I've been up to lately and I don't think my memory permits me to but I have lots of photos taken so they'll do the talking and I'll just fill in the details wherever I can.

Reason why I love Bat: both of us make the most spontaneous faces ever HAHA

So the girls and I are finally able to squeeze out some free time to meet up for a meal together! We had dinner at Concetto located at The Cathay. The food was good and their hand made pasta (Tagliolini) was probably the best pasta I've ever eaten. After dinner, the girls and I just head over to Sephora cos they've yet to check out the GSS there and they asked me to recommend them some make up brands HAHA. I'm not a pro at make up but I do put on make up on a daily basis. I draw my brows everyday and I will be drawing my brows when I attend NUS Science Camp HAHA, I don't care man fuck I just hope I'm not the only girl doing that cos then I'll look like a fucking bimbo.

Oh and I had a 10$ voucher for Sephora branded items and I decided to use it on this Refillable Fragrance Atomizer which costed 24$, which means I only had to pay 14$. I wouldn't say it's super cheap at 14$ still. I know I can probably get it at some other places at way cheaper prices but it looks so cute omg I couldn't resist it. Not a fan of hot pink colour as well but I thought it looked super classy so I got it. Basically you can just refill it with your favourite perfume (which is probably made of glass and big and bulky), so you can carry this cute little atomizer everywhere and spray it on yourself whenever necessary! I love it haha. I had it filled with my Zara perfume which Maria gave for my birthday this year.

Boys: Chaoxiang (annoying lil brother), Bernard, Brayden

Girl: Rebecca

I thought it's really cool how my Aunt and Uncle decided to have "B" initials for their boys and "R" for their girls. I'm gonna do the same in future too hehe

So my baby cousins (my sister kept insisting their not babies anymore cos the eldest is already 10 y.o but still they're too cute to be anything but babies to me) from KL came over to SG after their trip to Johor Bahru's Legoland. They stayed for 2-3 nights (I can't remember) and I decided to spend my day with them on the very last day. Woke up in the afternoon and headed to the Woodlands Swimming Complex for a swim. I was really bored at the pool because I had to accompany them in the baby pool, and then I realized…

I'm old HAHA fuck

Becca and I got tired after awhile so we left the boys to go take a shower first. And then she told me that she's scared of ghosts and insisted that I shower with her. She told me not to look at her butt cos she's shy HAHAHA so fucking cute omg. When we came out of the shower, she refused to put her clothes on and said "I wanna do some squats first." HAHAHHAAHHAHA wtf yes she's a little bimbo but super talkative and fluent in her speech. And her brother, Bernard filmed TV commercials for baby milk powder! In my opinion, Brayden is super charming. He has the really shy and nonchalent attitude. Like he won't give a fuck about you when you're nice to him, which just makes me want him mooooooreeeeeee. He's so cute HAHA ok they're all really adorable

Then I decided to be a fucking hero and bring all of them for a movie at Causeway Point. Yes, me and four kids. I had the boys holding hands together while I held on to the girl. I think people were looking at me like I'm a baby sitter HAHA. It was super tiring having to hold them and ensure they all get into the same lift and not run around and keep them safe. AHHH, we watched Maleficent and they were all so touched and excited and fucking noisy in the cinema I just kept asking them to shut up. They're really cute though, they are super intelligent and just never fail to surprise me.

I also finally got to meet my volleyball girls! We met up for dinner to celebrate my very belated birthday HAHA. Thanks y'all cheeky girls for the La Senza sexy night gown. I'll be sure to make good use of it one day. Oh and I'm wearing this Moschino shirt that Tyler got me from overseas. I forgot where she went, but yup I love it! Very simple and classy, and I officially have too many white tshirts in my wardrobe.

We had Thai Express for dinner which left all of us screaming for some ice water because the food there is fucking spicy. I ate there so many times but I never ever learn my lesson. We walked around randomly desperate to find a spot to sit down and chill but to no avail, so we just took photos, had ice cream and parted ways. It may be just a short meet up, but it was really nice to finally see all of them again. I hope our tradition of celebrating birthdays will continue in the years to come because it's a really good way to keep us in contact!

The weekends are reserved for Jon because they're the only time I can see him in a week. I keep myself occupied with work in the weekdays but I still have to work on some weekends as it's always the busiest at the bar. Oh I don't think I told y'all that I'm working at Bojangles! It's a bar located at Woodlands, Woodgrove, just a 5 mins walk away from my house so it's super convenient and it saves me time and money on transport. And for some of y'all who had no clue there's a bar at Woodlands, now you do! It's a very chill place, and sells really nice food too. I, personally, am I fan of the food there and decided to ask for employment on the second and third time I went there. Yeah I asked twice cos I really wanted the job and cos I'm annoying like that. Oh, and I have no uniform for work so I get to wear any shirt shorts and slippers. And I get paid after every shift in cash so I don't have to pester them for the pay all the time like how I did for other jobs. I love my job!!!

In case you're asking for employment at my work place, it's really all full so save your effort. Xinlerk is working at the same bar as me too!

I went out with Xintien to check out the GSS sales again! I can't really remember what I bought but it's probably one of the many new clothes in my wardrobe with the tags on cos I haven't gotten the chance to wear them yet. I treated this little bitch to Ippudo Ramen cos she's broke and cos I'm craving so badly for their ramen and I was in a good mood. Now I'm regretting… HAHA just kidding.

Selfies for best friend and I cos we're so far away and we miss each other so much :'(

Met Nessie and Marz like 3 days in a row cos we were all so bored with no plans HAHAHAH. Like literally I text Nessie, and then Maria. If they're both busy, I'm rotting at home. And we had some really serious craving for durians, like REALLY serious but there were no pasar malams nearby so I bought durian pancakes.

I know I look super weird holding a pen, like what the fuck do I have to write right? And how do I write? What are alphabets and numbers? How do I write 'a'? You mean, apple starts with A?

This long break from books officially made me an idiot.

Selfie with my Strawberry Cheesecake cos Dan kept insisting I take photos with it IN THE CHEESECAKE BOX in return for nothing. Yes I do not get anything for posting this on twitter or instagram HAHAHAHAH

Just laughing hysterically at my own joke, again. My boyfriend no longer finds me entertaining

Finally a day out with my berber (found this term super funny in wahbanana's videos, check them out on Youtube). I went all the way to town to get my shoes and turns out they don't have my size??? Super upset about it and super angry at my big feet cos stores NEVER ever have nice shoes in my size. I can't exactly remember what else we did in town but we had Din Tai Fung for dinner again and then home sweet home. Oh oh I remember now. We watched X-Men Days of the Future Past at Cineleisure. He already watched it but he wanted to acknowledge my effort in catching up with all 5 of the movies within 3 days so I can understand the latest X-Men HAHA. I was never interested in all the Marvel movies I never thought they'd be so good and get me hooked onto them anticipating for the next movie to come out! I regretted not catching X-Men earlier cos I would have applied the concept into General Paper Essays for Science Topic. Movies like X-Men and GATTACA talk a lot about mutations and the divide between the human species, and it's my favourite part about Science. I love all the mutations and DNA shit lol. Now I sound like a fucking nerd.

On the other hand, the way X-Men talk about evolution is super exaggerated. As a Science student and having learnt about evolution and all that, what happens in X-Men is not possible in real life because evolution occurs to make humans adapt better to survive. So if we ever evolve to have powers, it will be to allow us to survive better in the ever-changing environment, not like shooting fire out our eyes, growing claws like wolverine or controlling metal and shit. And humans do not have any enemies, so there was no need to have powers to combat predators and so on. The only reason for our evolution is the environment, the natural disasters, global warming and shit.

Ok enough science talk

Sister and our boyfriends bonding time while our family is away for 3 days! HAHA we caught The Fault In Our Stars. I wanted to watch it with Jon cos both of us finished reading the book together. I was honestly ready to be disappointed like how it turned out for The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book is always better than the movie. In my opinion, it was because while we were reading the book, we imagined the best scenario for everything to take place. I like to read the book before catching the movie instead of the other way round because I feel that watching the movie first kind of restricts my imagination. Anyway, TFIOS movie definitely didn't disappoint at all. Everything happened exactly like I imagined them to and it was perfect. It was really touching. The metaphor is still stupid though. Both Isaac and Xintien complained that the movie was super draggy and boring lol THEY DON'T GET IT BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T READ THE BOOK

Spent last Thursday going over to Jon's house to tutor Nic, then wait for Jon's arrival in his house because he got to book out!!! We caught 22 Jumpstreet because we watched 21 Jumpstreet together. Yes we watched a lot of movies together because I'm like a frog in a well and didn't watch movies much. But he totally changed that and I love movies now because I learnt so much from watching them!

22 Jumpstreet was perfect. It kept me laughing from the start till the end and I wish that there's gonna be 23 Jumpstreet and so on but I doubt so. Channing u so cute don't u ever die

A very chill Friday at Jon's house and we decided to buy a bottle of Champagne cos we're cool like that

The dude that photobombed us turned up at Lovesick Tattoo Studio as well and we showed him this photo. Can you imagine how many photos you actually photobombed without realizing, and how ridiculous you look in the photos?! Omg I will wanna see them if I could hahahaha.

So Jon decided on a tattoo design the day before and booked an appointment to get it the very next day HAHA yes very impulsive very bold very efficient very crazy. I love how the tattoo turned out eventhough we all kept laughing at how the waves in the cup looked like noodles. HAHAHA I think Jon's body art speaks a lot for himself if only people look deeper into them.

Spent 4 consecutive days with Jon but time with him is just never enough. We don't really do anything, we just lay in bed with chips and watch movies all day. We watched "Would You Rather". It's a thrill movie with super interesting concept I love it. Basically it's like "Would you rather stab a the person on your left in the thigh, or whip the person on your right's back" and the character have to decide within a limited time and actually do it. I highly recommend all of y'all to go watch it if you're into thrill and all that. It's not really gory, I was expecting it to be but it's really not. Just really intense and thrilling. I love it!

I just watched How To Train Your Dragon 1 earlier because Pan told me how good it was a few years back when she first watched it, and Xintien wouldn't stop talking about how good it was and she cried after watching and all that. I gotta admit that it was pretty damn good and I teared up a little while watching it as well. I can't wait to catch How To Train Your Dragon 2 when Jon books out!

I did several things today as well. I had my Provisional Driving License renewed at SingPost, paid for my NUS Camp and also had my Medical Check up all by myself! Getting lost in NUS alone is not fun and I had to ask for directions several times. Thank you to whoever helped me along the way! It was also really comforting to see several familiar faces. And my medical check up says I'm normal and healthy. HAHA, yay no cancer I'm not going to die

Nostalgia is a side effect of dying

2014-06-07T06:57:00.000+08:00

I'm finally, finally gonna blog about Pan's stay in SG last month (19-26May, Monday-Monday). It just makes me so sad to realize how fast the week has gone and even sadder to know that my bestfriend is once again so far away from me. There's just something really special about her that makes saying goodbye so hard. Having her by my side is just so comfortable and I say whatever the hell I want, and I can wear heels cos we're both of the same height and neither one of us will look like a fucking giant beside another. We thought we can never get any closer than we were before, but each time we meet, we still managed to grow closer together. I think our friendship is amazing, it's like magic, just cooler and real and unable to explain.

I cabbed down to the airport from my place and waited an hour for the Thai princess to arrive. We greeted each other with a long awaited big fat hug. She gives the best hugs ever. Have I also mentioned that I am a very protective friend, especially over Pan. If I go to the airport with someone and that someone gets to hug her first I'll be so pissed off. It has yet to happen but just saying so y'all bitches can take a fucking step back and let the perfect pair of bestfriends reunite and scream and hug the shit out of each other. HAHA I sound like a bitch but yes really don't fucking piss me off by doing that (but it prolly won't happen I always run to her and makes sure I get to hug her first hahaahahaah)

So she missed taking Singapore's transport and wants to take the train back to Woodlands, and a Thai princess gets whatever she wants ok. The journey just seemed so short cos we couldn't stop talking. There was just too much to catch up on.

We alighted at Woodlands and decided to have a meal at Starbucks cos we were famished and Sheela came a little later to meet us. We took a cab back to my place (she's staying at my place) afterwards cos Pan's luggage is super big and heavy. We settled down at my place and went back to CWP again to catch Godzilla and yeah that's about it. We spent the day just talking and chilling. We slept late at night and woke up early morning everyday. I have never been more sleep deprived.

Woke up pretty early the next day to head to town. We were too early for GSS unfortunately but we still managed to get a few stuff. We spent like 300$ at Sephora?! Yang came over to look for us and we had Four Fingers for erm early dinner I think and we chatted so much and we are all still so retarded. And in Sephora, Yang wouldn't stop saying like "Wa Pei you draw eyebrows already leh you grow up already." It makes me feel so…old HAHA and thinking back to Sec School days, Yang was the little boy we threw coins at to help us buy packet drinks from the drinks stall HAHAHA oh god good times.

Later that night we met up with W2F8 for supper before meeting Marz to head to RWS to stay at Amara Resort with Nessie. Since we were staying at RWS, Pan and I decided to just head to USS the next day from there!

We changed into our bikini to swim in the middle of the night. We had to climb over the fence cos the pool was already closed but while climbing halfway a few hotel staff came up so we just tried our luck to ask if we could swim and they just let us? HAHAHA, we swam for a while, chatted, and got out of the pool cos it was too fucking cold. I brought along the JD Honey I got Pan to buy from Duty Free. After the swim, Pan and I had a heart to heart talk while soaking in the bath tub naked HAHA. Best friends shower together ok. We chatted for so fucking long I wished the conversation never ended…damn

And if anyone were to ask me about my favourite memory with my bestfriend, it would be our bathtub conversations. And the next would be having both my bestfriend and boyfriend by my side cos they're my best of both worlds.

We wanted a third person to come along to help us take pictures but whatever, we were kind of glad it was just the both of us so we can talk about anything we want and also all the rides are for even number of people so two of us were perfect.

Both of us get so fucking excited at the sight of a mascot and went screaming and running towards them HAHAHA beating all the little kids who were queueing behind us for a photo. Ernie made us the happiest by making us hop with him to and fro three times! HAHAHA love the series of candid photos taken!

I felt so happy to be in USS it makes me feel so young again. Pan and I sometimes just lock our fingers and hop down the street acting like little kids. Of course also inviting a lot of stares cos we were really pretty fucking childish. Oh and our favourite ride of all time was the Transformers Ride! I got so involved in the whole scene that I threw my map at the bad guy in hopes of saving Optimus Prime. HAHAHA, and both Pan and I actually replied when they asked questions (both times cos we took the ride twice). HAHAHAH I love how spontaneous and retarded Pan and I are. Mummy ride was nice too but too troublesome to have to keep our stuffs in the locker!

USS closes too early, but then again, all the stores in SG closes too fucking early lah. We took the train back to Woodlands to meet Kianshen and Minghwee for lunch. Later that night, we rushed home and got ready to head to Zouk to party!!! It was fun, but I was too damn tired. I was exhausted man I could barely walk, so we went home after awhile.

My Mom loves Pan more than she loves me HAHA my Mom can speak Thai so they could be bad-mouthing about me and I wouldn't even know. Now I'm jealous of my Mom cos she can have a secret convo with my bestfriend in secret language and I can't.

Woke up late noon and headed to Town again for another round of shopping! I can't really remember most of what happened but later that night we met up with Marz and head over to CQ to catch David Choi's live performance. Then we went over to Arab Street for Shisha! HAHA we were trying lots of tricks with the smoke and I've finally mastered how to do the "o" thing after so long omg HAHA and Pan and I were not making out in the photo we were just trying to pass the smoke through mouth and see how many times it can be passed around.

Jon booked out on Friday! Pan and I decided to go all the way to Pasir Ris to fetch him, and guess what. We quarreled when we woke up cos neither one of us wanna go take a shower first HAHAHA. We both wanted to laze in bed a little longer, so there you go, the last quarrel we had. It was Jon's first official book out and it was nice and comforting to see him in his uniform. Oh and also, Jon was like fucking camouflaged in Pasir Ris cos all the army boys look the same omg HAHAHA it's scary ok it's not even funny. I almost went to hug the wrong guy a few times lol.

We went over to Jon's house to chill for awhile before heading out for prawning. Pan and I napped for a few hours, because as I said before, we were really sleep-deprived for the entire week.

It was one of the worst prawning sessions ever! We prawned for 1.5hours and only caught one pathetic prawn so we decided to just stop and head back home. Fortunately, someone gave us their catches again! So all three of us had enough prawns to eat for supper haha.

I had work during the weekends so Pan could spend her time with her WBA and other friends which I'm not that close with. Pan came over to my bar on Sunday so we could go home together after my work ends. We went to NTUC to grab some snacks and Loving You started playing in the supermarket. Xinlerk Pan and I agreed to scream at the part after du du du du du, and it was so fucking funny omg I still think about it each time the song comes to my mind and when I step foot into NTUC HAHAHAHAHA. It was past midnight so we had the supermarket all to ourselves, hence all the silly things we did

Pan and I headed home, and since she was leaving the next day in the morning, we decided to not sleep (and worsen our sleep deprivation even further) and head over to Amirul's chalet at Home Team Sembawang. We spent the whole night playing fucking Murderer??? HAHAHHA I had no idea how the hours past by so fast. Pan and I took a cab back home before dawn so she could pack her luggage.

My parents drove us to the airport and I unknowingly slept throughout the car ride and only woke up when she was really, really leaving. My eyes were super dry and perhaps it was a good thing cos it prevented me from crying when Pan left. I had an amazing week with her and though I kept wishing she stayed longer, I know time with her will never be enough.

Till we meet again, best friend :)

But God, was it beautiful

2014-05-28T06:57:00.001+08:00

It's 17 days past my birthday but nevermind I'll just quickly go through what happened (it's really nothing much but still I wanna thank some really special people for their special effort in surprising me!) This year's birthday had been the most simple yet one filled with the most surprises.

First 19-year-old selfie lol

(kinda scares me to know that I'm just one year away to hitting the big '2' and my lil bro hitting his first double digit age. God time is passing too damn fast man.)

So 5 minutes before it was officially my birthday, Hongye called me to tell me to leave the house. But well, it was supposed to be a surprise but he kinda ruined it cos he bumped into me a few days before and we talked and he kinda spilled that he wanted me to be free on the day itself and stuff so I kinda guessed. So when I left the house, Xiaojun and Hongye started singing me a birthday song holding a candle stuck on this horribly looking thing which was supposed to be the cake HAHAHA damn mean I know but it looks funny and cute and definitely nowhere near looking like a cake. But anyway I really appreciate the fact that they made the cake for me because it means that they really spent quite a bit of effort and I was awfully touched and terribly thankful. We chatted for a few hours by the stairs at my house and we hugged and went home. Conversations with them are the most precious and memorable because they are so fucking funny. Friends since primary school in chinese class, I'll never forget the years we've been through. Cheers to many more years ahead, old friends. (I feel horribly old fuck)

Every girl deserves a guy who thinks this way of her and I feel so fucking lucky

When I finally got home, Xintien and Xinlerk were lying down on the bed in my room and chatting with the lights on. They wished me happy birthday and kissed and hugged and raped me whatever and Xintien handed me this little book that Jon made for me. Omg it was the best surprise ever. I knew way before that Jon wouldn't be able to celebrate my birthday for me and I was really okay with it because he'll be in NS yknow and I know that he will wanna spend my birthday with me if he could but he couldn't. And the scrapbook was so detailed and beautiful. It was gorgeous. I've only received two scrapbooks in my life, and this has got to be the most precious one. Like if there was a fire emergency at home, I'll grab the book and run. It's all photos and little letters for me to read when I'm feeling anxious, loss of faith and whatever and it's really just what I needed to keep going if anything goes wrong in my life. I just needed that one person that means the world to me to push me to keep on living, to keep on trying. It is the best gift I've ever received because unlike memories that can fade away, the book itself is a memory, a collection, and it's something I can protect and keep safe. I love it and I don't need you to tell me I have the best boyfriend in the world because I know I have the best boyfriend in the world. And if your face is all cringed up in disgust then I'll tell you to wipe that jealous expression off your face HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA OMG IM SO HAPPY AND RETARDED JUST THINKING ABOUT IT ok I love you baby. Oh and it turns out that Xintien and Jon were in cahoots to make sure the surprise goes well for me. So thank you annoying sister. You're ze best.

(while typing this, Xintien is currently crying in her sleep because she dreamt that her bestfriend died. So cute right HAHA aww I just wanna pinch her face but it's all full of pimples so nah)

So I woke up the next morning, not by my alarm, or my body clock whatever, but by two horrible singers. HAHAHH kidding I was awaken by Sheela and Maria's birthday song. So I was braless and eyebrow-less and my face full of pimple cream and my eyes with double eyelid tape morning breath and the two of them decided to drop by with a birthday cake with candles for me to blow out HAHAH too sweet. I love them to bits. I also went on to go naked so that they could see me try on the dress that Sheela bought for me, which I absolutely adore and can't wait to wear it out! Thank you girls, you both are the silliest friends I have. We were all like stalking Naomi Neo and Sheela wouldn't stop calling her a baby elephant HAHAHAHAHA WTF RIGHT, baby elephant I have no idea why lol. Then they left and I went back to sleep HAHA. Pig mode forever on, even on my birthday. Thank you girls :*

Later that afternoon, I went over to Jon's house to tutor Nic. Yeah what a horribly boring birthday HAHA but eh Nic and I are like best buddies now ok he's confiding in me about his love life and I'm giving him sound advices as the opposite sex. Oh well young love is such dumb love lol ok kidding it's really cute.

Oh hmm I think that kinda concludes my birthday celebration. I'm meeting my AJVB girls this coming Thursday for very belated birthday celebration. At least those bitches didn't forget about me haha I really couldn't ask for more.

So hmm I think it was on 17 May where I met up with my usual clubbing girls (Nessie and Marz) to head down to Azzura. It was all our first time there and we decided to book a hotel to stayover so we can go all out at the party. Oh well guess whose the only one who went all out 100% and got awfully drunk HAHA. Carlton Hotel was amazing I wished we stayed another night!!! :(

Curled my short hair for the first time

Marz is just like "I don't give a fuck" HAHAHA

Feeling absolutely inferior beside this skinny girl with big boobs but guess what, she wants my ass. At least there's something she's jealous of about me HAHAHA

I know I was doing a lot of stupid poses but that's just cos I super love staying in hotels and the toilet is so fucking nice?! We can all shower and bathe at the same time omg I love it HAHA

Whose slippers?

Bumped into several familiar faces that night and I wish I could elaborate more but I really can't remember much except being thrown into the pool so many times I don't even know who threw me in. The first time I got thrown in I hit my left ear and the left side of my upper back which left me in pain for days. Clubbing injuries find their way in all sorts of odd ways. Anyway, it was really fun at Azzura (I don't get why so many people hate it?!) except I was extremely scared to get burned by cigarettes cos everyone was smoking everywhere even on the dance floor, but well everywhere was the dance floor lol. I will definitely visit Azzura again!!!

Oh and I was working as a Sunkiller Ambassador several Saturdays back. Basically what we did was give out free samples of the product and let them try out the texture of the sunscreen. It was really fun but the bad side was that we were sweating so much. We had to go to sunny places where people actually needs sunscreen so they will want to listen to us, and also so that our project makes sense. Who uses sunscreen indoors right?! Anyway it was really easy money and I also made a few friends.

I've been talking a lot about religions and beliefs with my friends recently and it just struck me how different everyone thinks. Sure, some religions hold similar beliefs but still different in some ways and I'm really not sure how I feel about it. Some people think that religion guides them to the right path and forces discipline in them, while others feel that it's just a restriction to their way of life. I was born a Buddhist, but I didn't commit much to it and I never really knew much. I didn't even know Buddhists can't eat beef lol. Anyway, I grew to become more of a free thinker. My house has no altar and non of my direct family members pray/burn incense paper on the 7th month. I told my Grandparents I didn't wanna pray anymore when I was in primary school because I didn't understand why I was praying and who/what I was praying to. I was never influenced into believing in any God, or maybe I just didn't want to believe in them.

Many people have different ideas on what happens after we die. Most people believe in torture for the sins we commit in life before going to Heaven, while I, on the other hand, never believed in Hell. My life has never been a smooth-sailing ship, and I believe that everyone goes through tough times once in awhile in their life. No matter the degree of your storm, it's still a tough time. I believe that in life, the hardships we get are enough a torture to us and that we shouldn't have to be tortured again in death. Sure, we've all sinned but that doesn't mean we don't deserve peace after we die. I believe that after we die, we will learn from the mistakes we've done in our life, but not through torture. It doesn't even make sense in the first place that humans torturing others is a sin and God gets to torture us. THEN ISN'T GOD SINNING TOO.

Religion is a really touchy topic and I'm not sure if I'm gonna offend anyone with this post lol, but it's just what I believe. I do respect what others believe in, it just never occurred to me as completely logical. Speaking about being logical, my belief isn't that logical as well. Because I believe in faeries and mermaids HAHA. I believe that if I enter a very beautiful enchanting place, faeries exists in the bushes the leaves the grass and the trees. I believe that mermaids are real and I hate dolphins.

Ok just a piece of my mind bye.