South Korea Surprise Trip

It's the surprise of the year. A shocking surprise. Hubby planned this trip monthsss ago, but only told me about it 4 days before we fly. It's winter there and we have no winter clothes. So we spent the weekend hurriedly buying and borrowing winter stuff.

Finally the day came and off we go. Snow! Cold weather! It's a long journey there. 

We went Seoul-Busan-Seoul. We did alot of touristy things, going to scenic places, eating the expensive reviewed food recommended online, eating like the locals too, standing on the wrong side of the escalator, climbing lots of stairs to take the trains, wearing hanboks, stocking up on facial products (for my sister though), buying lots of snacks home, eating lots of street food, trying souju (don't like).... I had fun. Lots of fun.

I hope we can go again. Maybe during the time when there will be more snow? We only experienced like 5 minutes of raining snow. Ski too, but when our little girl is another few years older.

Having fun in Seoul

Having her favourite street food

Our little girl in hanbok. So cute

Our expensive dinner at the fish market

At the very pretty Nami Island

Love the place. If only there were more snow then. It would be perfect.

Playing the playground. Cold cold butt.

Little sales girl promoting their food.

Back in Myeong Dong. Shopping!

Yay to street food. Fried seafood. 

Ginseng chicken + Abalone porridge for lunch

More street food. Yum pastry

Pretty land of LED roses. Romantic place

Checking out the biggest palace. We didn't go in. There were ALOT of people.

The strawberries were sweet and juicy.

My favourite shopping place was the Lotte Mart. We shopped for snacks like they are free. Happily loading one trolley full of snacks, food and drinks. I didn't really shop on clothings, considering that they are all winter wear and our luggage is already very bulky. I prefer buying more food instead.

Shopping shopping

Our loot!

Having fun in Busan

Taking the train from Seoul to Busan

Pretty installation

Home style diner. It's cheap and good food

Lighthouse. We going down down down to check out the place.

Tired from all the stairs climbing

Tourists

AWESOME view

Delicious seafood pot for KRW 30,000 only.

We really enjoyed this meal. It's delicious and tummy filling and not super expensive.

Hong Kong 2016

We are back from our 5D4N trip to Hong Kong. We had fun. The weather there was rainy, with 3 days raining the whole day, including the day we were in Disneyland. 

We took the SQ return flight to HK. Josie is considered an infant (0-2) so she is not allocated a seat and sat on our lap. Initially we were thinking of resting the first part of the flight when she nap after take off like the previous trips. We were wrong. She stayed awake the entire flight. Gosh. And she woke up at 4+am in the morning!! Sighs. My tired baby. 

Our meals in flight. Carrot cake for breakfast. Pretty nice, just a little spicy. We don't really take spicy, that's why. 

Josie's baby meal. She didn't eat much though. But she had eaten the bread from our tray. Haha...

We had lunch when we reached HK airport. Expensive lunch. Taste not too bad but... Expensive lol. 

After checking into the hotel and taking a short break, we headed to Tsim Sha Tsui. First... Jenny's cookies. Not very difficult to find. There are loads of fake Jenny's cookies all around in the same building. Faint. Have to go to the one with queues. The queue wasn't that bad. Lots of people bought alot and stashing them in empty luggages. We only gotten a few for family and ourselves. Sorry friends....

Josie fell asleep when I was queuing, so we took a Starbucks break. Lol. 

We went window shopping in the malls around TST, as it was raining and there are just more malls than shops that are more interesting haha...

Will update more progressively. 

Batam 3D2N holiday

Over the weekends, we went for a short trip to a neighbouring island, Batam Indonesia. The ferry journey from Singapore Harborfront to Batam Harbor Bay ferry terminal was about 50 minutes.

We stayed in Nagoya Mansion Hotel and Residences for the trip. It is about 10 minutes drive from the ferry terminal. 

The hotel looks very new and I was happy with what I saw. No run down furniture and stuff. And I even managed to get a playpen for the baby. But I did not let her sleep in it since there was no mattress and it was way to low for me to bend down and pick her up or place her back for night feeds. Luckily the bed was King sized, so we were all able to fit in the bed with some space left.

We spent day one at Nagoya Hill mall. It was about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. The walk was manageable for us, but the uneven road was tiring for my father in law. And not recommended for prams too.

Lunch was settled at the food street. We were too hungry. Anything goes. There's no aircon at the food street and that day was super hot. I can feel the heat as the next 2 days were not as hot. Bah Kut Teh for lunch. Accompanied by Ding Tea. The bubble teas were priced similar to Singapore's.

Then we shopped around the place, nothing much for us in shopping, except the supermarket. Haha bought food snacks back.

Smoking is allowed in the mall, hence at the end of the day, we all smell like walking cigarettes.
We headed back to the hotel for a rest. Then we took a cab back to the mall area  for massage and dinner.

Baby is with me, hence I can only do foot/leg massage. But theirs is not done the usual seated way. We were brought to a room with mattress. I'm suppose to lie down. But... How to? Lol. Baby's a roller. Lol. Baby looked on curiously at the therapist.

Soothing the aches and stress away from my feet. (But I got 3 bruises on my calf the next day lol.)

Dinner was at a shop name Kopi Toast. Nope. They don't serve toast. Kopi yes. But it's just a regular indonesian "tze char" shop. Lol. How misleading is the name. 

Headed home with supper and we ko-ed. Baby was so tired. Guilty mammy.

Day 2

We waited for baby to wake before heading down for the hotel's breakfast. The spread wasn't alot. But enough. One round of mains, one round of cakes, one round of fruits and we are done.

Then baby needed her morning nap, so we napped along too. That's the difference travelling with a baby. Her needs is first priority.

We headed out for seafood lunch. We had egg (the dish with the red sauce), cereal prawns, shells and veggies. Totalling to $308,000. Not that bad. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves lol. But I realise the malls/ restaurants seem to have pretty weak aircon. I was kinda repeating "so hot" throughout the meal. Ya. I was being irritating lol.

Then we walked to Mega Mall. It's about 10 minutes walk. A much easier path than yesterday's. But still not suitable for pram

We window shopped alittle. I was surprised to see a baby room. Not much facilities, except a diaper change table and a curtain seperated nursing room with a badly cushioned sofa (lol). I did made use of the room.

Then we went for tea. A&W! We had waffle icecream with double fries and root beer float. Triple sin. Haha..

Took a cab back to the hotel for a rest. We took baby for a dip in the pool. Really a dip as the pool's water was very cold. But she enjoyed herself. I'm a happy mammy.

Then we had the most horrible experience for dinner. We took a cab out to BCS mall. A 10 minutes drive. There are alot of shops which we planned to window shop after we had our dinner. And guess what. After 50minutes of waiting, we were still waiting for our food. The hubbs asked for our order twice while waiting then he went to ask at their counter. They still wanted us to wait. Problem is, the restaurant is not brimming with customers. Sigh. What's so tough with two fried rice and a fried noodles? In the end we didn't manage to walk around as most of the shops were closed/ closing and we no longer had any mood. It's just too horrible.

Hong Kong Town. You're good. Moodkiller.

Day 3

Our last day in Batam. There was at least triple the number of guests at breakfast. They even duplicated the spread outdoors. I had mostly cakes for breakfast as the mains were pretty little since we do not take beef.

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing in our room. Baby had her short morning nap too. Then it was time for check out. There were just too many people checking out at the time. And one of the lifts was stuck, causing some people to be stuck. My father in law was one of those stuck upstairs. We were wondering what happened to him as we waited really long for him to appear.

We then took a cab to Harbor Bay Mall, which is located just next to the ferry terminal. The mall was pretty empty. Huge, but with few shops open. Lunch was settled there too. Again, the waiting time for our food was long. But not as horrible as the night before.

Then it was time to say byebye to our weekend and go back home. Kinda regretted that we dabao back J.Co donuts. Haha... Sinful sinful..