Summer in Hokkaido

I heard from a Japanese friend that summer was short in Hokkaido this year, so we were really lucky to have been there during the right week! Here are some photos of the family trip.

Day 1: 23 Aug 2007
8:30am ANA flight, some 12 hours long, including domestic transfer, sigh. Narita airport looked unexpectedly modest... best shot of the sky that I've captured so far during a flight (using a phone camera that is).




Day 2: 24 Aug 2007

After visiting a salmon farm in Sapporo, it was off to Otaru. Quaint, like a toyland, check out the top right photo of father and child enjoying music played by life size mechanical teddy bears.

We visited a fabulous Music Box Museum (more of a big shop really) and had large Hokkaido crabs for lunch. Then, we visited the gigantic chocolate factory that makes the popular chocolate biscuits, Shiroi Koibito. Beyond the chocolate factory, there were exhibitions on history of chocolate, coffee and even toys. Of course lots of chocolates, candy and ice-cream on sale, with outdoor gardens to frolic in. And free entry, what more could one ask for? Dinner time, missed out on Kobe beef, coz we deliberated over the price of 700 yen per 200g tad long, drats.

Day 3: 25 Aug 2007

8:30am, left for Furano for lavender farm, the highlight of the tour. Arrived around noon, bad time for photo-taking. Post buffet lunch, the sun grew less harsh, don't the sunflowers look lovely. Me and mum looking happy!

Day 4: 26 Aug 2007

These snowmen that I saw at Hokkaido's Ice Pavilion are the closest to the real thing for me, and here's a video of the cold but rather cool visit.





Does the facade of this historical old temple look like a face? Just like the houses in Satoshi Kon's animated movie, Tokyo Godfathers!



Day 5 & 6: 27 Aug 2007

Visited sulphurous mountains. The sulphur is apparently used by the hotels in the vicinity for their baths.

I loved the giant animals that pop up on the roof or around the buildings. Food was quite an attraction: besides the milk chocolate and hairy crab, I also miss the sweet rock melon and corn that could be eaten raw. On the last day of the trip, we went to the market and indulged in some tax free shopping.


Day 7: 28 Aug 2007

Our final evening at Sapporo. Hope to visit again!

Time out in Bangkok

I came across a post on The Eugenia by Chubby Hubby and thought the hotel sounded nice. Hm, a long weekend shopping at the Chatuchak market and chilling out at The Eugenia, anyone? end.

Pics from hotel website

Weekend at Langkawi

Fri 27 Apr: Felt like almost a year since my last beach holiday! Finally got to Langkawi by Silkair. Bit pricey, but very comfortable flight.Arrived at Westin late evening, lurvely view of hotel lobby.

You can look into the bathroom and tub through the bedroom if you want to, naughty!

The spa was under renovation and services were moved to one of the villas, so we got to check it out, 5 bedrooms, nice. But sad to say, the massages weren't too great, the ladies were not very experienced. Not as good as those I had in Krabi, and the charges were higher.

Taste restaurant where we had buffet breakfast (roti canai, century egg porridge, nasi lemak, aaah.... ). Dinner was more challenging, until we decided to go for buffet as well :P

The room, like Taste, had a view of the sea and you could see the hotel jetty from the balcony. It rained quite a bit, but it was ok, indoors was cozy :) But we did manage to catch a Langkawi sunset, sweet.

1 Apr: Final view of Westin on a sunny afternoon :)

Krabi's the life

Wed 5 Jul 06: Finally, a real holiday in almost two years, no wonder I've been crabby at work! Tiger Airways was great, and only SGD200 for a return flight. Landed on Krabi in less than an hour and a half :)

Pakasai Resort was a comfy, affordable and just around the corner from the beach and shops. Eileen (the babe above) sure knows how to plan a getaway :)

The beach was ok, but not enough to tempt us away from the resort spa and pool! Here and there, blue & white signboards reminded us of the tsunami tragedy on boxing day 2004. "In case of earthquake" this one said, "go to high ground or inland".

The coolest dude in the neighbourhood.

The spa was... very open :)

The pool - our second fave hangout

Breakfast with a view.





Wangsai Seafood Restaurant, popular with the Thai residents, was about 10 mins walk from Pakasai. Aiyo, so tasty, especially the squids in boiling lemon and chilli sauce.

Spent our evenings at Planet Ao Nang Bar. DJ played good music.

Sun 9 Jul 06: back to Singapore with pics, thanks to the Sony Ericsson K750 handphone that I just got. It's an old model, but it's 2-mega-pixel camera with panoramic function kept me happily occupied :) Lots of smileys in this entry ya!

Springtime in London

April 2006: My blog's been idle for almost a month because I was away on a trip. I was in London/Leicester for over a week. Happiness! It was for work, but I had the weekend to visit museums and to chill. And it was spring and I had a room in London that looked into the garden where flowers were in bloom.

Where I stayed in Leicester, it was old-fashion pretty.

In London, I went to the theatre and checked out some museums where even nature seemed more arty.



My first visit to London was in the late 1990s to attend my sister's post graduation, and it turned out to be the summer that wasn't. I ended up with a horrid cold for a week. Most luckily a friend had offered his unoccupied apartment for my stay or I would have been dead miserable.

Prior to the trip I had asked friends who had lived in London/England for some of their fave places/things to do. So besides the usual tourist spots, I also visited a particular cafe in Oxford to sample their bacon sandwiches, a store in Covent Garden to admire their exquisite mechanical toys, Belgos for mussels and cool interior, the Design Museum, Terence Conran shop... the one thing I missed doing was to catch the West end play, The Woman in Black. It was a spooky plot, and I was too cowardly to catch it as I was alone in London that week.



More than 5 years later, I finally caught this popular production that is still running strong at The Fortune Theatre, Russell St. And it's easy to see why. The play had the sure-fire ingredients for a delicious, chilling thriller and though the near fullhouse audience were probably familiar and even expected the visual tricks and BOO! moments, live theatre still worked its magic and we found ourselves collectively jumping from our seats and screaming on cue. Jolly good fun!

pics from thewomaninblack website

As I was early for Woman in Black, I crossed over to the Royal Opera House to have a look. During my first trip to London, the Opera House was holding its final performance before closing the following day for a major 4-year renovation. An open-air screen was set up at the Covent Garden and we sat squashed in the crowd, watching the performance that was taking place indoor. I did a google and realised, gosh, that was in 1996. It was 10 and not 5 years ago that I visited, how time flies when you're having fun :)

At the foyer of the Opera House, I found a small exhibition celebrating the Royal Ballet's 75th anniversary.

I'm not a fan of ballet, but my buddy Daphne is, and look, Daph, this is the costume that Margot Fonteyn wore when she danced for the first time as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty at 19, in 1939, more than 60 years ago, and it's still gorgeous.