Travel and Living Bliss

May 18th, 2012

The Grand Palace and The Temple of Emerald Buddha in Bangkok

Port Dickson Rejuvenation Trip ~ Avillion Resort

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A Day trip at Budapest, Hungary

Capital of Hungary, Budapest, holds a front-ranking position among the most attractive cities of the world. Among a few capitals of different countries that I visited in Central Europe, Budapest captivated me the most with its magnificent buildings. It successfully combines a centuries old architectural and cultural heritage with the latest features of modern life. A day trip at Budapest is possible as the public transports are very convenient, especially with its Hop On Hop Off services. With HUF 4500 (around Euro 16) per pax, we purchased tickets from Giraffe Hop On Hop Off Sightseeing Bus and Boat tour. The [...]

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna

Picture above isn’t a painting, it’s a real building and it’s a real residential block and there are people literally staying inside! My first impression about the building was that why would the residents allow the kids to simply paint the wall. It looks as if the kids drew some uneven lines to partition each unit and painted each unit with different colors to make its design looks so random. But whoever the kids are, they must be brilliant painters! At least I have fallen in love with this whimsical architecture. If you still have no idea what is going [...]

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Wat Arun in Bangkok, Temple of Dawn

Thailand is a beautiful land that dotted with numerous temples. Each of the temple has its own uniqueness that one can actually spend a few hours in each temple to admire every detail of the facades and interior of the building, as well as its amazing workmanship. I didn’t have the time to visit every temple in Thailand so I chose a world famous landmark and one of the most photographed places in Thailand, Wat Arun, or better known as the Temple of the Dawn. Formerly known as “Wat Chaeng”, this temple has existed for many years since the days when [...]

Monday, May 30, 2011

Universal Studios Singapore ~ A One Day Trip

I was contemplating to divide this post into several parts as I have too many photos to show. However, after considering the readers might lose their patience to wait for part 2 or even part 3, I decided to make it a photo-intensive post and feed the readers with load of information. Universal Studios just has too much to show. By the way, you may jump straight to my Useful Tips When Visiting Universal Studios post if you’re looking for practical tips. I visited Universal Studios in Singapore few weeks ago with full excitement. I haven’t been to any Disneyland so [...]

Friday, July 30, 2010

The Smokehouse Hotel & Restaurant in Cameron Highlands

When Don and I were in the ambiguous relationship oscillated between mere friendship and more than just friendship, we had a day trip to Fraser Hill to record our audition video for Amazing Race Asia. Before we even had a chance to edit the video, I accidentally deleted it. Anyway, that is not the point. I wanna say that we had a good time chilling out in Smokehouse Restaurant in Fraser Hill and enjoyed their fabulous tea and scones. I was almost convinced that Smokehouse served the best scones in the world. After dating for several years, I started to [...]

Monday, July 19, 2010

The Great Ocean Road ~ Victoria

Before leaving to Australia, my friend Julian told me “There is a very nice long road trip along the coastline in Australia… hmm… I don’t remember what’s the name of the road.” “It’s the easiest name to remember, you meant The Great Ocean Road right? The most straightforward aka non-creative name of the road.” Then when I back from Australia, my friend Evelyn asked me the places I visited in Australia. So I told her “I visited The Great Ocean Road.” Evelyn then replied “Wow… the road must be great. What’s the name of the road?” -_-” Anyway, as the [...]

Friday, July 9, 2010

Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney

Everyone knows Kangaroo is a national symbol of Australia. Kangaroos in Australia are like strayed dogs in Malaysia. They can be spotted easily by the highway or forest. Kangaroo signboards are as common as Speed Limit signboard in Malaysia. Beware of Kangaroo! You might be hit out of the blue! Do you know when you don’t understand someone, instead of saying ‘I beg your pardon’, you can actually say ‘Kangaroo’? No joke, you can try it when you have a chance! But probably only Guugu Yimithirr, Australian Aboriginal tribe of Far North Queensland, would understand it. A common myth about [...]

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Posted on Oct 04

by Shelyn in Bali, Diving, Diving in Bali, Padang Bai, Tulamben

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Bali ~ Day 4 & 5 Padang Bai & Tulamben

Another early day. Woke up at 8 a.m. and ready for the journey to Padang Bai. Deriving from two languages – padang is Balinese for grass and bai is Dutch for bay – PADANG BAI, the port for Lombok, nestles in a small cove with a white-sand beach lined with finishing boats. Why did we choose Padang Bai? Just north of Padang Bai is the Blue Lagoon, a treasure-trove of marine life. There are several different popular dive sites on the reef here and lots of hard and soft coral, including elephant and table corals – which attract eels, wrasses,...

Posted on Oct 03

by Shelyn in Bali, Tanah Lot

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Bali ~ Day 3 Tanah Lot ~

We reached hotel at about 1 p.m. after Gunung Batur trip. We pampered ourselves with a full body massage to rejuvenate our bodies. An 1 hour Balinese full body massage costed only Rp 50k in a clean decent massage center. We couldn’t find this kind of price in any decent massage center in Kuta area. It easily costs Rp 75k for a full body massage in Kuta. So if you love massage, you may want to get it in less commercialized areas like Sanur. After the invigorating massage, we decided to get some light meals somewhere nearby. We stumbled across...

Posted on Oct 01

by Shelyn in Bali, Mount Batur, Slide

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Hiking at Mount Batur Bali

The alarm clock aka cellphone woke us up at 1 a.m. sharp. The driver was already waiting for us at the hotel. We were ready to depart from Sanur to Mount Batur for the trek up to the peak of Mount Batur before dawn. Heading into north Bali from the crowded southern plains, we entered another world, with a slower pace, cooler climate and hugely varied country side. The centre of the island is occupied by the volcanic masses of the Batur and Bedugal areas. Why did we choose Mount Batur? Inititally we planned to climb Gunung Agung, which...

Posted on Sep 30

by Shelyn in Bali, Sanur & Ubud

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Bali ~ Day 2 Sanur & Ubud ~

The first morning in Bali. We woke up quite early and the first thing burst forth into my mind was BREAKFAST. Most of the breakfast that we found at tourist areas were American breakfast which we weren’t interested at all to have American food in Bali. So we decided to look for Bali local food and we stumbled upon this motorcyclist selling the rice with some dishes after about 15 mins walking in the street. The food was very much like Nasi Lemak in Malaysia that it came with vege and chicken and chili sambal. I didn’t take any photo...

Posted on Sep 26

by Shelyn in Bali, Uluwatu

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Bali ~ Day 1 Uluwatu & Jimbaran ~

We arrived Bali airport before 2:00pm, slightly ahead the schedule. AirAsia was afraid that nobody knew they made it to the destination slightly ahead the schedule, so they kept announcing this in the plane “We are happy to announce that we are ahead the schedule…” for several times. Err… well done, AirAsia! (-_-” isn’t punctuality one of the services that we should get?) While waiting for immigration in the airport, we found a lot of tour brochures for our reading. We grabbed some of them to understand the packages and the prices so we can use it to bargain when...