Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 at a glance.

This year's round up, no words. Just photos.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Where to shop online?

Sponsored Post
When i mentioned the word - "Gmarket", 9 out 10 of you guys reading this would immediately know what it's about! Well, the Gmarket we once know of is now known as Qoo10. This is definitely not the first time i blogged about Qoo10 but this time, i'm sharing with you guys what i bought with a budget of just 100 bucks! If you take $100 to town, perhaps what you can get is maybe a pair of shoes? (might not even be enough!) or maybe 2 to 3 tees? or just a pair of jeans? 

You'll be surprised with what i got for $100 on Qoo10!

Before i even made a purchase of any item, i bought a PREMIUM coupon book at just $10!
In your head, you might think that i have just wasted 10 bucks but you are so wrong. You will come to realised that with this coupon book, the amount that you saved would definitely be more than $10! This GOLD membership coupon book is worth S$100 and from the image above, you can actually have an idea of how much you could have saved!

Just take a look at the last coupon - "$3 cart coupon with min. $15 purchase". After using the coupon, your item will then cost only $12! And since there is 4 coupons available, you would have saved $3 x 4 = $12, which is more than what you initially paid for the coupon book already. Well, the rest of the coupons can be considered bonus right? (:

Click here to checkout the PRIME CLUB CLUB COUPON!


1. Travel Foldable Hanger ($4.60 for 2 including Shipping)
You know sometimes you go overseas for a holiday or on a staycation and you wish the hotel provides more hangers so you can hang your clothes? How many of us actually bring hangers overseas? -__- Well, here's the solution! I was quite amazed by how portable this hanger is that i bought 2 of it for my Taiwan and Hong Kong trip! I'm so glad i bought it! It doesn't cost much, just $1.80 each and it's so useful. I would highly recommend this to those who travel a lot (:

Click here to be directed to the store!


2. Polaroid/ Instax Frame Stickers! ($5.80 for 60 pcs with delivery) 
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Plain white instax films are the cheapest among all the designs and sometimes don't you think that it's just too plain? Then again, those coloured ones or the designed ones are too expensive and not really worth it. So when i saw this, i immediately know that i have to get it! All you have to do is peel the sticker and stick it over your plain instax and voila! You get a nice looking instax photo with a nice frame! I got 60 pieces (there's too many designs, seriously spoilt for choice!) at just $5.80 including delivery, which means it's less than 10 cents each! That's REALLY cheap isn't it?!

Click here to be directed to the store!


3. Crumpler GIMP laptop case ($20 including normal mail)


Always wanted a laptop case for my net book so that i can bring it around and recently i was looking around Qoo10 and saw this Crumpler GIMP case on sale, i immediately purchased it! So happy that i got it within a week! I was actually quite skeptical about the quality and such because it seem too good to be true at just $21 but i'm so glad it's of good quality and fits my 13" Acer netbook perfectly! There's also 15"and 17" of different colours available if i'm not wrong (:

Click here to be directed to the store!


4. Black TOMS shoes with stripes ($21 including shipping) 

If you have been following my twitter or instagram, you would have know that this is my 4th pair of TOMS shoes! It's really comfy, easy to wear (after all it's just slip on) and they match with most of my outfits! I can even wear it out with jeans! Since I have always wanted to "DIY" stud a pair of black TOMS with the studs that i bought from the flea market at *Scape, i decided to order a pair from Qoo10! The photo above is the end result of my DIY-ing! By the way, $24 is before using the "$3 with min. $15" coupon, so after discount, it's only $21, which i think is rather reasonable! 

Click here to be directed to the store!


5. Long Sleeve Design Tee shirt (2 for $28 including shipping) 
At just about $14 each, these long sleeve tees are at a steal! The material is not those thin thin type but it's of good quality and stretchable, totally did not expect that. There's lots of designs to choose and they are having a discount right now, would highly recommend to those who are looking for long sleeve tees. I think this would be perfect to wear when watching movie in cold cinemas, or if going to places like Genting or Hong Kong/ Taiwan during cold seasons, LOL

Click here to be directed to the store!


6. Running Man tee with Customized tag ($18 including delivery)

Ever thought of owning your very own Running Man tee with your own Korean name tag? Now you can! I think Qoo10 is the only place online where you can get it if i'm not wrong. My friends and i had our very own mini version of "Running Man" at Sentosa and because of our tees, it really caught a lot of attention from passerby because the show is so famous! You can choose the colour of your tee and allow them to translate your English to Korean for you! So cool!

Click here to be directed to the store!


Well, that's all i bought with 100 bucks! Let's now do a recap!

2 Foldable Hanger ($4.60) + 60 pcs Polaroid frame stickers ($5.80) + GIMP laptop case ($20)
+ TOMS shoes ($21) + 2 Long sleeve design tee ($28) + Running Man tee ($18) = $97.40!

*note that some of the items were previously on discount and coupons were to use to offset the prices.

I'm rather pleased at amount of items i could get with less than $100 and it's only possible on Qoo10! What are you waiting for? Time to start shopping on Qoo10 if you have not! Special thanks to Qoo10 for the credits for me to spend!

Monday, December 24, 2012

香港-澳門-深圳 Hong Kong '2012

Never thought i will return to Hong Kong in a year. After all i went to Hong Kong twice last year, once in Feb, another in October and i practically covered every single tourist attraction in that 2 trips. The only reason why i would visit Hong Kong again, is perhaps because of their Char Siew Rice, LOL Thought my Taiwan trip would be my last overseas trip for 2012 but guess i was wrong. Made an impromptu decision to visit Hong Kong in Dec. Spent 6 whole days in Hong Kong.
A collage of the photos i instagram-ed throughout my 6 days in Hong Kong.

Went to Hong Kong with Matthew, and had 2 requests. One would be to visit Macau (always wanted to visit the Ruins of St Paul's) and Two, would be to visit the "Window of the World" in Shenzhen, China (which explains the Eiffel tower in the collage) in the 6 days that we were at Hong Kong. Find no point in blogging another 6 days travelogue since i pretty much covered everything about Hong Kong in my previous 2 Hong Kong travelogues, so i guess i will be doing a post on Macau and Shenzhen each, and maybe just 1 consolidated post on Hong Kong! Back to Singapore, Back to reality.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

5D4N Taiwan 台北 Travelogue: Day 5

Last day of this trip! Honestly, i thought this trip was rather well covered as we managed to go to the places that we wanted to go (except for taking the Miramar Ferris wheel) I think for a 5 day trip, no doubt it was a little rush but still i did enjoyed myself. Let's start on Day 5 - decided on having KFC breakfast to kick start our day before visiting the 龍山寺 Longshan temple! Everyday we past by this KFC building without fail but only till the last day, we visited it! :D
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If you visit 西門町 ximending, you will never miss this KFC building because it's right in the center!
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Greedily ordered a breakfast set which comes with everything! Chicken fillet, toast, salad, bacon and Omelet! NT125
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Took the MRT over to Longshan temple 龍山寺 station, one of the most famous temple in Taiwan!
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Here we are! It was quite crowded that day that we went due to some festival or something.
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Even though i'm a free thinker, i thought i should pray for my family for everyone to stay healthy (:
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Dropped by 西門紅樓 on the way back to our hotel!
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Apparently it was their 104th Birthday and we were asked nicely if we could write a message for the place. After which they will compile all this photos into a collage or something! They say we will see our photo in their birthday album online but i realised they never tell us where. Lucky i told them to take another photo using my camera, got proof. LOL
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西門町 Ximending. No doubt one of best choice to choose to stay when on holiday in Taipei!
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Spent most of my remaining money on mask for my mum. My mum said that the mask (especially the gold foil one in the center) is good, should have bought more. By the way, how do you determine that a mask is good or no good?
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One of the best bubble tea i had in Taipei I wish there;s Ding tea in Singapore :(
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Went back to our hotel to check out before heading to the airport! Once again, it's VIA Hotel.
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Brought a luggage over and went back with another bag! After i return to Singapore and took out everything, i realised i really bought very very little stuff. Not enough enough to share among my friends and colleagues lor. Like quite wasted.
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Went to the bus terminal to take the 国光客运 Guo Guang coach to the airport! NT125
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The night before i was lifting and telling Angela how heavy her luggage is and imagine if her luggage weigh exceeds the 20kg baggage that we bought, she would have to pay for additional baggage and it's not going to be cheap. She then panicked like crazy throughout the night, LOL. In the end, our total baggage is only 32.1kg! Scared her only! HAHAHA
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A Hello Kitty themed shop at the airport. Was told i'm not allowed to take photos in the store. Okay...
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Took Jetstar back to Singapore! HOME SWEET HOME.

Taiwan used to be one of the place that i really wanted to go since my poly days but the plan to go there kinda held back because i had no idea what kind of place Taiwan is about and where are the places i should visit. Until this trip where i spent at least an hour everyday reading blogs and doing my research and i'm glad my efforts were not futile.

I totally enjoyed myself this trip and even though i'm spending hours after hours editing and blogging this travelogue, i'm not regretting because one day, i will read all these posts all over again and it will definitely remind me of this trip (:

Thanks for reading!

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4 |  Day 5

Sunday, December 9, 2012

5D4N Taiwan 台北 Travelogue: Day 4

This would the very last full day in Taiwan and for Day 4, it would a trip all the way to 十分 Shifen just to release the 天灯 sky lanterns! It's like how can you go to Taiwan for the first time and not try releasing your very own lantern! We could have easily hail a cab to bring us to 十分 but we decided to experience their railway instead, cheaper too! (:
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Every morning must take a #ootd shot! Added in the lens flare on my own, LOL
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Because there's no windows in our hotel room, we had no idea what's the weather outside until we step out and that day, it was pouring! How to 放天灯 like that! But still, no matter what, we insisted that we have to visit that place.
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Bought the railway train tickets to 瑞芳 Ruifang for NT$59 (SGD$2.50) They allocated seats for everyone!
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Here comes the train! It takes about 30 mins to reach Ruifang and we had to switch to another train to 十分.
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Camwhore shot on the train! It was rather comfortable, no complains. I read that when buying tickets, we should always insist on getting a seat no. for the train, if not you might have to stand all the way. Not sure about this though.
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They were selling home made Bento meal on the train at NT60 ($2.50) and this set above consist of pork cutlet, veggies, braised egg and more. Angela got one for herself. I wanted a chicken set so i thought i would wait...
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It was still raining along the way. Praying that it would stop...
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Finally reached 瑞芳 Ruifang which means we are halfway through the journey to 十分!
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At 瑞芳 Ruifang train station, we had to top up more money to switch over to another train to 十分. It cost another NT$52 ($2.20) and i heard the train only comes very 45 mins! Lucky we only had to wait for about 15 mins that day.
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If you calculate, the total cost to get to 十分 is only NT59 + NT52 = NT111 which is less than SGD$5! If we took a cab, it would be about 10 times the amount. The time taken would definitely be lesser but the experience would be different!
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Couldn't resist the Bento set this time (couldn't seem to find the Chicken Bento set anywhere!) so i just bought one from the auntie selling at 瑞芳 Ruifang train station! This set had a variety of sides which i think is not bad and worth it!
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FINALLY WE ARRIVED AT OUR DESTINATION - 十分 Shifen.
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That's the colourful train that we took from 瑞芳 to 十分! Once every 45 mins.
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Photo with the colourful railway train before it leaves the station! Total journey took about 1 hour 15 mins.
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The thing about me in Taiwan is that, you can almost never find me without food in my hands! It's like here i am eating something, and i'm already ordering something else to eat because there's simply so many good food that i've tried before! In this case, the huge and tasty sotong balls from one of the store at 十分! Just NT25, which is like SGD$1?
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Walk abit more along the railway you will see people releasing their sky lantern! You will see a whole stretch of stalls selling 天灯, not much difference in price i think. Just a matter of which stall you want to go to buy your 天灯 only.
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Even in the rain, people are still releasing the lantern. Of course we won't let this opportunity past by!
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Different colour lantern has a different meaning to it and the more colour you have (max. of 4 only lah) the higher the cost of the lantern. So we chose the 4 colour one at NT150 (SGD$6 only!) which i kinda forgot what they represent...
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Lucky i took a photo of the chart! Actually this is a template for example of good sayings you can write on your lantern. I was literally copying for the chart and the 2 auntie owner of the stall was laughing at me. Firstly because i'm copying for the chart and also because... i copied wrongly. You will see later in the photos below. Seriously FML -__-
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The stall helpers will clip your lantern onto this stand and you can use the paint brush at the side to write whatever you want on the lantern. Yellow colour represent Wealth i think. LOL at all the brands i can think of at that time. HAHAHA
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Our 4 sides of the lantern! I did the Red and the Yellow one. Angela did the Pink and the Blue one. As you can see the mistake on the red one is quite obvious, the 身体健康 was copied wrongly, so i tried my best to rectify it. See that big black heart shape on the pink one, it was to cover a mistake done by Angela too, why we so fail!  LOLOLOLOL
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After we are done, the auntie just took some paper and dip it in kerosene i think and attached it to our lantern!
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Then i hand over my camera to them and they started taking photos for us. They very professional one, we just have to keep following their instructions! Like "hold it like this" *snap* "now turn"*snap* "turn" *snap* "Lift up the lantern and hold the base" *snap* "turn" *snap* and she just go on and on, very professional indeed. Everyday same thing. LOL
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After she finish taking photos of the different sides of the lantern, she told us to release the lantern at the count of 3. So we just followed her instructions while she spam the shutter button of my camera... and the final photos:
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WAH WAH WAH. LIKE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER LIKE THAT! What a fun experience.
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Every once in awhile when we hear the train bells, everyone will then have to clear away from the tracks to let the train past. (the train will just be right beside you!) I was thinking imagine halfway you are taking photos with your 天灯 then if the train bells sound, would you faster release it or would you bring the 天灯 in and wait for the train to pass?Photobucket
Past by this stall which sells these unique tin sharpeners at NT100 ($4) each! Everyone of them is so pretty, especially the Eiffel tower one. First glance you won't even know they are sharpeners. Bought 4 of it to display in my room :D
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The auntie that sells the sharpeners also sell this malt candy sweet and she offered it to us for free! So nice!
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The 靜安吊橋, a 128m long suspension bridge at 十分. Walked across found nothing, and walked back.
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Individual shot on the bridge with our candy. The view is really great, very peaceful place with nice weather.
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At 十分, one thing that people do is send a postcard to themselves or to their family and friends! There are a few stores that allow you to personalize your own card and they help to mail it back all the way to your country at a small cost.
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Writing a postcard to myself. #foreveralone
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No lah! It's because of these stamps i'm sending a card back to SG! They have these little little stamps for you to decorate your card so i just bought a card at NT20 ($0.80) and started stamping every stamp that i can find, LOL
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Happy us with our end product of the post card!
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They do not just offer post cards but also other things such as designed wooden board etc.
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...and for just a small fee (depending on the weight), you can have it air mail back to your country! :D
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After we are done at 十分, we bought our tickets back to 瑞芳 which cost only NT20!
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Took photos on the railway while waiting for the train, which comes once every 45 mins only.
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Here comes the colourful train! The initial plan was to go back to main Taipei but then when we arrived at 瑞芳, we saw that there were cab service to 九份 at a standard rate of NT180 ($7.50) so we thought since we are already there and we still have time, might as well just go up to 九份 to take a look! I'm so glad we didn't give 九份 a miss!
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九份 is located up high in the mountain area, the journey took 15 mins. The view is superb when you are there!
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The entrance of the 九份 street!
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Everywhere is food, food and more food! You see the photo at the top left hand corner, they are cubes of pineapple tarts! These are the ones that are handmade and packed on the spot and they cost a lot more than those machine made ones! I bought one piece (NT35) to try and it was so warm and nice! A box would have easily cost NT300 or more.
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Because there's food EVERYWHERE and i wanted to try everything, you would see me stopping by every few stalls and ordering their food. After all, everything is really cheap and nice there! It's like a food paradise, just keep eating!
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Tried this handmade fish balls which i don't think it's really nice :(
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THIS IS A MUST TRY AT 九份! It's this ice cream with peanut shavings wrapped in popiah skin!!! They have this BIG block of peanut which they use this wooden device (top right photo) to get the peanut shavings, put it on top of 2 scoops of ice cream (3 different flavors i think, i had the unique pineapple ice cream) and wrapped up nicely in Popiah skin. Cost only NT35 and it's one of the best thing i've tried in Taiwan. For this stall,you take your own change (top left)
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This famous stall in 九份 sells handmade owls and each of these owls has a different meaning. The auntie of the stall can ratter out every single meaning of each owls! For a moment i was wondering if she is just randomly whatever she can remember at that point of time, LOL Bought one (some peace and harmony meaning, LOL) for NT150 for my family (:
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This auntie is a living mascot of her stall as you can see from her outfit and the cartoon on the banner! She sells different kind of sausages which i tried the original one! (NT35) Really very tasty and sweet, grilled on the spot!
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One last view from 九份 before taking a cab back down to 瑞芳 at the same rate.
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Went over to Wufenpu 五分埔 which is well known for their wholesale of apparels, shoes, bags and more! Honestly, the things are everywhere and i had no idea where to start. By the way, guy stuffs aren't exactly the cheapest at Wufenpu. One tip for good buys would be to eye on their NT100 to NT300 ($4 to $12) rack which they place outside their store! If you look closely and thoroughly, you might actually find something that you like! I did found a few cheap pieces (:
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Went to another night market - 饒河街觀光夜市 which is quite near to Wufenpu! Love the night markets in Taipei because there's so many kinds of food available and they are all so cheap and delicious! In fact, i think for the past 4 days, all my money i brought over were spent all on food, i bought nothing! Ok, maybe 90% were on food, 10% others, LOL
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HUGE bowl of Mango iced topped with a scoop of Mango ice cream at NT100! Very refreshing!
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While having the Mango ice, couldn't resist the pork rice from the store right beside so halfway eating the Mango ice, i ordered a small bowl of the pork rice to try (NT20). See what i meant by kept eating in Taipei! Cannot stop eating!
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Saw A LOT people queuing for this bun at the entrance of the night market. No idea what it is but look at the amount of spring onions they are stuffing into the bun! OH MY TIANS. I will never ever eat it. Anyone knows what it is?
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Went back to the hotel and took out everything we bought for the past 4 days and arranged them onto the bed for photos! Those apparels you see in the above photos are mostly Angela's and 85% of the loot above are all food products if you realised. Didn't really buy much and no idea what to buy back for friends and family except for food, LOL

The next post will be Day 5, which would be a rather short post as we took the afternoon flight back to SG.

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5