Thank You 2018, Next!

Day after day. Time after time. In the blink of an eye, today is the last day of 2018 and tomorrow we're going to step into another brand new year of 2019. Sometimes I really wish I have the ability to freeze the time cause time flies when you're having fun. 2018 might not be the very best year but still, I'm grateful and cherish everything I've been through this year. Count more of my blessings, but not the problems I encountered - this is what I always remind myself.

Like I always did for the past years since 2011, now let's take a quick flashback on the past 12 months of where I went and visited in summary:

• January - Da Nang, Hoi An & Hue, Vietnam. Kicked off my year 2018 by sponsoring my mom another trip to Vietnam. Besides just the two of us, my very best travel buddy also tagged along for this trip together with her friend. A new friend who I never met before but she made us laugh non-stop throughout the trip. I'm glad that my mom really enjoy this trip and she even proposed for another trip with my friend and our new friend found. 
• February - Kuching for Chinese New Year. The month of festive season where all family members reunite and gather together for a big and important celebration. Since my dad bought houses in Kuching, so he suggested this year we celebrated Chinese New Year in Kuching instead of Kota Kinabalu. I even drove a nearly 6 hours car-ride back to my maternal grandparents' kampung. 
• March - Tokyo, Japan. Revisit Tokyo for the 5th time and for this round, it's for my birthday celebration. Besides Tokyo, my boyfriend and I visited less touristy and off the beaten path such as Kinugawa, Nikko, Gala Yuzawa and more. 
• March - Singapore. This is one adhoc trip with my mom. Why? To welcoming the newest member of our family - my newborn baby nephew, my parents' firstborn grandchild. That's mean now I'm officially become an aunty to my sister's son. 
• April - Iran. A birthday gift from the boyfriend and it's an impromptu trip before AirAsia X decided to cease this route permanently. It's my first visit to the Middle East country and I was truly amazed with how beautiful and stunning the country is. Iran is indeed an eye-opening trip to me and not like what many people expected it to be.  
• May - Istanbul, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia. Another of my solo trip to Europe, except for the Croatia part where I met and traveled with fellow Malaysian travel blogger, Jeff Chuah. I really love Balkans so much and now I'm planning for the next Balkans trip. 
• July - Perlis for Girl Guides Conference and Annual General Meeting National Level
• September - Taipei (Taiwan) & Kyushu Island (Japan). Two trips at a time. I took a flight to Taipei first, and then joined my friends for a self-drive trip around Fukuoka, Beppu, Kumamoto and Nagasaki.  
• October - London, Portugal, Spain & Milan. Another trip with my mom and tagged my cousin along. We got aweseome deal from Oman Air where the all-in inclusive return fare for RM1,800 only. 
• November - Wuhan and Wudang Mountain, China. A trip to celebrate the boyfriend's birthday. This is when both couples who love to travel, I bet airtickets and trips are the best birthday gift ever. 
• December - Kuching & Singapore. Weekend getaway to spend quality time with my two younger brothers in Kuching and also celebrate Christmas with my sister and baby nephew in Singapore.  

Exploring 6 new countries (Iran, Turkey, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Portugal and Spain), wandering more than 20 new cities and experience 9 different airlines - that's pretty sum up my travel adventures throughout the year of 2018. 

Apart from my life in relation to travel, how about my own personal life? Oh well, I have been moving out for exactly a year now. Yes, I'm currently living and staying alone, no longer with my parents anymore. Of course I gained more in terms of freedom and become more independent, but on the other hand thinking of the monthly commitments especially the utilities bill, groceries and also the housecores, the cooking and etc, living alone is not as easy as I thought sometimes! This consider to be one of the biggest decision I made in my life but then, I never regret with my own choices. Luckily my parent's home is only 5-8 minutes drive away from where I'm staying now, hence I'm frequently going back to have dinner with them on weekday and breakfast on weekend. 

Every room inside is filled with things from far away (A Million Dreams lyric from The Greatest Showman)

I believe almost everyone's life is like one roller coaster ride - there will always be ups and downs. And so as mine too. Almost towards the end of the year, I lost one of the most important thing in my life - my beloved Guci, a pure Shih Tzu dog breed which had been with us for more than 10 years passed away. Oh boy, losing a dog is equally as painful and heartbreaking as losing a family member. For us, she's not just a dog but as part of our family member. I really do missing the welcome back greet where she wiggle her tail when I reach home, the patiently wait near the staircases when everytime she heard me opening of my bedroom door in the morning, the constantly request to rub her fat belly and etc. Until now I still miss her so much and sometimes I do cry at night when seeing her photos and videos. It's so hard to let go and move on especially when she always by my side, my best companion, cheering me up when I was down for more than a decade.


Goodbye Guci! You are always and forever in my heart. (May 2008 to 3 October 2018)

I guess, these are the few things I like to highlight for the year 2018. Nothing much, nothing less. Sometimes it's best to expect less, so that you won't end up with higher disappointment. Like they said, the best thing comes when you're least expected. And because of that, I don't have any resolution for the year of 2019 and let my life goes on with the flow. Just let it come what may. At least the best I can do right now is to love myself more as I once battling with depression and anxiety before which causing me to lost my passion and interest in travelling dating back two years ago. Unexpected right? Like I said before, life ain't always sunshine and rainbow, there would be storm and thunder in between. But thankfully, I gradually recovered, bounced back and as you can see, I travel extensively and even updated my blog more often than I used to be (although sometimes I was being too lazy to blog).

Before I end this post, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to those who constantly read my blog and some even become my loyal blog readers. And also not forgetting to those who left countless of comments in my blog, sent messages with positive vibes in my other social media networks which giving me the motivation and encouragement to continue to write and update my blog. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for supporting this humble travel blog of mine. Good news to those who never stop leaving comments on my blog - I have a surprise for you guys as a token of appreciation. Here are the Top 5 Commentators for this year:


Top Commentators For The Year 2015

1) Twilight Man from Twilight Zone

2) J-Mei from Interesting Corner of Me 

3) Rose from Rose World

4) Mas Light from The Live of A Psychotic Weirdo

5) Small Kucing & Mamarazzi from Small Kucing

So for the five readers I mentioned as above, kindly please comment below as acknowledgement. Plus, remember to leave your name, mailing address and contact number to my email address: dianateodt@gmail.com within 14 days from the date of this blogpost posted.

With this, wishing each and everyone of you have a blissful, awesome, magnificent, cheerful and rocking year ahead. Happy New Year!

For your information, this is actually a scheduled post cause I'm currently away again to celebrate New Year Eve. Yes, it's my first time to celebrate New Year eve abroad. Guess where I'm heading to and you might get souvenirs from me (Contest end at 1pm)

READ ALSO:

• Goodbye 2017! Hello 2018!
• Throw Back of My 2015 Travel Adventures
• Recap of 2014 and My Plan for 2015
• My Reflection on 2013 and Resolution for 2014
• My Reflection on 2012 and Resolution for 2013
• Recap of My 2011 History & My 2012 Resolution
• Recap of My 2010

Relax & Laid-Back Trip in Kenting, Taiwan

After spending two nights in Kaohsiung, we then moved on to Kenting, the southern point of Taiwan. Since Kenting is conveniently accessible under HSR Zuoying, hence we decided to kill two birds with one stone by covering both Kaohsiung and Kenting. 

#1

HOW TO GET TO KENTING FROM KAOHSIUNG

If you are travelling from Taoyuan or Taipei, take a ride on Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR) to Zuoying Station first. From there, take Kuo Kang or Kenting Express bus heading to Kenting. The journey takes approximately of 2 hours for the price of NT$407 for a single trip and NT$600 for roundtrip.

Another second option is by sharing cab, like what we did. If you are traveling in a group of 4, probably this option is cheaper than taking the bus. 

It is possible to do day trip to Kenting from Kaohsiung but for me, I prefer to stay for a night just to experience the night market there. 

3D2N Itinerary in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Located in the southern island of Taiwan, Kaohsiung is the second largest city of the nation after Taipei. Despite being less popular and always overlook by most of the visitors, but its all year-round fine weather and the low cost of living making you no excuse to visit Kaohsiung. To date, I've been to Kaohsiung twice and hence, I would like to share information based on my personal experience and my handpicked list of Kaohsiung's attractions to see and do.

Hotel Review: Sato Castle Motel, Taipei

The most typical things to do when comes to Taiwan are generally hitting the bustling and hustling night markets and stuffed with yummylicious street food. But then do you know Taiwan is also well-known for "minshu" - a type of accommodation equivalent to homestay, guesthouse, bed & breakfast and sometimes known as farmstay if there are animals within the property. The experiences of staying in minshu are completely different and unique comparing staying in a conventional hotel. So whenever I visit Taiwan, I will choose to book minshu instead of normal hotel. Mainly because I love the way how majority of these minshu are beautifully-decorated in interesting and fascinating layout. 

One of the unforgettable experiences for my Taiwan trip is staying in Sato Castle Motel of Taipei. By just looking the photos from the net, it immediately caught my attention and I booked without second thought. 

#1: Overview of Sato Castle Motel

Sato Castle is popular for offering different type of themed room and to date, there are more than 50 rooms with diversified style and unique theme. There are four categories of room to choose from; King, Queen, Castle and Knight. What distinguish four of them are obviously the size of the room and the room rate. The King is the largest one in term of size and so for its price too. 

Thailand: 1 Day Chiang Rai and Golden Triangle Tour

*This is super long overdue post!*

Chiang Rai is a small city in the most northern province of Thailand situated approximately three hours away from the most popular sister city of Chiang Mai. Of course if I had the chance, I would love to stay at least for a night here rather than taking an excursion tour but unfortunately due to time constraint, that's my last resort. I booked this tour from the hostel I stayed in Chiang Mai - So Hostel a day before it start for the priced of  800 baht (approx. to RM84).

The tour began as early as 7 am in order for the driver to pick up each and every guest from their hotel/hostels...

Our first pit stop is Maekhajan Hot Springs. a public hot spring that is well-known among the local and it's consider to be part of their rest stop before continue their way to Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. The hot spring is exceptionally hot and therefore, don't ever think to take a bath here. However, you can purchase eggs from any of those stall nearby and boil them in this natural hot springs.

Our tour then continued with the stunning Wat Rong Khun which also known as The White Temple for its dazzling white colour inlaid with mirrored glass. This is obviously the main highlight of this tour. I blogged about this marvelous temple before - you can check out here: Wat Rong Khun - The White Temple of Chiang Rai.

After that, we moved forward to the Golden Triangle where we get the chance to witness the meeting points of three Indo-China countries; Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos. Both of my parents been and experienced this Chiang Rai and Golden Triangle tour before, and they keep telling me how awesomeness of this Golden Triangle where they got to enter these three countries for free. So now, I want to experience myself to see how true is that. 

The tour package doesn't include a boat cruise along the Mekong River to the Laos island of Don Sao. If you are interested, you have to fork out extra fee of 300 baht (approx. to RM31) for it and also 30 baht for the entrance fee to Don Sao Island.  

Note: You are required to show your original passport when taking the boat ride on the Mekong to across Laos. Hence, remember to bring along your original passport in case you would like to take this optional tour. 

Golden Triangle, the meeting points of three countries; Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos

And because this is a quick overview tour, we're given only a short limit of time to explore the island. Luckily it was small little town and there's nothing much to wander and venture for. There are few shops around selling abundance items like counterfeit handbags, local dry food which I found it's uninteresting.  

Then, we board on boat again back to Thailand border. From there, we had long hour drive to Mae Sai, a small town in northern Thai border. It's very popular among the visitors for it's close proximity to Myanmar border which is located a mere ten meters away across the river. However, unlike what my parents told me earlier, we're strictly prohibited from entering into Myanmar due to visa issue. For your information, a Malaysian is required to apply for visa in order to visit Myanmar. You can check out my post on Myanmar here. As a result, we can only catch a glimpse of Myanmar from far.  

So close, yet so far away

On the return leg back to Chiang Mai, we had our final and last stop at the ethnic hill tribes villages of Akha and Yao Lahu. Once again, we're being told that we need to pay extra of 300 baht (not again!) if we would like to visit Keren Hill Village which is famed for its long-necked tribe. Since it's optional, I chosen not to join cause I've seen this long-necked tribe when I was in Myanmar and you know what, it's free somemore.  

Would I recommend this one day tour execution? In case you only have a short period of time spending in Chiang Mai, then it's no harm to sign for this. But like I mentioned earlier since it's a whirlwind tour, everything is indeed rush and pack. That's explain why I dislike joining any organised tour company/agent, unless I have no other option. If I were given another chance to be back again in future, I would love to explore and discover Chiang Rai myself than signing a tour. Probably what my parents experienced are way more better than mine due to the different package tour they took. You know like they said, "When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys."  

1 Day Chiang Rai and Golden Triangle Tour

Tour Price: 800 baht 

Tour Includes:

• Pick-up from Chiang Mai's hotels/hostels 
• An English speaking tour guide
• An air-conditioned car/minivan
• Admission fees to all places indicated in tour except for Don Sao Island
• Lunch

Majority of this tour starts at 7 am and end by 9 pm, at least.

Date Visited: 14th April 2014

5 Reasons Why You Should Apply BigPay Card

*This is not a sponsored post, neither an advertorial.*

But since I received quite a number of queries regarding this, hence I decided to blog and share based on my own experience. 

I've been traveling for more than 10 years and throughout my travel record, the number of times using credit or debit card when travel abroad can be calculated using all my 10 fingers, or even lesser. Except for the part where I need to do all the bookings like hotel/hostels, transportation and even entrance tickets prior to my trip, I would try my best not to use both credit and debit cards due to its unflavourable exchange rates. Not until I was introduced with BigPay card.

Summary of My 17D Balkans Travelogue (2018) Covering Istanbul, Bosnia & Herzegovina & Croatia

And here comes the end of another travelogue of mine - like, finally! This year I managed to complete at least 5 travelogues before year-end; Solo Trip To Europe (2017), 9D8N Australia Melbourne & Sydney (2017), 6D5N Central Vietnam (2018), 6D5N Kyushu Japan (2018) and now this one - 17D of my Balkans trip covering Turkey, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia. Feeling accomplished cause my motivation for blogging is finally back on track! I almost lost my interest and passion not just in blogging, but in travelling too dating back 2 years ago.

SUMMARY OF MY 17D BALKANS TRIP COVERING ISTANBUL, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA AND CROATIA

Here is the compilation of my Balkans travelogue at a glance (obviously I'm lazy to summarise everything 😜):

• 2018 Istanbul, Bosmia & Herzegovina and Croatia (Sneak Peek)
• 48 Hours in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Sarajevo to Mostar By Train and Stari Most
• A Day Trip To Blagaj Tekija, Pocitelj, Kravice Falls & War Tour
• Can't Help Falling In Love With Dubrovnik
• Old City Walls of Dubrovnik
• From Dubrovnik to Split
• A Day Trip To Sibenik From Split
• A Short Layover To Zadar
• The Breathtaking View of Plitvice Lakes National Park
• Zagreb, My Last Leg of Croatia
• Istanbul, Turkey - My Starting and Ending Point of My Balkans Trip

(Just click each of them and it will link you to the individual blogpost)

For this post also, I would like to share not comprehensive one but a brief and basic travel guide based my own first hand experience to Turkey (Istanbul), Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia.

VISA

For Malaysian, visa is NOT required to enter into these three countries. Therefore don't have to worry about applying any visa at all. That's show how powerful our Malaysian passport are, right? However if you are intended to stay more than 90 days for each respective country, then you have to go and apply for the visa. I don't have experience for this cause normally, I only stay one or two weeks for each country. 

CURRENCY EXCHANGE

Before embarking for this trip, I exchanged Euros and some Turkish lira (I changed in KL Nu Sentral). You can bring along US dollar, British Pound or even Singapore Dollar cause these currencies are also widely accepted in most of the European countries.

• Turkey's national currency is Turkish lira. It can be found in Malaysia. But in case you don't have the time to change, no worries cause you can exchange in Istanbul. TRY100 = RM102
• Convertible mark (KM/BAM) is the only legal tender in Bosnia & Herzegovina. I exchanged in Sarajevo International Airport - the first Bosnia's airport I landed. €1.00 = 1.95KM on average*. But because there is 1% commission being charged, hence I got €1.00 = 1.93KM. I also changed at Sarajevo's post office as well and again, there is additional charge of 1% commission.
• The official currency for Croatia is Croatian kuna. €1.00 = HRK7.13 on average*. You can exchange at most of the big cities, like Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb. There is no commission charge for Croatian kuna. 

*The rate I exchanged in May 2018

Top: Bosnia & Herzegovina's convertible mark

Bottom: Croatian kuna 

PURCHASING TRANSPORTATION TICKET

The most frequently asked travel questions - where to buy all these transportation tickets and when? Being "kiasu" in me, I always prefer to buy all my buses and trains ticket prior to my trip in order to secure the seats, especially when the bus and train schedules are quite limited. Except for my train ticket from Sarajevo to Mostar and a-return day trip between Split and Sibenik, I booked all my bus tickets from GetByBus (click here). It's a legit and reliable website, so don't have to worry cause it's really pretty save and secure buying bus tickets from this website. 

The only downside of this website is that you have to print out your tickets. They don't accept mobile ticket. And another thing you have to take note is that for all intercity buses, there is an extra fee of €1-2 charge for luggage fee. Remember to keep some small change.

SIM CARD

Because I was travelling alone, hence it's freaking costly to rent a pocket WiFi by my own. Besides that, for your information Bosnia & Herzegovina is actually doesn't consider to be part of European coverage even for both pocket WiFi and travel sim card. What I did is I bought my travel sim card from Hello1010 (click here) and purchased another one for Bosnia & Herzegovina in Sarajevo Airport. 

There you go! Hopefully I don't miss out any important travel tips and info relating my trip to these Balkans countries. In case you have any queries or doubt, feel free to leave a comment or email me. 

TOTAL SPENDING

As usual, I simplify everything for easy reference - which include means of transportation, hostels, entrance fees, food but excluding my shopping spending throughout my trip around 17 days. 

PARTICULARS	AMOUNT
	€/KM/CZK	RM
Air Fares Singapore Airlines (Return fare Kota Kinabalu to Istanbul) Pegasus Airlines (One-way Istanbul to Sarajevo) Turkish Airways (One-way Zagreb to Istanbul) Cities Sarajevo – 2 days Mostar – 2 days Dubrovnik – 2days Split – 2 days A Day Trip to Split Zadar – 1 day Plitvice Lakes National Park – 1 day Zagreb – 2 days Istanbul – 2 days Ground Tour Herzegovina Tour Others 4GB Travel Prepaid Sim Card - Bought from Hello1010	- - - - - - - - - - - - 60KM -	2,190 293 955 301 188 782 419 149 289 300 363 250 150 103
	TOTAL:	6,732

Exchange rate  €1.00 = RM4.84 as at May 2018

Curious about my souvenir travel haul? There are two items I die-die must buy whenever I visit different country or city which are the fridge magnet and postcard. Besides these two, another one would be the stamps. Sometimes I would spend up to RM100 by just buying these three things. As for this trip, my total spending for souvenir and shopping is RM1,026 including numerous of fridge magnets, postcards, stamps, a T-shirt, a skirt and a dress when I was in Croatia. 

A hardcore collector for fridge magnets.

Souvenirs from Croatia including tea towels, liquid soap dispense and a T-shirt for my nephew.

Pouch and fridge magnets from Istanbul.

Turkish ceramic bowls in various sizes.

AIRLINES EXPERIENCE & THEIR IN-FLIGHT MEALS
For this trip, I flew and experienced 4 different type of airlines:

1) Silk Air for my journey between Kota Kinabalu to Singapore. I even blogged about this airline before (click here).

In-flight meal for Silk Air. I like their fresh fruits but not their main meal. Feel like eating thick flour instead of fish meats.

2) Singapore Airlines for the trip from Singapore to Istanbul as well as for the return. Finally I got to fly with the World's Best Airline. However, I'm quite disappointed with the fleet for the flight to Istanbul cause it's one old aircraft being used. The in-flight entertainment wasn't fascinating and not many options were given. Even for the in-flight meals, I found out it's just so-so and nothing to shout. 

For the route Singapore to Istanbul, their meals are quite acceptable. 

But for the route from Istanbul to Singapore, the meals look kinda sad and unappetising. Luckily there's an ice-cream to cheer me up

3) Pegasus Airlines for one-way journey from Istanbul to Sarajevo. Pegasus Airlines is a Turkish low-cost airlines with no-frills, similar to AirAsia where the fare doesn't include free baggage allowance, in-flight meal and entertainment. 

4) Turkish Airlines for a trip from Zagreb to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines is a national carrier airline of Turkey and it's full-fledged airlines. This is one of the most expensive fares I ever bought in my life just for a single trip. 

Never thought this is going to be a lengthy post but I'm glad that finally this is the end. Now I'm going to have a cup of nice hot coffee and at same time, thinking which travelogue should I blog next.

Foodie Friday: Nakiryu - Tokyo's Second Michelin Starred Ramen Restaurant

#nonhalalpost

So for my trip to Tokyo this year, not just one but then, I managed to experience two distinctive ramen restaurants that are awarded with a prestigious Michelin Star. The first one is Tsuta (click here) and the second one is this one - Nakiryu, which I am going to elaborate further in this post. 

#1: Nakiryu - World's Second Michelin Starred Ramen Restaurant

Frankly speaking, I know nothing about Nakiryu until my travel partner brought me here. He does the planning, and I just follow cause I'm not the type of traveler that will roaming further just for the sake of food adventures, unless I happen to be in the nearby neighbourhood. And because of its location sat on the non-touristic area, no surprise I wasn't aware of this ramen restaurant at all.

Balkans (2018): Istanbul, Turkey - My Starting & Ending Point of My Balkans Trip

Selam Istanbul!

Frankly speaking, I never imagine that I will visit Turkey by my own someday. My friends and I have been discussed about our trip to Turkey for the past few years but then, we never materialise it to date. One of the main reasons is due to the airfares - most of the times the price of the airtickets to Istanbul from Kuala Lumpur were over our budget. Not until (again!) my friend who manages the Mytravelmatez FB Page shared with me about Singapore Airlines promo. All-in return fares from Kota Kinabalu to Istanbul for as low as RM2,100 which I personally think it's a great bargain. Informed my friends about this but because each of them are committed to their worklife, at the end I decided to go ahead to travel by my own. It's not like I had never experienced travel alone before, right? So without thinking any longer, instantly booked the ticket before the price increase. My motto, "Book first, think later".