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Jungceylon, Phuket's Shopping Destination

One of the main reason why we choose to stay in Loveli Boutique Guesthouse was because it located few steps away from Jungceylon, the largest shopping center tucked in the heart of Patong houses more than 200 lifestyle and leisure shops. We went here like almost everyday not for shopping purpose, but sometimes to hunt for foods and also a place for some free air-condition moment.

Phuket Day 2 - Jungceylon 01
#1: It even house of two Thai own department store and supermarket chain, Robinson and Big C.

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Patong Beach, Popular Beach of Phuket

Date of Visit: 6th January 2012

On the second day of our Phuket trip, it's kinda free and easy as we didn't bought any travel package for the day time. After breakfast, we decided heading to the famous and well-developed beach, Patong Beach. The path from our guesthouse to the beach took more than 10 minutes and if we knew the shortcut, it might be shorter but we're unsure with the shortcut. Walking through halfway, I spotted a random ice-cream shop that I felt so tempted wanna have them. Oh well, afterall it's my favourite dessert and hard for me to resist it and because of that, my friends said, "Let's go in!". Yes, I went in happily just like a little girl.

Phuket Day 2 - Ice Cream
#1: We ordered two kind of ice-creams; Caramel Chocolate & Banana with Strawberry.

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Double B: Bangkok & Brunei Trip 2013

When I met Bangkok for the very first time October last year (click HERE), I wish and pray hardly that I could able to go there again and yes, my wish was granted whereby my family and I did visit Bangkok for this year Chinese New Year holiday.

My dad almost signed up with tour company that cost almost RM3,000 per pax and luckily I managed to stop him from doing so. Imagine with that amount of money, I could travel and shop like crazy in Bangkok twice. So ended up, and once again I in charge of becoming the tour planner as well as as their so called "tour guide"; from booking the airtickets, reserve hotel rooms to arrange tour for 10 people. 

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 01
#1: We flew with Royal Brunei and transit in Brunei 
It's been so long I never flew with  this airline as I used to travel with them like almost every week when I was kid, according to my parents.

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 02
#2: We were so surprised when our deluxe room being upgraded to Presidential Suite but only for first night.

Since I went Bangkok before but for my family members, this was their first visit, some places I went for second time, which I think worth and highly recommended for their eye opening.

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 03
#3: Terminal 21 - Good shopping place with unique concept

Bangkok Floating Market
#4: Damneon Sadouk Floating Market

Coconut Ice-cream
#5: Finally got to find the famous coconut ice-cream stall in Chatuchak Weekend Market

Whereas some I came across for the very first time such as:

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 04
#6: Wat Pho - Temple of Reclining Buddha via Chao Phraya Tourist Boat

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 05
#7: Stopby Chinatown for Chinese cuisines

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 06
#8: 4 hours long roadtrip just to get closer with these tamed tigers in Tiger Temple Kanchanaburi Seriously a #butthurt case

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 08
Not just Bangkok that we went, due to our 9 hours transit in Brunei while waiting back to KK, we're heading down to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei for huge and scrumptious sushi at Escapade, the best Japanese restaurant in Brunei which highly recommended by most of my friends and family.

2013 Thailand, Bangkok & Brunei 07
#10: My shopping haul: 4 dresses, 12 tops, 2 shorts, 7 skirts, 4 bags & accessories

Talking about shopping, I can't deny that Bangkok is my favourite place to shop compare to my experience in Shenzhen, Jakarta, Bandung, Seoul and other cities I went before. Definitely for sure, I will go Bangkok again for third time. I think Bangkok has put spell on me, gosh!

By the way, my blog - Travel & Living Journal of DT has being nominated for 4 categories in MITBCA or Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Awards; "Tourism Shopping Blog", "Tourism Travel Blog", "Tourism Blog of The Year" and "Tourism Destination Blog" by some mystery but sweet lil angels, which he/she doesn't want to reveal himself/herself.

MITBCA

Actually I kinda hate begging for votes from you guys but if you think my blog deserve those categories, I would appreciate if you could cast a vote for my blog. Follow the following steps if you like to vote my blog:
  1. Go to MITBCA website - link.
  2. Register with your email or you can even log in with Facebook (the easiest way but no worry, it won't appear in your Facebook page)
  3. Click "VOTE" and remember, you can only vote one only for each category. 
Among all the categories at this moment, my blog got the highest votes for "Tourism Shopping Blog" category. Hence, kindly please cast more votes for this category.

MITBCA
Thank you guys and let me know if you had voted for my blog. Voting start now until 22nd February 2013.
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Phuket Simon Cabaret, The Ladyboy Show

Phuket Day 1 (Part I) - Loveli Boutique Hotel 
Phuket Day 1 (Part II) - Cashew Nut Factory, Wat Chalong, Karon View Point & Promthep Cape

Date of Visit: 05th January 2012

After my friends and I back from our half day tour wander around Phuket - click HERE, we went back to the guesthouse for few minutes break before going for our next activity which was the Simon Cabaret, the lady boy entertainment show.

Simon Cabaret 02
 #1: The entrance

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Cashew Nut Factory, Wat Chalong, Karon View Point, Promthep Cape & Seafood Dinner

NOTE: Kinda busy with preparation for CNY, therefore my blog not being updated for almost a week. By the way, wishing all my readers a prosperity, wealthy & healthy year ahead. Welcome the water snake year and get bless. Happy Chinese New Year everyone. 

Date of Visit: 05th January 2012

Since we had wasted half of our day upon arriving in Phuket, I suggested to my friends for a half day tour around Phuket. One of the guesthouse's host, Neil told us that the rate charge for 6 hours tour would be 1,500 baht and one car can accommodate up to 4 people whereas for 9 hours tour would be 1,800 baht. We agreed to take the 6 hours tour although the 9 hours tour seems to be more worthwhile but we had another plan at night, which I will blog in the next post.

Few of the places I did do some research before leaving to Phuket except for the last destination, which was suggested by Neil that shouldn't miss out by any traveller or tourist.

Cashew Nut Factory
Phuket Day 1 - Cashew Nut Factory
 #1: Cashew nut factory

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Sawatdee Phuket & Loveli Boutique Guesthouse

Date of Visit: 05th January 2012

My 2012 trip started by kicking off to Phuket together with my college besties in early of January. And of course, I need to fly all over from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur before flying again to Phuket on the next day. Well, it's kinda tiring in the first place because we need to wake up as early as 3am in order to catch our 6am flight to Phuket but then, we were more thrilled and excited for this island and beach getaways. 

Phuket Day 1 01
#1: Witness sunrise from hundred feet above the sea was breathtaking. I always requested for window seat.

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Top 10 Berlin Attractions & Sightseeings


Germany's largest city and capital since 1990, Berlin is certainly one of the city in Europe must visit. Berlin is one vibrant city as most of its buildings were built with the funds received from various countries and in return, making this city an interesting of both mix and match styles. When comes to attractions and sightseeing, this city has no definite centre and pockets of attractions are dotted all over the place. Berlin is kinda a very large and spread-out city, so it's not practical to get around by foot. Therefore, the most convenient and easiest way to travel around the Berlin city is by taking its extensive public transport system.

During our visit there, we did went and visited few of the famous attractions which shouldn't miss out. Here is the top 10 list of my personal favourite attractions and sightseeings in Berlin:

1. Brandenburger Tor
 Berlin Brandenburg Tor Gate 01 
Brandenburger Tor or Brandenburger Gate is the symbol and landmark of Berlin. This gate has its own history for more than two hundred years and it's symbolize of peace and unity. Crowning on the top of gate is the bronze quadriga of victory, a four-horse chariot that used in Roman times were a symbol of triumph. 

2.  Checkpoint Charlie 
Berlin Checkpoint Charlie 01
Checkpoint Charlie is the famous border crossing between East and West Berlin, where American and Russian forces stood against each other after the creation of Berlin Wall. There is even a museum showing different methods of escape from former East Berlin to West Berlin.

Berlin Checkpoint Charlie 02


Berlin Checkpoint Charlie 03

3. Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial
Berlin Holocaust Memorial 01
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which known as Holocaust Memorial is the memorial in Berlin dedicated to the thousand of Jewish victims during the World War II. This memorial took over a year to complete and was opened in December 2004. Means by the time we visited this, it just less than 4 years old. This attraction is located close to Brandenburger Gate and not far from the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. 
  
Berlin Holocaust Memorial 02
All of these rectangular grey blocks are vary in heights
 

Berlin Holocaust Memorial 03

4. Reichstag
Berlin Reichstag 01
Reichstag Building is parliament house and mirror of German history.

5. Rotes Rathaus
Berlin Rotes Rathaus 01
Rotes Rathaus or known as Red Hall City is the town hall of Berlin. It is the home to the governing mayor and the government of the Federal state in Berlin.

6. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church 01
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is the symbolic centre of West Berlin, an anti- war memorial to peace and reconciliation.

7. Berliner Dom
Berlin Cathedral Church 01
Berliner Dom, the cathedral church of Berlin is the largest church in the city and it serves as a vital center for the Protestant church of Germany.

8. Berlin’s Fernsehturm
Berlin Fernsehturm 01
Berlin’s Fernsehturm is a TV Tower and the tallest building in Berlin. As urban legend has it, the tower’s height is 365m high so that every child would be able to remember it, just like the days of the year. But turns out that the actual height of this tower is 368m.

Berlin Fernsehturm 02
Berlin’s Fernsehturm is located not so far away from Berliner Dom. 

9. Potsdamer Platz
Berlin Potsdamer Platz 01
Once one of the busiest squares in Europe, Potsdamer Platz was heavily damaged in World War 2 and then lay empty during the cold war because of it's position between east and west Berlin. Today the square has been revived and is once again a busy hub in the center of the German capital.

10. Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall 06
Last but not least, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall in the East Side Gallery. It is the largest open-air gallery in the world with over one hundred original mural paintings in 1.3 km-long painted stretch. I did blogged about this before in full post - The Rising & Falling of Berlin Wall.  

DT @ Berlin, Germany
DT with Germany's flag
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Unexpected First Trip of 2013

Well, it's not an unexpected trip anyway cause both Boyfie and I did plan earlier for a trip to Johor just for the newly opened Legoland Theme Park but unfortunately the airfare was extremely expensive. A return airfare from Kota Kinabalu to Johor Bahru for a person via AirAsia cost roughly RM270 plus and we were thinking to postpone until we managed to get a very cheap one. Out of sudden, AirAsia was having this 1Malaysia Integration Programme by offering 10,000 free seats to all Malaysian early of this month. I was just trying my luck and I was so shocked when the return airfare was RM15 only (only had to pay for the airport tax). Without thinking any longer, immediately I purchased as we managed to save at least RM250 per person and for two, we saved roughly more than RM500. Yes, both of us are accountant and auditor, therefore we are quite calculative.
1Malaysia AirAsia aircraft
Newly launched of AirAsia 1Malaysia aircraft version

For this trip, we tried to limit our budget up to RM1,000 for two pax including hotel, transportation, foods and admission to Legoland but this of course, excluded our shopping spending. Who knows that my sister has two Legoland 30% discount vouchers given by KFC Singapore and as for the hotel, I managed to redeem up to RM75 from Agoda.com for the points I accumulated. Hence, for a 3 stars ranking hotel that cost RM420 for 3 nights, I only paid RM345.
Legoland Malaysia
It's scorching hot during our visit but it's better than pouring day. 

The only problem that we're facing throughout the trip was the mode of transportation mode it was kinda inconvenient for both of us. We did check the schedule of the public bus but sometimes it can't guaranteed that we might able to catch the bus. On the day we went to Legoland, we woke up as easly as 6.30am to catch the bus at 8.30am but we didn't see any sign of bus when the time as scheduled arrived. Then, on the other day we tried to catch bus at 10am and we reached 15 minutes earlier, the related party told us that the bus has left earlier cause there was no sparking space for them. Oh my gosh! Some of the bus driver were not even honest and lied to us that we had reached the desired bus stop but turns out to be other bus stop. Kinda hard to believe that this happened in my own country, Malaysia. Shame to say that! Therefore on the last day, we spend almost RM100 just for one way from our hotel to airport cause we worried if we trying to catch a public bus, in returns we might miss our flight due to inconsistency of the public bus.

Handal Indah - JB Public Bus

However, throughout the trip besides Legoland, I enjoyed meeting up two group friends of mine; one was my college classmate and the other was my university housemate cum my travelmate to Japan and Korea. Both of them did offer to bring us around but we rejected cause we got our own plan. Not just travel around Johor Bahru, Boyfie and I managed to go Singapore too for a day trip. From my previous trips to Singapore, I always bypass from Johor Bahru to Singapore by renting a car. This time around, we took public bus, then went through the immigration checking point and went back to the bus again. Seriously speaking, all of these processes were not convenient especially for those who lugging with huge luggage bags and also for those elderly people.

JB Immigration Checkpoint
If you look closely, I was stopped by the officer from taking any photo. No photos are allowed!

Nothing much I can blog about my this travel adventures except for Legoland Theme Park as well as review of the hotel I was staying - 11@Century Hotel, which I will blog in the next few posts.

For more of my travel updates, follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
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Castleton, United Kingdom #throwback

Castleton is my first ever trip when I studied in United Kingdom back then and I had never blog about this before. Frankly speaking, none of us had ever heard of this place before but after our senior explained how beautiful and scenery was that place, immediately we signed up with our senior to join for this 1 day tour. Afterall, discover new place wasn't a bad idea and might gain new experiences.

Castleton 01
#1: Castleton signboard

Castleton is a small little village located in the north east of England. The name itself was taken upon a castle which built besides the famous river known by the local. You won't find any high skyscrapers or even public transportation such as trains surrounding this village. All we saw just a row of old dark brown houses and shops without any paint of them, two or three small churches and an art gallery.

Castleton 02
#2

Castleton 03
#3

Castleton 04
#4

Castleton 05
#5

Castleton 06
#6

Castleton 07
#7: Colourful blossom flowers in front of somebody's house

Castleton 10
#8: As we walked further, we saw a flock of white fluffy sheep and it's my first time of seeing them.

Castleton 08
#9: A flock of sheep, a clear blue sky and a lush green field makes this a perfect photo.

Castleton 09
#10:Oh look! Even the sheep know how to look in front of the camera. Amazing!

Castleton 11
#11: Initially I had this naughty thoughts of rolling down the hill but tons of sheeps' poo poo. 

Castleton might seems nothing extraordinary but this place totally gave us the relax feeling and also stress free from keep thinking of the non-stop weekly assignments and presentations. Especially for people like us who living in the big city might not able to enjoy this kind of place back in our own city, this place is incredibly breathtaking and pristine. Castleton, a truly clean and fresh air village.  

Castleton 12
#12: Before leaving Castleton, a group photo with my unimates.
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