My Birthday Celebration 2013

A lil bitsy piece of my personal post but still, it still relate to my travelling life (for some).

Whether the celebration was celebrated with full of blast or even a happening and lively celebration, it doesn't matter to me cause I felt more grateful and blissful surrounding by my beloved family and friends for the past few days before and also during my birthday itself.

But among all my birthday celebration for this year, the most unforgettable was my early celebration in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Seriously, I never thought that my collegemates will eventually went and look for birthday cake with the help of our driver without my acknowledgement. And when I posted the photo below in Facebook, they told me how difficult to buy the cake and at the same time, trying hard to hide the cake so I won't found out. It's indeed so touching but at the same time, I laughed non-stop for their silly actions.

#1: Thank you so much my friends and looking forward for our next trip.

#2: Dinner treat at the newly opened The Glass Grill & Bar by my crazy besties

My dearest crazy bestie will never miss out to celebrate this meaningful day with me almost every year. It's kinda hard for us to catch up with each other nowadays due to our busy schedule especially myself, who always busy with globetrotting here and there but I glad that night, we laughed and talked like no other business.

#3: Dinner treat by my daddy in MK Supertanker on the night before my birthday

[Pic: Source from Google]

#4: Brunch with my family in Japanese Dream House Restaurant on the day itself

I guess celebration with my family is exactly the same like every other year, filled with foods. This year my family celebrated my birthday a night earlier cause my dad is going outstation on my birthday itself. Plus, my aunt from Kuching was also around KK for business trip that. Thus, we went to my family favorite restaurant at MK Supertanker Restaurant. This restaurant is quite famous and almost full house every night. Thank goodness my mom managed to reserve in advance, or else it will be a long queue.

#5: Travel Fashionista on Birthday Night

Blue tops & pink handbag from Bangkok, skirt & choker necklace from Singapore and earrings from South Korea.

Last but not least, a celebration with dearest Boyfie is what I'm looking forward. For this year itself, seriously I ran out of idea where to have our dinner. Just had Japanese cuisine for the past few days and for sure, I banned fast food as my birthday treat. Ended up, we went Secret Recipe which also we celebrated there back in 2 years.

#6: Birthday dinner in Secret Recipe, Suria Sabah

As for the surprised gift from Boyfie, since I had received a bouquet of lilies from him last year, I told him not to waste money from buying flowers again as it doesn't last long. Received once is seriously enough for me. He even plan to buy me a camera, Samsung Galaxy Camera cause I did told him few times that I wanna have that but at the end, I declined cause I just had Sony Nex 5N as my new toy last year August. So at the end, he made me this:

#7: A blue origami bear which he made by himself for almost 2 days. ♥♥♥

Blue is my favourite colour and he know I used to like teddy bear.

I realised sometimes we don't have to value our gift in monetary terms but this one specially handmade by him is something that money can't determine at all. This is what I call "PRICELESS GIFT". 

Once again before I end this post, I would like to thanks everyone for the wonderful & lovely birthday wishes. Yesterday was the one and only day of the year where my Facebook, Twitter, Whataaps, SMS even Instagram was showered with the tons of best birthday wishes from you guys. Thanks to all of these bloggers too; Wern Hong, Lily Riani, Dan Arif, Helmi Yusof, Ren/Janggel, Fienuts, Hilda Milda Teo, Charmaine Pua Li Ping, Adam Eben, Aemy Nadira, Caroline Ng May Ling, Sherrie Pui, Daniel Chiam, Nathalie Blue, Wendy Wong, Rayyan Haries, Jeff Chuah, Eudora Priscilla, Fish Szehui, Ivan Chan and many more. (For those who I miss out, I am so sorry cause there are more than 200 birthday wishes I didn't managed to see at all). Till then, may all the wishes and blessings fall upon you guys too. Have an awesome day! Oh ya! I just found out that 10th March is "The International Day of Awesomeness!" What's a coincidence.

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Siem Reap, Cambodia 2013 (Sneak Peek)

Have anyone of you organise a gathering trip with your school/college/unimates after graduated? Yes, I did and I think I did almost every year with different group of friends of mine. Most of my trips since year 2010 until now were either gathering trips with my secondary classmates, collegemates and even my UK unimates. Since ever all of us graduated, it's is so hard and rare to hang out together and in my own opinion, one of the best way is to have a gathering trip. However, it's not easy anyway cause sometimes it's difficult for us to find the suitable date for us to gather for a trip. Take for example for my last year Bali trip, it was supposed to be a gathering trip with my collegemates but turns out to be only 3 people were joining.

Luckily last year I managed to secure airtickets to Cambodia for 7 people at least. Actually this suppose to be my first trip for this year but turns out I went Johor Bahru and Singapore early of this year and also to Bangkok with my family last month for Chinese New Year holidays. Hence, I didn't spend much time to plan well for this trip as I was busy with closing account and setting my own business at the same time. But I glad that everything turns out well despite the scorching hot weather throughout our visit.

So, here's what my friends and I did during our 6 days trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia:

#1: Witness the mesmerizing sunset at Angkor Wat

#2: Bayon Temple, one of famous landmark of Siem Reap 

#3: Ta Phrom, this is where Angelina Jolie stood for the film Tomb Raider

#4: Sunset moment at floating village in Tonle Sap Lake

#5: Watching Aspara dancing show while enjoy our buffet dinner

#6: Bought some souvenirs such as postcards, fridge magnets, T-shirt for memento at Old Market 

#7: Almost every night we went Pub Street for dinner and also for night market which is nearby.

#8: Despite their poor living standard, I was so surprised that Cambodia people tends to be more friendly and love to smile to the tourists. 

For this trip, I really enjoy myself to the fullest - laughing non-stop and talking with my friends and this reminds me of my young, free and bold college life. Now, we are looking forward for our next trip. Wondering where should we heading next? In between and out of my expectation, my friends gave me a huge surprised by celebrating my early birthday in Cambodia. I was so shocked and my tears almost shedding cause I never ever thought they will purposely go and find birthday cake for me. Thank you so much, my friends!

#9: Celebrated my early birthday while having Chinese cuisine somewhere nearby Pub Street

Oh well, I am feeling kinda exhausted and tired now cause except for November last year, I had travelled abroad every month since last year August until now. But all of these paid off when I received this kind of message:

Looks like I need to change my course to Tourism and become tourist guide. Don't you think so?

So without looking any further, Cambodia concluded as my third trip for this year and also marked as the 27th country I'd visited up to date. 

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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.

#1: It even house of two Thai own department store and supermarket chain, Robinson and Big C.

#2: Not just for shopping, Jungceylon is also an ideal place for dining enthusiasts. 

In this Sino Phuket Zone, we saw that there are so many kind of restaurants, bars and coffee shops serving Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, western cuisines and more. Seriously, no worry of being hungry at all.  We went to hunt for our breakfast once we arrived Phuket on the first day before waiting for check-in into our guesthouse, and we ended up in everybody's favourite famous fast food chain, McDonald. 

#3: Pork Samurai Burger and Pineapple Pie which totally can't found in Malaysia. #onlyinthai

#4: Not forgetting to take photo with Ronald McD wherever you visit Thailand and do the welcoming sign. #onlyinthai

 

#5: My first try on Swensen ice-cream

I always wanna try this Swensen when I stumbled across those bloggers who went Thailand and tried this before. Like I did said before in my previous post, ice-cream is my all time favourite ice-cream. Well, from my opinion, Swensen seems to be too sweet but the taste can still acceptable. Imagine my friends and I had ice-cream twice in a day; previous one was while we're walking to Patong Beach (click here). Obviously thanks to the hot scorching weather for making us keep craving for something cold to cool down our body.  

#6:Jungceylon huge pirate ship build in the center of the mall

#7: Cute and colourful elephant statues

I'm not sure what were these statues represents for or maybe serve for somekind of occasions or events, but we found all of these elephants caught our attention instantly. Without waiting any longer, it's time for non-stop photoshooting moments with these all adorable and colour elephant statues. If you happen to read my blog earlier, you will find out that I love to take photos with colourful statues such as

#8: Group photo with my best buddies together with Thai elephant statues

#9: This is my favourite one - I ♥ Phuket

#10: Even AirAsia took chance to advertise themselves in Phuket-style tuk tuk

Some of the spots we saw nearby our guesthouse:

#11: Anyone interest with Bangla Thai Boxing?

#13: Different kind of creative T-shirt design

#14: Thai so-called petrol station

#15: Last but not least, their crazy and complicated cable

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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.

#1: We ordered two kind of ice-creams; Caramel Chocolate & Banana with Strawberry.

If you ask me the comparison between these with the global chain of ice-cream restaurant, Swensen, it's hard for me to do the comparision cause for me, I just super duper love ice-cream. Ice-cream melt my heart easily. Done with ice-cream, we continue to walk to Patong Beach. 

#2: Tsunami Hazard Zone Signboard

Since ever the tsunami disaster which happened back in year 2004, Thailand is taking serious action on everyone's safety by putting the warning and safety signboard.

#3: Finally we reached the beach when we saw tons of beautiful umbrellas and deck chairs.

Patong Beach turned out to be too commercialised and crowded. Mainly because especially the Caucasians, they prefer to workship the sun. Some of them can just lay down on the chair for whole day without doing anything. By the way, the chairs are for rent, not free of charge. The charge of each chair is about 100 baht per person and can use it until they close. But for us, we don't want to waste our money on that.

#4: Patong Beach is kinda long and wide beach.

Quite number of water activities available here; jet-skiing, parasailing, sightseeing boats and more but we didn't even bother with that as we tried to avoid from getting wet. Silly us for not bringing extra spare of clothes.   

#5: Two sightseeing boats

Despite the overcrowded especially with foreign tourists, we managed to take quite number of good shots. What I means a photo with vibrant blue sky and crystal clear blue sea as the background. If you wanna have a serene and quiet place to relax your mind and soul, definitely this Patong Beach will not be your choice.

#6: My Flipper slipper

#7: Left our footprints in Patong Beach

Besides the beach, there are number of stalls selling different kind of goods nearby; such swimsuits, souvenirs, foods and more. Especially for the ladies, if you are hunting for sexy and yet cheap bikini, try to look for the stalls nearby Patong Beach because for the last time I heard from a friend of mine, she bought as low as RM20 for a set of bikini. Talking about a great bargain, here.

It's not hard to find Patong Beach. Just ask the local if you're lost and don't worry, Thai people are absolutely one of the friendliest people on earth.

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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. 

#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.

#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.

#3: Terminal 21 - Good shopping place with unique concept

#4: Damneon Sadouk Floating Market

#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:

#6: Wat Pho - Temple of Reclining Buddha via Chao Phraya Tourist Boat

#7: Stopby Chinatown for Chinese cuisines

#8: 4 hours long roadtrip just to get closer with these tamed tigers in Tiger Temple Kanchanaburi Seriously a #butthurt case

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.

#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.



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.

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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