Kl cny 2018

So I’m back again in Kuala Lumpur after more than a year !

This time for Chinese New Year !

Flew with emirates this time as Malaysian Airlines has gone up again in price.

Smelled delicious roti canai whilst queuing up to get bus tickets. Asked the lady how much it costs and she says it’s now RM 1.50. I say “what ? How is it so expensive?”, she replied nonchalantly,” kalau awak mau 70 sen, awak buat sendirilah” (translation: if you want it for 70 cents you have to make it yourself)

It’s not that I can’t afford it but inflation in Malaysia is crazy. Prices of everything has doubled in the last 5-10 years. 

Favourite things to do in Rome, Italy

Rome, the eternal city.

Also my favourite city in the entire world! By the way, I say that about almost every city I go to.. hahhaa

Anyway this is my list of things I love doing whenever I am there! :)

Don't forget to bring a good pair of walking shoes ;) You can get almost everywhere by foot. Although they do have a good metro and fairly good bus system. Although you do have to be careful on the metro as I was almost pick-pocketed the last time I was there. I was busy chatting to a girl, and felt someone tried to open my bag, luckily they didn't take anything, but when I turned to see if the person had taken anything, the metro doors had already opened and they had ran away very quickly.

1) Colosseum- This one needs no introduction of course. It's the definite must see of the place. Every time I come here I imagine myself in the gladiator movie. LOL

2) Villa Borghese- I just love this place so so much! There's a beautiful park and also the Borghese gallery with the world class art inside. Highly recommended museum at Rome. Do remember to make a booking prior to going. They have time slots of 2 hours for each visit.

3) Trevi Fountain Everytime I come here, this place just simply amazes me. It's like you turn around some small street corner and *BOOM* this beautiful huge fountain just appears out of nowhere. You might have seen photos of this place, but it's nothing like physically being there. I would just describe it in one simple way as just simply breath taking. It has also recently been refurbished.
Fun fact is I have never thrown any coins in this fountain yet I keep returning time and time again to Rome for some reason...

4) Campo di Fiori - nice market except slightly touristy.  There's an amazing pizza place to eat called Forno, don't forget to order the pizza bianca. It's cheap and fresh pizza and they sell it to you according to the weight.

Also I enjoy looking at the statue in the middle of the square, which is of Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake here. Personally I think this statue looks like the grim reaper.

Also around the corner is a place called Filetti di Baccala, you can take away fried cod there for like 4.50 euros. Fresh fried cod!! yummy. Great for an afternoon snack.

5) Eating

I've eaten in many places in Rome but this is absolutely my favourite one! I only discovered it during my last trip when I went with my brother. One restaurant in Rome I absolutely recommend is in Trastevere called Da Enzo, there's always a long queue and I strongly suggest making reservations. When me and my brother first arrived there, we were a bit apprehensive as it seems to be full of tourists, but rest assured the meal was worth every last bite. This place is family owned and is quite small. Although the price of the meal is not very expensive, but the quality of food there is just amazing. They use really good ingredients. They serve roman classics for example fried artichokes, amatriciana, pasta carbonara like many other places but they cook it really well and just utterly delicious. Also don't forget to order the house wine. Probably the best house wine I've ever had in a restaurant. The waiters were also very nice and knowledgable about the food.

Tripa-cooked in tomatoes. Utterly divine

Carbonara, with the best Sarawak pepper and cheese

Think this was Amatriciana 

Fried artichoke and Fiori di Zucca

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Gelato- I just have so many favourite gelato places in Rome I want to recommend!
My absolutely favourite one is Gelateria Giolitti, but it's super popular and always packed with tons of tourists! but the flavours are amazing especially the chocolate ones! The Nutella one basically taste completely of Nutella except it's cold! I still can't get my head around it.

6) St Peter's and Vatican city

7) The Pantheon. This building is even better at night when there are no crowds around! I could just imagine myself in ancient Rome.

8) Other fountains in Rome- 

All the fountains in Rome are just super super pretty! Also all the water is drinkable. At least I have been going around drinking all the water and I am still alive. The water in Rome is also super tasty and with the hot weather, don't forget to carry a bottle to fill up as you go around exploring ;)
There's also a fountain which is drinkable even at Trevi Fountain. It can be found on the right side of where the fountain is, if you descend down the stairs.

 Fontana della Barcaccia is a Baroque-style fountain by Bernini - Foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome's Piazza di Spagna

Fontana Del Mose

Fontana Del Mose- opposite Santa Maria Della Vitoria Church

9) Churches - so many favourite ones with fantastic art works. My favourite ones being art by Caravaggio and also marble sculptures by Bernini.

Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria Della Vitoria church

10) The capitoline hill 

Three buildings compose the Capitoline Musuems. These group of museums showcase art and architecture collections from Rome in antiquity and the Renaissance. 

Colorful Cinque Terre

Colorful Cinque Terre

The ever-photogenic Manarola

Cinque Terre vs Amalfi
After my tourist run at the cultural metros of Italy, I was keen to head coastal. Like many before me, I was in a debate between Cinque Terre or the Amalfi Coast. Many ( and I do mean many) google searches later and I decided to go rugged and head to the coastal hills of Cinque Terre !!

 How I got there
An Italian holiday hub, Cinque Terre is easily accessible from Pisa to the east or Milan to the north. Coming from Switzerland, i caught a train from Milan to Monterosso - the first of the 5 villages of Cinque Terre. The journey itself was 3 hours via Trenitalia rail and one way super economy tickets can be purchased from $13.
Side note - going in late august you will be faced with the locals from the Italian metros flocking to                                                         the coast for holiday, so be aware of you like to avoid heavy tourists :)

Where to stay

5 Terre Backpackers   Photo Credit: Anita Ooi

So you decided on the beautiful west coast of Italy, but now comes the tricky part...where to stay?? Does it really matter seeing as you're already in Italy, of course it does ! If you're like me, hostel life is your best friend. Good news and bad news - there aren't an abundant number of hostels throughout Cinque Terre (as I so frustratingly found out) but don't worry you do have options !

After comparing the different accommodations, I kept coming back to 5 Terre Backpackers. It seemed perfect. One problem - 5 Terre Backpackers is a 20 minute drive from Monterosso up the hills to a town of Corvara and is only accessible via a hostel shuttle service which runs twice in the morning at 8:00 and 9:30 and picks back up in Monterosso at 16:00 and 17:30. There had to be a reason it was rated so highly though right ? Not all the reviews could lie, so I took a chance. Best decision ever !! This hostel is family owned and run by Francesco. A wonderful host and chef as well, Francesco keeps the hostel in excellent condition. Out of all my hostel stays 5 Terre will forever be one of my favorites. The cost I found to be typical for being on the Italian coast - €27 a night for a 7 bed dorm.

5 Terre Backpackers   Photo Credit: Anita Ooi

Pros - Cleanliness, friendliness, atmosphere (being tucked away in the secluded hills, the atmosphere depends on the other guests. I lucked out and met the most wonderful people, but this could not always be the case). Francesco also cooks dinner each night which you can purchase for €10 and has drink available for purchase.

Negatives - the breakfast was lackluster to be blunt consisting of cereal and biscuits, you don't have the opportunity to see the villages of Cinque Terre at night because of the shuttle and location, the €10 dinner is a bit overpriced but is your only option ~ it is delicious though ! The WiFi works outside in the lounge area where everyone congregates ( which for some could be an issue, but mingle instead with the other guests!! )

Wonderful new friends   Photo Credit: Anita Ooi

Overall I would give this hostel a 8/10 and will be returning in the future !

Dessert courtesy of our host Franceso

What to do & How to Get Around
Gelato, limoncello, more gelato, a nice long hike to burn off the gelato, and repeat :).
There are two options for getting between villages - hike or train. A train pass costs €7,50 and also includes wifi at any of the village train terminals (although the wifi is extremely spotty). Training from Monterosso to the final village of Riomaggiore will take 15 minutes. With 3 minutes to the villages in between. The trains between the villages are notorious for running not according to schedule so be aware !!

Beaches of Monteroso

Now for hiking (which I 100% advise :))

Cinque Terre has some of the most beautiful trails I have ever been on with spectacular views. There are marked trails between each village with hiking times ranging from 1 hour to 2.5 hours depending on your walking speed. From Monterosso to the middle village of Corniglia, the paths are 'blue paths' and easy to medium for hiking. Now from, Corniglia to Riomaggiore, the blue paths were under construction, so to hike you must take the red paths further into the hills creating a more cumbersome hike. I was able to hike all the villages in a day, with time to stop and enjoy each village in between ! (From Vernazza to Corniglia there is a lone juice spot with a view, and I highly recommend taking advantage !!)
After the trek, head back to Monterosso and enjoy some beach time and relaxation :)

Riomaggiore

                                     
Instagram : dancross3

Accomodation:
http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/5-Terre-Backpackers/Cinque-Terre/84472

Travel:
http://www.trenitalia.com/

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Round 3- Day 1

If you are reading this, please note that some of the stuff I am writing would not be in chronological order. As I am writing this retrospectively, I am going to write about the cool stuff I remembered first :) 

So this episode starts off with the time when I have just flown back from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

As some of you might know, I was supposed to go to Santiago de Chile, but then I did a major mess up with my flight booking. So basically I booked my flight to go to Chile a month ago, and I thought everything was okay. I was waiting for check-in to open at the airport, and I happily went to do my check in and the machine kept saying error when I typed in my booking number. So I went up to the counter, and they said my booking was actually a reservation :O So there I was stuck at the airport at 3-4am in the morning! Anyway very tired, as had just flew in at 10pm from BA to send my mum off, as her flight was leaving from Rio. He asked me if I wanted to rebook my flight and he checked the prices, and as it was last minute of course it was crazy expensive like 300-400 US dollars, sorry can't remember the actual price. So I thought forgot it, I rather spend another week in Rio instead! 

Doesn't this look like the flight booking has been confirmed? 

So the super annoying thing was we (me and my mum) had to leave BA early as we thought we would not make it back in time for her flight in Rio, but it turned out, the same Emirates flight was leaving from BA transiting to Rio to go back to Dubai then Kuala Lumpur. So if I had booked the Emirates flight instead, we could have left BA a lot later and the Emirates flight would be much better and also cheaper! 

Anyway I ended up spending my entire night at the airport :O Yes I was sleeping at the Rio de Janeiro–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Brazil!!!

This is actually the story of my life, sleeping at airports. Hahhaha.

Actually I am not sure how safe sleeping at this airport is, when I first arrived, I was chatting to some guys from Sao Paolo at the airport as I had to borrow an iphone charger!! They told me that they just saw somebody had their stuff stolen at the airport, and I know the airport is quite near to a favela :/

But luckily nothing happened to me, I had quite a nice sleep, even though the chairs had handles on it, so had to sleep in a fairly awkward position, but I guess it's alright since I am petite so I fit anywhere. Hahhaha. 

So I spent most of my morning, pursuing hostelworld trying to find a decent accommodation.

Came down to two choices, a hostel in Santa Theresa and another one a Barra da Tijuca.

Took so long to make my decision, I can be so indecisive sometimes. The one in Santa Theresa was cheaper, but as you know Santa Theresa is on top of a hill and can be quite difficult to get down from especially if it rains and the other thing is it's right next to a dangerous favela. Barra da Tijuca is a relatively 'new area'. Slightly far from the touristy areas of Copacabana, Ipanema, but the beaches are super awesome and clean, and it's far from the favela. 

I finally decided to pick the hostel in Barra da Tijuca, it's called Wolo Hostel.

Main reasons I chose this place:

1. Close to the Barra da Tijuca beach- 5 minutes walk

2. Close to Jardim Oceanico metro station, Line 4- it's a relatively new metro station, they built a new line for the Olympic games

3. Close to so many shops, restaurants, bars etc.

4. Had all the facilities I was looking for: Eg: Air conditioning, free breakfast, wifi, towels provided

5. Good price

6. John my Swiss friend was living in Rocinha, and it's super easy to get there from this place, either with the metro or hopping onto a bus :D 

Basically the location was awesome!

Also the little known fact that, you can get from the airport with the new BRT bus to Barra da tijuca area and it only costs R$ 3.80, but the bus rides takes almost 1.5-2 hours. But even if you take normal transportation, you can end up being stuck in the jam and maybe take the same amount of time. I think it's pretty cool to take the bus as you can see different areas in Rio de Janeiro whilst sitting comfortably in a bus. The BRT station is just located right outside the arrivals terminals. Alternatively you can spend a fortune on taxi or take the bus I think maybe it costs around R$ 16 or so to go to Zona Sul, which is the Copacabana, Ipanema area.

BRT-
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a transport mode that uses exclusive corridors. As a result, it offers faster travel for its users, as it does not suffer from congested streets.

I feel the best thing thing about the Olympics held this year is that they have really improved the transportation system and also the safety in Rio de Janeiro. One of the unfortunate things about Brazil is there is such a huge disparity between the rich and the poor. There is also a high level of corruption in the government as with most third world countries. Otherwise it is an extremely beautiful city with lots of outdoor nature you can experience for free. I also found things there very expensive to purchase, especially imported things. I feel sorry for people here, as their wages are low and basic living costs are pretty high! I can see why there is such a high crime rate in this city.

So the story of this picture is I arrived at the bus station of Jardim Oceanico and as I was going to be staying for an additional week, I had to get a sim card to stay connected!! I passed by a telecommunication company advertising their sim card.

Best decision ever seriously! 

So this Brazillian guy, I feel so bad for him, his English isn't very good but he tried his best to explain to me what the promotion was. At first I thought it was just R$ 10, but then realised it was another R$ 10 for the sim card as well, so a total of R$ 20, which is about 4-5 pounds. At first I wasn't sure if he was trying to cheat me or something, so I almost walked off, but then it was just the way he tried so hard to explain in a different language, I could sense that he was a honest person. Anyway turned out I was right, I googled the price of sim cards after and I did pay about the right price, if not less as it was a very good promotion. So the guy didn't have the small chip for my iphone 5 and he ran off to find one, and he was so afraid I would leave, he had to ask his colleague to keep me company :) He was so nice that he even helped me activate the phone account. I would not have a clue as it was all in Portugese. Anyway here's a picture of us, he's so happy he made the sale of the sim card, he wanted a photo and even gave me a hug! I swear this only happens in Brazil!! 

After I walked to my hostel and checked in and off I went to look for the beach. 

It's only 5 minutes walk away! Yay! !

The beach here is sooo beautiful, I kid you not. It's just miles and miles of clean sand and blue sea. 

There's also this awesome street, 10 minutes walk from the hostel called Avenida Olegário Maciel, and it's full of restaurants, different types of bars, shops, everything you need :) 

Woww How I wish I could be living in one of these apartments facing the beach :O 

Wanted to buy some havaianas slippers, my last one broke at Cinque terre of all places! But the shop was quite expensive and I couldn't decide which one I wanted as there are so many designs. 

This bar 399 apparently is very good and cheap bar on Avenida Olegario Maciel 

I was invited out again for dinner with the lovely Swiss and French doctors including my friend John as I told him I had to come back to Rio and he was doing an attachment for a week at the medical centre in Rocinha- a favela.

Met with the doctors at Copacabana for dinner, was so late!! Didn't realise the bus would take ages to arrive! Took at least 40 minutes journey I reckon. On the map it looks close, but Brazil it so big and everything just takes ages to get to!

Had an awesome dinner, me and John decided to share a feijoada. Feijoada is basically a very typical Brazillian dish, and it consists of black beans and meat stew and they serve it with vegetables and rice. Very yummy. Also had a caiprinhas, which is a Brazil's national cocktail and cahaca (sugar cane liquor), sugar and lime, but sometimes they add fruits as well. They prepare their drinks super strong here, I don't even think they measure the alcohol they pour in when making the cocktail. But it's super delicious and even drinking one glass can make you tipsy ;)

It was their last night in Rio de Janeiro so said my goodbyes to them! They have been super nice to me and invited me out for so many dinners when I was in Rio the week before with my mum for the conference :D

Me and John decided to take the bus back, as we are both on the same route except he stops first at Rocinha! So much cheaper than taking Uber, and also environmentally friendly :)

Bali trip planning..

Sorry, I'm always procrastinating writing my blog, and by that time, I have already gone on another travel and can't entirely remember every single detail of what happened in my last trip except for the highlights of course :D So just gonna write what I can remember :)

So I had to return to Malaysia to attend two of my friends' weddings in December.
Decided to do a detour trip to Bali as well.
Ahhh always wanted to go to Bali!!
Finally I had the chance to go! Very excited!

Took a super long time trying to decide if I should stay in Kuta, Ubud or Canggu, etc.
But oh my, Bali is actually bigger than I thought, and they have so many different types of accommodation, ranging from low range hostels, to guest houses to really expensive fancy hotels.
I spent days and days pursing booking.com and hostelworld trying to find a decent place to stay.

So the annoying thing is this, basically some places look quite nice in the pictures when you are looking it up on the internet, but really disappointing when you turn up and it's worse than you expected. The best ones are when you don't expect it to be that nice as you're not paying that much and the place turns out to be super awesome.
That's when you know you hit a gold mine :)

It took extensive searching and chatting to lots of people for me to finally decide to stay in UBUD! the cultural centre of Bali. Also went and booked 2 days to stay in Kuta, but when I finally did arrive in Bali, I cancelled those last 2 days and ended up staying the whole week in Bali instead :)

I took a long time trying to decide if I should stay in a guest house or hostel. The good thing was even to rent a guest house in Bali it wasn't very expensive.
If I stayed in a guest house I would have my own room, whereas in a hostel I could make more friends if there were other people staying but then I would be potentially sharing the room with loads of people, and it can be a nightmare especially if those other people are snoring :O

The other thing I had to consider was which part of Ubud I would be staying in.

So the hostels could be divided into two types.
First, the cheaper ones which also had air conditioner and pool with free breakfast was further away.
Second, about the same price, in the centre of town, but was either small, or didn't have breakfast or didn't have pool.

It also took a long time reading through reviews. Although reviews aren't always entirely accurate but you could more or less get the gist of the place by reading reviews left by other people.
I will write more about reviews another time and how it can be affected by different things.

The worst part of reading all the reviews was I found out so many of the hostels had bed bugs.
Just when I thought I found the perfect combination of things I wanted, suddenly I found reviews of people complaining about bed bugs in the place :O

Well, after weeks of deciding, I finally decided to stay 5 days in Ubud at a hostel, which had all my requirement of air conditioning, pool and free breakfast, also was 4 beds in a room with an attached bathroom, and it only came up to about 5-6 pounds a night. The only thing was I had to walk about 20 minutes to get to the centre of Ubud. Not a problem for me, everyone knows I need the exercise anyway. LOL :D

Anyway, I don't feel like I super planned for this trip, as I was tired and had just returned from Brazil and Argentina, and heading off to Italy and Spain after and was planning almost everything at the same time. My main planning was mostly the accommodation, and I knew I could play it by ear once I got there :)

Perth, Australia travelogue- Day 1 continued

So finally, my brother arrived. And I was looking for the best sim card to buy, as I was going to be in Australia for two weeks. Might as well be contactable. Finally settled with Optus carrier as my friend said it was one of the better networks, whereas Vodafone was slightly cheaper but the coverage as not

as good. 

I don't know how my mum was procrastinating at the airport and was just chatting to some random Malay couple and their kids. Reminded her that it was rush hour and we could be stuck in traffic and the taxi is going to cost a lot! 

Really easy to get a taxi outside the airport terminal, the taxis are all queued up outside. Then she did something very Malaysian, she wanted to go around asking if the taxis were all the same price, and I said yes! We have to take the first taxi in the queue, as this is how Australia works. Don't worry the taxi men won't cheat you unlike most other countries! 

Luckily the traffic jam was not too bad, as it was mainly highways into Perth city centre.

We arrived at the Citadines St Georges Terrace Apartments. Inside the room it was actually pretty big, it had 2 single beds and another small couch, which technically another person could sleep on. 

Also there was a kitchenette attached to it where you could cook. There's even a microwave and a fridge! 

So we arrived, tired, hungry. It was cold and rainy and windy outside. I looked up my phone to go somewhere for dinner, after having an extensive conversation on the phone with my friend Lisa about all the good places in Perth to eat. She mentioned the best roast duck in Perth. So according to google maps, it said it was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. So we decided to venture outside, but WOW, the wind was just so strong, we could hardly walk there, then we were contemplating the public transport or taxi to get there, but in the end my mum gave up and walked back home. So me and my brother looked up the phone for a place to buy groceries.

Finally, found a Coles on google map which was described as a supermarket nearby which had some reviews. Went there with my brother, and discovered Perth was very expensive. I think some things were almost double the price in UK. Perth due to it's previous booming mining industry, and also because of it's location in the Western part of Australia, most things are a lot more expensive compared to the east of Australia. 

Anyhow, we saw a whole roasted chicken for 8 Aussie dollars, but unfortunately as we were there late it was completely sold out! so we thought we would return tomorrow to buy some so we could make sandwiches for lunch. 

Best apple strudel in Perth