Dec 2006 - Cambodia

Dec 2001 - Thailand

Dec 2004 - Vietnam

June 2002 - Genting

Dec 2000 - Canada, Hong Kong & Macau

Had a wonderful trip to Canada. Was there for a whole month and it was an eye-opening experience. It opened my eyes and hunger to further self-planned vacations.

We visited Whistler, Edmonton etc.

We met up with Mommy and Garrick over at Hong Kong during our transit back to Singapore. Dac and I spent our 2nd Wedding Anniversary in Hong Kong. We also popped over to Macau for a day trip.

June 2004 - Bali

Grabbed a quick getaway to Bali. My second trip to Bali but it is Dac's first. We went to Sanur to visit the "black beach". We even went to Ubud.


We also tried water rafting and it was a great experience. We shared the raft with another couple who was not totally inclined to water rafting and the lady actually did a flop over and her legs landed over Dac. It was hilarious.

Had a very good massage which is value for money.

18th June 2007 (Monday) - 2nd Visit to the Gynae

Was at Dr Kee for the 2nd visit. Dr Kee had used the ultrasound machine and we were able to see the baby.

25th August 2007 (Saturday) - Mom's Birthday Celebrations

In the morning, the IKEA delivery came at about 10am. I made roti prata for breakfast with canned curry.

After breakfast, we started on fixing up the wardrobe with bought for baby. Dac did most of the fixing and i can see him put alot of attention to the finer details of fixing the wardrobe. Baby, you must thank Daddy for fixing the wardrobe for you. Good Job, Daddy!!!! Dac seems very satisfied that he is able to fix up the wardrobe for baby.

At lunch, we went with Daddy to Kovan. We meet up with Mom at Kovan. Daddy wanted to make a pair of new glasses.

Bought a new pot of bamboo at Far East Florist at Kovan. It consists of 3 bamboo shoots. I am very happy with my selection. Hope that the bamboo will be healthy and pretty. Darren repotted the bamboo plant into a bigger pot. Dac had put in alot of work since morning. Good Job!!!

Booked a table at Lei Garden to celebrate Mom's birthday. The food was good but the service was mediocre. Read more about the review I wrote at http://www.hungrygowhere.com on Lei Garden.

29th May 2007 (Tuesday) - First Visit to the Gynae

Pregnancy Kit showed positive test results on 28th May 2007.

Made an appointment with Dr Kee at TMC (My best friend's Gynae) in the afternoon. Dac had accompanied me to the clinic.

Dr Kee did an ultrasound and confirmed that I am pregnant. Shedded a tear when I saw the baby's image. Dac was also equally excited. He was not sure if the test kit was accurate yesterday, but the doctor confirmed the results.

As of today, I am 5 weeks pregnant and the Estimated Delivery Date (EDD) is on 27th January 2008.

Dac called my dad and told him the good news. Dac was obviously very excited. We had gone to Dac's mom place for dinner and he also related the good news to her. She was very excited and quickly called my father-in-law to tell him the good news. I also shared the good news with Andrea (my beloved cocker spaniel).

27th December 2006 (Tuesday) – Paris / Doha / Singapore

Home Sweet Home. Our flight, QR018 is scheduled to leave Paris at 1115hr and reaching Doha at 1945hrs. The flight (QR638) from Doha to Singapore leaves at 2330hrs and reaching Singapore at 1210(+1) hrs. The flight from Doha to Singapore was a surprise because we were upgraded to First Class. But the sad thing is that I had just popped 2 sleeping pills into my mouth just minutes before the arrangement. I had slept for the whole flight from Doha to Singapore while Dac was enjoying his ride in First Class.

26th December 2006 (Monday) – Liverpool / Paris

The DAY has finally ARRIVED!!!! We woke up early walked around and waited at the lobby for Eddie to come and pick us up to go to Anfield. To our horror, another hiccup came along. CY had not reserved tickets for us at all. Eddie had been a great help to help us get tickets for the match. We were so lucky to have met him.

The match was awesome. It was Liverpool vs Newcastle. Owen was in Newcastle. It is like a dream come true. It is an experience that one would never forget. NEVER!!!!

Once the match ended, we met up with Eddie and he sent us to the airport. Without him, I really wondered how we can make it for our flight in time.

Our flight to CDG Paris is at 1930hrs and is scheduled to reach Paris at 2155hrs. At Paris Airport, we went to pick up our backpack and I was so happy to get my backpack back. We decided not to check into the hotel as it was quite expensive. We spent the night in the airport.

25th December 2006 (Sunday) – Liverpool

It is CHRISTMAS!!!!! But it is a deadtown in Liverpool. We walked to Albert Dock. There was not a single person or car on the road.

Public transport was not available. We also passed the Lambanana. We walked to the City Centre to visit Beatles statues. We visited Matthew Street, Cavern Pub, John Lennon statue and Eleanor Righy statue.

We walked to Chinatown and found one Chinese restaurant – Mei Mei. One and only one. We had lunch there and bought duck back to the hotel to eat. Was quite boring. Nothing much to do because everything is closed. But when taking pictures quite good because there is no others in the background.

24th December 2006 (Saturday) – Liverpool

We got a complimentary breakfast in the morning. After breakfast, we made our way to Anfield for the Museum and Stadium Tour. Dac was really looking forward to this final leg of the journey. I can sense his excitement. He had originally even planned what to wear in Liverpool but as our fresh clothes were in the other luggage, we just had to “recycled” our clothes. We took a bus to Anfield. We bought a day pass for 4.20pds.

We met up with Eddie at the retail shop. He is a community coach at Liverpool Club. I think our guardian angel must be on our sides cos CY did not even inform him that we were coming. He managed to get us to take some pictures holding the Champions Cup. YES!!! Literally holding the Cup in our hands. Dac was totally ecstatic. Dac was abit disappointed that he did not manage to get a Champion League Jersey.

After the tour, we walked over to Everton Stadium which was just a stone throw away from Anfield.

We then made our way to the Liverpool’s City Centre. The Liverpool store at City Centre was closing and we did were not able to get Dac’s his Jersey. We are so lucky. Dac manage to get his hands on a Liverpool Jersey with Gerrad’s name (Liverpool’s Captain), No. 8 imprinted on the back. I had saw it on a mannequin in a shop and got the staff to bring it down for Dac. Dac was very happy. We also bought Dad a Manchester United Jersey.

We then took a bus to John Lennon’s house at Menlove and PennyLane.

We went back to the City Centre to take a bus back to the hotel. We saw a 99p shop still open and went in to do some shopping.

The hotel staff were also quite hostile and did not bother to entertain us when we needed to ask them some questions. Bad experience with British people.

23rd December 2006 (Friday) – London / Liverpool

Easyjet still could not locate my backpack. Where is my backpack???

We checked out and left our luggage at Berjaya Eden Park. They charged us 50 pence for each luggage. This is the first time I am charged for leaving luggage with a hotel. We paid 2.50 pds for 5 pieces of luggage.

We went to London Tourist Board to file a complaint against Easyjet. We then went to Singapore Embassy and a kind officer ,Joey helped us called Easyjet. He helped us to get our rightful compensation allowance for 25 pds per day. We were entitled a total of 75 pds for compensation. Joey advised us to file a police report a the police station.

We went to the police station but the police there were not helpful and did not allow us to file a report. It was a waste of time to look for the police station and waiting for our turn to file a report.

Next we went to Harrods and bought a few bags and an apron. We got to try one Krispy Kreme donut for free. It costs 1 pd for a donut.

I actually had planned to make a trip to University of London so that Dac can take a picture at his Campus and visit his Campus. But we were short of time as we had wasted a lot of time trying to file a report at the police station. It was my biggest regret. I hope that Dac and I can make a trip to London again and he can visit his Campus.

So we went to Marks and Spencer and did some shopping with compliments from Easyjet. We bought some lingerie and innerwear and a few bottles of shower gel.

We made our way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and we bought another half a duck from 4 seasons to eat during the train journey to Liverpool. Dac did not want to buy initially but he knows that I like the roasted duck so he finally gave in.

We took the train from London (Euston) to Liverpool Limestreet station by Virgin Train. The departure was at 2017 hrs and we reached Liverpool at 2247hrs. We got off the train and took a bus to Campanile Hotel. The hotel standards were similar to Comfort Inn.

22nd December 2006 (Thursday) – London

My backpack is still missing. Easyjet’s system was down for the day and they could not check anything.

We bought a day pass at 4.70 pds per ticket and went around.

We popped to Arsenal Stadium at Highbury first. Dac bought me an Arsenal jersey which bore the name of Thierry Henry, No. 14 in gold and velvet letterings. It costs 41.60 pds.

Next, we took a bus to 7 Sisters Road because our day pass did not cover Zone 3. We ate Fish n Chips and 2 pieces of fried chicken for lunch. After a satisfactory lunch, we proceeded by bus to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at Whitehart Lane. We bought a jersey on sale at 5 pds.
Next, we went to Fulham Boardway where Chelsea is. We bought a few T-shirts on sale for 24.50pds. We then went to Abbey Road (Tube : St John Wood – Jubilee Line) to see the famous Beatles’ zebra crossing. We saw a zebra crossing and started trying to take pictures by crossing it. Then came a man who told us that we are at the wrong zebra crossing. We are totally embarrassed.

We went to Marks and Spencer at Bond Street next. We bought Andrea (Our Beloved Princess) a packet of treats. She sure loved it when we gave it to her when we were back.

We then went to Lily White which is a big sport shop and they were having a sale. We then took a bus to Hard Rock Café. We bought a pin there but the service from the sales assistant was real bad.

On the way home, we bought half a roast duck back to the hotel from 4 seasons. Yummy….Delicious….

21st December 2006 (Wednesday) – London

Easyjet still count not locate my backpack. We took a slow and long walk from our hotel to Hype Park to get to West Minster. The weather was nice and we saw people walking their dogs and we also passed a memoir built in memory of Late Princess Diana.

We reached Buckingham Palace in time to watch the Change of Guards. We then made our way to Big Ben. Big Ben does not refer to the clock which a lot of people thought so. It actually refers to the bell at the top of the Tower.

We walked along River Thames but we skipped the London Eye. It is too expensive. The walk was very long along River Thames. We saw the Westminster Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Millienum Bridge, London Bridge and Tower Bridge. London Bridge was nothing spectular but the nicest one is the Tower Bridge. We also passed by the Shakespeare Globe.

We used the toilets at Tate Modern. We walked passed the Tower of London and went to Petticoat Lane.

We walked to Piccadilly Circus and to Leicester Square. We did a lot of walking today. Lots of leg exercise. We caught “The Producers” at a Wesst End Theatre. The tickets cost us 25.20 pds. We had a slice of pizza and a kebab for dinner.

20th December 2006 (Tuesday) – Madrid / London

We checked out of the hotel and went to the airport to catch our flight to London. Our flight is from Madrid to Luton Airport (London), Flight 2202 at 1050 to 1215hrs. We snacked on the pastries that we bought yesterday on the aeroplane happily, looking forward to a wonderful time in London.

We got a shock of our lives and nearly fainted when we reached Luton Airport. To our horror, my luggage (Northface backpack) did not arrive in London. Easyjet lost my luggage. We had our new clothes and souvenirs in the backpack. I was very upset.

We realized that there is no point staying at the airport so we took the Airport Bus to Baker Street and switched to the Tube to Bayswater. Our hotel is Berjaya Eden Park Hotel. The hotel was considered a good deal because we paid S$80 per night.

After checking in, we went to Portabella Market. It was getting dark. We bought a loaf of bread at 50 pence. It was a good deal for a big loaf of bread. It is probably because they are closing for the day. We also bought 3 big muffins for 1 pd.

Were not in the best of mood for both of us. Thanks to Easyjet.

We bought some milk and salad from Tesco back to the hotel. We spent 10.92 pds. We left the milk and salad outside our window as there was no fridge.

19th December 2006 (Monday) – Madrid

We woke up early and walked around looking for something to eat for breakfast. Dac had a craving for Mickiedies and we ended up spending E7.75 on Macdonald’s breakfast. It was extremely expensive. I had the Big Big Mac (no typo error here). Its real huge.

After breakfast, we went to Puerta del Sol. We are there to look for “Kilometer Zero” which is the centre of Spain. It is just located in front of the entrance of the Governor’s office.

We walked to La Mallorquina which is famous for sweet Napolitana cream filled pastry (E1) and beef-filled agujas pastries (E1.50). We bought one of each to try. The shop was very crowded and had old pictures of how Real Madrid looked like.

We walked to Plaza Mayor next. We found a Tourist Booth at Plaza Mayor and used its free internet access for a while. We then exited Plaza Mayor on Calle Cindad Rodrigo and went to Casa Rua which is famous for their cheap bocadillos de calamares (fried squid ring sandwiches). Each cost E1.85.

We then walked to Royal Palace. We took some pictures. Dac took a picture with a statue with his bum facing the camera. They do look quite alike, haha. On the way back, we brought some groceries from Champion. We spent E2.64.

We bought 2 more bocadillos cos they were super crispy and delicious at E3.70. We also bought more pastries from La Mallorquina. We spent E8.30. We brought all the stuff back to the hotel.

We then went to Camper and bought 2 pairs of shoes. One for Dac and one for myself. We spent E198. After buying the shoes, we took the Metro back to the hotel. We did not buy a Metro ticket back to the hotel because we saw the locals jumping over the gate without buying their tickets. We did just that, hahaha. Save us some money!!!! We bought Burger King back to the hotel for dinner. We used up all our Euros cos tomorrow we are going to London. Yipeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

18th December 2006 (Sunday) – Madrid

We reached Charmartin train station at about 0820hrs. The metro was closed and we had to change another train to get to the Metro station.

The hotel that we had booked was Hotel Laris. It was quite near the Metro station. We could only check in at 1200hrs. So we left our bags and went out. We went to Prado Museum first. It was Sunday so the museums in Madrid were free. We also walked to Centro Reina Sofia.

We were hungry and we got a phamplet on a buffet and we went for it. The buffet cost E15.60. Not very nice or should I say “Not nice at all!”. Dac did not like it. We went back to the hotel to rest after the meal and went out after resting.

We went to Hard Rock Cafe and proceeded to Real Madrid Stadium, Santiago. The metro station is Santiago Bernabeu. There was a game and we wanted to try our luck whether we could get tickets. There were touts selling tickets. The cheapest from the box office was E25 per ticket. A conner wanted to sell us at E35 but when we got back to him, he said he had no tickets. He wanted to sell us something more expensive. We went back to the box office and luckily there were some teachers who wanted to get rid of their tickets and we got two tickets at E20 each, which was a pretty good deal.

We were very excited to be able to watch the match “LIVE”. It is an experience that one would not forget. Dac was especially excited. The match was between Real Madrid and Osasuna. We even called home to dad to get him to place a bet for us. We betted on Real Madrid. We lost. The score was 1 – 1.

17th December 2006 (Saturday) – Lisbon

We woke up for breakfast which was provided by the hotel. After breakfast, we made our way to Sintra. We bought the day pass for E7.20.

We took the train (E5.80) to Sintra. Sintra was the last stop. We bought the Day pass (E7.70) and took the bus to Moorih Castle. We walked to the gate of the castle.

We then hopped onto the bus again to Pena Park / Palace. We took pictures. Then we took the bus and dropped at the town centre. We bought a chicken pin for E1.50. We then hopped onto the bus back to the train station and took the train back to Lisboa.

Back at Lisboa, we took Tram 15 to Belem to visit the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos.

We then took Tram 28 to Alfama. We took it to the last stop which seemed to an area which sells wholesale goods. We took the Tram back to Alfama and walked around. We bought a packet of chips and 2 cans of softdrinks for E1.83. We also bought a Magnum ice-cream for E1.00.

We walked along Baixa and we bought a photoframe for E3.00 and a bath bubble for E0.99. WE took the Santa Justa Elevator which was included in the Day pass to see the view of Lisboa city.

We went to a supermarket to buy our dinner which consisted of half a chicken and a drink which cost us E2.77. We had our dinner at Praca Rossio. I heard the Red Indians again when eating our dinner and eventually bought the CD for E12. I also bought a pork sandwich from a shop which cost E1.50. Also bought a magnet of a chicken for Dac’s mom for E2.00.
We went back to the hotel to wait for our train to Madrid at 2201 hrs reaching Madrid at 0840hrs. The sleepers were single sex so we bought 2nd class seat tickets.

16th December 2006 (Friday) – Barcelona/Lisbon

We woke up and soaked in the bubble bath together. It was quite romantic.

We ate our breakfast which consisted of salad and made our way to Barcelona Airport for our flight to Portugal, Lisbon. Our bus to the airport cost E7.20. We flew by Vueling and the flight no. was 4526. It was scheduled to leave at 1345hrs and arriving at Lisbon at 1430hrs. Our flight was delayed for 45mins, we walked around the airport.

We reached Lisbon at about 3pm. Lisbon’s time is 1 hour behind other European countries.

We took Bus 45 (E2.40) to Baixa Centre to look for a hotel. We booked our hotel at the AP. It was E40. Our budget was E50 so we took it.

We had difficulties locating the hotel, when we finally located it, it was having renovations. We placed our stuff at the hotel and went out. We walked to Alfama to look at the Castle but it was already closed when we got there. The area around Alfama was very nice. I hope I can see how Alfama looks like during the day. Along they way, we bought some local sweets for E0.10.

We saw a choir singing Christmas carols at the Praca. Dac bought me a packet of hot chestnuts for E2.00. We also came across some Red Indians performing on the streets pedaling their Cds. If I pass by them again, I will buy one of their CD.

We walked to Hard Rock Café and I bought a T-shirt and a pin.

We walked back to the hotel and cooked instant noodles for dinner.

15th December 2006 (Thursday) – Barcelona/Giorna

We woke up and we used the bath cautiously. We were afraid to have a repeat of yesterday’s scene.

We took Michael’s advice and skipped Montserrat and headed for Giorna instead. Quite a boring town. We spent 2.5hrs there and the train tickets cost us E21.61 return for two. Bad choice.

We went back to the apartment for lunch. After lunch, we went out at 2pm to visit Park Guell. We dropped at Metro Vallcarca and it was a steep walk with escalator up to Park Guell. The view at Park Guell of the city was spectcular.

We walked down curvy lanes to reach the Casa Gaudi Museum. It was very lovely and the best thing is that it is FREE. The works were all very colourful. We then walked to Lesseps Metro to go back to Catalunya. On the way, we passed a library with free internet access. We booked our hotel at Madrid. We saved E1.80.

We then went to our apartment to pack our stuff and went for dinner at La Gardunya. We ate meatballs and seafood palle. It was something like the fish and co’s seafood platter. The seafood was very fresh.

14th December 2006 (Wednesday) – Barcelona

I woke up early to soak in the bathtub but after a while the tap actually ran out of hot water. We had to call Michael for help. He arranged for us to bath at another apartment in the same building.

We went to Camp Nou to visit Barcelona homeground. We bought a Barcelona pin for E1.50. We saw people hanging around the stadium to wait for the players to arrive. We waited for a while but went off. We have much better things to do than that. We “saved” on the trip by Metro to Jewish Mountains. We saw others doing it and that gave us the idea. HEE HEE!

We went to the Jewish Mountains to see the Olympica. We took the funicular down. We bought 10 travel tickets for E6.30.

We found the Club Store and home ground for Espanyol Football Club by coincident. We bought a pin for E1.20.

Then we went to Parallel by the funicular. We took the Metro to Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Church. Its Antonia Gaudi’s most famous work which is not finished yet. Suppose to take another 50 years to complete the whole church. We bought 2 bananas and some cherries to eat along the way and they cost E1.32. The cherries were cheap but the bananas were expensive. We walked to the Block of Discord next, which consisted of Gaudi’s Casa Batllo – skull like balconies with tiled rood and dragon back, Casa Amatller and Casa Lleo Moreva. We stopped by a Tapas Restaurant and ate there. They have different food on pastries and they are small bite sized food. We spent about E6.53.

We saw Camper shop. We proceeded to Ingles Cortes which is the biggest shopping mall in Barcelona. We bought some groceries and went back to our apartment to cook. We did something romantic after dinner and watched snooker on TV.

13th December 2006 (Tuesday) - Barcelona

We woke up and went to Paris Airport (Terminal 3) to take a plane to Barcelona Airport (El Prat Airport). The flight no. was 1116. Time was 1120hrs arriving at Barcelona at 1315hrs. Dac torn his backpack’s strap while pushing the trolley. We flew by Vueling. At Barcelona, we had to catch a bus to get us to Barcelona Central (Catalunya).

The apartment that we had booked was just above Hard Rock Café and it is situated right at the centre. It is very convenient. We thought it was a extremely value for money deal. The apartment comes with a kitchen, a bathtub, living room and a fridge.

We dropped our stuff and made our way along Lam Ramblas. We walked all the way to the end till we reached the Jetty (World Trade Centre). Along the way, we walked past the Canaletes Fountain. It was said that if you drink from the fountain, you would return to Barcelona one day. Buildings along the side with flowers at the balconies are living spaces and those with aircons are offices. We also went to th La Boqueria which was a live produce market. The things were very fresh over there. I bought a lollypop with gum in the centre (E0.25). At the World Trade Centre, there were some shops in the shopping centre. Dac wanted to buy milkshake at Macdonalds but they do not have milkshake in Barcelona.

We walked back along Ramblas. We went to look for Placa Reial to see Gaudi’s 1st public works – 2 colourful helmeted lampposts. Then we went to La Catherdral. There were a lot of people queuing to get into the Cathedral. We walked round and found a shorter queue to get into the Cathedral.

We wanted to walk to Camper but Dac was hungry and we proceeded to Champions (a cheap grocery store but with limited varieties) to buy groceries. We spent about E27.10 on groceries. Back at the apartment, was cooked our dinner which consists of salad with pasta and sausages.

12th December 2005 (Monday) – Paris

We woke up at 0900hrs this morning. We did something romantic before we went out. We had Macdonald for breakfast along the way. We bought a Mac McMuffin and a shake. Both at E0.95 each. We bought it near our hotel.

We went to Sacre Coeur (Church of the Secret Heart). It is right on top of a hill. We have to walk up slope and then climb a long flight of stairs up. I saw a horse carousal at the bottom of the stairs before going up to the Church. There were also a lot of non-native street hawkers trying to sell things to tourists. Got a candle as a souvenir from the Church.

After that we made our way back down and I bought a pair of bermudas and a pair of jeans at E5.99 each. Dac bought a bottle of coke for E1.30. We went to a internet café and surfed for a while. It cost us E1.00.

We then made our way to Galleries Lafayette. The department store was sure a huge one. We were not able to finish the whole department store. Things were quite expensive too. We bought a replacement of the Chanel No. 5 parfum which I had broken back home. Also bought a Christian Dior and a Chanel Sport for Dac. I also bought a Lancome sunblock and a toner. Total cost was E188.30. Then went to Louis Vuitton and bought a bucket bag (Marais), an accessories porch (Navona) and a sling bag (Olav PM). Total cost was E1155. I saved about about E450 in total from the cheaper prices in Paris and the tax rebates. We came out from Galleries with big bags. Seemed to me like Christmas shopping. I am so happy.

Next we made our way to Hard Rock Café. We bought two tall glasses and a Paris collar pin. We made our way back to the hotel. I remembered that the male receptionist was shocked that we came back with so many shopping bags. We rested for a while and went to Eiffel Tower. We alighted at Trocadero Metro and went to Trocadero Square for good views of Eiffel Tower. We did not go up the Tower. It was so romantic and beautiful. We went back to the hotel after that.

11th December 2005 (Sunday) – Paris

We woke up in Paris. We took the train to our hotel which we had just booked the night before from Wotif at Amsterdam. The hotel was Hotel Montholon (E110 for 2 nights). The nearest subway was either at Poissoniere or Cadet (Line 7).

When we reached the hotel, the hotel had not received our reservations yet and we had to wait till 0830hrs before we could go out. Dac did something very sweet which I remembered very well. He knew that I love the Cow cheese. He took a few from the breakfast table while we were using the toilets to clean ourselves up. That is so sweet of him. I love him so much.

W bought a carnet of 10 metro tickets for E10.70. We went to Notre Dam Cathedral at Cite Station. We went in and I took a candle for remembrance. We bought the Museum Pass (E18 each).

Notre-Dame Cathedral
- 700 year old church

We then went to the Sainte Chapelle which was included in the Museum Pass (MP). From there, we walked across the Seine River to get to the Lourve. YES…THE LOURVE….DA VINCI MOVIE. Along the way, we passed a pet shop and went in to take a look.

LOURVE (included in MP, E8.50 per ticket)
- Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci – Italian)
- Venus de Milo (Original Ancient Greek statue)
- Winged Victory of Samothrace (Greek statue)
- Leonardo da Vinci – Virgin child & St Anne, Madonna of the Rocks, John & Baptist

We then went to the Pompidou Centre. The building itself was already a sight to behold. The modern art was something different. There was even a exhibition for children at the ground floor which was very entertaining. Dac and I had a fun time inside. The modern art at Pompidou were mind boggling. The views on Level 6 was simply beautiful. We could even see Eiffel Tower from afar.

Pompidou Centre (included in the MP, E10 per ticket)
- Musee National d’Art Moderne : 4th/5th floors
- Level 6 : fine views of Paris

We took the train back to the hotel to take a rest and went out in the evening. We went to the Arc de Triomphe which is included in the MP. We took the train to Charles de Gaulle-Etoile metro station. There was a ceremony going on at the Arc de Triomphe. We could even see Eiffel Tower from the top. It was very windy up there. We walked down Champ Elysee to see the branded shops in Paris. We also went to Planet Hollywood along Champ Elysee to buy a pin (E4).

We took the train to Blauche and went to Moulin Rouge. Blauche is the red light area in Paris. We bought a bottle of coke at E2 on our walk back to the hotel.

10th December 2005 (Saturaday) – Amsterdam

We woke up at 0430hrs to prepare to go to the Airport to catch our flight from Geneva (0620hrs) to Amsterdam (0800hrs). Luckily, there was a free shuttle bus to the airport from Ibis Hotel.

The Easyjet plane was delayed for 2hrs. We were stuck at the airport for 2hrs. Total waste of time. When we reached Amsterdam Airport, we had to take a train (E7.80) to Amsterdam Central. The journey takes about 20mins. We placed our backpacks at the Central lockers (E7.20).

We hope on to a bus and took a “free ride” to Van Gogh Museum. The bus was extremely crowded. The entrance to Van Gogh Museum costs us E20. We saw the famous “Sunflowers” and a self-protrait of himself and his bedroom.

From the Van Gogh Museum, we passed the famous Rijksmuseum. We then went to Hard Rock Café. We made the Access card. The access card costs us E27.95. I bought a t-shirt which cost me E30.70. I took pictures with a life-sized chess set just outside Hard Rock Café.

We made our way to Waterlooplein Market which is a famous flea market in Amsterdam. Along the way, we saw tulip bulbs which looked so beautiful. They are so pretty. We walked to the famous red light district next. The ladies were standing behind small cubicles with a glass front. They were displaying or parading themselves to “hook” clients. Those at work would have their curtains drawn. Some of the ladies were fat, ugly and old. The price is E50. We even saw some “he-shes”. There were a lot of shops selling kinky stuff.

We stopped at a eatery to buy fries and fried chicken (E4). It is so nice to eat something hot as the weather was cold. The toilets at Mac and Burger King were not free. They cost E0.30 and E0.25 respectively. We ventured to the Chinatown in Amsterdam. We bought a Chinese bao for E0.75.

The sky was getting dark and there was a Christmas funfair. We bought a pan-cake which everyone was queuing for. The pancake costs E3. We watched people ice-skating on a portable platform. There was festive mood everywhere. We took pictures with a large pair of Holland cloaks.

We visited a Casino next and lost E6. We went to a internet shop and booked our hotels at Paris and Barcelona. We paid E2 for an hour and paid a guy E1 to send an email cos we did not want to buy another hour of internet use.

We collected our backpacks and took the train from Central station to Amstel station (E1.90 per ticket). We took the Eurolines bus which was scheduled to leave at 2200hrs and reaching Paris at 0600hrs. The bus ride for me was alright but Dac could not sleep. There were a lot of Negros on the bus.

9th December 2005 (Friday) – Bern

It is Darren’s birthday today. He is officially 30 years old. We woke up at 0500hrs to get ready to get to the train station. I gave Dac a birthday KISS. The train to Bern leaves at 0552hrs. It was snowing outside. The scenery is very beautiful. I hope to remember this forever. I took a Santa Claus décor from outside the hostel as remembrance. Bye, Lauterbrunnen.

The train to Interlaken OST was late and we missed our train connection to Bern. We had to take the train at 0656hrs instead. We had salad for breakfast in the train.


We reached Bern at about 0821hrs. Bern is very nice. A lot of medieval buildings. We placed out backpack in the coin-operated lockers at Bern train station. The lockers cost us SF8. We then took Bus 12 to the bear pits. We were early and the bear pits were not open yet. We took a walk around and the bears came out. There were two brown bears there. They were Tuna and Predo. They are from Spain, Barcelona. After taking pictures of the bears, we made out way back to the train station. We bought a snack to eat at one of the eateries at SF3.40.

Just after the bear pits was a bridge, Dac wrote our names on the snow on the bridge’s ledge. The snow would have melted by now but I got a picture of it as remembrance. We saw the clock tower and Albert Einstein’s house. I wanted to buy a piece of cake to celebrate Dac’s birthday but we could not find a cake shop. We then took the train (1139hrs) to Geneva Airport (1624hrs).

From the airport, we are suppose to stay at Ibis Hotel for the night so that we can catch the early flight to Amsterdam. Ibis Hotel was just opposite Geneva Airport. We ran across the expressway instead of taking the long route. I picked up a portable harddisk along the expressway. One night cost us SF102.10.

We took the bus to Geneva Central. There was not much to see but it was extremely cold. The wind that blew was so cold that it went into the bones. The Christmas decorations were very nice. We went to co-op to buy more chocolates and to spend all our SF. We took a bus back to the hotel and ate salad for our dinner.

8th December 2005 (Thursday) – Jungfraujoch/Gimmelwald

We woke up at 0600hrs to go up to Jungfraujoch via Wengen. The weather at Jungfraujoch was not fantastic but we still made our way up. We had to top up SF214 for the entry to Jungfraujoch even though we have the Swiss Pass.

The route up to Jungfraujoch was very pretty and nice. Jungfraujoch is the highest point in the whole of Europe, the name means “young woman mountain” directly translated from Mandarin. The train went up very steep terrain because Jungfraujoch was really very high up. At one point, the train had to use cogwheel to travel the last leg of the journey up to the top as it was very steep.

When we reached the top of Europe, it was extremely cold even though we were inside shelter. The temperature was at -17°C. We heard from one of the employees that they used to experience a temperature of -30°C and a wind speed of about 350km/hr.

We went up to the Plateau first. We saw that it was snowing pretty heavily outside. We reached a huge metal door. I tried to open the metal door to see what is outside. The wind was gushing outside. We came back in immediately. I got Dac to stand outside for a while so that I can take a picture of him and the heavy snow. We met a Singaporean couple and we decided to venture further out despite the heavy snow. We helped each other to take pictures. The snow was knee deep and it was extremely cold outside. The snow was like “slicing” into our faces. The wind was blowing at 285km/hr. We could not stay outside for too long because it was freezing. My hands and feet were freezing. It seems that my shoes and soaks were soaked. We went to the toilet to dry ourselves. I had to use the dryer to dry and warm my feet, shoes and socks.

We went to the Ice Palace next. The air pressure seemed very low. I experience difficulties in breathing and felt giddy. I did not feel good. Felt really breathless. Dac saw that I was feeling faint and brought me out of Ice Palace.

We went to the Sphinx (viewing point). We went out the the snow again. What a coincidence, we met the Singaporean couple again. We chatted for a while and that chat cost us to miss the train at 1145hrs. We took “live” picture at the Sphinx.

We had to wait for another hour for the next train at 1245hrs. We bought a Jungfraujoch pin for SF6.00. I slept at the lobby on Dac’s legs and felt better. It was real cold even in the lobby. Felt much better after taking the nap.

We took the train back to Lauterbrunnen and changed to the funicular at Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp. When we reached Grutschalp, we waited for the funicular to continue its journey to Murren. To out HORROR, it went back down to Lauterbrunnen. It was a extremely long trip. We came down and had to wait for the next funicular up to Grutschalp again. In total, we sat on the funicular for 3 trips. We ate a kiwi on the trip down. The funicular was similar to the tram that we took up to the peak in Hong Kong.

At Grutschalp, we changed to another train to continue our journey to Murren. From Murren, we had to walk about 10mins through a small town to get to Murren gondola station to get to Gimmelwald. Murren is a nice town. I liked a picture that I took at Murren very much. I was standing under a tree which is full of snow. It's a pity that we did not have much time at Murren cos we need to rush to Gimmelwald before it gets dark.


Gimmelwald is also a small little village. It a traditional Mountain Swiss community. We spend about 50mins there. Its like the village featured in Heidi. We saw people getting around with sleighs. Took a picture with one of the sleighs. Saw the phonebooth which has a shower inside. Gimmelwald has strict building codes, the shutters can only be natural green or white.


It was getting dark and we took the gondola down to Stechelberg to take a bus back to Lauterbrunnen.

We stopped at the Butcher and bought a piece of cordon bleu and a sausage. It cost us SF6.80. We also stopped by the dairy store to get some yogurt and cheese (SF4.30). The yogurt tasted very nice. I still have the glass bottle that contain the yogurt. Lastly, we went to the Co-op to buy groceries and chocolates (SF23.60)

We went back to the hostel and took our bath and we cooked a big feast for the last night at Lauterbrunnen. We had spaghetti and minestrone soup, fish fillets (similar to Captain’s Eye standard) and Cordon Bleu with sausage. It has been awhile on out trip since we had such a full meal.

We then packed our stuff and slept at 2130hrs.

7th December 2005 (Wednesday) – Grindelwald/Zurich/Luzern

We got up at 0515hrs to catch the 0552hrs train to Jungfraujoch at 0846hrs (via Grindelwald). It was snowing outside. But when we got to Grindelwald, the weather forecast for Jungfraujoch was not very good and we changed our plans.

We went back to Interlaken East and went shopping at Co-op. We bought SF30.55 worth of stuff. We went to Zurich HB by the Golden Pass Route which boasted good sceneries. We sat on the right. It was drizzling when we reached Zurich. It was a upmarket city. There were a lot of shops selling watches. We went into one and checked out the watches and hoping that we would get one of the spoons they give out as souvenirs. Nope, we did not receive any. We bought a packet of hot chestnuts (SF4.10) along our stroll towards the end of the main street which was near to the lake. We saw different kinds of birds, among them were geese and mandarin ducks, lazing around and we took out our bread and fed some to them. They were not afraid of human beings as they came real close to us. We made our way back to the station and along the way we saw a very long queue. It seems that they were queuing for some circus performance.

We traveled to Lucern from Zurich. The train that we took was a double-decked one that looks like an aeroplane. We find that Lucern is much nicer and more interesting than Zurich. We walked across the bridge (which had a lot of pictures hung on the roof). I think a part of the bridge was burnt down previously. Dac and I carved our names on the ledge of the bridge. We then went to a watch shop. Saw a Tag Heuer for Dac but it was a blue face one. We preferred one with a black face. It was a pity that they did not have one with a black face.


We checked out another watch shop and made our way to see the Lion Monument. There was a tour group from Hong Kong when we were there. We learnt that the lion had a longer tail than usual from the tour guide. Some locals were putting up Christmas decorations and I wanted to take a picture with one of the deco when the local also wanted to take the picture with me.

We walked around and went into a shopping mall with a Co-op in it. We bought bread and milk (SF2.90). We strolled back to the train station slowly and took the train back to our hostel at Lauterbrunnen

We cooked a hot and nice dinner when we got back to the hostel. We had to use the kitchen downstairs as the one on our level was being used. We made full use of the kitchen facilities. We had mushroom soup, instant spaghetti and rosti. Dac’s rosti turned out to be like mashed potatoes. The orange juice from co-op did not taste as nice as the one from Venice. After the satisfying dinner, we went back to our room and packed our stuff for tomorrow. We did something romantic again before going to bed.

6th December 2005 (Tuesday) – Tirano/Zermatt/Lauterbrunnen

We woke up at 0515hrs to get to the train station. We had purchased the Swiss Pass in Singapore before going to Europe which allowed for unlimited travel for our days in Switzerland. The plan was to take a bus outside the train station at 0650hrs. It was still dark when we reached the train station. The train station was not even open. We waited for a while and I went to the back of the station and found that the counter was open. I needed to pick up my reservations for the Glacier Express which I had paid for. But the man over at the counter do not understand English. Time was running out, I quickly ran back to the front of the station and Dac was waiting at the bus. We had nearly missed the bus.

We were the only ones on the bus. We sat on the left side of the bus for better scenery. Along the way, the sky was getting brighter and we could see the scenery of Switzerland. I enjoyed the bus ride from Tirano to Poschiavo. The music that was played on the bus was very nice. The bus picked up students who seemed to be on their way to school. The bus dropped us off at the Poschiavo train station where we had to transfer to another train which would bring us to Chur (traveling along the Bernina route) and reaching Chur at 1103hrs.

At Chur, we had to switch to the Glacier Express. The Glacier Express was schedule to leave at 1115hrs and reaching Zermatt at 1642hrs. The Glacier Express offers the best scenic train ride in Switzerland. There was no time for us to get our reservations at the counter and the train was leaving, so we just got up the train. We had made reservations (E9) for the second class coach in Singapore. We had sneaked into the first class coach to see how it looked like. It looked much nicer with panoramic windows. We sat on the left side for better scenery. The conductor came and since we did have any proof that we had made reservations, he insisted that we had to pay for the reservations again. But they refunded my first reservations when I wrote them an email when I came back to Singapore.

The train ride was a long, long one. The journey from Tirano to Zermatt took us about 10hrs. We had our lunch (tuna with bread with orange juice) on board the train. We also bought a Glacier Express pin (SF5). We finally reached Zermatt at 1642hrs. We took a quick walk around Zermatt and saw the Matterhorn. Zermatt reminded us of Whistler in Canada. It was a very nice ski town. Dac thinks it is a beautiful place. Hopefully, we get go back one day and ski at Zermatt. The sky was getting dark very quickly.

We took the train at Zermatt which leaves at 1730hrs to get to Lauterbrunnen (2140hrs). We had to change train at Interlaken East before we can get to Lauterbrunnen. During the journey from Zermatt to Interlaken East, we met a Malay family of 5 from Singapore. The family consists of the grandparents, parents and a young boy. They were from Tampines. What a small world. They alighted at Interlaken West. When we reached Interlaken East, it had started snowing lightly. Dac took a nice picture with the Interlaken signboard.

The train ride from Interlaken East to Lauterbrunnen was a short one.
When we reached Lauterbrunnen, the snow was getting heavier. We walked from the train station to Valley Hostel. They were expecting us. We would be staying here for 3 nights for SF192They passed us some bedsheets and Dac and I looked at each other in amusement. YES, we had to lay our own sheets. Our room was on the second level in another building. There was kitchen facilities and shared bathroom. The other rooms on the second level were occupied by a group of China students. Our room was lovely and had a window above our bed but we could not see anything as it was covered with snow. We cooked porridge for a late dinner.

5th December 2005 (Monday) – Milan / Tirano

We woke up at 0415hrs and said our goodbyes to Venice. We took the train at 0512hrs to Milano Lambrate (0841hrs). Each ticket costs E12.34. We bought a new pair of gloves (E4) for Dac from one of the street vendors at Lambrate. We changed to Metro (Line 2 towards Famagosta/Abbiategrasso) from Lambrate to get to Milano Centrale. We bought the Milan Metro day pass at E3 each. By doing this, we saved E20 on train tickets.

When we reached Milano Centrale, we left our backpacks at the bad depository for E3.80 for the 1st 5 hours. We took the Metro to Lotto station and changed to a bus to get to San Siro Stadium (Home ground for AC Milan and Inter Milan). We bought 2 collar pins from the two teams and a scarf. We also took pictures in the club store and spent quite some time there browsing through the stuff.

We backtracked to Lotto station and took the metro to Duomo station. We made our way to Piazza del Duomo. We then went into Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to look for the bull’s testicles. We had a hard time looking for the bull’s testicles as we thought that we should be looking for a bull’s statue. We did not realize that the bull was on the floor instead. It was said that by rubbing the shoe’s soles across the bull’s testicles would bring good luck. A local stopped to teach us the right way to rub the testicles. We are suppose to place our soles (heel) on the testicles and turn a circle. We also saw the statue of Leonardo da Vinci.

We walked into Gucci and spotted a money clip wallet (E200) which was pretty nice. But nothing in this Gucci shop caught my eye. We proceeded to the biggest Gucci store (4 levels) in the world at Golden Quad. I saw a wallet (E220) that I liked but they did not have stock for Dac’s money clip wallet. We need to spend E300 to get tax refund. We walked back to the first Gucci store that we visited to try our luck. We were LUCKY. They have both items and we bought both of them. I love the wallet. Dac love his too. The wallet was a early birthday gift for Dac.

We took the metro back to Centrale Station. We collected our backpacks at the bag depository (E10) and took the train at 1910hrs to Tirano (2148hrs) (border town of Italy and Switzerland). Each ticket costs E8.35. We sat on the left side of the train for better views.

It was dark when we reached Tirano. We walked for about 1km to reach our hotel, St Michele (SF32). It was a small and cosy hotel owned by a family. We wanted to eat dinner at the hotel’s café but they had stopped serving dinner by the time we came down. We took a walk outside the hotel and went back to eat instant noodles. We slept at 2300hrs.

4th December 2005 (Sunday) – Venice

We woke up at about 0730hrs. We had soup for breakfast. We did something extremely romantic in such a romantic place with a memento on my neck as remembrance. We took the ferry along the Grand Canal (E10) and alighted at St Mark (San Marco). It was quite cold and we had to put on our gloves. We saw the famous Bridge of Signs, where prisoners in the olden times would get a chance to take a final look of Venice before being locked up. St Mark’s Square was FLOODED. There were raised platforms put up around St Mark to allow people to get around. Disposable boots could be bought for E10 per pair for those who want to walk in the water. We went to St Mark’s Basilica.

St Mark’s Basilica (Basilica di San Marco)
- Mosaic above door shows 2 guys carrying Mark’s coffin.
- Best mosaic shows the story of Adam and Eve.
- Facing piazza, the mosaic shows the story of Noah’s ark.
- Famous for the bronze horses

Besides St Mark’s Basilica was Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale). There were a lot of pigeons at the square. There were also street vendors selling bird feed. The pigeons would crowd around you when you feed them. We played and took pictures of the pigeons. They even sat on our heads. I had to pull my hood over my head to prevent them from pecking my head. There was a boy who was so frighten of the pigeons that he dropped his whole bag of feed onto the floor.
We made our way to Louis Vuitton and Dac left his gloves at the shop. We only realize that the gloves were missing when we were having lunch at Burger King (E7). We backtracked to LV hoping to get back his gloves but to no avail. I was very sad cos Dac’s gloves and mine come in a pair. Mine was red and his was blue.

We crossed Rialto bridge and walked around the area. I could not resist buying a packet of multi-coloured spaghetti from one of the shop. We found the La Rivetta Restaurant and ordered a plate of spaghetti with squid ink (E10). We were the only customers in the shop as we were quite early. The spaghetti tasted unique. We also bought a blowglass paper weight (E3.10) on our way across Rialto bridge and also bought a costume mask pin (E2).

We walked to Billa supermarket to stock up on groceries for the next few days. The groceries were really cheap. For eg. E0.20 for a packet of pasta. I also saw the largest jar of Nutella that I have ever seen. Could not resist taking a picture with it. The orange juice (Bravo) from Billa was the best that we tasted in Europe and best value of money. Must try!!! We went back to the hotel after that.