Summer in Hokkaido2

It has been months since I blogged. I have been distracted by Facebook, the social e-toy of the year. So far, it has found me a number of old acquaintances, so it's been pretty interesting saying hi to people whom I've not met for some... 17 years!

Anyway, the year's flown by, Christmas has passed, and though we're in the tropics, the 'white christmas' tune crepts into my head every December. These snowmen that I saw at Hokkaido's Ice Pavillion are the closest to the real thing for me, and here's a video of the cold but rather cool visit.





Does the facade of this historical old temple look like a face? Like the houses in Satoshi Kon's animated movie, Tokyo Godfathers!



I loved the giant animals that pop up on the roof or around the buildings. Food was quite an attraction: besides the milk chocolate and hairy crab, I also miss the sweet rock melon and corn that could be eatan raw. On the last day of the trip, we went to the market and indulged in some tax free shopping.


Our final evening at Sapporo. Hope to visit again!

Summer in Hokkaido

I heard from a Japanese friend that summer was short in Hokkaido this year, so we were really lucky to have been there during the right week! Here are some photos of the family trip.

Day 1: 23 Aug 2007
8:30am ANA flight, some 12 hours long, including domestic transfer, sigh. Narita airport looked unexpectedly modest... best shot of the sky that I've captured so far during a flight (using a phone camera that is).


Day 2: 24 Aug 2007

After visiting a salmon farm in Sapporo, off to Otaru. Quaint, like a toyland, check out the top right photo of father and child enjoying music played by life size mechanical teddy bears.

We visited a fabulous Music Box Museum (more of a big shop really) and had large Hokkaido crabs for lunch. Then, we visited the gigantic chocolate factory that makes the popular chocolate biscuits, Shiroi Koibito. Beyond the chocolate factory, there were exhibitions on history of chocolate, coffee and even toys. Of course lots of chocolates, candy and ice-cream on sale, with outdoor gardens to frolic in. And free entry, what more could one ask for? Dinner time, missed out on Kobe beef, coz we deliberated over the price of 700 yen per 200g tad long, drats.

Day 3: 25 Aug 2007

8:30am, left for Furano for lavender farm, the highlight of the tour. Arrived around noon, bad time for photo-taking. Post buffet lunch, the sun grew less harsh, don't the sunflowers look lovely. Me and mum looking happy!

Day 4: 26 Aug 2007 to be continued...
end

Timeout at Bangkok?

I came across a post on The Eugenia by Chubby Hubby and thought the hotel sounded nice. Hm, a long weekend shopping at the Chatuchak market and chilling out at The Eugenia, anyone? end.

Pics from hotel website

Langkawi

Fri 27 Apr: Almost a year since my last beach holiday! Finally got to Langkawi, thanks to Scott *muack!* Arrived late evening, lurvely view of hotel lobby.

You can look into the bathroom and tub through the bedroom if you want to, naughty!

The spa was under renovation and services were moved to one of the villas, so we got to check it out, 5 bedrooms, nice.
Also nice is Taste restaurant where we had buffet breakfast (roti canai, century egg porridge, nasi lemak, aaah.... ). Dinner was more challenging, until we decided to go for buffet as well :P

The room, like Taste, had a view of the sea and you could see the hotel jetty from the balcony. It rained quite a bit, but it was ok, indoors was cozy :) But we did manage to catch a Langkawi sunset, sweet.

1 Apr: Final view of Westin on a sunny afternoon :)

It's way past Christmas

As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun, or have I just been plain busy... well, happy-busy mostly. Christmas and the 1st Jan New Year whizzed by, it's now the second day of the Lunar New Year. A four-day holiday sounded like a decent break, but hm, where did all the time go? :<

Well ok, I did manage to catch up with good friends, though should have taken more photos, this year being us gals' big four-O! That will be my resolution for 2007: spend more time with people who matter.

For last Christmas, received at last, a view of Shyun Wen's life in Denver, so coool

Sentosa & its man-made beach

It's been stressful at work, felt like crawling back to Krabi... failing which, I ended up on Sentosa instead last Sunday.

Man-made beach looking good...

Speeding through the island on a rickety tram-bus

KM8 where the parties and bikini babes are (not in pics though, sorry!) Ana-somebody, etienne, scott and me

Krabi's the Life

Wed 5 Jul 06: Finally, a real holiday in almost two years, no wonder I've been crabby at work! Tiger Airways was great, and only SGD200 for a return flight. Landed on Krabi in less than an hour and a half :)

Pakasai Resort was a comfy, affordable and just around the corner from the beach and shops. Eileen (the babe above) sure knows how to plan a getaway :)

The beach was ok, but not enough to tempt us away from the resort spa and pool! Here and there, blue & white signboards reminded us of the tsunami tragedy on boxing day 2004. "In case of earthquake" this one said, "go to high ground or inland".

The coolest dude in the neighbourhood.

The spa was... very open :)

The pool - our second fave hangout

Breakfast with a view.





Wangsai Seafood Restaurant, popular with the Thai residents, was about 10 mins walk from Pakasai. Aiyo, so tasty, especially the squids in boiling lemon and chilli sauce.

Spent our evenings at Planet Ao Nang Bar. DJ played good music.

Sun 9 Jul 06: back to Singapore with pics, thanks to the Sony Ericsson K750 handphone that I just got. It's an old model, but it's 2-mega-pixel camera with panoramic function kept me happily occupied :) Lots of smileys in this entry ya!