London (Part2)

I basically had no sleep since my arrival at London, or to be exact, since I boarded the flight to London. =.=" Whenever I'm sleep deprived, my usually small eyes will become even smaller (become just a small thin line only wtf!)

Anyway, even before I came to Europe I told the fiance that I must try every single macaroons that I saw, branded non-branded I did not plan to miss any single bit of it. So yea, sister brought me to Pierre Herme in London for take away macaroons before our lunch. We chose the pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, rose and matcha flavors. Among all, rose is my utmost favorite flavor followed by pistachio. Chocolate flavor macaroons were just being chocolaty, not up to my taste.

Pierre Herme, London

Pierre Herme offered a wide range of macaroons. You mentioned and they have it. But it was quite pricey too, at 2 pound per piece. Well, at least still cheaper than Laduree macaroons. 

Pierre Herme's Macaroons

Saw a lot of nice pastries and meringues selling at the stall next to Pierre Herme too. I'm a total loser when it comes to cakes and all sort of pastries. I almost bought all of them then luckily the boyf stopped me and dragged me away.

Don't they look super tempting?!?!?

Then sister suggested we went for Busaba Eathai for lunch as she was craving for thai food. We almost got lost there and because of the rains, I had to put my macaroons in the boyf backpack. So what happened? There were all smashed up, like ruined! T________T Still edible just that they did not look good anymore. 

london

Busaba Eathai was quite a famous thai restaurant in London as they have quite a number of branches. And it was packed most of the time. We waited for a shared seat for like 20 minutes. Had to sharing tables with 5 different group of people somemore. =.=" 

le sisters

boy's green curry

sister's pad thai

mine - tom yam mee hoon

For me, the portion was really small. I was not full at all after having that bowl of tom yam. Same goes to the boyf and sister. And it was not spicy enough. :| Or was it just my luck that day cause my sister said usually the food wasn't like this?

After lunch and some shopping, we walked to Buckingham Palace which was nearby. Well, it was a .. mehhh for me? I don't know what's so special with it. A palace, yea, as typical tourist we took a picture in front of it and that's all. Really thats all!! We cannot enter to visit or whatever. So, I don't really see the point actually.

Buckingham Palace

Ending my post here, will be back with london part3

London (Part1)

The fiance and I made a trip to London last year December. We actually burnt our Japan tickets (again!) just for this Europe trip. Why? Because my sister will be having her convocation somewhere this year July, and knowing that I would not have so much leaves as I will be working soon, I figure that it was really time to pay her a visit. As least have a look at her living environment and also to tour some part of Europe with her.

Our first stop was London, followed by Prague, Salzburg, Zurich, Interlaken, Rome, Florence, Milan, Paris then London again. Many people have been asking me for the itinerary, the do(s) and don't(s) and good food there. So i will just start with London first. Even for London I have to break it into different parts because I was there for quite long! 

So we took the midnight flight to London so that we will reach London early morning at London time. Pity boy cause he was working his ass off before boarding the flight, rushing home to bath, then we flew from Miri - KL then KL - London on the same day! 26 hours in total including transit time. Luckily we had access to premium lounge to bath and rest otherwise I couldn't imagine how stink we gonna be.

It was 530am London time by the time we reached. Sis actually woke up at 245am just to be in time to pick us up! So we took tube back to her place, settle down a bit, bathed, changed then went out for breakfast before making a move to the infamous borough market.

We had breakfast at starbucks which was nearby my sister place as it was raining outside. Bad luck for us! My sister said London's weather had never been that gloomy since she stayed there few years ago. :( Their bagels were really good though. And since christmas was around the corner, we had our starbucks christmas drinks!

We planned to go to The Big Ben and Tower bridge at the first place but decided to give it up to rain. So we changed to Borough market just to take a stroll instead. Borough market is an indoor market where the people sell wide range of dairy products and food. They all look so super fresh and the colors are so vibrant.

Colorful isn't it? I almost bought it but sister said I should try borough wine instead of this. Borough hot wine was only available during christmas season. It tasted well, I don't really like it but the fiance was ok with it. 

Then we took a one hour stroll around as I wanted to take some pictures also. 

sister :)

super fresh seafood!

Us. don't worry you can take picture anywhere you like here. They won't chase you away.

love this picture.

yup. so much brownies

My POI on borough market. It's a must visit if you happen to be in London. The market opens from Thurs to Saturday from 1000 to 1500 every week. It's easily accessible. Just take a underground train to Borough. :)

He proposed. And I said Yes, I do! :D

Hello readers! Yes, after months of idling I finally have the time to write a proper post. And this time with a super outdated topic which was yea, the proposal. :) I was being proposed on 27th December 2012, which was also our second anniversary that day at Fontana Di Trevi, Italy. I never thought that I would have an oversea proposal as, oh well,  my current fiance could easily rank the first in most unromantic boyfriend ever. But this time, he proved me wrong.

As we had been traveling around Europe since 13rd Dec, we arrived Rome, Italy right on 26th December morning, checked in to hotel, went to Vatican City then had a good night sleep. Greeted with a happy anniversary early in the morning with a warning that I should finish the blueberry yogurt as it was expring soon by the boyf.

We went to the ancient historical spot right after breakfast which was The Colosseum. Had a long 2 hour there walking visiting every single corner as the boyf was so mad fascinated by the Colosseum. While I could see my sister kept yawning there LOL. Colosseum was nice indeed.

Lunch was at a nice restaurant where they served really good seafood spaghetti (always my most preferred choice of spaghetti). My sister and I had the same food while the boyf had lasagna.

his

mine

On that day itself, whenever I started wandering around, I could see from far that my sister and boyf having some intense discussion then they parted every single time I walked near them. Well I should have sensed something wrong but I was thinking well maybe these two person were just bitching about me. LOL I had such bad thinking about them.

We then walked to Fontana Di Trevi which was only like a 15 minutes walk from the restaurant. I was shocked when we reached there. It was packed like sardine. Like mad packed! It was obvious people was trying to get to the front but no one was giving way. My God. We stood behind for like 15 minutes then decided to move in like super typical kiasu chinese. Finding and squeezing our way till the front and find the perfect spot for pictures. Then I asked for coins from the boyf cause I wanted to toss into the fountains like in the movie. :P He handed me several coins.

When I was about to toss it into the fountain. My sister stopped me. She said I was suppose to toss over my shoulder, so yea fine. Then I couldn't find the boyf for a picture of us tossing the coins into the fountain together. I gave up looking for him considering the crowds. So I flipped two coins into the fountain as it means I will come back to Rome again and I will fall in love here (kiasu ok. just tossed as many as I could).

Right after I tossed and sister snapped some picture, I turned around and saw my boyf one knee down with ringggggggggggg! A diamond ringggggggg :D And there he was asking me loudly "baobei, will you marry me?" I was so ecstatic, happy, touched and whatever it is I was so happy I said "yes.. yes yes yes I do".

He put on the ring for me and gave me a bear hug.

He had actually talked to my sister about the proposal and they planned it together. Aaaaww my sister. :)))) To celebrate our love, we went for fine dining  later that night.

27/12/2012. A really special and memorable day for us. :) My heart still skips a beat everytime I think of the proposal.

Tosokchun, Korea (for ginseng chicken)

I'm slowing picking back up the mood to blog due to my heavy workload and super tight traveling schedule. And of course I'm not done with Korea yet. I was suppose to be in Japan in May but due to boyf's tight working schedule, we had to burn our flight tickets. 

Speaking about the best ginseng chicken (sam gae tang) you can ever find in Seoul, one shall not miss Tosokchun's ginseng chicken! From in-sadong, I remember it was fairly easy to go there. Walk all straight heading to insadong's tourist information counter, turn left walk straight at the third junction turn left and tadaaa, there's Tosokchun.

It was so super packed with tourists that I suggest if you want to go, go before 12 or lunch time. The boyf and I reached there at 11am and we skipped the queuing part. :P How lucky. As usual the kimchi appetizer will just be there for you for free and tea will be served, free as well.

We did not order any other side dish like roasted chicken, pancake or whatsoever because this one portion of ginseng chicken is more than enough to make you full. Imagine eating one whole chicken, with rice and soup somemore. BLurppp. 

This is me and my super big portion of ginseng chicken. Forgot about the price because when we eat, we seldom look at the price.

And then inside the chicken is one whole big piece of ginseng which made the soup and rice so freaking delicious. Because the ginseng and rice is stuffed in the chicken and brought to boil, imagine how sweet the soup was. We ordered for extra ginseng (in liquid) also from the staffs and one of them gave us secretly for free because she said they are not suppose to give extra. 

And then look at the queue outside tosokchun. Picture was taken after our meal. How lucky we were! For more info on the price and how to go tosokchun, tell you trip advisor is the best site for planning trips. No joke.

Jeju Island, Korea 1.0

Finally, like finally, I pick back up the mood to blog about my recent travelings again! This year March, the bf and I made it to Korea! We were leaving on 15th March and the trip was only considered 100% confirmed on on 13rd March all because of the bf's fluctuating schedule. :S But anyway, thanks God we managed to make it.

It was my second time to Korea but first time to Jeju. I used to have the thought that all islands are small and can be done in a day or two but I was so bloody wrong with Jeju. Maybe given another 3 days extra we would complete it but too bad we had only 2 nights there. 

 Upon arrival at Incheon airport, first thing I did was to ditch my pair of boots the bf got for me and bought a new pair of shoes because the boots are hurting my feet badly! I can barely walk maybe because they are new or I don't know. Anyway, got this limited edition Skono at the airport and cost me around 300+ (RM) after conversion. Was a good purchase anyway since it's limited edition? 

Then we took another flight to Jeju. Rushed all the way to Gimpo Airport, I thought Gimpo and Incheon was near but then again, we were wrong. =) It's not like from KLIA - LCCT!! It's like double the distance or more.

We then checked in into our hotel - Little France hotel in Jeju. It was a really comfortable hotel except that the escalator can only fit 2 people at one time. First thing we did upon arrival was to take a quick shower and started to tour around Jeju as we have wasted quite an amount of time transiting here and there. 

The bed size was just nice for the two of us except that we had some blanket fight in the middle of the night and I won!! 

One of the best thing to do during winter would be eating ice cream. Fuh the ice cream was so so as it taste a little bit weird for me. Probably because of the milk the use. The bf had to buy for me because I ordered without even asking him, without a cent and he was giving me a dafuq face LOL.

First destination in Jeju would be visiting Cheongjiyeon Falls which also means as "God Ponds" for the Korean. It was okay for us as we had seen something even more spectacular than this. Entrance was 1000 won and we actually walked there. Took us more than one hour to walk there and I have to do sign language asking for direction along the way.

Jeju, as compared to Seoul, is like a serene village so please do not expect the people their to understand even the simplest english like most of the people in Seoul do. Be prepared to do sign language like a monkey or just get lost and take a taxi and you miss all the nice scenery. 

Anyway, this fall is not my favorite part of this trip yet. 

After getting lost here and there and visited the fall, by the time we left it was already near dinner time. So we walked around hunting for some awarded restaurants serving nice dinner. That's what the bf and I normally do when we go traveling: looking out for awarded restaurants or restaurants with super long queue. 

As we do not understand even a bit of korean, we gave up and gave in to a BBQ black pork shop in Jeju. Turn out, that restaurant was awarded twice by the Korean Government and is damn famous. Omg, how lucky were we. 

The appetizer. Bf is not a big fan of kimchi or rather, he dislikes kimchi. So I finished the kimchi all alone and it was like so super yummy for me. 

The infamous bbq black pork in Jeju. Black porks are from black pig of course. I'm not being racist here but definitely the meat are so much more tender, juicy compared to normal pork.

5 stars ratings for this!

Yours truly in a super packed restaurant

bf's favorite

With the owner of the shop. He thought that we are some stars from Taiwan hahaha and was so happy to take pictures with us. :P

See! The restaurant was small but it serves the best bbq pork ever! Anyone visiting Jeju please find your way there.

The front look of the restaurant, where people are lining up waiting to be seated. 

And as a glutton, I bought this snacks on the way back. Fried sweet rice cake. Best snack in Jeju so far. Yum.

Till my next post. x