the wkend
Labels:
cupcakes
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the wkend
Enjoyed my weekend thoroughly thanks to the marvellous company of my gurls. hehe. Met up with Ai ren Jennie on Friday night to watch Harry Potter which i honestly thought was intriguing but somewhat forgettable. Hmph, after tt i drove us to Clarke Quay for supper and some drinks. hmph..tt wld have ended off a sweet night not if my mum hadn't slap me on the head when i got back for drink driving. *bleah*. Gawd..i only had one glass! made Jennie drink the rest k. WATEVER... kk. tts so not the point.
Enjoyed my weekend thoroughly thanks to the marvellous company of my gurls. hehe. Met up with Ai ren Jennie on Friday night to watch Harry Potter which i honestly thought was intriguing but somewhat forgettable. Hmph, after tt i drove us to Clarke Quay for supper and some drinks. hmph..tt wld have ended off a sweet night not if my mum hadn't slap me on the head when i got back for drink driving. *bleah*. Gawd..i only had one glass! made Jennie drink the rest k. WATEVER... kk. tts so not the point.
Me and Ai Ren
doing some late night sinning at TCC (yummy tofu with mozzeralla cheese..SHIOK!)
Sat was tuitioning as usual and baking up a storm for Cat's Bdae. Did a literally short Very-Berry CheeseCake for her cake and a couple dozen cupcakes for all her guests. hehe. Compliments of Sihan yar. hehe. Well, loved the berry cheesecake but it cld have use a little more time in the fridge. Guess i shldn't have procrastinated and make it the night before. Bet the flavours wld have further improved as the berries soaked in a mixture of cointreau and sugar syrup, becoming further more plump and delicious. hehe. For cupcakes, i did the general Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting, garnished differently for various effects as well as the Vietnam Coffee Cupcakes( trying to recreate the effect of drinking coffee in viet). haha. Fresh aromatic Cupcakes filled with condensed milk pudding and topped off with whipped cream. hehe. I hope it did the drink justice yar. hehe.
Met up with Lihui on Sunday for some shopping! apparently, River island and Top Shop were having end of season sales so we decided to check out the stuff. Tried out loads of clothes but to our dismay, found nothing tt reallie caught our attention. oh well, so my buy of the day was a piece of heavenly carrot cake from cedele and a cupcake book from the bookshop. YEH! haha. had a great time chatting with Lihui though. We are both such non-sensical pple.*woops*. haha.
Orite. so tts for the wkend. now back to my adoring photos.. *tee hee*
part4
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after a short bus journey from Hoi An, the gang arrived in the ancient city Hue. With only hours to spare. It was touch and go. leaving our bags in the agent's office. we set off on foot to explore the ancient forbidden city in the centre of Hue.
Before reaching the Citadel tt surrounds the forbidden city, we had to cross a bridge. The view was fantastic.
later the gang ventured in the further unknown and stumbled upon some gems lining the side of the road. Looking closely, they were war relics or rather trash left behind from the vietnam war. 
instructions meant for dumbass americans who can't tell front from back. Oh well.. 
after spending the longest time crooning over the mini gallery setup along the road. the gang decided to move on to our next destination. the forbidden city (wait a min, that's our first destination.. this is just a pitstop). kk.. so we forged ahead and TA-DA!
we reach the gates of the forbidden city. (please do not ask me what those guys are doing. this is wat u get when u ask 3 bois to pose for a photo. they try to jump into the moat. how clever...) so moving thru the insides of the forbidden city. we came across a gallery for commissioned army vehicles. Obviously severely wounded in battle, these have been left in their dire condition to be exhibited.
After lazing ard in the sun. we sat down in the giant square and pondered where to head to next. not willing to pay the entrance fees to the palace, we resorted to taking photos from the outside. which was good enough for us apparently. haha.
Then we were off to the main city again to continue our mission. Passed by the bridge. TOok more photos. Guys monkeying ard again. *slaps forehead*.. pls note tt jon is almost yanking out kv's arm. haha 
then we headed off for a super-uber late lunch. erm.. my tummy was rumbling for food.. haha. and wat do u have on a hot day like this? *everyone in unison* SHAKES! hehe
*drools at the screen*. kk. thats a wrap folks! stay tuned for the last installment of the vietnam trip!Coming soon. *=)*
night out
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well, it was a taste of the old life once more last night. Phuture it was. haven't been there in ages. Plus point about the place, u get to see many familiar faces and the oddest combinations. Apparently it was this guys bdae and a lot of pple tt i knew were there. Derrick (i think), nj soccer player previously had an evil plan to get the bdae boi pissed till he was dead on the floor. it succeeded halfway i guess, he merlion-ed into the table of drinks. Wasted..haha. Met a few other guys too, Kuixi, Jerry, Fabian, Yongcheng, Mengkit. Pretty small world out there.. haha.
well, my verdict..think phuture on wed isn't up to par as it used to be. to squeezy, lousy long-island tea and a not so hyped up dj. *bleah*.. Mos is better.
part 3
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Vietnam trip at a Glance (part 3)
So here's a quick recap. 1st day touchdown in Vietnam and a quick trip to Mui Ne. Spent Day2 in Mui Ne and left for Dalat on Day3. On Day4, we left for Nha Trang, spent the rest of Day4 and the whole of Day5 along the lovely beaches of Nha Trang. *holding up fingers*.. gosh..tt leaves us only 4 more days to complete our mission!!! hmph..seems a tad impossible given the incredible distance left to cover, from Nha Trang to Hue and back to HCM. BUT NO WORRIES.. with little to do btw each destination, our open bus tours took us on a strategic overnight bus ride from Nha Trang to Hoi An.. approximately 12 hrs.. unfortunately, we had to meet with a misfortunate happening along the way (tyre's went flat on one side), other than tt, it was rather smooth ride which provided us with ample rest time from the day's activities underneath the unforgiving sun.
proposed journey( drawn up by me! haha.) still a lot more mileage to cover... 
after an long journey (which wasn't too bad afterall since we spent more than half of it dead asleep in the coach), we took to booking a hotel, internal flight tickets from Hue to HCM as well as the tour to My Son for the day. All done in perfect systematic order thanks to the guidance of our leader Jon who took to allocating tasks the night before, lest we shld miss out anything. haha. typical.. bah. After everything was settled, I and Jiemin wandered along the streets in a mission to search for Hanh Cafe so tt we cld book seats on the coach to Hue the next day. We ended up on a narrow alley eating Pho Bo (beef with rice noodles) and I drinking my lovely cafe sua! hehe.
Pho Bo along the streets. Beef tender and slightly raw ard the edges but the soup base was shiok i tell u.. 
outside my son
unravelling the mysterious of the ruins
i must say the pple here have a fetish of be-heading their own statues. it seemed as though most of the figurines ard have been decapitated. *weird* 
after the half day tour, we were left the rest of the day to roam the streets of Hoi An which was presumably small. Majority of the place was filled with embroidary shops and Tailor shops which were well known in Vietnam. Supposedly u cld bring a photo/picture of a dress design u reallie like and they would be able to reproduce it a fraction of the cost in a short period of time and not compromising the quality of their work as well. impressive huh? The heat in Hoi An however was terrible as the sun ruthlessly cast its rays upon us, we took the shelters as much as we could to little avail. But nonetheless managed to grab some nice cool shakes and ice-cream along the way. Woots. hehe *ahhhh*
nice cool shakes to battle the sunny weather
watch as Jon's eyes bulges out of his head when Jiemin reaches out to snatch away his ice-cream! haha.. hilarious... 
sweaty stinky sticky fellas trying to rub their sweat off me. EWWW!!! (sheesh, i look the least bit disgusted though..strange) 
a fisherman casts his net out in the water. 
Taking a stroll down the river right where old town Hoi An was situated was certainly a laid-back affair. the streets and cafes lining the riverside were quaint and nicely decorated. Reminded me of the old clarke quay or boat quay in a way. Enthralled and spell-bound by the cobbled pavements and the chilled atmosphere that the place enveloped. Wish i cld go back to tt moment in time.
transformers!
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TRANSFORMERS
to all those who haven't watched the movie, PLEASE DO WATCH IT!!! oh my gosh..totally my kind of show. the bomb-blasting action and all made up for the nostalgic and almost cliched values of the show. a showdown btw goody robots and the baddies. It did certainly leave an impact on me since i was made to watch these cartoons at a young age under my brothers influence. But then again, the impressive visuals and not to mention cool aircraft (F-22 raptors!) and sueve cars featured in the movie make it a must watch! fyi, think the visuals took a cool 2 years to be put together. in the movie, the Autobots and Decepticons feel heavy and absolutely real in every frame they're in. There are long, lingering shots of the models in full light, and I couldn't find a CGI character that pulled me out of the movie or made me think I was seeing something that wasn't actually there. 
Best thing was that i was skeptical tt the fast paced action cld pull thru the first hour but NO, it just got faster and faster! Mind blowing! the director Michael Bay managed to deliver an amazing film tat left my heart racing! however, things were dampened slightly at the back due to some cheesy moments. Bet the hardcore transformers aren't complaining though. haha.
okie... guess its digressing from updates about the viet trip yeh. but gotta catch up with my life back in spore too. hehe.. tts a challenge.
fav drink: Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's Chai Tea latte vs. McCafe's Himalayan Tea Latte
WHO WILL EMERGE THE WINNER? (gotta go for taste test again soon *hehe*)
had a taste of the Chai Tea Latte tt night at holland v's branch. Gosh.. a step of bravery to order something from my norm and guess what? it was GREAT! spices rule my day man.. simply invigorating stuff!
part 2
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Vietnam trip at a Glance (part 2)
The Nhatrang part of our journey was the major highlight in our trip and sought to uplift the spirits of our group members.
Nha Trang beach in the afternoon
Nha Trang beach in the afternoon
the weather was scorching hot! who cld resist an ice-cream? or maybe 2? *gulp*..(guilt sets in).. haha. fyi, 2 icecreams a day was part of a daily ritual.
walking ard town made us hungry again.. so it was tea break time! Jiemin decided to go for the lovely da bao. and guess what? (pls look below)..guess looks aren't everything *gag*
the day was fast over and we grew fatigued from the numerous hours of walking. we visited the more touristy sites of the city armed with our trusty lonely planet in our hands.
We walked and walked and walked. i cld have sworn to u the calories from the ice-creams and shakes were burnt off then. haha. But guys being guys just had to make numerous stopovers. NOt tt i'm complaining or anything cause i reallie do need a break too. But i'm just not a big fan of sugarcane juice(pls take note!) haha. the view from where we (they) were drinking sugar-cane
the next day, the 4 of us went for the island hopping tour package which was pretty much the HIGHLIGHT of the whole trip. was reallie reallie fun. Hence i wld recommend this to all who are passing thru Nha Trang. It only cost 4USD and u get a whole day of fun out at sea plus a de-li-cious lunch on board! yumz!
the boys in the water and me behind the camera(dun worrie i had my share of the lovely waters)
the boys in the water and me behind the camera(dun worrie i had my share of the lovely waters)
settling down for a nice lunch
a spread worthy of a king (3 kings and 1 princess at tt.. haha)
if i must say, the tour appealed in different ways to the 4 of us. Erm.. the chee-ko-peks in our group were satisfied, the alcoholics managed to get a little high at sea and the rigid managed to loosen up a bit. Hehe. Yep. Managed to meet many other travelers like us on the boat trip during the island hopping such as Oliver ( a German boy doing his attachment in Vietnam), Jenny( Aussie girl from down under visiting her roots after 17 yrs) and **** (gosh.forgotten how to spell her name le; a 21 yr old Vietnam girl on vacation). After our mini snorkeling session in the sea, and a sumptuous lunch on deck, they started the party which revolved round a floating bar which in simplistic breakdown was actually a float, a crate with at least 15 bottles of red wine and a man a.k.a the bartender. It was a frantic rush for the wine as pple jumped into the water without a qualm.
Hilarious as it was, I and Jiemin immediately decided to take the plunge from the 2nd storey of the boat into the waters. 
Gosh…adrenaline rush! It was fun fun fun! After a few rounds of wine, I had 15 glasses (at least a whole bottle) everyone was rather tipsy. Haha. I must commend tt the wine was pretty good stuff. Very drinkable, sweet mulberry wine manufactured in the highlands of Dalat itself with a rather high percentage alcohol for wine (16%).. Gosh..thank goodness I was water confident. Refused to put on the float. In fact diving through the cold waters after gulping down red wine was a rather refreshing experience.the Vietnam girl got pretty tipsy I must say and Jiemin and KV had a “fun” time guiding her along since she wasn’t much of a swimmer. Jenny was ‘pissed’ (as she put it) after just 3 glasses. Haha. But it was great conversing with her. In fact I found it quite amazing how we hit it off so easily. Hehe. End of the day: overly-tanned shoulders, 3 contacts from all over the world, and many great experiences to boot! Woots!
Hilarious as it was, I and Jiemin immediately decided to take the plunge from the 2nd storey of the boat into the waters. Gosh…adrenaline rush! It was fun fun fun! After a few rounds of wine, I had 15 glasses (at least a whole bottle) everyone was rather tipsy. Haha. I must commend tt the wine was pretty good stuff. Very drinkable, sweet mulberry wine manufactured in the highlands of Dalat itself with a rather high percentage alcohol for wine (16%).. Gosh..thank goodness I was water confident. Refused to put on the float. In fact diving through the cold waters after gulping down red wine was a rather refreshing experience.the Vietnam girl got pretty tipsy I must say and Jiemin and KV had a “fun” time guiding her along since she wasn’t much of a swimmer. Jenny was ‘pissed’ (as she put it) after just 3 glasses. Haha. But it was great conversing with her. In fact I found it quite amazing how we hit it off so easily. Hehe. End of the day: overly-tanned shoulders, 3 contacts from all over the world, and many great experiences to boot! Woots! vietnam trip part 1
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Vietnam Trip at a glance (part 1)
Hey! Back once more again from Vietnam. But instead of the parents this time, I ventured out into the unknown with a group of aero peeps, Jonathan, Kok Vui and Jiemin. The trip which we initially planned out to be a very packed trip in order to view as much as possible in the very short time span tt we had in the country seemed somewhat daunting when we set foot. And meanwhile due to the busy schedules of many of our team, we had to abandoned all thoughts of embarking on a fully-planned out trip. Which to me was a good thing of course, much to Jonathan’s dismay (woops..sorrie jon . just tt u seem to be fretting over the change of plans all the time. Haha) But nonethelss everything worked our fine and we managed to keep to our plan albeit for the minor adjustments we had to make due to transport timings.
Beginning our journey in Ho Chi Minh, the 4 of us set of for the backpackers zone in the city. There we set off to find means of tranporatation ard the country up north towards hue as well as accomadation for the night. After many minor mishaps, we managed to book 4 tickets on the open bus tours at Hanh Café which allowed us to travel without a time restriction to our destinations, Saigon à Mui Ne à Dalat à Nha Trang à Hoi An à Hue. A journey tt wld take us halfway across the country ( a considerable feat since Vietnam is almost vertical across the map stretching from Thailand to China on the other end). Therefore we set off at night immediately after a small stroll in the city under the pouring rain (W/O UMBRELLAS!!!), and we reached Mui Ne at 12pm.
Mui Ne was a reallie quiet coastal town. A place renowned for its sand dunes and its fish sauce productions. Our day tour took us to the outskirts of the town where amazing sand dunes stretched as far as the eye cld see and the wind blown restlessly across the sand plains. It was a magical sight one which instilled peace, quiet and sense of wellbeing. Astonished by the beauty of the desert, I was astounded by the existence of such a lifeless terrain right smack in the middle of the country. A group of little kids approached us to assist us in some sandboarding activites. Wary of the kids intentions to earn money off the few of us, we approached with caution as we knew tt money cld be a nasty thing in such situaitions. And true enough, the pestering of the little kids who groveled, begged, weeped and cursed for additional money aside from the reasonable sum tt we gave out totally ruined the experience. Nonetheless, the photos and the memories of the desert stay fresh in my mind.
Hey! Back once more again from Vietnam. But instead of the parents this time, I ventured out into the unknown with a group of aero peeps, Jonathan, Kok Vui and Jiemin. The trip which we initially planned out to be a very packed trip in order to view as much as possible in the very short time span tt we had in the country seemed somewhat daunting when we set foot. And meanwhile due to the busy schedules of many of our team, we had to abandoned all thoughts of embarking on a fully-planned out trip. Which to me was a good thing of course, much to Jonathan’s dismay (woops..sorrie jon . just tt u seem to be fretting over the change of plans all the time. Haha) But nonethelss everything worked our fine and we managed to keep to our plan albeit for the minor adjustments we had to make due to transport timings.
Beginning our journey in Ho Chi Minh, the 4 of us set of for the backpackers zone in the city. There we set off to find means of tranporatation ard the country up north towards hue as well as accomadation for the night. After many minor mishaps, we managed to book 4 tickets on the open bus tours at Hanh Café which allowed us to travel without a time restriction to our destinations, Saigon à Mui Ne à Dalat à Nha Trang à Hoi An à Hue. A journey tt wld take us halfway across the country ( a considerable feat since Vietnam is almost vertical across the map stretching from Thailand to China on the other end). Therefore we set off at night immediately after a small stroll in the city under the pouring rain (W/O UMBRELLAS!!!), and we reached Mui Ne at 12pm.
Mui Ne was a reallie quiet coastal town. A place renowned for its sand dunes and its fish sauce productions. Our day tour took us to the outskirts of the town where amazing sand dunes stretched as far as the eye cld see and the wind blown restlessly across the sand plains. It was a magical sight one which instilled peace, quiet and sense of wellbeing. Astonished by the beauty of the desert, I was astounded by the existence of such a lifeless terrain right smack in the middle of the country. A group of little kids approached us to assist us in some sandboarding activites. Wary of the kids intentions to earn money off the few of us, we approached with caution as we knew tt money cld be a nasty thing in such situaitions. And true enough, the pestering of the little kids who groveled, begged, weeped and cursed for additional money aside from the reasonable sum tt we gave out totally ruined the experience. Nonetheless, the photos and the memories of the desert stay fresh in my mind.
The harsh desert behind the lush greenery
Testimonial of Jon’s Violence. Poor Kok Vui….
Lotus Flower of the Desert 
The ever-changing landscape
The rest of the day got by in a flash. The Sun took a toll on us as we paid visits to the Red Sand Dunes, Fairy Stream and Red Canyon. By the time we got back to our guest house for lunch, we were all ‘nua’ and reallie tired. Lunch was topped by the most satisfying Papaya Shake ever. I must mention tt for us, ice cold milk coffee, shakes (banana and mango) as well as ice-cream were everyday treats for us due to the heat. Their shakes in Vietnam is reallie solid stuff if I must mention. Less milk and more fruit. Chunky goodness. Yumz.. hehe.
The next day, we set off early for Dalat, the highlands. Hoping to catch a bit of the cold air in the mountains. And boy did we get our wish… it got pretty cold there in the night as we trudged ard the city taking in the bustle of the quaint settlement which was founded by the French some decades ago. The cool air made for perfect conditions for sleeping anyway and we all enjoyed the best night of sleep tt very night.
Posing on a tree
Waterfall at Dalat 
Beauty florishes in the highlands 
Posing again! 
Gorgeous… 
Freezing in Dalat (thx to our failed attempt to get hot coffee instead of cold coffee! Lost in translation!) 
My favourite pic! Nothing beats a cup of coffee.. *ahhh* 
Early the next day, we set off for Nha Trang which supposedly was a place to ‘rest, relax and party the night away’ as quoted from lonely planet. However to our disappointment, the beaches were nothing to boast about. Thank God for the island tours the next day which brought us island hopping. The tour marked the peak of our trip as the boat took us from one offshort island to another for different activities such as snorkeling, parasailing, etc
*Pictures to be updated later. Please stay tuned for the successive parts*
leaving
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survived the 12 hrs bus ride... *phew*. ain't tt bad after al though we met with some mishaps along the way. Bus tires went a tad flat and we had to halt midway thru our journey to change them. was a long delay though and all of us were pretty tired. THe bus was cramp and hot due to the body heat emitted by the full load of passengers. But otherwise it was bearable.
made our way to Hoi An today for a stop over before our ar last destination at Hue tmr. Hence we decided to go for the no frills trip to UNESCO world site at MySon. Well, it was terribly uncalled for as there was nothing reallie spectacular about the Cham ruins. Blame the Americans for bombing the sites during the Vietnam war. Oh well. AFter tt we went on to walk ard town. Fell in love with the rustic old world charm of the old city of Hoi An. Its laid back feel accompanied with ancient structures made for a lovely stroll down the river.
today we'll be on to Hue our furthest destination up north before we head back to HCM. BUs journey's pretty short so there's no worrying about it. Otherwise, i think everything wld be smooth sailing. Miss home.my bed. GUys have been pretty fun these days. However i wld need some serious ego boosting when i reach spore. Suaning. *bleah*
Bye
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