My Melbourne Trip - Mar 2012

While I'm at Taiwan, here's some of the photos from the Melbourne work trip for you to look at. It's a pretty busy and hectic trip, as I was practically attending meeting during the entire trip. Although I got the chance to buy certain stuff back, I missed Haigh's chocolates.. As the shop was always closed by the time I was off work. Perhaps, it's not one of the most memorable and fun trips I had, it's one with lots of nice food.

Of course, I've got piggy with me during my trip as I ended up sitting at the Economy class ride on my way there. Luckily, the seat space is pretty reasonable for a long haul flight so I still managed to get some sleep. I still prefer to sit in the Business Class rides as I personally find it more comfortable than normal SQ / Qantas Economy rides as the seat space is better. Also, now we had the screen attached to the back of the seat like most other full class carriers although the actual movie experience is a option in one.

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Hollywood After Hours @ Universal Studio - Sentosa

So much about my Taiwan Trip, here's some sharing on the Universal Studio at Sentosa (Singapore). As I don't think I'll dare to take the rides, so I went for the $5 per person Hollywood After Hours to take a look around the street, take photos and watch the fireworks. :) The timing of this event is from around 7pm to 10pm (only on Fri and Sat). 

I'm pretty glad that I actually called up their hotline @ +65 6577 8888 to find out about their operating hours before visiting, otherwise, I'd waste a trip down on the wrong day of the week.

Do check out what they have and their ticket prices before your visit if you are keen to visit as well. Not sure why but there wasn't much info about the Hollywood after hours's event. For me, my main plan was to watch the fireworks from inside Universal Studio, which is the "Lake Hollywood Spectacular" event at 9pm. If you do visit only the after hours part, this is something not to be missed.

Beware of standing too close to the lake as the heat from the fireworks and sound created might give you a shock at times.

On a normal Friday night, the crowd of the Malaysian Food Street is pretty much manageable and acceptable. But if you do visit on a Saturday or Public Holiday period, here's something you might see...

This photo was taken on one of the Chinese New Year holidays period and the street was packed with people even before you can ever enter the area. OMG!!

But you do get to see nice decorations like these dragons...

This gift shop is located outside the Universal Studio.

Don't forget to take more pictures for sake keeping :)

Don't bother trying the bubble tea at Only You Desserts. The mascot is cute and the logo is nice, the bubble tea is reasonably priced but the taste was pretty much off. The pearls are pretty mushy and doesn't have that chewy feeling that I like. The tea is just so-so...

For this price I had paid for the Hollywood After Hours experience and watching of the Lake Hollywood Spectacular, it's pretty valued for money. As for the full Universal Studio experience, it's something for you to find out. After all, my sister-in-law visited that place about 3 times so far, so it got to be pretty fun I guess. She highly recommend the 4D movie experiences as well. Of which, I might find one weekday to try that out.

Here's the rest of the photos...

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Me & My Travel Blog

Hi,

Just to side track a little from my usual tour / trip reviews, I will share with you today one of the reasons why I setup and wrote this blog. Apart from sharing my view point with others and wanting to help others who might also be interested to perhaps planned on their trips to the places I had been as well, this blog helps me to track on the places that I had been to as well. It helps me in locating each interesting places that I might want to visit again the next time round, so that it's actually easier to find my way around. :)

If you do know me as a friend, you would know that apart from my dream to travel around the world, one of my dreams is also to achieve financial freedom. So that I can wake up everyday, feeling happy and carefree. I would say that there's 101 or more ways to achieve my financial freedom target / dream, from MLM (multi-level marketing) business, investments, internet marketing, to even doing your own business. Opportunities are actually everywhere, I just need to find that one that suit me most. Hopefully, it'll be me doing whatever that I do best and enjoying my life during the process.

I had friends that called to ask me join the travel MLM company which sounds interesting at first but as I think more into it, is that really something that suits me? If I'm an end-consumer, will I pay that much money to enjoy that kind of discounts, I asked myself? Well, if you know my character, the answer is certainly no. I usually go on free and easy trips and do self planning on my own itineraries. I get to go for trips where I can spent way less money as compared to a tour package. 

Do you know that for my last Taiwan trip (8 days, 7 nights), I spent merely ~$500 per person on flights and hotels. Btw, that was confirmed flight and hotels. Probably ~$500-600 of pocket money mainly on the items that we bought home. After all, I bought a nice looking bag and 2 pairs of expensive shoes, which contributes to the bulk of the expenditure. 

As compared to the $700 Hong Kong (5 days, 4 nights) trip offer that my friend told me, it wasn't exactly very attractive. To me, backpacking was the experience and the process on how we can get the best deals within our knowledge so that we have more budget to do shopping :P So in the end, I decided that I should just reject the kind offer of my friends and perhaps work on my personal stock investment plan to achieve my dreams instead.

That's all about me. I hope my blog had helped you in one way or another and you will come back to read more.

Thanks for reading. :)

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Modern Toilet

Modern Toilet Restaurant
*Photo Taken By: Norman Foo

Saw the very cute looking Modern Toilet Restaurant photo from my friend's photo album. From the various photos, it really looks very cute haha.. This wasn't in the guide book that I've bought so I didn't actually visit it during my last trip. From the looks of my friend's comment, it doesn't sound like the food is nice lol!

He says it's a short walk within Xi Men Ding (西门町). Maybe I'll drop by just to take a look during my next trip at the end of the month.

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Dinner @ Xiao Nan Men (小南门)

Xiao Nan Men (小南门) was where we had dinner at when we were at the Taipei Main Station area. I would say that the food is nice and value for money.

I love the steamed cod fish

Steam Pork Bun is nice too

Location: 台北市北平西路3号2楼
within Breeze Centre at 3 Beiping West Road Level 2

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MUJO to GO (无印良品)

Quite a number of interesting products to see, mainly convenient products meant for travelling or on the go people. Here, we bought many-in-1 colored pens and a mini calculator at pretty value for money prices as compared to Singapore. A place you can consider visiting during your trip.

Location: 台北市北平西路3号2楼
within Breeze Centre at 3 Beiping West Road Level 2

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Souvenir Store (手信坊) - Moji

The nice and tasty Moji which I take away a box of moji, to eat on my flight back. According to the shop assistant, if I keep my moji in the fridge once I reach home, I can keep it for about 1 week.

Here's the chocolate flavour one which I bought a box. I love the not-so-sweet formula and the chocolaty taste.

Here's the dark sugar flavour moji with red bean paste which I only bought 1 back to try as there's no sample. It tasted great too! Finished that on the plane home :P

Address: Breeze Centre (微風台北車站) on  top of Taipei Main Station, level 2 as well.

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