Paris Business Trip - Solo (Third Day)

It's monday, 20th July. I am ready for work today. The conference is held at Saint Denis area. It's rated to be the most crimes area in Paris. Yup, I have to be more careful to travel to this area. I am not sure why the university is located in the area.
I went out at around 8 am, took metro line 13 to Saint Denis-Universite. I reached there at 8:30 am. The metro ride was only 20 minutes from Saint Lazare to the Universite Paris VIII. As I alighted at the station, I have to admit that the place is really different than the city centre area. It is a little quiet in the morning. Then, suddenly two asian guys approached me and asked where the University is. From their attire, I guess that they are going to the same venue as I am. Actually, I wasn't sure the location at that time, but, I saw "Universite" sign at the building opposite the metro. So, we walked together to the conference venue. Later I found out that the two guys are from Taiwan.  Even the University area doesn't look safe to me. It was still early, and I think no school activity is going on at that time. I believe it's because of summer time (holiday?).

The session goes on for half a day (it was close to 12:30 pm), and unfortunately quite a number of participants don't show up. I believe some of them may have visa issue to enter Europe. We were given a lunch coupon which we can redeem our meal in the canteen. Below is my lunch for the day. I had rice (I think it's risotto) with fish and some kind of sauce, a chocolate eclair, and rice pudding (I think). The packaging is written in French. Taste is pretty ok.  

Of course by the time, I have made more friends, and I met one colleague. He is from other department in the company. I always see him around, but, never talk at all. So, we had a chit chat for a bit. I think people become more friendly when they are away from home.:D

I did not have plan yet in the afternoon. So, I joined the Taiwanese guys. They planned to go to Galeries Lafayette to walk around, then to Eiffel Tower. Yes, I want to go to Eiffel Tower! It was nice that I have friends to go with me now. I heard from one of the conference attendee ( a malaysia guy) that, his friend lost his wallet in Eiffel Tower the day before. It's a bit scary. Well, that's Paris...

So, I met them up at the Lafayette. The interior of the shopping mall is very beautiful. There are a lot of people, especially tourist. You may find people queuing in front of LV, Chanel, Longchamp stores. 

From Lafayette, we decided to walk to Eiffel Tower. Below are few pictures that I took a long the way.

We were getting closer to Eiffel Tower. 

Finally, we were there! Isn't it beautiful? The weather was nice that day. Slightly hot though, as we queued for almost an hour to go to the top of the tower.

Finally, we were at the top. First we took lift to second floor, then change lift at third floor to get to the top. They have head count system, in which there are a maximum number of people who can go up to the top. We were lucky that, by the time we got into the ticket counter, the top floor was open. The ticket costs 15 Euro to go to the top, and 9.5 Euro if you just want to go to second floor.

We were very exhausted after a long walk, and a long queue. We went back at around 7:30 pm. I walked with the guys, and eventually took metro back to my hotel. By the time I reached my hotel, it was 9 pm. But, the day is long during summer time in Paris. So, it wasn't dark yet at that time. I chose to have dinner in the room. I brought "Mie Sedap" all the way from Singapore. Haha, yes, yummy, and I only eat instant noodle when I am away from home, otherwise I usually ban it from my meal list.

I guess, nothing more for the day. It was indeed a tiring day.

Paris Business Trip -- Solo Trip (First Day)

I just got back from Paris few days ago. Yes, a solo trip. Few friends said, "I hope you are not travelling on your own.". Then, I replied, "I am".:) Scary, indeed. But, who knows that eventually I meet new friends there. Follow my blog, and you will know what has happened during my solo trip in Paris.

The conference that I am attending started on 20th July, but, I optioned to reach Paris on the 18th. I arrived safely at CGD airport by Singapore Airlines. It was early in the morning at 7:30 am. Surprisingly, the queue for immigration that morning was incredibly long. It took me more than an hour to pass through the immigration, then pick up my luggage.

My adventure starts...
I haven't decided whether I should take a cab or bus, or train to the hotel. I checked out the bus, and it seems to be easy to find the bus stop. It's called Roissy bus (door 32 in terminal 1), which will take me to Opera (at the intersection of Rue Auber and Rue Scribe). I guess "Rue" means street. I thought that I could find a counter to get a ticket, but, I couldn't find one. So, I walked away, and tried to allocate the ticket counter. I couldn't see any. I saw "taxi" sign, and I thought maybe I should take a cab. But..., I made my mind to go back to the bus stop. I bought a ticket from the ticket machine. I managed to get a receipt from that machine! I shouldn't have walked away, haha... Yes, we need receipt to be able to claim for transport. Below is the picture of door 32. So, as soon as you exit from the door, you need to cross the road. I took the picture from the bus stop. One way to Opera cost 11 Euro.

The good thing about this bus is, there is a free wifi on the bus. Even though I have managed to buy a data sim card before I reach Paris, of course free wifi is always good to save my data plan. I bought the sim card from www.lefrenchmobile.com  . It costs me 19 euro for 1 GB data plan (valid for a month), and I paid total of 22.19 euro with shipping. If you plan to travel to Europe, you should get this card. They have few options to choose from. The one I bought can only be used in France. But there are sim card that can be used in France, Belgium, etc. Of course, it will cost slightly more. 

The bus ride took less than an hour. Then, I walked to Le Grand Hotel De Normandie. It took me 10 minutes to walk to the hotel. I have looked through google map before I depart how to walk to the hotel. And, I did not have any difficulty to find my way. The hotel is a small one, but the location is awesome. I have done a lot of research regarding where to stay in Paris, and eventually I decided to stay in this hotel. It's located in front of a metro and train station, called Gare Saint Lazare. The place is quite safe, as what people have said. My experienced there was also fine. Just that few times from my room, I could see some people shouting. But, I think as long as we don't go near them, we should be fine. 

Of course it was too early for me to check in to the hotel, so I just dropped my luggage, and planned to walk around. At first I wanted to go to La Valee Village outlet. So, I went to the station to get ticket. I was at the ticket machine, and looked confused, then a lady approached me. She helped me how to buy the ticket. She then left, and stood at the corner, near another ticket machine. I did not feel safe to open my bag and pay for the ticket. So, I walked away. I think I made a good choice not to purchase the ticket that time. The next day I read a blog, in which people give advice to be careful and not to listen to anybody who was trying to help in getting a train ticket in any metro station in Paris.

I walked to the information centre, but, unfortunately the officer cannot speak English. So, I left the station. Honestly, I don't feel good being around the metro station. The place is a bit dark. I quickly went upstairs. There is a shopping mall at the Gare Saint Lazare. As I walked up, I found out a train station at the upper level. The place is crowded, and I feel safer there. The upper level is for intercity train, such as Versailles, etc. But, there is a counter where I could get either metro ticket or train ticket. I bought a package of 10 tickets (a carnet). One costs 1.81 euro, however if you buy 10, it costs 14.1 euro. I found this to be better deal than day pass, especially if you only take maximum of 2-3 trips a day. One ticket will let you travel within zone 1-2 in Paris (despite on short or long distance, as long as it's still within zone 1 and 2, one ticket will be sufficient). The outlet is located outside zone 1 and 2, so, it cost more. But, I changed my plan, since I was very tired after a long flight. 

So, I just walked around the area to get familiar with the surrounding. The hotel is very near to Galleries Lafayette and Printemps shopping malls. I couldn't find anything that I could eat. There are all either cold sandwiches or pizza. Then i saw an asian store at the basement of galeries lafayette. I bought this noodle for my lunch. 

I went back to the hotel by hoping that my room is ready. It was 1:40 pm, unfortunately the room was not ready at that time. Since i was very exhausted, i sat at the lobby to wait. Finally, i got my room when the clock hit almost 3 pm. Yes, the check in time is at 3 pm. The receptionist was nice to offer me coffee. But unfortunately, i don't drink coffee. He told me that he gave me a nice room with a view. Below is the view from my hotel room. 

I finally had my lunch around 3 pm. Luckily, I have ABC chili sauce. Otherwise, I don't think I could finish the noodle. It doesn't taste good. Oh well, what to expect a chinese food in Paris. My bad....

I didn't go out anymore after that, but I went to bed early. So, that's all for my arrival day in Paris.

Hong Kong trip 7 Feb-10 Feb 2015 (Arrival day)

There was flight offered by Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong, with fare of ~700 SGD for two persons. We booked our flight few weeks before our departure. It was quite a steal for us. We planned to stay one night at Hollywood Hotel at Disneyland HK. I searched through a lot of websites and tour agent, and eventually found a reasonable price for that hotel, includes 2 adults one-day-tickets to the Disneyland park. I got it from http://www.asiatravelcare.com. It's a travel company, based in HK. The deal that we got costs HKD3720 (equivalent to ~ SGD660).

Package includes:
• 1 Night hotel accommodation 
• 1 Day Disneyland Park Ticket x 2
• 1-day Buffet Breakfast x 2
• Service Charge
Actually the value deal was about half price less than what we have paid. Just that, we have booked it very late, therefore we did not get such deal anymore. After making a credit cad payment, they will send you a voucher, and you just need to print out the voucher and show it to the hotel reception when you check in.

We arrived Hong Kong international airport at around 1 pm. After cleared the immigration, we took bus to Tung Cung (only 10-15 minutes journey). We had few bites of bread before we continue the journey to Hollywood hotel. From there, we took MTR to disneyland, then transfer to hotel shuttle. We reached hotel around 3:30 pm. Check in procedure was quite fast.

 I simply love the room. Almost everything has Mickey on it. Even the shampoo, shower gel bottles are in mickey shape. Very cute. I asked for few more bottles to keep for souvenir.

After checking in, we took MTR to Hong Kong central to have dinner. This wonton noodle shop is highly recommended by bloggers. It's located near central station. The address is 

Mak’s Noodle 麥奀雲吞麵世家
Address: G/F, 77 Wellington Street, Central
Walking Directions: Central MTR, Exit D2
地址: 中環威靈頓街77號地下

Telephone/電話: (852) 2854 3810 

This noodle looks really simple, but it tastes very good. The texture of it is chewy. The begetable that we ordered tasted yummy too. It's a simple dinner, but, very satisfying. 

After dinner, we walked around the area, and I know there is one very old dessert stall nearby. We found it! The address is 2 Elgin Street, SOHO, Central. It's not a shop, but it's like a small stall located at the corner of the street. They don't speak English, but their menu has English translation. We ordered the green bean soup. It's different than what we usually have at home. Their green bean soup was cooked with seaweed. It doesn't taste bad though. It's just different. We also ordered black sesame rice ball. I think it's nothing special about it.   

That's how we ended our first day in Hong Kong. I know that I should update my blog more often. I will. Please stay tune for my next post!

Second day (Taiwan trip 2015) - Hualien

We got ready early for the earliest 7:20 am train to hualien. We checked out at around 6:20 am then walked to taipei main station. We bought our breakfast from 7-eleven. If you are going to hualien, look for TRA sign at taipei main station, that's where you should take your train at.

It was a very comfortable and new train. The journey took 2 hours and 5 minutes. We reached hualien train station at 9:25 am. By the way, i have prearranged a taxi driver to fetch us for a day trip in hualien. I contacted yellowcab, Neil Zeng (boxiongzeng@gmail.com), few weeks before our departure. He has a very good review from tripadvisor and few travel blogs that I have read. Unfortunately, he wasn't available for the day. So, instead he referred me to his friend, Yifeng Wu (+886963633939). Eventhough Neil was not available, he was very nice that he arranged our itinerary for the day. I told him that I wanted to visit tzuchi there, and Neil actually fixed the itinerary according to my request. 

As we arrived in hualien, Mr. Wu has been waiting for us there. He drove a toyota camry, so it's just nice for two of us. By the way he provided wifi in the cab. He also passed us one cellphone to use, so that we can communicate with him in case we couldn't find him, after he drop us at one stop.  

Below is the itinerary that I received from Neil. 

One day tour to Taroko Gorge @ quote of 3000 NTD/car

  1. Pick-up from Hualien Railway Station in the morning

  2. Chihsintan Beach

  3. Tzuchi Jing Si Hall

  4. Chinsui Cliff

  5. The whole Taroko Gorge: 

   1) Arch Gate

   2) Visitor Center

   3) Shakadang Trail

   4) Eternal Spring Shrine + Changuang Temple

   5) Swallow Grotto + Zhuilu Cliff

   6) Nine turn tunnel

   7) Cimu Bridge

   8) Baiyang Trail: Baiyang Waterfall + Baiyang Suspension Bridge + Water Curtain Cave

   9) Tianxiang: Pudu Bridge + Xiangde Temple + Tianfeng Pagoda

   10) Lushui Trail

   11) Yehfei Pavilion + Suspension Bridge

  6. Drop at any assigned location (such as night market, down town or assigned restaurant) after leaving your luggage to Hotel Bayview in the evening

  * Chihsintan Beach can be skipped if you have your own plan for it the next day.

  * Visitor Center can be skipped if you are not interested, or to save time for trails in the gorge.

  * Nine Turn Tunnel is permanently closed due to unstable cliff structures and unpredictable rockfalls.

  * Baiyang Trail and Lushui Trail may be alternatives if there is not enough time.

  * Lunch options:

   1) Aboriginal Cuisines in "Dageeli"

We skipped few places at Taroko because we need to do a lot of hiking there in order to see the nice view. I was wearing my high heel boots and we tried one short hike (40 mins). I think that's enough for us. Below you could see pictures that we took during our day trip in Hualien. 

@TzuChi Jing Si Tang. 

Mr. Wu told us that almost half places of Hualien owned by TzuChi. They have their own university, hospital. So, most doctors in the hospital were previously studied in the university. This place is very near to the train station. 

Inside Jing Si Tang. It's a very quiet place. 

Then, on the way to Taroko, we stopped by at their farm. All nuns stay at this place, and if there are any visitor coming from other country, they usually stay there. Cheng Yen Fa Shi also stays there. All the nuns there do farming.

After a short visit, we continued our trip to Taroko. There are a lot to cover there, and a lot of hiking. We chose one simple route, which took us about 40 minutes. Below you can see few pictures that we took in Taroko. Honestly, I cannot remember all the places' name.

The picture with the helmet was taken at Swallow Grotto (燕子口). 

Our lunch at Taroko was not great at all. There are two options for us, one is the restaurant which serve traditional food of the original people there, or a simple meal. We opted for a simple meal, because we were worried that we are not used to the traditional food of Taiwan Aborigines (臺灣原住民, read Tai wan Yuan zhu min), and also it's quite expensive. However, the simple meal is really simple, and nothing great that I would want to take picture of it. I don't even remember to take picture of our food there. The place is not very clean either. We had some kind of like mixed rice.   

Our 40 minutes trekking to see a waterfall. We need to walk for 20 minutes to be able to see the scene. I think it's only ok. But the trekking part was quite fun. There is one part where it's completely dark. But, our driver has warned us about that.

This bridge can only hold maximum of 8 persons, so, we need to queue to walk through the bridge. Of course, I just stayed at the edge to take picture, since I have fear of height. 

We covered only some part of Taroko, because we chose not to walk, and a lot of the scenery can only be seen if we walk. So, we were done at around 4 pm, and, we asked our driver to drop us at our hotel first to check in. He was nice to wait for us there, and then drop us at the city area for our food hunting. We stayed at Bayview Hotel near Chihsintan Beach. This is a very popular hotel, and it's not easy to book. If you plan to stay there, please make your booking early. I booked "honeymoon room with seaview". A seaview room is a must if you stay there. Even though it's slightly more expensive, but it is worth the money that you spent. If I am not mistaken, we paid 2900 TWD for one night. Their service is also awesome! 

Then, our next stop for the day is Hualien downtown area (Golden Triangle business district). There are a lot of good food to try there. Of course, I have done my homework about "Food". Our driver also told us about what we should try in the area. First stop is Gong Zheng Bao Zi (公正包子).

It was very juicy inside, and the size of the bao is quite small (about the size of xiao long bao). We also ordered the dumpling, which is pretty good as well. 

Then, the next one is Mr. goose. They sell goose meat. We ordered a small plate of goose breast meat, and a plate of vegetable. Surprisingly, the vegetable is very nice, but the goose meat doesn't go very well with our taste bud. The meat is quite hard.

Of course a meal will not be complete without a dessert. We were very full after those two meals, but, I read one blogger who recommended this dessert. Apparently, we passed by earlier, but then we didn't go in. There is an interesting way to eat this dessert. First we use our spoon to scoop one taro ball, then scoop the ice. It tasted very delicious. The shaved ice was covered with milk and brown sugar. Oh yeah, by the way, the taro balls are served hot. That's why they didn't serve it in the same bowl.  

That was it for the day. Oh yeah, it's so coincidence that we met our driver, Mr. Wu and Neil. I believe they just finished their dinner. Hahaha, I think it's called 有缘分 (you yuan fen). Actually, I really want to personally thank Neil for all the arrangement that he has made for us. And, by coincidence, we met him! 

Oh yeah, you should of course get "mua chi" (mochi) from hualien. It's famous! There are quite a lot of shops which sell mua chi at the golden triangle district. You definitely won't miss it.

2015 Trip to Taiwan-First Day

We arrived Taoyuan airport terminal 1 at around 5:30 am. After clearing immigration and collect our luggage (close to 6:20 am), we took airport shuttle to terminal 2. There is chunghwa shop at the departure hall) which will open at 7 am. We need to get prepaid sim card. Before proceed to the shop, we first went to food court for breakfast. There are seven eleven and MC Donald at the lower level.

Below is the few options that you can choose from, offered by chunghwa. We got 5 day pass that costs 300 TWD. That includes unlimited data plus $50 of airtime. The staff said it will allow me to call local number for maximum of 8 minutes. It's enough for us. 

We then took city bus 国光 to taipei main station. It costs 120 TWD per person for bus ticket. The journey was about an hour. We reached Taipei Main station at 9 am. Before going to our hotel, we went to ticket counter to get our hualien train tickets. I have purchased the train tickets online. The puyuma train tickets can be difficult to get. And you can buy the ticket online two weeks in advanced. I got 7:20 am train for the next morning. 

Our hotel for the first night is at New Stay inn. We stayed there two years ago, and it was pretty nice budget hotel. For twin shared room, we paid 2250 TWD (102 SGD) per night. 

After settled the hotel, we put our luggage at the reception, and we went to see my friend at San Chong area. From there, our first food hunting was "mien xien"/misua nearby Zhong Zheng ji nian tang (中正纪念堂). It costs only TWD 35 for a small bowl. It was delicious. I myself think this one is more delicious than Ah Chung mien xien at ximending. It was located at a small road. You may alight at Chiang khai sek MRT station. But, i can't remember the exit number. 

After having one small bowl of mien xien, we went to a "lu rou fan"/braised ground pork rice shop. If you visit taiwan, you defintely have to try their lu rou fan. It's very oily, but delicious. 

There is usually a queue for that shop, especially during lunch time. But, since we were early, we got a shared table right away. 

We spent only 115 TWD (5 SGD) for that meal. We know about this shop during our previous visit when we went for our prewedding photoshoot. The bridal staff brought us there. 

After that satisfying meal, we went to a bakery shop, called Gakuden. They have a lot of branches in Taipei. We live the chocolate mochi bread. They claimed that they use Valrhona fine chocolate. But, indeed the type of chocolate used does make a different. We simply love the chocolate taste in their bread. I forgot to take picture of the chocolate mochi bread. It is a small bread, each package contains 5 mini bread. Below is their other type of bread, top picture is chocolate creamcheese, and the bottom one is black sesame cream cheese. Both are good. 

Then we walked around to check out the area around. We passed by a dessert shop, and we decided to make a try. We ordered one bowl of green bean barley dessert to share. 

It was close to 2:30 pm, and I was very exhausted after the red eye flight, so we decided to go back to hotel. It's a bout the check in time which was supposed to be at 3 pm. 

After few hours of rest, we got ready for ximending. There, we tried ah chong mien xien. It costs 50 TED for a small bowl. We got one to share. Again, we think the mien xien we had earlier was better. 

After that shopping time. From xi men ding, we went to Zhongxiao dunhua to look for some particular uniqlo tshirt. The shirt is out of stock in ximending shop. We then had our dinner around there. After a long walk trying to decide what to eat, we went in to a hong kong restaurant. I was too hungry and tired at that time, and I forgot to take any pictures of the food we had. 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel. We had to catch early train to hualien the next morning, so we should get enough rest. Please stay tune for my next post for an adventurous trip at hualien. 

Ninth Day at New Zealand - Christchurch

It's our last day at NZ! We went to "container mall", called Re:Start. Why is it called container mall? Because the shops are all made from truck container. They renovated the place into this type of mall after the bad earthquake hit christchurch few years ago. 

Again we did some shopping at a chinese store. We bought a lot of Royal Jelly. It was known to be good for health, especially in balancing hormone for women. 

Our lunch was at Keo's Thai restaurant. Food was again nice as usual. Honestly, it's not that hard to find thai restaurant in New Zealand. I could say that in generall any thai restaurant that we had there are quite good. 

After lunch, we went to New World grocery store. Few things that you may consider of buying if you go to New Zealand are Lindt Chocolate, Royal Jelly. Lindt chocolate costs 1.99 NZD for one bar. It usually cost about SGD 5 plus in Singapore. For certain brand of Royal Jelly, it costs only about 48 NZD. In Singapore, it may cost few hundred singapore dollars. Of course different brand may have different price. 

That's pretty much what our experience in New Zealand! It's definitely a great place to visit. We are ready to go back home the next morning. Our flight next day is at 6:20 am to Brisbane then Singapore. We had to wake up at 2 am and be ready to leave the hotel at 4:15 am. 

Eighth Day at New Zealand - Christchruch

No rush for today's trip. Google map showed that it would take us about 3 hours drive to christchurch. Our breakfast was Indomie. We bought a lot of them and since the holiday is going to end soon, so we thought that we should finish them.

As planned, we are going to look for jade. My brother found one home store recommended by a lot of people. So, we went there. Their jade was original from NZ. They said that one should have a license in New Zealand to be able to find jade. So, the owner of this store is one who had license. Their jade was handmade by them, and they are really nice. Just that it's quite expensive. Eventually, we did not get anything from the store. We then planned to go back to Hokitika to the jade store again. However, we ended up bought nothing again. Then, we stopped by at a National Kiwi centre to see Kiwi bird. This bird live in the dark. We tried to look for the bird in a really dark room, and none of us saw the bird. It was quite a waste of money. If I am not mistaken, we paid 22 NZD per person. So, I personally do not recommend you to visit that place. To the visit worth I did take few videos and pictures of fishes. Haha....

We then left Hokitika for christchurch. On the way, we stopped by at a honey cafe in Kumara Junction (according to my google map). They sell manuka honey and other type of honey. It seems like a family business to me. The cafe served food and ice cream. We bought manuka honey. Surprisingly, their manuka honey is slightly cheaper than the manuka honey sold outside. Of course we won't miss trying their ice cream. I remember trying the pineapple ice cream. It was delicious!

We reached Christchurch at around 1 pm. Our hotel is close to CHC airport, named Airport gateway motor lodge. After checking in, we went for lunch. It's definitely easy to find thai food at christchurch. We chose Merry Thai restaurant this time. 

Their food was good!

After lunch, we went back to hotel to get rest. It has been tiring day, especially for my brother who has been driving all the time and also catching really bad flu. 

For dinner, we had indomie. Haha... I hardly eat instant noodle at home, and i have had few servings in New Zealand. 

Of course never forgotten kiwi fruit. By the way kiwifruit was the cheapest among anything else in New zealand. It costs about NZD 4.99-5.99 per kg. 

In the evening we had a walk to a shopping mall. It took us about 30 minutes from the hotel to reach the mall. We took this picture on our way back. Guess what time it was? It's 9 pm and it's still bright. Day time is always longer during summer time in New Zealand.