Yao Dao Lao Hoh is in Puroland too!

Someone keep saying I am childish in playing fluff friend in Facebook. Now he is stucked too! Hahahah..... And his pet is a tiger!

Gender:	Male
Location:	I stay in Puroland with O Ba Ka
Looking For:	Whatever I can Get
Favorite Foods:	Anything.

This tiger is dammed picky. He dun like most of the food. Even the most expensive food in fluff does not appeal to him. So Nick keep pumping him with generic food, the only food that he could achieve +6 speed so far. My O Ba Ka is better, most of the food can let it +10 on speed! Hahaha...
Last friday night while on our way home, I told Nick about this funny fluff that the owner feed only cherry, and the owner put in the shout out " I am hungry, feed me cherry". Someone reply him "No wonder you are hungry cos u only eat cherry!" It was so damm funny!
This got Nick interested in the Fluff. He ask me to create a login for him. At 11 pm, I was already on bed going to meet zou gong liao, he still playing fluff. At 1 am he went to bed, the half dreamy me ask him ur fluff how liao, he say my tiger speed is 200+ liao. I was wide awaked by his reply! I scold him "siao de" hahhaa... cos my O Ba Ka took me about 4 days to achieve speed of 200. Somemore my O Ba Ka is every food also good that kind. Can imagine he must be pumping a lot of food on his tiger for that 2 hrs!!!!
Crazy fellow! Sat and Sun he kept thinking of his tiger and feed him whenever he can. Hahaha..... now he cannot say I childish liao! Cos now he is obsessed with his tiger!!!!  :P

My O Ba Ka in facebook

I am stucked with Fluff in Facebook!!! Hahaha.... Here's my cute fluff!
Its name is O Ba Ka....hahahha....

Gender:	It
Location:	I stay in Puroland
Looking For:	(fluff)Friendship
Activities:	I like to sleep, roll around and nuai sai!!!
Favorite Foods:	Strawberry,Cherry, watermelon, milk, cakes!!! and lots of cakes! And Yes! Cheese! Cheese!
Favorite Places:	My bed and my bei bei
About Me:	I am a cute panda

I like to buy a variety of different food for it, it get stronger every time I feed it with food, now my O ba Ka speed is 142fph! It can get to thousand fph de.... hahahha....I wonder will it grow wings by then...hmmm..... heng O Ba Ka is not choosy about food, most of the food can add 10fph..hahahah....unlike WS de fluff is damm choosy! Like only expensive food! Hahaha.....
But I lose a lot of munny on racing...hahaha...cos I anyhow bet... so when I am "leong" then O Ba Ka dun have yummy food liao....hahahaha... dun know why I am such a sucker for game like this, Nick say its childish... But I like cartoon stuff like this.... even till now I still watch Doraemon every weekend morning! Hahaha.... I miss some of the cartoon like "ben ben" the blue body big big eyes car! I still know how to sing the theme song ! :P
Last time used to play neo pets too... pet aquarium which is like a screen saver where you can feed and sayang the fish everyday... but who knows it bring my comp virus and wipe out my hard disk!!! scary! Now no more installation of such stuff. 

Resources for Italy, Switerland and Paris tour

Hi ppl, I have posted my resources for Italy, Switerland and Paris tour, I have done this research online in 2007 between Feb to June. I cannot remember where I copied them from. So please just take it as reference.

 

Attachment: Research on tour.doc

Post Honeymoon thoughts

1 week after honeymoon, trying to adjust back the sleeping time. For the past 1 week, we have been trying to sleep early, but always end up awake till past midnight then we are able to sleep. The next morning, 2 pandas will walk around like zombies! Hahaha... A few occassion, I got so sleepy that I almost fell asleep while driving. Hopefully by this week we are able to fully recovered from the time difference.

Everyone has been asking us abt the trip to europe and are all surprise to hear that we dun have a good impression of the country. I think because both of us are the nuai sai type... we enjoy more when given more time to nuai than to travel (everyday is about 4 to 6 hours on coach to travel from 1 place to another)...hahaha... example like do nothing just nuai in some resort or like go cruise, nuai 3 days 2 nights that kind....Hahaha... But I would say this europe trip is a very good eye opening for us.

It make us realise how fortunate we are staying in SG, so lesser complains now...Hahahah.... Nick is a very chinese food person and always like to hiam this food not nice, that food not nice. He seldom do it now, cos I would ask him "bread, cheese and scramble egg???" It send him cold shiver! Hahaha... cos on the trip, that was standard breakfast everyday for 12 days in a row....kinda scary... In SG, we can still choose to eat beehoon with luncheon meat, kuay tiao soup, or fried carrot cake! Over there, easy, no need to choose, everyday is the same....hahahha....

We also realise SG is not as well known as what we thought. The 1st day when we are in Rome, we meet a german couple about age of 60s... also on holiday in rome, asking where we come from. When we say SINGAPORE, the old german man replied "Is it a small town in CHINA?" We almost fainted... we told him near Malaysia, he gave us a puzzled face. Then he ask "what is famous in SG, wat u all produce?" We were tongue tied.... dun know how to reply... I feel like replying, "SG produce ppl loh....and lot of fines...its a fines country" hahahha... of course I din say that... Hahahah... He is lucky that he met us on the 1st day of our trip... if he met us last day of our trip, I would definetly say, "SG is a racial harmony country!, no racism!!!" Hahaha...

Our tour guide is good in controlling the schedule so that we get a lot of free time on our own in their town, that's where u get to interact with the local. And most of the time, we choose to enter small local shops than the big big meant for tourist shop... so we get more encounter of bad attitude and racism from the ang mos....I cannot imagine, now is quite bad...imagine how bad racism was 10 years ago.....My colleague told me she encounter the same thing few yrs back, when the service ppl ignore her, but she more fierce, she demand they bring the item out to show her, and she walked off when they do it...hahahha....

Now I finally realise why racial harmony is so impt, why our govt keep trying to tell us to maintain that. I have never realise, maybe too take things for granted. Really feel like a mountain tortise after the trip. A lot of friends and colleagues say I think too much, analyse too much during a holiday. But I feel wat make a place nice to visit is not 100% on their scenary or food...its abt human! A very good example would be Japan, I have visited Japan last yr for work, only went for 3 days and din get to tour, just for walk some place for work purpose, din see huge impressive structure, no play trip, but the experience with the ppl there is great! Superb warm and friendly culture!!!! The best thing is their toilet! Super clean and come with warm water spray washer! (for backside) hahahah..Hahahah....I was alone in the hotel room on the trip, the thing I enjoy doing in the room is play with the water spray! :P... can adjust the diff level and angle of spray!!! Even shopping mall the toliet also have!

In Europe, unless we dun buy thing, dun interact, purely see sight, eat in hotel, buy stuff from tourist shop, then it would be good experience....hahah.... But where ever I go, I like to see ppl's cultural, talk to ppl, understand the difference between us and them. So now we understand why ppl keep saying service level for tourist is impt huh.... the tour guide keep telling us, dun be upset if u buy something more x cos tourist is always being carrot de.....hahaha.... so imagine tourist who come so far to our country, being carrot buy x stuff, cant expect them to put up with our attitude rite....hahahha... we should let them be a happy carrot! Hahaha...

We also come to realise that by one day, SG will be like them where everything get so bloody expensive... one normal takeaway meal easily cost abt sgd$50 for a couple, resturant is abt sgd$100 to $200... their normal income is about 3000 euro! Sweep floor de in europe can earn more than a manager in SG.... but their living standard is too high...Quite scary! Although the Euro exchange rate is 2 times of SGD, same as SGD to Msia, but things in SG is not that X as europe! No wonder when the ang mo come to SG, they buy like siao, when they go Msia or Indonesia, they buy till ki siao! When they go China, they already buy till bonkus liao!

Most imptly, in this trip, we could really feel the raise of power in China, nowaday, they are not what we thought they are.. cos they have superb spending power. It might be a good thing, cos at least they show to the world that Asian is no longer weak! Throughout the trip, Nick keep minic Lee Xiao Long, "我们不是东亚病夫"....hahha... he watch too much movie......But the problem is, money come too easy for the this generation of China ppl, so most of them are rich but not really cultured... The next generation will be better and better.

Our tour guide say she always bully the ang mos if she happen to see them in SG, cos she is being bullied by them in Europe. Hahaha.... I think its a bit extreme.... But nonetheless, this trip is a good exposure and good experience. Europe would be nice and fun if you are a shopping person and if you like buildings, structures, arts! But for nuai sai ppl like me, if given a chance to choose again, I would not visit Europe for honeymoon but on a separate trip... so now, I am bugging Nick to visit another place next yr...*evil laughter!!!!!

 

We are back Home!!!

Hahaha.... now we learn to appreciate SG more! The food, the environment...everything! The 1st thing we do when we touch down is to put our down our luggages, change and speedy gonzalas to coffee shop eat breakfast!

Nice kopi, tea, and Guo tiao dang!!!

 

 

 

Hahhahaha.... Last night we just had prata at Jalan Kayu, today??? Hmmm... ikea hotdog, chicken wings!!! Then Lasak..... Food in SG is just amazing!!!! Hahaha

We also packed our stuffs we bought for new home.

 

 

 

 

We also did a count on our photos, 1430 still shots!!! Not inclusive of videos clips!!! More than the photos on our AD!!! Hahaha.....

Hahha.... I guess some of you might be wondering how I managed to do a detail record of the trip... cos I write down daily...hahah... U may find Italy stuff more details cos more free time... Switerland de not so much... cos busy with shopping and viewing scenary! Paris de not much also. I had lao sai in Switerland, got sorethroat and coughing towards the end of the trip.

DAY 12 Last Day in Paris, the city of love!

DAY 13 (09 Oct 07, TUE) : PARIS FREE DAY

We started the day trying to take the metro with our fellow travel mates. Our hotel is on the residential line, so we have to take the RER followed by the city line. We first arrived at Montmatre. The place where many artistes were being discovered! I love the artiste street!!! Very artistic feel! We bought some nice poster for our new home, very Moulin Rouge feel. After lunch at

this nice small restaurant, nice crepe, we took a walk in Pigalle to see the famous Moulin Rouge.

 

While we were at Montmatre, we saw a lot of blackies! They are here to tie “friendship band” on your wrist and ask for money!!! We saw the same situation in Milan too. I gave these blackies a nickname “Kopi O” then Nick and myself will remind each other “beware of Kopi O” whenever we see these Kopi O we will wrap our arms. I made a song out of this using the SBC drama Kopi O

 

咖啡乌，咖啡乌，

这里有很多的咖啡乌。

咖啡乌，咖啡乌，

他们要来绑你的手。

被他绑到就惨了。

要小心咖啡乌。

 

We board on the metro again to Galeries Lafayette. A paradise for branded goods lover. We have to queue to get into LV boutique. Only LV, the rest of the branded stuff need not queue. According to the tour guide, LV is at least a few hundred cheaper as compare to SG. No wonder our fellow travel mates buy LV bags buy until wanna ki siao liao!

Nick insists that I should pick something a small bag or wat. In the end I pick a small pouch which is just nice for handphone and wallet. It’s very much like me! Cos I seldom carry hand bag. Hahah… I like the pouch a lot!!!!

 

As we moved on to look at other bag and clothing, I saw some of their Paris house brand, I thought it would be cheaper than branded stuff that we know. We are wrong! Their house brand can cost double than LV! No wonder so many ppl buying LV, we saw the whole street of China tourists buying tons of LV, some even open up to use on the spot!!!

 

We shopped a while and settle ourselves for high tea in Maxim, it quite expensive, I ordered a full tea set and Nick had his coffee and a sgd 13 chocolate éclair! Hahaha… can tell he feel quite heart pain! Hahaha…

 

We meet the rest of the group and we walk to the Louvre, saw the glass pyramids, the French garden and walked towards the La Grand Roue (Ferris Wheel). Had a nice nutalla waffles outside the Ferris wheel!

 

We took the metro to the avenue of paradise, the most expensive street in the world, Champs Elysees! We din get to walk around in Champs Elysees cos it’s raining but dinner is satisifying! We went to Leon, this restaurant serve nothing but mussel!!!! In a variety of cooking method! Yummy!!!!

 

After dinner, we took a metro back to hotel. It’s a nice night in Paris!!!! Unforgettable too! *wink wink…. Hahaha….

 

DAY 11... Paris.....City of our dream!

DAY 12 (08 Oct 07, MON): DIJON - PARIS

We had lunch along the high way in Autogrill and the food sucks! Hahaha… around 2pm, we reached Paris!!!! City of our dream. Before arriving in this city, the guide told us a lot of ugly and bad experience of Paris. She says the more she visits Paris, the uglier it became.

 

We are lucky! Today Paris is not crowded. The guide says “suddenly she feels Paris so beautiful!” The minute we reach Paris, I feel the love in the city! We arrived at the Eiffel tower. The view is panoramic! Most of the buildings in Paris is short like max 6 floor high, could see the entire Paris on Eiffel towel! It is very windy too! Our local tour guide gave us an onboard guided tour on the coach. In Paris they do not allow coach to stop in any location they like. Due to the crowded city, they even come out with a bicycle rental scheme which their local s are encourage to ride bicycle than to drive a car. They also have separate bicycle land on the road.

 

As there wasn’t much crowd and traffic. We managed to have photo stop at the Jardin du Luxembourg. It a very nice garden! I actually have the intention to visit it on our free day. It’s good that we are here today! Next we have a photo stop at the Invalids. I love the view of the square inside the building! Our tour guide say we are very lucky, cos she lead tour group for so many years into Paris, there isn’t one time that she is able to do so many photo stop cos Paris is always crowded with human and traffic!

 

As the evening approached, we board on the cruise on Seine River! The cruise is great. It provides a great overview of Paris. Except that we are all freezing cold. It about 15 degress with chilling wind blowing and we are not properly dressed for the chilled. We are all shiving while waiting for Eiffel tower to be lighted. I love the river cruise. We saw this ang mo couple kissing from the top of the deck to the lower deck! Hahaha…..

 

The knighted ended with a Chinese dinner in the Chinatown in Paris. Tomorrow is a free and easy day. Paris has given me a nice experience so far. Maybe we haven start the walking tour yet! Hahaha… too soon to conclude.

 

DAY 10 passing Geneva to France

DAY 11 (07 Oct 07, SUN) : ZERMATT REGION - SWISS RIVIERA - GENEVA - DIJON

We has photo stop at a few main attractions in Geneva. Chillon Castle by the Geneva Lake, important buildings like the United Nation and Red Cross Building. We had lunch at this Chinese restaurant. Miss Chinese food so much! Nick start thinking what to eat when we touch down in SG. A final photo stop at the jet d Eau fountain. The coach brings us into France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped by Djon for one night stay before reaching Paris. We stayed in Holiday Inn Hotel in Djon but the arrangement by the hotel is really bad. We were arranged separately from the main dinning area. The ang mo had their breakfast in the main restaurant. We together with the China group were arranged into a small function room. Worse of all they provide cold bread and Taiwan sausage look-alike for us! They think we dun know how to eat their ang mo sausage! The waitress is the worse waitress I ever seen. When ask for extra plate, she say “Already given u all the exact no of plates, 19 ppl, 19 plates!” and her attitude is also best! When she bring out the bread, she let out a big “pek chek” sigh! I heard from fellow travel mate that the China group is very KS, took 2 serving each! That’s why the waitress thought we are like the china group cos she can’t tell the difference, we all look the same to them!

 

DAY 9 the Toberlone Zermatt

DAY 10 (06 Oct 07, SAT) : INTERLAKEN - ZERMATT REGION

4 hours drive from Interlaken, we reached the train station to catch the train ride to Zermatt. It was a short 15 min ride. The quaint village of Zermatt is filled with rows of swiss cottage looking houses.

 

Zermatt is similar to Interlaken, a gateway to snow mountain! None other but the tobelone mountain, Matterhorn. Therefore its quite a touristy place. Not as remote and quiet as expected.

 

We saw the sausage street vendor as read on internet. We bought a sausage and it nice! We had lunch in this Debby restaurant. We tried the rosti but its not really fantastic. We moved on to buy some souvenirs and I am too tired to walk around. We sit in Tea Room to enjoy my black forest cake and latte while Nick enjoy his black coffee.

 

We catch a train ride back to the Matterhorn station. 2 hours of mountainous ride on the coach, we reach this small town, Leukerbad for 1 night stay.

 

It’s a small spa village which is located near the top of a mountain. We could see the tip of the mountain in the hotel room!. We din get to enjoy any spa facilities, (the hotel has a thermal pool) as we are only here for 1 night. It a bit waste of time to travel 1 hour uphill and another 1 hour plus downhill tomorrow.

DAY 8 ..up up to Top of Europe…

DAY 9 (05 Oct 07, FRI) : INTERLAKEN

We visited Jungfraujoch today! The train ride was scenic! One side is greenery and the other side is ice mountain! Small little cottage looking houses on different level on the hill forming a unique looking view. Cows with cow bells and goats could be seens grazing the grass or simply basking in the sun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top of Europe is a bit higher than Mt Titlis but definitely much colder! It was freezing cold. We stayed outdoor just for a while. The glazier walk was great. The ice scrupltures are more impressive than the one in Mt Titlis. The air up there is too thin and both Nick and myself was’nt really comfortable with the thin air. We deicide to rest and din go and see the huskies. Some of our group mates went. The ride down the mountain was a different route from the one we went up. We experienced a different view from the uphill sight.

 

 

Back into the town in Interlaken, we went back to Bebbis for dinner. Nick had the roast pork while I had this typical Swiss dish (cannot remember the name) its potatoes baked in cheese. Yummy! It was a satisfying meal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY 7 in a small town call Interlaken…

DAY 8 (04 Oct 07, THUR) : LUCERNE - BERNE - INTERLAKEN

From Lucerne, we arrived in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It’s a small town which pretty much looks like Siena in Italy, but with its own beauty. Bern looks small in scale than expected. The variety of shops is lesser as compared to Lucerne. Din managed to get any souvenir nor the cuckoo clock. We did manage to buy a small lighting display for our new home.

 

We had lunch at the self serve Migros. Nick had his beloved curry but it is not as good as the one in SG. As we walked back to the meeting point, the weather has cleared (it was raining when we reach Bern). The 2 bears (which Nick claimed that they belongs to him, siao ding dong) in the bear pit has come out! A lot of tourists buy fruits to feed them. Nick bought one portion too. These 2 bears are smart. They sit stationary and catch the food with their mouth open! The smaller bear is quite picky, he purposely give the apple chunk a missed and only catch the grapes!

 

We left Bern and reach Interlaken in the late afternoon. Interlaken is like a mini town! It’s a more touristy town, cos it’s a gateway for people to visit Top of Europe. We had a strolled in this town before we arrived at the Bebbis Resturant for our Swiss fondue combo meal.

 

The cheese fondue is not as tasty as expected, it taste a bit bitter and strong wine taste. The meat fondue is so so… Chocolate fondue is good. The best of this place is Mr. Bebbis! He is very entertaining, playing a very good host with his funny expressions, songs and games!

 

After the dinner, we went to buy our cuckoo clock! Finally found it! It was actually the same design as the first design I saw in Lucerne, but it has more moving objects here! Yeah!!!... Nick also got his swiss army set. A fruitful day!

 

DAY 6….. We are in Switzerland!

DAY 7 (03 Oct 07, WED) : LUCERNE - ENGELBERT - MT TITLIS - LUCERN

I am now lying on the bed in hotel Europe Lucerne while Nick is enjoying his red wine and live telecast of champion league between Valencia and Chelsea. Just finish dinner in our room. Nice roasted chicken from Migros.

 

Switzerland is a beautiful place! The view from the coach into Switzerland is picturesque! I am overwhelmed by the alpine houses! Every single house is unique in its design and they are built on different level on the mountain. There are a lot of cows! I love the sight of mountain water running on the little stone river just in front of every house!

 

Our hotel is situated just next to Lake Lucerne. It’s a very nice lake filled with swans and “yuan yang”! The evening walk towards the wooden chapel Bridge is relaxing…. Unconsciously, the stress level is disappearing…. The pace of footstep amazing slow down.

 

Today we went to Mt Titlis. It is 10,000 feet above sea level! I thought its gonna to be freezing cold! Hahaha… Fully equipped ourselves with thermal wear. Nick say we very KS to wear so many layers! I tell him, wait till he get up to the ice mountain!...Hahahah… It was cable car ride followed by a mass big cable car and finally the Totair. It is a revolving cable car but only the base revolved. The window is stationary….hahahha…we all thought the entire big cable car will revolve.

 

It is quiet cold up on the mountain. The view is indescribable! This is the first time both is us touch snow, or rather ice cos it really hard ice… we had fun playing on the snow mountain. We also took the open top sky rider! It was an awesome view! No words can describe that kind of top on the mountain view!!!

 

 

 

I had always wanted to a snow angel but these are ice and not fluffy snow…Hahaha… in the end, I lye on the ice…. Hahaha… compensate for not able to do a snow angel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was really cold so we went into the self serve restaurant to eat the famous sausage and goulash soup. It’s tasty! The pork chop is delicious too! Haven been eating pork since in Italy… We visited the glacier walk and saw some ang mo kids! hahhaa… we bought a nice cow bell as souvenir too! Haha…. For our new home!

 

Back to the city in Lucerne, after the changing parade into lighter clothing, we went to the shopping area. Everyone is busying looking at watches! It the birth place for watches and Bucherer is the one who make rolex famous. About 80% of our group mate bought a branded watch, rolex, patek phillip, tag heguer, omega!!! There are a lot of China tourists too… they buy watches as if it from pasar malang!!!! Buy until quarrel with their tour guide and the sales people in the shop. Heard from our fellow tour mate got china ppl shout at the sales people saying that “I am here to spend $$$$”….. damm jia liat….. no wonder the ang mo see us Asian like shit and low class!

 

Nick wanted to get their swiss made B Swiss but he is in dilemma to buy or not to buy. We left the rolex building and have tea break in this Tea Room café as recommended by the tour guide. The raspberry tart is marvelous! A cake lover like me sure enjoys dessert like this! I could tell that Nick is still thinking about the watches. I thought maybe he should get a decent piece since we are in Switzerland. We came to this mini shopping mall which looks like our Isetan. Tissot caught my eyes, it’s a swiss made brand and some of the design look good. I told the salesger we wanted to see this particular piece but she asked us to wait. I thought they are so service oriented cos she is serving another customer in front of us. I am wrong! After her customer left, I signal her the second time, she asked us to wait and there she was packing her paper box and browsing the catalogue! Damm it!!!! She practically ignored us! It’s a over 700 sgd watch I want to see, 2 pieces is near 2K liao… ok maybe its peanuts to them! So angry! We left the place and come to this swiss brand fashion shop. I took fancy on this top which is the last piece on the mannequin. But the sales ger simply refuse to take down that piece for me! We left the place with zero purchase also.

 

I did manage to get a nice casual jacket in a shop. There are in fact a lot of nice store in Lucerne but the operating hours is too short! Too little time to shop. We decided that if we cannot find a nice watch, maybe we should get a nice cuckoo clock for our new home. Its all handmade and a signature of German material assemble in Swiss! We could’nt find any nice piece so far but we will still continue our search tomorrow in Interlaken!

 

DAY 5 ….last day in Italy!!!

DAY 6 (02 Oct 07, TUE) : VENICE - MILAN - LUCERNE

Sound like I can’t wait to leave Iltay??? Hahaha….cos we are going to Switzerland!!!! Yeah!

 

It was a 4 hour ride from the town Padova (outside Venice) to Milan. On the way, Nick is tempted to buy lotto at the Autogrill. He has been looking at the driving playing loto at every rest stop… ahahha…. In the end he bought a lotto ticket (10 euro) and won 20 euros….hhaha beginner luck! The tour guide even joke at us, she say “ now u 2 can eat in restaurant already, no need to sit by the street!”

 

It was a 2 hours break in the city of Milan. The Gothic Cathedral is really impressive! It took 500 years to build with 135 sculptures! It the most impressive cathedral so far.  

 

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuela II is equally nice with the glass dome shape in the center. There are star signs made of mosaics on the floor. Everyone would make a turn at the Taurus sign to bring luck…hahha… Nick say its his sign so he must turn! Hahahah....As this is the last stop in Italy, both Nick and myself decided to give ourselves a good treat for lunch. We have been eating those self-serve pizza and sandwiches since day 1 in Italy… we found ourselves a nice restaurant in the Vittorio Emanuela II, ordered a nice coffee and hot chocolate, fried seafood (inside only prawns and sotong) and best would be the lasagnas….The food are great! Especially the ambience. We both agree that this is the best meal in Italy. Hahaha… The portion of fried seafood is a bit too little for Nick. So we order a pizza. Its not common to share food in Italy. The waitress serves the pizza in separately 2 plates. Look at how big is the portion! We spend the waiting time looking at the people walking around…hahha… The bill come up to about 50 euros…. Both of us feel that it was well spent….. at least a nice meal in Italy.

 

Now we are on the coach to Switzerland…. We are coming!!!

DAY 4 .....We r in Venice!

DAY 5 (01 Oct 07, MON) : FLORENCE - VENICE

We are sitting in Macdonald in Venice. The only friendly place I feel in Italy. We reached Venice this morning via the water taxi. Lunch was bad. The overpriced sandwhiches and taste awfully. Even the hotdog bun (3euro) taste bad, Ikea SGD1 taste better! Hahaha....We had 45 min local tour which we barely understand what he is talking about…. The St Mark’s Square is impressive with its big Doges Palace and the whole stretch of building which is currently the museum.

 

After the city tour, we visited the glass blowing which is so so… followed by the long awaiting Gondola ride! The most enjoyable thing in Venice is the gondola ride. The Italian who ferry us is very handsome!...hahhaa… it was a ride organized by the tour guide so the gondola only travel the inner route. We din get to ride pass the bridge of Sigh…so no kisses under the old bridge (there is a believe that when couple kiss under the bridge of sign, they will stay forever in love).

 

We are given 2 hours on our own to explore Venice. Nick and I walked the same streets over and over again, nothing interest us… a lot of branded shops around. We decided to take a coffee break at the café house but the price made us think twice….hahahaha… in the end we eat ice cream, drink beer by the street… Just next to the café house. We move on to buy some souvenirs and bad experience! The street vendor wasn’t friendly. When Nick was choosing some keychain, the vendor speaks in Chinese “你好, if you want to buy, be fast, dun block my other customer”…. Damm bad attitude! But to Asian only…cos I saw him smiling and talking to the ang mo behind Nick… Wat a great country!!!

 

While waiting for the gathering time, we are here in Macdonald with 2 hamburgers, 1 coke and 1 fries for 7 over euros….hahaha…overall feel of Venice? It’s a nice city but not to the extent of romantic. I saw on the inflight entertainment that say Venice is one of the world’s most romantic place. Tell me how a damm crowded place can be romantic???

 

……………………………………..

But …..the ride back on the water taxi leaving Venice is great…. A nice sunset view…..

DAY 3 in Tuscany Region

DAY 4 (30 Sept 07, SUN) : TUSCAN HILLS - GREVE - GIMIGNANO - FLORENCE

 

We visited Chianti Hill, the wine-town of Greve. Wine Tasting!!! According to the tour guide, its seasonal visit and Sept is the month when they harvet the grapes. The 1 hour ride we saw a lot of greenery, hills full of grape tree! The person in charge gave brief introductions on the different harvest and followed by wine tasting.

 

The most enjoyable part is photo taking with grape plant…. Not much grapes left, mostly chao ta liao…. Maybe because it already been plucked for making wine.

 

2 hours ride, we arrived in Gimignano, it’s a small town that look more or less like Siena. I dun really like the place. We had this bigger than our face de pizza and a ham cheese sandwich for the sake of using the toilet! Toilet in Italy is like 宝! Even public loo which cost about SGD 1 buck per visit is so hard to find! The tour guide told us to just act blur and walk into any restaurant to use the loo…. I tried and got shouted by the old ang mo cha bo at the counter…. I mean really loud shouting… so we bought a sandwich and coffee for sharing which again the waitress auntie gave us a disgusted look Cos Italian culture, they rather waste the food than to share!

 

 

 

Another 2 hours ride we reach Florence. Heard a lot on how beautiful it was….Naaaaa….. crowded with people! We saw 2 of the copies of David, one on the hill and one in the town. The local tour guide gave us a history of Florence on the famous bridge and Duomo, how the place always get flooded…. I do agree that the Piazza Signoria is a like an open-air museum. There are a lot of sculptures on display but they are not the original piece. We saw a real one versa the copy version. There is really a great difference. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The things I enjoyed most in Florence? The 70 euro portrait that the local street artiste drew for us. He took about 1 hour to complete. It is a nice experience! To be drew by the Europe street artiste on Florence oldest bridge!

 

Another thing not to be missed is the Florentine steak….we walk very fast back to the restaurant cos we are running a bit late. As we order our food, we realized that we forget to buy mineral water. In Italy, another problematic issue is drinking water. So troublesome. Have to prepare our own drinking water. A small normal size cost about 1 to 2 euro, the 1.5 litre one, if you are lucky you can get at 0.70 euro. The cheapest would be in supermarket. Well… for the past few days we are buying the at least 1.50 euro version cos we din know of the supermarket! Nick say we would need to spend SGD 50 for drinking water in Italy…. Now I know why in Italy so hard to find toilet cos they dun drink water!

 

We can’t really find the 1.5L one on the street so we went back for the food first. In Italy, the appetizer is either a soup or pasta. Usually Italian would order pasta / spaghetti followed by a main course. Nick had spaghetti and grilled chicken breast. I had the Florentine steak. When being asked what side dishes to go with, I asked for vegetables, the waiter ask me “Beans?” I said “hot vegetables”. He ask me again “All beans?” I said “Green vegetables” He say “oh…” … I was being serve a big bowl of green beans!!! And that cost 5 euros! When we finished our meal and made payment, we gave them about 7.50 euros as tips, so are the rest of our tour mate, we were being told that dinning in restaurant, we should leave at least 10% as tipping. As we leave the restaurant, the waiters grin from eyes to eyes and said “bye bye, Good Asian”… Kaos…. I damm bui song…. I feel that in their eyes they only see $$$$$ lar…..

 

DAY 2 in Tuscany Region

DAY 3 (29 Sept 07, SAT) : ROME -SIENA- PISA

Waiting for breakfast….hahaha… over here when they give u an allocated time for breakfast like 8 am, you can never get into the restaurant at 7.55am… This morning Nick ask me, “ today is Sunday so the kids wont be out in the street for school.” I was wondering why he said that when I suggested a stroll outside the hotel…..Hahaha…. Uncle Nick is scared of school children cos they robbed and steal! We din really strolled out there cos we are in the middle of hilly and a place where birds also dun want to lay eggs! And best of all, its chilling shiok!

 

Yesterday we traveled about 3 hours from Rome into the region of Tuscany. The ride was good. All the coached in Europe is controlled by this Taco-graph which physically record the speed while the coach is on move, (then if they speed, they can’t get the pass inot the next city) cos they need to produce this graph during the purchase of pass into a city.

 

2 nd day in Italy make us more relax and less tense. I told Nick, I realized staying in SG is live under extreme pressurize lifestyle which we dun realize. Even on holiday, it take us a day or so to relax the tension to really feel that we are on holiday!

 

Siena is a nice place. We din get to visit the entire town but only to the medieval Siena. Its like a small town enclosed in bricks of tall walls. Internally you see only see buildings on slopes that intercross and its like a mouse holes! Everywhere is opening which you can’t recognized!

 

The highlight was the Duomo, fully made of marble! It was an overwhelming sight. We appeared so small infront of the Duomo. We proceed to the middle of medieval Siena that lead us to the fan-shaped Piazza del Campo where we see huge square and the majestic Palazzo Vecchio. The main characteristic feature is the tower and the rustic outer look of the palace. We din really visit these 2 structures. We only take pictures.

 

Another 2 hours journey from Siena, we reach Pisa, where the famous leaning tower is. The entire area is called the “Square of Miracle” which consist of Battistero, cathedral, leaning tower. However everyone is only interested in the leaning tower. We had so much fun posing pictures! I still manage to get some time to sit on the grass and admire the structures, but Nick din. He was so busy with photo-taking and later on complain that time spend at the leaning tower is too short! He wanted more time to really take a closer look at the structure. Hahaha…..

 

Today is a much better day. At least I find the structures and buildings are more complete and ancient…. We are going for breakfast now….ciao!

 

DAY 1 in ROME. All roads lead to Rome? I think its all tourists went to Rome!

DAY 2 (28 Sept 07, FRI) : ROME

 

As I am writing this, we are waiting to get into the restaurant for breakfast. Maybe due to the time difference, we can’t really sleep till 6.00 a.m. Rome time! Hahah… Nick say he never feel so fresh early in the morning. Because its 12 noon SG time now!

 

First day of Rome, after arriving at the airport, we spend about 30 min just to wait for the luggages. Guess not everywhere is as efficient as SG airport. At the custom, a few ang mos trying to jump our queue! Give it to them, I told Nick, I thought SG ppl KS, actually ang mos also can be KS also loh.

 

The first stop we visited the Vatican City. On the way to St Peter Basilica, the world biggest Catholic basilica in the world, we saw a long long queue. (abt from Scotts Orchard to Marina SQ, no joke!) They are queuing the rain somemore! Just to enter to the Sistine Chapel. The outer view of St Peter Basilica is overwhelming. Its really very huge and seems like in a world of its own, surrounded with thick thick bricks walls. We made a tour inside the St Peter Basilica church. A lot of painting made of mosaic and a statute body lying below each painting to commemorate a pope. We only took photo of those we know. The rest just look look, see see…hahhaha no point taking photo of something we dun even understand! Actually the tour can be quite fruitless if you do not really understand their history. I manage to take a pict of me standing rite the in middle of the square. It’s a 360 degree view of the square. We almost lost the group as the local tourgude ask us to wait at the fountain and our SG guide din knows, trying hard to find us. It a small incident.

 

Next we proceed to the Colosseum. On the way we saw a lot of ruins. It’s amazing to see one side of the bank, civilized and modern buildings while on the other side is so ancient. Frankly speaking, I think its quiet hard for city dwellers like us to appreciate wat they have protected for hundreds and thousands of years. The local tour guide keep explaining the history of Rome and how Christian were being killed by the Roman. How powerful is the pope. Its no fun…sound like history class in school. All I see is tourists and more tourists! Humans walking all over the place trying to understand stones, empty land and structure in front of them.

 

We had lunch break near the Circus Maximus. It’s a free and easy lunch. Nick and me get to try the Nutella crepe (4 euro). Damm big piece! We also try the take-away pizza and ang mo liang the (beer)! We had some time to walk around before we gather in group to proceed to Trevi Fountain.

 

The first sight of Trevi fountain is not as impressive as I expected. I saw it on photo and tv drama. It always look so grand and romantic. But it a big structure right in the middle of 3 modern streets! That its how it got its name trevi means 3 streets.

 

We din toss any coin as everyone believe…hahah cos I dun think I want to revisit Rome! But we did found the lovers’ fountain at the left side of the structure. Wash and play with the water!

 

We had some free time around. Went to queue about 30 min in Macdonald for toilet. Public toilet in not common and one big Macdonald only have 1 cubical. I dun understand why everything is huge but the toilet is so little and small.

 

We try the famous gelato next to the fountain. Had some little time to ourselves. Sitting by the fountain, eating ice cream…ok… a bit of romantic time, but tons of ppl around. Kinda hard to find romance feeling. But we do see a lot of ang mo kissing around.

 

As the group gather, we walk about 20 min to the Spanish steps. Had to climb up to the other side where our coach is waiting. To me, they are nothing but stairs. I hate climbing stairs! Hahaha

 

We had dinner at this super salty Chinese food restaurant! Din really enjoy the food as I am feeling damm cold and sleepy! Its 1 a.m. SG time!.... We check into the hotel, shower and call back to SG to activate our roaming (we forget about it in SG).

 

This morning we are leaving Rome for Tuscan Hill. Rome is a place full of history at the same time too crowded with tourists. We saw a lot of different group of tourists with tour guide holding different umbrella, doll, flower to lead. According to our guide, even the Rome family do that when they come out to shop as a family, cos too crowded liao!

 

I dun really like Rome, too commercialized and dangerous because of the pick pocket. We heard a lot even the SQ rep at Rome airport was there to warn us of teens who rob. At the Spanish step, one of the couple in our group almost got robbed.

 

Bye bye Rome, City of pick pockets and vandalism.