The Necessities

Now that I am in Asia, there's few items that I bring for my travel, esp when there's the SUN... Looooveeeeee the sun & beaches but somewhat allergic to the sun. ==" If I am out in the sun for more than an hour without sunblock, my whole face will have rashes for the next week. Like ew-disgusting... This syndrome happened 2 years ago. So ever since then, I made sure that I bring my essentials whenever I travel.

#1 Sunblock - I am trying to find the best brand for facial & body sunblocks. Currently using Gisele Delorme for facial & the regular Nivea Sunblock for body. Not really into these 2 sunblocks because they tend to be sticky in the skin. But so far so good, they prevented me from getting too tanned.. !

#2 Cortizone - In case sunblocks don't work and I get rashes on my face, Cortizone will be my savior. This medicine is to reduce swelling, itching, and redness caused by insect bites, allergies & rashes. Not sure why but my skin react really well with this medication. As a matter of fact, the sun rash will get better in just one day after application. 

#3 Vaseline - I use this as a lipbalm but can also serve as other purposes - to protect skin with minor cuts & burns. The reason I started using this is because of the sun rash in my face and lips. You will not want to see the rashes in my face and lips - it's disgusting beyond words. I didnt even want to leave the house because of how horrible it looked. I have a very sensitive lips; it gets allergic reactions to flavored lip balms. So Vaseline is the only lip balm that does not contain any flavors and works well with my lips & skin. 

#4 Umbrella with UV protection - bought this umbrella in Tokyo, Japan for USD$20. (who in the world would buy such an expensive umbrella?! -> only Japanese & my mum). BUT, this is one of the better 'investment' my mum made. haha. Not only is the umbrella small, lightweight & colorful, it is also UV protected! WHOOTS. You can use this for rain & shine. 

#5 Hat - bought this $10 hat from Walgreens in Chicago last year. It was super impromtu because my face was starting to show symptoms of the rash and I needed to protect it from the sun. Couldnt find any hat shop, so bought this random pink hat. Been using this hat wherever I go. It might not be the fanciest hat, but it serves its purpose in protecting my face against the sun. 

#6 Sunglass - One last essential is to bring sunglasses, especially when the sun is staring right into your eyes. In fact, sunglasses offer protection against excessive exposure to sunlight! Fashion trends can be another reason for wearing sunglasses. One might look better and 'cooler' in photos when they wear designer sunglasses.  

These are my 6 must bring items when traveling. What are yours? 

The older you get, the more you bring. It is the "just in case I need it" excuse that resulted you bringing the 'extras'. When I was younger, I could care less about bringing anything for my trip. Right now, a 4 day trip will get me about 6 sets of clothes.
oh my! 

With lots of love,

Claraaaa <3

Vancouver, Canada

23; You are a young adult trying to figure out what you can offer to the world and vice versa. You want to be independent, but yet you're so dependent. And before you realize you are turning 24... :O!

Anyways, back to my travelogue. Even though Canada is just a drive away from Seattle/Buffalo, I have only been there twice - once when I was really young and the second time in August. 

Facts about Canada:
World's second largest country by total area
Official languages are French & English
Member of Commonwealth Nations
Is a federal parliamentary democracy & a constitutional monarchy.
Uses the metric system

I used to think that USA & Canada are somewhat similar. But if you think about it, they are totally different from each other. They just happen to share the same language and continent. Also, everything is 1.5 more expensive in Canada. People tend to be friendlier and more polite too. It is a VERY clean country. The cleanliness makes me feel like I am in Singapore. 

Vancouver is 3.5hrs away from Seattle by car. In the 4 days that I visited Vancouver, we managed to visit Victoria Island (Butchart Garden & Legislature Building), Capilano Bridge & Old Town Vancouver. There aren't many tourist attractions there, unless you love natures & mountains. One thing I noticed about Vancouver is that there are many Asians, particularly Hong Kong people.  

Hotel:
La Grande Residence Vancouver at the Sutton Place
855 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z2K7, Canada
It is a 5 star hotel located at the heart of Vancouver. The concept of the hotel is like a service apartment. One night at the hotel can easily cost you USD$300-400. Again, everything is expensive in Canada. However, the location of the hotel is favorable. There is a supermarket that is one block away and there are many restaurants nearby.

Food:
As I mentioned earlier, there are many Asians in Vancouver. Thus, it is no surprise that the city has many good Asian food. 

1. Japadog (www.japadog.com) - a Japanese Style Hot Dog. This is not just another hotdog, but one of the best hotdog I've tasted. You can taste the juiceness of the meat and the perfect blend of the sauces. Those are the 3 hotdogs that we tried, my favorite is the Kurobuta Terimayo Hotdog. YUMMMM.. 

Kurobuta Terimayo

Okonomi

Oroshi

2. Salathai (www.salathai.ca) - this is a normal Thai restaurant located just across our hotel. Mum usually takes her group to this restaurant so I guess it must have tasted decent. True enough, none of the food we ordered taste bad. One downside about this restaurant is that the service is EXTREMELY slow. It took us 10 minutes to order our food, and drinks came 10 minutes after.

3. Kirin (www.kirinrestaurants.com) - we had dimsum at this restaurant. It is about 10 minute walk from the hotel. Everything we ordered tasted good. I guess the restaurant is popular among Indonesians because even the server could speak Bahasa! 

Attractions:
1. Capilano Suspension Bridge Park: 
3735 Capilano Road, North Vancouver, BC V7R4J1, Canada

Admission Fee to Capilano Bridge

Capilano Suspension Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge is 140 meters long and 70 meters above the river. Aside from the suspension bridge, it is also a national park. The park is well known for having many suspension bridges. I would say that Canada has one of the cleanest and well-kept parks/gardens  in the world.  There are 3 main places/attractions that you should visit while in the park - first being the Capilano suspension bridge, second the cliffwalk and third the treetops adventure. 

Capilano Suspension Bridge

View from the suspension bridge

View from the suspension bridge

2. Butchart Garden 
800 Benvenuto Ave, Brentwood Bay, BC V8M1J8, Canada

Entrance to this beautiful park ranges from low CAD$30s to high CAD$30s, depending on the time of the year. The high season would be in Summer and that would be about CAD$37. Imagine an entrance fee to a garden for that much! You will NOT be disappoint once you get into the garden and see how well-kept it is. 
I was fortunate enough to visit the garden in the Summer. It was a really sunny day and all the flowers were blooming. I love LOVE flowers and this garden is definitely one of the best gardens filled with variety of flowers. Everything looked way too surreal because it's been so well-kept. 

All the pretty flowers

3. Victoria Island - Legislature Buiding 
We managed to visit the Parliament building that is located near a dock. The area itself reminds you of Fishermen's Wharf & Santa Monica Pier. Really pretty place and the whole area is very lively with people playing music and many tourists. You can go inside the viewing gallery of the legislative chamber. Even though it is a sunny day, bring your jacket along because it can get very windy since it is by the pier. 

4. Lions Gate Bridge
Our final location is the Lions Gate Bridge. This bridge is a suspension bridge connecting Stanley Park/downtown to the North Shore. If you are driving, you can stop over before crossing the bridge to have a photo session. This area can get windy and foggy, but I was lucky enough to have a clear and sunny day during the visit. 

Lions Gate Bridge

This pretty much sums up our trip to Vancouver, Canada! 

Stay tune for my upcoming trips which I am very excited:

- Israel: It is mind-blowing to know that the holy land is a living proof of God & the Bible. Will be my 2nd time visiting the country

- Toraja: Very intrigued about this city in Sulawesi Island. They have a unique tradition of honoring the dead people.

- Japan: Will be my 3rd time visiting Japan but I never get enough of it.

I might visit New York & Los Angeles for Christmas and New Year. :D :D :D 

2014 is coming to an end and I might not have accomplished much success in terms on monetary value. However, everyone has their own definition of successes in their lives. Some consider finding the love of their life a success, some even define success as having excess amount of monetary value and/or knowledge. As for me, being able to travel so much in a year is a huge accomplishment. I am truly blessed to be given this opportunity and would love to travel and explore the different cities & cultures in the coming year. 

With lots of love,

Claraaaa <3

Just another weekend

The past weekend was HECTIC. We had Halloween Party on Friday in Jakarta before heading over to Singapore on Saturday & Sunday. Singapore trip was supposedly an errand trip. However, I managed to go to Singapore last month for a day trip and completed all the errands. Since we booked the tickets & hotel 2 months prior, this trip was more of a culinary, shopping & meeting up with friends. 

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Here are some of the pictures from Halloween! Not all of us managed to dress up since Jakarta doesn't really have a Halloween store for us to shop costumes. I decided to wear my red dress that kinda look like a middle eastern-ish dress (even though my friend got 'upset' because she said it doesn't look like any costume). 

We went to Colosseum that is located in Central Jakarta. Central Jakarta is known for its red light district. I was hesitant about going there because of what I've been hearing. Nevertheless, we went there because our friend opened a private room for us all. I think it's way safer than being in the dance floor with strangers. It was a fun night! :) 

 1 NIGHT IN SINGAPORE 

Our flight to Singapore was 08.30AM the next morning and we had to make sure that we leave for the airport latest by 06.30AM. Thankfully, we managed to wake up on time to catch our flight. It was an EXTREMELY short trip to Singapore that we barely have enough time to do anything! Unfortunately for this trip, I did not take many pictures. :( So here are some pictures that my friends took. 

Once we landed in Singapore, we took the taxi to our hotel and head for our lunch at Aoki. 

Hotel - Holiday Inn Express @ Orchard Road. Stayed here twice and I am very satisfied with this hotel. Not only it is located in the heart of Orchard Road (opposite Paragon), but its price is also very reasonable (About SGD$200 all in). This hotel is definitely the cheapest that you can find around town area. The hotel provides free parking, free wifi & free breakfast! And if you are an IHG member, you are able to have an early check in & out. So this is the hotel that I will be staying whenever I am coming to Singapore. 

#1 Lunch @ Aoki
1 Scotts Road. #02-17 
Shaw Centre, Singapore 

Our first stop for lunch is Aoki. We had to reserve this restaurant a month in advance! The restaurant is known for its fresh sashimi. However, we did not order that for lunch. Intrigued by fellow Indonesians' instagram pictures of the Wagyu Truffle Donburi, we decided to get that instead. The donburi was not on the menu and so we did not know about the price until the bill came. I love truffle and I love wagyu and thus this is by far one of the better ones I've tasted. The wagyu melts in your mouth with the truffle on top of it. IT'S SO GOOD! However, I don't think the restaurant service is on par as the quality of its food and price. Anyways, a bowl of 70g wagyu truffle donburi with the real truffle cost SGD$156... I guess if you order without the truffle itself, the price would have been halfed. So if you are not ready to spend that much money on such a small bowl for lunch, then I suggest you going to Fat Cow instead. I would say that Fat Cow Seared Foie Gras Donburi is not as good as Aoki's but it's three time cheaper with bigger portion! I'll come back to Aoki to try their sashimi, which is definitely far less pricier that the donburi!

Wagyu Truffle Donburi - 70 gram

#2 Dinner @ Fordharm & Grand

43 Craig Road, Singapore 089681

Our second meal for the day is at Fordharm & Grand. This wasnt our initial dinner destination. We were supposed to eat at Market Grill but they had an hour wait... So my friends decided to head to this restaurant. Even though I grew up in Singapore for 10 years, I have no clue about good restaurants. Thankfully, my Singapore friends always bring me to good places to eat. Yumm! 

Appetizers:

Green Asparagus, egg confit & Joselito Jamon

Main Course:

Lobster Linguine, ginger, chilli, coriander & olive oil

Fish of the day, tiger prawns & Ratatouille

Slow-roasted duck leg, sunchoke & Foie gras

Roasted Chicken roulade, carrot puree & glazed vegetables

Dessert:

Banana cake, caramel, chocolate chantilly & vanilla ice cream

Overall good food with good price and good service! Me likey and will come back for the second time. 

Appetizer - Green Asparagus 

Slow roasted duck leg

#3 Snack @ Honey Creme
313 Orchard Road (next to taxi stand of 313 Mall)
#01-37, Singapore 238895 

Honey Creme is a Korean Style soft served Ice cream topped with interesting toppings such as popcorn, Cotton Candy, Honey comb, etc. I've tasted this style of ice cream in Korea itself. If I were to give the one in Korea an 8.5/10 for its awesome taste, Honey Creme would be 5.5/10. :( It is definitely not as good as the one in Korea. Honey Creme is overpriced (price ranges from SGD5.90 - SGD 6.90) for a small sized vanilla soft serve ice cream and a topping. I ordered the honey comb and they gave us a minute size of honeycomb. The taste itself is a little bit too heavy for me. The one I had in Korea serves bigger portion & topping and the vanilla tasted light and not as sweet. 

VS this MILKY BEE IN KOREA! The size is bigger and way yummier! (though you can't really see the size difference from the pictures)

#4 Lunch @ Taste Paradise

Ion Orchard

Level 4 

Our last meal in Singapore is at Taste Paradise for Dim Sum. We made a reservation the day before just in case there was a waiting line. The Dimsum here is one of the best. Again, I did not take pictures. :( I do not eat Custard bun (Liu Sha Bao), but people said it is the best one in town. The restaurant is also known for its deep-fried prawn with mango roll. We had the regular dimsum dishes and every single dish tasted really good. My favorite dish of all is their XO Carrot Cake. Good dimsum comes with a price tag. You can say that Taste Paradise is a fine dining Dimsum place. There were 4 of us and it cost about $20 per person for a total of about 10 dishes. 

Some pictures we took while visiting Singapore. 

This pretty much sums up my short visit to Singapore. I really want to be able to stay in Singapore more than just a weekend but time is never really on my side. Nevertheless, I am thankful for the time given to me to be able to visit the country I grew up in. 

With lots of love, 

Claraaaa <3

Travelogue (America)

So here's some of the places in United States that I managed to visit in the 6 years I lived there. If I were given more monetary flexibility, I would have traveled more! The desire to travel came when I moved to Los Angeles. That would be when I was officially "off the leash" from my family. (sound wild, but NOT). In addition to that, I took up part time job while doing Masters. This gave me extra income. So whenever there's any holiday, I would take that opportunity to travel with close friends. 

My favorite cities?
1. San Francisco & Los Angeles
3. New York

It's hard for me to pick between San Francisco and Los Angeles. People often asked which cities I prefer since I've lived in both for 3 years each. Each city is unique on its own. I love San Francisco because it is a very romantic city; everything looks so picturesque. The weather is the best because it doesn't get warm like Los Angeles. There are many places you can visit in SF - Gold Gate Bridge, Sausalito, Lombard Street, Union Square, Twin peak, Fishermen's Wharf, Museum of Fine Arts, etc. And you can never get bored of these places no matter how many times you visited them. SF makes a better tourist place than LA because it is a prettier city. People are friendlier too. Food here is awesome. Some of my favorite restaurants are Tani's Kitchen, The House, Shabuway, Dojo Ramen, etc. Yes, those are ASIAN food. In addition to good food, SF has good public transportation. You can easily take bart or buses to almost anywhere.  

The downside of SF would be the hilly downtown road. It can get a bit stressful when you drive in SF. The roads can get so steep that  you have to make sure your car brake is on when parking. SF can get really foggy too (in the Summer), especially in Daly City. I used to live near the Airport and sometimes the fog can get really thick that you feel you are driving in some eerie scary haunted road! You can barely see anything in front of you. 

Golden Gate Bridge

 Union Square

 Palace of Fine Arts

Twin Peak 

And as for Los Angeles.. it is a totally different city from SF. What do I love about Los Angeles? I love the fact that the city offers a wide variety of food - chinese, japanese, korean, vietnamese, greek, italian, french, everything you name it! I guess California has the highest percentage of Asian throughout the whole nation - many lived in LA & SF. And strange enough, LA is where I fell in love with Korean food. LA has a koreantown and they offer different types of korean food. The food in koreantown taste as good as the ones in Korea, some even taste better! LA has a more variety of food and nightlife as compared to SF. Most of the cafe places close really late at night unlike in SF. 

Places to visit? Of course there's theme parks such as Disneyland, Universal Studio & Six Flags. There are museums that you can visit such as LACMA. We usually go to LACMA to take pictures with the giant lanterns. The city is also known for the beaches. That you can't get it in SF because of the cold & foggy weather. You can go to Malibu, Santa Monica Beach, Huntington Beach, etc.  There are many places that you can go for hiking too - Runyon Canyon, Eaton Canyon to see the waterfall, Griffith Park Trails etc. 

The downside of LA would be the CRAZY traffic. The intersection between highway 405 & 10 is named the most traffic area in the whole United States! And to think that I used to live right off that highway. The weather can get really hot too. Winter can feel like summer because it doesn't get colder than 10 degree celsius?  

 LACMA lights 

Santa Monica Beach

 Disneyland

Eaton Canyon Hike

 Hollywood Sign Hike

So now you know LA & SF have different things to offer. I can't really say that I prefer one to the other. I love both cities. :) 

My 3rd favorite city would be New York. I wouldn't want to live there, but I would go back to visit the city. It is a fast paced city. Everyone just seems to be in a hurry. New York is the best place to go if you want to experience the real meaning of Christmas. You can even get a white Christmas aka snow on Christmas Day itself! Christmas songs are being played in every store and Christmas trees and decorations are everywhere. I love it! I want to visit NY every Christmas. ~~~ !

Places to visit would be to the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Top of the Rock & Rockefeller, Times Square, 9/11 memorial etc. There are many yummy places too such as Halal Guys (Gyros - Da BEST!), Ippudo Ramen, Serendipity, Toto Ramen and Peter Luger. New York is the place where people walk from one place to another. Traffic can get really bad especially in downtown. People rather walk than be stuck on traffic or paying for parking. Be prepared to walk  a few miles/kilometers a day or you can just take the subway/ taxi. 

 Statue of Liberty

 On top of the Empire State Building

 Rockefeller Center

Times Square

 Times Square

 On the street of New York with my family - notice that I am the smallest & shortest. 

This is not NewYork, but we were in the city of Buffalo playing with the thick snow!

Yes, I miss America very much. I would definitely visit all these places again. Some people would say that America is not safe because there are many "unstable" people that go on a rampage killing people. I can't deny that. However, I believe everyone has their time to come and go. If it is God's plan for them to leave, there is nothing you can do but to accept it. Of course daily prayers for protection and guidance would help to prevent any unexpected circumstances. 

With lots of love,

Claraaaa <3