It's been a whirlwind 2019 and I do apologise to my readers for the long radio silence. It's been a mad year of renovating and moving house which can be terribly intense. I am back in action again! Many of my fans often ask me what I look for or...
Karuizawa is a beautiful upmarket mountain resort located in the Nagano Prefecture. It's definitely not a cheap place compared to some other countryside areas, and has developed as a popular place for many Japanese to visit especially during Summer, with many affluent ones owning a second home here. I aptly call it...
For my summer getaway this year, I did almost the unthinkable of visiting Japan in July! Unthinkable because it's the summer season then, and all I could say was my furry paws and body was just sweating profusely in the hot humid weather years ago when I went to my...
Recharged from our first night in Kanazawa staying at the lovely Asadaya Ryokan, I made my way with Y and her best gal pals to our next stop to Kayotei Ryokan, an hour's drive away. Located in the small hotsprings area of Yamanaka, Kayotei is a traditional ryokan, family-owned inn...
In celebration of Y's big 40 last year, we went for a nice girlie getaway with some of her best gal pals to Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture. This post describes the first part of the trip where we stayed in Asadaya Ryokan in Kanazawa for the first night, before moving...
Hakuba, in Nagano, most well-known for being the first ski resort in Japan to host the Winter Olympic Games in 1998. A lot of friends ask me, why Hakuba as compared to Niseko - a popular ski destination for many tourists from SE Asia and China? I have summarised in a...
After covering Stockholm in 3 nights, Y and I made our way to another new city - Tromso with gal pals AL and GS in a bid to hopefully catch some Aurora - Northern Lights! We were also sucked into all that talk that it will be harder to see...
For my annual ryokan trip this year, it was with good ol' pal LY whom we haven't travelled with to Japan since our Izu girlie trip in 2013. Talk about how time flies! Given it's been 3 years on since our last ryokan trip, we felt we deserved to pamper...
From a tiny Lake Iseo, we ventured next to a giant Lake Garda on our weekend escape near Milan. Lake Garda is the largest lake of Italy and sits halfway between Brescia and Verona, which of course made it the perfect location to explore after we had driven to Brescia earlier...
After Florence and Pisa, Y and I continued our wonderful springtime travels to Milan, where we met R at the Milan Centrale to do a nice 4 day weekend escape to Brescia region and the Lakes. After picking up our car from EuropCar, we made our way to the Brescia region,...
Chamonix is the place where the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924, and also holds the reputation as one of the world's leading ski resorts, known for some of it's really challenging slopes and one of the best views of Mont Blanc. This explains why it's pretty much on the...
In my second half of my week in Sydney, my landscape changed from surfers paradise - Bondi Beach to Chippendale, where I stayed with Y, and buddies WT and CG in newly opened industrial chic Old Clare Hotel opened by our own Singaporean hotelier Loh Lik Peng. Close to Chinatown...
In March this year, Y and I made our way to Sydney with our buddies CG and WT for some chillax week in Sydney, the main reason coming here was for Madonna's final leg of her Rebel Heart World Tour, but it was nice to come visit Syndey with our friends...
No matter what, I have to squeeze in a ryokan with a hot spring whenever I am in Japan during their winter time, and I didn’t expect everywhere that I wanted to go to be fully booked up when I started looking around for options sometime in August. Yes, so...
It's been a while since 2012 when I went to Los Angeles with Y, which was with her girlie bunch attending her good friend KK's hen's trip there. Fast forward 3 years later, we are here again in this sunny city which has great weather all year round and although...
Having my snack on board Air France from Paris to New York. After an 8 hour flight in Air France Premium economy, and a taxi ride to The Ludlow Hotel New York from JFK airport, I finally arrived with Y in New York, one of our favourite cities in the world! This...
For the last leg of our Provence trip, we decided to stay in Aix En Provence, given that we might need to have some 'city life' after a few days of countryside and small towns. And it's convenient to depart from here back to Paris via the TGV. I acknowledge we didn't...
The second stop in our Provence virgin trip was St Remy. This town is picturesque with its tree lined streets and has a great selection of art galleries, gourmet shops and museums, spread throughout the main boulevard and the tiny streets. I love especially the mixture of pastel and bright coloured windows that accent...
During my visit to Paris in July during summer and one of the busiest times of the year- Haute Couture Week, Y and I were kindly hosted by Fendi at Hotel Plaza Athenee, part of the Dorchester Collection. I was rather excited and definitely very thankful for their generosity and was...
On our second day of exploring Nagano, we decided to focus on northern Nagano. Y had to pop in to Hakuba for a quick work visit, so I found us a really nice quaint ryokan called Yuyada Sekiya which was within walking distance to the famous Jigokudani Monkey Park. Driving through...
In early February, Y and I decided to do some ryokan hopping and sightseeing to Nagano after having confirmed our booking for Noma's pop up in Tokyo in late October last year (Yippee yeah yeah!). So the planner in me went ahead in full steam to plan all the exciting...
After a well deserved one night's rest in Montreux, we woke up to enjoy the fresh morning air and had a last view of Lake Geneva before we bade farewell to this quaint town and made our way to the wonderful eco resort - Whitepod Resort, Switzerland located in an...
Montreux is located just 10-15 mins by car from Vevey, so after a short eventful sightseeing and a quick lunch break in Vevey, we decided to drive to Chateau De Chillon (Chillon Castle) first, to check out this famous scenic castle, located by Lake Geneva just after the town of Montreux....
As I had mentioned in my earlier blog post, after Y and I decided to head to Fukuoka, we proceeded to read which was the best hot spring area to head to in the Kyushu Prefecture. The one that seemed the most intriguing was Kurokawa onsen in the middle of Kyushu area,...
After leaving Lewa, we continued our journey in a small propeller plane to Maasai Mara (or Masai Mara). Upon arrival, we met our guide Ken Kinoti, a really friendly jovial guy. Once he introduced himself to us, and helped us with the luggage on board, we were each given a Cottars...
To be honest, Y and I did not know what to expect with this safari trip, in terms of living conditions, the journey, the place, would it be too hot or too cold, will there be mosquitoes sucking through my fur every day? But the moment we landed in Lewa,...
MC and us decided to do a midweek short holiday to Cornwall from London when looking at options around. It's known to be a very popular choice of destination for local Brits who often go there for a seaside holiday or a summer vacation. Located in the most south west...
Taking a day out to just soak in the city of lights and sights during winter in Paris can be really gorgeous as long as it doesn't rain. It was a rather wet season this time when I was back in Paris (yes my 2nd time in 2013!) after my...
Tea time in Atami Sekitei enjoying matcha and a bear cookie from Pets De Donne. I am pretty obsessed with ryokans and onsens. When planning this girlie trip, it was a unanimous decision that we should stay in a traditional ryokan. Entrance of Atami Sekitei Izu Peninsula is famous for its onsens...
View of the sea from the deck of our villa. When I landed on the sunny shores of Maldives, I really understood why it was often called the "tropical paradise", a must visit that many of my resort lover friends always told me. Y had decided only 2 months ago...
Lake Como, an hour's drive north of Milan, has to be one of the most beautiful places I have been to with Y & R. After a rather hectic trip in Milan to cover the Milan Saloni, it was a nice way to wind down here before returning to Singapore. We...
This is taken at the balcony of Cerva 16 apartments, a service apartment we leased for a week during the design week. What's best about it is it is within 5 mins walking distance to all the wonderful shops at Via Monte Napoleone. I personally prefer Paris to Milan as...
I was so excited as I peeked out of the plane and saw all the snow capped fields in Sapporo. It wasn't that cold just about -3 degrees by the time we got from the airport to the rental car location, where TW was the official driver and drove us...
Just arriving into the town of Hakone, enjoying the scenic view. Hakone is about 2 hours drive from Tokyo, and spending 2 nights here was a nice break from our Tokyo leg which we spent from 16 to 26 December in 2012. We rented a car from a shop near...