The closest island to Bangkok; Koh Larn

Hi all! It's been a while...

Last weekend was public holiday in Thailand so I had a chance to get out of BKK just for 1day trip.

Since I came back home, almost 6 months....I didn't have chance to go to the sea in Thailand and that was a BIG shame!! So I decided to go to just small island that close to BKK (about 1.5hr driving) called Koh Larn.

Koh Larn is located in Pattaya city. It's been famous among Thai people since few years ago as you can see from the rising numbers of accomodation on the island. In the past people always went to Pattaya for the beach but now Koh Larn is the new destination :)

Going there is easy...just find the way to Pattaya and go to Bali-hi pier (sorry for the spelling coz I don't know how to spell in Eng but it sounds like that ^^ ) Then buy ferry ticket for 30Baht to Ta Wean beach.

Actually there are 2 beaches for ferry, the first one is Nah Baan which is like the center of island where there are 7-11, small restaurants and taxis to go to other beaches. But if you want to go straight to the beach..take the ferry that goes to Ta Wean beach.

No worries if you took wrong ferry (cause I did the same hehe) you can take taxi for 20 baht at Nah Baan to Ta Wean beach.

Eating on the island is quiet more expensive than in Pattaya. I suggest that you should bring some water or snack in the case that you might get hugry there.

There are some activities on the island like banana boat and jet ski. Apart from these activities....enjoying clean & clear water is my favoruite activity to do there!!

If you have just short time in Thailand or Bangkok and want to get away from city just 1-2 days...Koh larn is really good choice.

ps. you can find more information from the link here --> http://www.kohlarn.com/

Cheap hostel in Hong Kong

Today I will talk about the hostel in Hong Kong.

There are no backpacker like in western countries in HK.

There are only hostel (which does not look like hostel) in HK that is cheap but TINY!!

If you are westerner (who are usually bigger than Asian), you should go to see the room before make any decision.

For me, it was ok. The room is tiny but I used it just for sleep and took shower.

The toilet and shower is together. It's normal for Asia but this hostel that I stayed. The toilet is sooooooooooo small. They have free liquid soap for every room. You can also ask for free towel as well.

Hong Kong is a small island that every Sq.m. in city are worth like gold. Even you stay in nice hotel, you won't get big room like what you get in US, Australia or etc where the land is much bigger.

Ho Mongkok Hotel (They call hotel but it does not look like hotel at all!! haha) is located in Mongkok, the center of HK and close to everything you want!! It's really good location.

I stayed in this hostel because my HK friend booked for me. I know it's not helpful to you guys who don't have anyone in HK. But hey, they have website and I think you can call or contact them by email (website is at the end).

If you can't speak Cantonese chinese, I suggest you to email because their staff can speak only hello, thank you, good morning hahahaha.

Ho Mongkok Hotel is located in Sincere building where there are many hostel in it. If you don't like this one I suggest here. You can go up and down the building and check for other places.

My suggestion is don't expect much from the small amount of money that you pay :)

www.hmkhotel.com/Ho_Mongkok_Hotel_EN.htm

Somehow I can't copy picture from the website so I will suggest like this.

- The first pic with 2 beds..I think it's room number 2. It's bigger than other room and has window!! So if you are two person. You should request for room number 1 and 2. ;)

- Next 3 pics are double bed rooms...The bed is small, just right fit for 2 person. If you have big luggages, you might have problem as there is no space to walk in the room haha.

- The lady in the website is always be there for daytime. She doesn't understand much English but you can use body language with her. It's fun! hehe

Flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Hong Kong

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Wish you have all the best and travel as much as you can ^_^

I went to Hong Kong and Macau for 5 days on new year holiday.

It wasn't my first time but I rarely remember things from the past lol as I went there like almost 10 years ago.

I bought ticket too late so I paid a lot for the trip esp. it was high season ticket!!

At first I tried low cost airline like airasia but the schedule and price were not that good for me.

Then I found the price that less than 10,000 baht from Thai agency website (http://www.hflight.net/).

It was Royal Jordanian airline. I had never heard of this airline before back then.

I searched for some reviews of this airline and people said it's ok so I bought it.

Also it was only 2.5hours flight. So I didn't care much about the plane.

The flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong doesn't operate every day (the one I took was leaving from BKK on Thursday's afternoon and left Hong Kong on Tuesday's night)

The plane was nice, clean and no smell.

The flight attendants were not that pretty and friendly lol

I heard they spoke Thai to each other while serving food and I think it's bad behavior.

Maybe they thought that I wasn't Thais and

noone around that area would understand the language.

That's the point they should change with the flight attendants.

The seat was big and everyone had own tv with variety of movies, games, songs etc.

Food was not bad. I had green chicken curry + rice (trip to HK) and

Fish noodle (Lad nah) on trip to BKK.

In conclude, RJ is not a bad choice to fly to HK if you can't find any cheaper airline ;)

Thai restaurant in Melbourne

Melbourne is such a nice place for food lover (after Bangkok though hehe)

According to the variety of people in different nationalities, eating out and trying new food in city is so much fun!

For example, if you are craving for Vietnamese food, North Richmond and Footscray is the place you should go for cheap and nice food (though the suburbs are not good to walk around).

If you want some pizza and gelato, Lygon St. is the place to go.

But when you think about Thai food, where should you go??

There are many Thai restaurants in Melbourne; some are owned by Chinese or Vietnamese but sell Thai food!!!! (One Thai rest. in China town,Melbourne is owned by Vietnamese and all people in kitchen are Vietnamese and they have bad bad Thai food..pls don't go there!!!!)

This restaurant that I will recommend is owned by Korean and Thai couple and the food is cooked by Thai chef. So no worries ^_^

Golden Triangle Restaurant, 123 Park St., South Yarra is located on the 2nd floor above 7-11, on the corner of Domain Rd. and Park St. You can take tram number 8 that goes to Toorak and get off at stop 24. Or you can park on the street in front or nearby the restaurant. It's so convenient and not far from city in nice location with the view of Botanic Garden.

The restaurant opens at 6pm - 10pm (kitchen is closed) everyday.

The food is cheap there compare to other restaurants in the area. Here come the recommended dished from Tan Tanz ;)

1. Mixed Entree - fish cake, spring roll, satay chicken, golden bag and curry puff (1 each) is really good starter for people who cannot make decision of what they like. After trying some of this and that. You can order your most favourite for another round :)

2. Roti bread and peanut sauce - some people who are not from Australia might be confused as I was that why roti is in Thai restaurant. I guess it might come from high population of Indian especially in Melbourne. Therefore roti is so common in restaurant.

However the highlight is not only nice roti bread but it is the peanut sauce that was the best I've tried in many restaurants in Melbourne!!!

3. Main course time....continue from number 2...if you like peanut sauce, you should try Pad Satay which is mixed veg with your chosen meat and stried fried with peanut sauce.

4. Tom Yum soup - hot and sour soup..they usually serve in small bowl just for 1 person as entree but I would like to recommend you to order for main size and share as the taste is so nice. Also tom yum soup is like a symbol of Thai food that you must not miss!

5. Chuchi Chicken - creamy Thai curry with some herb and galanga with marinated chicken. It's tasty and creamier than usual red or green curry.

6. Talay Ruam (Mixed Seafood BBQ) - it comes with mixed of squid, fish fillet and prawn that stired fried with herbs and chilli. It's really nice dish for spicy food lover. It's not that much spicy. You can order for more or less spicy. It is served in hot pan with some smoke that might bother other customers in the restaurant haha

7. Korean BBQ beef - as the owner is Korean so there are some Korean dish in the menu and this one is the best one (as I think ) Marinated beef with onions that is served in hot pan.

8. For noodle lover, Pad thai is the recommended one. It's not really taste like Pad thai that you eat in Thailand because of the sauce that is kinda sweet but it's not bad if you want to try.

9. Dessert time!!!! Banana flitter is the one you should order. Deep fried banana with coconut and vanilla ice cream in cute dish decoration. Ohhhh...I love their coconut ice cream!!

10. Drinks and coffee are available there as well. Not many varirty drinks but enough for a beautiful night with good meal.

The ambient is cozy and nice with small size of the whole restaurant.

The service is average with friendly waitress.

They also have free delivery service with more than $20 order before 9.30pm only in South Melbourne and South Yarra suburbs.

Here is the link that talk about Golden Triangle Restaurant

www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/760787/restaurant/Melbourne/South-Yarra-Toorak/Golden-Triangle-South-Yarra

Please let me know what you think if you stop by there. Hope you will like it!

On the right is Korean BBQ beef

On the close left is Roti bread and rice and

On the far left is Massamun curry (curry with potatoes,onions and peanut with meat)

Napier, NZ

First of all I would like to apologize people who will read this blog. Putting pictures in the blog is so annoying for me as it's not easy and you can't move whereever you want like other websites.

Maybe it's only me who is stupid and don't know how to do. So if anyone knows, please teach me. That would be really helpful!!!

So I will start from the first picture to last one which is not the same as what I did in my trip :p

The most beautiful beach in Napier!!

Because it was only one beach that has sand like it's supposed to be.

Other beaches in Napier had black stones.

I had never seen beach like this before.

This was the first one.

Huka Falls in Taupo

It was really powerful falls with such a really blue water.

Although the size is small but it's really worth to see.

Craters of the Moon, Taupo

Can you see the heart shaped mud pool? ^^

View from lookout of Napier

Napier town, Art Deco style town

The town is small like the city but it was decorated and has nice style buildings.

I really like these old style buildings in this lovely city.

Internet

First thing I want to say "I think I addict to Internet hahaha".

I always bring my laptop with me when I travel. So I definitely needed computer for my 1 month in NZ.

For traveller, I suggest to bring laptop with you as many hostels and places provide free Internet nowadays. I am going to tell some free Internet places from my trip.

Auckland - there were 2 places I went which are McDonald on Quay St. and Auckland library.

This McDonald was opposite my hostel (Base Backpackers) so it was easy for me to go, just crossed the street. It opened 24 hrs. But they had limited accesss. I couldn't open facebook or gmail and some websites there. Also they don't have plug (in case you need to plug in your laptop. I was lucky to have new laptop back then but if I went there now, my 1 yr old laptop wouldn't last for 10mins Y_Y ).

Anyway McDonald is a good place for using free wifi at night time as most places in Auckland close already. It was little bit scary for me because there were many homeless and weird & bad look people are around there at night.

Auckland Library was like santuary for me when I was there haha. Auckland didn't have many things to go/do for me at that time. I spent many hours in library, chatting and surfing online. I know it was lame because I went to NZ for travelling. But I was in Auckland alone and wasn't in travelling mood back then.

I don't know how many library they have in Auckland but I went to Central City Libray, 44 -46 Lorne St. The hours are Mon - Fri : 9am - 8pm and Sat - Sun : 10am - 4pm. There are 3 floors (as I remember :p ) with plug provided everywhere but the number of people went there to use free wifi were high as well. They have usage limit fo 100MB per day which is enough if you don't upload, download or watching video.

Greymouth - Greymouth library
I stayed at Neptune Backpacker (I have a blog about it already) which had only paid Internet service, not free wifi. After talking to other guests, I found out that library has free Internet to use. Sorry that I can't remember the adress but the town is so small, you can walk around and ask local for library.

If you don't have own laptop, you can use computer there for 1 hour (maybe you can negotiate for longer time if there is no queue hehe) If you have own laptop, you can use Internet as long as you want and they also have plug there. Sweet as!!

In Queenstown and Chirstchurch, I used Internet at hostel. Pay some to get some ;)

I stayed at Flaming Kiwi Backpackers in Queenstown (www.flamingkiwi.co.nz) which was nice and staff are friendly there. If you have own laptop, you will get the code for 1hr Internet each.

It's the same in Chirstchurch where I stayed; Charlie B's Backpackers (www.charliebs.co.nz) free 1hr Internet per day if you have own laptop. At first I booked the room at friendz backpackers but because some silly rule of hostel so I didn't stay. Luckily I found Charlie B's which was so clean and nice with big kitchen that had everything you want for cooking. The TV room was big. The toilet and shower were so clean. I like there!

Hope this can help you somehow :) Don't forget to bring laptop with you.

Old but nice city..Christchurch

Romantic

Touristic

Architecture

Concentrate

Artistic

Peaceful

Creative

Beautiful

Harmony

.......

Christchurch is a big city in south island of NZ.

I spent couple days there by just walking around, took pics of old buildings, visited musuem and bought souvenirs for friends and family.

It's really nice city with old & classic style.