Im LoViNg iT

Wine comes in at the mouth, And love comes in at the eye; That's all that we will know for truth, Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you and I sigh. --- William Butler Yeats

Monday, November 27, 2006

UK trip - Part 2 - The Highlands

Edinburgh, is like one of THE most romantic city in the world.. at least to me.. everything is pretty there! The buildings are so full of stories and art works, the tartans are unique, people are friendly, weather is cold!



The 1st castle I've been in Scotland is the Edinburgh Castle, it was under some renovation, but still look stunning sitting on the top of the city, giving us a 360 degree view of Edinburgh. Its 10 pounds to go in, and u get to walk around the castle, see the crown jewels, canons, the dungeon, story of the famous Mary Queen of Scots and things like that.. hehe... Its quite incredible how people in the olden days can build such a magnificent building... just breathtaking...



Top :We had our first jacket aka baked potato here too! Its pretty yummy for 3.50 pounds :P
Below: Im at Princes Street, which happens to be one of the happening places in Edinburgh for shopping!! In the UK, every Thursday is their LATE NIGHT SHOPPING day, which means, their shops closes at around 8 or 9pm. Yeah, 8pm or 9pm is considered late night.. haha.. normally their shops closes at 5pm.

We spent the night at St. Christopher's hostel, its pretty good for backpackers..stayed in a 10pax room.. and woke up the next morning to join our Haggis tour.


Quick stop at the Forth bridge. Its a bridge for trains only.


William Wallace Monutment, biggest monument ever built.




Castles we visited. I forgot the name of the castle on the left, but its really sexy~! We had a picnic there with sheep poo all over the place. hehe..below, is the famous Eilean Donan Castle. The lady who owns the castle is more than 70 years old, and the week after we were there, she got married and they had a party at the castle.


These view.. took us half an hour to get to them.. climbing mountains in the rain.. haha.. but it was all worth it.. Dave, our guide told us stories about the Standing rocks on top of the mountain. Some love stories about a dog walker and another dog walker..and later turned into stones. Gorgeous.. isnt it?

Top: The famous highland cows -- Hairy Coo. Below: The Urquhart Castle situating on the banks of Loch Ness.

Thats Loch Ness and the beast, Nessie!! Loch means lake in Gaelic, its the second largest loch in Scotland, streching 23 miles long!!



Our guide made us do a funny ritual to "summon" the beast out from the loch, but sadly, we did not see any beasty that day :( but Dave is like the best guide ever!! Too bad he left Haggis~!



We had a quick stop at a memorial, it was freezing cold!! so Dave suggested we have Scottish Whisky!! it was rather smooth and we all felt really warm after drinking!! no kidding!! hehe.. Dave told us stories about some war and the whisky but i was too cold to even pay attention.. keke



We had a random stop at a tiny church and had our picnic there again, Dave prepares short bread, coffee, hot chocolate, candies for us to picnic by sexy views!



This park was our last stop in Scotland, during our 3-day Skye High Tour.

Hostel we stayed for 2 nights : the Morag is like a 5-star hostel, it has its own bar, very comfortable rooms and beds, clean kitchen and dining hall.. really awesome!!~ Plus, its only like 2 minutes walk to the Loch Ness town.


Vodka + Orange juice


~The drinks~


My ale, Munlin's vodka, and orange juice. Drinks costs roughly around 2 pounds, ale for 2.50 pounds :)
Ale is beer-like, sorta like beer without the gas, really really good!!


The guys partied through the night in the bar, singing Scottish folk songs and countries.. it was way cool~!

Then, im back to England again.... (to be continued)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

UK trip - Part 1- Newcastle Upon Tyne

I reached Heathrow International Airport at around 6.00pm 17th October 2006. My journey beyond my dreams came to a start. We took the tube from Heathrow and headed to King's Cross station to go to Newcastle by train. While waiting for our train, we had our first meal in England in an Indian Restaurant.


Thats me, trying to convince myself im halfway around the world.


The Indian Restaurant. They had like a minimum charge for a person, like each person has to at least dine above 7 pounds or so. But they made an exception for us. After dinner, we took a 4 hour train ride to Newcastle, and reached about 2am in the morning. Someina, my roommate for the next 2 weeks, was waiting up for me. Am i glad to see her!! i havent seen her in ages! and as always she looks just as pretty. :)



We went around town the next few days, checking out cool buildings and shopping complexes.



Thats me and Someina.


The famous St.James Park for the Newcaslte United, you can hear the crowd in the stadium when they are having a match!


Europe is full of street performances, this is one of them that i find really memorable, they were dressed as red indians,singing native red indian songs, smilling to people as they sing.


Then that is the University of Newcastle. That is their Student Union building, there are a few cafes and shops in there, and the food is tasty and cheap!!



On the 3rd day in Newcastle, i packed my rugsack and took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland.

.....to be continued




Monday, November 20, 2006

I Love Melaka!!

Melaka has like the best places to hang out, good drinks, comfy environment to chit chat, glorious food and gorgeous people! Met up with Kirks and gang in Friends cafe... i think everyone in Melaka goes to Friends cafe, you can just bump into friends there!


The upstairs of Friends cafe


From left: Malibu mix (Sorry Jon for the bad recommdation, its so totally a girl's drink!), The non-alcoholic Tropical beach (i dont quite fancy this one :P), and Baby girl (though it has a sissy name, its strong enough.)


Again from left: May's peppermint IB, and the all American beer.



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The next day we celebrated my Aunt's birthday in Kam Pachi in Equatorial Hotel.


My brother spoke a few Jap to the Japanese chef and we got a whole lot of Salmon sashimi!!


I so worship food :P


And went to Pure bar at the end of the day. They had a live band upstairs with a tiny dance floor, but u can hardly dance there, and the lower floor was very crowded being that its a weekend. We had a blast though.
My brother looks ridiculous in the pic.. haha

Will be back there soon!