At the close of a long vacation...

By the time you read this, I will be in Sydney where I will spend the last week or so of my long vacation. Come to think of it, I am glad that the first and last leg of this vacation is a trip overseas :)

I have not figured out how to mobile-blog on blogger yet and I will try to update my wordpress blog ilovelongvacation, twitter (@ilovelongvacatn) and instagram (@ilovelongvcation), so do check them if you like to know how I am sydneyING :P Meanwhile, I might schedule and post some long overdue posts of the last few weeks.

While it is a cliche to say that time flies, it is true that 6 months have raced past for me, especially in the last few weeks or so - I felt an urgency to do more as I count down to the final days and also look forward to new career challenges very soon.

By then, this long vacation would have lasted exactly 191 days (yes I decided to do a count :p). I know I am lucky to have been able to take a break of more than half a year, a 'luxury' that excludes many because this is LIFE - the life they wanted, the life they think they should live, the life they have to live. Such is life.

While I do not have much to show for my professional life for the last few months, I would like to think that I have more to show for my personal life.

• Travelled to Scandinavia (partly solo, partly with my brother) and visited Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), Oslo (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Reykjavik (Iceland). Glad I have travelled alone more than once in my life! So agree with Huff Post Travel post: Why Every Woman Should Travel Alone (At Least Once in Her Life)  :)

At Unesco site, Suomenlinna in Helsinki, Finland. Read more at Suomenlinna Story.

• Blogged more. In this blog, the total number of views was 4746 and last month alone saw 568 views! In the other blog, the number of followers have grown from under 10 since it started in late 2011 to over 50 today! Happy to share my stories and thoughts with more people.

• Learnt more about social media and became more active! I twittered more @ilovelongvacatn @chan5013 and joined Pinterest @ilovelongvacatn and Instagram @ilovelongvcation.

• Reaffirmed what I want to do professionally. Communications is still close to my heart. I really want to use my strength/experience in this area to make a bigger difference. Taking various courses and talking to career coaches have definitely given me a clearer direction. I have also learnt from people I met in the course of it all.

• Explored the backyard and learnt to enjoy life more at home. There are so many places in Singapore I have not been to for a long time - it was good to revisit them. There are so many places in Singapore I have never been to - it was good to discover them. There are so many new and interesting places to chill out - it was nice to be able to continue to FIKA(coffee/tea break in Sweden) after coming back from Stockholm.

I cycled from East Coast Park to Changi Beach Park. Read about my Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in My Life l Cycle.

• Jogged more. Walked more. Swam more.

Rediscovered swimming - it is a luxury to swim at the public pool on weekdays (I am going to miss doing so :( ).

• Volunteered again. Not sure about the cause I am truly passionate about yet but I am definitely going to try to find that cause in the days to come.

• Bonded more with my brother (in Scandinavia) and my sister (in Singapore) Need I say more?

My brother and I in Þingvellir National Park, Iceland. Read more about Þingvellir!

And many more that are difficult to put into words. For example, I had more time to reflect more and meet more new people. Somehow I wished I had done more e.g. read more, travel more... However I know I only had so much time and I wanted to follow my heart. So this was the life I chose to live in this long vacation. While I felt uncertain at times, I tell myself to enjoy it while I can because I really don't know when will be the next one...

I want to close this vacation with an extract from the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that has been inspiring:
Benjamin Button: [Voice over; letter to his daughter] For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Hello Pandas!

Really happy to visit River Safari with GT and XF on Sunday! :) It is one of the latest attractions in Singapore under Wildlife Reserve Singapore and is Asia's first and only river-themed wildlife park!

 

While it is a pity the river boat ride and some exhibits were not ready yet, some good came out of it: we paid $25 for admission (will be $35 later) and the park was not very crowded. We could visit the pandas twice without having to queue at all! All good reasons to visit now and again later (more reasons to visit next year perhaps to try the ride and to see Jia Jia and Kai Kai again? :)). They were so cute! Pardon me, but I think I will be repeating 'cute' many times in this post :P

 

Taking a picture for keepsake at the entrance of River Safari, next to the Singapore Zoo! I am like so dwarfed by the giant pandas :P

 

The park was designed by the river theme and we saw different animals as we walked through the different river zones e.g. Yang Tze, Amazon, Nile etc. We were impressed by the animal enclosures - thought they were really clean and spacious for the animals, and enhanced our viewing pleasure as well.

 

The animals looked so 3D from our angle - very 'real' as though we were swimming next to them :P

 

Besides fishes, we also saw alligators!

 

Lunch was at mama panda kitchen, right next to where the pandas were. Food was ok. Price was also ok for a tourist attraction - we paid about SGD10 each.

 

Hello Panda! Bun with red bean stuffing. According to the menu, this is the favourite of Jia Jia and Kai Kai. LOL. Almost every customer ordered one (Really!).

 

Typical (and literal) Chinese-theme decorations - bamboos and red lanterns :)

 

The beautiful red pandas were the giant pandas' neighbour. Very cute too! They were very active - running around all the times, chasing each other up and down the trees and fooling around :) Kept us so entertained! So cute!



Kai Kai, the male giant panda! He was sleeping the first time we saw him and then woke up for a while the second time. Found him to be a bit grumpy and clumsy as he moved around his enclosure a little before disappearing into the cave behind him :P Such a teaser! Very cute!



Jia Jia, the female giant panda! She was hiding in her cave the first time and we could only see a bit of her head and view Jia Jia via a live feed from a CCTV installed in her cave :) Apparently she is very shy! We were lucky the second time and spotted her eating bamboos! A hungry panda is shy no more! LOL. Very cute! Jia Jia is more dainty compared to Kai Kai, although she was ripping her bamboos apart!

  

Me and Jia Jia in the background :p

 


There is a serene air about River Safari. A bit quiet, a bit rustic... unlike Singapore Zoo which is more lively... Not sure if it is because the crowds have not arrived yet. But I do hope its serenity remains. Would be a very nice place to think away...



Graceful were the mermaids (Dugongs) despite their size!

 


It was a pleasure to see them dancing in their enclosure. And heart-warming to see happy adults and children dancing with them :)

 

Would say the mermaids are very lucky to have such a big and beautiful home! River Safari is beautifully and environmentally built, I must say!

 

The squirrel common monkeys were very cute too! You can see them up close and person in their enclosure :)



And I do think we have one of the best souvenir stores in our zoos that enticed even the locals (me!)! See the green hat and cap adorned with River Safari animals? Was so tempted to get them. Nice!

More cute souvenirs to make you happy! :)

 
It was drizzling most of the time and fortunately, River Safari is well-sheltered. It was a simple trip that made my day. Yes, happiness can be so simple! :)

Across the causeway again

Besides shopping (the cost is slightly cheaper compared to Singapore and some brands are not available here), one of the best things about going across the causeway to City Square JB is value for money food. This time, we had lunch and dinner at Arashi Shabu Shabu and Taiwan Nostalgia Café.

Arashi Shabu Shabu (Basement 1)



Japanese hot pot! The 3 of us ordered 2 sets - milk broth (yummy!) and spicy Sichuan broth (spicy!) which came with ingredients such as vegetables, bean curds, fish balls and meat etc.



We chose Chicken and Pork Shoulder as part of the set and also ordered lamb as an add-on.



You can also choose a carbo item for each set - we ordered rice and noodle.

 



So this was our very sumptuous lunch which cost RM73.20 (about 35SGD) and our mother thought it would cost us at least 100SGD! Value of money, right? :P

Taiwan Nostalgia Café (Level 3)



After a few hours of shopping, we were undecided if we should have dinner before going home. We did - no prize for guessing right :P We decided on Taiwanese food. This was the Minced Meat Rice (鲁肉饭). I like it. Reminds me of the ones I had in Taiwan.



Must drink in Taiwanese café! :P Pearl Milk Tea (珍珠奶茶).



Lattea Green Tea (绿濭茶) - it's green tea topped with sea salt cream.



Crispy Salt Chicken (盐酥鸡). It was OK. Served hot which makes it nice.



My mother's choice - Taiwan Omelet (台式蛋饼). Something different from what we will order usually. Total damage was RM33.55 (about 16SGD).

For me, visiting Johor Bahru (JB) is like a short vacation without the bells and whistles. It's funny but I do feel relaxed and that I am on a vacation even though JB is only 90minutes away from Singapore. Being on foreign land always has that effect on me :)

I'm sure many Singaporeans are familiar about how to get to JB from Singapore. If you are visiting Singapore and would like to take a day trip to JB, you can take bus 170 from Kranji MRT station. Just follow the crowd and you will get there somehow :)