Universal Studios Hollywood

This was my second visit to Universal Studios Hollywood.
This time round, it was near the Christmas season and hence it was considered peak season.
It was really crowded. I would not suggest you visit during peak season as the queues to all attractions were super long and it was so crowded everywhere. Plus the ticket price was more expensive during peak season. You can check online for the peak and non-peak seasons.
We had no choice as we were only in LA during the peak season.

Christmas Deco

A feel of the crowd

I got to zoom in to get a shot without heads in front of the globe

Pano view of the lower lot

Studio Tour - was my fave from my last visit but this time round, I got a terrible headache from queuing at least a good 2 hrs for the ride.

Colorful Simpsons

Review of Taipei Starbucks 101 Level 35

Today I am going to review this place which many people rave about on internet with my personal experience.

Let's go back a bit to Dec 2016.
I was in Taipei and at the time, the research I did on internet did not mentioned about the new reservation system. I did what most people do, went to level 1 of the building trying to get a ticket from the machine. After a while, I realised it was not like that anymore. I asked the front desk and they told me the new booking system is to call in advance to reserve. I left disappointed and for the next few days, tried calling but to no avail.

This experience made me even more excited to go up to take a look.

Fast forward to Dec 2017, I tried to call international one week before my expected arrival. First day, I cannot get through after trying like 100x. So I prepared myself that the same thing will happen, it is unlikely to get through the line. I took a relax view of this itinerary, if I got through, so be it.
On Boxing Day, I gave it another try not thinking that I will call through, and surprisingly someone answered on my third try. I was really excited and looking forward to it.

This is my opinion of the place after my trip there.

Entrance to Starbucks Level 35

Firstly, the place is quite small. They take about 20pax per 90mins, and when we went up, the place is already quite packed. There is no enough seats for 20 of us coming in at once. In addition, the office staff were also coming in as it was 2pm in the afternoon. Next, for a place with so many people, the air-conditioner was not working particularly well. The outside temperature was around 16 degree and I felt really hot and stuffy inside.

The place was packed and stuffy

Being non-competitive, we were finally left with window high seat and as we sat and ate our food, we soon realised that it was facing the west sun which was setting at that time. The glare was so strong that we did not last more than 40mins.

The not-so-clean window

Thirdly, the windows were not particularly clean to take good pictures.

The glaring sun view

Lastly, the service was average.

Jen Hotel

One of the latest new addition to Orchard Road.
We decided to celebrate Christmas & Boxing day here.

The view is superb 

Like the touch screen lift

View

Good size room

MBS view

Room card

Pool

Not crowded

Night view from room

Day and night views

Mt Takao from Tokyo Shinjuku Station part 1

A day spent hiking

 

 

 

Brochure in Japanese

Mt Takao is easily accessible from Tokyo city.  We took the KEIO line which took less than an hour to reach the foot of the mountain. There are many ways to hike up the mountain with various levels of difficulty.

The base station for start the hike

You can ease the way up by choosing one of the 2 type of cable cars. The first one is the one you are seeing below. The other type is chair lift. Both send you half way up the mountain.

Mt Takao from Tokyo Shinjuku Station part 2

You can visit this place in different seasons and enjoy the beauty.

Most visitors eat this 3-fortune bun here

Comfort food in the cold weather

Beautiful autumn leaves

 You can also try this famous super long hotdog.

At the peak of Mt Takao, if you are lucky, you can catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji.
 

At the peak background is Mt Fuji

Back to Tokyo Meiji Shrine

This time it was a rainy day and we were rewarded with the different feel.
 

Incheon Airport - Global Tax Free

After all the shopping in Korea, here is a quick look at where to go to get your tax claim at Incheon without missing your flight home.

If you made purchase of 30,000 won or more at a participating retail store, designated by the "Global Blue Tax Free" or "Global Tax Free" logo. Be sure to keep your VAT refund receipt.

 

Gate 28 is where you go and present the receipt/s for the refund.

* Be sure to get the endorsement on the receipt(s) if you are checking-in the items into luggage before clearing custom.

Day Two N Seoul Tower

After lunch, we decided to cover N Seoul Tower since we were so close to the cable car. 

Direction to cable car(N Seoul Tower)

Myeongdong Subway Station Line 4 Exit 3
From escalator up, turn left and you should see a tiny park with a 7-11 on the right. It is actually a Y-junction.
Walk up the street on the side of 7-11 and you will see Pacific hotel at the end of the Y. Take the route on your right side and keep walking.
It is an uphill walk, wear a good pair of shoes and enjoy the walk!

You should reach the cable car station in about 10mins.

Cable car fee? We paid for round trip W22500 for 2A & 1C price.

What is nice at the N Seoul Tower? The area where locks are being locked onto the railings. It is the scene from My Love from Star. The observation tower.

The place was quite crowded on Sunday. However, we noticed not many people pay to go up to the observation tower. Most hang around the outdoor and enjoy the breeze, take pictures of the locks.

After going up to the observation tower, it was about 6pm. We decided we were really tired and needed to go back hotel to rest :)

So we had dinner at this cosy Japanese restaurant in Coex. Thumb up for the food!
I simply love the slice beef of Korea. They are so yummy.

Day Two Seoul Myeongdong

Breakfast at grand kitchen, the nice surrounding and lighting made the photo taking of food very pretty. Breakfast is not fantastic, quite normal for 5stars hotel but nothing particularly nice.

As usual, our free & easy style is to sleep in until we are ready to go touring. 
We left hotel almost 11am and the subway is just 2 mins walk away.
 



As we were new to the subway system and we did not do much homework on the places we like to go, we chose a simply direct line to experience it. 
We took subway to Seoul Station to get a feel of the big city.
After yesterday disappointment in the Coex mall, we were amazed with our shopping luck because lotte mart was closed!!!
We walked around the Lotte Outlets.

After that we decided to go myeongdong, which turned out to be a much better choice with more crowd and shops.  There were also a lot of street vendors selling foodstuff and accessories on weekend.



We had lunch around 2+pm at han's deli located along Myeongdong 8-gil (Exit 6 of Myeongdong Station Line turned left, walked about 100metre) It is on the left of the sidewalk 5th level. A lot of youngster frequent this eating place.

What I like about eating in Seoul is that they provide free flow of water. Firstly I do not need to lug bottles of water around for the whole day, it is heavy for sightseeing. Secondly, I do not need to buy sugar-loaded drink that will create havoc on my weight :)

Day One Seoul

Incheon Airport immigration is very impressive, the clearance is very fast, only took 3-5 mins to clear, there is no queue. Very efficient.

Airport shuttle was also a quick short wait, one hour journey by shuttle from airport  to hotel, with some minor jam nearer town on a sat afternoon.
We arrived at the hotel at about 5+pm, as it is summer, the sky will turn dark nearing 8pm. 

Hotel room interior is quite old.
 
 Coex shopping is also quite very disappointing, very different from what I read on the internet. There is on-going construction and a limited small shopping area.

At shopping malls like Hyundai dept store, there are seats just outside lifts  for shopping-tired customers to sit and wait. Very considerate service.Thumb up.

After a quick dinner at Coex, we went in search of the G25 convenience shop for t-money. It was quite a small store and I was disappointed that  that they didn't carry hello kitty t-money. By the time we got the t-money, the sky had turned dark and we decided to go back for an early night.

Actually subway in Korea is easy to navigate if u know the line number and the exit. Else it takes a long while to figure out anything :)
Talk about it in the next blog!

Seoul-fun

For first-timers to Seoul, many of you may be worried about the language barrier, how easy it is to get around? Actually, if you plan ahead, it is quite possible to find your way around Seoul. The subway is very well-developed.
Good if you can get hold of the tourist map and the subway map well in advance. With those, you can research on your itinerary, places you want to visit, the subway line and station number, the exit number, and voila! ready to go! Welcome to my journey! Arrival into Incheon International Airport!

Outlet mall hopping last Oct

After returning from the States 2 months ago, I finally sat down to pin drop all the outlet malls we went in Florida through our road trip from Orlando to Miami.
Actually the outlet malls were mainly used as our pit stops to replenish ourselves during the long hours drive. We had our meals, toilet break, shopping, and rest.

Legoland Florida

The day we visited Legoland Florida, it was a very very hot October day.

one of the places to hide from the hot sun

Hence we could not stay in the park for long and what a pity.