♥ the QUEEN and her BLING ♥ » Travel

Five Stones Hostel Soft Launch Party

Jacelyn — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:00:12 +0000

I was invited to the soft launch party of a new boutique hostel in town – Five Stones Hostel. If you’ve read my travelogue, you will know that I would usually choose hotels that are extremely comfortable, good accessibility to food & shopping places and most importantly, safe.

To be honest, I’ve never had a good impression on hostels. I blame the Hostel films hahaha! I feel that hostels are:

Dirty – Imagine having to deal with bed bugs and dirty toilets. Oh gosh, I can’t stand uncleanliness!
Dangerous – Sharing a room with strangers is bad enough, what if they resort to stealing, molesting and other nonsense?
Uncomfortable – Hard bed? No way, I need my plushy beds!

However, Five Stones Hostel made me changed my opinion on hostels! Let the pictures do the talking!

Lounge Area – You can watch TV, mingle around or read a nice book here! See those adorable five stones pillows lying around? They are handmade by the owners, how cute!
Internet Kiosk – Feeling bored? Feel free to use the computers provided to check your mail and surf the net. Not forgetting to mention, there is free WiFi throughout the hostel!
Snack Corner – Free breakfast is included, with local breakfasts on Tuesdays!
Washing Machines – Backpacking is all about traveling light. Hence, washing machines are provided for you to wash your laundry.
Shower Areas – Male and females have separate shower areas. Toiletries are all provided!
Storage Lockers – To keep all your barang barang safely.

Now on to the rooms!

The themed rooms are specially designed by local artists. Each of its 9 rooms is tastefully designed with a Singaporean cultural icon such as Vanda Miss Joaqium, Pick-Up Sticks and Chapteh. My favorite would be the Hopscotch room hee hee! Absolutely love the wall murals. Price for a bed starts from S$30 onwards.

Those who prefer privacy can select the private rooms, there’s even a TV in each room! Price for a room starts from $90 onwards.

Here’s what I love about Five Stones Hostel!

Plushy Bed – Top grade orthopaedic spring mattresses and warm snugly quilts. Oh boy! Don’t you feel like sleeping on the bed now?
Childhood Games – How nostalgic! It certainly brought back some childhood memories of mine since I grew up with them. *old*
Female-only Dorm – Rejoice girls! More privacy eh? Any ladies keen for a staycation?
Location – It’s just a 3 mins walk to Clarke Quay MRT. Key tourist attractions, restaurants, nightlife venues, shopping malls are within walking distance or a short 10 mins bus ride away.
Deals & Discounts – The hostel has collaborated with nearby tourist attractions, F&B outlets and spas to provide deals and discounts for its guests!

Do check out Five Stones Hostel for a nostalgic hostel experience.

Five Stones Hostel
61 South Bridge Road
Levels 2 and 3
Singapore 058691
www.fivestoneshostel.com
www.fb.me/fivestoneshostel
@FiveStonesH

P/S: Pics by nadnut and I!

Jacelyn — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:00:19 +0000

Here’s Day 3 of our KL trip! Read Day 1 and Day 2.

Second part of Day 2…

MORE FOOD! We met Redsheep, a friend of Belinda who had nicely offered to bring us around in KL. How sweet right! And she brought us to this bak kut teh stall.

Rice with garlic and dark soy sauce. Apparently, this is how Malaysians eat their rice. I’m not a fan of garlic but managed to try this out, not bad leh!

Bak kut teh, light version. Very yummy with herbal taste. I wanna try the dry bak kut teh if I ever visit KL again! We were uber full after the meal! Ate too much!

Drove past the Petronas Twin Towers, pretty right?

Explored around the streets…

Spotted Sephora!

I thought it was 2-storey but got quite disappointed after realizing it’s not. The one in Singapore is so much bigger. But still, I managed to purchase a Too Faced eye palette and Soap & Glory bronzer.

Redsheep sent us back to the hotel after that cos we were so worn out! Thanks babe!

The next day, we took the coach to the airport. Saved quite a bit of money!

Settled our lunch at the airport. Nearly missed our flight (again) cos we entered the boarding gate way too late. *slaps self * Chiong all the way to realize that the flight has been delayed. First time I felt SOOO relieved lol!

End of my travelogue, for now. I’m planning for a solo trip to Ho Chi Minh in November to visit a friend. Hope it will materialize!

P/S: Pics credit to myself and Nad

Girls Gone Wild in KL – Day 2

Jacelyn — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:00:55 +0000

Here’s Day 2 of our KL trip! Read Day 1 here.

All dressed up and ready to go out! Hahaha I know, damn vain. I brought my hair curler all the way to KL.

Walked to Sungei Wang since it’s just a stone’s throw away from our hotel.

And here we are at Sungei Wang!

Hello Angry Birds!

Couldn’t find Krispy Kreme, so we had to make do with Dunkin Donuts.

Omo omo look who I spotted – ???!!!

Can I bring you home? Hahaha!

Camwhoring at the monorail station lol!

We decided to take public transport to our next destination – Sunway Pyramid, but it was a wrong decision made! Totally regretted. It’s freaking far and poor Nad had to struggle with her heels on.

At last, we reached Sunway Pyramid. This mall is really HUGE!

And here we are at the first restaurant – Fullhouse Lifestyle Store and Cafe!

Overjoyed! I’ve been wanting to come here for ages hehehe!

Took some pictures of the restaurant. The decor is soooo pretty! So princessy and it feels like a home.

And now, food!

Al-funghi Spaghetti with Butter Base. This is by far the best spaghetti I have ever eaten. The butter base is super yummy and tasty.

Wok-Sear Chicken Chop. Awesome chicken thigh. They had added raisins into the black pepper sauce, sweet and delish!

Oyster Mornay. Not very fresh and way too much cheese.

Kiwi and Peach Yogurt Smoothies. There were “yogurt magic balls” in it which are really crunchy and bursting with yogurt flavor. Sweet!

Yummy food, happy Nad.

One last photo before we leave. I’m definitely coming back again! We were sooooo full but still insisted to check out the next restaurant.

T-Bowl!

Those who have been to Taiwan may have heard of Modern Toilet Restaurant. It seems like T-Bowl is inspired by them. Anyways, Nad and I were too full from the meal at Fullhouse. So we ordered light snacks just to take photos.

Look! A urinal!

Sip sip sip!

Seafood Soup. I had to finish it all by myself cos Nad doesn’t seemed to like the taste lol!

Poop ice-cream!

Moving on to our next destination! To eat again LOL! We keep eating sia! Check out the next entry soon!

P/S: Pics credit to myself and Nad. My outfit is by TheBlogShop.

Girls Gone Wild in KL – Day 1

Jacelyn — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 04:30:30 +0000

Nad and I had an impromptu trip to KL when Boss went for his Genting trip. Since he’s not around, might as well right? We discussed and settled the air tickets and accommodation within a week! Talk about efficiency!

Since the flight was on a Friday evening, I didn’t take leave and lugged my weekender bag to the office. Did I mention that I nearly missed my flight? I wanted to take the train to the airport (save money) but there was a train fault at Paya Lebar. Screw you SMRT! Increased the fare and still give us so much shit!

Waited for 20 minutes but there was no train in sight and it was so freaking crowded at the platform! Buay tahan liao, so I went down to take a cab but had to wait for another 30 minutes! Flight was at 850pm and I only reached the airport at 745pm. Nearly died of stress!

We settled our dinner at McDonald’s and finally reached KL in 45 minutes’ time! The journey from the airport to our hotel is like freaking far!

At last we reached our hotel – Apple Hotel!

There were loads of food stalls just below our hotel! Shiok! However, we also realized that it’s in the red light district Jalan Alor. Malu!!! Luckily nothing happened to us.

Overall, the hotel is quite unique. They have apple shaped furniture, very cute! BUT…

Our room is pathetically small. Totally look like a bomb shelter, no windows at all! We got a shock when we entered the room, it varies so much from the official photos here.

TIO PIAN!

Not only that ok?

The bathroom can see through one! FOL! Whoever wanna bathe, the other person must face the wall lol funny shit! And the so-called “free” towels are damn thin and small can?!

Ok lah, can’t complain too much. At least the bedsheets don’t have bed bugs and foul smell.

We were so fungry, so we went down and found this lok lok stall. All I can say is, FOOD SUCKS and it costs us $28! FOL. Tio pian again.

We went back to the hotel and were totally looking forward to next day’s itinerary – FOOD!

P/S: Pics credit to myself and Nad

I Need a Longer Break

Jacelyn — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:57:12 +0000

Genting and Batam again. Very. Very. Depressing.

I think I ran out of places to travel to. Saving up for the Taiwan trip next year though.

Got bored of Genting already. But Boss is super fascinated with casinos, no idea why. Made quite a bit at the jackpot but lost everything again. As the Chinese saying goes – “????, ????”, something we have to deeply remember.

For the Batam trip, we stayed at Golden View Hotel. Not that bad as the room is freaking huge and clean!

Tried the seafood at Golden 933, a short walking distance from our hotel. Should have trusted the reviews. The food really sucks, too overrated. Don’t try.

Pampered ourselves with a 2 hour massage at Eska Spa, just a stone’s throw away from Nagoya Hill. I don’t mind coming back here for more massages. SHIOK!

At night, we went for karaoke. It was tough selecting the songs as it’s all in hanyu pinyin (and wrong spellings).

Outfit of the day!

Top: TheBlogShop
Leggings: Uniqlo
Bag: TheBlogShop
Necklace: Flexor Empire
Bangle: Diva

Had A&W to satisfy my cravings.

My pathetic loot. Boss was like nagging at me at the supermarket and I only bought a few mandi lulur back. Blah!

Our First Cruise

Jacelyn — Tue, 10 May 2011 07:46:34 +0000

MUHAHAHAHAHA… Guess where we went?! Nope, not haunted places.

Knock knock…

Don’t know yet?

How about this BIG CLUE? An ocean view room!

Yes! CRUISE! We’ve got a cheap deal all thanks to Mum! We didn’t know it was the school holidays. Everywhere is packed! Sucks to squeeze with all the kiasu Singaporeans! The first and only cruise I took was back in 1991, that was like 20 years ago. Ermm, seems like nothing has changed since then. The facilities are still the same lol! It was Boss’s first time though.

I brought the cute Ettusais luggage along hee hee! Everyone was like staring at me wtf. It’s cute and convenient what! Don’t you think so?

The room was fantastic. I can just look out and admire the lovely view. Ahhh bliss!

We embarked at 7pm and went around exploring the various decks. Impressive!

I applied for the free membership but got a shock instead. TMD since when am I a MADAM???!!! Feel like cutting up this card.

We went off to The Pavilion to have chinese dinner. Nothing fantastic but considering that it is free flow, no complaints!

Relaxing on the sun deck! No sun though.

Bub bye Singapore!

The pool which I never get to swim in. You will know why.

The night ended with a game of bingo. Never win at all lor. We went to try our luck at the casino and managed to win a teeny weeny bit of money. Roulette was extremely fun! We were totally hooked!

Next morning, breakfast was at Bella Vista.

Happy brekkie!

Completed with cornflakes!

With bacon, grilled tomato and soft-boiled egg!

After breakfast, we went to the helipad to explore.

Hello Star Virgo!

We tried our luck again at bingo and managed to win 60 bucks? Not too bad for a start eh?

Proceeded to have Chinese food for lunch! Totally love the salted egg yolk fried rice, extremely delish! *drools*

We refused to bathe for the entire day cos we were afraid that it might wash off our luck. Haha damn superstitious and stinky! That explains why I didn’t managed to swim.

Our bingo slip and the lucky toothpick.

True enough, we won again and everyone was in disbelief. Even the cruise staff.

There was this funny “Miss Universe” segment that kept us entertained the whole night. Of course, our focus isn’t this.

Seems like “she” was trying to touch my double chin.
Yes, we tried our luck at bingo for the last time and WON AGAIN! In total, we won four times and our total winnings are more than SGD1K! It’s a huge achievement cos according to the staff, this has never happened before. We became mini celebrities overnight lol!

By then, we were like walking zombies and hurriedly rushed back to the room to freshen up and head to bed immediately.

Breakfast was dim sum at Bella Vista. Not very nice and I didn’t get to eat my favorite har gao.

Cornflakes mixed with yogurt was a first for me. Very yummy!

Spent some time at the sky deck before heading back home. Wish we could stay longer but all good things must come to an end. A very fruitful trip especially with the extra cash in our hands hahahaha!

Jacelyn — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:00:15 +0000

Read part 1 of the trip here!

Fidelis and I went for brekkie at Little Home Bakery which is located just 5 mins walk from our hotel. Their menu is in the form of a recipe book, how cute!

Finally had authentic phat thai! Darn good with lots of fresh lime!

American brekkie. Bacon and eggs are da bomb! I don’t mind eating them everyday even if the fats might build up in my heart hahaha!

Banana caramel waffle for dessert! Errr Fidel nearly wanted to order more but we couldn’t finish them all!

Spotted the cute Etude House! Can I bring it home?

Camwhoring on BKK streets!

Thai taco! Recommended by Fidel. It’s pretty nice but the cream is way too sweet. Only ate half of it.

We popped by MBK to search for iPhone and Blackberry cases. The GOLD ones damn chio lah!!! I wanna go back again to bling my phone! You can customize your phone to any design you want! Darn cool!

We walked quite a fair bit and got tired. So we headed back to the hotel via tuk tuk! Mad fun to sit on it! SHIOK!

Hair damn messy but still wanna look glam~

We went back to the hotel to get dressed up for the countdown party at RCA! Clubbing was really fun in BKK. The music was awesome, people are friendly and no irritating guys will approach the ladies at all. Everyone just mind their own businesses there.

Haha we bought cute bunny ears to wear. I think we only got back to the hotel at 5am if I remember correctly. I was too tired to even bathe.

Day 3, I woke up at 6am in the morning to puke. My stomach felt really queasy and my body was so weak that I stayed in the hotel the entire day. I was so depressed that I nearly wanted to go to the hospital. Not sure if it’s hangover or what. Oh wells!

Went to Chatuchak the next morning for shopping! The things are extremely cheap and you can keep bargaining. Wish I can bring back the entire market here.

Spotted this yummy coconut ice cream, very very refreshing and sweet!

Ended the day with a foot massage before flying back to Singapore. I wanna go BKK again! I miss everything there.

Epic Trip to Bangkok – Part 1

Jacelyn — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:00:11 +0000

Finally forced myself to blog about this trip which happened end of last year. This would be my first time celebrating the new year overseas. It was an impromptu trip to Bangkok with the epic gang – Fidelis, Nadia, David, Fahbian, Jayden, Victor and Musxzart. Yeah, it was a huge group and I can’t wait to do another trip with them! It was hella fun! Except that I fell ill on new year’s day.

I went with Fidelis two days later than the rest and spent 4D3N there. On the day of departure, this blur girl even overslept. If I didn’t call her at all, we might have missed the flight lol hell no! Very scary leh this girl!

We arrived at our hotel, I-Residence Silom at around 11am and waited till 12pm before we got our rooms. It was pretty accessible as it’s just 5mins walk from Chong Nansi BTS. But travelling to the shopping area is kinda troublesome as it would take approximately 20 minutes by tuk tuk or cab.

Me looking damn cui. Think my brain is still sleeping and my hair sucks to the max cos the curls I did 3 days before the trip totally FAIL! Shall not elaborate more.

The room we booked was perfectly clean and cosy. We spent less than SGD200 for 3 nights. That’s like SGD32 per night per person. CHEAP!!!

We packed our bags, freshened up and off we go to meet the rest of the gang!

We walked to the BTS to take the train. Their card looks exactly like the old transitlink card we used to have!

Here we are at Siam Paragon.

And this bloody long queue caught our eyes. Turns out that these people are queuing up for Krispy Kreme, HOLY CRAP! That’s not all. Some unethical ones even bought huge quantities and set up a makeshift stall nearby to sell these donuts at a profit!

Anyways, we kept walking and walking and walking…

…before we finally reached Platinum Mall – a shopping haven!

We found TheBlogShop’s sister brand!

There are hundreds and hundreds of stalls in Platinum Mall. One day is not enough for us to shop here! And the scary thing is, we got accused by one of the shop owners for not paying for the things we bought. Blame the woman for carrying and playing with her kid and not paying attention. We remembered giving her cash and she even took it, but she insisted that we didn’t. I was quite worried that she might be lying to scam us. Eventually, she let the matter rest and we quickly zao!

We walked quite a bit at Platinum Mall and finally got to eat our lunch at this stall. Spot the classic looking orange juice bottle!

Yummeh wanton noodles, but too little portion.

Wanton soup. They even added in crab meat! Yes REAL crab meat and not the cheapo ones!

We continued our shopping at Platinum Mall for another 2 hours or so and I managed to get a luggage for a mere SGD65! We named her FAT BITCH cos she was so fat that she couldn’t even squeeze into the car boot lol!

We were so tired from walking that we dropped by Ice Monster for desserts!

With my favorite lychees, mangoes and peaches mmmmmm marvellous…

After a long day, it was dinner time. We had seafood for dinner at T&K! Mad crowded lah! But it was worth the wait!

We ordered lots and lots of food! Gluttons!

The highlight of the day?

OMFG fresh oysters! Never in my life I’ve eaten an oyster before cos I can’t stand the odor. Not even those on orh jian (oyster omelette). The oysters found in Singapore are horrible! BUT this is absolutely fresh and you can practically taste the sea in your mouth. Ok I kinda exaggerated but I am NOT kidding ok! Trust yours truly who is trying this for the first time! Must come here if you visit BKK! It’s located within Chinatown area.

Proper way to eat the oysters? Here’s a step by step guide demonstrated by David. You don’t have to adhere to it, strictly for reference only! Thai style oysters are really delish and they only cost SGD1.50 each. Totally hooked and craving for it now.

Another highlight of the day is the shark’s fin soup. The fins are in huge chunks and it only costs SGD21! Wtf BKK is HEAVEN la! Everything is extremely cheap!

Even their massages are extremely affordable! I think we paid 180 baht for a 1.5 hours foot massage, that’s like SGD8. MAD SHIOK!

Extremely satisfied with our dinner and massages, we headed back to the hotel thereafter.

Bought a packet of lychee pocky to munch on! I wanted to bring some back but there were none left when I went back to the shop!

Off to Bangkok!

Jacelyn — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:00:11 +0000

I’ll be flying off to Bangkok tomorrow morning! It would be my second trip there and I can’t wait to party with the rest of the gang – Fidelis, Nadia, David, Fahbian, Jayden, Victor and Musxzart! What a huge group, it would be mad fun!

Meanwhile, I’ve scheduled a few entries while I am away. Do follow me on Twitter cos I will be tweeting on the go!

Till then!

Little Nyonya Town

Jacelyn — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 01:00:21 +0000

It was an impromptu trip to Malacca during the Raya weekend. Been really eager to visit Malacca after watching The Little Nyonya on Channel 8.

Our hotel is located within Jonker Walk, the heartland of Malacca. Here’s the night market which started pretty early and you will need to go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 6.00pm to 12.00am. They have tons of stalls selling all sorts of things. More details to come.

Our hotel at Hangout@Jonker, a sister hotel of Hangout@Mount Emily in Singapore.

Comfy, plushy beds!

Spanking clean room. Comes with a standing shower, no long bath.

Leave me alone! RAWR!

After putting our stuff in the hotel, we headed off to the famous Hoe Kee Chicken Rice. There was a long queue but we managed to get a table within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, no pictures of the chicken rice cos the standard is mediocre.

Finally had a chance to try ????! The traditional ones are made from Hawthorn fruit and it’s a very popular snack in China. Remember shan zha? One of my favorite snacks back then!

Me, munching on the candies. Tak unglam!

Look what they did with the cans! Creative eh?

Want a ride on the retro tricycle?

WOOTS! Found the potato twirl snack! It tasted so much better than the one I had at Geylang Serai hoho!

I don’t know why the craze for these balls in Malacca. There is nothing special about them at all. Overrated much?

Does this appeal to your taste buds? Hello people! Singapore has the best Hainanese chicken rice, no doubt!

The nyonya chendol was good though. The gula melaka was absolutely yummy!

Another gem in Malacca, egg shaped ice cream!

I had lychee flavor and it has bits of lychee in it! Absolutely fruity and refreshing.

We were like scouting for food during the entire trip lol!

We woke up at 9am the next day and to our horror, all the shops were closed and we had to wait till like 12pm before they will be opened for lunch. Tmd total waste of our time. So we went back to the hotel to surf the net and relax lol.

Went to the Christ Church Melaka since it’s the icon of Malacca? Nothing interesting here. The weather was bloody hot and we made our way to Mahkota Parade, a walking distance from Jonker Walk.

Here we are!

Settled our lunch at a Jap restaurant. Quite bo liao and the food sucks big time.

Still prefer A&W anytime! HEE HEE!

We walked back to San Shu Gong to grab some Malacca snacks before heading back to Singapore.

I picked up these biscuits with salted egg yolk! Simply love anything with salted egg yolk lah!

Dread the 6 hours ride but nonetheless, it was a fruitful trip. Wait till I get my licence then we will drive up to Malacca again! Woots!