Melaka: My favourite city in Malaysia

Over the CNY holidays, I stopped over in Melaka.  It's becoming my favourite city in Malaysia!  The nice sea view and pool, the quietness of the place (I stayed in a condo around 30 min drive from the main city)... nice.. 

Flying to London

2014 saw me starting off visiting the city of London.  This was my 2nd visit, the last being 2008 where I explored this magnificent city over 3 days.  This time round, though, it was for business.  And what style it was to travel by SIA's latest 1st class offering.  Naturally excited as this was my first 1st class experience, even though a huge part of me did not want to take this trip due to existing work commitments.  Because it was a 13hour flight, I had at least 2 meal servings, the breakfast having one of the best Prok Ribs Soup I've ever had, and a very filling 5 course lunch:

Upon arrival and checking into Holiday Inn Kensington, we headed out to one of London's landmark: Harold's.  I've been there before but it was during daytime.  At night, the building sparkled with thousands of light bud, lending the London skyline a soft and warm glow.  It was only during this trip that I discovered there was actually a memorial at the basement honouring Princess Diana and her boyfriend!

Well, the next 2 days saw me visiting sites and involved in meetings.  I had to wear a helmet, vest and safety googles, which made me looked rather plump as I was wearing a trench coat:

After work, I went on to explore a bit of the London night scape along the River Thames before meeting up with my dear friend, Silke for dinner:

It was a delectable dinner session catching up with Silke.  She was still the same spirited person and I was so glad to be able to find time to meet her.  (I got to catch up with her again in Singapore just less than 3 weeks after).

Time to fly back home, and surprisingly, on the exact same plane with the same set of crew!  I had a wonderful time chatting with the cabin crew who were both warm and helpful, even though I was traveling as a staff.  Kudos to SIA's cabin crew for their professionalism!  Oh, I managed to sleep on the comfortable flat bad that was as wide as a single bed, and enjoyed 2 meals, one of which was 6 courses!

2013 year of Travels (Istanbul, Bangkok, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Phuket, Melaka, Switzerland, Bintan)

2011 saw me stamping my passport almost every month.  2012 was only 2 trips fewer.  I already had the travel bug firmly attached to my heart now.  So how did 2013 turn out?  Without giving away too much, the first trip was a business trip to Istanbul.  It was a last minute trip and I slept only 1 night, hence did not have much opportunities to explore the rich culture the city could offer.  However, I did managed to experience a Turkish bath in the own comforts of my hotel:

After the hastily planned Istanbul trip, I had a more relaxing time in Feb when I flew to Bangkok again, this time to enrol myself in one of the many cooking classes:

As I was required to clear my leave by March, I had to, well, fly somewhere right?  Hence, March saw me flying first to Taipei, and visited the hot spring village of Wulai:

I flew again the next day when I returned from Taipei to Singapore, this time to HongKong:

So there, I'd managed to clear all my outstanding leave by March.  But that did not mean I couldn't travel anymore.  I flew to Phuket over my birthday weekend and explored the wonderful and surreal island of Tachai:

After 4 consecutive months of flying to 5 different cities, I took a break from flying and drove up to Melaka in May.  Yup, I had not been to Melaka in 2012 even though it was my most visited city in 2011:

Next up, 2 months of slogging at work (and planning for my next European holiday).  August saw me flying off to Switzerland for 6 nights, exploring many mountains and experiencing the Glacier Express.  Surprisingly it was still Springtime:

2 weeks after my return from Switzerland, I took a ferry across the sea and onto the island of Bintan.  My first Bintan holiday in at least 6 years saw me checking into Bintan Agro Beach Resort with spectacular views:

As I've mentioned earlier, I did not visit Melaka in 2012.  Which was probably the reason why I went to Melaka again (together with KL) in mid Oct:

Nov saw me flying to HK again to help a friend move his stuff back to Singapore, also to visit the newly expanded Disneyland.  And of course, more HK food!!:

And so came to the end of 2013.  I flew to Bangkok to celebrate Xmas for a comfortably 5 nights, basically doing nothing much, visited a new place called Ancient City and had a wonderful seaside dinner.  Oh, the protestors did keep things more interesting this time round:

So there you go, my travel plan in 2013: a total of 11 stamps in my passport.  Apart from Switzerland, all were return visits.  Strangely though, Switzerland was my least interesting trip of the year.  Am I having traveling fatigue already?  Hmmm. That's not gonna happen anytime soon!