Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Paris J'taime Vol.1

Photography and design by me

Hi guys, Sydney has been really cold and wet, hope you guys are feeling strong, unlike me, I've trapped with all kind of sickness since I got back from Europe. Yes, I visited Paris and Croatia about one and half month ago,and the price was a massive jet lag and endless sickness. But I have to say it's all worthy! I generally have no extra energy to write down the details when I travel, just keep going and walking and filling every thing we can do into the schedule.

Somehow, the dream doesn't always go as the way you think it would be. You know why? Because Qantas airway lost our luggage. Can you believe such a big enterprise, Qantas can still cause us traveling without our baggage for 17days? Oh, well I will probably write this part in Vol.2, there are just so much about Europe and once I started I couldn't stop, hahah!

Since this blog is nothing like Lonely Planet, it's just about what I think about Paris and share with you the photos that I took. Hope you would like them:)


Paris absolutely has the the privilege to overwhelm you at every corner of the streets, the historical buildings of course, the alleyways reach to one and another, the tall gates and gentle sunlights, no wonder those photographers adore Europe so much, it's so easy to take the advantage of the natural lighting and have fun searching interesting objects to shoot. In fact we actually didn't visit all the famous spot due to our lost baggage issue, the best day in Paris would be the last day that we finally gave up waiting and just let the adventure lead us to the way it should be. 



I guess this is somewhere Le Marais, great for shopping


The icon of Bastille

Coffee looks very different!




I love observing their chairs in cafes and restaurants





Tuileries Garden






Ouvre Muséum 






Montmartre has lots steps



Sacre Coeur behind




























Cut to the chest, here are my top 3 places in Paris:
1. Montmartre, the reason has to trace back into the old days. I took some French courses when I was in final year of university. I watched so many French films and always dreamt about if one day I can visit there because I adore "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain". This place has changed so much comparing to the film but Sacré-Coeur was still breathtakingly beautiful to me. There, you can also have the view of Paris, wandering in those hilly paths, and of course, meeting people in the art market, we met a portrait artist at the bar and he was really good at doing our portrait! 
2. Bastille market, every one looks so happy here, the venders were so energetically shouting and chitchating with each other, we really enjoy the experience in the market. With local produced ingredients and so many delicious dishes would make you drool( good price as well), the only struggle is just too many options in front of you! 
3. Versailles garden, what a grand garden! We were both amazed the design of the garden, you can stay in that garden all day long, just get a bike cruising around, or go on a picnic, rowing a boat and be romantic and so on. And I firstly saw a swan started its flight upon the damp, it certainly wooed me.

Even we had to stay 2 days waiting for lost luggage delivery in the apartment, we still managed to visit some beautiful places in Paris(just a bit short ), we experienced Moulin Rouge, fancy Le Maurice near the Tuileries garden(luckily Louvre was near by or we might miss it as well ), Eiffel tower dinner, river Seine cruise ( thanks god we did this tour, otherwise Qantas's mistake made us miss all the famous spots, and this tour basically tamed my hatred not seeing all the places that I want to see).


It's just so much you can do in this city and I absolutely adore this city, I will stop for now and wish yo guys happy hump day today!



xxx Aka

Monday, 7 April 2014

{ My Footprints } Back from Phuket!!

Images photographed and designed by me

Hello guys, I am so happy that we are back from Thailand!! There's a saying about traveling is the purpose of traveling is go home, and I can't agree more. It's a very short trip and I decided not to use my laptop and social medias entire trip but it doesn't mean I did nothing at beach, we just can't help ourselves and fill in our agenda with so many fun stuffs. I guess it's just our style, we can't stay on the beach and do nothing exciting. Since this is my first time to Phuket, so we certainly tried out many things we didn't expected we would do at all, such as taking motorbike taxi without a helmet( This one is for Andrew, ha! ) or let tiny fishes eat our dead skin....

Phi Phi Island

The beach is definitely the main attraction here, and I have to admit that Phi Phi Island is really magnificent, even the water is about 10 meters deep, still having that incredible greenish blue. We did one day tour around Phi Phi Island and it's just a lovely experience with gentle waves. I love the colour underwater  is so clean and shinny, just like a dream. Despite the traveling time on the speedboat was way too long that we got fairly bit sun burn, it's still an unforgettable fun time visiting this special Island. 

















The other part of view is human...



Monkey beach, they said...



We walked around the neighbourhood a lot and it's another way to observe the culture. We also signed up one day tour to cookery school to learn how to make authentic Thai food, and it was just amazing. We made the best Pad Thai we have even tasted and all the ingredients are from the market daily. I have to say staying in a tourist spot is not gonna take you to the good food, because lot of them don't seek regular customers. Seafood here are enormous. Try jumbo tiger prawns if you are curious what the taste like but they are just the gimmicks, some of them might not be fresh...
Look at my sun burnt knees...I don't even remember when was last time I got sunburnt 




Local market started at 3a.m. daily


Freshly made curry paste, emm smells fantastic!

I really enjoyed these Thai donuts

Running through the streets

The view from the cookery school




We made the green curry paste from scratch then cooked it with chicken, I ate them all...



Cocktail time!! Without a glass of classic cocktail, watching sunset, then this is not a vacation!



Some snap shots...



The tree with green joints....haha






Chicken just jumped to the tree top....










Once again, it's amazing trip and we are so blessed that the weather forecast didn't behave that it should be, even we got caught by the rain occasionally but it always stopped at the most important timings. 

And we both got cold on the flight back,  and the moral of the story is be aware of the overnight flight's temperature, not to mention now is getting chilly in Sydney...(Sniff)

Have a good week and stay warm


xxx Aka