26 Aug 2013

Taiwan Travelogue (part 1) - Days 1 & 2


For those of you who I thought I've been to every single part of the world, you are so wrong. This was my first time to Taiwan in June. I was pretty excited to check out the city highly raved by friends for having cheap cosmetics, clothes and accessories.Taiwan is also a special place to me as it's where my dad went for university.

I travelled there via EVA Air and it was my first time flying with them. It was a pretty boring flight and the selection of movies in the Inflight Entertainemt system was pretty... meh. So I slept throughout the whole 5 hour flight to Taipei-Taoyuan Airport. But the food served on the plane was pretty decent. Not bad for a short haul flight!


Upon reaching the hotel, it was already past 7pm as the absent minded me forgot all about my contact lens casing and I had to go get one from the nearest convenience store. I absolutely love convenience stores in Taiwan as they sell EVERY SINGLE THING. Not just food or drinks or a few daily necessities here and there. You name it, they have it. 

We stayed at Novotel Taoyuan Airport Hotel for a night before we joined a land tour in Taiwan organised by Chan Brothers Travel the next day. The hotel was reaaaaally good, like the best ever in the whole Asia. The only thing lacking is that it's really far from any civilisation. No BK, Macs, yadda yadda within walking distance from the hotel. So we ended up at the hotel's buffet restaurant "Square" for a late dinner at 8pm after check-in. Oh, check-in was pretty speedy too!


Buffet dinner was such a spread, and it was only SGD $20 if I'm not wrong!


They sold macarons at the bakery 24/7.


Suggestive looking seats at the side of the lobby..


I love duty free shopping for cosmetics on the plane and so I finally got my Laura Mercier foundation/base set which includes the greaaaat Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20. Have been using it ever since and it's light and long-wearing. Other things in the set include a primer, concealer/powder, teardrop sponge, powder puff, and two concealer brushes.

Day 2:

We still had the whole morning to ourselves to about 5 in the evening, so we decided to take the HSR out to the city for lunch! The buffet breakfast was awesomesauce.





Can someone tell me why even Taiwan's Starbucks has more variety than Singapore's?


Super cute (but expensive) metro pass holders!




Agnes B for brunch, we were supposed to go to Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe but IT WAS CLOSED FOR RENOVATION. Nothing could make up for my mum's wrath after that. Hell hath no fury like a hello kitty fan scorned.


Something to make up for Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe.



Met up with the rest of the tour group at the airport in the evening. THERE WERE NO TEENAGERS WITHIN +/- 4 YEARS MY AGE, CAN YOU IMAGINE MY PAIN. Thank God for my data plan on my phone bought on Day 1 at the airport so I was able to stay connected with my friends back home. My tour guide was a really friendly person called Jacky and he brought us to Shihlin Night Market for dinnerrrrrrrr yay food.



IT ACTUALLY HAS BONES WHY DOES IT HAVE BONES.


Takoyaki yum


Their vermicelli is damn good. I'm not a fan of oysters/any shellfish except scallops so I asked for a plain vermicelli.


Dinner that night: Vermicelli, Takoyaki, Chicken Chop (that has bones), 滷味(which is something like YTF ingredients mixed with chilli and sauce) and (unphotographed) Sugar Cane Juice.

Disclaimer: I dislike anything smelly like durians so sorry, no stinky tofu was sampled during my stay in Taiwan.


21 Aug 2013

Guide to Making Your Photos Look "Hipsterrrific"



It's been so long since I last posted anything on my lifestyle blog and I hereby apologise for that as I've been busy preparing my retakes end of this year! Life's been pretty much very stressful so here I am with a new post on teaching you how to make your Instagrams look good... or at least good in my opinion.

I'm definitely not a master or guru in this area, I just like to explore new ways of designing and editing my photographs, especially when I'm on holiday. Recently, I've also bought a white table for me to study at my balcony (free wind and bright sunlight), so that's my new Instagram partner now :)

Many of my followers have asked me which apps did I use to edit my photos/add overlays from #brenoverlays/add words/yadda yadda... So I've decided that I should make a guide to explain my process of editing my photos that I upload onto my Instagram! :)

DISCLAIMER: I AM AN IPHONE USER SO SOME OF THE APPS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE ON ANDROID/WINDOWS/BLACKBERRY.