HazelDiary

During my 4 days trip to Taipei, Taiwan last month, I visited Nung Chan Monastery. The monastery is located at Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is formally in 1975 by Ven. Dongchu, a scholar monk and disciple of renowned Chinese Buddhist Master Taixu. It’s named ‘ Farming Ch’an ‘ as its early residents dedicated themselves to Ch’an practice and grew their own food. (taken from Wikipedia). Read More

Walk into Gardens by the Bay’s Flower Dome to feel the upcoming Chinese New Year festive season. Like a scene from a Chinese painting, the Dahlia Dreams floral display in Gardens by the Bay’s Flower Dome beckons with its picturesque Chinese garden landscape framed by elegant pavilions, rotating water wheels, and a majestic 35-metre-long archway of red lanterns. Read More

*Updated on 10 April 2022*
Based on one of the comments below, UTC does not allow walk-in. You need to make appointment –sto.imi.gov.my .However, there is a limit of passports issued everyday.

My last renewal passport in Malaysia post was 2011 and here is the updated on with new system. So, I hope my renewal passport experience in Johor Bahru can help those who are planning to do it in Johor Bahru instead of Singapore. Read More

Changi Recommends has recently launched their newest ChangiWiFi plan, called Pay-Per-GB, which allows travellers to USA and Europe to rent a Wi-Fi router for just $32 per trip to satisfy all their overseas data needs. Suited for the less data hungry consumers, the basic Pay-Per-GB plan costs $32 and entitles consumers to 2GB of Wi-Fi data, with the option of topping up anytime during the trip at $20 per additional GB (Please refer to Appendix A for more details). Read More

Kawagoe (川越) is a Japanese city northwest of Tokyo. It is approximately 30minutes train ride from Central Tokyo. My Japanese friend recommended us to drop by here for a day trip destination so we headed over after our lunch. Read More

Apart from famous Din Tai Fung in Taipei, you can opt for Kao Chi at Yong Kang Street, Taipei. The restaurant has several outlets across Taipei. But the one in Yong Kang Street seems to be a popular destination because of it’s 3-storey flagship store. The brand is established since 1949 and has been serving Shanghainese dishes. We arrived around 11 plus in the morning and got our queue number from the staff. We waited less than 20 minutes and managed to secure a table at level 3. Read More

One bag with things you need easy to hand, another one for the rest

*Photo by Unknown, Public Domain (CC0 1.0)*
For many, travelling is seen as the dream perk of any job; jetting off to a new city, country or continent, with everything paid for is a lifestyle many people, and especially school leavers, dream of. But for those who travel regularly for work, it is bearable at most. The regular traveller will most likely have perfected their travel and packing routines, but for the less seasoned globetrotter, the packing style may be throwing stuff into a suitcase last minute. It certainly works for some journeys, but usually it means that things are forgotten or too much is packed
that never gets used. Read More

*Updated January 2024*

On my latest visit to Taipei, my experience took a unique turn compared to my previous trips. This time, I dedicated half a day to venture beyond Taipei and explore Thousand Island Lake (千島湖) in Shiding. Unlike popular tourist destinations, this hidden gem is not well-known, as evidenced by our private cab driver of 42 years who had never been here before. Interestingly, it has started gaining attention among tourists, particularly after the impact of Covid where everyone is restricted to travelling.
Read More

I am back to Taipei, Taiwan on the last week of December 2018 for a short gateway and visited Fei Qian Wu 肥前屋 for dinner. Fei Qian Wu 肥前屋 is known for its famous unagi don or unadon in Taipei. The restaurant is established over 50 years ago by a Taiwanese-Japanese family. We were there around 4.20pm and started to queue for early dinner. We were 2nd in line and the restaurant is open for dinner at 5pm. So, yeah! We queued for 40 minutes for this. Read More

With our 5-DAY JR East Pass Rail, we decided to use 1 day to explore Ushiku Daibutsu (牛久大仏). Ushiku Daibutsu is a statue located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It is completed in 1993 and it stands a total of 120metres (390ft) tall, including the 10m (33ft) base and 10m lotus platform. The statue held the record for the tallest statue from 1993-2002. Read More