Insta-Europe.

During our Europe trip, I tried as much as possible to update pictures onto my Instagram (@revelinme)! Internet was scarce in Europe, but occasionally we might get lucky and score some sort of connection at the hotel. Just thought I will share some of them here, because they fill me with such glorious joy whenever I look at them! :)

#1

Cologne, Germany-- Can you believe this photo has no form of editing or filters? Just undiluted beauty, and I got to witness it upclose and personal. Unbelievable.

#2

Florence, Italy-- Downed a cup of pure blood orange juice to, erm, assist with my bowels. Coincidentally it matched my AZORIAS floral print shirt (already sold out)!

#3

Paris, France-- Visited the Versailles Gardens which has a whimsical Alice in Wonderland feel to it.

#4

Paris, France-- Laduree is always a must-do in Paris! But to be honest, I prefer Pierre Hermes.

#5

Venice, Italy-- Such a charming place. Unfortunately it was jam-packed with tourists, which took away some of its magic!

#6

Florence, Italy-- Daily activity in Italy-- trying out gelato from different stores!

#7

Paris, France-- This place needs no introduction. Mr. Eiffel, thank you for building this iconic tower back in 1889!

#8

Cologne, Germany-- There is never such a thing as too much desserts.

#9

Rome, Italy-- Absolutely in love with this embroidery shirt from AZORIAS! Against an even more stunning backdrop of Roman ruins.

#10

Paris, France-- I lied. We didn't only have gelato in Italy, we had it everwhere, anytime we could. And come on, who could possibly resist a flower-shaped gelato?

#11

Amsterdam, Netherlands-- Champagne for breakfast. Surely life doesn't get any better than this?

#12

Venice, Italy-- Massage conga!

#13

Alps, Switzerland-- Three guesses on whether I licked the snow? :P

#14

Rome, Italy-- I met a boy and my heart was stolen since then. ;)

Eurotrip 2013-- In motion.

It's taking me time to go through all our Europe photos to do proper blog posts, but while you all wait for me to get to it, please please please take a look at this awesome video of our Eurotrip that Teeny put together!



My sister is so talented ZOMG.

It is such a happy video! I have watched it like 45 time already, hehe.

The day we got ripped off.

Am going to jump back to blogging about my Bangkok birthday trip! Any new readers to this blog sure get damn confused with all my back-and-forth travel posts. T_T

Anyway, I promise you that this post will be a good post! 'Cause we got totally ripped off on this day.*cue dramatic pause*

On our first night in Bangkok, we took a cab to Asiatique Riverfront, and we started chatting with the taxi driver who surprisingly spoke really good English. He then recommended for us to visit the floating market, and offered to bring us around to popular sightseeing spots for 1500 baht (RM150) for the whole day. Since it was the boyfriend's first trip to Bangkok, and I myself have NEVER done anything remotely tourist-y in Bangkok (we only ever shop and eat in Bangkok, heh), plus it's really rare to come across someone who can speak really good English in Thailand, we decided to take up his offer.

So the next morning at 8am, we hopped into his cab and started our journey to Damnoen where the floating market is. After about 1 hour, we reached the market, and we had to sit down with some guides to rent a boat. Now, this was when I got really confused. I have to clarify here that my initial impression is that the floating market is, well, a market, and it's FREE to enter! But okay, I was expecting to pay abut RM10 or something to get a seat on the boat, so all was well.

The guide tapped out some numbers on the calculator and showed me. 500baht!!! RM50 for a stupid boat ride!!! I was quite unhappy, but oh well, since we were already there, I took out 500 baht from my wallet and handed it to the guy. He took the money and continued to look at me expectantly. We just sort of stared at each other for a few seconds before I grab the calculator to look again.....

5000.

5000 baht (RM500) for the stupid boat!!! I was really pissed off, and I told the boyfriend and the guide that there was no way I am going on a RM500 boat ride, and I just kept on shaking my head and calling them a "Rip-off!!" wtf. The guide then quickly snatched the calculator and retyped "3000" on it. The boyfriend shushed me and said it's okay, what to do, we are already there. I was super unhappy, but just stood there trembling with anger and throwing the guide dirty looks wtf.

So onto the boat we went! We were mainly traveling through tight water canals, which were super dirty. -_- Especially after I compare it with the water canals in Venice wtf.


My view on the boat. There are rows of shops/ stalls along the water canals, and some boats on the river/ canals are stalls as well.

I was daydreaming, and let out a HUGE yelp of terror when I realized that there was a python right next to me!!! Turns out it was a stall which allows you to pet the python + snap a photo for 100 baht (RM10), but as the water canal was so tight, the snake was literally 3 inches away from me. Major FML moment there.



All in all, it was quite an experience. Just be careful not to open your mouth while the boat is moving, because the dirty water from the canal may splash into your mouth. -_- But it was definitely not worth RM500 (RM300 + the cabfare we paid)-- heck, I could get Disneyland tickets for that price! *gets emo again wtf*

Outfit:


Awkward tourist pose. -_-


Am into ornate earrings recently.






Baroque mesh polo blouse: Korea
Black ripped denim shorts: Bangkok
Diamante earrings: Forever 21
Black suede ballet heels: Topshop
Bag: Alexander Wang

So one word of advise, research and follow a proper tour to the floating market if you plan to visit it! We didn't get to research 'cause I couldn't since the trip was a surprise wtf, and the boyfriend was so busy at work he wasn't able to do any as well.

Nonetheless, I chose to look at the bright side of things-- I took a romantic cruise with my new fiance! :)

Eurotrip 2013: Amsterdam.

Finally got off my butt to sift through our Europe photos to blog! We were in Europe for 14 days, and our itinerary was:

Paris> Amsterdam> Cologne (Germany)> Munich (Germany)> Innsbruck (Austria)> Venice (Italy)> Rome (Italy)> Florence (Italy)> Lucerne (Switzerland)> Paris

We followed a tour, which was why we could cover so many places in such a short time. My personal preference would have been not to follow a tour, as admittedly we wasted a lot of time in the bus traveling between places, and I much prefer to explore and discover a place in my own sweet time. However, in hindsight, it was probably the most ideal arrangement, as we did manage to cover many tourist hotspots without suffering long queues, and we got a feel of which countries/ places that we would like to visit again in a more thorough manner. Also, more importantly, as we were traveling with my mom (known as a travel diva wtf), a tour would have been much more suitable, haha.

Am going to blog about our first day of the trip, i.e. Amsterdam! We flew from KL to Paris (a 13-hour flight), and then took the Eurostar to Amsterdam where the tour was supposed to start. Essentially, it took us more than 20 hours of traveling time to finally settle in Amsterdam! Needless to say, we were pretty knackered. But our excitement for the trip made us preserver through! :D


My first impression of Amsterdam is that it is filled with water canals and rivers, with boats and river taxis everywhere. Also, the water is SO clean! We saw yellow fluffy ducks swimming in the drains, with silver flashes of fishes jumping out of such drains. -__-


Besides boats, one of the main mode of transport in Amsterdam is bicycles. Check out this bicycle parking area-- it is literally jam-packed with bikes! How to find your own bike here... :O


Supposedly best fries in Amsterdam. It was just so-so only!


Water canals near the red light district. Which we obviously visited, hehe.


But one of the first places that we visited was H&M! Buy ALL the European products 'cause they are cheaper there! wtf


Started our walk into the red light district!

Was very nervous yet excited at the same time. We were cautioned not to take any photos of the prostitutes (who are basically placed in glass rooms (which resemble boxes), and they will parade at the 'store front' in their skimpiest costumes. They are quite prideful of their work, and do not fancy being gawked at as tourist attractions, so apparently if they catch you photographing them, they will kick your camera to ashes wtf.

It was quite surreal to see extremely scantily-dressed women spreading their legs yet cutting their toenails/ talking on the phone (basically just going on about with everyday routine life) while waiting for the next 'client'. Once a client makes a visit, the curtains of the glass room will be drawn.

Some of the girls are REALLY pretty; in fact, one of them looked like Megan Fox! :O


Sex toy shops everywhere, naturally.


Not your typical coffee shop... Coffee shops are where you get weed and other (soft) drugs! This can get rather disastrous for a coffee lover like me, 'cause knowing my luck, I sure go to the wrong place for coffee WTF.


At one of the water canals at the red light district. Some of the windows of the higher stories have girls parading in them!

Other random pictures:


Parents queuing up for our fries. See the fur hat on my mom's head? When this hat comes out, you know it's COLD!!

Amsterdam is really SUCH a pretty city.


Dam, or Dam Square, is the capital of Amsterdam (where we were).


Running through small alleys.


I amsterdam. :)


Any guesses for where we saw this?


It was in Amsterdam that it struck us that it is actually pretty cool to stay in river homes/ boats...


What do you think of my new look haha.

Outfit of the day:







A travel tip of mine: always bring outfits with fabulous details, so that you save space from bringing accessories! Which explains why throughout my trip you will see a lot of embellished collars.. :P

3D petal collar shirt: AZORIAS
White tweed jacket: Korea
Chunky knit with fur front: Zhuhai
Jeans: Wrangler
Cream satin ballet flats with studded heels: Zara
Bag: Alexander Wang

And I saved the best picture for the last wtf:



Like I mentioned, there are many sex toy shops around the red light district, but I was most fascinated by this S&M shop display! What do you think of the toilet roll contraption WTF.

Revenge is sweet.

The aftermath of our Europe trip?

5,000 photos yo.

You can imagine, at about the 3,437th photo, we started getting restless.
So we started having a little fun...

By photobombing each other's photos, haha.


Whee! At Lucerne Switzerland.

It started with me photo-bombing Jing's selfie session because she rather camwhored than talk to me wtf.


Hey Macarena! Cruising around Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.

Then Jing photo-bombed Teeny...


 I didn't look amused. At Louvre, Paris.

Teeny photo-bombed me. And the cycle went on... -___-

PS: The boyfriend read my blog post as I was blogging and shook his head, murmuring "So childish" under his breath wtf. And he warned me that if anyone photo-bomb our wedding photos, it's all my karma hahahahaha.

A different Mother's Day.

Meant to blog about this on Mother's day but got preoccupied! (damn you jet lag -_-). This year's Mother's Day was slightly more special for me and my mom, because we got a special kind of 'gift'. :)

Remember this blogpost here, where my mom and I went for a photoshoot for magazine? It was actually for a Mother's Day special for Her World magazine:



The feature inside:



I can't believe they called me a Style Queen.. -_-|||
And FML, trust the photo of me with the biggest mouth and smallest eyes to be picked for the feature. T_T But my mom looked super pretty though! :)


We were both wearing AZORIAS!

Initially, AZORIAS was meant to dress all the mother-daughter duos (there are three altogether). But in the end, there was a change in plans as the editor needed to feature their advertisers. Such a pity though, 'cause it would have been so fun dressing up mother and daughters! :)

I was wearing: Bow knot cutout-back peplum blouse and Daisy mesh eyelet shorts. Originally styled with a mint blazer but the photo wasn't chosen. T_T
My mom was wearing: Intricate lace skater dress.

Read the article to find out how my mom has influence me and personality. :D