my FAQ

other than the Solan Capo Emas (Soalan Campur Emas) "Ko bila lagi (kan kawin)?", 
I have another FAQ; about my travels.

without further ado, lesgo!


Question No.1
"Ke mana ko ari atu?" "apatah?"
"Where you go?" "how was it?"

You would think I love these kind of questions but not really.

Becoz:
1. People only asked to pass the time
2. People asked 'just becoz'
3. People genuinely curious but don't match my excitement when I started talking

When they asked me this, i usually become so hyped up and ready to tell them my 'adventure' time but then I see their faces. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I have this intuition thing going on where I know I should calm down and minimize my story. It made me feel blergh and I wish they would not start up that conversation if they were not ready to hear my explosive with excitement story.

WHY YOU PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS! ლ(́◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ


Question No. 2
"Ke mana saja tah ko?" "Bahapa saja ko di sana?" "shopping tah ko?"
"where did you go (there)?" "what did you do (there)?" "did you go shopping?"

Ok, first of all, are you sure you want to know the answer to these questions?
second of all, "I sight seeing a lot", "I sight seeing a lot", and "not really shopping coz I'm on a budget but yeah, i did buy a few knic knacs"

These questions are the most intimidating to me.
Even though it's my travel, my plan, my time and money, and it's my dream, I still feel a little anxious telling people what I did or didn't do.
People often replied with, "eh inda kan di sana saja?" "rugi tu eh inda ke sana" "sayang jua inda shopping". 
🙄🙄🙄
These responses used to mess with my head. Like, if I didn't go to the place where THEY wanted to go, I'm missing something. and If i didn't buy that one thing THEY would've just bought (becoz it's from overseas 🙄), I miss the opportunity.

Akusmi (excuse me), whose travel is this for? You kah? Me kah?
Different people, different wants and needs.
Just becoz my travel plans/ideas are not up your alley, doesn't mean I'm doing it wrong.

I just had a deja vu. have I made this kind of post before? 🤔

*search blog* yup! i did. back in March 2018. LOL but this is the 2.0 version!


Question No. 3 
"Since ko pernah ke sana, tell me what to do" "What should we do about tempat tinggal?" "Ke mana patut di aga ni?" "Berapa patut ku bawa?"
"Since you've been there, tell me what to do" "what should we do about accommodation?" "Where should we go?" "How much (money) I should bring?"

These are the questions that pushed me into making this post.

(I have a feeling this one gonna be too long but I'm not gonna break this into two part post coz, I'm not rajin)

People have the notion that since I've been there before, I must be an expert!

Ok, listen up (or read up) people! I AM NOT. 

the answer to this seems so difficult for me to give. coz i strongly believe that different people has different idea about 'travelling'. Kindly refer to Question No. 2 for my anxiety ridden reflexes. More often than not, I got annoyed.

but, I decided, I'm gonna take this opportunity to educate people.

Here we go:

it's 2019 and internet is a thing.

I'm not being ungrateful but I always feel like I'm the one person who has the least internet access or the only one who doesn't have access to wifi. 

BUT I have my phone data, and if I can do this with just that, then you definitely could too! 


Step one!
Google is your new bestfriend!
I know it can be daunting. You might feel like you don't know what you should do coz you've never done this before, etc.
But in this age and era, you must know about Google.
So, step one, open your internet browser or chrome go to Google.com (if this is not you default page, what are you doing?)

and then ask away~ 
What I did was ask Google "what to do in Seoul"

Example: 

Youtube videos will pop up with this too. So, if you are not rajin to read, watch those suggested videos.

Step two!
Accommodation!
Agoda.com
this one, I seriously cannot recommend you places to stay.
Why?
coz my idea of accommodation is cheap and for sleeping.
If you're the type to say, "eh so small the room" "no wonder cheap", please, I can't help you there.
As far as I know, hotel is expensive every where.
There will be cheap ones, of course, but you can't expect a lot.
You can't have the best of both worlds in this.
And if you're with family, definitely don't book 'hostel'..be realistic. 'hostel' is dorm like hotel room, meaning bunkers bed, shared bathroom area, no personal space, etc.
Again, you can Google your specifications; room for family, cheap hotel for family.
Also, remember to choose a hotel nearer to tourist attractions. thank me later.


Step three!
As you Google/browse thru ideas after ideas of what you should be doing in the country that you're going to visit, you definitely will have a list of places to go and things to do.
List them down. on a piece of paper or on your phone if that's more convenience you. 
I'm always the pen and paper girl, so I would list that down on paper.

this is just a sample, not mine. 

and it listed down countries but I hope you got what I mean LOL

If you wanna be extra you can do a Travel Journal like me. 
Jot everything down, where you wana go, what you wana do there, etc.

again, just a sample, not mine.

My journal was supposed to be like my travel itinerary and what I'm gonna use when I was in Seoul but it became so personal that I ended up not bringing it anywhere in fear I could lose it.
but the point of this step is to just jot everything down and making a list.
so stick to that.


Step four!
After you have your list, it is time to organize.
Yes, you must. if you come to me for advise, this is what you gonna do.

You must already have dates set on when you're gonna leave and when you gonna come back from your vacation.
with the help of the list you just make from Step Three, you now can do some military precision planning!
No, but this is gonna be awesome. especially when this is your first time going there.

for this step, Microsoft Excel is your bestfriend!

it also helps if you divide your places to visit base on area/city.

Here you can see me dividing places to visit/see base on area/city; two places to visit in a day, during night time can do shopping, etc.

I also do research on how to get there, what train to hop on, where the exit to a place from the station gonna be, etc.

I'm a little OCD, don't judge me.

I mean, every little thing helps! especially if its your first time there.

This Excel timetable was what I printed out and use all the time I was in Seoul.

Ok, ok. maybe this is not your thing. You can skip this part. Do your own thing. Improvise. You do you.
I honestly don't use this to the T! I made adjustment where needed. this is just a form of guideline. like, if that castle is close, you can go else where. you know, so you don't waste precious time and money.


Step five!
Budgeting!

here's an example from my Seoul trip.

again, depends on your wants and needs

you can break it down by days too if you want. but I can't do that. (▰˘◡˘▰)
also, something worth remembering, again, different people, different wants and needs.
I was on a budget, and yes, I do jot that I'm gonna shop but really, depends on you. If your plan is to shop then you know you gonna have to bring extra. If you plan to try all the food, again, you gotta bring extra, coz food ain't that cheap, for halal restaurant food anyway.

and that is what, when, where, and how I do my planning before my travel.

Three responses to FAQ, and additional "STEPS" on how to plan yours. 
I hope I laid it down clearly. If not, feel free to comment and I will try my best to respond back. 😉

If you noticed, this is my first time doing my planning this thorough. Even on my first solo Japan trip I wasn't this thorough. All I did on my first solo was print out a one-week time table and wrote down the places I wanna visit and i winged it when I got to Japan LOL.

but same principle applies; that plan is just a form of guideline so you don't waste precious time and money. 😉

I know this too long of a post but I wanna get it out of my system.

I wanna say thank you to Iku Tree from youtube.

it was from her video that I learn to make 'thorough' planning for my trip.

Thank You! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Check out her video below.



Yes, her video is for solo travelling to Japan but there are a lot you can take out for your own non-solo travel planning.

and with that, I shall end this here.

Thank you so much for reading up till here.

you the MVP!

. . .

Singapore Trip part 3

Hellow fellow readers~

It took a while but here comes my Singapore Trip; Day 3.

Day 3. Daytime.

as planned, we went .. SHOPPING!!

We went to Takashimaya at Orchard first to visit Kinokuniya bookstore.

It's the best bookstore, ever!

That was where all my money went. (the previous night, after USS, we also went to the Kinokuniya branch in Bugis Junction. bought my books there too xD)

We spent almost two hours kali dsana.because by the time we were done and making our way to our next destination; Plaza Singaoura, we were starving.

We went straight to KFC to have our lunch when we got there. (no picture) for the first time in a long time, nyaman bah KFC ah. and the fact that we were getting tired of mcD must helped too.

After makan, then we went our way to continue ..SHOPPING!

there are a lot of kadai there. and when I said 'a lot of kadai' I meant kadai that we all have our stuff-to-buy at. Anime (Bazilah and her nephew spent almost an hour in one kadai alone. they're the biggest fanatic of Anime among us four), Kpop, random gadgets, etc. Even Smiggle's store is there too. I think I didn't go in there though. I think lah! hahah I'm nuts about that kadai, so I am not so sure.

My most wanted things there was actually to find Luna's Saving Grandma GoBongshil drama series but the only DVD/Music store there didn't have it. *sadness* 

So, I have to compensate into buying things that was not in my things-to-buy list. 
Example;

PowerBank (it's SHINee color btw xP)

and 

PopToy thingy; Olaf and Groot.

I bought other stuff too, like, that discounted wire clipper thingy at Comics Connections . (its original price was $5.90 but when I went to the counter, the sales lady only ask for $1. like, HOW AWESOME IS THEIR DISCOUNT!?) but that was about the only stuff i bought at the Kpop/Anime store. 

I found Danbo saving bank at an Anime store (I don't know the name of the store but it was along side the Otaku Store. like, there were three, or was it four, stores of Anime side by side on that floor). I didn't buy though. and how I regret it now? -.- I should've just bali then. *nangis* (ada plang di eBay msani. the one in Singapore was a lot cheaper. So, I'm still contemplating)

We went our separate ways, so that we can spread our time there. I even ventured out the entire place looking for a store (according to Plaza Singapura online guidance) that as it turned out, no longer exist. macam, naleh saja ku. -.-

After everyone, except Zawir who still havent found the book he was looking for, got what they want/need. we decided to went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff before we continue to jalan2 at Marina Bay.
 

Day 3. Nighttime.

At 7pm, we left our hotel and was on our way to Marina Bay. 

It was actually upon Bazilah's nephew request that we decided to squeeze in the sight-seeing in our schedule. (he really wanted to take picture at the Merlion statue).

Us with Merlion. the best I could captured from my 'selca' camera. 

-.- 

Apple need to do something about our front cam a.s.a.p.

it was a good thing too. took lots of pictures. making use of my I'm-a-tourist card.

we even got the chance to watch the water/light/spectacular performances happening at the harbour, thingy. by accident. LOL pasal we were leaving and the thing started.
we saw the place where we witnessed the SMTown Concert two years ago. It was, of course, empty.

After that Zawir wanted to go to this mall right above the City Hall MRT station to look for a bookstore. and the rest of us went our separate ways again. I found Mark&Spencer and bought biscuits there.After that, random shopping again. xD *happiness*

Before we balik to our hotel, we searched high and low for a KFC but, like that guidance website of Plaza Singapura, there was actually no KFC in that shopping mall. of maybe ada but tukar location sudah and inda kana update arah website atu. 
So, we rushed back to Bugis Junction, since di sana ada KFC (we only just found out. we were making full use of our singapore line a little too late, I'm afraid. LOL). we came in like aher berabis. they were about to shut down already. even the sales person was being impolite (obviously eager to close down and get rid of us) and we manage to scrap what we can. Ended up, we have to stop by McD jua to buy some extra food since McD saja yg tutup aher. 

and when we got back to the hotel, we were, again, tired but we had dinner and then quickly packed our luggage coz the next morning we had to be at the airport early for our flight a 10am.

to be continue ... 

. . . 

a/n: was supposed to squeeze in Day four here but terlalu panjang la pulak. So, see you in the next post. ;)

. . .