At 30, Singapore

At 30, the line of demarcation, i told myself that i must travel to oversea once a year. Be it for leisure holiday or enlightenment journey, i am willing to part with my money just to fly to another country.

My first destination was Singapore. I just thought that it was a wise choice as it is geographically nearer to Malaysia and culturally similar to Malaysia, albeit with a big difference in currency rate.

We chose one of the Airasia Holiday Package on-line, which is inclusive of air fare and accommodation. It's rather cheap for a 5 days and 4 night trip.

However, our nightmare began when we arrived at the hotel and ready for check-in.

We were told that the hotel do not have any record of our booking in their system even though we showed them our confirmation slip from Airasia on-line.

It was after the hotel manager (who came much much later) called someone at a company possibly related to Airasia for confirmation and we got our problem solved.

Travel Pointers: Always call the hotel in advance and confirm the booking before departure, especially if you place your booking on-line.

I bought this Samsui Woman Chopsticks & Spice Holder at Chinatown Heritage Centre, Singapore. It was not very expensive and not exquisitively made at all...

But the fact that my grandmother is also a Samsui Woman who hail from Kwang-Tung province of China gave me a "sense of belonging" reason to buy it as a souvenir.

Whenever i go outstation, i would normally buy local products (especially food) so that i can munch at home. But not for this Singapore trip. I found that a lot of their local food are very similar to Malaysia, but the price is double due to currency exchange.