.: bandung oh bandung... :.

can anyone guess what kind of cuisine this restaurant served?

What I've seen so far of my hometown:

1. Traffic jams even during weekdays
2. Due to energy crisis, we'll have rolling blackout without advance notice from 7 am to 3 pm until 2009
   
3. Number 2 is causing several traffic & street lights blackout as well (this may very well be the cause of number 1...)
4. Batik is so very very very hip at the moment, from your neighbor's maid to the high socialite. One out of 3 women you see on the street wear batik. The style varied, from a fancy top to a babydoll dress (your comfy 'daster' modified...) I'm happy to see this change but also concern, will this be just a 3-months trend or a lifelong admiration of batik?
5. Bandung is all about "comfort food", "grandma's cooking", "traditional sundanese - eat like locals", and the 2007 trend that starts to sprout here : peranakan food with oldies name. I have no complains as long as they have good food, but the name and the interior style is getting repetitive and a bit 'forced'...
   

.: wedding season! :.

Anna Griffin - 2007

One wedding was done, another one is coming! 'Tis the year to get married, I guess? My very very best friend will get married this November, and I'm still looking for a way to go to her wedding without doing severe damage(s) to my unknown-future projects. Am supposed to be the bridesmaid but since my attendance is still unsure, she get me verry involved in her wedding (including picking her beddings.... which I found a bit weird?!) I'm so excited since she wants my inputs, although so far we're not very productive! We found out so many interesting things about chinese wedding tradition, from the normal one (tea ceremony) to the absurd one (must use red and avoid green+blue since those are the color of death...) We did agree on one thing: love Anna Griffin's stationery and some cakes from Martha Stewart Wedding edition. How I wish I can be there to see her get married :(

.: Milan :.

After babbling about Europe for so long I don't think I still have stories to tell ... Honestly Milan was a bit disappointing. The city was dirty, a lot of walls were covered with graffiti, and the people were not very friendly. I was hoping that the fashion capital of the world means that people were walking around in high fashion. I didn't see swanky Italian girls but saw tons of Filipino pilgrims instead. Duomo Cathedral, however, was breathtaking. We visited the underground crypt of the bishop Borromeo, saw the jewel-encrusted crowns he used to wear and the diamond+gold cross used for mass in the good ol' day... then we went to the Vittorio Emanuelle for high-brand shops...(Prada + Gucci + Salvatore... and of course, the french fave LV) Across from the Cathedral we can find tons of casual local brands, smaller churches. On one of the bakeries I found these miniature fruit & cactus... made from glazed marzipan. Fancy, eh? One thing I cannot get enough of are the gelatos from street vendors... Must try the lemon one, verrry fresh and tasty!

.: Monte-Carlo :.

Welcome to Monte-Carlo! (The real one, not the one in Vegas... although it's veeerry similar) Again, didn't get the chance to explore, at all. Our hotel was soo secluded and far from the busy area. To get into the main casino we have to wear a formal dress and shoes (no flats, sandals, or crocs allowed) Men must wear a formal suit (no linen blazers...). If we're shorts-wearing tourist, there's a second casino for our amusement, with only €10 entrance fee (if I'm not mistaken...) Lamborghinis and Ferraris zoom the streets, I think the cheapest car I saw was a BMW 5 series... We passed some roads used for Grand Prix, buildings were built into the hills, all of them look glamorous and exclusive. Parks and gardens are abundant, and in the entrance of the park, you can see (or smell) a designated doggie-toilet.... indicated by the sign below:

.: South of France :.

everytime we got a 'toilet stop' we shopped,
and this time I got a nice instant coffee and lavender-flavored nougat

Am a bit tired after getting up in the morning & standing up for hours for my friends' wedding (yay, you made it guys! Congrats! No way out now!), and cannot think of anything else to say about Eurotrip... to be honest the southern part of France that I visited are all beautiful! I got the chance to stop by at Avignon, a walled city with beauiful ancient ruins (and terrible chinese food) There's a certain scent lingered all around southern France and I have no idea what the smell is but it's very particular. St Tropez was so impressive beyond words. The sea was clear blue, people were gorgeous, and my hotel was awesome!! The shops were expensive tho... :( (even one fridge magnet cost €8!!)

L-R : very interesting door handle, St Tropez, painted walls in Avignon,
St Tropez' shops & cafés

available in *almost* every street corners!

.: Lyon Snappies :.

Although I have than a thousand pictures of this trip I still feel they're not enough! :D Europe is too beautiful, and how I feel it such a pity that we were rushing from one city to another instead of lingering in a particular historical area. But then again I was probably the only one who's interested in historical facts... :p When we got into Lyon it was a sunday night around 7pm, although the sun had not set yet but it was raining (again) so the pictures came out murky ... Stores are closed on sundays and to my disappointment there was a huge, 3 stories bookstore near our hotel. I was hoping I can take a peek on their design books (at least take a look at the images since I don't know any French). Our hotel was situated in between of the two rivers (Rhône and Saône), right next to the place Bellecour. I got a chance to explore a bit and gotten so far to their old town (of course that's where the LV store is...) Pretty but a bit cold, not warm like Strasbourg.

L-R clockwise: I'd loove a grown-up version of this cardigan! (Burberry);
can't believe I actually like a pair of LV shoes... ;
and yes, it is a hat not a nest... although I bet some birds can get fooled...

meat something with tasty mashed potato, puff pastry with mushroom soup
from a small restaurant in Colmar

.: Strasbourg :.

The name may sounds German-ish but it's actually located in French (well, I didn't know that before!) This city now occupied my top 10 list of favorite place to visit. It's so pretty, classical and modern at the same time. Fancy shops mixed with souvenir shops fill the Place Kléber, farmer's market by the river offering fresh fishes-fruits-flowers, and there's also the Cathedral of Our Lady with an astronomical clock inside it. To satisfy the mad Indo shoppers: LV, Galeries Lafayette and Hugo Boss has branches here... The trams are super fancy, bullet-train style, glides smoothly on the streets, so unlike SF's muni :p We only got several hours to explore the city due to our hotel's ultimate soft beds... The minute I climbed into it I didn't want to get up (I personally think Strasbourg's Sofitel's beds beat Westin's heavenly beds) They were on sale for several thousands € only! Maybe one day I can go back ... *sigh*

can you see the thick bedding? It's one of the comfiest bed I've ever slept on!!