Esme and I woke up for breakfast while the guys were still sleeping after their late night at the casinos. We then shopped for a while before meeting up with the guys who decided to drive us down to Genting Strawberry Farm.

Genting Strawberry Farm, where the highlights were flowers, ironically.

 

Wa, almost forgot how blue my hair was

Laughing because Brandon insisted on taking photos from such a low angle

 









We also entered a earthquake and tsunami simulator at Genting Strawberry Farm. The room just vibrated as we were shown footage of earthquakes around the world, then we had to run through dripping water, which was to simulate a tsunami... Whaaat? O.O


Went back up to Genting after a while because there honestly isn't much to do at Genting Strawberry Farm other than looking at flowers, and I'm obviously not someone who appreciates flowers.

Attempts at flat lay

We played at the arcade a while before heading to Bubbles & Bites for a late lunch because Brandon and Joshua kept raving about their Braised Lamb Shank that has been cooked for 8 hours. O.O Sorry I cannot appreciate such atas food hahaha. Esme and I shared a plate of spaghetti with a cheesecake that was soooo dense!

The second night was more eventful from the first after we recovered from sitting in the car all day. We went bowling and Brandon's friends joined us, then Esme returned to the room because she got tired, and the guys sneaked me into a casino after rounds and rounds of failure. No surprise though, because no part of me looks like I'm 21 T_T

We went karaoke after that and obviously, drank. A lot O.O Because it was Brandon's birthday, and every birthday is an excuse to drink! Okay, no photos or too much info about that night because I think a lot of them are private people, but a here's summary of what went down throughout the 3D2N we were in Genting!

Doing a road trip with the right people really makes a difference, especially since you'll be listening to music essentially 80% of the time. I was lucky these people I just met loved Chinese songs as much as me so we spammed lots of Chinese songs the entire time we travelled! Super glad I travelled to Genting with them even though I knew almost nobody initially :)

Esme and I had always planned to go on holidays together but those plans never came to fruition due to the different commitments we had. One day, she randomly texted me to ask if I'd like to go Genting together because her friend has a couple of free rooms and will be driving us up so essentially we'll be paying only for our own shopping. Obviously, I leaped at the chance because I've been feeling the need to escape from Singapore but couldn't due to budget constrains.

We were hardly in contact the month leading to our weekend getaway because I was busy with catching up with work right after my LASIK surgery and Esme was busy with school as well. We only had a few texts back and forth counting down to the day of our getaway, and she gave me a brief introduction of her friend who would be bringing us there but I changed my phone somewhere in between, losing our whole conversation so I couldn't remember what she said anyway fhl.

In fact, I didn't even know her friend's name till she started a group chat and I didn't save his number till I had to call him to ask which of my house's carpark is he at what the heck hahaha.



We spent majority of the first day driving from Singapore to Genting; Brandon and Joshua were the only ones with licenses so they drove while Esme and I took naps, occasionally waking up when we pass by pit stops for lunch or toilet breaks.



We stopped along Johor Bahru for the guys to have their smoke breaks. We got some snacks and I satisfied my Magnum craving! White chocolate almond Magnum Y U NO AVAILABLE IN SINGAPORE?! We also got our SIM cards at 7-11 (yay, Internet connection!) too, so I managed to finish up some work on our way up.


The drive took a total of about 7 hours but we were lucky because we didn't experience any major traffic jams and the weather was great for driving. Nearing Genting, Brandon wound down the windows and we enjoyed the cool breeze brushing against our faces and running through our hair. God, I needed that escape from Singapore's sweltering heat!



We reached Genting at about 7pm, quickly checked in to the new XYZ deluxe room (would you believe that I didn't even know which hotel we'd be staying at till I reached Genting) at First World Hotel, washed up then met at First World Plaza for dinner.

We had Kenny Rogers Roasters — funnily, that was one of my last meals before I left Genting the previous time I was here. Dinner was a typical affair, with us getting to know one another better since it was most of our first times meeting each other.


We also surprised Brandon with a cake because it was his birthday. Quite surreal to be planning a surprise overseas for someone I literally just met 7-8 hours ago O.O

We split ways after dinner with Esme and me shopping (yas @ the SGD and RM exchange rate) and the guys going to the casino. Shortly after, Esme and me returned to our rooms where she crashed almost immediately and I stayed up finishing some work.

More than three years since my last visit to Genting Highlands, I was there again a few weeks back. It's funny because the previous time I was there, I just went through a break up with my first serious boyfriend and I was looking for an escape. Somewhere I wouldn't be reminded of him. Some place we don't have a single shared memory because we were together for so long that we left our footprints in almost every part of Singapore.

This time, I travelled to Genting for an escape again. To run away from reality. To forget my troubles back home. Funny how I always choose the easy way out even after three years — to put everything down and just run, only to realise when I'm back home that my troubles catch up quickly.

Ironically, similar to my last travel to Genting, this was an impromptu travel as well.

2013:

• Confirmed details within a week
• Collected passport from ICAS one week prior to travelling
• Booked accommodation and coach tickets a few days before

2016:

• Confirmed travel plans within a day
• Collected my passport two days before I left
• Didn't know where I'd be staying or who I'd be travelling with till the actual day

Yeah, not getting any wiser when it comes to travelling. The day before I left, my colleague was even screaming at me, "Oh my god, do you know what you're doing? Do you want to get killed?!" In fact, I was surprised my usually-strict mom allowed me to travel considering our conversation went like,

Mom: "Who are you going with?"
Me: "Um, this friend I met at an event. Only met her thrice though."
Mom: "Ok... Who's driving?"
Me: "Her friend."
Mom: "You know her friend?"
Me: "Nope."
Mom: "You wanna go?"
Me: "Yup."
Mom: "Ok, when are you collecting your passport?"

That was easy. Hahaha. The older I get, the more reckless I am with travelling, it seems. But the truth remains that I'll do anything to get away from Singapore and as every of my impromptu plan, everything went better than expected.

A summary of what went down during our weekend getaway to Genting while I try to find time to pen things down:


It's strange to look back at my post seeing how much I've changed. If you dig a little deeper into my YouTube, you'll find my travelogues from the previous time I was in Genting — those clips are painfully difficult to look at because my filming and editorial style has changed so much since then!

From poly freshman to working adult. Someone who swore she'll stay away from liquor to having a glass of red wine as I'm typing this post. A timid girl to someone outspoken. A difficult travel companion to being spontaneous and okay with anything. Really surreal.

To be honest, I surprised myself by how on I was about travelling with stranger too. I wrote a lot about the panic attacks I used to get just thinking about socialising circa 2013 – 2015; to think I actually spent 3D2N with complete strangers! Maybe it doesn't mean much to anyone else but I'm pretty proud of myself for taking this huge leap and overcoming anxiety instead of letting it overwhelm me.


Life is indeed getting better :)

I don't get why is the world rushing me to get into another relationship because I know very damn well I'm not ready for a boyfriend. Why should I force myself into a relationship if I know it'll end up in a mess another time, forever ruining whatever friendship we shared? I'm not afraid of being lonely, I'm afraid of having to change myself for someone again when I don't even know who I truly am yet.

Yaaasssss. At last, I found the time to edit my Taiwan travelogue, featuring the night markets I visited and cheap shopping spots I found. Have you heard of Shilin, Shida, Raohe and all the night markets in Taiwan but don't know which one to go to? Wufenpu, Ximending, ATT4FUN, Breeze Center, Taipei 101 Mall — too many shopping spots to choose from, where can you grab the cheapest deals? Check out how to get there, the nearest MRT and what I think about those places in my video.

So that's all the shenanigans I was up to when I was travelling solo in Taipei. I still have part two coming up, where I hung out with my Taiwanese colleagues and lived a somewhat local life, so hit the subscribe button if you'd like to see more ;-)

After spending weeks in Taiwan and being exposed to different Chinese words that I never knew existed, I came to realise my favourite Chinese phrase is still 暧昧. There's no exact way to precisely translate these words into English while retaining its proper, original meaning, and I think that's the beauty of Chinese, or even languages in general — some words just can't be translated.

I have to mention it's amusing to see how everything falls so beautifully in place sometimes. I've always been somewhat of a wild soul captivated by my love for the unknown, and living alone for the first time during my recent Taiwan travel only magnified that. My burning desire for travelling amplified, I became more independent, learnt to let go of things that don't belong to me, adapted a slower pace of life, and most importantly, I rapidly discovered new things about myself.

I'll be honest — if I were to visit Gold Coast again, I'll definitely return to Dreamworld but not Movie World. I'm not a fan of most Warner Bros' cartoons (no thanks, I'm not interested in Batman, Superman etc.). Coupled with the fact that I fell sick and the infection was at its peak on this day, I couldn't enjoy myself to the maximum.

That being said, if you're a fan of their products, you should drop by because their merchandise stores WILL BE YOUR HEAVEN! Unlike USS in Singapore, their souvenirs are actually reasonably priced and they even have an outlet souvenirs store where you can get their past season items at almost half price! I got a t-shirt (kids size!) for only SGD $5 — would you believe that?!

We got our tickets online yet again (thank god for technology) so we manage the skip the queue in the killer summer heat in Gold Coast. You can get your Movie World tickets online for 30% cheaper — click on the link if you're interested in the deal. Again, like I always mentioned, it's a lot more convenient to buy your tickets online because it's cheaper plus you don't have to queue to buy tickets at the entrance of Movie World when all you want is to get in immediately and play your hearts out!

Dreamworld was on the itinerary on my second day in Gold Coast, mainly due to its BIG9 THRILL RIDES — some of the most exhilarating and thrilling rides in the whole of Australia. As an avid thrill seeker and roller coaster lover, of course I have to experience the rides first hand! I was really excited for this day because visiting Dreamworld was... ahem, a dream come true for me.

As usual, we bought our Dreamworld tickets online beforehand to save us the queue and even some $$$ aka more money to spend on SHOPPING!




Taking a touristy shot donned in the romper I bought specially for this travel. No ragrets about getting our Dreamworld tickets online again because it was a whole lot more convenient. Can you imagine queuing for tickets IN THAT AUSTRALIAN SUMMER HEAT? No thank you wtf I would very much rather just buy everything online than to melt while queueing.


Did you know that Dreamworld is Australia's largest theme park? It certainly lived up to its name as I couldn't even finish going on all the Big 9 thrill rides! Certainly one of life's biggest regrets but no worries, I'm sure I can return if I want to hehe.

As mentioned in my previous post, I travelled a fair bit after I ended my internship with Singapore Airlines and caught the travel bug! This is the day one of my first travel where I visited White Waterworld. I travelled to Gold Coast, Queensland, Asutralia via Scoot and there are two things I need to share with y'all.

1) Book your flight tickets ONLY when there's a promotion. Scoot is always having promotions so it doesn't matter if you wait a little longer — the price of your tickets won't go up much anyway. Comparing promotions to early bird flight tickets, the former is still more worth the while.
2) Getting FlyBagEat is a given — you should check in your luggage and pre-book your meal when it's a relatively long flight (a little more than 7 hours). But more than that, spend a little more to choose your seats and if budget permits, opt for more leg room! Trust me, you'll feel the difference. You don't want to be cramped as hell and claustrophobic on your flight there. After all, your holiday should be an enjoyable period.

I got my pair of return tickets for about $600 with FlyBagEat but I could have gotten it cheaper had I waited a little — there was a one for one promotion a week after I booked my tickets. Also, for reference, I brought AUD$800 there during the period when the exchange rate between Aussie dollars and Sing dollars was one to one.

leaving it all behind for a week. hello Gold Coast ☺️✈️💞

A photo posted by Regine 🌻 (@pekyj) on Feb 23, 2016 at 5:53am PST

 Finally vlogged after eight months or so!!!



I'm quite a noob at videography so it's shaky and all but A for effort right?

Anyway, sorry for this half-assed post. I've been writing a lot but not completing them because I'm busy looking for jobs lately to fund my shopaholic tendencies. Please let me know if you have any event based job and I will give you my soul, thank you ♡

--

P.S. My brother started writing recently as well. I guess he's a rather good writer but I just refuse to praise him because I know he will read this hahahaha. You can check out his blog here!

Day 1 // Day 2 // Day 3 // Day 4


This is the state of my side of the hotel room before checking out wtf. Never put two messy girls on a trip together.

We woke up at around 10am that day, watched some TV, packed up, and checked out of the hotel to fully utilize whatever time we have left there.



Random photos because I thought that the uncared for abandoned swimming pool is kinda creepy :S

Hung around First World Plaza, bought many last minute gifts, collected our luggage from the hotel's luggage storage point, and headed to the bus terminal to wait for our bus.







For those who are lazy to read through my entries, here's a summary video! It's a bit long and draggy though :X


So this is the last post of my Genting trip and I'm gonna miss it so much. It's my first time being overseas without any adult and I don't think I'll ever have a trip like this again - reckless, impromptu, and right smack in the middle of all my project submission's deadlines. In fact, I was surprised that my mom even agreed to let me go. Blogging about our Genting trip and looking at the pictures makes me miss the trip so much :( :( :( Sigh, 往事只能回味。

What's up guys!

In case you guys didn't know, I uploaded another vlog on YouTube. I think most of you won't know about it because I only have two subscribers wtf. Please subscribe to me because two is a really pathetic number. ಥ_ಥ


My friends and some people on ask.fm have been telling me to vlog more but I'm quite self-conscious about my voice because I think it sounds really weird!!! :(

So anyway, I'm going to talk more about this tarot card reader that I went to. I have left her contact in the description of my YouTube video so if you guys are interested, you can check it out. Contrary to what my friends have been asking me, Ingrid Bianca, who was the lady, wasn't intimidating at all. In fact, she was very friendly! She's professional in the way that she respects my privacy and does not probe too much.

Ingrid was quite accurate about the things she said although some are pretty vague. I've never been to any tarot card / palm reading before so I'm not sure if her charges are considered expensive but I guess it's a once in a life time experience. I'm not sure if I'll do it again because I feel that sometimes we shouldn't know too much about the future. If any of you guys are planning to go to her, I'm really curious about your experiences with her!

People always ask me why do I like returning to my secondary school that much when I couldn't wait to get out just a year ago. My answer is this: I feel indebted to the school. I am where I am today because of the school; because of the great and patient teachers who never stopped giving their best, because of the amazing friends I made there who were willing to sacrifice their sleep during the holidays just to make sure I have a portfolio ready for the interview to my dream course.

If not for my Maths teacher, I wouldn't bother to work hard, try to prove her wrong, and pass Maths in the end. If not for my Chinese teacher, I would have never gotten a B3. My English teachers were the ones who cultivated my love for writing; without them, I probably would have abandoned my blog long ago. My Science teachers who never gave up on me even though my Science was beyond horrendous. There were just too many teachers that made a positive impact in my life and I am eternally grateful.

From a young age, my mom has always taught me to 饮水思源 (literally: when you're drinking water, remember the source) and that is why I never hesitate to give study tips whenever somebody asks me (even though I may not be very good at it) or encourage my juniors. To me, it's like giving back to the school what the school gave me. And I want to keep doing that.

On a side note, here's a vlog I made after I received numerous questions about did I mug for O Level and how to score well for Maths/English. It's my first time doing a vlog and it turned out to be too long-winded but oh well, I tried my best. I might do another vlog if the response is good and if I have the time. Anyway, I won't say that I'm the best person to answer these question but I am really honoured that you guys are asking me these questions :') Love y'all!