curiouser and curiouser!

I was deleting photos off my camera the other day because my SD card was full, and I realised I hadn't uploaded my birthday trip!! Hehe had a lovely time with my parents and sis up in Chiangmai this year, super chill but totz amaze. Looking back at it, it was a really great getaway. My mother has a tendency to revolve birthdays around trips (her birthday is coming up soon and we're going to BKK, my dad's will be in HK), and this year it just so happened that I was newly unemployed during my birthday, so an impromptu trip popped up and off we went to Chiangmai! We stayed one short night at the Chedi Hotel in Chiangmai city, and it was so beautiful we were reluctant to leave.

It's essentially built around what used to be the British consulate in Chiangmai back in the days of the British Empire-- a colonial style house with massive patios and terraces, right by the river. It's really well done, the mix of a new and modern building that houses the hotel around the focal point of the old colonial house, which is now the restaurant and bar of the resort. You wouldn't know it once you are in the resort, but it's actually just a few minutes away from the busiest parts of Chiangmai city. The Chedi is a true oasis!! Super peaceful and serene.

Hehehe Daddytong instagramming it up! Follow him here!! :D He's secretly addicted to it, spies on me all the time.

Thai food for birthday dinner! Not a bad way to celebrate ;)

Later on that night we walked to see the popular night markets of Chiangmai, but the only thing that caught my eye is this motorcycle with the three beautiful parrots in front. The man zooms around delivering the evening newspaper, but the parrots cling on tightly to the basket. Soooo cute!

Best parents everr.

I really didn't want to leave! Am completely inspired just looking at these pictures I took to have a home as beautiful, functional and peaceful all at once just like the Chedi.

I've always dreamed of going to the airport, walking up to the ticket counter to say "Give me a ticket to anywhere, please!" Last week I did something not quite as adventurous but equally spontaneous!! After having lunch with Yvette and our friend Huitze, somehow the conversation ended up going from "I wish I could go with you to Paris" to "Omg we should totz follow you to Paris". As fate would have it, my mom was at the SIA ticketing office in Ion finalising our flights to Hokkaido (for which I'm leaving tonight), and she said okay to me going!! There and then we booked our flights, and it was a mad rush the rest of the day till we got to the airport.

It was mainly a shopping trip as Huitze was on a Birkin hunting mission, but I'm glad we got to squeeze in a little bit of sightseeing, and some good food too, although I have learnt my lesson to never take suggestions for restaurants from the concierge. We were supposed to have a day trip to Versailles as well, but unfortunately we spent too much time (fruitlessly) in the Hermes store. LE SIGH. I'd rather not buy a Birkin if I have to spend all my vacation time waiting around the store hahah what kind of memories are those?!

We stayed in a hotel called Hotel Astor, a cute little place nestled in a quiet lane just minutes away from Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, which is where the Hermes store is. We shared a junior suite-- haha slumber party in Paris!! Although not the biggest, this is apparently where it's easiest to get a bag (not that I had any luck, although Tze was lucky) as it is their flagship store! There's also all the big name brands such as Chanel, Dior, Lanvin (also flagship), Givenchy etc all are. the main Faubourg itself is also lined with embassies and the official residence of the President of France, plus the French office of Conde Nast and Vogue. Clearly politics mixes well with fashion, oui? No photos of the rest of the day because I left my camera in the hotel room. HAHA also dinner was at a shitty but pretty (rhymes!) art deco restaurant near our hotel recommended by our concierge. NEVER AGAIN.

We arrived super early, and after making a trip to the Hermes store we headed to Avenue Montaigne for MOAR SHOPPING and also lunch. This is Huitze's fave cafe called L'Avenue, but the food was not inspiring. Just tasty, and also clearly fashionable-- a place for people watching/being seen but not terribly gastronomic. This was later reaffirmed by the amazingly nice salespeople in the Chanel store just down the road from the cafe. Cindy was being helped by a sales person called Jean Phillipe, and he said it was "disgusting and overpriced", and he directed us to another restaurant near the Tour Eiffel called Les Cocottes. Unfortunately, I have no pictures because I was on the brink of starvation. The Chanel store closes at 7pm and we were there until 730pm!!! If you ever want to get really good service in Chanel, go straight to the Avenue Montaigne one for sure.

This is just a picture of Cindy's damage in ONE afternoon. Well done Cindy, well done!!! Although as a disclaimer she bought some of it for her mother and on behalf of friends haha ;)

After dinner we took a stroll to Parc Champ De Mars, with its amazing view of the Tour Eiffel!!

And of course a lousy blurry photo of us in front of it. A nice korean man/boy helped us take photos, and he frowned upon my shaky, non-changeable-lens Fujifilm x100, and used his camera instead to help us shoot some pics... He took my email address and promised to send it to me but I haven't seen it in my inbox yet hahah now some random korean tourist has our pictures.... I ain't gonna lie it makes me a bit worried.

The next day we went to what we call the love lock bridge! Unfortunately, it was a failed attempt as this was NOT the bridge we had intended to see. If you watched "Now You See Me", you'd know that the closing scene was filmed on a pedestrian bridge with a view of the Eiffel Tour. Mark Ruffalo's character reveals the plot twist of the movie to Melanie Laurent's character, aka also his love interest, on this very bridge. This pedestrian bridge is called the Pont Des Arts, and it's famous for all the lovers going there to put a lock and throw the key into the river, symbolising everlasting love and other Hallmark emotions.

Sadly, we didn't communicate well with each other and assumed we were all talking about the same bridge because here comes our plot twist: there is MORE THAN ONE LOVE LOCK BRIDGE. Gotcha! Huitze showed the first result on Google for "love lock bridge" to our cab driver, and instead he took us to Pont de l'Archevêché. LE SIGH. It's still a bridge with locks on it put there by lovers, but not the one we thought we'd see. This one has a beautiful backdrop of the Notre Dame from a different angle, but was also about 10 Euros further away in terms of cab fare as compared to Pont Des Arts. Film buffs will be happy to note that Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron danced on this very same bridge that I stood on in the classic movie "An American in Paris", and it also happens to be the narrowest road bridge in Paris (only a one way road folks!). #shitwikipediateachesyou

We also went to see the Jardin Des Tuileries after a tea break at Angelina (famous for hot chocolate and an ensuing sorethroat--no photos because we were once again starving and inhaled all our food), which I was very excited to see because of all the Paris Fashion Week Street Style shots I always see shot here. I was calm on the outside but my inner fangirl was all like, ANNA WINTOUR ANNA DELLA RUSSO TAYLOR TOMASI HILL ALL THESE COOL PEOPLE HAVE WALKED ON THE SAME GRAVEL I NOW WALK ON. Yep pretty much.

Yvee's tattoo tells you to leap off a bridge. KIDDING.

Dinner was at L'Entrecote, once again recommended by yet another sales assistant at Chanel (this time from the Rue Cambon store)! They only have steak on the menu, covered in a debatably delicious sauce. Yvette and Huitze didn't like it but Cindy and I lapped it up! We got there late around 10pm, which is normal dining hours for Parisians apparently as the restaurant was packed!! They sat us, and didn't even give us a menu. Two questions were thrown at us "What do you want to drink?" and "How would you like your beef cooked?" A few minutes later a simple walnut and mustard mesclun salad arrived, and after that the main attraction is plated and served! Huitze says the sauce tastes like curry hahahhaha but I actually think it's sorta like more liquid-y version of the mint chutney they usually serve with Chicken Tandoori. Weird at first but I liked it hehe :) also, the fries are amaaaazing. Crispy but if you like it soggy like me, drown them in the sauce!