Paris Day 1 - The Louvre and The Eiffel Tower

It's Euan again and it's time to share my experiences when I was in Paris!

The first official travelling day was started by an unexpectedly long walk to the Louvre. Considering that we stayed at the Tonic Hotel at Les Halles-Châtalet which was just a good ten minutes away, we took a thirty minute walk because our map skills weren't up to par (something to work on). 

Finally, we managed to stumble upon the legendary Louvre pyramid, and the view just blew us away. In my opinion, the pyramid and the buildings around it encompass mixed characteristics of simplicity and intricacy.

The Legendary Louvre Pyramid

The thing that didn't blow me away was the long line. After a good 45 minutes of waiting, we managed to get in and buy tickets. € 12 for the permanent collections (18+), while it was free for minors. Oh, did I tell you that the main objective of going to the Louvre is to see the fine art, especially the Mona Lisa? Well, now you know.

After a dizzying maze of corridors with complex paintings, marble sculptures and a very, very long hallway, we managed to stumble upon Mona Lisa. The painting was enclosed in sort of a cabinet, with the front side composed of a thick glass pane. 

My Best Picture Of Mona Lisa.

There was about fifty tourists gathered together near the painting. It was believed that Leonardo Da Vinci painted this from 1503 to 1506. 

My feelings after seeing the Louvre: disappointed and unsatisfied. I was disappointed because we didn't get to explore as much as we wanted to, because we were only in Paris for a short while, and wanted to savour as much as we can. Unsatisfied, because I expected everything (not just the Mona Lisa) to have more "oomph".  

We exited the Louvre and got on the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus with the intention of disembarking at the Eiffel Tower. 

We got dropped off, and the Eiffel Tower immediately made me smile. This is something that I've only seen in movies and shows all my life. I couldn't believe that I was going to personally see it! 

That smile was quickly rubbed off because of the astoundingly long line that we saw. It was long enough that you needed to line up for the line to get tickets. To give you an idea on how long the line was, we managed to enjoy some sandwiches and take a bathroom break, even before we reached a quarter of the line. 

We bought our tickets and went up the elevator to the second floor. I literally got blown away, not just because of the astounding view of Central Paris, but because of the forceful winds that came in our way. 

I cannot explain the happiness that I experienced when I was on the observation deck. It was just so cool seeing all the buildings from something that you just saw in the movies! 

An Awesome View of the National Navy Museum

A View of the Emile-Anthoine Stadium and the Bir-Hakeim Bridge (Pont Bir-Hakeim)

A View of the Seine River

That basically wraps up our first travelling day in Paris! Don't worry, there'll also be some Eats! 

So, from Paris with love, Au Revoir.

*****

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Hong Kong 2013!

In January 2013, me, my sister, stepdad and my aunties went to Hong Kong to explore its sights and experience new stuff.

So I've actually been to Hong Kong prior to this trip. We were budget-travelling then so we stayed at a rest house, but the trip was fun nonetheless.

In this trip, we had a little more money to spend so we booked hotels and stuff. In this trip, we arrived in the afternoon to Hong Kong and went to Disneyland's Hollywood Hotel. After our flight, we went to the hotel and crashed on our beds. After I crashed on the bed (literally) I went to use the restroom, coming back to find out that my two aunties were asleep.

The room was very spacious and was lovely decorated by "Mickey Mouse" themed stuff. It was very child friendly. 

So the next day, we went to Disneyland! The first thing we did was to ride the Disneyland Express train to Disneyland. The first ride in Disneyland we did was the train that tours you all around. We then explored the animation museum and see the making of famous movies such as (my personal favorite), Toy Story. 

On The Train That Tours You Around Disneyland

We then got on another ride like the Madagascar themed one that revolves and goes up and down from my Universal Studios blog post. After that we had lunch. 

So we then went on lots of rides after that which I couldn't remember. After the day at Disney, both of my aunties, my mom, my sister and I toured around Hong Kong more, most notably going around shops, sights and eats. Those were my favorite times in the trip. 

So after this, we took a taxi to L'Hotel South in Hong Kong. This was another hotel in another side of Hong Kong. The hotel had a fully stocked mini-bar, a buffet breakfast (but nothing can beat the buffet breakfast in the Hollywood Hotel) and a large room.

Our first day and last day in L'Hotel was filled with going to night markets, exploring the bustling city of Hong Kong, and almost going to Tsim Sha Tsui in the Avenue of Stars. 

By the way, here's a picture of me on the lobby of L'Hotel just after our breakfast buffet. 

That's it. Watch out tomorrow for my blog post when I was in Thailand! 

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SHOUTOUTS: Graham Truran | Leah L. Suarez | Joylene Love D. Suarez* 

* = Thank you Tita Joy for taking the pictures! 

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Malaysia 2011!

So after our trip to the Universal Studios Singapore, we took a six hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Based on my mom's Facebook post, we arrived at Kuala Lumpur at about 8.45 in the evening.

We booked our stay in Cititel Express Kuala Lumpur. We had two double queen sized family beds in our room, because we were five and my mom wanted us to fit inside one room.

We woke up at a painfully early time the next morning so that we could catch the Breakfast Buffet of the hotel. The buffet consisted of lots of rice, meat and other breakfast pastries.

We then took a taxi around the central districts of KL. We stopped at the Petronas Twin Towers, which was one of the main reasons we visited Malaysia. We were welcomed by the staff and watched a short presentation about the historical influences for its architecture. We then took a fast elevator to the sky-bridge.

Petronas Twin Towers

The view on the sky-bridge was AMAZING. You could see a great view of Kuala Lumpur. No disappointments whatsoever.

Me On The Twin Towers' Sky-Bridge

So we spent fifteen minutes inside the sky-bridge. By the way, the sky-bridge is that thing that connects the two towers together, if you didn't know. So we took the elevator back down and went out of the building. We then saw another tall building and asked some locals. They told us that the building was Menara Kuala Lumpur (Kuala Lumpur Tower).

We then took a taxi there to KL Tower. We took another really fast elevator to its observation deck and spent about half an hour there. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures of us and the tower.

So after another sleep and a painfully early wake-up time, we decided to go to a "Chocolate Factory". It was Beryl's Chocolate Kingdom. This was the most disappointing thing in Malaysia, as it didn't show much about making chocolate. Well sure, there was about three to four artifacts but that was it. The rest of the building was mainly a place where you can buy their chocolate.

Our last full day in Malaysia concluded with a visit to Kuala Lumpur's Butterfly Park.

So that was it. We then went back to the hotel, slept, had the final painfully early wake-up, breakfast buffet and we took the bus back to Singapore and took a taxi to Singapore's Changi Airport. I think it was 4 in the morning when we arrived to the airport.

As we were checking in for our flight, my mom and her friends spotted some members of the Philippine Dragon Boat team also checking in for their flight. My sister some other kids and I then found a playground. Here's a picture of me on the playground that my mom caught...

That concludes our trip to Singapore & Malaysia!

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SHOUTOUT: Leah L. Suarez (who provided all of the photos from the Singapore-Malaysia blog posts)

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