Swackett App

Hey!

This is a cute app that is useful for deciding what to wear in different weathers and countries :)

The app is called Swackett, and it works by identifying the country/weather you are in to give you visuals of clothes you are advised to wear.

What's cute is that they show these clothes on different characters such as the Android mascot, Swackett characters - named Peeps - and even on pets!

To help you guys get started, here is a brief step-by-step on how to use the app:

Opening the Swackett app

Since I've signed up and chose a location, my main page will look like this. To change your location, pick the settings option which is the top rightmost icon (it is the usual 'Settings' icon for Android apps)

This page will show up and then you will have to choose 'Location'.


This will be your locations page which also shows your previous choices

You will then have to type in your location..

...and go back to the main page to see your outfit choices :)

When looking at an outfit, take note of the time of day, current temperature, 'feels like' temperature (which is really useful!) and also the Swackett character version at the bottom

Here comes the fun part! Try scrolling up, down, left and right for more options. You could even come across some Swackett Easter Eggs ;)

Since I chose Melbourne and it is already night time, this is a warm ensemble for the ladies who are out and about tonight

There are even random facts which are mainly for fun but are sometimes interesting

Remember that the app needs exploring if you want to make full use of it, so try out the different icons on the top bar, starting with the weather icon - which is the second top icon from the right - to show the current weather plus today, tonight and tomorrow's weather

So here is what I got when I picked tomorrow's daytime weather. The outfit is shown on a new Swackett peep

And as you continue exploring the app you will find more and more useful information :) Select 'peeps' for a drop down menu with options like forecast, imagery  and alerts

Under imagery you can see the map of the country you chose, just like weather reports on the news

And under alerts (I think) you will be notified of any natural disasters that are on watch in your area (there hasn't been any alerts so far on my side, so not much can be said about this option)

For more info on the app, you can visit their website and blog  which has the latest updates on the app versions and features :)

Enjoy the app everyone and say tuned for my next post on my visit to Fukuoka, Japan :D

PS: A big sorry if the photos posted today are not very clear :( Need to find a way to enhance the quality of my screenshots.

Wing Shot #2

Abu Dhabi Airport, New Years 2013

#PrayForMH370

My small and humble post dedicated to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, whose disappearance on 8th of March 2014 shook the world.

May the crew and passengers always be under the protection of the Almighty.
لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله

Photo courtesy of my friend's Instagram @hdhania

Weekend at Malacca: Part II

Check out the previous post for day one of our weekend at Malacca!

Day Two

Sleeping at The Neem was pure bliss. Until about 6 am, we all slept like babies. It was only at about 7 am when people had started their day outside when we heard voices and the neighbour's dogs barking. We were up for breakfast, which ends at 10 am, and had the opportunity to meet the chalet's owners, a brother and sister who were also nice enough to cook us eggs and sausages. We also met a Dutch couple who had checked-in later the previous day and we planning to have another 5 friends over. After breakfast we signed a guestbook and returned to our rooms to get ready and check out.

The pool and breakfast area under the roof.. 

We went to the Stadthuys first and walked around, finally visiting the Museum of Architecture mostly for the air-conditioning. We came across the Church of Saint Paul so we decided to climb up since we were already there. The climb to the top of the hill was really tiring （；_・） but the view was just priceless ヽ( ★ω★)ノ And of course, the plus side to the sunny weather was that all our photos looked amazing! There were more people on top of the hill though and some booths selling stuff like drinks, art sketches and even colorful plastic China-made toys I wouldn't know what to do with at a historic site.....

Booths selling souvenirs near Stadthuys

Museum of Architecture model

Icons of Malaysian Architecture..

Steeep stairs in the museum

A climb we underestimated..

Going downhill o_o

Afterwards we were really tired (at least I was) and it was already 2pm so we had to make our journey home anyway. We almost missed out on the famous Klebang coconut shake, but I insisted and we made it to a jam-packed food court decorated with tons of red Walls banners. We had nasi lemak, bihun goreng and some kuih and of course, our coconut shakes. It was icy, sweet from the vanilla ice cream and has very small  but a lot of coconut flesh in it  ヽ(;^o^ヽ)

Pantai Klebang Coconut Shake entrance!

Our food and coconut shakes!

As for our journey back, the road was pretty clear as the holiday crowd was already gone. We dropped by Senawang and reach KL about 7pm that night.

Expenses for today (not sure if I remember everything I spent though):

Free places:
Stadthuys
Church of Saint Paul

Museum of Architecture

Klebang
RM2.20 for each coconut shake

Flight Secrets from Pilots Themselves

WHOA.

Weekend at Malacca: Part I

Last weekend my colleagues and I finally went on our vacation  that we have planned since forever lol. It started with one of us looking for deals on Groupon for a nice, affordable holiday which was not too far from KL. She stumbled upon an offer for chalets in the middle of town in Malacca called The Neem and basically the three of us girls fell in love with the place.

We booked this trip sometime around November or December last year. It was supposed to be more of us since we booked the biggest room, Ketapang, which could fit a maximum of 6 people, but it ended up just being the three of us girls ^^ We also did a lot of internet researching and found a lot of great reviews for The Neem (which reminds me I haven't reviewed them on TripAdvisor yet)

Our stay was for 8th to 9th February 2014 (Saturday and Sunday) which was the weekend after Chinese New Year so we knew the holiday crowd would be gone by then. Also, my birthday was to fall on the the Tuesday after so it was kind of an early birthday treat for me (ﾉﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ On Friday we stayed at our friend's place in Seremban so we could make our journey to Malacca easier the next day. 

Look at our savings! Scoreee

I'll be talking about what we did at Malacca along with our experience at our cozy little chalet just to give you guys an idea of what a really slow and relaxed holiday in Malacca will look like o(^^o)

So we reached Malacca quite late in the morning and went straight to the Malacca Zoo. Honestly, we were not zoo-goers, haha, but since it was so close to Ayer Keroh, where we entered Malacca, we decided to just stop by. And because we weren't used to zoos, we totally underestimated how long we would take there and we ended up skipping our other destination which was the bee farm. (we were really excited about up dressing like astronauts and risk getting stung by 183823290 bees.) 

Next we had our lunch at the old Aeon on the way to Malacca town. YES I KNOW - we went to one the Malaysia's best state for food just to end up eating at a hypermarket.. But it was crazy hot! So we really didn't think twice about choosing an air-conditioned food court over that renowned laksa at some warong we had to endure the heat at.

We were finally going to our chalet! Getting to town was easy but we had to depend on the internet to find The Neem. And as many of The Neem's previous residents would tell you, we got lost. We took a lot of turns thinking we were close but as it turns out we were still a distance from our destination. When we finally got into the right road, we missed the entrance and had to make a loong turn around town to get back into the same road. Thankfully it was nothing too strenuous and we found going around town useful to spot to visit on the next day.

Look out for this banner and signboard on your left!

The road that goes to The Neem (^ ^)

We reached our chalet at about 3.30 pm, half an hour after check-in time. We were greeted by an old aunty who was the mother of the caretakers of the chalet. Aunty was really friendly and made us fill a form in the quaint little welcoming room (kind of like a hotel lobby) before showing us to our room. The sight of the pool and the bright chalets immediately made our hearts light up and we knew we would love our room before we got in.

Inside our room!

The Neem chalets are really old school and rustic. The doors of the chalet are locked with a padlock and latches only and there is a lot of wood exterior. Our room was reallly wide and had a queen sized bed and mattress next to each other, both with mosquito nets. There was just TV, air conditioning and some plain drinking water ready in our room which we were cool with. The bathroom was wide too - it fit a tempayan area for bathing, a sink area, shower room and a toilet. Pretty sweet for a small chalet! 

Our Ketapang room

Our bathroom!

Our shower! lol

Our bathroom entrance!

We decided to rest and pray until 6.30 pm, after which we made our way to have our seafood dinner... YUMS. The destination was Medan Selera Ikan Bakar Muara Sungai Duyung... aka heaven on earth! 

Rowwws of cars parked before you reach the restaurant. It's so famous even Jackie Chan's been here!

At least the food was heavenly. There were LOADS of people by the time the sun was setting and we had to actually stalk customers who looked like they were almost finishing so that we could get a good table by the sea.

And we were successful!

Our awesome view of the stretching sea, fishermen boats and sea eagles ♥

Our heaven-sent dinner, just before we finished eating 

After our dinner we headed to town again for our river cruise. The queue for the ticket was really short so the only long queue was the one boarding the actual river cruises. We had about 3 groups ahead of us so we waited about 20-30 minutes to board. Before we boarded, a 3D photo of us were taken so that we could buy the photo after the cruise. The whole cruise took less than an hour and we stopped by the local pasar malam at Dataran Pahlawan (I think) before going back to our chalet afterwards.

The view queueing for the cruise. Not bad for a half hour wait..

Down the river we go~

Stuff we saw along the river.. 

Other cruises and people having their dinner. A lot of the shophouses are heavily designed with graffiti which makes it a really awesome sight to see..

Our expenses for today:
Malacca Zoo RM15 (with MyKad)
Seafood dinner less than RM25
River cruise: RM10 per adult (with MyKad)

Stay tuned for part two of our Malacca weekend! ♥

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Day 2

Woke up early to make our long journey to Kampung Cham. We made a few stops in the outskirts to buy candy and snacks for the village kids we were going to meet. We also changed our money there, I think it was 10USD for 10,000 riel (I have to check on this again!). There was so much money to hold on to! The smallest denomination in Cambodian riel is 100 riel, which is valued at 10 cents (since there are no coins in Cambodian money).

Breakfast!

The outskirts of Phnom Penh

ACCAM, the association we worked with :)

The trip took about 2-3 hours on a chartered mini bus. I mostly slept along the way (I sleep wonderfully on vehicles- I love it) but woke up a few times. There was also a time when we stopped along the road to buy some mangoes.

Inside our bus..

Mango eaten with a salty, spicy condiment

The scenery along the way was just miles and miles of wet paddy fields. It was kind of a nice change seeing open lands like that after living in an area literally surrounded by valleys. Paddy fields and blue skies stretch as far the eye can see. If you are into scenery photography, you would appreciate this place d(^_^ )

When we reached the village, it was an endless scene of paddy fields and palm trees. We had so much coconut while visiting the villages we became coconut connoisseurs by the end of the trip (＾-＾)＿日

Talking to the villagers..

Giving goodies to the kids :)

Parting gift~

After finishing the qurban activity and charity-giving, we then moved on to another village which was more dense with greenery. Here we spent more time because the qurban was done in another field located quite a distance away. I got to stay with the women and children in the village and got to have a taste of their life. 

To keep livestock I think..

Example of the house we visited..

There was no running water or electricity (as many have warned me). I had a look into their bathroom - the toilet was a single unlit concrete shed with a squatting toilet and there was a separate, larger shed with a concrete tank to collect water. It was just as dark, even with the door wide open and sunlight pouring in. I could not see what was in the water at all which scared me to death (dark waters are my fear), but I braved myself to take come to wash my face. It was not that bad....until I saw something in the corner of my eye.

I am very confident this was the spider I saw in the bathroom. Photo source here.

And that was the end of my experience in a village bathroom in Cambodia

（￣□￣；）.We then visited the house of one of the villagers. It was amazing- it was at least two storeys high on stilts. You were literally at level with the palm trees surrounding the village. When the cool air blew, it felt heavenly. It also started raining and it got very humid very quickly, so we did as the villagers do - sat by the windows and doors gossiping about the men (¬‿¬)

*Gulp*

Lunch by the villagers. They were too kind ( ;_;)

Looking down from the house...

...and looking straight from the doorway.

Front view of the house~

They have a mosque too ( ^-^)

We finally made our way back to Phnom Penh at about 5pm and reached about 7pm. It was dark by then, but we got another hearty dinner =(´▽｀)= and made our way back to the hotel for much needed rest.

Dinner! Tom yam and I think five other dishes. We were well fed ♡

Pro tip:

☆ There's WiFi everywhere! You are almost always in touch with your family and friends.

☆ Cambodian cuisine is very sweet and is very vegetable based. Good news if you have a sweet tooth or are a vegetarian.

☆ Cannot emphasise more about booking a table in advance and ordering your food early at a restaurant! I think this especially implies to people with a halal diet, because there are very few halal restaurants and if those are full, it will be very hard to find food.

Stay tuned for Part 3 which will was our sightseeing day!

●Sad history of Cambodia

●Shopping in Phnom Penh ♡

Till next time ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ