NICK CHAN DOT NET

Category: Travel

Shopback – I Made Almost RM2000 From Shopping

If you are not using Shopback, you have to get on board right now, because it’s very legit that I’ve earned almost RM2000 of cashback just from shopping online! Disclaimer: This is not sponsored by Shopback. I just find that many of my friends are still not on this cashback program yet and I have the obligation to share with all about this.

Somemore, during this tough period of Covid-19 and economic downturn, we can make as much side income as possible while maintaining life as usual. I love to shop online, especially on Lazada and Shopee to buy small little stuff now and then to fuel my life; yes, I am kind of a material person (I do control my spending though, sometimes). Shopback does a great job crediting small amount of cashback everytime. Best when they have Super Shopback! I’ve get the most cashback from hotel booking, unfortunately this is not the period for travelling!

Friend has been asking if this is a real thing, and I have to share that it’s very legit, just that it takes a while for the cashback amount to show up in your account and take a little extra hassle when doing shopping. You will need to open Shopback app first before going to your favourite shopping app, so two steps here.

They used to credit the cashback quite quickly but it’d become a longer period now, like 3-4 months. After all, this is free money from your shopping so the surprise feeling when seeing it’s credited after a few months is amazing!

RinggitOhRinggit has good tips on Shopback that you can check it out too! Even if it’s a small cashback, slowly it will accumulate to a huge amount, as the Malay saying – sedikit-sedikit, lama menjadi bukit.

Share this tips to your friends and family now! You can sign up Shopback via my link and get free RM5 in the account.

May 3, 2020
USA Trip: Cathay Pacific Refunded, Singapore Airlines No Refund

In about 10 days, I am supposed to be travelling to the USA for my honeymoon. Unfortunately, it was officially called off 3-weeks ago, just when the time USA announces that they are banning all travellers from Europe. I was like, ‘Damn, this is it, no more trip for the time being’

Advices from family members was having us postponed the trip. I was pretty much in a denial mode initially as I told myself that I am going to follow travel advisory only. At end of February, there was no such advisory on not visiting United States from Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry. I was following them COVID19 news on CNN daily and also joined a few travel groups on Facebook.

Before any travel ban came in, I kept my hope high and I even replanned the whole itinerary to minimise travel in crowded city and spent the most of the time in a rental car road trip. Then, the travel ban came in from United States first. My flight into New York is coming from Singapore into Frankfurt and transit to JFK. As no Europe flight is permitted into USA, the flight has cancelled.

Weeks later, Malaysia implemented a country lock down, no flight in and out and just recently, Singapore restricted flight transit via Singapore. All flights are cancelled, and to my surprise, Cathay Pacific is still flying the leg from Los Angels to Hong Kong – that’s my return leg.

Because I booked my flight via miles redemption, so it’s a little bit more hassle to do refund/cancellation. After various email and calls, Cathay Pacific is the easiest of all – full refund of AsiaMiles and also fee charged during redemption process.

While Singapore Airlines is not allowing refund of KrisFlyer air miles, only permits me to rebook without any additional charges and the date to book must happens before March 2021. To date, I have not receive any reply from Singapore Airlines until I have to called them up for detail.

For now, I am looking at, hopefully November 2020, which I don’t have good feeling about that, but finger cross that Covid-19 could get over as soon and I can get on my plane and go honeymoon!

Update 05/04/2020: Penang’s office informed that I couldn’t do the refund and later my brother in Singapore told me he managed to get full refund on the air miles. So I went to call in to Singapore’s customer service and requested the similar refund, and voila; it’s done. They’ve agreed to provide full refund of air miles into my KrisFlyer account and also taxes paid, though it would take up to 4-months for the process.

April 1, 2020
London: River Thames Sightseeing Cruise Is A Must-Do & Affordable

Back in 2014, when I was living in Newcastle, London was a place to visit monthly; I’ve never get enough of this charming Big Smoke. When I return in winter 2017, I have a chance to hop on the Thames River Sightseeing Cruise to see London from a different perspective.

River Thames is the iconic waterway that represent this historical city. I have never did the water tour before, and the only sight of River Thames that I always view is when crossing the beautiful Millennium Bridge or at the Westminster Bridge. If you are a first timer to London, I highly recommend you to take the River Thames Sightseeing Cruise which takes about an hour, with live tour commentary and you may hop off at various point.

But for us, we got up from Westminster and enjoyed the breeze and view all along until Greenwich. The cruise is operated by City Cruise. My brother got the combo of Hop-On Hop-Off Bus & Cruise ticket but I went for the cruise tour only as I am pretty familiar with London’s sight. (Tips: For cheaper way of sightseeing London by bus, just get on the Routemaster No 15 and pay with Oyster Card, it circles all the heritage sight and you can read the tour guide via phone)

Father & son.

Price per adult is £17.90 (Oct – May) & £18.25 (June – Sep) for return ticket. We took the return, unfortunately we spent too many time at this relaxing Greenwich and we missed our boat. It wasn’t hard to get back to the city, we took River Bus – a public transport by TFL to Tower Bridge pier and got back to our foot journey.

Palace of Westminster Clock Tower was in scaffolding, unfortunately.

Heading towards London Bridge with the Shard in the background.

On upper deck, with beautiful Tower Bridge as backdrop.

Clarice & Tower Bridge.

When the chilly wind blows…

Mom and dad could not bare the cold. Still remember it was about 9degree celcius that day.

Good burger at Byron’s, Greenwich. Because of this meal, we missed our return boat.

Nevermind, we still can take the River Bus.

Book River Thames Sightseeing Cruise via Klook for best deal.

March 31, 2020
London: Pickpocketed At Portobello Road Market, Notting Hill

Prelude: Major throwback of my travel story as I have plenty time to write about during this COVID-19 lockdown in Malaysia. Let’s randomly starts with my Short London Trip in Winter 2017. It was a quick 3-days-2-night trip in London before beginning my main Northern Italy tour. After visiting London many times in 2014 (when I was studying in UK), it had become my starting point of any European travel.

Did many travelling in 2014 and heard many stories about pickpocketing around European countries but never really encountered any of these pickpocketing event. In the UK, I felt much safer than other countries but this trip changes my thought totally. Yes, my brother got pickpocketed in this crowded and famous Portobello Road Market at Notting Hill.

Having living in the UK before for a year back in 2014, I’ve never put any vigilant note when I was going around this country actually. Wallet was on the back pocket, phone was in the jacket pocket some times. Thus, we were put-easy while looking at stuff along this congested street.

He was looking at beautiful vintage camera, and was about to reach his hand to grab the phone out to snap a photo; “Holy shit, where is my phone?”. Hand was quickly searching around all his pockets, in and out and into his camera sling bag. Nowhere it could be found. Me & him started to feel frustrated and I too, check my belongings to make sure it’s there.

A new iPhone X was taken away, without any notice and probably during his full attention on browsing the vintage camera. Nothing much could be done except to dash to the nearest police station right away and also to stop all Apple Wallet-connected services. Moment of disappointment expresses on the face, and heck, it was the 2nd day we arrived in London.

At the police station, another French tourist encountered a similar crime and they’ve got a CCTV footage from a store showing the entire process. “Nothing that we could do”, said the policewoman and asked us to make the police report online. It’s a very common crime at this market which we were not aware of.

Well, lesson learned and brother managed to recover the phone amount via insurance claim. Feeling sad? Better not as it’d ruin the rest of the trip. Just be vigilant, really and buy a travel insurance, really, don’t play with luck!

Nevertheless, London is still beautiful and PICKPOCKET is a real thing in Europe! I heard (stereotype thinking) most of the time is the Gypsies. Yeah, I heard.

Good Photos from Portobello Road Market:

March 26, 2020
FATCAT Ice Cream Bar – Awesome Ice Cream Waffle Place

Located in a subtle neighbourhood of Bedok in Singapore, it needs a little exploration to find this cafe with a cute name – FATCAT. It’s not on the main street, nor the busy downtown, yet it’s situated down below the HDB flats at Bedok North Ave 2 which took about 15 minutes walk from the MRT station. Not too hard to find after all.

I could tell that it would not disappoint me with people waiting outside for a table and the full-house atmosphere. Upon entering, there’s no sign of any ‘cat’ that resemble the cafe’s name, but cute worker in pink and whiskers drawn on face. Oh, and it’s a Japanese month, so beside their original collections of ice cream, there’s a new line of Japanese inspired ice cream. This means that they do theme ice cream from time to time.

Too many to pick from and we ended with special Butterbeer and Thai Milk Tea, and of course serve them with their famous – Charcoal Waffles. The waffle texture scored crispy and fluffy and the salted egg yolk sauce blends it perfectly with the sweet ice cream.

What a lovely afternoon with artisan ice cream, and waffle. Let’s do it again!

FATCAT Ice Cream Bar

Blk 416 Bedok North Ave 2
#01-25 Singapore 460416
Tel: +65 6241 0830

Mon, Wed & Thu: 12pm – 10pm
Fri – Sun: 12pm – 11pm
(Closed on Tue)

Nearest Station: Bedok (EW Line), walkable 15 minutes.

July 18, 2017
Sunny Singapore Weekend

Spent the Eid’s weekend in Singapore two weeks back and the weather was beautiful. Although Singapore has a similar climate pattern as Malaysia, somewhat I felt that Singapore is perhaps a degree cooler than Malaysia, especially Penang. Perhaps the lush greenery contributes to the cooler surrounding. Though, it is obvious and certain that the city is more humid as compare to Penang as a short walk in the city makes skin felt ‘sticky’ and irritating.

Although some would argue with me that both Singapore and Penang are equally hot and humid but to be honest, there’s really a slight difference and you can feel it. Of course, the vast and easy access to AC interior do contribute a little to the ‘cooler’ feeling but then it’s just different. Share with me your thoughts!

Crossing the road in Bedok.

One of the Bike Sharing brand in Singapore – Obike, which I think it’s quite messy when people park the bike everywhere.

Favourite quite bite – KOI bubble tea and Old Chang Kee fried chicken popcorn.

The always busy Orchard Road.

July 13, 2017
Ramadhan Bazaar At Geylang Serai Is A Must-Go In Singapore

If you happens to be in Singapore during the Ramadhan month, you must visit the Ramadhan Bazaar at Geylang Serai, just east of Singapore! You will be amazed by the number of eateries and the big crowds there! I went just in time on the last day of Ramadhan and was quite surprised to see all Muslim friends were so busy working the last day on the eve of Eid.

If us, the Chinese would have been slowing down on the Chinese New Year and closes early for the holiday! Haha. Speaking of the Ramadhan Bazaar, it’s pretty eye opening comparing to the Pasar Ramadhan in Malaysia because it targets youngster more with many hipster food and drinks.

Not everything beautiful was good, they are more likely good on the Instagram but not my kind of food in my taste bud. But, I have to say, food was not cheap, not in the way of Malaysian spending in Singapore, but in a Singapore way, you could easily spend up to 40-50$ at there. Forget about money, and just enjoy the hipster bazaar!

These grilled oyster with different sauce topping are the bomb!

Long queue for cheap takoyaki – $2.50 only for 6 balls, but not perfect.

Really?! Raclette cheese set with just cocktail sausages and potato for $12? Not anymore, cheese cooled in minutes and didn’t finish it.

Ramly Burger in Singapore is not as cool as Malaysia’s, no vege in the burger.

Watermelon volcano, just perfect for the humid weather.

Opens only during Ramadhan’s month, so get back next year and you can easily reach there by bus – just search Bazaar Ramadhan Bazaar on Citymapper.

July 1, 2017
A Visit To Apple Store, Singapore

Finally, Apple has open its first store in this South East Asia region, in Singapore. Being an Apple fan, it’s a must to visit the store and feel the beauty of the interior setting and architecture. Although they look the same throughout some other major store around the world, I could assure that the vibes and atmosphere will never bored you up.

My recent trip to Singapore, the main purpose was of course to check out this new Apple Store that was just had its grand opening not long ago, at the same time to make a purchase of the new iPad Pro 10.5! Yes, it’s slightly cheaper after TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme) by about RM200. So, why not?

But of course, if you are not buying any thing, still it’s a must to check out this beautifully crafted retail store that house a public space for you to chill and feel Apple, yes I mean feel, not experience.

Apple Store, Singapore is located on this beautiful high street of Orchard Road.

Do you realise that Apple has moved their logo away from their iconic glass facade?

Your happy blog owner, me.

Iconic Apple Store is never complete without a signature stairs.

Oh, my iPad Pro 10.5 with the Pencil, unboxed in the store itself.

The forum, the town hall, the public space, just for you to chill and relax.

July 1, 2017
A Weekend Up To Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands to me is beautiful greenery landscape, misty cool temperature, relaxing hill resort and awesome steamboat to warm up the cold weather. I didn’t bring much expectation to this famous tourist attraction in Malaysia, but the short weekend getaway didn’t sync with what I’ve imagined earlier.

Not saying that the highlands at 1500 meters above sea level is not fun, but I could share with you what’s good and what’s not.

The journey from Penang takes about 2.5 hours by driving and the road from Simpang Pulai was quite comfortable and not overly winding. Excitement rushes in when we turned off the car AC and let in the cool breeze.

BUT we were quite turned down by the scenery out of the car window – vegetable farm with semi-transparent shelter that looks a lot like a disease quarantine zone. Hahaha.

Our first stop – the Lavender Farm was not as intriguing with RM8/entry that showcase some lavender, some flower species, and pick-your-own strawberries which our visit only lasted less than 20 minutes. It’s a man-made attraction, but comparing to the vast flower farm in Europe, or man-made Gardens By The Bay in Singapore, it’s just too not attractive. There’s plenty of similar farm at Cameron Highlands, mainly cactus and strawberries and I could suggest you to skip them all. Just buy the strawberry from the market, and not pick-your-own.

I highly recommend you to skip all those farms and concentrate on the famous tea plantations. Sungai Palas Tea Plantation where the famous Boh Tea brand is located is my favourite!

The weekend was crowded with people, but immersing myself in the plantation was just fascinating and refreshing. The visitor centre itself is an architectural award winning building which is worth seeing.

Another famous tea plantation is Cameron Valley which I still find Boh has a better visitor center.

The second place of interest that I liked is the Mossy Forest – a trekking trail at the highest point of Cameron Highlands that leads you to Gunung Irai. Unfortunately, we did not equipped ourselves well as the trail was muddy and wet. Obviously our attire and mindset was not ready for it.

Read that it takes about 2 hours to reach the top of Gunung Irai, and another 2 to come back. Thus, a good stamina and planning is needed. But the walk in Mossy Forest board walk was fun enough as it’s very cooling.

If you are driving to Mossy Forest, just have to drive slow and careful as the road is very winding, steep and narrow. Though, there’s a beautiful landscape along the road, really beautiful and amazing!

Temperature at Cameron Highlands was perfect to me, ranging from 16 to 24 degree celcius which reminds me a lot of my life back in the UK. Do bring some warm clothes to keep you warm up as it gets cold as night falls.

One last thing, try not to come on major holiday or weekends, I didn’t expect that the traffic was so bad up there, as there’s only road leading from point to point.

The next time, I am gonna gear up for the trek and rent a nature filled Airbnb to enjoy the cold weather. Say no more to fake farms.

May 1, 2017
Ghent: Crazy Journey To Ghent, Belgium

(Spring, 2014) – Thinking back, the night was pretty stupid yet crazy where we wanted to save a night of accommodation by taking the night bus from Amsterdam to Ghent. Didn’t think that the journey took only 4 hours and we arrived in Ghent very early at 2am. The 4hours of nap in bus was totally not enough after a full long day of exploration in Amsterdam. It was a motel’s carpark that we alighted and there’s no sight of public transport or cab at that hour. The motel’s reception was closed too and not a proper place for us to sit.

2am. Heading to Old Town.

No maps, no internet access. But still had a fraction of Google Map loaded earlier in Amsterdam and we were an hour far (by walking) from the old town where we would be staying on the following night.

Assuming that check-in time is about 1.00pm, we had like about 10 hours of not-knowing-what-to-do. ‘Should we just walk to the the old town?’ or ‘Should we wait till the sunrise for the public transport to take us there?’ It’s like 5degree celcius in this spring midnight weather. No where we could see a corridor or corner that we could sleep like a homeless and it’s cold.

After 30 minutes of hesitation, ‘fuck, let’s just do the walk and look for any corner that we could just rest ourselves’. We past by a street of pubs that was very happenings, but a 24h fast food restaurant selling fried chicken caught our attention. Ordered a set and share among 5 of us, we tried to spent as long as we could in the restaurant, and each of us tried to close our eyes on a rotating manner, but later we were shoo off still. We were 45 minutes away from the old town, and we found a real subtle corner that we thought we could spend our night there till morning. Bags down, and we’ve tried to nap through the dirty floor and cold night. I couldn’t do it, it’s too cold, but a friend snore right away on the floor and 4 of us were just wide awake. ‘We are so homeless right now’.

5.30am it was and we only rested for like 30 minutes in this homeless corner of ours. The sound of bird chirping could be heard and drunk party goers started to make their way back. It just doesn’t felt safe and very tired, we were.

St. Nicholas’ Church (Sint-Niklaaskerk)

Dawn arrived and we were at the fringe of old town. Nothing to see at this wee hours and we didn’t even feel excited arriving at the old town because check-in time was still far away and the backpacks were heavily tiring us.

Not far into the old town, the hotel was just in front of us! Dashed into the hotel and the warm atmosphere and sofa greeted us. ‘Well, having able to sit on the sofa is better that by the road side right?’ Thinking that European hotel is stricter than Asian’s hotel, I went upfront to reception just to check what was the earliest time we could check-in, ‘Oh, you could check in as early as you want, right now.’ Shocked to hear about that which we probably think that the hotel was pretty empty.

Because it’s a room for 2 and we had 5 in the company, 3 of us spent a bit time wandering around at the lobby before sneaking up to the hotel room.

6.45am, we were in the hotel, getting ready to have a good sleep till noon before beginning our tour of Ghent, Belgium. What a journey and we got ourselves an extra free night!

The hotel (Ibis Ghent Centrum) was just too spacious for 5 of us, 1 big king-size bed and 1 sofa bed. Perfect!

July 20, 2016

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com