mad apologies.

This blog hasn't took off very well has it? Truly sorry but time hasn't been much of a friend to us lately. Our lives is like the amazing race. Fly off here one day, then there the next. We just got back from Vietnam 2 days ago after a 2 week trip to Abu Dhabi/Milan. And the day after tomorrow we're leaving for Bandung. See what we mean? But don't fret, we said we'll post, and we will. Okay the Myanmar trip was so long ago, we don't really remember what was where and all. So, we're skipping Myanmar for now and when we sort it all out (if we ever), we'll pick up the pieces then.

But for now, lets focus on things we actually do know. : )

Our annual Abu Dhabi trip was a bit more exciting this year as we got the chance to go to Milan, Italy for a few days. And in that few days we managed to squeeze in Genova, Pisa, Florence and Venice - as well as Milan itself. It was very tiring but we had fun - as we said before, time hasn't been very friendly to us. In the space of five days we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the copy of the Statue of David, different Cathedrals, Piazza San Marco in Venice and more. So really the trip was good.

On the first day of our trip, we arrived early in the morning at Malpensa Airport, Milan. The drive from the airport to the hotel was about an hour. Once we reached the hotel, we slept for a while then about lunchtime decided to walked around the town. We took a subway to Duomo (which means Cathedral). The place, as the name shows, boasts a big Cathedral with a piazza and lots and lots of shops. From designer brands to local designers and cafes to pizzeria, it was wonderful.

Hello Milan : D
Duomo

We had lunch at a small cafe - pizzas and pastas - what else would you eat when you're in Italy right? Then we walked around some more and of course going in and out of shops feasting our eyes with clothes, bags and shoes. A building beside the Duomo (which we don't know the name), has a dome that lights up with bright blue lights at night and its just beautiful.


blue lights!

The next day, we made our way to Florence stopping by Genova and Pisa. Genova is Italy's main port. It was a town in a valley near the sea with ships and boats. Pisa one the other hand is a small town. Unfortunately for us, we arrived Pisa after dark so pictures are not as pretty as it would be during the day.


Leaning Tower of Pisa
Genova

After Pisa, we drove to Florence. We stopped at the first reasonable hotel and settled in. Went out for dinner at a local restaurant called Stargate and it was the yummiest Italian food we have ever eaten. It was really authentic and the servings was pretty big aswell. The food there was the best throughout the whole trip, really. We slept in Florence for a night before resuming our journey to Venice.



yummy, glorious food.

The next morning, we went into Florence town seeing yet another cathedral and also the copy of the Statue of David. After the walk around town, we then drove to Venice. We drove pass Bologna, Parma and Verona but we didn't stopped anywhere. We got to Venice, after dark again : ( so, we didn't get to go on the gondolas or antything. Again, not enough time but it's okay.






From Venice, we drove back to Milan since we were leaving the day after next. We arrived Milan late at night but before we went to bed, we managed to cook (yes, in the hotel room) and ate.



The next day was spent in Milan. The things there are quite expensive plus exchange rate is pretty high so we didn't shop much. Just a few stuff here and there. Our flight back to Abu Dhabi was in the morning the next day. Malpensa airport is not really big, so there really wasn't anything to see or do in there. But above all, our first ever trip to Italy, eventhough short, was great : D

sorry.

been very busy and all.
havent had the time to update.
and pictures are still in our archives, just waiting to be put on the blog.
but blogger can be a pain sometimes hence the lack in posts.

we are currently in Abu Dhabi and will be flying off to Milan on Sunday.Once we get back to KL, pictures will be posted and stories will be told. Bank on it.

Thank you.
Mad love.

Myanmar Part 1 - Welcome to Yangon.

whoo, here it is. our first official travelling entry. first stop in this journey of ours is Myanmar. there will be several parts to Myanmar as we went to different places and we couldnt possibly fit everything into one post! we went to Myanmar in December 2006 - from Yangon to Bagan, then Mandalay and Inle Lake and back to Yangon. to sum up Myanmar in a few words: left, right, pagoda everywhere. the place is filled with pagodas! from small to massive, from old to gold covered ones.

one pagoda that really stood out was the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. the Shwedagon Pagoda is covered with real gold and precious stones (like ruby's and sapphires) near the top. all this aswell as a huge diamond on the tip. and we mean HUGE. :x there's a lot of pagodas in Yangon itself but thats the main pagoda there. its situated somewhat in the middle of the city - you can see it from where ever you are. the area of the Shwedagon Pagoda is also hugeee! theres smaller pagodas in its compound.
when we were there, we came across a lady who, covered in monk clothing, was sitting alongside the pagoda, facing the sun. she was just sitting there staring. we were wondering what she was staring at and it turns out she was staring straight directly into the sun. ouch, how bad would that hurt? according to our tour guide, that lady was staring at the sun because these monks believed that they could get "powers" by doing so. its weird, but its really interesting watching the monks as they could sit there for hours.

the Shwedagon Pagoda

the surroundings

the different Buddhas in Shwedagon's compound

the smaller pagodas around the Shwedagon

at every corner of the compound, theres these small statues and water feature that represents different months that you were born in. we couldnt really remember if it was zodiacs or birthdays according to the Buddhist beliefs. anyway, people would go to their respective months/statue and pray for various things. they would scoop out a bit of water and pour it over the statue. its sort of like a cleansing ritual.

a "cleansing" statue

then we went around the city. the city was clean. it's developing but there was a lot of old buildings still. the men there walk around wearing a type of like "kain pelikat". its really funny, only some of them wear pants. and this is in the city itself! imagine walking around KL or any city in a sarong. hahaha. : p

the city

us!

next we went to the Reclining Buddha. the name says it all, the Buddha was actually reclining. it was lying down on its side. and it was big aswell! what is it with these Burmese and big things? haha. but this reclining Buddha was really cool to see. at the bottom of the feet of the reclining Buddha, there was writings of the Buddhist beliefs. the reclining Buddha was the biggest reclining Buddha in Myanmar. it was built with fundings from all over the world. there's plaques of people who donated money to help build the Buddha all over the place. like other holy place or praying place, we had to take our shoes off to enter the place.

the reclining Buddha

we went to eat at an Indian restaurant for lunch. it's not really easy to find Halal food around Yangon. its easy if you have a tour guide like we did. because we specified for Halal food. there's a lot of Indian influence in Burma as it goes back to the roots - most of the Burmese ancestors were migrants from India. and we went for Chinese for dinner. the food was okay. no complains there.

we were in Yangon for only a night, which was the first night in Myanmar. but we later came back for another night at the end of the journey for our flight back to KL.

next stop: Bagan : )

okaaay.

So here we are. Two sisters who one day just decided to start up a blog (well, you can call it a travel blog i guess) about the travelling that we've done and places we've been to. Hey, we might as well share the adventure and stories with other people right? So yeah, we're here to share with you our experiences around the globe.

We are from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but currently residing in Perth, Australia as we are both studying here. Perth is a nice city, with a very relax feel to it but KL will forever be home : ) We've been to a lot of different places around the world and has seen a variety of cultures and people from all walks of lives - and how interesting they are.

Please bear with us as we are still going through our photo archives looking for pictures from our trips/holidays to post up here. Check in here often as there will be updates very soon. This site will be up and running in no time : ) We hope you'll enjoy our stories as much as we'll enjoy sharing it with you's.

luve.

- yana+raina.

note

blog is still under construction!
will be up and awaaaay very sooon : )
thank you.