Located in Central Village Noho is a petite restaurant called Bodhi Tree.. I thought the food here was Thailicious! I have a weakness for the combination of Asian food & pretty places. Affordable and tasty, take a look at the pictures (and menu) to decide if this is something for you:
When you’re in New York, you can’t miss out on the Lobster Roll! Luke’s Lobster is located at Amsterdam Avenue and is known for their good lobster rolls. They also sell shrimp rolls if you’re not in to the lobster thing.
You can order only a lobster roll for 15 dollars. You can also choose the meal for 18 dollars which includes a lobster roll, pickle, drinks and chips:
Brunches during the weekend is what New Yorkers like to do. Especially the All You Can Drink (AYCD) Brunches are very popular. One of the places I adore (beautiful interior!) is Kittichai, a Thai restaurant located in South Village, Manhattan. This place is wonderful and exciting to go with friends and just enjoy the weekend… At the lounge & bar: 
Inside the restaurant: 
A menu for brunch is 25 dollars. That’s including one meal and unlimited alcoholic drinks like lychee bellinis, blood orange mimosas and kittichai bloody mary’s! If you’re not into drinking (anymore..like me), you can order an entree instead of the brunch menu with non alcoholic drinks instead. I choose the Thai Ice Tea, which came with four glasses! One glass with ice tea, coconut juice and liquid sugar. This looked so cute! 
Ofcourse the bloody mary’s and drinks from the brunch seemed very good also: 
Then the food: The Five Spice French Toast, which comes with Thai Basil and Fruit Compete: 
The chicken Kittichai Pad Thai with garlic chives and roasted peanuts: 
The 3 eggs omelette with yellow curry roasted potatoes: 
And Pad Thai can be ordered with shrimps instead of chicken: 
Overall this was a place I could definitely recommend to anyone who loves Asian food and enjoys a great ambiance and beautiful interior! A good place when it’s pouring outside and you would like to experience a more exotic ambiance for the afternoon. 25 dollars for a brunch with unlimited alcoholic drinks is nuts and for the non alcoholic lovers, the Thai Ice Tea was amazing! 
Madison Sq. Eats is a food festival at the Madison Square Park. The most popular chefs and well know restaurants in New York are bringing their dishes to this market. There are so many different cuisines like Italian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Mexican and Portugese food. Also the most delicious pretzels, macaroons and ice cream sandwiches are available. This is definitely something you shouldn’t miss out on when you’re near the neighborhood! Also a good idea for lunch during work. Check below when this market is open and more pics of the amazing food stalls!
Fresh Coconut Juice!
Shrimp tacos
Summer rolls! One includes goat cheese, lentils and beets. The other one has corn, coconut and curry!
Famous Roberta’s pizza! Roberta’s was openened in Brooklyn in 2008. This is one of the most well known restaurants in Brooklyn. In 2012, the couple behind Roberta’s opened their now Michelin-starred 12-seat tasting restaurant Blanca.
My friend took me to the Mermaid Inn last Tuesday and I was already excited because of the name! Between 5 PM and 7 PM, it’s happy hour which means the oysters will be sold for 1 dollar each! Look at the pictures and stop by there whenever you’re near!
The staff was friendly, the vibe was good and the food was nice. You’ll get chocolate pudding after your dinner from the restaurant. With the bill they will give you a fortune teller fish which predicts your mood. Sitting outside and watching people during the oysters is a must!
A sneak peek of the menu:
If you’d like to try a lot of different kinds of food at one place, the Chelsea Market is definitely a great idea. This indoor food hall is located in the Meatpacking district. The building used to be a biscuit factory. That’s why the market has an underground vibe with lots of nice food, drinks and more.
The market is open every day. From Monday till Saturday starting from 7 AM to 9 PM. Only on Sundy the market starts at 8 AM t0 8 PM.
The nice thing about the market is that you can get a preview of all the things inside. Check out the pictures below of the variety of food and spices:
The cookies from Eleni’s inside the market are playful and unique. They’re nice as a gift, also sold as a set in boxes. The cookies are shaped and colored as rainbows, taxi’s and other sweet things. Not only does she sell the cutest cookies but also the coffee is worth a try!
There is a nice Morrocan store inside as well with magical lamps and carpets. I liked the art work on the walls a lot. If they were sold as postcards, I would grab a few to enlist them at home 🙂
Enjoying Eleni’s New York coffee on the way back!
Bangkok, one of the most amazing cities I’ve been to. Whenever I’m staying in Singapore, we like to travel for a few days to other close South Asian countries like Thailand. Bangkok has almost been a favorite destination, even while it’s a place where lots and lots of tourist come too. I like their mix of colorfulness, spicy food, culture and chaos!
Grand Palace
The Grand Palace is spectacular and nowadays a spiritual place. Inside the walls of the complex is also the temple of The Emerald Buddha. The kings and his families used to live there and the palace has been built in 1782.
Wat Prakeaw (The Emerald Buddha)
The Emerald Boeddha is made of jade and the most important symbol for the national religion in Thailand
Chao Phraya River
Cross the river by ferry or try the Bangkok Thonburi Khlongs (boats). Using the ferry is the easiest way to get to the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. The network of canals (klongs) branching out from the main Chao Phraya river has floating markets.
Hello Tuk-Tuk!
Street vendors and their icecream
Two sides of Bangkok…
Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn)
Wat Arun is really impressive. These towering spires are beautiful and definitely a must-see
Wat Saket
The Golden Mount is a sacred pilgrimage site during an annual temple fair in November. There are 300 steps to get above. Before the climb is a cemetery covered in overgrown trees. I actually didn’t know about this when I was walking through this cemetery. At the top of the hill is a wall of bells, you will see a lot of monks and the view at the top of Bangkok is amazing. You’ll see a much more historic image of Bangkok.
Pattaya Beach
A beach resort with many tourists. So if you’re not into that, you should really avoid this place. I like beaches, crowded or not 🙂
Soi Arab
Enjoy shisha and arabic food! This area is full of contradictions and very interesting.
Chinatown
Markets where you can buy the cheapest fashion and gadgets but also many food stalls
Also don’t forget to check out Siam Square. There is a popular nightmarket for the teens of Bangkok. And ofcourse the rooftop bar at the Lebua at State Tower Hotel!
Boracay is one of the small islands in the middle of the Philippines (Visayas). Nowadays, it is very touristic, full of hotels and venders, which might not sound nice, but the pleasures the beach gives makes you forget it all.
It was my first time in Boracay. I was with my boyfriend. We stayed at the Boracay Beach Club and booked a package. Our hotel was situated in Station 1, which is what i call the high class station. Station 2 is the party part with many clubs and bars and therefore had a less attractive beach. Station 3 is in my opinion a disaster. There are many gypsies sleeping on the beach. Everything is much cheaper there though, the shops and massages, etc.
We took a plane to Kalibo costing around $50, as this is much cheaper than going to Caticlan ($150). From there, we were picked up by a hotel employee (included in our package). We got into a bus for an almost 2 hour drive, which was long but the scenery was great and made the time fly by. 
Then from Caticlan, we got into a boat to go to the island. If you don’t have a hotel employee, then you can hire one of the guys there to carry your bags for you, just pay them 20 pesos. Our hotel employee bought all our tickets and brought our bags in the boat.
The hotel employee brought us to our hotel. The Boracay Beach Club (BBC) is a 4-star hotel in station 1. It is not directly on the beach but one street away, which might sound bad, but is actually alright. Like most of these hotels they have a restaurant directly on the beach, where you can eat breakfast and have some drinks. Our package included a 7 nights in a huge Deluxe bedroom with breakfast, the transfer from and to the airport, a banana boat ride, Sunset sailing, 2-hour island tour, 1-hour massage, 12 drinking vouchers and 2×500 pesos dining vouchers for 2 persons for only $700!!! which is a pretty amazing deal.
The hotel itself was good, there is a pool, but why go to the pool if the beach is just 50 meters away. The staff is very friendly.
Breakfast on the beach is amazing, makes a great start of the day. After we finished our breakfast, we went swimming and sunbathing on one of the sun beds. Most of the time the hotel had a police man to make sure the venders didn’t bother us. And every day, we had one activity.
The banana boat was fun for old and young. The sunset sailing was nice but pretty quick not even 10 minutes. We just took a picture and the boat went back. I don’t know if i would have done it (for 600 pesos) if it wasn’t included in our package.
The island tour was nice: they bring you to Pucket beach, which is a much quieter beach. Though the beach is less refined than in the stations, it is still very beautiful.
The hour massage was nice, though there are other places to get a massage for cheaper.
The first evening, we got a free diner at the Astoria Resort, which was a very nice hotel. There are lots of nice places to eat and go out in Boracay. There are also plenty of restaurants in the D’mall (the only small and prehistoric mall in Boracay). My favorite restaurant is Andok’s.
Popular places to go out are Epic and Wave, which are both classy and expensive. If you prefer a more local and less high profile club, you should visit Club Paraw. It was right in front of our hotel and much fun.
After 7 days, I took the last pictures of this beautiful and fun island. Sadly packed our stuff to leave the island. On the boat trip back, we decided that we were definitely going back to Boracay again.
Things to do in Boracay
Activities:
Paraw-sailing (sunsetsailing)
Parasailing
Jetski
Wakeboarding (on the other side of the white beach)
Surfing (on the other side of the white beach)
Banana boat
Ariel’s Point (whole afternoon: a boat sail to Ariel’s Point with lunch)
Island tour
I´m normally not that fond of major resort destinations, but I can´t really complain about the resort in Puerto Vallarta. This Mexican city is situated on the Pacific Ocean’s Bahía de Banderas. I had a wonderful time there and enjoyed the company of the Dutch and American tourists a lot. Actually, if you are ever going to plan a trip with your parents in law, this is a great place to go! Relatively not expensive, beach, sun and fun for all ages.. and I’m speaking out of experience!
My best memories include eating fresh oysters everyday (the fisherman catches these in the morning and this sounds very random but I like eating oysters in the morning), hugging dolphins in the water and simply watching the sunset on the beach (which was one step from my hotel) and enjoying my coconut juice. One remark: The activities that I’m going to mention can vary a lot in price, it really matters from who you buy a tour.
Sea Safari was so much fun! We went to see the waterfall in the forest and got to swim in the clean water. To get into the forest and near the beautiful waterfall we were riding horses. Riding on the horses was a bit scary because we went up and down small mountains of Sierra Madre the whole time. Riding a donkey was optional. Also we went on a boat to swim with brightly colored fish. This boat went to a piece of paradise called Pizotita, where you can BBQ and just lay down on a hammock.
As I said earlier, swimming with the dolphins was one of my best memories. The dolphins were so cute and not scary at all!
Whale watching on the other hand was so disappointing. Being on a sailboat for a few hours and having a spotter plane looking out for whales sounded hopeful, but no. I couldn’t take good pictures of whales because I didn’t see them (except the fins, that just sucks…) at all. But because I’m assuming that you’re curious about how it would look like on a successful whale watching day, here’s a picture that was included with the whale watching tour I took. I saw a few dolphings though.
A beautiful tropical beach is Las Caletas, where you can snorkle and see local animals
There are a lot of activities to do on the beach. One of them is parasailing.
The hotel was fine!
And let’s end with these inspirational quotes, hanging on wall outside a restaurant I walked by:
Las Vegas is one of the most fun places to visit. Of course, it is awfully shallow and it totally revolves around sex and money. But I, a very optimistic person, see it as a place where you can see the remarkable things in the world all in one place and still experience all the fun the world has to offer. I guess, you can say Las Vegas doesn’t have it’s own personality, or does it…
The first time I went to Las Vegas was when I was 15 years old. I was so excited to see all the buildings that I’ve seen in plenty of movies. Las Vegas at that time was mostly theme-based. The most famous hotels were Alladin, Luxor and Stardust. The Wynn hotel, which was the newest hotel back then, was practically the only hotel without a theme.
Nowadays, most new hotels in Las Vegas don’t have a theme. They’re just very luxurious and exclusive, with huge casinos and crystal chandeliers hanging everywhere. Each designer hotel is even more luxurious than the other. I guess Las Vegas changed together with modern fashion. Yet still, I can’t help missing the fake old imitation hotels and ladies wearing tacky shiny suits and guys dressed up like Elvis, because for me, all that was the real Las Vegas.
Hotels and Clubs
The Cosmopolitan Hotel is the place to be in LV. Practically every aspect of this hotel has been well thought of, from the humongous crystal chandeliers to the statues of designer shoes in the hallways. The chandelier bar looks amazing an
The Chelsea ballroom, where Kaskade’s concert was held, was very beautiful. It felt so high class and chique going out in a huge classy ballroom, almost made me feel like doing the Viennes Waltz.
An epic fail though was Marquee, where I LMFAO was featured. People were dressed in weird tutu’s, i guess showing what a great fan they are of LMFAO. But you see the thing i like about going out in Las Vegas is that people have to wear nice clothing, so i was kind of disappointed when people came in wearing slippers. The second drama was that it was so crowded and you’re not allowed on the main dance floor because you have to pay for a VIP table even though you don’t have a table. The security guard obviously could not manage the crowd and they kept on telling us to “go left, go left”. So we went left and straight to the exit, bye bye Marquee!
Though i like the Cosmopolitan, i loooove Encore. XS and Encore are my favorite clubs in Las Vegas. The people are classy and friendly. You can also go to the pool area but going out in a bikini is quite trashy so we didn’t do that. The first time i went to the Encore club, we met some guys who let us in for free. The second time, we bought our tickets beforehand which was cheaper ($20) and more convenient as we could just pass the line 🙂
Tao is also a nice club in LV, but don’t expect the bouncers to be nice. It doesn’t even matter if you buy your tickets upfront, they won’t let you in first. The club is nice, downstairs there’s a lounge area in Asian design and upstairs the club. It was very crowded, but no one was annoying, just relaxing and having fun.
There are lots of other nice smaller clubs in the Strip, like the cathouse in Luxor. We got a free table and bottle because we went to the Thunder from Down Under. Which is by the way, a very fun show to go when with your gals or gays.
The next time, i’ll post about things to do in Las Vegas besides clubbing…
Tip: If you want to go to a specific club or concert, buy your tickets beforehand. It is much cheaper and sometimes you can skip the line.
Reminder, wear classy clothes and don’t forget your ID, it’s just too bad when you have to go back to your room to change or get your ID.
This City of Gold 
