Jacqkie | Travel and Lifestyle

Like bees to honeys, birds to water, lizards to my home, I am one to books. All kinds of books. Foreign, non-fiction, comedy, drama, womenhood, cartoon, history. I LOVE books. The uncertainty of its content. The smell. The covers. The stories. It is no wonder that my recent trip to Budapest, Vienna and Prague sees us staying in apartments and homes that have books at every corner of them. While booking for homes, my preferred criteria are usually location and price . And last but not least, aesthetics . I am guilty for choosing homes from pictures, and fortunately I have been quite lucky. Most if not all of the places I've booked look exactly like the photos. But sometimes they surprise you with bonus features, like new stack of books. I love homes that pique my soul, open my eyes to design that don't abide rules, with delicate features. Best if they've got stories attached to it. My so and so and got this during the war. Or, we found this while hiking mountain x. M...

Disclaimer: I feel these photos are mild, however, what/ how you perceive them is beyond my control. So please be informed that there are photos of nudity and suggestions of sex and nudity before you proceed and that reading through them is your choice. Thank you!  *** On our last day in Amsterdam, we booked ourselves a full day tour to Zaanse Schanse for WINDMILLS! We reached the city very early in the morning, and reached the main stop an hour early too. While walking from the bus station to the main stop, I passed through the Sex Museum conveniently located just by the side of probably one of the busiest street in Amsterdam. After seating mum, I went to check out the Sex Museum myself :P I was a little shy at first, but after seeing so many more Asian couples giggling around I felt, HAH, I'm not so bad! At least I'm alone .. and can giggle to myself. This sounds really childish yes, but a Sex Museum is something you would never see in Malaysia. EVER . The idea...

After the FunnyMalaysia article circulated around and went viral on my newsfeed, I was inspired to calculate my own Nine Days Eight Nights self-planned Paris - Amsterdam - Istanbul trip and log down how much exactly it cost me here. I love the fact that some of us are really exemplary when it comes to budget traveling and are still able to enjoy every little thing during their trip. Which goes to show that really, you could go wherever you want so long as you plan it carefully and with a bit of a discipline, IT CAN HAPPEN! (without breaking your bank). First of all, you must register into yourself that a euro trip (anywhere for that matter) is not impossible and is not as far as you thought.  Mum infront of Rijksmuseum. I LOVE THIS ART MUSEUM! 

One of the many thing that I missed and loved the most about Europe (Paris + Amsterdam) was its Cafe culture. Although I've only been to Paris and Amsterdam, I see the consistency in appreciating their coffees and that culture in these two cities. Minus the fact that I don't really "drink coffees", I really love how you could catch up with your friends and families while enjoying the chill breeze of spring overlooking or having that adorable dandelions sprouting out around you as the backdrop, of course with french and dutch languages filling the air and buzz of the ever busy streets of Europe no matter how big or small. And that "see passersby" culture in Europe is so distinct to me I love telling everyone about it! What about the range of patisseries to choose from? Meringue? With cream or without? Green tea based teas or coffees? Light coffees? Eclairs? Chili sprinkles on top? The choices were endless. They have everything you could imagine! My fir...

So we traveled to Amsterdam from Paris via train. Reached the tram / train station at Paris Charles de Gaulle at about 5.00am to catch the 6.15am bus. We bought our tickets online via Nhispeed and I would strongly recommend you to do the same. There were only a few times the train travels to Amsterdam in a day, and we figured the earliest would be the best. We didn't want to lose any daylight - so it's always best to reach Amsterdam earlier. Best part was, the train ride wasn't as expected. Well it's always fine with me, but I was traveling with a 60 year old mother, so a lot of things do concerned me. We learned that there were going to be only three stops. Of which you had to literally run your life for, because the transitions were only about 6 - 8 minutes. And with big luggages, it could mean the hunger games run. Ride to Amsterdam. Kid infront of me was busy selfie-ing with himself :| Two of the first stops were within France itself. From the first to ...

My mum and I just spent 12 days traveling from Paris, to Amsterdam to Istanbul. Our main purpose of this trip was, wait for it, wait for it, for a plant. Well not a, but basically we were chasing tulips. It all started when I showed my mum Fresh's blogposts on the Tulip Festival in Istanbul when she sat down unfazed, and said, "this is my dream. I have always wanted to see tulips. Tulips everywhere."  And knowing me, the moment I even start thinking about it I try really hard to make my way to it. I told her, then let's do it. This was in January, and right after that we started cracking our head. Paris Day 1 Since we were from Kota Kinabalu, we had to take a flight into Kuala Lumpur really early in the morning, spent our day with the loved ones, and made our way to KLIA in the evening for an 11pm flight. We reached Paris really early in the morning, around 6AM and had to manoeuvre our way to the hotel via shuttle train and tram.

Before I really start dissecting on my Paris - Amsterdam - Istanbul trip, I've decided to write an overview of each city that I could identify with. To start, I need to tell you that traveling in / to Europe is not cheap but NOT IMPOSSIBLE. I spent a total of MYR 8k inclusive of return flight, in between flights and trains, as well as accommodation and truckload of souvenirs which in my opinion is really-really cheap. Give me a few weeks to update on my trip but for now, here's a quick run through. Paris While we were finalising our trip, Paris came last to mind and we were deciding between Brussels (simply because we heard really nice things about the city, it was a cross over between Netherlands and France) and London (because it's London) as well as Paris (because it's the most famous city in the world). After much consideration, we finally imagined ourselves more strolling around Champs Elysees towards the Arch de Triomphe. Eventhough we were heading to Europ...