Kyoto in Red

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My last trip to Japan was a perfect wrap-up of my 2016, especially the 4-day staycation in Kyoto, a city which keeps bringing me inspirations and enlightenment. And fortunately  this time I’ve caught the last chance to appreciate the autumn view in this city, with those “red” elements:

Autumn Foliage

The peak of autumn foliage in Kyoto is breathtaking and spectacular, but I missed it 😦  Late-December is  not the best time to appreciate the leaves, however, who says the  combination of withered trees and rocks can’t be a great as well?

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Temples

As I said in my last post about Kyoto a year ago, it is impossible to visit all the sights in the ‘City of Ten Thousand Shrines’. Last time I visited Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) and Kinkaku-Ji (金閣寺), and this time, the less-popular Kennin-Ji (建仁寺) and the Imperial Palace are the highlights.

At the Imperial Palace (@Fashionmimo)

The view of the inner-garden, Kennin-Ji. ( @Fashionmimo)

Vintage Stores

Japan is the heaven of vintage boutiques, antiques and second-hand goods, and in Kyoto, you can find lots of dope vintage boutique stores in the heart of the city, such as Flamingo, Small Change and Three Stars. The most impressive thing I’ve found in these stores is an embroidered nightgown from the 80’s China! All those old goods are in a very good condition and I can tell, as a Chinese, it would be really really difficult to find the same fancy nightgown even in China nowadays!

Kimono

After several times of experiencing the traditional kimono, this time I finally chose the red one. Isn’t the red color fitting the old streets so well? ;p

In China, red color represents fortune, so I hope that this “red” post would bring luck to whoever read it 😉 This post is also a wrap-up of my 2016 blogging journey, thank you all for supporting Fashionmimo.com this year and I’m glad that this site has been growing better and better with those kind supports. Hope you have a great year ahead and seeya in 2017!! (@Fashionmimo)

Photo Journey:Melbourne

I’ve made a trip to Melbourne last month. Believe it or not, I’ve spent nearly 20 hours on the plane in total but turns out my stay in this awesome city/country is just 4 days long. 4 days are definitely not enough for exploring Australia, but it is quite sufficient to have a quality city tour 🙂 The early-spring time in Melbourne is much cooler than in Hong Kong hence you can expect to have a sneak peek of my winter collection! Enjoy! haha!

HELLO! The City of Coffee!!

Coffee and brunch.(@Fashionmimo)

At the University of Melbourne, one of the colleges I applied when I was in high school and 4 years later I finally can manage to pay a visit. (@Fashionmimo)

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I bought this ultra-long trench coat years ago but didn’t have much chances to wear it out, this time I chose to wear ankle boots with heel so it’s time to show off my coat 😉

@ St Kilda Beach

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Street Snap Monday 3

Hi! It’s Street Snap Monday again!  This time I tried to combine the vintage feelings (leather shoes and leather bag) with laid-back outfit, let’s see how it works :p (@Fashionmimo)

 

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OOTD: Let’s cross the sea

Long time no see, and belated congratulations to my 1-year-old blog FASHIONMIMO!!!

I started my half-year internship one month ago, right after I came back in HK. As a newbie in PR industry, everyday is a challenge, plus my bloody insomnia came back to visit me again… Recently I really have that feeling that maybe I will be able to write something like Eat Pray Love after this period. Yeah you could expect my next post will be all about meditation, yoga and stress relief…

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Photo journey: The last week in Lion City

Still can’t believe that I’m already flying back and about to have my half-year internship. I don’t know how to conclude my 4-month exchange life (or say 4-month vacation) but Singapore has been treating me so good. I won’t forget all those crazy but awesome things happened here 🙂

Even though I always grumble about how boring the life here is (I’m sorry haha), I realized there are still lots of things haven’t done when I was about to leave. So I used my last 7 days here to explore more great spots in the Lion City.

So regret that I’ve just discovered Bukit Timah at the last moment! Those restaurants, the saddle club and the floral market… and I spent a really good night at Tin Hill Social last Friday. They have several indoor/outdoor areas for dining and bar. It would be so relaxing to chill at the outdoor area with live band at night 🙂 (@Fashionmimo)

 

City Hall is another great spot that I didn’t explore much before. Especially the Raffles Hotel and the Chijmes: historical buildings with fine restaurants. If you are a tourist and are looking for something about the “old” Singapore, you can’t miss it! (@Fashionmimo)

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Singapore Restaurant Week

Before we start, let me have a self-celebration: woohoo! I’m having 600 followers! (For those who hasn’t subscribe me, click the button at upper right corner on my homepage then you will see how to follow)

Frankly speaking, I love eating, but I’m not fastidious about food. First, appearance of the dish is totally not the thing I would consider. Before using Instagram, I didn’t even take any pics about what I have had (and I’m such a bad food photographer ). Second, I always believe that dining is not only about the food, but also the environment and the mood of yourself. Therefore, to me, rather than giving detailed comment of a dish like a food critic, I only focus on those “Ah-ha” moments when those magical chemical reactions happen in my mouth.

Singapore Restaurant Week (March 19th to 26th)

When I firstly  heard about this term I was like “What is this for? Is this a promotion by some restaurants or it’s a traditional festival for SG people to dine out?” Don’t laugh, sometimes I really find it hard to understand the dinning culture in Singapore. After a while I realized that this is an event held by Dinning City  , some selected restaurants (usually those fancy ones) will show their special Restaurant Week menu in a discounted price than usual.

Then I laughed. To be honest I have dined out a lot in Singapore over these months but I never get any “Ah-Ha” moments sadly. Seriously I get confused and I can’t tell why. Sometimes I try to convince myself: maybe that’s because the restaurants you have been to are not expensive enough (I don’t get the logic behind this tho haha). But dinning in those fancy restaurants in Singapore gives me the feel like having a feast on the airplane. Perhaps the meal is really good, but the place and the vibes, or the whole feeling gets wrong 😦

Ok never mind, I still booked some restaurants through this event though. Why not? So let’s check them out.

The Clifford Pier@Fullerton Bay Hotel

Yep, my first stop is of-course Fullerton Bay Hotel. In spite of those recommendations I’ve received from my local friends, the reason why I choose here is quite simple: the environment.

The restaurant is famous for local cuisine, which is a fusion of Chinese food and southeast asian flavour. But it’s a pity that my friends and I we all think that the curry is too plain. The only highlight is the icecream I think…

(Sorry I really donno how to take food pics…)

BOCA

People say it’s the most authentic Portuguese cuisine in Singapore. Since I haven’t tried Portuguese cuisine, I can’t compare. But one of our crew is from Portugal and his comment is: you could find all these dishes much more cheaper in Portugal. (Well the only rule to survive Singapore is NEVER thinking about the price lol)

Sources from the Internet (@Fashionmimo)

Based on what we’ve ordered, I guess Portuguese cuisine is mostly about seafood? And the mussels tastes pretty fresh 🙂

Salt Grill & Sky Bar

“When you’re elevated 55 floors above ground in the middle of town, it goes without saying that the view is nothing short of magnificent.” -Cleo Magazine

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Bangkok

Hi hi wish you all having a great start of April. I told myself I should have updated more in March but obviously I failed again. (have been busy preparing for my job interviews ) Actually plenty of funny things happened around me last month and I really need to deal with my wordpress backlog:(  After this bloody week maybe I could write more about the Singapore restaurant week review or about the return of my Street Snap Monday Series lol (was too lazy to take pics)

Well, I’ve just flied back from Bangkok this afternoon so I think now it’s the best time to record my journey before it gets blurred. First, it’s an impromptu trip and I just decided to join my friends and booked the tickets at the last minute. I have no idea how Bangkok would be like and didn’t do any research before I departed. But thanks to my luck, everything went well and even the congestion didn’t bother us a lot 🙂

Street Food Haul  (@Fashionmimo)

My main purpose this time is to have a vacation rather than travel, so it’s a pity that I didn’t explored a lot in Bangkok. I have been to the night markets in Khao San Road and Siam, and… that’s all. And the craziest thing we did is spending 3 hours on taxi and 20 mins speed boat to Koh Samet…Despite the taxi fee, it’s really risky to try the BKK-bound highway at weekends (I wanna thank GOD once again for no traffic jam)

Koh Samet is a small island near Rayong. To those who live in Bangkok, it’s an ideal destination for a getaway from the hustle and bustle. And the highlight of this tour is Parasailing!! I was turning ecstatic when flying above the sea and saw the spectacular view with the breeze 🙂 I wish I had a Go-Pro with me.

 

If you are looking for travel tips, I need to say sorry in advance cause I am not the one who planned this trip. But I’ll try to donate some advices:

1. Taxi is an ideal transportation in town, I mean, you can go anywhere by taxi with an affordable price. We rent a car to Koh Samet and taxi back, the price is quite acceptable. Tuk tuk is fun, but in Bangkok somehow it could be really dangerous cause every car is just cutting each other off and the road could be such a mess  However, most taxi drivers don’t use meters; and you won’t know how the traffic would be like when you are in a hurry. So sky train could be a good substitute.

2. Put Thai pants on the must-buy list, this is the only souvenir I’ve bought this time cause I do need a loose and comfy pants for my flight. (Wearing shorts on flight is totally a nightmare for me) Besides, although this blog is no longer “fashion” anymore (lol), I still wanna recommend the loose pants with special pattern cause they provide you the perfect laid-back vacation mood!

Thai Pants: your best travel/lecture/office companion 🙂 (@Fashionmimo)

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What I talk about when i talk about brunch

Long time no see! Hope you all are doing well 😉

First, apologies for my super-long title, it’s from a book title of Haruki Murakami. However, this post is all about my nagging and has no relation with the great writer at all lol.  People have always been asking me how my life is in Singapore, feels like I really seldom update anything about this place. Is it because of the sunshine and hot weather here making me lazy?

Out of my expectation, life in Singapore can be very slow. Sometimes I even feel like I’m having a retired life here compared to in Hong Kong.

So, here I’m just gonna randomly post some photos, please understand my laziness. (@Fashionmimo)

Shot at the Open Farm Community, Singapore’s first farm-to-kitchen restaurant.(@Fashionmimo)

The organic meal: Mud crab pappardelle with thai sauce; the sustainable brand I was browsing: Reformation. (@Fashionmimo)

Summer vibes, thank you Siwen for modelling ❤

 

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Monocle Cafe

It’s been a week since I arrived in Singapore, and after I settled, it’s time to check my bucket list.

If you haven’t heard about Monocle, it’s a fast-growing media company established by a Canadian in 2007. The affairs include lifestyle magazine Monocle, 24hours radio, online/offline shops and cafes. To me it’s just like a miracle under the shrinking magazine industry that they are building up a lifestyle brand so quickly while they are also developing things more than Lifestyle.

Despite the largest headquarter in London, they are also setting up their new office in Singapore now. It’s a two-storey town house where the ground floor is for cafe and shop and the second floor is the office. So let’s go and have a look!

Holland Village, where the cafe is located is famous for those white townhouses and countless restaurants & bars. (@Fashionmimo)

The shop selling products of Monocle produced in different countries.(@Fashionmimo)

My tropical outfit 🙂 (@Fashionmimo)

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Life of Tranquility: Hangzhou

My mom called me before I departed: “Are you going to Hangzhou in December? Well I don’t think you will enjoy the weather and views there.”

Emm…maybe she’s right. Because Hangzhou is in the southeast part of China, very near Shanghai, so you could expect the winter there would be windy/rainy, super cold (sometimes under zero celsius) but with very few snow. However, I didn’t have time to consider this cause my poor winter break just started a week before and Hangzhou, especially the Lingyin Temple has been on my travel Wishlist for over 5 years.

The Sights

I only visited a few sights this time so I couldn’t tell much about it but  I would strongly recommend you to chill at the Lake Xihu area. You got the most famous lake Xihu and  Lingyin Temple. And also you could enjoy the nature with some nice teahouses, bars and luxury hotels in this region.

The first time I noticed the Lingyin Temple was 5 years ago when I saw the print ads of Amanfayun, a luxury resort in Lingyin temple by Aman group. The resort reserves the Chinese and Buddha elements and it just looks like an old Chinese village. It’s the exact right place to slow me down and to be more “Zen” I think.

 

Near Lingyin Temple, there are some tea houses for you if you want to try the famous Longjing Tea from Hangzhou.

After visiting Lingyin Temple, just go down the mountain then you see the Lake Xihu.

The Hotels

There are so many good hotels in Hangzhou but here I just wanna recommend those successfully blend the Chinese culture into their service and design.

Amanfayun

A luxurious Aman resort reconstructed from an old village and located right next to the Lingyin Temple, attractive enough. The only problem is the location may not be that convenient, and, it is just EXPENSIVE 🙂

Four Seasons 

We struggled a lot between Four Seasons and Pins de la Brume before, and finally we decided to stay at PB and to take an afternoon tea at the garden of Four Seasons. I think it’s a right choice cause the garden in Four Seasons seems a little bit desolate in winter. However, if you are coming in summer or spring, I think the view here would be awesome 🙂

 

Pins de la Brume

Another French resort located near Lingyin Temple, it’s not that big compared to those two but I prefer its excellent location and environment.

Dashe

A local small hotel in Hangzhou’s old style. In the room you could see the bricks and the wooden beams just like the old buildings 200 years ago.

After all, it’s the end of 2015 and I want to thank you all for supporting my blog since May. Wish you all a very Merry Christmas and see you in 2016! 😀 (@Fashionmimo)

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