The Year of The Dragon

On January 23, the Year of The Dragon* arrived. Unfortunately I has been unable to celebrate any Chinese Year since I left Hong Kong six year ago.


But I have very good friends there and since I met them some years ago, they have sent me a lot of goodies that makes my homesick to disappear. In a new post I will show you the beautiful gifts they made to me and my family.


Thank 9J and Anita!!!!  We love you a lot. 


* specifically this is the year of the Water Dragon or Black Dragon, and previous 2011 was the Year of The Metal Rabbit (White, Yellow or Golden Rabbit). I am still expecting a gold and diamonds tiara from my parents!!!

A "hot" Christmas

Just arrived from my Christmas vacation and I am so tired to review my pictures after the worst plane trip in all the time I 've been flying.

But just to give you a clue.

A Day In Venice

As I told you, this time we have time to visit Venice. And there it is my first advice: DO NOT GO THERE BY CAR.

It's expensive, traffics is a nightmare, you have to park outside the city and then take a boat or a water taxi. So if you are coming from Milano take a train and for 35-60 euro (if you travel regular or first) and you will be in the center, but less hassle.

The city is nice, but expensive, so if you plan to enjoy it, prepare some thousand euros for a nice weekend.

The best Venice is The Grand Channel, and moving there requires a water taxi or some Gondola (that are expensive, but not a rip off as we expected).

The little streets are plenty of shops with stupid stuff that you don't need - if you have coming from Milano, you have already bought a 1,000 euros jacket, so avoid those streets.

Too many tourists and too many rip offs (like a coke bottle at 5 euros) made that what started excellent ended badly.

At six o'clock I was dying about getting out of that giant tourist trap and getting into my awful car.

Again AVIS cheated us and a nice Alfa Romeo
 turned into a horrible Lancia Delta. Pure crap

They were filming a movie, that's the reason for the old costumes

 Gran Canale

 Me, with a Gondola in a blurred back

Sunset - Gran Canale

More Milano

More pictures from Milano. First one is "Il Duomo" a nice Gothic Cathedral made from "Marmole Bianco". Try to visit if in a sunny day to admire the nice windows from the inside.

Piazza dil Duomo is a nice place but it's normally very crowded and a good advise is to be aware of your belongings all the time.

All the restaurants are expensive, and the food is not the best of town, but if you are on a budget, try the Autogrill close to "La Rinasente" and of course pay a visit to this famous department store.

This year during summer sales reached 70 % off even in Montenapoleone a Via de la Espiga (one of the most exclusive and expensive streets of the world)

Milano

We went - again- to Milano, and spent there a week. This winter was not so cold there, so we missed some snow. Still we managed to visit a lot of places that we miss in our past visit.

Additionally we got some extra time to visit Venice, but that day i missed my camera. But don't worry everything has a solution, so I borrowed father's bunny to take some pictures.

What we have been doing lately

Ok, I got that Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse shares and now they’re so exposed to European debt crisis that I have lost almost a third of the money I invested.

Sure, my Golf villas at Costa Brava are not selling well, but nearly all the money I use was not mine, so this issue compensates the first statement.

For all the lazy and lame bunnies who read my father’s laziness as “bankruptcy” , or for those who said “you’re six years old and you’re done”, and for all my fans who truly love me…

Another what we have been done with our time lately.

 Driving a Diablo, who actually wanted to kill me

 In a shopping mall inside Sands Marina Singapore

 Having some posh tea in Singapore

 Introducing my sisters to old 3d movies

 Cooking with Paul Bocusse's golden medal chefs in Belgium

 Cooking with Paul Bocusse's golden medal chefs in Belgium (II)

 Some Costa Brava beach enjoyment

Picturing my friend Ampaman in an exclusive resort in Gavarres 

How we drove from Singapore to Malaysia

May be it sounds easy to you, but try to make a reservation with the company that "try it harder" and you book a nice Volvo S80 or a Toyota Crown, that have space for passengers and stuff but instead you receive a lame BMW 320i with drug dealer's choice interior color scheme and 19 '' alloy wheels that where the best option for Malaysian roads.

Anyway it has been a pleasure to drive in a city like Kuala Lumpur, where we spent 3 hours to make three kilometers and where our BMW got some kind of flu that put a nice sign in its computer...

Sheer driving pleasure

+ouch magazine and a nice present from Hong Kong

We have received a nice gift from our friend Anita +OUCH magazine from Hong Kong, that is giving a nice Miffy Cardholder.

My sister Miffa is in Holland with MB but we finally decided not to wait for her and we opened the envelope. A Nice pair of 3d glasses and lot of pages with the latest fashion trends.

Thank you very much Anita and 9j (who is a bunny fashion diva).

We love the winter Miffy cardholder and we will take a look into the mag to see what’s hot in HK!

Sentosa Island

Located South of Singapore it's accesible by several transportations, from the laziest ones who will arrive by taxi (surchase apply) to the more honest ecotourists that will cross the bridge on foot (paying 1 SG$).

We decided to opt for the monorail (mother bunny is lazy by nature) that will cost you 3 dollars return trip.

For those of you interested in Sentosa check here

From my point of view is like Singapores back door to family fun and limited risk adventure for the youngters that populate zouks and singaporean bridges (with Martel and Johnny Walker Blue label bottles).

Several five star beach resorts, exclusive beach clubs (where you pay for a beer what you earn in a week working at your homeland), nice white sand and nice palm tree.

Actually the four or five beaches are very nice, except for the poluted water infected with jelly fish and the stupid small space where - They let you swin- No matter if you are Mr. Phelps you can only swim in a small designated space.

But what about the "charm" of sharing your swim with large container carriers and Roro ships.
Ever dreamed about a nice plamtree beach with some bikini girls at your sight just in front of a crude refinery...

This is your place and if you need to waste more adrenaline pay a visit to Universal Studios Sentosa or try to surf in a pool, or sky dive in a new attraction they opened this year (Sky-something ).

Singapore's zoo

One of the best of the world according to them and independent travel guides. It features a large selection of Asian animals as well as some from remote places (like the polar bear).

what it makes it different is the way in wich animals are displayed, with large spaces where they can "live" in conditions very similar to the ones they find in their habitats.

There are no cages and they are separated from visitors by ditches and other elements.

You can visit it during the day or by night (night zoo devoted to night living animals).

After visiting the day one last year and night zoo this year i would recommend without any doubt the first one.

And the best of all is that the price is fair, cheaper than Barcelona's that is a shame for all the zoos of the world.

Even more Singapore

From our place, located in Havelock Rd, to Singapore's center it takes half an hour to arrive walking riverside. A nice walk if you are on foot but dangerous if you ride a bike. Get into an underpass and you will be fined 1000 SG$ (anyways all the people were riding under, so i can imagine the measure is not very effective).

All the restaurants on the river margins are there to quit some weight in the pockets of tourist and expatriates who have the money and drink hard during the night. So during day light they offer you nice set menues for as least as 15 SG$.

No people, no scams, just take profit of this and go there for lunch and avoid there for dinner.

If you need some music and want to see some impossible heels and short skirts go to Zouk.

More Singapore

Our friends has asked me for more pictures of Singapore and thus I have selected a bunch of them that help to illustrate a little what can you expect from this city.

A tennis court in a Hotel hanging at 10th level is not something unusual, like a Chinook helicopter carrying a giant flag in augoust (when they celebrate their national day). Las time we watched the F15 fighters show and it was really impressive how they broke the sound barrier in between the center's skyscrapers.

Apart from that do not miss the margins of Singapore river where all the fancy restaurants and bars are. Beware of tourist traps and scams.

And if you want some "Ibiza" like party go to Zouks and enjoy some music, after sharing some Jagesmaister and Martell cognag with some youngter on the street...

Yes. On the street, forget all that stupid things they told about chewing gum, throwing papers, and blah, blah. In singapore people fart, spit, throw litter, urinate and drink hard on the street (in front of the police).

We are (actaully we have been now) in Singapure

No free wifi, no Hotel wifi... Imagine that you are paying for a Ferrari or a Lambo and they ask you extra money for the wheel or the audio equipment.

This is singapore, you pay 300-400 euros a night and no free wifi, so this time I decided to go to another place.

I was sure we will not have wifi or Internet acces but the Hotel is much cheaper and it lies right on the singapore river, in the same block that the most famous disco (Zouks).

Anyways right now let me share some pictures of me and Tometaro Jr. with you.