Travel: Best of Kuala Lumpur - Food, Accomodation and What To Do

Hey All

Last week I shared my how I planned my Kuala Lumpur and Bali Trip (you can read that here) so my plan over the next few weeks is to share the specifics of what we did and where we stayed.

Where we stayed

Faces Suites

I booked this hotel/apartment with our flights onExpediaa as it worked out a good deal. It was really reasonably priced, we stayed here for two nights. We arrived early in the morning but after a bite to eat we were able to check in a bit early. This was a relief as we had been travelling for around 24 hours. As we were determined to make the most of our time and not get dragged down by jetlag we headed straight out and left the exploring till the afternoon.

The suite was amazing and perfect for short or longer stays, it included a kitchen with everything you'd need to cook, living area, office, bedroom and bed. Everything was clean, tidy and well furnished.

The best bit of it all was the pool!! WOW check out the views from the rooftop infinity pool, it was just amazing. We enjoyed a few dips in here.

The only downside was the lack of a bar in the evenings, as it was part hotel/part apartment block there wasn't a bar, we found a few local hotels and went there instead but it's a shame it didn't have one for ease! It was in a great location though, and easy to get around, it was near to a metro station if you needed it but we mostly walked around.

How I Planned Our Bali and Kuala Lumpur Adventure and Top Tips

Hi All

This is a post I've been meaning to share for a while, I love holiday planning and finding great deals and Bali was the first long holiday adventure I've planned. (Iceland was my first big holiday I planned, you can read all about that trip here)

How to Pack Beauty Products with Airline Limits - Cruelty Free

Hey All

Twice this year I've traveled to Edinburgh from Cardiff and flown, the biggest challenge I find is getting all the products I want whilst sticking to the 10 x 100ml airline limits. Of course as with all of my posts all these travel products I use are cruelty free too!

Day Trip to Exeter

Hey all!

I've decided to get a post up last minute today because I've been working through editing photos and writing content and felt inspired. It's nice to feel productive and start ticking things off a list isn't it??

I went to Devon recently for a staycation and I'll be sharing a full post with some pictures from my trip soon. During our stay we didn't have great weather at all, so me and my mum went in to Exeter one day for some shopping!

Cruelty Free Skincare Holiday Essentials

Hey All

As I've just got back from holiday there will definitely be a few holiday based posts coming up. I'll be sharing what I got up to soon but as well took over 2500 photos across 4 cameras there are a lot of photos to sort through.

This was my first holiday since moving to cruelty free beauty so I knew I needed to pick up a few bits and find substitutes for old favourites.

Travel: Things to do in Copenhagen

Hey All

So I've mentioned a few times now I've been to Copenhagen. I'm now going to try and do a things to do post when I go to new places as I'm always searching for these before I go and it's a nice reminder of what I did for me. When we went we had 4 days but we arrived in the early evening and left at lunch time so we basically had two full days. Looking at this post we clearly crammed a lot into two days! We absolutely loved our time there and would recommend a trip there to anyone. We stayed at the Absalon Hotel (reviewed here).

When we went to Copenhagen we had no real plan except a few places we'd been recommended to go and a guide book from my brother. We were staying centrally so we managed to just walk everywhere. Everything featured in today's post we walked to.

 The Rundetaarn

(website)

It costs 25DKK which was about £2.50 when we went to get in. It's a tower in the centre of the city you can walk up which has amazing views at the top with a viewing platform. It's great as instead of stairs most of the way it's slopes so great for buggies. There are steps to get to the top viewing platform but you do get views across the city on the way up if you can't managed steps. About halfway up you can get drinks and they have different exhibitions in the library hall. Definitely worth a visit. It's also very central and there is an amazing hot dog stand outside!

Trinitatis Kirke

This is the church next to the Rundetaarn, I love looking in churches as they are amazing buildings. This one has a beautiful organ and the most amazing ceilings. If your decide to climb the Rundetaarn definitely pop in afterwards.

Rosenborg Castle

(website)

The Rosenborg Castle is like a stately home in the UK which you can go and walk around. It's set in beautiful gardens and is an amazing building. It costs 105 DKK which is around £10 for entry you can get joint tickets to go into the Amalienborg Palace but this isn't open all year round. It does shut around 4.30 so visit this one earlier on in the day.  The crown jewels are also housed here which I loved seeing. There were some amazing jewellery pieces there!

Assistens Gardens and Cemetery

This is the furthest place we walked too but was still only around a 40 minute walk from the centre of the city. These are some of the most beautiful gardens in Copenhagen according to the guide book. They did look lovely but I think in winter gardens can always look a bit more bleak. Hans Christian Anderson is buried here.

Tivoli Gardens

I'm going to write a whole other post on Tivoli as there is too much to include in this post. I'll post a link to it here once it's up. It truly is a magical place that should be visited!

Amalienborg Palace

Mentioned above for tickets. As it wasn't opened we just walked around the buildings and saw what we could from the outside. We were lucky enough when we were walking back from the little mermaid to see a changing of the guards!

Amaliehaven

This is a little garden area next to the palace. It feels very symmetrical and pleasing on the eye (now that sounds weird!). Definitely worth a stroll through if you decide to visit the palace.

Nyhavn

This is what I'd seen all over instagram when looking at friends who had been to Copenhagan. It's a pretty little harbour area full of great restaurants and bars and the streets are lined with brightly coloured houses. I imagine in summer this place looks amazing. Rumour has it in a street nearby there are trampolines built into the pavements but we didn't get a chance to see those.

Little mermaid

Now this is one of those you're in Copenhagen so you have to go and see. She's a little out of town so is a bit of a walk away but there are plenty of things to see on the way. Also don't let my photo fool you. I'm totally zoomed in to crop people out of it! Imagine selfie sticks everywhere!

Opera House

This photo is from by the palace looking across the water to it. We did also cross the river to see it but didn't go to explore inside. It's an amazing building set on the river front!

Copenhagen Street Food

(website)

Street food pop up food places are becoming really popular in Cardiff and I imagine most cities, Copenhagen is no exception. Set on the water's edge in a converted warehouse is the street food place. It was unfortunately closed when we went but it looked amazing from what we could see in plus as you can see below I found a swim outside to play on!! There were old shipping containers with sofas in and steps up to convert them to roof top areas. It looked amazing and I imagine when open it's a great place to visit.

Christiania

(link to info)

Christiania is a free town in Copenhagen. I think over the past few years it's changed a lot and is becoming more of a tourist attraction than anything else. I was desperate to go here as I'd heard lots about it but I think we went at the wrong time of day. We went first thing and it seemed to be lacking the vibe I'd expected I imagine in summer in the afternoon it would be great as there is a stage for performers and I imagine more hustle and bustle of people and more things open. Still worth a visit though.

Church of Our Saviour

(website)

Unfortunately the spire for the Church of Our Saviour was closed whilst we were there. It's only open for select days in Dec and closed totally for Jan and Feb but if you're there from March onwards I'd definitely say to go. You do have to climb 400 steps to get to the stop but for the views I'd say it's worth it if they are anything like the Rundetaarn. Plus it's an amazing structure to see.

Strøget - Lego Shop

Strøget is the main shopping street in Copenhagen and is mainly pedestrianised. it has a great selection of shops for any bloggers reading this there is a Sephora there. It is also full of some great coffee shops. The Lego Shop is also there. The home place of Lego. It's got some amazing lego buildings including the streets of Nyhavn.

We had a great time exploring Copenhagen and loved the feel of the city, it felt clean and safe and I'd like to go back at some point.

Have you been to Copenhagen? Hope this helps if you're planning a trip there.

Love M

xxx

Top 5 European City Break Destinations

Hi there!

Now that I've paid off my debts I've been starting to look at the future.

I really want to buy my own house but there are also so many places I want to visit around the world that maybe it's time to start ticking a few of them off.

It's highly likely that I will be going to the places by myself so I thought I'd start small and go for a weekend break somewhere in Europe, short flights and easily done in a few days. If I hate it and feel weird travelling by myself then at least I won't have wasted too much money.

I will be travelling alone with my job as it is and hopefully will get to visit some European cities as part of it and I've been to uni in America on my own for 2 months, why not travel elsewhere as well??

1) Amsterdam - Somewhere that hasn't always been on my list to visit but recently seeing images of the buildings along the water like the one below has really made me want to go. It's possible that I might be going here later on in the year with my family, which will be a funny experience with the copious amount of prostitutes and cannabis.

Image from Top Dreamer.com

It will be really nice to wander around the city and if there are beautiful fields like this it will give me much more opportunity to use my camera and take pictures that are different to make up products lined up on my desk!

Image from Ticketbar Amsterdam

It will also be interesting to see the cannabis cafes, working in a toxicology lab for a while has made me so aware of drugs and their effects, to see it being legally sold will be really weird!

2) Istanbul - I don't know much about Istanbul and I've never been to Turkey either, but seeing pictures of the Blue Mosque has made me really want to visit. I love cathedrals, churches and all manner of religious buildings regardless of the religion itself - they are always so beautiful and the designs are always so unique.

Image from National Turk

I also hear that the food and the vintage shopping is really good there too, it would be a shame not to experience that as well! Just being somewhere with some good weather will also be nice.

3) Berlin - It's hard to know where to start with Berlin, my brother went and couldn't stop raving about it. The Berlin Wall and the Holocaust Memorial are places that you cannot miss, as well as strolling around the city to see the Brandenburg Gate.

Image from Travel Noire

Big European cities always seem to have a great museum and zoo too, and Berlin is no exception with Museum Island, and I also hear that the biggest department store in Europe is housed in Berlin too...............eek!

4) Budapest - The Danube, one of the most famous rivers in the entire world right in the middle of this beautiful city. You can cruise along it, visit the Budapest Opera House for an evening, or take a long dip at the baths.

Image from Eurostar Hotels

There's also the Chain Bridge which first connected Buda and Pest together, and also the Hungarian parliament and Crown Jewels. There's so much to see I think you'd need a whole week!

5) Dublin - I would love to visit a genuine Irish pub and drink real Guinness, as well as walk among scenery just like in the picture below.

Image from Lonely Planet

These are the Cliffs of Moher not far from Dublin and I'd love to walk along them.

I also really want to see St Patrick's Cathedral, and I hear they have a really good zoo which I love visiting!

Where are your top city break destinations? Have you got any planned for this year?

I can't wait to start planning going somewhere this year!

L xxx

Holiday Pirates

Hey All

This is probably a bit of a weird post to write but I decided I wanted to share this with you guys if you haven't heard of it. Holiday pirates is a site that finds amazing deals and shares them. You don't book through the site it takes you to the website links to book. My brother had mentioned it to me a few times and it took me a while to look at it myself.

He is forever tempting me with links to great deals he finds on there. Most people around me knew I was desperate to go to Iceland. It was one of those places that head my heart before I'd even been, so when he text me the link to the holiday pirates site for a deal to Iceland for two people for £180 I was very interested. I sent the link to my other half like wow look at this bargain (we'd not mentioned holidays together and he was away with work at the time so our relationship was still kind of up in the air as to what it was) to me surprise he text back saying it looked good and we should look into it.

Holiday pirates is all about finding bargains. This deal was great as I realised you could fly from Bristol to Reykjavik for about £60 pp return. The deal on the site was for a youth hostel so I wasn't keen on that for the first holiday so got browsing for other hotel deals.

I love using holiday pirates for inspiration on where to go, what sites to use to book and what deals are currently available.They also give ideas of different things today. On the site recently I saw a Beer and Spa deal in Poland (link here) for two nights, with accommodation for £49pp.

I love getting lost in sites like this looking at the deals available and planning loads of holidays in my head.

What sites do you use for holiday inspiration?

I can see my brother getting my to download this app was a dangerous choice, it's just to tempting to book them!

Love M

xxx

Cyprus

Hey All

A lack of posts from me this week as I'm busy sunning myself in Cyprus.  I was hoping to blog more whilst I was out here but super slow Internet and google, blogger, flickr and hotmail all requiring verification texts and things just aren't working.

After arriving super late on Sunday night we grabbed a quick pint and went off to bed!

On Monday I woke up put on the bikini and slapped on some sun lotion from my mum. Immediately after the legs sting and I've now got a nasty rash still covering them. Thankfully I packed some la roche posay anthelios xl which seems to be ok. Monday really wasnt my day.  Let's blame a lack of sleep. After deciding to ignore advice on wearing flip flops to the bar as the stones were hot, I thought walking along the water edge would be the best thing so my feet didn't burn. For a clumsy person not a great idea. Que me taking a rather dramatic fall into the pool and smashing my leg against the side. At this point I'm beautiful covered in a rash with massive bruises developing to add to it I got burnt.

After dinner we all went for some drinks.  My oldest brother was staying with us this night (night before the wedding) so when he put his girls to bed he was free. It was lush to drink was my brother's and dad. We enjoyed a fair few and got asked to keep the noise down ooops.

Tuesday arrived along with the big day and the reason we were out her.  We all woke up with slightly fuzzy heads! My brother seemed reasonably relaxed although he did start to pace.  After picking up his daughter's the beautifying starts. It was a hectic two hours. My hair and make up, my mum's make up and my little niece's hair and nails. My dress luckily covered the giant bruise.

Seeing my big brother get married after 14 years with his partner was amazing. I did cry as she walked down the aisle. It was an amazing day lot's of champagne, cake and amazing food.

Their amazing view from the wedding venue

Yesterday was a chill out day and my dads father's day surprise. We took him parasailing. The rest of us spent the hour chilling in the sea. I seem to have attracted my sister in laws niece and nephew and every time we see them they now want me. I do love little one's but days spent with them remind me I love giving them back!

My oldest brother (much to my mum's worry and dad's dislike, he walked away as he couldn't watch!) took me cliff jumping for the first time. It was amazing!!! I loved the rush. It was only about 12ft though so he's scouted out higher for us today! I'm such an adrenaline junkie but it was scary jumping and having to push yourself forward so you don't hit rocks.  Bring on the higher jumps!

Another evening with great food and pina coladas. We've not done a family holiday abroad in probably over 10 years so it's been really great to spend so much time with everyone. No arguments so far.

This evening me and dad are going wine tasting before some of us head into ayia napa for an amazing fish meze around the harbour.

The next few days for me include a pirate ship, water world and beauty treatments.

So far the holiday has been amazing. I already don't want to leave.

love M

xxx

   

Christmas Wishlist

This year Christmas is going to be a fleeting affair for me, I'll be working full time aside from Christmas Day and Boxing Day because everyone else managed to book time off before me...hurrah. I'm trying not to be Scrooge about it but 2 days off after building up to it for weeks probably isn't going to cut it; I'm probably going to end up sleeping for the majority of my time off as I'm so tired!

Moaning aside, I've managed to come up with a wishlist of gifts that if anyone would like to buy me, that would be FABULOUS.

I've gotten to the age where my parents and brother are the only people to buy me presents....it's a sad year for me indeed. I'm not materialistic obviously............but here's my wishlist if there was an unlimited budget and presents rained down on me on Christmas day:

1) I'll start off by stating the obvious. Soap and Glory. Who wouldn't want the big set for Christmas?!
It has been on my list every year and this year is no different, however I'm not quite so confident I'll get it. My mum knows how hard I've been working to get through my stash so I'm not so sure that I will be getting another 10/12 products to add to my collection! Especially as all of them are such good value and last a long time.....but rumour has it she went to Boots early to pick something up last Friday. Fingers crossed!

Image from lebeautygirl.com

2) Quite frankly I'd be ecstatic if anyone bought me the contents of Antipodes store. I drool every month at their products; even their website is a dream, the pictures are so mystical!

Image from antipodesnature.com

I've wanted to get my hands on the Juliet Brightening Cleanser, Manuka Honey Face Mask, Joyous Replenish Serum and their Kiwi Seed Oil Eye Cream.
I'm a big fan of the Divine Oil already, I can't possibly see what I wouldn't like from their products!



3) A pair of classic black heels. I'm talking Louboutins here obviously. Who on earth wouldn't want a classic black shoe which would go with absolutely everything with a flash of red on the sole?!
Here's a few ideas if anyone is feeling rich and generous:

 

(Images from Google)

Drool!


4) I'd like more clothing from Ralph Lauren and LK Bennett. I've started a (small) collection over the years from the outlet stores which is going quite well but I need more.
Whilst my cousin worked at an RL Outlet store it was great having the extra discount for family/friends but now she's gone off to uni the buying has dwindled down. I need more blazers, more jeans, and more dresses, Kate Middleton always looks good in hers and why not me too?! For example:

(Images all from Google)

Surely you can't go wrong with a bit of tailoring!


5) A bag. A black leather beautiful handbag to carry all of my worldly possessions on a daily basis would just be fabulous. Here's some bag porn:

All images from Pinterest

I'm quite a simple bag person it would seem! Any of the above would make me beam like a baby given its teddy bear.

6) Coats. I have a small obsession with coats. I hate being cold and love being all wrapped up in layers.

I'd absolutely love a cape, feeling like a chic superhero is definitely my thing!
I also think that details like the bow at the back and coloured coats with a belt at the waist are so easy but make a big difference.The ones above are all from Pinterest browsing so I've no idea how expensive they are!



7) I am a NARS virgin. I am yet to make my first ever purchase and to be totally honest I've no idea why. There's so many products they have that I NEED to own it seems a bit silly but nevertheless here are the specific ones I'm lusting after; any of those 4 blushes, any of the lip crayons and of course the amazing concealer they have, so creamy and buildable!

8) Urban Decay. Doesn't really need any introduction does it? We're all after the Naked 3 palette, I'm still after Naked 2 and Vice 2 along with all the others still available on the Debenhams website I was browsing earlier. Limited edition gets me every time, what a sucker!
Not only that but their eye crayons, primers, setting sprays and foundations are on my list too....neverending!

9) Holiday. Any where as long as it's hot! I'd like to lie on a beach drinking out of a coconut with nothing distracting my attention apart from my tan, my book and potentially my next meal/cocktail. Oh and soaking up some exquisite cultural experiences too!

 

If only.


10) Harry Potter Studios covered in snow. I've seen pictures and I've heard whisperings.....basically I'm uber jealous of anyone visiting the snow covered film sets.
I absolutely loved it when me and M went in March but I had to restrict myself when buying things and although I came out with a beautiful time turner necklace which is my pride and joy, I still want all of the additional book available in store, I want tshirts, wands etc etc. I especially want the map....HOW COOL!

 

So that's my wish list. I mean it's not too much to ask really is it?

L xxx