My First Concert - Taylor Swift Era's Tour Singapore

How old were you when you went to your first concert? I was 32. Last year. Yeah it took me that long because it was never on my bucket list! To be fair, there's not a lot of people I know who went to concerts before. It is not a common thing here as we do not have any locally (i meant like from famous celebrities fyi). Those famous people do NOT go here to sing so, usually we concert goers just book a flight to whatever cheap and near and just attend the concert there (btw i used Scoot from Miri to SG - so much cheaper).  i understand that its not something thats easy for us to just YOLO. you gotta have money for the concert tickets, flight tickets, hotel, food, transportation, etc. and lets not forget to discuss on who's gonna take care of the kids?! oh and work leave too. we gotta make sure we have any left

Money ✅ (credit card 🤫) Kids ✅ (thanks to my family) Work ✅ (go on a Saturday concert so I can only apply a one day leave since FRI and SUN is offday 😂)

So today I am going to write about all the amazing concerts i've been to.

1. Taylor Swift

THIS. This is a "fuck it i'm gonna watch her concert no matter what" moment. My first concert. I was inexperienced so the ticket booking was messed up for me. I MEAN, ITS TAYLOR SWIFT. My tiktoks was flooding over her amazing tour performances and she's KNOWN for being a great performer! I lost all the early ticket battles. I only scored the ticket battle by KLOOK - a third party. So yep, it was more expensive than what it was originally sold for. I paid USD1318.39 for two tickets. OK its a VIP 3 seat - comes with merch and such - and includes a "4 star" one night hotel stay.

BUT i was so disappointed with the hotel. They could've list a real 4 star hotel. But in my opinion, the hotel room was not even close to 4 star. It was insanely small and the service couldn't have been worse. Upon arriving, there was such a longgggg que to check in. Im sure everyone was there because of the concert ticket. But they could've at least managed the que better. So in result, the lift was also awful because TOO MANY PEOPLE at the same time :( it took hours to check in and out. I was glad it was only for one night. But the price paid definitely hurt. I was at Hotel G, Singapore.

Anyway, queuing into the concert was smooth. No long waits, probably because of the VIP tickets. Upon arriving the hall, i can honestly say that all seats are good seats haha. Well, except my seat (talk about that later)

Before Taylor Swift enter the concert, her special guest Sabrina Carpenter performed a few songs. At that time, she was not very popular. It was during her 'Nonsense' era. So only during this song people are loudly singing along. But other songs, people are just busy with selfies etc. But now, she's taking over the pop world. She can definitely have her own asia tour now. I'd go 100%. Its sad that she didnt do the short and sweet tour in asia. I know all the songs :(

Anyway, so Taylor Swift entered and everyone was screaming. Everything was so beautiful, the crowds, the lights, everything.

Here's my seat. I can barely see her. My expensive ticket betrayed me 🥹 But its ok, it was worth it. Im glad that I attended the Era's tour. This tour was special because she sings songs from her old albums too cause I am more of a fan of her old songs hehe. So i was pretty quiet during her newer songs performance. It was pretty nostalgic and i got teary eyes from "Enchanted" performance. Ahhhhh i'd go again in a heartbeat (with better seats)

Everyone was dressing up. I wished i did too but nope, i just did a Taylor Swift tshirt and jeans 💀 i didnt know about the dressing up concert thing!

ANDDDD GUESS WHAT, LISA BLACKPINK WAS ALSO THERE. she was just around behind our seat area and i cant believe i went back and forth to take pics and did not notice her!! i DID NOT know there was a VIP tent 🫠

taken from google. 

For the VIP Merch, it's so boring for a SGD6XX ticket. All we got was some pins, lanyards, postcards and a tote bag. Idk, i feel like they can definitely do better than that.

Our transport back to the hotel after the concert was something we did not expect. It was extremely hard to get grab. And everyone just marked up the price so crazy. At that time, we didn't know how to use the MRT 😂 so much money wasted on grab.

CONCERT TIPS:

1. get good seats, no floor seats unless you can score the front one
2. dress up
3. learn the MRT 
4. eat well first, the food inside EXPENSIVE
5. check the song setlist, so you can learn the songs that you didnt know haha. it was so boring not to sing along. especially if you are on floor seats, you cant see taylor, so you're just quietly sitting down while everyone else stands up and sing. cant even see the TV
6. check the VIP tents for other celebrities haha

Anyways, it looks like this post is long already without me talking about the other concerts i attended yet haha. So i'll end here and i'll talk about the other concerts on next posts!

Birthday Trip - what we ate!

So i am going to write more on my birthday trip to KL. Sorry but expect more trip posts haha. Anyway, we prepared a list of places to eat and today i'll talk about all the food places we went and missed.

Dookki Malaysia

I've seen this on tiktok and i've always wanted to go here. We never have something like this in Brunei - a custom tteokbokki!

We went there as soon as it opens because we want to avoid lunch hour. It was empty when we got there and we were the only one there. The choices were decent. They have many types of rice cakes (loveeee the yam rice cakes!!), fried chicken, waffle, rice. Honestly, the choices are not that much but for the price, it is worth it. I cant remember the price, but i think its around BND12 per person, we also added a mozzarella cheese ring with additional charge.

 

You can custom the tteokbokki sauce and writing it right now makes me crave for it. We also video called the kids as we know they would love this. My husband was not a big fan of tteokbokki, but it was my birthday and i got to choose haha. And so happy that I finally checked this off my list.

For dinner, we went to Texas BBQ Barn. My husband is a big fan of ribs. And upon seeing this on tiktok also, we just had to try them.

It was decent but not something we would go again. So far, nothing beats Brunei's @whitecoalbn yet. Sorry i cant remember the price as it was back in July :( you may check their tiktok! The ribs was tender but i feel like it tasted too barbeque sauce ish and the garlic bread can be improved hehe.

Spotted these coconut and One Piece chocolate ice cream somewhere at bukit bintang (where Mana Mart used to be). It was ok.

DonDonKi Wagyu Skewers (RM16 each i think). A must whenever we are in KL

We went to TRX because of popmart but the que was crazy! It is always long que whenever we went to KL's popmart. Which is the opposite for Brunei haha. I was craving for Thai food and we opt to dine at Busaba Thai

We browse the menu and the price is pricier than what we expected. Not much choice but since we are on a holiday anywayyy so we just ordered.

Portions are small and taste wise it was OK. But because of the price, we'd skip this next time.

Then next to Nasi Lemak Seafood Kukus at Setapak. It was quite far from our hotel, but worth it!

When we arrived, there was already a que. We were scared they were running out of lobsters as people infront of us ordered lobsters too. But yeah we got what we wanted!

Snowcrab, Lobster, King Crab + sambal petai. Perfect! Their nasi lemak is also delicious, my husband got a second order. I cant remember how much the total was. But it was definitely cheaper than Brunei's haha. We would go here again :)

Also spotted this Fried Chicken ice cream at the airport and of course i had to try it. It was surprisingly delicious haha. yes Krispy Kreme donuts is a must to bring home

I think these are so far the only food we ate (as i can find in my gallery). Not much as it was only a short 2-3 days trip. We still have a list of places we have not gone to yet, so maybe next time! :)

Whats your go to in KL?

next posts - more on KL food from previous trip haha

Birthday Trip - Ibis Styles Kuala Lumpur Bukit Bintang, Jalan Alor

Continuation of my birthday trip post - now let's talk about the hotel. As soon as we landed in KL, we used the KLIA express train to go to KL Sentral. I know we could've used grab, but it was an hour trip to the hotel and the price was expensive. I'd only recommend grab if you have more than 2 people with you. Last time i used grab with my kids and we used the premium one (van) and it was such a comfortable long trip and we would do it again if we're going again with them.

Upon arriving KL Sentral (30 mins), i lost my train ticket :(

I fell asleep in the train and when we arrived, i was rushing to get out and didnt realised that I probably dropped my ticket on my seat. So lesson learned - KEEP YOUR TRAIN TICKETS. Haha. Because we dont have trains in brunei, i was not aware on the importance. I thought its just an entry pass, turns out we also need it to get out of the train station.

Anyways, we got a taxi for our transport to our hotel as our grab took too long to arrive. It was surprisingly cheap. We had to pay first at the counter, so no need to worry on them suddenly changing the price during the drive.

My hotel this time was Ibis Styles Kuala Lumpur Bukit Bintang, Jalan Alor. I forgot how much we paid for it as I booked a flight+hotel ticket. We stayed there for 4 days 3 nights, and costs around probably BND2XX total. Probably can get it cheaper as we booked last minute.

Anyway, our drive there was interesting. It's probably the driver's first time to the hotel as he was struggling to find it, even with the map. The map led us to a shady alley and he went down to ask people where's the hotel. I was worried at first, i was worried that our hotel is within this alley haha. It seems like we couldnt reach the hotel by car directly, so the driver said we can just walk from here.

So we got our luggages and walked as the hotel building is just behind. To our surprise, the hotel is EXACTLY in front of Jalan Alor food street. No complaints though, i love it. The idea of exiting the hotel and there's a rush of people and late night food options sounds like a good idea.

We went to check in and rest a bit at the hotel before going down to waste no time. Even though it was like 2am haha. Our hotel was good though, clean and neat. Honestly, no complaints.

It was spacey enough for 2 adults and for the price. It doesnt have hair dryer though.

It even has Netflix. Awesome.

Out to the streets we go, must not waste time haha. This is what i liked about staying in Bukit Bintang area, lots of places closes late and its the best place to maximize your trip.

Im sure you've heard of this right? Damascus. They always have long que. I've tried it before but the first time i tried it, i didnt liked it as much as i expected to like it. But then i blamed it on my lack of appetite that time. So I gave it a second chance.

I personally did not love it. I've tasted better ones. I dont understand the hype haha. It was just OK, but the cilantro (is that a cilantro?) is a turn off for me. I would not buy this again.

I also must get durian. Haha. Durian is SO EXPENSIVE at home. I believe this was around RM20. Sooo goood. A must at Jalan Alor.

thats it for today. I'll continue on the next post for more food! Oh yeah i'd recommend the hotel and i'd no doubt be staying there again.