Fridge Magnets from Bosnia & Herzegovina

It's time for a post on the fridge magnets that I had bought from Bosnia Herzegovina, specifically from Mostar because that's the only city in the country that I visited.

For information sake I've included the price of each magnet at the bottom of each photo. Prices are cheaper compared to most other parts of Europe and even in Malaysia (gosh!).

All the magnets were bought from shops in the Old Bridge (Stari Most) area of Mostar.

The customary flag and map of each country that I visit:

Price: Flag (EURO 1.00), Map (EURO 2.00)

Here's a magnet of the Stari Most:

Price: EURO 1.00

Fridge Magnets from Montenegro

During my trip to the Balkans last month, I visited Montenegro on a day trip from the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.

Personally I didn't find Montenegro that fascinating and that it was overated, but that's a story for another day.

Here are the fridge magnets that I bought during the day trip to Montenegro.

Flag and map of Montenegro from the Old Town of Kotor:

Price: EURO 3.00

Price: EURO 3.00

After buying the red coloured map of Montenegro, I thought that's the only Montenegro map I was gonna get until I saw this lovely one and couldn't resist myself:

Price: EURO 1.50 

(This was cheaper than the red map because it was sold outside the Old Town of Kotor)

Celia absolutely adored these magnets which were made from match boxes:

Price: EURO 1.00 each

I though this magnet was kinda cool, ended up giving it to Natty:

Price: EURO 1.00

Fridge Magnet from Singapore

I was away in Singapore last week for one week of training. First time in my working life I travelled out of Malaysia for work/training. Such are the benefits of working for a multinational.

Anyway, during my week in Singapore, I met up with a cousin and he brought me to a few places including Bugis Village where I found this fridge magnet of the Singapore map:

SGD 2.00 (after conversion it's still cheaper than Malaysia!)

I was hoping to find a fridge magnet of the Singapore flag too. Unfortunately this is the only one I found, i.e. a combination of both.

I was planning to visit the Botanical Gardens on my first day when I arrived in Singapore simply because it's a UNESCO World Heritage site and I need to visit 50 site (travel bucket list). Unfortunately it was raining and I was too lazy to come out from the cozy hotel. Next time la.

Fridge Magnets from Croatia

I just returned from a trip to the Balkans covering three cities of Split, Mostar and Dubrovnik (in that order).

For this first blog post after being away for 2 weeks, I'll share with you the fridge magnets that I bought in Croatia.

First, the flags that I collect each time I travel to a new country:

Price: 
Left: HRK 20.00 (The Croatian currency is called Kuna) 
Right: HRK 15.00 

At the souvenir shop I saw this beautiful coat of arms and decided to buy it:

Price: HRK 15.00 

If you follow my blog, you would know that I also collect maps, so here's one of the Croatian map:

 Price: HRK 15.00

Lastly, I bought these two ceramic magnets because they're so pretty:

Price: HRK 20.00 each

I'll be passing some of the magnets to Celia when I go to Singapore next week for training. If she follows this blog she'll be wondering which are the ones I'll be giving her ;-)

Fridge Magnets from Japan

Today I would like to share with you the fridge magnets that I bought from Japan when I was there in June.

First, the flags ...

Left: Japan flag (JPY 300)

Right: Rising Sun flag (JPY 450)

Before I went to Japan I was hoping to find a magnet map of Japan, and I was delighted when I found this pretty one in Dotonrobi, Osaka:

Price: JPY 540 

The blue map of Japan certainly compliments the map of Hokkaido given to me earlier by a friend ...

Since my sister collects food shaped magnets, I bought her this:

Looks like a real shrimp sushi. Price: JPY 1,188

I also bought a 2-way magnet of pretty geishas for Celia:

A single magnet with two different images. Price: JPY 400

Since we're on the topic of fridge magnets, here are two photos of pretty magnets I found in the shops:

Fridge Magnets from Celia

An avid traveller, Celia did a month long trip to Europe in May this year and she got me a few fridge magnets. They arrived in the post on 28 July 2017.

People magnets are my favourite, also map and flag magnets too.

Apart from the people magnets, Celia also got me these:

Gonna put these under Transport and Animal. I'm a sucker for displaying and storing my magnets according to themes.

2016 - Not many travels but lotsa learning

At the end of each year, I go through my customary look back at the year.

I travelled to only 2 places in 2016. But there were many learning opportunities throughout the year to improve my career prospects, health and just for the sake of pursuing passion. Here goes:

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Travelled to Nepal (again!). Was supposed to do Everest Base Camp but was unsuccessful because we couldn't fly into Lukla where the trek begins. You can read all about it here.

View of Kathmandu city from the rooftop of Hotel Yambu.

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Travelled to Kuching, Sarawak for the first time. Went there to participate in the Kuching Marathon.

Also took the opportunity to visit some interesting sights in Kuching and gluttoned all the way with Kuching food.

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Took part in 2 fun runs: Kuching Marathon and Score Run.

Finishers medal.

I also registered for the Precious Ladies & Men's Possible Run on 12 December 2016 but didn't go because it was raining that morning.

Will be doing my first 10km on 8 January 2017 at the MPI Generali Run. Keeping fingers crossed that I'll be able to complete the race within 1 hour 15 minutes which is the time limit I've set for myself.

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Enrolled for the Chartered Bankers course offered by the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers. 

I completed my first module, Marketing and Selling in Financial Services on 20 November 2016.

I've got 2 more papers to sit in April 2017 before I move on to the final level, i.e. Chartered Bankers level.

This is how the study text look like.

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Started taking up tai chi and completed learning the 37 steps, Cheng Man Cheng style on 19 October 2016.

Attended push hands technique workshop on 21 October 2016 at Cova Square in Kota Damansara. The workshop turned out to be a self defence class instead of push hands which was a disappointment. What a bloody waste of RM399.00.

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Completed a Basic Nail Course where I learned to give a manicure, pedicure and buffing amongst other things.

Somehow I've developed an interest in making nails look pretty and healthy. I still need to work on my nail polish application though, to make it look flawless.

My manicure/pedicure kit which is included in the fees. 

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Added 4 Hard Rock Cafe bottle openers to my collection, i.e. Amsterdam, Helsinki, Pattaya and Yokohama.

I could have added Lisbon, Macau and Munich to the collection, but was on a cost discipline exercise. Hard Rock Cafe bottle openers don't come cheap, you know ...

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Started embracing a minimalist lifestyle because we actually don't need much to live. Having less stuff also means more space to free my flat and mind. Cleaning my flat is also so much easier with less stuff lying around.

I started this minimalist lifestyle by slowly decluttering my stuff using the Konmari method. It's a slow process but I'm getting there.

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Happy New Year 2017 everyone !

Fridge Magnets from The Netherlands and Tokyo

LvH was back in his country of origin and I pestered him to get me fridge magnets. This is what he bought for me:

 According to LvH, Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam is not so popular with the locals because biker dudes hang out there and the locals perceive biker dudes as bad boys. Oh well ...

Holland has got some lovely fridge magnets. I can actually spin the blades on this 3-D windmill :-)

Nat was also in Tokyo with her family for a holiday and she got me this:

There are 2 Hard Rock Cafes in Tokyo: Uyeno-Eki and Roppongi. This one is from the former.

Hard Rock Cafe Fridge Magnets from Malacca and San Francisco

Last week was a good week for my Hard Rock Cafe fridge magnet collection because two friends passed me the magnets that I asked them to buy when they were in those places for work.

Now I have a total of 6 HRC magnets that I've started collecting since September 2013.

Borobudur Fridge Magnet

I visited Borobudur back in 2010 which you can read here.

At that time I had not started my fridge magnet collection yet. Therefore my collection was devoid of one from Borobudur.

However LVH visited the place recently as Borobudur was on his 'must-see' places. Of course I asked him to get me a fridge magnet that I missed out in 2010. So here it is:

As usual, I am too lazy to remove the packaging :-)

Sweden ... South Korea ... Sarawak ... Fridge Magnets ...

My sister (that lucky gal) was gallavanting in these countries for work recently.

This Scandinavian country is where the pop group Abba comes from. And they gave us hits like Dancing Queen, Super Trooper, Take a Chance on Me and all the hits from the movie, Mamma Mia!

This is a Dala Horse. You can read about it here.

After gallavanting in Sweden, my sister crossed oceans to the far east - South Korea!

The hanbok is the traditional costume of South Korea. Not too sure though whether it's unisex.

Apart from my sister travelling, Angie was also in Kuching and she brought me this:

The hornbill is the national bird of Sarawak. Beside the hornbill is the rafflesia flower which is the biggest flower in the world according to Guinness. And I heard it stinks like hell.

Hard Rock Cafe Fridge Magnets

During my trip to Phuket in September, LM wanted to visit the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) there to get a t-shirt.

While looking at the famous HRC memorabilia in the store, I got myself a guitar shaped HRC fridge magnet cum bottle opener:

This piece of beauty had inspired me to start a collection of these iconic Hard Rock Cafe fridge magnets. I could have chosen to collect HRC's legendary pins instead, but I'm more of a fridge magnet person :-)

After coming back from Phuket, I went to the Kuala Lumpur HRC to get myself this:

And Sura who went to the United Kingdom recently got me this:

I love these colourful, iconic lovelies :-)

Holy Fridge Magnets

On Page 4 of any Malaysian passport, there's a sentence that reads, 'This passport is valid for all countries except ...

But late last year, the Malaysian government had relaxed this ban. Now Malaysians can travel to Israel for up to 21 days at a time. Previously, only Malaysians on pilgrimage were allowed to enter to Israel and limited to 700 Malaysians each year, with only 40 from one church. They also also allowed to stay up to only 10 days at one time. You can read a report in The Star here.

Now that the travel ban has been lifted, I wonder whether the new Malaysian passports will still have that sentence stating that the passport is valid in all countries except Israel.

I guess Jerusalem would be the point of entry into Israel for most travellers. 

What wonders Jerusalem holds for Christians!

There's also this place in Israel called ...

... which was the location for many Biblical events which you can read here.


Across the border in Palestinian territory is ...

Whenever I think of Bethlehem, I think of Christmas and carols start playing in my head :-)

Note: The fridge magnets in this entry were from Celia who visited Israel last month. She never had to experience any travel ban into Israel because she is a Singaporean. Read all about her travels in Israel here.

Beijing Courtyard Houses Fridge Magnet

My colleague Marcus brought his family to Beijing and Xi'an during the recent school holidays. And he brought me this fridge magnet: 

Looks like a good place to practise kung fu ;-)

Fridge Magnets from Kota Kinabalu and Phra Nang

TC went to Kota Kinabalu during the March school holidays and was so fascinated with the beautiful ladies of Sabah that he got me this magnet:

 

I left the magnet in the packaging because of the explanation.

Beautiful ladies of KK were not the only mammals who caught TC's eye, but also these creatures:

A proboscis monkey has a huge nose that looks like a dick hanging from its face.

Lastly, I got this magnet from my recent trip to Railay Beach in Thailand:

Ironically I bought this magnet at the Krabi International Airport since there were no magnets on Railay Beach. Or maybe I didn't look hard enough ...

Fridge Magnets from Krakow & Prague

Met up with Angie for a hike in Bukit Gasing this morning. I've not been hiking much these days, but our determination to reach Annapurna Base Camp next year is strong. So we've got to keep the momentum (and training) going.

Angie just returned from a working trip to Krakow. And she managed to squeeze in a short trip to Prague as well.  Knowing that I collect fridge magnets, she got me these:

Prague is also known as Praha :-)

Thank you Angie for the lovely magnets!