Back from Brazil!

I’m back from Brazil. It’s great to be home after a week full of sight-seeing activities. We had a ton of fun, I highly recommend visiting Iguassu Falls if you are in Brazil. The falls are breathtaking. People do such a fantastic job preserving the wildlife around in the park, you can see all kinds of wild animals there. Here are some pictures I took to share with you guys :D.

From Iguassu Falls National Park…

The Bird Park by the Falls. I never saw so many beautiful exotic tropical birds in one place.
<– me petting a friendly tucan, Brazil’s national bird.

We took an eco-adventure tour in the jungle, riding bikes and canoeing on the lake, saw some caymans, even a baby one up close.

Us riding bikes with our tour guide Marcus, friendliest guy ever.
<-- See the cayman behind the leaves?

And we went shopping in a tax-free zone in Paraguay, which was only 40 minutes from the city of Iguassu Falls. People from all the surrounding regions come here to buy goods to bring back to sell in their own towns. Our tour guide Rodrigo said it was very easy to get 1 kilogram of marijuana for only $15! Imagine that. So people smuggle it in from Paraguay and go to big cities like Rio de Janeiro to sell the weed for lots more. The market was pretty chaotic. We found people love Pringles, lol. Every street vendor had cans and cans of Pringles to sell. Some even tried to sell us some when we were moving in the traffic jam. And they ain't cheap for the people because they are imported from North America. In a Brazilian supermarket, it costs 6 Reals (Brazilian dollar) which equals $3.55 U.S.

And at night we went into town, stuffed our faces with Brazilian BBQ. The waiters would bring out all kinds of meat on rotisserie skewers and give you a cut non-stop. It was awesome. And we went to a show full of sexy Brazilian dancers. Check out the fabulous costumes!

Off to Brazil

I’m going to Brazil for a week. This is the city we’ll be staying in, Iguassu Falls. The Iguassu is one of the biggest water falls in the world. Looks magnificent in the picture. I can’t wait to see it in person!
For comfort, I’m wearing a pair of old jeans, a comfy Maxstudio silk top, and my roomy Gucci tote. And my trusty pashmina wrap, it’s always so darn cold on the plane.

I’ll be missing out on some fun Labor Day festivities this long weekend, and some great shoppings (check the Sales and Coupons page for awesome Labor Day weekend sales), but hopefully I’ll be doing lots of shopping over in Brazil. I’m glad I’ll be back just in time for New York Fashion Week next Friday though :).
I probably won’t be popping up here next week unless I get near a computer with Internet access. See you darlings in a week. Keep on shopping! xoxo.

Taking a little breather

I’m off to the beautiful Newfoundland, Canada, for a few days. It will be a refreshing change of pace by the ocean and forests. My guy’s grandmother turning 90(!) years old. So we are having a birthday/family reunion. I’m going to give this pink ballerina-style BCBG Max Azaria dress a whirl before the summer’s over, it’s been sitting in my closet for too long.

What vacation plans do you have this summer?

Phew, We just got back from our 4-day trip to New York City, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Washington D.C. That was a lot of places to cover in 4 days and I am exhausted. But very happy! We saw so much and learned so much :). We took the Statue of Liberty cruise, rode to the top of Rockefeller Center, took a nice stroll on the Fifth Avenue and Time Square, visited Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, saw the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, learned the history of the Liberty Bell, visited the Capitol Hill, the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and on the last day we visited Penn’s Cave. It’s America’s only all-water cavern and wildlife park nestled in Central Pennsylvania’s scenic Penn State Country. It was so much fun!

I want this summer to be a busy one. We are trying to go to as many places as possible. What travel plans do you have?

Santiago, Chile

I really wish I could travel a lot more than I do in a year. If I was independently wealthy, that’s what I’d do, travel around the world. Well, my next trip is coming up! I’m going to Santiago, Chile in a couple of weeks. I’m very excited. Have any of you been? Any advice and tips for me? I don’t know much about the city so I’m starting to do some research. All the pictures look amazing. I’m aiming at checking out all these places.

(Palacio de La Moneda, Municipal Theatre of Santiago, Bellas Artes museum)

And of course I’m also interested in the shippings there! That’s where I really need more research. If anybody knows the must-see markets, malls, shops, please let me know!

(Photo source: wikipedia.com)

I’m back!

Bonjour cheries! I’m back from Paris. It was a jam-packed week. We did so much sightseeing and walking, I am exhausted. I could really use another vacation. I bought your standard souvenirs and trinkets, including a beret I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t do much real shopping. We only went to Avenue des Champs Elysees (the famous fashion street) on the last day. Younger girls are in trendy clothes like the rest of the world. Zara, H&M and Mango are everywhere there. Parisian women are definitely not conservative in their way of dressing. There were a lot of cleavages showing. Many women didn’t wear bras. Even the older ladies. And strangely visible panty lines and bras under see-through blouses don’t seem to be problems there. I guess you could say they are very confident in their body image. I was more impressed with the way men dressed there. I saw many men in dressier clothes on the streets, complete with accessories like “man purses” as my guy called them. We think they are more inclined to dress up on a daily basis, and just aren’t afraid to be snazzy dressers, unlike North American guys, who either don’t want to bother or don’t want to be made fun of, being called “metrosexual” or “flamboyant”. Here are some shots I snapped on the streets.

(a crisply dressed and well-matched couple)

(Love the red boots with the red floral mini dress on that girl)

(black & white is still Parisian ladies’ fave color combo)

(an impeccably dressed lady)

(a beautiful bag at a Dior store)

(a huge Louis Vitton store on Anenue des Champs-Elysees)

(at Chanel)

Off to Paris

So darlings, I’m off to Paris for a week. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post and show some pics here during the week. Au Revior for now!

Paris trip almost no-go

Well, I was utterly depressed last week because I thought our Paris trip was botched as we have been battling with the car dealership that we’d recently bought our car from (the car died after only 4000 KM). The possibility of shelling thousands of dollars out of our own pocket is very real at this point. However, yesterday we made a decision that we must go on this Paris trip, so we went ahead and bought air tickets (which weren’t cheap either). We are not giving in.

People do not utter the words “used car salesmen” in total disgust without good reason. Ladies (and guys), if you are from the Greater Toronto Area, DO NOT buy cars from Kingscross Motor Sports in Scarborough!!! They refused to take any responsibility. So please heed my warning if you’re about to go there. They are the greasiest, scummiest, most dishonest car salesmen (and women) we’ve ever met.

Anyway, I won’t let this get me down. I’m just waiting for my friend to show up so we can go shopping later. I know I know, shopping again. I’m just going to window shop and help her pick out a few dresses. She’s being influenced by me and now she craves for pretty spring dresses. Well, looking at these won’t break my bank account. And it lifts my mood.

Geometric Pattern Minimal Dress $110

Baby Doll Polka Dot Dress $48

Renaissance Floral Pattern Dress $85

Lovely Embroidery Dress $78

Flower Printed Lace Dress $72

Pattern Layered Trapeze Dress $130

Retro Pattern Chiffon Dress $75

Gay Paree!

Our Paris trip is still 6 months away, but I’m already getting really excited about it. I’m looking forward to lots of museums, arts and history, decadent French pastry, real French stinky fromage (according to our French friend, North American cheese is not real cheese), and of course shopping, however in my case a lot of window-shopping. Our French friend gave us two pieces of advice for visiting Paris:
1. Speak French.
2. Never ask a French person for directions.

He wasn’t kidding.

The city has so many tourists, Parisian people just don’t have the time of the day to stop to give directions to every one that asks them. They will ignore you if you attempt to, especially if you speak English to them. You are better off with a map.

So I’m going to pick up French lessons again. I have a “Learn French” CD that’s easy to listen to. You can practice speaking with it too. It even tells you if your accent is like a tourist (i.e. terrible, lol) or a native.

So any of you been to Paris? Do you recommend any particular places I should see, besides your usual Musee National du Louvre, L’Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame, etc? Any shopping centres, streets, plazas that I must go to?