Hokkaido-Style Ramen Shop @ Boat Quay

Found a Ramen shop near my office through a colleague. Saw its advertisement some years back on papers, but I couldn't locate the exact location till lately. It is at North Canal Road along Boat Quay area, just opposite of OCBC Building.

Entrance of Baikouken

Hokkaido-Style Ramen with Corns & Butter

So what so special about this shop?

• It is owned by a Japanese Young Chap.
• He brought in Hokkaido-style Ramen with most of the ingredients came from Hokkaido itself, I heard.
• Price range is quite reasonable about S$8-15 depends on choices. For ladies, they can choose half bowl version if they found the original size is too filling for them. Very thoughtful.
• Hokkaido-style Ramen call Shoyu Ramen includes with sweet corns and Hokkaido butter to make it a buttery and some creamy feel.
• Like any Ramen shop in Japan, you can add their half boiled egg yolk-full boiled egg white to your dish. Others you may add such as bean sprout, corns, charsiew, etc.
• 3 Chef/Staff who are truly Japanese, so you feel that you are somewhere in Japan. Of course they greet you with Japanese accent :op
• Open kitchen concept, best to sit right in front of the counter so you can watch them face-to-face cooking while you are waiting or eating.
• Have Sapporo Beer at S$9 for 660ml, haven't try yet.
• Old style Japanese posters on the wall, cabinet, everywhere.
• You can choose to sit outside the shop for afresco feel or 2nd floor for air-conditioning area.
• Free Flow of Japanese Wheat Tea with a jug provided to each table, I like that!
  
  So try this Baikohken Ramen Shop, if you want a truely Hokkaido experience!! Oiishi Ne!

Kylie X2008 Concert, where is the cheapest in Asia?

Picture Source: sh.piao.com.cn/en_piao/

Frankly speakly, I didnt expect the tickets in Singapore vary with other Asian cities so much, when they announced the sales across Asia. That makes Singapore the most expensive place to host any form of concert for international stars, outside Japan. Ridiculous?

I really count myself lucky 'cos I realised that the tickets are ridiculous priced in Singapore, there are too many categories to choose, despite the pricing range is only 5. Just a single side view also have 5 different pricing. Can't believe it? Let's check out the price range for Kylie X2008 World Tour. Does that make Singapore competitive? I doubt so.

23/11 Bangkok - $250, $210, $140, $100, $50 (Fan Club Package @ $410 for 1st 5 rows)
25/11 Singapore - $ 550, $375, $250, $150, $100
27/11 Hong Kong - $360, $245, $190, $130, $70
29/11 Shanghai - $410, $300, $210, $150, $105, $80, $60, $40
04/12 Taipei - $270, $205, $135, $110, $70

* All prices above quoted based on Singapore Dollar.

So I choose to fly to Bangkok to watch at $140 per ticket, with 15% discount from my Thai friend, which worked out to $120 per ticket, with a Tiger Airway return ticket $0.01 promotion ($159 including all taxes), that totalled about $279 for a return airticket + kylie concert ticket which is equivalent to the price I pay $375-$550 Side View seating in Singapore (compare apple to apple where I am actually sitting in Bangkok vs Singapore).

By the way, my hotel is free for 3 nights in Bangkok because of a friend's hotel membership offer. : )

My New Gadget of the Year

The limited design of my Pearl White MSI on Cover, it looks like heart-shaped?

The keyboard and 10 inch screen look bigger than its competitor Acer & Asus.

Say Goodbye to my 3kg laptop and welcome my 1kg mini-notebook! Simply love my newest gadget of the year!

Bought a mini-notebook recently in an IT show, after trying to find a replacement for my current bulky and slow laptop. This idea comes about when I went for a recent HK working trip, and my laptop that I brought along was far too heavy and big to carry, especially when trying to lessen my luggage weight load.

Why I choose this MSI? I have read numerous reviews from websites that this is a good buy, apart from another few similar ones such as Acer Aspire One, ASUS Eeebook at a budget of less than S$1k. My 1st priority is it must be not weighed more than 1.3kg including battery, then I will look into the keyboard size, functions and memory. Basically if you need something that is light to carry, can web surf, built-in mic and webcam, good size of harddisk, and look like a macbook with cheap price, MSI might be the one for you.

So far I am proud to be the owner of this 6-cell and 1.2kg limited design notebook at S$899 with S$35 upgrade from 1GB RAM to 2GB, and now I carried this easily anywhere in town and overseas. I don't know where does it sell now as I didn't see this in any retail shop, that's why I bought it from the IT show when I know they are selling there! If you need to know about the distributor, maybe that I can help if you are interested in.