(More than) Once In A Blue Moon

Let's go crazy! Do it, do it, do it now ~

Since I have fallen in love with CNBLUE's music last year, watching their live stage had been a priority on my bucket list. I already watched their concerts in Seoul and endless list of their Japan tour through DVD and videos in YouTube. They live act were so great and enjoyable. So when the announcement of their world tour (BLUE MOON) came up early this year, the only thing that went through my mind was: I had to go!

Part 1: Blue Moon in Singapore, where it all began..

Taipei was their 1st stop and it's not easy to reach Taiwan without a proper plan for me, but not too long after that they announced Singapore as their 2nd stop. Yeaynesss! The concert would be held on April 13th, but first thing first: I had to make sure to get the ticket. Thanks God I was able to buy it online through Sistic. After a madness battle with the web system problem due to high traffic in Sistic, I managed to get my ticket. It wasn't my first choice category but I didn't care as long as I had a reserved seat :)

Part of me knew that the concert would be awesome but since it's my first experience, I lowered my expectation. I had arrived at the concert hall, Singapore Indoor Stadium, an hour before the concert began. While waited for my cousin to come, I listened to their concert set list and I really couldn't hide my excitement: my feet won't stop moving, my heart beat faster, I couldn't stand still and wandered around.

I had got into the concert hall 10 minutes before it began, took a moment to the rest room, and when I came back the hall already went dark. Here we go! Their live stage was beyond my expectation, my affection has grew multiple times after watched their concert. I brought my camera inside, even though at the entrance gate the security asked me not to take any pictures and videos but they're not around throughout the concert, so... I recorded a few fancams ;)







The one thing I need from my fancams was a clear view of my fav CNBLUE's member, Kang MinHyuk, the drummer. He couldn't move around and stuck with his drum set further away from the edge of the stage, that's why I need my camera and a binocular.

I had a wonderful time during Singapore concert, then my crazy adventure started...

Part 2: Blue Moon in Bangkok, broke fan girl story..

Their next stop after Singapore was Bangkok. I didn't need a visa to go to Bangkok. Hmm.. should I go? After landed in Jakarta from Singapore, I texted my cousin: "I have a thought to watch their concert in Bangkok, shall we go?". Unexpectedly she responded my crazy question positively! Because the tickets were already sold out, we didn't raise our hope too high and started to look for fans who were probably have extra tickets to sale. I didn't know how the universe worked but it didn't take a long time for us to get those tickets. The seller is Indonesian too, so it's easier for us to communicate.
Two weeks later, we landed in Bangkok.

Since it was an unexpected trip, we're going on a really tight budget. Our plan was arrived at Bangkok on Friday night, went straight to our guest house and sleep, woke early in the morning on Saturday then rushed to the concert hall to grab the official merchandise and stayed there until the concert ended. The last one was going around Siam area on Monday afternoon while waiting for our flight back home at night.

To sum up, it wasn't a very happy and pleasant journey after all. We didn't have a chance to enjoy Bangkok tasty food, the security took my camera away when the concert started so I missed the first song, it was during that time when the gray dark cloud hanging above Yong Hwa's head so he was not as playful and chatty as usual and I couldn't watch their performance clearly since too many people blocked my vision (even though I sat in the vip area... x__x). But I managed to get all the official merchandise I looked for (except the MIA poster) and met the nicest people during this trip :)

Part 3: Blue Moon in Kuala Lumpur, I thought it was the last one..

Reached the point when my friends raised their eyebrows: "what? are you going to KL to catch another Blue Moon concert? Are you crazy?" I don't know, maybe. I felt like I met my match, everything went so smoothly this time. Bought the tickets via Red Tix (easy breezy), got super cheap flight to KL, the concert hall was just a walking distance from my hotel, totally enjoyed the concert, and the blue boys blew my mind again this time. Still crave for more? YES.

I looooooove the sexy cutie hottie manly drummer!

Part 4: Blue Moon in Jakarta, one superb wrap up...

After the tragic cancellation of CNBLUE's Asian Tour: Blue Storm in Jakarta two years ago, during their world tour this year, the blue boys finally arrived and hold their concert in Jakarta! *SO MUCH WIN* 

Jakarta was their last stop for Blue Moon World Tour in 2013 and the ending of my cray cray adventure. This time everything went soooooooooooooooooooooo great, beyond my imagination. 

I got the chance to represent Kavenyou and write the full coverage for this event! I was able to attend the press conference and got free ticket (media ID) for the concert! *woot woot*

So that day finally came, the day when I saw the boys clearly with my own eyes, without a binocular glued to my eyes. The boys were look dashingly handsome as I imagine at the press conference. I couldn't take my eyes off of the drummer (most of the time) during that event. My excitement raised up when he looked back at me, I put on my brightest smile and wave my hand, then... he gave me his killer eye smile! OH MY GOD~ I treasured that 15 minutes event, one of my best days this year.

IMHO, Blue Moon in Jakarta was the best concert I've ever watched. The concert hall was the smallest one, but fully occupied, so the event felt more intimate. The boys gave the audience their post card set for free as an apology for Blue Storm tragedy, the crowd sang too loud and fired up their performance on stage as a result, plus plus too many warm fan services! My happiness multiplied thousand times when I heard that everyone I know whom watched CNBLUE's live performance for the first time (some of them not even fans of this band) acknowledged that they really enjoyed the show! 

Last note: CNBLUE will continue their world tour to America next January, maybe Europe after that. I'm still looking forward for the encore concert which usually hold in Seoul, so... is it really the end? :)

Kuala Lumpur Trip

The time has come.. Kuala Lumpur trip recap! Wohoo!

But first of all, please take away my last KL trip plan post from your mind. In short story, I didn't go around that much (super lazy me, P & M). Just strolling Bukit Bintang-Imbi-Hang Tuah area. So say goodbye to Yut Kee Kopitiam, Marafuku Japanese Udon, and that delicious looking Nasi Lemak at Village Park Restaurant (T_T). I managed to reach IKEA though. LOT 10 is located in Bukit Bintang, so of course I spared my time to visit that place. Despite of that fact, I still have a freakin' good time that weekend =)

One more, please don't expect this post to be a travel guide to Kuala Lumpur. The main reason I took this trip was to watch CNBLUE Blue Moon concert. So I didn't have any plan to visit Kuala Lumpur main tourist attractions or going for a wander adventure at the first place.

Now it's time for me to share the details.

Pretty pink cabin luggage and a blue-pink travel tag with happiness written on it. Perfect match!

DAY 1 : CGK-LCCT-Hotel Sentral Pudu

After almost one hour delay and 2 hours flight, I arrived at LCC Terminal Kuala Lumpur around 4pm. I took Star Shuttle Bus to go to Pudu Raya area and paid MYR 8 for almost 2 hours journey (caught on bad traffic). Unlike KLIA, LCCT doesn't yet have railway connection to reach central city. If you want to go to KL Sentral by train you have to take shuttle bus to KLIA first. (more info about LCCT bus service)

The traffic on Pudu Raya was so bad that evening so my friends and I decided to take a walk to find our hotel. After 20 mins of walking, silly thing happened when we realized that we went to the opposite direction. Poor us :( We dragged ourselves to the start point and continue looking for Hotel Sentral Pudu. In the end we still need to catch a taxi because there's a road construction nearby. No meter taxi, I hate that.

Arrived at Hotel Sentral Pudu around 7.30pm, had a quick a bath because we sweat so much after that long 1 hour walk, we went outside to grab some food for dinner. We only need 5 mins walk to reach Berjaya Time Square and we found... Nando's!

Dinner with a view (if you know what I mean ;p)

P happy face with our big supper

We had a splendid time with that chicken, yummy yummy yumm! We paid MYR 53 for that big full platter of chicken and four side dishes.

DAY 2: Bukit Bintang-Blue Moon KL

We strolled around Bukit Bintang area that afternoon. We took the train from Imbi and got off at Bukit Bintang Station, just 1 station away. Our first destination was a cute coffee shop at Fahrenheit 88, called Coffee Stain by Joseph. Since the building is located behind Lot 10, so we chose Lot 10 exit from the station and accidentally bumped into H&M store on our way out. I couldn't miss that store of course, so we went in and got myself the colorful earring set. The one from my previous H&M post. Soooo happy!

So we arrived at Coffee Stain by Joseph which's located in a quiet corner inside Parkayama (Japanese fashion area) at Fahrenheit 88. I read on a blog that when she visited this coffee shop she ordered a cup of latte with special made spongebob art latte on top and the barista fulfilled her wish! But sadly, I guessed that skillful barista wasn't on duty during my visit :(

We love the coffee and fell for the comfy ambience!

M & me. Busy with our phones.

Yang & Yin!

After that we're just dealing with girl's shopping ritual and grabbed our lunch on Pavillion Shopping Mall. M & I accompanied P to taste the famous Ippudo Ramen. The ramen looked soooo damn good, a big temptation, seriously. But I promised myself to not eating pork again (God please help me T.T) so I just shared a mini bowl of Tori Ishiyaki (chicken in hot stone) with M. We filled our tummy with Mix Shawarma from Tarbush Express on Food Republic later. Just for your info, one big bowl of Shiro Ramen at Ippudo will cost you MYR 26 and MYR 3 for a glass of Hot/Iced Green Tea.

We went back to our hotel on 4pm because M & I had to prepare ourselves then catch the "Blue Moon"on Stadium Negara that night. We had a really good time of course :) I'll share all the juicy, crazy, unexpected trip for my "Blue Moon" season once I ended the journey this October in Jakarta. Suddenly I remember it'll probably my last time to watch that epic "Blue Moon" and I feel a little grief deep down my heart :(

One happy fangirl!

Accidentally found us! Haha it feels funny!
Yup that's me, the one who's sticking her eyes onto the binocular in order to get a clearer view of the drummer ;)

DAY 3: IKEA-Bukit Bintang

IKEA! No matter what, if it's rainy or sunny, I had to go. We took a long ride from Imbi Station to reach Kelana Jaya Station (transferred from monorail to LRT at Masjid Jamek station) then hop on to free shuttle bus to IPC Shopping Center. I almost found everything that I looked for: the lamp, the colorful mirror, city drawing decorations, the colorful straws, the pink lips pillow.. but due to my tight budget, I only paid for the pretty pink lamp, city wall decorations, and one blue mirror.

We ended up at Bukit Bintang area (again) that evening and finally got some time to try Kim Lian Kee's Hokkien Mie at Lot 10 food market. Honestly, it tasted bitter but I've been curious about it for so long, in the end I almost finished the whole plate. Maybe I was just so hungry ^^. I paid MYR 10.05 for a plate of Hokkien Mee.

We closed our last night with a can of Makgeolli. To be forever young! Cheers!

DAY 4: LCCT-CGK

I was quite surprised knowing that the staff at our hotel, and the taxi driver too, didn't know THERE IS a bus that can take us from Pudu Sentral to LCC Terminal. The taxi driver even insisted to take us to KL Sentral because he was so sure The Star Shuttle Bus that we've mentioned didn't exist at Pudu Sentral. But yeah, there is mister.

By the way, a little review about Hotel Sentral Pudu. The have clean spacious room, nice and helpful staffs, also wide variety food for breakfast. It was a pleasant stay.

Just a little advice for you, sometimes you don't have to follow local people's suggestion about some things. Browse more on the internet, there are more than enough tourists who can help to you to make your journey easier. But it doesn't mean you can be an arrogant tourist and closed your ears for their words. The point is you can be a smarter tourist if you want to dig a little deeper :)

I don't have any travel plan this month, but something big have been waiting at the end of next month. FALL TRIP TO JAPAN! \m/
See you when I see you happy people!

Meet Kripac and Bareilles

I have a habit to listen to some music before sleep. Last night, my iTunes shuffled around through Lenka's and Sara Bareilles' songs. I just realized it has been a while since the last time I heard their voices, I guess I really drown and sink too deep into Korean Wave lately >.<

As a fan, I went to Sara's and Lenka's concert in Jakarta last year. I really really love Sara's performance! It was an intimate yet joyful concert because Sara loved to play around with the audience. When the audience asked Sara to sing one of her hits "Between The Lines" even though the song is not on her list, she still tried to sing it while trying to guess some of the song's keys on her piano. It's so funny when she made several mistakes because she hasn't practice to play it for a long time :) Sara was wearing a simple all black outfit, up do her hair, and the stage decoration is just an all black curtain too. It was so simple yet memorable. I wish I'll have a chance to watch her live performance again someday. When I opened Sara's official web, the homepage placed a big announcement about her new EP. I'm listening to her new songs at the moment ^^

Cr. rolingstones.co.id

Lenka's performance was also fun and enjoyable. She was on an early pregnancy when she held her concert in Jakarta last October. She has asked one of her fans to write some lyrics for "Everything At Once" and sang that new version while play the tunes on her keyboard :) She's wearing a simple batik dress that look so cute on her. The stage was small with a little decoration that match with her second album concept "Two". Everything's good except the choice of the concert venue. I went through to Lenka's official website and it hasn't been updated for a while, I guess Lenka is currently enjoying her new duty as a mother :)

Cr. foto.detik.com

Below are some youtube links of my favorites songs from Lenka and Sara!

1. Lenka - Roll with The Punches

Cr. LenkaVevo

2. Lenka - Don't Let Me Fall

3. Lenka - The Show

4. Lenka - Heart Skips A Beat

5. Lenka - Everything's Okay

6. Lenka - Bring Me Down

I love the concept of Lenka's "Trouble is A Friend" video!

Cr. LenkaVevo

7. Sara Bareilles - King of Anything

My fav MV!

Cr. SaraBareillesVevo

8. Sara Bareilles - Love Song

9. Sara Bareilles - Uncharted

10. Sara Bareilles - Basket Case

11. Sara Bareilles - Gravity

12. Sara Bareilles - Love on The Rocks

Have you ever heard Sara's version of Yellow? IMO, it's more heartbreaking than Coldplay..

Cr. itsalluncharted

Hope you'll enjoy their music as much as I do ;)

Happy Thursday! Who's fasting today? Happy fasting you, you, and you! :D

Blue Storm Review (plus Japanese Comeback)

I received "CNBLUE Blue Storm Live Concert DVD" as my birthday present from my big brother 2 weeks ago. It was about a month after my birthday, but I was so happy when the package finally arrived. The DVD set include two DVDs with a one hundred-page phonebook. The first DVD includes the full coverage of the Blue Storm concert in Seoul and the second DVD is the making of the concert. Blue Storm was the theme of CNBLUE Asia's tour for promoting their first Korean album "First Step" last year. 

Cr. Google

The Blue Storm Concert (Live in Seoul) was held two days in a row on September 17th and 18th, 2011. The boys performed 24 songs, including 3 songs from Heartstrings soundtrack: " Star" (Minhyuk's solo performance), "Because I Miss You" and "You've Fallen For Me". Heartstrings is a Korean drama where Yonghwa participated as the main actor and Minhyuk as one of supporting actors.

Cr. soompi.com

Before playing "You've Fallen For Me", Jungshin asked Yonghwa's permission to sing the first verse of this song, then they were joking around about Jungshin's role as their happy virus and Yonghwa's strange habit to sleep with Jungshin when they're overseas haha :))

A surprise came form the boys when they played "Love Light" with a different arrangement. A sweet-ballad song became a tough-rock n roll one. Whoaa :O

Now I'm dying to watch, jump, and shout on their live performance… huhuhu :( I hope their will finish and release their new album soon along with an Asia tour!

Nowadays, CNBLUE was busy preparing their Japanese comeback with a brand new song "Come On". Warner Music Japan has released the teaser of Come On MV last Sunday and the single will come out on August 1st! Take me to Japaaannnnnn aaaaaaaa…

Yesterday I already found the full version of Come On MV on Youtube :D

Cr. ochdusaysl44 (YouTube)

What are you doing this Friday night? I will be having a dinner with my high school friends. It will be fun for sure! Happy Friday! :)