This is Lancel’s Balconnet Croco Pattern Leather handbag. Its recommended retail price in France, including VAT, is €699. In Malaysia, it retails for RM4,980. But remember the Malaysian Mega Sale that I was telling you about in a previous post? Well, thanks to that sale, plus the fact that Lancel just opened a new shop in Suria KLCC, this beauty is on sale for RM2,499. And it’s on sale until this Sunday only.

I especially love the chain link accent at the front of the bag, with the crocodile pattern a close second. The colour is black with a tinge of deep maroon-brown, so it can easily match any colour outfit, but is not as drab and boring as regular black.

The Lancel Balconnet is designed as a bucket bag with a drawstring, thus it can look small and slim when relatively empty, but it can also expand and handle a lot of things should one decide to stuff it. A long removable leather strap is included, should one wish to wear it across the body, such as when travelling.

Photos from www.lancel.com

Lancel is a luxury brand with roots that go as far back as 1876, founded in Paris, France. Its most historic boutique is located at Place de l’Opera and its largest display window is on the Champs Elysees. However, being relatively new in Malaysia, Lancel is not as well-known or popular as Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Coach. Which is exactly what I want — individuality and uniqueness. You see far too many LV’s and Gucci’s and Coaches in every street corner these days, knock-offs from China and Korea included!

This, on the other hand, is the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens. Its recommended retail price in Malaysia is RM3,188 but it can be had for around RM2,500 if you shop around (yes, Virginia, that’s the price for the lens alone!). I’ve tried this lens when we went to Bintan recently and I was in awe of the resulting crisp, sharp, crystal clear images such as this one of Twin2 at the pool of Angsana Bintan Resorts & Spa (click on the photo below to see a larger photo).

This photo had no Photoshopping whatsoever other than a slight lightening using the Fill Flash.

Assuming I had the RM2,500 cash right now OR would consider using my credit cards 12-months interest-free instalment payment plan to purchase either item, I think I might just possibly be the only woman in this planet who’d forgo a designer bag on sale — at 50% off, no less! — in favour of a piece of glass. And I’m not even a professional photographer.

Am I weird or what?

In a previous post, I wrote about how I wasn’t sure what camera to bring to a recent trip to Bintan Island. In the end, I decided to bring both. I used a borrowed D80 and 18-200mm VR lens for most of the pics, knowing how photos taken with the Pentax Optio WPi tend to be underexposed most of the time. (Not that I got that many pics, because I was running after the twins and RoundBoy most of the time!)

But when it came to by-the-pool, inside-the-pool and underwater action, the Pentax Optio WPi proved to be very handy indeed. We had a blast taking pics like this one:

I bet your camera can’t do that! ;)

At long last, we are now enjoying the fruits of our little rambutan tree. The first harvest is nothing to shout about — just a measly 20 pieces or so — but the numbers don’t matter for now. What’s important is that the tree has started bearing fruit and that the fruits are sweet and succulent, with the flesh easily separating from the seed as it belongs to the ‘Anak Sekolah’ variety. ‘Anak sekolah’ which literally means ’student’, is technically known as R191, known for fruits that are “roundish and red in colour” with flesh that is “firm, medium sweet and not watery” (source: Department of Agriculture, Sarawak).

So how does one eat this strange- looking hairy red little fruit?

First of all, you have to get past the hairy outer shell by breaking it into two in order to get to the treasure waiting inside. You can do this by twisting the fruit (if you are strong enough) OR by making a small cut into the hairy exterior with your nail (not recommended because the sap will go under your nail and make it look dark and dirty) OR you can use a small knife (a bread knife, paring knife or, perhaps, even a fork) to do the cutting.

Once you’ve split the skin open, you can now nibble on the sweet, juicy white meat inside. But do take care not to bite into the seed that’s in the middle.

Rambutan season usually starts in July and peaks in August. The fruits are best eaten within a day or two after harvest.

I’m back from Bintan. But I’m so swamped with work that it will be a couple of days more before I can write my review of the hotel that we stayed in — the Angsana Bintan Resorts & Spa. The ’spa’ part sounds good, no? It was, it was! It was so wonderful that I think I’ll have a separate post for a mini-review of the spa.

In the meantime, here is a pic of my twins having fun in the Bintan sun, even if the skies were a bit downcast at that time (hence the drab, grey sky), and the pristine beach whose sand was so fine, they got into the very fabric of everyone’s swimwear! I took this photo using a borrowed D80 and my dream 18-200mm VR lens. The camera, with its battery grip, was a lot heavier than my usual D40 plus 18-135mm lens combination but the resulting pictures, given the right settings, were crisp and sharp and awesome. Which just makes me want to have this lens all the more…

Anyway, where were we? Ahh, yes. This post is supposed to be all about Bintan.

Here are a few quick facts about Pulau Bintan (Bintan Island):

• Bintan is part of Indonesia, hence, they’re one hour behind Singapore. For example, 0835 Bintan time is actually 0935 Singapore time. Keep this in mind when planning your flight and ferry bookings.
• Bintan is accessible via a 50-minute ferry ride from Singapore’s Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. The ferry terminal is a 10- to 15-minute taxi ride (less than S$10 fare) from Singapore’s Changi Airport.
• Bintan may be in Indonesia and almost all the hotel staff Indonesian, but the rates for the room, spa, food, and green fees are all in Singapore dollar or US dollar. In short: everything’s exhorbitantly priced!
• Bintan is a golfer’s paradise, being home to Bintan Lagoon Golf Club’s Jack Nicklaus Seaview Course and Ian Baker-Finch Woodlands Course, Laguna Bintan Golf Club’s 18-hole championship Greg Norman Course, and Ria Bintan Golf Club’s 27-hole Gary Player Course. The green fees will burn a hole in a pocket though. No, make that, the green fees will burn off your entire pocket and maybe even your trousers! Unless, perhaps, if you’re from Europe and thinking in terms of €.
• You’ll be going through Singapore and Indonesian Immigrations, so you’ll need to bring along your passport for a trip to this island.
• ASEAN passport holders don’t need any visa to enter Bintan but visa-on-arrival is available for certain nationalities. Click here if you wish to find out if you need a visa or not to get into Bintan.
• You can buy your Singapore-Bintan ferry tickets on the spot at Bintan Resort Ferries’ (BRF) counter at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, subject to availability. But it is highly recommended that you book your ferry tickets in advance, especially if you intend to go on a weekend or public holiday. You can make your bookings through Bintan Resort Ferries’ website up to 10 am of the day before your departure.

For more information on Bintan Island, its hotels, spas and golf courses, check out Bintan-Resorts.com and VisitBintan.com.

The Louvre is well known as the home of the most famous piece in art history — Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, also known in French as La Joconde (the light-hearted woman).

If you’re in the Louvre and wish to see her, I suggest that you go and see her first before you get yourself lost in the labyrinthine halls of this huge museum.

The Mona Lisa is currently located in Room 13 on the first floor of the Denon wing, together with other paintings by the Italian masters from the 17th and 18th centuries. Click on this link on the Louvre’s official website to see an interactive floor plan of the famous museum and find out where exactly the Mona Lisa is located.

And when you are at the Louvre yourself, please ask one of the Louvre’s staff for directions as often as necessary because there are so many stairs and so many halls that it is very easy to get confused and lost.

Once you get to a hall with a crowd of people jostling for a view of a small painting in a cordoned off area, then you know you’ve found her.

The Mona Lisa is smaller than what most people expect — 77 x 53 cm (approximately 30 × 21 inches) — and looks even smaller because you can only view her from a distance. As I said, she is cordoned off from the crowd some 6 to 10 feet away. Oh yes, there will be a crowd, and you’d have to elbow your way to get to the front and take a quick look at the famous masterpiece and perhaps have your photo taken with her. They say the average that people get to spend staring at her is 15 seconds only. And I’m not surprised. There are just too many people that you won’t have a chance to reflect on her real identity or ponder about the possible reasons for her enigmatic smile or even try to test the theory that her eyes seem to follow you if you view her from various angles.

Worse still, the Mona Lisa is protected by a sheet of bullet-proof glass, so you won’t get to examine the brush strokes or even the frame because the glass obscures the painting like a veil.

But if you’re going to Paris and you’ve decided to go to the Louvre, do see her. If you don’t, it will be like going to Australia and not seeing the Harbour Bridge… or going to KL and not seeing Petronas Twin Towers. In the mean time, feast your eyes on this photo that I took of her. Click on this photo to see a bigger version. Sorry for the ‘blur’ — it’s because of the bullet-proof glass, not camera shake.