Travel | World's First Coach Airways Retail Concept Store at Freeport A'Famosa Outlet Malacca

City life of Kuala Lumpur seems like a mundane repetitive repertoire of hectic work schedule mixed with hideaway weekends typing away on keyboards (don't get us wrong, we do love our work dearly and writing, ardently) but occasionally, it can seem to drain the energy juice out of us. We secretly yearn for a short getaway and the universe heed our little call recently with a press invitation to a not-so-far-away tourist land - Malacca, all thanks to Freeport A'Famosa Outlet (here), Coach Malaysia (here) and A'Famosa Resort (here). Yes, you heard it right, the fashion brand Coach, debuting its 2-year ambitious project of converting a 1981 Boeing 747-230B aircraft into a unique retail concept store and cafe to the media very soon. 

The remedy was a weekend retreat, ferried by the brands from KL city on a Saturday sunny morning to Malacca, on a 2-hour bus trip. Follow us on this lovely two-day trip! 

Lifestyle Review | Gaston Luga, That Swedish Minimalist Backpack That Is Stylishly Functional

You kept me close, you kept me warm, you kept me company and 

kept my letters of adventurous journeys so vividly colourful that 

what is there not to love about you? To journey beyond your eyes and mind is 

to understand the true essence of discovering one true self ... 

and yet, after all there is to explore out there, 

one comes back home to the unfamiliarly familiar. 

That perhaps, is one of our greatest adventures yet, one fine day.
What better way to go on an adventure with a trusted companion
that looks stylishly sleek and yet is a work horse and
come back home full of great memories.

Visual via Gaston Luga Online

We have always been fascinated by Scandinavian design aesthetics, especially its minimalistic and simplicity towards making things look elegantly refined, yet they do not seem to lose their charm on someone like us, it is equally captivating and mesmerising how they could seem to pull it off effortlessly *_^ When Gaston Luga, a Swedish backpack retailer (here for more) located in the heart of Stockholm approached us to explore if we are keen to collaborate with them, we were pleasantly surprised but all too happy in fact to have a further look into the brand. Once we read their brand story (here) and discovered more of their varied ranges for both men  (here) and women (here), we were enthralled by the idea of owning one already. After a few exchanges of email correspondences, our preferred choice of Gaston Luga Pråper Pink arrived in slightly less than a week! 

Visual via Gaston Luga Online

From our browsing on the brand's official website, we realised that Gaston Luga's uniquely designed backpacks fit into quite a variety of settings from their 3 main collections - Clässic, Clässy and Pråper. Our first impression of the backpacks via their social media platforms and online presence was that they are definitely chic looking. The designs are, to say the least, pleasing to the eyes, aesthetically. It got our interested piqued when we read more about the sturdy canvas materials that are used to produce each backpack. 

[Musing] Past // Present // Future | What Does 2018 Mean To You?

Time made a mark, came and went for 2017 seemed a whirlwind of ups and downs for us. We looked forward to a more quiet year towards the end of last last year here, instead, life threw us with much unexpected turn of events this year. We made a change in life and took up a new area of work, in some ways, blogging here took quite a back seat, which was never an ideal situation for us, but somehow we had to. Never the less, no regrets, life is such. 

Unpredictability also hit us hard when we lost some loved ones this year, a very close family member and a blogger friend (which her departure came so sudden that none of us was ready for it! But then again, who ever would be for a thing called death, right?). It only goes to assert one thing in life - seize the moment and always live each day as if it is your last. Always be grateful and blessed that you are still alive each day to enjoy it. Some things will seem more important while others become way less significant once you sort out your priorities in life. 

For us, we hope that 2018 will be a fresh new start, one that calls for a change in life, but definitely one that would lead us to better future. We did have a great 2017, for we got to travel and gone places quite a fair bit here, all thanks to a dear friend and the hospitality of great places of holiday destinations. On this note, we hope we get to go travel even more, and beyond our region, to experience more and to live more. 

We would also love to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you who dropped by and leave your comment, even though we hardly surf over to say our hello often enough (our bad, really!), we could not have done it without your support, and your love, our associates and brands who still believe in us and our work here at LUMINNEJ. We endeavour to do better in the coming new year ... shall try our very best. Please be kind *_^ 

Have a truly exciting new year of 2018 and may the best come your way as you absolutely deserve the best in life, lovelies. Stay luminous and happy, always!

Visual 1 | Black and White Flower by pfeffergruen on Instagram. All visuals via #pinterest. 

With love, 

Jeann

Travel | Royal Langkawi Yacht Club | Our Perfect Marina Sunset Part 2

Once you are bitten, you would shy away? No, you might want to have it more. Well, bitten by the travel bug that is *_^ We are missing Langkawi all over again now that we are back in the KL city with our daily grind. We could not wait till our next travel, honestly. Yes, we are reminiscing over the great laid back time we had at Langkawi here (our first parter) when the amazing Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC) played host to LUMINNEJ and pampered us with a 3-day-2-night getaway, swooning over the sunset view and a carefree lifestyle of a sailor (a modern one who happens to own some super yachts docked at one of the 250 wet berths, by the way *_^).

Our second day saw us renting a car and simply venturing around the island, one of them was that we visited the Sky Bridge of Langkawi. Now that was quite a time. Our adventure continued into the night with appetising dinner, unwinding the day down to a nice sip of margarita, cultural show and just good old chill time with the ever friendly General Manager of the club, Mr. Tayfun Koksal.

Travel | Ibis Melaka, The Irresistible Charm Of The Colour Red Part 1

Visual courtesy of Ibis Melaka

Nestled within walking distance to Melaka busy Jonker Street (15 minutes approximately), places of tourist attraction like Christ Church Melaka (400m), Dutch Square, Princess Hang Li Poh's Well (400m), A Famosa Fort, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, this 3-star hotel which is centrally located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site is set to charm you with its unique little details in its warm decor, super friendly staff, the most comfortable and relaxing "sweet bed" in your hotel room and so much more. Yes, we are talking about our recent stay at the lovely IBIS MELAKA HOTEL (here for more), a part of the already famous and established Accor Hotels brand worldwide. In fact, the name Ibis itself carries much weight for delivering ultimate comfort at a competitive price - economic for business and leisure. 

There are in fact three variants of hotels under the flagship name IBIS, each being represented by a different sets of coloured logo. Ibis Hotel (red pillow logo) is one that offers ultimate comfort with great ambience - well-being at a great price. Ibis Styles Hotel (in green) provides comfort and designs, all inclusive. Last but not least, Ibis Budget Hotel (blue), essential comfort at a budget price. Discover more here. Over 2000 Ibis hotels around the world, we are absolutely certain one can be sure to find an Ibis hotel that suits one's travel needs, comfort level and budget requirement. In Malaysia, Ibis can be found in Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Ipoh, Sandakan. Ibis Melaka is their latest addition to the Ibis family. We were invited by the gracious host previously, so let us share with you now our little experience staying there. 

Travel | Royal Langkawi Yacht Club | Our Perfect Marina Sunset Part 1

Visual courtesy of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club

Drifted along amidst that hectic city life that we have always been engulfed in, deep within, we yearn for that getaway, to a place where our heart feels free to explore, to feel, to be much closer to nature - the sun, the sea, the sky, the wind and beyond. That yearning was fulfilled, thanks to the kind arrangement of Adhawk (here) and the courtesy of our gracious host and new found friend, Mr. Tayfun Koksal, the General Manager of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (here for more) recently. Yes, our secret little dream was about to come alive. We could not wait but to count down to the days when we could set foot on this piece of paradise on earth. 

Let's set sail and come to Langkawi with us, will you? 

Thanks OLAY Singapore For The Most Miraculously Beautiful & Memorable Media Trip!

After 3 years of blogging at LUMINNEJ, a special invite came through one of our favourite PR agencies, Priority and it never crossed our mind that our very FIRST media trip could come from a long-standing beauty brand that needs no introduction by now. Yes, we are talking about OLAY and this time around, it was OLAY Singapore who made it all possible for us, truly as little did we know that we were about to embark on one of the greatest media trips of our blogging lifetime, to be precise *_^ There will be two parts to this post, one on the Olay media trip and the other, we feel, we would definitely want to include our most remarkable stay and experience over at the St. Regis Singapore (here for more), 5 star luxury, at its finest, truly!

Travel | The Familiarity of The Unfamiliar That Is Hong Kong

Visuals via LUMINNEJ's Instagram

Visuals via LUMINNEJ's nstagram

Remember when we said that we wish to do a little more travel? Stepping out more for 2016, making that thought on the last day of 2015, hoping and wishing here? In a strange way, the universe must have heard us *_^ We landed a very last minute shoot project (moi is a full time screenwriter/producer by the way, if you don't already know) and the place we needed to head to was this place we had a brief encounter with many years back - Hong Kong. We were due to shoot a short interview with this British band called The Vamps (here), which actually recorded the song, Kungfu Fighting for the renowned animated movie, Kungfu Panda 3 which will be hitting the theatre worldwide real soon. They also voiced some of the characters in the movie, if we were not mistaken. 

Perhaps due to the last minute nature of the project, it was destined to be some what unexpected in many ways. Drama set in way before the shoot even began! We missed our flight that very early morning (NOOO... but unfortunately YES! Don't ask why for our hubby could not even fathom the rational behind this!), landed in Hong Kong two hours later then scheduled, though we managed to reach the shoot location way earlier than expected of us, and right before the shoot began, the sole of our sports shoes came right off! Can you believe that? 

Fortunately, the interview with The Vamps went well and we got what the client wanted, all thanks to my capable camerawoman whom we have been working with for some time now. She was such a trooper (yeah, we were both under the weather that day, and we had to ran like Olympic runners, dashing for the last 100m to the boarding gate, the second time around to catch our flight to Hong Kong earlier that morning!).

Well, lesson learnt? WE NEED MORE TRAVELING TRIPS! haha *_^ The second day was a much calmer one, though it rained and we were just enjoying the extra cold weather of the city that time (right after the very first ever below zero climate in many years for Hong Kong), walking around this area called Tsuen Wan 荃灣, around the vicinity of the hotel that we were staying, Dorsett Tsuen Wan, small little hotel but comfortable enough to soothe our uber tired body at the end of the day. We managed to check out this quaint little place called Jockey Club, Tak Wah Park 賽馬會德華公園. Here for more

Traveling is such an amazing feeling, no matter how brief or rush it may seem, for us, it was like a rare treasure being uncovered. Hong Kong is a city which never cease to amaze us, yet it is still one that eludes us right up till this trip. We really wish to go back there again, but with more time and poise, to really get into the pulse of the city and explore beyond what we have captured here.

Till our next adventures, we wish that our next venture out of Malaysia will be a less heart pounding and stressful one *_^

With love, 

Jeann