Hi Summer! We finally made it to another beach holiday together and this time our destination is, PHUKET!!!
HIPHIPHOORAY!! It’s a really lovely place since I’ve visited it 2 years ago with my poly classmates and now I’m back with my favourite people! I’ve been anticipating this trip since a long long while ago and finally I’m flying there on the 29th morning!
Although weather forecast weren’t as good as we hope it would be, and the rainy season came slightly earlier than expected, the sun wasn’t shining and the gloomy clouds shrouded the skies, but still I pretty much had a really good time there, thanks to my companies despite the cold chilly pool water.
So, we booked our flight tickets with Jetstar on a normal day with no promotions and the return tickets cost: $140/pax. However, Siru and Felicia chose to add on extra legroom for their flight which adds up to $200/pax for their tickets. Of course, I sat alone on the flight myself because I figured out my legs were pretty short and since it was just a 1h30mins flight, there was no need to get so much space and save that few extra $60 bucks to get some liquor at duty-free when I return. HAHA 😀
Here’s our flight details:
SIN-HKT: 0840-0940 ( We landed 20mins ahead of schedule! Awesome!)
HKT-SIN: 1720-1920 (We landed on time! YEAH)
I pretty much love Jetstar as compared to Tigerair because they are pretty much punctual in terms of their flight schedule and timing. I’ve been on Tigerair the last time I went to Hong Kong and Bangkok, their schedule is always few minutes to hours delay which is well, annoying because it screws up your plans for your itinerary.
Anyway, upon landing we got ourselves a private car at 700baht to Bang Tao. I think it was pretty pricey and could have bargain more but this was the lowest that we could get sadly. So, we hoped on to the mini bus that awaited us and soon we were making our way to the villa. Of course, we didn’t keep our expectations of the villa too high as during the journey to the villa, the surrounding area of Bang Tao was pretty much rural similar to kampong village kind unlike Patong, buzzling with shops, hawkers and lots of people. The area of Bang Tao was simply quiet, peaceful and serene, minimal tourist and plenty of locals.
AND… to our surprise we find ourselves a lovely cluster of villas that was set in between this serenity. HOW AMAZING CAN IT BE!!! Now, let me show you our villa!
Spacious, isn’t it? And the best was probably the private pool we get to ourselves!!! Yes, we can do all sorts of crazy things in the villa, such as skinny dipping! But we ended up not attempting to skinny dip because the pool water was way too cold as there wasn’t any sun to heat up the water, oh wells next time it is!
I booked this villa from Otel.com, yes Otel.com and not Hotel.com, I did not make any spelling error while typing. Apparently, I was searching for the best rate using Hotelscombined.com and Otel.com came up with the best rate of $324.87 for 2 nights as compared to other websites which were offering at least $360 plus for 2 nights for the same villa. So I figured out, might as well just book from this highly dubious website, at most there will be just additional currency conversion charges right? Turns out, there was a $3 currency conversion charge that appeared on my bank statement making the villa cost to be $327.87 for 2 nights. Still a lot of money saved! Chi-ching $! More money to shop for groceries MUAHAHA! 🙂
After reaching our villa and settling down, we took the free bus shuttle provided by the villa to head to the nearby Lotus Tesco at 1pm to have our lunch and as well as to stock up our fridge with lotsa food for the entire trip! Yeah, we bought like 8 plastics bags worth of food! I think we are well-prepared for war. HAHA 😛
There was Pizza Company at the Lotus Tesco so we had that for lunch.
Korean Spicy Wings to share
Thin Crust Tomyum Gong Shrimp Pizza to share with Siru
Tomyum Sausage Aglio Olio Spaghetti that Felicia ordered for herself
Siru and I got this to share. It’s really yummy!
My snacks loots that I hand-carried back to SG, I’m a matcha fan here! 😀
After lunch, the villa’s free shuttle bus came to Tesco Lotus at 4pm to pick us back to the villa. After returning to the villa, Siru and I ventured around the villa, taking plenty of photos for each other while Felicia was camping herself at the tv with her phone in her own world.
The bed was a really super pretty place to take photos! ❤
And so was the day bed at the balcony outside my room! 😀
And the balcony outside Siru and Felicia’s room too!
Oops! Did I mention that I get an entire bedroom to myself? Because having an additional bed in a 1 bedroom villa was more expensive than booking a 2 bedroom villa, so we decided to have 2 bedrooms and because I was having a bad cough, they decided to quarantine me. HAHA, A WHOLE BEDROOM to myself! ❤
After the photo-taking session with Siru, we washed up and planned our night to head to Chao Fa Market which is the Weekend Night Market. It’s the biggest night market in Phuket and being the glutton me, I was looking forward to the FOOD! I miss thai food so badly, especially the last Phuket trip where P. Wirote brought us to lots of places to let us feast on the super delicious local thai food which made me fell in love with it.
I got myself a kebab which is a definitely must-eat!
And of course I ate other food like thai noodles, deep fried squid balls and coconut smoothie (that made my cough even worst).
That’s Siru and me at the night market, Felicia was at a shop doing her gelish manicure for only 180baht, OMG, super cheap!!
After the night market trip that cost around 1200baht for two ways from Bang Tao to Phuket Town and return, we managed to make friends with the friendly driver, who became our go-to driver for the trip whenever we needed a cab. HAHA. We returned to our villa around 11plus pm and I quickly changed into my bikini and dived straight to the pool! The water was effing cold but I endure it and soon, I got used to the cold waters and was enjoying myself while Siru sat at the latch of the pool talking to me.
I’ve got a confession to make, I have a phobia of deep waters especially when the pool water is beyond 1.2m and have the tendency of panicking when my legs can’t touch the floor of the pool or when the water rises to my neck, I’ll PANICCC! Thanks to the float, and the encouragement that Siru gave me when there was this moment, I was drifting to the centre of the pool, and I started struggling and screaming, “Siru save me!” She told me to move my legs like how you move your leg in frog style even though I was already wearing a float. Hilarious I know. But I had really bad drowning phobia. Eventually, I managed to moveee! And I found myself getting nearer to the edge of the pool and get myself back to the edge! BY THEN, I was trembling and shaking badly but guess what, I MANAGED TO OVERCOME MY 11 YEARS OF FEAR !!! The next hour was pretty amazing as I started to learn how to swim and move around the pool in a float and I was doing pretty well. Hooray 😀 😀 😀
Then, we ended our night early by having some supper with microwave food and cakes…
Day 2, 10am: The alarm that I set started ringing and I woke up to a gloomy skies, I guess it was doing to rain and I washed up and head down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for Siru and me! I set the dining table and put lots of effort cooking and plating my breakfast since it was the very first time I’m cooking for someone beside myself and granny.
Breakfast Menu:
Breakfast Platter: 1 slice of toast, greens, 2 franks and scrambled eggs
Coffee / Tea (w milk/sugar)
Lemon Water (to detox, cause we ate too much) 😛
Yeah, both of us picked tea!
Tadaa! The toast was kinda alittle too brown because I had some problems figuring how to use a pop-up toaster.
After breakfast, was pool time and some more photo-taking sessions using the camera timer! HAHAHA 😀
And then, it was swimming time! I managed to swim a lap with the float without holding the edge of the pool for support and I felt a sense of accomplishment for being able swim with a float!!! Excited much and soon, it was Siru’s turn to try too! She was like me afraid of swimming and struggled alot. Similarly, I gave her encouragement and guess what, she could move in the water too! Although, she still didn’t dare to swim freely with the water with the float but it was some good improvement! YEAHHH~
Haha the float that we have been using to learn how to swim was actually the life buoy used for saving people! I know we are really jokers but hey, we didn’t had any swimming floats with us and this was the only thing that float so why not? 😛
I really love the bathrobes that were provided, actually they felt more like yukatas, the kind of bathrobe where japanese wear to sleep? Anyway, I used it for like a cover-up after swimming but it’s really comfy! 🙂
I brought along my Lush bathbomb, a present from Glenda to the trip, been wanting to used it and finally found the right occasion! YEAH
A tub full of pink water and BUBBLESSS!!! ❤
Welcome to my bubble world HAHAH!
#happiestgirlonearth
After the bubbly fun, it was almost evening and we made dinner! Felicia cooked the spaghetti and I made the salad and the tomyum sauce. Ok, it was kinda my first attempt trying to make pasta sauce that was not the usual tomato or cream based and we got the tomyum paste but the wrong one, turns out it was for tomyum soup but oh wells, at least dinner looks good and taste good too!
“Bon Appetit everyone!”
After dinner, we headed out to the night market around the same Tesco Lotus and guess what, it started to pour and the night market started packing up when we reached. We had no where to go at 8.30pm but to do our last round of grocery shopping before heading back to the villa for some drinking session!
Presenting you our 1 litres worth of Baileys Caramel that we got from Changi Airport duty-free for $26! I haven’t really tried mixing my own Baileys cocktail and I’m really thrilled!
#bartenderwannabe
Tadaaa!
So we tried mixing Bailey’s with chocolate milk, coffee milk, coconut flavored milk and green tea.
And my personal favourite?
Green Tea + Baileys Caramel = Caramel Milk Green Tea (Alcohol version)
YUMYUMYUM
On our last day, the skies were as gloomy as usual with a little drizzle here and there and we took a walk and ended up walking to Bangtao Beach by mistake when we were suppose to be looking for eateries. HAHA.
The water looks stormy and the currents were strong and the skies were just dull, not the perfect condition to take photos sadly…
Finally, there’s photos of the 3 of us!
On our way back to the villa, I stopped by a drinks pushcart and bought some green “cha-yen”. (Sorry, I haven’t learnt the name for thai green milk tea…) and it was super tasty!
THUMBS UP!
Anyway, the villa was quite strict in terms of protecting their property. They collected a 1000baht refundable deposit upon check in and the housekeeping actually called us at 12pm during the check-out time to come for villa inspection and honestly, I accidentally cracked a water goblet and thankfully they did not find out, else we would have to pay for the damage and every item in the villa had a pricing list found in the compendium folder that was laying in the living room table. PHEW
And well, the trip ended really quickly and I really love the villa ALOT, especially for its price and location. This villa was considered to be the cheapest villa that we could find in terms of location as most of the cheap villa were located in the most southern tip of phuket which would take a long drive to get there.
I’ll probably be back again in phuket someday and would definitely be during the month of April during Song-kran festival! HAHAH 😛
PS: I added another 2 bottles of liquor (Malibu & Choya) to my duty-free collection! WOOHOO~
I’ve always been wanting to go Bangkok since years back and finally I found company to go with after a futile effort of asking Siru and some other friends to go with. I know Bangkok isn’t safe, else the impulsive me would have went alone. Ei ei who is Felicia’s best friend, and I were on our very first trip to Bangkok and Felicia had to bring us around for 4D3N.
Our flight was in the morning, at 0940hours and we would be landing in Bangkok at 1055 (Bangkok time). I managed to book the 2 way flight at $120.84/nett per person (inclusive of all taxes and booking fee) during Tigerair Flash Sales every thursday which include a 15kg check in luggage during the return flight. I reached there early in the morning and went for breakfast at Macdonalds while waiting for the two before checking in.
This was how I looked, I was wearing my elbow brace to travel, it’s my first ever time travelling as a patient. I know my doctor advised me not to travel but my therapist encouraged me to go, a contrast in opinions but my need for travel was way too strong to be dis-encouraged. #yolo
We were actually pretty late for boarding because Felicia was shopping for her YSL lipstick at the Duty-Free shop and we literally made a dash because it was flashing “Last Boarding” on the screen. AND we made it but we had to take this airport bus to the plane and climb up the stairs to board the plane without using the airport gate link. What a new experience. It wasn’t easy to board the plane this way because I had a carry on luggage and the stairs were steep, thanks to Ei Ei who carried my luggage up the stairs for this handicapped girl. ❤
Tigerair was never punctual or early for its timing but we managed to land in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at around 1110hrs (BKK time). HURRAY! I was thrilled like a little girl on it’s very first venture to a new destination. I love the airport smell and the sound of luggage dragging towards the customs clearance felt really satisfying.
We took a cab to our hotel and it cost us 500 baht/journey. I know it’s a little pricey but it was split among the 3 of us, so I guess it was fine considering that I’m slightly handicapped. The hotel we would be staying for 3 nights was called Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11. I booked it for $377.56 on Hotelclub.com ($125.85nett/night) for the Chic Room (2 Queen bed). YES! I didn’t had a typo but it was my first time seeing a standard twin room that uses 2 queen bed. It was COOL! It could actually fit 4 person in a room even though its not a family room.
There was a 300o baht deposit to be given (1000baht/night) upon checking in. My room was not unavailable when I reached the hotel around 1215hours so we went for a lunch around the hotel area and familiarizing with our neighbourhood.
After lunch, we came back and were served by the duty manager and she was pretty mean on rules and hotel benefits because I forgotten to indicate 3 person for the room but left it as the default 2 and she spotted 3 of us which landed me into some trouble. I had to quarrel with her alittle and ended up that I cooked up a lie that my friend would not be staying over but I’ll book another hotel nearby for her to stay because she wanted us to pay around $139 more for the extra person which I wasn’t really keen to.
I’ve worked in hotel before and I know that most hotels aren’t that strict because I’ve stayed in several 4/5 stars establishments and I had 4 person in a room and yet we did not encounter such issue. SHE was just trying to hack my money…OK enough of that bad experience.
This was the room. It was pretty cosy and spacious and I love the bathroom except for that shower which was a rain shower and had no hand-held shower.
While Ei ei was getting some rest as she was working night shift the day before, we went to the nearby 7-11 to stock up some snacks and…
OUR FRIDGE!!! Ok Bangkok’s alcohols and beers are cheap… since we weren’t fans of beers, we got ourselves theseeee, the cheapest one cost around 32bahts and the bottle of Pink Guava Breezer cost around 56bahts if I remembered correctly. Yes they were around $1plus-$2plus! But guess what we didn’t them until like the last night because we were too tired from shopping each night HAHA 😛
The hotel’s rooftop pool. It’s an infinity pool but too bad it wasn’t on like the top floor of the hotel, else it would be perfect as you can get a good view of Sukhumvit and Bangkok’s skyline.
This was Level 2, and I saw these round swinging chairs which were really inviting when I was venturing around the hotel on Day 2 morning after waking up early and I had fun sitting and swinging around like a little kid. I don’t know why I’m behaving like a not-a-grown-up although I’m turning 22 this year. I guess the kid in me is always still there… 😀
Thailand version of Tokyo Banana. I’ve never tried Tokyo Banana before but the Thailand version was SO DELICIOUS! I think I can have many of them without going sick of it. I love how the sponge is airy and light and the banana filling is not overly sweet nor overwhelming in taste. I got this from 7-eleven for less than 10 bahts. You guys should totally try it! ❤ ❤ ❤
Banana prata! I bought it off the roadside stall for 40bahts near our hotel and polished off the entire thing as the girls didn’t fancy sweet stuff and they were busy eating their pig intestines. (Yikes, I’m not a fan of internal organs as food.) It was nice as usual since the last I had it in Phuket during the grad trip. YUMS!
Thai Coconut Crepe! The freshly made version. I had the sweet original flavour while Ei ei chose the salty one, costed us 10 bahts each. The white thingy seemed like merengue and it was super super sweet like melted mashmellows. I love the crepe it was finely thin and crispy. I bought 2 boxes of the mini versions back as souvenirs for myself and Siru.
Thai Boat noodles. Felicia brought us to Union Mall to shop and I tried this Boat Noodles for the very first time which were super yummy but spicy. They came in like tiny portion which you are suppose to finish it in one mouth. Every food in the shop cost 12baht or was it 15…but the milk tea cost 40bahts.
3D Ice-cream. I got myself the blueberry yoghurt flavour and they were really pretty and tasty. I regretted not getting the coconut ice-cream because the girls were too busy shopping that we didn’t had much time for food. DAMNNN, I miss the authentic coconut ice-cream. URGH. But this one was good as well. It cost me around 80 bahts which is pretty pricey but I guess it’s worth it for a pretty ice-cream popsicle. 🙂
Fried Sweet Potato Balls. They are like thailand version of mini non-sugar coated donuts. They taste naturally sweet because of sweet potatoes as the main ingredients DUH! I can’t remember how much it cost, think it was 35 bahts? I love them but if only Siru was around to share with me because the girls had really differing taste buds and preference from mine. Where’s my food buddy?! 😦
Thai’s Pork Skewers. Another version of pork satay but with bigger chunks of marinated meat. Each stick cost around 15baht. I manage to find another stall which look less hygienic for 10baht. (I didn’t had diarrhea thankfully!) I tried it once in Phuket and I couldn’t get enough. Cravings satisfied again this time hehe.
You guys know it. The famous wanton mee that you have to try in BANGKOK. It took me some good walking under the hot sun before finding the stall. I know Ei Ei and Felicia weren’t digging it but I was! Thanks for accompanying me to find food though you girls were more into shopping… I had two bowls and they cost 100 bahts for a bowl. SUPER OVERPRICED but hey, it was GOOD!
[ Thanks to the wanton mee, we landed ourselves in a wholesale clothing area that is opposite Platinum Mall and we had ourselves some good bargaining of clothes that cost only 120-150bahts. YES, no joke! Only if you bought 2 pieces or more… ]
Here a photo of Ei ei and I having our takeaway dinner from the roadside stalls along Soi 11 which was the street our hotel was located at. Felicia wasn’t a fan of photos so we didn’t had any taken together sadly. We were sharing 2 Pad Thais, Pork and Chicken (80bahts each. SO PRICEY OMG) and Som Tum (80bahts each too).
We had our gelish nails done at Union Mall for 250bahts which is around less than $10 SGD. We wanted to do at MBK but it was super costly, think it was 500-800bahts. DAMN. Felicia also had her eyelash extensions at Union Mall for 500bahts. Union Mall is cheap but the people barely spoke English so we had a hard time asking them for price but thankfully we still managed to get what we wanted.
Btw, I had a trans who did my nails for me. Her features were pretty masculine but she looked like a lady. She did my nails in the most gentlest way possible especially when I was in an elbow brace. I don’t know what’s up with guys always rejecting trans and going ewww…yikes and joking about them, but I think they are really nice people and it just suddenly dawn onto me that they are humans too and they have a life, they spoke out for themselves and maybe God didn’t give them the right gender that they deserve to be or probably they were born in the wrong human body. They made a choice to change for what they truly are and I don’t think people should just criticize about them. HEY, they are beautiful too even if they were created under the cuts of knives.
So we literally travelled around Bangkok shopping malls with its MRT and mainly BTR which costed us around 18baht-32bahts (1-2 stations distance was 15-18bahts, 3 stations onwards was 22bahts for a single journey ticket and the rest I can’t really recall). It was super convenient and it beats the heavy traffic jam and the trouble to negotiate with those scheming taxi-driver or tuk-tuks. It wasn’t really that congested as compared to Singapore’s. The people there were way nicer and had manners especially towards a left arm handicapped like me. They gave way and even gave up seats for me. I was totally surprised and touched because in Singapore, even if I was in cast, people would just walk past and bang into my cast or my current brace like nobody’s business even if the path was wide and had plenty of room. AND, nobody gave seats up for me in SG. OMG, SG, you should totally reflect upon your courtesy please.
Secretly, I managed to steal some sneaky selfie that included Felicia. I know my left arm is unable to hold a phone thus the ugly angles and I couldn’t groom myself properly… so pardon the ugliness in the photos throughout this trip. I’ll take better ones the next time round.
On our last night in Bangkok, Felicia and I wanted to go to Levels, the nightclub that was right outside our hotel which they didn’t not had affiliations with. GUESS WHAT. My arm was rejected by the bouncer and barred from entering. TSK annoying. So we ended up at this random bar and bought a 250 bahts cocktail that tasted like a mocktail. We got hit up by some guy that claims to be from New York and he was chased away by the staff thankfully. (It wasn’t a big issue for us but that something interesting for staying in the red-light district of Bangkok. Lots of party girls and with the foreign blonde tourists. What a sight.)
Our return flight was another tale to tell. Apparently, Ei ei got separate from us during shopping in the wholesale area opposite Platinum Mall. We ended up shopping together and lost track of time, we literally ran to the BTS because it was jam for the road on a weekend. Then Felicia had to stopped by Big C, which ended up super late. Ei ei was already waiting for us at the hotel and I knew the road was going to be jam but then… it just all happens and we missed our checking in time at 1725hrs as we only alighted at 1725hrs. The only choice was for us to re-schedule and book the next flight which was departing at 1940hours. We had to pay around SGD52 (we paid in bahts) each to get the next flight thankfully.
Then when we thought everything was fine. We cleared immigration and went for a meal at the wrong end of the airport at boarding gate zone F. when our boarding was at zone D. We ate and lost track of time again. The gate was closing at 1915hours and I only left the area at 1910hours while the girls were still eating…OMG. To my horror, I realize it was a good 1km walk to the boarding gate. I literally dash and run with all my life even though I was one arm handicap and holding a bagpack and carrying a sling bag. I just DASHED!!! Nearly to the point where I was blanking out, I managed to reach the boarding gate 3mins late and I board the plane with my heart pounding tremendously fast as though it’s gonna fly out any moment.
Right before I boarded, the staff suddenly called out to me and asked where were my companions… I told them they were still eating and they made me call them, which I did. The airport crews even comms their name to get them to the boarding gate. The crews told me if they didn’t arrive in 5 mins they will leave without them. OH GOD. But thankfully, they boarded the plane safely. PHEW. I think the boarding crews in Bangkok really goes extra mile to call their passengers to board their planes. I remembered I nearly missed my plane in Hongkong especially when I didn’t know that they had a change in gate.
All the drama on the last day, it was a good lesson learnt for us to be punctual or risk more monetary loss.
Anyway, I had a great time in Bangkok especially on the shopping part. Felicia was exceptionally good at bargaining prices and Ei ei was a good companion and taking care of people. And I was pleased with all the items I bought in Bangkok. AWESOME 😀 ❤
It’s a saturday and probably one of the best saturday ever for I just booked my 2D1N short getaway trip to Melaka with Siru! We bought the Groupon which cost us $90/per pax that consist of 2way WTS coach to Melaka and 1 night stay in Makhota Hotel.
I am not expecting much from the accommodation and the coach, I just hope that it will be comfortable, fun and fabulous! I am looking forward to heading to Jonker Street and get my hands to the famous bowl of Durian Chendol which I had back in like more than a year ago.
I really can’t wait for the 27th of April (tentatively) to arrive soon! Even though I may be heading for a 8 days trip to phuket, I am more of looking forward to this short getaway with Siru because she, so far, has been quite a good travel companion or at least we can click pretty well.
It’s the holidays again and I’m so happy that the group of friends have organise a really fun outing to the beach at Sentosa which includes a potluck lunch!
It was my first time going on an outing in a such a big group which I’m not used to because of my introvert, and this time, it was a huge step that I have made to go out with so many people and getting out of my shell! I’m so proud of myself! *pat on my back*
Here’s what I wore to the beach!
My beach look!
Do I have that California girl-look? *wink*
We’ve reached Sentosa!
Heading to the Waterfront Station to take the Sentosa Express to Beach Station!
Waiting for our monorail to come!
Siloso Beach here we come!
Photo with the girls!
Spot me building my sandcastle!
A shot of us!
Forfeit for being late!
The piggyback punishment!
But the couple look so sweet right? 😉
The group of us heading to the sea for some fun now!
Fun time fun time!
Getting out of the water now for some lunch!
Say cheese!
*sneaks in to be in the photo*
Was trying to get Kaiyun into the water…
My favourite shot in the water!
Discussing if we should get into the water AGAIN! xD
We went in eventually! Look how happy I was! HAHA!
Finally got the guts to take off my top and show my pretty bikini top!
Another achievement unlocked!
The guys came in and they tried the Running Man game!
My back is burnt so badly! OMG!
A group shot before we left the beach!
And Jonas is sand-buried!
Ended photo-taking with a “poker-face” look!
On the whole, I really had lots of fun at the beach despite being getting sunburn instead of tanned. I also got to know more about the people, like Allison, Chong Huang, Desmond, Wei En, Nic and Pam since I wasn’t really close with them until yesterday!
After we got back to Vivo City from Sentosa, we went to take away our dinner and had them at the Sky Park at Vivo City Level 3.
When we finished eating, we started to playing truth or dare and it was so scary because I was so afraid that the bottle point at me and thankfully it didn’t aimed at me most of the time! I really did had a good time playing truth or dare for the dares were really funny especially when the dares were for the guys! HAHAHA! 😀
So, here’s my video of a compilation of the bits and pieces of short clips taken during my study trip to taiwan!
Nothing fanciful, nothing much, a short performance by the performers from the Aboriginal Cultural Village and maybe sightseeing with Elmo on the high-speed rail.
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