Category Archives: HOLIDAYS

A GORGEOUS DAY FOR A WEDDING!

15 May 2012 23 comments

Our Australia holiday was one of the most UNholidays we’ve ever had. It was the first time we’ve gone for an extended (2.5 weeks) trip with a child and, boy, was it different to our pre-baby holidays!! To be really frank, it was one of the worst experiences ever in terms of sleep deprivation, and has scared me off going on another holiday for a very very very long time :X

Hunter was pretty awesome during the day time, his usual cheery self.  But come night-time, all hell would break loose and he would WAIL himself to sleep – no amount of ignoring, or cuddling would placate him. Then, he would wake up every 3 hours or so, whining/crying until he was patted back to sleep. In the morning, more often than not he would wake up crying too. It was INSANE. Considering he was a sleep-through-the-night baby at the tender age of just over 2 months old, it was a HUGE AND NASTY SHOCK for us, to basically be dealing with a ‘newborn’ again.

Even more bizzarely, the moment we arrived back home in Singapore, he IMMEDIATELY went back to his 12-hour uninterrupted sleep – falling asleep by himself, and waking up cheery. I guess he loves being home and in his own bed, and can’t tolerate being away :X So the whole time in Australia, we were zombies and poor Chris had to deal with an extremely irate wife almost daily… oops.

But, at least we had a TON OF FUN during the day! Hunter was so fascinated with everything, loved going out, and we had heaps of fun catching up with family and friends.

Most importantly, we were there for Chris’ sister’s wedding. This was held in Canberra, so we stayed there for a couple of days first. The weather there was so cold though! It was nice in the afternoons, but mornings and evenings were pretty painful. All 3 of us suffered dry/peeling skin and lips as we had to acclimatize ourselves to the climate. However, the benefit was that my hair and skin loved the dry weather.  Helloooo good hair days! I really noticed it especially now that we’re back in Singapore and I see how the humidity destroys your hair and skin ;)

Hard to tell that he was a real terror the night before!

 

"A night terror? Me??"

 

The wedding was held in a really lovely high-ceiling cathedral, and I loved the black-and-white colour scheme, which I thought was super chic. It also brought back such nice memories of our own wedding.. and was really nice to see Chris’ sister so happy on her wedding day :)

Hunter was supposed to walk down the aisle as well, but it didn’t work out because during the rehearsal, we saw that the aisle was actually really long.. which translated to major distractions for him, and we weren’t confident he would have the focus to make it all the way down, especially with a ton of eyes staring at him!

Saying their vows

 

Drowsy after waking from his nap in time for the ceremony

 

I was also delighted to do a reading for the ceremony. I almost pulled out at the last minute, because I developed a bit of a cough and was worried I’d start hacking up a lung mid-reading. But thankfully all went well and I did the reading without any issue – whew!

Doing my reading

 

Afterwards, we had photos outside the church and in a park/lake. The skies were GORGEOUS… though the temperature was quite chilly down by the water. But Hunter didn’t seem to care and had a fab time tottering around the lake and running around on the grass.

The wedding party

 

Meeting one of our college friends for the first time, and trying to charm the socks off her

 

Family pic by the lake

 

Hunter with his great-grandma and nanna

 

My 3 loves ;)

 

The wedding reception was really lovely, with some fabulous food! The beef… OMG *faint*. Chris and I actually shared a large pizza prior to dinner, because we were too hungry. But I still stuffed in appetizer, main, and dessert and cleared my entire plate.. because the food was fab!!

Everyone was having so much fun, and Hunter had an afternoon nap (rare, because he naps 1x/day) so he could stay awake for a bit to join in the celebrations.

Us with our pajama-clad baby

 

"Hiiiii Uncle Matt!"

 

Hunter discovered he could make Uncle Matt drink by stuffing the bottle in his mouth and then tilting upwards. I think both boys had a lot of fun with that ;)

 

The wedding party again. I LOVE that quote!!!

 

Chic table setting, and Hunter got his own special goody bag :)

 

Oh and Chris was MC for the evening! He did a lot of public-speaking when he was younger, and is a natural in front of an audience. And he really nailed it. He’s an awesome MC!

Cutest moment ever: we were seated at the table in front, right where Chris was standing. As he was speaking, Hunter kept pointing to him and going “Da da!!!” loudly and happily, much to people’s amusement. And then he would clap his hands in glee, seeing his Daddy up there. LOL!!

Chris the MC

 

Hunter went to sleep at around 8:30PM so I had to go into a back room and sit there with him. Unfortunately no one brought their maids/nannies, so I had to be there the entire time! It meant I missed out on all the fun stuff in the latter-half of the evening.. and because Chris was MC-ing, he couldn’t really be there keeping me company either. And my iPhone had run out of battery. So I spent the entire time just sitting there staring at the wall. D’OH!! But, at least Hunter slept well considering all the music and noise.. so I was happy.

"G'night guys, it's bedtime for me!"

 

It was a pretty epic day, but we all dealt with it really well considering the lack of sleep we had. Hunter was in a good mood throughout, and adrenalin kept us going.. though we did leave a little earlier to get ourselves to bed. It’s so nice being at a wedding and joining in the celebrations!

 

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BABYMOON @ RACHA: ON OUR WAY OUT…

14 March 2012 8 comments

Cocktail hour was fun at the Racha, because who can say “no” to complimentary alcohol and drinks, and canapes?? Their staff also rock up for cocktail hour and chat with the guests, which is a nice touch. Plus, it’s held on the rooftop overlooking their eternity pool and the ocean.. which is GORGEOUS whilst watching the sunset.

I kinda could get used to this kinda lifestyle :P

 

The canapes spread

 

My man and I :)

 

This was cocktails and nibbles at their Lobby Bar, which we went to another evening

 

Relaxing and enjoying the view (we were facing the ocean)

 

Dinnertime was rather romantic on the island, since the restaurants go el fresco style and the weather is cool and the mood is subdued. There are surprisingly few guests dining during dinner too. I wonder where they go to.. or if they mostly have room service?? Well, it was pretty nice almost having the restaurants to ourselves :P

Their food throughout the restaurants in the Racha is impressive. Lovely presentation, good portions, and super-attentive staff. It was very nice having dinner dates too, since they are few and far between for us!

Candlelit dinner overlooking the eternity pool and ocean

 

Bread basket with assorted toppings

 

Amuse bouche of some sort of.. errr... meat thing? It was nice but not spectacular

 

The restaurants were all really dim, so the menus came with these clip-on lights. We found a better use for them.

 

Grilled scallops on herbed risotto, dill creme fraiche, parma ham crisp and salmon caviar. OMG THIS WAS SO GOOD I NEARLY FAINTED.

 

Rock lobster, scallop and tiger prawns with squid ink pasta, tossed in sun-dried tomato cream sauce and garnished with parmesan and flying fish roe. Crazily enough, this was ONE OF THE BEST PASTAS I'VE EVER HAD. So full of ingredients, rich with sauce, and ohhhh the flavour!!!!!!!!!!

 

Fried ravioli with pumpkin. This was nice but didn't blow us away.

 

BBQ chicken skewers on rice. Man this dish was gigantic!! Very tasty too :)

 

ADORABLE tree frog on the outside wall of our villa!!

 

When we were doing cocktail hour the day before, we were chatting to a guy that turned out to be the Managing Director of the resort. He was a very lovely guy that was also on the speedboat when we bid farewell to the Racha. And he was SUPER nice and drove us to Patong Beach on the mainland, since we had a couple of hours to kill before catching our flight.

I’m not a ‘car person’ but I was loving his new BMW (the 5-series, for those car buffs out there that actually know what that means). It smelled so good (you know, me and my obsession with sniffing leather) and gave us a smooth, quiet, fantastic drive among the frantic and mad traffic of Phuket city. It also meant we could refresh ourselves at the hotel there before our flight, as well as leave our bags there whilst we wandered the city, and have our transportation to the airport arranged. It really saved us a lot of effort!

Enjoying our ride :D

 

Wandering around the 3.5KM beach and side streets of Patong Beach was so much fun. The crazy busy streets spilling over with shopkeepers and tourists, about 294529 massage joints touting for  business as you walk past, and about twice as many lil cafes and restaurants ushering you in. It was a nice, bustling change to the idyllic life at the resort!

The tiny streets around Patong Beach

 

The hanging sign amused me ;)

 

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BABYMOON @ RACHA: OH THE FUN WE HAD!!

13 March 2012 14 comments

It was meant to be a very-much-outdoors Babymoon, and yep, IT SURE WAS! We soaked in as much sun and fresh air as we possibly could.. and didn’t even get sunburnt, which I thought was quite impressive ;) We didn’t want a repeat of our Honeymoon @ the Maldives, when we got SO burnt we couldn’t quite move comfortably for most of the holiday – dohhh. So we did the slip, slop, slap of sunscreen constantly, and the result was lovely tanned skin with zero peeling. Wahey!!

I loved the hotel’s infinity pool, which overlooked the beach and ocean, and was really tranquil. It’s pretty lovely relaxing on the deckchairs and sipping chilled juices and cocktails. Plus the water was soooo warm!! I am a huge BABY when it comes to swimming – I simply can’t get in the water unless it’s almost to the temperature of bath water. Any cooler and I can’t get in past my waist, and do a whole lot of complaining the entire time ;)

But the water was beautiful and warm, and simply perfect for lolling around in to soak in the sun :)

Walking towards the above-ground infinity pool

 

Chris does his modelling shot :P

 

How I got my tan :D

 

Overlooking the ocean

 

A random pic, but I was in glee when I realised the water matched my nails ;)

 

The hotel's other pool, in 3 'layers'

 

Chris was rather amused with the visual effect of my head separated off my body ;)

 

A fabulous fruity concoction

 

We also decided to go hiking around the island. The lil map we had said that it was around “15 minutes” and boyyyyy is it NOT accurate!! We thought we’d be hiking 15mins there, and 15mins back. Turns out the total hike took around 1.5 hours. Along really tiny dirt ‘paths’ too, I might add. And in the dead-of-the-noon sun. Man, it was pretty epic.

At least we got to see 2 GORGEOUS beaches/ocean along the way, and got to swim and snorkel there! The water was super-clear, and we could see straight to the bottom. My only gripe was that the main snorkeling beach didn’t have much sand cos it was a rocky beach. I haaaate feeling rocks under my feet, especially in the water! I like perfect, soft sand and nothing else. I just get squeamish otherwise. So if I had known, I’d have brought along my ‘sea shoes’, those soft socks/shoes that you wear in the water so I can stand on the rocks and not get all squeamish.

The sign says "tsunami evacuation site"!

 

Gorgeous water views during our hike

 

A stop by Ter Bay for some incredible snorkeling

 

Hiking through the forest.... for 1.5 HOURS (?!?!)

 

At Siam Bay. GORGEOUS.

 

Soaking in the views

 

That's me, in a perfect turquoise ocean. I was happy :)

 

Met a water buffalo on the way home

 

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BABYMOON @ RACHA: BREAKFASTS & LUNCHES

12 March 2012 3 comments

Just a small food post during our Racha babymoon, cos I’m still going through my photos etc. What I LOVED about our little getaway was that the weather was spot-on perfect. Really warm and bright sunshine in the day, and cool at night. In fact, on the first day it rained overnight, and it was so nice hearing the pitter patter of rain outside.

Of course, I was rubbing my hands with glee just thinking about the hotel breakfast. I’m such a sucker for hotel breakfasts. I ADORE the buffet spread – I mean, all-you-can-eat when you’ve just rolled out of bed mere minutes ago? Bliss!! It just feels so indulgent, and screams HOLIDAY to me :D

The Racha did both Western style and Asian style breakfasts, to cater for all tastes. They have a customise-your-eggs station, and also a station that cooked fresh Belgium waffles that were divine. And can I just say that wandering down to the restaurant, sitting out in the open and watching and hearing the ocean, and chowing down on breakfast…. THIS IS LIFE. If only we could escape reality and live like this every day!

Where we ate breakfast

 

My Western-style breakfast

 

My Asian-style breakfast. Man that pineapple fried rice was AMAZING!

 

My dessert breakfast. The waffle was freakin' fantastic!

 

We had some random room service and pool-side service lunches, but I didn’t take pics of ‘em all.. I did remember to take this one though. It’s of a very lovely Thai-style fried rice, and spring rolls with gigantic prawns in them.

Room service lunch

 

One of our more interesting meals was at the backpackers motel, called Raya Resort or something along those lines. It was a very simple bamboo/wood hut built on stilts, on top of the beach. We were fascinated with it because it just looked so local and SO FUN!! I mean, fancy hotel food is always nice.. but nothing beats doing it casual/local style and soaking in the relaxed ambience.

It had very simple plastic tables and chairs, no-frills service, and food served on simple old plates. We were super excited at the thought of having really good local grub, in a very chill setting. However, the prices were pretty touristy! I guess what can we expect since it’s on a remote island, right? The prices actually were only slightly less than the hotel restaurants.

There were little huts on the beach, how cute are they?!

 

The place where we ate. Looks fascinating, right? We even had to walk on this rickety wooden plank/bridge thing (on the right of the pic) to get there!

 

They even had these GIANT lizards.. that roamed freely!

 

Refreshing fresh coconut

 

The food? The pad thai that we had was a total disaster!! It was weakly-fried noodles with no ‘flavour of the wok’, and reaaallllyyy not authentic at all :( Sad, because it came out very pretty looking, albeit super duper tiny for the price.

Pad thai

 

The Fried calamari, however, was a winner. Tiny little pieces of calamari deep fried to a golden crisp. I loved the seasoning/batter they used, which was very tasty and oh so addictive, especially when dipped in the sweet chill sauce. YUM!

Fried calamari

 

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BABYMOON @ RACHA: LOVING THE VILLAS

10 March 2012 16 comments

We’re back from our Babymoon! We went to the Racha, which is about 45mins by speedboat off the southern tip of Phuket. It was the first time since our honeymoon (2.5 years ago) that we had our own “us time” to lounge around and soak in the sun. So it was very very appreciated and enjoyed, but I found it so difficult to be apart from Hunter for the first time ever!! It was fine during the day when we were out and about, but in the evenings and also mornings when it’s quiet, I REALLY MISSED MY SON.

For that reason, I don’t think I’ll do another holiday without kid(s) again, or at least not for many many many years until they’re teenagers or something. Even though he’s under the best possible care staying with my parents, just the fact that I’m physically away from him really hurt. So next time, we’ll do family holidays instead :)

I gotta admit though, it was rather blissful being with Chris and giving 100% attention to each other during our Babymoon! We got to talk a lot and relax a lot, which is rare since both of us can never simultaneously relax/switch off when Hunter is around us.

It was a perfect little getaway, and so glad we did it. FIRST and LAST holiday by ourselves, post-children!

At the Racha lounge, waiting for the speedboat to arrive

 

Me looking very pleased seeing the gorgeous water around us

 

Aaaannnndd we're off! HELLO PERFECT TURQUOISE OCEAN.

 

Approaching The Racha resort

 

I think what shocked us the most upon arrival was that The Racha was not on a private island. After our Maldives honeymoon, I’ve associated boating to a resort on an island with the assumption that it’s the ONLY resort on the island. The Racha is, by far, the luxury resort on the island.. but there were 2 or 3 other backpacker-type places there too. And this sounds reaaalllyyy snobby, sorry!, but I’d have preferred if the other places were more upclass, because it then attracts a different type of crowd. Sort of like the couple-retreat resort getaway VS the noisy crowded no-frills holiday with lots of kids or with fellow backpacker friends. I actually like the latter too if we wanna holiday on a budget, but it’s a totally different vibe to a resort holiday…

For example, our jaws dropped when we approached the beach. Whilst gorgeous with clear waters and white sand, it had 200-300 deckchairs lined up – I kid you not!! It wasn’t that big a deal though, because we spent 90% of the time ensconced in The Racha anyway, so didn’t really meet or interact with anyone outside. But, a FAR cry from Maldives where the Shangri-La had it’s own private island and hardly anyone there. The difference though is that the Maldives cost us 4x more, so can’t really compare I suppose :P

Sitting in the outdoor lobby upon arrival

 

View from the main lobby

 

We were escorted to our villa, which was the Deluxe Villa because the Pool Villa that we wanted was fully booked, doh. I liked our villa though – it was pretty big with a luxurious bed, a large bathroom, and a huge library of free movies (we definitely made use of that!).

Standing on the balcony of our villa

 

Inside the neat and crisp room

 

Bright and sunny bathroom

 

Outdoor rain shower, which we made full use of! Nothing says BEACH HOLIDAY like showering in the open :P

 

View from our villa. The sea is right in front, but can't really see in this photo

 

We did loads of lounging around and I really liked the fine white sand on the beach. The Racha has it’s own private deckchairs on an elevated area, so it’s not among the 200-300 deckchairs parked lower down on the beach. Very very nice to sun tan and chill out :)

Enjoying life :)

 

We also got a massage at their spa, of course! No beachside holiday is complete without a couples massage, right? :P Unfortunately, I fell asleep mid-way through mine.. I don’t like sleeping during my massage ‘cos I feel I don’t get the full benefit cos before I know it, the massage is over! Darn :P One thing I really appreciated was that they give these little disposable black boy-shorts to wear, inside of the standard crappy/cheap white g-string or panty. A nice touch :)

After our massage. BLISS :D

 

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