Batam!

This is the FIRST time after almost a decade that we finally ALL manage to go on a trip together! YAY!!

Who? 6 girls

Where? Holiday Inn Batam

When? 2d1n

What? massage and shopping getaway 

How? 1 room (of course we not so stingy to squeeze all into one small room. This is a 3-bedroom suite!)

Time flies during the weekend. Especially when you are having fun.

And it feels so nice to have a personal photographer! Thanks ms tay! :)

Taiwan (Day 1)

1210hrs - SQ 878 take off and begin my 9-day trip to Taiwan! :)

1635hrs – Landed half hour earlier in Taoyuan International Airport.
After check-in into our hotel, we went to get the train tickets to Hualien. The earliest train were sold out, so we took the next available train at 0718hrs.

Visited Shilin Night Market. Only covered maybe less than half of the NM. Didn't manage to eat the Hao Da Da Chicken Chop but tried many other interesting stuff! :)
Cheese Potato – they are really generous with the toppings and cheese!
Quail Eggs
Fishball
Qyster Egg
Mee Sua

Went back to hotel early to pack our overnight luggage to Hualien and catch some sleep.

Siem Reap (Day 1)

The adventure begins even before we fly. Did you know that you can hop onto the skytrain at the departure hall and go duty free shopping at every terminal before you fly!? We didn't know that!!! With just half an hour to take off, we decided to try our luck to look for a particular brand at T3 as we were told by the sales assistant that it was only available there. So off we go in a snip snap and got back in time to T2 to catch our 0840hrs Silkair MI622 flight. :p

And the holiday begins!!! We had met up so many times, to plan our itenary for just a short 4-day trip that puts us to shame. hee... Anyway, we shouldn't have bothered. Cos the moment we touched down on Cambodian land, after meeting our driver and at the recommendation of the guesthouse's staff, our plans went down the drain! (well, not all but halfway.) hehe.

So after settling down in our room for these 3 nights, we went on a walking stroll around Siem Reap town.

Along the Siem Reap river...




Our first stop - Wat Bo.


According to Lonely Planet, it is one of the town's oldest temples and there's supposed to be a collection of paintings from the late 19th century but we saw nothing of that! And we must be the only crazy foreigners on the walking tour, we were the only ones at Wat Bo, in the heat of 40 deg C! (or so we heard).

Next stop, late lunch at Butterflies Garden restaurant. There were supposed to be butterflies flying around while we eat. But dunno is it cos of the hot weather, few butterfiles to be seen. And they are not scared of humans! One landed on the tee-shirt of the ang-moh in the next table. Another landed on YZ's face!!!! haha! But i was too slow to dig out my cam to capture such a priceless (funny) moment! :p Food is not nice. And i ordered a very yucky horribly bitter lime soda. Cos the weather was so hot, i had to force myself to drink it. And of course not to waste the drink too.

Since it was time for our next appointment, we quickly rushed back to the guesthouse where our awaiting tuk tuk driver brought us to Tonle Sap Lake.


This lake is the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia. In dry season, the water flows out to the Mekong River and in wet season (high tide), the water floods back in. Interesting! See the moss-like thing on the trees? That's how high the water submerged in high season! gasp!


Floating villages

Look at the boy in the tub! Ingenious!

We stopped at one of the floating restaurants to view the sunset. Alas! The sun is hidden behind the very big cloud! :( Nonetheless, the colours are really nice. The sun is always very nice when on water. :)







There isn't any streetlights on the way back. So we couldn't see what were the "stuff" that we "raining" on us in the wind on the ride back. Dust? Insects? After a long shower (cos of the horribly tiny flow of water in the shower), we walked to the nearby town centre for our dinner. We went to Amok restaurant, opposite to Old Market, to eat Amok. :p This is a curry dish. i like it a lot cos it is not spicy! Must-try!

i like the decor alot! The 2 small shots in the middle are complimentary pumpkin soup. :)

Fish Amok. Yum!

Walked walked a little after dinner and went back to the guesthouse before it closes at 1130pm. End of Day 1.

My Club Med Experience

i'm back! with a sun-kissed face and very sun-kissed back and aching muscles! This has to be my sporty-est vacation ever! :p Notwithstanding the buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners (and not forgetting snack times!), every other time is on some activity to burn the calories.

Let me recall what i had accomplished for these 4 days.

Day 1 (11 Dec):

- Depart from TM ferry terminal to Bintan. Reached Club Med about 10am.
- Tried tennis and squash but failed miserably so abandoned ship for lunch. Squash must be the hardest ball sport i've ever tried! It's just so hard to hit such a small soft ball.
- Checked-in
- Went for salsa at the Santai Bar. Finally managed to finish a glass of white wine with my dinner! And i couldn't finish half a glass back home! :p

View from the room

Near reception area

The Pool

Day 2:

- Practised a few golf balls at the mini range. There was a pro to teach beginners in the morning. It was good cos i picked up some tips.
- Tried archery (finally!) Even though the archery range is at a very ulu part in the resort, have to climb flights and flights of stairs, walk pass the Sports complex before getting to the range, it is always perpetually fully booked. A lot of times, the trek to the archery range was not fruitful cos registration is on first-come-first-serve basis and the time open for adults to shoot is quite limited.
- Did stretching at the Zen Area which is a grass patch by the sea!! Can see the sea, listen to the waves and look at the blue sky while doing stretching exercises. Cool! But not so cool are the gigantic ants and spiders that seemed to like my towel alot! :S
- Another glass of white wine with dinner.

The sailing counter is right next to the putting green. Can see the sail in the background.

The view from Zen Area

The view while doing stretching exercises at the Zen Area

Day 3:

- Went sailing twice! Ok... It was more of a ride on a sail rather than going out on a sail myself. Mind you this is the monsoon season so the sea was extremely choppy. The first time out on the sail boat, i was very apprehensive cos i was very scared that the sail would capsize every time the wave came. Luckily we survived and went for another ride! :)
- Power Yoga at Zen Area. OMG! Muscles aching cos of this! The moves are really difficult!
- Had dinner at the Terrace restaurant which is by the beach too! Had to wake up early this morning to make reservations at this beach restaurant cos seats are limited. It would have been nicer if it was not so dark. Could hardly see what i'm eating. Nice ambience. Downed 1.5 glasses of red! OMG! i didn't know i have it in me. It must be the good mood but i do think that the alcohol content in the wine isn't that strong. :p

Day 4:

- Had planned to go archery again but felt like going sailing once more. So set off to the sailing area but started drizzling. So shelved sailing plans and settled for archery. Halfway through breakfast, sky cleared but i was too full to sail. Didn't want to risk doing a merlion. So made the trek to the archery. Started drizzling again. Shucks! So archery was out too. Returned back to the room to relax.
- Checked out. Sky cleared again. Climbed and walked all the way to the archery corner again. But it was fully booked. :(
- Lunch then chill at Panorama Bar
- Meditation Yoga at Sports Complex. First time doing meditation. i would prefer a little more action cos all we do was to sit the whole session doing breathing exercises. My legs were numb halfway through.
- Last snack time at the Snacking Restaurant.
- Departed Club Med at 1615hrs for the ferry terminal.
- Boarded ferry and started my roller coaster of a ferry ride back home. i'm never going to go to Bintan again during monsoon season. This time was even worse than the tsunami day. That fateful day in 2004 was also the day i last rode a ferry back from Bintan and the sea was so choppy that i was feeling very uneasy the whole ride. This time is even worse! Imagine 10-15minutes of roller coaster rides on a ferry! Yep! The ferry really went up and down. i was literally grabbing to my dear life on the seat handles. Never am i going to ride to Bintan in Dec again!

Conclusion:

The room and food was kinda disappointing. Maybe cos of the price, we had expected the room to be nicer. Btw, there's no bathtub, no bedroom slippers and the toilet is separate from the shower. Foodwise, quantity is there but not much quality as in the food are not the expensive exotic type. And there's no sashimi!

BUT

Club Med is a must-go cos of the G.O.s. which stands for Gentle Organisers. They are basically the people who are there to show you around, conduct the classes and generally do everything to make your stay fun and enjoyable. Every night at 9pm, there would be a performance at the Theatre where the G.O.s would put up a splendid show of dance and music. Mind you, this is besides their "day job". The G.O.s are so talented and full of energy! Sometimes the kids from the mini club would put up a short segment too. And after the 9pm performance, everyone would gather at the Santai Bar which is outside the Theatre for the Club Med dance. It's really fun to see everyone (mostly G.O.s but includes guests - they call us Gentle Members (G.M.) - too) dance to the funky moves. It's like JC orientation dance. Fun! :)

i would want to go again. Maybe to other Club Meds. If the price is right! Ha! Have to wait for promotions. :p

One of my fav places in Club Med Bintan - Panorama Bar. You can have a panoramic view here. Hence the name. But no, this is not where i hone my drinking skills. :p

Someone practised the 铁砂掌 on me. If only that someone is a cute guy... hehe. :p

There's a mini and petit club med for children, teenagers and even toddlers! This being the school holidays, there were lots of families with children on tow. Here they are making kites.

This is the only activity that i didn't try... but i'll be back!

Dec break

YAY!!! Sun, beach, here i come! Hmm.... correction! Buffets, lazing, here i come! (^^,)v

Holiday Inn Batam

What an eventful weekend! T'was meant to be a relaxing retreat but our program was packed!
Let me recall what we did these 2 days...

1. Checked in
2. Lunch at Dragon Inn Restaurant
3. Explore around the resort
4. Spa package consisting of body scrub, bubble bath, massage and foot reflex
5. Tepanyaki dinner
6. More exploring around the resort looking for stuff to do. Went shopping at the Polo shop and ended up buying 2 polo tees! Gasp!
7. There's really nothing to do so we went to the gym and worked-out in slippers! Can't believe i was lifting dumbells there. The gym boy was really happy to see us there cos i think we might be the first people to step into the gym the whole day. But he was equally pleased to see us leave cos we were there for quite some time and i think it was almost time for him to go home. :p
8. Back to room, shower, watched tv and TRIED to sleep
9. Dunno if it was the bed or the down pillow or the workout or the noisy aircon, i had a hard time trying to fall asleep when usually i am knocked out within minutes. Slept like intermittently 2-3hours. :( But i'm already better than YZ. She only managed to sleep like after day break. Took a lousy sunrise photo from the room and tried to go back to sleep. Didn't dare to explore the resort for a good sunrise spot by myself.
10. Breakfast was super packed cos there were 2 huge groups of people having their retreats
11. Took a cab to Nagoya Hill mall. YL wanted to do hair spa so all of us ended up doing something there.
12. Lunch at A&W
13. Last minute dash to the hypermart to spend my last 4000rp which is like about 60cents. haa... ended up buying 2 bars of soap.
14. Cab back to the resort. We had asked the same cab driver to take us back and we found out that he was waiting for us at the carpark for the whole 4hrs there. We guessed he would have made enough by just driving us...
15. Checked out and made our way to the ferry terminal. Was to had taken the 4pm ferry from Waterfront terminal but it was full even though we had confirmed our tickets. -_-" So we were rescheduled to the 5pm ferry from Batam City. Horror of horrors, at the terminal, we were told that we might have to take the 9pm ferry instead! OMG! We were literally penny-less cos we had spent all our money. To much relief, our busload managed to squeeze in the 5pm ferry.
16. Before we say our goodbyes, there was almost a stampede in the ferry terminal. We were nicely queuing in line at the gate when people just suddenly all rush to gather at the front. It was really ugly but not to be outdone, we had to follow the people at their game too.
17. Finally managed to survive the ordeal and home sweet home!

Bintan 2009

Back to Bintan first time after the tsunami. Before the tsunami, my friends and i had been spending Xmas in Bintan for 2/3 years. Last visit was during that fateful year and on that fateful day we were on the way back to Sg. We didn't know what had happened but the sea was unusally choppy that almost all felt horribly sick. So much so that i didn't want to go back for a while. Well, that was end of that.

Anyway, back to Bintan for 3D2N of sun, fun and golf! i had not played since like >1 year ago. Thanks to CQ, we got a really good deal for the accom and game! :) Just that the food is real exp in Bintan!

As i didn't want to miss my dear jap class, we took the 5pm ferry to Bintan on Sunday 19 Jul. Reached there about 5pm Bintan time and checked into Bintan Lagoon Resort. Had wanted to laze around at the pool but it was drizzling so went for dinner after a short rest. And back to the room as i watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on channel 5. :p

Monday 20 Jul. Woke up at 6.30am so that we can be in time for 8.15am flight. First time played 36 holes in one day! Got really bad arm muscle ache that night so much so that i couldn't sleep! Yikes!! And a nasty suntan "bangle" on both my wrists. Anyway, the Ocean Course at Ria Bintan is really nice.

Today 21 Jul. Simply could not lift my arm so i didn't join CQ for another 18 holes. Just ventured around the resort, took a short nap and more of channel 5. Haha... Couldn't believe i watched so much Sg tv while in Bintan.. lol. :p

Checked out at 12.30pm, ate our lunch at the Miyako, the Jap restaurant at the Resort and took the 4.45pm ferry back home.

Bintan by weekday is really deserted, unlike the weekends. Very good for relaxation. Not much people. Not many S'poreans. More Japs and Koreans.

This is me posing for the shoot. You can tell i'm posing cos the photo is missing something very crucial! The ball! Haha... which has already flown over to the other side... or did it drop into the sea?? :p