Bintan Banyan Tree - Nov 09

I received a call from Kristina (one of my travel kakis) if I was keen to go to Bintan over the weekend..I was very excited as it meant Banyan Tree villa! Despite the fact that I was going Tokyo next week & just returned from Bangkok, I immediately agreed... We took the ferry @ Tanah Merah to Bintan around noon..I never realized that tix was so expensive -$60plus (2 way) on Penguin..Check out http://www.penguin.com.sg/pages.php?url=ferryservices

Upon reaching Bintan, we were whisked to Banyan Tree for check-in.There were free DVDs for rental & books for lazing on the beach. The buggy sent us to our room , I preened for pics around the villa before settling down with a glass of bubbly at the outdoor jaccuzi!

Before we knew it, it was almost 5pm..Time to leave our villa & proceed for dinner..We took a few pics at the swimming pool before we headed to Saffron for Thai-Indo fusion food..

Luckily there was 50% off otherwise it is super expensive..The food was interesting but perhaps not worth a second visit but presentation was pretty as expected..Although super full from the main course, we ordered dessert..coconut brulee & some dumpling cum icecream dish.

There was nothing else to do after dinner except to laze in bed, read a book & struggle to watch some DVD (i forgot the name) before falling asleep...Looking forward to Day 2..

Woke up & had coffee with cookie while gazing at the vast Indian Ocean...if only I did not need to return to work the next day..sigh..Next up, buffet breakfast at Tree Tops..We could choose the type of scrambled eggs we wanted (eg caviar) & unlimited flow of champagne!

Headed to the beach for more pictures..a waiter approached us with cold fruits..great service! I really stoned on the beach & realized that I was growing old..In the past, I would never regard lazing on the beach as a holiday. It has to be hectic & more hectic.

 

We went to Pasar Oleh-Oleh (Sun market)..This is a really lousy market that costs us $6 for transportatiom. There was absolutely nothing there! We proceeded for a massage ($20+) that was also so-so..followed by taking away nasi padang to eat at Banyan Tree. Soon, it was time to say goodbye & board the ferry back to S'pore.

Open Water Dive in Tioman-May 09

All along, I wanted to learn diving. However, this dream was never fulfilled as nobody jio. Peggie sms me the other day about open water diving & I thought why not? No leave needs to be taken as it is only a weekend trip. And diving should be chicken feet as I swim regularly & Lawrence says so. I was wrong...
Theory Test needs to be taken - I failed as I never studied and played too little cheat.
Practical at Outram Secondary School was horrible; the pool was flooded with so many people. I couldn't breathe through my mouth initially & then I could not take the bloody mask off my face. I was totally exhausted at the end of the day & seriously thought of cancelling the trip to Tioman. Due to the no $ back policy, I eventually still pressed on with the trip with Lawrence (he went for leisure dive) after going for another pool lesson to build my confidence.

Meeting point at Ghim Moh Road on Friday to take the private couch to Mersing (before we transferred to the ferry to cross to Tioman). We arrived approx  2am & had to wake up around 7am!
Peggie & Silvia (Peggie's friend) shared the bunk with us & had to tolerate Lawrence's snoring & grunting throughout the night..

I paired up with Silvia  for the open dive...It did not turn out too bad after all.. However there was one test on navigation using the compass. Those who know me well should be aware how directionless I can be (imagine I can get lost in Raffles Place ?). So learning how to navigate nearly fried my brain cells.

All in all, this trip was fantastic, despite my initial misgivings..I am actually looking forward to the next dive drip with Lawrence (although he chose the turtle over me when we paired up for the last dive, and he never noticed that I was drifting up..I will remember this forever! What a buddy!)

Kuala Lumpur-Aug 09 (National Day weekend)

Decided to go somewhere during the National Day weekend and thought of KL since I haven't been there since 2005. And it was the MegaSale, which means I can stock up on my Nose shoes..

My sister - Ching, decided to join with Samuel & Nicole. Bus-tickets from S'pore were sold out due to National Day, thus I booked online from  http://www.maraliner.com.my/ for the 9am bus from Larkin Teminal at JB.
Unfortunately I missed the bus & had to pay to take another bus (@MYR50!) for passagers who missed buses.
And this bus turned into Saribun before going in KL, there was a 1 hour jam just for this stopover.
This is the 2nd time going to KL that I had to buy 2 bus-tickets! (You will read about this once I post my blog about KL - Yr 2005). We swore that we will fly by plane next time!

We stayed at Renaissance Hotel (near the Bukit Nanas monorail) for 2 nights. There was a very huge swimming pool (which smelt of chlorine strongly..yucks!). Think it caused the colour of my Seafolly swimsuit to run..heartpain.

My precious niece, Nicole had blogged about this KL trip as well, so check out: http://hellgirlnic.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-kl-trip.html
Thanks Nicole for dilligently making notes..so that I can copy from you (evil san yiyi in action)

I bought a total of 7 pairs of shoes..5 of them from Nose as below..some are 50% off..real cheap!!

Teppanyaki lunch at Mid-Valley (my fav shopping mall)

Shopping Centers covered: Sungei Wang, Pavillion, Mid-Valley & Times Square. I missed One Utama this time round...

We bought durians & thought that can eat at Ching's hotel room - but there were no windows! We sneaked the durians to the swimming pool area and enjoyed the 3 boxes  from the supermart.