Thailand Part Three - Adventures and Tastes

Saturday morning I was on a mission to find some baggy, comfy, elephant pants.  So after a quick breakfast with a view of the beach, we made our way to the main road.  There are plenty of little shops and restaurants lining the road that Time for Lime is off of so we walked for a while until I found what I was looking for.  Once I was satisfied with my finds, it was time to get back on the beach to cool off in the water and soak up some more sunshine. 

Thailand Part Two - Thai cooking class

Day two on the beautiful island of Koh Lanta started off soaking up the sun, swimming in the warm water, and reading. 

If you read my first post, I explained how Time for Lime is also a Thai cooking school.  Well watch out Chef Mark, your little sister knows authentic Thai!  

Thailand Part One – In the right place for not enough time

This past weekend was my final adventure outside of Singapore and my destination was Koh Lanta, Thailand.  Where do I even begin?  I cannot explain how right this place felt.  Everything about my trip kept confirming that this was a place I needed to be for much longer than I originally planned.  

Australia Part 4 - Coastal Walk and Farewell

Surfing at 630am meant that the rest of the day could be spent chillin on the beach.  Lucky for us, the rain and cloudy weather during our surf lesson passed through and we had some nice sun for the rest of the day. 

Looks just like my surf pictures...hah!

Australia Part 3 - Catching my first wave

As a beach girl at heart it didn’t take me too long to drop my bags and head out for Bondi Beach after we arrived at our Airbnb stay.  Though it was overcast and kind of chilly, I still enjoyed sitting by the ocean, listening to the waves, digging my toes into the sand, and reading a book. 

                 

Australia Part 2 - St. Marys, The Rocks, and Airbnb

Alright back to the recap of my trip to Sydney, here comes part two.

The day after Christmas was beautiful and sunny!  It was the last day we’d spend in downtown Sydney so Ethan and I decided to go for a longer walk around.  Of course no one told me that the day after Christmas in Australia is like Black Friday in the US!  As we first headed towards Martin Place, it was a quick greeting to the shopping madness going on.  There were lines for days going every which way.  Luckily we made it out of the crazy shopping area and then headed towards Hyde Park and St Mary’s Cathedral.  St Mary’s was beautiful and had a lovely manger scene outside as well.  It brought me back to the lovely cathedrals I’d seen on my trips to England and Italy. 

Australia Part 1 - A Christmas Story Down Under

Another country in the books and more fun adventures to share with you!  In case you didn't catch on, I headed down to Australia for a nice Christmas break.  Usually in the US my company gives us from Christmas day through New Year’s day off but I have to follow Singapore’s holiday schedule which only allows Christmas Day off.  Luckily I saved up a couple vacation days to make for a nice 6 day trip. 

Weekend in Bali - Part Three Luwak Coffee

Have I made you fall in love with the sunrise yet?

It was 8am when we finished our hike and had you asked any of us at the time we would have told you it was well into the afternoon.

Our driver guided our tired group into the car where we took a 40 minute drive to a Bali Coffee Plantation.  Though I was tired and did end up taking a few snoozes, it was light out on our car ride so there was so much more to see.  The roads were still bumpy but didn’t bother my stomach.  I learned in the days of early Saturday practice in college that exercise is the greatest medicine.  Niles and Ethan would disagree, though they both made it all the way back to our resort without getting sick.  Driving in Bali is something that will never make my bucket list.  The narrow 2 lane streets have bumps that require cars to come to a complete stop every so often and steep hills that I still am not sure how trucks make it up.  It is definitely a place that “anything goes” as long as  you stay on the left side of the road (most of the time).  Luckily Ardi was a safe, reliable driver and we were in a nice car.

Weekend in Bali - Part 1

Well hello my dear readers!  We are back from our first trip a tad sunburned, but had a great long weekend.

  

Where do I start?  A 4 day weekend in Bali, Indonesia means either one longgggg post or a couple broken out posts.  While I’d love to have your opinions I think it would only prolong me getting out my review of the weekend so I’ve gone ahead and chosen for us.  The verdict- you will get a few different posts recapping various aspects of my Bali weekend.

Getting to Bali

Friday morning our crew headed to Changi Airport and arrived with plenty of time to grab a coffee and find our gate.  Well unfortunately our flight was delayed by an hour, which turned into us not actually leaving the ground until an hour and 30+ minutes after our initial departure time.  But no worries, we were headed for paradise!  We took a budget airline which means no drink service or snacks.  Not a huge deal as our flight was only 2.5 hours.  Upon landing in Bali (make note it looks like you’re going to land in the ocean but you don’t), we were greeted with a 45 minute wait to get through customs!  Once through customs and getting our visitor visa, we started the hunt for our driver.  We were greeted by TONS of other resort driver services and I immediately became overwhelmed with the amount of people around shouting at us, pointing, trying to get our attention.  Due to our flight being delayed our driver was not waiting for us.  We found our way to the information booth where they would call our for our hotel to get our drivers attention.  While we were waiting taxi drivers kept coming up to us and offering to drive.  Most got the point and walked away, but one was INCREDIBLY pushy.  Uncomfortable, annoyed Laura + persistent taxi driver = MAD, rude, you’re messing with the wrong person Laura.  I repeatedly told this guy to leave us alone and tried to ignore him but he just didn’t get it.  Thankfully our resort driver showed up, an hour later, and took us to our resort.

An Afternoon on Sentosa Island

Sunday fun-day had our gang of three, Niles+Ethan+Me, headed to Singapore’s Sentosa Island.  This island is just to the south west of Singapore and offers a few beaches, attractions such as Universal Studio and an aquarium, as well as plenty of restaurants/bars.  It took us about an hour via public transportation to arrive which was too bad considering we didn’t have to deal with parking or any long queues.