Weekend in Bangkok

This past weekend I went up to Bangkok with a friend that lives in my condo block.  When we had planned the weekend, we had no idea that it was the same time as Songkran (the Thai New Year Festival) aka The Water Festival.  My friend Katy had been in Phuket during Songkran a few years back so she knew what it would be like.  If you Google Songkran, it's also known as the 'Worlds Biggest Water Fight'.  Our flight and hotel was non-refundable so we decided to go and make the best of it!

From what I understand, Songkran started out as a way for Buddhist Thai's to wash away their sins from the previous year and start new for the coming year.  They put water on people's wrists as a way to do that.  Well, now it's morphed in the massive water fight for the weekend.  People stand on the streets with buckets of water, super soakers, fire hoses...pretty much anything that they can use...and they squirt everyone from pedestrians to people on mopeds or in tuk tuks.  Then there are the people that drive around in the back of trucks with buckets of water to get everyone else that the people on the streets can't get!

Our taxi was sitting in traffic and there were people on both sides of the street.  Luckily we had the doors locked as while we were stopped, they tried to open the back door of the cab to throw a bucket of water in on us.  Crazy!

Trucks with water...and squirt guns...

I didn't take this picture, but this is one of the main water fight streets...we definitely avoided this spot!

I really had wanted to wander the streets and see Bangkok, but a lot of the local shops were closed for the weekend holiday.  We did find an awesome place that did Thai Massages.  It was like a factory for massages with the amount of people that they had working there!  I wasn't sure what to expect of a 'Thai Massage' but it was great - a massage with crazy stretching.  My lady was like a spider money standing on my back, etc.  And the best part, it was only $20 for 2 hours!! We also found a mall that had different floors with different themes from various parts of the world.  My favorite was *of course* the San Francisco level!  They had a cable car, Golden Gate Bridge, even had a 'Scomas' (too bad it was a coffee shop Mom!).

Health Land - the best Thai massage place 

The Golden Gate Bridge in Bangkok?  Kinda cool!

We also went to a new market called Asiatique.  It was right on the river and was way less chaotic than the streets of Bangkok were during the festival.  There were a ton of vendors selling things from touristy trinkets, to scarves to dishes.  Too bad I didn't have any extra room in my carry-on!  It was a nice night out so we had dinner outside (and water fight free!).

The food in Thailand was also amazing - such great curries and pad thai.  The food alone was worth the trip!

One more picture : an actual fireworks factory?  Made the insurance underwriter in me squirm!

Golfing...in Singapore...in a bar...

A few days after Bintan I went to 'virtual golf' in Singapore.  It's in a bar on the 61st floor of a building overlooking Marina Bay.  

Not the best picture ever, but it's a view of Marina Bay and the casino

I've never really played a round of golf before on a computer screen, so it was interesting!  We chose to play a course in Canada and I guess it was realistic?  It was a bit hard to chip and putt since you had to hit the ball in to the screen, but it was a fun night none the less!

Good thing I'm of age!  

Golfing...in Indonesia!

Hi Everyone!  Sorry for the delay in not posting...seems to be a theme.  I'll try and get better!  

Anyways, the last few weeks have been pretty busy.  I'm filling up my passport!  I was invited to go play golf in Indonesia a few weekends ago with some clients.  This was the first time I've played since October (life got a little busy after that) so needless to say I was a bit rusty.  We went over to Bintan, Indonesia to play Bintan Lagoon Resort.  To get over to the island, we had to take an hour long ferry ride out of Singapore.  From there, it was resort golf at it's finest!  We got off the ferry (didn't see our clubs until we were ready to play), then gave our passports to the resort lady for expedited immigration, boarded the shuttle to the course, and then it was time to play!

Gotta watch out for the monkeys!  They'll apparently steal anything they can - from sandwiches to cell phones!

The course really reminded me of those in Hawaii - bermuda grass, hot and humid, the threat of rain.  However, instead of shlepping my clubs around, we now had caddies!  Mine was named 'Mega' and she was great.  She could convert yardages from meters to yards on demand, knew how far I hit my clubs after a few holes and lined up putts with no problem.  I should have had her in college!

View from the clubhouse

Anyways we got called off the course after 9 holes due to a thunderstorm (aka a mini hurricane) and then went back out after an hour delay and finished 13 holes.  We made the 'signature' holes, 12 and 13, before rushing to catch our ferry back.  

Hole 12

Hole 13

Despite not playing all that well (a fair amount of pars and then a few holes I'd like to forget), it was a great foray into golf in Asia.  The resort offers memberships as well and they seem to be decently priced (compared to what is offered in Singapore) so I'm considering joining.  I've been invited to join in on a possible ladies group that they're trying to put together, so who knows...I might be out there more often!  

Easter at Rawa

Hi Ya'll! I hope that everyone had a nice Easter! Singapore gives Good Friday as a holiday so I got a nice little 3 day weekend. I was invited up to Malaysia to go to Rawa Island with a group of 26. I had met a majority of them and knew it would be a fun weekend!

We set off at 6am from Singapore Friday morning in an attempt to beat the queue at the border. Apparently everyone else in Singapore had the same idea too as it took forever to make it through. Once we did, our driver became the Malaysian version of Mario Andretti in a mini van. A two lane bumpy and winding road through fields of palm trees (fun fact - Malaysia is the world's largest exporter of palm oil), and he decides to pass slower cars in the other lane while there's oncoming traffic.  Needless to say, I was incredibly happy to get out of that van at the Port of Mersing! We then boarded a ferry for 20 minutes out to Rawa Island.

First glimpse of Rawa

Rawa is a tiny island that's owned by 2 brothers. They had a feud and have basically split the island in half. There's the side with a true resort (pool, legitimate cabins, etc) and then there was ours. Granted the resort was filled with families up from Singapore for the weekend, but ours was kid free and much more relaxing! Our cabins slept 5 to a room with basic accommodations and no hot water. Good thing there wasn't much time spent in the room as we were on the beach the entire weekend.  

There was tanning (or burning in my case), reading, card games, pier jumping, snorkeling, volleyball, and a ton of relaxation!  The water was incredibly warm (like bath water) and the most amazing blue.   There was a little coral reef off of the beach that we snorkeled around.  I saw a reef shark...it wasn't that big...rainbow fish, other random fish I can't identify.  I need to get an underwater camera!

Here are some other pictures:

The main building where we ate our meals and hid in the shade as it was insanely hot over the weekend

Beach

Beach Part 2

The boys playing a heated game of volleyball

Sunset over the pier on the first night

Panoramic View

Overall it was a top notch weekend.  If I couldn't spend it at home with the family eating a Honey Baked Ham and Hominy, then this was a good alternative!

Rawa, I will be back!

...I'm off to go sit in a tub of aloe vera...