The Stoddart Family goes to Chiang Mai

While my parents were in Singapore, I thought it would be nice to take them somewhere that was outside of Singapore.  We decided to head up to Chiang Mai, Thailand for the weekend.  Once my mom heard that there were elephants camps, she was sold!  

We spent two nights in CM.  On the first day we had a guide take us around to see some factories - silk weaving, lacquerware, wood carving and silver. We then went and saw a Buddhist temple that has been around for 500 plus years. 

On the second day, we went to the Elephant Nature Park which is a sanctuary for abused and hurt elephants.  At the Elephant Nature Park we had very close interaction with these beautiful animals!  We fed them, bathed them, walked around with them.  It was a wonderful day!

At night time we went around the markets to see the crafts and goods that were for sale.  Most of it wasn't too great but we did buy some great MC Hammer type pants.  So comfortable!

On the last day we did a little trip out of Chiang Mai before heading to the airport to see the Bhubing Palace (where the Royal Family stays in the winter) and Wat Phra That Doi Suthep which is a temple on top of the mountain.  

It was great to see some of Asia with the parental unit...Singapore is so clean and efficient that it's sometimes nice to see something different...and Chiang Mai was!

Our room at Yaang Come Village - 3 peas in a pod

I think he's a tourist?

Weaving silk scarves at the silk factory

Buddha

Mom feeding the elephants

Family picture in front of the elephants

This guy was massive

Bathing the elephants

Doi Suthep

Family picture at Bhubing Palace.  I had to wear a coverup as I was dressed 'inappropriately' in shorts and a tank top.  Same with my pops - he could wear shorts.  We were styling.

Skiing in Japan for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is probably the biggest holiday in Singapore (even bigger than Christmas).  This year we got a long weekend so a group of friends and I went to Japan for a week to go skiing.  We went to Niseko which is on the island of Sapporo; well north of Tokyo.  Niseko is known for it's insane amount of snow, specifically powder.  It snowed every day we were there, sometimes up to 6'' over night.  

We had a lift pass that allowed us to go back and forth between 4 resorts on the mountain.  They were all interlinked at the top so we could ski a different resort during the day and still ski back to our chalet which was on the bottom of the Grand Hirafu resort.  I originally started the trip on skis but decided after a few days to switch to a snowboard which I was much more comfortable with.  The powder was absolutely amazing...so much so that it didn't hurt when I fell!

Niseko was full of great bars and restaurants too.  If I ever get the chance, I'd love to go back!

The view outside our window

Skiing through the trees

 

Fresh powder

Off one of my favorite runs through the trees, Blueberry

The girls dominating in beer pong

The girls after 3 pong wins in a row...2 games of wine pong and 1 game of Gin & Tonic pong.  Sorry boys...

The whole gang out at dinner

Bar hopping

A recap of the past 8 months...

First off, WOW, time flies!  I truly didn't think it'd been 8 months since I last posted to my blog.  For everyone reading this out there (hi Mom & Dad), sorry!  I'll try and do a recap of places I've been to in the past few months in different blog posts but we've got:

Trip home in August

F1 in Singapore

Kristen & Greg's Trip to Singapore

Ho Chi Minh / Hoi An, Vietnam

Trip home for Christmas / New Years

Skiing in Japan for Chinese New Year

Mom & Dad's Visit to Singapore

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Hong Kong 7's

Kari's 30th birthday in Paris

And here we go....

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...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The official start of Chinese New Year was last weekend and lasts for 15 days.  This year is the Year of the Snake (lucky me) and there have been celebrations going on throughout Singapore for the past few weeks.  We got a nice 4 day weekend though, so I can't complain!  

It's been very interesting to learn about the customs of Chinese New Year: hongbaos (the red envelopes with money given out by married couples to single people, especially children); presenting not one, but two mandarin oranges to someone as a symbol of abundance and good fortune; participating in a 'Lo Hei' or prosperity toss of different types of ingredients as a 'Good Luck' appetizer at a Chinese New Year lunch or dinner.

One of my coworkers took me into Chinatown a week before the official start of CNY.  There were a bunch of street vendors selling everything from chopsticks to candies and cakes to jeggings for people to buy as CNY gifts.

There has been a carnival in Marina Bay as well called River Hongbao.  They have some of the same games and rides that you'd find in the states, but there were some pretty elaborate decorations too.

Here are some pictures of the fireworks that they did for the start of CNY: