Spa Day!

Today Per and I went to the Ishan Malaysian Spa!

They picked us up at the hotel at 12 in the afternoon and drove us to this peaceful spa in the mountain side. On the way there, we saw wild monkeys! A major highlight of the Malaysia vacation as I was really hoping to see some.

They welcomed us with some towels and tea and then showed us to our hut.

We had the Bird of Paradise package. 3.5 hours of bliss.

First we had an aromatherapy full body massage. Heavenly.
Then we had a roasted coconut oil ayurvedic head massage. This was Per's favorite.
After that we had kaffir lime hair treatments. My hair is super silky smooth now.
Then they did a full body coffee scrub. We smelled like Starbucks.
After that they slathered some homemade yogurt on top of the coffee coating and wrapped us in banana leaves and left us to marinate.
Then we showered and took a floral bath.
Just when we thought we were done, we were reminded we had rejuvenanting facials...
followed by a heavenly foot massage!

It was amazing. I'm ready to go back tomorrow (I wish) :)

Check out their website if you are super bored and wanna see pictures of the place:
http://www.ishan-spa-langkawi.com/

Singapore Slings and Malaysian Beaches

Singpore was fantastic. Per and I both really loved it. I think he is already trying to convince me we should move there for a few years to work. Psh...maybe if it wasn't so damn hot all year round. Let me know when global warming has settled and Singapore has started to cool, and I'll consider it.

We arrived late Friday night so we didn't do much but check into the hotel, have a snack, and go to bed. But our hotel, The Scarlet, was super nice.

The next morning, we decided to go to the famous shopping streed, Orchard Road, and see where the day took us. I can't understand how big cities like this, and like Hong Kong and Tokyo, can sustain so many high end shops. Who has money to shop there, and how can I get a job where they work? We did manage to find one store we could afford, The Gap. God do I love Singapore Gap sizes...what a refreshing change from trying to find anothing that fits in China. I could even wear a medium! Go figure. That's how to make fans of your brand, make them feel skinny!

From there, we ran into the tourist office and Duck and Hippo Tours. We decided it would be a good idea to take the bus and boat tour package.

Be cool, go topless! Our bus:

Per on the bus (I was too sweaty and hot to make an appearance in any photos):

We took the bus to the Singapore Flyer. It is 30m higher than the London Eye (they loved to remind us of that every chance they got). It is right next to the F1 track, and you can get a great view of the city. Unfortunately it wasn't the clearest day, otherwise we could have seen Malaysian islands.

The Singapore Flyer:

View from the Singapore Flyer (the top):

Another view from the flyer:

After the Signapore Flyer (Per was a little white afterward - he doesn't like heights), we ate some lunch. While looking for a bathroom, we happened to run into something that I had wanted to do in Singapore!! We had seen on TV a few days earlier a woman doing a piece on fish spas in Singapore. And we found one! So we paid 10 Singapore Dollars for small fish to eat dead skin off of our feet! It was really cook. It tickled and felt like your feet were vibrating. It took Per a few minutes to get used to and relax because it was so strange. But I'm so glad we found it!

Fish eating skin off my feet!:

Fish eat skin off Per's hand (not allowed but he did it anyway - what a rebel):

After our fish spa, we took the bus to Clark Quay. Here you could eat or drink just about anything, but we jumped on a boat for a tour of Singapore by water.

Singapore's famous Lion-fish:

Then we jumped back on the bus to see the rest of the city. One of the coolest parts was passing all the luxourious Singapore mansions! No pictures of these though.

We headed home, took showers, and decided to go eat Indian food in Little India. There are a lot of Indians living in Singapore. We went to Banana Leaf Apolo, and it was such delcious Indian food I can't even describe. It was sooooo yummy! Our plates were banana leafs and it was totally acceptable to eat with your fingers there, but we didn't. We also decided to pass on their most famous dish, fish head curry.

Yummy:

After dinner, we walked around Little India a little bit. Then we did the ultra touristy thing, and took a cab to the Raffles Hotel to have a Singapore Sling. They were pretty good, but I think the love is missing from the drink because they make like 100 a day (probably way more than that).

Singapore Sling:

Then it was time to head home and rest up for our flight the next morning to Langkawi, Malaysia! Lucky for us though, we will have another whole day in Singapore before heading back to China.

Malaysia is gorgeous. Exactly what the doctor ordered and just what I imagined for our tropical Asian vacation.

I'll let the pictures tell the story and update you in more detail about our vacation here later :)

View from our balcony:

The beach (careful when swimming, there might be jellyfish!):

The pool:

A Rough Start

OK! I'm skipping the blog about my family's visit to Tianjin and Beijing...until a later date.
Now, I'm on to bigger and better things!!!

Per and I just arrived in Singapore!! Tropical and nice from what I can tell, around 75 degrees F at 10 o'clock at night. But it was a ROUGH start.

I woke up at 9AM to Per's phone ringing...the taxi cab driver had called to say that we needed to leave an hour earlier than planned, 10AM instead of 11AM, because of the heavy fog. The major highways were probably closed...because its better to cause traffic chaos on smaller roads than let people drive carefully on a foggy highway....I digress

SO, fine, I can get ready in an hour no problem, at least we packed the night before.

We were on our way, and despite the fog, things seemed to be moving well.

That is when my intense migraine set in. Its been awhile since I had a full blown one like this. I got a little shiny blind spot and my face went tingly...all signs that a mega headache are on the way.
So, I laid down on Per's lap and tried to sleep it off. When I woke up, not much later, we are stuck in a ginormous traffic jam. Barely moving. Great. So, I remain postive, while Per gets irritated with the traffic. "We are gonna make it Per, don't worry." Our flight was at 3:30 and we were SUPPOSED to get to the airport at 1:30, but the clock was approaching 1 o'clock and it didn't look like we were too close to Beijing airport. Don't panic yet...

To be on the safe side, I decided to call the airline to see what time we had to check in by. I thought they closed check in maybe half an hour before departure...wrong. You must check in an hour before departure...oh and by the way, our tickets were non refundable and non changeable...so if we missed it, we were giantly screwed.

At around 1:40, Per and I really started to panic. So, Per called the receptionist at Vestas, Sarah, to see if she could ask the taxi driver about how long he thought it would be. AN HOUR!!!! WHAT! So...at this point, I could have started crying, Per too, but we didn't. Next thing we know, our taxi driver is pulling over on the side of the road, getting out of the cab, and talking to some Beijing cab driver. Then before I could even say "what the heck", we were being escorted to the Beijing taxi.....OK?

So we called Sarah again to see what the heck was going on, and she assured us that our lady Beijing taxi cab driver could get us there by 2:30 no problem. Time on the clock at this point is 2:00 and it is rare you can get ANYWHERE in Beijing in 30 minutes.

All Per and I could do was hold on for the ride! This lady taxi cab driver was DETERMINED to get us there on time...even if it meant running red lights, speeding, passing like a mad woman, and taking crazy secret backroads.

At 2:20 we were pulling up to Terminal 3 at Beijing airport. I SPRINTED out of the cab and into the airport frantically searching for our check in area. "Where do I check in for the Singapore flight!!!" I interuppted some guy in the middle of checking someone in. Meanwhile, Per wobbled into the airport as quickly as he could with both of our suitcases in tow.

BUT WE MADE IT! With maybe 5 minutes to spare.

A crazy start to what will hopefully be a GREAT vacation. Singpore till Monday, then off to Malaysia :)