Our 6th Year Anniversary

Every year this time, we always make it an effort to celebrate this special event. And we did it without fail for the past 6 years. Even though now we are of a married status, 12th Nov still marks a special date in our heart and we would never give it a miss to celebrate this day. Initially I wanted 12th Nov to be our wedding date, but due to this date was not an auspicious date for marriage in 2006, we've chosen 15th Oct instead. Therefore, besides dating anniversay, birthdays and Valentine's Day, we had one more wedding date to celebrate starting next year!

This year, we had chosen Intercontinental Hotel for our hotel stay to celebrate this special day. We check-in on the 11th Nov and check-out on the 12th. We reached the hotel around 3pm, settled down and went to Bugis Seoul Garden for dinner. We shop around Bugis for awhile until night time and went back to the hotel room for a rest.

Review of Intercon: I quite like the theme of this hotel. The design looks like those country style and have a cottage feel which reminds me of the little red-riding hood and Mary had a little lamb houses! We had our breakfast the next morning (12th Nov) at the Olive Tree. The breakfast was great but Hui ate much lesser than he normally would eat. He said he was sick of these breakfast buffet as he had eaten for straight 7days in Mauritius. Christmas decoration was up in the hotel and we took quite a few pictures with the big christmas tree and other decorations. Overall, it was a nice experience with Intercon!

Our 6th year anniversary gift:

For Her: A diamond pandant from Goldheart
For Him: A Parker pen with engraving
Breakfast at Olive Tree
First Christmas Tree photo taken in 2006!
Full version of photos
Till date, we had stayed in the following hotels before and hoping to explore more Singapore hotels in future. We love to stay in Singapore hotels! ^_^
1) Grand Copthrone Waterfront
2) The Oriental
3) Marina Mandarin
4) Meritius Mandarin
5) Carlton
6) The Scarlet
7) Raffles The Plaza
8) Pan Pacific
9) Swissotel The Stamford (With my Sec Friends)
10) Intercontinental

Honeymoon @ Mauritius (21st - 28th Oct) Part 2

Hui Says Again...

Day 5 (Wednesday, 25th Oct 2006):
Today we were supposed to go for an excursion to another island in Mauritius called the Ile Des Deux Coco beach which we cancelled it as we were too exhausted from yesterday's Catamaran Cruise. We cancelled it because our main purpose of going to Mauritius was to relax and not to tired ourselves out with the watersports & other activities.

We woke up around 8+am and went for our daily bfast. This time we ate at our own pace without any rush. After the bfast, we went to the Mauritour counter to look for Nicole (the tour agent) to change our activity for the next two days. Instead of having the subscooter and Port Louis tour on Thursday and undersea walk on Friday, we changed it to subscooter and undersea walk on Thursday and Port Louis tour on Friday.

We decided to make this change as we would need to check out of the hotel on Friday morning 9am and place our luggages at the concierge before leaving the hotel for the activity. If we were to go for the undersea walk on Friday, then when we come back from the trip, we will need to find a place to shower which we wun have as we have already checked out of the hotel room. Although the hotel does provide services to allow guests to use any of the hotel rooms for showering for this kind of cases but we felt that it'll be very troublesome for us so we decided to make this change.

This change required a topup of MUR1500 because we need to extend our car ride. Thus we found out that to book a driver and car here is not cheap!
Half Day (0900-1400) - MUR2500 (SGD125)
Full Day (0900-1800) - MUR4200 (SGD210)
After everything was settled, we went back to our room and Yan had a 2hr nap, after having eaten 2 panadol and cough syrup, as she was having a slight fever. Meanwhile I just lay on the bed beside her and watch tv.Yan woke up at ard 2pm and we headed for lunch at the Banyan Tree. I ordered a grilled beef burger while Yan had a club sandwich. The portions was very big. We then had an ice cream and passion sorbet as dessert.

Club sandwich & Grilled beef burger
Ice-cream with passion sorbet! Yum Yum!
After lunch, we went to book for a snorkeling trip tomorrow at 1515. This activity is provided by the hotel and is organized daily at 2 time slots (1000hrs and 1515hrs). We took the noon schedule as it was just nice for us when we come back from our undersea walk. After booking, we went back to the room and at first I wanted to go suntan but the sky was very cloudy so we both stayed in the room. Yan had to stay in the room as the fever was coming back again. As Yan was not feeling very well, she fell aslp from 6pm to 930pm after taking the medicine. She couldn't pull herself up from bed as she was feeling very drowsy. As there was also nothing for me to do, I lay beside her and also fell aslp.

I only woke up when I heard Yan getting out of the bed to wash her face. As it was too late to go for dinner, we ended up chit chatting for a while, and then gave Yan her medicine and then went to bed. Today was a totally relaxing day for the both of us.

Day 6 (Thursday, 26th Oct 2006):
We woke up at 7am & had our bfast at 830am. This time round we have a nice 1hr to eat our bfast. At 930am, the driver came to pick me and Yan up to go for out first activity for the day, the Sub-Scooter ride at 3m under the sea. The ride is booked at 10am.

When we reach the Blue Safari counter, the person in charge brief us on where we would be boarding the boat that will bring us to a platform out in the sea to take the sub-scooter ride. The boat ride took about 5mins to reach the platform. On the platform, we were each given a diving suit to wear to keep us warm under the sea. We were also given a pair of blue rubber shoes. After changing, an "angmoh" instructor brief us on how to use and control the sub-scooter. At the same time he also taught us some basic underwater hand signs just incase we need help when underwater.

Finally we were ready and the sub-scooter started to slowly submerge into the sea. It stopped descending when it reached 3m. It was able to stay at the 3m depth with the help of a very big bouy floating on the seawater which was tied to the sub-scooter. I was sitting in the front seat of the sub-scooter controlling the speed and directions. Yan was sitting behind mi hugging me tightly. The water was really cold and both of us started to shiver under the sea. Two divers followed us down into the sea to guide us the way and to ensure our safety.

Well, there wasn't much nice corals or fishes underneath. The experience was not very fantastic. We were both a bit giddy as the currents were quite strong and made the sub-scooter shaked alot. After 30mins, the divers directed us back to the platform to be raised up above the seawater. Once above, me and Yan proceeded to change and also chose the type of photos to be printed as a keepsake. We choose a 8R sized photo. We were also each presented with a certificate for taking the dive in the sub-scooter. After that we left the platform by taking the same boat back on land. We then went to collect the photo and proceeded to the underwater sea walk, which is just nearby.

After the sub-scooter ride

When we reached there, similiary a boat brough us to the platfrom. Same thing we have to wear a diving suit to keep warm. 2 divers followed us down and provided both of us with breads to attract the fishes to swim right infront of us. It was very fun as we managed to touch the fishes. For this undersea walk, we paid for the service of videoing the whole journey under the sea. They will burn into a cd and deliver it to our hotel. It was a good experience walking under the sea and being able to breath normally under water. The walk lasted for 30min and after that we went back straight to the hotel to rest.

Taken with the divers at the Undersea walk

By right we have booked a snorkeling trip with the hotel's boathouse but in the end we did not go for it as we wanted to have a rest and relax. So we went straight back to our room to shower and change. Only Yan showered as I still wanted to go and suntan. After Yan showered finish, I fed her with medicine and tuck her to slp then I went to the beach to have a little suntanning.

I came back at about 5pm to shower. I then packed some of the things nicely into the luggage before going for our special honeymoon dinner by the pool.

Honeymoon dinner by the pool
After dinner, we went to play pingpong, pool and games at the Games room. After awhile we went back to the hotel room and rested for the night. The next (last) day is our shopping day at Port Louis before leaving for the airport of Mauritius. We hope to get some souvenirs, gifts and clothings back to singapore to give ppl. Tonite is our last nite in the Legends hotel. We both started to have the feeling that we will miss this place alot....

Day 7 (Friday, 27th Oct 2006):
On this last day in Mauritius, we woke up at 7am to wash face and do some last min packing of our luggage. Then we went to eat bfast at 730am. At 830am we went back to our hotel room to collect our lugguage to checkout the room. As we do not wish to bring our luggage along to shopping, we left it at the concierge.

Last photo before checking-out
At 930am, the driver reached and we left the hotel for our shopping trip. First we went to a shop that sells polo ralph clothes. I bought a polo ralph t-shirt while Yan bought a jacket. Then we went to Port Louis's Caudon Waterfront shopping center. There we bought many souvenirs like key chains, small glasses with mauritius's map on it and many magnets. We also bought a few clothes for ourselves to wear.

Taken from Port Louis's Caudon Waterfront shopping center
At 1pm, we then took a few pictures of the place and then we left Port Louis to go to Pamplemosse, which has a small shopping center. There we bought somemore clothes for ourselves and friends. After that we went back to hotel for lunch and also went to the games room to play pool and video games until the airport transfer bus came.

At 430pm, the mini bus transport was here and after collecting our luggage and place in the bus, we left the hotel. Along the way to airport, the driver talked to us alot and showed us how Port Louis look like from a higher view. It took us about 2hours to reach the airport at 630pm.

Port Louis
Once we reach the airport, we changed back the excess MUR dollars into USD dollars. Then we proceeded to check-in our luggages. We then went to the Mauritius duty free shop to get some chocolates and also bought a sandwich to eat before boarding the plane as we were both hungry. After eating, I fed Yan with the cough medicine and proceeded to the boarding gate.

At about 730pm, we boarded the plane and left Mauritius for Singapore. We will both miss Mauritius alot. This will be a very memorable trip for both of us...

We've reach Singapore Changi Airport!
Mauritius Trip Memories

Honeymoon @ Mauritius (21st - 28th Oct) Part 1

Hui Says...

Day 1 (Saturday, 21st Oct 2006):
Today is the 1st day of our honeymoon. Me & Yan woke up at 5:45am to wash up and then left house to check in at the airport. Our flight took off at 8:15am and flew to KL for transit to Mauritius. We reached Mauritius airport ard 1:45pm (Mauritius time) on 21/10. Mauritius time is 4hrs behind Singapore. We then proceeded to change our USD notes to MUR currency. Then we boarded the land transfer by Mauritours to our hotel "Legends". The ride was about 1 1/2 hrs (damn long).

Air Mauritius Plane
When we reached the hotel, a guest relations officer came to greet us. The hotel served each of us a welcome drink (sparkling white wine) and after signing some documents, he brought us to our room. As we had the honeymoon perks, the room was beautifully decorated with red rose petals everywhere. There was also bottle of sparkling white wine placed in the bathroom basin covered with ice, a fruit basket plus a t-shirt for me, a pareo for Yan (both with the hotel's name on it). The room had a personal balcony that faces the sea which we can view the sunset.

View from the balcony
The hotel staff who brought us to the room, told us that the hotel was build according to "Feng Shui". The Master was from China & had the same surname as me (Chua)...haha...Indeed, everything in the hotel has got to do with "Feng Shui". They have a lot of "BA GUA" symbols ard the bedsheet, toiletries, towel, glass plane and many other areas. We have a water fountain in our room which we believes that it has got to do with "Feng Shui" too. We are staying in the room 1029 and we realised that there are no rooms that has the number 4 in it.

The people here are all very friendly and greeted the guests whenever they see one. As Yan was not feeling well, she had an early sleep after I fed her with medicine so that she can recover fast and play whole heartedly for the rest of the days in Mauritius.

Day 2 (Sunday, 22nd Oct 2006):
We woke up at 8am (Mauritius time) & went for bfast. After that we walked ard the beach until the time was up for us to meet the Mauritour agent at 11:15am. The agent showed us alot of activities that we can do for the next few days. We booked a list of activities from her and and arranged it nicely for the next few days so that it'll be at relaxing pace for us.

As today is Sunday, most of the tours are unavailable. So we had the whole day to ourselves, free and easy. We changed into our beach wear and went to the beach and took a pedal boat ride. Then I went for a little swim in the sea while Yan lied on the beach chair to relax and enjoy the sea breeze.

Pedal boat ride
In the evening 7:30pm, we went to a restaurant in the hotel for our free dinner. Tonight dinner was Asian Buffet. Therefore, the restaurant was decorated with red and white cloth (with the BA GUA symbol) to match the theme. Yesterday was Indian buffet and they had the Indian deco in the restaurant. One thing to note was that during dinner, formal wear was required to enter the restaurant. As both of us only brought along 1 pair of long pants, basically the whole 7 days we wore the same pants for our dinner!!
After the dinner, we went back to the hotel room to sleep early to prepare ourselves for the next day's tour.

Asian Buffet with Asian deco
Day 3 (Monday, 23rd Oct 2006):
We had our bfast at 7am as we are leaving the hotel at 7:30pm to go for the South tour of the island. We had a very long bus ride before finally reaching the meeting point in a city call Phoenix to pick up our tour guide.

The tour guide brought us to the top of a dormant volcano to view the crater. From the top, we could also see a very nice view of the cities that surround the volcano. We then went to view the factory that produces wooden models of the 1950s-1960s British sailing ships in all sizes for export and local purchases. We were given some time to shop ard the other shops that were nearby the factory. After that, we went to view silk carpets that were made locally and also a duty free branded shop. Due to some delays, at 2:15pm, we then had our lunch at a restaurant, which was situated on the slopes of a mountain.

After lunch, the tour brought us to view a waterfall, a hindu temple and the seven coloured earth. This seven coloured earth was a natural phoenomenon cause by the oxidation of volcano ashes. It was discovered by some workers many many decades ago (ard 80yrs or 18 years ago..can't rem clearly) and was later fenced up to become one of the tourist attractions. This was the last attraction for today's tour and we reached the hotel around 6:45pm (another long long ride) to have our dinner and rest.

Seven Colored Earth
Day 4 (Tuesday, 24th Oct 2006):
Today's activities was even earlier. We had to leave the hotel at 7:15pm to go for our Catamaran Cruise out to sea to chase dolphins, snorkeling and swimming. As the jetty is very far from our hotel, we had to leave that early.

At the start of the cruise, the ride was very still quite smooth. This is very important to Yan, as she gets seasick very easily if it gets too shaky. I told her to look far to prevent her from getting seasick.

After awhile, out in the deep blue sea, the cruise stopped at a place where the dolphins frequently hangout. We waited awhile and saw a bunch of dolphins swimming arfd 50-100m from the ship. There was a big bunch of them jumping in and out of the sea. What a magnificient sight. We managed to snap a few shots of the dolphins as some of them swim just 1-2m beside the ship.

We saw tons of them!
They were under our boat!
Having chased after dolphins for sometime, the cruise started again. This time we are heading to a place for snorkeling. When the cruise reached the destination, tourists started to jump into the sea for snorkeling. This time Yan started to get very giddy as the waves was quite big and the ship was shaking terribly. After awhile, Yan couldn't endure it anymore and vomitted into a ziplog bag that we brought along. As Yan was not feeling well, both of us gave the snorkeling a miss even though she felt better after puking. While others was snorkeling, the boat crew was busy bbq-ing food and preparing our lunch. At first Yan didn't dare to eat as she's afraid that she might vomit again. But the captain of the ship told her that she should eat something so that she'll feel better. I then went to take some food for her eat and a cup of plain water.

The cruise continued to sail to a small island where all the tourists got to spend an hr of relaxation by the beach. Due to the shallow waters, we had to transfer to a small speed boat, which the cruise towed along behind it, to reach the beach. The water was very clear and blue and cool to swim in. We both had a short swim and then I lied on the sand to suntan for a while. One hr was up and we all took the speed boat back to the cruise and headed back to the dock.

On the way back the ride was very calm as this time the cruise had its sail drawn up to let the wind slowly blow us back to dock. We enjoyed the breeze and along the way we both played with a young little girl and boy. As they are both french and speaks very little english, we had a hard time understanding what they were talking to us about. But we still managed to have a lot of fun with both of them just by doing hand signs. The little girl was so cute! We reached the dock ard 3:45pm and took the arranged transport back to our hotel.

Me with little French girl
Yan with little French girl
Back at the hotel we took a little rest b4 going to have our dinner. After the dinner we both rested early as today was a tiring but very relaxing day.

To be continued . . .

Kudos to PTANSC

Just read a close friend's blog and she wrote a detailed story of my wedding day. Thanks to her, my readers could also read about my wedding events through her blog as this lazy part of me just do not know how to get started blogging down the things happened that day. I knew Phyllis since Secondary 1 (1994) and till date, we had been friends for 12 years!!! Even though we liked to suan and complained alot to each other, this would never spoilt the long relationship we built throughout these years. So if you read her blog and some portion were directly shooting at me (some comments were untrue though :P), well....I'm pretty use to it...

To Phyllis: Miss Tan, give me some face also lah. You've got so many readers reading your blog and some readers I knew them in person too. I feel paiseh leh...^_^...hahaa...Anyway thanks for your wishes! Baby?? Haa, not so fast yet :p

I had just uploaded the softcopies of the actual day photos to imagestation. I'm still waiting for the actual day album which will only be ready in 2months time.

Meanwhile, just enjoy the raw copies first. I need to sort out the photos and develop for my relatives and friends but I just do not have the mood to do it. I've promise to blog my honeymoon trip but I'm just too lazy..will try to finish the draft by this wkend and sort out the photos as well, hopefully!

Wedding Day Photos on 15th Oct 2006