Of Roller Coasters and Neverland

Over the weekend, 6 of us made an impromptu trip down to Singapore. Vuitton managed to get good rates for one of the hotels near Marina Bay, so we thought, why not? We've never really visited that place since it was opened for business anyway.

So on Friday evening, braving the bad traffic after the heavy downpour, we made our way down to Malacca to swap ourselves an Alphard. Vuitton's parents were so kind as to buy us a nice Malay dinner ala kampung style. Yummy. Seafood's my all-time fave so for me it was a big big bonus.

One grilled fish, 2 plates of otak-otak and several plates of BBQ-ed prawns and crabs later, we continued our journey.

The hotel had a pretty awesome view, day or night.

View from our room: Singapore Eye at night

View from our room: Singapore Eye in the day

View from our room: The grandeur of Marina Bay Sands

The next two days were spent pretty much on a leeeetle bit of shopping, and for the boys some casino donations.

We also headed to Resorts World at Sentosa, which was basically Genting in Singapore. But I must say that Universal Studios was pretty impressive.

Jadey couldn't wait for us to pay

May catching a funny shot of me

Colourful Cushions!

World's best popcorn... I can testify to that!

The Cylon and Human roller-coaster intertwines. Yes I know I was chicken s#!t coz I didn't dare go on it!

The same night, Ken Ji took us to a Thai club which he insisted was NOT DODGY. Un-dodgy as he made it sound, the club was located at the top floor of Orchard Plaza -- one of the 3 legalized red light districts in the whole of Singapore. Haha. But sure enough, that place was pretty harmless, aptly named Neverland. Sounds like a child's playground, doesn't it?

Time simply flew by. Before we knew it, the trip had ended. But we all decided unanimously that a  group weekend trip to Singapore every 6-monthly is food for the soul. Well, I guess we can take that literally coz we did down quite a bit of good chomps this time :)

Maldives

4 days, 3 snorkels and a tan later, I'm back in KL from our Maldives trip. Short but well-planned, it was an effective business trip, yet still a relaxing getaway for J and I.

Quick background on Maldives for those of you who do not have a clue just yet:

Officially known:

Republic of Maldives

Location:

Southwest to India

Population:

400,000

Currency:

Maldivian Rufiyaa (Mrf)

Time Zone:

GMT +5:00

Official Religion:

Islam

Official Language:

Dhivehi

Known for:

It's unique and beautiful geography -- a country formed by 1,192 islands on atolls composed of live coral reefs and sand bars

* * * * *

So we departed KL and arrived in Maldives on Tuesday night. Upon arrival, we took a ferry across to the Capital of Maldives, Male. It being 3 hours behind KL time there, we were very much exhausted after a round of quick drinks with our very kind and hospitable host, Mubah.

The next morning, we headed to Sea House by the ferry terminal for a good round of Maldivian breakfast before work.

A good view of Male's seafront

J with hospitable Mubah

Roshi (their version of roti canai) Mashuni (minced tuna, onion and chilli)

Areca nuts with varying leaves are commonly consumed as a snack

We then spent the rest of the day having meetings, field studies etc. Come evening, J was dead-on wanting to go fishing, and thus it was arranged.

J working on his hooks on the dhoni (bigger version of a sampan)

J's first catch of the evening! He was the third person who managed to hook something

Corals viewed from the dhoni

Some resorts a distance away

All of our catch for the evening, at least 20 fishes (unfortunately I never contributed any)

Wednesday morning, we excitedly packed our bags and readied ourselves to head to the resort once work was done. Breakfast was utterly delightful at Seagulls Cafe, a nice cafe owned by a Maldivian who believes in all things imported. This place is usually packed in the evenings, when boat loads of tourists drop by for some good home made gelato and coffee.

Once everything had been settled, Mubah saw us off at Jetty 1.

Posing on the speedboat

Approximately 50 minutes away from Male by speed boat, Vivanta by Taj is a small resort that houses 32 water villas, 30 deluxe villas and 2 family suites. As per our previous experience, as soon as the boat dropped us off, we were at awe by how clear the water was, and how serene we felt.

We were dropped off at this jetty

They call this the Moonlight Deck. You can have special dining arrangements here in the evenings.

The water villas facing the island

Where you see the shadow of the coconut tree is the swimming pool. Notice the same shade of blue as the ocean? The turquoise part is the sea too.

Checking into our water villa, we knew that there was only that much time we had to chill and to enjoy the resort.

Our room with the sea view. The steps after the sliding door leads you into the sea as well.

That's the bathroom with a sea view too. The only thing about it is that people from the outside can easily catch glimpses of you showering or bubble bathing.

These are the steps that lead you into the water

A lovey dovey shot for the album!

This resort was a lot less bustling as compared to others that we've previously seen or visited. But as it was built on a fairly wide lagoon, and its corals were well protected, there was a lot more fish hence snorkelling was a blast. We didn't even have to swim far, there were already lots to see right below our water villa.

However, the highlight of our trip was that we got to see a whole school of stingrays come to shore in the evening. We were told that 14 years ago, one lone stingray came to visit, and the people on the island gave it food. Subsequently, more stingrays came and it then became a pattern. Everyday at 4:45pm sharp, the whole school of stingrays (at least 15 of them) would circulate near the shore (we were snorkelling then and chickened out, quickly heading back to the beach! Haha!). Guests would touch them and take photos with them and at 5pm, the hotel staff would bring out a full bucket of fresh fish and everyone would feed the stingrays. It was an amazing experience seeing these creatures upclose and feeding them. It made me wonder how and why such a gentle and graceful species would take the life of Steve Irwin.

That's J snorkelling. So into it was he that he got burnt!

J with one of the stingrays

They were making loud snorting sounds when they struggled for air out of the water

Me trying to feed the stingrays after a few attempts

 The rest of our time at the resort was spent chilling and soaking up the sun.

Chillock-ing (chilling on a hammock)

Beautiful sunset. Didn't get to catch the sunrise because it was at the other side of the island.

Trying out an artistic shot on J

Maldives is the first country in the world that uses its own desalinated sea water for aerated drinks. This one here is Coca Cola bottled in Maldives. Real Coke, no joke!

After a short but sweet trip to the island, we headed back to Male on Thursday heavy-heartedly. Looking forward to be back again sometime soon!

Heading back to Male in the sunset

May's Hen!

My beautiful maid of honour is getting married.

So, to celebrate her anticipated union, or mourn her loss of freedom *just kidding*, a whole bunch of us girls flew down to Singapore to paint the town red, literally!

Under the superbly creative planning of Su Mei and Kelly, everything just went on great and everyone had heaps of fun. Putting up a night at Raffles Place, Robertson walk, we practically turned the place upside down. Still, I would recommend this place to anyone who's looking for convenience, class and comfort as they managed to house all 14 of us in just two units, very comfortably!

The night started off with a round of champagne, handing out of goodie bags and task assignments, not forgetting that little bit of camwhoring. The Hen, was of course given the most befitting task of selling "protection packets" to strangers that night, whereas the rest of us chicks were each assigned to sell just one and also tasks to make the night unforgettable for the beautiful bride-to-be.

The Hen

The Chicks

The Goodie Bags

The Champagne

The Goods

Hen & I

We then proceeded to dinner at OverEasy, One Fullerton. Unfortunately all of us were too hungry by then to have any photos of the great food taken. Everything was simply devoured the minute they landed on our tables. I know, I know, hen and chicks should have been more ladylike... haha.

Outside the restaurant when we were still behaving

At the dining table

With Chor Yee and Jade

This is what dinner and that little bit of drinks do to you

After dinner, what else but to continue where we left off with those drinks? That's when we headed off to Butter Factory to get the Hen a little buttered and a lot tipsied. The crowd at Butter Factory just wasn't our cuppa and "target market". They were simply too young to buy our goods! Oh well, after much hard work put in, most of us managed to clear our inventory, except for the Hen who hit only 70% sales target. Nonetheless, it was good funding to our night!

With Jade

Mine was a put on and May's was for real

Is this red or is this very red?

I don't know what we were up to but it sure was crazy!

These were the talented planners!

Thankfully the night did not end with much casualty, except for some incident with a cabbie who was freaked out by Chor Yee's butter-laced speech. All in all, it was heaps of fun and apparently round two's on the calender! :)

Time for goodbyes but not sure what happened to Hen