Day 12- Eric is feeling better!

Good news! Eric is feeling better and we are ready for our day in Hong Kong!

We woke up a little late so that Eric can get some more rest and we were ready for a brunch in beautiful Hong Kong. Eric was craving for some sushi so we went downstairs to the ICC plaza (our hotel is connected to this beautiful shopping area!) and to our luck, we found this nice and cute sushi restaurant that had the traditional moving conveyor belts!

After stuffing ourselves, we shopped around Central on Hong Kong Island for a little while and then headed towards the temple-Man Fat Tze. Or.... At least we tried to. Our hotel conceirge told us to stop at the Sha Tin train stop, but after getting out and walking around for 30 minutes, we couldn't find it!!!! We gave up and decided to head to Lady Street Market. Eric had a blast!

We shopped around and took in the bustling activity all around us! Eric had his first smell of smelly tofu and couldn't stand it!

After an afternoon of shopping around the market, we headed over to Nathan Road to grab dinner and do some more shopping.

We went to a beautiful Cantonese restaurant that gave us a great view of Victoria Harbour!

Right as we finished dinner, the light show at Victoria Harbour started and we had first row seats!!!

After a great meal, we did some more shopping around Nathan Road and then headed back to our hotel- we were exhausted!!!

What a fun day in Hong Kong! I'm glad Eric is feeling better and we got to do so much in just one day!

Its our last night in Hong Kong, off to Tokyo tomorrow!!!

Day 11- Eric is sick

It is official. Eric is sick.

We woke up in Macau this morning and it turns out that Eric was not getting better. He thinks it was all the sick people on the plane.

With my obsessive planning and schedule making, I was eager to head out into the town to explore Macau and show him a few things I saw when I recently paid a visit. Eric, however, was not feeling up to it.

He decided that we could walk around the Venetian and get some breakfast and see how he felt after some food. It turns out he didn't feel any better and we went back to the room so he could sleep in until we had our late check-out. But at least we got to walk about Venetian and see the biggest casino in the world!

Now, a lot of you may have noticed that there aren't many pictures of Eric and I together on this trip. Eric wanted me to point out that this is my fault because I am paranoid about people stealing our cameras if we handed it to them... oops.

We stayed in our room until our ferry to Hong Kong. We are staying at the W Hotel in Tsim Tsa Tsui- it is very swanky and modern! One of the cooler hotels I've been to by far.

We got dinner at the nearby steakhouse and soon after Eric fell even more ill and is now experiencing a fever, bodyaches and nausea. Poor Eric!

I was hoping to bring him to Nathan Road tonight to do some sight seeing and shopping, but I guess that's out of the question. Hopefully he gets better by tomorrow so we can go to some temples!!!

Day 10- Macau

It was our last morning in Singapore- we are headed to Macau, China!

We woke up and headed straight to the Singapore airport (it is so beautiful).

We had a full day of travel today. We had to take a connection in the Bangkok airport (yes, we went back to Bangkok!), so really the majority of our day consisted of airports and airport lounges!

Thanks to Eric's United status, we were able to access the International Star Alliance lounges. So really, don't feel too bad for us- we had a full day of unlimited food, drinks and Haagen Daz ice cream!

We finally got to the Hong Kong airport and then took a ferry to Macau where we are staying at the Sheraton on the Cotai Strip.

It was pretty late into the night, so we just took a stroll around the various casinos on the Cotai Strip and headed to bed. Eric is feeling a little under the weather- I hope it's not too bad!

Day 9- Big Spender

It is our first (and only) full day in Singapore.

We woke up and headed straight to the Singapore Botanic Garden which was a 10 minute walk from the St. Regis.

The garden was huge and had beautiful and exotic flowers. We got brunch at one of the organic restaurants and it was absolutely delicious. I think we can get used to a life here in Singapore!

After lunch and a nice stroll around the garden, we spent the majority of our day shopping on the famous Orchard Road. There were a ton of stores and a lot of them were hidden underground!

Singapore is such a bustling city with so many different people. In Thailand, Eric stood out like a sore thumb. But here, we blended right in.

What is amazing about Singapore is how clean and developed this city is. Eric loved looking at all the architecture and new buildings. Plus, everybody here all has high end luxury items and prices of goods here are at least twice that in the US! $7 for a Starbucks coffee! The only thing I bought from Singapore was some ointment for my mosquito bites. I'm such a big spender!

After our day of shopping (window shopping), it randomly started pouring rain on us (apparently this is common) so we ran back to the St. Regis to get changed. We took advantage of our beautiful amenities (jacuzzi, etc.) and even did the complimentary wine tasting in their wine room.

We grabbed dinner at the hotel and headed for the Marina Bay Sands! We got to see the Singapore Flyer and walked around the Marina Bay Sands casino and shopping area. We didn't do any gambling, but it was interesting to see how intense people in Asia are about gambling!

Of course, the shops and hotel were beautiful and all very high end!

We ended the night with a drink at the Marina Bay hotel. What a relaxing, yet gorgeous day at Singapore. I can see why there are a lot of expats here!

We are sad that we booked such a short trip to Singapore- we want to stay here even longer! Who knows, maybe I'll join the J&J in Singapore one day...!!

Day 8- Singapore!

Today was a pretty relaxing day. It's so sad that our Thailand adventure is coming to an end. I can't believe it's been over a week since we've been traveling around this beautiful country.

Today we decided to have a relaxing morning and spent our time at the hotel before our flight to Singapore. We rented kayaks and ventured around Siray Bay and then ate and lounged by the pool for the remainder of our stay at our resort.

The weather has been very hot and humid here in Thailand. However, the worst part about our trip thus far is our really bad bug bites! As usual, I am allergic to mosquito bites so my bites were huge and swollen while Eric's were just weird looking.

But besides that, we had a blast in Thailand. From the beautiful temples, the delicious food and the friendly locals, we can't believe we did so much in such a short amount of time! Eric and I agree that the Grand Palace and elephant trekking was the highlight of our time here.

What was interesting about Thailand was that a lot of people thought I was a local. There were many times where people would approach me and speak to me in Thai. There were times where that came to my benefit- especially because locals get charged less for food at the night markets!

We headed to our afternoon flight to Singapore and got to our St. Regis hotel fairly late into the night.

The St. Regis is beautiful. By far the most elegant hotel room I've stayed in, the St. Regis is perfect in so many ways! It is located right off of Orchard Road (where all the shopping plazas are) and so we took a midnight stroll to check out the vibrant, clean city of Singapore.

We then headed back to the hotel to enjoy a few of the amenities before calling it a night. 

We are very excited for our exploration of Singapore tomorrow! But why does everything have to be so expensive here?!

Day 7- Phuket Town

It is our last full day in Phuket- I can't believe we are leaving Thailand tomorrow!

It's been a crazy adventure here and so far, we've been learning a lot and have been having a blast.

We slept in this morning only because Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 was on. It is such a bad movie, yet so addicting at the same time!

Today, we decided to visit the rest of the sites in Phuket and go into Phuket Town to visit the local shops and markets. We wanted to make sure that we saw as much as we could before we left this beautiful island! From our villa, we can see the big buddha, even though it is one hour away! It is the only site that we couldn't see in Phuket- maybe next time!

We realized that we had a blast with our motorbikes in Patong Beach so we asked the cab driver to drop us off at a motorbike rental shop where we rented a bike again! We got to see so much and drive all around town- we would never have been able to go around to these places on foot.

We first stopped at the main shopping plaza in Phuket, it's called Central Festival. There were a lot of shops but even more food courts- boy do Thai people know how to eat! As mentioned, we are now so sick of Thai food (as great as it is) and we are craving for a hamburger! So of course, we ate lunch at a McDonalds.

We walked around the plaza some more after lunch and then decided to take an adventure all over town. We found a local market and got some snacks and even got to see a local pet shop- yes those are puppies behind me! I miss my Zeusy Bear!

We found a big warehouse market where the locals do their shopping- Super Cheap. They had everything. Everything and anything you can think of! I saw a packet of envelopes that my family used to use in Burma- it got me pretty excited. I'm a dork.

We then cruised around some more and just caught some amazing views of the island of Phuket. Beautiful!

After our day cruising around town, we returned the bikes and got some dinner at the local shopping plaza (KFC Chicken mmmmMm) and then got another massage- I think this makes it #4 on our trip.

I also got to get my IT geekiness out at the IT World section! :)

And that's it for Phuket! We are heading to Singapore late tomorrow evening so we are planning to do a late check out tomorrow afternoon and just lounge around our private villa before we head out.

We are staying at the St. Regis in Singapore so we have some high hopes for our room- I hope it's better than our room here at the Westin!

See you all in Singapore! 

Day 6 - Elephant Trekking

Elephant trekking day! Boy was it exciting!

We woke up this morning to have some breakfast at the hotel and FaceTime with some family before our day with our big friends.

We couldn't wait to start our new year with a day of elephant trekking! What a unique adventure.

We had a car pick us up from the hotel and we took a 30 minute ride into the wilderness to meet up with the elephants.

When arriving to the safari area, we saw a dozen elephants and 2 little babies! The elephants were very large and such majestic animals- they were eating a ton of food and were bathing themselves!

We had a one hour elephant trekking ride awaiting us and we got to view the jungle from a new perspective. The elephant got off track a few times and went down a steep cliff- Eric got a little afraid!

After 30 minutes, the elephant trainer hopped off and gave us the option to ride on the elephant's head on our own! Eric went first and after a little while, I got on!

 

I almost lost my balance a few times but in the end we both made it safe and sound!

After the ride, we got to feed our friends some bananas and watch a short show with the baby elephants. Elephants are very smart creatures and the two baby girls even knew how to pose for pictures and stand on their hind feet!

 

After our day with our buddies, we went back to the hotel to rest for the remainder of the night. We lounged by our pool and got dinner at the hotel as well- who knew riding elephants could be so exhausting!

Tomorrow is our last night in Phuket so we want to make sure we are rested enough to catch some last minute sights of Phuket.

Off to Phuket town tomorrow for a day of exploration around this resort town! We miss you all!