Our year in 2012

24. December 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Celebrations, Experiences, Family, Life, Travel · Tags: , , ,

We returned from our Central American Cruise on the Seabourne Odyssey in January all rested. I think it was one of the best cruises we had been on as we met and made friends with so many nice people: Sandra and Ray from Australia, Brigitte and Dieter from Switzerland and Jack and Linda from Mexico. Its certainly a ship we would like to go on again, even though we had a bit of a rough time on one of the sea days.

A week into the new year we heard the sad and tragic news of the death of hubby’s cousin, Daniel – it was hard to believe and hard to say goodbye to him. But we were glad that we had the opportunity to see him and his family in Valladolid in 2010. We spent a weekend in Dubai in the second week of January as hubby attended a conference and watched in horror as the Costa Concordia sank in an unfortunate accident. At that moment at least, I felt I wouldn’t go on another cruise…

The capsized Costa Concordia

Danial visited us in Kuwait also in January this year – what a great event that was as it had been quite a while since he spent some time with us in Kuwait. Thanks to a job change from Delloitte to AirAsia that gave him unspent annual leave to spend! It was a lovely start to a new year and I enjoyed every minute of doing “stuff” with my boy. We had our first shooting experience at a range in Kuwait, in addition to fooding, of course, and some shopping! Everybody’s always too busy when I go home! The first day we went out together again in Kuwait, like the old days when he spent his Australian summer vacation here in the winter, he said to me, as I drove us to the Avenues Mall, “We never get to do things like this eh, Mum?” *heart* Danial coming to Kuwait was a  bonus this year as we got to spend some quality family time together.

Dan in Kuwait

Three weeks later, I went home to Malaysia on my usual first trip home of the year. It was great to spend time with Mum and the rest of the family and of course more time with Danial, when he had time of course Smile. He was very excited in his new job and although I hardly spent that much time with him, I was glad for the opportunity we had to do a few things together.

As usual I took the opportunity to make some minor home improvements while I was home and this time it was to add the laminated wooden floor to that part of the apartment between our kitchen, guest bathroom and the casual dining area. Small as it was, that change did make a difference to the area! I was also concerned that the morning sun was the cause of the damage to our conversation piece of a sofa and tried to install some attractive and functional blinds on our balcony which we could pull down in the mornings. Somehow the building management had rules against the type of blinds I wanted to install so I had to contend with some sunscreen blinds behind our curtains instead.

Kuwait had not one, but two elections in 2012, once in February and again in December and also witnessed a couple of “firsts” – the first ever flashmob (incidentally an event choreographed and sponsored by hubby’s employer, Zain) and the first ever Guinness World Record event – the largest fireworks display in the world.

There were also a couple of other firsts for us in 2012 – one of which was the first time ever we participated in a cooking competition.  It was a Paella Cooking Competition organised by the Spanish community in Kuwait in April. The second first for us was that we won the competition! Smile

Our certificate and the unique trophy

The Malaysian Embassy in collaboration with PERWAKILAN Kuwait (the Association of Malaysian Ladies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) held a very successful inaugural Malaysian Food Bazaar in 2012 and my friend Zaharah and I participated and helped to man the satay stall. That’s two food-related events for me this year!

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In June we went on a weekend trip to Abu Dhabi to catch Madonna’s MDNA World Tour in the sweltering or should I say scorching, summer heat. A couple of weeks later we took off on another kind of tour – driving around Ireland and Scotland. It was a great 16 days in the UK and while we had been to Scotland before, it was our first time in Ireland. We kicked off the holiday driving from Belfast to the Giants Causeway then Galway where we spent my birthday. Despite all the places we visited in Ireland, certainly the highlight of our visit was our experience at Dún Aengus.

At the edge of the wrold at Dún Aengus

Scotland was just as green and lovely too, despite the cold and wet days we had. We only cancelled one activity and that was a visit to Dunnottar Castle at Stonehaven because of a really bad fog: this was all we could see of the castle!

Dunnottar Castle or what's supposed to be Dunnottar Castle, in the fog!

All the other days were great as we drove from one city to another in Scotland from Loch Lomond to John O’groats to Inverness..we loved the Fairies Glen, Skye, Lybster and all the glens, cairns and lochs we saw and visited! While in Scotland we also arranged to meet up a couple of times with my sis-in-law, Maria and her husband Iñigo, who were also on a holiday in Scotland. It won’t be our last holiday in Scotland as there is so much more to see and do there.

This year I spent half of Ramadhan here in Kuwait with hubby and half in Kuala Lumpur with Danial and my family. Closer to Eid, hubby arrived and this year as usual, we invited friends over to celebrate Eid with us at home on the second day.

Us at Eid

There was another first for me this year – during our trip to London, I finally met a Facebook friend with whom I’d been in touch not only on Facebook, but spoke to on the phone and Skyped with…but never met. Norlizah drove down with hubby, Anders from their home in one of the London suburbs to have dinner with us at Tok Din’s. We had a blast and it was a memorable evening. She happened to be in Kuala Lumpur during Ramadhan and of course we caught up with each other again.

We travelled again to Italy this year and spent 8 days in Milan during the Eid al Adha break. It was supposed to be our annual la dolce far niente break but we ran out of ideas as to where to go without repeating destinations – so we decided on Milan. We enjoyed the fooding and did a bit of shopping. Just a bit.. In a couple of days we will do the last bit of travelling this year – this time to San Sebastian in Spain to spend a bit of time with my sis-in-law, Maria and her husband and family. We will spend a couple of days in Madrid and try to catch up with hubby’s cousin and aunt there too.

2012 was a very busy year for me at my painting studio as my seasoned painters (and friends) continued to come and paint and many new students began their decorative painting journey. I kept classes to  two times a week so that I still had time to prepare for classes and also enjoy other activities. I still did not paint as much as I wanted to though.

My favourite painting this year

As usual, so many numbers every year. Hubby and I celebrated sixteen years of marriage this year and we are thankful for the good life we have had together. 2012 marks our ninth year in Kuwait and 12 years of life abroad. Certainly we are looking forward to the day we will “retire” back in Malaysia and I’m not giving away any dates here yet. Soon is all I can say. Smile

Danial turned 27 a couple of days ago and I find it hard to believe sometimes that he is my “grown-up” son and no longer the little kid I pampered and nurtured. I guess as far as I’m concerned, as a mother, pampering and nurturing doesn’t ever end. And don’t think for a moment that I tire.

2012 will go down as the year that the “Mayan Apocalypse” was predicted and did not happen…I wonder if, in the years to come, we’ll still remember the hype created about the 21st of December being the last day of civilisation or will it be just another day in history like Y2K.

So only one week to the end of another year. Time flies as everyone says and I get the feeling it won’t be long before I sit here again trying to remember where the year went and trying to write something new and different. Anyway, it has been a good year as always and we thank God for everything. We pray and hope for a year of peace and harmony around the world ahead in the new year and look forward to new opportunities to learn and do something better.

After the rain

11. March 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Family, Life in Malaysia, Random photo · Tags: , ,

So this was the last day of my month at home in Malaysia.

It flew by so fast I couldn’t believe it was already time to go back to Kuwait. I told my son Danial that I didn’t mind staying another two weeks. It seemed I never had enough time whenever I went back home.

I was busy everyday. My days were so tight that I’d try and fit in as much as I could everyday. I spent the greater part of every day at my mum’s and fit in errands, home improvement, friends and fire-fighting around my time at Mum’s. I spent most evenings with Danial. Some days I’d meet a girlfriend early in the morning for breakfast then run an errand then off to Mum’s till almost tea time. And then home to cook dinner. Some days I’d be at Mum’s early in the morning, dash off to meet a friend for lunch then back to Mum’s in the afternoon. And sometimes when Danial had an evening appointment, it was the complete reverse. I’d be at Mum’s all day and in the evening I’d catch up with a girlfriend over dinner.

So while I brought my MacBook home with me, hopeful that during my “free time” I could catch up on all those projects I had, like cleaning up my photo library, catching up on my blogging, preparing for my painting classes back in Kuwait etc, it didn’t happen. All I used my MacBook for was Skyping with hubby. I just did not have any time to do any of those things.

I’ll say it again – I’m always so busy when I go home. One of these days, I really want to go home for a holiday.

So back to today. It’s a nice day at Mum’s. Everyone is here. Three of my brothers and their family came over and everyone is in a good mood. It rained hard and heavy for a while so we all stayed indoors and chatted and what not. After the rain – and I love the fresh smell of the grass – we all went outside and sat around on the terrace. Mum’s nurse wheeled her out to enjoy the fresh air.

Raindrop on a leaf

One of my brothers noticed this drop of rain on a leaf on one of my Mum’s many, many potted plants in and around the terrace. And as soon as he had said, “Hey, look at this…”, everyone scrambled around the little plant, phones in hand and started snapping away. Everyone was very careful not to touch the leaf lest the drop of water trickled away.

Tomorrow I fly back to Kuwait. And despite having been here a month, the picture that will remain most vivid in my mind is this drop of rainwater on a leaf after the rain. I can’t really say why. There’s just a poignancy about it and I don’t really want to get mushy. Lets just agree that it’s a very nice pic taken with my iPhone 4S.

Welcome to the The Seabourn Odyssey!

21. December 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Cruises, Travel · Tags: , , , , ,

The Seabourn Odyssey is a relatively small ship and although measurement wise it was the same size as the Prinsendam on which we sailed on the Antarctica cruise a couple of years ago, it did seem much smaller.

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Boarding was relatively quick. We took a taxi from the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood airport where we had returned our rental car and the cruise terminal was about 15 minutes away. When we arrived we dropped off our luggage at some porters. We never received our cruise pack because the company had sent it by post to our Kuwait address! So the porter started writing our tags manually. We saw other guests holding elegant leather document holders which came with the cruise pack. Ours must be in transit somewhere between here and Kuwait.

We entered a door where there was a security scanner and put our luggage through. We were then greeted by hostesses serving a non-alcoholic fruit drink, given health declaration forms to complete and shown to some seats to wait. After about 20 minutes, we were led through to another area within the terminal to process our check-in. There must have been around 10 check-in counters complete with computer terminals. Check-in was relatively straightforward. Our passports were retained, and we were issued our sea passes. Our photos were taken for a separate photo ID which we were told would be issued later in the evening. This was something new. In all other cruises we had been on, the seapass was the doorkey, photo ID and charge card all in one.

Check-in completed, we were shown the way to board the ship. It was a short walk well signed. We were greeted at the entrance to the ship and escorted to the elevator. We we’re told that our suite would not be ready for 15 minutes or so and that lunch was being served on Deck 8.

We sat with Sandra and Ray who were very nice people. Just like Mario and Irma whom we met on our very first cruise. Lunch was a buffet and hubby really enjoyed his burger. After lunch we went to our stateroom. Every room on the Seabourn Odyssey was a suite. On entering the suite, the first thing I noticed was that it was small. For a suite. But as we went around checking it out, we found that every space for functionally designed. There were no useless spaces and everything was well arranged.

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The living area had a large sofa and a table with two chairs – this was not only the desk but also a table for in-room dining. Same thing on the balcony – a table with two chairs and a deckchair.

There was a relatively large walk-in closet with plenty of space to hang all our clothes, five large drawers for folded stuff and a very large safe, the largest we had come across so far on all our travels. On the inside of the door of the walk-in closet hung a full length mirror. This was really welcome for me after five days in Orlando at the Hilton Grand Vacation Suites with no full length mirror. I was really lost without it!

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Hubby remarked that reviews he read about the Seabourn Odyssey had mentioned that the TV in the staterooms were small and indeed it was. The TV screen was smaller than our computer monitors in Kuwait, which were 22″! But it was ok, as I guess they don’t really expect you to stay in your stateroom to watch TV during the cruise.

There was plenty of room for storage around the room and the best part was the space under the bed – our stewardess Joeni pointed it out and told us to put our empty suitcases there. It seems they had thought about everything because on other ships we always had to struggle to find a place for our luggage. On one ship we put them under the bed but we had to leave them open because the space was too low.

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The bathroom was something else. From the size to the finishings and functionality, it was the best we had seen so far. Everything was 5-star hotel standard – gorgeous brown marble and grey granite with chrome fixtures. Everything looked spanking new after the refurnishing in 2009. There was a full sized bathtub and a separate shower cabinet with a strong power shower and a hand held shower which doubles as a hand bidet, I guess. Another thing we missed at the Hilton in Orlando. I love the double sinks and there was plenty of counter space as well as wall shelves for our toiletries. The was even storage space under the sink. What was missing though, was a weighing scale but that may be deliberate so you don’t worry about your weight on the cruise! LOL

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Outside the bathroom in the hallway there was a dressing table with plugs for the hair dryer – yes a real hair dryer and not one of those hot tubes hanging from the bathroom wall.

We had looked forward to the Molten Brown toiletries which we first discovered at the Golden Well hotel in Prague. From the shower gel to the shampoo, conditioner and body lotion, everything smelled great. Our stewardess Joeni brought us our personal soaps later – there was a L’Occitanne facial bar, a large bath soap with scrub which smelled just heavenly and a small perfumed bar of Hermes. In the bathroom I also found a perspex container filled with cotton pads, cotton balls and cotton buds.

Lighting was great throughout the suite. I hate dark rooms and this one was far from dark.

One of our suitcases was already in the room when we came in but it wasn’t long before the other two suitcases came. I couldn’t wait to unpack and get things in order after one week of living out of a suitcase in Orlando! It took me a while to hang the clothes and put everything out but I was glad to be able to finally do it. I’m sure we brought too much stuff but oh well, we say that every time. On the other hand we also under packed before and I wasn’t happy about that. Right now I’m happy to think that we brought whatever we needed to enjoy this home on the seas for the next sixteen days.

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Exploring the ship we quickly found our favorite spaces: many open decks in the back – aft – of the ship where we could relax with coffee or a soft drink, blogging and reading..

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Eating in the open deck was also a favorite of mine. We discovered on our first night that we could eat outside and although it was a bit windy, it was exhilarating. During the day it would be much more fun, weather permitting!

Its a great ship so far and its only the beginning. I’ve been telling everyone that every ship is different and the Seabourn Odyssey has its own character. I’m just going to enjoy the ship. What do you think?

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If you only have a day in Orlando

20. December 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Travel · Tags: , , , ,

Epcot is the most adult park of all the Disney parks. It’s the last park we are doing before leaving for Fort Lauderdale tomorrow to board our cruise ship, the Seabourn Odyssey for the Central American cruise.

But we first had to stop at the Premium Outlet Centre next to our hotel to get something warm. After yesterday’s unexpected cold weather I needed something much warmer than what I’d brought. Especially since we were going to stay at Epcot till late tonight to watch the fireworks and laser show. Mission accomplished, we made our way to Epcot and arrived there at 11:30am. We had the whole day here but hubby said that we just had to do the “must do” rides which were Soarin’, Mission Space, and if possible Spaceship Earth. And also try to catch the 360-degree cinema at the China Pavilion. I thought that since the park closed at 9 pm we would have plenty of time but it wasn’t to be – the waiting times for the popular rides just ate away at our available time. Just like yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. But the rides we had to do were worth whatever the waiting times were because they were really unique.

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The park was crawling with people and although Mickey and his gang were in the Magic Kingdom, there were still a lot of kids here. And we thought it was an “adult park”. We made our way towards the ride called Soarin’ and the sign outside said that the waiting time was 80 minutes. We thought…that’s a long wait but we had no choice. If we wanted to ride it we had to wait in line.

So I decided to use the time blogging. I finished one post and started this one. At this point of writing the post, we had been in line already 2 hours and 2 minutes!! What happened to 80 minutes??? So something was seriously wrong when they “miscalculate” the waiting time. We realised later that the reason they couldn’t accurately tell us the waiting time was most probably due to the “fast-pass” system. The “fast pass” was free and basically it was a booking to do the ride at a given time. Which could be a few hours after you arrive.

So the waiting times for any ride where fast passes were issued had to take into account your queue being “cut” by people who had been issued fast-passes. Hubby had downloaded an iPhone app which provided the waiting times for all the four Disney parks in real time and these were more accurate than the waiting times displayed at the parks. We found that the real waiting time was more like double whatever was the time displayed. And so we resigned ourselves to waiting. It was part of the Disney experience I guess. It was indivisible.

We did wonder, however, if the situation would change if Disney implemented some kind of pre-booking system the way they did with restaurants for example. So you booked your rides when you bought the tickets either online or wherever. Without bookings you joined the queue. In Universal Studios you could buy fast track passes and you could bypass the long queues so we wondered why they didn’t implement the same system at Epcot.

There was relaxing music in the background which at this time had given way to a more dramatic movie score. Our “stand-by” lane has gotten narrower and also more dramatic. And colder! It seems that the kids had been very well-behaved during all this waiting. No complaining or crying. But I could see that they had gotten restless and a little more agitated now, which was to be expected.

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When we arrived at the “departure gate” we were stopped and some of the fast pass holders were “boarded” past us. They were in another separate lane. We heard the attendant telling a guest that there were two theatres with a capacity of 87 people in each. So a total of 174 people experienced the ride at any particular time.

At 2:30 pm, 2 1/2 hours after we started queuing, we were let into the theatre. It had a large screen with a very strange curved shaped. There were rows of seats with a kind of canopy above our heads. Everything looked very high tech. We were asked to put all our belongings in a basket under our seat and people with slippers were asked to remove them. The ride is a simulation of us soaring on a hang glider to LA.

The lights were turned off and we took off! The was a sudden forward surge when our seats actually take off and move towards the screen. Then it’s an amazing gliding experience over various picturesque scenery starting with the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a 4-D experience of a different kind – we smelled the pine trees as we glided over a river and later over snow-covered mountains. We soared over an orchard and we could smell the oranges! It was really quite amazing. I swear I could smell the sea as we went over it. I expected too feel a micro spray of water as we passed some waterfalls and swooped down towards the sea but there was none. Not in this high tech set-up I guess.

I couldn’t begin to describe all the scenes we saw, let’s just leave some for your imagination and future experience! The ride ended appropriately in Fantasia with a burst of fireworks! We were right in the middle of it. At the end, the lights were turned off again and our seats retracted back to its original position..The ride took all of five minutes but it was  truly a meaningful five minutes and well worth the wait. If the wait wasn’t that long, we would have gone again!

It was almost 3pm and we had to decide between a late lunch or the next ride – the much awaited “Mission Space”. The ride simulated astronaut training for the first mission to Mars and is probably the most unique ride in the world. You basically experience what the astronauts feel when they take off and go into space. The G-force 3 sensation experienced during take off is accomplished basically by spinning you in the special chamber. Don’t worry you’re not alone! Each chamber takes a team of four and you are assigned roles: Navigator, Pilot, Commander and Engineer, with roles to play during the mission to Mars! Just imagine the experience. Just imagine: we are normally in the gravitational state of G-force 1 where the gravitational pull is equivalent to 960 metres per second then we accelerate at the rate of 2880 metres per second at G-force 3! That is the sensation we feel in this ride! For a moment, when we suddenly return to G-force 1 we get the feeling of weightlessness at G-force 0! Mind you, I am trying to describe the sensation felt as best as I can as explained by my hubby!

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I have to say it sounded exciting but when we got to the gate of the ride, it felt a little daunting when I saw that that they offered 2 levels of experience. Join the Orange team for the full, more intense experience or the Green team for a less intense experience. Of course hubby picked the Orange team and we walked towards the queue. I chickened out when I saw the warnings that the Orange experience might cause nausea etc and told hubby that perhaps the Green experience might be better. He was very pleased but we went back and changed our tickets for the Green team. The waiting times were very decent – 20 minutes for the Green team and 70 minutes for the Orange team.

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I told hubby that after the Green experience he should go on the Orange experience and I’d wait for him. I thought, let’s see anyway, how much more intense it could get after we experienced the Green team. Then I’d decide if I wanted to go on the Orange experience.

Which wasn’t a bad idea. I felt confident about going on the Orange experience when we came out.

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We were ushered into a waiting area where a video explained what we had to do then the doors opened and we went into our “spaceship”. There were four seats and metal storage boxes in front of us to store our belongings. Above it in front of us was a realistic and what looked like fully functional control panel with buttons, lights etc and looking straight ahead, a window through which we see space and experience our adventure. We pulled the safety harness from above our heads over our chest as instructed. Our roles were explained and we are told that we had to press certain buttons during the mission when we are told to. Hubby was “Navigator” and I was “Pilot”. The other two in our “team” were “Commander” and “Engineer”. This seems very serious I thought.

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My palms were sweaty and we hadn’t even started….then it was all systems go. It was scary for me at first but it was exciting! We experience an amazing take-off sequence followed by separation, then we went into a short period of “hyper sleep” before being awakened to engage in an exciting sequence with meteors and a “manual” override to avoid a crash landing on Mars and finally making the landing! It was just 3 to 4 minutes of a very exciting high tech ride….”exciting” couldn’t begin to describe the experience we went through.

I felt I just had to do the Orange experience now and experience the G-force 3, weightlessness and everything else of the more intense experience. Hubby’s eyes beamed when I told him, “Lets do the Orange team now!”

When we came out, the waiting time for the ride had shortened to only 20 minutes. So we went through it again and I was glad we did! It must be the most amazing experience ever and the closest we would ever come to experiencing the real thing! I have to admit it was scary especially since there were very clear instructions to keep our eyes opened and to lean back and look straight ahead always, and not to even turn our heads left or right to look at others in the chamber because this would create disorientation and dizziness and cause nausea and even vomiting. Actually that was when I started feeling scared because I did all that during the first ride but there was no warning not to! But in this intense ride it WAS important because to simulate the G-force 3 sensation, the chamber would be spun like a centrifuge! I guess it’s like being spun in a washing machine. I followed the instructions to the letter and it was intense but an exhilarating experience. Nothing like anything I’ve ever been through before! My palms were wet as soon as we took off! Yes, it was indeed much more intense all round but no regrets. I would do it again!

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I had seen some packets in front of us by the control panel but didn’t know what they were – later hubby told me that they were sickness bags! After the ride I did feel a little nauseous sensation but I kept telling myself I was fine and nothing happened. Just sensations. I’m glad we went on the ride before lunch!

This was THE event of the day. The other “must do” ride, “Spaceship Earth” was interesting as we went into trains that travelled very slowly in darkness inside the Epcot ball “through time” experiencing the history of communications. What was interesting was that a little cartoon of “our future” was created by the computer after we answered some simple questions about how we wanted to live our lives in the future. It was so cute!

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We truly enjoyed our day, and night at Epcot and felt we had probably wasted our time in the other parks yesterday! The rest of the park in the international showcase was very interesting although we basically rushed through them. It was great moving around from one country’s pavilion to the next. The China Pavilion was probably the most interesting – from the Xian Terra Cotta warriors, the acrobat show to the 360 degree cinema in the China Pavilion. Great concept and great execution. We certainly learnt a lot and it made us really excited about going to China and see everything for ourselves.

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The other pavilion I really enjoyed was the Norwegian Pavilion because I saw all the amazing Rosemaling furniture and other objects there. It was a pity that they didn’t sell anything painted or else I’d probably have bought a whole bundle.

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We ate dinner at the Mexican Pavilion and although it was fast food, we had our fill.

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It was getting a bit chilly and I was glad that I’d bought the fleece hoodie at the Premium Outlet or else I would have frozen! We found a spot to watch the finale for the evening – the fireworks and laser show called IllumiNations. It was a great way to end the night and although we didn’t get a perfect place to view the show from it was good enough. It was a great performance and later at the hotel, we realized that we both had ash from the fireworks in our hair! That can’t be good! I’m glad nothing burnt!

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So that was our experience at Epcot. I guess our take from all this is that if you only had one day to spend in Orlando, you should go to Epcot! There truly is something for everybody there. It was the “wrong” time to go, we realized, because even though it was a Monday when we went, the school holidays had just started that weekend so the place was crowded! I guess the waits would be much shorter if it weren’t the school holidays but all told, it wasn’t too bad.

Visiting Universal Studios @ Orlando

17. December 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Travel · Tags: , , , , , ,

The first time I ever went to a Disney park was in November 1995 when Danial was 10 years old. Then it was to create memories with him. We spent 9 days in Anaheim and armed with one-week passes to Disneyland, we spent days, and some nights collecting memories.

Now 16 years later hubby and I are on a pre-cruise stay in Orlando, Florida for 5 days. Three of those days we are spending at various park attractions. Hubby had said, “Let’s be kids again!” and I agreed. I missed Danial and wished he could have come with us but have to accept the reality that he was a working man! Anyway the reality also was that we could always come here again together or else he had plenty of time to make a trip here. I just really missed him.

We arrived in Orlando on a Thursday afternoon 31 hours after we left Kuwait and hubby had had our itinerary all laid out. On Friday morning we went to the hotel reception to buy our park tickets – Universal Studios on Friday and a 2-day (Sunday and Monday) park hopper for three of the four Disney parks – Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Centre.

Universal Studios was a lot of fun. It wasn’t overcrowded and the waiting times were 10 to 15 minutes. I couldn’t believe we enjoyed the 4-D experience of Shrek but we did! While the special 3-D glasses did their thing to give us the 3-D experience, the rocking seats, puffs of wind and sprinkles of water completed the 4-D experience. I was using my LV Neverfull bag and the leather trimmings got a little wet! :( So I learnt a lesson – never use your LVs in a theme park!

Actually there was water in all the rides we did today…including at the most awesome 4-D experience at Universal Studios – Terminator 2! It has to be the highlight of Universal Studios Orlando for us.

In “Twister” we experienced a simulated tornado and saw some of the special effects used to create the natural disaster. We were glad to be in the back-most row because people in the front got splashed with water from the simulated rain and winds. There were “strong winds” blowing from behind our heads and backs later and we got hit by big drops of water coming at us from “broken windows”! Water again…

We went to “Disaster Movie” where Christopher Walken was supposed to be “producing” a disaster movie and they selected actors from the audience. That was a good laugh! At first hubby didn’t believe it was really Christopher Walken and he wondered if it was a camera trick or special effect but it was real. It was really him. We experienced an earthquake while in a subway train, and of course there was water too! We were sitting on the right side of the train so we didn’t get wet but those sitting on the right side got wet during the simulation of water gushing down when a truck exploded!

We came across the “Amity Boat Tours” when we walked to “Amityville” so we decided to do the “Jaws” ride. You got it. Water. Ir was a realistic enough boat ride with a huge shark in the water and of course our “tour guide and driver” of the boat saved us from a shark attack when he “shot” at the giant “shark” in the water. Of course people got wet.

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So I guess the moral of the story is, you can’t avoid water at a theme park so just leave your LVs at the hotel! That aside, we really enjoyed our day at Universal Studios! It wasn’t such a kiddie experience as I thought it would be as obviously there were treats for adults too!

Apart from the attractions we also watched a live Blues Brothers concert. They were marvelous and the crowd were really engaged in the performance.

Universal Studios 3738

We just had to watch the Macy’s Christmas Parade and found a spot on the sidewalk like everyone else.

Universal Studios 3844

Universal Studios 3967 1

Universal Studios 3901

But a theme park experience is incomplete without an adrenaline rush. We had seen the double loop roller coaster which was smack in the middle of the park and you can’t miss the screams. But I’ve gone off roller coaster rides so we never even planned to stop there. Last year when we were at a theme park in the Netherlands I went on one, a reasonably mild one, but midway, I was screaming to get off! I was that petrified! LOL Later I told hubby that if I ever wanted an adrenaline rush, I’d just drop my paint-laden brush on my painting or something like that!!!

As we were leaving the park, we passed by the roller coaster and had a real close look. It was called “Rip Ride” and the first 30 to 40 metres was a completely vertical climb! Imagine the first drop from there! Just thinking about it gave me goose bumps…well actually I have to admit that it was more than goose bumps! Then there the two loops and the cars actually snaked around the track! I asked hubby if he was going to do the ride and his eyes sparkled like a kid. The sign outside said that the wait was only 15 minutes. So I took his bag and his coat and waited there for him. It was a unique ride I know but I didn’t regret not going. I know Danial would have gone on it with his Dad but I was happy to wait on the ground. I saw on the poster outside that there were giant personal speakers on the head rest and you chose your music for the ride. I could just imagine what kind of music both my men would chose.

Universal Studios 3980

I was there waiting for hubby as he came out of the ride and took a photo of him. A little shaken but he enjoyed it, of course. We watched the video taken of his car and had a good laugh! But at USD39.95 a pop, he decided not to buy it.

So that was Universal Studios at Orlando! Everything was right. The weather. The short waiting time. The combination of experiences. There were a lot of people but it certainly didn’t feel overcrowded.

Who ate Billy the Bat?

12. November 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Food, Travel · Tags: , , , , , ,

Daniel Azemia was the driver from Mason’s Travel who picked us up from the airport when we arrived in the Seychelles. He was also the one who drove us to the airport when we left. I remember, chatting in the car when we first arrived, I asked him about bat curry.

You heard me right – bat curry.

My Facebook friend, Norlizah, had been in the Seychelles the week before we went and one of the things she had told me about the Seychelles was bat curry. Apparently it was a local delicacy and her husband had wanted to try it but it had to be pre-ordered so he missed it.

Anyway, that had got me thinking about bat curry and that was why I asked Daniel about it when we first arrived. Not that I wanted to eat it because I wasn’t that adventurous when it came to food – it was pure curiosity! The  Seychelles fruit bat or Seychelles flying fox as they are also called, are abundant in the Seychelles and commonly eaten by the local population. They also appear on menus in local restaurants and hotels.

Today when we saw him again, I told him that they had served bat curry one night at the Chez Lamar Creole Restaurant at the Banyan Tree where we stayed.

Chez Lamar Creole Restaurant

Hubby said he would taste it and I cringed at the thought. It looked just like any ordinary curry, to be honest, but I begged him not to eat it. I just couldn’t bear the thought. And later I read this about fruit bats and was glad he didn’t try any. Apparently fruit bats are also widely hunted and consumed for health or medicinal purposes by various groups of people around the world. Protected in some countries but not others, including my own Malaysia (eeeeks!), which is home to the largest fruit bats in the world, these wild life face extinction if hunting is not stopped.

Daniel said he loved bat curry and had been eating it since he was five years old! His mum prepared it every Sunday when they were kids because his dad used to go bat hunting on Saturday nights in the old days. He and his mates would go out with their shotguns and bring home a gunny sack full of bats!

And then he gave us the full rundown of how bat curry or more elegantly, "Curried Fruit Bat" was prepared.

Seychellois Curried Fruit Bat 

The Seychelles fruit bats are relatively small creatures so it was 3 to 4 bats for 2 or 3 people. The bats were first skinned, of course. They had a very strong distinct smell which came from glands situated at their throat, wings, chest and reproductive organs which first had to be removed. These glands gave the meat a very strong smell and taste. Then the meat was cut at the joints and washed, then soaked in vinegar and water. After washing again, the meat was marinated in vinegar, curry powder, garlic, ginger and spices like cloves and cinnamon. This is then placed in a sealed container and kept in the fridge overnight. The next day, it is cooked. Oil is heated in a pot then the marinated meat and all it’s marinade is added. It is sautéed for a while then covered after adding some water. Sometimes if the meat is very tough, it is cooked in a pressure cooker. Salt is added then some tamarind juice. He said it is quite a flavourful dish and you wouldn’t know it was bat curry if you weren’t told about it!

According to him, the meat of the fruit bat is very sweet because they only eat fruits and are always in the air, never on the ground.

Fruit bat in the Seychelles

They eat most fruits like breadfruit and papaya but their favourite has to be mangoes! They don’t actually eat the fruits but suck the juices. They would hang from their feet on a branch and grab a mango using their clawed wings. Sinking their claws into the mango, they suck it.

He said they had mango trees in their garden and they couldn’t stop the bats from eating their mangoes. They could even hear the bats sucking the mangoes at night! If disturbed, they would fly away with the mango and drop the seed from the air when they’re done. So it’s not uncommon to have mango seeds plonking to the ground, on the roof of someone’s house or on their car!

Daniel was very funny when he said, "That’s why I like to eat bats, because they eat all our fruits!" Actually fruit bats are responsible for the natural cultivation of fruits all over the islands. The are no orchards and fruit trees grow wherever their seeds travel.

Daniel then told us about Billy.

Since weapons were banned in the Seychelles, bats were caught either using nets or a line and hooks. One night when his dad was still alive, they set up a line with hooks between trees to catch some bats for Sunday lunch. The next day they found that they had caught a mother bat which had with it a baby bat. The mother succumbed to its injuries so Daniel and his family decided to keep the baby bat as a pet. They called him Billy.

Billy stayed in his own cage and became very close and friendly with Daniel and his family. He got so domesticated that they could leave him out of the cage for long periods of time and he wouldn’t go anywhere. He would often follow Daniel’s dad to town attaching himself to his hat! I could just imagine the sight. :-)

Billy the bat goes to town

 

Everybody in town knew Billy the bat.

Billy couldn’t fly because obviously he had lost the opportunity to learn naturally from his mother. He would flap his wings desperately but nothing would happen. Daniel said  that Billy was also somehow not smelly like other bats. It must have had something to do with him not being able to fly. Perhaps those "smelly" glands did not develop. The family knew how much he wanted to fly but there was nothing anyone could do about it. One day, they decided to leave Billy outside all night and see what he would do.

When they woke up the next morning, Billy was gone. They looked everywhere but Billy was nowhere to be found.

Daniel said they waited days in case he returned but he never turned up. He and his family were deeply saddened by Billy’s disappearance. They concluded that he had probably been attacked and eaten by a cat or some other animal. Poor Billy. Since he couldn’t fly, he couldn’t escape his predators. But Daniel said Billy lives on in many homes around the world. His family ran a restaurant which was a favourite among tourists. They loved his mum’s cooking and they loved Billy and his antics. Many of them had taken photos of him and with him so not only does Billy live on in the memory of Daniel and his family but also all those who had his photos among their travel souvenirs. I wondered if this or this was Billy.

Certainly we were thankful to Daniel for sharing his anecdotes about fruit bats, bat hunting, bat curry and Billy. Now we too have a travel story to remember, even though we never "met" Billy.

But the question remains: who ate Billy the bat? Or did he finally learn to fly?

Boredom or relaxation?

08. November 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Travel · Tags: , , ,

This break at the Banyan Tree Seychelles has been more relaxing than Mauritius last year, I have to admit. That was the time we discovered the concept of la dolce far niente or “the sweetness of doing nothing”. Even though we haven’t planned any activities other than one outing to see our island, Mahe, I cannot say that I’m bored!

I spoke with hubby today about the difference between feeling bored and feeling relaxed. And we both agreed that feeling bored comes about when you feel you have nothing to do and its a situation you don’t accept. You wish you had something better to do. On the other hand, feeling relaxed comes about when you accept that you want to do nothing and are happy doing nothing or just going with the flow and doing whatever you want to do. That’s what we’re doing on this trip…No plans, going with the flow. Reading. Blogging. Walking. Catching sunsets. Taking photos. Chilling out. Sleeping early. Waking up early not because we have appointments but because we’re rested.

For some, this might be a boring way to spend a trip but this is exactly what we find relaxing. After the break its back to schedules, deadlines and routine and though we might find some time to relax in between, its just not the same.

I do have a couple of things on my agenda on this trip though and these just fit into our non-schedules, if you can call it that!

One was to learn swimming and the other, DSLR photography. Actually, swimming was also on the agenda last year in Mauritius but somehow I didn’t “complete the course” with hubby because we didn’t have the right tools. I did learn to float on my back and paddle my legs though. I didn’t do anything since then because I only wanted to learn in a private pool with my husband and we didn’t have one in Kuwait or Malaysia….haha.

Banyan Tree Seychelles Our pool at the villa

And now on this trip to the Seychelles, I get another chance. And in three days, I daresay, I’ve made significant progress! That’s because I brought along a swim board and hubby has taught me to more or less conquer my “fear of water”! I can now go under the water, hold my breath and open my eyes! And I can “swim” with my swim board from one end of our pool to the other, all 8 metres of it. It takes practise, I know, but, hey, after all these years, I am, finally learning to swim. Since I don’t want to get any more “tanned” than I already am, we also only do my swimming lessons early in the morning or after 5:30pm when our pool is hidden from the sun. So not many hours in the day really. But it’s fine, I am really enjoying it.

DSLR photography, well that’s another story. I love taking photos and so far I’ve been doing OK with a good point-and-shoot camera and some magical ones with my iPhone.

Banyan Tree Seychelles A sunset on our beach taken with my iPhone

But I really want to learn how to use a DSLR like hubby and son. So we agreed that hubby would teach me the basics of using a DSLR camera on this trip.

Banyan Tree Seychelles The sea from the gazebo next door taken with hubby's DSLR

This afternoon, we put two deck chairs and a small table in front of our villa facing the beach in the shade of some coconut trees and the mangroves. Even though there were more than a few of the hotel staff coming and going from the plot next door, putting up what we think is a gazebo on the beach for someone’s romantic dinner tonight, we didn’t feel disturbed. It was still very private. We had a great gentle breeze blowing all the time and the sound of the waves was totally relaxing. It was cool and I really enjoyed our spot. Having your villa right at the beachfront does have its advantages!

And I had my first photography lesson – it was all about ISO, aperture and speed and what they did to photographs. Hubby did his best to explain these concepts to me and I played with some shots. When we get back to Kuwait, I’ll do my research and put all these concepts to work.

There have been trips where our days had been chockablock with activites that we were running from here to there doing this and that and not feeling rested at all. Like us, many people get back from such a trip only to feel that they need another vacation to recover LOL

This is not such a trip. We feel really relaxed and definitely not bored!

La dolce far niente

Sometimes it might seem that there is only a subtle difference between boredom and relaxation but I think there’s more to it than that. Everybody needs downtime from the daily routine to do nothing or to do something they really want to do but feel they never “had the time” to do. And that is what relaxation is all about I guess.

 

Against all odds

07. November 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Travel · Tags: , , , ,

The phone rang and it made me jump. It wasn’t the time of morning – it was 8am – it was…who on earth would be calling us here? Hubby answered the phone and I only heard him saying, “OK thanks.” Then he jumped back into bed. I asked him who it was and he answered, “Your ‘friend’ from yesterday. He said there’s a turtle on the beach.”

I said, “Then we’d better go, hadn’t we?” I think it just right then hit him that this was an event we had been hoping would happen. So within 5 minutes we had dashed out the door with our cameras and iPhones heading for the beach.

We looked around. No turtle anywhere. Hubby hadn’t thought to ask Meigan, the hotel staff who had called us, which part of the beach. Anyway, it didn’t take long – we went first towards the hotel reception and there wasn’t anything there. Then we looked in the opposite direction and there was someone there and we went towards him. Indeed that was where the turtle was. The GIANT turtle I should say. We saw her tracks.

The turtle's tracks to her final nesting place

Then we saw her. She was more than a metre long and she had already started preparing the hole where she would lay her eggs.

Giant turtle laying eggs

The man there was another hotel staff. He told us it would be half an hour before she would finish digging the hole and start laying her eggs. We got as close as we could without disturbing her. It was quite an amazing thing to watch. I had never seen a turtle laying eggs up close. This close. Not a giant turtle.

This is turtle season in the Seychelles. It starts in September and ends in February and Meigan had told us yesterday when we first met him that they get a lot of turtles coming to lay their eggs at Intendance Beach. I always thought they come at night but he told us they came during the day as well. (We later read about general turtle behavior here.) That was when we told him to please call us if he knew that a turtle had come ashore. And call he did.

A second hotel staff came to the scene. He was very comfortable with the turtle and went really up close and started to move some of the sand away so we could see the eggs.

Giant turtle laying eggs

But he said he couldn’t do it because the turtle was so long that her posterior had sunk in a little deeper than usual so we could not see the eggs. It would be some time before she finished laying her eggs. Then she would bury them by putting the sand back.

Apparently Mavis – that’s what I decided to call her – had gone to another location before. We saw her tracks from the sea right up to the mangrove. Not finding a way in to a more secluded part of the beach behind the mangrove, she sought another location and landed in a small stream instead. She got out and went back in the sea, then came out again and found this location.

There was a marker there put by the hotel staff from another turtle which laid her eggs there three weeks ago. It seems that members of the same family of turtles would go to the same place year after year to lay their eggs. I don’t know how they do it…Its like they have this amazing GPS system to track it.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t wait for Mavis to finish. I really wanted to see her as she returned to the sea. Today was the day we would take a trip around the island and visit the sights of Mahe so we had to leave her.

We were told that they would wait there for Mavis to finish, put a marker and protect the area. They would keep watch on the area so nobody steals the eggs and wait for the day the eggs start to hatch – I think it was three weeks to go before the earlier batch of eggs were scheduled to hatch and six weeks before Mavis’ will. Once the eggs hatch they will be there to make sure the little baby turtles, or “hatchlings” as they are called, make it into the sea. That they don’t get eaten by birds and animals in the area. Once they get to sea no one can do anything as baby turtles will get eaten by bigger fish. Apparently turtles lay 80 to 120 eggs each time and only 2 or 3 will make it to adulthood.

So it was against all odds that we were able to see Mavis today as she came to nest on our beach. That some time back she was one of 100 or so eggs her mother had laid on some beach somewhere. That she survived what must have been an endless journey for a tiny baby turtle on a strange beach into the sea for the first time. That she was not devoured by her predators at sea.

Good luck Mavis as you return to sea and we pray for all your babies to hatch safely.

Good luck Mavis!

 

 

Great expectations

04. November 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Food, Travel · Tags: , , ,

It had been a long and frustrating wait for our luggage at the Seychelles International Airport. Somehow the business class luggage from an Emirates flight took priority over the luggage from our Qatar Airways flight and was processed first despite the fact that it arrived long AFTER our flight.Banyan Tree Seychelles

We arrived at the Banyan Tree  Seychelles resort at 9am after a 30-minute drive from the airport. And my first impression of as our transport drove into the porch was….well, it was different. The main building was constructed based on “local colonial architecture” – lots of white timber and spacious verandahs – with contemporary Asian decor inside.

Banyan Tree Seychelles Reception Building

I was surprised that there was no fanfare in the welcome at all. No Thai ladies with clasped hands standing in a row with a long, cool welcome drink and an orchid waiting for us? Was I foolish to even expect it? This time last year we were at The Oberoi in Mauritius and it got a big “Wow” from me and hubby. But somehow it wasn’t the same with the Banyan Tree. Well, not yet anyway. Everything is relative isn’t it? And I just can’t help comparing things, places, activities and of course, experiences.

Someone took our luggage and ushered us up the very colonial steps to the Reception.

We were then immediately “hijacked” by Linda, someone from the travel agency that handled our booking. This was the very first time that we had been handled by a travel agency staff on arrival at a resort. I couldn’t help feeling something was amiss. So instead of being checked-in by a Banyan Tree staff, we sat with Miss Linda who proceeded to tell us that she had actually scheduled to meet us at 3pm that day but since she happened to be at the resort at this time, she thought she might as well do this now! Bad move. I think she should have stuck to the original schedule. I would have much rather preferred to have gone through the check-in and get to know our “home” for the week upon arrival.

The first thing she did was to open a folder and remind us of our departure date and the pick up time for the trip to the airport. What? We hadn’t even started the holiday and there she was, talking about departure. Surely that could come anytime during our stay here. Hubby disagrees but I think the Banyan Tree should insist on properly welcoming guests to their resort and let the travel agents do their thing once guests have settled in. Next she asked if we had booked any tours. And we haven’t even been checked-in!

Banyan Tree Seychelles The Reception

She walked over to one of the desks and took a huge folder which contained leaflets about various tours and excursions. Hubby picked an island tour for Monday. The only one we would do.

All that done, we were finally checked-in by a Filipina hostess with a German surname. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a regular check-in, below our expectations. We had expected to be checked-in at the villa as most upscale resorts did – the way they did at The Oberoi in Mauritius for example. Then she took us to our villa in a buggy a.k.a. golf cart. These carts would be our transportation around the resort during our stay.

Hubby had booked a “Beachfront Spa Pool Villa” with direct access to the beach of the Intendance Bay, a private swimming pool with a terrace overlooking it, a massage pavilion for two, an outdoor jet-pool and steam room. Our one-bedroom villa was a good size with separate shower and toilet and a huge dressing area as well as his and hers sinks.

Banyan Tree Seychelles - the bedrooom area of our villaBanyan Tree Seychelles - Dressing area and sinks

So the interrior was great. The exterior, however, left much to be desired. For a 5-star resort I mean. As I walked around the villa area I saw that the garden surrounding the pool and massage pavilion was not as well-maintained as it should be. It was more than a little unkempt in certain areas. If they wanted to put grass in the garden they should at least ensure that it grew properly. It was a garden-lover’s nightmare.

The villa exterior and its surrounding area looked……a little tatty to be honest. I told hubby it seemed a little under-maintained. I wasn’t sure if he agreed with me. Perhaps it was just the architectural style. Local architecture or not, I felt it had seen better days. I felt a little disappointed actually. Definitely below my expectations. I wondered if it was only our villa or if all the villas were like this.

The angle of this particular photo that hubby took made the exterior look well….not bad and quite luxurious!

Banyan Tree Seychelles - Our villa, and private pool

And this corner, where the outdoor jet-pool and hot tub was, was my favourite. It was the cosiest corner of all. The whole complex should look like this!

Banyan Tree Seychelles - Jet pool and hot tub

The villa and all its facilities were very private and the beach was shielded by a row of mangrove plants . It was a beautiful beach. White sands seemed to go on for miles and miles. We could hear the sound of the waves even when we’re inside the villa.

Our beach

I savored the thought of being lulled to sleep by it each night and gently awakened every morning.

Hubby had booked the villa on half-board because dinners at the Resort were very expensive – we discovered later that a set dinner in all the restaurants had been priced at 780 Seychelles rupees per head, before tax, which was another whopping 25%! With half-board, we paid an additional 75 Euros per night to the room rate to eat anything in any restaurant, drinks excluded. Our hostess told us we had to book our seats at the various restaurants for dinner every night. Since we had been looking forward to the Thai restaurant we asked her to make a booking at the Saffron Thai Restaurant for the evening.

She told us where we had to go for our breakfast every morning and of course we could also have it served at the villa. When she said that breakfast was until 11am each day, I remarked that since it was only 9:30am we still had time for breakfast. She quickly replied that check-in was usually at 2pm and we had checked-in early….breakfast only starts tomorrow! Of course, we could have breakfast this morning, she said, but it would be added to our bill. How picky, I thought. Not very 5-star. When we went to Prague, we also checked in at the boutique Golden Well Hotel early in the morning. Our room wasn’t quite ready and they ushered us to the restaurant for complimentary coffee and something light. That’s the way to go, Banyan Tree!

Internet was included in the room rate at the resort and that was a good thing. However, as we went about checking out our villa, hubby discovered that the wi-fi wasn’t working! Thankfully it was just some problem with the router. Hubby managed to get it working again after he reset it.

The Banyan Tree Seychelles was supposed to have one of the best spas in the world so, next on the list was to go through the Spa brochure and make our bookings. We decided to go for the “Flight Recovery” package that afternoon as the flight had been tiring. When hubby tried to call the Spa, however, the phone had somehow ceased to function!! It was strange because the hostess had used it just a while ago to book the Saffron Restaurant for dinner. Hrrrmmpphh…since we still had no idea how to get to the reception building and we obviously could not phone for a buggy to take us there, hubby called the Reception using his mobile phone to get someone over to fix it! It wasn’t long before the technician came over and sorted the phone out. We got our Spa appointment for 2:00 pm and we looked forward to that.

It was almost 10am. Hubby swam while I unpacked. By noon we were feeling hungry so we called a buggy and went to the reception building to look for some lunch. The only place we could eat in was the Au Jardin d’Epices Restaurant where breakfast was served daily. In the evenings the restaurant served an international dinner menu. We sat on the terrace and ordered a pizza to share…..something light because it was only 2 hours before our spa appointment. The view of the Intendance Bay was breathtaking and the sound of the waves caressing the white beaches was calming and relaxing.

Anse Intendance Banyan Tree Seychelles

The Banyan Tree Spa was set up on the hillside and we were driven up from our villa in a buggy. A soft-spoken Thai lady greeted us with a familiar nasal “Sawadee-kap” and clasped hands. She brought us a welcome drink of cold ginger tea, went on her knees as she confirmed the treatment we ordered then introduced us to our therapists.

The Banyan Tree Seychelles Spa

It was a short walk up some stepped gardens to a private pavilion. The treatment was 60 minutes and according to the brochure it was “ideal to combat jetlag, fatigue or low energy. The gentle and relaxing oil massage is a highly recommended pick-me-up. It combines medium and long, firm strokes in tandem with palming and thumbing pressure points, relieving body tension and leaving you in a blissful afterglow.” It was all that and truly relaxing. All the day’s “travel stresses” seemed to have disappeared completely. We were  all set to continue the relaxation we came for. Back at the villa, we tried the jet-pool and the steam room. The steam room worked as it should but the hot water for the jet-pool didn’t.

We were very lucky to get a villa with a beach where the sun set. At 5:45pm, we grabbed our cameras and headed to the beach to catch our first sunset, a regime we would practise everyday during our stay.

Sunset Anse Intendance Banyan Tree 3237

Then we hit the showers and got ready to go for our meal at The Saffron Thai Restaurant. The buggy came promptly after hubby called for one at 7:15pm.

We had looked forward to eating Thai food at the Banyan Tree even before we left Kuwait. So the moment had come.

Saffron Thai Restaurant Banyan Tree Seychelles

It was a very elegant restaurant and our Chinese-looking Thai hostess spoke excellent English with a British accent! The restaurant didn’t carry a very large selection on the menu but everything we ordered was delicious. We shared a kind of sampler with chicken satay, crab fritters and spring rolls, all with its own sauce. It was a portion for two and was just right as an appetiser.

Starter Plate at The SaffronThai Restaurant Banyan Tree Seychelles

The Tom Yam Goong was excellent and although we ordered it “spicy”, it must have been “eXXXtra spicy” as we had to remove pieces of chilli before we could enjoy it! Hubby is my all-time Tom Yam connoisseur and if it met with his approval, then it was excellent!

Tom Yam Goong at The SaffronThai Restaurant Banyan Tree Seychelles

For the main course, we ordered Shrimp Green Curry, Stir Fried Beef Tenderloin with Basil and requested a Sautéed Mixed Vegetable to balance the meal. Everything was perfect. The way they served the rice was very unique. There were four types of rice in banana leaf cones for us to choose: Jasmine, Watermelon, Saffron and Sesame. Hubby was not the adventurous one here as he opted for Jasmine, which was the plain white rice – I chose Watermelon and loved it.

Four types of rice at The SaffronThai Restaurant Banyan Tree Seychelles

We really enjoyed our dinner at the Saffron even though it left us huffing and puffing! Somehow, Thai food isn’t Thai food if it isn’t spicy though, isn’t it?

It was a cool night and we took our time walking back to the villa. It was still early so we chilled out and I tried to blog. The internet connection was very bad and it was very frustrating. It wasn’t long before hubby fell asleep and I followed suit after finally uploading my first blog post. It was a long time since we had slept this early and I looked forward to waking up fully rested.

So ended the first day of our Seychelles getaway at the Banyan Tree full of great expectations and first impressions. But it WAS only the first day. Seven more to go. Who knows what awaits. What’s important is the total experience and we certainly looked forward to the sweetness of doing nothing - la dolce far niente – sleeping early, enjoying the food, discovering the resort and taking in the beauty of the daily sunsets and the beach.

Somehow we made it!

04. November 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Travel · Tags: , , , , ,

Our flight to the Seychelles on Qatar Airways was via Doha of course and even though we left Kuwait only 10 minutes late, we arrived in Doha International Airport more than half an hour late. Which was not very good news because that gave us only 20 minutes to run and catch our connecting flight to the Seychelles!

It was already going to be a short transit of one hour but when the Captain announced that we were preparing to land in Doha but had to go into a holding pattern because there was traffic congestion at the airport, I held my breath!

For the first time ever, hubby had made me pack one day’s clothing and all our toiletries in our carry-on trolley, and I wasn’t a happy cookie. He said, because of the short transit in Doha, there might just be a teeny weeny bit of possibility that our checked-in luggage might not make it on the connecting flight to the Seychelles. But there was no other flight time, only this once-a-day flight, so we had no choice but to take it. He said he wasn’t being negative but quoted the Spanish phrase “Hombre precavido vale por dos”, which literally meant “A cautious man is worth two men”.

And so I packed as he asked. But he had also found out that Qatar Airways had a service called “Al Maha” at its regular terminal which was basically a “meet and greet” service. When checking in they also gave us special tags for our on-board luggage and boarding passes which read “Short Transfer” so all this did give me the comfort that we would make our connecting flight. And our luggage would make it too because it had been tagged “Short Transfer”.

When the plane landed and we were waiting to disembark, hubby told a flight attendant that we were late for our connecting flight. She said, “Someone will help you at the Terminal”.

We ran hurriedly into the terminal at Doha and headed towards the “Short Transfer” processing lane when hubby remembered the Al Maha service. We went back towards the entrance but there was no one in “a blue uniform” waiting for us as described in the e-mail. We asked a lady in another uniform holding a sheet of paper with highlighted names. Hubby told her we were late for our flight to the Seychelles and also about Al Maha.

She beckoned us to follow her but she didn’t seem to know where to take us because we scurried around the airport like lost puppies.

She stopped to look at the flight monitors to see which gate to take us to but our flight was not even listed. Finally, she stopped at a check-in counter which had our flight number on “Last call” and spoke to the ground staff there. A man came to us and asked “Are you Sanchez?” Yup, you must be looking for us by now to close the gate for boarding!

The lady left us there, apparently in good hands. We saw other passengers waiting for the bus to the plane in the departure area behind the counter. So we hadn’t missed the flight. The ground staff behind the counter very coolly asked for our boarding passes. As she was processing our boarding, hubby asked her nicely, “Our flight from Kuwait arrived 40 minutes late, how come there was no one from Qatar Airways waiting for us to help us? We could have missed the flight.”

We couldn’t believe it when she looked at us and replied, very cool and very calmly, “Well, somehow, you made it!”

She left us and went to tell the bus to start boarding and as we boarded the bus hubby asked her another question: “Is it possible to check to make sure that our luggage has been loaded on the plane?” Her reply, as she held the door for us, “Its being processed.”

I looked at hubby and he looked at me and we shook our heads. This woman was unbelievable.

Anyway, lets look at the good side of things, it seems the plane had waited for us and I guess they’ll wait for our luggage. We boarded and settled down in our seats. The plane didn’t leave immediately although the flight attendant announced for all ground crew to leave as “all passengers were on board”.

A while later the Captain announced that they would leave in a bit as they were waiting for “one more piece of luggage to be loaded on to the plane.” That would be ours! Yaaaay….some things do work the way they should, I guess, and we were thankful for that!

So Seychelles – here we come! With our luggage.

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