I'm going to spend July taking Chinese classes 5 days a week and then in mid August I'll head back to the US for a 5 week trip. It's been over a year since I've been home so I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone!
Saturday, July 11, 2015
July 2015 update
It's hard to believe we've been here for 2 years and we are in our last year! Time has flown but we are also eager to be back in the US and closer to friends and family. My last day with P&G was on June 30. I decided to take a separation package since my job is moving to Guangzhou. Working in Singapore was a challenging experience but I learned a lot so I'm really thankful I was able to work here for as long as I did. Below is a picture of the artwork team at my farewell lunch.
I'm going to spend July taking Chinese classes 5 days a week and then in mid August I'll head back to the US for a 5 week trip. It's been over a year since I've been home so I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone!
I'm going to spend July taking Chinese classes 5 days a week and then in mid August I'll head back to the US for a 5 week trip. It's been over a year since I've been home so I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone!
Boracay
We spent a long weekend in Boracay, Philippines with a group of friends over the Labour Day holiday. To get to Boracay, we had a 3 1/2 hour flight, 2 hour bus ride, 15 minute ferry ride and one last 15 minute bus ride. We stayed right on the beach. The set up was different than anywhere I'd ever been. There were so many hotels, restaurants and shops that they were all lined upright next to each other. To get to our hotel, we had to go down an alley and walk in front of all of the shops in the sand - there was no parking lot to drop us off at in front of the hotel. It was convenient to get to all of the bars and restaurants because it's just one long row so there was plenty of entertainment. There were dancers and flame throwers at nearly every other bar. The beach was beautiful but we were a bit disappointed because there was a lot of algae in the water which made it a little unpleasant to swim in.
View of our hotel from beach:
View of beach from our room:
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at Spider House which is a bar on the side of a cliff overlooking the sea. The views were gorgeous. They also had a ladder we could climb to go for a swim.
From there we went to Puka Beach which was covered in small shells. The water was much clearer here than the water by our hotel. Once back at our hotel, the girls all went and got hair braids - I think we looked pretty good :)
For dinner, we went to a fresh fish market where we could pick our own seafood and take it to a nearby restaurant for them to cook for us. They coated shrimp in butter and garlic - it was delicious!
On Sunday, we decided to go find another beach. We saw one labeled on a map that said "no screaming children" and since there were a bunch of kids singing Justin Bieber songs in our hotel pool that sounded really good. We were in the tricycle (their version of a taxi) on our way to the beach and the driver seemed a bit confused about where we wanted to go and told us he thought it was a private beach. He pulled into a back service entrance and we were told that there would be a fee to get to the beach. I was a bit skeptical at this point but we decided to check it out since we were already there. We had to walk down a pretty steep hill and ended up in a resort that was finishing construction - the place was basically empty except for the employees. We were told that there would be a fee for the beach but that the fee could be used at their restaurant/bar so beach access was basically free since we planned to have a few drinks anyway. We got to the beach and there were lounge chairs and umbrellas set up and we were the only ones there! The beach/water was amazing and we had it all to ourselves! It ended up being a great afternoon - once the resort opens I'm sure it will be packed so our timing was perfect.
For dinner, we went and had a buffet dinner that included lechon (suckling pig) at a nearby restaurant.
We had a great trip and we were excited to check another country off our list!
View of beach from our room:
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at Spider House which is a bar on the side of a cliff overlooking the sea. The views were gorgeous. They also had a ladder we could climb to go for a swim.
From there we went to Puka Beach which was covered in small shells. The water was much clearer here than the water by our hotel. Once back at our hotel, the girls all went and got hair braids - I think we looked pretty good :)
For dinner, we went to a fresh fish market where we could pick our own seafood and take it to a nearby restaurant for them to cook for us. They coated shrimp in butter and garlic - it was delicious!
On Sunday, we decided to go find another beach. We saw one labeled on a map that said "no screaming children" and since there were a bunch of kids singing Justin Bieber songs in our hotel pool that sounded really good. We were in the tricycle (their version of a taxi) on our way to the beach and the driver seemed a bit confused about where we wanted to go and told us he thought it was a private beach. He pulled into a back service entrance and we were told that there would be a fee to get to the beach. I was a bit skeptical at this point but we decided to check it out since we were already there. We had to walk down a pretty steep hill and ended up in a resort that was finishing construction - the place was basically empty except for the employees. We were told that there would be a fee for the beach but that the fee could be used at their restaurant/bar so beach access was basically free since we planned to have a few drinks anyway. We got to the beach and there were lounge chairs and umbrellas set up and we were the only ones there! The beach/water was amazing and we had it all to ourselves! It ended up being a great afternoon - once the resort opens I'm sure it will be packed so our timing was perfect.
For dinner, we went and had a buffet dinner that included lechon (suckling pig) at a nearby restaurant.
We had a great trip and we were excited to check another country off our list!
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Easter Weekend in Cambodia
Neither Jimmy or I had been to Cambodia before so we decided to go and check another country off our list. It was only a 2 hour flight to Siem Reap and I've been wanting to see Angkor Wat so we decided to go for Easter Weekend (Good Friday is also a holiday in Singapore). Our hotel provided a shuttle service which was great because they provided us with cold towels and bottled waters right away. We thought we were used to heat since moving to Singapore but Siem Reap was even hotter. It was around 100 degrees the whole weekend. From our hotel we were able to walk to Pub Street and the Night Market which are the main tourist areas where there are a lot of stalls selling souvenirs and plenty of restaurants. I was happy to get $.50 beer!
On Saturday we had a tour booked that had a 4:50am start so we could watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Our tour guide had a flash light out so we could walk back toward the temple since it was still pitch black as we made our way back. We were one of the first to arrive and had a great view but within an hour it was pretty packed. We spent a few hours exploring the temple. It was amazing how intricate all of the walls were. We also saw dozens of monkeys behind the temple. Right after we took the picture of the monkey sitting on the temple steps, another monkey came up and grabbed my leg!
After finishing at Angkor Wat, we stopped back at our hotel for their free breakfast which was really good - full American breakfasts with fruit plates, bread baskets and fruit juices. It was nice and refreshing after being in the heat. After breakfast we went to Angkor Thom. Within Angkor Thom we saw Bayon temple (49 towers which each have 4 faces), Elephant terrace and Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm has lots of tree roots growing over the temples and Tomb Raider was filmed there.
After touring all day, I spent a few hours at the pool. Our hotel offered a free 30 minute foot massage which I was happy to accept!
We went back to the Pub Street area for dinner - this time we took a tuk tuk since we were tired from walking around all day even though it was less than a mile walk.
After dinner we stopped to try the Fish Massage. In Singapore, it costs $15. In Siem Reap, it was $2 and included a free beer - it felt like too good of a deal to pass up! Jimmy had never done the Fish Massage before - his face when they started sucking on his feet was priceless.
We went back to the Pub Street area for dinner - this time we took a tuk tuk since we were tired from walking around all day even though it was less than a mile walk.
After dinner we stopped to try the Fish Massage. In Singapore, it costs $15. In Siem Reap, it was $2 and included a free beer - it felt like too good of a deal to pass up! Jimmy had never done the Fish Massage before - his face when they started sucking on his feet was priceless.
On Sunday, we just enjoyed our free breakfast again and spent some time at the pool before heading home. We really enjoyed our time in Siem Reap. The country is very poor and we found out they don't even have a power plant (they have to get power from Thailand and Vietnam) but it was nice to go somewhere that isn't built up (the tallest structure is Angkor Wat to respect the temple so there are no tall buildings). I don't think we would go for another trip since we saw everything we wanted to, but I'm glad we were able to go once.
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