Birthday Getaway: Day 4

It was our last in Koh Lipe. To be honest, I was devastated. I really had a piece of mind during my stay and now I had to go back to reality.

Since we had until afternoon, we requested to extend one room and fortunately, the hotel staff was really nice and she extended the room for us with no charges! Lovely! Therefore, we could still walk around and then, took our shower after.

We lazed by the beach after breakfast. The air, the breeze, the view and dogs around us.

It was then we decided to walked to Walking Street, hailed a tuk-tuk and made our way to Aroy Mexicana for lunch. The owner was friendly and the food was great. He even asked us how we knew about his restaurant. As it became cloudy and windy by the time we were done, we were more than happy to walk back to our hotel to freshen up and pack our luggage.

While we were waiting for the immigration process, the boyfriend was contemplating to go to 7Eleven to buy a few of his favourite tom-yum cup noodles. Since we had a lot of time to kill, I told him to go ahead. He went and guess what? He came back with 5 that cup noodles and a cocnut ice-cream. Why 5 when it is his favourite? They left only 5 of that in the shelf. Otherwise, he would have gotten even more.

It was already 8pm when we reached Langkawi. We had to go through another round of immigration before we could catch a cab to our hotel. Once we had checked-in our luggage, we headed straight to The Cliff without even taking a shower. Yes, we were really hungry. It was my very first time to see the boyfriend walking so fast ahead of me.

While we were enjoying our food, the restaurant played a birthday song. I saw one of the waiters brought a cake to one of the tables. After a while, another birthday song was played. I thought it was another table so I was looking at one direction when a waitress brought a cake from another direction to me. It was surprise planned by the boyfriend. Now it all made sense – him, walking so fast. He had made an arrangement earlier and did not want to be late for it.

“I did not want your birthday this year to go without a cake” was what he said. Actually we were looking for cakes in Koh Lipe but to our avail. Therefore, he decided to make this arrangement when we were back in Langkawi.

Honestly, I am a very happy woman.

Birthday Getaway: Day 3

Having breakfast with a stunning view of the ocean – bliss. I wish I could do this everyday. Now that we had a full day in Koh Lipe, there was just so little for us to do. Seriously, the best part about this getaway was to do nothing. All we did were eating, drinking, walking and sleeping, eating, drinking, walking and sleeping.

We started off with taking pictures at this big tree right in front of our hotel. When we were having our breakfast, I saw a few couples took pictures there as well. That’s when I told the boyfriend “let’s take some photos there later!”

As there are three beaches in Koh Lipe, we decided to explore the other two beaches that day. They are all within walking distance. We decided to go Sunrise Beach, leaving Sunset Beach in the evening. On our way, we had coconut ice-cream and it is the bomb! The boyfriend love it a lot.

It took us about 5 to 10 minutes walk to reach the beach. The waves are stronger and the crowd is smaller compared to Pattaya Beach.

We decided to stop at Sunrise Beach Restaurant for some drinks and food while enjoying the view before we left the beach. On our way back to the hotel, I realised there was a shorter route compared to the route we used earlier. We reached Walking Street in less than 5 minutes! Oh well, at least we explored like the locals.

When we got back to the hotel, the boyfriend said he wanted to dip in the water. It was three in the afternoon and he wanted to dip in the water. I did not join him but one of the dogs did. This particular dog loves to be in the water.

Before I took my nap, I had this Thai’s cup noodles – minced pork flavour. Delicious! Unfortunately, I could not bring a few back to Penang with me.

It was about 5.30pm when we left the hotel to Sunset Beach. I did not want to miss the view. Trust me, though the sun was setting, it was still quite hot! I had to hide in the shadows of the big rocks.

Then we decided to walk to Walking Street to have dinner. On our way, there were a few taxis or probably tuk-tuk passed by us. Since we had never taken a ride before, we decided to hail one. Guess what? Fortunately we took the ride. It was so far to walk to Walking Street and the streets were dark!

We had our last dinner in Koh Lipe at Rak-Lay Restaurant. It was a satisfying dinner and oh, the boyfriend found a stray lover..

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..a kitten! She was sleeping under my chair and we woke her up with some food. Then she started to jump up to the boyfriend’s thigh and that’s when their relationship started. Such an adorable kitten..

Birthday Getaway: Day 2

It was finally the day – to Koh Lipe!

We took the first ferry out to the island. It was about one and a half hour of ride to reach our destination. We were then transported to a smaller boat to go to the coast of the island. Trust me, the water is so blue! It is so beautiful!

We had to wait to get our passports back before we started to look for our hotel. While I remember seeing the location of the hotel in the map, the boyfriend went to ask the locals – just to be on the safe side. Apparently it was only a 5-minute walk from the immigration centre. We stayed in Bella Vista Beach Resort which is on Pattaya Beach.

Pattaya Beach is Koh Lipe's main beach, a large sheltered bay with soft powdery sand and crystal-clear blue water.

We were greeted by the friendly staff and the boys voluntarily took our luggages. Okay, you have to give them some tips. We did.

Since we had not had our lunch, we went to the nearest place to dine – Cafe Lipe. We ordered local delicacies – green and red curries and more! There was a friendly dog in the cafe as well.

After our lunch, we decided to walk around for a bit to check out the place. There was this famous and happening street – Walking Street. There are a lot of bars, cafes and shops. I guess we would be spending the next few days eating and drinking here.

While we were strolling on the street, it was drizzling. We decided to walk into Elephant Books & Coffee. It seems like a nice bar with good food as we saw some people made an order. We left the place when the rain stopped. We walked back to our hotel to take our nap to recharge our energy.

It was already evening when we woke up. The view at Pattaya Beach was stunning! We wanted to have our dinner at Capriccio. Apparently, it ranks number 1 on the island. When we reached the place, we found out that it was already closed down for a long time. Therefore, we went to Leonardo “the restaurant”.

After dinner, we stopped by Sawasdee Bar before we called it a night. Though nothing peculiar happened,  I enjoyed my birthday especially the compnay I had. I am glad I chose this island as my birthday getaway.

Birthday Getaway: Day 1

I had this getaway planned since last year. Initially, I decided to celebrate my birthday alone, out of Malaysia. Then, I invited my brother. He then invited our cousins. They then invited the mothers. In the end, the only ones left were myself, the boyfriend, my cousin and her husband. My brother could not join us. The mothers could not join us.

Yes, I celebrated my birthday out of Malaysia. Not too far away though but, the place was amazing! We went to Koh Lipe.

We had to go to Koh Lipe from Langkawi. Therefore, we spent one night in Langkawi. What was there to do in Langkawi other than having cheap boozes!

On the same day, I found out that I bought the wrong date of departure to Koh Lipe. I had to buy new tickets. I was upset, really. However, the boyfriend turned the table around. I was really touched of what he did for me after.

“I am here to amend your mistakes” was what he said to me. He did not want me to be sad especially during my birthday getaway.  I am really blessed that God sent him to me.

Day 4: Bangkok

It was the last day of the trip and we were heading back to Bangkok from Pattaya. Though it was the last day, things were not as interesting as the previous days.

On our way back to Bangkok, we stopped by Big Bee where they introduced us the high quality, genuine honey. For those who know me well, I am really scared of bees. Had terrible experience when I was young. Also, my skin is sensitive to insects’ bites so better not be stung by a bee.

We then went to ‘My precious..’ store after. I guess the last day was mostly the day to make you spend as much as you could. Not. Fun. At. All.

Before we realised it was already almost the end of our trip, we were sent to the airport to catch our flight back to Malaysia. It was late night when we landed KLIA and guess what? We were to take our bus back to Penang straight. Though we had a better coach, with more comfortable seats, I could not sleep well. It was five in the morning when we reached Penang and I had to go to work day!

However, I decided to take Emergency Leave for Thursday and will report in on Friday, which was the day I tendered my resignation letter. How awesome was that?

Day 3: Pattaya

The third day of the trip was really exciting and thrilling. We had a few water sports that day and guess what? I got to try parasailing! It was my very first time and definitely, not the last. Honestly, it was not as scary as I thought and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I started out poorly so I hurt my toes before I was raised into the air and when I was up there, I really felt like I was a bird.

We continued to Coral Island after and there, we had more water sports which I had never had before such as jet ski..

..as well as the banana boat. Now talking about the banana boat, I had a terrible experience. This man was supposed to fling us at the more shallow are but due to a mistake, we were flung at the deeper sea level and tell you what, I cannot swim very well. I thought I would drown especially when the water is salty. Damn, now that’s the downside. The upside of this was that we had one free banana boat fling.

Thank goodness we were sent back to the hotel first before we proceed the day’s remaining activities. After we took our show and all, we went to watch an interesting show, Alangkarn. And really, I enjoyed this show a lot.

After the show, guess where we had our dinner? At a club which is situated next to where we watched the Cabaret. Dined in a club, huh? Very interesting. When we were about to leave, we were told that our coach left us. A retard told the bus driver that we would all walk back to our hotel, wtf.

Anyway, before we headed back to our hotel, we had a short trip of food hunt. I had another round of sweet corn. Their sweet corn is good and I will definitely miss this in Malaysia. Damn, I really miss it now!

Day 2: Pattaya

It was the second day of the trip when we had to leave Bangkok to Pattaya. It was a 4-hour ride, if I am not mistaken. On our way, we had our lunch at this huge tiger zoo. Note, it was just a lunch only.

Also, we dropped by Silver Lake as well as this huge temple nearby before we went to watch this cultural show as well as an elephant show. At Silver lake, you get to enjoy beautiful scenery; flowers blooming surrounding this huge lake. Nothing much could be seen at this huge temple. I do not even recall the name of it. All I could remember is I had to pay to use the toilet there and it was not even clean.

Later that night was my very first time in my lifetime to ever watch Thai Girls’ Show and trust me, it was not interesting at all. It was actually quite disgusting. No, I am not criticising these girls’ profession. It is just my personal opinion. I admit I was not able to handle it well and I personally think that it was a complete turn off. At least I experienced such show that is infamous in Thailand and no, I will not go for the second time.

However, fortunately the night was saved by Lady Boys’ Show, also known as Cabaret Show. It was really good and you would not believe that these ‘ladies’ are actually ‘men’. They are just so beautiful and what not, their monster figures. After the show, you could take pictures with them outside the building for just 100baht and if you want to touch them, you have to pay them another 400baht. I saw an old man groped one of these ‘ladies’’ breasts *pfft*

Day 1: Bangkok

It was the boyfriend’s company trip to Thailand. We went to Bangkok and Pattaya during our four-day-three-night trip. It was a tiring one and let me tell you why it was so.

The flight to Bangkok was 9-ish in the morning and guess what? From KLIA. So we, who are staying in Penang, had to head down to KLIA the night before the flight. The company was nice enough to prepare us the transportation. We left Penang late night and blimey, it was an excruciating trip! The coach was sadly uncomfortable. The seats were really hard and I could barely snooze.

By the time we reached the airport, it was only 5-ish early in the morning. Since we still had plenty of time, we all headed to McDonald’s to have our breakfast and free and easy after before we all gathered to meet our tour guide. To be honest, following a tour is not to my liking but this is a arranged company trip so, no complain.

And finally we had our flight tickets. We had some spare time to loiter around for a bit before we boarded the aircraft. Good to know that we were taking Malaysia Airlines; complimentary food with ample space of seats.

To my surprise, there was a complimentary entertainment as well. The boyfriend was already in deep sleep while I watched Mr. Popper’s Penguins. The two-hour flight passed just like that and finally we landed Bangkok.

There ain’t time for us to rest after we collected our baggage and got up to our coach. We headed straight to our first destination, Safari World. We first went to have our buffet lunch before dolphins’ show as well as Thai’s 007 show. Both were entertaining.

And along Bangkok streets, you will not fail to see Beethoven's, if you know what I mean. “There’s a reason why this place is called Bangkok” – quoted from Hangover Part 2 lol 

We went to Madame Tussauds as well as bought some souvenirs before we called it a day. That night the boyfriend and I experienced the local food at a night market nearby. The food adventure was short but interesting. Boy we were glad that the hotel we were staying was good and all of us had a good rest that night. Our faces told it all the next day.

Business Trip@Bangkok

Finally it’s here! It was supposed to be a business trip to 3 different countries in less than 2 weeks. What are they? Thailand, Indonesia and best of all, Australia! However, due to certain circumstances, we only went to Thailand last week and then, Indonesia and Australia later in the year or early of next year.

Though we were only going to Bangkok, I was really excited. One, I get to meet my clients. Two, I have never been to Bangkok! 

I was in charge to book the flight tickets for my senior and I. Unfortunately, due to my typical blur nature, I booked morning flight instead of the afternoon flight. I had to wake up early in the morning, damnit! However, I am glad that I made that mistake because as we landed Bangkok earlier, I managed to explore around a bit the places around the hotel we were staying.

I was more than happy when I found out we were staying in the hotel that our client booked for us. It was indeed a nice place and yes, fortunately we had a nice place to sleep in. I would cry if we did not. I didn’t know business trips are that exhausting! You had to wake up early in the morning, took hours of car ride and followed by long hours of meetings. Maybe it’s just Bangkok?

I had fine dining almost each meal everyday. The food was great and I had drinks too but, being out until late at night everyday was no joke! Fortunately there is a bath tub in my room and I used it well. Still, it was a waste that I did not use the hotel’s sauna.

Also, this trip brought me to a whole new level. I talked to people who are in really high positions in their respective organisations. Chairmen, directors, you name it! They have at least 10 years of experience in this field and to compare to a freshman like me, I still have a long way to go.

So, what’s next? Jakarta. I have a feeling that I am expected to go by my own. I wonder if I can really do it. We shall see.