Singapore trip

Monday, June 25, 2007

I was having problems loading my pictures onto iPhoto, but its finally resolved. After looking closely at the pictures we took in the Maldives we noticed that a lot of them came out blurry. Another reason we need a new and updated camera. Ours is a dinosaur and it's only three years old. We wanted to buy one in Singapore because of the good rate, but ran out of time. Ah...next time. Singapore is known for three things: electronics, watches, and shopping designer labels. They have tons of malls. They were telling us that designers like Louis Vutton are very affordable. Hmm...curious I look over at Ed and I got my answer without even saying a word.

I didn't get any pictures of our gracious hosts Wee-Seeng, Benny, and Joey with my camera, but they took some and will be emailing them shortly. Wee-Seeng and Benny work in the electronics business and Joey works for an Oakley distributor in Sports Marketing. They were great in taking us around town. It was a nice treat. I already shared my scary experience with Durian.

Here are some more pictures from Singapore.

They took us for a boat ride along the Singapore River.



I realize now that I didn't take too many pictures of the beautiful foliage. Wee-Seeng calls it a concrete jungle, but you would hardly notice all the buildings every when you saw all the trees that surround the buildings. The pictures I took were mostly of the buildings, so it will seem like a concrete jungle.


They have tons of shops and restaurants along the river. They were so bright, colorful, and lit by lanterns.


They really trying to gain more tourists by building two new casinos, tons of high-rise commercial buildings, and the Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye).


They had tons of interesting bridges. This one's for Leo who might appreciate this more than others. [hover your mouse over or click on it to enlarge]

I think this building is the opera house. Notice the exterior models Durian. They can't get enough of this stinkin' fruit.

This is one of the many places to eat along the river. Notice behind me is a Singapore Hooters. (Not quite the same, if you ask me.)

PS. These pictures are after an 11 hour day at work, a 14 hour flight that begun at 1:00AM from LAX, and another 4 hour flight to Singapore. Long, long day and no shower (or brushing our teeth...shhh).


By popular demand, here are a few more pictures of our Maldives trip. The picture below is the wine cellar where we ate our dinner. They have over 8,000 bottles available in the cellar. Ed snapped only one picture and then came the wine so we lost concentration of capturing the moment. Oops.

This is our island from a distance.


After a day of scuba diving. We saw several Hawksbill turtles, moray eels, one manta ray, eagle rays, grey reef sharks, and white tip sharks. Of course, no underwater camera.


One of the few sunsets that we saw.


Ed asked me to post this picture that captures his "artistic work".


More yacht pictures.

We got a tour of the ocean pavilion. This thing is better than our house. It's 2600 sq.ft. and features two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, an indoor/outdoor pool, and an outdoor hot tub.

Alright, that's it. I'm officially missing the Maldives.

Isabell's 9 month appointment

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Before I forget, Isabella went to the doctor's for her shots before we took off on vacation. As of Monday, June 11, these are the latest stats for Isabella.

She weighed 18 lbs. 4 oz. And is just below the 50% to other girls her age.
Her height was measured at 28". And is in the 75th percentile.

We will be moving her on to the next stage in food. She eats pureed fruits, veggies, and meats. She also loves watermelon and grapes. She has mastered crawling. It's funny to watch her crawl and turn in a new direction. It's such a production. I will have to get a video up online. She's now reaching for objects like tables and drawer knobs and trying to pull herself up. She's getting there, but not quite yet.

Baba and Deda (Ed's parents) took care of Isabella while we were gone. They had a blast and so did Isabella. I was so relieved to hear how much fun they were having. It's scary to leave for such a long time and so far away. But it was a great trip for all three of us. Isabella got some private time with her grandparents and Ed and I got some alone time. Here's a few pictures that Baba and Deda took.

Thank you Eva and Leo!

This is a picture of Isabella's daycare provider, Vida. On the left is her daughter, Sara, who helps out a lot in the afternoons.

When Isabella's tired, laying down, or squinting she kind of looks like me (LOL). At least I think she does in this picture.

We're Back

We're back from our oh-so-relaxing-and-much-deserved vacation. The Maldives were just awesome. We stayed at the Huvafen Fushi Resort and let me just say that it was the best resort ever. It definitely deserves the 6 star rating. Talk about luxury. This time of year is the off season for the Maldives. The weather was amazing, even with the few days that we had a thunderstorm. They were quite romantic. I took over 200 pictures, but I'll spare you and show just a few highlights.

Our ocean bungalow was a dream. When we entered we thought we'd never want to go back home. The decor was just amazing and the view was spectacular. I can see why so many honeymooners choose the Maldives. They don't get many American travel out to the resorts and now I can understand why that may be. It took us 31 hours to get there (we stopped in Singapore for 8 hours and met with some people that took us around the island. Singapore is very pretty and unbelievably clean!) and it took 22 hours to get home. I'm still recovering from the travel and time change. I think the other reason has to be the price. The resort was outrageous. Meals never were below $100. Each night they have some feature dinner. The Champaign and Lobster Buffet looked really good, but I wasn't that hungry for a buffet. I asked how much it was thinking it might be around $80-100. It was $225 per person! That better be some spectacular champaign. But anyways, back to the bungalow. Check it out.

Everyday at 6:00pm they would do sting ray feedings. They get about 8-15 sting rays that come by for the feedings.

The resort was only half full so it felt like we were all alone on this gorgeous island, but we managed to make a few local friends. Every morning outside our bungalow would be a school of baby black tip sharks. We counted up to 8 at any given time. They were tiny. They like shallow areas like resorts to avoid getting eaten by bigger sharks. It was like having a shark daycare outside our room.

Some more random pictures.

We experienced a few days of unfavorable weather, but it was kind of exciting. At night the waves were crashing against the stilts that held our bungalows above water. It was a little bit of a rush. Two couples actually moved to the beach bungalows. The locals were saying that this happens once every five years. Quite a few of the bungalows had minor damage. We lost our stairs off the deck. Here's a few pictures of how rough it got.

All other days looked like the image below. It was cloudy and overcast, but very warm and humid. We went scuba diving almost everyday and the water read 89 degrees. At night the water was warmer then the air.

We did meet a few nice couples on the island. So we all arranged to have a wine dinner in their underground wine cellar. It would have been awesome had we not had three unexpected people join the dinner. They arrived late and were a little obnoxious. Anyhow, the general manager was nice and arranged for a courtesy evening cruise for just the two of us on their yacht. It was very nice.

We felt compelled to do the cheesy Titanic pose.

As I mentioned before we stopped through Singapore on the way out. It was a great way to adjust to the time difference and break up the trip. Someone from work arranged for us to met with a friend of the owner. He took us around. I told him that I wanted to eat Durian, a Malaysian local fruit. I had heard about it from my mom's sister who lived their briefly. The only thing I heard was that it was quite pungent, but good. He laughed at me and took me to a local vendor. I tried it...and managed to swallow three bites (didn't want to be rude, afterall, he paid for it). It didn't taste quite as bad as it smelled. And it smelled like dirty feet. It is an acquired taste that some love and some hate. Our guide, Wee-Seeng, didn't care for it. Unfortunately the smell lingers for a while and he had to roll down the windows when we got back in the car. Apparently, it makes him gag. I wish I'd known. Cuz it was not good.

I think may face says it all. At least I can now say that I tried it. Well, that's about it for now. I'll post some more pictures of Singapore later.