Bangkok and Bali

I have been very slack in posting pictures, it has been a hectic summer.  We have been on many trips and I will try to catch up over the next couple of weeks.  Here are pictures from our trips to Bangkok and Bali. 

This was taken at the royal palace in Bangkok.  It is a mixture of temples and buildings built by different kings over many years which explains all of the different architectural styles.  What is so interesting is that they are all hand built and many have 1 inch mosiac tiles covering the entire building.  It is really beautiful.

The city is full of temples and royal buildings. 

We went to a street market which was filled with flowers, fruits, and vegetables so I was shocked when I found them selling cockroaches.  We asked why they were selling these and were told they use the cockroaches to make the chili paste.  I really am rethinking if I like Thai food.

We took a river cruise and got a glimpse of how people in Bangkok live.

This is the beach in Bali.  I have decided that Bali is my favorite place to travel in Asia.  The water was beautiful and it is very artistic.

Outside our hotel in Bali.

The hotel grounds were beautiful and so serene.

Miranda had on her list to ride elephants in Asia so of course we did it!

I think she can mark this off of her list. 

It was really fun and much better than I expected.

How cute is this???

 

This is how I always pictured Bali and it certainly has many areas like this.  I found it was so much more.  I wanted to spend more time there but we only had a 3 day weekend.  Bali had so many more places I wanted to explore.  I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to travel this far.  It is the top of my list...for now.

Sibu Island

Since we had a three day weekend for the Easter holiday we took a trip to Sibu Island, Malaysia.  It is about a three hour trip from Singapore.  We hired a driver who drove us to a jetty then we boarded a speed boat to the resort.  Since we left after work on Thursday it was dark when we boarded the boat.  It was one of the most beautiful boat rides I have ever been on.  The moon was almost full, there were hundreds of stars and as the boat cut through the water it looked like fireflieswere in the water.  It was bioluminescence.  I have never seen anything like it before and it was incredible.

The view from the resort bar area.

Our room

Room

I saw this funny looking structure on the water and asked the boat driver what it was.  He explained that it is a fish farm. We saw many fish farms in Vietnam but they were much smaller and not in the middle of the ocean. It looked like a storm would blow it over.

This island was one of the islands we dived (this is the correct tense for dive when referring to scuba) around.

Me diving in my new gear.

This was my favorite picture from the trip.  I use to have a salt water tank and loved having clown fish.  I was thrilled to see bunches of them this weekend.

 

I thought this coral was really different and cool.

We saw some really cool fish.  We even saw a sea turtle that was about 2 feet across.  It swam so fast we did not get a picture but we got a good look at it as it swam right in front of me.

At times we would look up the entire area would be full of fish.

Another one of my favorite pictures!

There were really vividly colored corals and anemones.

And if all of that were not enough, this was the what we saw as we surfaced from our dive. 

So once again another exciting weekend in southern Asia.  Miranda will be here in two more weeks and we have some really fun trips planned. 

Open Water Diving

Sorry for the lack of updates...you know how it is life gets in the way of things sometimes!  Anyway, since this year is suppose to be about adventure I have found something that is truly adventurous!  We decided to get our scuba certification.  Let me rephrase that, Greg decided that we should get our scuba certification and I declined.  I was having no part of being shark bait. That was until my BFF, who tells me the truth instead of what I want to hear, reminded me that living is about stepping outside of our comfort zones and experiencing new things.  This along with Miranda getting her certification peer pressured me into this adventure.  I am now certified and am really glad I did it.  This statement comes with only 5 dives under my belt with ZERO shark sightings so we will see...  I miss everyone and hope you enjoy the pictures. 

We had 11 people go to Tioman including us. 

This is more of the group.  It is nice to have good friends to share the adventures.

Greg before we went out for the first time.  Please note the smile because later in the day none of us were smiling.  We arrived at the resort at 3AM and had to get up to dive at 9.  The waves were coming over the side of the boat.

I used the term resort loosely when referring to where we stayed!

Greg entering for his first dive.

This is my first dive also.

During the training dives we had to hold onto a rope so none of us got lost.  The visibility the first day was very low, I think about 5 meters. 

This was on our second or third dive but we were still training.

How sweet...

We were shown this later by one of the instructors as something we "saw".  Apparently I saw things that I did not even realize!

Of course, this is my favorite.  I had a salt water tank years ago and had clown fish.  Seeing these fish made my entire day on Sunday and the weekend worth it.  They were amazing.

Then again maybe the sunset on the beach made it all come together.   It is hard to have words to describe the way the sunset makes me feel especially after such an incredible day. 

Phuket, Thailand

We traveled to Phuket, Thailand.  This is where the tsunami hit in 2004.  We found it to be beautiful.  The resort is possibly the nicest place we have ever stayed.  The entire property smelled of fresh flowers everywhere we walked.  After reviewing the pictures we do not think they capture how nice it was there.  Some of the water looks dirty in the pictures but at the property it did not look that way. 

This was the view walking from our room to the pool.

One of the pools at the resort.

This was a pond on a walking path at the resort.

This picture of the little girl clamming with her family is one of my favorites.  It was so cute to see her digging for clams.

The beach at the resort.

I wanted to capture the incredible landscaping and attention to detail at the pool.

This was the view from our balcony.

I could not resist taking a picture of the lobby.  If I ever have a pool house I want to have these beds.  There were bunches of beds all over the lobby.  We had drinks laying in an outdoor bed at the bar. 

This is the view from the lobby overlooking a water feature that looks out to the beach.

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us worrying about the tsunami.  We are fine here in Singapore.  Luckily Singapore is in a good spot.  Hopefully it will stay that way!