Phuket trip Apr'14 - Flight & accomodation

Flight
JetStar sale tickets $448 for 2, departs on Fri 18 Apr 8.20am & returning on 20 Apr 10pm. Flight landed puncutally but immigration at Phuket airport took an hour to clear (can you believe it??). We did not encounter any delays for our departing flight on 20 Apr :)

Resort
Location - Booked a 2N stay (THB12,000 ~S$500) in Club Vista room at the luxurious Avista Hideaway Resort & Spa, located up the hill (exact location is Tri Trang Beach) from Patong Beach. Location of this resort is not most convenient, the tour guide which brought us round the city on Day 2 joked that this is Avista Faraway. Also, when looking for transport back to resort from the weekend market, taxi quoted us THB700 (~ S$28) again because of location. Transportation back to Patong Beach would probably at best only cost round THB500 (~ S$20).

I picked this resort as I wanted peace & tranquility considering we were visiting during the Easter long weekend, I would expect Patong Beach to be packed with tourists & parties late into the night. And this resort only opened its doors in 2012, everything is new which is something I really like. Pardon the cleanliness freak in me but I would hate to imagine head lice crawling on used pillows and bedsheets!

Day 1 of our trip - When we arrived at the resort on Day 1, it was approximately 12pm local time. Once you step into the main reception area, you can't help but be blown away by the lovely scenery. Being immersed in such lush greenery all around the resort, the unblocked view is simply breathtaking. Official check-in was at 2pm but fortunately the staff was accommodating enough to allow us to check-in ahead of 2pm, we waited approximately 20mins for the staff to prepare our room. We eagerly explored the resort & snapped many pictures while sipping on the welcome drinks.

The walk from reception desk to our room requires a fair bit of navigation but nothing too mind boggling :) I was pretty disappointed to find out that none of the rooms have a sea-view because of the orientation of the resort. To my dismay, our room 902 faces barren lands, probably pending construction works to be done. Looking down from the balcony you would see the Club Vista pool :) The room is spacious & the lightings create a warm & cosy ambience, perfect for relaxation!

Right after we checked into our room, we crashed & took a nap & only got up in the afternoon to catch the hotel shuttle to Jungceylon. Our hungry tummies settled upon Urban Food for lunch, food was nothing to shout about & prices were comparable to Singapore X_x.

After lunch we strolled around Patong area before our cooking class at 4pm.

Breakfast - Our room reservations included buffet breakfast served at Vista - The Restaurant every morning, food variety is not too shabby! I certainly enjoyed my sumptuous breakfast for the 2 consecutive mornings, in particular the high ceilings & surrounding greenery makes you feel very refreshed & recharged each morning.

Swimming Pools - The Avista Hideaway has 3 pools - (1) the main pool which is right in front of Vista. (2) The Club Vista is a private pool located right beneath my block of rooms. This is an adult-only pool so for those who want to escape from the screaming kids, this is the pool to go to. (3) The riverside pool, right beneath the main reception area.

Day 3 of our trip - Got up for breakfast before heading to the pool, frolicking in the water & sipping our drinks (Mango ice-blended & Mojito for THB320) by the pool is quite an indulgence! Our return flight was at 10pm & the hotel has kindly extended late check-out at 4pm. We arranged for transport to pick us up at 4pm. Based on my interactions & experiences with local Singapore hotels, none of which has ever offered such late check-out timings. Maybe partly because I am a local doing a staycation, not a tourist waiting to catch a flight.

To sum it up, I am very glad to have booked my stay with Avista. The resort was simply amazing!

BFF's belated birthday at Selfish Gene Cafe

Yet another place serving whole-day breakfast but the food was nothing to shout about. Managed to get seats without queue, a plus point if you are looking for a place to settle your whole-day breakfast craving.

Celebrated the bff's birthday, their chocolate cake is so thick & tasty but even the 2 of us didn't manage to finish it.

We had :
Breakfast Plate
The Valerie
Chocolate Cake

Bruno Mars - The Moonshine Jungle Tour

In Dec'13 I bought the tickets to Bruno's concert in Mar'14. Ever since I got the tickets, I have been counting down. MY 1st time watching a live concert, hell yeah!

Finally finally FINALLY, the day arrived. We got to Kallang Leisure Park for dinner & not surprisingly, the eating places in the mall was fully packed. Long queue for Thai Express, long queue for Subway, long queue everywhere. We ended up at the food court & only got ourselves seats after a long wait. Lesson learnt - prolly should have had dinner near office before heading down.

After dinner we proceeded to the Indoor Stadium, eagerly looking forward to 8pm for the show to start. However, the show only started at 8.30pm. Lesson learnt - concerts do not start on time. Nonetheless, Bruno, the man himself, did not disappoint. He simply sounds amazing singing live, fantastic mind-blowing vocals! The energy levels in the audience was at 101%! I was just so so SO GLAD that I got the tickets to his concerts.

I was screaming my lungs out to every single song #superteenagefangirl. When he sang the ballad "When I was your man" I literally melted, loveloveloveloveLOVEEEE BRUNO! After all the clapping, booty-shaking & jumping & swinging arms to songs, I was covered in sweat as though I did some sort of aerobics class.The air-conditioning in the Indoor Stadium wasn't that strong, lesson learnt - should have worn shorts & comfy top.

Concert ended punctually at 10pm & I certainly did not have enough, unfortunately there wasn't any encore performance :( My 1st experience at a live concert had certainly blown my mind away, Bruno was honestly a power-packed singer! Am sure looking forward to seeing him again

Redken Curvaceous Shampoo & Conditioner

Ever since I finished my bottle of L'oreal shampoo, I started using Redken Curvaceous. Bought a bottle of shampoo (300ml) & conditioner (250ml) from Beauty Language. Each bottle costs $17.90, considerably more expensive than L'oreal. Both shampoo & conditioner has a thick white consistency with a lovely fragrance. To my delight, the shampoo when used alone, does not leave hair feeling dry & coarse. But when used alongside the conditioner, the results are even more fantastic, your curls will feel all refreshed & bouncy again.

Also I would like to add (albeit randomly) that having curls also means that I get to switch around various brands each time one product finishes! It is very exciting to try out different products to see how each can help to nourish my curls :)

Banquet service - how a little goes a long way

In one of the weekends in March, I had the good fortune of attending 2 weddings consecutively - Sat night at Orchard hotel & Sun night at Fairmont hotel. Off my head I had formed the mental impression that Fairmont would be the one scoring higher in terms of service levels & food quality. Boy oh boy, I was in for such a surprise.

At Orchard hotel, the staff who served our table was a young student working part-time. I was very impressed at his attention to detail, it was apparent in how he set out the bowls & carefully placing down the porcelain spoons without creating the irritating clink-clank noise from the spoon knocking onto the bowl. Right down to the changing of fresh plates, the staff moved swiftly. The service levels were impeccable to say the least. To add onto the excellent experience, the seafood was fresh & portions were so generous!

On Sun night at Fairmont, each guest had 4 glasses of beverage - a cup of Chinese tea, a glass of iced water, a glass of wine & lastly, a glass of soft drink. Thank you for pampering me with so many choices but is this really necessary? With a table of 10 guests, you can just imagine how terribly cramped the table was. The staff faced tremendous difficulty when placing down & removing the dishes, not forgetting how heavy the humongous plates & bowls were.

Each time a staff places down a dish we literally have to hold our breaths, hoping that the banquet staff does not smash any fine china or spill any drinks. The table adjacent to us, the banquet staff has knocked down a drink & it was most unfortunate that the drink ended up soiling the dress of a guest. At my table, the staff while serving the dish had accidentally dipped his sleeve into my friend's cup of tea which he offered to replace afterwards. The overall impression of this dinner at Fairmont was how inexperienced & clumsy the banquet staff were.

Weekend Brunch at Lola's Cafe

Together with the bestie, we traveled to Kovan for brunch at Lola's. Imagine how loudly my famished stomach groaned when the waiter told us it was a one hour wait for table. Since there weren't shopping available nearby, we spent our time waiting for our seats at the cafe :(

Fortunately, there were no takers for outdoor seat hence we were seated after an half hour wait whoopee! The food was great, I'd say the quality of the food was worth the long queue time, thank god! If you do not mind queueing, Lola's is definitely a place worth going. What can I say, my girlfriend is just too awesome for discovering such wonderful brunch places!

While we were eating, the other customers who arrived at the restaurant were told that the wait was more than 1 hour & possibly as long as 2 hours, goodness gracious!

What we had -
Honey Paprika Crispy Wings (wanted to add that I normally do not eat chicken wings with the exception of KFC because I am to darn lazy to get my hands oily. But the wings here are hot & juicy. This is probably one of the rare times where I eagerly dug my fingers in for more!)
Monty Big Breakfast
Avocado Eggs Benedict
Marigold Round Fruit Tea
Strawberry Fruit Tea

Thursday night at Switch, by Timbre

We've been talking about having Duck Pizza for the longest time & finally Thursday night after work found us at Switch. Thursdays just gives us so much reason to be happy, primarily because the weekends is just a day away. Having my hands on chicken wings, munching on pizza & savouring fried mantou dipped in chilli crab sauce was definitely a splendid way of spending my Thursday evening.

The bulk of the crowd were youngsters, presumably students from the school nearby so I did feel OLD. Nonetheless, the food was great, especially the pizza & seafood with mantou. Both were very oriental dishes. The live band came on at 9pm but the sound system was not working well & the band didn't have great interaction with the audience, for the most part, they were cracking lame jokes among themselves. 

Buffalo Wings
Seafood in Chilli Crab Sauce
Roasted Duck Pizza