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After a late night yesterday, we slept in till almost 10.30am. This was, after all, our last day at Banyan Tree…and we were determined to enjoy it to the max! We took a leisurely stroll down to the Banyan Tree Gallery to purchase some souveniers, and then to Treetops for brunch.

A candid shot of me taken by hubby…

Everything on the menu looked extremely appetizing…I ended up ordering the Nasi Goreng (non-spicy, please!) and hubby had the beef burger and oxtail soup. I almost fainted when they brought over our orders…it was HUGE!! Amazingly enough, they really managed to get my Nasi Goreng just right…ie…totally non-spicy, with no pepper to boot! And it was soooo good. It came with prawn crackers, chicken/beef/prawn satay and a grilled quail and a sunny-side-up egg on top…but the rice was the one that I kept waxing lyrical about throughout the whole lunch. It was abit moist, with bits of prawns and vege inside, just a tad bit salty…oh-so-very-very-good. Hubby gave thumbs up to his soup and burger too.

One of the best fried rice I’ve ever had!

Beef burger…”gwailo” size!

After lunch, we proceeded back to our room to finish packing…or rather, I packed. Hmpph. We’d been given a late check-out at 1pm since our ferry departs at 2.30pm (another brownie point to the resort customer service!)…we were done by 12.45pm and took a buggy up to the reception area to check-out. Checking out was as effortless as checking in, and we waited in the air-conditioned library for the minivan to bring us to the ferry terminal.

Playing with my camera while waiting in the library…

Oh..and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that express check-in at the ferry terminal (inclusive of use of the so-called VIP lounge) was already included in our package! Lucky thing too, cause the queue at the immigration counter was so long…but all we had to do was to pass our passports to the representative at the ferry terminal and wait in the lounge (free drinks too!) till it was time to board. I could get used to this…*grin*

And since the ferry crossing over to Bintan was so extremely horrible, this time, we bought a packet of motion-sickness pills and popped one half-an-hour before boarding the ferry. Looks like it worked, cause this time, we manage to take a short nap and didn’t feel the effects of the ship bumping up and down in the turbulent waters.

Thank god for these pills!!

One hour later, we were back at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, and after a quick stop at the immigration counter (and a long wait for our luggage), we were speeding off in a cab towards The Scarlet, the hotel we will be staying in at Singapore.

The hotel reception area really lived up to it’s name of ‘Scarlet’, it was decorated in all blacks and reds…very drama…I like! We were brought through a maze of rooms to finally reach a lift to bring us to our room on the third floor. While the room was small, it was tastefully decorated…the silk curtains and the use of velvet made it look extremely opulent. Even the bedroom slippers were extra soft and comfy! Thanks a million to mvo for helping us to get a room (it was fully booked due to the Aerospace Convention)!!

The bed…

…bathroom…

…and little bottles from Flair

After our luggages were brought up, we quickly changed and headed out to Funan IT Centre, hubby’s favourite Singapore hangout place…hehe…=) We made a quick stop at Flair, one of the shops along Erskine Road, before taking a long long looooong walk all the way to Funan. Luckily, the weather was really good…nice and windy. We reached Funan about 30 minutes later, and first stop…Jollibean! for my favourite peanut and red bean pancake, and a cup of soya bean milk. Ahhh…

We spent about an hour there…hubby was searching for new PSP games and trying to get me to buy more iPod accessories (no! no! no! I shall resist!). From Funan, we took a cab to Robinson’s Walk…mvo’d recommended a pattiserie there called Canele, and since we didn’t manage to try it out during our last trip to Singapore, I was determined that we would go there this time. The cafe was quite small, and most of the tables were already taken, luckily, there was still one empty one left. As they serve ice-cream on Thursdays till Saturdays, I decided to try the L’amour, while hubby went for the Macha ice-cream. The counter was covered with delicious looking cakes and huge rose and violet meringues. Hubby ordered a Strawberry Shortcake and we quickly polished it off while waiting for the ice-cream.

My L’amour was just as good as mvo described it…it’s rose petal ice cream, and it came with a rose macaron, three rose meringue sticks, lychee and raspberry….sweet and tart at the same time! Very good! I didn’t really like hubby’s Macha though, I felt it was abit too sweet. I wanted to buy some macarons back for mvo, but there were very little left…=(

Strawberry Shortcake

L’amour

Hubby’s Macha ice-cream with chestnut cream, chunky candied chestnuts and almond crumble

Super huge rose meringues!

From Canele, we took a leisurely walk to Clark Quay and spent about one hour walking along the riverside (and watching the reverse bungee ride) before taking a cab back to the hotel. From Erskine Road, we took a short walk to Smith Street where we were greeted with a long row of hawker stalls….mmm….! I had a bowl of Sarawak Kolo Mee while hubby ordered grilled stingray and sausages. We didn’t manage to try Ah Baling’s Peanut Soup though….maybe tomorrow night!!

Smith Street at night

The rest of the night was spent watching telly on the comfy bed before I drifted off the sleep halfway through American Idol 5….zzzz….

Day 2 dawned bright and early…and I really meant early…I was wide awake by 7.30am, a rare occurance, let me assure you! I left hubby dozing in bed while I took my shower and changed, before bugging him to get up, get up! We left our room at about 8.30am, and took the now familiar route to Treetops restaurant for breakfast. We were given a table at the verandah…it was just lovely to hear the sound of the sea below, feel the light breeze and smell the scent of bread and eggs in the air! While the spread for the buffet breakfast wasn’t huge, the food was really good…and they even had champagne for drinks…how decadent!

Left to right, top to bottom: Ham, freshly baked bread, muffin, peanut butter, chocolate spread…all belonging to hubby; Waffles, sausages, French toast, bacon…all belonging to hubby too!; A small modest plate for yours truly…hehe…; Poached Eggs on Brioche…yummy!

As part of the breakfast, we were given a choice of eggs…hubby went for the Farmer’s Omelette, while I chose the Poached Eggs on Brioche with Hollandaise sauce…yummy! We filled our plates with bread, pork bacon (yes, pork bacon), sausages, pancakes, waffles, French toast…and proceeded to stuff ourselves silly…*grin*. I don’t know if it was the fresh air, the good night’s sleep or…but everything tasted so good. I particularly liked the French toast which was crispy on the outside with a sprinkling of sugar and maple syrup. And they had the loveliest homemade pineapple jam!

After breakfast, we took a walk around the resort and took more photos. By the time we were done, the sun was shining brightly, so we decided to return to the room, change and head out to the shady swimming pool. As soon as we arrived, two bottles of ice cold water was brought over, together with cold towels, insect repellent and a small bottle of face-mist…talk about good service! I ended up dozing off on the lounge chair for a good half an hour while hubby read the day’s newspaper…the sound of the waves was so hypnotic. When I awoke, we decided to finally go into the pool….but as soon as I put one foot in, I squealed and ran back to the lounge chair…the water was icy cold despite the hot weather!! Unbelieveable. Anyways, my butt remained firmly glued to the lounge chair despite hubby’s protests that the water isn’t that cold. Hmpph. He isn’t the one that has just recovered from fever, flu and whatnot! I watched hubby swim for awhile before he finally came out (I bet he was feeling cold…haha….), and we headed back to the room straight into the oh-so-warm jacuzzi. Bliss…

Lunch was at The Cove, a Mediterranean restaurant situated below Saffron. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. While the bread basket came with a delicious tasting tuna mayonnaise, my basil pesto pasta was so bland! Hubby ordered the Calzone with ham which he said tasted really nice…so I managed to salvage part of my lunch by stealing some of hubby’s parma ham…*grin* When the waiter asked about our meal, I made a comment about how bland the pasta tasted…guess what? It was removed from our bill! What a surprise!

Left to right, top to bottom: Bread basket; Rocket Salad with Prawns, Mussels and Squid; Basil Pesto Pasta; Calzone

After lunch, we ended up taking some photos at the beach before going back to the villa for a short nap (we’re turning out to be such piggies …hehe…)…

Hubby’s great find…

Quick, quick…I’m melting!!

Woke up at 3.45pm and walked down to the Banyan Tree Spa for our massage. After a short wait at the reception area where we were served cold ginger tea, we were taken to the massage room. There, we got a quick foot bath before we changed and settled down for a 30-minute scrub (I opted for the Kaffir Lime scrub while hubby went for the Kemiri Nut Purifier) and a one hour massage (Lomi-Lomi for me, Balinese for him). As usual, I could feel my whole body relax as they pounded and kneaded the tension from my back and shoulders…ahhh! After our session ended, we were served lemongrass tea and fresh fruits and vege sticks…just the thing to fill my tummy (obviously, lunch was not enough!) before dinner.

We’d ordered the In-Villa BBQ for dinner and at 7.45pm, our doorbell rang, and there stood the friendly staff with three huge baskets in tow. Within 15 minutes, he’d set up an electronic grill, covered our table with plates and plates of food and shown us how to BBQ the seafood and meat…efficient! Hubby also got a small complimentary birthday cake!! Dinner was scrumptious, although I think we only managed to finish only three quarters of the food. We chose the Rume Thai set which consisted of Spicy Grilled Beef Salad, Seafood Salad, Tom Yum Goong (hot and sour shrimp soup), Lamb Chops, Lobster, Tiger Prawn Skewers, Seafood Kebab, Beef Medallions, Thai style wok-fried rice noodles with shrimps and chicken, Fried Rice with Crab Meat, Mango Sticky Rice with Santan (coconut sauce) and a selection of fresh tropical fruits. Feeling full just reading the menu? Imagine how stuffed we were!! The prawns and lobsters were extremely fresh, and hubby loved the lamb cutlet and beef…we just ate and ate and ate…

Top to bottom, left to right: The Banyan Tree staff preparing our table; Fully laden with food food food!; Four types of chilli sauce and one big bowl of peanut sauce; the seafood grilling away; lamb cutlets and beef medallions marinated in coriander and lime; Fresh rolls; Seafood Salad; Beef Salad and Tom Yum Goong; Fried Rice and Thai Fried Noodles; fruits are always good for you!

The cook at work!

The rest of the night was spent watching telly…and moaning and groaning from the heavy dinner…=)

Oh…and of course, I sang happy birthday while hubby blew out the candles on his birthday cake…

The Bad: Our external hard disk crashed this morning. All our photos are in there.
The Good: Hubby did a one time backup for all our photos prior to Sept 2005. I was on the brink of deleting all the photos we took from Sept 2005 onwards from my iBook today. But I didn’t.

The Bad: I ordered my favourite spaghetti from Cafe 1920 for dinner. They put Parmesan cheese in it. They never put Parmesan cheese in it before. I loathe Parmesan cheese. I took three bites and promptly felt like puking.
The Good: Now I have space for cupcakes from Marmalade Pantry.

The Bad: I tried on a pair of sunglasses from Gucci’s latest collection at Changi Airport yesterday (deep rose/purple in colour with the horsebit detail at the sides). They cost about SGD360.
The Good: I found the same pair today at The Spec Shop at Sri Hartamas. It’d just arrived and it was the only pair in the shop. And I got a 50% discount on the displayed price, making the price significantly lower than SGD360.

The Bad: I’d been eyeing the Mighty Mouse since it was launched. I never bought it because it’s so freaking expensive, both in Singapore and Malaysia.
The Good: Hubby bought it for me today as a surprise pressie when he went to Low Yat to try to salvage our hard drive…*muaks*

The Bad: Back to work tomorrow.
The Good: …..?!?!?

Well, you can’t expect a silver lining on every cloud…

After six days of being sick, I was really looking forward to this 5-day long vacation with hubby! The one day I spent back at the office ended up with me having a splitting headache at the end of the day…=(…so I was estatic when the clock showed 6pm on Monday evening…*grin*

Day 1 began in a flurry of activities in the morning as we were rushing to finish packing and be ready to leave by 7.45am! The cab came on time, and soon, we were off to KLIA. We reached two hours before our 10.20am flight, and thanks to Singapore Airlines’s convenient Internet ticketing and check-in (yes, you can check-in via Internet, the downside is that you can’t choose the seats in the plane!), checking-in our luggages at the counter was fast and easy. We headed over to MacDs for breakfast before leisurely making our way to the satellite terminal to board the plane. The flight was half full, and we managed to get some shut-eye during the short flight.

Breakfast at McDs

Filling up the Singapore disembarkation form

We reached Singapore at 11.20am, and had about an hour to kill before heading to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

Touchdown at Changi Airport!

After passing through immigration and collecting our luggage, we decided to have lunch at Changi just incase the ferry terminal had no food…wandered around for awhile and finally ended up at….

Hubby ordered all sorts of weird stuff, including his favourite baby octopus (aliens!!!), while I went for my firm favourites…Soft Shell Crab Temaki, California Temaki, Ebi Tempura Temaki and Inari…yumyum! With our tummies filled, we caught a cab (not before witnessing a lost woman arguing with the airport staff on where she *thinks* her car is parked…it was so ironic…she’s lost and asking for directions yet she was insisting that the directions were wrong!) to the ferry terminal. From the map, it looked really close, but the whole journey took a good 45 minutes from Changi, partly due to the tight security surrounding the Aerospace Convention…all cars had to go through a thorough police check…they even checked our luggage. We finally reached the ferry terminal, just in time to collect the tickets (I’d already booked and paid for them online), check in our luggage, and enter the boarding area. We had to go through the immigration again…I remarked to hubby that this must be our shortest stay in Singapore, ever! =)

Our ferry tickets

We didn’t have to wait long before we were asked to board the ferry. Little did we know…that’s when our nightmarish journey would begin! For a boat that size, we thought that the crossing from Singapore to Bintan would be smooth sailing. Instead, the whole journey was so bumpy that I swear I literally turned green in the face…all I could do was to close my eyes and try to sleep, while hubby was trying to distract himself with his PSP.

Entrance to hell…

…and hell itself!

The journey took one hour, and it was horrible (am not looking forward to the return journey!)…I heard two people puking…the sound itself was enough to make me wanna puke too…ugh!

Yours truly looking decidedly pukey and green…

I was so glad to be on solid land again, even though my head was still swimming from the journey. A representative from Banyan Tree was already waiting for us at the jetty, and going through the Indonesian immigration was a breeze cause it was all handled by the Banyan Tree staff. Soon, we were in an air-conditioned car, speeding off to the resort, which is located a mere 10 minutes away from the ferry terminal. The CD player in the car was already playing spa-like music…and we could feel the memory of the ferry journey fading away….phew!

When the car pulled up to the reception area, one of the staff hit a gong that was right at the entrance (probably to indicate our arrival?!?), and we were ushered to the lobby for check-in. Ice-cold (and I really mean ice-cold) towels were brought over and we were given a glass of young ginger and lime drink…very refreshing in the hot weather.

Cool and refreshing drinks…ahh…

Check-in was fast, and the best part was that we were given an upgrade from the Seaview Villa that I’d booked to a Seafront Villa (the difference lies in the price and location…the Seaview Villa is perched further back from the ocean, while the Seafront is…well, in front of the sea…) on the occasion that it was hubby’s birthday! Now, that’s customer service (and as hubby whispered in my ear…at least it’s worth suffering the ferry journey over to the island…*grin*)!! The staff explained to us the layout of the resort, and soon, we were on the buggy speeding away to our room for the next three days.

The first sight that greeted us when we arrived at room 108 were small stone steps leading down to a private wooden gate and high walls. Stepping through the gates let us into a small private garden, and the front door. The door opened to a corridor with the vanity room on the right, and the bathroom on the left (with a sunken bath…woohoo!), and to the main room which was dominated by a four poster bed smack right in the middle. To the left were bay windows with cushioned seats, while the right wall housed the writing desk (which is where I am, right now) overlooking lush greeneary.

Room 108…our private hideaway!

Woohoo! Private jacuzzi!!

Right in front of the bed was a sliding door that opened up to a verandah, and an open-air jacuzzi that overlooks the blue blue sea…imagine all sorts of naughty stuff you could get up to here…*winkwink*. Bliss!

We spent the first half hour taking photos of literally everything in the room…haha…I know, I know…so jakun…*grin*. After that, we took a short rest before changing and taking a short walk over to the Banyan Tree Spa to make reservations for a massage tomorrow.

Banyan Tree Spa

The Treetops restaurant and swimming pool was located at the same area, so we spent some time there taking photos. The pool looked really inviting as it was surrounded by tall trees and was pretty shady.

Cool and inviting

After lazing around for awhile, we took a bath and changed for dinner at Saffron, a Thai-Asian-fusion restaurant located at the other end of the resort. We called for a buggy, and a few minutes later, we were speeding away to the ‘Rocks’ area. As we were early, we took a short walk down to the beach and the adjoining Angsana Spa resort, and of course…more photos…=)

At 6.30pm, we made our way back to Saffron where we were greeted by the friendly waitress. I was given an orchid to place in my hair before we were led to our table and given the menu.

Us @ Saffron

Hubby deliberated for awhile before finally settling on their 9-course degustation menu

From right to left, top to bottom….

Spiced Red Capsicum Jelly with steamed Sea Scallop and Roasted Bell Pepper Salsa…Salpicon of Venison Fillet in Feuilletage Ginger Orange Reduction, Enoki and dried Cranberry Chutney…Double Consomme of Sun blushed Tomatoes with Silken Tofu, Dry Wakame and French Vermouth…Escalope of Arctic Salmon poached in Sauternes with Wasabi Butter, Truffle Oil flavored Pumpkin Mousse and Tomato confit…Fresh Ravioli filled with Marinated Stone Crab Meat in Kaffir Lime Emulsion, crispy Nori Leafs and Tobiko…Grilled Tiger Prawns marinated in Tangerine-Lime Mojo, Warm Snow Peas Salad in Mint Vinaigrette with Sesame Oil…Fragrant Rose Petal Sherbet with Chili Flakes…Seared Beef Fillet Medallion with Foie Gras Mousse on herb Risotto Galette, Porcini and Shitake Mushrooms in Soy-Balsamic Glaze and Caramelized Carrot Slivers…â??Ã?úBanana Trioâ??Ã?ù: Carameliezed Banana Bavaroise, Bourbon Vanilla Spiced Bananas, Homemade Banana Ice Cream flavored with Coconut Liquor

…while I went for the…

Stone Crab Salad with citrus, coriander and lemon grass,orange-mint dressing and toasted brioche

and…

Broiled Sulawesi lobster in lemon grass cream, oyster mushroom, asparagus and saffron rice

Suffice to say, the food was superb…everything tasted wonderful, though my favourite was definitely hubby’s dessert!

Back at the villa, we watched some telly, and I soon drifted off to sleep to the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks below…and hubby’s PSP game…grrr….

PS: Photos will be up soon at Photoblogum.

Yes, people…I’m back in KL. With tons and tons of photos, tummy filled with good food, cupcakes from Marmalade Pantry…and one brand new Gucci wallet…*grin*

Updates and photos soon. Sleep, NOW.