Posts Tagged With: cocktails

Phuket time in a week!

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Mel

I am super excited!! This is my first trip to Thailand.

We are flying with Air Asia again after a very positive experience with them once before and have forked out the extra for flat beds. It’s like a business class seat without the business class cost! Unfortunately we have to do a few stop overs which is the downside to traveling from Canberra.

The goal is to do a whole lot of nothing while we are there, which means minimal tours. Boat tours to the islands are also off the table with Bs nasty travel sickness issues. So far I have only booked two things for us to do since the focus will be on relaxation. We are going to:

– spend a day at the Burasari Spa being pampered and spoilt http://spa.burasari.com

– spend a half day at the Elephant 🐘 Retirement Park which is an ethical animal sanctuary https://elephantretirementparkphuket.com

The rest of the time will be spent relaxing at the resort, relaxing on the beach and maybe exploring Patong a little bit. Oh, and enjoying my private balcony spa of course.

Categories: Phuket | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Woohoo, Phuket booked for Jan 2019

Posted on September 10, 2018 by Mel

We are going to Phuket in Jan 2019 just before school goes back! Super excited to have a week of relaxation after the stress that will be family Christmas ❤️

We will be staying in a mood suite at the Burasari Resort which looks something like the pics below. Needless to say, having my own jacuzzi has me ridiculous levels of happy.

Categories: Phuket | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fiji Day 5 – home time tomorrow

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Mel

Today we enjoyed our included breakfast (I’m a bit obsessed with muesli and banana at the moment) and then opted to laze around on the deck in the illicit stolen beanbag and in bed for most of the day.

After lunch at Vulcani Restaurant at the resort….and some pina coladas…..we wandered up to the other end just to see what there was and then continued to laze around because that’s what the last day of holidays is for right?

we watched our final sunset from the private deck and then in the early evening ….with the cover of twilight…..we returned the stolen beanbag to the beach! We had dinner at Tavu Grill on the beach, paid the final bill and arranged an express checkout for early the next morning and packed our bags.

Alarms are set for 4:30am tomorrow (waaaaaah) to begin the journey home. At least we get a breakfast box to go at no charge in the morning. I am excited to see Bear and Jet but sad to leave the relaxation here to return to the go-go-go of real life. Not to mention the frozen nightmare that is Canberra winter – it was -9C at home two days ago! We will definitely be back though – vinaka Fiji 🙂

Categories: Fiji | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fiji Day 4 – lazing around

Posted on July 11, 2018 by Mel

Today consisted of doing this at the resort all day:

Dinner was Fijian BBQ at Sunset Point. We watched the sun go down, ate delicious BBQ and then sat near the open fire enjoying the night time beach vibe. On the way back to the room, a horse chased us….which was kind of exciting / terrifying.

Categories: Fiji | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fiji Day 3: adventures around the western side of the island!

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Mel

Today was a great adventuring day which started very early. We are our complimentary breakfast and then headed out on a half day trip with Valentine’s Tours (booked through Viator). The tour collection for us was at 8am and then we headed to the Sri Siva Subramaniya temple, which is the largest Hindu temple in Nadi. I had to wear a sarong (so did B) and we had to be barefoot, no head coverings and no photos were allowed inside.

After the temple, we went to a tourist store in Nadi (I bought all my Australian school students Fiji pencils) and then on to visit the local fruit and veg market. I loved the COLOURS that we could see there! It all looked so tasty.

From the market, we went to visit a local school where we dropped off some donations of books, pencils, writing paper etc and the kindy kids sung “twinkle twinkle little star” for us. It was a bit cute.

After the school visit it was off to a traditional village named Viseisei (the first official Fijian village, estimated to have been settled over 3500 years ago) where we had a tour and learnt about traditional village life. I found this bit a little uncomfortable…while I respect local customs and culture, it is quite an oppressive society for women to live in. B really enjoyed learning all the history stuff and checking out the chiefs house though.

After the village visit we trekked further out for the Garden of the Sleeping Giant which is basically a formerly private garden owned by a famous TV star (I think it was the guy who played Perry Mason?) and is now a popular tourist attraction with over 2000 orchid species present.

While the sheer range of flowers was cool, I’m not sure if I would have gone there on my own without a tour.

From the gardens we went to my FAVOURITE part of the day trip – the mud bath! Now, I had done a lot of reading for this beforehand so was able to prep B for it so there would be no surprises. If you decide to visit the Sabeto Mud Baths (which we highly recommend!) you need to be prepared that this is owned and operated by villagers. It is not a fancy day spa.

Basically – you follow these steps:

  1. Arrive, pay entry fee if not on a tour (around $20 FJD + another $5 FJD if you need to hire a towel)
  2. Put your bathers on. Even if you’re a bigger lass like me, you will want to go in a bikini or for guys shirtless.
  3. The mud has been collected from near the source pool and is in a bucket. You slather it on.
  4. You wash it off in the mud pool. This was the hardest part for me as I have sensory issues and the pool of the mud bath is sponge like and muddy. I had to mentally prep myself a fair bit beforehand to be able to step in!
  5. You go into the thermal springs and laze around. It’s glorious.
  6. There are 2 men’s showers and 2 women’s but both run cold water. You will want to rinse your bathers out in full (so much mud!!) so bring a change of clothing including undies

From the mud baths we returned to the resort for another quick shower and a change of clothes before taking part in a Sunset Dinner Cruise on Captain Cook Cruises.

The sunset was spectacular and the food, drinks and dancing were also good. Due to the fact our hotel was a fair way out than everyone else’s – we got a private transfer instead of the same bus! Score! Patrick the platypus had a great time on the cruise and drank way too many cocktails.

Categories: Fiji | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Fiji Day 2

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Mel

We went to bed at 8pm last night after 30+ hrs of no sleep. Both of us slept through fairly solidly and woke up at 9:30am to rush off for our included breakfast.

We then nabbed a beanbag right on the beach and from 10am – 2:30pm just….lazed around. We went in the pool, took advantage of the swim up bar, sat in the spa, read books and drank cocktails.

At 2:30pm we headed back to the room to get out of the sun a bit before our sunset beach horse ride. The horse ride was….interesting. Firstly, we ended up with a random 8 yr old kid on the horse ride with us. Alone. Which seemed…somewhat unsafe. It was also not particularly romantic lol. Then, B got the super angry, pregnant horse that kept charging people and got left to control it on his own. THEN it turns out my bad knee means I can’t gat off a horse, even with steps to assist me.

While the sunset view (and unexpected free bubbly!) was nice, I think we can safely say that my first time on a horse will also be my last!! After the horse trauma/experience was over, it was happy hour so I drank two $10 margaritas and felt a lot better about life.

Cocktail count: 2 x fruit daiquiri, 3 x pina colada , 1/2 bottle bubbly, 1 x classic margarita, 1 x pineapple margarita

Today’s lesson: in the world of Mel, riding a horse is like riding a mountain bike…difficult and likely to result in a(nother) broken wrist.

Categories: Fiji | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fiji Day 1

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Mel

We did an overnight flight from Melbourne to Fiji. Not ideal for travelling but not totally awful either. We left Melbourne at 11:50pm AEDT and arrived at 6am Fiji time…so just under a 4hr flight time. While at Melbourne airport I realised I HAD FORGOTTEN MY TRAVEL MASCOT PERCY – again! This time, we bought a tiny ring in, his name is Patrick.

On arrival, we went through customs and then caught a taxi for about 25 mins to the main reception area for Sonaisali Island. We had to catch a tiny boat across the inlet! It was barely 7am, the sun was just coming up and nobody except staff was up at the resort so there was opportunities for amazing photos.

We relaxed on beach chairs and napped for the morning before being allowed to check in three hours early (midday). Our bure is pretty cute. We share a common wall with next door but they are all set up like that and we are right smack bang on the beach in front of where the sun sets. We cuddled up on a beanbag on the beach for awhile in the afternoon before I convinced B to “move” the beanbag on to our deck. I’ve written a pleading note asking them not to take it back lol.

All the beanbag shenanigans was exhausting (and we hadn’t slept for 26hrs) so it was nap time. Then beautiful sunset photo time!! Amazing. I picked the 9 best out of like….63.

Dinner was at the main restaurant at the resort and was traditional Fijian curry. Yum!

Day 1 cocktail count: 2 mudslides, 1 pina colada, 1 fruity dacquiri and 1 Moscow mule

Today’s lesson: max out the duty free coming over on wine and bubbly – the cost here is obscene. A $17 bottle of wine in Aus is $80 here and a bottle of bubbly is literally 4x the price!

Categories: Fiji | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fiji time!!

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Mel

Today was the last day of school for semester one, 2018 and tomorrow we fly to Fiji for a full five nights of glorious relaxation! When we decided to do a relaxation trip I settled on Fiji pretty quickly (only a 3hr flight from Sydney) and immediately started researching for my two main requirements – a swim up bar and an ocean front villa or room. Turns out those are damn hard to find in peak season! I also initially had “childfree” as a main requirement but all the strictly adults only places needed another flight from the domestic airport so B vetoed them this time around and we just aimed for a smaller resort without a huge kids club to attract families. I’ll come back to you another time LikuLiku Lagoon Resort.

We are staying at the Doubletree Resort by Hilton which is on Sonaisali Island. It’s very close to the main island and is only a 25 min taxi ride from the international airport with a 2 min boat ride across the inlet.

We have booked to stay in a King Premium Ocean Bure (hut) facing onto the beach. The pricing was exceptionally good (this whole trip is cheaper than what it cost us to go on what we politely refer to as “the Perth trip from hell” in 2016) and the inside of the bure looks amazing!

We have one short day trip planned to visit the mud baths and the garden of the sleeping giants but other than that it’s basically all about relaxing together, drinking fruity drinks with umbrellas in them and frolicking in the water while Canberra freezes through -5C temps. Here are some photos of my recent suffering – working on a farm school site requires multiple layers, thermals, a beanie and good gloves at the moment!!

The doggos (yes – note the plural! We have formally adopted Jet as of two days ago) will have a family of pet sitters coming to stay – highly recommend Emma Lily Grace Services in Canberra – and the big babies won’t even miss us a tiny bit while they have kids to dote on them and give them all the pats they want.

Fiji, here we come!! 🏝 🍸 🍹 🏖 😎

Categories: Fiji | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sydney weekend drive: Day 1

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Mel

This weekend we drove to Sydney for the first time. Usually we fly as we are staying in the city centre (hotels) and a car is not much use + expensive to park. This time we are staying out in Olympic Park as we are going to see the Foo Fighters tomorrow night! Eeeeee!!

Canberra to Sydney is about a 3hr 15min drive down a dual carriageway. It’s not a hard drive but it’s booooooring. We stopped in Moss Vale (the halfway point) for a very tasty and cheerful lunch at Bernie’s Diner.

As we are staying in Olympic Park, we opted to go for an apartment booked through Stayz.com instead of the hotels nearby. The apartment we are in is one of the “Australia Tower” ones and it’s about halfway up the 25 storey building with a very nice view of ANZ Stadium and Homebush.

After arriving, we wandered over to Cathy Freeman Park (5 min walk) and had a look at the olympic cauldron from the 2000 games, then had dinner and cocktails at Mexica Bar. We returned to the apartment and settled in to wait for fireworks. Unfortunately our view wasn’t great but we still saw a bit!

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Moreton Island Bridesmaids Cruise: Day 5 massages, relaxing and official hens night!

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Mel

Today started with two of us having a “pamper package” at the day spa while the other two slept in. We then swapped places after lunch with the other two getting “spa-d” while the morning two had a nap. The day spa package was excellent value considering the usual extortionate pricing – $129 each for two focus massages, a facial, a foot spa and other small things as well.

Lunch today was at Salt Grill which was impossible to get into for dinner, but easy to book for lunch! The cover charge was also slightly less for a lunch booking. The food was amazing!! Lana was happy we finally got a decent dessert 🙂

We had originally booked in to a 3:30pm cocktail mixing class but after some more stuff ups on P&Os end (they changed the time and only booked 3 of us in) I cancelled it. Instead we went to a dance class!!

Dinner was relatively early again (so many people booked it out on day one which was probably why everyone was late to the evacuation drill) but because we had enjoyed an early lunch it was all good. The Dragon Lady is another included meal – this time Asian fusion style and definitely had better service than the Waterfront. We all gave the food a thumbs up.

Tomorrow’s disembarkation starts at 7:30am. Our time slot is 9:25am so we have to be out of the room by 7:45am and head off to eat breakfast and waste some time. This means we planned not to have a big one tonight….in theory…..and then it turned out to be my “official” hens celebration.

We participated in a music suggestion class, a salsa dance class, had dinner at Dragon Lady, watched a musical performance, watched an R rated comedian AND danced to some live music….and still made it to bed just before midnight!!

What a fabulous cruise this has been ❤️

Categories: Moreton Island Cruise | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.