Relaxing Sunday!! ^.^

What a great way to end the weekend than to relax at an hotel.. As another gift to my parents for their silver wedding, my sister & I offered them a 2 nights stay at VerandaPointe aux Biches, a 3* Hotel located a few kilometres from Grand Bay in Mauritius.

So they checked-in the resort on Friday and Sunday was their last day there. My sister & I joined them at the hotel on Sunday morning and we spent the day there relaxing before everyone head back home.

It was such a nice day even though in the afternoon the weather started to be cloudy and then later rainy (Winter weather sucks).. Anyway the most important thing is I got time to rest and relax and get ready for the week ahead!!

Regarding the hotel, I really like its Barefoot concept. You really feel like you are in holidays (even though it wasn’t really my case, but yet…). The seven colours wellness spa is just fantastic!! You just really feel relieved from any tension you had and feel like floating on a cloud..

The staffs were really friendly and helpful. Also had the opportunity to finally meet in person Veer, the front office manager of the hotel. I have been in contact with him a lot of times when I was still wedding coordinator for Connections. It was really nice to finally put a face on a voice.

My parents really enjoyed their stay and I must agree spending only a day there makes me want to go spend a weekend there myself.

Here are some shots taken yesterday J

Near the Pool

Sandy(me) at Sandy Lane

My sister taking a picture of me

My sister & I Jumping :)

Me admiring the beautiful view on the beach

Silver Wedding of my Parents!! :)

Today, my parents are celebrating their 25^th Wedding Anniversary. It is a big milestone in their life and my sister & I wanted to make something special for them. We wanted to celebrate a love that has lasted a quarter of a century and that is still growing.

Since 3 weeks, we have been planning and organizing a small dinner party. We have invited our close family and friends. We hosted the dinner at Fortune Eight restaurant in Port-Louis. We did it last Saturday as it would have been hectic and hard for everyone to come on a Wednesday night (especially after work). We also wanted to have a cool dinner without having to worry about time and thinking of the next day of work ahead.

Below was our planning/schedule of the dinner party which was inspired by Smart Party Planning 

3 weeks before:           Setting a budget

                                    Decide on the time of the dinner

Making our guest list

Planning on how many table we would need to book at the restaurant

Contacting the restaurant to book for the date and set a menu

Phone each and every people we wanted to invite and confirming their presence

Ordering the cake

Ordering flowers

2 weeks before:           Working on a table plan

                                    Deciding on the decoration and buying all supplies we will need

                                    Printing the table plan and the small cards to attach to the party favors                                            Purchase of red wines to serve during the dinner

Purchase of sparkling wines for the toast

1 weeks before:           Purchasing of party favors (sugared almonds and small bags)

                                    Prepare a speech

The day before:           Charging of camera & camcorder batteries

On the day itself:        Pick up the flowers & cake

                                    Decorating the restaurant

My sister & I were quite stressed during the past weeks as it was the first time that we organized a party by ourselves. It was a great experience though.

Below are some pictures of everything we made.

Party Favors

Table Menu + Decoration (Also a picture of our dinner :P )

The Cakes + Decoration

Here's a family picture of us :))

Also here's a picture of me (just want to show my dress & my shoes - just in love with them) & of my nail art (yeah i had time doing my nails :P )

Me

My Nail Art

In addition to the dinner that my sister & I organized, we offered another special gift to our parents. A 2 nights stay at Veranda Pointe aux Biches for the weekend. What a nice way to end this special week by a relax weekend at a hotel near the beach.

Day 5 =>> Big Buddha (in Tuktuk) + Patong Beach

Today we decided to go to Big Buddha and since we arrived we haven’t yet have a ride in a tuktuk, we decided to have the trip to Big Buddha by tuktuk!!

It was fun to do, but when the tuktuk when up the hill, we were quite scared.. The road to there had many turn and we thought the driver was crazy and wanted us dead as he was driving fast.. But it seems that it is the culture there and they know what they are doing and they also seems like to be in control at all times.. we were really happy when we arrive safe at destination. The Big Buddha is really something to see and the view from there is stunning!!

After seeing around, we went back to Patong and to be more precise we went to the Beach. It is nothing compared to Mauritius (which for me is WAY better!!!). We then hang around and shop a lot!!! The shops near the beach are cheaper than those near our hotel, so if you want good deal go shop near the beach.

After having walked a lot during those past few days and specially having done do much of shopping, our feet were swollen and we decided to do a foot massage.. Ohhh god, I can tell you we were like in HEAVEN!!! It is really cheap (X10 cheaper or more than anywhere else). After 1hr of foot massage, when I got on my feet, I was like floating!!!

After that we went back to the hotel to refresh and out again to party (again in Bangla Road)

Day 4 =>> Shopping in Jungceylon & Patong + Night in Bangla Road

Today we spent the day shopping!! We first went to Jungceylon Shopping Mall, it was like Paradise.. Everything was cheap as there was Sales!! We also did some shopping in the markets and stalls on the way from the mall to our hotel.

At night, we went to Bangla Road which is reputed for its nightlife.. It is really amazing to see how alive. 

We started the night by first going have a drink at the Ice Bar. It's pretty cool and... FREEZING!!!! But it was a MUST!!!!

We met some nice peeps and we partied until like 3-4am. The club I would mostly recommend is the Seduction Club!

Day 3 =>> Half Day City Tour & Phuket Fantasea Show

Yeahh the rain of last night let place to the SUN!!! We’ve planned to explore Patong and went on a half day city tour. This tour includes: Karon viewpoint, do elephant riding or attend a snake show (we chose the snake show), visit the temples in Wat Chalong and the Gems Gallery.

The Karon viewpoint offers an incredible view on Kata Noi, Kata Yai and Karon beaches. 

 The snake show was just quite amazing but at some moment we were too scared (as there were only three of us for the show). 

The temples in Wat Chalong are beautiful and there are nice stuffs you can buy there (clothes, souvenirs….)

The Gems Gallery has a little show that explain how gems was created and how it has been used by man to create jewelries. Also you can see the different process of how a piece of jewelry is made by observing the craftsmen at work and then finally you can buy the end product there. The jewelries are just FABULOUS!!! Most are them are expensive though but you can find some cheap too.. My friends found a ring that they really liked and wanted to buy.. but finally they didn’t.. in the contrary I didn’t found something in my taste.. No luck for me..

After our city tour, we went to Jungceylon Shopping Mall to do some shopping. But we spent only 1 hour there as we had to head back to the hotel to get prepared to go the Fantasea. On our way to the hotel, we found really good stuffs at cheap price in the local shops. In our mind it was: ‘Yes we definitely are in paradise!!’

The Phuket Fantasea Show is just a MUST SEE show. The place is huge!!! There are plenty of shops, the world’s biggest 4000 seats dining facility and a 3000 seats Theater. . The show is inspired by Thailand’s heritage and illustrates the charm and beauty of Thailand. It is an escapade into a fantastical adventure into Thailand’s exotic Myth, Mystery and Magic.

Day 2 =>> KL to Phuket

We’ve arrived in KL in the morning and we had to wait for like 9hours before catching our flight for Phuket. At first, we had planned to go in the city to hang out a bit and do some shopping, but the weather was rainy. So we've decided to stay at the airport (guess what, it was really a good decision!)

The duty of KL is the biggest duty free I've ever seen!! For us it was paradise!!! We took our time and went in every single store. We were going crazy to be around all those good: shoes, bags, clothes, shoes, accessories, shoes, perfumes & cosmetics…. (yeah I admit I just love shoes!!!)

For our first shopping we had a really nice time and we mostly buy stuffs that we would offer as gifts to our family and best friends. When we were done with the duty free, we realized that we had 1 hour left before we board on our flight.. yeah we took like 6-7hours just doing shopping in the duty free.. (who would imagine that..)

Arriving in Phuket we head directly to our hotel, APK Resort & Spa in Patong. What we had planned for the night was having dinner and then go out.. but we haven’t planned that it would rain and that there would be thunderstorms.. so we only had dinner and decided to go to bed (we also realized we were extremely tired)..

Hopefully the rain and thunderstorms will go away as it will ruin our holidays!!!

FYI: If you want to stay in contact with your family & don't have good wifi at hotel/internet connection, it is better to buy a local sim card than using your actual one. Trust me you save a lot of money. Roaming is very expensive....

You can also check out my review on APK Resort & Spa on TripAdvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297930-d1835724-r152086226-APK_Resort_Spa-Patong_Phuket.html

Day 1 =>> Heading to Phuket via KL

Finally the time has come!! My holidays are at last starting as from now!! After a day at work full of stress, I am just extremely happy to head to the airport and join my friends for our 10 days trip in Phuket & Kuala Lumpur!!!

Since university, my friends and I have always said that we should go on a trip together. It’s been 1year and a half that we have graduated and we have all made 1 year in our respective work of place (so finally eligible for local leaves).

My friends like to party and what more appropriate for a first destination together than Phuket J We have then decided to include Kuala Lumpur in our trip for shopping (yeah we are all shopping addict)!!

To help us decide where exactly to go in Phuket and what activities are a MUST to do, we've done a lot of research on the net. Patong is THE PLACE to be if you like to party and we’ve found useful information on the blog Phuket101 (http://www.phuket101.net/). It really helped us and gave us an idea of what is waiting for us!!

So here we go now, heading to the airport and catch our flight to KL!!!