Porto Trip – Part 5 (The Art Of Wandering)

The sound of seagulls squawking awakened the adventurous side of me. The one who usually prefers a well-planned travel itinerary finally changed for a day to experience the art of wandering. Wandering aimlessly left me extremely nervous at first, but then I learnt to trust the magic of Universe.

Instead of planning where I should head to, I knew the path itself would lead me to where I supposed to be. Having a carefree mind while walking down the street allowed me to see things from a different perspective. The more I walked, the more I felt as if the whole city was smiling at me.

I had no idea whether it was the positive energy I received from walking down the street or the magic of the Universe sent to the Cafe of my dream – Majestic Cafe. Whatever the case, I knew it must be a place where I meant to encounter.

A sense of romance permeated the cafe – dimly chandeliers and Art Nouveau decorations were perfect settings to intoxicate anyone who walked in. I was almost drowned in the world of romance until their waitress woke me up from daydreaming to take my order.

I would have gone back to daydreaming, but my order finally arrived. The smell of Rabanadas Majestic Style (French toast in Majestic Style) kept me awake and made me realized that it was the time to enjoy it.

I felt the love floating in my mouth when I first tasted it. Every bite of the French toast gave me delightful warmth and sweetness that melted my heart completely.

The feeling of love left me wanting more…A cup of tea would be the best to complement the taste of the French toast, but a glass of Sangria was perfect to continue the feeling of love.

When the Sangria traveled down my throat, I could feel the alcohol slowly running through my veins. A blurry image of Belle Époque kept flashing in my head…I couldn’t help it but to think of its old charm. It made me forget how busy the cafe was. It was a moment when everyone was frozen, except me and the cafe dancing to a romantic song.

“Excuse me! Would you like another drink?”, the waitress asked. There I knew I should leave my fantasy behind and let the magic of Universe take me to another destination.

Just left the cafe, I saw a small crowd moving towards the same direction…I didn’t even question where they headed to, but simply followed them. After all the traveling, I reached a place where I believed it was a fairy tale. Grasses at its finest, trees at its tallest, sunbeam was caught by the luscious greens radiated a ray of hope.  However, nothing quite like the smell of seashore.

I still couldn’t understand how the smell of it led me to a world with palm trees waving their hands in the breeze and clouds drifting in and out to catch my attention. I would like to stay here longer to enjoy the relaxing vibes, but the smell of seashore kept haunting my mind.

The smell of it was no longer haunting my mind after I found my final destination – Pergola da Foz.

I stood aside to soak up the romantic atmosphere as a breeze gently touched my skin. It was a moment when I felt the presence of my Prince. He hugged me from behind while we listened to the sound of waves together. Our love seeped through every corner of the Pergola. There I knew the sparks we had would be ignited forever…

It sat deep in my heart and kept me content when travelling back home. It also made me proud of myself getting out of my comfort zone to experience the art of wandering.

The experience of wandering changed my perspective about traveling. It left me more than just romance. It was a gift with treasures – the unexpected, the excitement, the joy and the love were all wrapped in one.

Overwhelming Birthday Love

I believe I was the luckiest birthday girl. Before my clock was hitting 12am HK time (my official birthday 18th September), a good friend of mine from Sydney already said me happy birthday via whatsapp at 12am Sydney time. Then, I received “red eggs” and red pockets from my mum early in the morning. My birthday blessings had never stopped. In fact, it was just the beginning. I was overwhelmed to receive tons of birthday messages from friends, family, relatives and you guys (my fellow bloggers and Instagram friends). I even got lovely friends doing birthday prayers for me. Can someone pinch my face and tell me it was real?

My lovely friends took me to a popular restaurant later that day. I rarely go to pub/bar/club as I don’t usually drink. Even if I drink, I tend to choose cocktails with a light amount of alcohol. However, I must say the mini bar section of this restaurant looked pretty cool.

Starting my birthday night with drinking a glass of pineapple infused iced tea. Can you believe that I actually stayed sober on my birthday? 😀 In fact, I ordered Mojito as my drink at first (I would love to order Virgin Mojito if they have). It tasted nothing like a regular Mojito and all I could taste was alcohol which I wasn’t a fan of. JK insisted to swap the drink with me since it was my birthday. How lucky I was!!! The pineapple infused iced tea didn’t disappoint me at all. It was ice-cold and a bit tangy exactly how I liked it.

I thought it would be cool to show you some of the food we had that night. However, the color of lighting kept changing a whole night and I wasn’t able to take a good shot of all the food. Well, I guess you already had an idea of what we had by just looking at these few pictures.

We were very full after having our dinner and it was time for us to enjoy the beautiful view here. Well, I wish they cleaned their windows properly so that you could see how beautiful it was.

Honestly, I was already very happy that they treated me to a nice dinner. But, they decided to make me even happier by giving me a birthday bouquet. I was speechless to see how stunning it was and it even had my favorite white roses in it.

The most speechless moment came in when they asked the waiter to serve me the most beautiful birthday cake I’ve ever seen. Massive thanks to JK who designed the graphic and got it tailed-made at the cake shop. It was not only beautiful, but it also had wonderful meanings behind it. As they know how much I love traveling, hot air balloon and the globe were especially designed to wish me travel around the world as my job. Honestly, my eyes were getting teary to receive this meaningful birthday cake. I was completely stuck in the moment of awesomeness.

P.S. All the birthday wishes and surprises I received truly made my birthday an unforgettable one. I’m beyond blessed to be spoiled by all of you. My sincere thanks to you all for making me the happiest and luckiest birthday girl!!! ❤

Porto Trip – Part 2

Waking up in the morning, the first thing I think about usually not my breakfast but lunch. (weird right? lol 😛 ) I’m not a big breakfast person, but I’m a dinosaur when it comes to lunch 😀 .  Being in a western country can be a bit challenging to me sometimes because some smaller restaurants/ cafes only serve sandwiches or burgers. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the taste of sandwiches and burgers. However, I prefer to have either rice or noodles for lunch as I personally find it much more filling.

Being the only girl in a group of gentlemen I worked with, I had the privilege to decide where I wanted to go and eat. Obviously, I took the advantage to choose what I wanted to eat to satisfy my stomach. When I saw rice on the menu, I didn’t even think twice and instantly ordered Portuguese seafood rice. Honestly, I had no idea what Portuguese seafood rice looked like. The portion of it came out way bigger than I imagined. It was soupy, but in a good way. The rice had well absorbed the seafood flavour and I really enjoyed it.

Apart from the rice, we also ordered octopus to share. In fact, we didn’t plan to order one but couldn’t resistant the temptation by seeing how much others enjoyed their grilled octopus around us. Seriously, it was a simple dish but tasted divine. The chef didn’t season the octopus much, but the freshness of the octopus was the magical element to make it delicious.

I’m not going to lie…I was already full after having the rice and octopus, but I still wanted to have something sweet to satisfy my greedy stomach. What to do when I didn’t want to order a heavy dessert to put on a few extra pounds just to satisfy my greedy stomach 😛 ? Aha there I found a fresh fruit salad on the menu. (What a perfect solution to accomplish my mission lol!!! 😀 )

I was truly a lucky one not only having an awesome opportunity to work with a group of gentlemen, but also being able to enjoy beautiful sunny days throughout my entire trip. Look at that gorgeous blue sky! It made everything look picture perfect.

Although the clear blue sky was beautiful, Porto Cathedral (Sé do Porto) was actually the main attraction we would like to visit on that day. I don’t know about you, but I rarely have a chance to visit Cathedrals in Hong Kong. Cathedrals in Hong Kong aren’t usually opened for sightseeing purpose and therefore I was thrilled to visit the one in Porto.

Porto Cathedral (Sé do Porto) was a twin-towered cathedral with Romanesque roots built in 12th century. It has undergone numerous architectural and design changes overtime, but it didn’t stop visitors from visiting this historic landmark.

Sorry for the bright lighting! This is the best my Canon Powershot S90 can do 😦

A sense of solemnity came in mind when I stepped into the Cathedral. Whatever it was on my mind seemed to fade away, I was simply fascinated by the sophisticated interior and stories behind the Cathedral. Although the Cathedral was too stunning to capture, all I wanted to do was to respect the Cathedral itself and its religious followers by not taking too many photos.

If you have a chance to visit Porto Cathedral, please make sure not to miss its Gothic cloister. It was covered with blue and white azulejos tiles built in 14th century.  To be honest, I saw how it looked like on the internet even before travelling to Porto. However, the feelings it gave was complete different when seeing it in person. You probably don’t believe me, but seriously you don’t need exceptional photography skills to make your pictures perfect. It was already beautiful enough to make it picture-perfect for you.

The Gothic cloister wasn’t the only part worth visiting. When you keep walking along the cloister, you will find there are different small entrances led you to different small rooms where they display various religious items.

Remember I made a promise to take tons of pictures for you guys before travelling to Porto (hehe i found a photo to prove I did take my promise seriously 😉 )

I couldn’t believe my visit to Porto Cathedral almost came to the end. All I could do was to gaze back and keep this mesmerizing picture in my heart.

Just came out from the Cathedral, there I found a veranda allowed me to get some suntan while enjoying a gorgeous view from the top.

Wasn’t it too amazing to see all those orange roofs right underneath you?

Porto Trip – Part 1

I’ve always been a fan of travelling since I was very little. I simply love the art of adventuring new places where I can learn about different cultures, meet new people and see the unique beauty the country offers.

I was beyond thrilled to know I got an opportunity to travel to Porto where I have been dreaming for two years. I truly believe, “If you can dream it, you can do it” – Walt Disney, is what makes my dream come true.

Although I could choose to transit once only, I chose to transit twice to save my boss’s expenses (pretending to be a good employee lol 😛 ). Actually, I can’t deal with long haul flight which I often need a bigger space to move around and have some fresh air. I was truly the happiest when my flight landed in Doha as I knew I had 10 to 15 mins to spend at a brand new Hamad International Airport which was only opened last year. I’m not kidding it was by far the most beautiful airport I’ve ever visited. The design of it was modern and luxurious with a touch of Middle Eastern vibes. Although the gigantic bear seems to capture most of the attention from tourists, I actually enjoy the entire design of the airport. The glass ceiling, the lighting, the palm trees and the gigantic bear altogether created one of the most mesmerizing pictures and I know I will never forget it.

I was talking about the gigantic bear a lot, but you wouldn’t be able to imagine how gigantic it is until you see it in person. I suggest you to learn some fighting skills before visiting Hamad International Airport because everyone is fighting for a good spot to take a snap of this lovely guy.

The other side of the airport promotes a much more futuristic vibes which I personally adore. I somehow felt like I was an astronaut exploring an unknown planet lol (am I daydreaming too much? 😀 )

back to the reality…My flight finally landed at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport after 7 hours. I was quite exhausted at this point since I already travelled for 16 hours all the way from Hong Kong to Madrid. However, I still had  a lot of energy fantasizing how wonderful Porto is. Unfortunately, Madrid Airport decided to give me an ultra exhaustion before I could see my fantasy. I had to go one floor down and walk 10 mins for baggage claim. Then I went back to the same floor to get my luggage checked-in before clearing the customs. After clearing the customs and I thought I could start relaxing and waiting for my flight, but it was only the beginning of my nightmare. I came to know I had to walk 26 mins before reaching my gate. Thank you so much for the physical activity!!! (I know you put your heart and soul to plan for it in order to keep me in shape)

Arrived Porto finally, yay!!! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the entire apartment arranged by my company. It was a cozy little apartment and more than enough for me to stay there. This lovely spot of my apartment was one of the favourite places to lounge around. It was also where I practiced yoga almost every morning.

Speaking of “favourite”, the view from my apartment was definitely what I loved the most. Looking at orange roofs against the clear blue sky was already beautiful enough to take all my exhaustion away. But, I seriously didn’t expect how calming it was to look at that stunning river. It relaxed me to another level. When I was enjoying the view, one of the seagulls suddenly came say “hi” to me. (what a pleasant surprise!) I would love it even more if he came say “hi” to me every day hehe.

I guess I spent too much time on enjoying the view and I didn’t even notice how hungry I was. My stomach started to complain by growling lol 😛

When my colleagues and I were on our way searching for a restaurant, we saw this adorable dog. No matter how much we tried to disturb him, he wouldn’t even look at us. He was simply enjoying himself and the view.  The wind kept blowing his hair while he enjoyed the view. I felt like he was being smart to let his hair air-dry (I should probably learn from him not to blow-dry my hair by using hair dryer that often).

This baby was too tired holding himself in one position to let his hair air dry and therefore he had to take a little rest.

After looking around, we decided to have our lunch at a restaurant specializing in making pizza. I didn’t know why I didn’t feel like having pizza. I ordered seafood fettuccine instead. It looked pretty decent, right? But , it was completely tasteless. I guess I was too stupid ordering pasta at a pizza place lol. I didn’t know if it was too tasteless to satisfy me or I was too hungry. I still felt so hungry after having it so I decided to order something else. I knew I wanted to try their pizza since my colleagues kept telling how delicious it was, but I didn’t think I could finish an entire pizza myself. So I chose to share a pizza burger with one of my colleagues.

I’ve never tried pizza burger before. It looked a bit like Chinese BBQ Pork Bun (Cha Siu Bao) to me 😀

I wish you could taste this pizza burger with me. It was seriously tasty. The patty was really juicy and the egg was perfectly cooked (the egg yolk was still runny). After having half of the burger, I was way too full… felt like I couldn’t even move anymore…

Even though I was carrying a heavy belly with me, it didn’t stop me from exploring. I found a magnificent sculpture just few mins away from the restaurant.  It was the first sculpture I saw in Porto and also the most stunning sculpture compared to all the sculptures I have seen in Porto. When I stood next to the sculpture, I felt the power of it. It seemed to empower me with the strength to conquer all the obstacles I may face in my life and keep me moving forward. Each small detail of the sculpture reminded me of all the hard work behind making this sculpture and why I love art so much.

No matter how much I loved the sculpture, I knew I better saved some more time to visit one of the most beautiful train stations in the world- Sao Bento Station. It is a station blended with beauty and history. The design of Sao Bento Station was inspired by French Beaux-Arts architecture. 20,000 of tile (azulejo) panels were being placed to build the interior of the station. Historical events, landscapes and ethnography were being portrayed by the tile panels. It is what makes it truly unique and world famous for attracting people from all over the world.

The moment I stepped into the station, I thought I was living in the world of art and history. The camera can’t even do it justice for how breathtaking it looks. I simply ran out of words to describe its unique beauty. All I can say is to see it in person and feel the essence of each tile will truly make you understand what I mean by “living in the world of art and history”.

Nostalgic feelings were slowly appeared when the sunset was approaching. The natural lighting became dim to ask people to stop running for the train, but to enjoy their daily life at a slower pace.

The sun was finally set and it was the time for Sao Bento Station to put on a glamorous outfit to shine through the dark. The darker the sky is, the more glamorous it looks.  The history and beauty of it will never be faded. It will only get stronger with time.

Travel Throwback Series – Amsterdam Part 2

Many people asked me why Amsterdam is one of the places I like the most. As cliche as it sounds, the reasons why I love Amsterdam so much simply because of its delicious food, wonderful people and how beautiful it is.

Meeting a cute furry friend was a big surprise of my trip – honestly,  not all cats are friendly to strangers but I was fortunate enough to meet this cutie pie. He acted like we’ve been friends forever allowing me to massage him, play with him, take pictures with him…He was happy with whatever I did. 🙂

Although cats have always been the love of my life, delicious food definitely holds a special place in my heart. How can you resist the temptation when they are trying to seduce you? lol 😛

Wandering around the city, I realized the charm Amsterdam has isn’t only its beauty but also how much it can change. At some busy spots, you will see people busy running errands. At the touristy areas, you will see people are busy striking a pose for photos. What I found amusing the most was the time when walking pass “I amsterdam” letters, people went crazy climbing up and down the letters just to show how cool they looked in photos.

After having seen the busy side of Amsterdam, I didn’t expect it to become all quiet and serene just few blocks down the road. With the scene of serene and light breeze, I immediately closed my eyes to enjoy the moment. That peaceful moment sat deep in my heart gently wiping all my worries away.

With peace of mind, I continued to wander. There I found a rapid change in Amsterdam again. From it was all quiet and serene to a vibrant city. Hot pink roses were at full bloom while green leaves turned luscious green. Flags of different countries were not only hung to show respect, but also revealed the vibrancy of each country.

After exploring the city continuously, the sun started to set. It was the time when the romantic vibes started to emerge as well.

The true romance emerged in the dark with beautiful lights being reflected in the river.

Under the romantic atmosphere and with the help of cupid, the couple couldn’t care less about the thoughts of others…kissing passionately…Me as a witness could only be a jealous girl with the wish of same wonder happened on me. Unfortunately, nothing happened. 😦

Without the help of cupid, I could only treat myself to have some ice-cream 😛 I was having the ice-cream with my heart and soul just to take my bitterness away.

Voila! Instantly became a happy Khloe (you can never underestimate the magic of dessert) lol 😀

I had so much fun doing Amsterdam throwback series, but sadly the series have already come to the end. However, I’ll do another travel throwback series so stay tuned for that! Enjoy your day my lovely friends! 🙂

Travel Throwback Series – Amsterdam Part 1

JK and I decided to have breakfast to start off our day before heading to see Dutch windmills.

My oh my! We both didn’t expect the breakfast to be this ginormaous, but glad we managed to finish it at the end 😀

Right after having breakfast, we quickly took the train to Zaanse Schans. It is a windmill village (some think it is an open-air museum) perfect for tourists to spend a half-day trip exploring everything traditionally Dutch with iconic windmills, a traditional wooden shoe workshop, a cheese farm and so much more. It only took us 20 minutes to reach there. However, there was something really embarrassing happened  right before we got off the train. We got used to Hong Kong metro system with door open automatically at each stop, but the train in Amsterdam wasn’t the same at all. We happily prepared ourselves to get off the train once it arrived Zaanse Schans, but we couldn’t figure out why the door didn’t open for us. We just kept staring at the door and wondering why. The time when we found out there was a door opening button, we already missed the stop. How stupid we were!!! We had to get off at the following stop and take the train back eventually 😛

Who cares we had such an embarrassing experience? At least we learnt something new, right? 😀 It was well worth it once we saw the first windmill before entering the village. 🙂

Once we entered the village, the statue already started playing trumpet for us. How welcoming it was!!! lol 😛

Tourists needed to do touristy stuff, right? Of course, we headed to see how cheeses are made. It was very interesting for us especially we Chinese have no idea how cheeses are made 😀

I totally admired the wooden shoe maker spending a massive amount of time into making each shoe. ❤ I could imagine how satisfied he was when finishing each shoe.

I was acting like a child playing peekaboo to break up the serious shoe making atmosphere 😛 I have always been this silly…refuse to grow up lol 😀

Being indoor for a while, we had to go out to see some greenery and this scenic place. It was extremely sunny and stunning there, but sadly my camera didn’t do it justice to show the real beauty of Zaanse Schans. 😦

Look what we found when we wandered the village! How adorable this ice-cream car was! ❤ I was tempted to drive instead of having their ice-cream, but I don’t even have a driver’s license 😛

Please excuse my messy hair! It was too windy there, but I just had to ask JK to take a picture of me and windmills together to keep it as a wonderful memory. 🙂

*Thank you Phil  for suggesting me to post some more photos from my Amsterdam trip! ❤ I seriously wasn’t planning to post it as I didn’t take a lot of photos and JK was busy taking pictures of me. I didn’t want to post pictures of myself only, but I guess it would be fun to share some of it.

Have a beautiful day all my beloved fellow bloggers! 🙂

Non-Traditional Christmas Celebration

I didn’t have any plans to celebrate Christmas or whatsoever this year. Thanks to my wonderful friend who tried to brighten up my gloomy days due to my uncle’s death! ❤ It was a last-minute plan to simply have Christmas dinner together. I’m sure majority of you chose to have western cuisine as part of the traditions. We actually chose to dine at a restaurant specializing in making Asian fusion dishes. 😛

When we stepped into the restaurant, we were very surprised to find out only one table was taken at that time. The entire restaurant looked incredibly cozy with full of Christmas decorations which I absolutely adored. We only sat there for a few minutes and requested to sit outside for a better view.

Its view amazed us as we didn’t know it has a good view before we came. It not only had an amazing view, but the vibes were incredibly relaxing there.

Yes, you are right. They were papadum and prawn crackers. 🙂  The restaurant offered us papadum and prawn crackers as free snacks before we started to have our Christmas dinner. I always love to have papadum with mint chutney, but never tried to pair prawn cracker with mint chutney. I really loved this pairing actually. 😀

I wasn’t hungry before the appetizers arrived. Once I saw the appetizers right in front of me, I couldn’t resist the temptation to dig in. 😀 The appetizers included Thai pomelo salad in chilli jam with shrimp, rice paper roll with soft shell crab and avocado, and tandoori turkey tikka with cranberry chutney. I have to say all of these appetizers were absolutely delicious, but my favourite went to tandoori turkey tikka with cranberry chutney. The turkey was super duper tender and juicy. I didn’t know what kind of seasonings or spices they put into marinating to make the turkey this flavourful. The cranberry chutney had even brought its rich flavours to another level!!! nom nom 😛

The second course was cream of asparagus with scallop. I’m not fond of cream usually, but this creamy soup was definitely an exception. I adored its creamy texture without making me feel heavy. I didn’t know how the chef made it refreshing and creamy at the same time. It tasted absolutely divine with a distinct sweetness of asparagus and scallop. The more I had it, the more I liked it. ❤

I was almost full after having the appetizers and second course, but I pushed myself to eat more not to waste all the delicious food here. Main course finally – Tandoori salmon with dill & honey mustard served with baby potato in cumin and naan…The salmon was perfectly cooked and it was quite interesting to have it naan. I liked it, but I liked the baby potato even more since I’m a big fan of potato. 🙂 The baby potato was also perfectly cooked. It was neither too hard nor too mushy with a rich curry flavour. Yummm 😛

Finally finally my favourite part of a dinner – dessert hehe 😛 …The desserts were mango cheesecake and homemade cardamon ice-cream with pistachio. Honestly, I never liked cardamon. However, this homemade cardamon ice-cream completely proved me wrong. I actually loved it very much. I never thought cardamon ice-cream can taste this divine. It was very refreshing with a great smell of cardamon. Although the mango cheesecake wasn’t as good as expected, I didn’t care much about it since the ice-cream had already ended our night beautifully.

❤ ❤ ❤ Merry Christmas! May this Christmas be bright and cheerful! May the New Year begin on a prosperous note! ❤ ❤ ❤

With love,

Khloe 🙂

My recent trip to Thailand

I took a trip to Khao Lak (Thailand) few weeks ago.  I’ve been to Thailand twice before, but I’ve never been to Khao Lak. Khao Lak is just an hour something away from the famous location Phuket. After landing, I couldn’t wait to get into the car and go straight to the resort. However, it took me more than an hour to clear the customs before I could step out the airport. Poor driver who picked me up from the airport has waited me for a long time and he could still greet me with a nice smile. 🙂

I couldn’t believe what I saw from the lobby, the pools and everything when I reached the resort. It looked even prettier than what I saw from the website. Everything at the resort was nicely designed with a relaxing vibe. ❤ All the rooms closer to the main pool were pretty much in family style. The other side of the resort was full of villas which were much more laid-back in style. The villa I stayed at  was absolutely stunning. 😉 The interior design was modern without losing its relaxing vibe. Whenever I was in the villa, I just felt like sleeping. I guess it was all because of its comfortable low platform bed. A lot of time I was struggling to decide whether I should go outside or keep hugging my comfy bed. 😀

    

Obviously, I still chose to go outside to explore here and there not to waste a wonderful opportunity to see all the beautiful things around. I discovered a beach with gorgeous sunset was just few minutes away from my villa.  There were few restaurants near the beach and it was where I loved to have my lunch and dinner. The most amazing thing having my meals there was to see how the color of the sunset changed. It changed everyday (from reddish to orangey, from orangey to yellowish, sometimes purplish with a hint of blue and sometimes a mix of all these colors). It was like an art gallery on live. Apart from that, I also loved to observe how Thai live their lives while enjoying my meals. They are incredibly polite. 🙂 They always have a nice  smile greeting others with “Sawasdeeka” (means “Hello” in English) whether they are stranger to them or not. They are very laid-back and live a simple life. Majority of them don’t stress too much about money, but to focus more on happiness. The food there was pretty decent. If you ever have time traveling to Thailand, I would highly recommend their fried stuff. Their pineapple and banana fritters were what I enjoyed the most. They were very crispy, but not oily at all. Moreover, they were not overly sweet and heavy. 😛

 

After few days of relaxing at the resort and a day of shopping at Khao Lak Centre, I decided to explore Tachai Island. Tachai Island is a relatively new tourist spot for snorkelers and scuba divers in the world famous Similan Islands. Before I joined the local tour for this trip, I thought I would only go there to sunbathe. I never thought I would go for snorkeling because I seriously can’t swim. However, this trip has completely changed my mind about snorkeling. Everyone was wearing their life jacket and ready for snorkeling once the speed boat reached the middle of the sea. They jumped into the sea one by one when I was still struggling to decided whether staying on the speed boat. Eventually, I made one of the bravest decision of my life was to wear the life jacket and try snorkeling. I tried my best to swim properly in the sea, but I kept rolling like I was put into the washing machine. 😦 The tour guide had to send a swimming expert to help me at the end. Honestly, I couldn’t be more thankful to have him to help me with snorkeling. 🙂 If he wasn’t there to help me, I wouldn’t be able to snorkel. He gave me an extra life jacket to hold on so that I could stay balanced. Then, he kept pulling the life jacket from the other side to lead me to different spots in order to see the sea corals. During that 40 minutes of snorkeling, he used only one hand to pull my life jacket and the other for swimming. Whenever he saw beautiful fishes and sea corals, he would instantly ask me to look down to see how beautiful they were. ❤ Whenever he saw water going in my mask, he would help me clear it. Although I’ve never snorkeled before, I knew how difficult it was to do all of these things in the middle of the sea.

 

After the snorkeling session, we all headed to the beach to relax. The moment I stepped on the sand, I could feel how soft and powdery the sand was. It was nothing, but a soft cushion wrapping around my feet.  Need not to mention, the water was incredibly clear. The spectacular view from the beach was completely surreal.  I felt like I was living in a calendar printed with a gorgeous beach. No wonder the Island is often referred to as the Maldives of Thailand. ❤ 🙂

 

To summarize my entire trip, It was truly an amazing trip. The resort itself was impressive. I couldn’t find anything to complain from its design to facilities. I could stay at the resort my whole trip without getting bored. Everyone I met during my trip was very polite whether they were complete strangers on the street or serving me at the resort and restaurants. Their willingness of greeting others not only impressed me, but also brightened up my day. Obviously, the trip to Tachai Island was the highlight of my trip. ❤ I was beyond blessed to be taken special care by the swimming expert. I wouldn’t know how beautiful the view from underwater could be if he wasn’t there to help me. As a person who can’t swim, I’ve never dreamed to see that view.  Honestly, the clear water and white sand at the beach had blown my mind away. I never thought the actual view could be this vivid and stunning. It looked way better than what I’ve seen from TV, magazines or promotional leaflets. 🙂 After this trip, I learned to appreciate the nature more. With all the digital gadgets we have now, we often forget how wonderful the nature is. Nowadays, I love to look up to the sky and take a moment to appreciate the nature and what I have. 😉

Sunset on the beach

Tachai Island

Fried rice with seafood and chicken

Resort

Resort

Pad Thai

Tachai Island

View from the beach restaurant

Sunset view from the resort

Friendly staff from the resort

Tachai Island

Banana split

Fruits art

Enjoying sunset from the resort

One of the restaurant at the resort

Resort

Sunset on the beach

Chicken satay

Thai taxi

The pool at resort

My villa

One of the pools at the resort

Sunset view from the resort

Sunset on the beach

The beach near resort

Young coconut

Banana fritters

Enjoying sunset on the beach

The beach near resort 2

Khao Lak Centre

Resort

The beach near resort

The pool at the resort

Hot ginger water was given to me when I was sick during my trip

Having vegetable noodles soup when I was sick

The sunset was peeking through the clouds

Banana smoothie

Fried noodles with chicken

Trying to take a photo of my villa

Resort

McDonald in Thailand

I wonder if there are some beautiful places you would like to recommend. What do you like the most from the place/ places you recommended? Please feel free to let me know in the comment session.

With love,

xoxoxoxo Khloe

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