Raiatea - French Polynesia

During our 2 weeks in Bora Bora, we decided to take a day trip to the opposite island of Raiatea, also known as the sacred island; it's only a 10min plane ride away and well worth a visit!

We had the chance to meet the owners of the Hotu Vanilla plantation, Guy & Odette Tauatiti, who took us around their plantation and told us all about how their award winning vanilla is made, what an amazing experience!! You will be seeing quite a few vanilla recipes on the blog as I seem to have developed an obsession for it ;)

*Young vanilla pods - 9 more months to go until they ripen and can be collected*  

*Vanilla pods are left a couple of hours per day in the sunshine and then wrapped in dense cloth so that they can go through the process of "sweating", thus getting rid of all the water to release the vanilla bean flavor*

*The vanilla pod on the right is not yet ready for consumption as its thickness indicates that it is still full of water and must be dried out to resemble the pod on the left*

*Taputapuatea Marae - one of the most sacred places on Raiatea, believed to the very first Marae dating back to 1000AD*

*Tahiti's famous local dish "Poisson Cru a la Tahitienne" - will be trying this one at home sometime soon!*

Check out more pictures of French Polynesia on my new instagram profile - click here 

February travels

*Lugano*

Happy Monday everyone!!!

I just realized that I have been absent for a while from the blog but I was traveling back to Europe in these last few weeks and every time I am there, there is barely time to do all the things I want!! Between seeing friends and family and organizing our wedding, my days were really full and to top this up, my cheri and I ended the holidays with some flu and bronchitis... not cool!!!

Anyways, here are some pictures of my travels, from London for my hen party to Lugano, Milan and Monaco to visit our families then to Ibiza to plan the wedding stopping by Barcelona just in time for some tapas and to see the Casa Batllo':

*Milano*

*London*

*Zuma restaurant - London*

*Ibiza*

*La Escollera restaurant - Ibiza*

*Casa Batllo' - Barcelona*

*Monaco*

On my way to L.A :)

As I was telling you in my previous post, we are off to L.A for 10 days :) I really can't wait to be there and spend some quality time with my family and indulge in some good old habits. Here are 10 things I am longing to do when I am there: (if you have any other suggestions please share ;))

1- Have dinner at Gjelina in Venice

2- Go to Magnolia bakery and devour as many cupcakes as I can!

3- Go to the Getty Museum

4- Have dinner at Katsuya in Brentwood

5- Start working on my bikini body on the Venice-Malibu boardwalk

6- Shop on Robertson & Rodeo followed by lunch at the Ivy

7- Walk around Santa Monica's Farmers Market

8- Have one of the best culinary experiences at The Bazaar restaurant 

9- Sip a green tea boba at Urth Cafe

10- Ask my brother to teach me how to surf...again ;)

*Me trying to surf back in 2005!*

The colorful people of Chinatown Singapore

As I was telling you in my previous post, this weekend we have been celebrating the beginning of the Dragon year, aka the chinese lunar new year... and what better place to feel fully immersed in the celebrations than in Chinatown?! 

In this post I am sharing with you the beautiful colors, people and traditions of Chinatown in full Chinese new year action :)

GONG XI FA CAI ! - (HAPPY NEW YEAR in Chinese)

Balinese retreat

The more I go to Bali the more i love it!

As I was telling you in my previous post, this time around we decided to stay in Seminyak which is right by the beach and perfect for a relaxing holiday. Unfortunately since the second we landed we were welcomed with a typhoon-like weather which lasted for our entire stay except for half a day when the sun decided to show up! 

We didn't let the storm ruin our holiday and took advantage of the situation mostly by indulging ourselves at the spa and visiting temples ;) 

Good to know:
How to get there: Bali is a 2h30min flight from Singapore
Best time to visit: from April to October (dry season) 
Sea and beaches: Do not expect Maldivian like water as the sea in Bali is pretty rough and often suffers of pollution however it is known for having great diving spots and is a surfers paradise

*Balinese women are often seen with rice grains (Bija) on their forehead, throat and hair which is applied during their prayer*

*Tanah Lot Temple*

*Planting rice*

*Rice field*

*Dragon sculpture*

*Traditional Balinese dancing statue*

*The W hotel - Seminyak*

*Bathroom in the W room*

*Having a drink at KUDETA by the beach*