Bali in July 2014

So we were in Bali for a friend's wedding back in July. It was by far the most lavish wedding I have ever been to. And because it was a mixed Indian-Chinese wedding, we had a lot of fun dressing up. I had 3 changes of dress for the 2-day event, and the bride had... *drum roll* a total of more than 10 changes of dress!! 

Here is one of me in my matronly looking punjabi dress. 

The other gals in better looking punjabi-inspired dresses. 

Dinner in the evening

My maharaja all dressed up for breakfast

Girls in saris

Photobombed by a Korean

Hubby looking dapper in his suit and me in my lengha choli

Wefie!

No Indian wedding would be complete without a Bollywood dance

The boys decided to end the night by jumping into the pool, very mature boys! 

It was a fun and quick get away. Hoping to bring Chloe along somewhere for a holiday, but not sure if it will happen this year as it's nearing year end. Hubby suggested that Chloe and I meet him in Hong Kong for a work trip. But the thought of bringing a baby on board economy class alone is too daunting! Well, let's see.  I might just do it :)

Babymoon @ Paris 2013

With the husband singing ‘The baby is coming…’ to the tune of PVZ when the zombies emerge, it’s hard to tell if he’s excited or scared when Baby C comes along; especially when he loves playing PVZ so much he loses sleep over the game. Scared or excited, we know for sure that our life will be turned topsy turvy next year. So we planned for a one last fun vacation for the year while I am still allowed to travel. 

And we decided on Paris! It was a 12 hour flight, and frankly probably too long for a pregnant lady. But I made it back alive, and Baby C is fine so it was all worth it. 

It was a first trip to Paris for both of us. As we only had a few days in there, we only covered the touristy areas like Eiffel Tower, Musee d’Orsay, Musee du Louvre, Arc de Triomphe and the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmarte. Thinking back, I must say the highlight of the trip was the walk along River Seine. The weather was perfect for a stroll, hand in hand with the hubby *beam with happiness just thinking about it*.

The river cruise in the evening was fantastic too, as we got to cover some spots that we missed in the day like the Notre Dame Cathedral and got to the enjoy the night view of Paris. It was pretty romantic in a cheesy way admiring the City of Light in all its glory. The dinner was so-so at best, but we thought it was better doing the river cruise this way, than joining the crowd. This pregger mama needs some pampering after all! 

Some reminders/tips for future Calvin and future Pui San if we ever make a trip back (who knows when that will be!):

• Make a reservation for the Jules Verne restaurant and buy the tickets up the Eiffel Tower early!! 

• Take the train (RER) from the airport to town. The traffic from the airport is horrendous and cab fare is really expensive. 

• Unless you understand French, you should get the interactive English guides in the museums. 

• Make another visit to the Louvre and this time, spend a day there with tea breaks in between! 

• Go back to Pont des Arts and see if the locks have multiplied. 

• Never go to Paris (or Europe) in the summer.

• Go back to La Cadole, a small restaurant run by a husband and wife team. Not a Michelin-star place but food was good!

My lengchai hubby

Being silly at the Eiffel Tower

The Louvre

 

Pont des Arts

View from the Arc

Beautiful view of River Seine

Yucky dinner

California Dreaming - Los Angeles

Our last destination was Los Angeles. On hindsight, I should have planned on coming here first as Coachella took place the weekend before. Yeah, I feel like kicking myself right now. Ah whatever. So we drove for another 4 hours before arriving to Tinseltown. 

SBUX - Can we have one of these please in Singapore please? 

After the long drive, we rewarded ourselves with an omakase at Katsuya @ Hollywood. Apparently, celebrities like John Mayer and Jen Aniston frequent this place as well, but alas none was sighted. 

We spent the next day at the Universal Studio before heading to Jeremy's place at Pasadena for dinner. 

Do you remember this? It's the city hall from Back to the Future!

Oh donkey! 

HE HE

The hubs love the Transformers

Pretty impressive show at the Water World

My buddy

Scene from War of the World

Also spent some time at my favorite mall in LA - The Grove! And guess who we bumped into? It was Mario Lopez,  hosting a show! What are the odds? 

Not sure if anyone remember the show 500 Days of Summer, but I remember watching it (with Joey in Bali... weird right) and liking it very much!! What I did not know was that the famous bench scene was shot at downtown Hollywood right across the hotel where I used to stay. 

And here we were.. we found it! It's at the park called Angels Knoll. And even though the buildings overlooking the park resembled very little from the movie, and the park stank of pee, I was still very excited!! 

This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know up front, it is NOT a love story

This one is (:

And this is the end of our 2 week long vaca. It was time to head home.... 

Our road trip theme song: Mirror by JT
Road trip food: Almonds!

A Break in the Desert

We were slightly disoriented after the skydive. But happily we pressed on and continued our drive. Our destination? Las Vegas! The hubs was super ambitious at first and wanted to drive all the way to Grand Canyon. I don't think he was aware that it's a 12 hour's drive. Hah anyway we barely made it to either. 

We drove for about 4 hours and decided to stay the night at Bakersfield, which is in the middle of no where in California. Again, I gotto thank Googlemap for being super helpful through out the journey. Oh how did we ever do without a GPS. 

The little sleepy town had some conference that day so we had difficulty looking for a hotel room downtown. So we settled for a motel called La Quinta which was not half bad. In hind sight, it might have been a tad unsafe because there was hardly any security and anyone could just park their cars right next to our room. A colleague joked that these motels are like buffet spread for serial killers. Nothing stops them from driving to the motels and randomly start killing people. Very true.. but we were safe and sound. 

The hubs taking a leak. This cracks me up. 

Our trusty Mitsubishi for 2 weeks