tender is the night | and tender are my thoughts

Posted on July 24, 2011 by ally

I didn’t want Day 3 to come. All that pampering and relaxing was just too indulgent for me to tear away from. But we all knew we had to get back to reality. After all, it’s these “harsh” realities that allow us to finance all these dream vacations. Yes?

We didn’t have a whole lot of time to spare on our last day, but we did manage to squeeze in a few laps (Nessa), a short read by the pool (Dia) and a stroll along the beach (me).

Nessa’s all ready to work some muscles in the pool

And I’m all geared up for my stroll

As for Dia? She couldn’t wait to dive into her book

After my 30-minute stroll, I decided to be the ultimate cliche and ordered a piña colada.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye, but not before posing for some final shots.

So long, Banyan Tree Bintan! Thanks for the wonderfully rejuvenating experience. :)

And with that, I can now (finally) strike off one more thing from my list. Woo!

. . . . .

Song of the Day, because we kept singing this tune every time we saw the stars

Yellow, by Coldplay

Posted on July 24, 2011 by ally

A large portion of our second day was spent mostly at the pool and at the beach. But first, we had to fill our tummies up with brekkie, which was made a lot more chi-chi with some bubbly, in the form of Veuve Clicquot.

Then, we headed straight to the beach.

We ventured onto the boardwalk first

That brought us out to the gigantic rocks

Where we could wade in the cool, clear waters

The cool, cool waters

From the boardwalk, we had a pretty breathtaking view of the resort

All that wading made us too eager to swim, so we went back, got changed into our swimmers and spent 2 hours in the Beach Pool and at the beach.

The sea was so inviting we spent 45 minutes soaking and swimming in the very clear waters

Expectedly, we’re all burnt right now. But I’m not complaining cos I finally got my tan. :p

Ravenous from all that swimming, we ordered in-villa dining

And took a leisurely walk after lunch

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Monopoly where I lost BIG TIME because Dia was well, monopolising the game with her many, many houses. Bleh.

The girls decided to go to the gym because they felt they’d been eating too much. Me? I stayed in the villa and got the jacuzzi going. It was not my favourite thing, unfortunately, mostly because I didn’t think it was as relaxing as I’d imagined it to be.

When the girls got back, we headed to Banyan Tree’s signature restaurant, Saffron, for dinner.

A Thai spread

Alas, it wasn’t spectacular. Good enough, but not really anything to rave about. Ah well. At least everything else about the day was pretty darn amazing. ;)

Posted on July 24, 2011 by ally

I cannot stress the importance of having a vacation. Granted, I’m blessed enough to be able to afford them, and I really do thank God for that. But I’m also extremely grateful for the R&R that will recharge my weary soul, and keep me sane.

Over the weekend, Dia, Nessa and I indulged in a Banyan Tree getaway at Bintan. It was our first time at a Banyan Tree resort and we didn’t quite know what to expect. Still, we knew that staying at a Banyan Tree resort would result in plenty of pampering, and we were not let down.