Life In The Fast Lane

We have made it 6 months in Singapore so far! I believe that is some kind of milestone worth noting! Like I always say, time is just FLYING by here! I never know if that is a good or bad thing...At least it is getting us back home faster! Not that we hate it here, we are just ready to get back home to everything we miss.

Round two of family visits included my Dad, Stepmom, little sister Holly, and brother Kemper who arrived at the end of June and stayed for two weeks. I was very surprised at how well they did with the jet lag! Kemper ran as fast as he could over to us when he saw Ben and I at the airport. It was so cute! It was so great to see everyone after a long 7 months!! We took them all over Singapore doing the usual, Singapore Flyer, Zoo, Clarke Quay, Marina Bay, Little India, Chinatown, Orchard, etc. etc. I was trying to get my Dad to try durian the whole time but he never would :( Everyone seemed to really like naan! And the fresh squeezed juices - green apple and lemon with sugar! YUMM!!
The highlight of the trip was our trip to Phuket for 4 days. We stayed at the JW Marriott which was a beautiful hotel! We mainly relaxed by the beach and swam in the pool for the first day and enjoyed the amazing breakfast buffet every morning! Why else do you go on vacation right? They even had REAL honey straight off the honeycomb at the breakfast buffet!! We also enjoyed $12 1 hour massages on the beach!

The next day we took a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands by the bumpiest speed boat ever! It was totally worth it though! It is absolute paradise there! I went four years ago with the Thailand study abroad trip, but my best friend Kristie lost all of the pictures we took as soon as we got back so we never got to show people the pictures! We overcompensated for the loss by taking 800 though! Thank God for digital cameras! We snorkeled in about 4 different locations around the Phi Phi Islands and got to see lots of parrot fish, puffer fish, barracudas, sea anemones (yes I had to google that to find out the correct spelling), and tons of other fish I had no idea what their names were! But it really made Ben and I want to get our diving certifications! We also got to see where they filmed the James Bond movie "Golden Gun" as well as "The Beach". I had seen where they filmed "The Beach" 4 years ago but this time they let us actually hang out on the beach there! It was kind of disappointing, though, because there was so much trash everywhere. The public had ruined one of the most beautiful beaches in the world! I hope they can close it down for a couple of years to clean it up. UGH! Anyways, here are a few pictures of this paradise! Pictures never do it justice, I don't care how good the camera is!


Another part of our Phi Phi Island adventure involved Monkey Island. They dropped us off on the island where all of these crazy wild monkeys were running around stealing the bananas straight out of peoples hands! NO FEAR!
We ventured to Patong Beach one evening for some night market action and a buffet dinner at the Holiday Inn along the beach. We weren't impressed with the market here, they wanted USD$30 for a FAKE pair of Billabong board shorts! COME ONE CRAZIES!!! That's how much a REAL pair is in the States! They think we don't know this! They weren't willing to negotiate lower either so we didn't purchase anything. We did come across an Indian Pancake stall (which Kristie and I have been craving since we left Thailand 4 years ago) so we of course got a chocolate and vanilla one! They are similar to a crepe, but so much better!!! Don't know why! It might be how they fold them?

Sunset @ Patong Beach

There wasn't a celebration for the 4th of July in Phuket, big surprise. We were hoping for some fireworks though. No such luck. We celebrated Holly's 7th birthday on the 5th of July at the hotel. She ate an entire donut the size of her face for her cake :) I didn't have my camera for that one :( Ben and I watched one of the most beautiful sunsets we had ever seen on the beach our last night we were there. God paints amazing pictures for us! My husband gets to take credit for these beautiful pictures he took :)
We headed back to reality in Singapore and spent the last day with the family at Chinatown for some last minute gift shopping. It was so great spending time with them and getting closer to them. Holly and Kemper grow so much inbetween the times we see them, I still can't believe they are already 7 and 5! They are so adorable and say the cutest things! It was also a great time to become closer to Dad and Elorra. We are so grateful that they were able to come visit us across the world!! We can't wait to see everyone again in a month when we visit the States!!! They better have some juicy steaks on the table as soon as we arrive :) Joking - kind of!

God Bless,
H & B

To view more photos from our trip to Phuket, please visit my facebook album.