We set off early, having left
Harry at my parents’ for the weekend. I was an emotional wreck, naturally,
since it’s the first vacation away from my baby. Of course, I’ve been away from
him before when I went on my short business trips but since that was for work,
my mind was occupied. I cannot yet fathom the concept of being in a relaxed
state of mind without my baby, but we wanted to give this couple escapade thing
a shot and see if a weekend away for just the both of us will do us good.
We managed to drive all the way
to Johor without any stops, and arrived at noon nicely. Our first stop, JPO!
End of year is definitely a fantastic time to shop for bargains. Coach and
Oroton being the best places to shop with practically 70% off normal prices.
Awesome, awesome! We were exhausted just from the walk about to discover the
stores there.
After an exhausting yet exciting
4 hours of walking about, we made our way to Thistle Hotel. The hotel’s
situated close to Danga Bay and is in a quiet corner which was splendid, away
from the hustle and bustle of traffic. Hotel is nice though furnishings are a
bit dated. After a quick check in, we settled in for a bit, then I went ahead
for my hour long massage session at the Thistle Spa. Ahh, a blissful experience
I’ve not acquainted myself with for a while. A sensation I’ve completely
forgotten.
After my relaxing massage, we
decided on dinner at Restoran Singgah Selalu, a 24-hour forever packed and busy
restaurant situated on Danga Bay. The food here was awesome. Truly, we were
spoilt for choice. The menu’s humongous and the variety’s endless. Definitely a
must visit when in JB. I was impressed by the large number of kitchen hands
they have, its practically a canteen and they seemed so disciplined and
well-structured that its practically like witnessing an army kitchen.
After all that, we were just
zonked by the time we got back to the hotel and had a restful, restful sleep.
The next morning, we headed for
breakfast at Fresh Restaurant at Thistle bright and early. The spread was
limited, but tastes reasonably nice. I thought the Nasi Lemak was quite nice.
We made our way to Legoland, with
the excuse to scout the place before bringing Harry with us next round. At only
10 am which is basically opening time, the place was already packed to the brim and the queue up line was just so
horrendously long that we made the decision to forget about Legoland. I was
developing a headache just from standing in line and the intense heat, so definitely
cannot imagine bringing Harry here, at least not now.
We had no other plans and didn’t
want to bore ourselves off at the hotel since the Wi-Fi connection there isn’t
the best, we decided to make another trip to JPO. Having mulled over some of
those temptations from the day before, we made quite a few purchases at Coach
and Oroton. After yet another 4 hours of walking about at JPO, I was truly
exhausted from shopping! We went back to the hotel and we both had another
round of massage treatments at the spa. Such bliss.
We were so drained that we didn’t
even have the energy to drive out for dinner and decided on just a simple
dinner at a nearby diner since the hotel’s restaurant described a wait time of
more than an hour for ala carte orders.
That was pretty much our retreat,
which turned out to be more of a shopping escapade than a relaxing retreat. I
must remember to go for islands or serene, calming places where there is no
excuse to shop and tire ourselves and force us to just relax and spend time
with each other next time around. That said, whilst I was an emotional wreck
ball prior to the trip, once we were there, it was actually enriching to spend
quality time together, minus the parental guilt and minus the shopping
exhaustion - just the two of us, just like before we were Mama and Papa. I
guess its true what they say, on occasion, we just have to do some couple things
and just be Husband and Wife, to re-connect and rejuvenate the relationship
without the kids around. Not something I can get away with all the time, but
hoping to at least keep it to a bi-annual or at least an annual tradition.
Having full completely undisturbed sleep once or twice a year feels like a must
have treat, after this experience. Ah-ma-zing!
Harry was perfectly fine and
contented according to my parents, hence, don’t think he missed us that much.
Haha. To think I cried buckets and worried endlessly for this one! LOL!
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