I've been married for more than eight months. We have already been on a few trips. Yet I've never had the time to reflect on these journeys. I've had short periods of breaks but there's always something else more important which has to be done.
After the big day, we went for a short trip to Thailand. The objective of this trip was really simple. We were crazy busy for the past few months, it was time to just let go and relax. Aside from our usual destination, Bangkok, we decided to experience Hua Hin as well. Hua Hin is the summer getaway location for the royal family for ages.
Our itineraries there are quite simple too. Eat, shop, relax. We stayed at our usual hotel chain, Amari. Amari Watergate had been the hotel we stayed in Bangkok for almost every trip in the past few years. Service has always been friendly and welcoming, we also had our room upgraded to a suite because it was our honeymoon. We also made a trip to Chinatown to splurge on some Chinese delicacies. Thanks to lower cost of living and a strong exchange rate, we could eat quite lavishly. To top off every evening, we would go for Thai massage at Healthland Spa. It's a place with good service, nice environment, service staff speaks reasonably good english and most of all, the price is great!
Hua Hin is much more laid back when compared to Bangkok. Once again we stayed with Amari. This hotel is a new development at Hua Hin. Therefore we had everything spanking new in addition to the usually great Amari service. Hua Hin is not a place which excites but it gives you all the peace and quiet you need to detach from the real world. That was precisely what we did those few days.
THAILAND PHOTOS
This trip to Thailand was just a prelude to our main honeymoon trip. It's a
much needed rest ever since getting busy for our wedding.
The main course for our honeymoon is Greece and Turkey in May. Aside from
deciding on the location and the dates, my dear wife had settled the itinerary
singlehandedly to the minute details. I'm really grateful that she did it all
because I was so overwhelmed with work.
We started off our journey in Greece at Athens. It's not a direct journey
there. We first landed in Istanbul and took another flight to Athens. The first
impression Athens gave us was a dilapidated city. Everything was closed and
shops and shutters were all sprayed with graffiti. It was only when we checked
in that we were told that it's actually a week long holiday for the orthodox
Easter.
On one hand we were glad to be there on a joyous occasion, but it also meant
that almost all the shops and attractions were closed for the period. That
forced us to adjust our itinerary and we could only visit few sites and do
window shopping. The biggest let down was not being able to visit the Acropolis
of Athens. While not being able to visit the Acropolis, we are able to enjoy a
fantastic view of it every day directly from our room. The night view is quite
spectacular too. In fact all that made us want to visit Acropolis even more.
ATHENS PHOTOS
After Athens we embarked on a few days of guided tour to immerse ourselves
into the mythical Greek history. Majority of our group were Caucasians, we are
the only Chinese in the group. There's another Indian lady and her partner and
that's all for Asians in a group of over twenty.
Our guide was this plump guy called amelios, he was very knowledgeable an
organizes his commentary very well. He brought us through a journey through
time and space. We were very grateful to have him as our guide. He drew a very complete picture of greek history from the mythology to mycenaean to roman times. A short 4 days 3 nights tour took us to several of the notable historical sites.
Notably, we passed by this place known as Corinth Canal. It's designed and constructed by the same team who did the Suez Canal. In fact, it was this project that brought that team to prominence and got them the Suez Canal job. It's basically a very narrow and deep waterway carved through the rocks. It's quite an awesome sight.
Epidaurus was the first site we visited, the highlight there was this amphitheatre which was very well preserved. The acoustics effects are still intact and the guide could show us how well a single voice is projected across to every single audience.
The second day we visited Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympics. The place was pretty much ruined and empty, but thanks to the guide. He painted a lively picture of how athletes who are pretty much tribute (similar to the hunger games) in those days lived, competed and fought at Olympia. Olympia itself was pretty much a tribute to Zeus.
The next day we were at Delphi, a place with loads of cats. I also liked the place because of it's richness in mythology. It is the sanctuary of the Sun God Apollo, and it was the place where Apollo's most treasured oracles had lived. Many had visited Delphi just to have their futures told. The landscape around Delphi itself already provides somewhat a mystical feel to the place. It's a city perched on the slope and overseeing beautiful scenery. There's also this super cool aqueduct, which leads all the way back to Athens. It's still operational and works purely on gravity.
The final day was meant to be the best part of this tour, but unfortunately, we had a change of guide. And this new guide was LOUSY! On one hand it was really irritating because she had to give the commentary in English and in French, which meant she had limited time to give information. On the other hand, she was totally not interested. Her method of giving commentary is just striking off a checklist. There's no storyline and no link. Just piecemeal and jumbled information. Quite disappointed that because of her, we did not learn much about Meteora and Thermopiles.
Based on my own research, Meteora was a secluded place in the mountains where monks practiced a monastic form on christianity. Their church are all built on steep cliffs and they are all marvels on engineering and most of them are very inaccessible when they were built.
Thermopiles was simpler to understand. It was the site where the famous 300 Spartans had fought the Persians. Yup, there's place where Gerard Butler's 300 made famous.
On this tour we saw our first oranges on trees, figs on trees and most important of all. We had our first taste of Moussaka. Moussaka is something like a shepherd's pie with egg plant, it's very very nice!!!
4D3N PHOTOS
Our next leg of our journey in Greece is pretty much the go to destination in Greece, Santorini. Santorini is a remains of a volcanic crater. The volcano is only dormant though, not extinct yet. Vast majority of the buildings on the island are painted white. Only a small portion is painted with blue. Postcards around the world tend to only capture the white and blue parts. Talk about misrepresentation.
Nonetheless, being there instantly makes you feel more romantic somehow. We booked a suite there and most of their hotels there comes with a jacuzzi or some sort. Being on honeymoon usually gives you some perks. Our hotel upgraded us to a honeymoon suite, which is basically a HUGE room with a HUGE jacuzzi on our balcony. The wind on the island is always strong and it's very cold when the sun is down, but that's also the best time to soak in the jacuzzi. It was a luxury that would remain in our minds for a long long time.
Santorini is not a big island so we rented a car and drove around. I really liked the car we had, it's a smart car. It's basically a tiny little 2 seater by Mercedes. I think Singapore should really bring in these cars.
SANTORINI PHOTOS
Our last leg in Greece is the island of Rhodes. This is where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood. The Colossus was one of the wonders of the ancient world. What I liked most about the place was actually our hotel. It was filled with cats! We had a very friendly and welcoming host as well. We were basically living within the walls of the old castle. The old castle was a stronghold where the christian crusaders held off attacks from the turkish forces.
We also took a short cruise around the city. The highlight of the cruise was actually a segment of highspeed travelling. That part came very suddenly and kind of caught us off guard. Exhilarating!
RHODES PHOTOSOTHER GREECE PHOTOS
In the next part, we'll move on to the Turkey and more recently our trip to Australia.