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  • Malaysia Travel – A Romantic Stay at Eastern & Oriental Hotel, Penang

    I’d like to let you in on a little secret, it’s more a confession I suppose. I am a travel blogger who often flies to far flung exotic destinations – places that people dream of visiting – and sometimes once I get there, I don’t leave the hotel. One such occasion occurred recently in the Malaysian island of Penang. During our four night stay there I left the hotel no more than three times, twice to go out for dinner and once to buy toothpaste after we realised we’d arrived without. I really am a terrible traveller, aren’t I?

    Penang was the beginning of a few weeks of Malaysia travel but it also arrived at the end of four weeks of constant travel, crossing three continents, seven countries and more miles than I can count but by the time my partner and I arrived in Penang I felt everyone of those thousands of miles. So I decided to down my blogging tools – my phone, my laptop, my camera and my notebook – and put on my bikini and pick up a novel I’d been meaning to read for years.

    And you know what happened? It was one of the most romantic and relaxing stays I’d experienced with my boyfriend. Furthermore, I didn’t feel as though I was missing out on experiencing Penang, because the Eastern & Oriental Hotel – the scene of my crimes against travel blogging – is a beautiful and interesting part of the island’s history.

    Founded by the same family responsible for the iconic Sarkies Brothers, an Armenian family who built a chain of luxury hotels in the late nineteenth century including the iconic Raffles Hotel in Singapore, the E&O as it is affectionately known was originally two separate hotels – The Eastern and The Oriental – which merged in 1885. Located in Penang’s main city, Georgetown, it was the place to stay on Penang during the beginning of the twentieth century. Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling and Charlie Chaplin have all laid there heads down to sleep in the E&O. That’s my kind of history.

    Sadly after the Second World War and the Sarkies Brothers the hotel experienced a period of decline and in 1996 it was closed down. Five years later it re-opened fully renovated and refurbished, with much of the original character and traditional feel restored.

    I suppose it is this character that helped make our stay both relaxing and romantic; a grand colonial style building with bright white walls and elaborate detail in the covered walkways and windows. Inside the spacious rooms – well, suites, have tall ceilings and gigantic beds. Old style telephones and upright chairs took me back in time and I stepped into the provided slippers and wrapped the towelling robe around far too comfortably. My partner and I spent our days eating too much for breakfast, sleeping during the day by the pool and reading long neglected books on the couch of our suite. One afternoon we felt “adventurous” so we enjoyed an afternoon tea in the 1885 restaurant and lounge, but then we ate so much we had to go back to bed to sleep it off. The staff – including a butler service – were accommodating and kind, but also gave us the privacy and space we needed to do… er, nothing. After a year on the road it was the first time my partner and I had taken more than one day off “work” together, we treasured some time together that wasn’t interrupted by emails or to do lists.

    On my way to get toothpaste, I took a few photos and I felt my travel blogging instincts twitch – Ooh, what’s that beautiful building in the distance? And what are those locals eating? – but then a yawn would over come those thoughts and I realised it was time for my afternoon nap.

    I may have left Penang a bad travel blogger, but I left completely relaxed and with my relationship feeling strong and happy.

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  • Travels in Canada – Romantic Quebec City

    I didn’t expect to fall in love in Quebec City and I didn’t expect to be alone when it happened. But fall in love I did and though I believe my love is unrequited, this hasn’t stopped me thinking aout the object of my affection many times since I left.

    I suppose Quebec City had me at “Bonjour”.

    It was the last stop of my travels in Canada where I visited three Canadian cities in under ten days and though Toronto and Montreal had impressed me with their mix of modern and historic culture, Quebec City was so different and comparatively unusual that it almost felt like I’d travelled into another country. The only problem with my time in Quebec City was that I was all alone and somewhat poignantly it was my last destination after three weeks of travel away from my partner. It was fair to say I was missing him a little bit.

    However, I pushed aside my blues for the boy and took my camera on a walk around my new surroundings and before I knew it I was cheating on the man I supposedly missed so much and was falling deeply in love with Quebec City.

    With architecture that belongs in a countryside village in the middle of Burgundy and with locals speaking a strange but still incredibly convincing and romantic French, I spent the first few minutes feeling a little lost – in the best possible way. As my ear and eyes adjusted I started to get swept away in the romance of its history.

    Since its beginnings four hundred years ago, this small city was fought for again and again by the French and the British and in a strange twist of fate, once conquered unglamorously by the British in one of history’s quickest wars (15 minutes if you ask the British or 30 minutes according to the French) the Brits passed a law allowing Quebec City to keep its French language and heritage. Of course, they would have had no idea of the consequences this decision would have on tourism in Canada but I for one am very glad that law was passed.

    As a result Quebec City boasts some of the best restaurants in North America and is a haven for delicatessens, bakeries and fromageries and the region is experiencing a surge in the popularity of local, artisan and organic produce.

    And then there are the stand out buildings dotted around Quebec City, hungry for the gazing eyes of many. Built in an instantly recognisable French style, the Parliament Building is one of the finest government buildings I’ve ever seen and of course you can’t miss the formidable Chateau Frontenac Hotel, which watches over the oldest streets of the city down near the water front. But for me there was something much more romantic wandering along those old streets, the ones that have been lovingly restored and rebuilt, where British 18th century architecture meets French Normandy farmhouse style homes.

    And as I crossed the Place Royale and strolled down le Quartier Petit Champlain – a narrow street of cottages in which you can find shops, ice cream parlours and of course more delicious restaurants, well this was when I decided that I must return with my partner and share with him my new found love of Quebec City.

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  • Six of the best things I’ve done as a traveling couple

    Roll back the clock a few years and there I was a stubbornly single city loving young(ish) girl living a wonderful life in London. I went on summer holidays and weekend city breaks regularly and I thought the fact that everyone else harboured secret dreams to travel full time made my own hopes and dreams normal but not obligatory to chase. I mean you can’t just up and leave your job, house, friends and family, can you?

    Then I met a good looking Australian man who had already moved his life to the other side of the world , he shared my love of travel and he took one thing away from me; the word “can’t”.

    Fast forward two and a half years to today and we’re chasing our dreams together, every day. Because we can.

    While I’m a firm believer in travelling alone – whether you’re single or not – I cannot deny that travelling in a couple has given me some wonderful memories. I thought these could serve as reminder why travelling as a couple is so special and perhaps they could serve as some good couple travel tips and inspiration for what you could try on your next world travel adventure with your loved one. Here are some of the best things I’ve done travelling in a couple…

    Snowboarding. This is actually how we met. Actually no, that’s not true. Technically drinking in a bar on the top of a mountain in Austria after a hard day’s snowboarding is how we met but it was snowboarding that brought us both there. While my boyfriend flies down mountains with speed and ease and I have to push myself to keep up, it’s something we both love to do and we’re currently planning three months of fun in the snow for early 2013. I can’t wait.

    Learnt to play backgammon. So I admit this isn’t a very thrilling activity to list here, but it’s worth mentioning as travelling couples should relate! I think every couple has their “thing” while they travel – their time-wasting or time-killing game they rely on to kill a few hours during an airport layover or to while away the hours on a beach. My boyfriend taught me how to play backgammon during one of our very first dates in London and now it’s our “thing”.

    Scuba Diving. We have now done nearly ten dives together (my ears didn’t equalise on the tenth so he went on without me!) and have seen some wonderful underwater sights. It was my boyfriend’s idea to dive together and despite my initial fears and worries, it’s something I love to do and part of the reason why is the fact that you have to work together as a team. He’s my favourite buddy!

    Road Tripping. While my boyfriend isn’t as big a fan as I am about the joys of the open road – although he likes the chocolate and candy that usually accompanies the miles – it was during our road trips from Brisbane to Melbourne in Australia and across Europe from Amsterdam to the south of France that we have had the most important and honest conversations about our future; work, play, travel plans, feelings and goals – for some reason road trips are our happy talking places and for that I’m grateful.

    I met my Australian partner’s mother – Travel took me to Australia and Australia is where my boyfriend’s mother lives. It’s also where I met many of his friends and family that I’d long heard him talk about. While it was a special way to get to know a new country it was also like finding a missing jigsaw piece in the puzzle that is often my boyfriend!Wakeboarding With it’s obvious similarity to snowboarding, it was inevitable I suppose that we would enjoy wakeboarding so much. On our first go in Malaysia over a year ago, my boyfriend took to it straight away like a wakeboarding duck to water, while I struggled to find my feet and fell more times than I care to admit. Many more hours and wonderful days out in the sunshine of Malaysia and Thailand later, it’s our go to summer activity to fill those months where our feet itch to go snowboarding.

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  • Luxury Travel in Thailand – A Couples’ Massage

    There comes a time in every couple’s relationship when they discuss sexual fantasies. It’s an awkward conversation at the best of times, so I’m not about to broadcast it on here so worry not dear reader (and my poor mother) this is not what this blog post is about. However, I’d be lying if I said that the words “sexual fantasy” didn’t cross my mind when I heard my boyfriend’s most recent suggestion for a relaxing afternoon just the two of us as part of a little luxury travel in Thailand.

    “A four hand massage?” I asked, my eyes widening and my mind conjuring up all sorts of explicit images.

    “Yeah, two masseurs and me,” he said smiling showing me the website for a spa located just down the road from our villa here on Phuket in Thailand. “You could have one too or you could have something else? They’ve got hot oil, aromatherapy, Swedish…”

    As he listed the spa’s full itinerary of offers I reassured myself that my boyfriend wasn’t about to run into the Thai sunset with two gorgeous girls or why else would he be inviting me along? Or on second thoughts is he really that stupid?

    Thailand is our happy place. A country we can return to easily and quickly. We know what to expect – sunshine, good food, smiling people and ridiculously affordable massages – and it’s why one year after starting out on our travelling adventures, we returned. Within days of arriving back we’d settle into a familiar routine; working until the early afternoon, a lazy lunch at our favourite Thai restaurant, going for a swim or walk along the beach before sunset and maybe a couple of beers in Thailand’s warm night air or an evening visit to our favourite massage place.

    Our favourite massage place offers one hour Thai massage for $10.00, has a yapping poodle with better groomed nails than me and is staffed with wonderfully friendly women who now know us by name. We lie on mattresses on the floor in one of their makeshift treatment rooms and listen to panpipe music over the churn of the air conditioning while being stretched until we click. Now this is my kind of massage; it’s cheap and it’s cheerful, and it’s actually very, very good.

    So why wasn’t that good enough for my boyfriend on this occasion?

    “Well, we always go there. This would be something special,” he explained. “I don’t mind spending a bit of extra money for a bit of luxury,”

    And that, in a nutshell, is our approach to travel; we are not afraid to spend money if it gets us something special.

    Adopting the “if you can’t beat them, join them” mentality I told my boyfriend I too would like a four hand massage. I hoped they had enough staff.

    They did, of course, and upon arrival we were welcomed into a small reception area by an impeccably attired Thai woman who guided us through to a sheltered courtyard where two small elephant fountains spurted water from their trunks into a small pond. I could smell lemongrass in the air as our host passed us some pandan juice to drink with an ice cold refreshing towel. Already this was proving to be a different experience. Not once did I look for a yapping dog or did I miss the panpipes.

    We were shown to a treatment room that was a three wall sala-style room with the open wall overlooking a lake – an actual lake! – we were going to have a massage with a stunning view. There were two massage beds inside and a small shower room in one corner. We were invited to shower and undress at our leisure and we did, taking a little extra time to laugh at the disposable underwear we were given.

    And then our massages began…

    Within the first few minutes all worries of this being one of my boyfriend’s unspoken sexual fantasies abandoned me and I succumbed to the delight of having the best massage of my life. You really haven’t had a “full body massage” until you’ve had two masseurs at work on you. From working together to apply extra pressure to rolling their forearms over my back in sync so I felt as though I was under a waterfall of soft soothing motions, it was an experience like no other in terms of releasing stress and relaxing my mind. The massage ended with a simultaneous head and foot massage; something so simple yet so effective.

    My boyfriend’s smile afterwards as we relaxed in another area of the spa said it all. It wasn’t at all sexual; just complete indulgence and luxury he’d been after and we’d both been lucky enough to enjoy just that.

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