Mar 15, 2008

Our Honeymoon!!!!

Long awaited...Long awaited...Long awaited...It's FINALLY HERE!!!!
After 7 months of marriage, we finally go on our honeymoon! We took the opportunity of combining our friend Paul So & Viona's destination wedding and our honeymoon together, so we can celebrate this happy moment with them!
Day 1
We started our trip on Sat, Feb 23. On our first day, we basically were travelling. We got to Punta Cana Airport at 10:30pm and the airport was jam packed! We finally got to our room at like 12:30am and was starving!!!! Not knowing our way around the resort, we went to the sports bar (opened til 6am) for some wings, surprisingly, they were so delicious!!! (or we were super hungry)

Day 2
The next day, we woke up pretty late and went for the mandatory briefing by our vacation agency, Signature Vacations. After that, we decided to walk around the resort and discover what's there to do around the resort and took some photos...the resort is amazing!!! We spent most of our day at the beach working on our tan...the thing I'm not use to is the super salty water! I don't remember it being this salty when I was growing up in HK...

Day 3
After a day of relaxation, we wanted to do something more exciting. Since we upgraded our room to the deluxe package (Elite club), we had a 1 hour free motorized water sports. So we signed up for 15 minutes of banana boat. A banana boat is basically an inflatable boat shaped like a banana, where passengers sit on top of it with a handle and the whole boat is dragged around by a speed boat in the front. Of course, they made it "interesting" by deliberately swinging us into the water! It was really fun and honestly, 15 minutes was enough :P
After banana boating, we continued the water fun by renting a jetski for an hour. A guide was in front driving his own jetski while Yusuf and I were on our own jetski. I was scared at first because the waves made the jetski bounce up and down quite a bit...then I got use to it and we were able to go a bit faster (only a bit cuz I was still nervous...). After the hour of jetski, I really felt my skin burning in the sun. When I took a shower after that, the top of my head was in so much pain because it was sunburned! Who would have thought to put sunblock on the head?!?!!
For dinner, we tried an a la carte restaurant "Le Casa". The food was okay, but the restaurant was very pretty...they even had a Mariachi band playing for every table! Of course, they are looking for a tip...
Day 4
One of my favourite memory of our honeymoon has to be the sunrise. It was the most beautiful and hopeful thing I have ever saw! Punta Cana is located on the most eastern tip of Dominican Republic, so there is nothing blocking the sunrise - just the boundless ocean. (On a side note, I think Yusuf's most painful memory will also be watching the sunrise..haha....)
4 of our friends finally came to join us on the trip. 2 of them, Paul and Viona, are the couple getting married in the resort! We went to the beach for some sun and kayaked too.

Day 5
I was so excited today! Again, we watched the sunrise (it was nicer today because there were not much clouds) as a big group. It was very exciting to see the sun peek through the horizon. Today, we enjoyed a 3 hour horseback riding excursion along with touring the coffee and cocoa plantation in the area. It was so interesting to see the cocoa plants growing on trees - especially with my love of chocolate!!! We also drank freshly brewed coffee, so delicious!

Day 6
Today, we booked a snorkeling excursion with everyone on the trip. The excursion was called "Caribbean Festival". We took a decorated yellow schoolbus to the dock and the boat took us to a secluded area where we interacted with the stingrays and sharks (don't worry, they are vegetarian). It was such a cool experience!!! The stingray's top part was very rough (like elephant) and the bottom part was so smooth and soft (like sponge or foam). We even took pictures with them! After the shark/stingray interaction, we went to another snorkeling site to look at corals and fish. It was little disappointing because the water was not very clear compared to when I was in Cozumel....
After the full day excursion, we had dinner at the restaurant beside the beach and we all had 1.5 grilled lobster! yum yum!

Day 7
Feb 29, 2008. This is the day that our friends Viona & Paul got married. Our purpose for this trip (besides our honeymoon). Congratulations!!!
A little before the ceremony, Yusuf also did something very memorable. After waiting for 3 years, he finally wakeboarded!!! He was so excited and even though the crappy equipment provided made his skin peel off, he didn't care and held on the handle for his dear life. After a few attempts, he was able to stand up, I was so proud of him!!!

Day 8
Time flies when we are having fun. It's the last day of our honeymoon and we spent most of our morning packing and checking out. We hit the beach for the last time and took some photos around the resort to end this amazing honeymoon....

More Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=98983&l=8fbd1&id=534615390
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108482&l=656a2&id=534615390

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