Cayo Coco, Cuba March 20th - 27th, 2010

Back in Dec 2009, Brian and I were having a casual conversation about all inclusive vacation with Henry and Grace. I really missed the white sand and clear blue water, it had been a long time (since 2006) Brian and I went for an all inclusive vacation since the Bahamas. So we casually agreed to go this year not thinking that it would actually happen ;) We booked it in Feburary when our friend told us that the price seems pretty decent. It was a much needed one and we were glad we went.

Day 1
We arrived at Cayo Coco at around 8pm that night and were welcomed by the warm and humid Cuban air with a strong fume of the engine exhaust when we walked down the plane with the ladder that they had set up outdoor. It took less than 30 minutes for us to get ready and head out to the shuttle bus for our hotel. I was glad to find out that our hotel was only 15 minutes away from the airport, on our way to the hotel, we found a lot of wild horses and cows (like the squirrels and raccoons we have here in Toronto) We stayed at Tryp Cayo Coco. The resort was nice not fancy like the ones in the Bahamas but the main lobby and bar were very airy with a pleasant aroma of java :) We were starving by the time we have checked in but unfortunately the restaurants were already closed and our only option was ham and cheese sandwiches at the snack bar (better than nothing)

Day 2 Sunny
After breakfast, we rushed to the a la carte reservation desk to make our reservation, we read online that we should do that first thing before spots gets filled by the Sunday guest checking into the hotel. We booked 4 different a la carte restaurant, 1 cuban, 1 international, 1 grill and the last one being seafood. We spent most of the day exploring the resort and walking at the beach. We walked by a seafood restaurant and decided to try out some local restaurant food. They had lobster for 15US so we ordered one to share amongst the four of us. The lobster was quite over cooked to a point that it almost had a rubbery texture. YUCK!! That night, we had Cuban cuisine. we start to notice that everything were pretty overcook, greasy and salty there. We was warn about food in Cuba so we were not shock, it actually already tasted better than expected.

Day 3 Rainy
Brian bailed at breakfast to I decided to go on my own since I was already up. After breakfast, I met up with Henry and Grace at the main bar to chill, we didn't head to the beach that afternoon because it was raining on and off. We started drinking from 10 AM and never stopped lol.. Brian showed up at 1:30pm and by then we were all pretty buzzed. We had all sort of drinks, we even asked the bartender to make us fresh pinacoladas. Our favourites were the Spanish Coffee and the Mojitos. We went to the international cuisine for dinner that night and enjoyed the second best lobster dinner we had in Cuba and also really good wine. I think the 4 of us drank 2 bottles of white wine, the wine was so tasty that we had asked the waiter to give us a new bottle to take with us to our room. We had so much wine that day that I started having rashes on my body. eeek

Day 4 Spa Day
The four of us headed to a spa near the hotel on Day 4. The spa was gorgeous, its situated on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. we chose the mud therapy package where we enjoyed a nice steam room session followed by body mud mask and one hour massage. I love the outdoor setting of the spa, service was also excellent.

Day 5 Tour of the Island & Horseback Riding
We took a town tour in the morning where we visited the bat cave and a local beach. I was a little dissapointed with the cave, It lost a lot of the natural cave look that I was looking for since the cave had been converted to a night club for tourist. Brian did however took a really cool picture of the bats in the cave. :) That evening, we went on our horseback riding tour ($30 per person including lobster dinner) It was really fun. I enjoyed the ride although it got really tiring towards the end. I am sure the boys were dying on the horses. I almost fell off the horse once when another horse starts to attack the one I was on. My horse is quite the competitor, he always needed to be in the first three place in the pack so he would randomly gallop. Brian's horse however is almost like a drunk horse, he kept tripping up as he stroll down the path. Grace's horse loves to gallop hahaha
The lobster dinner was really gross at the restaurant.

Day 6 Snorkeling and Private beach
We signed up for a snorkeling trip on day 6. it was almost a 45 minute drive to the place. Snorkeling wasn't that exciting this time, we didnt see any stingrays, sea turtle or sharks. However, I got bitten by the fishes when I was trying to feed them bread. They are quite aggressive!!! The highlight of the trip were the starfish and conch we found. I couldn't really tell you what other fishes we saw since I don' know any names. I think i saw Dora (from Nemo) The beach there was really nice, it had a long stretch of shallow water and the were minimal wave at that beach!

Day 7 Chill day
We spent our last day just chilling out at the resort, tanning at the beach. By day 5, Brian was already badly burnt so he was trying to avoid the sun so Henry, Grace and I went on the paddle boat. We brought bread with us to try our luck, we managed to fine quite a few fishies. We were trying to take advantage of the unlimited mojitos that day =) i missed them already!!!


All in all, it was a fantastic trip!

Scores
Lobster Killed: 13
Coconut Consumed: 15
Mojitos Drank: countless
Spanish Coffee: daily doesessss
White Wine: 5 bottles

Pop Art Toaster

We got a house warming gift from my cousin Shirley and her husband Lewis a couple weeks ago. Its a really cute toaster that you can imprint various images onto the toast using these stencil plates. You can check out the detail here.

Since December, we haven't had a weekend where we can just sit home and enjoy our house. We always have plans, Christmas party, birthday party etc.... I am hoping we will get a chance to stay home and do nothing in Feburary. Speaking of sit and do nothing, Brian and I are going on vacation in March and May, the sit and do nothing kind woohooo.. We will be going with another couple (our MJ buddies) in March to an All Inclusive, so hopefully we can find a cheap deal when it gets closer to. Brian and I will be going with my family to... "ta daaaaaa.... ANOTHER CRUISE" I am honestly a little cruised out lol.. but my mom really wants to go try and I guess food would be better on the cruise. Maybe this time, I can conquer the flow rider and not get owned by the wave =) *wishful thinking*

On another note, chinese new year is coming up FAST!! I am going to dread this season forever lol... MAN.. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY KIDS!!!! We need to get some of those new year treats for the house.

failed...

I just realized that i completely forgot to blog for the last month =P

December was crazy with lots of friends and family gathering, Brian and I hosted 4 parties at our place over the holidays =P I think I am really looking forward to have some relaxing weekends. I want to sit at home and play SIMS 3 lol.. I also have to work on my honeymoon photos I am trying to post them up ( a lot of ppl have been asking to see them) Next will be putting together a book for our wedding day photos and our honeymoon!! we have to get our photographer to edit the ones we like!!

Brian and I went to visit our cousin and her baby yesterday. OMG.. they grew so fast!!! she looks so much like her mommy lol

Brian and I have also started to do more exercise, instead of joining a gym since both of us are really not into gym workout, we are trying to do more sports! we have badminton on thursday and I am trying to go swim every other tuesday or every tuesday =) see how that works out!!

christmas that came early

Having your birthday in December is like having a Christmas month instead of christmas day because you can get presents from any day of the month!. Yesterday was a sepecial day =) First our long awaited sofa had finally arrived!! woohoo.. we no longer had to sit on the floor or the dining chairs while watching tv. Since yoshi is really into leather goods, I tested him by putting him on the sofa.. he didn't really enjoy it and left whew.. my biggest fear was that I will come home to a chewed up sofa!!!

Yesterday after dinner, I used my kitchenaid mixer for the first time!! its my bday and christmas gift from my sister!! woohoooo! I baked banana muffin and shortbread!! i thikn the shortbread is too crunchy this time.. maybe i over baked it =P

At 10:30 at night Brian came home with my early beday gift!!! GUESS WHAT! I GOT A MACBOOK WOOHOOOO...! Thanks baby... now i need to get some software for it and more importantly learn how to use it lol!!!

o.... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATSY!!!!

o x'mas tree.. o x'mas tree......

THIS IS GOING TO BE THE END OF ME!!!

Thanks Patsy!!

一本- IPPAI Fusion Japanese Cuisine

一本 - ippai Fusion Japanese Cuisine
8865 Woodbine Ave. Unit D5
Markham, Ontario L3R 5G1
(905) 470-1688

My family, Brian and I attended the grand opening of my cousin's new Japanese restaurant last night. There were lots of people that attended and flower baskets were all over the store. After the cocktail event, we had dinner there. I only took a couple pictures cuz after the first few dishes, we were too busy stuffing food in our mouth that we totally forgot about the photos!
Prices are very reasonable, it came out to be around $100 for six people and we had A LOT of food!. Here's what we ordered:

Spinach Ramen in Milk Broth topped with Japanese Style Pork Slices
Regular Ramen in Butter & Miso Broth topped with Pork Cutlet
We really enjoyed the ramen here, the milk broth really stood out although it was a bit on the heavy side.. The ramen were made in house, they also have a squid ink one that I really wanted to try but they didn't have any yesterday.

Hot Stone Pot with chicken with ginger sauce
I think this was our favourite dish. Taste was excellent!! The ginger taste was not as strong as I expected but its perfect for my preference =)

Red, Yellow & Green roll --> I forgot the name of this dish
I have had this dish before in their previous restaurant. Our family really liked this dish because it is their speciality and we couldn't find it anywhere else. Our favourate was the yellow rolls. its a fried fish maki topped with mango slices drizzled with a mango sauce & mayo concoction. Very light yet flavorful.

other food that we ordered include dynamite roll, seven angels sushi, shrimp tempura and a chicken pancake. All in all they were excellent, althought the shrimp tempura was a little to the salty side. I would definitely recommend this to any friends who wanted decent quality Japanese food at a fair price.