When God make couples in heaven – He definitely knows how one spouse can complement the other half. In our case, He knew that I had a very hopeless yearning for traveling so He made my husband the most chill person when it comes to deciding our traveling menu, so let me expound on our trip to Singapore and Thailand !!

When I got married, I told him that every year we will try visiting two countries which are geographically closer and give us benefit when calculating the incremental cost OR we will visit at least one place which we have not seen in our life before. Thankfully, he agreed with this brilliant idea of mine 🙂

So in our first year of marriage, we combined Dubai and Saudi Arabia together. I really wanted to start my life with an Umrah so yeah – the first trip was about it. Since, this was sort of our honeymoon and I didn’t know back then how my husband would plan the trip, this became an eye-opener for me. From that trip onward, I made a promise to myself that for the rest of our lives, I’ll take things in my control when it comes to traveling. From planning the airline to finalizing the hotels to booking the cars and reserving the shows – I’ll do my homework.

He actually believe in crashing into the hotel, enjoying the pool, lazying around and then taking each day as it comes. I, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in spending any unnecessary time at the hotel but ticking every single spot which is famous about that place. We both are extremely opposite when defining a vacation but then I believe, this makes us perfect together. He is the constant behind my non-stop wandering lust 😐

This trip happened in 2012 when Casey Niestat was making waves on Youtube and my husband got an inspiration for making time-lapse and all sort of videos from him. So he made a time-lapse, featuring his pretty wife, during this Dubai trip. It was just so amazing. I will dedicate another blog on that video and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed filming it.

So I’m not going to talk about Dubai/Saudi Arabia here because I didn’t plan it. This one is about Singapore and Thailand that we trolled in 2013 and I’m super glad to announce that it was a great success and fun-filled trip – thanks to my minute-by-minute preparation behind this. Now we have come to this point that he only mentions the dates and I work with uncle google to plan the trip from A to Z.

I also consider his priorities while pushing my plans. For example, he wants at least one full day off from any sight-seeing. He really wants to relax/switch off in a strange country. Now I plan one day totally off. Secondly, he CANNOT  make a compromise on the hotel. I mean, he can go suicidal if the hotel is not fancy enough. Since, I was of the view that the focus should be on sight-seeing and shopping and this can be, sometimes, compromised but the BIG NO from him has made me plan otherwise. After all, we can only plan vacations when we have enough to put aside. Otherwise, what’s the fun?

With these two things sorted, I open up an Excel Sheet and put day-wise activities. Here is what I planned for Thailand and Singapore. Btw, I found this from my 2012 archive – can you look at the level of my precision? I even had the timing and bus credentials with me which was providing hop-in/hop-out service for Jurong Bird Park in Singapore? Guys, you can send virtual claps my way 🙂

Btw, we had our friends in Singapore who would take us to the Arab Road for Sheesha almost every night. It’s a blessing to meet your old circle of friends as a big gang in a different country!

Hotels we had in Singapore were Pan Pacific and JW Marriot. Whereby Marriot was a bit old school, Pan Pacific was extremely contemporary. I did a lot of shopping from the mall adjoining Pan Pacific. Both were 5 Stars 😐

This is JW Marriot. Image Source: http://bit.ly/2FMYpaz

This is Pan-Pacific Main Lobby. Image Source: http://bit.ly/2HDox8v

This was our room at Pan Pacific. Image Source: http://bit.ly/2GwUJL4

This was our room at JW Marriot. 

Of all the countries I have travelled, nothing can come even remotely close to Singapore in terms of cleanliness. I have never seen this level of tidiness anywhere in the world. We religiously followed our plan and were happy to mark our ticks at almost all the must-go places. Among all the places, I would rank Garden By the Bay, Rides at Santosa Island and Jurong Bird Park at the top.

We spent 7 days at Singapore and then we headed to Thailand. We had a very scary incident while traveling from Singapore to Bangkok. When we were right over the ocean and half-way done with our journey, the airplane took a u-turn and the pilot announced that there is a leakage in the petrol tank and with this low fuel, we cannot go to Bangkok and hence, he was taking us back.

This gave us almost a heart-attack. How can the petrol tank leak without the pilot knowing it and taking it that far? I recited every Surah that I knew for the safety of us all. I still get goosebumps thinking about that incident. Upon reaching back, we had to make a stop-over for 3-4 hours before another plane was made prepared for us.

Changi Airport: We look sober here but we had just been transported back owing to the petrol tank leakage :O

Anyway, all’s well that ends well.

The second leg of our trip was even more romantic than I could imagine. We hired a bike at Phuket for a couple of days and made aimless rides wherever the road led us. Although Thailand is not even half as clean as Singapore, I would still recommend it to all the newly married couples. We had some excellent water sports and island hopping activities (all written in the plan above). I thoroughly enjoyed food at both the countries!

Our hotel at Phuket was Holiday-Inn!

I guess this one is James Bond Island!

Canoeing was a great experience!!!

This was no-man’s-place; A muslim community floating over the sea :o)

I loved sight-seeing while being on the boat!

I can’t emphasize enough how relaxing was Thailand but guys, if you have kids with you – please don’t plan your trip to Thailand because it is all waters. We did Jet Skiing, Canoeing, Snorkeling and a lot of swimming – something I cannot even imagine doing with my toddler :/

After four days at Phuket, we came to Bangkok. We had booked a suite at JW Marriot again and remained indoors for a day. Beside going to the Grand Palace, Siam Paragon Mall and MBK we didn’t go anywhere and honestly, the weather was so hot that I couldn’t enjoy anything outdoor. I didn’t even shop from these malls either :/

The tuk tuk (rickshaw) ride was expensive and comparable to any taxi ride but we did take one to mark a tick :/

Overall, this was one memorable trip of my life and I’m happy that we pulled it through nicely. We didn’t overdo anything and relaxed in between. Btw, you can add Malaysia in this trip if you have another 5 days or so. Since both hubby and I were working, the maximum we could pull off was 2 weeks and hence, we stuck with two countries.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Thailand and Singapore through our lens!

Plan your trip now and send prayers my way for sharing day-by-day itinerary with you all 🙂

ta.ta for now !