Enduring Forever

Dear Hubby gave me a clue to this year's Christmas present - Enduring Forever.. I was trying to look for the answer on Google but just couldn't find any. Yesterday was when I 'received' the present. It's (as I suspected) a treatment at the spa! How thoughtful. Dear Hubby knows I need those knots on my back fixed!

Enduring Forever (EF) is a spa with an English themed setting. Very different from the other typical Balinese, Thai or Zen themed spas indeed. We accidentally discovered it one of those days out in town and thought the exterior very appealing.

My appointment was for noon but I was half hour late as I got lost! Still not familiar with the routes here. The pouring rain didn't help either causing traffic to crawl.

As I went down the walkway and neared the entrance, the door opened and a young girl (whom is also my masseuse) greeted me and swiftly brought me through a series of nicely adorned hallways to a dimly lit room, all decorated with a touch of English charm. She then handed me a disposable bra, panty and shower cap and told me to change into them. She also informed me that we will start with a foot scrub before proceeding onto the body scrub and then left me to undress.  I must say that this is the first time I see a disposable bra (which is basically just a piece of tissue-textured material placed across the chest and tied behind)! Even spa resorts like Tanjung Jara and Four Seasons in Bali do not provide these. Nice to know that there is an option for those who want to keep it more modest.

My masseuse came back into the room and gave me a foot scrub. She told me the salts used helps in removing dead skin cells and has whitening properties. During the scrub, I managed to find out her name (whom we shall call A from now on), that the establishment is only half a year old and owned by a local. After that, I was told to lie on the massage bed for the body scrub. To my surprise, the bed has a thermal blanket which keeps it nice and warm. They really do think of the little details. The scrub lasted about half an hour. I found out then that this is A's first job. So she only has about six month's experience. Hmm...

After the scrub, A brought me to another room with a tub for my 'fitness bath'. She told me to lie in the tub filled with warm (more to the hot side) water on a mat which has some 360 holes. Eh? She then explained that 15 minutes inside the bath is equivalent to having worked out for 3 hours! Hmm... Besides, the bath helps with firming, detox and slimming... Wow... (while trying to suppress a little laughter of disbelieve of such wonder). A then switched the bath on and the mat started 'boiling' bubbles around me. So that's what the 360 holes are for. A dimmed the lights and left me for the next 15 minutes. I tried to close my eyes and relax in the 'pot of soup'. After a while, I started to feel like I was floating in the middle of a vast ocean with thousands of squid surrounding me squirting ink on my face! Hmm.. this bath thing is not really my cup of tea. I never knew 15 minutes can last soooooo loooong... but hey, if it slims, firms and detox and leaves you thinking you have done 3 hours of gym........... At some point, I started to even feel a little dizzy. Sea sickness? The squids has not stopped squirting ink on my face!

When the whole floating in the sea experience ended, I actually did feel tired, as though I had just worked out! A came with a cup of ginger tea and asked if I was feeling light-headed. She told me to continue sitting in the bath for a while and relax before changing into another set of disposables for my massage.

Back on the massage bed, A started my Enduring Forever Treatment massage on my back. I did feel a little more relaxed after the fitness bath but a more experienced masseuse would be able to tell that I was trying hard to relax my shrugged shoulders. A more experienced masseuse would also be able to identify and focus on the tonnes of knotted muscles on my taxed back. However, being a young apprentice, A did everything wholeheartedly, drawing long slow moves, no short cuts unlike some experienced masseuse.

I started to relax more during the second half of the massage but didn't doze off unlike most times. Honestly, I would have preferred to have a longer back massage. Overall, it was still a pleasant experience and I felt pampered. Thanks Dear Hubby for the wonderful gift!

Note: No photography allowed so the above pictures are taken directly from their brochure.

And we're on!

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Discovering Penang - The Pearl of the Orient

Since moving to up north in May, we have not discovered enough of Penang as we have almost always been out of town over the weekends. This month, we decided to stay put and get ourselves around a bit. There is so much to see!

We went the Little Penang Street Market held every last Sunday of the month on Upper Penang Road. This bazaar aims to promote talents in the form of handicrafts or acts. Other than the customary handmade costume jewellery and accessories such as handbags, there were some really interesting eye openers. I found this lady sewing all these cute little baby booties by hand! And an ex-headmaster folding and selling these:(!)

patriotic paper planes!

We made a trip to Balik Pulau for a new friend’s open house. It is located, like what its name suggests really on the other side of the island. I discovered I have car sickness sitting behind with an empty stomach, keeping an active toddler entertained while being driven on a looooong windy road. Balik Pulau is famous for its ang he (red lobster) durian and asam laksa. It has to be a really rewarding kill five birds with one stone trip to get me back there again!

The second house warming the following week was at Botanica SP Setia. It does look like to own a piece of landed property in Penang, you will have to move to the edge of it, far, far away from the city centre. Honestly, most of these new townships are self-sufficient but the idea of staying far away from the city where everything is hasn’t appealed to us yet.

On Merdeka Day, we wanted to go to Queensbay Mall for some shopping since the sale is on but it seemed like the whole of Penang had the same thought! So we took a detour and drove to the Batu Maung area instead. We saw a newly built and nice housing area Southbay. Not surprisingly, these three-storey terrace houses in a gated community are in the millions. There is also a place called the Aquarium in Batu Maung. We were a little skeptical visiting the Aquarium as the signboards directing us there looks dilapidated and uninviting. We will have to bring Baby O back there again some day now that a friend have given us the assurance that it is quite a visitable place.

There is currently a fun fair set up at Queensbay. We went to relive some childhood memories one of those nights and brought Baby O on her first ferris wheel ride. Her expression was nonchalant though she enjoyed watching all the blinking lights off the wheel!

We also managed to see parts of Air Itam while paying a friend a visit in his new showroom status apartment. There is a new development by the Belleview Group coming up but I have to say Air Itam is full of... erm... cemeteries! So if you intend to get an apartment there, just keep in mind what sort of view you want to come home to.

The day before yesterday, we just had to get to one of the Ramadhan Bazaars on the last day of puasa before they are closed for another year. This one is near the Sunshine Market. There weren’t many stalls left, presumably most have gone back to prepare for the big Raya celebration. There weren’t many choices of food left too but we managed to get what we were looking for, lemang, and lots of it! We had to buy a whole bamboo for RM12 as it was the last day. The problem is, we don’t have enough rendang to go with it! Hmm... time to google up some nice rendang recipe.

Then there's swimming in Batu Ferringhi, checking out a pottery class, and trying lotsa new restaurants with yummy food!!! We have to start compiling a food guide soon!

Fun! Fun!! Fun!!!