We have selected the venue of our wedding: The Indigo Pearl Resort, Nai Yang Beach.
This is an unconventional resort, and we like it because of that. It’s close to the airport, in case shit hits the fan. We’ll be sending an email soon with details on accommodation, etc. Expect a typical “Chris” email.
The date and location has been decided for our destination wedding. It will be held on October 23, 2010, at the Indigo Pearl Resort in Phuket, Thailand.
More details to follow.
If you’ve been following our Twitter or Facebook messages, you’d probably guessed that we were focusing on holding our wedding in Kota Kinabalu. But, we decided to shift our focus to Phuket.
Ultimately, the reasons that led to this decision are:
1. Phuket seems to have many many many more lodging options than Kota Kinabalu. We want to find a nice resort or villa to hold the actual ceremony that is very close proximity to bars, restaurants, and other hotels that our guests my decide to stay at instead. Kota Kinabalu just didn’t seem to offer this. (Our friends Jin and Melissa found a great spot in Krabi back in 2008 that everyone enjoyed, and satisfied everyone’s budgets).
2. We think we can bring the price down a bit for our guests. The rates we were negotiating at the Shangri-la’s in Kota Kinabalu seemed to be a bit on the high end. We want to bring the room rates down even lower, without sacrificing quality. We think Phuket will have many more options for consideration. Seems Thailand is just overall cheaper than Malaysia any way (this is Chris’ opinion, could be wrong…)
3. Phuket also seems to be more lively than Kota Kinabalu. I think that’s primarily because we focused our time at fairly secluded resorts as opposed to busy beaches.
4. We went to Phuket together in May of 2006. Except for the food poisoning Chris was blessed to have received the final day we were there, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The food was excellent, the beaches were excellent, and we did scuba diving for the first (and sadly, only) time there! We sure do want to go back! (Here are Chris’ photos from Phuket, May 2006).
We’re headed to Phuket on May 14 for the weekend to do a look see. We really hope to find some options and finalize plans soon.
And because we’re eating into the 6 month notice period we wanted to afford our guests, we’ve decided to push the wedding into November. Dates TBD.
Last weekend, we went back to Kota Kinabalu to check out the other Shangri-La, the Shangri-La Rasa Ria. On our previous trip, we stayed at the Shangri-la Tanjung Aru. After our first trip, we were pretty excited about the Tanjung Aru. It was close to the airport (5 minute drive!), 15 minutes down town, we already negotiated group rates for the rooms, and pre-booked a couple of days in September to actually hold the wedding. (We were looking at September 25 or 27). And because of it’s proximity to the city, there were other lodging options, and a cheap taxi ride away, for those who prefer something a little more urban.
But, then we got an email from the events coordinator a couple of weeks ago saying that the hotel would be undergoing “major renovations” starting in September and lasting until January or February in the pool area! (We were planning on having the ceremony on the beach and then having a seafood bbq on the beach for dinner — right at the pool area!)
So, we decided to kill that idea. But, we kind of liked Kota Kinabalu. And, there’s another Shangri-La there, the Rasa Ria. But the problem with this resort, as we determined before we settled on the Tanjung Aru, is it’s too far from the city. You’re almost stuck there unless you rely on taxis (a 45min taxi ride downtown won’t be too cheap) or the hotel’s semi-hourly shuttle service. Not very convenient. So we didn’t think about it before. But, after hearing the news of the Tanjung Aru construction, we decided to go and check out the Rasa Ria.
Last weekend, we went. Had a 7:20am flight on Saturday (<2 hours), and a lousy 2pm flight back on Sunday. (lousy because it’s wasting half a day!).
Overall, we liked the Rasa Ria, 80%. The ocean/beach was nicer (for pictures), although we couldn’t swim in the dang thing due to an almost-infestation of jelly fish. Argh!
The grounds of the resort seemed more updated than the Tanjung Aru – more pleasant too. (And they had a dedicated Wedding gazebo thingy which looked pretty nice).
They even had their own nature reserve where you can see Orang Utan up close (among other animals) – right on their premises.
(I have a video of one of the Orang Utan peeing and throwing his poo at people – I’m waiting for it to be uploaded to YouTube)
The rest of the photos I took at the Rasa Ria are here.
We ultimately decided to ditch plans of holding our destination wedding in Kota Kinabalu. Hotel options are definitely an issue (especially if we pick the Rasa Ria – there’s NOTHING else around!), it’s overall not as cheap as we’d like (the rooms and alcohol!), and… well, it’s hard to explain, but the 2nd time going, we just didn’t feel excited.
So, now, we’re re-shifting our focus to Phuket! More on this in a later post!
Melanie and I went for a taste test at Min Jiang @ One North for dinner tonight. We wanted to make sure the Beijing Duck, Kou Shui Ji, and a the Pai Huang Gua tasted good enough – close enough to Beijing style. Hey, it’s our wedding!
We’re happy campers! The Kou Shui Ji was pretty dang close to what we’re used to! And no bones!
The Duck was much better this time. The skin was a bit more crispy, and more important, it actually had the Duck flavor!
We’re happy with Min Jiang now. We’ve paid the deposit, and we’re ready to go for July 3!!
We have decided on the location to hold our civil wedding ceremony on July 3, 2010: Min Jiang @ One North (Min Jiang’s 2nd location; their first is at Goodwood Park hotel).
We quite like the Rochester Park area after we checked out Graze as an option a few weeks ago, but ultimately decided against. It’s a nice setting with the narrow curvy streets, plenty of trees and other vegetation, and of course, the awesome colonial bungalows. We think it would be a good idea to have a Chinese meal, as opposed to a Western meal, due to the fact the majority of the guests would be Melanie’s extended family. (In fact, there would only be 3 Westerners there, Chris, and Chris’ parents).
We had lunch there today to check out their location, food quality, etc. Since we want something a bit special, we thought having our wedding at a place that specialized Beijing Roast Duck would be fitting, since we met in Beijing and spent most of our time together in Beijing.
Verdict on the duck? Well, if you’re following our Twitter feed or Facebook fan page, it’s ma ma hu hu (马马虎虎). The skin wasn’t crispy enough, and the duck meat itself just didn’t have the strong duck flavor. But, the manager asures us this can be remedied – the Duck has been adjusted to suit local pallets (a crime if you ask Chris), and can certainly be prepared with a more Beijing-flare. Let’s hope so! (we’re going to go back in a week or so and try it out).
We tried some other “key” 家常菜 (common Chinese homely dishes), namely Gong Bao Ji Ding (宫爆鸡丁) and Gan Bian Si Ji Dou (干煸四季豆). Both 马马虎虎 again! Ahem! But, we’ll have a chat with the Chef and get it to be improved for the next time.
We walked around the restaurant, as we’ll be having between 40 and 50 people, we’ll be booking the whole upstairs, which is nice. The solemnization will be held outside in the patio.
Now all we need to do is finalize the menu, finalize the number of people to attend, make the deposit, oh and of course, schedule in the Solemnizer!
Finally got around to posting photos from our trip to Kota Kinabalu last week. Well, actually, Melanie was faster as she uploaded them to her Flickr page last week. I (Chris) just uploaded mine yesterday to Picasa.
First off, links to the photos:
Just a little tast of Kota Kinabalu:
That is, just for a look see! Destination Wedding not finalized yet!
But we’re leaning towards Kota Kinabalu. Chris will be using his Nexus One and tweeting during the trip (provided there’s wifi). So be sure to follow us on Twitter (#ChrisMelWedding) or fan our Facebook page to stay abreast of what’s going on.
We’ll take pictures and share them once we’re back as well.
Cheers!
A friend of ours suggested we look at Flutes At The Fort for our civil wedding. We’ll look into it!
Anyone have more comments about it? (Or other suggestions?)
http://www.flutesatthefort.com.sg
One of the advantages of living in Singapore are the several discount airline options at our disposal.
We’ve gone back to looking at Kota Kinabalu, MY as a serious option to host our destination wedding. One of the advantages is the fact two (known) discount airlines fly there daily (I think) – namely Air Asia and Jet Star.
We managed to get a decent deal I think with Air Asia, S$206 round trip, inclusive of tax.
We’re going to be staying at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa, Kota Kinabalu as that is the hotel we’re considering staying at. Hopefully we’ll get some freebees if they know we’re serious about holding out wedding there.
A good friend of ours recently attended a wedding there and said it was very nice. Sorry K, if we end up holding it there, you’ll have to go again. Oh well.