Discover Italia!

For quite some time now, I have been fascinated by Italy. The food, naturally, the language, the history, the ruins, the people, the climate, the geography, the architecture - the list is almost endless.

Today's chautauqua is about the importance of having dreams. I feel lifted whenever I think of myself going off to discover a new destination. For the last few years however, I've let the nature of my 3-year work in a German MNC ruin my own vision. During that time, I traveled like nobody's business. I would jet from one time zone to another, and I enjoyed it. At the end though, I associated all traveling with work, and I crippled myself. I couldnt look out the hotel window and think fun thoughts. I would only work, work, work and rush home as soon as I finish my programs, tiring myself out unnecessarily.

No more! I will dare to dream now. I will remember how I planned my first few trips by myself, discovering new cities. I will focus on the joy of having the whole day unplanned - in fact, that WAS the plan - to plan the day as I go along! I will wake up without the alarm clock and do what I want. If I happen to enjoy doing the same thing every morning, I will do just that. I will just be.

And now I will go discover Italia. Prego!

*photo courtesy of www.discoveritaly.com

How easy is it to be accustomed to luxury?

The hotel has kindly upgraded me to the lagoon villa this afternoon. I was asked to pack my stuff and not to worry about a thing - the staff would just bring my bags and deposit them in my new room.

Except - this is not a room. I'm now sitting at the study table near the king-size bed, sitting on the first floor of the villa. Did I say first floor? Yes, I did. As soon as you enter the front door, you'll see the lagoon from the sliding doors. They open to the villa's own private verandah, with 2 lounge chairs for you to soak up the sun. The verandah, by the way, has steps to your own tiny pier. This makes things easier for you should you wish to board the small boat that makes its rounds to tour the Phuket Laguna area.

If you dont fancy soaking up the sun on the verandah, just relax on the sofa or armchair in the living room and watch TV and feel the gentle warm sun behind you through the floor-to ceiling windows. Pull the roman blinds to enjoy the view. Walk up the stairs to the first floor. At the top of the stairs to your left is the door to the bathroom. To your right is the sleeping area. A lovely writing desk and a closet frames the walkway to the bed. Walk on to the balcony near the foot of the bed. Draw the daylight curtains and see that the windows from the downstairs living room stretch to the first floor - they're really floor-to ceiling; from the ground floor to the first.

Did I mention the bathroom has a sunken bathtub with its water jets? It's set outdoors through a sliding door - your own tropical bathing experience. If you dont feel like taking a shower or bath there, there's a normal shower stall on the other side of the bathroom of course. There's a tiny card next to an oil burner for you to decide which fragrance you prefer, and an attendant will do what's necessary to make sure you return to the fresh fragrance that ranges from the headache-clearing tea tree to the stress-busting lemongrass.

Such luxury - but it's past my bedtime. Sweet dreams for now.

In Phuket again

I arrived yesterday 11:50am local time - that's 12:50pm KL time, of course. Since I had done my homework and visited this property a few weeks ago for site inspection, I already know what to expect, service-wise. But the place and the view still takes my breath away, especially since they have very nicely given me a luxury ocean-view room. This IS luxurious for me - there's no way I can afford this room on my personal budget right now, definitely.

Speaking of the ocean, the beach is looking beautiful right now. The water's blue-green near the shore here, and it's deeper blue towards the horizon. The weather's sunny and a bit humid, but we are expecting a bit of storm today. It's a bit too hot to go down to the beach right now - it's a little after 2:30pm. I'll give it another hour and then it's off to the beach to write in my longhand journal for a bit, and get a little brown.

It's 3:00pm - I think I'll go down and take a walk along the beach a bit.