Life ‘n One

If you are a Vegan or in love with Yoga and Nature then Life ‘n One is the best place for you. I asked Tim where he wanted to go for lunch and he said he wanted something healthy. So I took him to a Vegan place and Tim loves meat so I laughed a lot when he was going through the menu.

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Anyway the place is not quite difficult to find and parking is not an issue. It is a reasonable sized villa that offers Yoga and Meditation classes. In the backyard or as the English call it a garden, they have a cosy set up with wooden tables and chairs and very colourful theme for people to enjoy their meal, work on their laptop or even read a book.

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Life ‘n One is slightly over charged (that’s my opinion) but overall the experience was pleasant. They served us flavoured water, Tim had a vegan burger and I ordered a quinoa salad with kale. In addition, we both had seaweed salad on the side which was my favourite.

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So if ever you want to visit, I’d say morning would be the best time and also the place is animal friendly. Oh one of more info, you’ll pay your bill at the exit where you can also enquire about the Yoga and Meditation classes.

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Al Ain Trip – Rotana, Jebel Hafeet & Trader Vics

Oh Crap! I missed a Saturday post last week and I knew I would.

Many things are currently happening in my personal and work life. Well everyone has things going on but you know when a lot of things just suddenly happen at the same time well that’s what is currently happening to me.

For Tim to have an enjoyable long weekend, I booked a standard room for a 1-night stay at Rotana Al Ain. We usually arrive 1 or 2 hours before check in however this time we decided to check in on time but on that day, we were so unlucky that the hotel had a lot of guests so because of the delay we checked in after 2 hours. As curtsy, the hotel upgraded our room to a 1-bedroom suite with a living room and dining table. In addition, they offered a late check out.

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You can skip my mini story and continue to Hotel Review….

Story Time:

As soon as we got to our rooms, we changed into our swimming suits and went to the pool. I have a weird and funny story to tell you. As Tim and I were sitting by the pool, kids from the ages of 4 – 7 years were jumping in the adult pool. So the signs say clearly no jumping, no diving and kids must be accompanied by an adult. Anyway we were getting splashed a lot by those little kids and Tim just got up and looked at the life guard without even saying a word.

The life guard approached the parents to tell them that their kids have to swim in the children’s pool and that they are disturbing hotel guests. The mothers started shouting at Tim for no reason and we did not even make eye contact with their kids or even shouted at them.

Anyway some drunk man sitting next to me starts shouting at Tim and making hideous comments in Arabic and that’s where I come in place. I started an argument with the man in Arabic which made him speechless because he didn’t expect me to speak Arabic. After few minutes, he comes to us and apologises for his action and we became friends. He even asked the mothers to apologise to Tim but obviously they did not. He even told us that we taught him a lesson to not speak in Arabic in front of anyone.

Anyway he took us to Jebel Hafeet (mountain) to view the city from the top.  The view of the town was amazing and the drive was adventurous but dangerous. Here is the funny part, the drunk guy insisted to take our photo at the mountain and this is how it turned out.

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Hotel Review:

Although they checked us in really late, I would still recommend the hotel. The fact that they upgraded our room and even provided late check out, that says it all. While waiting to check in, Tim and I sat in the private lounge where they served free coffee, juices, tea and croissants. The hotel is not that expensive for a 5 star. The pool is reasonably big and also has a mini Jacuzzi for the adults.

Tim and I had breakfast at a restaurant called Zest that serves buffet throughout the day. The hotel also has a pool bar, a Lebanese restaurant and a Latin, Caribbean and Asian Fusion restaurant called Trader Vics which is well known in Dubai. We went there at 10pm and there was a live band performing Latin music. The food was delicious and the setting makes you feel like you are on an island. We really enjoyed our time.

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Wokyo – Japanese Noodle Restaurant in Dubai

Wokyo serves the best Japanese noodles in Dubai. They are located in JLT, Cluster J. Tim and I must have visited that place more than 3 times already and tried all kinds of noodles and sauces.

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It’s very similar to the concept of Subway but instead of Sandwiches, you are getting NOODLES. YES!!!! YOU READ RIGHT. NOOOODLESSSSSS

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The staff are very friendly and the service is prompt. The restaurant sells Japanese products as well as has Japanese board games and books to entertain yourself and of course origami.

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The place is worth visiting and you can go for a nice walk around the area after finishing your meal. It’s one of the best Japanese casual restaurants that Tim and I enjoy going back to.

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A Farm in the Desert

Al Barari is the name of the farm located in Dubai in the middle of an unexpected location. The access to the farm is through the high way or how my husband calls it ‘motor way’.

The place is so peaceful and the food’s deliciously healthy. You’ll have to book days in advance to get a decent table and the farm is always better to be visited in winter, DUBAI WINTER because of the outdoor area.

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Tim and I visited in January and had a lovely breakfast by the pond. If ever you would like to visit, you can contact the farm on +971 4 392 5660 or check out their website www.thefarmdubai.ae. It is worth the visit.

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Our 14 days Travel Itinerary

Tim and I took 14 days off of work; actually to be precis, we took 10 working days off to finalise personal errands in the Philippines and then continue our holiday to other destinations.

So our itinerary of 14 days covered, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau. I guess being a full-time employee to a huge organisation restricts our travels because of the limited days off.

In UAE, we are entitled for 22 working days off but being an expatriate, our holidays include visiting families abroad which means travelling to the same destination quite often. We don’t mind it at all because we really do miss them. So our current travel mission is to cover as much places as we can in a short period of time.

Here is how our itinerary looked like (not detailed)

Day 1: Landed late night in Philippines

Day 2: Makati, Philippines

Day 3:

  • Bonifacio Global City, Philippines
  • Rockwell
  • Travelled to Japan

Day 4: Landed in Narita Airport and took a bullet train to Kyoto

Day 5: Kyoto

Day 6: Nara & Kyoto

Day 7: Kyoto and took a bullet train to Tokyo

Day 8: Tokyo

Day 9:

  • Tokyo
  • Travelled to Philippines

Day 10:

  • Landed in Philippines and spent 5 hours at a nearby hotel
  • Travelled to Hong Kong
  • Explored Kowloon Island

Day 11: Macau & Hong Kong Island

Day 12: Lantau Island – travelled to Philippines

Day 13: Eastwood, Green Hills, Pasig, Marikina and Antipolo.

Day 14: We woke up an hour before check out and had breakfast in Pasig and headed straight to the airport.

Day 15: BACK TO THE OFFICE

PHEW!!! Typing the itinerary was as tiring as the trip but worth it. LOL. I really want to dedicate time to write about it because we’ve learned a lot and observed a lot and I’m dying to share everything with you.

Unlike most of my other posts, I want to put a lot more effort into writing about our experiences and stories, particularly Japan. I’ve visited 20+ countries and Tim has been to 30+ countries and by far our favourite country is Japan and I can’t think of any other place that can beat it. It was Tim’s third visit and that says a lot and I can’t wait to go back.

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Follow BellionTravels on Social Media

Tim and I are back from our holiday. We’ve managed to squeeze Philippines (Makati, Pasig and Bonifacio), Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara), Hong Kong (Kowloon, HK and Lantau Island) and Macau in just 2 weeks.

I’ve got lots to blog about especially Japan. It was my first and Tim’s third visit to the most awesome country in the world.

I FELL IN LOVE WITH JAPAN. 

Today, I visited a coffee shop near our apartment called ‘Drip House’. It’s located in Dubai Investment Park and every Saturday they organise a meet up event about various things. The topic I attended was about Social Media and Blogging which I benefited from, ALOT.

Before brainstorming and writing about our trip, you may check out our other Social Media platforms to follow. Where I update my stories on Instagram and share other bloggers/ vloggers content on my facebook page.

Can’t wait to share our travel stories with you…

Follow BellionTravels for daily updates

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belliontravels/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belliontravels/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BellionTravels 

Catch you later

Xx

 

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Weekend in Ras Al Khaimah – Cove Rotana Resort

When Tim and I were dating, we managed to travel almost every month to a new country and explore new places. The thing is, circumstances have changed, the market isn’t doing great and everyone is careful on how they are spending their money.

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So instead, Tim and I thought why not stay at resorts and visit historical places around UAE. And that’s when we booked a night at a 5 star resort in Ras Al Khaimah called ‘The Cove Rotana Resort’. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… Ahaaa careful with their money and staying at 5 star hotels. Well here’s the thing we book months in advance and in addition, booking.com always updates me about upcoming deals and of course I check groupon.ae everyday for affordable deals.

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Our stay included breakfast so when it came to dinner, Tim an I drove 10 minutes to a new development called ‘Mina Al Arab’. It was a stretch of restaurants and coffee shops and since we have the ‘entertainer app’, we picked a restaurant that was included in the app so we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called ‘Hanoi’. The food was extremely delicious but the coffee was just too sweet.

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We spent the night at the lounge called ‘Breeze’ till 1AM. The place served Hookah aka Shisha. There are so many restaurants to try at the hotel. Our actual first stop was at ‘Breakers on the Beach’ but we got there at 10PM when they were already closing. Like C’mon who closes a bar at 10PM. Anyway that’s when we continued to Breeze. For breakfast we went to a restaurant called Cinnamon which is an all-day dining place. Before leaving the hotel, we had a pina colda sorbet at the Sunset Bar.

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I spent a few hours sitting at the terrace of our room, blogging and editing photos for upcoming blogs.It was so relaxing and it was exactly what Tim and I needed of the weekend. Hotel has a vibe of Spanish and a mix of Moroccan which we really love and the best thing about the hotel was the infinity pool that overlooks the beach and the hotel rooms.

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I recommend the place for the weekend, it’s one of the best hotels we stayed at in UAE.

 

 

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Camping in Ras Al Khaimah

So for a change we thought instead of booking in a hotel located in the middle of the desert, why not save money and camp for the night.

We packed our supplies and drove to Ras Al Khaimah and spotted a nice location to camp.

All through the night, we BBQ-ed and told each other stories.

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In the middle of the night, we heard donkeys and camels pass our tent and were making weird noises. It was a creepy night but a story to tell. The whole night they kept going in circles around our tent. We managed to stay still and quiet so we wouldn’t allow them to go wild. The noises they were making sounded wild LOL.

With all the weird entertainment happening outside the tent, we got enough sleep and woke up at 5 AM to watch the sunrise together. We then packed our bags to head back to civilisation.

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