Happy 2013

Wishing you all a fab new year. 

For the holidays, we spent our time swishing down the slopes, eating copious amounts of cheese, long hours at the table with friends & family (so good to catch up with everyone), teaming up with my favorite Zojora partner, getting tattoos, our holiday favourites - Tattyoo and spending precious last days with Truffe. Truffe, you are dearly missed, rest in peace. 

Strolling around Cochin

The view from my hotel room

The church where Vasco de Gama was once buried

The Chinese Fishing Nets

Colorful schoolgirls

Our preferred mode of transport

Portuguese Colonial vestiges

Loving this color

Early morning activity at the beach

Random photos from our trip to Kerala, first up Cochin. Needless to say it was incredibly beautiful and more importantly to me the kids loved the experience of traveling to India. I can't wait to go back very quickly with them and explore more of the country. I think next up could be Pondicherry, but in the meantime will share more of our trip in the coming days. 

Zojora travels to Saigon

ZOJORA - Saigon from Tara Thivolet on Vimeo.

Jakarta Madness

Accompanied hubby and brother-in-law on business trip to Jakarta at the beginning of the month. Had never been to Jakarta and probably will never go back unless I really have to. Spent 4 hours in a car the first day just to get from the airport to hotel and to lunch. Traffic is hell, no other way to describe it. People seem to live in their cars or in malls - really not my kind of city, no greenery, no sidewalks and lots of pollution. Granted we were there for only 48 hours and their must be more to this city than I saw but where I don't know. Tips? However, major fabric score at the local market, Tanah Abang, and do need to say the people of Jakarta were amazingly kind and welcoming.  Ok so Jakarta is done now tonight we're off to Cochin, India another new place for us and very, very excited to be going to India and to explore Kerala with the Zoros and hubby. Happy Halloween.

Crazy for StickyGram

If you love your instagram pics than you'll love StickyGram.
StickyGram simply turns your pics into magnets.
One sheet of 9 photos costs USD 14.99.
Stick 'em everywhere. We have.

Rawa, Perfect Weekend Escape

A little silent over here on zorogoeseast not for lack of doing fun things but have been busy over on the soon to be open zojora.com Feel like I've been saying that forever, but one day it will be online. Have also been working or wasting many hours on social media: Facebook, tumblr, pinterest and haven't even gotten into twitter.  Then there are the Zoros to look after. 3 kids with homework every afternoon is pretty much my new daily nightmare. Besides all that, we did manage to get away to Rawa. Incredible road trip destination from Singapore. 2 1/2 hr drive to Mersing, Malaysia then 1/2 hr boat ride to Rawa island: easy. Once on the island there are only 2 hotels to choose from: Rawa Island Resort & Alang's Rawa. Book ahead. Stayed at the 1st one & it has kind of retro vacation club atmosphere. Rooms are clean, not great food but who cares when you have Rawa's beach at your feet. Oh and the scuba diving is so much fun - saw plenty of clown fish. Loved our wkd escapade but now off to finish more homework.
HAPPY WEEKEND

Summer Recap, Part III

Last part of our very long summer holidays: Provence

Top 5 things we enjoyed most whilst staying in Provence:

1. Reconnecting with friends and family. Thank you to all those who dropped by and hope you'll come back next summer.

2. Provencal food: tapenade, anchoiade, ratatouille, fresh tasty local produce topped off with our very own olive oil pressed at the Moulin du Calanquet and all masterfully executed by our favorite chef Nouna. Oh and let's not forget the rosé. Our favorite rosés of the summer were: Domaine de Valdition, Mas de la Dame and Château La Jeanette

3. Horse back riding for the kids at Le Poney Club le Rouget which included an epic camping experience.

4. Strolling through our favorite Provencal village: Saint Rémy de Provence and stopping off at our favorite haunts: Glacier Roma, La Maison de La Presse and Petit Duc

5. Tending to Lucky our 3 legged bunny who miraculously survived. Go Nurse Zoé!!!

Summer Recap, Part II

Much summer time was spent in the swiss Alps, bliss. 

Top 5 things we enjoyed:

1. Sleeping with no a/c (finally) and just breathing in the fresh air and staying warm with fluffy down-filled comforters.

2. Eating endless supplies of fondues, raclettes, viande séchée & chanterelles at some of our favorite places: Cabane de Mont Fort, Buvette de la Marlénaz. Total cholesterol overload, but who cares it was so good.

3. Picking wild flower bouquets along our walks in the mountains.

4. Trout fishing at the idyllic alpine village of Lac Champex.

5. Drinking fresh cow milk from La Laiterie de la Chaux, we felt like true Heidis. 

Saigon this week

Quick trip to Saigon this week. I was bringing fabric to the locally based NGO "Fair Fashion Trade," picking up finished table linens, scouring the markets, eating Pho for breakfast and snapping up embroidered nightgowns for future ZOJORA clients. Loving, loving my sourcing / business escapades. Zojora should be shortly online and in the meantime check out our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zojora/172657192864611.

Have a great weekend.

Bali Escapade

Flower offerings at Kumbassari Market, Denpassar

Sourcing Ikat fabric in Sukawati

Royal Palace in Ubud

Taking a break from all that shopping at Kudeta beach, Seminyak

Impromptu sale at home with goodies brought back from my trip

Escaped to Bali for 3 days this week. Purpose of this trip was sourcing, basically non-stop shopping. Working on a project of "travel inspired" accessories and table linens, that should be launched very soon and in the meantime looking for unique accessories that hopefully will have you lusting for. Went around to a bunch of local handicraft markets and met some great local jewelry designers. Can't wait to show you all the things that I picked up along the way. 

Have a great weekend.

Kikin back in Ambalangoda

More pics from Sri Lanka. SwissMiss wrote a great post about our stay there. Check it out here and read about our favorite new drink Kik. 

Happy Friday. 

Next stop: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Basically unpacked and repacked. Grandparents offered to look after the Zoros and since I'm still celebrating my milestone birthday (any excuse to travel is good) we escaped again. This time round we met up with friends (thank you again for all) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Had never ventured to Sri Lanka, so very excited to explore and discover. Spent our first day traipsing around the city by tuk-tuk, definitely my favorite mode of transportation these days. Wandered around markets, buddhist temples and the coastline. Vesak was going on and everywhere in the streets there were beautiful paper lanterns. Even managed to do a little shopping -if in town definitely don't miss out on the very cool Barefoot. I would also definitely recommend the Park Street Hotel an old colonial home now converted into a boutique hotel, located in the heart of Colombo. From Colombo we headed south but more about that next week. Til then Happy Weekend. 

48hrs in Bangkok

Travel whirlwind in the past couple of weeks, so dismal blogging, but then again who's complaining. 

First off, we spent 48hrs in Bangkok and managed to see all the major sites. Our main mode of transport were tuk-tuks and boats, definitely the most relaxing way especially considering the heat and my children's refusal to walk more than 30 min. Definitely do not miss out on seeing the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha just next to one another. Kids also loved hanging out in Koh San Road and catching all the  backpacker action. In no time, the girls bought tie-dye pants and ate pad thai from street vendors. I had fun searching for my old guesthouse and reminiscing my own backpacking days. Cruising along the Chao Phraya River is also a great way to discover Bangkok and see how people live along the river banks. Just go down to the public jetty next to the Oriental Hotel and negotiate a private tour. Then once we were absolutely exhausted from our sightseeing, we all loved to head back to the amazing Sukhothai Hotel, a treat from the grandparents and one I would highly recommend.

Club Med Convert & Fan

Normally when traveling we love to just book a plane ride, first night hotel and then basically just play it by ear. However, this time round the kids are off for 2 weeks, hubby couldn't take time off and I didn't see myself traipsing to temples and pagodas alone with my Zoros. Instead, we opted for the super easy solution...Club Med, Bintan and I was voted best mom, that easy. This is my kids favorite holiday destination. I think they feel free and grown up roaming around alone, ordering drinks and hanging out with the GOs. We meet up for meals and the rest of the time we each have our own agendas, plenty to choose from. Bintan is a mere 45 minute ferry ride away, Club Med beach is surprisingly beautiful, water is super clear, colorful fishes abound, so really doesn't get much easier than this. My advice go during the week, a lot less crowded, cheaper, and less singing and dancing around the pool. 

http://www.clubmed.com.sg/cm/resort-bintan-island-indonesia_p-362-l-AE-v-RBIC-ac-vh.html

Luxe Guides

At heart I'm a true Lonely Planet kind of girl but in the past few months I admit that I have strayed: I've discovered Luxe guides. What I love most of all is their small light weight pocket sized format. Really who needs all that guide book information when you're just visiting a city for a day or a weekend. Luxe's condensed opinionated selection of places to stay, eat, shop & see is great and funny too. Love that they only offer the best of each place, huge time saver when you only have 2 days to visit a city. For those travelers who wish to go completely paperless you can download most of the Luxe city guides on your iphone. Happy traveling. 

http://www.luxecityguides.com/

Up in Borneo

Made it to the top of Mount Kinabalu!!!

Going up was beautiful, well the vegetation was, although I did miss the monkey's cup, the not so beautiful part were the countless stairs, exhausting and painful those were. Spent a very short night in Pendant Hut before heading out at 2am for our summit climb. Sunrise at summit overlooking Borneo was incredible. Our climb down was another story, exhausting. Took us as long to get down as it did to get up, but in the end we all made it. Whew. Needless to say that 3 days later now I still scream whenever in sight of a flight of stairs. Should you want to go up here's the company we used http://www.x-trekkers.com/

Oh, and should you need to rest after your climb you can always check in at http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/kotakinabalu/rasariaresort. Needless to say, that our 24hrs there were bliss.

Moving on & Moving up

Enough with our Australian road trip, I'm off this time to Borneo, with a couple of girlfriends, in the attempt to reach the summit of Mount Kinabalu. Don't really know what to expect, especially since I haven't worn my trekking shoes since a trip to Kilimanjaro 5 years ago. All I can say at this point is when I see the above picture our climb seems very daunting and why we didn't instead opt for a girl's weekend at the beach remains a mystery to me. 

Have a great weekend.

Til next time Australia

Ended our road trip in sunny Melbourne running along Brighton beach admiring the colored beach huts and Melbourne skyline. We all loved our road trip. Bottom line is that I think we just love to be in Australia. We love the people, super friendly and relaxed, the countryside is incredibly beautiful, the beaches are out of this world and according to my kids nothing beats spotting koalas in the wild. 

On the road, Australia

Post Sydney, we headed South, direction Melbourne. Passed thru countless dairy farms, cattle farms (there's a difference), and coastal towns, but most of all it rained, so much that pretty soon the highway was under water. We spent a couple of nights close to Jervis Bay and Hyams Beach which boasts the whitest sand in the world. Unfortunately everything looked pretty grey to us.

Some of the fun things we did along the way included:

cuddling baby wombats at the Nowra Wildlife Park

running along the Seven Mile Beach, a favorite surfing spot when not raining

spotting kangaroos in the wild whilst driving around the Kangaroo Valley

and just hangin' with friends at their very cool "cabanas" in the quaint town of Berry

but most fun of all was celebrating Z's birthday and seeing her smile.

Our Australian Road Trip

First off on our road trip was a couple of days exploring Sydney. We loved the laid back sunny Sydney,  but all of us for different reasons. Here are our personal favorites:
For JD, it was without doubt hanging and eating at the Fish Market.
For Z, it was checking out the skaters at the Bondi Skaters Bowl and hanging out at Bondi beach.
For R, she loved strolling the streets of the Rocks.
For lil' O, his highlight was spotting a platypus at the aquarium.
and as for myself, I loved our dinner with friends at Bills, so good that it may deserve a post of its own.
Our stay in Sydney was definitely too short but the road was calling...