Happy Birthday, PillowMan

And we're the same age now :) Yes, the Pillow is a little bit younger than me by months and he is my first boyfriend to be younger than me. He may be younger yet he is very mature. 

Gosh I love you.

"You put your arms around me and I'm home" - Christina Perri

We couldn't celebrate on the day of the birthday (I was off but he had to work) so we decided to spend some time in Los Angeles over the weekend. It's nice to spend some quality time together with your other half in another place, out of each other's comfort zone. Being local tourists is a fun way to explore your city, and also a cool way to explore your love between each other. 

We had dinner at Water Grill on Grand St on DTLA. The vibe is chill yet classy. Mainly seafood, the food choices are brilliant (if you love seafood), from oysters to lobsters to fancy fishes. Oh and the wine list is exquisite. Crazy. The service was good and our waitress is so cute with her squeaky voice. 

The Pillow's appetizer. I hurled.

Meanwhile, I chowed down a nice bowl of Clam Chowder. Seriously, this thing was business. So good.

I ordered Fish & Chips and it was yummy, while Rob ordered Halibut.

We also had brunch at Pete's Cafe & Bar on Main St in DTLA. I really love the art deco of this place. Tall ceilings with black & white pictures of Los Angeles hanging on the walls. There is an outdoor patio too if you care to enjoy the street views of DTLA.

I ordered Santa Barbara Smoked Salmon Benedict that was AMAZING. The combo of the smokiness of the salmon with the creamy hollandaise sauce plus the melted egg yolk was phenomenal. PillowMan liked it a lot. 

The Pillow ordered Coconut French Toast. I didn't get to taste some (I was crying inside because I have been bad by eating bread the night before; going GF here...), he said it was delicious. It look delicious to me. Damn.

Then we decided to walk around downtown. Enjoying the nice fall breeze. It's pretty awesome to see the "quiet Sunday" side of Los Angeles. Seeing old buildings always fascinates me, making me think on the history of each building. 

Angel Knoll's/Angel Flights, home of that famous bench from (500) Days of Summer. It looked pretty dead because of the no leaves due to Autumn.

Pershing Square.

I'm glad that we were able to celebrate The Pillow's birthday. We were this close on not celebrating at all because he was supposed to be in Switzerland again for work. At least we celebrated one of us's birthday together this year (we didn't celebrated mine because he was overseas this past April).

Well, my Boo, thanks for being you. For being in my life. For being an amazing person. Happy Birthday.

xoxo,
Rima

#boluinasia: Bali

Oh yes, this post is overdue. There were sooo much memories and stories to share, it's overwhelming on how to write posts about them... but then again, I really want to post some pictures. So I'm going to share you my favorite pictures from the trip :)

Hello Bali :)

Bali is known for pretty sunsets so I was glad to be catching a super pretty one at Potato Head Beach Club in Seminyak.

Balinese are mainly Hindu so it's normal to see their offerings in the morning, whether it's in front of their homes, temples, even on their cars. They usually consists of flowers, leaves, cookies placed on a handmade tray made of banana leaves. From what I know, if they are placed on the sidewalk in front of their homes/places, it's disrespectful to step on it.

 Nothing beats great seafood that was freshly caught, grilled/BBQ'd for you, enjoying the sunset, sound of the waves AND having your feet dipped in to the sand. Yes, in Jimbaran, there are rows of seafood vendors for you to pick from, all prepared for you and for you to enjoy the awesome meal at sea side... literally, you are steps away from the water.

This is the Kecak Dance at Uluwatu Temple, where they have monkeys roaming around the premises. They are considered holy animals, so you can't do any harm to them. But they do take food from you :) The dance is a well known dance in Bali, it's sorta like a love story. What's cool about the dance is the soundtracks are done vocally by those guys with the checkered sarongs. It's so cool. To give you an idea, here's a clip from Baraka (which Nicole from Treasure Tromp mentioned about)...

Cool, huh?

Of course one major highlight was the dolphin swim. Well, it wasn't actually swimming, but be in a contained space at sea with dolphin. Who cares, I'm with a dolphin.

And yes, Rob & I had to match at one point (this was actually accidentally matched)

 Tanah Lot Temple, one of the famous temple in Bali, because it's build on a lone cliff rock. No one can go up to the temple unless you are a Holy Balinese Priest, I think. There's a line where you are blessed with the holy water and chanted a prayer by a priest.

 In Ubud, I went to the Monkey Forest to see, what else, monkeys. There are MONKEYS everywhere.

Goa Gajah in Ubud.

 The stair-like rice fields in Tegallalang, Ubud.

Coffee & Tea tasting, along with Kopi Luwak, in Bali Pulina, Ubud.

Seeing these pictures makes me want to go back like right now. I miss traveling bad. I think it's time to plan another international trip, huh? hehe...

btw my giveaway is still going. Feel free to participate :)

xoxo,
Rima

Hollywood

Oh yes. The benefit of living nearby big cities, especially Los Angeles, you are within driving distance to some famous Landmark.

I've lived in SoCal for over than 10 years and yet I haven't hiked up the hills to see that infamous Hollywood sign. And of course I had this lyric in my head when I saw it, "Look to my right and I see the Hollywood sign" *cookie points if you know what song I'm referring about*

So the Pillow & I decided to do so this past weekend. My thighs are still sore -_-

For a non-hiker like me, it was doable but I did had to stop several times. The first part was a pretty hike (then again, I am a weak-sauce) but then it was flat surface. And the wind was pretty breezy, so twas nice. There were tons of horse poops laying around but it didn't bother me at all. Playing local tourist is fun. We need to do more of these local touristy stuff :)

I used this website for information to hike.

Are there places in your town that you haven't visit yet?

xoxo,
Rima

The Disney Girl in Me...

...starts singing!!!!!

check out these great covers of Disney's famous songs :)

Happy Weekend :)

which one is your favorite?

xoxo

Rima