The Blue Mansion

After what seems like an eternity, I finally get myself to post these photos that have been sitting in my hard-disk after our trip to Penang. You must think - haven't you already posted one with photos from Penang some time ago? I did. But those were all the iPhone snaps, and these are mainly photos of the famous Blue Mansion - also known as Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. I hope it can at least show some of you how it'd be like to be staying in a mansion more than 100 years old. You can already see a lot of them in my previous post of iPhone images, here are just some additional ones taken by my camera.

A little background about the Blue Mansion - it was a stately family house of a Chinese tycoon/diplomat during the old time and has now become both a museum and a 16-room hotel in Penang. If you're not staying in the hotel, you can only visit at certain time for its guided tour - which is offered 2-3 times a day. I must say that initially it creeped me out a little imagining people walking around and staying in the very same room as we did, more 100 years ago, but it's so well maintained with its constant restoration project that it hardly feels like it's such an old mansion.

With less than 16 rooms of guests, I wasn't sure what to expect for the breakfast (I know, I'm such a foodie) They wouldn't be doing buffet with a huge variety as there aren't so many people, so I thought they might only provide some breads, toasts, jam, maybe eggs, some simple breakfast like that, but it turned out that they actually have a menu of a variety of food, we get to choose and they would cook right away, like in a restaurant. It felt really good to be having breakfast at the open air courtyard right in the middle of the 100-year-old mansion,  there was no noise of vehicles or traffic or sight of any skyscraper, I felt like I was transported to many many years back. Really peaceful.

I do realize how horrible I am in documenting my travels and trips, initially wanted to post more behind-the-scenes here, but I decided to keep this post exclusively for the Blue Mansion. Trust me, I'm really trying to keep this space alive!

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Hair drenched in seawater, we fell asleep under the sun while the beach music and joyful noise of people gently faded into the background. It's everything I need to genuinely relax - the sun, sea, wind and good music. An absolutely perfect way to start a new month, though I wish it could last a little longer.

I haven't had these in a while now. The last time I could remember is when I was still in Italy, where we spent a good few days only on the beach, from morning to dinner time. It was also the first time I had so much - almost too much time on the beach, and I finally learned to relax and take a nap at a public place without worrying about my belongings. It was just a rather different culture in my country where everyone avoids the sun. And the last thing we would do is falling asleep at somewhere public and leaving our belongings unguarded.

Anita and I were both initially lazy in the morning, having to pack our clothes and leave our beds, but Anita insisted that we go so we wouldn't waste another Sunday just staying at home doing nothing. At the end of the day I was so glad we made it there. It was everything I needed. The music, noises of kids and sound of water splashing form into this perfect melody as we fell asleep under the sun. 

Some people probably think it sounds fancy and expensive to go to a beach just to rest especially in Singapore (well if you order the food, yes it is a little pricey), but what you need to be happy - good company, sunshine, sea, wind and music. Best thing about it? They're all free! If you wouldn't want to spend too much, then you could just bring your own food there or so. Always live for the simple things in life! (:

All photos taken by iPhone - Mambo Beach Club, Sentosa