Day 6 -- Koh Samui, Thailand

12/28/2018 Friday 

Itinerary:

• Breakfast at Zest
• Private island and snorkeling in the ocean
• Dinner at Zest

We went for the breakfast at the hotel as usual and called our buggy to take us to the restaurant.

After breakfast, we took the buggy to our room as the kids wanted to swim and it was a beautiful day. We were very lucky as just a week ago, the island had heavy rain and it was all sunny when we arrived.

After that, the boys went on a speedboat to one of the neighboring islands for snorkeling. On the way there, they will also go into the ocean for snorkeling as well. Since it was raining heavily last week before we came, the water was not very clear and they didn't see many fishes. Maddie and I stayed at our room as I was afraid to get on more boat rides after getting sick in Australia. Madison spent most of the time playing in the pool while I read and relax.

When the boys returned later, they took a rest before we ventured out to the beach for some kayaking.

After taking some pictures at the beach, we decided to call the buggy to take us to the lobby to look at the amazing views from the top.

After taking some pictures and mesmerizing over the beautiful views at the lobby, we returned to our room and took more pictures over the sunset.

We called for room service as the boys were really tired from swimming and snorkeling.

Day 7 -- Big Island, HI

06/08/2017 Thursday

Itinerary:

• Snorkeling at hotel
• Lunch at A Bay's Island Grill
• Kings' Shops
• Queens' MarketPlace
• Puako Petroglyph
• Hapuna Beach
• Dinner at Lemongrass Express Waikoloa

Since we had a busy day yesterday, today will be a relaxed day. We started off the morning with some pastries from the deli. After breakfast, we went snorkeling in the hotel. We bought our snorkeling gear although the hotel offers complimentary snorkel gear for guests. The hotel has a nice snorkeling site and we saw a lot of fishes there.

After snorkeling the entire morning, we decided to head out for lunch and visit some nearby sights.

We wanted to check out the nearby Hilton Waikoloa Hotel as we heard that there are some restaurants and stores there. Even though it was nearby but it still took us 15 minutes of driving. After reading my Yelp review for nearby restaurants, I picked A Bay's Island Grill. The food was not too bad but the service was not good at all. We were seated for about 10 minutes and the server didn't even come to greet us even though the restaurant was not busy at all. I was about to go before he came.

The restaurant is inside Kings' Shops which is a lakeside mall with some high end stores. Tiffany & Co. has a store here as well. Since I didn't like the service at the restaurant, so we didn't stay for dessert. Instead we went to one of the grocery stores there to buy some ice creams. Let's just say that I now realize that I am in Hawaii. The prices are more than double what we pay in the mainland.

We checked out the Macy's there and it was so small and the prices are very expensive as well.

After that, we decided to check out the nearby Queens' MarketPlace.

After Queens' MarketPlace, we decided to head back to the hotel to check out Puako Petroglyph which is right next to the hotel. Initially, we couldn't find the trail and went towards the beach but it wasn't the right way. So we went back to the parking lot and saw that the trail was across from the parking lot.

After the trail, we went to the nearby Hapuna Beach which is also voted as one of the best beaches in Big Island. There is an entrance fee of $5/car. It was a pretty nice beach and we watched the sunset there .

Mason wanted some Subway sandwiches as he was starting to miss his comfort food. So, we found a Subway in Queens' MarketPlace and decided to head there. The rest of us didn't want sandwiches so we ordered food from Lemongrass Express Waikoloa. I had high hopes for this restaurant as it was opened by one of the famous chefs in Hawaii but the food turned out not too good.

After dinner, we decided to go to the nearby grocery store to buy some water and fruits. That's when we saw the gigantic avocado.

Of course I had to buy my favorite Lychee.

Look at the prices of the clementines. That's almost 3 times what we paid in mainland.

I also saw some bands that can be worn to prevent mosquitoes bits. I bought them even though it's kinda late in our trip as we will be leaving in 2 days but I wanted to try them to see if they works. The insect repellent that I used doesn't seemed to work well and I have gotten so many mosquito bites in this trip that it wasn't even funny.

We also bought some drinks and sandwiches for tomorrow's breakfast.

I also bought their shrimp chips to try. I bought the large pack thinking that it would be delicious. Big mistake as it was so salty that I couldn't finish it.

After that, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.