byron day 1

I know I'm majorly behind with my updates. While everyone is blogging about his/her Lunar New Year loot and feasts, I shall attempt to do some catching up, starting with my Byron Bay getaway over the Australia Day long weekend 23rd to 26th January.

Beautiful Natalie and I took the first Rex flight out of Sydney on the Saturday morning. 1 hour and 40 minutes later, we landed at our destination. I couldn't help but gawk at the greenery that greeted us during the descent; it was lush green rainforests for as far as our eyes could see, evidence that we were dropping into subtropical Ballina.

As we stepped into the humble regional terminal, we saw our names written in super big font on a whiteboard behind a friendly looking man at the Xcede Airport Transfers counter. I had earlier booked us two discounted bus tickets at their website for the half hour road journey from Ballina Airport to Byron Bay. We were the only passengers that morning and had the luxurious bus all to ourselves. Cool.

We were early for check-in. So we spent the next hour filling our stomachs at the first cafe that caught our fancy before we went hunting for a good massage place to undo all those knots from excessive hours of slumping over the work lappy.

Osho's House is a healing centre located a short walk from the main street in Byron Bay that offers a whole lot of massage therapy options: deep tissue, lymphatic drainage, hot stones, remedial and sports therapy, foot reflexology, Aura-Soma chakra (whatever the hell that is), and the conventional neck, shoulders, back or full body massage.


Left: Entering Osho's House for our much anticipated full body massage.
Right: Free flow of green tea for everyone.

We left Osho's House with two thoughts: 1) Wow! The massage was gooooood. Maybe we should come back again before we leave. 2) The tarot and psychic readings sound like fun. We've got to try them.

We then checked ourselves into Bay Beach Motel which is a stroll away from Main Beach in the heart of Byron Bay and is close to everything! We could walk to everywhere we wanted in minutes. Awesome.


Bay Beach Motel main driveway. The 'No Vacancy' sign was lit throughout the period we were there. Glad we booked way in advance.


Behind these frosted panels lies the shallowest pool I've ever seen; the water comes up to somewhere between my ankles and knees.

Time to get some sun. It was a no-brainer decision between the motel pool and the beach. At first we feared for the worst, expecting to see Main Beach dotted with crowds of beachgoers like ants swarming in onto a drop of candy due to the holidays. It was a pleasant surprise for us when the row of coconut and palm trees gave way to a large expanse of white silky soft sand that was more than half empty. We could set up our sun-baking camp anywhere and have a 10-metre radius invisible boundary line defining our personal space. Definitely not possible anywhere in the whole of Singapore or at the popular beachs in Sydney.


Left: The motel pool with the mid-calf water depth.
Right: My only companion at our makeshift sun-baking camp on Main Beach.

I found two roasted (possibly from the sun) almonds on the beach and orchestrated their reunion. It was a joyous event of two halves of an almond heart reuniting under the glorious sun. Okay, I ran out of things to amuse myself with while my baking companion snoozed in the midst of our endeavours to get some colour on our pasty skins.


Awwww.... how lovely!


I tried to build a nest for the almond lovers too.

Once we were satisfied with the slight pink glow on our faces, arms, legs and bodies, we retired back to the motel for a long pampering shower and dressed up for dinner. I packed a grand total of three outfits - two skirts, a pair of jeans, three tops, a pair of flip flops and a pair of dress sandals for the weekend while Natalie took her entire wardrobe of 3,678 dresses and 319 pairs of shoes. As a result I put up a small fashion show for her in the room in order for her to pick a presentable dinner dress for me that is more befitting for a classy dinner date out.

Dinner was at the Balcony Bar and Restaurant. We got a table on the verandah and settled into the oversized couches to enjoy our bottle of Riesling and Seafood Paella for two before concluding the night with two Espresso Martinis. I can get used to life in Byron Bay.