Musik Mundi: Fauxliage

Leigh Nash and her distinct vocal cords are everwhere! Fauxliage is the product of Miss Nash and the Canadian new age/electronica music group Delerium. If you like Leigh Nash as well as Delerium, then you'll most likely dig what they can do together. Cos I do!




Fauxliage
Album: Fauxliage (2007)
Song: Let It Go

Trippin': Belize City - Sun Beach Resort

Our Belizian excursion of choice was to go snorkeling in the waters that is home to the world's second largest/longest barrier reef. It sounded fun and exciting enough. We would go snorkel and see some cool stuff and then they would drop us off at this Sun Beach Resort for a few hours to just soak in the sun and relax. According to the cruise brochure, the resort sounded pretty spectacular with white sand beaches. Upon arrival, I made a sad face. The water didn't look particularly inviting and judging from the reaction of the people who actually went into the water, it was not good. You could see dark stuff in the water. I have no idea what it was. The other swimmers said the ocean floor felt slimy and gross. EEEWWWW! The place was not fancy at all. Not that fancy it what I wanted, but I wanted something remotely nice. It was just that. Remote and somewhat run down looking. The sand was unremarkable. It wasn't as super soft as I was hoping and dead plant like leaves were strewn around everywhere. Instead of beaching ourselves in the sand, we took over the hammock area and just swung around.

As for the snorkeling part. The fishies weren't very tropical or crazy looking. It was like swimming in a ginormous mundane and boring fish tank. Snorkeling in Maui was mos def a lot better. Here, they took us on a 30 minute boat ride to the middle of the ocean. In Maui, I merely snorkeled off the shore of the beach and was able to see the most beautiful and colorful marine life! I even saw and swam along with this gigantic sea turtle at one point. The highlight of my trip! The most that we saw here was this brightly colored baby sting ray and this big conch shell. Even though it wasn't visually stimulating, it was incredibly fun being able to swim around in the middle of the ocean. I felt so free. After ten minutes in the water, I stripped off my life vest and just started swimming around. One of the best feelings ever! I'm a pretty confident swimmer so I had no fear of being in the deep waters of nowhere. The water was amazingly clear and our tour folks were very friendly and extremely eager to show us the nooks and cranny's of the reef. I was having such a grand time swimming that I made it a point to be the last person to get back onto the boat. I wanted to keep on swimming! So I have a bit of a mixed reaction to this Sun Beach Resort and Snorkel shore excursion.

This lady found this big dead crab and she put it on her head. Scary! What if it was just playing dead. Eek!

This is the most nekkid that you'll ever see me. It's also the only bikini clad foto of me where my rolls and aren't so noticeable. Looky. I'm the headless swimmer.

The ugly fish.

Trippin': Belize City - Unbelizable

Our excursion, which took us to a remote island, lasted a bit longer than we had hoped and one hour before the ship was to leave, the bf and I hopped onto a water taxi and taxied off towards the main city. We ran around as quickly as we could to collect the standard gifts and rushed back to our boat. Getting stranded is not an option. The place was unbelizable! Or not! I wish that I could tell you what Belize City is really like. But I can't. All I can say is that the drop-off area for our cruiser has developed into yet another touristy hot spot full of nothing but offerings tainted with junky souvy's and the like. And I know I have helped to attribute to this awful cause because I wanted to go on this splenda equal sweet-n-low trip and visit these exotica locations. Well, so did millions of other people. So the capitol of Belize jumped at the chance to capitalize on that. Kiosk after kiosk of people selling stuff you could buy anywhere. I was just a bit disappointed. You better Belize it.

These apocalypto ladies were supposed to be Mayan princesses or something. Yes. Because I'm easily convinced that they donned peacock feather head gear. Or did they? Well I know for certain they didn't wear leopard print shirts. That's just bad fasion in every era.

Restaurant: Te House of Tea

1927 Fairview St
Houston, TX 77019

I love reading any and all of the Houston area magazines. A few of them have mentioned Te House of Tea and I've been meaning to stop by there for some time but life has been so mad busy that there's just no time to lounge around and relax and just zen out with some fine conversation. My co-worker neighbor buddy whom I distract on a daily basis mentioned that she went to this tango thing on Fridays at that very same teahouse. How cool is that? Teahouse by day. Tango by night. Well, only Friday nights. So for lunch one day, the bf and I met up our buddy for whom we owe our relationship to and we had us some tea. That's where I came to this realization in life. I don't like huge menus with overwhelming selections. It took the bf and I a gazillion years to decide which tea we would go with. They offer single portions so that we could each try something different. They oodles of black tea. Oodles of green tea. Oodles of white tea. Did we want something fruity? Something hot or cold. The possibilities were endless. I decided on something fruity. The only suggestion that I have for the intimidating tea menu is that for something like that, you should definitely grab a menu and sit and contemplate. Don't be like us. Because you order at the counter, we came in and just stood there going uhhh ... uuhh ... for like ... a million years. The food isn't bad. They've got all kinds of cafe foods but dressed up with different ingredients that make it more unique. Like they used brie instead your other typical type of cheese. Loved it! The bf had an omelet and the friend and I both had sandwiches. Me on baguette and him on panini. Man. I think I want myself a panini maker. They also have a bunch of crepes so if you like that nutella and fruit stuff, then you should definitely come try it here!

They sale art, tea sets, as well as tea itself. This purty butterfly that they had hanging was for sale. I'm not sure what the price was though.

Look at this super cute tea set! I really wanted it but it was really expensive. Like forty bucks or something around there. It didn't seem worth it.

I liked the bf's tea that he had so I bought a bag of that. It's Citrus Summer Black. Shown is the tea that I had, South Pacific Green.

And although I told myself that I wasn't able to afford the owl tea set, I somehow convinced myself that this thirty something dollar set of tea cups was ok, so I bought it. Even though I know I couldn't probably pick this up and an asian store for a fraction of the price. I guess I was in a 'have to have it now' moment. I purchsed the vertical box set on the left. The bf was right though. I still have not used it. At all. Hah!

Trippin': Cozumel - Dolphinaris

Something that I will never be able to get sick of? Swimming with dolphins! The smartest creatures ever. This was my second time to take part in such an exhilarating experience. These mammals are incredibly beautiful and until one takes you for a ride, it's hard to believe how strong dolphins are. I loved every moment of it. Their bodies are so smooth and soft. I remember just wanting to break all the rules and go crazy swimming around with the whole pod. The cons to it all? I just felt as if there were too many dolphins for such a small area at Dolphinaris. Poor dolphins! They need more space! More room to swim as freely as they can while in captivity! Oxymoron?!? I wondered if these trainers respected and treated these animals as good as they should. Do they incorporate positive reinforcement in all of their training methods? Our dolphin that swam with us would perform her trick and then immediately return to her trainer for a fish. It's almost as if these dolphins aren't trained but BRAINWASHED! I swear! They all have this dazed look on their faces. But on a high note, our trainer guy did mention that dolphins in captivity live longer than those that are in the wild. I normally am against using animals for work or anything along those lines but when it comes to dolphins, I can't HELP it! They're just so great and amazing that I'll never get a chance to simply encounter these curious flippers merely by chance. Instead, I choose to pay the hefty fee. And since they don't allow cameras, I always want to also pay the hefty for the photos that THEY take. Booo!

These are the over-priced fotos that we had to actually BUY. And it mos def wasn' cheap. I think it averaged like twenty bucks a photo. Maybe more? I can't remember.

Placenter: LDL Casino

Here are some fotos from my visit to L'auberge du Lac Casino Resort.

The view from our room.

The pool area is so inviting that we had to go take a little swim.

The bf has some friends who like to gamble and thus were able to get a comped room for one night. Sah-weet! The rooms are super nice and the beds are very comfy. They've got artwork everywhere that's available for purchase.

The bathroom even had this button replacement/repair kit. How awesome is that?!? I took it home with me of course!

The hotel is just gorgeous!

For some reason, the bf and I just loved the buffet at LDL. The Le Beaucoup Buffet offered a meat cutting station that bf kept returning to for their medium-rare prime rib. I couldn't stop eating their corn on the cob. I know, I'm not good at making good use of a buffet. Their desserts were super rich. The bf, along with all the other table around us were feasting on the literally all-you-can-eat crawfish. According to the bf, it was pretty good for being buffet crawfish. And man lemme tell ya, the bf tore it up! What a man! There was also a pasta station where they would you can select the items you wnat and they would stir-fry the pasta in front of you. Not only that, a long line was constantly formed in front of this fish station. They had a variety of fish you could choose from and then they would grill for you right then and there. The bf recommends the catfish.

There's a florist available. Just in case the guy loses too much money and doesn't want lady-in-his life to get crazy angry.

This coffee place made the best iced mocha that I have ever had in my entire life!

Talk about sinfully delicious. Every time I passed by this dessert place I literally started drooling. There were many unique ice-cream flavors to choose from as well as supposed fresh cakes baked that day. I may have made up that last part. I broke down and had myself a piece of the black forest cake. It was super rich. A few bites and I was done.

Ever had pho before? AKA Vietnamese noodle soup. Well, the boys woke up in the morning after their night of beer fest and wanted pho. So we went to the Asian restaurant in the hotel to check it out. The pho there is frackin' TWELVE BUCKS! That's pure insanity! Pho in houston is like a mere five bucks. But they ordered it anyways since that's what they wanted. The restaurant is Kim Son owned. Aren't they frackin' rich enough?!? They're frackin' spawning everywhere!!!

And last but not least, the Spa du Lac. Everyone should take advantage of this! For ten bucks, you can have access to their spa area. It's completely quiet and a super serene environment so it's immediate relaxation. They give you a locker and you get a robe as well as showers you can use after pool/jacuzzi/sauna time. The sauna and jacuzzi are private so you don't have the unruly crowd to deal with. There's also a relaxation room where you can take a seat and read some magazines or just watch some television. After I showered, they had a blow-dryer for me to use as well as hair products and what not. The sink area is equipped with mouthwash, q-tips, toothbrush and toothpaste. Anything you need, they've got it!

My half-arse color isolation cos I've just been so darned lazy this past few days.