It had been a long while since I celebrated a relationship anniversary, and I wasn't too sure how to approach it now that it was happening. Not being a fan of cheese, I was hoping to steer away from the letsstareintoeachotherseyesinmatriomony candlelight dinner, diabetes-inducing, cringe-worthy cards and speeches or expensive, obligatory gifts for our first anniversary. I don't remember when exactly I decided on this little staycation, but I remember thinking it was the perfect way to spend our day together.
Say deserted forest, glass room, open shower, empty pools, barbecue 10 meters above forest ground, Ben & Jerry's and Macallan Whiskey.
After Shama told me about this glamorous camping place and showed me all the pictures on its website, I started my arduous journey of keeping it a secret from Clinton. Tough as hell, I almost just blurted it out to him in excitement one too many times- but constantly referring back to my exhilaration of finding out about it, and imagining Clinton discovering it only when we get there, I managed to dial it back a bit and kept my bouncing mouth shut.
Not completely though, I kept dropping random hints like bring sports wear, we need mosquito repellant, we are bringing chicken else we'll starve to death and it drove him nuts much to my amusement.
So that morning, we rushed out to buy what google advised us to- barbecue sauce, salt, chicken, fishballs, sausages and topped up the grocery cart with Ben & Jerry's, cereal, mosquito repellant, whiskey mixers amongst other necessities, and flung ourselves onto our 45 minutes car ride. We were headed to Serendah, and as far as Clinton knew, it was an ulu, unheard of kampong district that waze was guiding us to.
This was our room- Glass box 1. It was breathtaking, and as cliche as this gets, the pictures didn't do any justification to the ambience of our little glass house. The room was made of full length glass walls, where the front of the room had sliding doors opening up to the balcony. We were literally in the heart of the forest, being surrounded completely by nature. There were curtains that could be drawn over the glass should you need your privacy. Without reception signals nor wifi, nor much else to do (you could trek, but it was drizzling that day), the retreat allowed us to spend a beautiful day together close to nature, without our every-day distractions. It was very charming.
We spent the rest of the day in the quiet pool, exploring a waterfall 10 minutes away, and learning how to barbecue.
Here's a guide to Barbecue-ing for noobs who spent their lives joining barbecues and being fed:
1. Find a bowl to marinate your chicken in.
2. If you don't have one, adapt. One such way is to dig out all contents of your watermelon and use it as a bowl. Girlfriend protests? Who cares. Copyright Clinton Nambiar.
3. Empty your bottle of barbecue sauce and sprinkle salt all over your chicken. If this is too gross for your liking, have someone else do it.
4. Your marinated chicken is now marinated. Refrigerate and wait till dark for romantic reasons.
5. Meanwhile, swim, and frog around the retreat.
6. Offer to barbecue for brownie points.
7. Dip your defrosted fishballs, meatballs, allballs, frankfurts in barbecue sauce and shove them through sticks. Leave on the pit and listen to your heart.
8. Keep trying, do not give up.
9. Fling all >70% burnt pieces out into the forest. No one can see you and there are probably hungry animals around. Try not to fling your fork away.
10. Your chao-da plate of goodness will taste like heaven because it's your anniversary. You are also hungry. Guide complete.
We spent the rest of the night drinking and recalling what we did every month for the past twelve months. We only managed to reach July before Macallan got the better of me. :-)
I woke up to fallen leaves on the glass ceiling, mildly hiding the bluest sky behind it. I would show you a picture but I was too mesmerized by it I fell asleep,
My beautiful bouquet that I had only one day to stare at before we were whisked off to join the havoc on board It's The Ship.
T'was a perfect day.
OOTD:
Dress: My Little Bow
Bikini: Cotton On
Bracelet: LAEA
Shades: Chatuchak, Thailand
Location: Sekeping Serendah Retreat
x,
Annabelle
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