A week ago, we let Joseph skip the last 3 days of the semester to start our vacation early!
We went to Penang for a rockin splashing good time!
This is our first family holiday since Isabel was born. We booked ourselves a Lil' Rock Suite at the Hard Rock Hotel Penang.
It has a partitioned kids' room with a HUGE single+trundle bed. The room is also equipped with a Sony Playstation, games and books for the children. There's also an outdoor area with swing+slide to keep young kids entertained.
Bathroom came with very nice-smelling Jasmine Mandarin toiletries.
And the pool.... besides the water slides and mini waterpark, there is a 'beach' with sand-on-the-floor shallow pool. So you have the feel of the beach without the icky salt water.
I started off each morning with a BIG bowl of fruits!
The breakfast spread is not enormously abundant, but I really liked the variety of healthy stuff.....plenty of fruits, muesli, yoghurt, salad, juices... and this is the first hotel where I find chocolate milk as part of the buffet!
On our second day there, we made a visit to the Butterfly Farm after breakfast.
It's so ironic. I lived on Penang Island for over 10 years and not once did I visit this place. Now that I no longer live here, I come as a tourist :-)
Joseph was daring enough to 'pick' up the butterflies onto his finger.
Joy on the other hand freaked out!!! I mean really FREAKED OUT!!! She screamed and cried hysterically the moment we stepped into the farm. I guess she doesn't like things flying around her. She made so much noise that one nice old man (staff) came and led us to the air-conditioned movie room where a bug cartoon was showing. In the cool air-conditioned comfort and away from flying insects, she finally calmed down.
On the way to the exit, there were rooms where preserved butterflies are exhibited. And then....my princess said, "ahh....I like these butterflies!" **slap forehead!!!!** I brought her to the Penang Butterfly Farm to see REAL living butterflies and she prefers dead ones.
After checking out from HRH (we spent 2 nights there) on the third day, we stopped by the new Straits Quay. It was rather quiet on a weekday. Seems the (expensive) restaurants here are full on weekends!
After a quick lunch we made our way to Penang Hill.
The last time Daalin and I were here, we were not yet married. Now we experience the new train with 3 little ones!
The brand new train zoomed from bottom to top station in under 10 minutes. Felt like merely 5 minutes to me. No need to stop and change trains at the middle station. It was also much bigger, spacious and air-conditioned! My Penangnite friends say that people now complain that it's too fast - can't enjoy the scenery. Gosh...there's no pleasing some people I guess.
The rest of our time in Penang was spent visiting and catching up with friends. We had a good holiday in spite of the lack of food (as you can see from the photos). I know I know....what kind of Penang holiday is it when you don't indulge in all the hawker food. I guess I have to wait till my kids are bigger and can enjoy Penang food.
For the record, I got home to find myself 1kg lighter AFTER 4 days in Penang!!!!!
