Pangkor Laut Resort - Day 2 & 3

Monday morning when most of the world wakes up to go to work.... we woke up to beautiful views of the gardens and the ocean beyond. On the way to breakfast, we stopped by the pool.
Breakfast at Feast Village was probably the best I've ever had at any hotel/resort. To start the day, I had a serving of fruits which included red dragon fruit.
My Daalin was also very healthy.... he munched on a celery stick!

Then I had an omelette (cooked on the spot at the egg station, of course) and some seafood breakfast pie.

Waffles freshly made at the waffle station, topped with mixed berries (or your choice of topping)....

There were also a few other 'live' stations serving japanese teppanyaki noodles, roti canai, and simple dim sum. I skipped the noodles, roti canai and nasi lemak.

We were both very delighted with the juice station. You get to pick your selection of cut fruits and there's a staff stationed full-time at this huge heavy-duty juice extractor who will juice the fruits for you on the spot. No water added. Fresh, pure fruits juice. Ice and milk available if you prefer.

After a few glasses of fruit juices, we took the shuttle to Emerald Bay again. By then it was about almost 11am and the sun was out in all its glory but the beach chairs were nicely shaded underneath the huge wide foliage.

The beach boy brought towels and cold water without us having to ask for it. This is excellent YTL service!

My Daalin made himself comfortable in the hammock and soon dozed off.

It was a very lovely morning indeed. So relaxing, just enjoying the sea breeze and the sound of waves breaking on the shore.

We then sat down at Chapman's Bar for our lunch.

It's right on the beach and we had a wonderful view of Emerald Bay.

For starters, Daalin had the Greek Salad...

...while I picked a less healthy option - Nachos!

Daalin had the Pangkor Lamb Chops for his main course.

My main course - Chicken in a Basket.

For dessert, I had a fruit salad...

...and Daalin had the Walnut Chocolate Brownie.

After a very full and satisfying lunch, we went back to our villa for a siesta. In the evening, we went for a swim but the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse as we were greeted by a thick blanket of haze. The air also stank of ashes.

We still made our way to Uncle Lim's Kitchen for dinner.

We ordered the Duck Spring Roll and Salted Egg Chicken for starters, and Oyster Omelette and Soft Shell Crab for mains but requested that they all be served together.

Of all the meals, I must say that this is the only one we didn't enjoy. Maybe we ordered too many fried stuff. But they were more oily than I had expected. The oyster omellete was especially disappointing with more flour batter than anything else.

For dessert, Daalin had a Avocado Cream.... I would never pay RM25++ for this! The cup probably cost more than the contents.

I had the Mango Pudding....

On our final day, we again had a very enjoyable breakfast. Daalin must have downed at least 5 glasses of fruit juices.

I spotted a couple of peacocks that strolled into Feast Village. This one was particularly vain...

We checked out and departed on the 12noon ferry. It had been a very lovely holiday at a very lovely resort. Pangkor Laut sure lives up to it's brand of being a YTL Luxury Resort.

At RM799nett per person for the 3D2N package, I felt it was real value-for-money. Driving to Lumut cost RM2.70 in toll each way (between Damansara and Rawang) and a total of RM17.10 for parking at the multi-storey car park.

We started our drive from Lumut at about 12.45pm and arrived home at 4pm.

Next year will be our 10th anniversary....and Daalin is thinking of..... Maui!!!

(**only because he has a conference there around our anniversary time next year)

Pangkor Laut Resort - Day 1

Daalin and I spent the last 3 days on a private island. Every year, we go away on an annual honeymoon for our wedding anniversary. Since I will be in confinement during our anniversary this year, we decided to go earlier while I can still travel.

The drive to Lumut was pleasant and took just 3 hours. We used the new KL-Kuala Selangor highway and then the west coast road.

Upon arrival at the Pangkor Laut Resort office, we were served a cool welcome drink and then waited in air-conditioned comfort. The waiting room also had computers and newspaper to keep you occupied while you wait.

Just before 11am, we were escorted to the ferry which is actually a speedboat. It was really clean and had life jackets for everyone.

Half and hour later, we arrived at Pangkor Laut where we were greeted by name and escorted to the lobby. The friendly staff greeted us with cold towels and cool drinks.

The friendly staff who greeted us then escorted us to the Royal Bay Beach Club where we had our lunch.

For starters, I had the Caesar Salad...

...while Daalin had the wok-fried prawn and smoked salmon salad.

My main course was the Alaskan Salmon Burger.

Daalin had the Royal Club Sandwich.

And for dessert I had the Black Forest Mousse...

...while Daalin had the Soy-milk Panna Cotta with mixed fruits.

Our stomachs full, we made our way back to the lobby and then we were escorted to our Garden Villa.

Our luggage was already in the room. And since we requested for the ground floor unit, (coz I'm too lazy to lug my belly upstairs) we had an open-air oversized bath.

After a afternoon snooze, we took the shuttle to the western side of the island to Emerald Bay - supposedly amongst the top 10 beaches in the world.

After a beautiful sunset, we made our way back to Feast Village for our dinner.

Again, it's a 3-course meal. Daalin had the Grilled Chicken and Pear salad for starters.

I had the Seafood Chowder.

Daalin had the Baked Grouper for his main course.

While I had the Loin of Lamb.

Daalin's dessert was the Pandan Creme Caramel.

I had the Chocolate Mousse.

And then we retreated into our Garden Villa for a good night's sleep.

Annual Family Holiday Down South

Last weekend was a long weekend for us and what a weekend it was!

The 'holiday' started early for Joe with a school trip to Zoo Negara on Thursday. After having visited the Honolulu Zoo in 2008, Melbourne Zoo in 2009 and Singapore Zoo in 2010, he finally visited our local zoo this year.

The next day (Friday) was a post-outing school holiday. Since Daalin was also on his Easter mid-semester break and I don't work on Fridays, we drove down to Yong Peng, arriving just in time to watch the Royal Wedding live on TV.

I find Yong Peng relaxing because the kids can entertain themselves and I don't have to do house chores :-)

The next morning, we made our way to Desaru and checked into Lotus Desaru Resort. We picked this resort mainly because it's located in Johor, has many-rooms apartments and something to entertain the boys.

The resort water park with a long water slide was certainly the highlight for the boys.
At night, we celebrated Ah Mah's birthday.

While the boys spent morning and evenings at the waterpark, my princess preferred to stay dry and close to me.

She certainly found Tua Pek's iPad more entertaining.

The boys loved this coconut too. But my princess was terrified of it!

The coconut tips over with a big splash when full....Joe thought it was great fun!

Besides all the water fun, there was a lot of iPhone and iPad and Wii time and of course just chit chatting and enjoying family company.

We had all our meals in the hotel room. Ah Mah was a fantastic Food Minister. She brought frozen nasi briyani, beef rendang, char siew, devil chicken, boneless roast duck and a lot of other stuff.

We even had sushi-making in the hotel room!I think the hotel staff might have freaked out if they had seen us carrying in the rice cooker, hot plate, pots and huge ice-boxes (filled with frozen food). Lucky for us, they didn't.

On Monday, we checked out and left the hotel at 11.30am, arriving in Yong Peng at 2pm. After a late lunch, Daalin took a short nap while I packed our car and fed the kids milk.

We departed Yong Peng at 4pm and the drive home was certainly one of the most pain-in-the-rear-end ones for me. Around Tangkak, a milk truck crashed to the road side creating a 5km jam because busybody Malaysians stopped their cars on the emergency lane to loot the milk.

Then it wasn't even 6pm when my son surprised me by saying he was starving. We stopped at the Ayer Keroh overhead rest stop to tar pau KFC. There was a huge crowd and long queue at KFC. Then it poured heavily when we wanted to leave.

Just after entering the highway again, there was another jam due to another accident.

We finally passed Seremban at about 8pm and traffic slowed down again....all because of an accident on the south bound lane!!! It took us 45 minutes to cover the stretch between Seremban and Nilai.

KL was jam-free and we got home at 9.30pm. It took 5.5 hours for what normally takes under 2.5 hours!

Joseph wants to go to Lotus Desaru again....

We'll see..... maybe when the Senai-Desaru highway opens, and it's off-peak period.

He sure did enjoy himself though.... family time is great!