Tuesday 27 November 2012

Choice of budget hotels

It’s the time of the year many of us are planning for vacation or short holiday either to overseas or within Malaysia. 

After about a year of hard work and stress of coping with study for our children, going for a holiday would be the best way to relax our mind and for our children to see new things outside their text books. 

We had a short trip to Kuala Lumpur and Genting last month, we are planning for a trip in December. After our trip to KL, our kids were not very pleased with the time we have to spent on waiting to board and the flying time on the air craft, even so, they are still all excited about our next trip, they are very particular on the choice of our hotel room, they truly want to have a comfortable place to have an enjoyable stay, knowing that they will have to follow mummy and daddy to shop around, their little legs are going to be tired at the end of the day.

Travelling with kids is not easy. They get bored and tired easily especially when we go to a place where nothing of their interests. To overcome this kind of stressfulness, we actually booked our hotel room even before we bought our air tickets just to ensure that our stay is nearby to where we want to shop, work and have aplenty of eating places to choose from. 

In order to watch our budget for our second trip, we search through JB budget hotels where we could have more rooms to choose from for the locations we wanted for our stay. The strategic location of the hotel would help to save a lot on transportation costs. 

Before making a booking, you may want to look out for certain facilities provided in the room, like internet service, air-con, washing machine, and also the distance to the nearest KTM/LRT. While checking through their website, I noticed that there are rooms that suitable for single, double and triple occupancies with reasonable charges. For us, we go for the family room for a more comfortable stay.

Sunday 25 November 2012

School Holiday Activities - Rock Climbing

Only during school holidays that our kids can allocate time to explore more activities in sports and other areas of their interests.  Besides Archery, they chose Rock Climbing which they have been wanting to try.  Our friend told us about Sabah Indoor Climbing Centre at Likas Sports Complex  where all three of his children are doing great in rock climbing and have built up strong arms through this activities. 

After observed other climbers,  our girls would like to have a go for it.  Only members are allowed to take part.  We have no choice but to register both of them.

Now they hold a card to learn how to climb like a lizard..*.*  10 lessons to practice their climbing at any time they want at this 8 meters high man made rocks walls.
 pearl took the challenge first.

 the 1st stage was pretty easy for her
she has climbed all the way to the top.  well done!! 





Crystal has no problem climbing to the top too on stage 1.  After few rounds at stage 1.  They proceeded to a more challenging stage 2.  The stepping rocks are much wider apart.

 crystal trying on stage 2 where the surface are uneven with less rocks to step and grab.  Almost climbed to the top.
Pearl did the same too on stage 2, near to the top.

They did pretty well considering the first time on rock climbing.  This activity not just build up muscles also build up their determinations.

Saturday 24 November 2012

Genting & KL Trip..continues

Another update of our Genting and KL trip just for record.

The 2nd day at Genting, we spent the whole day time in the Indoor Theme Park, nieces and nephew who reside in KL join in the fun though they have been there a couple of times.


We bought the Indoor Theme Park tickets in the hotel booking package allow us to have unlimited rides,  




They ride on the Merry-Go-Round many times with different horses each time

at the hotel lobby after we have checked out.  We took a cable car down to the station, our nephew was waiting for us there.  We just want to let our girls experienced a ride in the cable car.  Glad that it did not take too long to arrive, I started to have butterflies in my stomach during the way down.



We noticed a crack on the roof of the cable car

We bought some durian tarts at Restoran Sri Karak before heading back to KL



On the 3rd day, we went on an educational tour in KL city for our girls and a little time for shopping.  Our first stop was at KLCC for our girls to view the Petronas Twin Tower which they only got to see in TV and books.  But they are more interested to go to the PetroSains to explore what's new as compare to the one in KK.  Unfortunately Petrosains is closed on Monday, my girls were very disappointed.

Our next destination was to the Aquaria KLCC. After which our kids were too tired to walk but we still managed to get some reasonable priced clothing and shoes in one of the shopping mall in a rush.

We were back home on the 4th day.  Our kids were very happy to be home and start playing with their Lego Friends which we bought one each for them as promised.  Lego toys are slightly cheaper in KL as compared to KK like most other things.  



The Hamburger on flight of AirAsia is super yummy, I like it.  Will definitely order the same again on my next flight on Air Asia.

Thanks to our nephew, Bryan and family to let us stay at their home during our visit in KL. 


Sunday 18 November 2012

McDonald’s to give away 200,000 free burgers Nationwide on 19th November 2012

We heard from Hitz.fm the other day saying that there will be free Egg McMuffin burgers given out for free from McDonald from 7am - 10am on Monday, 19th November 2012, that's tomorrow. 

Clet said he heard that too..why not we try to check it out tomorrow morning.  I expect it to be jam packed with people.  He said not necessary the case because this campaign might not applicable to Sabah, just like the one advertised in the media by Burger King on its Hottest Deals Value Burgers at RM5.95.  After seeing the advertisement on TV, we happily drove to Burger King and wanted to try on RM5.95 valued burgers for our dinners one evening.  The counter staff gave us a blanked look on their faces when we ordered these meals.  We were then informed by their staff that this promotion is not offered to Sabah outlets.  What  a disappointment!!            

We hope it won't be the case for McDonald.  Please check it out for the offer from McDonald; McDonald’s to give away 200,000 free burgers - Nation | The Star Online

Please also observe the terms and conditions below :

  1. Only 1 free Egg McMuffin per customer.
  2. Free Egg McMuffin limited to the first 1000 customer per restaurant from 7am – 10am, whichever comes first.
  3. * Redemption hours of free Egg McMuffin vary by restaurant.
  4. Not valid through McDelivery.
  5. No purchase required.
  6. This McDonald FREE Egg McMufin Burger promotion is on 19th November 2012, starting * 7 am to 10 am, valid for 1000 customers per outlet only.

Friday 16 November 2012

At Snow World Genting

After settling down in the hotel, we took a walk to the First World Plaza where the SnowWorld is situated. It was still raining, the walk way leading to the Plaza is wet and not well lighted. Much prefer to have a more pleasant walk with well constructed indoor walk way throughout, more convenient for the children and elderly especially under wet weather condition, they could easily slip.

We arrived at SnowWorld at 7.30pm, bought the tickets, the entry time was at 9.30pm, we have got ample time to walk around the plaza and find a restaurant to have our dinner.

check on the SnowWorld from the outside, couldn't wait to go in actually.
 our tickets
 took a photo as rememberance
 We finally decided to have our dinner at the Noodle House, there is a number stated on each meal, dish and drinks
 take the number according to the meal, dish or drinks you have choosen and pay at the counter
 2 juices, 3 noodles cost us RM55.70 (approx. USD18.00)



After dinner, we started to take the queue to the SnowWorld.  The queue getting longer approaching to the entry time. When it's time to go in, people started to rush in to get the winter attires, it was in a jammed packed and chaotic situation at this point. Though we were much ahead from the rest, we were the later ones to enter into the SnowWorld due to the delay in getting the right size boots, winter jackets and gloves.  Even though there were staff giving out the boots and gloves, they gave us the wrong sizes.  We were unable to walk with the over sized shoes; The zipper is broken for Pearl's jacket, all our gloves are much too big.  Basically we took about 15 minutes to get ourselves properly geared to enter into the freezing cold SnowWorld. 

During the short stay in the winter land, both our girls experienced the snow slide which they find it's thrilled.  Crystal were trying to make a snowman but there definitely isn't enough snow for her to do so.   

Though we are not allowed to bring in camera or handphone to take photos in there, there were still plenty of them taking photos with the own cameras and handphones without abiding to the rule.  In order to have photos taken, I went out to take Clet's Samsung handphone for him to take our photos, the effect of the photos are not as clear under the dim light but still better than none.  The professional photographers were too busy taking photos for others, by the time I asked him to take a photo for us, it's already time up for us to leave this huge "ice box". :D
look like we are really in the winter wonderland ;)

After the SnowWorld, we quickly walked back to Theme Park Hotel.  To warm our kids up a bit, we ordered a cup of hot milo at the hotel's lobby cafe.  


It was a good experience for our kids to get a feel of what winter is like.  In SnowWorld, I couldn't not find the smell of snow and the freezing cold winter breeze that we are having in the real winter atmosphere. Can't expect too much as it is an indoor and man made one. '.'  

Tuesday 13 November 2012

At Theme Park Hotel, Genting

Not long after touching down in KL, we took a pre-booked 12-seater van to Genting after dropping our Nephew & wife at Petaling Street.  Crystal had a car sick during the 1 hour plus car ride to Genting, she could have thrown up in the van had it been a longer journey. 

We checked in to Theme Park Hotel which we made a reservation 3 months ago together with discounted Indoor Theme Park tickets for 4 of us.

The Theme Park Hotel's family room is very spacious and clean.  

spacious room area with dinner table near the window overlooking the out door theme park & First World Hotel
 Wordrobe and settee near the entrance
 two queen size beds.  We later added on 2 extra mattresses for our nephew, Bryan and family to join us for the night.    
the bathroom
 complete with toiletries 
 the view of the outdoor theme park from our room, the weather has been wet during our stay in the resort but that did not deter visitors going to the theme park.  We could hear noises coming from the theme park as soon as it opens.
 The colourful First World Hotel view from our hotel room.  It is often covers by the fog, can hardly been seen.  I quickly took a photo of it when the fog started to clear a little. 
beautiful flowers in the room