To get there, you can either drive up or fly to Kuantan via Firefly. Since we don't have a car, and because Emma loves to take aeroplanes, we opted for the flight. There was a promo going on, and it cost MYR874 in total for the 4 of us (infant fare for Leanne was MYR100, so it was MYR258 per pax or about SGD100). Flight was also inclusive of 20kg baggage allowance per person. The plane was really small, 19 rows, each row having a 2-2 seat configuration. The door of the plane at the back opened downwards to form the steps up to the plane. Yep, that's how small it was.
It was Leanne's first flight and she looks to be on track to be a good traveller like Emma. She latched on during take-off and slept throughout the flight. Emma didn't sleep but Andrew kept her entertained with Kinder Surprise Eggs (recently she's into this toy egg thing, fascinated by youtube videos showing the opening of toy eggs). Anyway it was a pretty short flight of 1 hour.
The entire tarmac for our flight
We arrived at the airport. They seriously have like 2 flights a day, one MAS that flies to and fro KL and the other our Firefly flight to and fro SIN. We were out of the airport within 20 mins, and that's because we took our time. There were 4 counters to clear 25 passengers (yes that's the grand total of passengers on our flight). Such a busy airport.
Upon exiting the airport, there were 2 taxi counters. One was for budget taxi and the other for limousine. Upon further enquiry, the price was RM75 for budget and RM80 for limousine. Since the price difference was negligible, we opted for the "limousine". It's not like a Mercedes, just a Proton that was 2000cc and above. The ride took about 45 mins from the airport to the resort.
Emma fell asleep in the car while Leanne continued sleeping, so we had two sleeping beauties on our hands when we arrived. We checked into the rooms and placed the girls on the bed. The room was sparsely furnished with simple curtains and a sofa bed; reminded hubby of the rural huts we saw in Malapascua. Half an hour or so in the room, we realised that the bed was infested with bed bugs! We got freaked out and requested to change room immediately. The reception said the new room would be available in an hour's time and asked us to stay in the room. We were too freaked out and didn't want to risk the bed bugs spreading to our luggage, stroller, kids, so we just brought everything to the reception on our own.
While waiting for our room to be ready, we headed to the Snacking Noodle Bar for a bite. We sat on this sofa seat with a window ledge behind us. I didn't notice it at first, only when Emma woke up and started to stand on the sofa and explore the ledge, looking out the window, then I realised that the ledge was filled with cobwebs and dead insects. This is not a remote corner in the resort where yes understandably there are bugs and insects around. This is in a very accessible ledge in F&B restaurant where kids can play and explore with their hands, then turn around and feed themselves using the same hands, especially if parents don't pay attention. Not a good start. On a separate note, the noodles were not bad, typical hawker fare like shredded chicken or malaysian curry noodle with choice of noodle (kway teow, vermicelli, lau su fen, yellow noodles).
We went back to the reception, where they apologised for the bed bugs and upgraded our room to Deluxe (instead of Superior). The room appeared similar to the Superior room, only instead of where the sofa bed had been, there was a big shelving with the CRT TV and fruits. Apparently, bath robes are provided for Deluxe rooms but not Superior (didn't see any in the first room). There was more substantial furnishing (at least there was now a proper headboard instead of just flimsy curtains) and no more termite-eaten corners in the bathroom. I would say maybe like a 3-3.5 star hotel. To their credit, they also included a baby bath tub for Leanne.
Finally we are ready to explore the resort. We went swimming. The pool is really catered for kids. 30% of the pool was 1.45m for adults; 50% was 0.7m (waist level); and 20% was knee level with some fountain jets. We went swimming everyday as it was quite fun and one of the few activities Emma could do.
The village also had nightly performances at 9.15pm performed by the G.O.s. They really have a very tough job. Not only do they need to be professionally trained for the respective day activities to teach guests, they need to mingle and eat with guests during meal times and perform 3 times a week (they take turns to present a performance every night) and party after that. Anyway back to the performances. The performance on the first night was a musical medley with impersonations by the staff. Hilarious good fun!
Emma engrossed in the performance
Audience participation in mass dance
We didn't watch the performance on the second night as it had ghouls and skeletons on the backdrops. For the third night, it was a Circus show which was impressive. The staff are really multi-talented! A Korean lady called Bonnie was a boutique staff by day, and at night she was a mermaid twisting and dangling in the air with two ropes. Another Japanese lady was also very flexible, definitely had been professionally trained for such acrobatic acts. During the entire act, Andrew had already drilled Emma so much not to do the stunts on her own, that the people were professionally trained, that Emma was telling me, Emma cannot do, not for me. After the show there was a white party and fireworks too (which we saw from our room)!
That's Bonnie!
Staff dressed in various white costumes for White Party after performance
Food wise, the main restaurant food is hit and miss. Not fantastic but not horrible either; just edible to fill your stomach before you head off to the next activity. I love desserts but their cakes are quite unappetising. I took a small bite out of each of their normal cakes and had no incentive to take a second bite. The tiramisu is horrible, not the usual light alcohol-infused sponge but a pudding texture. But the white chocolate tart and cheesecakes are decent. Also you might want to give the coffee machine a miss. The coffee machine needed to be emptied while Andrew was waiting for coffee, and when the staff opened the machine to clear it, he saw 3 cockroaches running out. Yikes.
They have another restaurant by the beach, Rembulan (I think). This is more a fine dining option. Reservations required for dinner, and we managed to eat there once. Fortunately the night we ate there, the restaurant was quite empty. Andrew and I both had the tenderloin medium rare which was good, and Emma had spaghetti. I wished we could have eaten here more as the quality of the food here was definitely better, but it was a 10 mins train ride from the lobby so not very convenient with the 2 of them.
Activities wise, we only managed to try out the trapeze and archery. I would have liked to try out windsurfing / sailing as well, but perhaps next time. (We did windsurfing before in Four Seasons Maldives and were precariously trying to balance ourselves.) Why could we only do two activities? Because dear daddy had separation anxiety and didn't want to put his precious princess into Petit Club Med. There was only one other kid when we went to put her in, so daddy thought it would be more fun for her to stick with us. As for Leanne, she was 2 weeks shy of the 4 months minimum age requirement. But even if she had not been underage, we would not put her in as well. She is still breastfed and I didn't bring my pump, which meant I would have had to keep going back every 2-3 hours; and the daily rate for Baby Club Med was RM300.
So on Friday afternoon while the kids were sleeping, we brought them out so we could try archery and trapeze. We wanted to use FaceTime as baby monitors and leave them sleeping in the room, but the Internet connection was too spotty and kept breaking off. So in the end we placed Emma in the stroller and carried Leanne to the archery range. I was not too bad a shot, but more luck than skill, resulting in very random shots from bulls-eye to the green colour (i.e. off the board and into the green sheet to prevent arrows from flying too far). Andrew was more consistent hitting the red and blue zone. There was also a tournament arranged and we were supposed to hit all colours on the board. Me with my random shooting managed to hit all colours in the 3rd round, and Andrew got all his in the 4th round. We both got bronze medals... yippie... Emma had a kick going on stage to collect the medals during the prize presentation.
Leanne sleeping on the bench and Emma sleeping in the stroller
See the green sheet behind? Yep, many of my arrows ended up there...
Our medals! Lol... cheap thrill!
Next was the trapeze. The idea is to climb up to the platform, jump off and swing to hook your legs on the trapeze, after which to try and sit up on the trapeze, and do a flip on landing. Right. I just aimed to swing on the trapeze without falling off prematurely. At least we managed to try it. The climb up alone drained 70% of my energy already!
We didn't do anything on Saturday afternoon as we were too tired out and just slept together with the kids. We just took a nice stroll along the beach when Emma woke up (Leanne was sleeping on and off). The beach was also nice to walk as the breeze was nice and strong, but the waves too choppy not suitable for swimming. We headed for dinner then went for the Circus performance.
Finally on Sunday morning, it was time to check out.
Emma's "sad pout" that we are leaving
The profoundly busy Subang airport
Overall, I think we had fun. However with Leanne, someone had to handle her at all times, and she was too young to go into the pool or even hold her neck up properly. After all, Emma's first trip was to Angsana Bintan when she was 7-8 months old and was more stable. I think it may be fun to try Club Med again when Leanne is 4 and Emma is 6. Maybe we will try Club Med Phuket or Bali or Bintan then. :)
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