Our trip to Koh Samui Part 2

Continuing where I left off, no we did not purchase any vacation club membership from Anantara :) But we were extremely happy to receive our 4000 baht voucher and free ride to the next hotel :)

The 2nd hotel we booked was undoubtedly the most expensive, but since we saved quite a bit on airfare (and now on transportation!) we didn't feel as guilty splurging for two nights on this:

We booked a garden villa with a private jacuzzi pool for two nights. It wasn't as expensive when I booked it, but because of the poor exchange rate, we ended up paying almost RM100 more a night. But it was definitely worth it. The shower area/bathtub in the room was almost like a mini pool. When the water outside got too cold for Helene, we took her out (kicking and screaming) and let her play water in here. So this was like her own private pool haha.

Of course, the first thing the kids wanted to do when we arrived was get in pool, so we did that :)

Okay, rewind a little bit. We checked into the Renaissance Koh Samui Resort & Spa and were greeted by their very friendly staff at the hotel lobby, which looked like this:

Instead of a welcome drink, they served us welcome ice cream instead. Of course, the kids were delighted :) This was a homemade gelato which came in two flavours, mango and lemongrass. I chose mango.

The hotel also provided a free shuttle to and from Central Festival, which was quite a big shopping mall located at Chaweng. Here was where we utilised our 4000 baht vouchers We ate at this restaurant called Tai by Red Snapper at the mall which served both Thai and Japanese food. We ordered quite a lot, but we still didn't manage to use all the vouchers so on the last day we gave away 1000 baht vouchers to a couple at the hotel. They were pretty pleased to get it!

Fried udon and sushi rolls:

1. Pad thai:

Red curry salmon:

My girls and I, except for Heidi as she was napping:

Besides the private pool in our villa, the hotel also had two other pools, one lap pool and another one by the beach. This was the main pool by the beach.

The kids had a good time at this pool as well.

And also by the beach! This was Helene's first time playing with sand. She didn't really like it at first and she kept pointing to her feet saying "dirty". But after a while she didn't mind it so much. We kept her sandals on because we were afraid that any sharp objects in the sand may hurt her feet.

We brought our own beach toys, but the hotel supplied them too. The kids found a frisbee so were playing with Daddy.

Daddy and his girls:

Love this picture of me and my baby! Big smiles all around :)

A worthy mention about the hotel is their buffet breakfast. The spread was not really that much, but somehow we felt that we were given quality food and everything was quite delicious. There was one morning that Heidi ate 3 plates of fried rice! Check out the buffet:

One of their breakfast specialties which is a must-try is the eggs benedict, which are made to order, but inclusive in the breakfast buffet. Instead of hollandaise sauce, they put a generous amount of some sort of spicy curry sauce and the muffin is also topped with grilled chicken.

The walkways through the resort and the villas looked like this:

After a relaxing 3 days and 2 nights, it was time to say bye bye to our villa and to take our usual family photo before checking out :) Part 3 coming up soon.

Our trip to Koh Samui Part 1

This was our first family holiday together overseas. I actually stumbled upon zero fare with Firefly back in June so it was quite worthwhile, as we only had to pay for taxes and surcharge which came up to about RM300 per person for a return ticket. Helene is still considered an infant so hers was only infant fare. Firefly also flies direct to Koh Samui from Penang so there was no need to transit, plus they offered 20kg baggage per person which was included in the fare.

After deciding that we would go, Hubby and Hannah had to renew their passports and Helene had to make hers. Check out our 3 princesses' first passport photos, side by side haha.

As the day got closer, the girls were all pretty excited. We had already decided beforehand that we were not going to go out walking or sightseeing very much as it would not be easy with 3 little ones! So instead, we wanted to do hotel-hopping and therefore booked at 3 different hotels for our 5 day 4 nights holiday. I booked all the hotels through Booking.com as I have used their service before and so far, no complaints!

A few days before our trip, I discovered that Hubby has a hidden talent - packing! Would you believe that he packed for all 5 of us in a cabin sized luggage bag and 3 backpacks? Bearing in mind that we had to pack milk, diapers, swimwear, beach toys etc. But amazingly enough, he did manage to do it, so we were all glad that we could travel light since we each had to also carry one child. So much for the 80kg total baggage allocation, we only used 11kg of it! :)

Our flight was at 2.15 pm and my brother-in-law fetched us to the airport. After checking in, guess what we had for lunch? No surprises, it was McDonald's! Look at our happy excited little girls.

This was actually Heidi's first trip overseas and only her second time on a plane. She was only 6 months when she had her first plane ride so understandably she was excited.

Love this shot of me and Hannah:

This was also Helene's first time on a plane, but she slept all through the flight after I nursed her.

When baby sleeps and the older girls are entertaining themselves, it's time for Mummy and Daddy to take selfies! Haha :)

We landed right on schedule, and after clearing immigration and getting our luggage, we wanted to look for a taxi to take us to our first hotel. As we were coming out, suddenly we were approached by this lady saying that she was from the Anantara hotel chain and asked if we were interested to go for a preview of their vacation club membership. At first, we were a bit apprehensive, but as she continued talking and brought us to their booth, the freebies that came along with the agreement to go for their preview seemed pretty good. There was no obligation to join, but they would arrange free transportation to our hotel, and they would also pick us up from our hotel the next day to their hotel for the preview, and then fetch us to our second hotel, free of charge. On top of that, they would pick us up from our third hotel on the day of our departure and send us back to the airport. And further on top of that, we would get a 4000 baht voucher which can be redeemed for dining/spa etc. It did seem pretty good, and since we were on holiday, we agreed to go for the preview. So true enough, the transport did fetch us to our hotel from the airport. It was actually less than 5 minutes drive away, and if not for the free ride, it would have cost us 500 baht! Transportation is very expensive in Koh Samui.

We wanted to try out not only different hotels, but different types of hotels during our stay. So our first hotel was a duplex apartment type hotel called P10 Samui, located in Bophut. Check out the interesting design.

The rooms opened directly into a long swimming pool. The girls were delighted and little Helene was so excited!

The living room was downstairs and the bedroom was upstairs so it was plenty of space for the 5 of us. Also there were two bathrooms, one on each floor.

Of course, the girls couldn't wait to get in the pool!

The next morning, we had breakfast in the restaurant located opposite the road, but provided complimentary by the hotel. The restaurant was by a pier over the sea, so it was really windy. It was not a buffet breakfast, but you could have a choice of 5 different sets, American, English, French, vegetarian and Iranian, I think. This was the American breakfast set, which also came with a glass of juice, coffee or tea and two slices of toast. So it was plenty.

After breakfast (and more swimming!), we checked out of the hotel, but not before taking the usual family photo. Love Heidi's face in these :)

Around 1pm, the Anantara transport came to fetch us to their hotel for the preview which was not too far away. After the preview, they fetched us to our next hotel - which I will blog about in another post :)

Our little graduate

Where did 3 whole years of kindergarten go to? It seemed like just yesterday that we were attending her annual concert when she was 4 years old and this year, she is already graduating from kindy.

I took this picture a few weeks back when she was wearing her graduation robe for photo day. I didn't have any with her wearing her graduation robe on the actual day, as we were good parents and obeyed rules not to take pictures in the hall haha.  As there were professional photographers there, we will just have to wait for the official photos. I did however try to take some from where I was sitting but since they didn't turn out too nicely, I won't share them here lol.

We got Hannah dressed in the morning; her daddy did her hair and I did her makeup. Helene must be wondering why her jie-jie looks different from usual! Haha. We didn't bring Helene since aunty kindly agreed to look after her and we thought that she might be bored during the ceremony. Even Heidi couldn't really sit still.

As expected, Heidi was not in a good mood so her face in all the photos came out grumpy.

But we got some nice smiles from our little graduate here! She was wearing her dance costume as besides the graduation ceremony, the graduates performed a special song, a dance and they were also part of the school choir.

Hannah was tasked to lead the graduation march and she carried in the school flag in front of all her friends and placed it on the stage. As expected, we were immensely proud of her :)

It's a bit bittersweet that we won't get to see Hannah perform in kindly anymore, but we can look forward to a whole new cycle when Heidi starts kindy next year!

Cafe-hunting in Penang: Starbucks Coffee, Batu Ferringhi

Okay, so maybe Starbucks doesn't really count as a "cafe", but it serves coffee and cakes, so to me that's good enough, commercialism and all :)

A new Starbucks outlet opened some time ago up in Batu Ferringhi, but we have never been there. On the invitation of the Tans during this long Merdeka weekend, we decided to head up there to check it out. One thing I did not know, however, that it was right by the beach! Otherwise we would have dressed appropriately and brought our beach gear.

The kids wasted no time, however, dressed appropriately or not.

It was a beautiful day, not too hot and not raining. Here are the "Serial Facebook Updaters" as our husbands like to call us :p

Back inside, the kids entertained themselves while the adults chit-chatted.

Helene and Sean kor-kor:

One thing about this place though, is that although there is ample seating, the queue to order is neverending! We were there for about 2 hours plus, and the queue was as long when we left as when we came. After the first round of drinks and cake, the kids wanted more cake, so the elder girls waited in line to order. Since it made them feel "grown-up", they didn't mind waiting. Haha.

It took them half an hour to line up for the cake, but it was all gone in less than 5 minutes!

Lil Helene wanted to drink our drinks as well, but since she couldn't have any, she was quite happy to play with an empty cup. Poor thing!

This is a great place for ambience and if you want to just relax and chit chat. Try avoiding weekends and public holidays as the parking is quite limited, and as mentioned, the queue!

We will definitely be back, this time with proper attire and our beach gear!

Cafe-hunting in Penang: Macallum Connoisseurs Coffee Company

I will be starting this series on my blog entitled "Cafe-hunting in Penang", and hopefully I visit enough cafes to keep this series going! :) I had actually reviewed another cafe called Budan's Brew Coffeebar sometime back, and you can read it here.

I am not receiving any incentive for writing this series, and all opinions here are entirely my own. These are also not comprehensive reviews as I will only write based on what I experienced for myself. Also, I am not a coffee drinker, so unfortunately I won't be reviewing the coffee at these cafes, but more of the food and the ambience.

Okay, enough of the disclaimers! First on my list is Macallum Connoisseurs on Gat Lebuh Macallum here in Georgetown. It has been around for a while, and what used to be an old timber factory (I think) is now a cafe cum roastery cum coffee academy. As the space is huge, there is plenty of seating space, unlike some cafes which are quite small and narrow.

The floor is just normal cement, with wooden tables and stools, but somehow the ambience of the place is unique and rustic.

This is what greets you at the entrance,

We went for brunch, and I ordered one of their brunch sets. The food was good, and the avocado spread was something quite special, as you don't get it in other cafes. Spot the impatient little fingers - Helene's! Haha :)

They also serve a variety of cakes, and their mille crepe cakes are especially good. We tried the black forest crepe cake (sorry no picture) and it was firm, unlike some which tend to melt and become soft if not eaten straight from the fridge.

Here is where they make their coffee and drinks, right at the entrance of the cafe. We quite enjoyed ourselves, and will definitely be back!

1. 
   
2. Macallum Connoisseurs Coffee Company
3. Address: No 1, Gat Lebuh Macallum, George Town, 10300 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

   Phone:+60 11-1259 1459

   Hours:

    

   Open today · 9:00 am – 12:00 am
4. www.facebook.com/macallum