The Smokehouse, Frasers Hill

One of the main problem we had with Smokehouse, was the amount of time we actually spent at the hotel. Not enough. We ventured into town too much while we should have just relax there, sipping tea, waiting for dinner in such splendid surrounding ......

We only realised that on the morning we packed up and about to leave. Even my Mum-in-law said the same. I was sure that the boys wouldn't mind as well, but unfortunately, my Dad-in-law has a hospital appointment the next morning. Plus the small matter of traveling up to Penang as well.

Irfan just couldn't stop fretting aboutThe hotel is about 15 minutes walk from town if you're keen. It certainly was far enough from the town to be secluded. Secluded enough that I did not have cellular signal. But luckily, the Internet at the lobby was pretty fast.

The hotel itself was not terribly huge. We stayed at Charles, the main family room, complete with bunk beds and a small lounge in the room. Nice cosy decorations, with a decent-sized bathroom. And the best thing was, it was the only room on the ground floor in the main building, right next to the restaurant. On the last morning, when the boys woke up late, we went for breakfast leaving them in the room .....

My in-laws stayed at Ashley, located at an annex building, behind the main hotel. One had to walk through a small covered corridor to get to the dining area. A couple of years ago, we stayed at the same annex when the room there had a bunk bed.

Since our last stay, the place had undergone some internal redecorations, although the theme was still the same. They had new carpeting, a change of manager, but the structure is still pretty much similar. Unfortunately, the pastry chef has since left. So, no more fresh croissant in the morning. On the first evening, I ordered a chicken pie, and was disappointed that it was not as creamy as the last time. The breakfast was also a notch lower than before. The manager said that the chef was still the same since our last stay. Shame that the quality of the cooking had gone down. The still have the same gorgeous afternoon scones though.

We would definitely be turning again in the future, although we would probably spent more time at the hotel rather than venturing too much into town. One of the problem was food. The hotel serves mainly western food. We probably had enough of the food after a couple of days. A quick drive into town should solve that problem with a good selection at the newly-built food center, near where the miniature golf was located. More information on the Smokehouse can be found here. More on the Fraser's Hill stay here.

Early Start

After my walk around town yesterday, I woke up charged. Full of beans this morning as I head down for breakfast. I then found out that I was a tad too early. The breakfast hall was only opened at 7. So, I enjoyed the free wifi instead before heading off to join the 8 am rush hour into the Exhibition Center.

It was just after the first series of talk when I drafted this entry. In severe need of coffee, but to be honest the speakers has been very good so far. As you can see from my notebook, it was getting a bit intense although disappointingly, most of the data were already presented 6 months ago at the American meeting. They ended up by updating what was available, but nothing earth-shattering were announced so far.

After this trip, I was invited to give a local update on the day of my birthday. The topic was multiple myeloma and I managed to get the details for my talk within the first session. I can now enjoy the test of the conference without really having much pressure.