Mother's Day Part I

Round One of our Mother's Day weekend dinner was at Makan Kitchen, Double Tree in KL. It used to be one of Anita's favourite but after tonight's affair, I don't think that she was in any hurry to return. It was, to put it mildly, disappointing.

The spread was poor, with only limited local selection. The main bulk happened to be Indian, and it was not great. I'm a fan of Indian food, but this was worst than the Mamak stalls. In fact, it was an insult to compare this to my local mamak. It was really bad. The rice was overcooked, while the naan was the opposite. The daal and curry was too plain - it seemed that they left the spices in the cupboard.

The only highlight was the satay. It was as tasty as I remembered it here and the peanut sauce that came with it was top notch. The kebab was not too bad either.

There was no salad, and there was no Japanese item on the spread. The dessert was also left wanting. There was only 3 dishes to go with rice if you wanted to go for the Malay selection. As for Chinese, the less mentioned the better.

Apparently they had a new chef just appointed to the outlet. A gregarious American gentleman called Adam who went from one table to another introducing himself. He only started there three weeks ago, previously stationed in China from what I heard. He certainly had his job cut out to sort out this shamble. And good luck to him.

So, for the next few months, I'll pass on coming back here.

The Cool Room

So, then pool was the main attraction to the chalet. But the room as a whole was not bad either. It had a couple of queen-sized bed - enough for all of us without me needing to sleep on the couch. It had all the TV channels - the football was on, but only one Disney channel for the boys. My boys were fascinated by a couple of things about the room.

First was the fact that there was a hole right in the middle of the room floor overseeing into the sea below. They could see the gentle waves coming. And the natural light from there lighting up the room.

The sitting area where we had dinner indoorsThe room from the kitchenetteThe pool at nightThe second was the ornamental lighting in the room. The tables and side desk seemed to glow from the inside. These were part of the room decorations, and plus the LED downlights by the kitchenette, it created a nice aura in the evening. Which explained why it took them past midnight before they finally settled down to sleep.

Free WiFi was included - not exactly blazing fast but adequate. It also has a kitchenette complete with microwave and freezer, plus a seating area for drinking both inside and by the pool. It seemed that even though the resort provided restaurants and took service, they understood that many of the patron there would be bringing in family. Therefore, catering food for everybody may not be possible, and it was OK to bring in some food and use the microwave and kitchenette, as well as the plates and to prepare them. It suited us fine, even though we tended to go for room service. Next time, should we arrived earlier, we may venture into town to visit the pasar malam. We then might bring in some food.

The cosy kitchenette The ornamental lightingWorkout .... anyone?The most important book in the room .... that's where the menu wasThere were a couple of showers at the room. One in the toilet - which was pretty big size-wise and another next to the pool. The pressure and hot water was good, hence should the pool be too cold, we just hit the shower.

Room service, although pretty basic menu-wise was actually better than we expected. The service was also pretty quick, and the main thing was, they got all the orders right, which was a challenge to some other resort this size usually. I ordered a sirloin for dinner last night and it ended up in Idlan's tummy. It was that succulent. My salad was fine as well. Anita's 1Malaysia Fried Rice was a disappointment. Irfan ordered pizza which was nice. It was home made and was still piping hot when it arrived at our door.

I tended to judge the quality of the food by how nice the evening hot chocolate was. Unfortunately, Lexis do not have that on the menu. Sigh! Even Idlan knew I was disappointed.

From the pool peering out

The cool room set us back quite a bit. We also paid form the room from my own pocket this time - last time we came here as part of a weekend event by a Pharmaceutical company. The price was not fixed and it fluctuate depending on the time of year. It was "medium"-priced according to the booking officer when we signed up. So, I would expect to pay more during school holidays and festivities.

Slideshow for the whole stay here

PDGCC to KL

The last times I was at PDGCC - Port Dickson Golf & Country Club - must be some time before I joined SJ. It had been a while. We used to go there for breakfast and also Saturday lunch since they would serve banana leaf meals in the afternoon. Sunday used to be just standard lunch before we head back to KL.

We did the similar thing earlier after checking out from Grand Lexis. The place was crowded since there was a golf tournament going on on the day. Weather was hot, and it looked like the pool had been redone. It appeared neat and clean. We were too tired to venture in as we had enough of swimming for the weekend.

We set off back to KL right after driving around Telok Kemang while the lunch settled down into the tummy. Teluk Kemang was crowded as usual on a Sunday afternoon. We decided against stopping, as the weather was too hot.

We arrived back in KL just before five. At six, there was a prospective buyer coming over to see our Cemerlang house, so we had to return early. Both the boys were asleep in the car by the time we reached home.

The link to the slideshow is here.

The Cool Pool

The hotel used to be called Legend Water Chalet. We once stayed at the apartment - which still has an indoor swimming pool in the room. Form this trip, we picked the chalet on the sea instead. A slight difference although in terms of comfort, they were comparable.

The room we had was one of the bigger ones, a ground floor unit, halfway to the sea. From what I could remember, it may be slightly longer than the apartment, but narrower. Being in the sea, we were charged premium for it of course. But the indoor swimming pool more than made up for that.

As I mentioned, we arrived at PD late. An hour before we arrived, the hotel reception called us to confirm if we had changed our minds. Then late arrival also meant that we did not have to queue at the front desk. Since we booked in agreed of time, all they needed was my signature. By the time that was done, a buggy was already waiting for us to intake us to our chalet.

Off came the clothes and the boys were already in the pool in double quick time. 4 feet deep. No problem for Idlan, but Irfan had to tip toe as the water level was at his chin. That didn't deter them a bit, even though the water was freezing ......

Anita then ordered some snacks and drinks, and they enjoyed that while still dipped in the pool, splashes everywhere.

There was also an outdoor shower next to then pool which was convenient since we wanted then to dry up before getting back into the room. And the room was something else .......

The slideshow for the weekend is here

Wake Up!

That's it. I'm pulling the covers off! Have to check out in an hour and the boys were still snoozing away. Both Anita and I had had our breakfast. I wonder what time they finally fallen asleep. I went to bed at around 1 and they were still at it last night. Now they couldn't pry their eyes open!

Time form some drastic action!!!!