The Light Penang

Light literally translated as “lampu” in Malay. And one of the famous British Captain who had ruled Penang in the past was Sir Francis Light. I was struggling to figure out if the hotel we stayed when we were in Seberang Jaya the other weekend was named after the famous captain.

But instead it was because the hotel was owned by the Pelita Group, a famous nasi kandar chain. And “pelita” could also be translated as “light”.

Enough about the name, the hotel proved to be better than I expected. Despite being three years old, everything felt brand new. The room service we ordered as well as the breakfast selection was also delightful. The hotel had full range of services including gym, pool and spa. There was also a convention taking place the morning we were there, and I was sure they had a good confererence package to go along with it as well.

We stayed on the 15th floor, a nice room, great shower and confortable bed. The breakfast was also better than I expected with selection of local and international food. We ended up spending almost an hour an a half killing time that morning, checking on the news and just browsing the net.

We would definitely recommend this hotel and would plan to stay here again should we need to come back to Seberang Perai. Unfortunately, we had already made plans for our Raya trip to Penang and would be staying across on the island side.

Grand Hyatt Bali

Sprawling landscape with somewhat disappointing beach. That more or less summed up the place. Definitely a place to just chill with the nice room. Anita would've loved it if she could come along.

The whole complex was big. We could easily get lost walking around the compound. The signage was also not the best.

For the first evening, we decided to stay in and have dinner at the hotel rather than take a taxi out of town. Nusa Dua is a rather protected cocoon. The are more than 10 hotels with tight security coming in and out of the area. I was sure it was for the safety of tourists. Traveling into town from the hotel was rather problematic logistically. They even have their own retail area within Nusa Dua.

The dinner was at a Balinese restaurant at the hotel. They even had a cultural show to boot. Food was nothing special however.

Breakfast was a similarly standard fair. They had a couple of outlets doing breakfast and we tried both. The one by the pool - called Salsa Verde - was better.

Since the program was tight, I didn't really get to enjoy the facilities. But that didn't stop me from getting a 10 hour sleep the evening I arrived. It had been a while since I had such lay in. More information are at the hotel website.

Settling into Bali

It wasn't the most pleasant of flights. I was sure that if Anita came along, she would not have enjoyed it. It was bumpy and since it was a connecting flight with a group from Bangladesh, the flight was full.

There were no delays however although I arrived too late to check-in at KL Sentral. Took the ERL and by the time everything was cleared, the gate for the flight was already about to open.

We arrived in Bali 3 hours later. The queue for immigration was long but the authority there organiser it very well. By the time I picked my bags, our transport to the hotel had been waiting for us.

It took about half an hour to transfer to the hotel and after checking in, it was time for the beach ...

Airport Adventure

As you would probably knew, we were in Singapore last weekend. The original plan was to fly there. Everything went smoothly until it was time to board the plane. Idlan had a panic attack and started screaming.

We ended up abandoning the plan to fly. But since we had booked our suite and the tickets for the Night Safari, I decided to drive all the way down there.

But first, I had to clear the immigration again to re-enter the airport and then went to claim our checked-in luggage which had to be removed from the belly of the aircraft.

That took almost a couple of hours. We then drove back yo Gombak to exchange the car. My C200 needed servicing and I wouldn't wasn't t take the risk of driving all the way to Singapore in it. That detour to change into our MPV wasted another hour and a half. We finally set off from KL close to 10 pm.

I had to make a couple of nap stops - once in Ayer Keroh and another in Machap. We finally reached out hotel room at 5 am, having a quick supper - or should I say early breakfast - before I took a longer nap. It was before noon when I finally woke up, in time to take Idlan out for lunch.

Then another nap after lunch.

Our transport for the Zoo was due at 6.15. I managed a couple of hours of walking around Orchard Road before we departed - and learn the awesome power of the GoPro.

Then came the trip to the zoo before having a nice KL g breakfast the next morning before we set off again back home to Kuala Lumpur. More tiring than I bargained for but at least we did our traveling.

We still need to sort out Idlan's fear of flying. We thought that he would be OK. We were more worried about Anita. In July, Idlan has a school trip to Chiangmai arranged. Not sure if he would be able to deal with that trip ...

A Day In

We had to spend the Raya day quite literally recovering. We started the day off visiting one of our friend for a second breakfast. They happened to be in Sungai Petani at the time, and more importantly, they had food ....

We then went to my Aunts where my Mum stayed, had some more food before heading to the mosque for prayers. We then got stuck with nothing to do and after the ordeal driving up yesterday, we could do with just a day chilling in the hotel room.

And that was just what we did.

We didn't even bother to go to the pools, we ordered some afternoon snacks to the room before going to one of the hotel restaurant for early dinner before turning in early. And the dinner turned out to be a delight. The Japanese restaurant at the ground floor of the hotel was a great find ...

Everybody was happy and full by the time we were done, and I was asleep soon after ....