Vacation talk

On our last day at Phuket, we were driven by buggy to JW Marriott Resort & Spa for a 90 minute sales talk on the time-sharing concept holiday of the Marriott family group.

As the lovely girl who gave us the informative and professional talk puts it, she was trying to sell us a 'house on wings'! Well for the price quoted, it is certainly a price of a house albeit a small apartment in Malaysia!

The time-sharing concept has the following features:

- pay upfront a certain amount in USD
- pay monthly maintenance in USD
- you get a certain number of points per annum
- redeem the points for free accommodation at any of the hotels in the Marriott family group world-wide for a certain number of days per year
- membership is only for 43 years 

The scary thing that freaked me out was the monthly maintenance which I could not commit to as I had just turned 55. I could not imagine myself committing to making a monthly commitment or putting up a capital outlay for a vacation club.

Anyway the talk was informative and very professionally done.

After the talk, we went to Coffee Club at Turtle Village and had a simple lunch of Tom Yum noodle soup and rice and omelette. 

The girls were at the beach on the other side of Phuket learning how to surf from a seasoned Australian surfer who had lived many years in Phuket. 

We had a quiet swim at the beautiful pool enjoying the jacuzzi. Tim had a go at the watermelon eating race with other guests and a puzzle solving competition. All in good fun.

We then took a short walk to the Mai Khao beach. We witnessed a lovely wedding at the beach of  a Japanese couple with a small entourage, met a couple who told us that they were the organizers of the Bon Jovi concert in KL recently...took pictures for them on the beach.

Mai Khao beach is dangerous as the waves were really choppy and huge. But the powdery sand and pristine blue of the sea was beautiful to admire from a distance.

We waited for the girls to return before we adjourn for a leisurely dinner at Delights.

We bought buns (sold at half price after 6) for breakfast tomorrow.

Farewell Phuket & JW Marriott Vacation Club. You have made our trip memorable and meaningful.

THANK YOU!

Phi Phi island tour & a surprise from JW Marriott Vacation Club

At 3.2k bhat, this tour was on the pricy side but well worth it as we had a speed boat take us out to several islands.

After a good breakfast of croissants and bananas, we were shuttled in a private van to the Marina Beach.

We gathered at the Marina Beach with other tourists. There was some time of waiting wherein we spent time shopping. I bought a pair of shorts and a beautiful Phuket t-shirt plus a trendy sunglasses that could be worn over my glasses. 

I also bought fish food to feed fish out in the ocean. We were taken on a boat ride on a speed boat by a captain named Jack (really choppy) far out to sea. I had to take seasick pills as I was feeling dizzy due to the motion of the speedboat. An hour passed and we were taken to Bamboo island. 

Now as I was suffering from arthritis (but I was not going to let this affect my holidaying), I had some problem getting up and down the boat. We had to wade through shallow sea waters to reach the shore. 

Tim and the girls went to practice snorkeling. The waters were just pristine clear but we could not see any fishes. Many tourists were resting on the beaches. The sun was hot and I was afraid of getting sunstroke. Thank God I bought the sunglasses at Phuket...

Back in the boat, we had pineapples, cookies and watermelons. We also had drinks on the house such as 100 plus, cream soda and water.

After about half an hour, the speedboat took us out to the deep sea. One by one the people in the boat went down to the waters to snorkel. I just stood up at the boat and threw fish food into the sea....I could not swim you see much less snorkel!

The fishes came in so many colors to eat the food I threw them. I could admire them from the top of the boat and I could see wavey designs on the rocks. It was so clear that I could see right to the bottom of the ocean and admired the corals. 

Tim and the girls told me later that they saw Nemo....

After the snorkeling, we had a good buffet lunch at Phi Phi Natural Resort. Again we could not dock. We had to haul ourselves down at the shallow beach waters and walk across the sand to the Resort for our lunch. Lunch was delicious with tom yum, spaghetti, chicken drummets, tomato chicken, vegetables, salads.

After lunch we went to Monkey Beach. Due to the presence of monkeys on the beach, we did not dock. We just watched from the boat. One monkey was bold enough to jump up to our boat!

We then went to a lagoon. The waters were just electric blue. There the girls and Tim had the time of their life jumping from the boat! We saw people climbing up the surface of the limestones hill and jumping down!

Finally we ended up at Maya Beach, the place where apparently Leonardo Di Caprio acted in a famous movie called The Beach (no idea what this movie is about as I have never heard of it).

We reached back to our hotel about 5.30 pm.

A surprise was in store.....!

It was our youngest daughter's birthday. The Marriott housekeeping team left her a birthday message. They also made 2 cute penguins out of 2 sets of face towels that brought a big smile to her face. They later presented us a birthday cake which we hid in the fridge without her knowledge.

We went for dinner at a very pricey restaurant at Ginja at the JW Marriot Hotel Resort & Spa. Exclusive fine-dining on Thai food but the portions were O so small!

We could not get enough of the green curry, the blue crab, the vegetables, the soup, the meang kam that we had no choice but to order a steamed fish dish. The youngest daughter was mentioning that it would be great if she could have a birthday cake to celebrate her birthday - a fitting end to a great day!

The bill - a whopping 4k plus bhat that we had to share without the birthday girl's portion. 

Anyway, the thoughtful restaurant staff was so kind as to present her a birthday cake in the form of the Thai sticky rice mango dessert with a single candle! So I guess the price of the dinner was worth it......

Back in the hotel, we distracted the birthday girl as the elder sister lighted up the candle and called her out from the room. She was surprised but so happy to see the cake given by the Resort staff!

It was really the most delicious green tea cake we had ever eaten!

THANK YOU JW MARRIOTT VACATION CLUB STAFF FOR YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS!
YOU HAVE MADE OUR STAY MEMORABLE!

Free holiday to JW Marriott Vacation Club at Mai Khao - Phuket

Welcome back to the family holiday blog which blog is dedicated to updating all the delights of the travel adventure of the Lew family for good memories to leave for our children and grandchildren...

Sept 20 - 23 - Phuket

After many rejections, we finally said Yes to the JW Marriott Vacation Club Holiday at Mai Khao, Phuket.

At the invitation of a Vacation Club member (friend of Tim) we had the privilege to stay for free for 4 days and 3 nights at JW Marriott Vacation Club at Mai Khao (MK) at Phuket.

The reason why we hesitated was that we had been to Phuket a number of times (with Star Cruise) so much so that the idea of going again to visit the same places was just too boring for us.

However what clinched this was that our eldest daughter decided to join us for the trip. Since she started working, she had been so busy at work that spending time with her was just so precious.....

The awesome idea of spending time with our girls on the island holiday was so appealing that we decided that this time we will make it no matter what....

On Sunday, we took an hour plus flight to Phuket. At the airport, we were quickly taken by the resort bus to the other side of the island, about an hour's ride. We had not been to the other side of the island as the cruise ship normally docked on one side of the island. This was the part of the island that the tsunami struck. According to the staff of the JW Marriott Hotel & Spa, the waves from the sea reached up to the swimming pool!

This part of Phuket was exclusive and isolated. It was like being in the middle of nowhere with a sense of exclusivity. We later came to know that only members and members' friends were allowed to book apartment rooms in the resort.

A welcome gift was given to us with a welcome drink. The staff was polite and helpful. They took us up to our room. We were wowed! It was a 2-bedroom apartment with huge beds. The girls had a queen sized bed each while Tim and I had a king-sized bed!

The apartment had its own kitchen with cooking facilities with TV sets in every room. We quickly settled in and decided to go for lunch at Turtle Village, the only shopping complex in the enclave. This was an exclusive enclave. 

Apart from Marriot Vacation Club, there was the JW Marriott Resort & Spa and Anantara Resort. It was luxurious setting!

At Turtle Village, we went to Thai Express for lunch. The girls' first comment "Do you know that there is a Thai Express in KL?"

However we wanted to eat Thai food and that was the only restaurant that was available. We had spicy red tom yum, green curry chicken, steamed fish, omelette and a vegetable dish. It was delicious!

After lunch, we headed back for our siesta. The girls explored the beach. It turned out they also explored Anantara too...they came back telling it that the resort was really beautiful...

In the evening, we went back to Thai Express. We had delicious Thai crab curry, pandan leaf chicken (a most disappointing dish as the chicken piece was the size of a thumb or slightly bigger), taufoo and soup.

We then went shopping at Turtle Mart and bought green curry instant noodle and croissant for breakfast tomorrow in view of cooking facilities at the apartment.

We also signed up for a tour to Phi Phi island on Monday......

More to come...

Luxurious Singapore holiday

On 22 March 2015, we woke up early feeling very excited about our free Singapore holiday. Well, it was not exactly free but it was a redemption from the many thousands of points earned from the usage of our credit card.

I have only redeemed points for airport lounges and service charges. Tim and I decided to redeem 90k points for a luxurious holiday in Singapore with promise of a luxurious hotel stay at Equarius and a French dinner at a Michelin star French Restaurant called L' Atelier Joel Robuchon.

The bus to Singapore was easily available at BTS. However I was upset when the boss texted me about a meeting on Monday which I had to attend. I informed her that there was no way I could attend as non-attendance at the Hotel will result in me paying over SGD 1k as penalty cost of cancellation!

Thank God she was reasonable enough to my proposal to get our solicitors to be in attendance instead of me. In fact it turned out well as many queries posed by the solicitors were clarified.

That's why I had to pray really hard whenever I am on leave, I pray hard that no urgent things will turn up last minute!

The bus ride was really pleasant. We slept most of the way. We reached at 3 pm at Lavender station in Singapore and had lunch at the foodcourt. I had bread and eggs and Tim had soup only (he is on a diet to reduce his protruding tummy)!

Thereafter we took the train to Outram and changed to the NE Line to Harbor Front. From Harbor Front, we took the train to Sentosa station. We had reached our destination!

We walked till Hotel Michael and took a shuttle bus to Hotel Equarius. This lovely hotel had a huge bed with soft sheets, pillows and comforter and a huge bathroom overlooking fresh trees and greenery. It was very quiet and very private. Everything in the room looked 'expensive' down to the bedroom silk slippers! One night at the Hotel is SGD280 non-peak!

We then visited the Sentosa eating places and stopped at a food court called the Malaysian peddlar. Imagine our surprise to see cendol from the road that Tim lived in Penang. Asam laksa, chicken rice balls from Melaka, rojak, koay kak, sar hor fun, prawn noodles, bak kut teh....all Malaysian favorites.

Since we were going to Joel Robuchon for our Michelin dinner, we had ice-kacang between us. 


We then walked to the harbor front and took pictures of yachts and sailing boats.  Plans to visit the Trick Eye Museum had to be postponed to Monday due to the weekend crowd. 45 minutes waiting time were told!

Then it started to rain. We sought shelter at the entrance of Din Tai Fung, a famous Hong Kong Dim Sum outlet. So many people going in and out when their numbers were called piqued our curiosity. This restaurant is famous for their siew long pau and dim sum. 


As soon as the rain stopped, we were happy to enter Joel Rabuchon. We were given seats on bar-stools facing the open-air kitchen so that we could watch the cooks as they prepared our meals.

The five-course meals were all exclusive and unique creations of the world famous French chef named Joel Rabuchon. I could not pronounce the French names but all I know is that each dish was uniquely crafted and delicious down to its display and taste!

First time for me eating caviar too! The starter was a small glass of caviar or duck liver. I felt bad thinking of how the duck had suffered to produce the small portion of caviar for me. Caviar tastes grainy and creamy. Not something I really fancy though.

The manager told us that L'Atelier means workshop in French, no wonder the kitchen is an open kitchen with chefs running to and fro and supervised by a master chef.

I was offered sparkling water so I took it thinking that it was part of the deal. Little did I know that we had to pay SGD 14 for it being separate from the deal! However the manager was good enough to cancel the bill when I told them that I suffered stomach cramps after drinking it!

It was a lovely dinner. We went back to the Hotel and watched the outpouring of condolences for LKY at various community centers on TV. He had not yet passed away that night.

On Monday we awoke and had tea and coffee at our Hotel. We then made our way to the Trick Eye Museum. There was no queue since it was Monday morning. We had a good time taking pictures at the Museum, posing with the exhibits and trying to capture ourselves in the best positions! I really liked the picture of me posing like a ballerina and coming out of the cannonball.

We had a late lunch at Malaysian Peddler eating koay kak and prawn mee with pork ribs. The teh tarik was also delicious! 

We took a taxi to Golden Mile and had a good talk with our taxi driver (60 years old and still working) who had informed us that LKY had passed away. I left him with a peace with God letter.

Floating market, Mahachai & Central Embassy

Feb 27 2015

Today being the last day of our holiday in Thailand, the decision was to go on the Floating Market tour. 

About 2 hours drive from Bangkok city, we had a great time talking to Black. He told us of his wife who was a government servant working in Immigration Department. He told us tales of under-counter money and big meals and banquets to get things done. 

He also told us of his 2 daughters who were very smart and excelled in their studies. Obviously he was a father who doted on his girls. Sometimes they would ask him for money and he would have to borrow to give it to them. I was surprised that he spoke of all these nonchalantly as though it was a fact of life for him and his wife. 

He also told us that he was a yellow shirt supporter. He supported the king and the king's daughter. Indeed everywhere we went, we saw photos of the Thai king at his best and most handsome. We could see that the king was much loved by his people.

Anyway, he was good tour guide and driver. He took us to the floating market. We paid 1,200 baht for a long boat that which took us into the narrow alleyways of water flanked by wooden houses built on the water. At first, it looked like a residential area as we saw houses after houses. 

Slowly we saw long boats containing all kinds of wares - food, mango and sticky rice, souvenirs, vegetables, fruits, bags, traditional Thai handicraft ahead of us. The boat owners would shout out their wares to us and some of them will use long sticks to put our boats toward them.

We bought a coconut drink, Thai fridge magnets, mangoes, Thai pancakes from some of the vendors. Other than long boats, wooden stalls stood out invitingly along river banks with its sellers calling out to us to stop and climb up small steps to view their wares.

Somewhere along the long winding river, there was a place for our boats to stop and for us to mount the steps for food and drinks.

I was particularly fascinated by an open air art gallery of beautiful paintings along the river. The paintings were world class and really beautiful.

We made our way to the end of the river and back again and I took many photos with my handphone because I had never seen anything like this floating market before.

Other than Asiatique, this place gets my vote as one of the must visit places in Bangkok!

After this interesting trip, we went to Mahachai for lunch. Mahachai is a big market with aquariums of all over the place. Fishes, crabs, prawns were swimming in the big tanks. All we had to do was to select the fresh seafood and ask the restaurant to cook the fish or prawns for us in the manner of style that we want.

We had barbequed prawns, butter crabs and steamed fish Thai styled. Very delicious.

It was here that I bought some satay fish, anchovies and cuttlefish. After eating them I later realized that the Malaysian version was better tasting.

Tim asked Black to take us to Central Embassy, a high class shopping place in town. This place was like Pavillion but more high class selling all the top branded items. We had ice-cream at one of the quaint little shops.

After Central Embassy, Black took us for chicken rice at Pratunam. We had to queue to get seats. However I was disappointed as the chicken was hard and not as soft or silky as the chicken back home. The rice was just passable.

From Pratunam, Black took us on our last ride in Bangkok - to the airport!

It was time for us to say goodbye to Bangkok!

Menam Chao Phraya tour

25 February 2015

This was the only morning we could take a stroll around the market near the hotel. Interesting things were sold in the market. We stopped to eat in a small restaurants. Breakfast was ham curry puff and koay teow soup. At last I had my teh si but it was not as good as KL's!

I bought a pair of pants at the market for about 200 baht and my daughter tried a very special cuppacino coffee ice-cream drink.

Our itinerary today is the Menam Chao Phraya tour. 

The longest river in Thailand is also very clean. Many houses are built along the river on stilts.

The Menam Chao Phraya tour consists of a ferry that takes visitors up and down the river. Along the way, the ferry stops and lets people down for a sightseeing tour. A tour guide on the ferry gives us a running commentary on the building and famous places located along the river.

We wanted to experience the river cruise so we opted to take the ferry ride from Sheraton Imperial Hotel. We did not know that we could buy the one-day pass of 150 baht from Khao San so we had to come up with money each time we board the boat. No one could tell us coherently that such a pass was available despite us asking the people manning the ticket booth. In the end we gave up and just bought the tickets anyway.

The first stop was at Pier 9 where we could visit the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. Since my daughter was not allowed to visit as she was wearing shorts, we opted to wait for the father in a nearby restaurant. 

The restaurants were all jam packed and they also limited us to an hour per person as business was really good. Being rather full they limited us to only an hour. Very soon, we saw the father coming in and we were surprised. Apparently the queue was so long to visit both the Grand Palace and the Wat Arun that he gave up too! Indeed Thailand has many tourists and seem to be a popular tourist destination not only for Asians but also for those from Europe and Australia.

We then decided to visit Khao San at Pier 13 being the last stop of the Menam Chao Phraya (some say it is like Petaling Street). We stopped for delicious coconut ice-cream and coconut juice at Khao San pier. We were told that Khao San district was just walking distance from the pier. 

I was surprised at this next tourist attraction because not only was it chock-ful of tourists, it was also full of little stalls selling everything from shirts, pants, belts to bags and all kinds of trinkets. Traditional Thai food was also being sold in Khao San. 

Surprisingly many of the thing sold seem to come from India. The vendors themselves look like Indians from India. The harem pants, cotton shirts and t-shirts appear popular with the tourists.


Khao San does not really look like Petaling Street. It reminds me more of a place in India where my god-sister brought us to visit. Gangavathi - a world heritage site. There in Gangavathi, tourists outnumber the locals and the atmosphere is just like that of Khao San - laid back and quiet with small quaint shops selling all kinds of stuff.

I really like Khao San though there was nothing really special to buy save for a tube of counterpain which I bought from a small pharmacists hidden among the little stalls. This tube is not the blue counterpain but one containing medicine for arthritis. My knees were holding up but I was having cramps at night from too much walking. 

We had juices at Khao San - banana, papaya and mango juice. For our lunch, the father had the famous koay teow wrapped in omelete and the daughter had a rice dish. I opted for just plain fruits.

From Khao San, we took the boat ride home. The daughter wanted to go again to Asiatique (Pier 11) and we decided to allow her to go alone on condition that she make her way back to the hotel by 7.

Dinner was at Somboon Restaurant, Thailand's most famous seafood restaurant.

We had their famous curry crab, plad shon fish and prawn balls. About 1,200 baht but a very satisfying meal indeed!

A taxi driver named Black

24 Feb 2015

Considering that Tim says black is my favorite color (I beg to differ), we ended up with a taxi driver driving a green taxi arranged by the Hotel to take us on a trip to Pattaya. The taxi driver's name was...you guessed it...."Black"!

Black agreed to take us on a 2-hour trip to Pattaya as we wanted to see the beaches and eat the seafood. However Black decided to take us to a stop along the way to visit the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo.

We had breakfast at small shop before going into the zoo. However the duck noodle was not as nice as the one at Pratunam. The tea I ordered was definitely not teh tarik (more like tea latte) as it appeared to have cream on top of it. Like I said the Thais love their ice milk tea so much cos that was what they gave me although I had ordered hot tea. Thank goodness Black was kind enough to drink it all for me!

As for the zoo, it is clearly a zoo dedicated to breeding tigers and experiments of tigers living with mother pigs feeding off its milk! 

I am not sure whether it is wise to get tigers to suck the teats of a giant 200 lb mother pig but I find it rather depressing to see baby tigers stuck in small cages with very little place to move around. I could sense the distress of the little tigers as they move around their confined spaces listlessly.

Anyway this was a tiger zoo with a difference. Dedicated to the breeding of tigers, they also had crocodile shows, elephant shows and pig racing!

The giant pig was pink in color and looked so delectable. I could just imagine the char siew and the siew yoke that could be made from it! 

However this was the zoo prized pig because it was a 'smart' pig in that it could count! Don't ask me how....

The first show we saw was the crocodile show. Strange it may be, all I could remember about my last trip to Bangkok 30 years ago was visiting the famous crocodile farm in Samut Prakarn.

I saw so many crocodiles there and I remembered the rickety walkways.....

Granted that crocodiles are not easy to train (all they like to do is stay in the shallow waters to keep cool), they were also very lethargic. I suspect they must have been fed their midday meal if not the 2 trainers would have their heads chopped off by the reptilians! Part of the crocodile act was for them to put their heads into the open mouths of the crocodiles! I just could not bear to see it. This was the highlight of the show other than the trainers sitting, riding or putting their hands into the crocodile mouths. However the lady and the man trainer must be credited for doing an excellent job.

The tiger show was more interesting. An array of 8 tigers paraded in a round cage. As the trainers fed them bits of chicken meat, we saw how they got the tigers to stand up and do the famous Thai greeting of putting both paws together "sawadee ka" to the audience. This was really ingenious!

The tigers were also invited to sit on circus like ledges build in ascending fashion. There they stood up on their hind paws to greet the audience. Later they 2 trainers got some of the tigers to jump through empty hoops, hoops with paper that smashed when the tigers jumped through them and hoops with fire around the rings!

After the tiger show, we went to see the elephant show. The elephants were by far the smartest. They could throw darts, carry their trainers with their trunks, on their backs and do massages on those willing to try the elephant massage!

At the tiger zoo, I managed to try the famous Thai mango juice and I was hooked! 

Thai mangoes are exceptionally sweet and fibrous not to mention really gigantic. I also had the chance to eat some fruits at the zoo something that I had missed for the past one day in Bangkok. 

The young lady suggested a stop at J Park. Black had not been there before but gamely asked his friends. As it turned out J stood for Japanese and it was a park containing all things Japanese. Why all this fixation with Japanese food, Japanese scenery, Japanese souvenirs, I wonder. I opted to rest while dad and daughter wandered off to take photos around the Park. Regretted it later as I saw the beautiful photos of the Japanese gardens which they showed me.

Here I wandered into the Japanese supermarket and bought some udons and Japanese noodles to share with family members back home.

From J Park we headed to Pattaya. We stopped at a place called Nangnual for lunch. Nangnual had a fantastic scenery of the famous Pattaya beach and the sea.

For me the beaches of Pattaya are really lovely. They were pristine white and really clean.

Here at Nangnual, the daddy had pineapple rice in a pineapple while the young lady had coconut rice in a coconut! Simply scrumptious.

As for me, all I had was a plate of very delicious lime-tasting fruit salads (I was really starved of fruits) and the delicious Thai dessert called tap tim krob (water-chestnuts coated in a pink jelly served in a bowl of sweetish coconut milk).

Black took us passed the a-go-go bars which he said were very active at night. He even described to us what happened in the a-go-go bars (censored).

The highest point of Pattaya is very beautiful. Overlooking Pattaya and parts of Bangkok, we saw green scenery and rows and rows of buildings at one end and the blue green of the sea at the other end. A shutterbug's haven for sure. 

The young lady asked Black to take us to Chocolateville after that. Now even Black had not been there because it was only newly opened. 

We were glad we could go as the first sight of the fairy tale lights and the little structures of windmills, Dutch-inspired houses, farm-houses, sheeps, dainty sculptures was a photographer's paradise. Even a couple in their wedding garb took ages to get a perfect shot on a classic bicycle with the Dutch-inspired scenery as its background.

I think I should be forgiven if my first thought was 'Why a little bit of Amsterdam in Bangkok?' and why the name 'Chocolateville' when there was no chocolate shops around?

Going into Chocolateville, we were simply amazed that the entire place was actually a huge restaurant. Other than that the service was disappointing and the food was pricey.

I ordered an avocado dessert which came without the dressing I ordered. A bowl of mashed potato without any gravy and without the chicken that was supposed to be the chef recommendation on the menu. The saving feature was the basket of chips and the 3 pork meat buns that the chef recommended (which buns were not from Bangkok but rather from Hong Kong). We waited quite some time for our orders to be taken and like forever before the food came.

Frustrated we asked for the bill and found that we had been overcharged for one item which the waiter kindly reduced it for us.

Other than this episode, our outing was fun because of the tiger zoo and Pattaya.