Bali Holiday - Day 3

Our hotel package didn't include breakfast, but no fret...we brought along a truckload of food! 

Day Bed at our balcony became our breakfast place

 Mum Mumm 

Elyssa can lie down and eat somemore. He he. 

 After breakfast, we decided to explore the hotel grounds.

Beautiful Blue Sea

Just 3 of us because Elyssa refused to be in the photo

See? She refused to look at the camera

Oh what the heck, let me include a photo of all 4 of us

 Wedding Chapel

Wow, imagine having a wedding here!!!  So nice! 

There was a wedding reception for a Japanese couple the day before.

 Continued exploring hotel grounds after that

One of the Swimming Pools

 

At the bathroom sink near the swimming pool

Ok, I know it's a minor detail, but I like the proper hand towels instead of paper :-)

 Water feature @ the kids pool

 

Then we let the kids play in the kids room for a while. Can actually leave them to play there under baby sitter's supervision for Rp5,500 (approx RM18) per kid per hour. But we didn't use this service.

"Preparing lunch" in the kids room

 Hubs resting while the girls "prepared lunch"

 

Then we lazed around in this nice little cabana. Had our Oreos and Milo cereal balls there.   :-)

From the cabana, I walked down a few flight of steps and saw this.........

O-M-G!!!!!!

Isn't the pool & the view absolutely amazing???  

But no kids below 12 allowed. There and then we decided - we are gonna dump the kids with the baby sitter that evening!!!!! 

Part 2 of Day 3 to be continued in next post :-)

Bali Holiday - Day 2

We started Day 2 with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. And then, it was time for more bathtub fun for the girls. 

Bath tub overlooking the swimming pool

Watching tv

 They can just be in the tub for hours!

After persuading the kids to get out from the tub, we went to the hypermarket opposite the hotel. Stocked up lots of snacks, milk, cheese and fruits for our next destination.

Then it was time to pack our bags!

Addition to our bags - our Crocs loot from Day 1

Bought these from a proper Crocs shop. All 4 pairs of shoes below were on 50% discount. Yay! One pair each for daddy, mummy, jie jie and mei mei  :-) 

Mine was approx RM72 after conversion. And to think I purposely bought myself a new pair of Crocs (for RM129) just before the trip.

After packing, we called a cab to our next destination : Ayana Resort and Spa in Jimbaran. Booked 2 nights there under our Marriott Vacation Club package. The hotel itself is pretty far from town so we planned to just stay in an enjoy the place. Not going to pay marked-up hotel prices for food, hence the stocking up ;-)

Took us about 40 minutes to reach there. When we stepped down from the taxi, we were were greeted by our names (they checked our room reservation at the front gate), by a gong sound, a garland of flowers, welcome drink and a nice cool towel.  Waaaahhhh!!! Nice!

But no photos as I was carrying a sleeping Erin.

 Our room @ Ayana

Nice and spacious

Toilet

We spent the afternoon just lazing around in the room. Hubs brought a media player so we watched some shows and I had a nice nap  :-)  And yes, the girls had more of their bathtub fun.

Around 6pm, we headed for the pool.

Walking to the pool

 

Erin with daddy

Enjoying their pool time 

 

Went back to the room for dinner after it got dark. Then more tv time, R&R and then Zzzzzzz........

Her Royal Highness, just before bedtime

 

--- End of Day 2---

Bali Holiday - Day 1

We're back from our Bali holiday!!  Our first "real" holiday with the 4 of us - me, hubs and the 2 girls. Yup, Erin didn't get left behind this time. ;-) 

Overall a great holiday but also a tiring one. Travelling with 2 kids is definitely more taxing on us compared to travelling with 1 kid. There were the inevitable "both-kids-crying" , "both-kids-whining" and "both-kids-fighting" moments! Those moments had me thinking I reeeally want a holiday minus the kids. 

But then again, there were the "both-kids-screaming-out-in-delight-moments" too, which made me think..... I love this!!!  

So, definitely both ups and downs but thankfully the ups made up for the downs.  

And here's my usual day-by-day recap:

Day 1

Taxi came to the house at 6.45am.  Yay....our holiday has officially started!  Oops, 5 minutes later, realised we forgot the stroller.  Asked taxi driver to turn back.  Quickly load stroller and and we are off again.  OK....and now holiday has started!

In the plane

 I was pretty well prepared for the 3 hour flight. Colouring pencils, colouring books, story books, snacks, milk for Erin, pre-loaded shows on the Ipad - checked! 

At the Bali airport, we took a taxi to our hotel in Kuta - Grand Megah Hotel.

Note : Always buy a ticket at the taxi counter! While we were queueing up (just 2 couples ahead of us), some taxi drivers approach us. They were wearing the same uniform as the guys at the taxi counter and they asked us "you want taxi? we are same company".  Thankfully, we decided to trust our instincts. Bought at the counter and the price was about half of what those taxi drivers quoted!

Some photos of our hotel

Stayed for only 1 night. Nothing great and we won't bother staying there again. 

Lobby area

 

Pool area

After checking in, we took a cab to our favourite eating place in Kuta- Bubba Gump. The Bubba Gump that we have in Malaysia is definitely no match. 

Porky Ribs!

We had their boiled shrimps too

Just look at this - when I lifted the bone, the meat just fell off!!

So gooooood

 Erin practically slept through the meal

 

And woke up happy  :-) 

 

After lunch, we just strolled around Kuta area.

Watched sunset

At night, both girls spent ages enjoying the bath tub.

My favourite thing about the hotel is the tv screen there!

Then a little bit of Ipad before bedtime

--End of Day 1--

Forgot to add earlier - As this is my 3rd trip to Bali and hubby's 5th, we skipped practically all the touristy stuff. Main objective is to relax and just spend time together :-)

Burps and Giggles, Ipoh

After hearing so much about Burps and Giggles in Ipoh, I finally got to visit it yesterday!

 

If definitely didn't dissapoint at all. I was really impressed how something as mundane as old shoplots can be transformed into something so quirky yet so lovely and unique.

 

Will let the photos do the talking here :

 

 The signboard

 

 

 The exterior

Love the colourful paper umbrellas!

 

 The place where we sat

That's Erin showing off her latest word "There!!" to my SIL.  Big achievement for my little late talker ;-) 

 

 Bar Counter

Love how there's a real living tree in the middle of the eating area

  

Cashier 

See the row of old switches? Just like my grandparents house!

 

  

Super Simple Cardboard Signs  

 

 

My latte (RM10)   :-)  

 

 

Chicken Burger (RM16)

First time I see a knife stuck into the burger like that! Useful to cut up burger for sharing though.

The burger itself was good. I was pleasantly surprised that the patti was a whole chicken thigh instead of  minced/processed chicken.  

 

White wine for hubby

My idea of a relaxing afternoon tea is coffee. His is wine. *roll eyes*

 

One of the little corners

  

Partial Group Shot -  My 2 girls with their cousins, aunties and uncle 

 

 

Marilyn Monroe painting on the outside wall

Nice 3-D effect! (back half of the bicycle is real, front part is painted on the wall)

 

 

Sidelane to "Sekeping Kong Heng"

Princess #2 got to be carried by SIL. Princess #1 followed her cousins to the petshop. Aaah....the joys of a family trip :-)

  

Price wise, it was not cheap at all especially for Ipoh standard. 1 chicken burger, 2 plates of fries and drinks for all was a whopping RM280.  (thx Suzan sis!)  But come to think of it, the food prices were quite alright (targeting the RM26 Wagyu burger next time. he he), but the drinks prices were a killer.

 

Definitely a great experience and Yayy.....this place scored some brownie points for my hometown!!  :-) 

Self Feeding

Erin is at the stage where she likes to self-feed. The good thing is it gives us time to eat our own meal in peace.

 

The bad thing??  The mess of course!

  

When eating out, we better fast-fast run after the meal!!  He he.

Cupcake Making Session

Elyssa was thrilled when I said we were going to make cupcakes yesterday  :)

Helping me pour milk into the mixer

 

Pouring cupcake mixture into liners

I doubled the cupcake recipe so I think I ended up with about 40 cupcakes. After the cupcakes cooled down, it was time for the fun part - frosting!  And what else but PINK frosting. Ha ha.

Elyssa's 2 cousins came just in time for the frosting session.

Busy at work

Elyssa caught in the act of licking the frosting  ;-)

I gave the girls some colourful sprinkles and mini smarties to work with.

 Girl concentrating hard on their cupcakes....

3 cupcakes from 3 girls for their darling Ku Jie

No prizes for guessing which one belongs to Elyssa ;-)

And these are mine! 

Pretty?

More cupcakes -

It was a good session indeed!