3 Days 2Nights WOW Penang Holiday, 9 – 11 December 2010

A few weeks back, my eldest brother invited us to join him and my parents for a short vacation to Malaysia. His initial destination was Langkawi. We went to the Silkair Road show to try to book our tour packages. However, we were told all the Langkawi packages were sold out. As we were flexible with the dates and destinations, the consultant finally managed to confirm us for a 3 Days WOW Penang holiday. With this confirmation, we were all ready and looking forward to another great holiday experienced.

Day 1: Thursday, 09 December

Singapore → Penang (MI 360) Dep: 1320 / Arr 1445

We met up with my eldest brother and my parents at Changi Airport Terminal 2. As Adrian just took his annual leaves for the Phuket trip, he was unable to get leaves for this Penang trip, so it was just Anthea, Anders and I.

We checked in our 1 luggage and went in to the Duty Free area for a quick snack before our flight. Refreshment was served on board the 1 hour flight from Singapore to Penang. As usual, the children had their child meal.

Upon arrival at the Penang airport, we were met by the local representative and he drove us to our hotel – G Hotel. This hotel was highly recommended by the consultant who booked us for this holiday.

We had booked 3 rooms for our party of 4 adults and 2 children. To our delight, we were all upgraded to the Executive rooms. The hotel rooms had the added value of FREE Mini Bar and FREE WIFI. The mini bar was replenished daily and both Anthea and Anders enjoyed the drinks and the kit kat bars.

It was almost 4pm by the time we checked in and the 1st activity would be swimming for the children. While we went to the pool, my brother and my parents went around the hotel and check out the vincity.

We met up around 6pm for dinner. Our 1st stop was the Esplanade area. We took a nice stroll by the Esplanade and managed to even visit Fort Cornwallis before dinner.

Dinner was at the Red Garden and we had a sumptuous dinner of sushi, Penang yong tau foo, 芽菜和海南鸡肉。 After dinner, we took a walk to their famous Eastern & Oriental hotel to admire the hotel architecture. Then we called it a night and went back to the hotel to rest as we had a full day of sightseeing the next day.

Day 2: Friday, 10 December

For this trip, my elder brother had done up a tour itinerary for us and he was our official tour guide.

We rented a chauffeur driven mini car for our party from the hotel tour and transport desk. The charge was MYR$50 per hour. The driver was Mr. Tan and he was a very nice, elderly man. We proposed our routing and he even added on a few other ad-hoc stops for us.

Our tour of the day included:

1. Penang hill – view the closed site area as they are now upgrading the cable car. According to Mr. Tan, it should be ready by New Year.

2. Kek Lok Si – visited the famous temple and saw the 观音 statue.

3. Coffee Tree – bought coffee and some chocolates. Highly recommend for coffee lovers.

4. Fishing Village – En Route to tropical farm, we stopped by a Fishing village and saw fisherman came in with their catch – lots of fishes of different type.

5. Tropical Fruit farm – located at the hill top, we paid about RM$28 for an adult and RM$20 for a child for a guided tour of the farm. The children had a great time listening to the growth of different kind of fruits. At the end of the tour, we were treated to a Fruit Buffet and a nice cup of fruit juices.

On our way back to the hotel, we had lunch at a local coffee shop. We ordered the Fried Kway Teow and 炒面 and to our greatest surprised, the 2 dishes tasted very good, even though it was a small shop and the “chef” was a very young lady.

On way back, we requested Mr. Tan to bring us to local product shop to buy some 土产。He brought us to a shop quite near to our hotel – 田园土产 (Tean Ean Local Products (M) Sdn Bhd) located at 90 Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, 10050 Penang, MY.

The 豆沙饼和马蹄酥were very fresh and tasty. We were very happy with our purchase.

As we had a long day of tour, we decided to do dinner at the shopping centre next to the hotel. We had Manhattan Fish market and it turned out to be a very good choice. As none of us had eaten it in Singapore…haha.

We had ice cream after dinner and then went back to the rooms for a good night rest. It had been a very FRUITFUL day for us, especially the children.

Day 3: Saturday, 11 December

We had buffet breakfast at the café and then we checked out 2 rooms and kept our room for late checked out.

We had booked the mini car and again we had Mr. Tan as our driver cum guide.
Our day 2 itineraries were as follow:

6. Reclining Buddha temple along Lorong Burma Road.

7. Khoo Kongsi temple - This temple has rich historical value and learning about it gives me the interest to find out more about my own root too…hehe.

8. 水上人家 - seeing the houses built on such condition reminds me of those old kampong days.

We had a quick tea break stop at a local coffee shop in Little India and tried the roti canai (aka roti prata)

9. Our final tour stop was Blue Mansion (Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion). There was a guided tour at 11am and we were brought around the Mansion and given a very detailed introduction. It was really an awesome tour and to learn so much about the history of the Mansion.

We left the place around 12noon and went back to the hotel to get change and checked out. We had a quick lunch at 小南国 at the shopping mall before our transfer pick up to the airport for our flight to home sweet home.

It had really been an enjoyable tour for the family and we learnt so much about Penang in such a short span of time. There are so much more places to see and things to do and I know we would be going back again for the Durians and fried Kway Teow.

Till we meet again…Jumpa Lagi Penang!!

Penang → Singapore (MI 355) 1805/1930

4 Day 3Nights Sunway Lagoon & Kuala Lumpur Trip, 3 –6 June 2010

This is our family 3rd visit to Sunway Lagoon and 2nd time to KL and I must say – it gets better each time.

Day 1: Thursday, 3 June 2010
Singapore → Kuala Lumpur (MI 833 )Dep: 1615 / Arr 1705

It was a 45 minutes short flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Upon arrival, we were meet & greeted by the agent at the arrival hall. He briefed us on our next few days pick up itinerary and then fetch us to Sunway Lagoon Resort.

We checked into our room and I was happy and pleased to see that they had upgraded the rooms since we last stayed in 2006. The rooms seem to be modernized and also more hi-tech with all the electronic gadgets.

Immediately Anthea and Anders changed into their swimming gear and Adrian brought them to the pool for a quick swim. After swimming, they came back to change and we headed to Sunway shopping centre for our dinner. We had KFC as our 1st meal for this trip. I was so surprised that the KFC in Malaysia still served the bun which I used to dip with the whipped potatoes. : )

After a good dinner, we walked around the mall and discovered a few new shopping atriums. The place had changed and it is so much bigger now with so many shops.

Anthea and Anders had fun with the rides in the play area. After the rides, we went back to our room and rested for the night.

Day 2: Friday, 4 June 2010

We woke up to a nice sunny morning and had our buffet breakfast at the café. The Sunway theme park opens at 11am and we went in around 11.15am. The park admission ticket had now changed to include 3 parks instead of the previous Wet Park or Dry Park. So with our admission tickets, we could go to the Interactive Zoo and the Amusement Park within the theme park. Of course, the price of the ticket had gone up. For adult – RM$80 and Child is RM$65.


We had a whole morning of fun going round the different place in the park. Exploring the different rides and also trying a walk on the suspension bridge. The children were eager to get to the pool, so finally we ended at the poolside.

Around noon time, we decided to take a lunch break. As we had re-entry vouchers from the hotel, we were able to go back to the park later. So we decided to go for lunch and a short rest before going back again. It was the right decision as the children were tired out from all the slides and water play.

We had Macdonald for lunch and return to the room for an hour nap. In the evening around 4.30pm, we headed to the theme park for the water play. The children enjoyed them so much and finally left the park at its closing time – 6pm.

We went back to change and then headed to the mall for our dinner. We went to I Canton for dinner and the food was delicious.

After a good dinner, we walked around the mall a while before going back to rest.

Day 3: Saturday, 5 June 2010

We woke up to a sunny morning and had a sumptuous buffet breakfast at the café. Then we went back to pack up and got ourselves ready for our pick up from Sunway Lagoon to Kuala Lumpur Berjaya Times Square.


We arrived at the hotel around 11.45am and checked into our room on the 39th floor. Once again, we went straight to the swimming pool and had a quick swim.


Then we went back to change and headed to the Times Square shopping mall for our lunch. The mall is huge and it has about 10th storey of shops and restaurant. There is an Indoor theme park in this mall. It is the Cosmos Theme park.

After lunch, we went to the theme park, as requested by the children. We went in and they tried different rides at the children section. They had a whole afternoon of great fun going from rides to rides. Both of them especially enjoyed the bumper car. : P

After almost 4 hours of fun rides in the park, we decided to call it a day. We had dinner at a restaurant called Uncle Duck and I remembered this was the same outlet we had eaten before during our trip in 2007. The food was nice and price affordable.

Day 4: Sunday, 6 June 2010
Kuala Lumpur → Singapore (MI 321) 1215/1305

We woke up early for our buffet breakfast. Our pick up was 9am and we were all set for home sweet home.


It has been a wonderful family vacation and Sunway Lagoon seems to be like our 2nd home or 3rd….just like Club Med. It’s a very family oriented vacation and the children had a splendid time.

I am glad that Anders is now enjoying more of the water fun and he no longer has fear in water. As for Anthea, she is still enjoying the theme park rides and I believe if we go back to the Cosmo Theme Park, she will be too tall for the kiddy rides.

Our Family Vacation - 4D3N KL/Sunway Lagoon

We are backed from our short 4 Days 3 nights Kuala Lumpur & Sunway vacation.

As the Malaysia Mega Sale carnival 2007 is happening during these times, I find this trip is much enjoyable than our last trip in September 2006. Also it is the Arabic holiday seasons, so we get to meet many Arabic tourists and it is really quite an eye-opener for me.

Our Free & Easy itinerary:

Day 1 – Wednesday, 15 August

10 am – departs for Changi Airport for check in on our Flight SQ 103, as we were early, we had MacDonald breakfast.

10.40 am – Check in and walk around our famous Changi Airport. Found some leg massage machines and Anthea tried them and she found them to be very fun.

12.30 pm – Flight departs for Kuala Lumpur

1. 25 pm – Arrived KLIA – Meet & Greet by local Agent and fetched us to Berjaya Times Hotel

3.25 pm – check in hotel – we had a Superior Suite, so the room size was big. We had a King-sized Bed and Extra bed. It had a lounge area for watching TV and having meals. Also it had a small pantry for coffee & tea making.

Our room was on the 35th floor and it faced the swimming pool. When Anthea and Anders saw the pool, they kept asking to go to the swimming pool. So we went for a swim.

6.30 pm – Dinner at Berjaya Times Square – Explored Times Square. I was really amazed at the sized of the shopping complex and also the indoor Cosmo Theme Park. As we just had dinner, so we decided to do the Theme Park rides on the next day.

Shopped in Metrojaya and Anders managed to chose for himself an Ultra man. Returned to hotel room around 10 pm with supper from MacDonald (again) and the children were very happy and kept saying: “we enjoy life in hotel room.”


Day 2: Thursday, 16 August

9 am – woke up and went for Hotel buffet breakfast. The spread was good and I managed to try Roti Canai and I must said “it’s good…especially the CURRY.”

10.30 am – Took the KL Monorail system and changed to LRT to get to KLCC. A colleague of mine had recommended that I should go to the Science Centre and after doing some research, we found this place called Petrosains.

It had many interactive games and areas for the children. Both Anthea and Anders had Great Fun in the centre and we spent a good 2 ½ hours trying most of the stations and we watched a 3D show + a helicopter simulator ride. The admission fees for Petrosains are RM 12.00 for adult and Child is RM 4.00. As there was some 1st 50 FREE entry for children, so Anthea need not pay for her admission. Overall we paid RM 24.00 + RM 5.00 for the 3D show.

2 pm - We had lunch at Madam Kwan’s. Adrian tried the Nasi Bojari, Anthea had a Fish & chips and Anders had the Chicken mushroom with noodle. I took a bit of the above 3 and also we ordered a cendol. They served the gula separately.

After a good lunch, we walked around KLCC and I was really, really impressed by the levels of shops they had. Adrian went to Kinokuniya to browse his books and I brought the children to Isetan children section. Anthea chosed a Little Mermaid VCD for herself.

4 pm – We left KLCC and return to our hotel. We did not do the KLCC bridge walk as there were no more tickets for the day. We went for a swimming when we reached back to the hotel. Anthea and Anders simply enjoy playing by the pool.

6 pm – We had dinner at Time Square. After dinner, I brought the children to the Cosmo Theme park. Admission ticket for Adult is RM 30 and child is RM 20. As we had Singapore Airlines Boarding passes, we had some discounts. The theme park had many exciting rides for both adults & children. We only did the children rides and both of them had fun doing the different rides. We left the place near to closing times and both of them were so reluctant to go back.

Again to enjoy life in hotel, we bought back some breads and Mary brown takeaways.

Both of them slept almost near to midnight…. : P

Day 3: Friday, 17 August

9.30 am – woke up and went for hotel buffet breakfast

11 am – packed up and get ready for our pick-up transfer to Sunway Lagoon.

12 noon – check out and local agent picks us from hotel lobby.

12.30 pm – arrived at Sunway Pyramid Tower

1 pm – checked in hotel – room was on 10th floor and very good view as it faced the Sunway Theme Park. We changed and headed straight for the Theme Park. Admission to the Theme Park (Wet Park) is RM 50 for adult and RM 30 for child. For hotel guests, there are some discount vouchers.

We spent almost 3 hours in the park. The children enjoyed the wave pool and also they went round the pool in a rubber boat that Adrian rented. They had so much fun at the slide as well. Seeing them enjoying themselves so much make the trip priceless.

4 pm – return to hotel room to rest. Children had their power nap.

6 pm – I went to buy takeaways from the eateries in Sunway Pyramid as the children was still sleeping

7 pm – had in-room dinner

8 pm – took a stroll around Pyramid shopping centre. They have more shops now and also a Parkson Grand. The children walked around and had fun seeing toys.

We ended up at Macdonald where the children played at their playground while Adrian had a Sundae.

10 pm – return to hotel room and enjoyed the takeaway Macdonald (Again!!) see like whole trip, we are eating MacDonald’s but Adrian wanted to eat the Quarter Pounder as he missed it very much, he said Singapore Mac has no more Quarter Pounder. Why is this so?

Sweet Dream!!

Day 4: Saturday, 18 August

9.30 am – hotel breakfast

10.30 am – walk around Pyramid shopping

12 noon – check out hotel and wait for airport pick up

While waiting we did some final shopping at Parkson Grand and I was happy that I managed to get myself an area swim suit. It was at 50% discount. Price that I paid was RM 74.90 and I bought a swimsuit for Anthea.

1.25 pm – local agent pick us from hotel and transfer to KLIA

5.10 pm – Departs Kuala Lumpur on SQ 113 (flight was delayed due to heavy traffic in Singapore airport)

6.30 pm – Home Sweet Home

The Aces Family had achieved another Milestone in our lifestyle. This is the very 1st time we traveled as a FAMILY without any helps from other family members. I must say “We DID it!!” and with so much fun.

With this trip experience added on, we will be able to do more next year in our next trip plan - Gold Coast, Australia.