Let's Celebrate Some More!

Malaysia has lots of holidays.  There are three main cultures that make up Malaysia: Muslim Malay, Chinese, and Indian, so we get an assortment of all of those holidays.  Added to that, Jeff gets U.S. holidays off from the embassy, so this week he ended up with Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Tuesday off for Thaipusam, which is a Tamil Indian festival celebrated on a full moon and when a certain star, called Poosam, is high in the sky.  They usually have an elaborate celebration for this holiday at the Batu Caves. 

Jeff was excited about his four day weekend, but the girls still had school both days, so we couldn't do a family vacation without pulling them out of school, which I don't want to do after all the in school time they've missed.  Instead, I planned a staycation for me and Jeff.  A lot of the hotels in the city have fun package deals to help get local business, so I picked the celebration package at The W which is right next to the Petronas Towers, and we were not disappointed.

One of the things the hotel is known for is its bar which is on the pool level and has great views.

The celebration package included a "cocktails master class" at 6pm, so we had that to look forward to when we checked in at 3pm.  The hotel is only about 10 minutes drive from our house, so we've driven by it before and noticed the decor which is quite something.  We weren't sure if it was really our style, but it grew on us, and we ultimately decided that we liked it.  

Some of the lobby art gives a good idea of the style.  This is a sculpture of the Petronas Towers that has different colored lights projected onto it.

The celebration package also included room decor, in room dinner, and buffet breakfast the next morning.  We walked into the room to find a balloon explosion.

They had also moved some of the regular furniture to set up a table for us for dinner.

And to cap it all off, we had a view of the towers.

It's a five star hotel, and we found some nice touches in the little bar area.  They gave us nice wine glasses which we used for dinner with our wine that we brought from home, and they had the same Nespresso machine we have for morning coffee.

The hotel is located right near a busy intersection, across the street from towers and the Suria KLCC mall which is one we like to wander around.

One of my favorite things about KL is that they really try to green it up as much as possible with trees and bushes.  I know there are scientific benefits to that, but it also just sets a great mood which I really like.  Along those lines, there was an empty lot next to the hotel, but when we went to walk to the mall, we saw that they had made an effort to paint it and tie it into the sidewalk around it, so that what could have been an ugly metal fence became a fun art feature.

Jeff had really wanted to buy me a new watch for Christmas, but I didn't want to buy it online without trying it on to see if I liked it or not, so he had found a store at the mall that sold it.  The Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year) is coming up, so all the Christmas decorations have been replaced with new year ones, lots of red and gold and lanterns.

It was fun to walk around, and I ended up liking the watch, so we bought it.  Jeff was very pleased that his selection met with my approval.  It's bigger than I'm used to, but it can do hundreds of things, so I'm sure I will love it once I get through learning how to use everything.

On the walk back to the hotel, we also found a great spot for a selfie with the towers.

When we got up to the bar for our cocktails, we were trying to do selfies again, but one of the people who works there offered to help us out by taking our picture.  He obviously had it down, because he got the great shot I used at the beginning of this post.

The bartender wasn't quite ready to start the "class" yet, so he got us each a drink to enjoy while we waited.

We had seats facing the towers, but the bar has windows on both sides, and a fabulous cross breeze, so the other direction we could see the singular KL Tower.

The class was definitely more beginner than master level.  He wanted to focus on what all the pieces of equipment are called and the six ways you can mix a drink, but he was a really nice young guy, so we ended up hearing a lot of his life's story which was fun, and he made sure that the drinks kept coming.  There were 6 included in the package, but he let us try some other things too.

We stayed until the sun set and the towers lit up.  This was my favorite drink of the night that he made for me after I told him I liked gin.  It's a gin and tonic with Tanqueray 10 and grapefruit, yum!

We said goodbye to our new friend and went upstairs for dinner.  He said he would send us along a couple more drinks in a bit.  We didn't need cocktails for dinner though.  The red wine we brought was perfect.

We didn't really care for the appetizers, but the main course was delicious, and we had a fabulous view of the lit up towers and the full moon.

For dessert, we had our cocktails with a cheese platter which was also delicious.

The next morning I wasn't sure if I could eat again, but breakfast was included, so we went downstairs to check it out.  We got a lovely table outside with our favorite view.

They also had the best buffet set up I've seen since the pandemic started.  Everything was laid out behind plexiglass, and there were people there to make up a plate of whatever you pointed to.

They brought coffee and juice to the table for you, and there was a menu for ordering hot dishes which they prepped and brought to you.  It was pretty and delicious, so we managed to find space for more food.  I would definitely want to come back when I was hungrier though, because there were lots of yummy looking things I didn't try.

We were a little sad to leave, but feel like this is a staycation that's worth repeating.  The hotel decor is definitely out there, but they have all kinds of little touches that really tickled me.  For example, there are big mats in front of the elevators.

And they switch them out throughout the day, so they say Good Afternoon and Good Evening.  It's a small thing, but I really liked it.  Jeff and I both got a chuckle out of the extra toilet paper roll in the bathroom being in a bag labelled in the same kind of bold font "Backup Plan".  The lights in the room were also high tech with a panel for turning them on and off, but also picking mood combinations with names like "Hello You" and "Flirty".  Again, all small things, but it added up to make for a really fun experience.

We brought a few of the balloons home for the girls, so that they can have their own piece of the fun.

After almost two years of feeling like we don't have much to celebrate, I thought this was a great way to get 2022 started, and I hope we can have more fun celebrations throughout the year.

Club Med and a Happy New Year

The girls have three weeks off of school for the holidays, but since Jeff has to be in the office for most of that, we decided to have a vacation on the middle week to help keep the girls busy.  With so many things still up in the air in terms of travel, we figured the safest bet was a destination we could drive to.  I knew we wanted to go to the beach, but we also wanted something that had fun activities for the girls.  After some research, I found a Club Med in Cherating, a town on the east coast of Malaysia.  It's about a three hour drive from KL, so we packed up the car the day after Christmas and headed east.  There wasn't any traffic, and so after a relatively easy check in process, we could walk along the coast.

Jeff and Elena found a nice spot to hang out and watch the waves.

I really wanted to try archery, and Vivian kindly came with me.

I actually managed to hit the bullseye, which made my day.

Club Med is an all inclusive resort.  They have a big main restaurant where we ate our meals.  It has multiple buffet stations with food from all over the world.  The girls mostly stuck to pasta, pizza, and ice cream, but Jeff and I got to try out all different kinds of fun foods.

There was also a central bar where we could pick up drinks.  The best part though was that they had a special kid area with stairs and a menu of fruit juices.  Elena became very confident about striding up and asking for a mix of mango and apple juice with no ice.  Vivian, on the other hand, drank her weight in Shirley Temples.

The next morning, Jeff and I got up to watch the sun rise.

Then, we went back to the room, got the girls, and enjoyed a nice breakfast.  The way the activities were set up was that there were designated times for different age groups.  Some time slots were for the whole family, but the kids could come at their designated time slots, either with the kids club or with their parents.  On the first day, neither girl was quite ready for the kids club yet, so we went along as a family.

One of the things Club Med is famous for are their trapeze lessons.  The younger kids have the first slot of the day, so after breakfast, we wandered over to see how it was going.  We watched several kids about Elena's age fly along gleefully, and eventually Elena decided she wanted to do it too.

On her first attempt, she got about halfway up the ladder, looked down, said nope, and came back down.  She watched a bit longer and decided to try again.  She climbed all the way to the top.

She got onto the platform, but when they told her to lean forward and grab the trapeze, she LOST it.  She was screaming that she wanted to get down, and it was painful to watch from the ground, but there was nothing I could do.

Luckily, these guys are professionals, and this was not the first time a kid had gotten scared at the top.  One of the people who was on the ground quickly climbed up the ladder.  He convinced Elena to get on his back and close her eyes.

And then off they went.

She said that part wasn't so bad, but she didn't want to try it again, which I thought was fair.  There was still archery to try, so we headed over to that.  With her feet firmly planted on the ground, Elena decided that archery was going to be her activity of choice.

We all had fun with it.

We did head back to the trapeze later in the day though for Vivian's turn.  She sympathized with Elena about the height, but she jumped off and swung for a while.

Other kids had latched their legs over the bar and let go with both hands to hang upside down, so Vivian set that as her goal for the week.  

After lunch, we put on our bathing suits and caught the shuttle to the other side of the resort where there was another beach to hang out at.  We found seats in the shade under some trees, and we had the beach to ourselves.

After the beach, we cleaned the girls up, and then found a table to try out our new Downton Abbey Clue game.  

Vivian won, which was only appropriate, since it was her Christmas present.  Dinner was delicious, and it was a fun end to a full day.

The next day, Elena wanted to come with me and Jeff for our morning walk.  The sun was still stuck behind some clouds though, so she and Jeff tried to use their "powers" to help it rise.

Vivian slept in a bit, so I took her for her own late breakfast.

Elena had decided she was willing to go to the kids club, especially since they were heading to archery.  Vivian took some time to digest her breakfast, and then she headed back to the trapeze.  After a couple tries, she got both legs up and both hands down.  I got a video, which is of course too big to put on the blog, but if you want to add sound effects to the still, imagine everyone on the ground cheering and Vivian screaming ;-)

By the afternoon though, Vivian was actually missing her sister, so we went and got her from the kids club and took another trip to the beach where they had fun digging a big hole together and collecting shells.

By the third day, we were pretty worn out, so we started the day a bit later.

We also found a nice spot to lounge.

After a while though, Elena headed off to kids club and archery, and Vivian went back to the trapeze.

She really nailed it, and we're super proud of her.  She can now hang upside down without screaming, which is a true accomplishment.

When Elena came back from the kids club, she was hungry, but it was too early for dinner, so I took her to try the noodle restaurant.  She really enjoyed the noodles, despite the logistical challenges.

It is currently monsoon season, so we were really lucky to get four days of nice weather.  On our last full day, the rain showed up, along with the wind, so we retreated behind glass.

Vivian's main concern was that trapeze would be cancelled, but it turns out they have a trapeze set up in the theater for shows, so she got to try the indoor set up.  There was less space to swing, but she still managed to get her legs up and her hands down.

Elena assessed the new set up, and its relative proximity to the ground, and thought, maybe, just maybe, she would give it another try.

They put the harness on, and she said, nope, nope, not gonna do it.  At least she was still on the ground, so they just took it off, and she headed to the kids club.  

Viv hung out with us and played some solitaire.

But then we kept hearing movie music and yelling from the main area, so we went to check it out.  It turned out to be a game where teams were guessing which movie the music was from.  It was a game made for me!  I raised my hand on the next one, and when the guy running the game asked which team we were on, we were immediately adopted by one of the more vocal and competitive teams.  Vivian got "Take My Breath Away", and I ended up winning the game for our team with the opera aria from The Fifth Element.  The prize was a bottle of champagne for the winning team to share.

Who can be sad about a rainy day with pink champagne in their hand?

Our team mates didn't have a great read on Vivian's age, and initially offered her some champagne as well, but she politely declined.  A bit later though, when we found a crepe station set up, the employee who had been in charge of our team ran and got her special chocolate sauce for her crepe as her victory prize.  The staff at the resort really went out of their way to be friendly and helpful, and it made the stay so much more enjoyable.

The kids club was in charge of the evening's show on our last night, and Elena had been practicing all day.  Viv and I even went to her final rehearsal.

In the evening, they sent the kids go back to their families for some down time and dinner before the show.  Elena played cards with Viv.

Then we had a delicious dinner and dropped Elena back at the kids club to get ready for her show.

We ended up with seats pretty far back, but we could still see that Elena was the best one in her group.  The resort provided them with matching costumes, which made it extra cute.

After the show, they had a celebration for the performers with candy, juice, and giant inflated characters.  Elena was in heaven.

It took a while for her to wind down, but she did eventually fall asleep.  She was up early the next morning though, so off to breakfast we went.

It was our morning to check out, and there was a break in the rain, so we handed in our keys, packed up the car, and said good bye to the lovely resort.

We were sad to go, but happy to be home, and for the first time it is truly HOME.  We are all settled in, and this is really where we live now.  We had a fun family New Year's Eve.  I made pasta carbonara, which everyone likes.  Elena made us celebration hats.

We gave the girls apple juice in champagne flutes, and it inspired Vivian to propose toasts, which led to the rest of us proposing toasts, and wrapping up 2021 with love and laughter.

Here's hoping that 2022 brings us closer to normal and gives us more wonderful experiences to celebrate.