Hyatt Regency Kuantan Resort

If you are hoping to stay at a beach resort in Kuantan, other than Club Med at Cherating beach, there is a 5 star beach resort located at Telok Cempadak beach-Hyatt Regency Kuantan. I was there for 3 days 2 nights with my team last month. I actually felt quite hot and humid when we arrived although it was monsoon season for East Coast of Malaysia. The raining started to pour around evening time till night. So, it still not too bad if you are planning to have your beach holiday during monsoon season.

Reception Area

The Telok Cempadak beach, view from Kampung Restaurant. We saw two man fishing by the beach, I wondered how do they fish when the wave is so strong.

Beach Area

The swimming pool is located beside the Kampung restaurant. You can actually relax near the pool side while having a good view of the beach. It is just a few walks to the beach.

Swimming Pool Area

Hotel Rooms

I was sharing the room with another colleague. We were given a corner room, facing the staircase while other colleagues gets garden view.

The floor is tiled from the bathroom towards the door area. While, the room area is covered by wooden flooring. You won't feel so cold when stepping on it in the room.

The room is quite spacious however it doesn't give us a 5 star feel of it. All of the furniture is quite old and the air-conditional sounds at night which gave us sleepless nights.

The Minibar area consists of a refrigerator, a kettle, some coffee and tea, and two bottles of water. Again, sign of old cupboard, some of the area already torn off. It is quite disappointing when they claimed themselves as 5-star resort.

Overall the toilet is clean, however there are stains in the bathtub. I do not actually dare to use the bathtub after seeing the stains. The housekeeping service also kinda bad. For my first day there. they actually give us one hand towel instead of two. For second day, after cleaning they didn't give us the floor mat and hand towel at all. 

So far, the toiletries are quite complete.

Here is the view from our balcony, directly facing the staircase. We have to close our balcony door 24/7 since it is too expose to the corridor.

Most of us didn't really have a good stay there although it is a 5-star resort. In this three days, we had our breakfast, lunch to dinner in the hotel and variety of food is always the same for three consecutive days. We were quite disappointed with the food both taste and variety. When we confronted the chef about the food, they have a lot of excuses to counter back us. In addition, most of the staffs are temporary staffs that are not well trained, in few meals the staffs actually try to avoid me when I asked for refill of drinking water. Some of my colleagues actually got food poisoning after back to KL.

I hope the management will take serious of the customer's feedback, this is to help them to bring improvement of their services as 5-star resort. The resort seriously need to refurbish the rooms, it seem most of the furnitures are old and faded.

Hyatt Regency Kuantan Resort
Address: Jalan Telok Cempedak, 25050 Kuantan, Pahang
Phone:09-518 1234
Hyatt Regency Kuantan Website 

Event: A Christmas Celebration with Delifrance Malaysia

Guess where am I last night?

I was delighted to be invited to Delifrance Christmas Celebration yesterday at their Avenue K outlet. It was a fun night with plenty of food on the table and enjoy myself in decorating my first gingerbread man before the Christmas.  

With the upcoming celebration of Christmas, Delifrance Malaysia coming out a variety of new festive menu from new cakes to chocolate and bread. Let's check out what are their Christmas Menu this year!

It is so nice that Delifrance actually prepared a long table to place all its new menu items with Christmas decoration as well. This make so easy for all of the bloggers to capture photos.

Plenty of cupcakes and macaroons were served on the tables. Can't stop taking photos of these colourful macaroons and it actually taste nice too! The macaroon actually taste softer than I ever imagine.

**The Christmas Menu**

Cupcakes-RM5.00 each

Moist cupcakes top with icing, three flavours to choose from: Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry

Salted Caramel Tea Cake with Walnut & Double Chocolate Tea Cake-RM 16.90 each

Delicious moist and soft tea cake. The salted caramel tea cake is topped with walnut while Chocolate tea cake is topped with chocolate chips. A prefect snack for afternoon tea!

Rocky Land Gift Cake-RM 35.00

A Belgian chocolate cake topped with ganache. Another prefect Christmas indulgence.

Santa Play Land Gift Cake-RM 48.90

Red velvet Christmas cake topped with sour cream cheese. I actually loved their red velvet, very moist and delicious. most important  it is not sweet at all. A prefect gift for Christmas!

 Cheesy Turkey Pasta-RM 15.90

The spaghetti is tossed in cheese sauce and topped with roasted turkey ham

 Poached Salmon with Creamy Dill Sauce- RM 34.90

Poached salmon fillet garnished with dill sauce, placed over mashed potatoes and with salad

Provencal Lamb Stew-RM 34.90

Grilled Lamb shoulder with brown suce and salad

 Stollen Bread-RM 9.90

A bread-like fruit cake, traditionally eaten during Christmas. Quite a bit piece, bigger than my palm of hand.

 How can we celebrate Christmas without Gingerbread man? Here are the Santa's Helpers!

After the dinner, we were introduced one of the Delifrance's chef to demonstrate how to decorate Gingerbread man. Nice steady hand he has!

Here is the ingredients and the nicely baked Gingerbread man. I love the colour of the candies and chocolate chips. It is so colourful in the photo.

 It is my time to decorate. Let's start!

 *Ta-da*

My very first Gingerbread man (right side). Successful!

The weird zombie look Gingerbread man was decorated by my brother. He said hopefully the gingerbread man won't come and hunt him at night. >,< 

Thank you again to Delifrance Malaysia for the invitation.

For more information of the Christmas menu,

 visit Delifrance Malaysia or check out their FB.

Bangkok Trip 4-7 Oct 2014: BKK Itinerary 2014

Last month, I gave myself a treat by going for a short trip to our neighbour country-Thailand. Although it is not my first time to Thailand but it is my first time to Bangkok, just do not know why Bangkok never fit into my travel list. So, I try to pack in every important places to visit and food to eat in the 4 days 3 nights trip. It is a bit rushing looking at the original itinerary, but by the time we reached there, everyone seem to relax and we managed to follow 70% of original itinerary..still not that bad.

Transport:

We managed to book flight through AirAsia promotion in July. Although it still not very cheap compare to the super deal, it is the cheapest among all airlines at that time. We pay around RM 400 per person (including check-In baggage and skybus).

For transportation in Bangkok is quite easy, there are plenty of taxi and tuk-tuk around. Just ensure the taxi uses meter every time you enter. Most of the tourist spot like shopping area is monitored, it will come with a surcharge when you take taxi from these area, but all taxis will follow the rule of using meter when picking the guests. 

You can also use their BTS skytrain, covered mostly all the tourist spots. Here is the BTS route map. However, the disadvantage is the ticket machine that can only accept coins. You will have to go to the ticket counter to change your notes into coins. Another way for convenience is to get a BTS skytrain pass (rabbit card) to top up and use instantly.

Accommodation:

Since IHG is having a promotion for member during our stay, we booked the Holiday Inn Express Bangkok-Siam that is walking distance to BTS: National Stadium Station. For more information, read my Holiday Inn Express Bangkok-Siam post.

Attractions:

I managed to visit a few places during my trip:

1. Siam Paragon

2. Siam Square

3. Four-Faced Buddha of Erawan Shrine

4. Platinum Mall

5. Amari Watergate Hotel-Paul's Fashion (We went to custom made a Chinese suit for our  pre-wedding photoshoot)

6. Central World

7. Chatucak Market

8. Wat Arun- Temple of Dawn

9. Asiatique the Riverfront

10. Sukhumvit Soi 55

11. MBK Center

12. Seenspace Thonglor Soi 13

Food:

I was told that street food in BKK is a must try, however I didn't manage to try out any except for the Otak-Otak sausage while walking to Amari Watergate Hotel. To my surprise, BKK actually have a lot of nice cafe for coffee, it seem like now is the coffee trend I guess. Since I'm in Thailand, most of my time actually spent on Thai food. Here are some of the food outlets I have visited:

1. Mango Tango @ Siam Square Soi 3

2. Phan Khom Thai Cuisine @ Central World

3. Coconut Ice-cream @ Chatuchak Market

4. Toh Plue Restaurant @ Chatuchak Market

5. Chic Grill Seafood Restaurant @ Warehouse 6, Asiatique

6. Roast @ Seenspace Thonglor Soi 13

7. Fuji Restuarant @ MBK

I would said 4 days 3 nights wasn't enough to explore the whole Bangkok, it would best if you can have longer stay like 6 days 5 nights if you are first time to Bangkok. I didn't manage to visit a few places like the floating market,the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple, and Chocolate ville in Bangkok for this trip. 

I'm coming back again next year April, got my ticket ready, this time I'm taking MAS. Stay tuned!

Sri Jaya Pau | Restoran Sin Tong Kok, Pahang

If you are visiting Kuantan or Pahang area, there is another food you should never miss out. That is the Sri Jaya Pau! It was recommended by my colleague long time ago but I never had a chance to visit the place. This time, we purposely make our way there. It is located in Restoran Sin Tong Kok, Maran.

Advisable to place your order in advance before you visit the place to avoid disappointment. They normally sold out all the pau before noon. 

Once you step into the restaurant, you can see lots of steam trays staging at the corner. All these trays are full of pau pre-ordered by people. Ours are in there too! *Excited!*

Sorting time with the owner. We had pre-order more than 100 Pau! Unfortunately, all pau are reserved and we are unable to buy more on the spot. So, it is best to pre-order it.

I bought 10 Char Siew Pau for RM1.80 each. It seem a bit expensive and the size also quite small but the taste is just splendid. What I like about this pau is the skin is really thin, mostly are covered by the filling. Overall the pau is so soft that when you try to peel the outer skin, the filing just burst out. The taste is simply delicious! No wonder my colleague bought 50 pieces back KL! 

Here is the address and phone number. To get there: exit Sri Jaya and head toward Sri Jaya Town, it is just a short drive after the toll. You can easily use waze to get there.

Kuantan Curry Mee | Restoran Hoi Yin

Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan again. 

This time let me bring you to East Coast of Malaysia. 

When you come to Kuantan, one of the must try food is their Curry Mee. I was having a 3 days 2 nights getaway trip with my team at Hyatt Regency, Kuantan recently and coincidently there is a place for curry mee nearby. Without hesitation, we drop by to had a quick bite before we check in to the hotel.

Restoran Hoi Yin is famous for their curry mee, you can actually read from their signboard in Chinese. The best thing about this place is their food are Halal! So my Muslim friends, let's enjoy! I was told that if you come around lunch time, the place will be packed. We actually arrived slightly early, around 11.30am but most of the table are taken up.

An old shop with only a stall at the corner, the place where they make the noodles. They actually sells 3 types of noodles according to their board-Mee Kari, Mee Sup and Mee Kicap.

Although the shop look quite old and run down but the area where they make noodles still remain as clean and tidy as possible. Don't worry!

Since I was recommended to try their Curry Mee, I ordered a bowl of Curry Bihun Mee. Each bowl of curry mee comes with fish balls, fish cakes, steam chicken, cockles and tauhu pok. Quite a lot of ingredients in this small bowl. You can also opt for different types of noodles like Bihun, Mee and Kueh Teow.

They come in two sizes- Big (RM 4.50) and Jumbo (RM 5.20). Comparing the price of curry mee last year, it seem like they have increased the price again. I guess nothing is not hiking in price now. Their curry mee is quite different from the one I had in KL. The soup wasn't the creamy type but more toward light and sweet. The taste is really depend on individual preference. If you like thick and creamy kinda soup, you won't get satisfy with this; but if you like light soup base, you might love it. It is not very spicy too, and you can always add additional chilli (provided in the container of each table) to the soup.

I actually quite like their Curry Mee although I always do prefer Penang Curry Mee. Their light and mild curry soup actually give you more space to crave after leaving the shop. I definitely will come back again if I'm in Kuantan again.

Restoran Hoi Yin

No. 31, Jalan Teluk Cempedak

25050 Kuantan

Tel: 09-567 3871

Close on alternate Monday

Kissaten Japanese Cafe | Setia City Mall

Previously during their opening, we didn't manage to find and try out their food. So this time round, we purposely come all the way from PJ to search for it and I could say I have no regret. Kissaten is quite unique in a way, they are the few restaurants that actually served fusion cuisine of Japanese, Western and Local culinary. They started the business in Malaysia for quite sometime now and there are a few outlets in PJ and KL like Jaya One, Puchong IOI Boulevard and Lot 10 Hutong.

The ambience is quite comforting despite it is super packed during dinner time.

We have a hard time choosing our food as every photos shown in the menu seem to be mouth-watering.

Green Tea Pot- RM 8.90

They also serve green tea per glass that costs around RM5.90. Since there are two of us, we decided to order in pot and it is refillable.

Buta Yasai Healthy Nabe-RM 32.90

It is served in Tajine Pot which believe to be able to keeps the nutrient of ingredients, bringing a healthy meal to customer. The Buta Yasai Healthy Nabe comes with lots of vegetables and fresh mushrooms, and slices of pork meat. Both of us love the clear soup base, light and mild, taste just nice with the combination of ingredients and not to forget a bowl of rice to go with it as well.

Seafood Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce-RM 25.90

The tomato sauce of spaghetti isn't that rich, mild but savoury enough. The sauce is lighter and watery, if you are use to thick tomato sauce, you might feels unsatisfying. The spaghetti is accompanied with prawns, squids and egg plant. Simple and delicious!

Banana Crepe-Rm 15.90

I was craving for dessert and decided to try out their banana crepe since it looks quite tempting from the menu's photo. However the presentation of the dessert is quite shocking to us when served especially the ugly "Kissaten" word on top. It actually ruins the whole food presentation. But soon we forgot about it after we tasted it. It taste scrumptiously delicious! The crepe is top with banana, maple syrup and cinnamon powder, accompanied with a scope of vanilla ice-cream. I love when I combined a piece of banana with the crepe and mix it with the hot syrup and ice-cream, it just taste like heaven.

I am quite happy with their food and will definitely coming back for more.

Kissaten Japanese Cafe

Setia City Mall, LG28, Seksyen U13

40170 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan

03-33585903

http://www.kissaten.com.my/

Namba Oriental Hotel | Osaka

During our trip in Osaka, we stayed at Namba Oriental Hotel. Why do we choose this hotel? Few options left and so far this is the most pleasant one and nearer to the train station. It is around 3 minute walk from Namba subway station on the Nankai line. 

Just for your information, if you are travelling during the peak season especially sakura time, advisable to book your accommodation 6 months in advance. I booked 4 months in advance and not much choices left. We booked around 13,900 yen per night (approximately RM 455). We booked this hotel from Booking.com, you can also book from Japanican.com which extend to more types of accommodation like Ryokan and also local tours.

There are 257 rooms in the hotel with 4 room types-NOHQ Quality Floor (9F), Oriental Floor (7-8F), Standard Floor (5-6F) and The Garden Floor (4F). Basically, the Namba Hotel is situated at third floor in the building where first and second floors are mostly restaurants. We booked the Oriental Floor with 23sqm space, the room is quite narrow. There is no wifi in the room, you will have to use the wifi at the common area.

They even provide NESCAFÉ® Dolce Gusto™  at the mini bar in the room, however each capsules is charge 200 yen. You will be charge upon check out.

This is so far the biggest toilet we encountered during our whole trip in Japan. Don't be shocked, a lot of hotels in Japan actually do not have bathroom and toilet attach together. Be more caution when you book your hotel, read carefully their description. If not you might end up having bathroom in the room and public toilet outside the room. So far, this is the best one we can find from the limited choices. 

Here is a map to the hotel, it is just around the corner of Bic Camera.

I actually quite like the location of the hotel, one step out of the hotel, you can easily find restaurants and food stalls along the road. Convenient shop and Mcdonlad are just beside the hotel, walking distance to the subway as well. I would definitely come back again.

Namba Oriental Hotel
〒542-0074 大阪府大阪市 中央区千日前2−8−17
Tel. no: 06-6647-8111
Fax, no: 06-6632-9979