The Garden Hotel, Malaysia

We had another free trip to KL and were given an executive suite at The Garden Hotel, next to Mid Valley shopping mall. It's convenient for shopping and dinning for sure. Due to too convenient, I have to buy another new big luggage to pack my shopping haul there. So you can judge whether staying there has more pros or cons. Haha!

Some photos to show the interior design of the room.

Nice bathroom with separate areas for the long bath + shower, sink, dressing area and also toilet bowl. 

Free shoe shines service is available too. My hubby said, he only get his shoes shine once a while when he stays in the hotel. (don't look at me, I'm not in charge of his shoes at all.)
The amenities are quite complete, it includes the full set of hair shampoo, hair conditioner, bath gel, hand soap, bath soap, shower cap, toothbrush and toothpaste.
They also provide  2 pairs of soft cotton slippers,  2 sets of bathrobe, iron + iron board, hangers...

 ...2 bottles of mineral water (top up daily), kettle (very important for us to boil water everyday to make milk for my princess), coffee, tea, sugar and creamer (top up daily too).
Well, I have always assume that all these are basic items given by the hotels, nothing special, till I visited many hotels in Sarawak and also the hotels in China. Seems like I had taken for granted for all these conveniences provided by the hotels in KL for many years. 

A view from my room. We can see The Garden Residency.

Swimming pool and city view too.

Again, my princess always try out and enjoy the bed first.

"It's so soft and nice, mummy!"

"Check out the cartoon channel!" 
(LCD tv is provided too. Sorry for not taking the photo of the tv cabinet etc as  the area was full of luggage. Too messy to show on my blog. Haha!)

We did enjoy our stay. Highly recommend to those who loves to shop comfortably. (U know, many times we just couldn't manage the things we bought. But if you are staying in this hotel, no worries, just bring your shopping bags back to the room and return to the mall for 2nd and 3rd round will do.) 

Four Point Hotel, by Sheraton (Kuching)

There is a Four Point Hotel, managed by Sheraton in Kuching. It is located right next to the BDC gyratory interchange at the junction of the road leading from the city to the Kuching International Airport, which is just two kilometres away. During our Feb visit, we stayed there for 4 days 3 nights. This is our 2nd visit in this hotel and we like the service and friendly staff there.

However, our hotel room has problem with the air-conditioning for 1 whole day during our stay. The room was 27.5C. It was raining outside but the room was hotter than outdoor. In the end, we had to get out from the room as I felt difficulties in breathing. We had make complained for several times, but no technician came to our room  as promised and we couldn't change our room too. We were told that the whole floors were affected, so no point to change room. Staying in the room is more like torturing than enjoying.

We have stayed in many hotels every year. Surprisingly, this so-called managed by Sheraton hotel is a bit 'different'. They do provide us a baby cot when we asked for it but it's merely baby cot. Unlike other hotels which provide a complete comfortable baby cot with pillow, blanket, protector. This hotel provides nothing but only baby cot, of course with the mattress. When we asked for a blanket, they said, the hotel only have King's size or Queen's Size bed blanket/comforter. Wanna safocate my girl?! Hmm...in the end, we just asked for extra big towels for her.

The breakfast buffet is quite ok. The bed is ok. The tv channels....emmm...basically is from Astro so when there was heavy rain, sorry, all channels were not available. As for broadband, you have to pay for it. We didn't go to their swimming pool (very awkward design where the guests who want to swim has to walk through the restaurant) and gym facilities. As for the basement carpark, it's quite ok. Not many cars so can park near to the entrance. For hotel guest, the carpark is free of charge though.

Four Points had won Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards' 2010 to 1012.
It's still year 2011 and yet the award can be given for future performance. Amazing!
How I wish this type of award is given through the mystery shoppers comment and checklist every year.
I just can't believe it is the BEST Four Star Hotel Resort in Malaysia.
If this is the best, I can't imagine the condition of other 4 stars hotels in Malaysia then. Sigh.

Mega Hotel ~ Dim Sum Feast

We had a dim sum feast at Mega Hotel the other day. Compared to our previous visit at 1 year ago, this time we kind of enjoyed more as we have nice friends to introduce us what are the specialty there. Thank you for the managers who treat us such a wonderful feast. We would love to go back again. 

Tanjung Aru Resort, KK

I dislike this pillow. Need to get rid of this from the bed....

Daddy asked me to study the KK map instead. Hmm.....where should we go tomorrow. Let me see.....

Better study carefully, too many tourism spots and too limited time. 

Let's go to this place tomorrow!!

Yes. From the bedroom, you can see through the big window and enjoy the toilet view. Sexy? Or no privacy?

Don't worry. You can use the window blind to close up if you don't want to see what is happening inside and outside. (Daddy is checking out the map now.) 

Mummy, carry me!!!

Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa Shangri-la, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah is a very nice hotel! Highly recommended. The room is nice and cosy, the amenities are more than enough, the services are terrific and the buffet meals are splendid! (We had tried their breakfast buffet, Dim-Sum lunch buffet and dinner buffet. Wow! The food are so fresh, yummy and worth every penny you had spent!)

The staff are all very well-trained too. They are friendly, helpful and good in problem solving. This resort has nice beach, creative pools, free programs/activities for the in-house guest, good facilities and interesting children play room which I will share in the next article. Definitely better than Sutera Harbor. Opps. So sorry to say that! 

Pullman Hotel, Kuching

My princess knocked out in the car on the way to the hotel. So she was the first person who enjoyed the big bed.

Nice bathroom with a long bathtub which my princess loves splashing water during her bath time.

Another side of the bathroom. Too bad this hotel doesn't provide comb, toothbrush, shaver and toothpaste like other hotels.

A view from our window.

Another side of town view from our room.

The breakfast buffet is quite nice. However, this hotel is in Kuching so I only had one breakfast session there as I preferred to eat my breakfast at the local food stalls elsewhere.

As for service, I have to mention that they have 'weird' or so called 'strict' in their housekeeping management. Such as you have to 'sign' a 'loan document' if you asked for an extra towel. @.@

The room doesn't provide iron board and iron but yoga mat and 2 dumb bells. Surprisingly. Seems like they are more 'health conscious' than being practical! After using the iron and iron board, we were asked to put them outside of the room and called them up to collect. Hmm...seems like they don't have enough iron in the hotel?

The quality of the bed sheet, pillow cases, pillows and comforter are not as good as other 5 stars hotel. Conclusion, I don't feel like staying there again.

My lunch in Ascott Hotel

Didn't go out to have lunch but make myself a nice & healthy salad. Ingredients: honey cherry tomatoes, butterhead lettuce, green capsicum, pan-fried mushroom with balsamic sauce. Yum yum!

Ascott Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Princess posing on the bed at Ascott Hotel, KL. She was very excited with the new place and she is always the first person who 'explore' the King size bed whenever we stay in a hotel.

The hotel room (consider like apartment) has a nice cosy living room and a small but well-equipped kitchen with fridge, hood & hob, utensils, cutlery, toaster, microwave etc. The washroom is nice with long bathtub and shower room, just that their restaurant is quite disappointing. There were no room service and their breakfast has very limited choices though they try to change their menu everyday. It is about 5 minutes walk to KLCC so it is quite convenient for shopping and food if you are willing to step out from the comfortable hotel. 

Cititel Hotel, Penang

Hi, babies, it is me again, your super trainer. Let me teach you how to open the complimentary drinking water bottle from the hotel.

Yooooou need....... to uuuuuse...... a bit..... of strength...... to do it....twiiiiist....tuuuurn....

...ahem....and if you can't open it, please do not force yourself. Just clear your throat & call "DADDY!!!! Can you...help me please?!"

Princess in hotels

 3-month-old in Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

7-month-old in Sutera Harbour Resort, Kota Kinabalu

Promenade Hotel, Kota Kinabalu

On our last night in KK, we moved into Promenade Hotel, a free stay offered by our friends.

This hotel has an impressive lobby. Modern, clean and comfortable design.

They have nice cakes for sale at Deli Corner too. There are more than 20 choices for different type of cakes, such as cheese cake, fresh cream cake etc, price ranges from RM4.50 to RM9.90 which I think is quite reasonable. After 6pm, all cakes will have 40% discount too. It is really tempting but I was able to control myself. Haha!

As for the room, it is not that great. A bit disappointing as the lobby looks too nice compare to the old room. However, it comes with electrical kettle, TV, iron and iron board though. The room and bathroom are quite spacious although the design are not that modern. The room rate ranges from RM170+ to RM315+.

The staff are very friendly and helpful. We did enjoy our short stay there.The restaurant provides daily lunch buffet with reasonable price and wonderful selection. However, if you are a vegetarian and wish to have a balance diet, (not just salad for meal), this is not a good place for you though.

There is a Chinese dim sum restaurant outside of the hotel. Went there to have our lunch and honestly speaking, the dim sum are lousy and price are not cheap at all. Not much vegetarian dishes too. I think Grand Palace in Miri has better choices.

Experience in Sutera Harbour, KK

We were lucky to have a driver to pick us up at the airport when we arrived at KK airport. He sent us to the Pacific Sutera at Sutera Harbour Resort and waited for about 45 minutes for us to check in. 

Why took so long? Well, the receptionist at the counter couldn’t find our name in their computer system. We told them that we had make reservation and they told us that there were no record, and adviced us to check the other hotel (Magellan Sutera). Normally the rate in Pacific Sutera is slightly cheaper than Magellan but the receptionist told us that the rate is RM450 (same as Pacific Sutera). He even make a call to the Magellan side to confirm the price. *RM450 is government rate.

So the driver sent us to the Magellan Sutera and waited for another 30 minutes there. Why again so long? This is because the receptionist at the counter took some time before she FOUND my hubby’s name and the reservation was at Pacific Sutera, not Magellan Sutera. T_T

We told the receptionist (Rozana, who is not friendly nor polite at all) that Pacific side couldn’t find the name, which was why we were being ‘kicked’ to Magellan. Then Rozana said, because the reservation was not under my hubby's name, but under ‘Professional categories’. We have no idea how dumb the system is, couldn’t use the guest’s name to search but have to search under ‘Professional’.  Again, we were told to go back to the Pacific Sutera.

We were exhausted and my princess was cranky too. My hubby told the receptionist that we wanted to cancel our previous booking and move into this current hotel as we just want to get a room to rest.

Then Rozana said, the room rate is RM570, not RM450. We told her that before we came, the receptionist at Pacific Sutera just called to reconfirm the rate. She said, "that rate is for non-peak season. Now is peak, so the price went up". (Peak? I think is PIG, there were less than 5 guests in that big lobby.)

Actually our stay was paid by the 'big 'boss' who actually told us to go ahead, choose any hotel regardless the rate, however, we felt that we shouldn’t keep quiet and got bullied in such a way. So the ‘peak’ season just happened within 10 minutes time? The attitude of Rozana was terrible and the service at the check in counter was hopeless. We got frustrated due to the bad attitude of Rozana. So we decided not to waste our 'boss' money nor our precious time to travel here and there again.

The duty manager who took over our case (Marina) told us that they couldn’t do anything because this is their rate. I told my hubby (in front of that manager) to call up the ‘big boss’ to tell them the situation. My hubby asked the manager whether she wants us to do that, she quickly asked for my hubby’s IC and proceed with the check-in for the rate of RM450. (seems like she doesn't want to get into any trouble.)

While waiting for her to key in the data, my hubby went to unload the luggage from the driver’s car (I feel bad for the driver because his lunch has to get delayed like us due to the lousy service of the hotel), the receptionists tried to ‘play’ with my princess.

Marina said to my princess, "Luckily you are cute. If you are not cute, probably you wouldn’t be able to get a room." What was that? Anyway, I didn’t have my breakfast nor lunch and it was going to be 3pm. I felt strength less to talk back. 

It was nice to bring our things into our room at long last. My princess was asking for milk and nap badly.

The room is not that big but the design is quite unique with a big wooden window at the bathroom wall, which means if you open up the window, the people in the room can see what you are doing in the bathroom. (Compare to Maya Hotel in KL, with a totally transparent glass wall for the bathroom, this is consider conservative though). In the bathroom, there is a shower room and a bath tub as usual.

The bed sheet is nice. Just like other 5 stars hotel, it is very smooth and comfortable. My princess loves it. When she was sitting on the bed, she kept using her feet to rub and feel the different texture of the sheet.

Compare to Shangri-La hotel in Kuala Lumpur, this is like a 3 stars hotel. There is no iron in the room (have to call them up to send over). The deluxe room is small. After we placed the baby cot, we can hardly move around. (They do have nice baby cot for our princess which gave her comfortable sleeps though.)

If you are wondering which hotel is better (Pacific or Magellan), there are some simple comparisons for you to refer. For the lobby, Pacific has air-conditioned whereas Magellan is designed like a big open air longhouse. If you like to experience Malaysia's weather, you will like Magellan’s lobby. 

There are many restaurants at both sides, but for daily lunch buffet, it is only available at Pacific Sutera. Magellan Sutera has lunch buffet once a week (Sunday) only. As for the dine-in menu, there are not many varieties. Prices range from RM28++ to RM80++.

I had spent RM45 (including the tax and tips) for a plate of X.O fried rice, which comes with some boiled Kailan, 3 fried dumplings, 1 bowl of fried rice with garlic and egg, 3 big prawns, fried anchovies and 1 bowl of chicken broth soup . It tastes nice actually though I couldn’t taste any X.O. 

As for the breakfast buffet at Five Sails, the choices are not as much as Shangri-La’s. (Shangri-La's Hotel in KL has Japanese, Western, Malay, Chinese, Italian cuisine with big varieties of salad, cheese, pastry, fruits, cakes, pizzas, dessert such as marsmallow with chocolate fountain etc for breakfast. Love to gain weight there).

However, I love their fresh lettuce and their nasi lemak at Five Sails. The ‘daging deng deng’ (beef sambal), anchovies sambal and squid sambal are very nice. They don’t really change their breakfast menu so staying there for few days in a row, you might feel like eating out at local stalls. 

The tea cup on the table was not clean. I can see stain inside it. When I requested the waitress to change it for me, she went to other tables, pick up one by one to choose (can you imagine other cups are not clean too). Finally she passed me one ‘new cup’ after choosing for quite some time, and inside the cup, there was still some stain but not as bad as the first one I had. Have to use the tissues & fingernail to scrap it off.  Same as the fork on the table, we have to ‘clean’ it before we used. I think the dish washer couldn't clean stain properly?!

There was free wi-fi service at the lobby but not in the room. Although they said the room has free wi-fi, the network wasn't strong enough to get detected. Luckily my iPhone can go online without their network or else will be very inconvenient for me.

Anyway, we didn't manage to dip ourselves inside the pool. I believe the children will enjoy staying in this hotel as the pool looks nice (saw one Korean boy knocked his head when he jumped inside the 1.2 m pool though).

The night scenery is romantic too. It is nice to stroll during evening time. We can see couples having sweet cuddling time along the harbour.

So, after reading my experience in this resort, how will you rate this place?

In order to let the guests have pleasant stays in the hotel, other than the faciliaties have to be well kept, I believe the hotel needs to have proper training and management on their staff so that they provide good customers service at all times.

The reason why I love Shangri-La's hotel in KL is, they have excellent customer service (no matter where the staff are, all of them will greet you with a genuine smile when you pass by or meet them), well designed room with all the things you need, mouth watering breakfast and nice facilities. Hmm....for those who plan to visit KL, try Shangri-La, you will enjoy your stay there for sure. Opps....seems like Shangri-La has stolen the thunder of Sutera Harbour.

Sutera Harbour, Kota Kinabalu

Last week, my family and I went to KK (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) for a 4-days-3-nights trip.

I have been to KK several years ago. That time I was still single, joined the church activity and that was my first experience in that beautiful place. I can still remember that our trip includes visiting Manukan Island (day trip), had nice seafood dinner and also Sutera Harbour Resort (walked around in the hotel compound, took some group photos). That time, someone told me that it costs about RM800+ per night to stay in Sutera Harbour Resort, I was like wondering when will I have the chance to spend that kind of money to stay there. It sounds like impossible to me.

As for our family trip, we had booked our room in this Sutera Harbour Resort. Sounds like a dream comes true but (yes, too bad there is a ‘but’ here), we didn’t really enjoy our stay there. Before I started my ‘story’, let me give you a rough idea of that resort.

Sutera Harbour Resort is a 384-acre fully-integrated property development on the coastline of Kota Kinabalu city centre in Sabah, Malaysia.

Comprising two 5-star hotels (Pacific Sutera & Magellan Sutera), a 27-hole Graham Marsh designed golf course, a 104-berth marina and an exclusive golf and country club with extensive recreational facilities, the resort enjoys the panoramic backdrop of the South China Sea and the tropical islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park.

There are 956 immaculately furnished and contemporary designed guest suites with magnificent views of either the sea, the gardens or the golf course; 14 restaurants and bars, two grand ballrooms, 22 meeting rooms and a 100-seat auditorium making Sutera Harbour Resort the perfect venue for meetings, incentives, conventions, events and weddings.  

Hotel guests and club members have access to beautifully landscaped swimming pools, a 12-lane bowling alley, a mini cinema, snooker rooms, covered and open tennis courts, badminton and squash courts, safe and modern playgrounds, fitness centres, karaoke lounges, luxury spas, watersport facilities and secure Kiddies Clubs for children’s activities.(copied & edited from their official website)

It is 10 minutes drive from the airport and 5 minutes from town. This resort has beautiful harbour where tourists actually anchorage their yatch/boat at the harbour and stay at the hotel. 

There is 1 Russian couple who sailed from Australia to KK though. They bought a very nice yatch from China for about half a million USD, and decided to start their retired sailing trip from that day onwards. The yatch has kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, washing machine, air-conditioner, water heater, internet etc. For that kind of tailor-made boat, it costs about 2 million USD in Australia, they said. They are planning to spend minimum 2 months in KK. Wow! Hope they enjoy their trip!

After reading the brief introduction, do you feel like staying in this hotel resort? Let see whether you will change your mind after reading my experience in this hotel. (check out my next article in –experience in Sutera Harbour Resort)