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Tuesday 29 October 2013

Pixie: A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Monday 14 October 2013

REVIEW: Khao Lah Vista Tour

Actually I want to go Similan island but it was closed. So my diving trip is cancelled. Was browsing which tour to go that is not too exhausting, and I saw James Bond Aqua Safari which seems quite interesting. Khao Lak Vista quoted 2500 baht but when I emailed them, they quoted me baht2300. It is still quite expensive but then again, the price around would be similar. Tripadvisor given them high ranking and the feedbacks seem pretty good. So I decided to book with them.

Below is the itinerary...
 
Me.. On the way to the sea caves and mangroves.. As we are at the Muslim village, there are lotsa cats around. One of them is pregnant and she is pretty friendly. When I walk away after patting her, she follows me for a short while. And that's me and her =)   
 
 
 
Below are the photos we took during the river boat to the sea caves..
  
 
 
 
And after the sea caves trip, we went to the James Bond Island. It is a pretty small island and lotsa Muslim is selling souvenior at a very high price. I don't find anything special about it except the below stone.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then we reached the reclining buddha temple. There are many many monkeys around and they absolutely cute. Not to mention agressive as well especially you are holding bananas or peanuts for them. I didnt't know that monkeys also have secret ouch in their mouth like hamsters. Most of them just stuffed the food into their secret pouch in their mouth and later pui out and eat it. The food is exactly the same when they stuffed it in!
  
 
After my tour guide went into the temple,my bf and I followed in. Surprizing the monkeys stop at the entrance and no monkeys enter the temple. I guess they know no food will be given in the temple so no point loiter in there? After my bf & I made our prayers to the reclining buddha, we saw a pair of sister cats. One of them is very possessive of the another. At first they are sleeping one step away from each other. When I start patting one, the other automatically walk towards her and tried to block me for patting her sister. I guess is kinda sweet.
 
 
Then after playing with the cats, I saw an electronical lot drawing. It's pretty new to me because it is the first time I saw an electronical version. Normally you have to take the wooden sticks and shake for a lot. I dont know my lot is consider good or bad. But beside the pregnant with a baby girl, I guess the lot asked me to be contented in what I have. 
 

After the reclining buddha temple, we went to the turtle sanctuary as complimentary. It is much smaller than the one I went in Cherating and they kept the turtles to a year old before releasing to the ocean. I not sure whether their logic would works - by releasing at a year old, the survival rate would be higher.

For our next & last stop before we are sent back to our hotel is a mini secluded waterfall. We stayed there for 10 to 15mins before heading back to our hotel. Generally my bf & I enjoy ourselves. The tour is still kinda expensive even though all the tickets, meals and drinks are already included in the package. But our tour guide Dom is highly professional in his job. Speaks good english, very kind hearted and friendly. I would recommend this tour.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

REVIEW: The Nest

This is the second part of my birthday surprise. My lovely bf reserved a table at The Nest for a romantic dinner at Bangkok.The place is rather far from our place and we need to talk a taxi in. Personally I find the area is quite sleazy. Then again, it is at a hotel so I guess it is pretty safe.
 
According to my bf, the place is fully booked and the PR manager specially give us a cozy bench table as it is my birthday. But when we arrived, there is no people at all. Perhaps we were early (we reach at 7pm).
 
We went to our cozy bench with tons of cushion and started ordering our food. we have ordered tom yum gong (as usual), beef tapis, grilled prawns and lemon prawns. The tom yum gong is quite special as compared to the tom yum gong we ate earlier. Perhaps they add coconut milk in it? Grilled prawns is fantastic. Beef tapis & lemon prawns can give it a miss. I forgot how much is the bill, but I guess is around baht1500. We didn't take any photo of the food because we are busy cuddling and sweet talking at our cozy seat =P  I guess the price is still reasonably priced. Oh ya, if you coming on Octoberfest. They having free flow beer & BBQ at baht599 only!!!!!! That's really dirt cheap!
 
 
 
The ambience is very cozy & romantic. But I hate sand getting on the seat and sticking on my butt & legs. The food is alright with reasonably price tags. I don't think I will come back here again as the area is kinda sleazy for me and not near to the town.
 

Review: Andaman restaurant

This was the first night at JW Marriot and I didn't want to spend too much on dinner. We do have the 1 for 1 dinner voucher but the restaurant is already fully booked. We saw some seafood restaurant at the very corner of the private beach, so decided to have our dinner there.
 
The place is quite romantic. Kinda secluded (I guess only JW Marriot guests would have the access here) and the tables are just right at the ocean.
 
 
 
We have ordered seafood again! I love seafood but at the rate I'm eating at Thailand. I kinda worried about my cholesterol level  =P  Anyway, we have ordered fish, crab, tom yum gong, fried morning glory (the best in thailand!!!) and pineapple fried rice.
 
The fish you can really give it a miss. Is not that fresh (shocking) and not that cheap. Crab is alright, but definitely cannot compared to those Sri Lanka crabs we have in Singapore. Tom yum gong and fried morning glory is the best! *YUM YUM*
 
 
  
  
I definitely will come by here for dinner again if I ever come back to JW Marriot again. The food is nice and reasonably priced. Our dinner cost about baht1350. Ambiene is quiet and romantic too.

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Review: Jai Restaurant

We walked half of the street and found pleasant food smell from Jai Restaurant. So we went in and take a look at the menu. The food is reasonablely priced so we decided to lunch here. As you can see from my photos, the restaurant is clean, spacious and airy. Perhaps is weekday so there isn't much people around during lunch.
 
The waiter took our order with his very limited English and went to kitchen to prepare our food. While waiting for our food, I took some photo of the restaurant.
 
 
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After waiting for some time, at last our food arrived! We have ordered tom yum goong (super duper nice!!!!), tom yum fried rice (my bf favourite), squid salad and fried straw mushroom. Overall the dishes are very delicious and costs us baht 700 which is quite reasonable.
 
 
Since our first visit, we enjoyed ourselves very much so we went there for lunch the next day. We have ordered tom yum gong & tom yun fried rice AGAIN. But this time, we ordered fried morning glory (not as nice as fried straw mushroom), fried fish and grilled prawn. The grilled prawn is definitely a mistake. The menu price is baht 100 per 100grams, so we ordered 4 pieces. Upon paying the bill, we found out 4 prawns costs us baht 1300!!! I suspect they overcharge us because it is quite unlikely that the 4 prawns weigh 1.3kg. Rest of the dish costs around baht 800 in total.
 
 
Conclusion: The restaurant is definitely worth dining there. Not cheap, but reasonably priced. DO AVOID THE GRILLED PRAWNS!! 

Monday 7 October 2013

Review: JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort & Spa

Previously I have bought JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort & Spa groupon for my birthday celebration at Khao Lak. The groupon includes 4D3N at pool view deluxe room. 1 for 1 buffet dinner voucher. 2 free cocktails at the pool bars. 45mins massage at Quan Spa (CON CASE!).

We arrived at the resort just before 11am. The receiptionst asked us to take a seat at the comfortable sofa while she check in for us. After 10mins we were offered wet tissue to freshen up ourselves and sour plum drink. I kinda like the sour plum drink because of my motion sickness. It is great and ease my motion sickness. Another 10 more mins, we are finally "check in" but was informed that our room is not ready and we can only check into our room at 3pm. Yikes! That is like half a day! So I went around taking photo of the resort lobby.
 
 
 
After 15mins of photo snapping around the resort, I saw there is a bus shuttle in the resort. However it cost baht100 per person per one way trip. My bf & I were also hungry so we decided to go to the "town" for a long lunch. The bus shuttle is actually a mini van which is very comfortable and new. We just hope into van and off we go...

However the bus shuttle is only available every 2 hours. So either we will be picked up at 1.30pm or 3.30pm. My bf said 1.30pm should be sufficient, so we requested the driver to pick us up at 1.30pm. I guess my bf didnt expected that he wants to go for massage and I want to go to nearby 7-11 for some shopping. We almost miss the shuttle bus! Lucky the driver also went to 7-11 to buy some stuffs and then pick us up from there.

We reached the resort before 2pm and decide to try our luck. Perhaps after few hours of cleaning, our room is FINALLY ready? And yes, it is ready! The receptionist brief us on the vouchers, the map of the resort, and where to have our meals, request us to book the spa early and so on. The bellboy collected our luggage and off we went to our room 3027.

When I entered the room, I found that there is slight yellow stained on the floor. Kinda disappointed though. After few hours of cleaning, I expect my room to be stained-free. But for the rest, I very happy with it. A nice comfortable big king bed with several pillows. Clean, spacious bathroom with a bath tub and rain shower *LOVE* Additional daybed beside my bed and a bench to relax at the balcony. Moreover the balcony bench comes with cushions!

Since the receptionist told us to book our spa early, so we decided to book it now. My bf called the spa and told them we like to book a slot for Thur (we checked in on Tue). The spa said ok and asked us what massage we looking for. When my bf told them is 45mins massage under groupon voucher, they told my bf that the spa is fully booked till Sat and we are put under waiting list!!! The service is quite disappointing. If we put ad hoc massage, we will have a slot. But since is under free 45mins massage, the spa is fully booked until Sat. Seriously I can go without the massage, but if the resort want to give us this free service. At least make sure the additional service is available instead of false advertising. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Below is the room view I took in the morning. My room is just above Aqaumarine and its pool bar. I guess this is the smaller pool as compared to the main pool hence it is less crowded. Which is pretty cool to me. I don't really like crowds and the pool seems like a private pool for me. The lady tending the pool bar is very sweet. We have ordered 2 mojitos. My face will blushed once I drink alcohol, and when she saw it. She prepared an orange juice for me FOC! *super thumb up* 
 
 
 
 
Below is the private beach. Super love it. The sunset is lovely. The ocean is clean. Ample beach chair is available at the beach. You can order drinks while suntanning or reading.
 
 
The surprise JW Marriott prepared for me! A special chocolate birthday cake! My bf took the cake and did a mini celebration with me. He enjoyed taking snap shot of me and join up into a collage. LOL! Sometimes my bf really cracks me up.
 
 
The breakfast starts from 7am (if i remember correctly) to 11am. I absolutely love late breakfast because I don't wake up that early. However if you turned up for breakfast around 10am, you will meet a crowd. Waiting time for your table will be around 15mins.
 
The food selection is quite good. Personally I love the pancake, but it would be better if they provide real maple syrup rather than artifical ones. Furthermore they served real fruit smoothie!! *love love*
 

 
In conclusion, JW Marriott Khao Lak is definitely a luxury resort. But everything in Khao Lak is quite expensive as compared to Bangkok. Airport transfer is baht1300 to 1600. If we want to take a taxi from town back to resort, will cost baht300. I fully enjoyed myself but don't think I will be going there again.