11 November 2010 

 Hello there. I’m one of those mothers who does things last minute although tries to be as organised as possible. Well, at least, that’s the plan anyway. I had an opportunity to get everything done as soon as possible this time and that was to organise a holiday for the whole family. You might think that’s easy, but when there no travel agent, no husband helping out and school test week AND outing just before then that can be a real challenge…..

12 November 2010

Today is the day!! We’re off! But of course ‘Murphy’s Law’ comes into play….what’s that you may ask? It’s when you get that feeling that today is one of those days when everything goes wrong. So it couldn’t get worse really. I can’t write all of them (not to embarass my son…!) but here are the highlights…or should I say the ‘highly tense’ moments!!

1) Jo’s (my daughter) elastic pants snapped and she had to walk around the whole of HK Airport holding up her trousers. Quite a feat for a 6-year old! This called for a mad rush to Bossini and buying a pair of tight jeans which she looked pretty cool in I must say….

2) Tom (my son) was sick twice on the flight. I have no idea why as he took the travel sickness tablets. I knew he was nervous though because as soon as we walked into the plane, he said he could smell a horrible smell! Being prepared for any catastrophe, I had my 50 cents Park ‘n’ Shop bag ready and sure enough it was invaluable to me today!

Oh…after all that….I forgot to tell you where were heading for. We’re now at the beautiful Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Resort in Penang. I can’t see much as it’s pretty dark now (12am) but tomorrow I’ll be able to tell more….

13 November 2010

I should also add that last night as we arrived just after 12am, we were warmly greeted by a happy smile saying “Good Morning.” From that moment, I had a feeling this was going holiday….then the hotel gave us a surprise saying that we were upgraded to a family room….what more could I ask for – more space and more beds – something a HK mother would die for!!

I only wished that when my kids were younger I could have taken them to this hotel. It had everything they could wish for – and a mother too! Plenty of activities, an adventure zone club, swimming pool (which was toddler friendly, child friendly  etc with no sharps bits anywhere! ), plenty of high chairs, plenty of space to push the strollers around, toilets everywhere you could imagine….and then for the stressed parents, there’s a golf course, gym, jacuzzi and the most amazing spa you will come across.

14 November 2010

The beds were ‘just right’ (quoted from ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’!!). The hotel must make a special effort to make sure this is perfect. Of course the upgrade to a family room meant that we had an extra bed and a hall way. Heaven…..

We tried the ‘Guan Guan Cafe’ today which is about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Perfect fried rice and bee mee (noodles)!

We visited the Butterfly Farm today – the kids loved it! Butterflies, scorpios, snakes, turtles, spiders….yuck!

And after all that walking around and excitement we went to ZEN  (right opposite to the hotel) for a foot massage.  It was the first time I’d ever had a foot massage with my 6 and 8 year old lying next to me and I think Tom has never had so much fun before – he never stopped laughing!! RM30 for 30 minutes, but well worth hearing them cackle!

15 November 2010

Our family loves food and Tom gets his huge appetite from his father. He eats about 3-4 bowls of rice for dinner whilst Jo is the fussy one, takes her time to eat and picks at her food. She eats brocolli because it is called (西蘭花 – or literally a ‘flower’)…I am sure I wasn’t like that as a child!

 We went to a well recommended restaurant today (in fact a suggestion given to me by my aunt who is Malaysian herself) called Sin Kheang Aun. Venturing out from Penang’s landmark in Georgetown, the Komtar building, we haggled with two rickshaws to take us there. Winding down a few roads and alleys, we finally arrived to a local 2-floor local restaurant. Must-trys were the soy sauce chicken, curry fish head and stir-fried vegetables. Tom and Jo ate as much as they could….unbelievable!

16 November 2010

There’s always a first time for everything. Today will be one of those memories which I will always remember and something to mention everytime I think of this holiday. Tom wanted to go on a beach buggy which was perfectly fine with me. The only thing was that he wanted his mum on the back. So I thought this looks pretty harmless….just a drive across some beautiful sandy beaches, even if we fell off, not much harm would be done. But alas, he mistook the beach buggy for ‘Super Mario Kart’ and started driving like a mad man with his mum hanging on and screaming for dear life on the back! He wheezed past kids playing in the sand and accelerated over sand dunes….this was the first time I had let him have full control and I wondered whether this would be the start of his independence.

All-in-all, a fantastic and memorable holiday. No fuss, no stress (not much anyways!), fabulous food, the hotel was wonderful and the people were very friendly and helpful.   

Check out this slideshow here and get packing to Penang!

If you have any comments on this article, please email carol@kiddikraft.com.