Weekend Cruise To Nowhere On SuperStar Virgo 2nd Apr - 4th Apr 2010 Day 2

The second day on this weekend cruise to nowhere on board SuperStar Virgo holiday cruise ship turned out to be a great day. You have a choice of breakfast foods of a good variety at some of the outlets. If you would like some Chinese breakfast food, Pavilion Restaurant or Bella Vista would be your choice. For international breakfast food, you could visit Mediterranean Buffet Restaurant. If you prefer Western breakfast, then head on to Bella Vista where you can get your continental breakfast as well as ham and eggs.

A variety of breakfast food available in the Mediterranean Buffet Restaurant, an all-inclusive restaurant

More breakfast food variety Halal and vegatarian

We decided to head on to the Mediterranean Buffet Restaurant for breakfast as we like the variety of breakfast food available. If you require halal or Indian vegetarian food, then the Mediterranean Buffet Restaurant is the place to go to.

As usual, the bao or Chinese steamed buns were quite good. Today, it was the red bean bao. Filled with a good quantity of red bean paste, these steamed buns were just yummy. You could also have finger foods such as samosa (a fried or baked triangular pastry with a savoury filling), doughnuts, Danish pastry or if you prefer some Indian food such as vadai (a doughnut shaped Indian savoury snack) besides the normal choices.

Celebrating Easter Sunday

Casanova, a Las Vegas-styled show, was on that night if you were interested in watching. There was a promotion in ticket prices.
Casanova

After breakfast, we headed to The Royale Club, a casino for VIP88 members, on Deck 8 with the other group members. We decided to stay and try our hand at some mini Bacarat where we just followed our group on the bets. It was quite a good session with an amazing 16 ties occurring during the entire round.

The Royale Club Casino

The group members decided to quit during the second game when the going was not too good. We then headed to Blue Lagoon, a bistro outlet, since Mother was in a happy mood and wanted some ‘good’ food. We ordered some of the April promotional items such as the Herbal Duck Soup with Vermicelli, Pineapple Rice and Soto Ayam (a spicy chicken soup with noodles). The duck soup and pineapple rice were both tasty and appetizing. The soto ayam was not too bad except that it was served with egg and vermicelli which was unusual.

Pineapple Rice

Herbal Duck Soup

Soto Ayam

More Easter Day celebration decorations

After lunch, Mother went back to the cabin to rest as she did not want to gamble in the casino on Deck 7 where she was not accustomed. Some of our group members then spent some time in the casino to gain some points on our Star Cruise VIP88 card as well as pass the time. The Casino was quite crowded especially at the table games.

The Oasis Casino on Deck 7

For dinner, we headed to the Mediterranean Buffet Restaurant but were disappointed that the outdoor BBQ party was cancelled due to the weather. At the same time since there was a long queue waiting to enter the Mediterranean Buffet Restaurant, we decided to have some Chinese food at the Pavilion Restaurant.

Fortunately we managed to beat the queue and enjoyed the Chinese dinner. The Double Boiled Pork Ribs Soup with Lotus Roots and Peanuts was especially tasty as has always been the case. We enjoyed the other dishes as well which comprised the Deep-fried Prawn Dumpling with Mayonnaise Dressing, Fried Chicken Wings with Preserved Red Bean Curd Sauce, Steamed Fish with Bean Sauce, Stewed Pork Belly with Oyster and the Sauteed Garden Greens with Chinese Sausage. The lovely dinner ended with the Mixed Fresh Fruit Platter.

Tasty Double Boiled Soup

Garden Greens though they don't look too green

Chicken Wings

Steamed Fish

Prawn Dumplings

Stewed Pork Belly which had quite a bit of fat, but some loved this dish

Ending off healthily

When dinner was over, we accompanied Mother back to the cabin and again some of our group members proceeded to the casino to continue where they had left off earlier and others stayed behind to keep Mother company and get her ready for bed.

It was an exciting day as we managed, on the whole, to gain some winnings on board this casino cruise. Seems like this last Cruise to Nowhere on board the holiday cruise ship, SuperStar Virgo was a ‘lucky’ cruise for us.




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Malaysia Vacation – Cherating and Rompin Beach Resort Day 6

Malaysia beach resort

As we needed to head back to Singapore today, this officially ends our Malaysia vacation. We had a great week holidaying in Malaysia and enjoying the Malaysia beach resort, especially the one in Cherating, The Legend Resort.

Starting with an early breakfast at 0730 hrs, we had a not-too-heavy breakfast from the buffet counter at Summerset Resort Rompin. Comprising breakfast food of basically Malaysian variety, you could get nasi lemak (coconut rice, also known as the national dish of Malaysia), ayam rendang (chicken in coconut milk), plain porridge with condiments as well as baked beans and sausages.

Enjoying breakfast

Breakfast food of a great variety

Plain porridge and condiments

The fried noodles was good

Artwork in The Dining Room

Chinese New Year decorations

Fruits

Upon meeting up with Masitah from the Food & Beverage department, she mentioned that the Royal of Pahang’s entourage of 20 had their breakfast specially prepared at 0500 hrs.

With Masitah, left

After breakfast, we returned to our room to make an international call to the facilitator of The Opening, an awakening enlightenment program that would be happening next month, as we needed to discuss certain issues before we met up with the resort staff to obtain the contract.

Waiting for the international call

And the resort staff

By the time we left this beach resort accommodation, it was almost 1030 hrs, an hour and a half later than we had planned. Fortunately for us, the drive back to Singapore along Highway 3 was a smooth journey except for certain slow moving vehicles.

Mersing...

Stopping by Mersing, we managed to locate the keropok (crackers) factory at 37 Jalan Abdullah 87800, Mersing. We had been here once before by following some friends and was hoping to be able to find the place again.

The keropok factory

Various kinds of keropok on sale

And dried salted fish as well

Making the purchases

We managed to purchase some Malaysian snacks and various kids of keropok. Next door, you could see the process of making the keropok.

Where the keropok is processed

Getting the dough ready and weighing it

Rolling the dough

HJ. Puteh shop

After shopping and purchasing the keropok, we followed directions from our Garmin global positioning system to Restoran Hai Sing for lunch. The outlet looked more like a coffee shop than a restaurant.

We ordered the fishball kway teow (rice noodles) soup and the kong bak (braised pork) noodles. Accompanied with pork lard, the fish balls were smooth, bouncy and great tasting as were all the other dishes. Total cost for lunch came up to RM35 (USD10.65) inclusive of 5 glasses of herbal tea.

Hai Soon Restaurant

Deciding what to order for lunch

Fish ball kway teow soup

Kong bak noodles

Kong bak kway teow

Hungry souls...

Continuing on our journey back to Singapore, we stopped at a petrol station along the way to top up before reaching the Woodlands checkpoint at 1450 hrs. it was a breeze getting through the Malaysian custom and immigration as the counters were clear and there was no queue. However on the Singapore end, we took approximately 20 minutes to clear both customs and immigration.

Six days have passed since we started on our Chinese New Year Malaysia vacation. This was our first visit to Cherating beach resort and we enjoyed the various Malaysian food that we managed to try which were indigenous to the East Coast of Malaysia. At the same time, we also managed to settle some logistical issues for The Opening, an awakening enlightenment program we are helping out with next month. Overall it had been a beautiful and wonderful week lazing around at the laid-back Malaysia beach resort.




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Malaysia Vacation – Cherating and Rompin Beach Resort 15th Feb – 20th Feb 2010

Malaysia Vacation – Cherating and Rompin Beach Resort Day 1

Spring Festival or Chinese New Year this year fell on 14th Feb, Valentine’s Day. In the round up to Chinese New Year, we were busy with baking as well as spring cleaning. After celebrating with the family and visiting our elders yesterday, we started on our another of our well-deserved Malaysia self-drive vacations today, the second day of Chinese New Year, at 0700 hrs. Of course, we had our wonderful secretary with us, our Garmin global positioning system (GPS).

Our first stop was the petrol station to top up petrol and off we went. Reaching Tuas checkpoint, we cleared both customs and immigration for Singapore and Malaysia and were on our way for our Chinese New Year vacation by 0745 hrs. This was great timing as there were no queues at all at the checkpoint.

Bright and blue sky to start the day

Clear coast at the Malaysia end of the 2nd Link

As we began our journey into Malaysia, we could see the sunrise.

Sunrise images

We made a stop in Kulai for breakfast. We decided to try some local food stalls along the main road, a one-storey building with green rooftop. Not many shops were open at that hour. The stall we patronized had no signboard, yet was pretty crowded.

Stall with no signboard

Yet with a good crowd

Trying to get their attention from our seat was a futile effort. We finally decided to go to the stall to place our order. They served breakfast food of the Malay variety such as lontong (Asian dish of compressed rice served with vegetable gravy), nasi ayam (chicken rice) and roti canai (Indian flatbread). We entered the stall as we saw others doing and ordered the roti canai directly from the person preparing the roti canai. To our surprise, we were handed our breakfast immediately and not asked for any payment. We just had to help ourselves to the vegetable curry they had and not the usual fish curry that we were used to. At the same time, we also helped ourselves to the sambal chilli that they had and which tasted good. The roti canai was not as crispy as the other stall that we had tried before.

Roti canai

Leaving Kulai at 0900 hrs, we headed back to the North-South Highway and followed the directions from our Garmin global positioning system to Cherating. Going via Senai-Yong Peng road, we travelled 82 km and passed through Yong Peng and Segamat.

Passing through Segamat

and various plantations

We turned off to Route 12 and travelled another 147 km. Next we traveled 3.7 km on Lebuhraya Mec before exiting at Lebuhraya Pantai Timur. After 50 km, take ramp to Route 3 for a total of approximately 13 km before we finally arrived at our resort accommodation, The Legend Cherating, just before 1400 hrs.

Legend Resort Cherating

Free parking is available for resort guests. Although the check-in time is stated as 1400 hrs, the rooms were not ready and we had to wait for our room till 1500 hrs. There was a container filled with orange juice from which you could help yourself.

We were assigned Rom 348 which was a distance away from the Lobby. Upon reaching our room we were delighted to see that we had a nice little balcony from which we could enjoy the ocean view. After settling down, we explored the resort surroundings and acquainted ourselves with the various activity locations.

Jacuzzi, Sauna & Gym

Self service laundrette

Game for a round of snooker?

After snapping some photos in the Cherating Legend Resort, we drove to Kemaman town, approximately 18 km away. As usual, we followed the directions from our Garmin global positioning system and ended up at Tunas Manja, a local hypermarket, approximately 25 minutes away from The Legend Cherating.

Tunas Manja

As it was still the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year decorations were still up and mandarin oranges were still on sale by the cartons. Even Chinese New Year hampers were still being displayed for sale.

Chinese New Year decorations

Happily we started on our shopping spree at Tunas Manja. We started at the clothes section, Hari Hari, and were fortunate to find some very reasonably priced clothes and managed to purchase some casual wear at great prices.

After shopping for clothes, we headed to Tunas Manja hypermarket section and managed to shop for more items. We even bought their Kemaman Coffee to try. According to the cashier with whom we struck a conversation, this was quite popular as many people purchase this as well. At the same time, we asked her for directions to the Kemaman night market, which opens only on Mondays and Thursdays.

Less than 4 hours since we arrived in Cherating beach resort, we had already done most of our shopping. We love shopping in Malaysia as we can get some great prices for certain items.

According to the cashier, the night market is close to a police post. As such, we checked on our Garmin global positioning system to direct us to our destination. Upon reaching the turning to the police post, we decided to stop at the Medan Selera Geliga by the main road to have our dinner since it was already 1900 hrs and we did not have a proper lunch.

Stall no. 5 in Medan Selera Geliga

We tried one of the Malay stalls, stall no. 5, and ordered the Nasi Goreng Biasa (ordinary fried rice) and the Mihun Goreng Mamak (Indian style fried rice vermicelli). Specially requesting for extra chilli, the dishes came freshly cooked, smelled good and tasted delicious too. Accompanied with limejuice, our dinner cost us RM11 (USD3.25), a great bargain.

Limejuice - great thirst quencher

Mihun Goreng Mamak

Nasi Goreng Biasa

After dinner, we again asked for directions to the Kemaman night market and were redirected back to where we were earlier. We decided to look for the night market one more time and fortunately for us, we managed to locate the night market this time round.

Look out for the brightly coloured lights and you'll know you are on the right road to the Kemaman night market

There were many food stalls selling various kinds of local Malaysian food. It was a pity that we already had our dinner. You could find Malay kuih (cakes) such as onde onde (green balls of Malaysian cake filled with palm sugar in the centre and rolled in grated coconut), kuih salat (2 layer cake with glutinous rice at the bottom and smooth green pandan coconut layer on top) and other foods such as apam balik (a type of pancake), kerupuk lekur (a kind of fish cracker indigenous to this region), satay (meat on skewers served with peanut gravy) and many others. Drinks and desserts such as chendol were widely available too. You can also get clothings, shoes and knick knacks there.

Murtabak

Spring potatoes

Variety of Malay kuih

Kuih Salat

Drinks stall

BBQ chicken

We decided to buy back some chicken satay to try. 3 satay sticks cost RM1 (USD0.30) and is accompanied by the satay gravy. Upon arriving back at our resort accommodation for the night, we offloaded our shopping packages, went back to our room and consumed the satay. The meat was nicely marinated, though a little tough due to being slightly overcooked. The satay gravy was quite diluted. It would have been better if the satay gravy were thicker.

Our satay supper

Next we took a walk around the resort. Walking along the beach on its soft white sand, you could hear the sound of the waves as the tide came in. Getting closer to Man Café situated between the beach and the pool, we could get whiffs of barbecued food. True enough, the staff was busy barbecuing the food. It smelled good.

See the waves from the South China Sea

Man Cafe, outside barbeque

Walking through the lobby, we could hear music. Tracing the sound to its source, we saw the trio La Quinta performing at the Cherating Bay Lounge. If you do not wish to sit at the lounge, you can still enjoy the music in the lobby from 2100 hrs onwards.

La Quinta

Located in the lobby is the X’pose, a karaoke cum discotheque. You can groove the night away here and the DJ will oblige with songs at your requests during the Karaoke session from 2100 hrs – 0100 hrs.

X'pose

The Legend Resort, Cherating

It was a lovely start to our Malaysia vacation in The Legend Cherating beach resort. Although we took approximately seven hours to drive to Cherating from Singapore, it was well worth the effort during this Spring Festival. We are so glad for our Garmin global positioning system, without which all our Malaysia self-drive vacations would be impossible.

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