Legoland Hotel, Johor (24- 25 December 2015)

This is our 4th trip to Legoland but our first stay in Legoland Hotel. Though I've seen plenty of good reviews on the hotel, I'm always a bit hesitant to try it out due to the price :p No secret that the hotel day rate can be equivalent to 2-3 days stay in other 5 stars hotel. However, as a part of my promise to Ryan + birthday present for all 3 munchkins + Ryan getting special award from his preschool, I decided WTH, all of us deserve a good holiday :) 

Welcome to Legoland Hotel, the view that greeted us upon arrival :) 

 Us after braving the 4.5 hours crazy traffic

 The famous mini figure wall

There is this huge playground at the lobby which the kids loved. The munchkins begged us to come down to the lobby any chance they get. I do not think the kids would even mind as much if we decided no to visit Legoland, with all the fun activities in Legoland Hotel. 

The Pool

Thank god the pool wasn't crowded despite it being a school and Xmas holiday. It is a nice big pool but nothing fancy other than it having the giant lego bricks for the kids to play with.  

BRICKS Restaurant

I love the variety that is provided by the hotel on both food and drinks selections. I can safely say that we started our day on a high note due to the yummy food...

THE ROOM

The best part of the hotel is the room.We chose the Kingdoms Theme Room as a compromise between Ryan and the girls. It is a big room which is divided into two parts. The first section is to cater for the kids: 

1. Bunk beds with a pull out trundle bed (fits my 3 munchkins comfortably)
2. A container of Lego bricks for the kids to play with
3. Knights and princess Lego theme decorations
4. Treasure box filled with goodies
5. Their own TV channel with Astro connections

The second section, is obviously for the adults. There's a king bed and a sitting area with another TV set for the mummy and daddy to enjoy.

Cute, huh? 

Even the toilet is done in such a way to celebrate the little ones. The hotel even provided a kid height sink for them to use while brushing their teeth. 

We had to seek for clues around the room to get the safe box combination number, We managed to open the box and "unearth" a set of 3 mini figures, a Lego Xmas tree and keychain. I estimated that the cost of the "treasures" to be around RM100 :) Lucky us...

Other freebies. The hotel also provided us with kids slippers and kids robe which made the munchkins very happy.

 My happy babies

Another good thing about the hotel is that it is situated next to a shopping complex with plenty of eateries nearby. There's ample parking in the hotel and it is also easily accessible from the Park's entrance. So you don't have to walk very far. We managed to snap this cute pic of the kids in front of Legoland at night :) We enjoyed our stay in Legoland Hotel and the kids are already talking about visiting again to try the other rooms *gulp*

I rate our stay at 9.5/10 :) So go try it out for yourself....

Lost World Of Tambun (29 November 2015)

We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Lost World of Tambun for the school holiday. This trip was not planned as we already arranged for a trip down south this December but since we had the time and opportunity, why not make the kids happy, kan?

The park is big and houses more than one activities for both adults and kids. The fact that it is surrounded by hills is a big plus. I totally enjoyed the view. The park is divided into water park (swimming pool), hot springs, petting zoo and tin valley exhibition. 

 The entrance, all beautifully decorated for Christmas.

 with my super excited babies...

Park Map : Source Google

Huge ground to cover, thank god my babies are up for the walk

 There is a section with all the carnival games/rides like merry go round, ring toss etc

Tiger Valley : There are 2 tigers and a few other big cat species like leopards and wild cats in an enclosure nearby.

 Tin Valley: Where you can learn about Tin Mining back in those days where everything is done manually. Interesting exhibit, I would say..

Next to the Tiger and Tin Valley, there's a small zoo/animal care centre which houses several types of small animals like emu, roosters, porcupine, Patagonian mara and capybara (largest rodent in the world)

The caretakers feeding the Patagonian Mara carrots, they look like a cross of rabbits and deer. Anyway the caretakers were super cheerful and informative. The kids had fun interacting with both the caretakers and animals.

Petting Zoo: Another highlight of the day, there's quite a selection of animals in the zoo, though it is a bit of a walk from the entrance (esp with my 3 little munchkins) it is worth it. Had so much fun looking at the animals. 

My beloved babies :)

Waterpark: The rides and water features are not as extensive as the ones in Sunway Lagoon, but they do have some nice kids slides and wave pool for the kiddies. 

Hot Spring: What made Tambun quite special is the fact that it has a few hot springs pools in the vicinity. The temperature from one pool to another may vary and the warmers ones may not be suitable for younger children. But after a long swim in the pool, it feels good to have a good dip in the hot spring.

We truly enjoyed out trip to Tambun and it feels so good to see the cheery smiles on my babies face. Can't wait for the long xnas public holiday and for our "closing break" for they year 2015, Inshaallah. 

Ipoh Foodpedition (28-29 November 2015)

Ipoh is not exactly synonymous with Halal Food. However, we wanted to try out their famous local specialty rather than dine on fast food or "Hipster Cafes". I'm sure the cakes are yummy and all but I can easily obtain those food here in KL. 

Our first discovery was made by accident. We wanted to go to Ipoh Parade and made a wrong turn, we saw a restaurant with a huge "Nasi Lemak Ayam Kampung + Sup Belut" signage and loads and loads of people (usually a good sign when it comes to food). We decided to give it a try and I'm glad that we did. 

 Yummy Pulut Manggo 

We ordered the Nasi Lemak set for 2 people : It came with 2 Nasi Lemak Kosong, a plate of sambal sotong (nice), a plate of sambal kerang, a plate of ayam goreng kampung (the best among all), tomyam seafood (quite a weird dish to be eaten with nasi lemak IMHO), sayur campur, 2 bubur chacha and 2 watermelon juice priced at RM49 for the set.

The nasi is on the smaller portion, so we had to order extras for my little munchkins. The total of our whole meal is a whooping RM70++, quite pricey for a nasi lemak meal I would say :p 

It is not the BEST Nasi Lemak I've tasted but it is quite good and worth a try if you're in the area :)

Our quest for Ipoh Halal Food continues the next day, Lan is not too keen on lunching in Tambun Theme Park because lets face it, theme park foods are rarely yummy and is usually over priced. So we snacked on fries and Milo BUT I just had to try this Ice Ball out of curiosity...

The ice ball (ais kepal) that cost me RM5.00. It consist of ice, sirap ros and sarsi. I can get a huge bowl of ABC dripping with choc syrup AND ice-cream for less than that in Klang :p  A rip off la... but if you're trying it out for the experience, no harm in trying. It is nice but not for RM5 hehehe

Once we're done playing in the park, we decided to stop for lunch at "Greentown Dim Sum". We heard good reviews about the restaurant and I wanted to give a try since I'm a huge dim sum fan. Despite it being 3pm and after lunch hours, the restaurant was still quite full (always a good sign)

My fave fried radish cake (no taugeh) and shrimp dumplings

The Dim Sum Set (3 types of dimsum for RM9,90,my fave is the Siew Mai) and my children enjoyed the red bean pau very much

If you are not a fan of dimsum like my hubby, you can always try their rice/noodle dishes. Hubs had the Chicken Rice Claypot dish, not bad taste wise but nothing special. 

Overall we enjoyed the food very much and won't mind coming back for more. Planning to try out the Nasi Vanggey and Ipoh Chicken Rice on our next trip *Inshallah*

Ibis Styles, Ipoh (28-29 November 2015)

It was a super last minute decision to go to Ipoh. We had to attend a wedding in Tanjung Malim and we decided that we wanted to surprise the kids with a trip to Lost World of Tambun a week before the occasion. After browsing booking.com, we decided to give the new Ibis Styles Hotel a try. We wanted to stay in town rather than stay in Tambun as we wanted to explore. I love the location, it is 5 minutes drive away from Ipoh Parade and there's a few eateries (Halal and Non- Halal) within walking distance.

Google Photo

We booked the Standard Twin Room ,the only room available online at the very last minute. The room is good size, modern looking and newly refurbished. Totally in love with the bed which is super comfortable.  

The bathroom is clean and spacey. My only complaint is that they did not provide any toothbrush along with the other toiletries. We had to call reception for the toothbrush sets which they provided for free. 

The dining hall. The decor is super modern and comfortable. Space seems a bit limited, we came down early based on reviews which stated that the cafe would be super full around 8am onwards.  Food selection is minimal, they did not have any pastries or egg station. However, they do offer both continental and Asian food selection. 

For some reason my children did not enjoy the food much. They ended up snacking on koko krunch and juice. 

The plus point is there is a playroom right across the dining hall, so parents can eat peacefully while the kids watch cartoons and play with the blocks provided. 

Review: I'm pretty happy with the room. It is a good choice in terms of location and value for a short stay like ours. I rate the hotel @ 7.5/10

Press Me: Booking.com Review