3rd Year Anniversary @ Pangkor Island

Wee~ 3rd Year anniversary..

We celebrated our 4th year anniversary on 14th April 2010.. –.-“

Anyway, Pangkor was major FUN!! Partly because we found the right hotel promotion and the other part was the company.. (ehem.. I meant me)

http://offerstation.com/offers-promotions/25618/pangkor-island-beach-resort-promotion.htm

Sadly, the promotion is not available this year.

The journey:

I would recommend you to drive there. The drive there was very enjoyable. No dangerous winding road uphill and downhill (co..genting..ugh*) and Look at the view!

Do stop for Air Nira on the way there.. The cooling drink is just the right drinks to start a beach holiday. It was one of the most refreshing and cooling drink to replenish yourself during the long drive. It was yumz!!

I’m gonna let Catfish do all the mundane detail work of describing the taste and full history of Air Nira.

Catfish Nibbles: Air Nira is one of the sweetest natural drink I had ever drink plus it does not leave any after taste like those over sweetened drink in restaurants. It was RM2 each pack.

There is many Air Nira stalls along the way.

Shea! The drive cannot be any easier. Catfish will be happy provide the direction if you ask. Bring him some fish food..

Catfish nibbles: The old road is easy to drive, highly recommended. The road were so straight that you could even let go your steering for some part of the trip. <—don’t try this =P. Check out the road map here to see how straight the road is. There are 2 turns you need to make but worry not just follow the sign indicating “Lumut” or “Sitiawan”. Shea, you can get me air nira. heheh…

Wonder if Air Nira causes immediate hair growth. Be forewarn the hair will be bit greenish and spiky. See..

Catfish Nibbles: There is a 3 storey car park available located walking distance to the ferry. RM10 per day.

At the jetty. Must take some tourist shot to set the mood.

In the ferry. Pardon my tired face. Last minute packing the night before.. *Yawn* What’s new??

You get nipple sticker if you behave on the boat. 

Catfish Nibbles: We got on the private shutter to get us to the Pangkor Island Beach Resort Lobby from the jetty.

When we reach the hotel lobby, we had a very welcoming entrance. All of us were given a drink and greeted by 2 very energetic singers. 

Catfish was with his NEW camera in the lobby. Hence the greenish pictures above.. Setting semua salah..

Trying to be artistic. All he manage to take from that angle was my Fat thigh. FML! Picture censored.

Catfish Nibbles: The hotel room were huge but slightly old I would say.

After settling down in our room, we immediately enquire about the transport/tour to the city. We wanted SEAFOOD!!… (Again, mundane details like pricing will be by Catfish)

Catfish Nibbles: The ‘taxi’ in Pangkor are all by one taxi community the pink vans. They basically have fix prices. A round trip tour which includes fish factory, Foo Lin Kong Temple and Dutch fort cost RM40 each person. Bloody expensive! What we did was we negotiated for the tour but leave us at the town, which he charged us RM20 each. 50% because no round trip back to hotel. It was tough work to get the deal!

First stop was the fish packaging tour. Nothing much here though. The Seafood items sold here were not really fresh and cheap. Luckily we bought a little only else we are sure to regret when we get to the town. Don’t spend too much time here!

Foo Lin Kong Temple. If you can’t get to China, this is THE BEST PLACE to actually conquer the China’s Great Wall! It is just so easy to climb!

Next up the Dutch Fortress. Nothing special.

Catfish Nibbles: The city is filled with a lot pink vans, so no worry for transportation. The town is filled with seafood shop. Do scout and try the seafood snacks at diffrent shop before you make your purchase. We found one shop particularly cheap and fresh! There are plenty of banks here so if you need… The hotel have none.

Seafood! but it was so-so only.. The only picture of food here.. Promise!

Catfish Nibbles: This is apparently the only seafood available in town at that time. We ordered 1 salted egg crab, 1 sweet sour crab, 1 claypot seafood vege and a coconut each! It caused us RM54 not so cheap though.

Catfish Nibble: We brought these to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary.

Our strawberry ‘fatt Mo’..

Catfish Nibbles: The fridge is not cold..The only complain I have for the hotel room. The hotel service were good enough to try to change the fridge. Even that did not help but they offer us a fridge to keep our strawberries with the restaurant.

The view from our balcony. It’s got this dreamy effect caused the camera got foggy.

2nd day was dedicated to the hotel, enjoying their private beach and facilities. The promotion package includes all non motorised sports free.

Catfish Nibbles: In case if you are wondering how PIBR’s private beach look like. The sand on the beach is always clean, they have rubbish collecting machine sweeping up rubbish every 3 hours or so.

We went for kayak, the beach waves were a little rough at that time. We wanted to try out the kayak sailing but were not brave enough to do it.

I break my slippers playing ping pong. –.-“ Hence the bare foot.

Next we got a bicycle each.

Manage to stumble upon the humble Pangkor airport.

and also some mamak stalls for makan. Catfish Nibbles: Don’t blame PW for another food picture. =p

OMG! Wat’s that?

I think I’m more qualified to be a National Geographic presenter. Catfish can be the camera man. We were chasing it hoping it will flash his tail.

Catfish Nibbles: We got to play Archery and fishing during the night for free too! There is a list of weekly event timetable.

Lolx.. Catfish Missed!!

A must photo before we leave Pangkor Island Beach Resort.

This year we have celebrated our 4th year anniversary in Krabi, well sort of. We might possibly be posting it up next year… =p

 

Nibbled,

PW

and Catfish

Bangkok: Chao Phraya River Cruise Dinner+Khao San

Hahaha this draft post was sitting in my computer as a draft post for ages, even after I got back from another Thai trip, Krabi, it still is there. This continues from Bangkok!!! post.

Here it goes:

Well before we got off to Bangkok in 2009, I had a fair amount of research on Chao Phraya River Cruise and came across a fantastic site http://thailand-travel-info.blogspot.com/2005/11/river-dinner-cruises-bangkok.html.

I chose River Side Bangkok Cruise because:
1. It is the largest cruise ship in Chao Phraya River with air conditioning and open air rooftop.
2. It takes one of the longest route along Chao Phraya River which means more night attraction spot.
3. It has it’s own kitchen on board! You can order your dinner as if you are on a landed restaurant with similar price to Thai restaurant on land.
4. Most importantly the cheapest with a surcharge of 120 baht to board on the ship.

I called them up 1-2 weeks prior to my arrival to Bangkok. I was impressed with their service, their english were good and they allow me to make booking request to be on the rooftop open air. They totally trust you with the reservation without any deposit.

Our first day of Bangkok visit continues with FOOD before the river cruise because we arrived too early at Ratchawithi Road past the Krung Thon Bridge. There were a whole long row of street side food.

Can you believe this? 1 baht each piece?

It is some flour and vege with some of another nice thai sauce! yum yum…

Next up with some must have Thai BBQ pork… We were suppose to have light snack but we got too greedy… LOL.

After a wrong turn, we finally made it to the hotel on time.

The entrance of the ship.

The reception was quite grand treated you like royalty…

This is how our ship could have looked like (this is the international buffet boat):

Colorful right!

PW was so happy to see the lights on the cruise ship despite the fact that we were overly tired out after a whole day of historical building visits.

We were a little unfortunate to be sitting in side the ship instead of the open air rooftop due to the bad rainy weather. The ship were big and stable despite the rocky river.

Chang beer waitress serving us.

This looks like I was a drug addict or what?

The were life band to set the mood, singing both local and english songs.

They gave a briefing on safety similar to the one in air flights before we take off.

We only knew that there were life vest under our seat after the briefing.

First up, we ordered a pineapple fried rice. The cut on the pineapple were almost perfect. It took me a while to look for the opening. DOn’t laugh! I know I’m dumb =p

It comes with meat floss, fresh prawns and another meat floss (can’t really rmb). The portion was good for 2. We were hungry so obviously it tasted yummy! But really it was good.

Green curry came with some side dishes which doesn’t serve any purpose to us.

This is one of the best green curry I had ever eaten in my life. The gravy is thick and smooth and santan-y filled with lots and lots of meat! At one point we were asking each other, has we finish the meat?

The last dish we were expecting was the Tom Yum Kung and finally it came. Impressive presentation. We each scoop up a bowl. The soup were fantastic, spicy but tasty enough, Cantonese call it “yup mei”.

Somehow there were some confusion with our last order, it was not the Tom Yum but Spicy Soup. Haha before they took back, we had each a bowl full of it.

Just a note, a few of the Tom Yum we ordered in Bangkok were clear color soup, not the typical red Tom Yum we had back in Malaysia.

At last this was the Tom Yum Kung that we ordered. We were happy to get our final dish correctly but we were somewhat disappointed because the spicy soup tasted so much better than it.

After the our dinner, luckily the heavy rain stopped. We managed to get some night photo shots.

Grand palace view with the dwagon kissing me.

We took our Chang beer up to the open air roof top.

The other cruise ship looks more happening with loud music and dance floor.

Wat Arun at night is beautiful and magnificent. As mighty as it is even at night.

Us with Wat Arun.

If you are there to learn some historical story of the Chao Phraya river, they have a guide on board but you need some Thai language knowledge. We didn’t understand anything. –.-"

King Rama VII bridge.

After disembark from the cruise, we head out to Khao San which was nearby. It got more crowded and happening compared to our previous visit.

Hahah just look at my hungry ghost face… Can’t stop eating despite the fact that we had such a FULL stomach.

We had this. Some crunchy apam balik with raisins and coconuts with sweet stuff (like meringue). Nice!

We didn’t manage to get to meet with our favorite friendly PadThai lady who we met on our previous visit so sad. The food shops actually moves from place to place after certain time. It gets confusing if you are using them as meeting points.

Honestly, could you actually “Fly For Less Than A Padthai”? (PadThai = 25Baht)

The river cruise was a great experience and food on board was delicious. I think this cruise ship is meant more for the locals, hence, the Thai speaking guide. That’s maybe part of the reason that it was relatively cheap. 120 baht for admission and food price were similar to on land price.

Riverside Bangkok
195 Ratchawithi Road
Bangkok 10700
Thailand
(66) 2883 1588
Nearest pier: Krung Thon Bridge
Dinner hours: 8pm – 10:30pm
Map: http://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=13.780975,100.501642&spn=0.008669,0.016512&z=17
Rating: 4/5 nibbles (-1 because of the tour guide explains in Thai)

 

Bangkok Sabai,

PW, Catfish