Swiss Garden Resort & Spa, Kuantan

18-20 Mar 2010

We've been to Kuantan 3 times in a span of 15 months. As such, Kuantan was not in our mind for our holiday, at least for a while.

William and friends planned to go to Kuantan for Mar 10 school holiday and asked if we were interested to join them. Kuantan? But we just said no more Kuantan for a while! William and friends planned to stay in Swiss Garden Resort & Spa, not Hyatt Regency (the hotel that we usually stay in Kuantan). I asked Hubby for his opinion and he said "OK." That's it?

It's not the destination, it's the get together for old friends and let the kids have a break since it's school holiday. This time round, I was not the organiser but William and wife were.

William smsed me on the hotel room rates and asked if we prefer to stay in Garden view or Sea view room. Based on the experience with other group of friends, they usually book the cheaper room. Reason being we would not spend much time in the hotel room and also to accommodate other friends who may not wish to spend so much in hotel room. So, without much thinking and asking, I just asked to be booked in Garden view room.

On 18 Mar 2010, my family was the first to check in the hotel. When I was told there were 2 sea view rooms and 1 garden view room, I was surprised. OK ... all of them were booked on sea view room and we were on garden view. Why didn't they tell me? I would have just book the sea view too, so that all of us could be together. Never mind ...

Then, I was told our room is double bed room. The other friends of mine were all on King size bed room. I requested for king size bed and I was told that I need to make the request during reservation. What?

At this moment, honestly, I did not feel good. What happened to the togetherness? What happened to the caring and sharing? What ....

As we got into our room, I was still feeling disappointed. When I was the organiser and made the hotel reservations, I will forward the reservation confirmations to all of my friends and reminded them to make their requests to the hotel directly. Its my mistake to assume that everyone is the same, think the same way and do the same thing. OK ... I wasn't going to allow this hotel room thingy (though I would still prefer to be together and in the sea view room as those rooms had been refurbished) to spoil our decade of relationship and holiday. I'm sure my friends sensed that I wasn't happy and I'm also sure that they are reading this post quietly now :)

Anyway ... back to Swiss Garden Resort & Spa. We kinda like this hotel, especially the hotel has been refurbished. The one thing that I do not like as much is the hotel location. The hotel is located in Beserah, whereas Hyatt Regency is located in Telok Chempedak, which is in better location with more eateries options within walking distance.

We went to Swiss Garden in Mar 10 which is school holiday and the hotel was fully booked. The check-in process was very slow, it took about 20 minutes for the lady in front of me to be checked-in.

After dinner, we went to this place Limbong Art for shopping.

We've been to this Cherating Turtle Sanctuary. On popular demand, we went there again after our buffet breakfast in the hotel. Hubby led the way with the help of his GPS.

A staff showing the kids 5 days old hatchlings which will be released into the sea once they are of age.

Jaden likes blowing bubbles and I brought it along for him to play in the resort.

One of the thing that I like about beach holiday is photography. It's very easy to take nice, beautiful, candid and natural photos. Consequently, I'm always not in the photos.

Edward and family.

Michelle and family. Noah has gone to catch crabs.

The loving, Yong couple ... but why arent they holding hands?

William and Naomi. The man who claimed has saved my life in Taman Negara a decade ago ... telling everyone that we met and ... still talking about it. Sign of ageing ...

The three boys catching crabs.

I like this candid shot with blue crystal reflection from the pool and ball.

Jaden dislike the feeling of wet sand and kept on washing his legs.

And yet ... he liked to play with it.

The group, except for Hubby who was suffering from stomach ache from the spicy dinner the night before.

After the beach play, the group adjourned to swimming in the pool. This adult pool is 5 feet deep.

After the beach play and swimming in the pool, all of us were very hungry. We had our dinner at Pak Su Restaurant. Luckily, the restaurant had a big table that could accommodate 16 of us.

We ordered lots of food and this dinner bill was picked up by William.

It has been a while since I joined this group of friends for vacation. Their style now is to take turn to pick up bill rather than go on cost sharing on total trip expenses. We had not picked up any bill and book to pay for the following day lunch.

After the dinner, we had our welcome drink at Swiss Deli Lounge.

Every night, we would have our chit chatting at Michelle's room.

Our last day in Kuantan was a raining day. The kids were disappointed as they could not swim in the pool. I brought sand art to Kuantan and the kids played with it before checking out from the hotel.

Edward suggested to have seafood lunch in Telok Chempedak. Unfortunately, it was closed. To avoid the inconvenience of moving around in raining day, we had our lunch at the neighbourhood coffee shop, Restaurant Hoi Yin. We had its famous curry noodle, soup noodle, dry noodle, etc for lunch. This is the restaurant that I must frequent when we stayed in Hyatt Kuantan.

On the way home, we stopped at Sin Kee Hung to buy local produce as souvenirs. This shop was recommended by William's friend which coincidentally, it's the same shop that we went previously.

We had our early dinner in this restaurant which is located in Bukit Tinggi, Bentong. This restaurant was recommended by Jestine and they hosted the dinner.

There was fish pond and the kids enjoyed feeding those fishes.

After the dinner, Michelle brought us to buy fresh vegetables and fruits from the neighbourhood night market.

After the night market, we bid good bye to each other and our holiday ended there.

It was a good, relaxing holiday with lots of good food. It was our first holiday in school holiday as Jared started his primary school this year.