Friday, December 21, 2007

Club Med Cherating (16-19 Dec 2007)

After a long drive from Malacca to KL, then across the peninsular of Malaysia, we finally arrived at Kuantan. The journey was smooth and blessed with good weather. Baby X was initially cranky but he still managed to sleep for about 2 hours in the car. From Kuantan, it was another 30 minutes past kampongs and malay huts before we arrived at Club Med, Cherating Beach.

Inside Club Med, it is a world of its own. A GOs (Gentil Organizers) was waiting for us when our car pulled up the driveway. We offloaded our bags and while Hubby went to park the car, we were led to the reception area where glasses of cold tea & water and cold towels were waiting for us. After a brief introduction, we were led to our room. We had 2 adjoining rooms, one with a king size bed, the other had 2 single beds. The rooms are modern and clean and the bathroom, though simple, is tastefully decorated. They knew we had a baby and as per what I read from the internet, they prepared a baby cot, changing mat and a bottle warmer with baby toiletries. But what amazed me was, they even prepared a potty and baby bath tub! I was worried about how to bathe Baby X but now my problems are solved.

Since we arrived around 6pm, our first activity was dinner. Hubby had warned me not to dress too shabbily for dinner but I had no idea HOW dressed up they are gonna be! The GOs were dressed like they are going to a dinner party! (I discovered later that there is a theme every night. The next night was ‘elegant white’ and all the GOs were in white.)


When I entered the restaurant, I know why you’ll look out of place in shorts and flip flops. The restaurant is as posh as those at 5 star hotels. The buffet area is almost as big as the dining area! There are so many choices that you need about 15 minutes just to walk around and see everything. I tried some Korean, Chinese and Japanese that night while Hubby and KK feasted on pizza and pasta from the Italian corner.

The next 2 days, it drizzled a little but mostly when we were asleep or indoors having our meals. Otherwise, it was sunshine all the time. Praise God!

There were so many reports about floods in Kuantan recently that I was so worried about the rain affecting our holiday. But this shows that prayers does work and miracles do happen.



Everyday, KK joined the Mini-Club after a quick breakfast. The good thing about Club Med is that they have activities organized for the kids the whole day. They’ll bring the kids to lunch at 12 noon and also provide them with another snack at 4pm. You pick the kids up again at 5.30pm to shower them and dress them for dinner. At dinner, the kids have a choice to dine together and join in the night activities till 9pm or they can remain with their parents. At 9.30pm, there will be a show presented by, you guessed it, all the GOs. The show normally follows the theme of the night. Even the restaurant and the bar will be decorated to reflect the appropriate theme.

KK spent the whole of the next two days with the GOs and other kids at the Mini-Club. He even wanted to have dinner with them and joined them for the after dinner activities. He did bungy bouncing, walked on the tight rope, played water games at the pool, picked sea shells & built sand castles at the beach plus a whole lot of other games. Seeing him being independent and having fun is our greatest joy. It also leaves us with more time to manage Baby X.

Baby X is a challenge especially at meal times, especially since he developed a cold after we got there. There’s the challenge of feeding him. If Baby X decides not to eat something anymore, he’ll not open his mouth no matter what you do. And if he’s tired of sitting in the high chair, he’ll bug you until you lift him off. We had to give him all sorts of stuff to try to keep him inside the high chair while we try our best to enjoy the sumptuous buffet spread. Ice cubes, plastic soup spoon, paper cups all became toys for him but by the 2nd day, even those became boring. Worse, he’ll purposely drop these things and then bend dangerously over the high chair to see where it goes. Often, we end up eating alone at the table while the other one brings Baby X for a walk.



All in all, despite the many trying moments and the long car rides, it was a good holiday. Club Med has a concept that suits our family. We had a lot of joy watching KK enjoy himself and exploring new horizons in Mini-Club. We loved watching Baby X too discover his new surroundings. In between, we even managed to squeeze a few moments to try archery and sailing. Hubby even took part in a mini tournament for archery and won the Bronze medal. We were also blessed with good weather and a smooth journey on the roads. I just can’t wait for Baby X to grow up so he can go into Mini-Club too!