This year (July 2024), we were graced with the invitation of a good friend to celebrate his wedding in a truly enchanting destination – BALI. After much contemplation over the expenses, we ultimately felt compelled to attend and bear witness to this significant chapter in his life, especially when he generously offered us accommodation for the first two nights. Next, we turned our focus to booking flights! We spent RM2,100 for the three of us, opting for separate flights to save every precious penny. This will be how we plan for our family holidays #fromnowwong HAHA!

I must confess, I have long regarded Bali as an overrated place. I believed I would find little joy in its bustling crowds. As we prepared for our journey, numerous YouTube videos confirmed my suspicions about the notorious traffic. Yet, to my surprise, my experience would unfold quite differently.

This was also the first time where we travelled with our another good friend, Rachel. 

Uluwatu

We spent the first 2 nights here and stayed in Swiss-Belresort Pecatu. On our first night, we went out with other friends who were also attending the wedding. We had our dinner at Wahaha Pork Ribs at the Jimbaran branch, then went for Gaya Gelato - seriously the best! We also got to try Dough Darlings Donuts! I would say, it wasn't the best.. But we had the best night! 

CRISPY PORK RIBS - WE ORDERED TWICE!

PORK FRIED RICE SO ASHER COULD EAT

PORK KNUCKLE

BBQ RIBS

PORK SATAY

JACK FRUIT SALAD

Best pistachio gelato ever!

We bought every flavour there was left

This wedding setup was like a fairy tale come to life—absolutely stunning! It's a shame that I don't have many photos coz I was mom-ing. It all kicked off with a cliff-garden ceremony where Sean did his opening to the wedding, followed by a cocktail hour while they whipped up the reception magic. Then came the grand feast featuring Balinese delights, a ribs station, sio mai galore, gelato heaven, and even an Indomie stall for the late-night munchies. What a wondrous experience it was to be a wedding guest! Haha! Our friends truly have outdone themselves. The speeches and games were nothing short of magical—someone was undoubtedly slicing onions that night! Oh, and can we talk about how Bali is basically the garden wedding paradise? No sweat-drenched guests here—it was cool and cozy, unlike Malaysia! It was a blissful and comfortable evening.

 

A new found friend/roomie for my hubby - meet De Rui :)

Lemme end the wedding bit with a big bang couple's kiss!

Dreamland Beach

After that, we went for lunch at a super random cafe by the road. It's called OKU Cafe. So happen that when we were there, there was live music - oh the vibes! The food was really good too! 

After lunch, we sent Rachel off to the airport and so it began our family holidays! 

Geger Beach

Point Coffee - BEST!

Babi Guling - must try!

The rice that comes with the pork above

Local lunch spot where we had a very nice ayam panggang (roasted chicken), fried fish and fried noodles.

After visiting the waterfall, we were famished. It was also getting really dark. The drive to civilization took us almost 40 minutes, so we caved in when we saw Naughty Nuri's. We know it was gonna cost a lot more than a normal meal, but we were really tired and hungry. We ordered half slab of ribs and a bowl of mac and cheese for the smol one. 

When we got back to the hotel, we started planning for the next day, which would be our last full day in Bali. Sean wanted to try the beach clubs here so he went on researching. Both of us took a long time trying to find a suitable club to visit.. And we finally found one. It's ATLAS Beach Club - one that is good for both children and adults. I quickly got their number and contacted them, and we booked for the next day. We spent about RM420 for 3 of us. The day beds access was from 10am - 4pm at IDR1,500,000 but we can still chill in the club until it closes, just no day beds. They have plenty of places for us to hangout, but we left after 5pm coz the little one needs to sleep.

This was such a special experience for us. The fee includes everything you can order from their menu, a day bed with shade and just about any services in the club. There is a kids club and kids pool too. It was really perfect! All we did was eat and dip!

Let me show you what we ordered, again, it's all included in the fee: 
(not pictured, 1 big bottle of mineral water & 1 iced latte)

Calamari Rings - literally the best we've had!

Seafood Pizza

Mango, Banana & Strawberry Smoothie

Tuna Sushi Roll

Honey Gelato

Cheesecake

Up till this point we were already so full. But we had some more credits and the staff said we could order takeaway to use up our credits! This really doesn't happen in Malaysia. They were really sweet! So we ordered another 2 dishes to takeaway, and still have a little balance! 

Tuna Pokebowl

Wagyu Beef Burger - in my husband's words "THE BEST BURGER EVER"

Got his face painted at the kids club

We both ultimately just having a great time

This was our day bed, overlooking the beach

We really ended the trip with a big bang. I hope to be able to visit Bali again and explore other parts too. Till then, see ya! 

Travel dates: 18 - 22 September 2023

After a very busy first half of the year, I realised that we (my hubs and I) need to take a chill pill and to rest. So we started searching for somewhere we could go that we could afford. While discussing this with my friend, Ruth, she suggested a place where she thought we would enjoy as a family. A place with sand, sea & sun! Yes! These are the 3 S that Asher and I love. So with a little knowledge of this mysterious island, we went ahead to buy the flight tickets. 

A little side story, Sean was quite hesitant to go somewhere far at first due to the expenses but he felt that we should just do it (with some blessings we received previously) and then said yes to me to book the flights. 3 weeks after we booked the flights, another person sent us $$ again. See, our God is always so faithful and good to us! 

Now back to our holiday story!

Our flights were considered cheap, about RM1,500 round trip for 3 persons. I don't recommend the way we planned our flights, but to save every penny, I booked them separately. 

I can tell you the Phu Quoc map better than Penang. I spent way too long researching on the island! So we decided to stay 2 nights in the north part of the island and the other 2 nights in the south part. 

DAY 1: GRAND WORLD 

Grand World is like a little town on its own, with many little hotels and shops around. I will not write much about it coz you can also find it online haha! There is a free shuttle bus that takes you to the bus station at Grand World and then you could take a free buggy ride to the nearest buggy stop to your hotel. However, we were too excited to get to our hotel and succumbed to taking a private car instead. That cost us 370,000VND (RM72)!!! This is too much! Don't be like us okay?

It could be that September is rainy season so the area was quite empty. When we first got there, my first 3 words were "Whoa, ghost town". There were barely anyone there except people working in the hotels. We booked Sel De Mer for RM235.50 for 2 nights. I booked this hotel thinking we could have those free replenish-able snacks and drinks like in Hat Yai. Sadly, everything here is chargeable, even the bottled mineral water. The staff here, however was very helpful and would recommend places to eat and things to do. It was easy to communicate as they have a WhatsApp number and we communicated in English. 

This was our room. Photo taken from agoda.com

You could go without a bike to explore the place but we had a toddler who asks to carry every 3 minutes, rent-a-bike it is! 

The lil' one had fun on the bike!

This is a Phu Quoc specialty called Bun Quay at Bún Quậy Kiến Xây for 85,000VND with a bottle of Sprite

Dinner Dish: Stir Fry Water Spinach with Garlic

Dinner Dish: Caremelised Pork Belly - YUMZ

Dinner Dish: Fried Omelet with mince Pork

First Iced Coffee

This photo surely doesn't do justice. There were light, fire, water, actors dancing etc.

DAY 2: VINWONDERS THEME PARK

It's theme park day! I was really looking forward to this coz I'm a thrill seeker (at least I think I am?) I was looking forward to sitting on roller coaster rides etc. But when I was there, again, the park was so empty and I ended up feeling too scared to go on those rides by myself. Sean and I took turns to be with Asher. I recommend going to the park with more people if you have a kid with you. 

They have an aquarium with mermaid shows and a big variety of sea creatures. They even have penguins! They were super cute! There is also a mini playground and 2 restaurants in the aquarium. 

The park tickets cost us about RM360 for 2 adults. Children 100cm and below enter the park for FREE, however there are only a handful of rides and activities suitable for them. 

This is the front of the park... A little like Disneyland, some say.

At the mermaid show

Met Aladdin and the gang haha!

The ONLY activity we could do together - Lazy River

There is also a very nice water park, which then you'd have to rent the lockers and bring a set of change. My friend introduced me a disposable towel which can soak pretty well. We brought those so we didn't have to carry big bags to the park. They look like this:

Best Beef Pho we've had - Ann Food & Drinks (Vinwonders)

They also had the light & water show at the theme park, so we stayed until the show ended which was about 8pm. There is a free shuttle bus to get to the theme park as well. So convenient and nice! 

DAY 3: DUONG DONG & PHU QUOC NIGHT MARKET

We had a free & easy day on the day that we were moving to the southern part of the island. We went to the Grand World park to take some photos and then took another free shuttle bus to our next hotel. We love the free bus service so much! The buses are very new and comfortable too. We rented a bike from our hotel to go around the area. The night market is about 8-9 minutes from our hotel. There were many eateries and mart around our hotel too. We booked Aquasun Hotel and paid RM330 for 2 nights. The room comes with breakfast for 3 of us and a free room upgrade (from Agoda). 

Our room! Photo from Google

The bathroom. Photo from Google

The nicest family photo we have from the trip lol!

The view from our hotel room balcony

Beautiful beach right outside our hotel

Measuring cups as beach toys

First time trying this potato snack.

I cannot go to Vietnam and not eat this

The snails were yummy too

Something I'd love to try but didn't

DAY 4: SAO BEACH, KHEM BEACH & SUOI TRANH WATERFALL

We took a whole day to explore some Sao & Khem beach and were disappointed. We saw so many beautiful photos of these beaches on Instagram but when we were there, the sea water was cloudy and dirty :( So Sean found a nearby waterfall that we could go to and it lifted our moods! We had to pay a small entrance fee (60,000VND) to go into the reserved park, walked a little to the waterfall and had our little teatime there.

Hotel Breakfast was yum yum

SAO Beach looked like that :(

Another Vietnamese dish I didn't want to miss: Broken Rice

This was my 4th Banh Mi in Phu Quoc, and the best.

Grilled Squid - all time fave! RM20 only!

Sea Urchins for RM20 too. Taste was not bad!

At this point, I am so tired from writing and trying to recall as much as I can haha! So I'm gonna stop here. Overall we had a good and relaxing trip and I'm so happy to get to try the food in Vietnam! Thank you, Phu Quoc!