We spent most of the day with nature at the Singapore Botanical Gardens. This is a MUST stop Unesco World Hertitage site to visit if you visit Singapore.
The Orchid Gardens are a must see but be aware there is a fee $15 for this area whereas the main gardens are free.
But they are well worth the price.
After the gardens we had to have some Pho and luckily there was a Vietnamese restaurant in our hotel complex.
After lunch we hit the pool area. The pool is a bit small in comparison to other Marriots in Southeast Asia but it does have an amazing view. Oh and the water is cold!
We plan on having pizza for dinner then plan on packing up.
We arrived early to Singapore and our upgraded suite wasnt ready so they staff took us to the Executive Lounge where we had some delectable fresh baked scones and mushroom quiche.
Jasmine Tea, yes we had two pots to drink!
The art decoration here are pretty cool.
and plenty of food variety
Our hotel suite is really nice but you can read more about that in the review.
Our first stop after checking in was the famous Haji Lane where we stopped at our new favorite place, Good Luck, to have a couple of local beers. We could have walked here but the sky was overcast and dark and we did not want to get soaked so we Grab’d it.
Haji LaneGood Luck Pub: “Lightweight Beer”
As the name implies, our beer was indeed happy, crisp and dry.
We only stopped for beer but the cool owner insisted we try the all beef dog.
So we split one and it was good.
Back at the hotel, we cant help but admire the artwork.
We discovered a nice little welcome gift on our way back.
Our hotel in KL was the JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur. We chose this hotel because of its proximity to key activities we were planning to do. The hotel is across the street from one of the largest shopping malls here named the Pavilion. The mall has dozens of restaurants and endless shopping and was a 1 minute walk from our hotel.
The staff and service at the hotel was good although a few times at breakfast it seemed to take a while to get coffee. We’re not sure why coffee has to be ordered through the staff during breakfast in Southeast Asia especially since the buffets are all self-service. It would seem to make sense to make coffee self-service as well but that’s a mystery to solve another day.
Like the other Marriott hotels we’ve stayed at throughout SE Asia, the food buffets here offer an endless variety of food. There are more Malaysian options at these buffets than the other hotels we’ve stayed at in southeast Asia. You walk through this cool green tunnel from the hotel to get to the restaurant.
The soup station was my favorite breakfast bar. I loaded up with veggies and then plopped some protein from one of the other bar areas since they only offered seafood here (image below).
My last breakfast meal below in Kuala Lumpur.
Pool area – pretty nice but could use some updating/refresh.
Recommend?
If we return to Kuala Lumpur, we’ll likely stay at the JW Marriott again so we’d recommend it if it fits your itinerary but you should be aware of a few things:
We were shocked to learn that this JW Marriott did NOT have a business center. We are doing calls while we are here in Malaysia and they often need to be done late at night. At other Marriott hotels in SE Asia we used the business center and had an office or room to make those calls, we were provided access to the Executive Lounge and used an area in there to take calls late however this area closes at 11:45 p.m. so be aware if you need a late night spot to make phone calls late at night.
The Executive Lounge had lackluster food options during afternoon time. We had egg and salmon tiny sandwiches which weren’t bad but the menu didn’t change from day to day. The desert and cereal snack options also never changed day to day while we were there. They weren’t bad just repetitive.
The breakfast buffet, while huge and loaded with great food, didn’t seem to have enough staff to service the volume of people coming into the restaurant in the morning. On several occasions it took 10+ minutes to get our coffee. The problem was worse early in the morning as opposed to after 8 a.m. On our last day, we found the coffee machine and just served ourselves coffee.
The hotel is located in a great part of Kuala Lumpur and the staff and service was excellent and the only minor issue we had was during breakfast. We didn’t have any issues at the Executive Lounge or anywhere else. The hotel is located close to restaurants, shopping, and other entertainment so it’s a great central location if it’s your first time visiting or you want to be in the heart of the city.
We spent the day with a friend in Mayalsia who introduced us to a great restaurant at the Pavilion Mall and gave us a tour around the city.
But before that we stopped by our Hello Laundry to pick up two loads of laundry. Great service and great prices!
Walk along the Petronas Towers
Great park area!
The Suria KLCC Mall (image below) near the Petronas Towers.
The best local ice cream is at a shop in the Suria Mall.
After ice cream we headed to the KL Tower but it was closed for repair so we opted to go back to our hotel room and hang out in the pool.
For Dinner we decided to head back to the Pavilion mall and eat where we had lunch at Serai because the food was so good. It’s a fusion of Malaysian cuisine with others. The image below is Beef Rendang Penne which is a merger of Malay and Italian cuisine.
Awesome drinks at Serai.
We finished the evening with ice cream from Baskin Robbins in the mall.
While in Phuket, we stayed at Le Meridien Beach Resort (a Marriott Property) and we really enjoyed out stay and the facilities. This is a fairly large sprawling resort nestled in a cove between two jungled mountains.
The landscaping was immaculate during our stay.
As Marriott Bonvoy Platinum members we were upgraded to a nicer suite with a huge patio balcony.
This is a panoramic image from our huge balcony.
We had a view of the ocean to the west and view to the mountains & jungle to the north, east, and south.
This hotel has multiple restaurants and shops within the “campus” and we weren’t able to eat at all the restaurants but we never had a bad meal. Breakfast is free for platinum members so we gorged ourselves on the endless varieties of foods served in the morning.
Like most hotels we’ve stayed at, there are different types of foods to accommodate a wide ranges of tastes and dietary requirements including middle east, Asian, western and vegetarian.
Lots of options, you won’t go hungry here.
Plenty of cook to order foods as well.
Specialty foods. Pots below had Indian or Chinese dishes.
Large semi-private white sand beach with plenty of seating, umbrellas and palm trees. Bar nearby serving up alcoholic drinks and fresh squeezed juices and smoothies. During dinner, there was a live band and a dance show. We’re not sure if they do this every night but we were lucky to arrive just as they were starting and it was fun to watch.
Recommend?
The facilities, staff, food, and entertainment were all great. Having a semi-private somewhat isolated beach was also a big plus so if you’re looking for a quiet semi-private and isolated place, this is a great spot.
If however you intend on socializing with others in bars, clubs, or eating out you should be aware that this hotel is a bit isolated from the main city center areas and you’ll need some type of transportation to get to those spots from this hotel. This hotel also has a policy of NOT allowing outside food (e.g. Grab food delivery) onto their premises so if you like ordering take out, beware.
There are tours and transportation you can reserve with guest services and it may be at a cost, we had a car so we didn’t use any of those services. Also note that this hotel is located about 45 minutes (via car) from the main Phuket airport so plan arrival and departure accordingly.
There is a small mini-market, laundry, restaurant and two massage places right outside the hotel’s boundary within walking distance should you need variation or snacks.
We had a fiasco with our flight and got in late to Kuala Lumpur. Early the next day we hit the mall to buy some new water resistant shoes given the rolling monsoon rains here.
The mall is huge and very impressive! I bought some shoes, wallet, and got a haircut at this fabulous mall.
Next stop was the Museum of Illusions for some metaphysical fun.
We then had a four hour street food tour and we got to make some of the food we were tasting.
Amazing variety of fruits (images below).
Me Goren Noodle Dish (image below)
Roti (image below)
Grilled fish
Chicken
Steamed deserts
Our fearless leader and guide Jay! (sitting center back of table)
Achef Food Tour Sambal Street
Here is a complete list of food and beverages we had on the tour:
We started the day looking for a laundry mat and we found one that did two loads of laundry for 160 baht which is the bargain of the century! The laundry mat is Dr. Tiger Laundry if you’re in the Phuket area, they seem to be a chain with some laundry mats in Bangkok too.
Next up, we came across the only parking lot we’ve seen in all of Phuket in a nice shopping center with a Starbucks and grocery store so we stopped by to look at prices and have some coffee.
It seems beef is very expensive everywhere in Thailand as much of it is imported from Australia or elsewhere.
After our coffee we headed to the Elephant Sanctuary. There are NO elephant rides or animal exploitation here. This sanctuary exists to treat and save abused animals or animals that need care.
The tour consists of viewing elephants in their daily routine. It’s possible to pet the elephants and feed them. The image below shows how some of the food is made by mixing and meshing rice, watermelon and banana into a ball.
The elephants also eat watermelon and bananas.
After the elephant visit we were hungry so we chose the closest restaurant on the map and it took us up a mountain to the View Cafe and boy did it have an amazing view. It was good to have rented a car or we would have otherwise missed this place.
Food was great. Pineapple stir fried rice.
Pad Thai
The view
Headed back to the hotel to reflect on our last day here.
We left Bangkok a couple of days ago and between traveling by car, boat and plane, it’s been hard to catch up on this blog with all our movements.
Upon arriving in Phuket, I checked the Grab app (the “Uber” of SE Asia) and it was going to be about 1200 bhat ($36 USD) to take us from the airport to our hotel. Given that we would need to repeat that same trip, we were already at $72 so I checked with the local car rental and we could have a car for 4 days for $150 so it made more sense to rent a car.
Phuket is a fairly large and our hotel was on the outskirts in an isolated part of the peninsula. We checked in and it’s an amazing hotel (more on that in the review). We got upgraded to a nice suite with a huge balcony overseeing the ocean to the west and the mountain and jungle to the east.
This morning we took our rented car and headed to old Phuket town. Driving there and parking were a nightmare but we checked would a Grab would have cost and it would have been 600 baht ($18 USD) each way so we’ve already paid for most of the car rental.
Our first stop was the Phuket Museum which showcased the history of Phuket from fishing village to Chinese immigrants moving in to mine tin then blending in with the local population and ultimately turning to tourism.
Our second stop was a massage place where we couldn’t help but get an hour long foot massage to sooth our aching feet and legs. An hour long foot massage for two people were a total of $30 USD.
We then stopped and had what we’ve both been longing for since we got here…a really good burger and this place delivered. It was a market street stall and the burgers were cooked fresh to order.
Our third stop was a temple but it was closed and we weren’t dressed properly to enter anyway so we walked down the famous market street and did our own street walking tour.
After that with storm clouds billowing we headed back to the hotel where we hit the pool and beach for a couple of hours.
We left Bangkok a couple of days ago and we left our hotel the Royal Orchid Sheraton so it’s time to do a review. The hotel is in a good location across the river from ICONSIEM shopping complex and that’s good and bad in my opinion. It’s good because it’s so close but it’s bad because you have to take a ferry boat back and forth.
We ate quite a few meals at the ICONSIEM and spent the last day at the movie theater there because we had a massive rain storm that came through that day and got wet heading back to our hotel from ICONSIEM.
The hotel has fairly good amenities such as gym, two pools (one with swim up bar) and another deeper pool for lap swimming. We used both pools and thought they were good enough for intended use.
There are numerous shops inside this facility including a tailor and I had a couple of custom made shirts created while I was there. We also bought some gifts from one of the gift shops.
Food
While the Sheraton features an impressive buffet of options similar to the JW Marriot we stayed in Bangkok, the food didn’t seem as flavorful. I’m not sure why there was a difference in food taste but I certainly preferred the food over at JW Marriot over Sheraton. We ate breakfast every day at the Feast restaurant but only had one dinner there.
Executive Lounge
The main negative we experienced at the Sheraton was the huge volume of people in the executive lounge. On two occasions we walked in, saw every table taken up, and simply walked out. I’m not sure what was going on during our stay but I’ve never seen the executive club lounge anywhere so full at capacity.
The lounge itself has a great view of the river and city so it’s definitely worth a visit for a drink or two but the lounge, in my opinion, is usually a place to relax for a bit before dinner or to come to after dinner for desert.
We were able to use the lounge a few times without crowds by avoiding the 6 p.m. food opening times.
Recommend?
This is a tough call. I don’t plan on staying here again because if I had to do it all over again, I’d likely stay at the Hilton two blocks down from the ICONSIEM. If the Hilton were full, I’d likely stay at the Marriot but would seriously consider other hotels on the ICONSIEM side of the river.
I liked the Sheraton and it’s a great hotel with a great staff and excellent service but it will boil down to what you plan on doing while staying near the river. It was really a hassle to have to wait for the ferry and check the schedule to move back and forth. No matter which hotel you stay at you will need to take boat ferry as not all the tourist attractions are on one side of the river so you’ll need to go back and forth. We spent a great deal of time at ICONSIEM for its huge selection of restaurants and shopping that it would have been easier to say on that side of the river.
Where the Sheraton shines though is if you intend on using the train stop at Sathorn pier which is on the same side of the river as Sheraton. The Sathorn pier is steps away from the Saphan train station and makes it easy to get to different parts of Bangkok. The Sheraton boat ferry moves from the Sheraton pier to ICONSIEM then to Sathorn pier then back to Sheraton pier and repeats the cycle every 30 minutes but they do have a break around 11 or noon so check the schedule.
It’s only been a couple of days since we left Bangkok and I’ve already got the Bangkok blues longing to return…..
