Penang Getaway - Adventure Zone

(Daddy recounts)

As if the water play area at the Hard Rock Hotel's swimming pools weren't enough, the boys clamoured to be brought to a drier playground - an Indoor Playground that promises to bring those adrenaline levels to dizzying heights.

Changi Airport T3 may have its Tallest spiral slide, and Amazonia may have its high wave slide... but you ain't see nothing yet til you see THE slides at Adventure Zone at Golden Sands Resort!

Check out the 3 Drop Slides & 3-lane Wave Slide!

These slides are the main attractions in this 10,300 square feet indoor play facility. Of course, there are the usual playgym-kind of obstacles and a play zone for toddlers aged 4 and below but I don't think my monkies really cared about that.

And for starters, the boys rode down the Wave Slide in the gunny sacks.

It looked so fun that I had to give it a go too!!!

To put it simply in Singlish - it was dem fun can!!! Confirm, and double confirm lor!

Then the boys wanted to up the challenge, and so they decided to go onto the wavy blue slide.

This one looked equally as fun, but alas, one has to be clad in long sleeve tops when using the drop slides. So I could only look on in envy as Ash & Ayd went slamming into the colourful balls again and again.

And of course, they got a tad bored of that blue slide after a few rides... so they turned their attention to the RED ones.

Now these red slides are the penultimate ones in my opinion. They are vertical drop slides and trust me, they looked extremely intimidating from where I was standing.

But credit to my 2 boys, they bravely trudged up the long flight of stairs and wanted ever so gamely to try out those slides!

Erm, maybe there was a last minute change of heart?

NAH!!!

They loved it! Although perhaps their Mummy couldn't understand why. Hahaha...

So it wasn't a surprise when the 2 boys declared they wanted to tackle the final one there - the tallest vertical drop slide.

I think just by looking at them coming down the slide, I already broke out in cold sweat.

But obviously it was no sweat for the both of them!

And so, they went on that slide so many times til I utterly lost count.

That was Ash. And here comes Ayd.

Suffice to say, we had a totally fun afternoon there at the Adventure Zone. 

And actually for me, one of the best things of this place wasn't the slides or the crazy fun factor - rather, I have to say I was very impressed by the cleanliness and the staff there. All the equipment were very well-maintained and clean, and as for the staff, they were always keeping their eyes on the kids and ever ready to render their help.

I have a feeling the boys are going to nag me to bring them to Penang again - and it's all because of those vertical slides! But next time, I'll remember to bring a long sleeve top for myself too! :D

Some useful info:

Golden Sands Resort is located along Batu Ferringhi, and it is along the same stretch of hotels as Hard Rock Hotel.

Dress Code: Socks must be worn when on the play equipment, and long sleeve tops must be worn when using any of the slides

Opening Hours: 10am to 7pm

Price:
For resort guests
Children : RM40 for half day package or RM20 per 2 hour session
Adults enter free of charge with paying children

For non-resort guests
Children : MYR30 per 2 hour session
Adults enter free of charge with paying children

Partying with my K2 friends

I attended my classmate, Wenxuan's birthday over the weekend and it was great to see all my K2 classmates once again. All of us would be venturing to different primary schools come next year, so this party gave us the perfect (final?) chance to play wildly together.

That's the birthday princess, and since the party was at Ridout McDonald's, there was sure to be fun and games led by the party host!

Erm... well, actually it was just one game - we had to use a spoon to transfer as many bottle caps we could in the given time. And one surefire way to up the competitiveness level was to pit the boys versus the girls!

As the counting of the bottle caps began, every kid was looking on in anticipation.

And the result? The girls won!

BUMMER.

But no, we boys didn't demand a recount. Instead, we tucked into our Happy Meals. :D

And the girls were such copycats too! :P

As for mei-mei, she was far too happy with her stash of fries.

After all the food, it was time to flex some muscles for PINATA TIME!!!

I think the party host was rather paranoid that the stick would somehow hit her. Hee hee.

I don't blame her actually... just see how much force we all put into whacking the poor castle.

Di-di pretty much epitomized that look of enthusiasm, I think.

FINALLY, the castle gave way and candy started pouring down.

Which obviously caused a mad scramble.

And after all the dust has settled, there was something very important that was left to do - cut the cake! Oh, and of course sing Happy Birthday to Wenxuan too.

It was certainly fun playing with all my classmates once more... who knows when we will ever meet again?

Arthur Christmas

(Daddy reviews)

The boys and I had the chance to catch a sneak preview of  'Arthur Christmas' in 3D - a feel-good holiday family animated movie - last week, thanks to DadsForLife and Sony Pictures.

And with a movie title like that, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure what festive season this movie is all about.

Sure, there are tons of Chirstmas-related movies out there. But have you ever wondered how in the world does Santa deliver ALL those presents in ONE single night?

By going the hi-tech way of having a huge Santa aircraft (yup, not sleigh) and hundreds of elves who go in every house in every city in less than five minutes. Everyone's a team player... well, all except for Arthur who is extremely clumsy and accident-prone but with a heart of gold.

And after all the presents are delivered, it is discovered that an error has occurred.... that a child has been missed! It turns out that one present had fallen from the conveyor belt and Arthur thinks the kid, a girl named Gwen from England, is going to think she's the one kid in the whole world that Santa doesn't care about. In desperation, Arthur and Grandpa Santa go out on the traditional sleigh and reindeer to get the last present delivered before sunrise on Christmas Day.

Frankly, I wasn't expecting much from the movie. But the script provided a fresh update of the whole behind-the-scenes Christmas myths and most importantly, bravery, self-sacrifice and determination are strong morals that appear throughout the film. Coupled with some very witty (with a caustic edge) dialogue, I quite enjoyed the movie. As for the boys, they had the lively action sequences to keep them seated for the whole 97 minutes.

Final thoughts - Made with heart and wit, Arthur Christmas makes an entertaining movie to catch with the kids.



Catch Arthur Christmas in cinemas from 1 December onwards!

That's one movie down for the holiday season (not forgetting that's a strike off #100 of our 100 Holiday Activities for Kids List... HA!) Guess the next one will be something with lots of slapstick humour that the boys will love as well.

Hello, Alvin, Simon & Theodore! :D

Penang Getaway - The Hotel

(Daddy recounts)

We, together with the monkies' maternal grandparents, made a 4D3N jaunt to Penang on a whim. And on the last week of school, no less. 

Well, the reason for the impetus was actually rather simple - it was the last chance for the kids to skip (kindergarten) school as Ash would be starting his (looooong) official education journey come next year. Yup, it's hello to peak period travelling then.

And so, with the lure of cheap, non-peak air fares simply too good to resist, we found ourselves right in front of Hard Rock Hotel at Batu Ferringhi. 

As we had arrived early, the rooms weren't ready yet. Luckily there were some horses to keep the monkies occupied, all thanks to some corporate event that has just concluded.

Ayd was pretty eager to feed the horse some hay, and I think both enjoyed each other's company.

I can't say the same for Ash though.

Hmmm, do boys get more squeamish as they grow older? Or maybe they are just more aware of the dangers of feeding a horse, like getting yucky mucky saliva dripping off one's palm?

Anyway, it didn't take him long to warm up to the horse. Soon, both of them were happily stuffing the horses' mouths with hay. Oh, and the balloons that they picked up sure made for one happy morning too.

We soon got our keys to our adjoining rooms, and our first impressions? Pretty decent and rather large for a normal Deluxe Room.

The interesting bit of the room has got to be the bathroom. See the bathroom mirror?

When it's in its normal position, one can look right into the bedroom from the bathroom and vice versa. While that usually makes for good ventilation during those potty moments, I don't think everyone else in the room will share that same sentiment.

So one can simply just slide the mirror apart and voila - you have Ray Charles to spend some quality toilet time together.

But for the monkies, the highlight of any overseas trips will have to be the comfy hotel bed.

They always remark that the hotel bed always feel much more comfortable than the ones at home. Well, their beds at home would be just be as comfy too, if not for their pee, vomit and mucus.

But I digress. Luckily, Ale was focused enough to lead us back to the right track. And she seemed to be trying to tell us something.

To the beach?

Nah.

The beach was rather satisfactory, but I think more people are using it for watersports as opposed to sunbathing or swimming purposes.

The destination that Ale, and her 2 older brothers, were looking forward to was actually THIS.

Yup, what else but waterslides!

Obviously, the boys needed little invitation to slide/jump/splash into the cooling waters.

They were having so much fun that this was the only decent photo where I could get all three of them to sit down properly at the same time.

Right beside the pool, there is the Lil' Rock Kids Club where parents can drop the kids (between 4-12 years old) off and there will be staff to look after them while the parents go chilling on their own. I love the sound of that!

And there are plenty of activities to keep the kids occupied. Best of all, they are free!

Unfortunately, the monkies didn't get a chance to participate in any of the activities at Lil' Rock Kids Club. All because the only place they wanted to go for the entire duration of our stay there was - you guessed it - the swimming pool and waterslides.

But truth be told, the spiral slide was indeed very very fun. I know, because I went spiraling down with my boys countless of times! Heh.

Ale was just content to watch her 2 brothers plummet into the waters.

While munching on her snack at the same time.

Good life eh? 

And so, this how we spent our time whenever we were back at the hotel. 

At the pool. Everyday.

Not that I minded of course. Certainly not the grandparents too.

And most definitely NOT the 3 monkies. Not when there was the occasional pool bar ice cream treat!

And when night falls and it's time to give our pruned fingers a rest, we didn't have to leave the hotel in search of entertainment.

We caught the Live Band performance in the hotel lobby after our yummy seafood dinner (coming up in my next Penang post!) and it was a rather nice way to just chill the evening away.

The large comfy sofa chairs certainly helped in upping the chill factor!

As for Ale, she was bopping to the beat of the music. Great way to tire out toddlers, I reckon.

On nights where there wasn't any band performance, cartoon movies were screened on a huge screen at the lobby. Nice way to end the day too.

Needless to say, the kids always fall asleep in record quick time once their heads touched the pillows. Definitely THE nicest way to end the day!

That pretty much sums up our hotel experience at Hard Rock Hotel, Penang. My next Penang post will be about the sights and attractions that the monkies had enjoyed. Stay tuned!