Just came back from a short 3 day 2 night holiday at Swiss Garden Golf Resort & Spa Damai Laut. We had made bookings at 2 places before the school holidays began, one at Damai Laut and the other at a resort in Cherating but cancelled the one at Cherating when we read in the newspapers that parts of the east coast were flooded.
We have never stayed at the Swiss Garden resort, so when we almost reached the place there was this signboard with the words 'Selamat Datang, Damai Laut Villa' next to a decrepit house and we jokingly told CoolTeen that we had arrived!
When we checked in, we asked the receptionist about the weather and she said that it had been raining every afternoon so we decided to quickly change and jump into the swimming pool. The pool overlooks the Straits of Malacca but from a certain angle it looks as if the pool connects to the Straits itself. We were quite alarmed when CoolTeen turned bright red from head to toe after he got out from the pool, and we had to go to the nearby town of Sitiawan (about 30 minutes' drive away) to see a doctor. Being unfamiliar with the town, we decided that a good way to choose a clinic was to see whether there were any patients in the waiting room! It turned out that he had an allergic reaction to the chlorine in the pool.
After that we had dinner at a coffeeshop nearby, then decided to explore the town a bit. Being city folks, the kids wanted to go shopping so we used the GPS on hubby's phone. There were a number of shopping complexes and we just chose the one at the top of the list, Manjung Parade. When we arrived, guess what...the whole building had been abandoned (about 10 years ago, we were later told)! So we ended up at Giant Hypermart instead.
Hubby and the kids' idea of a holiday is to do stuff while I would rather just laze around and do nothing. But it's 3 against 1, so the next day we had a go at kayakking, and being city folks, we only lasted 15 minutes before quitting! Also tried archery...and basketball with the kids. Even went cycling around the resort grounds.
The resort is a beautiful place, with lots of open spaces. It's about 7 km off the main road and on the narrow road leading up to the resort we have seen a monitor lizard and fed some wild monkeys with peanuts...like a mini safari.
On the 2nd day, we explored Lumut town. Lots of shops selling souvenirs for tourists...key-chains, fridge magnets, T-shirts, painted seashells, etc. Also lots of flies.
Met up with Phoebe for dinner, then we wanted to go the pasar malam at Kampung Koh. By the time we reached there at 9 pm, my kids were surprised that all the traders had already packed up and left...so different from KL where the pasar malam usually closes at around 10 pm.
On the 3rd day we had one last swim in the pool before packing up and checking out.
Went to Teluk Intan for lunch and visited the leaning clock tower. We couldn't go in though, because it was closed for some upgrading works. The bells at the tower chime every 15 minutes.
We had fine weather for the few days that we were at Damai Laut, and it only started raining right after we left Teluk Intan for KL. God is good!
