Heavenly Weekend Getaway!

Shortcake and hubby went on a weekend escapade to the sophisticated Westin for a quiet weekend. Not exactly 'quiet' if you consider that we chose the centre of town! Well, the extravaganza was part a much-needed rejuvenation and part birthday celebration for hubby. Hubby loves Westin's renown The Heavenly Bed®; which is a Westin's signature innovation, by the way.

The Westin Kuala Lumpur @ Jalan Bukit Bintang

Westin's Signature: The H eavenly Bed

Enjoying KenFolett's 'Pillars of the Earth' on 'Heaven'!

*aaaahhhh* this is life!

The living area and balcony which is separated from the bedroom.

En joying a chilled can of beer *hic* at the mini kitchen and bar area, see below.


As we adjourned to dinner, we were pleasantly surprised by all the candles they lit up at dusk.


Lunch at Prego's, Westin's Italian Restaurant

Dinner @ The Living Room

Why Westin? Heavenly bed, heavenly soap, heavenly shower! Truly heavenly! Corny or what huh :O

Dining: Lunch
We tried out Prego's, this appears to be the largest and most happening eatery within the hotel, 2 floors plus an al fresco area facing Marriott. Their pastas comes in 2 sizes: primi and secondi, primi meaning as a 'starter', secondi as a main. So we ordered 2 primi pastas and a pizza to try. You can gauge whether an Italian restaurant is worth their salts by the pizza. I had a prawn pasta, which was spicy (good!) and oily (not so good!), but hubby's carbonara was fabulous! One of the best I had, also due to the fact that they make their own fresh fettuccine. Prego's boasts a wide range of pastas; from spaghetti to fettuccine to linguine etc, some are dried and some are home-made. The pizza was power-packed with good stuff, and the one we ordered had salami, blue cheese, mushrooms and artichokes; a crazy combination; but yummilicious nevertheless!

Prego's - First Floor

Dining: Dinner

The food at Westin was somewhat disappointing, we did not really enjoy the dinner at 'The Living Room', I seriously think the risotto gave me stomach ache, the whole night! *bummer* Hubby had the cod fish with polenta, he discovered he does not fancy polenta much but the cod fish was fresh and succulent. I seriously thought the dinner was a huge disappointment, I attribute this to the hype they created through their 'Taste Matters' club and all the clever copy-writing mumbo jumbo. Over-promise, under-deliver. Well, then again, in all fairness, maybe this particular set dinner was bad, I suppose other items on the menu might be really great. Possibly, after all, we did see alot of people over dinner, locals and foreigners alike. I might give it another chance again, someday, maybe.

Dining: Breakfast
One of the best breakfast in a Malaysian hotel. The sumptuous spread seemed to go on forever! However, I could not really eat much thanks to the risotto the night before, which wrecked havoc in my system. But I was delighted by the array of fresh fruits and juices. Good stuff. Super fresh. Hubby was so stuffed with sausages, omelets, waffles ... you name it. Needless to say, we skipped lunch that day.

Verdict?
We had a truly relaxing time together, the service and ambiance were fantastic overall. They did make us feel like VIPs *haha* Also, since we booked the Executive Residence, we were entitled to various club benefits, which were really cool, although we did not really make full use of them all! Reservations were made online and the deals online were much better than if you were to call them up directly. The damage: close to RM800, including breakfast and taxes, excluding all other meals. Check out the various getaway packages and special offers they have online, for starters, book a normal room (maybe not more than RM600 net), just to experience the heavenly bed, oh you can buy the bed by the way, approx RM10K plus including duvet, blankets, pillows etc etc :P

Web excerpts:

The Westin Kuala Lumpur is the epitome of personal renewal, a contemporary five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur’s bustling Jalan Bukit Bintang. All 443 guest rooms, including 23 suites and 63 one-bedroom and two-bedroom Executive Residences, feature the plush, all-white signature Heavenly Bed®. The Heavenly Shower®, available exclusively at our Executive Residences, will restore your mind and body. Wanna know more ...

Shortcake in Singapore

Shortcake was in Singapore (for work, bleahhh) and see what she picked up .... new Johnson & Johnson Naturally White Daily UV Body Lotion and Daily Exfoliating Wash! Yay! Priced at S$6.90 and S$3.50 and not available in Malaysia yet! Cool! The new packaging is so pretty, in fact they completely revamped the whole Johnson & Johnson range in Singapore, new scent and new packaging. I am a sucker for pretty packaging so naturally I succumbed!

I like the lotion, quite milky and smooth, perfect for day, not too sticky or oily. There is a faint 'sunscreen' kind of smell (like Coppertone, but much lighter) but it's manageable for me. I'm not too crazy about the Body Wash, it's thick, rich and milky with fine exfoliating beads. I'm not a big fan of grainy body washes, unless it's a scrub, and that's not for everyday use.

Johnson & Johnson Naturally White Body Lotion and Daily Exfoliating Wash

I had the luxury of staying on the 55th floor of the Swissotel at The Stamford and it was such a magnificent view. Here are some views at night and at dawn, taken with my phone cam, so naturally it's rather blur ...

The view at night from the 55th Floor Swissotel The Stamford

The view at dawn from the 55th Floor Swissotel The Stamford

The Room On 55th Floor Swissotel The Stamford

Good night Shortcake .... zzzzzz ....

Weekend Getaway: Avillion at Port Dickson

I bet most of you have heard of Avillion at Port Dickson, and most probably already been there. This is not a new place, I think it has been around for at least 8 years or more. I finally had an opportunity to spend a night here, just last night! If it was not for an organized group event, I probably would not do this one my own, it just does not make much sense to drive an hour plus from home and stay in a luxurious resort for seemingly no reason. We organized a few rooms for our group at once go so we had a special deal.

I must say the place is really very pretty. The whole sea-front chalet thing is really romantic. You do get an out-of-city romantic country feel. It is a worthwhile city escape if you're willing to part with around RM500 plus for the water chalet, or more at peak season. Trust me, it has to be the water chalet if you're doing this, the garden chalets defeats the whole purpose. If you want to bring the whole family, that's cool as well, the chalets can easily fit in 3 toddlers or 2 bigger children. The management of the resort has thought of all sorts of activities to keep children entertained; treasure hunts, monkeys, animal petting farm, kid's fun land, kid's pool, etc.

Hotel staff are friendly, well trained and quite helpful overall.

The hotel do look quite old and since they use alot of wood, it gives the place a cosy worn out look. There are lots of greens and little creatures roaming all over the place; e.i. peacocks, monkeys, birds etc. Well, then they have the usual stuff like bars, restaurants, saunas, etc etc.

Breakfast is decent. We did not try their barbecue buffet dinner as we drove out for seafood.

The one cool notable thing is the traditional musicians. They have two little gazebos, one at the entrance and one near the adult's pool. There are 3 traditionally clad musicians playing traditional Minangkabau music to set the mood at various intervals. It was brilliant and really soothing. I actually fell asleep while getting a tan thanks to this. The children seem to love the tunes as well.

You can get all the information you need from thew website: http://www.avillion.com.my. Meanwhile, here are some pix I took of the place.

This place is apparently really popular with foreign tour groups from Taiwan, China and Singapore. When we were leaving there were two tour buses with tourists from Taiwan! Imagine the crowd and noise! If that sort of thing bothers you, then check with them first if they have any major tours which clash with your desired travel period, and avoid peak season.

Into water chalets but not into Port Dickson? Then the next best thing is YTL's Pangkor Laut Resort! Definitely one notch up in the posh factor, and more exclusive. Ideal for honeymooners, maybe not for a big group on a budget.

I'm cool with Avillion, sure won't mind going back there again. Except that there's really nothing much to do in PD and the waters itself is not exactly very appealing.