Monday Beach Blues

Happy Monday peeps!

Today's my first day back at work. As usual, sorry for the week long hiatus. I was too busy breathing the warm, salty air at the beach, basking under the sun, frolicking in the sand, and of course stuffing myself silly with good food.

After such a great experience at our first YTL resort in Gaya Island (I know, I know, I still owe you a blogpost for that holiday), we were so impressed with the resort and its hospitality, that we vowed to try all other YTL resorts for our future vacations. Hence this time around, we decided to visit Pangkor Laut Resort for the year end holidays.

As expected, we loveddddddddd the resort. The kids enjoyed themselves and we were more than happy to let them run, swim, snorkel and eat to their hearts content. If you ask us to compare between Pangkor and Gaya. Hubby and I are probably on the fence. But from the top of my head, here are the pros and cons of both:

• The size of the resort for Pangkor Laut Resort was bigger, hence more turf to walk and explore. Despite it being bigger, everything was accessible by shuttle, even their private beach - Emerald Bay. On the other hand, Gaya Island had scheduled boat transfers to their private beach - Tavajun Bay. Therefore if you missed one, you had to wait for the next.
• We experienced a more personalized service in Gaya Island. Perhaps because we were there during the low season? However, the dining concierge at Pangkor Laut Resort more than made up for it, by arranging for a private gazebo for our anniversary dinner.
• When we celebrated Ian's birthday, Pangkor arranged for the waiters to bring him a cake and sing Happy Birthday. For Aiden's birthday, Gaya arranged for that plus more. We had a guitar serenade too!
• Our Hillside Villa at Gaya was bigger, and it had a more modern layout. Our Beach Villa at Pangkor was smaller with tired looking furniture... but it was at an awesome location with a killer beach view, and an outdoor bathtub too. Gaya had a significantly bigger kids bed in the room. At Pangkor, the kids struggled to sleep together, and Ian actually fell off the bed on our second night!
• The waters in Gaya were better than Pangkor. (Well, Sabah waters are obviously better than Pangkor waters.) At Gaya, we were able to do some pretty decent snorkeling even from the beach right in front of the resort; better if at the private beach. Pangkor on the other hand just didn't have that luxury. You would have to pay a bomb (~RM250 per person) just for a boat ride to the Pangkor public snorkeling area. (We went to the public snorkeling area just the week before, for just RM70 per person!)
• The nature walk at Gaya was not suitable for kids. Pangkor on the other hand, allowed kids to join the nature walk, and even allowed us to turn around half way in case the kids couldn't handle it. (But we did finish the whole course.) Their nature trail is safe enough for you to track on your own too.
• Pangkor's spa experience wins, hands down!!! It wasn't just about the massage (I swear, Tari has the hands of an angel), but also the complimentary 45 minute 4-step preparatory Bath House ritual - I'll blog about it in a separate post! As a memento of the experience, I was also given the kain batik that I used for the massage, as a keepsake.

Pros and cons aside, I don't think I can do justice to Pangkor Laut Resort with just one post written over the Monday blues. So let me just start by sharing a couple of select photos we took over the course of our holiday.

Check out Ian's happy grin!

My three boys.

Gang spec hitam.

On the left was the beach, and on the right was our Beach Villa!

The jetty in the background.

While waiting for our room to be ready.

Checking out the Sea Villas.

Officiated my kicks.

Our beautifully decorated bed.

Cute elephant, for Ian's birthday. (Our bed was decorated again the next day, for out anniversary, with two swans!)

Beautiful Emerald Bay.

Photo taken by Aiden!

Our private gazebo in the background.

No candlelight dinner for us. It was a loud dinner for four instead!

Decadent chocolate cake, courtesy of Pangkor Laut Resort.

Nature trail walk.

We all made it out in one piece!