Countdown to a beach Luxury Escape to the Cape via Katong and Karon

[Flyfrequently]

Having been to Singapore many times before, I am still always up for a wander.
We start our day at Grand Mercure Roxy with breakfast in Feast Asia.
It is more cafeteria style than restaurant but the breakfast is remarkably good.
Very busy with conference delegates and families.
Always enjoy a soup!


Sit by the pool mid morning, one of the rare days in recent times where the sun has been shining and the sky not hazy.


Plan is to go on our own Heritage Walk to look at the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple and the Sino Portuguese houses.

Find the Temple is under renovation

but had a quick look inside.
Starting to realise why they say only "Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun!"
Not that I am English but thinking we would only be 45 minutes or so, I was silly enough to leave my hat and water bottle at the hotel
Spend SGD on some chilled H2O and all good.

Love the colourful houses


By this stage, finding we had walked 4 kms

I'm starting to fade and wimp out to book GRAB for the 1.2 km back to GMR. SGD9 well spent.

Grand Mercure Roxy has a Lounge but essentially it is just a room with cool drinks and some cookies on 17th floor - good view though.


For Platinum members from 6 - 8pm they have drinks and canapes in Breez Bar.
This is not exclusively for Plats but also used by other guests but if they wish to partake of the food, it is SGD18 pp.
I know this because one Very Loud Person from - well I will let you work that out - tried it on and was swiftly put in his place. "DYKWIA, this never happens when I am at the Hilton"

Just had to laugh!

The spread of chicken wings, samosas, har gow, sandwiches, cheeseboard, salad and pandan dessert was plenty.




And the wine very cold


I plan to do a review of the hotel in the Accor thread. Essentially dated but clean, good location and by Singapore standards suited our price point.

We have been given a late check-out of 2pm this trip and 6pm for our overnighter in 11 days prior to our flight home.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Feeling refreshed after a good sleep, we have a slow morning and dawdle down to breakfast.
Our SQ flight is late afternoon, but as I enjoy airports, we take GRAB to Changi and check-in early


Wander around looking at the DF stores with no intention of buying anything.

I'd like to head over to Jewel, Mr Flyfrequently happy to head to the KrisFlyer Lounge (unlike him) no argument from me there.
Though, I am promised Jewel when we depart in 2/52.
Enjoyed KrisFlyer Lounge, it was not very busy mid afternoon and of course, I have soup

Ice cream and Champagne

Board on time with departure 17 minutes tardy.
First time flying SQ J, 737-8 and found the seat comfortable.
PDB offered. After ascent the meal service was slow especially as it is only a short flight ~100 minutes

We were the last pax to be served but the Beef Cheeks were worth the wait!


No further offer of a beverage so I asked for a SilverKris Sling, which eventually came.


Time for descent landing only 7 minutes late.
Luggage and off the carousel and head to the Red Channel to declare my medication.
 Me : Good afternoon, I have a permit for my medication
 Him : and I quote - "I believe you" and shoo-ed us off to the exit!!

Find GRAB and look at the route on my phone and eta. The journey can often be as quick as 50 minutes, but not this Thursday evening, it took 90 minutes.

Welcome to coughet Thailand

 

[OZDUCK]

Very much enjoying this TR so far. Katong is always a fun place to stay with lots of nice walks and good food around.

 

[Flyfrequently]

A week has flown by but I will continue......
Thursday :
Easy to get GRAB and in ~90 minutes we are at Pullman coughet Karon Beach. I had booked a Junior Seaview suite and we were upgraded to a 85m2 Superior Seaview Suite on the 6th floor of the Andaman building.

Taken by buggy to our building, it is dark and I have no idea where we are, but are facing the Andaman Sea, which I see in the morning.

The hotel and grounds are vast and even in our 4 nights there, we barely scratched the surface of the 75 acres, 5 pools and 6 buildings (one currently under renovation)


Opened the door to our suite to
Fresh flowers

Bed decoration


A chilled bottle of Bottega Prosecco DOC

Fruit, Charcuterie, Canapes, Chocolate Cake, Macarons and chocolates!

Now a data point - it wasn't our 50th wedding anniversary!
Guest relations had emailed and asked if we were celebrating any occasion.
I replied that we were not, after 50 years together we do not need an occasion to spoil ourselves with a holiday during our winter months.
Somehow it got lost in translation to "50th anniversary!"
Also, I had informed them that we would be a late arrival ~ 8pm.

When we met the GM in the Panorama Lounge the next night, I thanked him for such a warm welcome.
He said he had read our email and wanted us to really enjoy our stay, and knowing we would arrive after Panorama Lounge hours, he thoughtfully arranged the canapes. Platinum well recognised throughout our stay.
No complaints from me!

 

[Flyfrequently]

Friday :
As we drifted to sleep, we could hear the wind and rain. It was one of those typical blustery tropical rainstorms. It lasted an hour but in the morning we woke to brilliant sunshine.


Took ourselves off across to the beach for a short stroll. The hotel isn't directly on the beach, it has a small but busy road to cross.
A security guard pops out from nowhere with his red flag to halt the non existent 7am traffic, blows his whistle and we cross in absolute safety - sorry no pic.

Not exactly knowing where to have breakfast, we ring for a buggy.
Only to find the restaurant is just 250 metres away. The Lounge isn't open this morning so breakfast is in Maleang Por restaurant.
We sit and immediately brought sparkling wine, a girl can't say no can she?!

Food offerings and service are good.
We happily choose to eat there rather than the Lounge.

We quickly fall in to routine for the next few days.
Walk, breakfast, pool, read, Lounge, rinse and repeat.

 

[ellen10]

Sounds like a perfect winter getaway on a non 50th Wedding Anniversary!

 

[Flyfrequently]

Four blissful days of relaxing, weather 30°+ and not overly humid.
After our beach walk, we wandered around and chose the Garden pool as it is well shaded and not well patronised.
Most days, we had it to ourselves!

We did the Seafarer's pool one afternoon but found it too hot as there was no breeze or shade.
But an opportunity to have our welcome drink.


For us, breakfast was always in the restaurant rather than the Lounge.

Our first night, Friday, when we met the GM "working the room", the Panorama Lounge was at capacity.
Subsequent nights, maybe only 2-4 couples.
The food offerings of 3 hot dishes ie curries, chicken, pizza, fish, fritters, arancini, spring rolls, samosas, also individual salads and mini desserts.


Great views from the 12th Floor.
From the lift we could see the Big Budda

I then formulated our "sightseeing" trip on our transfer from Karon to Cape Panwa.


Always enjoy watching the parasailers - an activity we did on holidays with the Flyfrequently offspring when we were all considerably younger.

Spectacular sunsets - with a parasailer!

 

[Flyfrequently]

Our four days went quickly and truly into holiday mode.
The property is spread out and you can use a buggy to get around, though we chose to walk for the exercise.
Even the Songthaews come in off the street!


We utilised the service of the ground transport/tour company Love Andaman Tours in the Lobby to arrange our transfer to Panwa.
We cherry-picked the few things we wanted to see along the way rather than do a half-day structured tour with others.
We figured this could be done in ~ 3 hours -cost 2000 THB ($85) .
GRAB was going to be ~ 1200 THB ($50)
Easy decision, better car, English speaking driver, water provided and get to see the sights and our driver became a great tour guide which we weren't expecting!


First was the Big Budda at 45 metres tall, made of white jade marble from Myanmar.
From the viewpoint at the top of the hill, 360° views of coughet beaches, Chalong Bay, Kata and Karon.



Not sure what the black thing is in the top right corner, a bird, a drone?

Coming down the winding mountain road, past the elephants


our car was stopped by the police.


They checked us over and had Pong, our driver, leave the car with us in it.
We were getting a tad concerned as he was gone maybe 15 minutes.
All good, he said just routine and he is used to it, as put his wallet back in the glovebox.
We say goodbye to Big Budda


Next stop is Wat Chalong Temple, the largest of coughet's temples built at the beginning of the 19th century.


Loud noises come from a dedicated brick oven. These are firecrackers lit by locals to show their gratitude when prayers are answered.

We learned all this through Pong and Google translate

Next stop is coughet Old Town for a walk around to check out Walking Street / Thalang Road


The Sunday night market is held from 4pm and the street is closed off for food vendors and other stalls.
It was pretty hot in the town so we shouted Pong an ice cream.
Via Google translate he said he was humbled and thankful of our kind gesture.

His task was only to drive us but he happily came to all the attractions, he was genuinely keen to relay tales about his family and his country and learn more about Australia and other parts of the world.

Back on the road heading to Cape Panwa and take time out to enjoy Kao Khad viewpoint, a favourite for sunsets.

And just like that, we arrive at Pullman Panwa and officially, I am a Luxury Escapee