Club Med Kani Maldives - Paradise on Earth

A school of five silver color fish slowly makes their way to where I was sitting, a small little wooden platform at our lagoon suite villa, my legs dipped in the icy cold water, inches away from the green, oh so green seaweed on fine white sand, waving gently under the magical spell of the sea current.

Meters away, a lone black tip baby shark of a meter long, cruises by oblivious to my presence. A sudden disturbance in the seabed caught my attention. A grey mantra ray of almost three feet in diameter glides by.

The sound of waves beating against the concrete pillars of the villa coupled with the gentle sea breeze blowing onto my face and the dancing sunlight reflected on the clear blue seabed has almost an hypnotizing effect. For a moment, you are in complete total peace with yourself, with mother nature, with God. For that one moment, the world you know and left behind does not seemed to exist or matter.

There is only you, the sea, the blue skies with fluffy white clouds drifting by and the wind, blowing and singing her gentle soothing melody.

This is Maldives.

Read the full story and more pictures at Clud Med Kani Maldives - Paradise on Earth (myNikon&I)

Club Med Kani Maldives - Arrival

Mynikon & I : Club Med Kani Maldives - Arrival

We arrived at 9:45 p.m. local which was 12:45 a.m. Malaysian time. After a 4 hours flight, we were tired. Maldives international airport looks pretty much like the one we have at Pulau Langkawi. Small and rather unorganized. After clearing customs, we walked out of the arrival hall expecting greeting cards from Club Med with our name but there were none. Lost and unhappy, we asked around and were directed to a small Club Med counter. We were tagged with a green wrist band (something which  will bring us much more attention and privileges as we found out later) and  were asked to wait. And we waited and waited. We ended sitting by the roadside because we were supposed to wait for another flight from Singapore and since both flights are arriving apparently 5 minutes apart in the middle of the night, the management thinks that it is good logistic to group guests from this two flights together.

Read more about our experience about the Lagoon Suites at Club Med Kani Maldives and our experience upon our arrival ....(http://mynikonni.blogspot.com/2012/09/club-med-kani-maldives-arrival.html)

His first trip to CHINA!

"I missed the children so much. Depressed...This is not working out..." my wife messaged me on skype...

...and that is only the 2nd day she was in Beijing alone. She still have at least two full months before the entire family can join her...

"OK..that's it" I told myself. 

"Since next week is Raya holidays, we will be coming to see you..ok?"

So, I got Ryan's China visa done, got our tickets and packed our bags for one week in Beijing. For Ryan, this would be longest flight ....6 hours. I have apprehension as to how he would cope with the hours but then, it would be a good preparation for his September's trip with us to Seattle which will take over 20 hours....

When I told him that he was going to China, he was over the moon and started telling teachers, friends, classmates and everybody he met that he is going to CHINA!

I told him that he cannot speak Mandarin and that he can't go. He said he will learn and ask his grandmother what "Eating Rice" is in Mandarin. Grandma said "吃饭". He repeated it and then proudly proclaimed "I can go CHINA already! I know how to speak 吃饭!"

He was so excited about the trip that he even offered to help to pack his own clothes and bag. On the way to the airport, he was talking non stop, telling the taxi driver about his going to China and to see his mommy. At the airport, he even helped to pull our hand held luggage, and stopped every now and then and asked for his picture to be taken...vain!

Waiting for boarding at the Premier Lounge .....

We took MAS and we managed to secure a window and aisle seat all to ourselves. By the time, he board the plane, he was totally exhausted and fell asleep even before the plane took off !!! He slept the entire 6 hours on my lap and only got up when we were about to land. 

So, the journey was much much much simpler than I anticipated and I guess he is ready for the long flight to US now.....

More on his visit to CHINA in the following post .....

My Favorite Shots from Club Med Bintan Island

We just came back from a holiday from Club Med Bintan Island. In fact, we did three Club Meds in 10 months. Kinda of crazy but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and glad that we did. We did Club Med Bali in September 2011 last year to celebrate wifey's birthday there together with Ryan.

Then when my eldest son, Reuben came back from Christchurch for his holiday in the beginning of the year, we brought him and Ryan to Club Med Cherating in Kuantan.

Club Med ran another `buy one free one' promotion recently, and we could help ourselves but to get ourselves another holiday in Club Med Bintan Island. Of the three, I enjoyed Bintan Island the best although it is the smallest of the three. You can read about my comparison of the three Club Meds in my travel and photography blog (http://mynikonni.blogspot.com).

I took tonnes of pictures during our stay at Bintan Island and the beach was absolutely fantastic and the sunrise breathtaking. But, these few pictures were my favorite, because they are of my soul mate and my prince .....(unfortunately, Chenya was left at home this round, as she was a little too young to join us).

Balancing a already unsteady world of turmoil, injustice and uncertainties

As I took this shot, I was imagining them doing it in slow motion against the awesome soundtrack of "Chariots of Fire"

Mother and son having quality time together and daddy was just too happy to be snapping away with his Nikon D90 - Previous moment - Priceless !

Natural Performer

Ryan has always been an outgoing child and has very little trouble interacting with others. Even when he was a baby, he can be carried by almost anyone and often times, he will be `missing’ the moment we arrived at any gathering or parties because he will be carried off by one of his nannies, uncles, aunties, kor kor or cheh cheh.

When he started talking, he was such a talker that he amazes most who talked to him. Recently when we were at Club Med Bintan Island, we were pleasantly surprised that he could hold a proper single conversation with the resort in house doctor who happened to sit with us for dinner.

Because of his outgoing personality, he is also a natural performer. For the last two school concerts, he has done very well and was one of the few in his class who could follow almost every step and movement the teacher taught.

(Ryan going through his baking class in the Petite Club)

And when we heard that he was going to perform at night when we were in Club Med Bintan recently, we were a bundle of nerves. We weren’t sure how he would perform. Unlike when he was with us in Club Med Bali last year and Club Med Cherating earlier this year where we did not enrol him to join the Petite Club, we made it a point to enrol him to the Petite Club for 2 full days this year for two reasons. Firstly, is to allow him to have fun with other children and the activities that they are organising and secondly, so that mommy and daddy could have some quality time together.

On the night of the performance, we had a hurried dinner and rush him an hour earlier to the Petite Club organizers to get him ready. Joanne, one of the GO who came from Cheras Malaysia and who have taken a special liking to Ryan was gracious enough to take him there on our behalf.

When the hour came, and when the MC announced the special dance performance from the Petite Club, we were overwhelmed when we see Ryan all dressed up and ready to perform and performed HE DID! He was simply amazing and the crowd went totally frenzy.

When his dance performance ended, we had a bigger surprise when the pretty MC (GO from Japan) called Ryan up to the stage again and this round, he sang a solo. His rendering of “This old man, he play one …” was simply flawless (errrrr….parents are always bias ok)

From that night onwards, for the next three days that we were there, the entire Club Med including the Village Head knows Ryan by name and he was treated like a star whenever he goes. They gave him the title `Assistant’ because he was being so helpful and that is also the other way to get him to keep quiet instead of asking so many questions !!!!

Bali - Tanah Lot Temple and Mengwi Temple

September 2011 (Backdated post)

We were contemplating whether we would want to go out from Club Med since Club Med has so many activities to occupy us and Ryan really wanted to spend all his time in the pool. However, it would be quite a pity if we don't venture out at all and have a look at what Bali has to offer. Moreover, I was checking the web before leaving for Bali and there were some very nice places to take pictures.

So, we approached the activities center and got them to recommend us a half day tour to someplace nice. Since it was only for half a day, they recommended us to visit the Tanah Lot Temple and the Mengwi Temple. I have seen some very very nice pictures of the Tanah Lot Temple in the internet and I was pretty excited to see it for myself....

We left at 8:30a.m after a hearty breakfast. There were another 3 couples in the same coach so the tour was rather private, just like we prefer. We really dislike travelling with huge tour groups because there is very little attention and you always ended up having to wait for someone at every stop ....

Travelling from Club Med Bali to Tanah Lot Temple takes approximately 1.5 hours going through the morning hour rush. Traffic in Bali can be horrendous...and there seemed to be only one traffic rule there....which is ...THERE IS NO RULE!

Tanah Lot Temple (temple in the sea) is one of the place to take good evening sunset pictures. We were advised against it because there would be a larger crowd and there is also the likelihood of rain.

I must say that the place does not disappoint for good photography. I just wished I had more time and probably a chance to catch a really cool sunset ...maybe my next trip ....


Ryan showing off his kung fu within the temple grounds of Mengwi Temple.....

Club Med Bali - Daddy and Me!

September 2011 (Backdated post)

One of the most unforgettable experience in Club Med Bali is the things I got to do with Ryan for the very first time. It's that special bonding that I will cherish forever and I definitely want to put it on record here lest I forget or for Ryan to read when he grows up (in case I don't get to tell him).

I will let the pictures do the talking here.....

Here we were...father and son, catching crabs by the beach .....
The first sunrise that we watched together as a family ....awesome experience ...

Being a golfer, it has always been my dream that I would be able to have a round with Ryan and here we were in Bali, having two rounds of golf together and the memory ...priceless...!

Ryan wanted to be like Avatar ....

Having fun in the pool ....

The Kung Fu master and his young apprentice in front of the Mengwi Temple ...

A very exhausted daddy and his very happy son after a visit to the famous Tanah Lot Temple ...

Club Med Bali - A Cool Deal!

September 2011 (Backdated post) - Continuation

(Club Med Bali Poolside bar during sunset)

With the MATA fair promotion earlier this year, we managed to secure a pretty cool deal from Club Med. Buy One and FREE ONE! Pretty cool huh? And children got to stay, eat and play for free. Suits Ryan just fine.

I have never been to Bali before and the last trip my wife made to Bali was decades ago. This is also my first trip to a Club Med and I have heard raving reviews of how fun staying at Club Med can be.

I must said that I was not every impressed upon touching down at the airport and got a pretty nasty experience taking a taxi from the airport to Club Med. I made doubly sure that I purchased the taxi coupons from proper counters set up within the airport. Friends were telling us that it was pretty easy to get a taxi there and is much cheaper than ordering one from the hotel. (Honestly, I prefer to have one from the hotel waiting to pick me up when I arrived especially if I'm travelling to countries in Asia than trying to arrange one when I arrived). Anyway, after agreeing on the price and since currencies in Indonesia runs into hundreds of thousands and millions (which take some adjustment to..hey..I'm not used to be a millionaire ok), I paid him in big notes (mistake that I made when I change my Ringgit at KLIA for not asking for smaller notes). The taxi counter conveniently `forgot' to give me back my change. Although after conversion, it is still a relatively small amount , RM2 or thereabout, the impression is that the locals are out to swindle tourist like us in whichever way they can....

OK. I can live with Rm2 poorer. One guy from the taxi counter guided us to the taxi which was parked at the airport parking lot. Upon loading all the bags, he expressly now asked for a tip. My wife and I were like..."Huh? Tip again? for what?" Realizing that we were reluctant, his face somewhat changed from the `smiling..hello tourist' look to 'hei..I don't work for free' look....

We looked into our wallets and realised the smallest Indonesian currency we had were 100,000 rupiahs! I have a couple of USD in my wallet and ended up giving him USD5. Expensive tip!!!

Trip to the hotel was uneventful and honestly, I am still smarting from having to pay such an expensive tip.

Club Med is definitely a welcoming sight.

The rooms ....

The poolside and the poolside bar ....heavenly ...

View of the poolside bar from the beachfront ...
The mini golf course....6 par 3 holes ...

The beach ....


Sunrise at Club Med Bali beachfront

Did I like Club Med? Of course. I enjoyed the good selection for food available for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I enjoyed that I got to order any drinks that I want. I had countless glasses of Bali draught beer, wine both and red. I enjoyed the games, the activities and the nightly entertainment put up by the resort staff themselves. (They are indeed a talented lot). I enjoyed the sight of many beautiful bodies and pretty faces..ahem....

But above all, I enjoyed the company of my wife and Ryan as we got to do things that we have not done before...(more of that in my next post)..

The only sore point that I had with this resort is that the GO (Guest Officers) were paying too much attention to guests of their own countries. There were many Koreans, Chinese nationals from China, Japanese and Aussies...but unfortunately, throughout our entire stay, I guessed we were the only Malaysian and we have only met one Malaysian GO lady from Penang. So, we were kinda of left out and were pretty left unattended to ..though we managed to meet and got to know three rather cute and hot GOs from Korea, Japan and Bali herself...(all thanks to Ryan who has the tendency to attract pretty gals without much of a problem with his cheeky smile and bold moves in approaching them...I guess Daddy would have to learn a trick or two from him soon...)

Halloween Trick and Treating ...

28 Oct 2011

Our neighborhood has been organizing Halloween trick and treating walk among the residents in our neighborhood for the last couple of years. Ryan has participated since he was one. But this year was different. He went in full costumer ...as BATMAN!


The last two years, I have been having a torrid time trying to take some decent pictures but this year is much better since I got myself a Nikon Flashgun which allows me to take some rather decent pictures.


The event looked doom in the beginning. The skies were gloomy by evening and the skies opened up and poured by 6pm. We were all keeping our finger crossed because we would have to postpone the event to tomorrow night if the rain does not stop by 9pm and there is no guarantee that the weather tomorrow night would hold either.

The heaven was smiling at us. By 7:30pm, the rain stopped and by 8pm, despite the ground being wet, the participating families and children gathered at the playground. And then off we went from house to house, collecting sweets, cookies, chocolates, packet drinks, stickers etc....


The children were having so much fun and the parents were all tired walking, directing traffic, running after their children or carrying those who got a little too tired after a few streets...but having fun nevertheless....

Ryan all tired and thirsty by the end of the event....and so were we!

Credit must be given to the Residents Association and the person in charge who took pain to organize this event year after year.....