Amari Hotel Staycation - Consolidated activities in Mar

Hello readers! So, XY & I didn't join the rest of my colleague to the Bintan teambuilding retreat despite others persuasion because XY find it boring and nothing to do, and it was good that i didnt join because Jeremy return back to Singapore last week and he will probably be disaapointed if he come back for less than a week and i am going elsewhere without him. Hahaha, so we ended up trying this new board that XY recently purchase for our event usage and playing with the letterings when the others was complaining how hot it is at the beach on their first day of arrival. Haha.

This month is also my adorable duffy birthday! She is 5 years old this year! As usual, we would bought a birthday cake and celebrate with her at home.

olm bring her for grooming so she become so skinny suddenly. Hahaha

I had another staycation at Amari hotel JB, this time with Jeremy. Haha, i was pretty surprised there were welcome fruit amenities in my room. As i was pretty busy so we only stay for 1 night at Amari.

Upon our check in, we went to Paradigm mall as it was also his first time visiting the Paradigm mall. Had Japanese cuisine for our dinner!

Ever since he returned, i was pretty amazed he didn't use his phone so often, until he capture this shot of me, before he calmly tell me, he is going to write a caption.

And i asked him ' what caption?'

he say' my wife is using her phone during dinner time' before taking out his phone and show me this photo. Hahaha. Most of the times, it was him who use phone more often than me!

But i know, this habit of his won't stay long before his eyes will glued on his phone very soon again. Hahahaha

I remember we had a 50 MYR dining credit and we used it to order for our in room breakfast delivery, only need to top up rm15 for this set and i thought it was pretty worth it, after the conversion, it cost only S$5?

This was pretty full for two of us. We couldnt finish everything too.

After our check out, we went to have some dessert in the afternoon.

And i caught this at city square claw machine again. Hahaha, it seems everytime i went in JB for a staycation, i would get a toy back for my dog. Hahaha

It was totally random when Jeremy tell me we can trade our S8 and i thought we only change it recently, later when i checked, we use it for 8months only, but since S9 is out, and before the S8 value start dropping further, we trade in our S8 and with the vouchers given to him every year because of his mobile plan, we get to change to S9 without any extra cost. 

Initially i choose blue when i had S8, but since S9 has this purple color so i choose purple!

To me, i don't study too much on a phone, for me, i only require these basic features, can call, can sms, can whatsapp, can take photos, front & back , don't lag, can load fast plus surfing the net is sufficient enough. I don't even know all the other additional features that is in S8. Hahaha and usually Jeremy will help me port over the existing data to my new phone, so when he pass it to me, it was all nice and ready to use. Hahaha

On the same day that i receive my new S9, mum was telling me there was a delivery but i didn't order anything. Until i remember it was Jeremy's order. But when he came back, he told me it was for me. So i was pretty surprised when i unwrap the box!

It was this cute teddy bear made out of roses! Back then when he was overseas, i was just showing him this teddy bear was cute, i was asking him if i should buy. Not hinting him to buy it for me, it was actually a giveaway gift and not really for sale. So i didn't really think much of it. But i think Jeremy went to contact the seller and told the seller that he want to buy for his wife aka me, so the seller help him to buy and delivered together with his other gift that he bought for me!

Back then XY saw that this teddy bear was selling at her house nearby push cart and asking if i want she can help me to buy, and i was telling Jeremy that time and now i know why Jeremy tell me don't buy it. I still remember his response was 'Even if i want it, it should be him who will buy it for me.' Aiseh. But actually because he already bought one for me. just that the delivery was delayed because there were no stock. When i received it, i was very surprised and touched, actually i had forgotton about this teddy bear already. It also comes with a display box, it's really only for display purposes only. Haha

Shall end this post now.

Till then!

Amari Staycation with BFF- Michelle

Hello readers! Recently i was just chatting with my bff that we realised we have never go overseas together or had a staycation together excluding our old old times back in poly when we had our chalets. So it was quite impromptu when we checked our schedules and decided to book the hotel that i had a good experience with during my last stay - Amari in Johor Bahru for a 3d2n staycation! 

As both of us still have to work during the weekend, so we only check in late in the evening on sat. This is also the first time Michelle walked in with me through the woodlands checkpoint all the way to clearing the malaysia customs. Haha, thankfully it was not too crowded so we only take about half an hour to clear all customs and was on our way to check in to the hotel.

Even though i stay in the junior suite the other time, but somehow i feel that this room is much more spacious and better than the junior suite. Most of their rooms comes without the bathtub unless you book the junior suite or the one bedroom suite. For us we booked the deluxe room type this time. If you are interested to see photos of the junior suite. you can click Here to read more.

 We was lazing in the room after check in, taking some selfies before taking the grab to paradigm mall since Michelle has not been there before.

The rate was pretty fixed at Rm 14 picking us up at Amari hotel and upon returning back.

By the time we went there, it was pretty late, we was catching a movie ' Monkey King 3, so we only had time for a quick dinner before shopping around the various stores in Paradigm mall.

In case you have not heard before, Paradigm mall is the latest new shopping mall open in Johor Bahru, it is almost the same distance from city square to sutera mall probably abit ahead of Sutera mall. The frontage of the mall is very distinctive as they had many of the retail stores brand banner hanging on it so there's no way that you will miss it. This was the 2nd time that i been there, and if you ask me, i love this mall because there are lesser crowd, higher ceiling height of the mall makes the interior looks spacious too.

We was checking the rates for manicure and massage as we knew we will be coming back tomorrow again because of the constraint time that we had. In paradigm mall, they have the ice-skating rink, cinema, arcade and rock climbing as well! I thought it would be perfect if they could have the archery tag, pool, bowling or even KTV next time. Then this will be a one stop entertainment mall for all its visitors. You can spend a day just in this mall. Haha

 After our movie, it was already past midnight, i was bit worried that we couldn't get a grab, but it seems during our stay duration, whenever we call the grab service, the driver takes less than 3 min to pick us up or sometimes the driver has arrived and we had to run to catch our grab driver. Haha.

So, even though we return back to the hotel late after the movie, we were able to call for grab to bring us back to the hotel. As we didn't include the breakfast inside our reservation, Michelle was suggesting to call for mcdonald delivery because it's her routine whenever she go overseas. must order their macdonald breakfast. Haha, but it was so funny as both of us try to find the drop pin while in bed, registering the account before it display that they cannot take orders as they close at 9pm.

This reminds us, how we should be thankful for our Macdonald delivery guys back in Singapore because they operate on 24hour basis. It was a shock to me after we spend so much time, figuring out how to order.

Nevertheless, the next morning, i try again and it works! Our order was accepted, and i was excited because i never order macdonald delivery to our hotel before and without any contact number, i doesn't know what is the best way except to go down according to their delivery time to spot any macdonald delivery man.

Being kiasu, i went down early before the delivery time to the hotel lobby, thankful, i manage to identify the guy, checked my orders, pay him and got our food! So anyone who are planning to stay in Amari hotel, you can choose to order macdonald breakfast since now i have experiment it and it works! Haha

After our breakfast, we lazed around before returning back to paradigm mall, this time round we decided to try their premiere class by watching the movie 'Liang Xi Mei' In Paradigm mall, they have installed the self ticketing kiosks which allow you to purchase your own tickets, accepting creditcard or cash so it was very convenient to do it my our own! 

So when you buy the premiere class tickets, which is similar like the gold class in Singapore, just that you are only paying just S$10, they have a separate lounge for you to chill while waiting for your movie to start. i took this photos only after the movie because we were rushing and barely just make it in time for the movie. Haha

This was our seat for our movie! Spacious and each chair has the leg recliner, as well as the usb port for you to charge your phone while watching the movie. It was not crowded when we watch during the afternoon so it feels as though we had the entire cinema to ourselves. Haha.

Selfies time before the movie starts

After the movie, we went to shop around and this was one of my fav ice-cream that i love ever since i try it for the first time in Kyoto, Japan. Even though it cost slightly more than what i paid for back in Kyoto, it was worth it! This can only be found in the malaysia KSL or the Paradigm mall at this particular shop that looks has a red logo that looks like duty free airport store. But actually it's sell a range of products from household, snacks, toys, pottery, etc, almost similar like Daiso. 

So i was eating my ice-cream when we was checking the manicure cost, we thought the rate was reasonable but i was eating and thought of coming back later after i am done when the staff told me that it's ok for me to eat in their shop. I was pretty surprised at the same time paiseh because usually most stores would either put a No food or drink allowed or stop you if they see you bringing some sort of beverages or food inside a store. Both michelle and I was doing pedicure and manicure.

Tadah! It took about one hour plus in total. The last time i did manicure was for my big day. Because it's pretty cheap to do in malaysia, so i think i will go back again next time to do.

After doing our nails, Michelle wanted to go for a massage, there are a few massage parlors but i think after this experience with this massage parlor, my conclusion is, i only like to do spa treatment and not those typical massage treatment unless my leg is really sore. 

We choose this DVC Borneo wellness, the masseur doesnt really understand english, so i was asking this staff if it's painful, she tell me no. Liar.

I choose the foot massage while Michelle choose the full body massage. But for the one hour plus session,i think it was my first and last session that i will even step into this shop again. 

I had foot massage before back in Bangkok, and it was not as painful as this masseur did for me! At times, as i was texting with my friends, i couldn't focus because the pain was so unbearable and i had to pull back my leg. I don't like this kind of massage. After our massage session when i went back, i realise there were many green veins appearing around my calf, which infuriate me even more that i know i will be sharing this experience over here. If you are a person with low pain tolerance, don't visit this store even if they convince you that it's not painful. So far whenever i ask for any services, if the person tell me it's not painful, it really is not. But this time, i feel deceived, i thought she would have given special instruction to the masseur not to overexert so this was blacklisted from my list forever now.

It was late by the time we were finish with both our nails and massage session, and here we are at this mookata restaurant!

The shops closed by 10pm and since we were not watching any movie again, we decided to return back to our hotel to rest. Initially, Michelle was telling me it seems there are nothing to do for a staycation in Malaysia for 3D2N, but so far, she is wrong, we didn't even have time to go for the premium outlets as we had to check out the very next day already.

Overall, it was a nice and lazy staycation, looking forward to more overseas trip soon!
Till then.