Review of Club Med Phuket Part 2

After a night of gluttony, we had to burn it all off the next day right?

Nope.. we were not going to just laze around the swimming pool all day long!

Our first stop of the day/trip…

We had to walk to the other side of the Club Med compound from where our rooms were and where all the sports activities were held – Archery, trapeze, bungy bounce, racket games, basketball, golf, aerobics/golf.

Don’t we look like we are ready for a day of sports?? Let’s hope that we have the form + the substance as well!

The archery place!

GO helping us put on the protective gears…

Then we had a short tuition by the trainer.

And we are ready to go!

We did 2 rounds of 3 shots each.

These arrows below were shot by me and Minghui.

A few shots missed the target board but still not bad for first timers right?

Husbands BEWARE!!!

We headed off for a very friendly tennis match soon after…

Here are pictures of us in action (or was it out of action??)

(A very rare photo of our friend Keith in his sports attire and doing sports!!!)

Jared & I also played squash. It was my first time and I realized what a tiring game it was!

Gosh, my hair was out of place after a half an hour game!

(Here’s my hubby working out by himself because I GAVE UP!)

Hubby & I were badminton players but we didn’t play it here because the shuttlecocks provided were the plastic, kiddy type. One of the squash courts was converted into the badminton court. The space was too confined, the ceiling was too low and fitted with ceiling fans which made it difficult to play REAL badminton.

Nevermind! We tried our hand at table tennis. The facility was situated just one level below the eating area. There were 3 table tennis tables, bats and ping pong balls available. I found it rather therapeutic playing the sport actually. Not very difficult to aim at the small little bouncy ball.

I was also determined to go for the aerobics class at 4pm daily. There were power yoga, body sculpting classes in the morning but we were busy eating bonding over breakfast to attend.

Jared and I went for the class 2 days in a row. The 1 hour session I am sure burned away most of the lunch we had eaten. Yeah!

The very trim & fit GO trainer was a South African guy who taught us step aerobics. Boy o boy… It was really not easy to coordinate your arms and legs and step up to the fast beat of the music. We were perspiring like crazy just after half an hour of work out! We just had to go for our cold drinks at the bar after the sessions…. and replenish back some of the calories again…

This same trainer was also the trainer for the aqua aerobics we attended on our last day at Club Med.

I highly recommend this aqua aerobics class. It's a 1h session in the water. The exercises were not difficult. And the best thing is you don’t feel hot and sweaty since you are already in the water, but knowing that your fats are being burned! The GO made it really fun and the class ended off with a group exercise activity. It was awesome! I super regretted not attending this class on the previous days….

After the class, a group of GOs of different gender and nationalities came in front of the pool to teach us the Sun Dance. It was a really easy to follow and funny dance we could do in the water.

After the class, the GOs hosted a game of water rugby with the GMs.

If you find the water activities too strenuous, you could always sun tan or laze around in the pool with your free flow of cocktails.

(Choose to suntan outdoors…)

(Or watch others suntan from indoors…)

This pool that you see above has depths ranging from 0.5m to 2.5m at different sections.

You could also laze in the water or suntan at the Zen pool which is situated at another end of the compound.

In order to get to it, you got to walk up a really cool bridge…

… enjoy the really nice scenery on both sides of the bridge…

(This side overlooks the beach)

…before you reach the small Zen pool.

There is a sign here that say you got to ZIP. Yup, no talking allowed here. This is not a place to have fun or swim or chat. It’s a place for you to relax and unwind. ZEN pool, now you get it?

And of course, if you find the sporting activities too much for you to bear, you can choose to enjoy the spa facility available in Club Med compound.

This pure luxury comes at an additional cost though. Spa services are not included in the Club Med package. Prices are not cheap even after the 1st 24-hour discount of 20% given to us.

But what is a true blue Thai holiday without affordably-priced massage right??

We ventured out of the compound and stumbled upon this gem directly across the road opposite Club Med.

Is this considered a sport too?? Heehee…

We ♥ Maithai Massage for these few days.

The massages were good at affordable prices and the best thing was the strong air-conditioning (something that was rather lacking in the Club Med compound) was a respite from the 35 degrees celcius and 100% humidity out there!

(Mystery man here… Try not to guess who…)

I tried the Thai massage on the first day there and it was too painful for me. My back felt bruised the next day.

But I really loved the foot massage! It was not too hard… just heavenly!

I had it for the next 2 days of my stay at Phuket!

As you can see, my friends thoroughly enjoyed the massage as well!

So the above mentioned were the activities we had only managed to cover during this trip. We wished we could try the golf (tuition available), trapeze and bungy bounce as well as watch the nightly shows and performances (such as the Elvis Presley show, circus act). But our time was limited since the Baby Club was only opened from 9am-5pm and our sons turned in early after a day’s worth of fun activities. We were nevertheless very thankful for the Baby Club services so that we adults could enjoy ourselves knowing our kiddos were in the good hands of the GOs at Baby Club.

If you are a beach junkie, there are also snorkelling and organized morning beach walks available. Scuba diving, yes but at extra cost.

Lastly, ending off with pictures from our evening beach stroll with our kids. Will blog about the Baby Club and our fine dining experience in my last entry about Club Med.

Thanks for reading!

Review of Club Med Phuket Part I

Before I start, I would like to apologize for the very long delay in posting on the blog. Wanted to blog about our holiday to Club Med earlier but Julien fell sick right after the trip. Will blog about what happened post-Club Med later.

We had planned for this holiday months before. The hubby chanced upon a 1 for 1 promotion on the Club Med website. And so we invited some of our friends along.

Club Med is the lazy man’s holiday because you need not really plan for your holiday. You pay a price and it includes a buffet of activities and food you can choose for all in one place.

The best part was that kids below the age of 2 goes for free so we and our friends Ed & Minghui could happily bring Julien and Ansel along for this trip as well!

We wanted to go for Club Med Bali but later realized that Club Med Phuket is the only Club Med in Asia with a Baby Club (for toddlers below 2 years old). It costs about S$80 a day for the Baby Club.

We were really excited to bring Julien for this trip!

(Here’s Julien on the plane, sticking his head in between the seats)

We did not book the transport from the Phuket airport to Club Med as the latter wanted to charge us S$30 per person per trip! We went online to book an 8-seater van for about only S$50 per trip. So much cheaper!

We finally reached Club Med after a 45 minute journey from the airport.

My boy must be really excited because he did a little dance upon his arrival. He is just so amusing!

In Club Med, the visitors are called ‘GMs’ or ‘Gentle Members’. The organizers i.e. all the receptionists, personal trainers, station masters, etc are called ‘GOs’ or ‘Gentle Organizers’. And the other employees such as the cleaners are called ‘GEs’ or ‘Gentle Employees’.

We checked in at the reception counter and was given a rather warm welcome by the GOs.

We were given a fragrant garland to put on around our necks…

welcome drinks and warm towels were provided…

And briefing by a Thai GO.

There were 2 daily orientation tours by the GOs each day. 1 in the morning, and another in the evening. We were too tired to go and figured that we could figure things out ourselves.

After the short briefing  by the GO, we proceeded to our rooms. The walk to our rooms made us realize just how big the Club Med compound was! Keith commented that even after a buffet meal, the walk back to our rooms would have burned off all the food we ate. HAHA!

Our room was on the 2nd floor and it was a connecting room with Keith and Shermin’s. Please DO NOT expect a luxurious room with fantastic facilities.

Think pleasant and clean chalet room.

Here is our bed which is actually made up of 2 joined single beds.

And there was a small guest bed at the corner of the room too.

Expect:

☺Free wifi (1 password per device. You can ask for multiple passwords if you have multiple devices) .

☺Free shampoo, bath gel, and other small toiletries which I did not use as I brought my own.

☺Change of towels everyday if needed.

☺Baby bathtub / Baby potty / stroller & bottle warmer available on request

☺2 bottles of drinking water every day.

☺Safebox.

☺Mini fridge.

☺Hairdryer.

☺Cabinets with hangers.

☺Hot/cold water tap and showers.

☺Cable TV via a small flat screen TV (as seen in the picture above).

Hmm… Actually the room is not too bad after all!

After dilly dallying in our rooms for awhile, our stomachs reminded us that we have not taken our lunch and tea. So we proceeded to the snack room which is available from about 230 - 530pm (can’t really remember as we only took snacks on the 1st day).

I was rather disappointed with the snack room experience… The offerings were limited, quality was bad (the phad thai didn’t taste like phad thai and the ingredients were not fresh), waitresses looked unwilling to serve (probably too tiring to keep on bringing the food up and down the stairs) and the snack room was alfresco dining. Alfresco is nice when the weather is cooling. But not so wonderful in oh-so-super-hot Phuket!

Went to get drinks from the bar instead. And as you know ordering from the bar here is … liberating. Liberating because almost everything you do and eat here is ALL INCLUSIVE. Champagne however is chargeable!

 

The Vapango drink.

The Fresh Phuket drink.

I tried their smoothies and they were a tad too diluted.

Guess what? Shortly after snack time, dinner time starts! Knowing that a buffet awaits us, we could not help but went for it.

We heard from one of the GOs that there are about 50 chefs and cooking assistants in the kitchen to cook up a storm everyday 3 times a day! EXCESSIVE!!!

(Get ready to drool at the pictures below…)

There are about 4-5 rooms available for dining. The rooms inside the food area seems cooler but some of the rooms may be closed at different times.

This was one of the rooms with a lovely blue theme.

This is another room which is located just outside the food area and it was not so cooling because it was not air-conditioned.

Breakfast

Every breakfast, there would be the standard omelette counter where you could choose the ingredients for your omelette and get the chef to cook on the spot for you. You got to try this as it is cooked very well.

There were different types of breads available including the not so usual ones like the white chocolate bread, tomato and cheese bread…

They also served little jars of jams of various flavours, some of which were specially made for Club Med Phuket!

You also get Japanese foods (like miso soup), Western food (like heinz beans, hashbrowns, toasted sandwiches), Chinese/Thai (like porridge) fruits, salads, desserts available.

There was a low fat counter available every breakfast which served bagels, low fat milk, healthy cereals including my favourite muesli!

LUNCH & DINNER

International buffet. E V E R Y D A Y and featuring food from different cuisines. We had Spanish, Indian and Chinese during our stay. You can also expect a Japanese, Thai, Western and pasta corner for every meal.

Wine lovers note: You can order free flow of red and white wine during meal times!

 

This is one of the rounds that Keith took during one of the lunches. He took TWO grilled fishes, beancurd, tempura veges, spinach and cheese and braised meat. He is really a food connoisseur!

They also offer a few specialty dishes each day, that the chefs prepared on demand at the various counters.

Grilled fish and asparagus in wasabi cream sauce.

We had steak in black pepper sauce one day, lamb roasted with mixed spices another day and many more!

They also have specialty desserts! Club Med is not just a foodie’s paradise but also heaven for people like me who has a sweet tooth!

Can you imagine desserts galore 3 times a day, everyday??

And did I mention that the adults and kids alike absolutely love the ice-cream counter that’s available during the buffets? EIGHT flavours always. Jared loves the coffee flavour while I liked the blueberry and vanilla flavours.

And so, we spent the 1st day upon arrival in the late afternoon just gluttoning away. Will blog more about the other non-fattening activities we did and Baby Club.

Stay tuned!