Hefty discount at Acupaday

Let me just do a quick update on our visit to Acupaday.

My previous visit was for a farewell in 2019, and from that group, now I'm the only one left in the company. :O

This time, I suggested going there because there was 35% off with Grab dine-out offers.

Reading back my old post, I feel that in general the taste may be similar to the past, but the salted egg sauce may have more taste now (or my standards have been lowered?)

creamy pumpkin pasta, RM24

rendang chicken bagel, RM25

golden crusted chicken chop, RM29

There were add on deals for drinks; for example a hot chocolate priced at RM11 cost RM6 if added on to a meal. So we all added drinks, even though they also provide drinking water.

hot latte

hot cioccolata

After that our friend asked whether they could make a different pattern for the last cup. They obliged.

is that a signature on the side? :P

The hot chocolate was very thick; I liked it a lot!

The chicken chop was very crispy; I liked it. (The menu said that it was encrusted with nachos.) Though the broccoli and shimeji mushrooms were tasteless. The sauce helped though. :P The piece of chicken was huge.

Looking back at my previous post, the decor of the cafe has not changed. Not a bad thing...there is no reason to change it! 

The prices I listed were before taxes and service charge...and after adding all that, we had a 35% discount, so this lunch was a really good deal. 

A premier upgrade at Sama-Sama

For this business trip, I had three early flights. So I stayed in an airport hotel three times. Two of those were in Sama-Sama Hotel, which is attached to KLIA via an indoor walkway.

My flight to Mexico (via Japan) was at 7:15am, and my flight to Penang was at 8:05am, so both times I had to wake up really early. Staying at this hotel meant that I was practically already inside the airport, so I could get more sleep before the flight. There was not even any risk of traffic jams or car breakdowns to get to the airport!

As you can see, there are signboards inside KLIA showing the way to the hotel.

There were supposedly buggies to/from the hotel, or we could walk there (around 10 minutes). I didn’t know where to take the buggy, so I just walked following the sign boards there. The next morning I took the buggy (which was really a lot faster!) and also asked them where to wait for the buggy when I came back on my return flight. The buggy pick-up location is actually just to the right of the photo above. 

 

Upon check-in, I asked whether breakfast was included with my room. They informed me that my room was without breakfast, but they were upgrading me to premier lounge, which includes breakfast. Since breakfast starts at 6am (if I remember correctly) and I had to leave at around 5am for my 7:15am flight), they told me I could call room service to prepare me a packed breakfast, and they could either send it to my room or leave it at reception for me to collect upon check-out.

That didn’t forewarn me how special the premier lounge was…and then they told me that the evening cocktail was served at 6-8pm, at the lounge just outside my room. (actually it was a few doors away from my room)

The next indication came when I entered the lift and pressed the floor of my room: the topmost floor.

That's when I understood what I had been upgraded to.

The room awed me, but on my trip back, I realized that even the basic room was great. :O  

separate bathroom and toilet (the basic room had both together, which I actually prefer :P )

basic room is pretty much the same too

I thought the welcome message was for the premier lounge, but on my trip back, the basic room had it too!

What is special about the premier lounge room is that there are some extra snacks and a coffee machine.

the basic room only has the stuff in the drawer

this is the same as the basic room

the Tan Kim Hock and San Shu Gong biscuits and coffee are perks of the premier lounge

If you wonder what's in the rectangular box, I did too...it's tambun biscuits!

The light switches were rather confusing. Since both my stays were short, I didn't really figure everything out; I just found out what I needed. The first night, I arrived after 5pm and needed an early night, whereas the second time was even shorter; I arrived after midnight and could only get about four hours' sleep.

Anyway one of the most interesting things in the room was this card. 

(I initially thought it was a feature of the premier lounge, but it turns out that it was for all guests, as they say on the card)

A free teddy bear loan? Of course I'm requesting one! But first I needed to shower and have dinner...

Note that they say the image is for illustration purpose only. I expected that they might have different kinds of teddies to lend out. 

And I did wonder whether they wash the bear in between loans. But I expected I would ask about that later... Even if it wasn't washed, at the very least I could put the bear on the sofa as a companion. 

I didn't care much about the other side of the card. :P  

Here is the view from my room...and after that let's go for dinner!

Once I entered the lounge, one of the servers came up to me with the drinks menu and asked me what I wanted.  

The dinner was buffet-style, with a small selection of dishes. I took a little of each. Since I was having an early night, I wasn’t going to eat much.

In general the dishes were good, but the desserts were so-so, none really caught my eye. (Just as well, since I couldn't eat much.) The skewers were really good, and I remember taking another one for the second round. The cheese was really good too, it seemed to contain pieces of apricot. When leaving, I even asked the server whether he knew what cheese it was, but he didn't.

view from the lounge where dinner was served

After that I explored the hotel (it was my only chance to do so over my two stays!)

swimming pool

And in a corridor, I saw a TV screen displaying this! 

someone requests the teddy!

I actually started watching halfway through the video, and the pictures above were taken after the video restarted from the beginning. When I started watching, the bear had finished its "duty" and was ready to be washed.

they were saying, no, taking a bath is not the way!

then they put it into a washing machine (which I didn't capture a photo of) and then pack it into a plastic bag

After I got back to my room, I called room service to request my breakfast, followed by my teddy bear! (no need to ask about whether it was cleaned between loans, I already had my answer!) 

One notable thing is that when we say thank you, the staff replies "sama-sama"! ("you're welcome" in Malay) It didn't happen at the reception though. :P 

teddy bear delivered after a while

there was a zipper in the back

Frankly I felt it was a little thin. I would have preferred more filling inside. :P

Anyway, to wrap up, let's talk about the breakfast! 

I opted for the American breakfast because it was easier to eat on the go

I selected an omelette, Milo as the hot drink, and mango juice as the cold one. I already expected that I couldn't finish the breakfast, but the portion totally exceeded my expectations.

they packed all the items separately

 There are two of the tiny boxes, one containing maple syrup, and the other containing baked beans.

the main box

french toast (4 pieces I think)

box of fruit

The wastage was huge. I feel like this could have fed me three breakfasts on normal days, and on that day it was too early to eat a proper breakfast. Plus I couldn't take the drink with me on the flight!

A hectic two weeks

So where do I start… I was sent to Mexico on a business trip early this month. The trip was confirmed on Thursday (there was talk about it earlier that week, but somehow I thought it wouldn’t happen because of budget concerns), and I was immediately checking flight schedules. On Friday I booked the flight tickets and was scheduled to fly on Monday, which happened to be a public holiday.

I arrived in Mexico on Tuesday, worked Wednesday to Wednesday, and flew out early Thursday morning (and by early, I mean 6am). I arrived in KL late Friday night (around 11:30pm), spent the night in an airport hotel, and flew back to Penang early Saturday morning (this time, “early” is 8:05am).

My flight arrived in Penang at 9:05am, upon which I went directly to the badminton hall where our company’s internal competition was being held. They call it the MotoWellness tournament because it is in a series of tournaments for different sports under the MotoWellness programme, something that they started last year.

I had already joined a team earlier on, but because of the sudden business trip, I only practised with my team once (I missed only one practice session though…they didn’t have a lot :P ). So I decided to rush back to help my team, expecting that even if I was tired or jet-lagged, I could still play better than the least-skilled female player in our team. (If I didn’t need to get back so early, I could have taken a later flight that morning - or even afternoon - to make full use of my hotel room.)

Our team had good luck in the draw, and easily made our way to the semi-finals, where we unfortunately lost (even though I won my match). After that we won in the third-placing match. I am happy that I didn’t lose any matches, with thanks to my partners. My game was definitely not as good as usual, so I told our captain not to put me with the weaker male players, since I would not be able to cover for them. (Note: The game format this year was five pairs of mixed doubles.)

Although it seems that the result would have been the same if I hadn’t come back to play, in a way this gives no regrets, because if I hadn’t come back, the question would be hanging on whether we would have made second place with me around.

So here’s a picture of our bronze medal:

And a team photo:

Last year my team came in 4th place, and we also received a bronze medal (because all participants received one…haha). I realized I didn’t post about the tournament last year, so here is a photo of the medal:

Last year the medal was a lot lighter. The design was also a lot simpler. I like this year’s one better!

As for stories of my trip, as you might have guessed, they will come later in bite-size portions. ;) 

A meal full of flavour at Duan

For Father’s Day we went to try a rather new restaurant called Duan.

curry mutton rice with briyani (another option was basmati which I expect is white rice), RM28.90

nasi lemak ayam goreng, RM19.90

housemade chicken satay, RM18.90

The satay sauce has crispy fried onion sprinkled on top, in case you're wondering what that is.

We expected there to be a lot of rice, so with two plates of rice and an extra side dish of satay, it would be enough for the three of us. But the portion of rice was rather small (I would say just nice for a small eater like me), so we decided to add a briyani rice.

briyani rice, RM5.90

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the briyani rice came with basic sides and some gravy. If a lone diner wanted to eat satay, adding this would make a complete meal! (there was no rice set with satay) 

Everything tasted good; the briyani rice was very flavourful, the mutton and satay were flavourful and tender, and the fried chicken was crispy and fragrant. The drinks and dessert were good as well. We were very satisfied with the taste of our meal. :D

signature coconut ice-blended, RM13.90

signature mix fruits shaved ice, RM18.90

They charge 6% SST and 6% service charge on top of the listed prices, making the total bill come up to almost RM120 for the three of us.