Showing posts with label Club Med Bintan Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Club Med Bintan Island. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2012

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.
Club Med Kani @ Maldives is every bit a paradise on earth that she was advertised to be. We booked ours when Club Med ran their annual “Buy one free one” promotion and we went all the way, the exclusive Lagoon Suites, reputed to be THE way to truly enjoy Club Med Kani, and we were definitely NOT DISAPPOINTED!
The Lagoon suites are wooden chalets built on water, each with their very own wooden platform with a staircase leading down to the shallow clear water where one can easily access for a cold dip among the schools of wild seawater fish, an occasional mantra ray or even a black tip baby shark, gliding over the wavering seaweeds.
As I have mentioned in my earlier post, Club Med Kani Maldives is definitely a heaven for honeymooners or couples who would love to get away for a romantic getaway or simply to reignite the passion that often times, took a back seat in our hectic family life once the children arrived.
In comparison to Club Med Bali, Bintan or Cherating, I would still rate Club Med Bintan Island has having one of the best stretch of beaches with fluffy white sand but in terms of water clarity and marine life, Club Med Kani absolutely wins hands down.
In terms of guest mixture, just like Club Med Bali, 85% of the guests during our stay were from mainland China but then again, they are everywhere nowadays, especially with their cash, purchasing power and wealth. With their presence, expect their loudness, their knack of not understanding what queuing is all about and above all, their rather `LOUD’ sense of dressing and color matching (at least to us). But then again, that is who they are and just like anyone else, they are entitled to behave and wear whatever they desires. With my recent exposure in Beijing (where I have just recently relocated to), I have come to understand and accept these seemingly `weird’ sense of behaviour or dressing and underneath all those differences, they are just like you or me.
 
Food wise, Club Med Kani would rank just below Club Med Bali as far as we are concerned. There are still reasonable selection of dishes that changes almost everyday.
There is no Petite or Mini Club here, hence, bringing young children here would not be too advisable, unless you are prepared to baby sit them your entire stay. But then again, why would you want to fly half way across the globe and then baby sit your little `Energizer bunnies’ when you can do that at home, while the ocean and the waves beckons you to put on your sexy two piece and simply dive in among the sharks and the rays, with your other half.
Taking the Lagoon Suites, also provide some exclusive benefits such as the exclusive Mantra Lounge with free flowing beer, wine and champagne.
You could also arrange for your breakfast to be brought over to your suite at the time you specified so that you could simply just have your breakfast in leisure with your lover, with a view that one would die for, the ocean stretching endlessly beyond the horizon and an occasional curious seagull flying past.
I am also not sure if this comes with the fact that we stayed at the Lagoon Suites, but I get a full bottle of either red or white wine for every lunch or dinner we had. In fact, there was even one lunch, where the Restaurant Manager was so kind that he actually opened a bottle of rose and a bottle of chardonnay for both of us. Since, my wife hardly drinks, needless to say, the task of finishing both bottles were left entirely to yours truly, who is not complaining one bit. 

Although there are still plenty of activities to participate while holidaying in Club Med just like any other Club Med, this is one Club Med that you would rather spent some quiet, serene and private moments with your better half, which was we did when we were there, except taking part in two cooking lessons sessions.
This is definitely one destination that everyone should seriously consider at least once in a lifetime.

We took an evening sunset cruise and it was simply magical. More of that in my next post.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Comparison between Club Med Bali, Bintan Island and Cherating (Final Part) - Service and Show

Holidaying at any Club Med is all about fun, activities and participation. To that end, Club Med organizes a host of different activities and competition throughout the day to keep you occupied. At the same time, the GOs of multiple nationality and departments are constantly on hand to make your stay a pleasant one.

Club Med is also well known for the show that they put up every night to entertain their guests and all the actors and actresses are the GOs of the village and they are such a talented bunch.

Our team, TEAM RYAN, participating in the Amazing Race at Club Med Bintan Island

For this final part of comparison, I will share on what I think about the service and the show between the three Club Med in Bali, Bintan Island and Cherating.

Club Med Bali


Being my first trip to a Club Med, I was impressed with the level of friendliness that the GOs exhibited. However, during my subsequent trip to the other Club Meds in Bintan Island and Cherating, I had a better benchmark to compare.

Club Med Bali is probably the busiest of the three Club Med that I have been. It could also be the period of which we timed our visit. I think there have the largest number of GOs as well. During our stay there, we noticed that they catered for large groups of tourists from Korea, PRC China and Australia. We honestly did not come across anybody from Malaysia during our stay there. As far as the GO is concerned, we found only one friendly lady managing the tours and excursions counter.

Although most GOs are friendly, we personally did not feel `touched' by any of them. There was not one GOs that we could honestly remembered after our 5 days stay. It is customary that GOs will sit with different guests during meal hours to chit chat. Surprisingly we were not `visited' by a single GO throughout my 5 days stay there. We find that the GOs would prefer normally to click with people of their own country mostly and since, we are the only Malaysian, I guessed we were strangely `missed out.'

The show at Bali was probably the best of the three. During our stay there, they have a spectacular song and dance show presented over their swimming pool.

Club Med Cherating


Club Med Cherating was my second trip to Club Med. Since I am from Kuala Lumpur, naturally I feel more at home in Cherating since there were more GOs from Malaysia, not to mention a host of interns from Taylor's College there having their training.

This is probably the least crowded of the three. It is also probable due to the large village ground. We find the GOs here friendly and more approachable. As far as tourist is concerned, we find more Singaporeans, Malaysians, PRC Chinese and French here. Most of the French stays here for more than a week!

During the stay there, we had the pleasure to dine with several GOs and got to know some of their jobs better. We had the head of lifeguard from Australia who has been in Malaysia for a couple of years now, we had a gypsy lady who was in charge of the trapeze, an intern from Taylor College and yes...Lucy, working at the front desk from Cheras ...Lucy was gracious enough to help take care and entertain our 3.5 years son Ryan at the beach party.

The show here is not as spectacular as the one in Bali but the hilarious. My son absolutely adores it. The only complaint that we have was the theater where the show was being held can be stuffy and hot once it is packed.

Club Med Bintan Island


This was our third Club Med in 10 months. Our expectations were higher especially after looking at the resort pictures and comments posted by some other guests.

We were determined to enroll Ryan into the Petite Club so that he could socialize with other kids while we could have some time of our own. We were glad that we did because Ryan totally enjoyed himself. For this, I must compliment the gorgeous Japanese GO who manages the Petite and Mini Club and the GOs who demonstrated so much patience handling these groups of super charged and super active children.

The super talented children from the Petite and Mini club doing their show. They were simply amazing ...

The GOs here are equally friendly but because we participated in more activities, especially the Amazing Race across the village ground on our second night there, we got to know more GOs better. Ryan, our 3.5 year son was the catalyst in most situation because he never failed to say `Hi' or `Hello' to every beautiful lady GO that walked past ...hahahaha....


Our team comprising of my wife, Ryan and myself and a bunch of GOs working at the back office ACTUALLY WON the race and came out first and we had so much fun ! Due to that Ryan was like a super star from then on and everybody seemed to know him and us of course ...:)

Throughout our stay, we had the privilege to dine with several GOs such as the in-house residence doctor, Dr Olivia, a pretty lass from Indonesia and Joanne from Malaysia. In fact, Ryan got so attached to Joanne that he just could not get enough of her ....

And I must compliment Michael, the village head from Australia who comes across as a very down to earth guy, ever walking and smiling at guests, going round the dinner tables to greet them and actively took part in some very very hilarious shows at night ...Bravo!

In terms of show, I would say that we enjoyed the show in Cherating more but then again, they were still very good ....

Overall, based on our experience, we would rank Club Med Bintan Island as the resort offering the best service of the three.

There you have it, my comparison of the three Club Med that we visited recently. One word of advise would be to try to avoid visiting them in their super peak season because, the GOs would be too busy to entertain you, the place would be overly crowded, the restaurant would be packed and you could get rather frustrated trying to get hold of a deck or beach chair .....

We are now waiting for our next Club Med this coming September ....Club Med Maldives ....

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Comparison between Club Med Bali, Bintan Island and Cherating (Part VI) - Beaches Bintan Island

Club Med Bintan Island

....and I have saved the best for last .....CLUB MED BINTAN ISLAND!


The view of the private beach of Club Med Bintan Island taken from one of her restaurants....

The beaches at Bintan Island is simply magnificent. The beach at Club Med is also a private beach and it stretches for miles! Imagine...miles of fine white sandy beaches and clear blue skies and clear blue ocean ..... it's a holiday that every travel agency will promote and every post card will try to sell you ....


The sea here is definitely calmer than that at Cherating. This is the place where you will find the white fine sandy beaches that you always dream of. Imagine your feet literally sinking into the fine white sand. That is how fine and `fluffy' the sand can be ...

Not only is the sea calmer, but during the low tide, you can actually walk out into the sea and it is still rather shallow and safe.

For me as a photographer, the beach offers a variety of options.

From the stretches of white sandy beaches to crops of interesting rock formations and sea weeds that gives that `ommmph' to the otherwise a normal picture .....


I was blessed with two days of spectacular sunrise during my five days stay there. Why only two? That is because it rained the entire day on the second day and the rest ....I overslept or simply too tired after the night partying to get up .....

Here are some of the shots I managed to captured with my Nikon d90, sigma 10-20mm F3.5 wide angle with brand new GND filter that I bought for this trip .....

The sun rises for yet another day with a fishing boat in the foreground ......

I was walking along the beach trying to find a good spot to capture the sunrise when I chanced upon this spot of rock and interesting seaweeds. The GND filter allowed me to take this shot with the built-in flash to capture the interesting seaweed and the clear water, at the same time, capturing the dramatic clouds formation and the hues of this fantastic sunrise .....


The rocks and the clear water in the foreground and the boats in the background captured my attention against a backdrop of a awesome sunrise ....

It is common when we concentrate in capturing the sunrise that we only pay attention to where the sun is rising....I took this shot when I looked away from where the sun was rising and I saw this little patch of island with some interesting tree formation and a lonely boat in the background ...The sky and her colour and hue is equally vibrant and exciting .......

This shot (to me) is one in a million ...As I was busy clicking away, something within told me to look up and lo and behold, I saw this magnificent eagle flying past ...Instinctively, I point my D90 upwards and clicked away ...(and almost fell into the water as I was standing on some rather slippery rocks). I have always wanted to capture an eagle in flight in sunrise. Why? Because I captured one when I was in my college days in Cherating using my old Yashica with my 70mm-200 zoom lens with my puppy love ..... The solitary flight of a mighty eagle zooming across the sky so free and so majestic have ALWAYS excites me ....

Finally, my next post would be on the SERVICE!....Club Med is always about fun and service. Which of the three have impressed us? Stay tuned......